South Wales Valleys in the 50s

[The Johnster]

Still no photos.

 

I know.  Still can't work out how to attach them.  When I preview the post, they aren't there, and I don't want to press send unless I know they are there.  It looks as if it's attached, but who knows...  Anyway, she's not ready for her photoshoot yet, needs detailing and weathering first.  Girl has to look her best, you know!

Edited June 7, 2017 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Looks like i'll be able to prise the cab roof off to put a crew in there, but no chance of getting rid of the coal in the bunker.  This means I'll have to make it even fuller with a layer of decent coal on top, but I like Hornby's little dip in it where the fireman has already taken some out and the top layer has collapsed into the space...

 

I've banged on about this before.  RTR models are very well detailed these days, and this would be a small thing for the manufacturers to do, perhaps supplying the moulding as a retrofit like the brake rodding and vaccum pipes/bags, or a little bag of proper coal that they can put a certificate in saying it was taken from Tornado's tender at 100mph or some such bull.

 

And the hooks have fallen, yes fallen, off both the couplers, when I turned her over to attach the brake rodding.  Again, not the end of the world and I had spares handy, but Hornby need to be creating the best impression they can at the moment, and this only gets 8 out of 10 from me, the coal and couplers deducting 2 points.  It's a shame, as the model generally looks the part and conveys a good general 'feel' of quality and precision manufacturing.  It would have had her out of service until I'd got replacements and that, with Hornby's current attitude to spares and the fact that I could only buy the wide bar ones, without the pockets, last time I was in the shop (wanted the dovetail joint type that slide up into the holder, not the plug in ones; not available from either Hornby or Bachmann according to Lord and Butler's), and this would be a serious issue for some modellers.

 

I'd be happy to just use the couplers with the bars and no hooks on locos, but have a variety of tension lock types, some mounted not necessarily very accurately by myself on older stock that once had scale couplings, and not all are the same height above the rail in all circumstances; tension locks are by no means as standardised as they ought to be, even amongst the same manufacturer's stock, and not all of my problems are down to replacement couplers on home made mounts!  Perhaps I should consider a wholesale replacement program, but I don't like the look of Kaydees on steam era UK models and there are so many different numbers that you can hardly call them a standard product. I don't need automatic uncoupling.  Roco?  Even more tension locks, if I could source them from one continuously reliable outlet and they had a standard mounting that would guarantee the correct height above the rails, or at least a consistent height that I could use as a standard on my own layout.

 

Sorry, that descended into a bit of a rant...

Edited June 7, 2017 by The Johnster

[Ian Hargrave]

Couple of ramblings......the auto trailer Collett conversions also operated on the Aberdare L.L. -Abercynon branch until the arrival of the DMU in early1958. The auto train on the branch wasn't that long-lived. As I recall it commenced in September of 1953 with the introduction of the new timetable. Before that it was usually a B Set with run round and storage up the branch until the Merthyr train cleared.

 

Ah yes..the tunnel . I used the bubble car from Treherbert to Blaenrhondda in the early days of our marriage when coming up from Cardiff ...quicker and more convenient than the Rhondda bus.We were married at St.Albans Church which was right opposite Blaenrhondda station and lived at the foot of Penpych just round "the turn " to Blaenrhondda Colliery. The church was sold recently and now offers itself as a "Holiday Cottage" after conversion.

[The Johnster]

Couple of ramblings......the auto trailer Collett conversions also operated on the Aberdare L.L. -Abercynon branch until the arrival of the DMU in early1958. The auto train on the branch wasn't that long-lived. As I recall it commenced in September of 1953 with the introduction of the new timetable. Before that it was usually a B Set with run round and storage up the branch until the Merthyr train cleared.

 

Ah yes..the tunnel . I used the bubble car from Treherbert to Blaenrhondda in the early days of our marriage when coming up from Cardiff ...quicker and more convenient than the Rhondda bus.We were married at St.Albans Church which was right opposite Blaenrhondda station and lived at the foot of Penpych just round "the turn " to Blaenrhondda Colliery. The church was sold recently and now offers itself as a "Holiday Cottage" after conversion.

