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Stories

The Finkerbury files: Secrets of the footplate

Yesterday I went to get some things in the attic of the old apartment block where we now live. Each flat has a tiny storage room, and as I entered the attic I noticed that one door was ajar.     Feeling curious, I had a look inside. The room was empty,  but someone had left an old filing cabinet in the corner.     Imagine my surprise when, inside the cabinet, I found a number of files marked “Farthing”. With trembling hands I opened the first file, and…
Mikkel

Mikkel in Stories

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The honourable slipper boy - Part 1

This blog sometimes tells some pretty tall tales, but this one is based on a true story. I recently came across a fascinating account of a court procedure at Old Bailey, involving an incident on the Great Western at the turn of the century. I decided to re-enact the incident, with Farthing as the setting and a little, ahem, modeller’s license. Dennis, will you take it from here?       My name is Dennis Watts, that’s me on the right. I’m a slipper boy with The Great Weste
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Mikkel

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Structures

GWR stables (1): Towards an overview

The following are my notes on GWR stable blocks – a subject that does not seem to have received much attention. I am about to build one for Farthing, and have noticed various style differences that may be of interest to others.   Chipping Norton stables in 1983. Built 1904. Rebuilt with end doors to serve as a garage, but otherwise it features the main elements of the "archetype" standard design, ie "hit and miss" vents in windows and above doors, and those characteristic boxy roof ve
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Mikkel in Structures

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Lamps and Lamplighters

Yard lamps have appeared at Farthing, using a mix of scratchbuilt bits, modified parts from old whitemetal lamps, and modified Andrew Stadden figures. This is an early GWR platform type, based on old photos I have found. There was also a later, more sturdy variant. Thomas Grig, GWR Yard Porter and lamplighter, is looking a trifle worried. He never did like heights. Above is a standard 13ft column lamp. Most GWR yard lamps had hexagonal lamp housing, but the styl
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Stories

A most implausible arrival

One of the reasons I chose to model Farthing was the rather unusual combination of stock sometimes seen in that area. In this case, East meets West as the thoroughly Cornish 0-4-4T No. 34 heads a train of Holden 4-wheelers from the Metropolitan area. A highly implausible combination, especially during this period and in this location! Above, Driver T. F. Oberon eases the branch train into the bay, while Fireman R.S. Peaseblossom is looking desperately for his lunch bag.      
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Mikkel in Stories

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Goods

Barrels, baskets, bales

I’m still working on the goods items for my goods depot. Here’s a selection of various items I've been working on recently. Apologies for getting a bit long-winded with this, but I enjoy learning a bit about goods items as I go along – it’s all part of the scene, after all.       H0 and 0 casks from Frenchman River Works. Great texture and six hoops, which is rare on model casks despite being very common in reality.         The FRW barrels
Mikkel

Mikkel in Goods

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Stories

Blue skies and horse traffic

It is afternoon in the Overbourne bay at Farthing station. The all third "strengthener" rests in one of the sidings, while a worker from a local cartage company is lost in thought. The coach reveals that I'm still in the process of fitting couplings to some of the stock.       The regular branch engine No. 1961 of the "850" Class shunts a horsebox to diagram N5 into the horse dock. The horse seems nervous at the prospect of travelling inside a box on wheels. Perhaps in re
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Mikkel in Stories

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Wagons

Same but different - early 1900s GWR wagons

For the past year or so I’ve been adding to my fleet of early 1900s GWR wagons. The idea is to make each wagon a little different. Here’s a summary of some of the detail differences so far. First up is this gang of Iron Minks.     The Iron Minks were built from ABS kits, with replacement roofs from MRD. The grease axleboxes on 57605 were scrounged from another kit, and the deep vents on 11258 were made from styrene. The unusual hybrid livery of the latter van is based on my
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Mikkel in Wagons

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Coaches & Browns

Low-tech coach restoration (5)

Well I finally got around to finishing my little restoration job on these old coaches.                                             Got the painting done reasonably quickly, but then followed the usual issues: “Now for the glazing. Oh wait, I’m out of Testor's. Must order some more. Now where did I order it last time? Better google it. Ah there’s RMweb, well maybe just a couple
Mikkel

Mikkel in Coaches & Browns

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Misc.

