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“BEYOND DOVER”


Northroader
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PLEASE NOTE: THIS THREAD IS INDEXED. NEAR THE TOP OF PAGES 1, 11, 21, 31, YOU WILL FIND THE PRINCIPAL ITEMS FOR THE NEXT TEN PAGES LISTED FOR YOUR HELP.
 

“MECCANO” MAGAZINE.

 

Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start. A long time back, I was taking the Meccano Magazine. (An aside here for younger folk, this was a monthly publication which ran from 1916 - 1981. Centred around Meccano, Hornby 0, and Hornby Dublo products, there was a wide range of articles on engineering and transport interest, with current transport news, and does make a fascinating read looking back. Fortunately every copy can be found on line here:  http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/covers.htm, and is highly recommended for reading at slack moments). Anyway, they did a book review of relevant new publications, and I saw one for “Four Main Lines” by C. Hamilton Ellis, which was an account of the flagship artery for each of the Big Four companies, really to commemorate the end of the companies into British Railways two years earlier in 1948. Describing the history, development, and trains for each of them. I saved up enough pocket money to buy it, and was very taken with the authors style and presentation, so looked round for more of his works. Quite a few appeared in that decade, I particularly liked individual histories, which included locomotive development, for the LSWR, the LBSCR, the Midland, and the North British, and “Railway carriages of the British Isles 1830 - 1914”  is worth a mention too. The thing that really turned me on looking at them, as a boy hopeful to have a model railway, was the potential of  “pregroup” subjects for models. Trains were compact, simple, attractive to look at, and would fit far better in any limited space. 

In 1956 his “Picture History of Railways” came out, part of a series by Hultons publishers on various topics,  not only covering the British lines, but a broad look across the world. Up to now his books had been standard text form with a few inserts for illustrations, but this one a form much more commonplace today, two or three illustrations per page, with a full paragraph of descriptive text for each picture. Great stuff, very blasé about the British pictures, which were good, but then you get to the page for early France, oh me, oh my, look at those.  Two samples for now, first off from the collection of Dr Tice Budden, best known for ancient pregroup Britain photos, but the good Doctor also set up his tripod along the main line east out of Paris, here capturing an express made up of thirteen four wheel coaches, headed by a Crampton 4-2-0 piloting it’s successor, a 2-4-0 copying the Crampton design but with an extra pair of drivers slipped in.

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The second illustration was a CHE painting, which he did very well to give a fully detailed scene.  Its an express on the Paris- Orleans Railway, which went much further than it says on the tin,, one of their standard 2-4-2s on a mixed bag of four wheelers. The thing about the loco is the boiler, firebox, dome, sandbox, and cylinders are all clad in polished brass. Now drivers liked a bit of bare metal to polish on an engine, but imagine being stuck with all that lot? 

30CD824C-4BCB-48B8-BF9F-9FDEED40357D.jpeg.c21a703866c4ab45b55702c6117a328f.jpeg

 

 

Looking at those pictures, I began to realise that somewhere beyond Dover, more lines began, and back in time they had some highly interesting and modellable trains running on them.

 

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Stick around, Stephen, that’s the next bit.

7FF5FE81-B30E-41A7-BFB8-DDA815E5980E.jpeg.9163973aa54d67348bfc2011075f6c09.jpeg

 

Well, I started this thread in February 2020 (the day we had Brexit) as a celebration of the individuality of European countries, but calamity! March 2022 RMweb had serious problems with the people who provided the ongoing service into the internet, and a whole set of illustrations on the thread was wiped off. I’m now working through replacing them, but I couldn’t resist, whilst I was doing the editing, trying to add more information and padding the posts out in a lot of cases. Besides the modelling, I’ve tried to add links to sources of useful information, highlighting these with a bold print header.

This particular post is nice and close to the start, so I’m starting an index, for pages 1-10, here to show just which page the header is on as well, hopefully forming a handy reference:

 

INDEX: pages 1 - 10:

page 1:   Meccano Magazine.                                 page 2: EST 0-4-2

                 Dennis  Allenden.                                                   Patrick Tassignon

                 Paul Delvaux.                                                          EST Crampton

                 EST 0-6-0.                                                                 Bourbonnais 0-6-0s.

