Nellie's New Railway - A 1963 BLT

[jcm@gwr]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

And the first Porsche (356).

 

4 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Well, sort of; he had been designing cars for about sixty years by then, and had recently designed some ferocious war machines.

 

 

Yes, but it was the first with his name on, ie sold as a Porsche.

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

National Treasures all.

 

A couple more links to feed the nostalgia bugs:

 

The Triang range was rather extensive and still growing fast: http://hornbyguide.com/year_details.asp?yearid=48

 

And, this is probably the best one, Hornby Dublo 2-rail catalogue: http://img.chem.ucl.ac.uk/dublo/d63a/d63s2.htm

 

Navigation of the HD catalogue site is rather quirky, but once you get use to it you can get full-screen single pages for multiple years, instruction leaflets etc.

 

 

 

 

Gosh, - those were the days.

[Donw]

I remember that issue Buckingham was so inspiring.

 

Don

[hayfield]

On 30/01/2020 at 21:09, Nearholmer said:

Yes, a lot of potential for S scale modellers, it would appear!

 

The blasted things are 1:64 scale. I got suspicious looking at the driver fitted to one. He seems about right for 4mm scale, but looks too small for the tram, so I did a bit of googling. Trams really are very dainty compared with even small railway stock.

 

Back to the plastic kits if I decide to pursue the electric idea.

 

Good job they were dirt cheap.

 

Anybody want a couple of trams?

 

I used to like reading back issues of this and Model Railway Constructurer's, most of the layouts are buildable by the average modeller, lots of show you how (scratch building small projects) and loco/coach conversions. Most were sold to a shop in west end, traded in for some loco kits

[Compound2632]

What has taken me by surprise in that RM issue is the space given over to half-page photos - especially in the Buckingham article - I associate such lavish illustration with later years. But what size was RM back then? My earliest backnumber (in my small but select archive) is from 1975 and pretty much in today's format - recognisably the same magazine.

[Nearholmer]

I think it was still the same as this randomly to hand copy, but it grew at some stage.

[boxerbayrailway]

Wow what a cover,  great shot.   Over the years I've been slowly building up my collection of classic MRNs.  The older magazines have more prototype info, scale plans and building articles etc...  as there was less RTR stuff and a lot less advertisements.  Also more people around that still had first hand knowledge of what we're modelling.   Great stuff.  

[Nearholmer]

Here is a line.

 

Above the line was a 1911-themed BLT.

 

That is now all history.

...............................................................................................................................

 

 

Below the line, this is definitely The 1963 BLT.

 

Rules as briefly noted above: all trains and scenic items must be things that were available in substantially the same form in 1963; modern glues are permitted (I remember how rubbish the old ones were); scratch-building and kit-bashing are permitted; the objective is to make a layout that looks as if it was made in 1963.

 

I've committed, by ordering from eBay a pair of "coupler convertor wagons", which Triang made to help overcome the bane of boys' lives, incompatibility between Triang and HD couplers, which I know will come in useful.

 

Naturally, it has to have dairy (Triang box by the line of locos), because all BLTs seemed to have one then, and I like HD milk tankers, while the station building is represented by the green box.

 

 

Polly has had a bath in warm soapy water and has scrubbed-up nicely in readiness for a coat of black paint, and will receive BR insignia and numbers at some stage. The Dock Shunter will probably be spared this, and Nellie herself can remain in anomalous green, which is similar to luminous green, but different.

 

I will add third rail (cosmetic outside conductor rail, not the real thing), in case I ever come across a cheap Triang SR EMU (the possibility of finding a cheap Dublo Watford Unit is so small as not to be worth considering).

 

Suggestions as to the station building are sought. So far, I'm thinking of using a Superquick 'station master's house' plus bits of their island platform buildings kit, and I think I favour a cardboard buildings over altered Airfix kits.

 

 

Edited February 3, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Stubby47]

Are you looking for more stock? I can't guarantee it's 1963 vintage, but I have a few wagons with open ended tension locks and through-axle box axles.

