Modelling the M&CR's branch lines in EM gauge

[CKPR]

No. 20 now has brake gear (same spec. as No. 7), the fitting of which has highlighted that her GWR-origin frames aren't deep enough to properly represent the hefty no nonsense style of Maryport works, who turned out mainframes looking just like the K's and Jamieson brass oblongs of yore. 

Edited April 3, 2021 by CKPR

[CKPR]

A  nice selection of M&CR paperwork arrived in the post yesterday - the memos are new to me as is the bicycle ticket. The writing is quite faint on a couple of these, which suggests to me that they could be scanned and Photoshopped, removing the writing to make blank copies for use in running  my miniature version of the  M&CR.

Edited April 10, 2021 by CKPR

[CKPR]

Been tinkering with the drive systems of various locomotives (the M&CR 0-6-0s, the Lanky 0-6-0ST and 'Repulse') as well as having a stocktake on motors, gearboxes, etc  [where did that EM-gauged Tenshodo motor bogie come from ? The aborted models of Carlisle trams from 33 years ago were always OO to represent the prototype 3'6" gauge ] and trying to get started on some more wagons. I'm planning on building a rake of five or six Wm.Baird  4 planks as ran over the M&CR and another six Allerdale Coal Co. 8 planks for 'Mealsgate' - I've done the sides and ends for the latter but currently on my third attempt at marking out, let alone cutting out, the floors. Judging by other posts on the pre-grouping forum, there does seem to be a collective downer on our modelling at present ! I might have to build some more Airfix Presflo wagons  (strictly from early 1960s mouldings, of course) for the 1973 version of my miniature M&CR in order to get my modelling chops back...

Edited June 7, 2021 by CKPR

[Compound2632]

The way-bill for two horses from Cockermouth to Newton Stewart is especially interesting, in that there was a G&SW horsebox on hand. I wonder if this had been sent round specially or if there was some exchange of horses going on?

 

Interesting categories - everything covered, down to "other quadrupeds"! I've seen before that when dispatching a road vehicle, an open carriage truck was the default, a covered carriage truck being 4s supplement.

[CKPR]

10 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 "other quadrupeds"

That'll be a reference to the boggarts travelling to and from Keswick [the M&CR had running rights to Keswick over the CK&PR].

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2021 by CKPR

[CKPR]

On 04/05/2021 at 12:07, Compound2632 said:

The way-bill for two horses from Cockermouth to Newton Stewart is especially interesting, in that there was a G&SW horsebox on hand

 

Guess which chump actually had parts for a G&SWR horse box but sold them on a few years back...

Edited May 8, 2021 by CKPR

[Bochi]

On 04/05/2021 at 12:07, Compound2632 said:

The way-bill for two horses from Cockermouth to Newton Stewart is especially interesting, in that there was a G&SW horsebox on hand. I wonder if this had been sent round specially or if there was some exchange of horses going on?

 

Interesting categories - everything covered, down to "other quadrupeds"! I've seen before that when dispatching a road vehicle, an open carriage truck was the default, a covered carriage truck being 4s supplement.

Newton Stewart had a little bay siding on the down line which was used for horse traffic. Originally it was a stabling point for locomotives, before the engine shed was built.

[CKPR]

Floors for the Allerdale Coal Co. wagons have now been cut out and a NOS Mashima 1220 obtained for No.20 so 'Repulse' can have her motor and gearbox back.

[CKPR]

No modelling to report over the past month due to very sad family matters. I've been up in Cumbria a lot recently and been thinking about what I want to achieve with my modelling in the future, not least because I'm still finding 4mm fine-scale work much more difficult than when I started out in EM back in the mid-1980s. On reflection, I've probably built or nearly completed all the rolling stock I need for the 'lifetime' M&CR layout and the L&Y shunting plank that are both underway and as you can probably tell from my previous posts, I've been looking around for things to do in 4mm (I've dipped a toe into S scale over the years but never really got into it). Being back home in Cumbria has been something of an epiphany modelling wise as I've been remembering all the atmospheric 'O' gauge layouts I saw with my late father back in the 1970s and so I've taken the first steps to building a model of Brampton Town in 7mm. It's going to be strictly old-school  DIY 'O' gauge in the Richard Chown or Dave Walker style,  mind you, with none of your modern r-t-r stuff  - no diesel depots with DCC sound effects for CKPR, thank you very much. I'll keep posting updates on the EM work on this thread [I need to get on with Mealsgate's buildings and the 0-6-0s should be finished soon, along with the Allerdale Coal Co. wagons] and will start a new thread for Brampton Town, which I'll be building as much for my dad as myself. 

