Churminster & Stowe Magna, Southern Railway

[St Enodoc]

11 hours ago, Mick Bonwick said:

 

Not until we've been vaccinated!

This year, next year, sometime, never...

[Tony Teague]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

This year, next year, sometime, never...

 

I'm sure it will happen - we just need to live long enough....

[Tony Teague]

I have yet to account for the deployment of the last of the six Schools locos that went through the weathering works a couple of weeks ago, No.904 'Lancing':

 

 

and so here she is having just pulled forward from the Down platform No.2, at Churminster, ready to run onto the locoshed:

 

 

Once the road is set, she reverses past platform 1, the parcels and breakdown train sidings and into the locoshed headshunt:

 

 

The shedmaster has determined that No.904 must be turned before going on shed and so she pulls forward before again reversing into the turntable road:

 

 

and onto the table, where the vaccum pipe is connected so that she can turn under her own power:

 

 

She turns slowly, but if you look quickly from the next image to the one after, you should be able to see her moving through the magic of digital photography:

 

 

With the 180 degree turn complete (& her vaccum pipe disconnected!), No.904 reverses off the turntable:

 

 

Before finally taking up a position on No.4 road, captured just before she enters the shed for some routine attention:

 

 

Tony

Edited November 23, 2022 by Tony Teague

[Tony Teague]

Progress with weathering the second trio of Nelsons has been slow, indeed it ground completely to a halt about a week ago as I took time out from the railway to look after my ailing cat.

 

 

Sadly, after having said goodbye to his sister only 4 weeks ago, I had to take Tolly on his final journey to the vet earlier this week, which I found particularly upsetting.

 

He was a great character who had been with us for something over 16 years and I shall miss them both.

 

Tony

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2022 by Tony Teague
spelling

[Tony Teague]

Returning to the railway room today, I managed to complete the fourth Nelson, No.861 'Lord Anson':

 

 

This is an old Bachmann model but as I may have observed before, it still runs well and looks OK to me; whether it eventually gets replaced only time will tell!

 

 

Having felt that the weathering of my six Schools locos was starting to look a little bit 'samey' or formulaic, I dug a bit deeper into my picture library before tackling this second batch of Nelsons and located a couple of images of particularly tatty looking Nelsons; the rust to the front of the cylinder housings was especially noticeable:

 

 

Overall I am quite pleased with this but after looking at my pictures I think I can still do a little more to improve and (un)tidy this one:

 

 

I think she's looking suitably grotty!

 

 

Tony

Edited November 23, 2022 by Tony Teague

[jamespetts]

12 hours ago, Tony Teague said:

Progress with weathering the second trio of Nelsons has been slow, indeed it ground completely to a halt about a week ago as I took time out from the railway to look after my ailing cat.

 

 

Sadly, after having said goodbye to his sister only 4 weeks ago, I had to take Tolly on his final journey to the vet earlier this week, which I found particulalry upsetting.

 

He was a great character who had been with us for something over 16 years and I shall miss them both.

 

Tony

 

 

 

The poor little fuzz. My condolences.

[Sandhole]

14 hours ago, Tony Teague said:

Progress with weathering the second trio of Nelsons has been slow, indeed it ground completely to a halt about a week ago as I took time out from the railway to look after my ailing cat.

 

 

Sadly, after having said goodbye to his sister only 4 weeks ago, I had to take Tolly on his final journey to the vet earlier this week, which I found particulalry upsetting.

 

He was a great character who had been with us for something over 16 years and I shall miss them both.

 

Tony

 

 

 

Please have my condolences Tony.
Big HUGS.

[Jack P]

I'm so very sorry to hear Tony. Pets have a way of becoming more than just a part of the family. 

 

The great cattery in the sky holds many beloved and loyal furry friends, with all the fish they could ever want. 

[Tony Teague]

49 minutes ago, Jack P said:

I'm so very sorry to hear Tony. Pets have a way of becoming more than just a part of the family. 

 

The great cattery in the sky holds many beloved and loyal furry friends, with all the fish they could ever want. 

 

Thanks Jack; you're right, Tolly had somehow become my "best mate" in recent months and also, being 'last in a line' made his departure rather more difficult.

I won't be getting any new pets any time soon - the commitment can be heavy!

Tony

[Tony Teague]

Managed to finish off the weathering of the last two of the batch of six Nelsons today; here are the final pair:

 

 

No.858 'Lord Duncan' is one of the latest Hornby models with the addition of 3D printed smoke deflectors

 

 

No.864 'Sir Martin Frobisher' is a much older Bachmann model:

 

 

Whilst I don't think the Bachmann model is bad for one of it's age, there are certain obvious shortcomings such as the very chunky wheels:

 

 

But I'm not quite ready to dump the Bachmann ones yet!

