Compound2632

If anyone is inclined to question the presence of a Knotty van in Glasgow before the Great War, point them to Lt.-Col. Yorke's report on the accident at Gretna in the early hours of 14 May 1891: https://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_Gretna1901.pdf. Wagons in a southbound Caledonian goods train, Gushetfaulds to Carlisle, derailed, fouling the northbound line. (Which way is up, there?) A northbound Sou' Western goods train, Carlisle to College Goods, Glasgow, ran into this; fortunately there were only minor personal injuries but there was much destruction of stock, which is duly listed in the appendix. Damaged vehicles in the GSWR train were all GSWR and MR but the victims in the CR train bear witness to the goods traffic on the WCML: 10 CR, 5 NER, 6 LNWR, 5 L&YR, 1 GWR, and 1 NSR wagon. The latter was No. 2781, perhaps more likely to have been an open than a covered goods wagon.

If you're doing that, I'd like to see what you can get out of @eheaps's Smith-Johnson compound - can you better 2632's 92 mph sweeping down Ribblesdale with the Scotch Express... Perhaps what you need is a digital Charles Rous-Marten* figure with working stopwatch? *I don't know of that many famous New Zealanders but he's up there.

Ah, yes, I remember noticing that the twins carried the next two numbers after the real last class member, before they 'lost' them.

The rate of progress depends not only on man vs. machine but also on the geology.

Yes, those are only a feature of engines rebuilt with D or E boilers, and retained when those boilers were exchanged for the G7 Belpaire boilers. The D and E boilers were second-hand off Johnson 4-4-0s that were being rebuilt with the larger H boiler and were a bit longer than the B boilers originally carried. The 700 class were built without any sanding gear but once steam standing had become standard (from the mid-1880s) they were fitted with sandboxes under the front framing, with sand pipes to the leading wheels. I suppose that these got in the way of the modifications needed to fit the D or E boiler, or possibly it was felt that with the increased power of the rebuilt engines, better sanding was needed. Johnson's earlier 0-6-0s were also built without sanding but the later engines had sand boxes from new, either side of the centre driving wheel; these were of the same pattern as those fitted to these 700 Class engines but being mounted on the inside frames and partly hidden by the footplate valence, were rather less prominent.

In English, doesn't rhyme. 'Two little ducks', to which the congregation responds 'quack, quack".

You would have my father-in-law's sympathy - he doesn't rate the stuff, maintaining that other sparkling wines are better both in terms of price and quality. As an experimental psychologist with a keen interest in the fallibility of human judgement*, he maintains that the senses are tricked by the price and reputation. *His own excepted, I would say, but remember I'm his son-in-law.

An off-topic comment if ever there was one! That looks like a nicely-built example of the K's kit; you're lucky to have it. You might want to consider renumbering. 2849 was one of a handful of 700 class engines rebuilt with the type D boiler in 1908/9, which did result in a degree of uglification: [Embedded link to catalogue image of Midland Railway Study Centre item 82417, 2849 approaching Trent with a through goods train c. 1920.] It went straight from this condition to a G6 Belpaire boiler in 1923, a type it retained until withdrawal in 1947: [Embedded link to catalogue image of Midland Railway Study Centre item 99-0683, 2849 outside Derby No. 4 shed c. 1925.] Tenders are a bit of a nightmare. By the 1920s, many 700 Class engines were running with either Johnson tenders off withdrawn 2-4-0s and the like, or with Kirtley tenders with rebuilt tanks, as in these photos of 2849. An example of an engine with round-topped boiler and unrebuilt Kirtley tender, i.e. in the condition of the model, is 2834, renumbered 22834 in 1935 (2849 was renumbered 22834 around the same time). 2849 was a Derby engine for most of its life; 2834 was allocated at Leeds or Normanton up to 1930 but was at Birmingham in 1933, ending its days as part of Bournville shed's antique collection. [Ref. S. Summerson, Midland Railway Locomotives Vol. 2 (Irwell Press, 2007).]

My parents' first cat used to do that. The hot water pipes passed right under the head of the stairs...

But for those to whom the prospect of building an engine from a kit is daunting, kit-building wagons and carriages to run behind those RTR engines is a good way of working up to it. This is very much a kit-building topic, so one does not want to stray too far, but mention should be made of the Accurascale hopper wagons. Don't forget the electric loco and the petrol railcar! Also, there is more appropriate RTR rolling stock about if one chooses to model the NER in LNER or, especially, BR days, those RTR engines remaining highly appropriate. (And the numerous industrial saddle-tanks for colliery exchange sidings.) The NER is also quite well served for RTP buildings - but those signals! All applying to 4 mm scale, of course.

Many years ago, at a student production of HMS Pinafore, the lead tenor was Welsh; throughout the chorus 'For he is an Englishman' he was frantically waving the Welsh flag. I do think that any sensible person living in a country commonly known as 'yuck' is bound to have a rather sceptical view of nationalism.

Almost makes you wonder why @mikemeg bothers with kits, doesn't it?