                 EST 2-4-0T                                                                MZA Sant Pol de Mar. Layout idea.

                                                                                                    Spanish links

                                                                                                    Portuguese links.

                                                                                                    Belgian beer van.

                                                                                                    German beer van links.

                                                                                                    EST 2-4-0 & 0-6-0 drawings

 page 3:  EST coaches.                                              page 4: French goods wagons          

                kWStB Amerikaner coaches.                                  French shunting. Sabots & cabestans.

                voitures Imperiales Link                                          GrBadStE Link.

                French coach liveries link                                       Clive Lamming                            

                 French coach goods wagons.                                French goods wagon colours                             

                                                                                                    EST goods wagons, drawings/models                                

                                                                                                    Champagne Mercier van.

                                                                                                    Brussels Nord Railway museum

                                                                                                    Belgian transition Belpaire /McIntosh

                                                                                                    Nord wagons

 page 5: cf du NORD link.                                         page 6: Old P-O wagons link

               NORD Outrance 4-4-0.                                             Dutch light railways links

               MIDI goods vans.                                                      “De Graafstroom” model layout

               PLM Marseilles goods sidings.                                Anton Pieck

               PLM goods wagons.                                                  Dutch preserved line

                                                                                                     Danish Railways links

                                                                                                     “Obbekaer” model layout.

                                                                                                     Danish preserved lines.

page 7: Danish goods wagons.                                page 8: Zurich University photo archive

               French wine wagons.                                                 Egyptian Railways

               The Feast of San Judas Tadeo.                                 Stephenson 2-2-2

               Experiments in 5’6” gauge.                                        Italian Railways link

               C.F. de  Herault link.                                                  “Plastico Di Castillo”model layout

page 9:  C.F. du Chimay.                                            page 10: Lyon Perrache film

               Albert Jacquet.                                                              Lyon St. Paul

               Belgian panniers.                                                         PLM 2-4-0s

               Belgian type 51 0-6-0PT.

 (the index for pages 11 - 20 is on page 11)

 

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14 hours ago, Northroader said:

 

Looking at those pictures, I began to realise that somewhere beyond Dover, more lines began, and back in time they had some highly interesting and modellable trains running on them.

Thank you!!!

Not to sound condescending but this is something that has been patently obvious to me since 1970 when I first crossed from Dover to Calais!

Now, I really, really hope I don't sound like I'm talking down to you or anyone else but almost all other countries have railways and so many of them are either interesting or downright fascinating.

The early days are absolutely heroic but the character and charisma does continue to this day - if I find myself on a major European railway station, the drama and romance of the railways is still alive there, what with trains crossing entire continents to far away places and inscriptions not just in say, French, Dutch, German, Italian but in different scripts too!

The variety of liveries to be seen on international passenger trains is amazing and if you look at the individual wagons in the (very mixed) freight trains - well, talk about variety!

Sorry! I do go one but it's all just so very exciting.

I'll be happy to be quiet now and observe with interest.

Cheers,

John.

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Agree with your comments, my story really starts about the time when as a teenage boy I began to realise that there was a big world out there as far as railways were concerned, as still for too many people, their interest begins and ends in Britain. I’m glad to have your interest, and see how we progress.

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As far as my modelling interests are concerned I left these shores 10 years ago, My model making activities have moved into the stratosphere, a great invigorating experience all round and I haven't begun to look at north American or Asia yet.

 Brilliant models, bright colours, fantastic scenery. Why so many 1950s  UK steam layouts? Oh I forgot Bretxit. Taking this further my thirst for all things continental has taken me on several holidays which have left me asking why is it so difficult for the UK to get it right.

To indorse the above comments I am more than glad to share your interests.

Craig.

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DENNIS ALLENDEN — BUILDING CONTINENTAL MODELS.

