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Gary goes Midland - A Charity Project


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  • RMweb Gold

Hi All,

 

As I'm sure a lot of people know (and even more don't!!) for the past year or so I have been running a railway modelling YouTube channel, with both pre-recorded videos and weekly livestreams. This has been going rather well, and the channel has been growing at a decent pace.

 

One of the reasons I setup the channel was I kept having discussions with people who though things were too difficult, or they were scared to try them, and I wanted to show first hand that these things aren't as scary as people sometimes think, and doing it live meant I could also take questions to help people.

 

On the theme of helping people I have been working behind the scenes for a couple of months, building up a small collection, and talking to a charity that will remain nameless at this point. I will say that it is a charity close to my heart. With the intention of helping them out, and this is were "Gary Goes Midland" comes from.

 

This is going to run in as many places as I can with an ongoing series looking at building stock, as per my other channel projects, however this one will differentiate in that it will culminate with a 24 hour long livestream in which we will attempt to construct a layout from scratch! All with the intention of raising money for this charity. Provided I can meet a minimum amount I will also be selling the layout and stock at the end of the project with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity (however I don't want to plough £1500 into this and only raise £100 for them).

 

At the moment I have some locos, and a bare baseboard, with not a lot else, I need a lot more stock, and a track plan still (and some track for that matter!)

 

How can you help? Well the most direct one would be if you have any appropriate stock (ideally unbuilt kits, but running stuff is good) or spare track about that you wouldn't mind sending over, then that would help speed the project up. Alternatively, start saving your pennies for when I am ready to have donations (Will be via a just giving page) so that you can send money straight to the charity. Or even just subscribing to the channel and liking the video, those actions make YouTube share the video with more people, and more visibility helps make more donations (hopefully)

 

Help with a track plan that would work on this size board, and meet midland practise would also be really helpful!

 

I think that's enough of a wall of text for now, so I'll hand of to myself in video form!!

 

Thanks everyone!!

 

Gary

 

 

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Shed layout? 

 

The Metcalfe 2-road engine shed, sand house and water tank, and coaling stage are pretty good representations of standard Midland structures. The engine shed could be used in multiple to make a 4 or 6-road shed.Not sure all of them are in the current catalogue, unfortunately. Then all you need are some loco coal wagons, a 15 ton Cowans Sheldon crane with match wagon and mess and tool vans, and a 42 ft turntable - or 50 ft if you want to turn the 115 Class 4-2-2.

 

With the locos you've got, you're probably looking at c. 1922. The 1377 Class 0-6-0T will require de-Belpairing to become a Midland engine.

Edited by Compound2632
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  • RMweb Gold

Ohhhhh good idea thanks Stephen,

 

I will have to check out what Metcalfe stuff I can get.

 

I plan on backdating the 1377 in the same way Nile did over on his thread when they first came out, and in fact I have had that since they were new, and have been planning it ever since then!! One day!!

 

Gary

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I must say it sounds like a Nobel project I'm sorry I've got nothing remotely Midland I can help you with but good luck and I shall be following your progress with interest.

  Don't forget as well as the Triang 3F the old Triang 2P responds well to a bit of detailing to bring it more up to date

  Steve

Edited by Londontram
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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Steve,

 

The real help will be donations for the charity once I have officially announced who it is, and opened up the ability to donate to them through the project, I have a figure in mind that I want to raise as a combined total from donations and selling the layout, but I'm keeping that to myself.

 

I do like a bit of M&GN as well actually, but I do love the Crimson livery of the Midland.

 

I hadn't thought about the 2P I shall have to find a cheap one to add to the collection!

 

Gary

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Or better the Hornby ex-Airfix 2P - some work to get it represent a 483 Class.

 

As far as I'm aware, the following RTR are more-or-less directly suitable for post-Great War Midland:

 

Bachmann Compound 4-4-0

Bachmann 4F 0-6-0

Bachmann 3F 0-6-0

Bachmann 1532 Class 0-4-4T

 

whilst the following would require some surgery:

 

Hornby ex-Airfix 2P -> 483 Class 4-4-0

Bachmann 1F / 1377 Class 0-6-0T

 

That's actually pretty good going for pre-Grouping RTR - I doubt any other line could match it. The major gap is the older 0-6-0s - Kirtley double-framed engines and Johnson engines not yet rebuilt to 3F, so either with original or H boilers - would have to check when the smaller Belpaire boilers started to be fitted. The ex-Triang 3F might be a starting point for one of those since it doesn't look very much like a 3F; losing everything above footplate level would be a good start!

