Stoke Courtenay

[Coach bogie]

I run mine in a parcels/stores train on their way back to Swindon for recharging. These are quite old now. I built as a teenager from Jidenco brass kits. If building today they would have more detail included. The idea was based on a published image, in one of the Blenkinsop books, in BR days of a parcels train approaching Aller junction from the Totnes direction with gas wagons in the consist.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

I do wonder if a Cordon really counts as a 'special'?  Definitely something something different but at one time they were worked to any number of places in order to supply gas for a variety of uses.  Principally for rolling stock, various, to recharge it with gas so not over difficult to justify at some places and at more places. in earlier times.

Fair comment, Mike. What I meant was that it won't run about willy-nilly in ordinary goods trains. In fact, it won't run about at all...

[57xx]

9 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

see here. Mainly to recharge horseboxes.

 

https://www.lambournvalleyrailway.info/lambourn-3.html

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

Yup, they're the ones.

[checkrail]

9 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

see here. Mainly to recharge horseboxes.

 

https://www.lambournvalleyrailway.info/lambourn-3.html

Cordons aside I've just spent an enjoyable 20 minutes looking through those photos of Lambourn.   Lovely.  Thanks Mike.

[checkrail]

13 hours ago, Harlequin said:

There was a similar question on the GWR email list recently: "GWR Cordons - rolling stock only

I was a subscriber to the GWR e-list but seem to have dropped off it.  I vaguely remember some issue regarding changes to groups on whatever digital platform it was on.  Must try to re-connect with it.

[St Enodoc]

52 minutes ago, checkrail said:

I was a subscriber to the GWR e-list but seem to have dropped off it.  I vaguely remember some issue regarding changes to groups on whatever digital platform it was on.  Must try to re-connect with it.

https://gwr-elist-2019.groups.io/g/main

[checkrail]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

https://gwr-elist-2019.groups.io/g/main

Thanks John.

Edited October 5, 2022 by checkrail

[The Stationmaster]

17 hours ago, checkrail said:

Would that "variety of uses" include heating and lighting the station and its platforms?   There wouldn't be any call at Stoke C. for supplying gas for trains.

As 'Harlequin' has noted they don't appear to have been used to supply stations.  the variety of uses covered quite a wide variety of rolling stock - horse boxes have been mentioned and diners was another use (for cooking supply) as well of course for coach lighting on some stock.

 

Gas lighting lasted a quite while in one or two places because the length of run on a branch line was insufficient to recharge the batteries on coaching stock and shore based charging facilities tended to be limited to major depots.

 

Alas for Neal - although things may well have changed over time - the diners which spent a good proportion of the year stabled at Henley seem to have been worked away for preparation to re-enter service which presumably involved heavy cleaning and hygienic cleaning prior to stocking.  The latter would definitely not have been possible at Henley as it involved dismantling a lot of the kitchen equipment and leaving it in a bath of gently heated caustic soda solution overnight to remove any grease and what have you then it would be thoroughly washed in water prior to being returned to the relevant car.  This sort of work could only be done at suitably equipped major carriage cleaning depots and needed suitably trained staff to do the job because of both the nature of dismantling etc and the use of the chemical cleaning process.  

 

The diners were then normally stocked on a Friday (ready to be in service the next day), except for various perishable foodstuffs, with all the necessary linen, cutlery and serving dishes etc plus non perishable items and this was done at stations in a suitable dock or whatever - Platform 1A was used for this at Paddington.

[Brinkly]

Very interesting information about the deployment of Corden vehicles. On a off chance, I found this photograph I took of the bay platform and small yard at Pentor Road, Pendon's Dartmoor scene.

 

 

Not sure if it is accurate, but it certainly looks nice in the yard. 

 

All the best,

 

Nick.

 

Edited October 5, 2022 by Brinkly
Typo

[Mike_Walker]

14 hours ago, Coach bogie said:

Nearby Marlow had a regular appearance of  gas wagons. several of the published images are taken there. (the trimmed hedges in the background being the give away) I understand to recharge the carriage stock but no definite info there.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Yes, that's correct they were used to charge the 'Donkey.  The station was on the town supply.

[Miss Prism]

Nice pic of Pen Tor Road, Nick. It's got my Macaw in it! Haven't seen it for a long time.

[Brinkly]

1 hour ago, Miss Prism said:

Nice pic of Pen Tor Road, Nick. It's got my Macaw in it! Haven't seen it for a long time.

 

All credit to you for it to feature at Pendon! 

 

I took that photo, along with several others, during the RMWeb day we had there about 10 years ago now. I was looking in a folder for something else and happened upon them. 

[checkrail]

Wasn't sure whether this one would work out as it involved holding the camera aloft at a height which no tripod or boom could reach and there was nothing to support the camera except my shaky hands.  I thought that shooting from this position in post-focus mode, for later merging, would most likely result in a rather blurred image.  So I was pleasantly surprised that it came out reasonably well.

The original aim was to get the whole train in shot, including the locomotive, without anything extraneous to the layout intruding, but once I'd corrected the verticals of the merged image the engine had gone!  

 

John C.