 

Taking the story on, in 1950 I discovered the Railway Modeller and switched from Meccano Magazine to that. There was just enough pocket money to get that, and the occasional book, but not enough for models, although there were disastrous attempts, such as when I tried to make a baseboard from an old tea-chest. Anyhow, I left school, and life caught up with me. Living in digs, doing apprenticeship and tech college, and back home at weekends out socialising. I kept in touch with the model world with magazines and the odd visit to a show, and that was all. On to  jobs, marriage, kids, you know.

Bits in model magazines occasionally caught my eye, and as Stephen has already commented, at that time the one person who was doing excellent old time Continental modelling was Dennis Allenden, an Englishman living in America, very talented in scratch building and a good writer. I thought I’d dedicate this post to him by listing his articles, as far as I know, in the hope it may serve as a reference base.

Model Railway News   8 & 9/68  “St. Jean d’Angely”.  (Etat 2-4-2 express loco)

 MRN                                     6/69  “Model French Ballast Plant”

 MRN                                     8/69 “ Borsig narrow gauge loco”

 MRN                                   10/69 “Saint Colline, vintage 1908” (description of his layout)

 MRN.                                    8/71 “Wagons and waggonnets” (This one includes a drawing of the only old French            wagon I had for years, an Etat open, but if you use it, note the scale with it is wrong, best to use the buffer centres.)

Railway Modeller.                  ?     “Building 030-863. (Ouest O-6-0 goods loco)

RM.                                        7/73 “Sainte Colline des Champs” (good description of his layout, although there are aspects which wouldn’t work for everybody)

RM.                                        2/74 “500 of the Ouest” ( model of a 2-4-0 Webb compound they had to try out, with the inevitable result. Main problem with these is lack of coupling rods. Dennis just drove the rear axle, which makes me suspect the traction wasn’t very good)

 ? Not sure                                 ?  “EST no. 1002”  (two parts on an outside framed 0-6-0 goods engine)

Model Railways.                  2/72 “Camel Crampton” (EST with Flaman boiler)

MR.                                        6/72 “The bulk transport of wine is relatively new” (wine by rail in France)

MR.                                        4/73 “The cripples of Neuilly” (metre  gauge 0-6-2T)

MR.                                        3/74 “A Belgian Odyssey” (a look at the old time Belgian scene)

MR.                                        7/75 “Castles in France” ( model of the Highland 4-6-0s on the ETAT, there was an article by him in RMF as well)

MR.                                        3/76 “But iron bars a frame”. (Making American style bar frames, with an old 4-4-0 and 4-2-2 in progress. This caught my interest, the idea of jig building frames around the axle bushes using bits of brass bar. Where I went wrong is that each join must be drilled and pinned as you progress, otherwise the heat runs off and undoes old joins as fast as you make new ones!)

MR.                                       8/76 “Couleurs de Belgique” (making an OO Liege Maastricht 0-6-0)

Heres a cover photo of his work, a Belgian State type 33 sort of 0-6-0PT showing the detail and finish of his work.

CA0829BF-CD48-49AE-BB8C-D79BFFDD2900.jpeg.7c27a8b09fc2151b9c8541ea50278a71.jpeg

 

 

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That is on my “bucket list”, although on the pre1900 Belgian scene there seem to be three sorts, a neat taper, the square in any number of sizes, and the large conical, (tronconique) all with a polished cap, and if I’ve got this right, it was brass (Laiton), not copper (Cuivre), as we grow up to expect from GWR locos.

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PAUL DELVAUX — BELGIAN ARTIST.

 

While I’m going on about Belgian Railways, I should draw attention to the exhibition that’s going on til April at the Belgian NRM at Shaerbeek, the Northeast side of Brussels. I went to their NRM in the late seventies when it was in a hall at Brussels Nord station, with some preserved locos and large scale models in showcases, which I found interesting, but a few years back it has reopened at a larger site which has earned praise for the presentation. Anyhow, the exhibition is called “Paul Delvaux the man who loved trains” featuring the work of this artist, classed as a surrealist. Generally his railway items feature a dark sky with a new moon, and an Alice in Wonderland type girl standing in the foreground taking in the scene, and I take this to represent her dreaming - if she’s always dreaming about trains she must be the sort of person to meet. It’s interesting that they're generally set around 1900s although the painting is dated later, but they do have a lot of precise detail, and I have used them with other information to put together rough drawings for models. I’m posting a couple of his pictures to give you an idea of the flavour, both could stand alone as a setting for a small layout, and you can find more if you do a search. A word of warning, a lot of the artists work also covers nudes without railway themes, so be careful when going through them. You don’t want a family member coming up and looking over your shoulder and going “Perving again, eh, grandad?”

