The Night Mail

[Compound2632]

18 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Be warned. 

 

I am preparing another onslaught about some of the minor parts of the rail network in S Wales originally owned by a railway company that had a loco livery similar to that used by the LNWR.

 

We're being teased here. Das glückliches Nilpferd knows that before the early 1870s, LNWR locomotives were painted a middle chrome green...

Edited September 18, 2020 by Compound2632

[Dave Hunt]

9 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

We're being teased here. Das glückliches Nilpferd knows that before the early 1870s, LNWR locomotives were painted a middle chrome green...

 

Wasn't that just the Southern Division while those of the Northern Division were red - not the sublime Midland Red but at least red.

 

Dave

[Northroader]

I think HH’s locos changed from black to a tasteful shade of green.

[Compound2632]

23 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

Wasn't that just the Southern Division while those of the Northern Division were red - not the sublime Midland Red but at least red.

 

Dave

 

The myth would have it the other way round - sober, cautious, Ramsbottom at Crewe went for a sober, cautious, green while flamboyant and unstable McConnell at Wolverton painted his Bloomers a flamboyant and unstable red, leading to his downfall at the hands of Richard Moon. Unfortunately there's really no contemporary evidence that any Southern Division engines were painted red.

 

McConnell's downfall was almost the last act in the protracted LNWR boardroom civil war between the ex-GJR and ex L&B directors. Admiral Moorsom, of the L&B party, was chairman and McConnell's chief supporter; it was his death in 1862 that opened the way for Moon's tyranny of parsimony - one manifestation of which was the 40 mph average speed of the expresses, which gave the Midland and the Great Northern / Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire a chance of a share of the London-Lancashire traffic. McConnell had been arguing the feasibility of two-hour Birmingham expresses.

 

There's a Midland link in that McConnell had been locomotive foreman on the Birmingham & Gloucester, on which Captain William Moorsom had been engineer and Admiral Constantine Richard Moorsom (then Captain) had been secretary to the board. McConnell was involved with the founding of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He was also one of the first locomotive engineers to appreciate that a locomotive with a low centre of gravity was a bad thing.

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Compound2632
1862 not 1892.

[figworthy]

On 17/09/2020 at 22:54, jamie92208 said:

For various reasons my parting was not pleasurable but I did make it work for me. I saved all my overtime as time off for 18 months and walked out in April but got paid till the middle of July with all the leave etc that I was owed. For various reasons I had no conscience about screwing them for everything I legally could.   As I've now been drawing my pension for 18 years I can look back in amusement and with some satisfaction.

 

Jamie

 

I was waiting for two things to happen, firstly being in the position that I knew I could afford to retire, and for someone in manglement to annoy me sufficiently to say, right I'm off - experience suggested it was only a matter of time.  I got to the stage where the former happened, but not the latter, but at the same time decided that I didn't really want to stay any longer.  In the end I had 6 months owing and officially finished just over a year ago.  I've yet to work out what the downside to leaving was.

 

Adrian

[figworthy]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

The myth would have it the other way round - sober, cautious, Ramsbottom at Crewe went for a sober, cautious, green while flamboyant and unstable McConnell at Wolverton painted his Bloomers a flamboyant and unstable red, leading to his downfall at the hands of Richard Moon. Unfortunately there's really no contemporary evidence that any Southern Division engines were painted red.

 

 

Don't mention red bloomers, you'll be giving certain forum members palpitations.

 

Adrian

[Happy Hippo]

30 minutes ago, figworthy said:

 

 I've yet to work out what the downside to leaving was.

 

Not having any time for your hobbies as life is immediately taken up with more important issues.

[Happy Hippo]

26 minutes ago, figworthy said:

 

Don't mention red bloomers, you'll be giving certain forum members palpitations.

 

Adrian

Ohh!

 

Jenny Agutter and a Yellow Pannier tank.

 

I suppose we should be grateful that Barbara Windsor was not cast in the part of Bobbie.

[roundhouse]

Ahoy me matys.

 

Its talk like a pirate day

 

Aaarh.

