Castle Aching

[Caley Jim]

For me, it was always the steam-age railway, and I came to it in part through the obsession of modellers and preservationalists for the Great Western between the wars.  Blame annual pilgrimages to the Dart Valley and the Torbay & Dartmouth. Even the model railway at Paignton station (you really didn't want to leave the station and see Paignton itself) was classic 1930s Great Western.  I never made it, have never made it, to Didcot, but I once was taken to the Severn Valley, and magazines and books were full of Pendon and countless other GW layouts.  BBC Children's telly even had a series based on the Severn Valley.  Everything conspired to influence me in but one direction ...

I'm afraid that in my case it was the plethora of GWR in the Magazines which made me decide that was the one company I was not going to model.  I never saw a GWR loco 'in the flesh' until I visited an Uncle in Chester in my early teens.  Having lived all my life in CR territory, there really was no option!  :-)

 

Jim

[Edwardian]

I'm afraid that in my case it was the plethora of GWR in the Magazines which made me decide that was the one company I was not going to model.  I never saw a GWR loco 'in the flesh' until I visited an Uncle in Chester in my early teens.  Having lived all my life in CR territory, there really was no option!  :-)

 

Jim

 

I was at a very susceptible age!

 

After all, 'Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you a Great Western fan'

[corneliuslundie]

"4-Wheel coaches are just big wagons wot need lining"

It's the lining that I find most difficult - the thought sometimes makes me wonder about modelling a nice simple BR 1950s branch with plain black locos and plain maroon carriages.

But then I come to my senses.

I agree that it is sensible to work out one's stock based on the traffic offering. That point was made strongly by David Jenkinson, who also believed in working out the traffic before one designed the track plan, so that one included the facilities to deal with the traffic. However, in the past i have let my enthusiasm for wagons run away with me and I recently put on the disposal list 15 for which I really will never have any use, but which seemed a good idea at the time.

For Sarn of course I need no carriages at all.

Fro Nantcwmdu I need two rakes each of of three Rhymney 6-wheelers and a spare rake of GWR 4-wheelers. Surprisingly, it is easier to find out about the RR carriages than the GWR ones though I do have a list of GWR carriages transferred to the GWR/RR joint committee. The problem is that they are all too old to be in any of the books.

Then there is the Bishop's Castle rake of six ex-LNWR 4-wheelers needed for our next club layout, not all the same and I suspect originating with companies the LNWR took over. But since all the evidence there is seems to be a few old photos, I doubt if too many people will be able to tell me that they are wrong when they are eventually built.

Jonathan

[Caley Jim]

As promised, here is a photo of the underside of one of my 6-wheel coaches fitted with a Climinson underframe.  This was my own design and was drawn up and etched for me by Bob Jones, before I got into CAD.

 

 

The outer W-hanger brackets are free to rock on the ends of two arms whose 'tails' engage in slots on the ends of the centre W-hanger bracket, it free to slide sideways and rise and fall between tabs bent down from the baseplate.  The pivots of the arms are on cross beams which allow the arms themselves to rock end to end, but keep the whole thing laterally stable.  The underframe is therefore fully compensated.   Contrary to what I said before, the pivots are actually arranged to be roughly 1/3rd / 2/3rds between the outer and inner axles to try and make the weight distribution even over all three wheel sets.  The design allows for a range of different wheelbases.

 

Prior to fitting these underfames these coaches (which were originally built around the early 1970's with a sliding centre axle) frequently derailed on the 15" radius superelevated curve on my first layout, despit it being fitted with a check rail.  After fitting them they sailed round it nae bother!

 

Jim

[Donw]

When I visited David Jenkinson, underneath the 0 gauge layout there was a lot of Gauge 1 coach bodies stored underneath I think he used to trade them for locomotives. Perhaps you will end up doing the same. It would certainly be a delight to see all those different rakes on a layout.

 

Don

[Shadow]

I was at a very susceptible age!

 

After all, 'Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you a Great Western fan'

 

Have to disagree there,

 

'Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you a Thomas the Tank Engine fan'

[Donw]

I spent my early years in sight of the GWR main lines with the SR nearby. I didn't get to know the Midland until about 12  when my Grandparents moved to Irchester and I spent time wandering round the Ironworks and exploring around Wellingborough the LNER I knew little about in Steam days I did have one trip in some old carriages to Finsbury Park when going to see the Beatles. However James, Jim and Myself have all chosen to model Edwardian times which neither of us knew personally so even if we choose railways we knew they would have been very different in the times we model. I suppose the the thing that makes the difference is knowing the area the railways ran in. The west country lines were places I travelled to on holidays so have good memories. I do have many memories of the GWR and SR lines towards London but would need a lot of railway to capture the feel. Compared with that my first visit to Norfolk was the year it had been closed so my only trip on M&GN metals was on the preserved line at Sherringham. I never actually visited or travelled on the Cambrian coast lines until 18 but my wife and I started our married life in Birmingham and would escape to the Welsh coast as often as we could and the country around there is one of my favourites.