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Travelling home to Luxembourg by train in the early 1980's taking the ferry from Dover to Ostend the early morning connecting train was one of those grand trans-European expresses with through coaches beyond Brussels to destinations such as Aachen, Koeln, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow. The two Russian Moscow-bound coaches were always at the back of the train, up against the stops at Ostend, dark green with typically Russian corrugated sides and proudly displaying cast aluminium "CCCP" hammer and sickle bodyside emblems.

 

In those Cold War days with the Iron Curtain still firmly in place they always seemed dark and menacing with all the curtains tightly drawn and no visible light coming from them and in all the years I saw them, I never once saw anyone get on, or off, or moving around inside them.

 

Who actually travelled in these carriages? Why and for what purpose? I couldn't help but spend the next hour on the train to my change at Brussels Nord speculating on the dark possibilities of spies and agents, of honey traps and secret drops, and of KGB officers being summoned back to Moscow in disgrace...

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On 07/02/2020 at 20:54, Compound2632 said:

That reminds me that the Belgian State Railway is the one to go for if you are a scratchbuilder with an aversion to turning chimneys.

 

PB Messing Modelbouw do a range of Belgian loco kits, I quite like the look of the Type 51 0-6-0T:

http://www.pb-messingmodelbouw.com/nl/schaal-ho/bouwkits/stoomlocomotieven/90031-0-rangeertenderlocomotief-type-51

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Well, my kids grew older and larger, and we moved house (secondary school catchment areas, nuff said) The new house had a spare room left over once everyone was accommodated, and so there was potential for me to attempt having a model railway at last. We’d gone off on foreign holidays, and this led me to do two articles in the Continental Modeller, “Spanish Railways for the Modeller” Jan/Feb ‘84, and “Italian Railways for the Modeller” Sep/Oct ‘85. The one spin off from this i was very excited about, was that Shirley Rowe read the Spanish article, and went off to the Costa Brava with her husband Dave, and gathered enough material to come back and produce “Catalunya”, now on show at Pecorama. (“Model Railways” May ‘91, “CM” March ‘94.) What goes around, comes around, one of their original layouts gave me a lot of inspiration, “Under Milkwood” (Railway Modeller April ‘72). This was a welsh 009 layout, very simple but exquisite to look at, with their trademark architectural skill, I think it’s now on show at the W&L.

DD6557A3-04C4-4B9A-A8A9-B5662C707115.jpeg.4681beafce2eb0b8b86b1217589094a2.jpeg

 

One particular aspect which appealed to me was it was placed in a show cabinet, I like the way the layout wasn’t just a baseboard, but had a back and ends to give a more complete scene. My first go in the spare room was an American N gauge, two scenic modules with a loop and sidings each end, the so-called dogbone. Probably the curves were too tight:

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This was followed by an Italian HO module, main problem was the second hand electric, nice looker but badly worn gears:

DB560F0C-D613-468C-97E7-24D360077284.jpeg.062365d3665c15d30d388d9a25dd87ef.jpeg

 

Another American HO followed, using a scheme I’d cooked up using modules, and I could build up an oval going round the spare room. Here’s a module in the build, and a quarter circle module to form a pair.