 

Holidays in Treherbert; who've thunk it!

 

Never went through Blaenrhondda Tunnel, but did the replacement bus over the Bwlch to connect with the bubble car at Cwmmer Afan a few times, in both directions.  Even with that inconvenience, and IIRC no longer serving Treherbert, it still seemed to attract a few punters and I was surprised when it finally gave up the ghost, '72 I think.  The trip was usually a circular one taking in the NCB stuff at Maesteg.  Somewhere in a box I'll probably never unpack is a black and white shot taken from the Bubble's cab entering Caerau tunnel.

 

Bubble cars are not usually thought of in connection with South Wales, but for a period one also worked a Penarth-Cadoxton shuttle.  A re-organisation of services, which was connected with the replacement of buildings at Cadoxton and Clarence Road, less than a year before it closed, led to the TVR Cogan Jc-Cadoxton via Sully line being severed at Penarth, and the Penarth stub was reduced to the single line that it still is.  The Cadoxton-Penarth line stopped just short of it in Penarth platform, the two buffer stops being literally back to back.  It all looked a bit pointless, and lasted IIRC 1964-69, one of those all too common arrangements whereby BR constructively closed a line by making travel on it as inconvenient and awkward as possible.

 

It was a real contrast; you got the impression BR had done their level best to maintain a link between the Rhondda Valley and Bridgent, while at the same time doing everything they could to sabotage the Penarth-Cadoxton service.

 

I may yet get a chance to walk or cycle through Blaenrhondda Tunnel, but I'd rather have ridden through on a train!  Thanks for the comments, Ian, looks like we both have pleasant memories of the area.

[br2975]

Bubble cars are not usually thought of in connection with South Wales, but for a period one also worked a Penarth-Cadoxton shuttle.  A re-organisation of services, which was connected with the replacement of buildings at Cadoxton and Clarence Road, less than a year before it closed, led to the TVR Cogan Jc-Cadoxton via Sully line being severed at Penarth, and the Penarth stub was reduced to the single line that it still is.  The Cadoxton-Penarth line stopped just short of it in Penarth platform, the two buffer stops being literally back to back.  It all looked a bit pointless, and lasted IIRC 1964-69, one of those all too common arrangements whereby BR constructively closed a line by making travel on it as inconvenient and awkward as possible.

 

As a youngster I could never grasp the idea behind placing buffer stops partway along Penarth's sole remaining platform in order to separate the Rhymney-Cardiff-Penarth  trains from the Cadoxton-Penarth branch trains; especially as the centre road was retained in order to allow the trip workings from PCN ( Penarth Curve North, adjacent to the west end of Canton depot) ) and later from Radyr to avoid the passenger platforms at Penarth then regain the branch in order to reach the cement works at Lower Penarth.

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The attached photo ( by Robert Masterman ) shows the set up at Penarth in 1967.

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Brian R

[Fat Controller]

Holidays in Treherbert; who've thunk it!

 

Never went through Blaenrhondda Tunnel, but did the replacement bus over the Bwlch to connect with the bubble car at Cwmmer Afan a few times, in both directions.  Even with that inconvenience, and IIRC no longer serving Treherbert, it still seemed to attract a few punters and I was surprised when it finally gave up the ghost, '72 I think.  The trip was usually a circular one taking in the NCB stuff at Maesteg.  Somewhere in a box I'll probably never unpack is a black and white shot taken from the Bubble's cab entering Caerau tunnel.

 

Bubble cars are not usually thought of in connection with South Wales, but for a period one also worked a Penarth-Cadoxton shuttle.  A re-organisation of services, which was connected with the replacement of buildings at Cadoxton and Clarence Road, less than a year before it closed, led to the TVR Cogan Jc-Cadoxton via Sully line being severed at Penarth, and the Penarth stub was reduced to the single line that it still is.  The Cadoxton-Penarth line stopped just short of it in Penarth platform, the two buffer stops being literally back to back.  It all looked a bit pointless, and lasted IIRC 1964-69, one of those all too common arrangements whereby BR constructively closed a line by making travel on it as inconvenient and awkward as possible.