I can envisage a Norfolk layout with inspiration from places like Wells next the Sea flint cottages and salt marshes, or somewhere in Kent with the K&ESR or the High Weald and many other ideas but always seem to return to the inspirations I know best. Quite why I have focused on Edwardian times is unclear apart from a belief that this was probably the steam railways finest days.

 

Don

[robmcg]

why I am challenged by modelling...

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82970-hornbys-best-ever-models/page-79&do=findComment&comment=3041794

 

If anyone ever preaches to me about 'having a go' at any modelling which requires dexterity I shall have to take very stern measures!   

 

Right now I have two RTR models to open and check, having bought them at good prices at auction, but I am too scared! 

 

It has been one of those days. (apart from my spiel in the link)

 

I poured boiling water into my cup for a morning black coffee and water slopped onto the pressed-wooden tray on my lap, which had a small split, and it burned my leg rather badly (can't feel my legs, T5 para since 1974)  I got cold water onto the wet area of trouser leg very quickly, but it takes a while to find out how bad it will be, bedrest for the rest of today at least.

 

At least it's not snowing.  Nor cyclonic winds as in Tonga and Fiji...

 

anyway, back to CA   all power to you in the quest for 38 perfect 6-wheelers!   sorry about the diversion into meaningless woes.

 

I do enjoy CA even if I'm prone to err.

 

typo edit

Edited February 14, 2018 by robmcg

[Edwardian]

why I am challenged by modelling...

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82970-hornbys-best-ever-models/page-79&do=findComment&comment=3041794

 

If anyone ever preaches to me about 'having a go' at any modelling which requires dexterity I shall have to take very stern measures!   

 

Right now I have two RTR models to open and check, having bought them at good prices at auction, but I am too scared! 

 

It has been one of those days. (apart from my spiel in the link)

 

I poured boiling water into my cup for a morning black coffee and water slopped onto the pressed-wooden tray on my lap, which had a small split, and it burned my leg rather badly (can't feel my legs, T5 para since 1974)  I got cold water onto the wet area of trouser leg very quickly, but it takes a while to find out how bad it will be, bedrest for the rest of today at least.

 

At least it's not snowing.  Nor cyclonic winds as in Tonga and Fiji...

 

anyway, back to CA   all power to you in the quest for 38 perfect 6-wheelers!   sorry about the diversion into meaningless woes.

 

I do enjoy CA even if I'm prone to err.

 

typo edit

 

I realise that you have to deal with physical constraints that affect dexterity, which I do not, but your comments struck a chord nonetheless, because I am the most reluctant and frightened modeller - would-be modeller, perhaps - so I know what it means to hear, but not heed, "just have a go". 

 

While suggesting no comparison at all between you dexterity issue and my timidity, your comments did prompt me to think about the affect of the hobby, positive and negative, upon one's mental state.  In this month's Model Rail there is a piece on the therapeutic benefits of the hobby in the context of ex-Servicemen with PTSD.   

 

It is good, I think, to recognise the need for such initiatives, and to support them, but when I read this I felt rather ashamed of myself.  Just as a number of modellers here have to cope with physical disability or debilitating illness, these former soldiers have to cope with serious mental trauma. What do I have to cope with in comparison?  There is probably a reason why the magazine doesn't feature an initiative called Help for Fat Depressed Middle-Aged Men. Yet some days I struggle to do more than stare into space.  Why is that? 

 

CA was conceived as an easy project - proprietary-based locomotives, quick and cheerful cardboard cottages and, for that slightly more 'finescale' look, the one extravagance was to be 4 pre-built SMP points.

 

Two years on I still don't have a model railway, but, thanks to the Benign Tyranny of the Castle Aching Parish, I have been obliged to raise my sights. 

 

You would not believe the mental paralysis and desperate anxieties caused by contemplating things such as turnout building.  For an activity that I had long-since realised was essential therapy for a tired and rather defeated middle-aged man prone increasingly to depressive states, deteriorating physical and mental robustness and an almost crushing lack of confidence, I have felt at times that Castle Aching was merely adding to my woes.