Turton's Thirteenth Collection (Lightmoor Press, 2014) pp. 68-69 has an article on F. & R.H. Johnson of Derby, who had a number of S.J. Claye-built 5-plank, 8-ton wagons, including No. 16, a photograph of which appears; the date seems a bit ambiguous but to my eyes it has more the flavour of an 1890s wagon. Fortuitously, this photo appears on Lightmoor's website, advertising this volume: [Embedded link] This wagon has a number of points of similarity with the Newington wagon - the door filler piece and wooden stop-blocks - but differs in having the diagonal straps inside, rather than outside, the sheeting. Note how the diagonal strap terminates as a bolt projecting through the corner-plate.

https://www.monksgate.co.uk/shop/midland-railway-water-tank-panel-plain-r69bc-sms4g-azc62-n26p6-7dy5n-e8xe2-wml49-e6xw9-pwjf6-9y6wk-3wzrm

Another topic that has been discussed hereabouts. just the one in 1895, I think, established by a Mr Lloyd-Price: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_whisky#Revival. See also: https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/32565#?xywh=-1%2C-48%2C700%2C536 and: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frongoch_internment_camp. The climate of Welsh Methodism and the Temperance Movement was rather inimicable to the whisky business.

But of course. The 'Eupatoria' of which this engine was a renewal was a member of the Alma sub-class of 1854/5 of the Iron Duke class: Alma, Balaklava, Crimea, Eupatoria (no battle beginning with D!), Inkerman, Kertch, Sebastapol - all renewed as Rovers.

I had to look that up. I was expecting it to be the name of some Greek nymph but it turns out to be a Crimean War battle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Eupatoria.

We have a comb for the purpose on one or other of our bedside tables; being sat on while administering several hundred combs inbetween trying to drink one's tea and do a sudoku is part of the morning ritual.

The classic early (pre-continuous brakes) photo of such a set with Terrier 'Poplar' that Dapol have used in their advertising was taken at Selsden Road North Signal Box, near Croydon. So not exactly a bucolic Sussex byway, Am I right in thinking that it was only carriages transferred the Isle of Wight that survived long enough to receive Southern livery?

A couple of pictures of Johnson 4-4-0s have been posted, and very elegant they look. But at the time of the accident, 446 was a very different-looking engine, having been rebuilt with the larger-diameter H boiler in December 1905. Here's 444 rebuilt in the same way, along with another unidentified H-boiler rebuild, at Armathwaite on 3 August 1911: [Embedded link to catalogue image of Midland Railway Study Centre item 88-1996-71_4, Derby official photo DY9599.] It was rebuilt as a 483 Class superheated 4-4-0 (the precursor of the LMS standard 2P) in March 1921.

As PTA Chair, a good few years ago, I had to help run a Bingo evening or three. We had an excellent caller.

Come now, like "59, five and nine, the Brighton line" it's a well-established bingo call, recognised even by Bingo-players who weren't playing before 1923 - and there are such.

The Bachmann model is at least a very decent representation of an RCH 1923 specification wagon, right down to the post-war capping strip brackets, so if one was presented with the inappropriately SECR-liveried model one could at least get to work distressing it, obliterating the lettering, to end up with a decent model. What I was alluding to is far, far, worse.

S. Turner, Private Owner Wagons of the South-East Part 2 (Lightmoor Press, 2022) pp. 146-7. Part view in a photo taken a Lewes c. 1905, with a sketch based thereupon. Turner reports that the firm had at least 14 wagons, numbered 100-113, hired from S.J. Claye of Long Eaton from 1895 until at least 1909, with No. 111 repaired by Claye in 1914 after being damaged by the LB&SCR. Nos. 106, 107, and 113 were recorded at Sheffield Park in Nov 1899 - Jan 1900, giving spot on topicality. Rapido's 5-plank model is a good match for the wagon in the photo, as far as it can be seen, with side knee washer straps turning outwards at the bottom and external diagonal straps. There are two visible departures from the wagon in the photo: the lack of the half-round batten on the side rail below the door and the lack of wooden door stops - one can just about be made out in the photo, so they're shown on the sketch. These would be easy enough to add to the model. The rest is darkness; I'd want to find photos of other Claye-built 5-plankers of the period. Dimensions are also guesswork, I think. From the Midland Railway PO Wagon Registers, Claye was building in 1897 8-ton wagons with internal dimensions either 14' 6" x 7' 0" x 3' 1 1/2" or 15' 6" x 7' 0" x 2' 11", with full-height side doors (add 6" to length and width to get length over headstocks and width over side sheeting). Of course the wagon in the photo might not be one of Newington's 14 Claye wagons but there's no evidence the firm had any others. Unless Rapido and the Bluebell have information not in Turner, the brown woodwork is a guess, as far as I can see, and a guess in the face of probability, which says grey is most likely! Also, from the photo in Turner, I think the lettering is shaded black - this is half-heartedly suggested by the sketch, which is faithfully reproduced by the model. The purchaser is left to supply their own number (LH end, bottom plank, I suppose), tare weight and Load 8 (probably) Tons (customarily LH and RH ends of the side rail, respectively) an registration plate on the solebar. The photo isn't sufficiently high resolution to read the oval owner's plate, which ought to tell us that it is S.J. Clay's; we also lack his builder's plate and perhaps a 'For Repairs Advise' plate. All nitpicking of course (not rivet-counting - no rivets in a PO wagon) on what is a very nicely-done model which I hope boosts the Bluebell Railway Goods Division's coffers so that more full-sized vehicles can be sympathetically restored and maintained. Things have certainly moved on from just a few years ago when such a commission would likely have used a 17' 6"-style wagon model with steel underframe and 10 ft wheelbase - mentioning no names but you know who I mean. (The horror! The horror!)

The second digit looks rounded top and bottom - 0, 3, 6, 8, or 9 - and the third flat-topped but round-bottomed - 5? Neither 33xxx or 38xxx are 3-plank series, the former being mostly loco coal wagons and the latter cattle wagons. 36547 was from os Lot 294 and 39547 os Lot 323, but both these were built square-ended. That would leave 30547 of os Lot 188 but that lot ought to have wood end pillars rather than iron stanchions, surely?