 

Next I'll cover the re-introduction to service of this latest batch of weathered locos.

 

Tony

Edited November 23, 2022 by Tony Teague
spelling, as usual!

[Tony Teague]

An update on the disposal back into service of the 6 recently weathered Lord Nelsons; 1st out was No.851 'Sir Francis Drake', and although she pulled into Stowe Magna Station, she was immediately dispatched light engine on the Up cross-country line.

 

 

In fact she will have joined the queue in the dedicated light engine road within the top fiddle yard; here, up to 9 light engines are stored on a single road, such that as the front loco is released, so the others each automatically move up one space at a time. I can't remember whether I have covered this previously, but there are two indicator lights on the Control Panel for this, the first shows whether or not the road is occupied with one or more engines, whilst the second shows when the road is full. I must try to make a video showing this working at some future point!

 

 

Next to arrive was No.855 'Robert Blake'; after pausing at the top of platform 6 she moved forward before backing into the shed / goods yard arrival road:

 

 

Moving forward onto shed, she was obliged to wait whilst the turntable was vacated:

 

 

On the table was D15 No.467:

 

 

But soon enough the D15 had turned and backed onto shed leaving the table free...

 

 

...and was placed in shed road 3 alongside Schools No.939 'Leatherhead':

 

 

No.855 now moved forward for turning:

 

 

and was soon facing south, ready for her next duty:

 

 

Ready to move onto shed for some brief maintenance:

 

 

She pulls forward into shed road 2, head to head with the Schools:

 

 

More on disposal of the remaining 4 weathered Nelsons to follow.

 

Tony

Edited November 23, 2022 by Tony Teague

[Tony Teague]

I don't want everyone nodding off whilst we return the remaining four Nelson's to the operational fleet, and so here, by way of an interlude, is the changeover for the Up Van train - the new formation being based upon all of those weathered vehicles that have been sitting around in Stowe Magna Yard:

 

 

I must have had something strong to drink when I took this shot of the 'old' Up Van train as it came into platform 6 at Stowe Magna, hauled by a pristine King Arthur, No.742 'Camelot'!

 

Towards the bottom right of the picture you can see N class No.1824 which has been shunting the replacement vans in the yard; only 3 of the pristine vans from the old formation will be joing the replacement train - and then perhaps only for a limited period:

 

 

Lord Nelson No.858 'Lord Duncan' has come off shed to haul the replacement train and has now shunted it across to the Up Main, on platform 4, ready for the off.

 

 

A few minutes later the revised formation is seen heading in the Up directions as it approaches the tunnel mouths north of Stowe Magna.

 

Stowe Magna yard now loks surprisingly empty, but sadly the weathering queue has grown yet again!

 

Tony

 

[Mick Bonwick]

Splendid photographs of nice long trains. Just right!

[Tony Teague]

Thanks Mick

 

A key difference between the two van trains shown is that the 'new / weathered' one is almost entirely kit built by me in the last 12 months or so, whereas the 'old / pristine' one was almost entirely RTR, out of the box - many vans actually having duplicate numbers.

 

So I am pleased with the replacement on several levels, although there is quite a lot of work ahead in renumbering the RTR stuff prior to weathering; later it will doubtless all get mixed together!

 

Tony

[pete_mcfarlane]

Those weathered locos look really good - you've got the 'well looked after but not cleaned for a few days' look that you often see in 1930s photos. 

[Tony Teague]

Well thank you - I am flattered!

[CCGWR]

On 06/12/2020 at 04:41, Tony Teague said:

I don't want everyone nodding off whilst we return the remaining four Nelson's to the operational fleet, and so here, by way of an interlude, is the changeover for the Up Van train - the new formation being based upon all of those weathered vehicles that have been sitting around in Stowe Magna Yard:

 

 

I must have had something strong to drink when I took this shot of the 'old' Up Van train as it came into platform 6 at Stowe Magna, hauled by a pristine King Arthur, No.742 'Camelot'!

 

Towards the bottom right of the picture you can see N class No.1824 which has been shunting the replacement vans in the yard; only 3 of the pristine vans from the old formation will be joing the replacement train - and then perhaps only for a limited period:

 

 

Lord Nelson No.858 'Lord Duncan' has come off shed to haul the replacement train and has now shunted it across to the Up Main, on platform 4, ready for the off.

 

 

A few minutes later the revised formation is seen heading in the Up directions as it approaches the tunnel mouths north of Stowe Magna.

