CKPR

Good question and given the M&C's link with the Caley at Brayton, I would presume it was Annan (Shawhill).

Juat arrived in the post, an un-used M&CR luggage label for Annan. These seem to be relatively common and I wonder if this is because of the dwindling traffic over the Solway Junction line back in the day.

Re. the location of the turntable on a loop - is this typical of the LBSC and is there an 'escape route' out of the engine shed in the event of the turntable being out of action ?

Strictly old school round here, marra !

I've finally got around to making a mock up of Mealsgate station building from the CRA plans by Mike Faulkner that were kindly given to me by @SteamAle at the Workington show some years ago. The original plans are to 3mm/1' and rather than redraw them, I decided to make a 4mm scale proving model from mounting board before starting on the model proper, which will be made of ply and DAS. I'm currently working out how to use A1 sheets of thinner mounting board to reproduce the platform, forecourt and roads in one piece so as to avoid any obvious gaps or changes in level. For the purposes of establishing the correct position of everything, I'm obviously just playing around with various bits and pieces, some of which like the stop-gap platform, will be scrapped or rebuilt. PS the station building was made from the last of my 50p mounting board offcuts from the now sadly closed Printing House in Cockermouth so another sort of connection with the M&CR proper !

It would probably have the same relationship to our hobby as Jake & Dino Chapman's 'N*zis in hell' tableaux had to military modelling...

...in Englands dreaming !

Apparently, the final iteration of Buckingham had the same issue - it must be a 4mm GCR thing !

Those wooden panels still look nice though !

To remove enamel paint from plastic, the best way used to be use Modelstrip but I've not seen it on sale for a while. The other methods are overnight immersion in variously brake fluid (!), Mr Muscle type oven cleaner or, somewhat surprisingly, neat full strength Dettol and then a good scrub with an old toothbrush. Needless to say, most of these approaches need some care as they use caustic materials so rubber gloves and sealable plastic bags are definitely required [brake fluid probably needs a large glass jar].Modelstrip was a work first time approach but I've found that both oven cleaner and Dettol usually need two attempts.

The FR horsebox looks very good indeed. I think I'll be following suit and embellishing mine with wooden panelling as it does bring the rather stark blue livery to life. You're certainly acting as the pacesetter and making us all up our game !

Most of my historical knowledge comes from reading "Military Modelling" magazine between 1973-1981.

Well, you know me and my love of analogue railway sound synthesis...

Thank you James and the track plan, which I had not previously seen in its entirety, certainly opens up some very interesting modelling possibilities.

Getting rather distracted by the other lines in north Cumberland, especially after a trip to Hay-on-Wye that yielded two more 'missing' volumes for my reference library (the Port Carlisle book came from The Bookcase in Keswick). That London Road Models have the NBR class R / J82 in their range was welcome and tempting news to me ! Obviously even I'm not daft enough to attempt an animatronic horse in 4mm,but I was wondering if anyone has attempted this for Trainz, etc [ @Annie ?] Oh, and I discovered from the Essery & Jenkinson book that Caledonian 4-4-0T No.7 retained her pre-group livery until 1928 !

Just a thought but was it actually a rear bogie on the prototype ? Looking at the photograph, I would be thinking that the coach might have supported on an a 4w sub-chassis, possibly using some of radial axle arrangements. Whatever the prototype arrangement, there's no need to use Jidenco / Falcons bogie arrangement if you can come up with a simpler and more effective method of mounting the rear wheels. My suggestion for the latter would be a variant of the 'free bogie' arrangement usually used for tenders. In the case of the bug, I would fix the rear wheels and use a pony truck arrangement for the inner set with with the fixing point for the pivot for the latter being towards the fixed rear wheels. I don't know if this would work in practice but I've found from practical experience that 'free bogie' systems whilst appearing to be alarmingly sloppy work very well in practice.

Many of us will remember the first Airfix model railway catalogue in 1975--76 that had photographs resembling those in RM or MRC, whilst Hornby and Palitoy still used 'toy train' layouts that certainly didn't do the latter's products justice.

Exactly and given that part of the Mealsgate line was retained as a long siding into the mid-1970s (complete with its own TOPS code !), it's possible that a Cl.25 might have at least ventured on the line at the Aspatria end.

Power restored to all sections of 'Mealsgate', including the relaid Bolton Loop and the carriage & goods shed sidings and all of the point motors are wired up and operational. The layout hack, a Bachmann Cl.25/3 (!), has traversed all lines and only derailed itself a couple of times on the relaid sidings due to now corrected track faults. Next step is to paint / touch up the track and ballast and then start on the basic scenics. That said, I haven't got round to narrowing the baseboards and moving the controls to the otherside - I think I need to run some trains first ! Rumour has it that M&CR No.29 (or is it No. 30 ? ), one of the big 'Yorkshiremen', will soon be seen on the line, an event that escaped the notice of photographers in the early 1920s...

Definitely easier in EM and they are suprisingly free running given that the axles are held in resin lugs but I will need to add some blackened brass washers behind each wheel to stop too much lateral movement from occurring.

I was primarily thinking of the reconstituted GCR and the building of the 'London Extension' and the impact of the latter.

Another factor to consider are the commercial rivalries and outright antagonisms that existed alongside more friendly relationships and formal partnerships (L&Y/LNWR, MR/GSWR, MR/LBSC, LNWR/Caledonian, etc) in the pre-grouping era. These had an impact in terms of the routing of traffic with companies prioritising their own or 'friendly' lines over shorter and possibily cheaper rivals. This also explains some of the seemingly superfluous or duplicate lines that were often early causalties in the grouping era. The Settle & Carlisle is probably the best example of this albeit that it is still open. Regarding the original question, the GCR was of course the johnny-come-lately of the English lines and was a direct competitor to the MR, LNWR, L&Y and the GNR. In addition, there was a management link with the SECR and an operational partnership with the GWR. Therefore, even without access to WTTs, etc, some general traffic flows can be presumed. For example, through traffic from the SECR might be more likely to be worked to the midlands and the north via the GCR. Conversely, the MR, GNR and LNWR would not be consigning through traffic to one of their rivals and traffic from L&Y would go south on the LNWR. The need for the RCH was very obvious back then !

Still nowt new but I thought I would get out the wagons specifically built for the coal traffic originating at 'Mealsgate', namely the scratchbuilt Allerdale Colliery Co. side door hoppers and the Smallbrook Studios ex-NER P1 chaldrons working out of Allhallows Colliery to Maryport docks. Now, if anyone would like to do some lettering for the ACC wagons [see Hudson "PO Wagons vol.1" plate 49]... The lower picture illustrates more of the idiosyncrasies of the track layout at 'Mealsgate' - from left to right, there is the Bolton Loop line (closed in 1921, making Mealsgate into a branch terminal from Aspatria), the run round loop /goods line, which needs a buffer stop, and the line going off to Allhallows colliery.

Happy New Year from 'Mealsgate', where it's 1908...again (could be worse as if I ever build the M&CR mainline, it'll be a recurring 1973 !).