Some Midland questions

[BlueLightning]

Hi everyone,

 

Firstly don't panic I haven't forsaken The Brighton!!! A friend at club asked last night if I could ask you fine folks some questions about a Midland loco he is building in 7mm scale. Luckily it is all written out for me, so I shall quote the man direct.

 

 

Help Wanted!

 

I am building an MR 1532 class loco out of a Slater's kit for the 1262 class 0-4-4T's, in 7mm

 

The condensing tank I am building had a large ejector for the Smith's vacuum brake mounted on the top of the right hand side tank just in front of the cab. Does anyone know what it looks like, (Laurie Griffin does a casting) and how the pipework ran?

 

They also had steam bogie brakes when new, again any info on this would help. (They may have had Saunders vacuum brake instead of the Smith's type by the time I am modelling which is mid 1885.)

 

Also the Midland had oval destination headboards for the suburban trains. I think the wording was curved along the top of these. What colour were they in Midland days?

 

Many Thanks,

 

Ian Hopkins

 

Thanks for looking, any help greatly received,

 

Gary

 

 

[Compound2632]

Hi everyone,

 

Firstly don't panic I haven't forsaken The Brighton!!! A friend at club asked last night if I could ask you fine folks some questions about a Midland loco he is building in 7mm scale. Luckily it is all written out for me, so I shall quote the man direct.

 

 

Thanks for looking, any help greatly received,

 

Gary

 

Not having looked closely at the Slaters kit before, I hadn't realised that it represented the 5'6"-wheeled engines of the 1252 Class (pace Slaters) - the 30 engines built by Neilsons in 1875/6, Nos. 1252-1281, 1907 Nos. 1236-1265 (the model on Slaters website is finished as 1907 No. 1264). This makes it a bit of a challenge to adapt it to represent any of the much more numerous 5'3"-wheeled engines, either the earlier 6 Class or the 1532 Class &c. Apart from driving wheel diameter and resultant differences in the front splashers, other significant differences include:

Bogie wheelbase - lengthened from 5'0" on the 1252 Class to 5'6" on the 1532 Class, as a result of experience gained using the earlier engines on the S&DJR - the Joint engines were the first to have the longer wheelbase bogies; the rear driving axle to bogie centre dimension was, however, unchanged at 11'3".

Boiler pitch - 7'0 1/2" on the larger-wheeled engines, against 6'11 1/4" on the 1532 Class.

Water capacity: 1252 Class, 1000 gal; 1532 Class, 1150 gal. I don't have a good drawing of the 1252 Class engines but I'd guess this means the later engines had taller tanks.

For the details, I'd recommend getting hold of a copy of Summerson, Midland Railway Locomotives Vol. 3 (Irwell Press, 2002).

 

Re. the headboards, the only photo I know, of No. 1722 with boards reading EAST HAM and TOTTENHAM is probably what your friend has in mind. If Midland Style is silent on this, I doubt anyone knows so it's free choice.

 

PS. No panic, just momentary rejoicing...

Edited October 10, 2018 by Compound2632

[BlueLightning]

Thanks Stephen,

 

I will pass this info on.

 

Gary

 

PS. Don't worry your time for rejoicing will come, a few projects are planned for the future!