 

But, thanks to the Parish, I have persevered, and, every day in every way I'm getting better and better.

 

I also have to acknowledge my job as a great help.  I realise that, as I became increasingly hopeless and dysfunctional as a private individual, a gap had opened between that and what I must now recognise as a distinct professional persona.  I am undeniably bloody good at what I do.  I have expertise, skill and, above all judgment, and I do not lack confidence there. 

 

So, I find that it is helpful to have something positive to hang onto, be it work, or, increasingly, my growing confidence as a modeller. Nothing there has come easy, but I cannot tell you what a change of perspective having a serious attempt at some track building has given me. I realise that Life is about Little Victories, achieved one at a time.

 

By the time CA is reasonably fully developed, not only will I have a layout that will be much better and more satisfying than it would have been if I had not been encouraged to raise my sights, but I suspect I will be rather less of a burnt out case. 

 

By the way, that's 28 6-wheel coaches, but only a few at a time!

Edited February 14, 2018 by Edwardian

[Adams442T]

Did have to pause between awarding you a Friendly/ Supportive, and Herbert Lom in 'full twitch mode' in one of my favourite movies, The Inspector Closeu series.

 

So many choices, so little time.............................

[webbcompound]

".

Then there is the Bishop's Castle rake of six ex-LNWR 4-wheelers needed for our next club layout, not all the same and I suspect originating with companies the LNWR took over. But since all the evidence there is seems to be a few old photos, I doubt if too many people will be able to tell me that they are wrong when they are eventually built.

Jonathan

you need the three 24 foot carriages from London Road.It is fairly certain that these are (some) of the older LNWR stock disposed of to minor railways. Certainely to the Bishops Castle, and the WM&CQR

https://traders.scalefour.org/LondonRoadModels/carriages/lnwr-carriages/

Edited February 14, 2018 by webbcompound

[Nearholmer]

Interesting thought piece earlier, Edwardian.

 

There’s a lot been written and said about the mentally- therapeutic benefits of railway modelling lately.

 

Some truth in it, doubtless, but I find that I have to be in the right frame of mind to make things, and that no amount of sitting/standing in front of a workbench will put me in that frame of mind. Fidgety unproductivity, or mind-wandering, will be the only result if I try a job with “the wrong head on”.

 

If I’m in a grump, in order to achieve a change of frame of mind, I have to indulge in “fresh air and exercise”, and it has to be both, either on its own doesn’t work, and attempting to make something certainly doesn’t work.

 

Having watched CA, I think, from the outset, I believe you’re achieving a very good rate of progress. Quite a few people on RMWeb seem to be either genuinely retired or singletons, and I always count their progress differently from that of people with jobs and/or families to care for.

 

Kevin

Edited February 14, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Edwardian]

Well, I was off to see the Medicos yesterday, so my bleating earlier was more of a retrospective on my recent frame of mind.  At the moment I'm all Go!

 

My gammy leg is nothing serious or sinister.  Quite the opposite; the more exercise the better for it.  If I want to avoid a day of aches and pains, I need to hit the treadmill in the mornings. I rather think that's all the incentive I need! 

[Edwardian]

Have to disagree there,

 

'Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you a Thomas the Tank Engine fan'

 

Oh, The Railway Series got me way before seven!

 

In fact, I should make my new mantra: I can do it, I will do it, I can do it, I will do it, I can do it, I will do it ...

[uax6]

Although clemmy chassis do work very well, there are other ways to achieve the same thing, you can mount on axle normally, and then make a bogie out of the other two (use two w-irons soldered to a flat trip of brass, with a hole drilled in the middle). Although not truly one thing or another they will work.

 

Although I have to say that the brassmaster nine quid Clemmy looks a bargain, and I may well end up purchasing a fair few for the next batch of six-wheelers (I make it that I have 6 lnwr, 6 HR and an L&Y to make.....)

 

Andy g

[Annie]

Not wanting to clutter up your thread too much Edwardian, but as someone who lives with a debilitating illness railway modelling is very much my positive 'cheer up' therapy.  When I can't do physical modelling I build railways using Trainz Simulator, - which I do realise is not everyone's cup of tea, - which has done great things for my general sense of well being.

I've been enjoying following CA as I slowly begin to take my own first steps into building a pre-group era light railway somewhere (very somewhere!) in LSWR territory.  Even though I will be working in coarse scale 'O' I'm hoping that I can capture the spirit and atmosphere of these times when the steam railways were at their finest.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Annie

[Penlan]

.......Then there is the Bishop's Castle rake of six ex-LNWR 4-wheelers needed for our next club layout,.......