FCA6CFA3-2C0F-4CD5-A8FC-BA69A99DE903.jpeg.26f432d8db146f51dc12e2f96de77d07.jpegCD9809D5-304E-4C79-AF88-0A9C613B669E.jpeg.294396403759d37efd18c68061bd3485.jpeg

I’d just managed to square the circle with four pairs, when I got promotion, and had to move to my present house. The problem was that there was only the loft available and the modules would no longer fit under a sloping roof, rather than upright walls in the old spare room. Sooo, I ended up making a circular HO German layout based on three lobes, and I think this saw more operation than any of my other attempts, even if most of it was tail chasing. Don’t knock it, it’s really nice to sit back and watch a train in motion. I don’t have any pictures of this one, but there’s a plan, and you may spot that it was done using track gauges for the dimensions, with one bracketed exception.

1CD45A86-5433-4BC8-BBF9-DBF91370A580.jpeg.2d067023269e4346dc07a4072368313a.jpeg

I gave a rather bitty article about all these events in the Continental Modeller for Feb ‘92, “HO and N Experiments in Modular Modelling” The next thing to happen was I switched to O scale. Yes, it’s not the popular scale with everything readily available cheaply, and the chance of carving up models to suit if it isn’t. It’s just I like the bulk of individual items, to me OO/HO is just too small, sorry about that, but there ‘tis.

 

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Well, the rest of the tale is soon told, although in stages spread over quite a long timespan. The kids grew up and flew the nest, and I kept going with some modelling in the loft, mainly Canadian O gauge, although as the loft was uninsulated, it wasn’t the best environment.

7CEE36C8-8034-43C4-985C-9FDB660F9B39.jpeg.a9a9ca2d2c5cdba3dff127a0cc8b7653.jpeg

Then British Rail got itself privatised, and I took the money and ran, taking early retirement. Eventually we managed to get the loft converted into habitable space, so at last I had a decent hobby room, and plenty of leisure time. Looking back things were perhaps too good, with all that time and space I felt free to pursue all kinds of bright ideas willy nilly, and it’s only recently that I’m trying to sort out all the loose ends there are lying about. As I get older, I can foresee my kids chucking the whole damn lot in a skip.

Anyhow, that’s enough about me and where I am, time to pick up the theme of this thread and look at some modelling. You could have gathered from the opening post that I felt the Tice Budden picture of the EST express was nice subject, so I picked on that line to open with. I needed a nice simple bread and butter engine to start, and settled on one of their mixed traffic 0-6-0s. In 1841 Robert Stephenson brought out his “Patent” locos, first 2-2-2, then 2-4-0, lastly 0-6-0. The main feature was the lengthened boiler barrel, needing the wheels to all be placed forward of the firebox. The object was to try and improve boiler efficiency, and the design found favour on many British and Continental lines. The early passenger versions were not balanced, and this and the short wheelbase led to unsteady running at speed, so the type soon fell out of fashion on British lines. On the Continent, with improved wheel balancing, the type became quite common, some lines adding a trailing axle to the 2-4-0 to improve stability. The 0-6-0 version lasted longer in Britain, but was supplanted by the typical British 0-6-0 with the trailing axle behind the firebox on a longer wheelbase. The long boiler type became the standard goods engine on most European lines for most of the Victorian era, being built with inside, and outside cylinder types. In France the inside cylinder engines were referred to as “Mammouths”, and the outside cylinder as “Bourbonnais”. On the EST there were 120 mixed traffic Mammouth built, in batches from 1848-1860, the last was withdrawn in 1928. The driving wheel diameter was 1.42m, (4’7”) and top line speed was 60km/h, so they could appear on local passenger or goods workings, and were fitted with air brakes later on. Originally they had domeless boilers, then domes with Lethullier safety valves on top.  The standard EST goods engines were various classes of Bourbonnais type with smaller sized wheels.

