Last Sunday I attended Scaleforum North in Wakefield, this was my first visit to such an event and information gathering continued for this planned loco collection.

From two traders I bought postcard prints of the following:

Three prints of the Wirral Rly (ex-L & Y) 2-4-2T no.6, two showing how it was lined out and numbered in its pre-grouping style, it had a brass numberplate on the centre of each of its side tanks, and the other in its LMS no. 6762 condition;
One print of a Midland & Great Northern Joint Rly brake van;
Two prints of M&GN 0-6-0 no.69 (class D rebuilt, closely resembling the MR 3Fs) one in M&GN livery, the other as LNER no. 069

My plans are evolving, and I think my proposed collection will fall into four sub-groups:

1. BR Southern Region, ca. 1956-57 - LBSCR Terrier, LSWR M7 and S&DJR 7F 2-8-0 all in BR livery;
2. Norfolk pre-WW2 - J17 in GER livery, a M&GN 0-6-0 and a LMS (ex-Midland Rly) 4F 0-6-0 no. 3913 on loan to the M&GN between 1934-1936 (source: A.J. Wrottesley, The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway, 2nd ed., David & Charles, 1981);
3. Wirral in 1922 with Wirral Rly 2-4-2T, GWR (loco to be decided, 28XX?) and LNWR 0-8-0;
4. For the ex-NER J72s, quite a few were allocated well outside LNER's NE Area including Scotland, North Wales and the Wirral. I'll model a Wirral or North Wales-based loco as I have quite a few other locos that were represented in the Chester area and can always imagine a J72 working to or from Gorton Works for attention.

However, I haven't decided whether to allocate my GCR loco, which is more likely to be a J11 because of its versatility, either to represent one of the locos transferred to the M&GN post-1936 in LNER livery, or arrange for it to be a Wirral group loco in pre-grouping or BR condition.

It's been quite interesting finding out little snippets on loco gen so I can assemble small sub-groupings that complement each other.