Pre-grouping livery clippings

Here are a couple of PDF files that may be of interest to pre-grouping modellers.   The first document is an 1896 article from Moore's Monthly Magazine (later renamed "The Locomotive") on British pre-grouping liveries. It includes brief livery descriptions for a number of the railways (but not all).   MooresMonthlyLiveries.pdf     The second document is my personal selection of quotes and news items on GWR liveries and selected other liveries from the archives
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Mikkel in Misc.

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Stories

Regrettable incident at 3 PM

Over the years I’ve gathered a small collection of anecdotes and photos that document quirky situations and customs on the real-life railway. The idea is to re-enact them in model form while the glue dries on other projects. The Slipper Boy story was one attempt at this, although admittedly that one got a bit out of hand!   Here’s another, simpler one.  First, the props:                        
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Mikkel in Stories

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Scenery

A pictorial record of horse manure

I’ve added a selection of horse droppings to the road and yard on “The Stables”.    Obviously, prototype research was needed first! Period photos from the 1890s-1930s often show droppings in the street, especially where horse-drawn carriages were regularly parked.   "Bicycle couriers with copies of the Manchester Guardian, which are being delivered to Euston station in London for circulation, circa 1920." Getty Images, embedding permitted.    Droppings can some
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Mikkel in Scenery

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Scenery

Trees for Farthing - Mark One

Projects over the summer have included trees. The original inspiration came from the tree-lined perimeters of Reading’s Vastern Road and King’s Meadow goods yards.     Vastern Road yard, Reading, 1948. Source: Britain from above.     The trees here were quite close to the track along some sections. Earlier photos from the 1900s show larger trees, so they must have been a feature from at least the 1880s.   Vastern Road yard, Reading, 1948. Source: Britain f
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Mikkel in Scenery

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Wagons

GWR 2-plank and 3-plank wagons

The first 2- plank wagon has appeared at Farthing, accompanied by a round-ended 3-planker.        The 2-planker owes much to Duncan, who kindly gave me one of his surplus 3D printed wagon bodies. Thanks again Duncan! I've been wanting to do a 2-planker since I saw Richards's early Opens some years ago.         I’ve used the Swindon drawing in Atkins et al for reference, and the photo of Worcester built 19451 as the prototype.  Apologies to D
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Mikkel in Wagons

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Musings

Life in the fast lane

I've been thinking that railway modelling needs a better public image. People seem to think the hobby is a bit weird and nerdy, when really we’re a bunch of smooth adrenaline junkies. Here are some examples from my own awesome life.         Firstly, we railway modellers have really cool gear. These DIY tamping and scribing tools were made from coffee stirrers and my wife’s discarded sock knitting needles. Max bling! The top three are for smoothing DAS between sleepers and
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Mikkel in Musings

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Stories

One morning long ago

One morning long ago, an 1854 class shunted the Old Yard at Farthing.         The crew were slightly bored. Nothing much ever happened in the Old Yard. Just a handful of sidings.     A carman (sic) watched them roll by, perched on his trolley (Birmingham pattern). The carmen at Farthing were famous for not using reins.          William Simmons was particularly skilled. Known as The Horse Whisperer, he worked with
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Mikkel in Stories

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Structures

GWR weighbridge office

A weighbridge has appeared at Farthing. It began as a kit, but in the end much of it was scratchbuilt. Here's a summary of the build.       This was the point of departure, a lasercut kit from Rail Model. A little research showed that it is based on the prototype at Leckhampton, a drawing of which appears in the EricPlans volume on GWR and LMS structures.        The kit is nicely cut, but I noticed that the corners weren’t mitred. So I sought to 
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Mikkel in Structures

