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Midland Railway Company


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2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

Another small step for man but a giant leap for a modeller: I have finished the water tank and tank house for my layout.

 

 

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My usual construction using a plywood shell with various balsa and ply overlays all clad in Slaters English bond Plastikard. The roof sections are 1mm MDF with roof slates and tall windows by Tricky, AKA Monksgate Models, whilst the other windows, doors, drain pipes, gutters etc. are by me using an assortment of plastic, MDF and whatever else came to hand. The ladder isn't yet cut to length and fixed in place as that will have to wait until the groundwork around the base of the building, which will be about 5mm deep, is completed. As with the other layout buildings, this one is not fixed down as it hides a couple of surface mounted Tortoise point motors.

 

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The cast-iron water tank panels are also by Tricky and are, I think, the first examples of his 3D prints of these items in captivity. He won't mind me saying that he had a lot of trouble getting them right but he persevered at no small cost to himself and the finished articles are very good. All the time I was building the tank house I was dreading getting to the tank itself as I really had no idea how I could make the panels with all the bolts and flanges, not to mention the raised decorative mouldings, whilst retaining my sanity; then, at the eleventh hour along came Richard and although it took some time for the project to reach fruition the wait was worth it. The worst job was painting them but I had a batch of reject panels that Richard sent to me that I could practice on and in the end I hit on the idea of spraying the whole thing in Denby Pottery cream then outlining the raised mouldings using a permanent felt tip pen before carefully painting up to the outline with Tamiya red brown acrylic and finally spraying the whole lot with Dullcote. It's not perfect but it looks OK, especially after muckying it up a bit. Thanks Richard! The handrail stanchions are from a model boat shop and scale at about 3ft 6in, which seems like a reasonable height in the absence of any evidence of the actual size that I have been able to find.

 

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So, it's now on with making buffer stops and starting the task of painting and ballasting all the track before taking care of all the other groundwork. The idea is to complete the layout all except for the last board which will contain the shed as that itself will probably take me twelve months and I don't want the acres of bare plywood and unballasted track that presently greet the eye to last any longer than necessary. However, I am also making some rolling stock at the same time as working on the layout itself just to avoid boredom with any one project creeping in. Therefore, whilst I've been making this water tank I've also finished off my breakdown crane and match wagon, which I'll feature in my next post.

 

Dave

 

PS Although when I composed this post the photographs were full width, for some reason that escaped me when it was completed they came out smaller. Why? I don't know.

 

Superb Dave, and well worth the wait. I’m building a tank myself for Tewkesbury shed. In real life you couldn’t see the tank sides but I’m making mine visible - because I can! Question: where some planked over and others not? The photo on the front cover of your book shows water. 

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Two great post Dave.  Far above my skill set.  I really must get my crane finished off.

 

I have also been indulging in a bit of modelling but for me of the virtual kind.  On Green Ayre I want to run the Heysham boat train.  Due to space contraints in the siding it will be the down train from St Pancras that picked up through coaches at Seffield according to the Carriage Marshalling book.  Discovering the info in that meant that I had to cancel plans to sell my pair of 12 wheel diners.  I discovered that I had every vehicle for the train apart from an open carriage truck that carried 4 luggage containers.  I have made a start on a drawing for the carriage truck to D409, courtesy of Dave Harris.  However there is no drawing for the containers. So far they don't appear to have been photographed  either.

 

By chance a photo appeared on a facebook thread of an this item in a garden in Scotland.

 

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It looks to have all the right Characteristics for what I need. A good friend from the Wakefield club, Chris Mead, who has the Overlord layout, has just started 3D printing.  I got in touch and he has done these for me.

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4 of them will just fit snugly onto my D409 when it progresses from the drawing board. I will probably paint them dark red.  The law of S0d states that someone will now produce a photo.

 

 

Jamie

 

 

 

Edited by jamie92208
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2 hours ago, Tricky said:

Superb Dave, and well worth the wait. I’m building a tank myself for Tewkesbury shed. In real life you couldn’t see the tank sides but I’m making mine visible - because I can! Question: where some planked over and others not? The photo on the front cover of your book shows water. 

