Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

My modelling mojo must have crept in from somewhere.  I actually got a soldering iron out and plugged it in this evening.  I went over to the shed and listened to the wind howling.  However it's still a reasonable 10 degrees.   I took a box down from the shelf.  This was a box for a Slaters 3 plank Midland Wagon. 

 

 

I was really getting quite anxious there, as all I could see on the activity listing was these first six sentences...

Edited December 13, 2019 by Compound2632

[bbishop]

Jamie,  D84 were a homogenous bunch.  About the only variation was whether they had flat or bulbous (as per the rh wagon) axleguards.

 

Bill 

[Regularity]

12 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

  I won't get much done tomorrow as it is the village Christmas meal aka a drinkathon as the town hall.   I may be out some time and will certainly not be wielding a soldering iron on my return.

It at least, not wielding it safely...!

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a slightly windy part of The Charente.  Not a huge lot has happened with the layout as other things were happening.  However over the last few days I have managed to start a bit of houskeeping.  Over the years I've accumulated a lot of wagons from a variety of sources.  I do have them rcorded on a spreadsheet and they are all numbered underneath for identification and insurance purposes.  I have started using the data to sort them into trains and record storage locations.  

 

I've started doing a census and over the past few nights have managed to check just over half of them. I've recorded damage and repairs that they need as well.  Some haven't seen the light of day for some time.  I have however found a few anomalies and have even discovered a couple that never got recorded.  It's been fascinating. It has also brought back memories regarding where I got the wagons from. One batch came from the late David Jenkinson's Kendal layout, all recognisable by being weighted with plasticine full of lead shot.  Sadly some of these need a bit of tlc as the plasticene is drying out. No problem though getting lead shot, several of my neighbours are hunters with the local chasse.  

 

Jamie

Edited January 17, 2020 by jamie92208

[Compound2632]

11 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

No problem though getting lead shot, several of my neighbours are hunters with the local chasse.  

 

 

What do you do? Make offensive comments, run for cover, then sneak out later to harvest the result?

[sir douglas]

last week somebody commented on the guild forum about my R.Carder wagon which was based on a photo of an N gauge example, he says that he grew up in Lancaster and never knew of a coal merchant of that name, but there was a R. Gardner which he suggests could have got mixed up at some point, though he does also say that he cant remember if Gardner ever had any wagons

[jamie92208]

3 hours ago, sir douglas said:

last week somebody commented on the guild forum about my R.Carder wagon which was based on a photo of an N gauge example, he says that he grew up in Lancaster and never knew of a coal merchant of that name, but there was a R. Gardner which he suggests could have got mixed up at some point, though he does also say that he cant remember if Gardner ever had any wagons

I think that Gardner had an office at Green Ayre, however I seem to remember that Carder oprated out of Castle station on the LNWR line.  You need to look at a copy of the 1922 or 23 railway yearbook which would list all the coal merchants. The NRM have the yearbooks.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

Another half hour in the shed this evening.  I think that I have finished checking the wagons on or near the layout.  That means that about 45% of them must be on the shelves in the modelling room.  I will start the dig there tomorrow hopefully.  I test weighed a couple of cattle wagons this afternoon.   I like to have most 4 wheel wagons at between 4.5 and 5 ozs.  ABS wagons tend to weigh in at about 6 oz. I need to weigh some of the lead shot that I've been given (No it wasn't fired at me, the mayor's son in law brought a bag full round one day).  Once I know how many pieces of shot I need per wagon I can get the varnish out and start setting the weights in their underframes.  I'll have to sort out the David Jenkinson wagons and dig the plasticine out and replace it with glued in shot. At the moment they gently dribble bits of shot and plasticine as they run round the layout.

 

Jamie

[Dave Hunt]

22 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

 One batch came from the late David Jenkinson's Kendal layout, all recognisable by being weighted with plasticine full of lead shot.

 

It is quite possible that some of them have my fingerprints in the plasticine. A couple of times when visiting David with Geoff Holt we were invited when having coffee to assist in weighting wagons whilst putting the world to rights (or more accurately listening to David putting the world to rights).