 

It was a real contrast; you got the impression BR had done their level best to maintain a link between the Rhondda Valley and Bridgent, while at the same time doing everything they could to sabotage the Penarth-Cadoxton service.

 

I may yet get a chance to walk or cycle through Blaenrhondda Tunnel, but I'd rather have ridden through on a train!  Thanks for the comments, Ian, looks like we both have pleasant memories of the area.

I wonder if they'd also rejigged the timetable, so that a Penarth- Cadoxton service would depart just before a Cardiff- Penarth service arrived?

[chrisf]

Talking of bubble cars, there is a suggestion in the latest Hornby Magazine that they were used between Barry and Bridgend prior to closure in 1964.  I have my doubts.

 

Chris

[Fat Controller]

Talking of bubble cars, there is a suggestion in the latest Hornby Magazine that they were used between Barry and Bridgend prior to closure in 1964.  I have my doubts.

 

Chris

No mention of them in 'The Vale of Glamorgan Railway' (Colin Chapman, Oakwood Press)- the units shown are all Derby 2-car suburban sets (116?). I do remember seeing bubble cars at Bridgend in the late 1960s, presumably on the Maesteg services, as they were on the other face of the Up platform to the main-line trains.

[The Stationmaster]

As a youngster I could never grasp the idea behind placing buffer stops partway along Penarth's sole remaining platform in order to separate the Rhymney-Cardiff-Penarth  trains from the Cadoxton-Penarth branch trains; especially as the centre road was retained in order to allow the trip workings from PCN ( Penarth Curve North, adjacent to the west end of Canton depot) ) and later from Radyr to avoid the passenger platforms at Penarth then regain the branch in order to reach the cement works at Lower Penarth.

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The attached photo ( by Robert Masterman ) shows the set up at Penarth in 1967.

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Brian R

 

Actually it was a quite logical way of reducing costs - which was what a lot of it was all about at that time and splitting the thing into two undoubtedly improved stock utilisation.  I never actually changed at Penarth but on the couple of occasions I went down there the trains seemed to connect (memo to self - check the timetable when i have time)

 

As far as Blaenrhondda Tunnel is concerned I suspect it will need a lot of money to get it into safe condition let alone providing suitable lighting etc and there will be a need to provide drainage (unless walkers etc will actually enjoy being showered with water at certain places in the tunnel).  It was in quite a state before the final problems that led to closure and it was definitely 'an interesting trip' in a bubble car - I think I was lucky and did it not long before the line closed - all a matter of getting the right destination station on the free pass to ensure that you could do the circular tour without being excessed.

[The Johnster]

IIRC the Rhymney-Penarth trains connected reasonably well with the Cadoxton shuttle at Penarth, but, like Brian, I found it a daft arrangement.  Connections at the Cadoxton end were a bit wobbly, and the aim seemed to be to retain a token commuter service from Sully and Swanbridge into Cardiff.  You never got the impression that their hearts were really in it!  Stationmaster Mike makes a good point about stock utilisation, though; a 3-car set terminating at Penarth at which point it is available for the return to Rhymney rather than disappearing into the fastnesses of Sully and Swanbridge for an hour or so, while a bubble car which can cope with the reduced patronage does, is not actually a bad idea.  But there was no need to re-inforce the point with buffer stops and an actual gap in the rails, while a D95xx on the Lavernock Cement trip sailed past on the middle road.  For the price of a shunter's wages at Penarth, they could have coupled the Bubble on for a couple of through rush hour workings to Cardiff for the Sully punters, and uncoupled it for the return.  Never mind.