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5 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

That's actually pretty good going for pre-Grouping RTR - I doubt any other line could match it.

SECR?

C

D

H

N

P

And with a bit of work, maybe an R(1) and an E?

And then there’s “Little Tich”, ex LBSCR Terrier...

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1 minute ago, BlueLightning said:

eBay trawling for a Hornby 2P has begun, and shows they are not expensive, so a viable option to add for the layout. What work is needed to make them represent a 483 class?

 

Gary

 

Off the top of my head:

 

Johnson 3,250 gal or 3,500 gal tender in place of LMS Standard (Fowler type)

Deeley chimney and dome, at least for 1920s condition

RH drive - move reversing rod and ejector from LH to RH side

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The 483 Class superheater 4-4-0s were the ideal locomotives for Midland's policy of a frequent service of relatively lightweight expresses. Occasionally it might be necessary to put an old 2-4-0 on in front. For the heavier expresses - London to Lancashire or Scotland - there were the Belpaires, Compounds, and 999s - which by the 1910s also had these plates.

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  • RMweb Gold

very interesting, as I say not something I had noticed before, I'll have to make sure I add some.

 

I have been having lots of thoughts about this shed layout idea, and a plan is formulating, the Metcalf coaling stage looks quite large, what would have been used at a smaller shed?

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3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

@Regularity, yes. Do the RTR classes on offer build up to a balanced and useful stud? There are significant gaps in both cases and for the SECR, the usefulness of the P is questionable.

I don’t know for sure, but there is reasonable balance there. The missing part is the pre-joint committee loco fleet, but then again, there are no RTR Johnson 2F or Kirtley 1F 0-6-0s for the Midland, which would be needed to create a “balanced and useful stud”.

Just pointing out that the SECR is pretty well served: it even has RTR coaches.

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The Metcalfe coaling stage is the smallest possible version of the type with an elevated siding - these could get very big, with room for two engines coaling on each side:

 

1831828717_DY2114334Enginetakingwater.jpg.e6b6ab64a0e1ce6763a65a9ca6a8f292.jpg

 

NRM DY 2144, released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) licence by the National Railway Museum.

 

The Midland Railway Study Centre has official drawings for one of the same size as the Metcalfe kit, though with a wooden back wall rather than brick, Item 30155, and the rather larger one at Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Item 77-11809. These elevated coaling stages were built in the 1890s. They do of course need a bit of space for the ramp but with 8 ft you could fit that in and shunting loco coal wagons up and down would keep the 1F 0-6-0T busy. 

 

Before these, the Midland had ground-level coaling stages dating back to Kirtley's day. These had a crane on a pillar to lift the coal tubs up to tender / bunker height. These survived to the end at several lesser sheds. Apart from the crane, many were quite complex structures with a projecting gable. @queensquare has made an exquisite 2 mm model of the one at Bath:

 

 

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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Stephen,

 

It was the length of slope needed that had me worried to be honest, how long a ramp do you think it would need to get up that height? and how many wagons would be typical for a stage of that size?

 

Gary

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The Metcalfe kit as it comes has a height difference of 50 mm; the drawing for the small coaling stage shows 9'0" - 36 mm; the larger stage is 11'0" - 44 mm - so the Metcalfe kit could be trimmed at the bottom. I think one could get away with quite a steep slope - maybe 1:12? For the small stage, three or four loco coal wagons would be enough. There should be a catch point towards the bottom of the slope!

 

My teenage layout had a Midland-style engine shed with such a coaling stage - never completed and dimensions estimated from photos. The stage, ramp, and headshunt (it was reached by a kick-back) fitted in 6'6". (I still have the baseboard frame in 2" x 1" timber!)

Edited by Compound2632
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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Stephen,

 

Looks like that shouldn't be a problem then. I shall have to get on with more planning, but that'll have to wait until tomorrow, since I'm supposed to be live on YouTube in an hour!

 

Gary

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  • RMweb Gold

Not at all, I had no idea what I wanted with this one, but I think I nw have a coherent plan in my head of how it could look, and as for Oak Hill, I put the shed there before anyone else mentioned it!

 

Gary

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