98F3FD36-C684-450B-ABC1-30DD5CC108F3.jpeg.317ebc1eb787cfa717a4ea670a7f1171.jpeg6A54577B-0C4F-428D-9145-55E16149D2B1.jpeg.5490bea3a59adc02244690c4c96a575a.jpegC306FA2C-1D62-46DA-A9CA-685629D3F917.jpeg.78d3e7113221f04ed01bfc229b63f6f8.jpeg

 

The model was made with very simple techniques, starting with brass strip frames sweated together. Bottom corners were chamfered, and hole centres marked out, then  two brass bars for the side rods sweated in position on top. Pilot holes were drilled through the axle positions and the side rod strip removed. I could then go on to fit Slaters axlebushes, and drill out for frame spacers and pickups. Then I could unsweat the frames, deburr, and erect the chassis, with Slaters wheelsets and a Mashima motor on the centre axle. You’ll see that on an 0-6-0 I don’t allow for any compensation, just make sure that all the flange tips touch on a glass plate, and give some lateral clearance on the leading and trailing axles for sideplay on curvature. The superstructure is brass sheet .018” thick, and bought in items were buffers, handrail knobs, and an airpump casting. The tender is done using similar methods.

A68EE159-658B-4D8A-8A80-54FADAD89FCD.jpeg.d8e538bde5ac5f8e3f73402a010ff71b.jpeg123C718C-5833-4B61-A7ED-3DBCD05063E5.jpeg.7439d25c146025f3a8632b5a24b6ad2f.jpeg4A4DC0FB-2BEB-4E04-9C9C-3319659A8563.jpeg.7b5e3e6e42503c34a8b7dab59989ebeb.jpeg

 

The EST locos are finished in glossy black and red buffer beams, with a single red line out, and a modicum of brass brightwork, boiler bands and splashed beading. For some reason the 0-6-0s were numbered in a separate series with a zero prefix. The class was in ”serie 5”, which I think is similar to the LMS power classification rather than denoting a particular class. A lot of French lines gave their locos names back then, the EST in particular gave pretty well all their engines names to start with, although the practice had been dropped by the turn of the century. Being a member of the Gauge O Guild, and finding that 0.108 was called “GOG”, I went for that. I don’t know the French link, but GOG and MAGOG appear in the book of Ezekiel in one of those interminable lists the Old Testament is fond of, in this case persons to whom the prophet gave ASBOs. It’s not clear whether they’re two people or one, and they continue to have a shady presence in various scriptures, generally on the side of the baddies. I much prefer the old legend in which Brutus of Troy, fleeing from the sack of Troy by the Greeks, came to Britain and founded London. He brought two out of work giants, Gog and Magog, who became Guardians of the city, and so get a privileged role leading the Lord Mayors procession. (GOG is the one on the left)

F494D1D7-DDB7-489A-A614-CF14D11CF198.jpeg.8c83fa4b7edd76c72bc446f7db045437.jpeg

 

Edited by Northroader
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Next loco to look at, I fancied a tank engine. I feel these weren’t as popular in France as in Britain, probably the most common were used on suburban services around Paris, which is what I modelled. Otherwise there were a few ancient engines which had been converted (tenderisee) to tank engines (“tank engine “ in French is “locomotive tender”, which can be confusing) a handful of 0-6-0t for large yards, and Engerths, mainly for hilly areas. These latter were regarded as tank engines, although the articulated tender does make them neither fish nor fowl.

French Railways had the habit of watching what was happening over the fence, and if another line came up with a useful design, they would copy it. So it was with the Paris suburban services. The Ouest built 184 2-4-0t from 1855-184, and the Nord followed with 65 from 1867-1877, and the EST had 24 from 1869-1879. Later batches were built slightly larger with a bit more “oomph”, but they were all very similar, a long boiler, short wheelbase design with inside frames and cylinders. The two drivers placed closely together earned them the nickname of “Bicyclettes”

6777D703-45C6-44F8-821D-F634C0C5F48D.jpeg.42cea72bf80b65342d509adf6993b6b3.jpeg

 

 

I started the drawing off for the first batch, which were domeless, and had names of British cities, but finally settled on a later unnamed batch with domes. Construction went much the same way as for “GOG”, the main difference is having the pony truck allowed to float, and weight then carefully placed to act over the drivers. The cab roof was an interesting exercise. The rear edge is straight between the back corners, the front edge is wrapped around the spectacle plate in a curve, and there’s a convex curve between the two edges. I cut a piece of brass sheet to an oversized trapezoid, then worked over it with a ball peine hammer with rapid light taps, against a surface which was firm but with some “give” so you could say a panel beating exercise in miniature.