Which Club is this, Jonathan.

Edited February 14, 2018 by Penlan

[Edwardian]

Not wanting to clutter up your thread too much Edwardian, but as someone who lives with a debilitating illness railway modelling is very much my positive 'cheer up' therapy.  When I can't do physical modelling I build railways using Trainz Simulator, - which I do realise is not everyone's cup of tea, - which has done great things for my general sense of well being.

I've been enjoying following CA as I slowly begin to take my own first steps into building a pre-group era light railway somewhere (very somewhere!) in LSWR territory.  Even though I will be working in coarse scale 'O' I'm hoping that I can capture the spirit and atmosphere of these times when the steam railways were at their finest.

 

Oh clutter away.  Everyone does, including me.

 

From what I have read, you are not alone in facing such challenges, or finding modelling essential to a sense of well-being, and I have enormous respect and admiration for modellers when I reflect on what they have to deal with in order to produce what they produce.

 

I wouldn't put my mental wobbles in the same league, but though I seem to let them get in the way nonetheless.  Nevertheless, modelling, and doing it with the benefit of our little community here, has certainly helped to keep me sane.

 

I look forward to seeing what you come up with; pre-Grouping, Coarse O gauge and Light Railways are all great individually, but perhaps especially in combination! 

 

Snow again earlier today, but gone now:

[Compound2632]

Have you noticed that sheep tend to face the same way? At least Paul Gallon thinks so too.

[Edwardian]

Have you noticed that sheep tend to face the same way? At least Paul Gallon thinks so too.

 

He is not alone in such thinking.  A quick 'Google' reveals several references to scientific studies seemingly confirming this phenomenon and noting that there is a broadly north-south alignment.

 

For other comments from the North-East, see https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/why-do-sheep-all-face-the-same-way-when-they-eat.1006661/ . I prefer the explanation given in the fourth reply ('Harry Angstrom').

 

I'm still laughing.

[robmcg]

Thoughtful and kind responses here Edwardian, it is an odd thing, motivation, confidence, creativity...   nice to know one is not alone.

 

Odd how we can exchange ideas about history and technology in what I find quite a relaxing way, I certainly share your love of old things and ways.

 

Cheers,  

[Penlan]

Have you noticed that sheep tend to face the same way? At least Paul Gallon thinks so too.

The two on the left must have eyes in their ..... 

[corneliuslundie]

I shall have to e-orient some of my sheep on Sarn, I fear.

The club is the Newtown Model Railway Society which meets in the middle of no-where between Newtown and Welshpool, courtesy of our Chairman who lets us use a building on his land (a former farm yard).

The layout, in 7mm will be based on the premise that the BCR actually got built as intended with a junction part way along where the route was to divide to Montgomery on the GW/LNW joint line and to Minsterly on the branch off that line. The station will be Montgomery, rather nearer to the town than the station that did exist, but naturally still a brisk walk - partly because Montgomery is on a hill. It will be based on Eaton. There should eb a nice backscene with the town, the castle and the hill fort side by side, as can be seen from the Chirbury road. We are setting the period just before the Grouping, as of course if he BCR had been completed it would probably have been absorbed by the GWR and become just another GWR branch. Hence the need for the ex-LNWR carriages which lasted until the early 1920s. the LRM kit looks remarkably like one of the carriages of which I have photos, but as far as I know is 4mm. Other carriages look a bit different and i suspect that they were from various original sources.

Anyway, we have no worries about vacuum or Westinghouse brakes as they still had the chain brake to the end. And the BCR gave up using its signals when the chains for raising and lowering the lamps rusted through - and originally used candles rather than oil lamps in the signals!

It will make the Castle Aching branch look like a serious main line.

One interesting bit of information is that the BCR had almost exactly the came directors as the Cambrian Railways including the famous/infamous Whalley.

If we actually make sufficient progress i might start a thread. But it would be a good idea if I made some progress on my own layout.

Jonathan

[Hroth]

Oh, The Railway Series got me way before seven!

 

In fact, I should make my new mantra: I can do it, I will do it, I can do it, I will do it, I can do it, I will do it ...

You'd better do it, or the Fat Director will have you bricked up in a tunnel..... 

 

As for sheep, its often been noted that if you leave them facing one way in  in a field overnight, they'll be found facing in the opposite direction in the morning......

 

 

 

Railways?  Oh yes.

[Adams442T]

I must admit to having a chuckle when following the linked thread, and the comments 'What about Muslim sheep?', and the response, 'Don't think sheep are followers of Islamb'...