If you are interested,  when I get back in the loft I will sort out what's there.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Stubby47

[Nearholmer]

Potentially, yes please.

 

I do need to check whether the wheel-sets fitted to those shiny axles will go through the points properly. My dim recollection is that they are in two halves, which press-fit on the axle, and that the b-t-b can be adjusted quite easily (but then won't remain fixed????), but the converter wagons will confirm or deny that when they arrive.

[PatB]

Is the dairy to be a Bilteezi factory bash, perchance? I think it was compulsory in 1963. 

[Nearholmer]

If I can get one, yes; how could it not be?

[Metropolitan H]

27 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

I will add third rail (cosmetic outside conductor rail, not the real thing), in case I ever come across a cheap Triang SR EMU (the possibility of finding a cheap Dublo Watford Unit is so small as not to be worth considering).

 

Suggestions as to the station building are sought. So far, I'm thinking of using a Superquick 'station master's house' plus bits of their island platform buildings kit, and I think I favour a cardboard buildings over altered Airfix kits.

 

 

Regarding the buildings a popular BLT station option in 1963 would be a conversion of the Airfix model of "Old St Boniface Church, Bonchurch IOW" - some of which did appear in the RM from time to time. But, as you seem to be very anti-plastic you could always create a confection from the various "Bilteezi" buiding kits - particularly the Stone Smithy and House - they also did a useful dairy / factory building and they do a "SCATS" warehouse which fits your Southern Region leanings.

 

I look forward to your further developments.

 

Regards

Chris H

 

PS - I apologise for duplicating Pat B's suggestion - but the Bilteezi kit art work and colouring is still rather marvellous, some might think it better than Superquick?

Edited February 3, 2020 by Metropolitan H

[Nearholmer]

The bilteezi factory is OOP and not to be reprinted in its old form, but I might be able to find one secondhand. The SCATS warehouse (Alresford?) is a definite maybe, if I can find room for it, although I have a feeling that it was t in the range until the 1970s.

 

There were other cardboard kits, or at least printed papers too, older ones e.g. Merco, and then Prototype, but they might be later.

[PatB]

From my memory of News Special in old issues of RM, Prototype were a late 60s phenomenon, rather than early. Brickpaper, though, is fairly anonymous, there having been a few different varieties over the years, so their papers, as opposed to complete kits, might be regarded as being in the spirit of the 1963 rule, if not the exact letter.

 

I'm surprised at how disappointed I am at the news that the Bilteezi factory is no more. It's the end of an era. What will be next? Will Superquick discontinue the low relief shops and their wonderfully compressed large terminus station building?

Edited February 4, 2020 by PatB

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Here is a line.

 

Above the line was a 1911-themed BLT.

 

That is now all history.

...............................................................................................................................

 

 

Below the line, this is definitely The 1963 BLT.

 

Rules as briefly noted above: all trains and scenic items must be things that were available in substantially the same form in 1963; modern glues are permitted (I remember how rubbish the old ones were); scratch-building and kit-bashing are permitted; the objective is to make a layout that looks as if it was made in 1963.

 

I've committed, by ordering from eBay a pair of "coupler convertor wagons", which Triang made to help overcome the bane of boys' lives, incompatibility between Triang and HD couplers, which I know will come in useful.

 

Naturally, it has to have dairy (Triang box by the line of locos), because all BLTs seemed to have one then, and I like HD milk tankers, while the station building is represented by the green box.

 

 

Polly has had a bath in warm soapy water and has scrubbed-up nicely in readiness for a coat of black paint, and will receive BR insignia and numbers at some stage. The Dock Shunter will probably be spared this, and Nellie herself can remain in anomalous green, which is similar to luminous green, but different.

 

I will add third rail (cosmetic outside conductor rail, not the real thing), in case I ever come across a cheap Triang SR EMU (the possibility of finding a cheap Dublo Watford Unit is so small as not to be worth considering).

