CDGfife

Don was a founding East of Scotland 4mm Group member. Our members Jim Summers and Alasdair Taylor have provided the following: The death of Don Rowland brings to an end his personal contributions to our hobby, but his influence will live on. For most of his 91 years Don studied and recorded the railway by his photographs, by his wonderful way with words and by his fine models. Our knowledge of wagons, of (in his words) "Keeping the Balance" in types of stock on model railways, of inventive aids to track-building, and of prototype practice go in large measure to his extensive writings. More than that, he brought good nature and fun to the business of building model railways. Don's "specialist subject" was the LMS, and another great man, the late David Jenkinson, said... Don's specialist subject was the LMS, and another great man, the late David Jenkinson, said “No-one knew more about the LMS than Don Rowland”. Don was a past-President of the Historical Model Railway Society, among other high offices, and also a past-President of the Scalefour Society. His enormous experience, knowledge, and prodigious memory were invariably freely shared to all who asked, irrespective of scale. We in the East of Scotland 4mm Group, of which he was a founder member, knew that well. His model of the Forth Hotel complex of buildings on Burntisland 1883 is a testimony to his continuing interest in our group, for it was built after Don had moved south. He had grown up in Crewe, and after around 40 years in Scotland moved in retirement to Shropshire, where he became a similarly loved figure in the Crewe Area Group. Ill-health restrained him in his final years, but he had never ceased to believe in battery power and radio control for proper realism. So it was that he was well forward with converting an early LNWR locomotive at the time of his death, leaving the hobby generally and his huge number of friends and admirers with simply so much. We offer our sincere condolences to Olive and Elaine, his wife and daughter, who both understood. Another very sad loss to our hobby. Chris Gough Chairman East of Scotland 4mm Group

Notwithstanding the issues at the Bridgnorth end already discussed, the civils at the Ironbridge end would be a nightmare. The whole gorge is more or less sliding into the river and thundering (alright even crawling) trains would not help that by any means.

Bannut Tree Farm CL in Worcestershire is a one field walk from Arley Station on the Severn Valley Railway. Couple of pubs within walking distance and an easy walk down the lane and over the river into Upper Arley for the tearoom.

Bruce Murray was a railway modeller all his life. He joined Edinburgh and Lothians MRC in the seventies as a young man, where he became noted for his model buildings. He was an architect by profession and modelled buildings for a number of the club’s layouts. The Glendevon layout still in circulation has his “Murray’s Ales” brewery at Carrick Knowe Halt on the extension and we’re pretty sure several of the buildings at Glendevon were his work too, but he was far too modest to tell us. His first love was UK 7mm but he also developed interests in narrow gauge modelling and American HO. His active involvement with E&L stopped with a move to Fife but he was always glad to catch up with familiar faces at exhibitions. During his time at E&L, Bruce became friendly with Don Rowland, Derek Whale and Des Norman and through these friendships he was introduced to finescale modelling in EM and P4 and became involved with Richard Chown’s various layouts including Castle Rackrent. As well as helping Richard on numerous exhibition trips both here and abroad, he became a regular at the monthly evenings operating Castle Rackrent in Richard’s basement, followed by cake and a chinwag round the Aga. When Richard sadly passed away, he was part of the small team who dismantled and dealt with his effects, where his presence was invaluable, with wise advice and a methodical approach. With Ian Jack he delivered Richard’s Fangfoss layout to its new home at the Norwegian Railway Museum in Hamar, the story of which appeared in Scalefour News 212 including the pursuit of mis-translated “six German skirts” in the duty-free on the ship crossing to Denmark. No-one is quite sure exactly when Bruce joined the East of Scotland 4mm Group, but we’re certain that he did! It’s typical of him that he assimilated himself into our friendship with little fuss and became part of the norm. He was involved in the construction of Burntisland 1883, providing various contributions to the phases of construction. He was responsible for the beautiful Solveig, the schooner that sits in Burntisland’s West Dock by the coal hoist. It’s a model that shows skills well outside the norm for a railway modeller and he was justifiably very proud of it. He kept turning up with less straightforward modelling for Burntisland, from well-researched drawings for a locomotive, to cattle wagons, and a lighthouse. Building on Allan Goodwillie’s work, he was largely responsible for the depiction of the real Burntisland on the backscene which has elicited many favourable comments from the more artistic viewers of the layout. Lately he provided most of the working drawings and several buildings for the Engine Works extension, typically picking up the odd structures that no-one else volunteered for. His contribution to the East Group included a long stint as Honorary Secretary where his thoughtful and efficient organisation was applied to everything from regular meetings and committee herding to how we packed the van. Typically, the latter included CAD drawings (for various van types) and an accompanying set of lists that all work perfectly, when we follow them. Part of his time as Hon Sec coincided with my Chairmanship of the Group and I have found his ability to analyse rationally and then calmly talk through situations most helpful. He also found time to be our Exhibition Manager and our Nominated Member of the Association of Model Railway Societies in Scotland. Our Group’s life will be more complicated and much the poorer for his passing. Apart from the above contributions in the hobby, everyone I’ve spoken to about him has remembered his warm and generous friendship, dry wit, work ethic and ability to pick up a relationship after a gap and make it seem as if there had been no gap at all. I’m not the only one who is of the opinion that it was an honour to be his friend. Whilst somewhat confined in his last months, he kept abreast of developments in the hobby and was able to make progress on cattle wagons for Burntisland and my Cadhay layout. They will run in his honour. Bruce Murray passed away early on Saturday 27th Feb aged 67 and leaves his wife Bethan and sisters Anne and Eileen and their respective families. Our sympathies go to them and we are thankful for the friendship and memories in the company of a good man gone too soon. Chris Gough Chairman, East of Scotland 4mm Group - March 2021