[AndrewC]

17 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

Ahoy me matys.

 

Its talk like a pirate day

 

Aaarh.

b*gger, out of rum. 

Why is the rum always gone?

[Happy Hippo]

HA HARRRRR.

 

Az we Speakzzz, The Q 'll be bizzy cuttin' orf hiz wood'n legzz to make new Marlin Spikes fur iz  pond skimmer.

[New Haven Neil]

Surely one should converse in a Somali accent nowadays, to talk like a Pirate?

[Stubby47]

Off to the Bodmin & Wenford this afternoon,  they have an open weekend for volunteers and BRPS members only.

No trains running, but Platform 2  is now open and there will be lots of static exhibits.

[jamie92208]

Taking my car to have thecair con looked at this morning. The new Classic Trains has arrived plusxa book about the aftermath of Harrow and Wealdstone so that's reading matter sorted for whilst I wait.

 

Jamie

[Stubby47]

Here in Cornwall we are 'blessed' with a commercial radio station called PirateFM.

 

If I am expected to talk anything like the halfwits they have as presenters, then today will be very long and tedious, both for me and anyone I meet.

[Happy Hippo]

OK, back to South Wales and  our esteemed correspondent from RWB was  quite correct in identifying the railway in question:  The Taff Vale Railway.

 

When I was venturing back into 4 mm modelling after many years in the garden scales, I looked at a number of locations that I thought might be suitable to base a model upon.  One was the ex B&M station at Fochriw, (yes it does sound rude) but I felt this was probably rather limited, so looked elswhere.  A number of books had made reference to a place called Common Branch Junction,  but at the time I was unable to find any pictures.

 

Of course, these pictures were out there somewhere,  and the more I researched the more information came to light.  At one stage it was a true triangular junction, albeit single track, so CBJ became a favourite.

 

In order to give some idea of where it lies in South Wales, I have made a quick scribble. This is not exhaustive, but shows the general layout of the various lines in the area.

 

Although the history of the lines is interesting, especially in the early years, once the GWR took over after the grouping in 1923, changes were made.

 

The most significant being the effective closure of the Barry Railway north of Tonteg Junction and the closure of the dedicated line from Treforest up to Llantrisant, and it being re routed up the TVR/BR link line to Tonteg junction where the single line then left and joined up with the original line close to the  point where the TVR crossed over the Barry line.  The Barry line north of this point being reduced to siding status although it wasn't lifted until the 1950's.

 

The lines west of CBJ were closed in the 1930's.  The western arm of the triangular junction had a very short lifespan and had gone by the late 1890's.  It  had remained in use for a short time after as a siding fed from the line to Common Junction, but as can be seen in the diagram from the Chapman book (below) was gone before the turn of the century.

 

Common Junction on the Ely Valley line remained intact, but the short lengths of track remaining was used only for wagon storage.

 

There was some very interesting working along the line from Waterhall Junc up to CBJ.  The train would leave Radyr on the down line and stop just passed Waterhall Junc.  The train would then reverse and be propelled to entire length of the branch serving the various industries en route.  All the sidings off the line being facing points for up trains.  On returning to Waterhall the train would run onto the down line, then be propelled over the crossover onto the up line for the return to Radyr.

 

By the 1960s, only Creigau quarry remained open and this was the limit of trains and the line north of the quarry was closed.

 

As can be seen from the map, the TVR had running rights over the GWR line from Llantrisant to Maesyraul.  Beyond that it served various rail served industry, but these smaller concerns closed until eventually, only Cwm colliery remained open.  Along with Creigau and the ICI works at Brofiskin, these were now the sole reason for the line between Treforest and Llantrisant to remain open.

 

1963 seemed to be the year that everything changed.  The Barry line was closed after the mysterious fire that destroyed the signal box at Tyn y Caeau junction.  This left, the northbound traffic from Cwm colliery as the only real reason for the line to remain open.  so it closed the following year along with a traffic restructuring.  This restructuring also included the Creigau working, so Llantrisant now became to starting point of all freight workings. This also coincided with the elimination of steam traction and it's replacement by the now venerable Class 37 (then EE type 3). 