 

Richard,

 

Some were fully planked, some partially so and some without any planking. I haven't found any obvious reason for the difference, even the size of the tanks doesn't seem to have had any bearing on the situation.

 

Dave

Edited by Dave Hunt
Missed out a bit
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Sorry to intrude but I am trying to find some parts but do not know what to ask for.

 

This picture on Wikipedia of a BR condition MR 2P

 

The chimney and dome are nothing like the Airfix model.

 

What is the design of chimney and dome so I could buy replacements please?

 

Ben Brooksbank, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Gloucester_with_ex-Midland_4-4-0_geograp

 

Thanks Martin

Edited by MJI
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16 minutes ago, MJI said:

Sorry to intrude but I am trying to find some parts but do not know what to ask for.

 

This picture on Wikipedia of a BR condition MR 2P

 

The chimney and dome are nothing like the Airfix model.

 

What is the design of chimney and dome so I could buy replacements please?

 

Ben Brooksbank, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

 

Gloucester_with_ex-Midland_4-4-0_geograp

 

Thanks Martin

They look like standard Derby fittings to me and 40540 was an MR built loco with right hand drive.   What scale are you modelling in.  I know that those fittings are available in 7mm but I don't know about the 4mm market.

 

Jamie

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36 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

They look like standard Derby fittings to me and 40540 was an MR built loco with right hand drive.   What scale are you modelling in.  I know that those fittings are available in 7mm but I don't know about the 4mm market.

 

Jamie

 

4mm using what was originally an Airfix body (Hornby branded), currently waiting on filler to dry on the boiler and glue to dry on the other side. Was bought as a non runner so I could fix it. Will most likely sell the tender, but I also want to do a compound most likely 41123 AFAIR.

 

18 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

Alan Gibson is where you need to go mate.

http://www.alangibsonworkshop.com/

Regards Lez.

 

I know about them but do not know which bits I need. I got all the wheels from them.

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The 2P class were fitted with Stanier 4F chimneys as they wore out starting in the late 1930s. There were still a few locomotives with the Fowler chimneys at nationalisation. 

There are at least two suppliers of Stanier 4F chimneys,  AGW and 247 Developments.  I bought mine from the latter.

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Back to the subject of water tanks, I’m building another one, based on the one I believe at Sheffield. This one is unusual as it straddles a platform. I have only been shown one photo where it’s in the background and has some sort of hut on top. I wonder if anyone has any more info on it?

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My guess would that it's probably got valves and possible water softening plant in it. I would also hazard a guess that with the amount of airborne pollution around in Sheffield, that the tank would have a boarded top.

 

Jamie

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On 12/08/2021 at 13:58, Northroader said:

No, it’s surrounded by millstone grit hills, so soft water. The little shed is possibly a pump room, at a guess.

Why have a pump above the tank? Usually, but not always, pumps are at the lowest possible level so you don't have to prime them.

 

It's interesting what you miss as a traveller. The tank is over the main up departure line, so far as I can judge, which I have used many times and I don't remember the tank at all. The houses behind are now replaced by a tram stop and the infamous Park Hill flats.

Edited by John-Miles
Part Hill - Really!!!
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I have to agree with John-Miles, why would a pump be above the tank it's not the logical place for a pump. Valves yes, pumps not so much.

Regards Lez.

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3 hours ago, Crimson Rambler said:

At a guess an embryonic sign of some sort - many were painted dark blue with white letters, while signal box name boards were ultramarine blue.

 

 

Crimson Rambler

Correct. It’s a full-size signal box name board, and will read SHARPNESS SOUTH. As I say the photo renders the ultramarine blue as a little brighter than in reality - it’s not far off the swatch in Midland Style but it’s still fairly bright! I have laser cut the letters out and I’m just in the process of machining up the bevelled surround trim. At just over 10’ long, it’s a beast! 

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