 

Dave

[jamie92208]

2 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

It is quite possible that some of them have my fingerprints in the plasticine. A couple of times when visiting David with Geoff Holt we were invited when having coffee to assist in weighting wagons whilst putting the world to rights (or more accurately listening to David putting the world to rights).

 

Dave

I better get the brush and fingerprint powder out then. The blackmail demand will be in the post.   The time I went to see Kendal, Geoff Holt was there with a Gauge 1 Turbomotive that ran a test on an icy outside track under radio control.

 

By the way not all the plasticine is drying out, Just some of the batch that I bought via a telephone bid to the Christies auction.  I thus acquired two PO's that I needed.   I still have quite a few of his unbuilt kits that I bought as a job lot via the Guild Newsletter Sales and Wants.

 

Jamie

[Merlin242]

The Lancaster past and present Facebook page has had some interesting phots recently . Are they of any interest. I had not seen this one before of greyhound bridge being built. Soory if it all old hat. There are others.

 

Mike

[jamie92208]

19 hours ago, Merlin242 said:

The Lancaster past and present Facebook page has had some interesting phots recently . Are they of any interest. I had not seen this one before of greyhound bridge being built. Soory if it all old hat. There are others.

 

Mike

Thanks very much for that.  I have seen them thanks and they are a great set of photos. I believe that one of them is part of the 'Derby' collection. The details on them are marvellous. Thanks again.  Not a high vis in sight.  

 

Jamie

Edited January 18, 2020 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Just to enlarge about the photo above.   It was taken in 1911, the weekend they brought the new Greyhound bridge into use.  The junction was moved a short distance to the west, this also involved moving the junction to the shed and the Castle Branch.  IIRC the signal Box was moved a few weeks before. The big gantry was put up some time before and had an extension piece on it's north (R Hand as you look at the photo) to take the catenary over the old bridge. This is an enlargement of part of the drawing that was prepared in August 1911 to get ready for the works that were to take place.  The old bridge and trackwork is shown dotted.  

 

 

When it was all done the down platform was extended over where the original tracks lead onto the old (2nd) Greyhound Bridge. Some of the old bridge still exists as a bridge over the river Lune at Halton. The Midland used the old girders to make the bridge so that the villagers from the village across the river could get to the station.  When I was getting hold of the plans for Greyhound Bridge I spoke to the Bridgemaster for Lancashire Highways.   He very kindly sent me the plans for greyhound Bridge (no 3) which is still in use as a road bridge of course.   I then told him that it's predecessor from the 1860's was still carrying traffic a few miles away.   His reply was unprintable. No one had told him.

 

Here's the bridge in question.

 

Anyway it's been a good day continuing the wagon census.   In the process I've even tidied up part of the modelling room and found the fencing that I need for the brewery store yard at the front of the layout along with many other things. I even found the pack of magnetic couplings that I'm going to try fitting to my corridor coaches.

 

Jamie

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by jamie92208

[Ohmisterporter]

The bridge made using girders from the old Greyhound bridge is at Halton, between Lancaster and Caton. 

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, Ohmisterporter said:

The bridge made using girders from the old Greyhound bridge is at Halton, between Lancaster and Caton. 

Thanks Geoff, I've corrected it.

 

Jamie

[45156]

17 hours ago, Ohmisterporter said:

The bridge made using girders from the old Greyhound bridge is at Halton, between Lancaster and Caton. 

And I crossed it yesterday as the road through Halton is closed, and this is the quickest alternative - though it is very narrow, and is severely weight restricted to 3 tonnes, I think.  At least the toll that used to be charged has been abolished - I think it was 1d for a pedestrian.

[jamie92208]

I have got about as far as I can with the wagon census. At the monent I have just over 20 "missing" wagons, though as I resolve anomalies that may well reduce. I'm quite happy with that.  Anyway to celebrate I actually did some modelling today and put the lettering on my D33 LNWR covered van.  I just need to find out where the running number and tare weight would be displayed.

