Almost 10 years ago, I wrote a post about Dean’s experimental 4-2-4 tank engine , which made a brief appearance in 1882 before being hurriedly rebuilt as a more conventional 2-2-2 tender engine. Very little information has survived about the original engine, except that it had a chronic inability to stay on the track.
With so little prototype information available – and even less that could be considered reliable – I felt justified in taking considerable liberties in the design of my
Being somewhat of a back-water in railway history, the Witney branch via North Leigh became home to many unusual vehicles, rarely seen elsewhere. I have already shown the standard-gauge Tilt Wagon ('Hat Box') but a particular claim to fame for this line was that it became the 'stamping ground' for William Dean's experimental 4-2-4 express tank engine, shown below entering North Leigh station.
William Dean's e
I've been reading the thread started recently by Robin2 on "Why have moving trains on layouts?" - ( http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/78169-why-have-moving-trains-on-layouts/ )
There've been lots of interesting and thoughtful replies and it has made me think. On the one hand, I couldn't build an engine without wanting to make it work satisfactorily and, on the other, I don't run trains very much but do enjoy setting up various static scenes for photography. I do find
I've been spending some time thinking about scenery and how to make my simple scenes more appropriate for 19th-century England.
As I have described in earlier posts, my layout started life as a 'kiddie' layout, to interest my then small son. Many of the buildings are from very old kits and include several Faller buildings which, while very nicely detailed, have decidedly non-English appearance. For example, this is the workshop associated with the quarry on the narrow-gauge (009) section of
As I have been delving into 19th century history, I have inevitably become interested in the broad gauge period of the GWR. Throughout the Winter I have been doing a lot of reading but very little modelling. Almost everything about the broad gauge was 'different' and I have been 'stalled' over how to make a start.
Last year, I joined the Broad Gauge Society and then, last Saturday (19th March), I visited the annual exhibition by the Abingdon Model Railway society. I was looking for inspirati
The parts I need to complete building my 6-wheel coaches have not yet arrived so, in the meantime, here's one that I made earlier!
I've mentioned before that one of the factors that triggered me into thinking in terms of a 19th century layout was that I'd already built the three types of 'Ratio' GWR 4-wheel coaches. I then came across a photo, taken in 1911, of a short train behind a 'Stella'-class locomotive at Leamington station (see http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrls826.htm ) T
I’ve now managed to produce a set of ‘printable’ parts from the original download from the ‘Printables’ website described in my previous post.
I’m still puzzled by the theories on exactly which of Trevithick’s locomotive engines was actually used for the Penydarren trial, which was the moment in history that put the steam locomotive on the map.
There is a print in the Science Museum collection, said to be the Penydarren engine but it has been discredited because, accord
I have not forgotten about my plans to create a diorama, as described in my Broad Gauge blog.
While I was researching the early days of the GWR, however, I found myself thinking about what had gone before – back to the ultimate pre-grouping period! This led me to Trevithick’s engines, of which I photographed a replica at Blists Hill Museum near Telford:
Trevithick replica at Blists Hill Museum
Trevithick was a remarkable inventor but, sadly, not a good
As an excuse for not having added all the finishing touches to my early GWR composite coach, I wrote that I was planning to build its companion coaches that appear in the 1873 New Milford photo.
Whereas I found a good side-on photo of the composite coach, I have not found anything similar to help me determine the dimensions of these other coaches. Because of their small size in the New Milford photo, and their angle, I found that I could not estimate their length with any accuracy. So,
NB There is a newer version of this post at :
In my OP in this Blog, I referred to the need for plenty of horses and the facilities to support them. As part of "Turning Back the Clock", I decided that an essential railway vehicle would be the Horse Box, so I chose to build the Wizard Models/51L etched brass kit of the GWR diagram N6 box.
I felt that the N6 was a suitable design for a beginner in etched-brass construction, as the prototypes, dating from 1890, were of a pa
This blog aims to follow the conversion of my existing layout to an earlier time-frame. I hope that others will find it of interest and helpful, if they are also considering the Pre-Grouping era.
By way of background: I built a small layout about 30 years ago for my then-young son. It was based on old Hornby-Dublo (2-rail) track and I added an 009 narrow-gauge section for additional interest. More recently, I had another look at this old layout and thought it would be suitable for ru
As others have already noted, recent 'updates' to this website played havoc with many entries.
EDIT 21st Feb -I am very pleased to see that the problems have now been sorted, This blog appears to be readable again .
I am sure that this has given sleepless nights to the administrators, so appreciate their efforts. I hope, too, that their service provider has learnt some lessons about managing data for an international audience.
At present, many of my posts in this blog are severely
In a previous post: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-12531-milk-churns-and-siphons/
I mentioned that I had tried painting a GWR wagon with Farrow & Ball 'Rectory Red' paint.
To re-cap, this colour is described by the manufacturer as Vermilion mixed with Lead Oxide, to make it cheaper. It seems to me that could be a plausible formula for the red used during the 19th century on GWR wagons.