 

Suggestions as to the station building are sought. So far, I'm thinking of using a Superquick 'station master's house' plus bits of their island platform buildings kit, and I think I favour a cardboard buildings over altered Airfix kits.

 

 

Definitely SuperQuick. Original series kits pop up on eBay from time to time.

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Are you looking for more stock? I can't guarantee it's 1963 vintage, but I have a few wagons with open ended tension locks and through-axle box axles.

If you are interested,  when I get back in the loft I will sort out what's there.

The open-ended couplings (Mk2a) were definitely earlier than 1963 Stu, although I think the open axle boxes were still around then.

[hayfield]

10 hours ago, PatB said:

Is the dairy to be a Bilteezi factory bash, perchance? I think it was compulsory in 1963. 

 

10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

If I can get one, yes; how could it not be?

 

I think the company in question is Freestone models

 

The good news it is and they have a website  http://www.freestonemodel.co.uk/page15.htm

 

The bad news is the dairy is out of print

 

Also remember there were Model Master (bala wood and card kits) available, also last month had an article in converting an Airfix engine shed into a lineside warehouse

[Nearholmer]

When the time comes, I need to look at dairy photos before setting to. Some loading facilities were really simple, others an entire milk-products factory, and I think styles ranged from ‘functional eclectic’ to ‘serious moderne’, the latter looking very much at odds with their rural settings.

 

Two are needed really, 0 and 00, so this will have to wait until I’m less busy with paying work and domesticities.

[Karhedron]

There's a good assortment of dairies in this thread here.

 

 

Feel free to PM more for more details if you are interested in a particular site.

[Nearholmer]

Many thanks Karhedron.

 

The brief is to make a dairy that looks like a dairy on a model railway nearly sixty years ago, which may not be quite the same as making a dairy that looks like a dairy - if you see what I mean.

[PatB]

In the absence of the Bilteezi kit, perhaps a bash of the Airfix loco shed, with a platform canopy of the same origin to shelter the loading apparatus. More ambitiously, I note that their "Shop and Flat" offers some possibilities in the 30s Deco direction, and their signal gantry might make tolerable supports for overhead pipework. 

[Andy Kirkham]

I have mentioned  before that this layout has always been one of my favourites, but may I propose the August 63 Railway of the Month "Borchester" (not the Frank Dyer one) as a possible apogee of the "1963  School". It appears to be entirely composed of proprietory items, yet they are deployed in such an artful way as to create an entirely satisfying and plausible vision of an English town and its railway system. Every detail somehow has the ring of truth to it.

 

https://archive.org/details/RailwayModellerAugust1963/mode/2up

 

Spot the Bilteezi factory on the front cover.

Edited February 4, 2020 by Andy Kirkham

[spikey]

On 18/01/2020 at 22:11, Nearholmer said:

 ... Curiously, photos of the Grimsby & Immingham LR seem to show some bits as grooved rail and some as conventional bullhead track, so I wonder if the wheels were wide tread, shallow flange, or if the points on the bullhead sections had specially set clearances.

 

I have no idea, but I can assure you that in 1951-ish, the section that ran from Corporation Bridge along Corporation Road, Grimsby, was so constructed that the front wheel of my dear Mother's trusty Raleigh was able to engage in a groove of some kind, so as to lead rapidly  to my being ejected from my seat on the front thereof and deposited upon the road surface to my considerable dismay.  I never really forgave her for that.

 

My only other recollection of the trams is being taken on them when I was slightly older, and being much impressed by (a) the way they swayed and rattled and (b) the way in which at the end of the journey, the driver (?) walked briskly along the aisle, swinging the seat backs on both sides over to the other way ready for the return journey.

[unravelled]

I have  Bilteezi dairy, ( also engine shed, Scats building and goods receiving depot)  kits if any or all would be of use in the project. Btw, the last two are dated 1982, so might be too new... Bought about 10 years ago in a fit of nostalgia, I won't get around to building them. I'm trying to think whether I have anything bulkier to donate, a few sheets of card aren't going to make much impression on the "to go" pile...

 

Cheers

 

Dave