Edited June 7, 2021 by CKPR

[Donw]

Welcome to 0 gauge. If you enjoy building stock it is an ideal gauge. 

 

Don

[CKPR]

A nice sunny summer Saturday morning, the move to 'O' gauge and maybe just moving on from the dark days of the past few months, all have contributed to some progress on the Allerdale Coal Co. wagons for 'Mealsgate'. I've finally completed most of the basic bodywork bar the side hoppering (one side only !) for four of the six that I originally marked out and the remaining sets of sides will probably be kept for spares in case I make a mess of any of this quartet. The wagons you can see at the rear are my first three ACC wagons from quite some years ago and I got these out to ensure uniformity across the old and new batch. I think seven will be sufficient for the workings to and from Allhallows colliery, the more so as loadings between Aspatria and Mealsgate were very restricted by the gradient. 

 

NB The lack of internal planking will be covered by the side hoppering - the sides with the door have full internal planking.

Edited June 12, 2021 by CKPR

[CKPR]

More progress with the Allerdale Coal Co. wagons (I'm itching to get on with the 'O' gauge stuff), which all now have solebars, buffer beams and corner plates. The NWSL ' The Chopper'  that can be seen beside the cutting mat has made this sort of repetitive work much easier and I wish I had obtained one earlier in my modelling career. The wagons are temporarily mounted on their wheels as I've rather run out of steam for tonight. I'll probably come back to these tomorrow morning and affix the under-frames  with good old-fashioned Thixofix and do the end stanchions with the chopper, after which it's strapping (last of the Kenline embossed 'rivet' strips) and the bolt heads (chopped up 20 x 10 thou strip) - I have to say that I'm looking forward to using some rather less fiddly methods to represent nuts and bolts in the larger scale work.

Edited July 19, 2021 by CKPR

[CKPR]

End stanchions, strapping and W-irons all now affixed and ABS brake gear fettled up ready for attaching , so mostly fiddly detailing  [aka 'nutting'] from here onwards and then the small matter of sorting out the lettering. The letter by letter approach using the waterslide ModelMaster PO alphabets as I have used on  almost all of my previous PO wagons [the Moresby wagons were finished with a POWsides rub down set, which was a nerve-wracking experience to put it mildly] is an obvious non-starter given the amount of lettering per wagon and the need for a uniform finish across all seven wagons . Moreover, my previous singleton Allerdale wagon, a standard 7 plank, involved cutting sections out of each letter in "ALLERDALE" to replicate the compressed prototype lettering. 

Edited July 19, 2021 by CKPR

[Edwardian]

8 hours ago, CKPR said:

Strapping and W-irons all now affixed and ABS brake gear fettled up ready for attaching , so mostly fiddly detailing from here onwards and then the small matter of sorting out the lettering. The letter by letter approach using the waterslide ModelMaster PO alphabets option as per almost all of my previous PO wagons [the Moresby wagons were finished with a POWsides rub down set, which was nerve-wracking to put it mildly] is an obvious non-starter given the amount of lettering per wagon and the need for a uniform finish across all seven wagons . Moreover, my previous singleton Allerdale wagon, a standard 7 plank, involved cutting sections out of each letter in "ALLERDALE" to replicate the compressed prototype lettering. 

 

Look forward to seeing them ....

[CKPR]

As a football widower, I'm making good progress on 'nutting' the Allerdale wagons this evening - my workbench is in my study off the living room but I dare not close the door on the footie, otherwise I'll be in even worse trouble than usual for showing little to no interest in blokes kicking a ball around a field. 

[Regularity]

I am not that bothered, but my partner is Scottish and fanatically supports whoever is playing against England, so it is worth watching, if only to respond to jibes about 55 years being a long wait with, “Better 55 years than forever!”

[Caley Jim]

The english media keep banging on about 1966.  they never mention 1967!