Because it is difficult to compare colours accura
Most of my train-running recently has been for the enjoyment of my young grand-children. For this, I tend to use my reliable ‘1854’ saddle tank, with its heavy ‘Wills’ cast body and ‘Hornby’ chassis that make it fairly ‘bomb-proof’
Trains at North Leigh
Suddenly, after what has been many months (if not years) of reliable running, the engine de-railed on the three-way point at the West end of North Leigh station. Following application of the ‘big hand in the s
I came across JCL's splendid thread about Silhouette cutters (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouette-cameo-cutter/) at an appropriate interval for dropping heavy hints before Christmas, so now have a 'Silhouette Portrait' machine and loads of ideas for coaches and buildings
Having discovered all about Cleminson chassis in an earlier post on this blog, I want to build some six-wheel coaches, especially since they seem to be rarely modelled, pr
I've mentioned before that one of the reasons why I like to model unusual prototypes is so that I can compare them with more familiar stock. Here's an example:
The Dean 4-2-4T was built around 1881, to explore the idea of a high-speed express tank locomotive for use when the broad gauge became extinct. It failed because of a severe tendency to de-rail, probably from poor bogie design, coupled with the large amount of water sloshing to and fro' in the long side tanks.
In comparison
More than three years ago, I wrote about some experiments I did to add to the debate about GWR red wagon livery. I showed photos of wagons at Cinderford Iron Works, taken around 1890, which had marked differences in (monochrome) image tone.
I thought, at the time, that I was doing some ‘original’ research but recently I have been looking through back issues of the 'Broad Gauge Society' magazine ‘Broadsheet’. There I found that this ‘well known’ photograph was discussed
Although popular with several European manufacturers, tender-drive has never been well-regarded in UK, possibly because of some rather poor implementations back in the 20th century. Nevertheless, it does have some advantages, when modelling prototypes from the 19th century. Locomotives of that period were generally quite small, with open cabs, and most passenger classes used single drivers until quite late in the century. These characteristics create two problems for the modeller: there is littl
It's quite a while since I've posted anything here - too many (pleasant) distractions have got in the way of modelling, of late. I keep getting 'flash-forwards' to a strange 21st century world, full of confusions - so different from the settled era we enjoy under our gracious Queen Empress Victoria.
I've been playing with a new ultra-wide-angle lens on my Olympus camera and it creates some interesting perspectives, if placed very close to a model and stopped down, to provide a reasonable de
Oil lamps are continuing to prove awkward!
Following an appeal for help from the forums, I have established that the small circular fittings, adjacent to the lamp tops, are plugs to fill the apertures left when the lamps are removed for trimming and filling, rather than oil fillers, as I had originally thought.
I've now drilled the roof of my U29 model, to take the lamp tops and have another small problem to solve! Since the roof slopes down from the sides of the cleresto
Since my last entry, I have been making slow progress with my coach construction. In fact, there has been a lot of trial and error, as I tried to find a way of incorporating printed sides from my Silhouette cutter.
I have not scratch-built coaches before, so had a lot to learn, for which the various posts by Mike Trice in the Silhouette cutter thread: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/79025-a-guide-to-using-the-silhouettecameo-cutter/?p=1278380
have been particularly helpfu
This is an update on progress with building my GWR 6-wheel coaches. I have printed the sides, using the Silhouette cutter, but there is still work to do on the upper sides - why did I have to choose to build clerestory roofs!
I have, however, built the Cleminson chassis from the 'Brassmasters' kit, so will share my experiences with this, so far.
The kits are very well presented with detailed instructions and the 'extra bits' needed to complete them - wheel bearings, nuts and bolts, and b
I've finally worked out a simpler method for constructing a clerestory roof, so now I have all the vehicles needed to take Sir John's family up to London for the season.
On my first U29 composite, described in recent posts, I folded the roof from a single sheet of 5 thou brass sheet but found it difficult to make the reverse folds correctly. For the family saloon, which I now believe to be Diagram G13, I have therefore made the roof in three parts - two separate sides and the raised
After the diversion caused by the arrival of my CB09 blade holder, which works very well, I have returned to exploring how to construct a laminated coach side.
After preparing the drawings for the framing, described previously, it proved to be relatively simple to create the other layers - merely a matter of deleting unwanted elements from the original drawing.
The outer layer is, of course, the framing, then the main body side that only has the window cut-outs and, finally, the inner la
As an update to my previous post, I have just received a CB09 holder and packs of both 45 and 60 degree blades from China I ordered these from http://stores.ebay.co.uk/win-win-mechatronic?_trksid=p2047675.l2563 on 29th December and they arrived, very well packaged, this morning, 6th January, which I consider excellent service.
The holder is a nicely machined aluminium tube, which fitted smoothly and firmly into the Silhouette Portrait carrier. To fit a blade, it is only necessary to un