 

I have no memory of bubble cars working the Vale of Glamorgan service, or of 2 car 116s for that matter; they were worked by the same 3-car sets as the other Barry dmu turns.  Bubble cars may have been seen on the V of G in transit between being used on the Penarth-Cadoxton and Brdigent-Treherbert services, but I do not think they were ever used for the V of G services.  I only remember the Pressed Steel class 121 in use in South Wales, with the 4-characther headcode box above the cab windows, visually matching the class 117 dmus from the same company, not the class 122 Gloucester R,C&W version with the destination panel in that position which visually mached the Gloucester 3 car Cross Country dmus and the Derby class 116 that were used elsewhere on the Valleys network.

[br2975]

 

 I only remember the Pressed Steel class 121 in use in South Wales, with the 4-characther headcode box above the cab windows, visually matching the class 117 dmus from the same company, not the class 122 Gloucester R,C&W version with the destination panel in that position which visually mached the Gloucester 3 car Cross Country dmus and the Derby class 116 that were used elsewhere on the Valleys network.

 

Once again, Bob Masterman is your man .................his camera caught an almost ex-works Cl.122, W55019 at Cadoxton on a Penarth train just before the end.

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I must add that I too never saw a Cl.122 working in South Wales, and would have doubted their use on the services through 'Bare Bum Bay' (Lavernock), had I not seen this image.

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N.B.

I do recall seeing the Cl.122  'route learner' unit many times in South Wales.

 

Brian R

Edited June 9, 2017 by br2975

[chrisf]

I'm sorry to nit-pick, but there were two power twins working out of Barry [50869+50922 and 50870+50923] which were deployed on turns formerly worked by auto trains, covering the Vale of Glamorgan, the vestigial service on the Barry main line while it lasted and some services between Clarence Road, General and Penarth.  When the dmus first arrived the jobs were covered by three-car set minus trailer but eventually two power twins were dedicated to to the turns. 

 

Chris

[br2975]

I wonder if they'd also rejigged the timetable, so that a Penarth- Cadoxton service would depart just before a Cardiff- Penarth service arrived?

 

I've had a brief look at the 1966 DMU Diagrams for Canton units (care of Mr. Foren) and it appears that the two services were reasonably well integrated at that time.

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But - this immediately pre-dates the two lines being severed in the remaining platform at Penarth

[The Stationmaster]

IIRC the Rhymney-Penarth trains connected reasonably well with the Cadoxton shuttle at Penarth, but, like Brian, I found it a daft arrangement.  Connections at the Cadoxton end were a bit wobbly, and the aim seemed to be to retain a token commuter service from Sully and Swanbridge into Cardiff.  You never got the impression that their hearts were really in it!  Stationmaster Mike makes a good point about stock utilisation, though; a 3-car set terminating at Penarth at which point it is available for the return to Rhymney rather than disappearing into the fastnesses of Sully and Swanbridge for an hour or so, while a bubble car which can cope with the reduced patronage does, is not actually a bad idea.  But there was no need to re-inforce the point with buffer stops and an actual gap in the rails, while a D95xx on the Lavernock Cement trip sailed past on the middle road.  For the price of a shunter's wages at Penarth, they could have coupled the Bubble on for a couple of through rush hour workings to Cardiff for the Sully punters, and uncoupled it for the return.  Never mind.

 

 

 

Using the stop blocks to make a physical separation was 'off its time' - nowadays a couple of noticeboards a coach length apart or thereabouts might well be accepted.

[The Johnster]

Power twin 116s on the V of G and 121s on the Penarth-Cadoxton shuttle with photographic evidence; just as well that I only claimed to not have any memory of them and an object lesson in the folly of relying on your memory as the only possible version of the Absolute Truth.  Interestingly the photo of the 121 on the Penarth shuttle at Cadoxton, taken on exactly the sort of gloomy day that I associate that period with, shows it standing on the down Barry Main line; as I remember the service (please refer to the above comment about relying on memory, especially mine) used to terminate in the 'Taff Vale' platform on the down relief, in the background of the shot.  This road still exists as the reception road for Cadoxton sidings and the docks network, i.e. the fiddle yard for Vopak (what an excellent layout that is, I have seen very few that capture the ambience of their real location as well as this).