 

Stowe Magna yard now loks surprisingly empty, but sadly the weathering queue has grown yet again!

 

Tony

 

 

The weathering on your locos is looking great, Tony, I also have quite a queue with my locos. The first 6 wagons (apart from the 2nd one) of the train behind the Lord Nelson look particularly interesting, are they kits, and what are their origins?

 

Regards Connor

[prtrainman]

All looking good Tony. Well done. Apologies if answers to these questions re Stowe Magna station are aready in your thread somewhere but:

 Are the platform canopies good old Airfix/Dapol or something else?

 Looks like you used peco platform edging but what did you use to get the dark tarmac top?

Thanks for your help.

Philip 

[Tony Teague]

13 hours ago, CCGWR said:

 

The weathering on your locos is looking great, Tony, I also have quite a queue with my locos. The first 6 wagons (apart from the 2nd one) of the train behind the Lord Nelson look particularly interesting, are they kits, and what are their origins?

 

Regards Connor

 

Hi Connor

Thanks for the feedback, which is appreciated.

From where I am sitting, the first six wagons look like:

David Geen 10T SR Meat Van

Ratio 12T SR Plywood sided van

Slaters LMS Fish Van

Dapol / Rails 3D printed ex-SECR van

Ratio SR Gunpowder van

They are variously mentioned on (much) earlier pages here - well most of them!

Hope that helps!

Tony

[Tony Teague]

7 hours ago, prtrainman said:

All looking good Tony. Well done. Apologies if answers to these questions re Stowe Magna station are aready in your thread somewhere but:

 Are the platform canopies good old Airfix/Dapol or something else?

 Looks like you used peco platform edging but what did you use to get the dark tarmac top?

Thanks for your help.

Philip 

 

Hi Philip

As I recall the canopies are from Wills SS54 kits (several, with more to go); only those on platform 1 are finished, platforms 2 - 3 halfway there and platforms 4 - 5 not started; platforms 6 - 7 are likely to go without. those on p1 - 3 have LED lamps fitted under them - again, wiring incomplete.

Yes, Peco SR concrete platform edging and the black tops are emery paper stuck on thin plasticard.

The whole station area is due to get a makeover, and perhaps even get finished very shortly as I have been working down the hill from St Giles' Church but I got modellers block around about the cinema, so it has been paused for a while!

Tony

[Tony Teague]

It is about that time of year when one starts to look back to consider what has been achieved, or not, and so I thought that I would start with my "Missing Loco's" list, which I last mentioned back in June.

 

For anyone who has only recently started to follow the thread, this is the list of locos that I need in order to achieve my goal of having a model of at least one of each and every loco class that the Southern Railway had on its books as at Nationalisation, and as I have observed before, my list was reasonably short when I started the thread, but RMWebbers have generously added further sub-classes so that as fast as I can tick them off, new entries get added!

 

The 'Missing' list has been stable for about 18 months now, with 12 locos on it, however the status of some items has actually improved recently, whilst only one may have got worse - so here is the current state of play (the number in brackets shows how many there were in the class as at 1948):

 

LB&SCR Billinton E5X   (4) - this build is STILL in hand; I have had the 3D printed body and SEF E5 chassis part built for an appalling two and a half years and I just have not found the    

                                                 inclination to get back to it! No excuses - I simply must get on and finish it!

LB&SCR Marsh C3        (8) - the design of a 'kit of parts' has been in hand for some time, and this will deliver a mix of etched and cast parts; I have also sourced a suittable tender kit and

                                                  identified a builder. Having recently overcome a few issues, I believe that the parts might now be available in the 1st quarter of 2021

LB&SCR Marsh D3X      (1) - the solution proposed will be through a 3D printed body, and use of the chassis from a Chivers D3 kit, which is in stock, however, design work on the body

                                                  has yet to start so this one is not going to be a quick win.

LB&SCR Billinton B4X   (12) - I had thought that this one would also require a 3D printed body solution, however, in mid-year I received a very kind offer for one to be built from existing

                                                   etches and so this is simply waiting its turn on the builder's list; this is a significant step forward.

SECR Wainwright F1     (9) - SER Kits have design and drawings in hand for a 7mm kit which they have indicated they are prepared to scale down to produce 4mm etches; no change

SECR Wainwright B1    (16) - Jidenco kit in hand but need to find a builder - this kit is way beyond me! Alternate solution to await production of SER Kits etches; no change

LSWR Drummond S11 (10) - a set of L12 body parts is in hand and I understand that the correct driving wheels are now available from Markits; the plan is to use an adapted SE Finecast

                                                   T9 chassis (think T9 with large boiler & smaller wheels), but this will not be a simple build!