 

 

I have also found at least 20 more wagons that only need lettering to finish them. I also discovered a large store of transfers from Powsides, including such things as LBSC.  Lots more to do now including some more private owners.

 

Jamie

 

[Compound2632]

31 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

I have just over 20 "missing" wagons,

 

 

Send a circular round to the Great Western [see Midland Record No. 35 pp. 94-95].

[jamie92208]

Another day and another dollar or so they say.  After various domestic tasks I obviously gained some brownie points by hanging shutters and was left in peace after dinner to get on with some more wagons.   This time is was L B & S C R.  Two round topped opens and a 2 plank.  I got a new sheet of the required Powsides transfers a couple of months ago and in my wagon census found all three wagons.  An Hours work and this is the result.

 

Yes, I know that part of the S is missing on the middle one.   The bit broke off.   I need to find a way of painting the missing bit in.   Possibly a bow pen.  I'm quite happy with this at least there is some progress.    In the box with the LBSC transfers I also found some LSWR, 2 Denaby's, 2 City of Lancaster Gasworks and a Ferrocrete.   Now I just need to work out what colour to paint the inside of the wagons.

 

Jamie

 

PS, the middle wagon is also missing the C on the other side completely, I wonder if anyone will notice when it's running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by jamie92208

[MarcD]

Are they white metal kits?

 

Marc

[jamie92208]

Hi Marc, yes the two round ended ones are white metal ABS kits O.870 and the 2 plank is an old Oldbury kit that probably started out as a Janick. It's ref was OMW23. i have no idea who has any if that range now.  

 

Cheers

 

Jamie

[MarcD]

Ahh! The oldbury one ended up at ABS and its shutdown, not sold on so not available.

 

Marc

[Jon Fitness]

Didn't some of the kits end up being sold by Welcome Wagons or EMKDE or something like that?

JF

 

[jamie92208]

On 23/01/2020 at 20:38, Jon Fitness said:

Didn't some of the kits end up being sold by Welcome Wagons or EMKDE or something like that?

JF

 

Quite possibly. IIRC Oldbury took over Janick then went bankrupt. Premier have ended up with a lot of the etched brass kits such as coaches. I did here that a lot of the masters and tooling were thrown in a skip by the bailiffs and some of them got rescued.

 

Jamie

Edited February 28, 2020 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Evening all from a rather wet and damp Charente.   No I haven't abandoned the layout but things have been a bit busy with a visit to the UK and other jobs here.  However I have had a bit of time for research an planning.  Two projects are being looked at but will not be finished for some time.

 

a)   One of the main express trains is the Heysham Boat Express.  This used to run from St Pancras each day to Heysham collecting coaches along the way.  One from Bristol was attached at Sheffield and another at Leeds. The 1914 carriage marshalling handbook gives the formation and I realised that I had all the vehicles I need apart from one.  These include a pair of 1st and 3rd class diners.   I was planning to sell the pair I had but decided to keep them and make the express up.   The missing vehicle is a 16' open carriage truck that carried 4 luggage boxes with passenger luggage.   D408 looks abut right and with some help from Dave Hunt  and Compound 2632 I may have located a drawing for the vehicle.   There was a drawing for the luggage boxes but there isn't a copy in the MRS Study Centre.   This vehicle would make an interesting little project.

 

b)  In various books including Midland Record, there is a photo of 3F no 3333 at Lancaster taken between 1911 and 1922.   This was a unique loco and was one of three that had been fitted with 6'0 diameter driving wheels for express freights.  It was shedded at Skipton in 1923 and at that time was fitted with an H boiler.  It was rebuilt with a G7 Belpaire in 1924.   This again would make an interesting project.  The Tender is a standard one and the cab and fittings were standard.   My thoughts are to produce an etch that would include the footplate, buffer beam ( which was deeper than normal, cab and splashers.   The frames would probably be hand cut from brass.

 

Neither of these projects will be completed for a while but would be interesting and would enhance the layout.

 

Jamie