 

 

There was only one game in which England did not score though-out the finals........

 

Jim

[Edwardian]

1 hour ago, Caley Jim said:

The english media keep banging on about 1966.  they never mention 1967!

 

 

There was only one game in which England did not score though-out the finals........

 

Jim

 

Aye, but the Scots keep going on about 1314. they never mention 1514 , 1542, or 1547!

[Regularity]

I just find it really funny. We concern ourselves about competing with the major teams in the world, Germany, Italy, Brazil, etc, but north of the border they only want to beat us, and I have lost count of the number of Scottish people I have met or know in England who have found nothing but warm welcomes when they came here, in stark contrast to what they had been told before they came. 

 

Back to that game. As I understand it, we played well against a team who kicked and pulled their opponents all through the tournament and we drew. We lost out on an artifice created to ensure that there is a “winner” and consequently a champion. If we fought wars like that, we would never ever have an armistice. Seems like we did all right.

 

That said, we can move on.

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, Regularity said:

I have lost count of the number of Scottish people I have met or know in England who have found nothing but warm welcomes when they came here, in stark contrast to what they had been told before they came. 

 

At the time of the Independence Referendum, I was strongly against Scottish Independence, though disenfranchised on a matter which would affect me and the rest of the population south of the border, on the grounds that my country depended on Scotland for a steady supply of engineers, doctors, lawyers, and other such professionals of the highest quality. Football managers and Prime Ministers too... (I did start having second thoughts about my line of reasoning.)

[Caley Jim]

16 minutes ago, Regularity said:

I just find it really funny. We concern ourselves about competing with the major teams in the world, Germany, Italy, Brazil, etc, but north of the border they only want to beat us, and I have lost count of the number of Scottish people I have met or know in England who have found nothing but warm welcomes when they came here, in stark contrast to what they had been told before they came. 

But isn't that the way with all 'local' rivalries?  The Aussies and NZ's are the same.

 

I'll wager if you ask most English people who have moved up here they will say that they too have received a warm welcome.

19 minutes ago, Regularity said:

Back to that game. As I understand it, we played well against a team who kicked and pulled their opponents all through the tournament and we drew. We lost out on an artifice created to ensure that there is a “winner” and consequently a champion. If we fought wars like that, we would never ever have an armistice. Seems like we did all right.

Couldn't agree more.  The English team have behaved impeccably throughout and I am full of respect for them.  It seemed to me that if the Italians couldn't get the ball away from the likes of Sterling and Kane, using at least three men to do it, they brought them down.

 

Jim

[CKPR]

Oi, take your football somewhere else, some of us are trying to build model wagons here ! Honestly, you just can't get any peace and quiet these days (mutter, mutter, mutter)...

 

[For the record, CKPR's sole engagement with football is an atavistic grudge against Wimbledon AFC or whatever they're called these days, for taking the place of Workington Town in the league in 1977]

Edited September 22, 2021 by CKPR

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

At the time of the Independence Referendum, I was strongly against Scottish Independence, though disenfranchised on a matter which would affect me and the rest of the population south of the border, on the grounds that my country depended on Scotland for a steady supply of engineers, doctors, lawyers, and other such professionals of the highest quality. Football managers and Prime Ministers too... (I did start having second thoughts about my line of reasoning.)

You missed out not just Prime Ministers, but a balance of Labour MPs, which until the recent ascendency of the SNP gave us a chance of not having a Conservative government, or al least one that was more moderate than the current shoddy lot of mountebank and racists…

 

When we moved here, to very West Yorkshire (a former cotton, not wool, mill town in Yorkshire) our other choice of location was Perth, in Scotland, but that would have created difficulties with respect to educating children (one has got into the sixth form at Chetham’s in Manchester).

 

I have realise how much I have to be grateful for, from my father.

With two sons, he took us to model railway exhibitions and football matches. I preferred the former, my younger brother the latter. But the matches prepared me for a future of disappointment in sport, both participatory (I am terrible at most sports) and supporting, so I did well out of it!

 

Now, back to these trains…

[CKPR]

Two down, 30 to go...

[ChrisN]

15 hours ago, CKPR said:

Two down, 30 to go...

 

Is that a 'Craftsmanship/clecr' or 'Friendly Supportive'?