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5&9Models

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  1. It’s possible. Of course it’s only a short step to putting a roof on and being able to justify the second class fare a bit more comfortably and there were plenty of carriages converted in that way. This one seems to be that odd ‘missing link’ in between. the attached pics show the second and an unconverted third.
  2. Love the Pinguyn… with rabies?!! 😂
  3. Thank you. I would do such a comparison but my collection of wagons doesn’t include anything past the 1870s!
  4. Stephenson’s engines were not welcomed on the London & Birmingham. It was exclusively run with Edward Bury 2-2-0 and 0-4-0 locomotives. Any resemblance to Rocket or anything other than a Bury would be a lack of accuracy on the part of the artist. They did sometimes run the goods 0-4-0 engines on passenger services with the coupling rods removed so it could be intended to be one of those.
  5. Thanks Mikkel, not urinals but what a thought....! The gent is ModelU but the two ladies I carved from dental plaster and cast in white metal. Ok as long as you don't look too closely, they resemble Morph!
  6. Thanks Dave, You're probably correct about the position of the braked carriages although not all carriages with roof seats were fitted with brakes. First class carriages had roof seats at both ends and if they were fitted with brakes only one seat had a brake handle. Apparently in the early days you could buy a roof seat ticket much as you might do on a stage coach journey. I doubt that was particularly popular!
  7. I’ve long been entertained and intrigued by depictions of early railways of the 1830s and ‘40s. The period was marked by significant political and social change, the technology of the new iron roads symbolised these changes more than anything and the railway companies knew it. From the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway onwards, artists such as Isaac Shaw, John Cooke Bourne, Thomas Talbot Bury and many others recorded what they saw, creating images that sought to commemorate and impress. From these illustrations lithographic prints were produced and distributed in quantity, in a way a form of propaganda, promoting the grandeur and unprecedented architectural and engineering achievements of the railways whilst at the same time demonstrating how harmoniously they would sit within the landscape, showing just how marvellous (and safe) it would be to travel by train. The detail and accuracy of many images is praiseworthy, Shaw was a skilled engraver, Bourne a talented artist and Bury a noted architect however, some images must be taken with a full chip shop’s worth of salt, and a few would not look out of place hanging in a gallery of work by Salvador Dali. Therefore, one must never rely on such pictures as a clear window into the past but in the absence of photographs or files full of detailed and fully dimensioned drawings, they are all we have. Fig. 1. Detail of ‘The entrance to the tunnel at Watford’ by T. T. Bury, engraved by N. Fielding, published by Ackermann, London, 1837. The subject of this article is an oddity I noticed many years ago in a charming painting by T. T. Bury showing an impressive cutting on the London & Birmingham Railway. The little engine processes gaily towards the Watford tunnel entrance blissfully unaware that it is on the wrong line pulling eight open carriages, little more than trucks with seats, four enclosed second- and first-class carriages bringing up the rear. Sandwiched between these is one carriage which appears to be another open third but with raised full-height ends. Not only that, two passengers, apparently a couple, stand at seat back height looking forward down the train to the locomotive and the approaching tunnel. Trains in this period seldom reached speeds in excess of 25mph or so, but even at this pace standing on the end of the carriage would seem to be an extremely hazardous thing to do. Momentary loss of footing could result in serious injury, even death. Surely a flight of fancy on the part of the usually reliable artist I thought - but no. Buried in the London & Birmingham Railway minute books held at the National Archives is a short sentence that goes a long way to confirm that Thomas Talbot Bury was not pulling our legs. Dated 17th April 1837, minute 81 reads ‘Ordered - that Mr Bagster be authorised to give additional height to the ends of one or more of the third class carriages.’ It seems that this instruction was indeed carried out and remarkably Bury recorded one of these rare vehicles. Those familiar with my modelling will know that this is all the evidence I need to produce a model and it proved to be more straightforward that one might think. After the opening of the London & Birmingham Railway, the board were left with a significant number of open carriages used initially to show-off the line but really only suitable for a third-class fare. Given that they had no intention of carrying third-class passengers something useful had to be done with them. Thankfully, they were sturdy enough to be converted into covered second-class carriages with the addition of brakes, full height ends and roofs whilst others formed the basis for entirely enclosed carriages. Our curious carriage would appear to be a half-way house for the daredevil traveller. In my quest for a good variety of London & Birmingham carriages I had already produced a cast white metal ‘kit’ for the open carriage based on drawings published by Samuel Brees in his ‘Railway Practice’ of 1842. Fig.2. The raw castings for the London & Birmingham open third awaiting cleaning and assembly. The basic carriage was put together in the usual way, soldered construction with etched details and a set of resin cast seats which simply slot in place. Once completed, the carriage was thoroughly cleaned and given a coat of primer. The end extensions were then fabricated from styrene sheet and strip, and carefully glued in place. I decided that Bury’s suggestion that the two passengers were standing at the height of the seat back must be slightly incorrect. To do this would have required a substantial shelf at this height which would then prevent anyone from actually sitting on the end seats (unless the shelf folded up) and in fact standing on the seat itself would be sufficient to see over the carriage end and satisfy any burning desire to have one’s top hat blown off. Fig.3. The assembled carriage in black undercoat with the end extensions made from black styrene. The building of this curiosity took a few evenings work but the novelty of the finished carriage together with the point that it brings to life an otherwise forgotten or even unbelievable detail from the early days of railway travel was well worth it. As always, I am very grateful to Tom Nicholls for finding this little gem of information in the archives and providing the excuse I needed. Figs.4 The completed and painted carriage just requiring a couple of standing passengers with a ‘Devil-may-care’ attitude towards personal safety.
  8. Thanks Schooner, and I'm immensely grateful to you for pointing out my blunder regarding the website address! I'd love to say I did it on purpose just to test you all but sadly that's quite untrue! I've amended the entry with the correct address. Tungsten putty is available easily online from fishing suppliers. It's not cheap but I find a little goes a long way. Cheers.
  9. Thanks Nick, Much appreciated. I'll set aside time to summarise some of the other models I've been making and post more soon.
  10. It occurred to me yesterday that it had been a while since I visited RMWeb, "Oh, it must be a few weeks now..." I said to myself. However, logging on to view the fascinating, entertaining and sometimes stunningly inspirational projects on show I was utterly shocked to discover that it's been many months and that my last blog entry was before Christmas last year! What the heck have I been doing? Thankfully the answer is quite a lot really and therefore an update on the Bury 0-4-0 is a good place to start. As I may have mentioned before the Bury goods is one of many 'components' that will make up a small exhibition layout of London & Birmingham Railway Coventry station set in 1839. My good friend Tom Nicholls has been hard at work researching until his fingers are numb, and building a website https://coventry1839.org to explain the history of Coventry station thereby creating an opportunity for me to describe all the modelling involved. In fact, that's where all my blogs have been disappearing to so please do visit and catch up on progress. In the meantime the Bury goods has received its coat of green which has made a big difference. The wires poking out the front were to test the motor and gearbox in situ with everything in place and thankfully it runs very sweetly, However, once I connected the finer wires from the pick ups and separate ones from the motor (it will be DCC) it still ran smoothly enough except for an irritating wobble on the left front wheel. I've traced this to a slightly skewed fit of the nylon bush between the hub and the axle. Fixing the wobble will require the whole thing to be dismantled which is not as bad as it sounds as it's designed to be taken to bits if required, and re-set the wheel straight. I might check the distance between crankpins again just to be sure there's nothing weird going on there too. The loco is really small in 4mm scale but weighs in at 95g thanks to stuffing every last gap with tungsten putty which I find a very useful way of adding necessary tractive weight in such tiny locos. No.79's job at Coventry will be to run from one end to the other pulling half a dozen or so small wagons which it should manage quite easily. I have since painted a driver and fireman who will find a semi-permanent home on the footpath once the tender is coupled and the DCC chip plugged in.