 

The Bicyclettes eventually got superseded on the Parisian services with more powerful engines, and got put out to grass, doing local services in more remote rural areas.

008A7050-8BE6-4F7A-BA85-B76FD58D0F53.jpeg.17ff6b315dcb3ab99ce501fe893c4cc2.jpegC27706FF-A11B-4B7F-8DC9-45880D2EADD0.jpeg.746f74088ed288a2cc335afb3190f5db.jpeg8AD387A9-65C6-4350-A2F8-F87C6C9CBDFA.jpeg.184edf7b9c4d60877b84b1986533874a.jpeg

Edited by Northroader
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1 hour ago, Northroader said:

I started the drawing off for the first batch, which were domeless, and had names of British cities, 

 

 

A little while after, Stroudley returned the compliment with the E1 class 0-6-0Ts - though he did throw some Italian, Swiss, Austrian, Channel Islands, and Sussex into the mix. I'm curious as to which names the Ouest chose - recalling that that line was allied with the Brighton for cross-channel traffic.

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6 minutes ago, Northroader said:

The OUEST ones weren’t named, from what I know. The EST were far more liberal with their names.

 

Gladstone?

 

Anyway, my question stands - I had misconstrued what you had said as referring to the first 2-4-0Ts built rather than the first Est ones.

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Gladstone? Presumably the Gladstone LBSC engine sent to France, called Edward Blount after the chairman of the OUEST with whom the LBSC were on friendly terms, as you say. Exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1889 (with SER 4-4-0 “Onward”) then did trial runs on the PLM Paris Laroche main line for speed and haulage. Unfortunately William Stroudley was attending these, caught a chill, and died in Paris.

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Very interesting, Northroader. I live about 2 miles (or should that be 3km) from the classic Ligne 4, Paris - Bâle line (called Paris - trou d'Bâle around these parts ;)), which as you will know is firmly in the EST region. Our club has modelled the station at Chalindrey which was an important junction of the L4 with the north-south Dijon - Metz line.

 

I shall follow with great interest, despite being a UK modeller, your journey in these 'ere parts.

 

If you're interested, 'Le Train' has had quite a few articles on the L4, the latest I had was of Micheline, sorry, Autorail depots along the route. They also do regular one-offs concentrating on regions in France, Ligne 4 has already been featured.

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

 

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Gladstone - pun on the use of the word "liberal" to describe the Ouest's choice of names. But yes, also the 1889 exhibition engine - though I wasn't aware of the significance of the name of the particular engine sent.

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On 24/02/2020 at 21:28, Northroader said:

Well, the rest of the tale is soon told, although in stages spread over quite a long timespan. The kids grew up and flew the nest, and I kept going with some modelling in the loft, mainly Canadian O gauge, although as the loft was uninsulated, it wasn’t the best environment. Then British Rail got itself privatised, and I took the money and ran, taking early retirement. Eventually we managed to get the loft converted into habitable space, so at last I had a decent hobby room, and plenty of leisure time. Looking back things were perhaps too good, with all that time and space I felt free to pursue all kinds of bright ideas willy nilly, and it’s only recently that I’m trying to sort out all the loose ends there are lying about. Anyhow, that’s enough about me and where I am, time to pick up the theme of this thread and look at some modelling.