[Neal Ball]

Just now, checkrail said:

Wasn't sure whether this one would work out as it involved holding the camera aloft at a height which no tripod or boom could reach and there was nothing to support the camera except my shaky hands.  I thought that shooting from this position in post-focus mode, for later merging, would most likely result in a rather blurred image.  So I was pleasantly surprised that it came out reasonably well.

The original aim was to get the whole train in shot, including the locomotive, without anything extraneous to the layout intruding, but once I'd corrected the verticals of the merged image the engine had gone!  

 

John C.

 

Thats a nice shot John. Just shows, you don't always need a loco in the frame.

[BWsTrains]

Nice shot John,

 

As you might appreciate, my eye was drawn to a minor detail, the rear coach of the inbound Earlsbridge line train. Nice to see you have the branch designation showing, what coaches are deployed on that run? (I'm being lazy here as I'm sure it's somewhere back in your topic, somewhere)

 

Colin

[KNP]

Great shot.

Getting different angle shots is more difficult than you think, have you tried any back of the layout pictures looking outwards yet?

Remote access via your mobile is a good way to go for these.

[checkrail]

10 hours ago, BWsTrains said:

As you might appreciate, my eye was drawn to a minor detail, the rear coach of the inbound Earlsbridge line train. Nice to see you have the branch designation showing, what coaches are deployed on that run?

The branch train is a Hornby (ex-Airfix) B set.  Over the years it's had some incremental improvements: semi-permanent close coupling; new headstocks and sprung buffers at the outer ends; removal of the non-prototypical 'extra' window on one side, and minor livery alterations.  And as you rightly observe it has the route branding 'EARLSBRIDGE No. 1' on the outer ends, from transfers produced for me by the ever-helpful Railtec. One of these days I might even get round to correcting the not-quite-right underframe details. 

[checkrail]

A meeting on the bridge.  Castles crossing, as 5000 Launceston Castle pulls through Stoke C with the Penzance - Wolves express and meets 5041 Tiverton Castle coming the other way with a down Plymouth train.

 

 

As it happens I've just realised that both trains have a D47 toplight van 3rd (Slaters) immediately behind the engine.

 

John C.

[Nick Gough]

Reminds me of the one and only time I have witnessed two Castles passing on the Devon main line.

 

9th May 2014 - 50 years since the Great Western High Speed railtour when 4079 burnt through its firebars at Westbury.

 

I was on a commemorative railtour behind 5029 Nunney Castle, Westbury - Plymouth - Bristol.

 

We had just departed from Plymouth when we passed 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, which was just arriving at Laira with ECS for another tour the following day.

 

Unfortunately, though, neither Castle had a D47 behind its tender that day.

[checkrail]

1 hour ago, Nick Gough said:

I was on a commemorative railtour behind 5029 Nunney Castle, Westbury - Plymouth - Bristol.

 

We had just departed from Plymouth when we passed 5043 Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, which was just arriving at Laira with ECS for another tour the following day.

Would have liked to have seen that.  I might have seen Earl of Mt Edgcumbe when I sneaked into Laira, aged 13 - 'though it just might have been Earl of St Germans.  But I definitely saw 4079 in revenue earning service on a stopper at Starcross, maybe on the same family holiday.   (I say 'sneaked in' to Laira but actually I just wandered in and mooched around without anyone saying a dickie bird.  Those were the days - oh so long ago! 

 

 

[checkrail]

Two more of the crossing Castles.

 

 

John C.

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, checkrail said:

One of these days I might even get round to correcting the not-quite-right underframe details.

I did that on my first pair but couldn't be bothered on the others!

[Neal Ball]

12 hours ago, checkrail said:

Two more of the crossing Castles.

 

 

John C.

Is that the H25 or H33 Restaurant carriage 4th behind the engine John? Thanks.

 

I take it they are replacement sides, I can see you’ve changed the roof fittings.

[checkrail]

4 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Is that the H25 or H33 Restaurant carriage 4th behind the engine John? Thanks.

 

I take it they are replacement sides, I can see you’ve changed the roof fittings.

Yes, H33 Comet sides plus Keen Systems ends on a Hornby Railroad donor bodyshell.  Underframe and bogies from a new version Hornby Collett coach plus Comet gas cylinders.  I think the only change I made to the roof was to slice off the moulded shell vents and roof handrails and replace with Comet items and handrail wire.  Unlike your good self I was too lazy to add much in the way of interior detail other than curtains.

John

[checkrail]

I'd always fancied having a layout with lots of trees and I think there are over 70 on Stoke Courtenay.  But it was only when I started photographing the layout that I realised that green trees were a less-than-perfect backdrop to GWR locomotives.  So I'm sometimes looking for shots where there is only sky or a distant landscape behind the loco.  The pics below were cropped from one of yesterday's 'crossing Castles' photos, bringing the locos and their fine lines into greater prominence.

 

 

 

Although I try to model 'the railway in the landscape' I also see that landscape as essentially a foil for the trains.  So no 'view blockers' for me other than the essential, e.g. station buildings.  And the only tree on the inside of the tracks has its top at rail level!

 

I know others have different approaches which I enjoy seeing.  It's a broad church.

 

John C.