I like this. I'm also a fan of the no-tunnel exit from scenic sections. Depending on viewing angle you may be able to get away with the outcrop and a few carefully placed buildings. One other thing I would suggest thinking about now is what happens if you get a loco stall or derailment on that back line from the storage under the tunnel. You may have already thought about access but if not it's worth factoring it in now. Good luck Chris

Luffing jibs until fairly recently were much more common on the continent (Liebher were the go-to brand) so you might find a 70s luffing jib bash-able from one of the euro kits? I agree both the models shown so far are quite chunky. Time for the 3d printing folks to come up with some modular sections that can be fitted to any height/jib lengths? Alternatively some very burnt fingers from soldering up and etch or three!!! The towers I remember from the eighties looked very similar to the Woking one with in-line cab. We did have a couple that had the cab forward of the tower but I think side cabs were a bit later again. Quite often lift shafts (or stair wells) were used for crane holes, although most lift shafts would have been slip formed of concrete in-situ and that action would have required the crane to position the concrete skip over the formwork, which is tricky if too close to the crane tower. At least 2 of my sites just had a floor slab hole left for filling later and this was more defined by the structural design of the building (i.e. where they could easily leave a hole for later filling. Cheers CDG

In my experience, up through the middle of the building as your Woking photo, would be exactly the norm, with a hole left in (designed into) the floor structure to accommodate and then plugged once the crane is done with. On my first site I went over on a Sunday to watch them take the tower crane down - there was some really frightening hanging on beams that day!! The Woking crane is pretty much how I remember ours being. Can't see who the contractor is but it's not a Taylor Woodrow crane as it has no branding. The TW cranes were all a horrible lime green colour with the TW logo (4 men pulling a rope) in red on a white panel between the kentledge ballast and the cab on the rear jib. I think the only reason your building would not have one like this is if they could not get swinging rights for the jib above the next door buildings, in which case a luffing jib type would have been fitted but these were rarer than the standards. Look at all those trip hazards around the portable saw in the third photo!!! Had a chap badly cut his wrist on one of those on the first floor slab at Tamworth and the only way they could get him and the other lad (who was holding his tourniquet) off the slab together was to put them both in the concrete skip and crane them off to the waiting ambulance. I think the only reason the mobile is being used in the last photo is because they are bridging the road so could close it anyway. Cheers CDG