You could have gathered from the opening post that I felt the Tice Budden picture of the EST express was nice subject, so I picked on that line to open with. I needed a nice simple bread and butter engine to start, and settled on one of their mixed traffic 0-6-0s. In 1841 Robert Stephenson brought out his “Patent” locos, first 2-2-2, then 2-4-0, lastly 0-6-0. The main feature was the lengthened boiler barrel, needing the wheels to all be placed forward of the firebox. The object was to try and improve boiler efficiency, and the design found favour on many British and Continental lines. The early passenger versions were not balanced, and this and the short wheelbase led to unsteady running at speed, so the type soon fell out of fashion on British lines. On the Continent, with improved wheel balancing, the type became quite common, some lines adding a trailing axle to the 2-4-0 to improve stability. The 0-6-0 version lasted longer in Britain, but was supplanted by the typical British 0-6-0 with the trailing axle behind the firebox on a longer wheelbase. The long boiler type became the standard goods engine on most European lines for most of the Victorian era, being built with inside, and outside cylinder types. In France the inside cylinder engines were referred to as “Mammouths”, and the outside cylinder as “Bourbonnais”. On the EST there were 120 mixed traffic Mammouth built, in batches from 1848-1860, the last was withdrawn in 1928. The driving wheel diameter was 1.42m, (4’7”) and top line speed was 60km/h, so they could appear on local passenger or goods workings, and were fitted with air brakes later on. The standard EST goods engines were various classes of Bourbonnais type with smaller sized wheels.

86581728-BDCB-4AB1-A0EE-F3F71A0B291E.jpeg.ec2d98c5453dccff7c6d9c3ed0ab95e0.jpeg

 

The model was made with very simple techniques, starting with brass strip frames sweated together. Bottom corners were chamfered, and hole centres marked out, then  two brass bars for the side rods sweated in position on top. Pilot holes were drilled through the axle positions and the side rod strip removed. I could then go on to fit Slaters axlebushes, and drill out for frame spacers and pickups. Then I could unsweat the frames, deburr, and erect the chassis, with Slaters wheelsets and a Mashima motor on the centre axle. You’ll see that on an 0-6-0 I don’t allow for any compensation, just make sure that all the flange tips touch on a glass plate, and give some lateral clearance on the leading and trailing axles for sideplay on curvature. The superstructure is brass sheet .018” thick, and bought in items were buffers, handrail knobs, and an airpump casting. The tender is done using similar methods.

 

8E064F2B-1944-4283-8382-43AE1A89AAC6.jpeg.a0755126cf2d2863589865aee1d8785d.jpeg

 

The EST locos are finished in glossy black and red buffer beams, with a single red line out, and a modicum of brass brightwork, boiler bands and splashed beading. For some reason the 0-6-0s were numbered in a separate series with a zero prefix. The class was in ”serie 5”, which I think is similar to the LMS power classification rather than denoting a particular class. A lot of French lines gave their locos names back then, the EST in particular gave pretty well all their engines names to start with, although the practice had been dropped by the turn of the century. Being    a member of the Gauge O Guild, and finding that 0.108 was called “GOG”, I went for that. I don’t know the French link, but GOG and MAGOG appear in the book of Ezekiel in one of those interminable lists the Old Testament is fond of, in this case persons to whom the prophet gave ASBOs. It’s not clear whetherCFD27146-E807-4A2B-B4B7-37EC6414FFC9.jpeg.d8ad6066d3d20af1eba7857bfd9db63a.jpeg they’re two people or one, and they continue to have a shady presence in various scriptures, generally on the side of the baddies. I much prefer the old legend in which Brutus of Troy, fleeing from the sack of Troy by the Greeks, came to Britain and founded London. He brought two out of work giants, Gog and Magog, who became Guadians of the city, and so get a privileged role leading the Lord Mayors procession. (GOG is the one on the left)

 

 

Being a genooine-bedoowine, all-weather-leather cockney, I learnt about Gog and Magog when living in Cambridge in the 1960s. The low chalk uplands roughly bounded by Lime Kiln Hill and Wandlebury Rise are known as “The Gogs”, although quite why is anyone’s guess. 

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On 24/02/2020 at 21:28, Northroader said:

The long boiler type became the standard goods engine on most European lines for most of the Victorian era, being built with inside, and outside cylinder types. In France the inside cylinder engines were referred to as “Mammouths”, and the outside cylinder as “Bourbonnais”.

 

Interesting. You learn something new every day an' all that. I have only spent the past 39 years or so wondering why this Rivarossi loco is described a Bourbonnais... :^)

 

Rivarossi.JPG.b18beb9780cb78bd66665fb7b497702f.JPG

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