Nether Madder and Green Soudley Rly

[Martin S-C]

It's the old K's kit. The width of the planks in the slatted sides are a bit over-scale. It's been in its vacuum-packed wrapper for nigh on 40 years I presume, so several parts are distorted - I imagine it would be impossible make the 6w version since the white metal underframes are pretty well distorted all over the place. I was able to salvage the best two axles from each side. The plastic is extremely brittle as well, looks like it may have sat in a shop window in the sun for a while, poor thing...

After patiently waiting years on the shelf, so to speak, I plan to give 2/3rds of it, at least, a long and happy working life.

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Martin S-C

[Annie]

Is that an L&Y milk van?  I know I made a scratch built model of one hundreds of years ago in my 20's, but my memory isn't what it was.  

[Martin S-C]

Its a Great Western milk van. One of their earliest 6-wheelers of diagram O.2 that came into use in the 1880s. I'm chopping it up to make an earlier 4-wheeled type, the O.1 which were built in the 1870s and were all out of service by 1914. In my fiction, my independent line has bought a second hand one. Its going to need some chopping about as the door bracing was of a different form as well as the underframe though I may invoke some use of Rule 1 and go with whatever is nearest using the story that doors and some other parts were reused from other vehicles.

https://howesmodels.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/DSCN86851.jpg

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-tzLNK4zRef8/TvuePkvCkrI/AAAAAAAAAdY/hz3c0-Z8elA/s600/gallery_738_870_58960.jpg

[Annie]

Ah thank you, all is explained.  The second image link you included had a 6w GWR coach that made my eyes go big because it will now become a part of the early digital model GWR coach series I'm doing for Trainz.

[Nearholmer]

Martin

 

From what I can work out, the very early 4W ones weren't standardised, or were, but in small batches. I've found pictures showing them with these doors, and other doors, different roof arcs, and I think, although its hard to tell from foreshortened photos, slightly different lengths. I wonder if they were built onto secondhand under frames and running gear, from old coaches, but that is nothing but a guess.

 

In the spirit of my toy train set, I'm aiming for 'recognisable and plausible',  using the below photo as an inspiration, so to me this is more 'interesting' than 'vital', and mine will be standard 1930s Hornby wagon length, 'cos thats what I've got. Hornby did make tin-printed ones, but I don't much like them.

 

Kevin

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Martin S-C]

Thanks Kevin, I have never seen that photo of them. I understood that official photos of these have never been found and I know of only one other which shows one involved in an accident. Its from Jim Russell's book:

 

Note that this photo shows the "two tier" door framing while Jim's drawing shows the "single tier" door with only one long diagonal brace. Your photo shows a single brace as well, so I am happy to see that as it means I do not have to hack my Dia O.2 sides around so much.

Do you know where that photo in your post was taken? Or anything else about it?

[Northroader]

Funny thing, I’m doing one of those too, in O, natch. The sides and ends are resin castings from the Broad Gauge Society (there is a shop on their website) It is a standard gauge model, one of very few from them, and I think the stocks were running down on this. It’s been placed on a Slaters long wheelbase van chassis.

[Martin S-C]

I think Kevin is on target when he says they were built on a variety of redundant coach chassis as the other models I have seen had Maunsell wheels and clasp brakes, though this may have been a modification when they were given vac brakes.

[Nearholmer]

It’s a very well known, if you are into that railway, picture of the Brill Tramway. It’s been used to illustrate histories of that line, and in histories and articles about early Bagnall locos.

 

It only dawned on me recently that the milk van is interesting in itself.

[Martin S-C]

As far as I'm concerned it's by far the most interesting object in the picture! The very deep ash ballast is nice too but that has to come a poor second best!