Graham you are totally right. I well recall the general laxity regarding (for example) hard hats on mid eighties sites. We had many a campaign to educate! Also even then most moving was done by labour and the tower crane. The Bimson artic pic is a similar size and format to the one my toppling story was about. They had a surprisingly short throw for anything heavy back in the eighties/early nineties. I agree they were, in my recollection, a late eighties/early nineties proliferation. Before then we used to charge demurage with the precast stuff if our lorry had been on site waiting for a tower crane slot for over an hour! To be honest my suspicion is that your site would probably have had a tower crane, (possibly a luffing jib one given the tight site radius and close buildings) as the precast flooring slabs would need to be lifted in and parking a mobile crane on a London street for the day to do this was certainly a no no (or at least very expensive) mid eighties and probably long before then! The switch from manual to mechanised construction did gather pace with the design changes brought about by precast flooring availability. With manual labour it was easier to construct an in-situ slab as everything could be carried to the pour site, and bricks and the like were transported up ladder/stairs in hods, but these sites still more often than not had a crane of some sort until very late in the construction process. Cheers Chris

Certainly the sites I was on mid to late 80s of this type all had a tower crane and brick/block pallets were unloaded from the lorry by the crane and hoisted to each floor where they were either dropped (by the tower crane and banksman) direct onto scaffolding positions or once the floor was in dropped centrally and then moved around by manual pallet truck. I did have a mate on a central London site who raved about their "pallet lift" which was a temporary structure up the middle of the building where you could lift pallets without waiting on the crane, and I also know that these were used in London where access for tower crane erecting/swing was restricted, but I'm not sure when that practice would have started. From memory, I did not see regular hiab deliveries on any of my sites in the midlands until the late 80s and I don't think truck-hiabs would lift a pallet of blocks very far from the vehicle. I've certainly never seen one load to first floor. When I ended up making precast concrete, our transport firm turned up one day with "the biggest hiab in England" according to the driver. Couple of weeks later he'd overturned it lifting off a carboy from the middle of his trailer onto the floor, when the ground had moved under one of his supports slightly. That should give an idea of how little radius of load these things have/had. Hope that helps Bricks/blocks/mixers etc all looking great and adding to the picture nicely. Cheers Chris

Scott, yes (although not really finished) we were at Glasgow in 2018. Bells and all! This one was taken at S4um later that year: Pelmet has been sign written since then! Kevin - thanks for the photo and your info, very interesting. Furthest south we've been so far was Scaleforum at Aylesbury in Sept 2018, but I would certainly be open to a trip to the South-West when this rubbish is all over. Got relatives in Brixham & lived in Plymouth for a while also, so whilst it is a trek we've done it a few times albeit without a layout!!

Thanks also Scott and George for your comments. Here's the exhibition plan (I only have the actual track plan part in CAD and this is much quicker to post)! And for those of a techie bent, here's the CBUS implementation plan, which does at least show a zoomed track plan on the three scenic boards! Thanks for looking Cheers Chris

That is lovely - thanks for sharing it. Gosford was the next set of gates up the line (towards Sidmouth Junction) from Cadhay Gates. Like Cadhay, the crossing keeper's cottage is still there. I was down there last summer for some further research (ssshh - there may be a phase 2 at some point) and took this of the Cadhay Keeper's cottage. The gates are still in the hedge up on the hump to the left and the rivers are to the right. Excuse my hound getting in on the act on the right. I had to leave out the cottage on my layout as I just did not have the space, but over the years at exhibitions I've still had a few chats with folks who remember the line and recognise the situation. It's always a pleasure and it's such a lovely part of the world. Cheers CDG

Thanks Scott for your kind comments. Actually birdsong (and other nature noises) has been in the pipeline for a while, probably with a DF player and speakers on each baseboard controlled by the CBUS. However I did draw the line at the suggestion of modelling the sound of the rivers flowing! Not sure I and the other operators could get through an hour shift with that running!! Cheers Chris

Or plane hiding? Isn't the English language fun? CDG

If the Railcar is being loaded in the goods shed (and referring earlier debate), does that make it a freight train, goods bus or Railvan? Chris