LSWR Drummond C14 (3) - Mike Edge has recently produced a test build for what may become a Judith Edge kit during 2021and I believe that I am near the front of the queue

SR Maunsell I1X            (18) - I previously reported that a 3D printed body was in design, but I am not aware of any progress on this and it may have stalled; intention is to combine this

                                                   with Alan Gibson milled chassis frames which are in stock

SR DS75                          (1) - solution developed which will involve a 3D printed body, plus spud motor and some white metal castings, all now underway

KESR 0-8-0T Hecate      (1) - I have had sight of the 1st etches and these are awaiting test building which is anticipated for Q1 2021
Soton Dock Co. 0458   (1) - possible solution identified to modify CSP Agenoria kit CSP 04; kit is in hand / potential builder identified, subject to long workload

 

I have had suggestions of various class variations, oil burners, differing tender configurations and so on, and whilst I would always be keen to add them to the fleet if available, I don't regard them as "missing classes" - I can't, otherwise the goal would be even more unachievable than it is currently! I should also mention that actually building locos is not my forte and so with the exception of the E5X mentioned above, I am reliant upon the skills and good service of others for delivery of the finished locos.

 

Back in June I split the "Missing 12" as to 'safe solution / reasonably soon' =5, 'some issues to be solved' = 3, and 'fairly vague / need firming up' = 4.

 

I would now rank these as follows:

   'safe solution / reasonably soon' =7: E5X, C3, B4X, S11, C14, DS75, Hecate

   'some issues remain to be solved' = 2: D3X, 0458

   'fairly vague / need firming up' = 3: B1, F1, I1X

 

Overall, that feels like an improvement!

 

Apologies for the lack of pictures in this post, but there is nothing to show!

 

I'll cover other progress with the loco fleet in my next update.

 

Tony

 

 

Edited December 19, 2020 by Tony Teague
alignment!

[Tony Teague]

What better time to interupt my Review of the Year than when I have only just started!

 

Yesterday my good friend Mick 'the weathering Jedi' Bonwick called by to deliver, at a suitable social distance, some rolling stok that he had very kindly weathered on my behalf, and it is all stunning!

 

I had chosen to ask him to attend to the Golden Arrow - because on the one hand it would be a relatively clean train, but on the other, the Pullman models all come with shining white roofs, which in the real world simply didn't last more than a few days after being ex-works, and so this train would be difficult to get right.

 

 

As anticipated, Mick has done a stunning job, and I just need to re-unite the loco, No.21C3 'Royal Mail' with it's Golden Arrow regalia!

 

I won't bore you with a close up of every Pullman car in the formation which runs Chloria - Sappho - Zenobia - (Trianon = missing, see below) - Adrian - Cecilia - Niobe - Onyx - Lady Dalziel + 2 x PMV's - but here are a couple of samples:

 

 

Pullman Parlour 1st, Niobe

 

 

Pullman Kitchen 1st, Adrian

 

 

Guard Parlour 1st, Lady Dalziel

 

 

and bringing up the rear (closest to the buffers at the London end), two PMV's.

 

For the Pullman purists, I have not, and don't intend to alter the specific details of any of the Pullman cars which are Hornby RTR, however the make up of the train is based upon published research which shows that this specific formation ran on 16th June 1947, 1st October 1947 & 31st May 1948 - with just a one car exception. The exception, and current omission, is the 12 wheel Pullman Bar 'Trianon' (version 2) for which no RTR or model kit exists - but I am working on this and intend to rectify it when possible.

 

Mick had also weathered two other locos:

 

 

Ex-LB&SCR E3 No.2167, and

 

 

N15, King Arthur class No.771 'Sagramore' - seen here in the afternoon sun outside Churminster shed.

 

many thanks Mick for a stunning job!

 

I will return to the Review of The Year in my next post.

 

Tony

Edited November 23, 2022 by Tony Teague

[KNP]

Well, I do think he could have cleaned them a bit before dropping them off......my goodness how unkempt they look!!

 

They look great, I was going to type how smart they looked but then realised that would be wrong to!!

 

 

[Mick Bonwick]

Sorry to have been the cause of a diversion.

 

This train was a most enjoyable task, once I had sorted out how to make a white roof just dirty enough to see that it was once white. I particularly enjoyed working on the Mervchant Navy, trying to get the sides looking a little bit used, as if they'd just done a looong journey.

 

If you're pleased then I'm pleased.

[Tony Teague]

32 minutes ago, Mick Bonwick said:

If you're pleased then I'm pleased.

 

I certainly am - thanks Mick!