 

Ok, bit of a ramble as I'm just back from a liquid lunch, but thanks everyone for your very informative input!

[The Johnster]

A crude cardboard former has appeared which will eventually be the fiddle yard side of the scenic break road bridge, though for now it's function is to act as a guide to the positioning of the splitting home signal which has to be on that side of the bridge for sighting purposes.  The signal's two dolls appear above the parapet, and are intended to hint that what is down there is not a fiddle yard but a proper railway leading down the valley in the direction of the junction with the Blackmill-Gilfach Goch branch.  A gradient post showing something terrifying will be placed under this bridge to further emphasise the point.

 

This is the first work on the scenic break, and while not much in itself is hopefully going to focus the mortal remains of my mind, once they tell me a finely calibrated instrument but I don't really know because I never used it much, on the job of imagining, planning, and building the bridge and working the scenery of the area just in front of it and the Remploy platform which will disappear beneath another span of it.  It will be at an obtuse angle from the viewing side so as to discourage the drawing of one's eye towards it, and a pipe bridge, Dapol ex-Airfix construction kit signal gantry based or similar, will cut across the sightline at an acute angle.  The lighting sort of gives up the ghost in this general area, so it should look reasonably effective, but the actual details of it may well not be planned except in a general, sort of organic, sense and the thing could be allowed to develop informally.  The only thing decided at this point is that the bridge will come off an embankment behind the stub spur siding, and there will be a span over the branch, probably plate girder, a stone pier, and a separate span, possibly concrete with brick abutment and parapets, over the Remploy siding and platform, which might have a canopy to hide the join as well; the road is narrow and is the Remploy access, and the bridge may well be weight restricted.

 

But a start has been made, and this is going to be the area on which the modelling will be concentrated for probably quite a while.  Remember what Confucius said about how to start a journey of a thousand miles...

Edited June 9, 2017 by The Johnster

[br2975]

  This road still exists as the reception road for Cadoxton sidings and the docks network, i.e. the fiddle yard for Vopak (what an excellent layout that is, I have seen very few that capture the ambience of their real location as well as this).

 

 

 

I shall tell my brother of your praise for his creation.

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Vopak made its last appearance on the circuit at DEMU Showcase, Burton on Trent last weekend.

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Despite encouraging noises, the prospective purchaser failed to materialise and the layout is now for sale.

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After shows, I sometimes find myself talking in my sleep, still explaining to onlookers how my brother built his chemical works !

Edited June 9, 2017 by br2975

[The Johnster]

I shall tell my brother of your praise for his creation.

.

Vopak made its last appearance on the circuit at DEMU Showcase, Burton on Trent last weekend.

.

Despite encouraging noises, the prospective purchaser failed to materialise and the layout is now for sale.

.

After shows, I sometimes find myself talking in my sleep, still explaining to onlookers how my brother built his chemical works !

 

It was a stunning creation, Brian.  I saw it at the Cardiff show last year and was blown away by it, easily the best 4mm layout there (and there were some pretty good 'uns), a magnificent demonstration of what can be achieved in a minimal space, and modern image, not my first choice as a rule, to boot!  I hope a suitable home is found for it, and would commend it to Vopak themselves or the Vale of Glamorgan Council as suitable for permanent display somewhere.  In 50, or even 20, year's time it will be an important historical document in it's own right!

[Andy Kirkham]

There has been more than one mention in various threads of D9542's 1966 mishap in the Afan Valley.

 

Has this picture of the incident appeared here before? https://flic.kr/p/LUCeW1

[Fat Controller]

There has been more than one mention in various threads of D9542's 1966 mishap in the Afan Valley.