 

This new structuring was as follows with the lines from Llantrisant Road crossing being worked as long sidings

 

Coal traffic ran from Llantrisant via CBJ to Cwm and return.

 

The line from CBJ to Creigau quarry was reinstated, and the line south to Waterhall junct was closed.

 

The quarry traffic ran from Llantrisant to CBJ, where the train engine ran around and then pulled the train down to Creigau where it was then propelled back into the quarry sidings.  The return working necessitated the train to be propelled up to  CBJ, from where the train could then be pulled back to Llantrisant.

 

The line from Masyraul to Brofiskin went in 1968; CBJ to Creigau was closed to all traffic at the end of Jan 78 and Cwm colliery's last outward train was in Mar 87.

 

So ends the very abridged history. But looking at it from a modelling perspective, raises the inevitable prospect of 'what if?'

 

One of my plan  was to utilise the Post 1963 traffic patterns but imagining that the line had remained open to Treforest whilst retaining a passsenger service.  

 

It would have been very much a 'watch the trains go by' plan as the track plan was very simple as the SRS signal box diagram shows:

 

 

However, this is very much the truncated track diagram becasue at one stage you also had the line to Llantrisant Common Junction, plus  a loco shed!  This had existed at CBJ until the mid 20's. The track diagram from Colin ?Chapman's book on the Llantrisant Branches of the TVR shows this  very well:

 

 

 

I think I'll leave it at that for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Happy Hippo

[Happy Hippo]

I have just been informed I have another granddaughter.

 

Normal service will be resumed after I have got all the crazies back under control.

[jamie92208]

1 minute ago, Happy Hippo said:

I have just been informed I have another granddaughter.

 

Normal service will be resumed after I have got all the crazies back under control.

Congratulations and I hope that mother and daughter are both well. However have the locks on the modelling slush fund been changed as from my experience granddaughters are extremely good at extorting modelling tokens from grandfathers.

 

Jamie

 

[Happy Hippo]

Just now, jamie92208 said:

Congratulations and I hope that mother and daughter are both well. However have the locks on the modelling slush fund been changed as from my experience granddaughters are extremely good at extorting modelling tokens from grandfathers.

 

Jamie

 

Yes No 1 Granddaughter was hoping for baby girl as a cousin.  She has her wish.

 

My modelling fund looks like  a full sink that the plug has just been removed from.

 

As for wellness, went in at 1130 last night, born just after 0400 and are already home!

 

I might need to find some Penderyn or other suitable liquid libation for a low key celebration this evening.

 

 

[polybear]

14 hours ago, figworthy said:

 

I've yet to work out what the downside to leaving was.

 

Adrian

 

You don't get a day off.......

[Happy Hippo]

18 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

You don't get a day off.......

Nor weekends!

[tomparryharry]

16 hours ago, Northroader said:

I think HH’s locos changed from black to a tasteful shade of green.

 

I do like that. if I ever win the silly one, There will be a full-sized version in existence. In addition, a pannier or 2.... 

 

Sorry! Where are my manners? Congratulations!

Edited September 19, 2020 by tomparryharry
yes.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Nor weekends!

And no remission for good behaviour or time served.

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

HA HARRRRR.

 

Az we Speakzzz, The Q 'll be bizzy cuttin' orf hiz wood'n legzz to make new Marlin Spikes fur iz  pond skimmer.

Pirate be west country talk,  muffin,  like Narrfuk. 

[Happy Hippo]

We've just been stripping the Russett Apples out of their tree.

 

It's been a bumper crop this year, although the Worcester's and Bramley's have both been disappointing.

 

I have a sneaking feeling that a tree fairy is coming along and taking them.  One of the disadvantages of having the trees at the front of the property, even though it is set back from the road.

 

I can guarantee that tomorrow will be apple processing of the windfalls and those which have insect damage.

 

We do have a large box of good quality apples which will also be processed........................  From the fruitbowl!