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Regency Rails - Georgian, Williamine & Early Victorian Railways


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Heres a few more S&DR locos I've unearthed

'Queen' no.29, 'Raby Castle' no.30 and 'Swift' no. 27

If you want to unearth the whole gallimaufry S&DR locomotives, then try to track down the RCTS tome on the subject. Produced with their usual thoroughness there are enough weird and wonderful designs to keep our 3D printing team busy for a week or two. Although published only twelve years ago, for some reason this book has disappear off the RCTS radar. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy off their trading stand at an exhibition a few years ago.
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If you want to unearth the whole gallimaufry S&DR locomotives, then try to track down the RCTS tome on the subject. Produced with their usual thoroughness there are enough weird and wonderful designs to keep our 3D printing team busy for a week or two. Although published only twelve years ago, for some reason this book has disappear off the RCTS radar. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy off their trading stand at an exhibition a few years ago.

 

This one:

post-25673-0-33828000-1522138314_thumb.jpg

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Hmmm...

 

Of course, as followers of the 'Virtual Pre-Grouping' topic will know, it is very easy to make plateways and wagonways in Trainz...

In the digital trainsets world of Trainz Simulator there are some early locomotives available along with some early wagon types as well as plateway type track.  I have been tempted more than once to put something together involving an early plateway type railway, but I haven't got around to it yet.

 

This is a digital model of Catch Me Who Can and yes there is a tender available too.

kOFgPcV.jpg

 

Later today I'll have a dig about in my digital trainset box and find all the early locos and rolling stock I have and post some pictures of them.

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If you want to unearth the whole gallimaufry S&DR locomotives, then try to track down the RCTS tome on the subject. Produced with their usual thoroughness there are enough weird and wonderful designs to keep our 3D printing team busy for a week or two. Although published only twelve years ago, for some reason this book has disappear off the RCTS radar. I was lucky enough to pick up a copy off their trading stand at an exhibition a few years ago.

 

Not surprising really, if it's the one shown by Edwardian, as it's an HMRS publication. Very good book by the way.

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A bit tired after trying to repair somebody else's mess up with a digital model that's publicly released, but doesn't work.  All par for the course if you play with digital trainsets. unfortunately.

 

So I had a dig about in my digital trainset box and came up with........

 

Jenny Lind.

i80GJet.jpg

 

And a French EST Crampton.  I know where to get some British Cramptons, but I haven't got any of those at the moment.

NkQzpQx.jpg

 

I know I've got some other early locomotives, but with 26Gb of digital trainset files to search through you might have to wait until tomorrow to see those.

 

The biggest difficulty with early digital model locomotives is that there isn't much in the way of early coaching stock to run with them.  There'a a good number available for the Broad Gauge, but not much for standard gauge.  Paul of Paulz Trainz has made some very nice early NBR coaches, but he's a bit of a lone voice in the wilderness.  He has early period goods wagons too and I have a selection of those.  For plateway use there are a couple of chaldron wagons and a chaldron wagon and an open wagon for early edge rail wagonways available which is about all you would need anyway.  As I find the early stuff I've got I'll post it here so longs as James doesn't mind all the digital content appearing in this thread.

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A bit tired after trying to repair somebody else's mess up with a digital model that's publicly released, but doesn't work.  All par for the course if you play with digital trainsets. unfortunately.

 

So I had a dig about in my digital trainset box and came up with........

 

Jenny Lind.

i80GJet.jpg

 

And a French EST Crampton.  I know where to get some British Cramptons, but I haven't got any of those at the moment.

NkQzpQx.jpg

 

I know I've got some other early locomotives, but with 26Gb of digital trainset files to search through you might have to wait until tomorrow to see those.

 

The biggest difficulty with early digital model locomotives is that there isn't much in the way of early coaching stock to run with them.  There'a a good number available for the Broad Gauge, but not much for standard gauge.  Paul of Paulz Trainz has made some very nice early NBR coaches, but he's a bit of a lone voice in the wilderness.  He has early period goods wagons too and I have a selection of those.  For plateway use there are a couple of chaldron wagons and a chaldron wagon and an open wagon for early edge rail wagonways available which is about all you would need anyway.  As I find the early stuff I've got I'll post it here so longs as James doesn't mind all the digital content appearing in this thread.

 

Excellent.  Not that it's up to me, but I don't mind. Digital images and models help to introduce a bit of colour to the topic!

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I had a further dig in my digital trainset box and found some more early items.

 

Wylam Dilly.

gTYUNbx.jpg

 

Steam Horse.

mjKgATF.jpg

 

Plateway Chaldron wagon also available as an edge rail model.

AbIAlGH.jpg

 

Open plateway wagon also available as an edge rail model.

1hHLI2y.jpg

 

There's a horse model intended for use with the plateway wagons, but I haven't tried it so I don't know how it works or how animated it might be.