  11. It's great to see these all together in one place, a very interesting cross section of late Craven and early Stroudley engineering practice all beautifully modelled. Dare I ask where next?
  12. Sorry bit slow to reply. Thank you. No pick-ups in those pics but I’ve since fitted very discreet ones. Tender will have pick-ups on the rear wheels.
  13. That’s a fantastic bit of kit and beautifully modelled. Interesting to see how knarly the tops of the buffer beams are, presumably from end loading very heavy loads? This will make a very interesting model indeed.
  14. Excellent shots, I just love that backdrop. A summary of superb modelling and attention to detail. Thanks for sharing these. Best wishes for Christmas and the new year! Chris
  15. Thanks Dave John and Mikkel. I hope you have a great Christmas with at least a bit of time for modelling in between all the festivities!
  16. For some time now I have been working on a 0-4-0 Bury goods locomotive in 4mm scale for my EM gauge London & Birmingham Railway project. Today I managed to apply the black undercoat and try a loose assembly. Although these engines were green (like the wheels) I have to admit it looks quite fetching in black. The model is built entirely from scratch, powered by a Portescap motor inside the boiler through a scratch built gearbox. The wheels are cast from 3D printed masters and the round bits lathe turned from brass and copper. It will at some point be joined by a couple of 2-2-0 passenger engines. There is still much to be done, and the tender is almost complete too but progress is very slow so the next update might be a while yet. Given that it’s only the size of my thumb it’s mighty fiddly! Happy Christmas!
  17. Even my little four wheelers take me ages so hats off to you for completing that one, it’s very long…! Superb modelling though, it really does look the part.
  18. Some really clever work going on here. I love seeing your solutions to the various challenges, great stuff!
  19. Is ‘King Kong’ not aristocratic enough? 😆
  20. Thanks Mikkel. The monogram on the door was from my bag of spare transfers. They were actually produced for a LB&SCR saloon by a friend but out of context they work quite well.
  21. Thank you. The shaft of the four wheel carriage isn’t there, it’s already been detached. The splinter bar could be lashed down I suppose, not sure whether it’s necessary. I’ll look into it.
  22. No drawings survive for these late 1830s carriage trucks but they frequently appear in contemporary illustrations and there are written accounts describing them together with references in company minute books. This one conforms to the dimensions given by Wishaw of a Grand Junction Railway carriage truck c.1837. ‘The carriage trucks are each 13 feet 8 inches long, 7 feet 1-1/2 inches wide, and the sides 1-1/2 inches high; the weight being about 43 cwt., and the price £130.’ I should add that this is my interpretation of the scant historical information relating to these vehicles. That they existed is not in doubt, dimensions given by contemporary authors are as accurate as we’ll ever get. Such trucks were probably on their last legs by the time the LNWR was formed but some may have survived for a few more years. The London & Birmingham Railway board minutes record that the carriage committee should, ‘…consider the possibility of reducing the enormous weight of those in use on the Grand Junction Railway…’ and Brees provided a drawing of a L&B’ham carriage truck of somewhat smaller and lighter dimensions, perhaps a direct result of this consideration. The truck and carriage, a ‘travelling chariot’ are 4mm scale, built entirely from scratch using a combination of brass fret off-cuts from the scrap box and my own whitemetal castings. I would also like to thank Tom Nicholls for sharing the results of his diligent research into such early vehicles. The truck itself is based on the ‘chassis’ of a London & Birmingham Night Second carriage (the subject of another kit and possible future post) which matches the dimensions given in Wishaw. The travelling chariot is based on photos and a few measurements of the real thing. Thankfully such horse drawn carriages seem to have had a better survival rate owing to the fact that they can be stashed away in the corner of a barn unlike railway trucks…! The truck on the left is the London & Birmingham version illustrated in Brees. It’s smaller but fairly sturdy and I can’t imagine it was that much lighter really.
  23. Thanks Wenlock, still much to do but it’s taking shape.
  24. Thank you. My soldering iron is actually really old and clunky. It badly needs a new tip so it’s luck more than judgement!
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