 

Has this picture of the incident appeared here before? https://flic.kr/p/LUCeW1

It ,or something taken from exactly the same position in the same conditions, has been published in 'Looking Back at Western Region Hydraulics', published by Strathwood. 

Despite seeing a line of these at Landore virtually every Sunday in the late 1960s, the first time I saw one work was at Beechbrook Farm when Lynne was working on CTRL Section 1, in the early years of this century.

[Andy Kirkham]

It ,or something taken from exactly the same position in the same conditions, has been published in 'Looking Back at Western Region Hydraulics', published by Strathwood. 

Despite seeing a line of these at Landore virtually every Sunday in the late 1960s, the first time I saw one work was at Beechbrook Farm when Lynne was working on CTRL Section 1, in the early years of this century.

I never saw one in BR ownership. I started spotting at Temple Meads in September 1967, and I guess they had only recently gone from there at the time. 

[The Johnster]

I never saw one in BR ownership. I started spotting at Temple Meads in September 1967, and I guess they had only recently gone from there at the time. 

 

You couldn't have missed them by much, Andy, and in some ways you didn't miss much.   They had a reputation amongst drivers for being weak, unreliable, and having poor brakes, the last point being particularly pertinent on a loco used for colliery trip working in the South Wales Valleys as the photo illustrates.  Strangely, their new owners in the NCB and private industry liked them because they were powerful, reliable, and had good brakes, which only goes to show how different things are at more than shunting speeds...

 

From an enthusiast point of view I liked them because they had side rods like real locos did and were a bit odd and unusual, and the two-tone green livery looked very smart when they were new; they didn't stay clean for long, though.  Had a cab ride in one in '66 at Pengam goods yard in Cardiff, and remember the driver commenting that the cab was big enough to hold the shed xmas dance in!  The inward facing sideways seating position was a bit strange, but seemed to work well enough.  They were built to replace the 94xx panniers, locos which were themselves arguably surplus to requirements and also had very short working lives.   BR, having built them, didn't seem to quite know what they were for; they were really what the Americans would have called a 'road switcher', but the wasp stripes seem to have put them on pure shunting and pickup work that could be and was equally well performed by 08s, and their intended heavy transfer freight duties seemed to go to 37s in South Wales.  

[br2975]

There has been more than one mention in various threads of D9542's 1966 mishap in the Afan Valley.

 

Has this picture of the incident appeared here before? https://flic.kr/p/LUCeW1

 

Well documented incident; albeit the Flickr image has the wrong location of North Rhondda Colliery near Glyncorrwg whereas the actual derailment is in the next, Afan Valley at Gelli Junction just south west of Abergwynfi - in fact, much closer to 'Johnster's' layout  setting.

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The date of the picture of D9542 is 27th August, 1966. The loco was apparently recovered to Cymmer Afan from where it was finally removed to Canton on 30th. September, 1966.

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However, there was another runaway with a  D9529 at Glyncorrwg about the same time.

Edited June 11, 2017 by br2975

[The Stationmaster]

Runaways happened with all sorts of locos in South Wales =- sometimes down to the loco (as with the 9Fs on the Western Valley), sometimes down to the wagons (as with at least one mgr train coming down the Big Hill), sometimes down to nothing more complicated than gravity and in the inability of wagon brakes to resist its dubious charms along with the laws of thermodynamics, and often down to staff who thought they were above the laws of gravity and thermodynamics.

 

Most interesting 'heap' I ever saw was one against the mainline embankment at N&B Junction where there was a brakevan underneath 4 or 5 16ton Mins although the whole heap was no higher than, maybe, 3 16 tonners - one EE Type 3 with modified bodywork at both ends dug well into the embankment and reputedly the largest piece of the brakevan to be recovered from the heap was a wheel (although that was probably an exaggeration but the van body was totally demolished and reduced to very small pieces).  

 

Just the everyday story of railway work in the Valleys where there were proper job gradients as opposed to those soft pimples found elsewhere.