 

If I wasn't in the middle of sorting out a GER-GCR layout at the moment I might be tempted to do something with these models in the way of building a layout.  Maybe later on though.

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This contains hundreds of layout ideas, based around lines that stretch back further in time than 1603.

 

You can, according to abe books buy a new copy for £383, or a decent secondhand one for about £30.

 

There is another book, very recently published, which is interesting in the context of this thread because it outlines how, having nailed railway technology in the 1830s and 1840s, Britain did very nicely thank you by exporting it all over the world.

Early Wooden Railways is a very interesting book, on a much neglected subject.

 

Further recommended reading on the period under discussion in this topic would also be:

 

Stone Blocks And Iron Rails, by Bertram Baxter, David & Charles, 1966.

 

Timothy Hackworth And The Locomotive, by Robert Young, The Locomotive Publishing Company, 1923. (there have been more recent reprints.)

 

A History Of Railway Locomotives Down To The Year 1831, by C.F. Dendy Marshall, The Locomotive Publishing Company, 1953. (A very scarce book!)

 

A History of British Railways Down To The Year 1830, by C.F. Dendy Marshall, Oxford University Press, 1938.

 

The Evolution Of Railways, by Charles E. Lee, London Railway Gazette, 1943.

 

George And Robert Stephenson, by L.T.C. Rolt, Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd., 1960.

 

Early Railways, by Andy Guy and Jim Rees, The Newcomen Society, 2001.

 

Early Railways 2, Edited by M.J.T. Lewis, The Newcomen Society, 2003.

 

Contemporary accounts

 

Railways In England 1826 And 1827, C. Von Oeynhausen & H. Von Dechen, English translation published by The Newcomen Society, 1971.

 

A Practical Treatise On Railroads, Nicholas Wood,Hurst, Chance & Co. London.  First Edition 1825 then 1831.

 

Wood was the Viewer at Killingworth Colliery and a friend and colleague of George Stephenson and was also one of the judges at the Rainhill Trials. The second edition (which I have in my collection) contains Wood's account of the performances of the various locomotives at Rainhill, which he calls 'The Liverpool Contest'.

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Stone Blocks And Iron Rails, by Bertram Baxter, David & Charles, 1966.  This is one really excellent reference book.  When I was modelling 19th century railways in P4 our local library must've got tired of me taking it out on loan on a near constant basis.

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The first railway in London and the chronicles of Boulton's siding, both by A R Bennett, plus David Joys Diaries should provide a wealth of information, incidentally in the apparent lack of a Victorian Railway Society I set up a Facebook page to that effect if anybody's interested https://m.facebook.com/groups/1614960195255335?view=info&refid=18&ref=bookmarks

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my spidey senses were tingling, the style of the font of the "for description see page 469" looks exactly the same as in the engineer and your image file is named rocket1884 so its most likely in an 1884 issue

 

and it is in the engineer 19th december 1884, accompanying an article on the Liverpool & Manchester, it makes very interesting reading the article "links in the history of the locomotive XVIII" starting on page 468, something about there being more than one rocket and one of them was rebuilt in the form above and worked on the Leicester and Swanningotn railway

 

and that the rocket we still have today might not be the original one

 

Edited by sir douglas
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my spidey senses were tingling, the style of the font of the "for description see page 469" looks exactly the same as in the engineer and your image file is named rocket1884 so its most likely in an 1884 issue

 

and it is in the engineer 19th december 1884, accompanying an article on the Liverpool & Manchester, it makes very interesting reading the article "links in the history of the locomotive XVIII" starting on page 468, something about there being more than one rocket and one of them was rebuilt in the form above and worked on the Leicester and Swanningotn railway

 

and that the rocket we still have today might not be the original one

 

Fascinating reading - and yet it failed to re-write the accepted history that has come down to us. I note this has G.S. driving Northumbrian, R.S. driving Pheonix and Joseph Locke driving Rocket, with no mention of the firemen. Note also how this summary of the popular history illustrates Northumbrian, with its integral firebox, as one of the "Rocket type" engines built subsequently, though goes on to cite the Northumbrian type as the next generation design. In 1884, there was still, just, the possibility of first-hand oral testimony, although the article has quite a bit of second-hand. 

 

Being a ballast engine in those days was so infra dig.

 

The article on electrical safety was an interesting read too!

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A selection of early railway signals I came across today, the one on the far left might be of interest to James and Miss T

 

Notice that it's the Grand Junction one which is closest to the familiar semaphore - survival of the fittest. And as often, the Grand Junction setting the pattern of what a main line railway should be like.

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I like the LSWR one, which at first glimpse I thought told the phases of the moon and its traverse across the sky.

I have to admit, old git that I am, I would find that Sou'west signal totally confusing bearing down upon it at 30mph with the headwind bringing tears to my eyes (without benefit of a spectacle plate)

dh

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