Brassey

Looking through my stash, I have both a Bettabitz F9 Slip and a Falmouth Coupe. So no excuse. I also have L10 Parcel Van and a PeterK TPO clerestory both of which could have run on the joint line. All these are sides only. Better get building.

I've never taken much notice of slips and their workings but when you think about it, once they got to their slipped destination, they were then treated as any other carriage and marshalled into trains onwards as such. Dragging myself through the July 1912 slip workings, there were a couple of portions a day that were slipped at Wellington off trains heading for Birkenhead. These made their way then from Wellington to Manchester via Crewe (and presumably Shrewsbury) to be returned to Paddington the next morning direct from Manchester and the cycle began again. So there was probably a similar circuit, in another timetable, going to Liverpool. So a slip portion was probably not such a rarity at Lime Street after all.

Unsurprisingly, there are some inconsistencies between the diagrams (and timetables) of different companies. The one I quoted is from the GWR but the LNWR/GWR Joint Line published their own as did the LNWR. I have spotted the odd discrepancy but they are quite rare. For example, a brake van left Euston for Merthyr but when it got to Shrewsbury it had become a Parcel Van. I think there was an overriding brief that a corridor coach should be used for such trains. In the days before computers and the internet it must have been a challenge to co-ordinate all these movements between all the independent rail companies. And for this reason I guess the timetables didn't change much year upon year once established. I'm told that all the clerks got together at Earlestown once a year to thrash all this out.

Mike, looks impressive. so how long does it take you to build such a carriage? - I have a few Worsley Works carriages in my stash too. Peter

A is brake end trailing B is brake end leading X is corridor "70" is 70 feet stock i.e. non Dean The date is July 1912

Here's another photo of GWR carriage at Lime Street that I put on FB to try to identify. This looks like a slip but quite what a slip is doing at Lime Street one wonders. IIRC a functioning slip would have reservoirs on the roof. This hasn't but it could be something like a Falmouth Coupe which had windows in the end but got slip apparatus later. There was no slipping on the LNWR and we'll never know why it got to Lime Street but maybe that's why it was photographed. Anyway I've got an excuse to build one now.

Here's the carriage diagram for the 10:17 Crewe to Plymouth including 8 GW Brake Compos and one Midland some of which presumably were attached at Bristol. One solitary LNWR Van Third which went on to Penzance. I have a picture of somewhere of an LNWR coach at Penzance.

Dr Duncan, as I model the North to West line, the most common coach that featured by far was GWR brake composite both corridor and non-corridor and thus they are high on my build list. IIRC, in Mr. Churchward's paper reproduced in Russell, he states that brake composites were introduced as through coaches (to the North). By my period (1912) 2nd class had gone so no active tri-comps though no doubt some compartments were still labelled 2nd class. However, brake composites are largely ignored by the trade and one has to look hard to find any kits, so I will be following this thread with interest. I do have some in my stash but have yet to build any. I am however becoming more familiar with the joys of the Dean 6'4" and 8'6" bogies and their scroll irons. Here to whet the appetite are some Dean carriages at the end of their journey deep into LNWR territory at Liverpool Lime Street.

That looks more LNWR than LNER but it’s not a Prince tender; more like a Whale than a Bowen Cooke…

Thanks all for your help. I have the pic of 3000 but none other. Time to get numbering…

I have a number of Slater's pre-lettered North's Navigation wagons to build and wondered if someone with the appropriate volumes of Turton could kindly look up and confirm the running number ranges for me. According to the index, the volumes and pages are KT6/115 KT7/157* KT12/3 none of which I have. Cheers Peter

Thanks Gareth and sorry for the late reply! Although etched compensation beams appear to be designed to take tophat bushes, I've never seem them used that way. Some may have a different experience though and it would be interesting to here how they have been used. To reassure you, what I do is to remove the lower half and allow the beam to rest on the axle bushes. The also allows the wheel sets to be removable. Here is the C Class chassis in that fashion. I have bushed the central beam in an attempt to get a consistent ride height. The motor/gearbox assembly here has been leaned out of the way for the photo. There is also a tube and washer arrangement on the 3rd axle that is designed to stop the beam slipping off the axle bush; the gearbox does the same job on the driven axle. I think this build has stalled at the point of dummy motion...

This all looked great at the Manchester show. Might be worth a trip to York now just to see the new coaches.

Thanks Jol. The C class has moved on in that it is now up on its wheels and the superstructure is underway. However it has gone onto the back burner whilst I get my Coal Tanks around my 3 foot curves! Yesterday I managed to get 2 of the three running but one with a K's body (all on LRM chassis) will only run backwards as seen in the video I posted on my layout thread. I don't think it's a sideplay issue because I resolved that...

After almost 10 years the DX Goods is nearing completion: This has been hard to build in P4. I found that when I fitted the rear steps the cranks fouled on these so off they came and back on slightly further apart. I think this was due to my having changed the valance for 1mm brass angle. That was also due to clearance issues. The kit was missing the blower valve but LRM supplied one. I also slimmed down the wheels and wondering now whether the balance weights on the wheels might foul on the rods. Still got to fit the cab details.