[The Johnster]

Nerves of steel, we 'ad, boyo, nerves of steel...

 

I was consumed with the desire to do some modelling this evening, so the loading dock, neglected for some time along with the rest of the 'town' end of the layout, has acquired a storage hut, in the form of an old Wills pagoda kit that has been swimming around in the bottom of a box for donkey's years.  Doors closed but one left ajar, painted cream with a tarred black roof and brown gutters and downpipe, and heavily weathered, it looks quite at home and as if it's always been there.  The goods department at Cwmdimbath has had a solidly built brick office for some time, but no undercover storage.  I tried it on the platform as a passenger shelter but it just sort of didn't look right anywhere, so the dock is it's home now, like Otis Redding.  Taliesin the cat is unimpressed and has not moved from his throne on the pile of parcels against the office wall.

 

I am throwing around ideas for extending the fiddle yard even further; the problem is that the more fiddle yard roads I provide, the more trains I will acquire to occupy them, and I will never have enough.  Discipline, lad, and cold showers!  I can probably cantilever another full length road out at the back, and a short one for the auto at the front, but I currently have 6 trains and 5 roads, of which only 2 are full length able to take 10 wagons and a van with the loco in clear, just.  Another full length road will probably tempt me into a train of coal empties, which can at least share it's loco with the loadeds, arriving with the empties from Tondu, running around and taking them down to the pit, then returning an hour or so later with the loaded from the pit, running around and right away Tondu.  That would be 7 roads and 7 trains with 6 locos, yeah right, no more locos, that's gonna work, ok, I mean 6 locos at a time!  At the moment i'm doing quite a bit of crane shunting, a term you don't hear much any more and which gives my age away, which isn't so bad with coaching stock but is a bit of a faff with wagons, and not what tension loco couplers are designed for.  The ideal coupler for this sort of thing was the old Hornby Dublo/Peco buckeye; you just lifted the wagon out of the train, or inserted it.  But I don't like the idea of lifting stock off the layout more than absolutely necessary, and would prefer if the bulk of it lived on the track permanently.

 

Apart from the potential train of mineral empties, I really have no need for any more freight, parcels, or passenger stock, but intend to replace my Baccy toads when the new handrailed Hornby comes out.  Two new locos are on the future shopping list, if and when Baccy decide to release them on to the market, a 4575 and a 94xx, after which I have an old Mainline 8750 pannier body which needs a kit built chassis.  I wouldn't mind a couple of pre-A27 type auto trailers, and am hoping Dapol release a 4mm version of their Diagram N, which will suit me perfectly as John Lewis' book has a H.C.Casserley photo of one in crimson at Bridgend, labelled 'Abergwynfi'.  I also like the matchboarded ones, Z. A7, and A9, particularly a photo in Lewis of a Llantrisant A9 with it's toplights plated over in blood and custard (I mean the livery, not what the topllights were plated over with) at Cowbridge; Llantrisant is close enough for my version of Rule 1 and I reckon it's within my capability to scratchbuild.  The only other temptation will be NPCCS; I like a parcels van, me...  A Gresley or Thompson BG, or an LMS or LNER BZ 6 wheeler at the right price might be tough to resist, and so might a Fruit D, especially in post war GW livery... 

 

And that should be it for locos and stock, in theory.  If I want to build anything after that, there's always Tondu's 3100, doyen of Collett's last design of large prairie, no.4 boiler and 5'3" wheels.  I've had one of these beasts, the ultimate GW large prairie, kicking around in the back of my mind for years, thinking in terms of Dapol ex Airfix construction kit 61xx for the running plate, tanks, cab, and bunker, with a City of Truro boiler; it would need kit or scratchbuilding below the running plate, but Hornby cylinders and motion should do.  AFAIK Tondu used it on the daily Porthcawl-Cardiff commuter service, and Canton had 3105 for the return trip, but Rule 1 should bring it up to Cwmdimbath on the Remploy parcels occasionally...

Edited June 11, 2017 by The Johnster