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Videos

Messing about with trains

‘Mess about’  [British, informal] > to spend time doing things that are not useful or serious: to waste time Merriam-Webster dictionary    Here’s a 1½ minute video showing my new traverser in action. Or frankly: Just a bloke enjoying his layouts. The trains run daily at the moment, maybe it’s operating in a living room environment that makes it a more natural and sociable part of my daily routine.  To my surprise, I hardly miss my man cave in the old house.   N
Mikkel

Mikkel in Videos

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Locos

Backdating the Oxford Rail Dean Goods (2)

I thought it was about time that I finished my Dean Goods, so here it is virtually done.         It has taken an awfully long time to do, although in fairness it has been resting untouched for long periods while I worked on other projects.         The loco has the original twin flywheel Oxford mechanism that came with the lined pre-grouping version. Mine is a very smooth runner, which is why I found the project worthwhile in the first p
Mikkel

Mikkel in Locos

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Track & Traversers

The Bumblebee Mk2 - a new traverser for Farthing

I’ve built a new ‘one-size-fits-all’ traverser for my Farthing layouts.          My latest layout - The Stables - has two levels, so I needed a traverser which could accommodate that. After I had proposed various harebrained schemes, Stu suggested the principle that I have sketched above. This was clearly the way to go. But how?       After mulling it over I looked at my old traverser (above) and realised that I could kill two birds with one st
Scenery

When in danger or in doubt... Progress on the fourth bite

When in danger or in doubt, get the model railway out. The fourth layout in the Farthing series is taking shape, a welcome relief from the lockdown blues.       Above is a reminder of the trackplan. So complicated that it broke Templot. Only very advanced modellers can do that.       A test piece to see what the new Peco Bullhead track is all about. I decided to give Peco a go as a change from handbuilt track. The chairs are wrong for GWR, wil
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Mikkel in Scenery

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Wagons

Powsides/Slaters Private Owner wagons

I wanted some Private Owners for Farthing, so have built a couple of Powsides kits, i.e. painted and pre-lettered Slaters kits. I opted for two Gloucester designs to RCH 1887 specifications, one a 5-plank side-door wagon, the other a 7-plank side- and end-door job.        I like the overall appearance, although TBH the small lettering isn’t quite up to current standards. Perhaps I was unlucky, they look fine on the website.       The kits have blank
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Mikkel in Wagons

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Structures

GWR stables (2): Internet archaeology

I have a thing for GWR stable blocks.  The subject isn't systematically covered in the literature, so in a previous post I tried to obtain a tentative overview of the major types and styles. Since then I’ve been searching Britain from Above, Google street view and old online  maps looking for past and present traces of stable blocks. It's all a bit esoteric, but for what it's worth here is a selection of my favourite 'finds'.     Westbury     It's 1929 and a pl
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Mikkel in Structures

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Musings

The four phases of modeller's recovery

I had a setback with my Dean Goods. I was spraying on some varnish in preparation for lining, when this happened:     Orange peel - or something similar!   There followed the usual process, so well described in Dr Mindbender’s insightful ”Coping with Failure in Railway Modelling: The Four Phases of Modeller’s Recovery” (Wild Swan, 2019):   Phase 1:  Despair (”Why me, Lord?”)      Phase 2:  Resentment (”Stupid model!”)    
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Mikkel in Musings

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Stories

Secrets of the Drawing Office (2)

This is the second part of an account by Pickle S. Finkerbury - railway historian and time traveller - describing certain key events in the evolution of GWR wagon brakes at the turn of the last century. Part one is here.        Just as the bewildered L.R. Thomas was about to regain composure, an elegantly dressed man approached them. It was none other than...   …George Jackson Churchward, at this time the Chief Assistant to William Dean at Swindon Work
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Mikkel in Stories

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