 

I think its quite easy to estimate the length of these vans as the sides all seemed to comprise a pair of X braced panels and two central doors. The X bracing always seems to be constructed on the same angle of intersection, or extremely close so the overall length cannot have varied by more than a few inches. Russell gives a 12 foot wheelbase and 18 foot OA, as well as, in his drawing, extremely long, slender coach style buffers. I don't think I've seen buffers quite that long and slender on anything else.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Martin S-C

[Nearholmer]

Coach origin makes sense if milk traffic outgrew, or became a smelly nuisance in, passenger guard’s vans, but there was a need for a vehicle that could run at passenger train speeds. Even if they weren’t rebuilds of coaches, the design ethos is ‘coach with wagon body’, rather than ‘wagon with decent brakes added’.

Edited October 26, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Martin S-C]

I am getting to that annoying condition of having a dozen plus vehicles on the modelling bench in various states of progress and not actually finishing anything. I keep buying new shiny things and starting them. Must stop this Magpie style of modelling.

Managed to get the gas tanker finished yesterday.



Also a bit of a situation that was crushing my modelling mood (in fact all my moods except frustration and anger) was resolved yesterday, very much in my favour so I am now a happier bunny and several hundred pounds richer after someone paid up for something they initially argued against. The resolution has restored my mood, especially as the payment I received has effectively meant I got my new shed for free, plus a bit to spare.

I am still staring at coaches and pondering on the concept of lining. I think I'll try the small freelance 4-wheel guards brake first as its so small and just try a couple of lines of yellow. I have a HMRS sheet of yellow lining transfers, I just have to pluck up the courage.

EDIT: Typo - I spelled "pluck" as "plunk". Weird.

Edited October 28, 2018 by Martin S-C

[Annie]

Very nice weathering on the gas tank Martin.

[lezz01]

Martin! Before you start lining Your going to need a few things. You need to make yourself a cradle out of high density foam to hold the carriages or indeed anything your trying to line. If you can't sort it out for yourself I'll post a diagram of something suitable or point you to a book to show you what you need. Once you use it you will wonder how you ever managed without it. I can't lay my hands on mine I have absolutely no idea what happened to it but it's not something that will challenge you at all to build.

Regards Lez.Z. 

[Martin S-C]

Thanks Lez, I appreciate the advice. I was going to just use the small luggage brake as a test piece. If all fails I can repaint it. I have a soft foam loco rest to start with and want to see if its a facet of modelling I want to get into before I invest too much effort in it.

[St Enodoc]

EDIT: Typo - I spelled "pluck" as "plunk". Weird.

Could've been worse...

[Martin S-C]

Indeed. I spent a while yesterday evening musing over what "plunking up courage" might be like.

[Martin S-C]

I am trying to clear up a workbench full of part finished projects. For a while I have wanted to model all the rolling stock of my WELR branch line. There will be 24 vehicles.

 

Nos.1 thru 4 : freelance 4-wheeled 1850s coaches; under construction.

 

No.5 : freelance 4-wheeled passenger guards brake; almost complete.

 

No.6 : GW prototype goods brake van, Pontenewedd type; complete
 

No.7 : GW prototype 10 ton iron goods van; complete.
 

Nos.8 & 9 : pair of Wisbech & Upwell coaches; kits built, awaiting painting.
 

No.10 : GNSR prototype passenger guards brake; complete.
 

No.11 : HR prototype open sheep wagon; kit awaiting construction.
 

Nos.12 & 13 : GW prototype 4-plank open wagons; complete.
 

Nos.14 thru 17 : GW prototype iron cattle wagons; complete.
 

Nos.18 & 19 : HR prototype open sheep wagon; kits awaiting construction.
 

No.20 : Wheeler & Gregory prototype 4-plank open wagon with curved ends; kit awaiting construction.
 

No.21 : GW prototype 10 ton iron goods van; complete.
 

No.22 : horse box; model to be sourced
 

No.23 : GW prototype 10 ton wooden ventilated goods van; complete.
 

No.24 : engineers dept 1.5 ton travelling crane wagon; kit awaiting construction.

 

Today I finished 11, 12, 21 and 23 so the bulk of the basic goods vehicles are done. I've gone for very light weathering effects on these but the dirt doesn't show up well in the photographs.

 

Edited October 29, 2018 by Martin S-C

[lezz01]

Very nice Martin.

Regards Lez.

[Martin S-C]

I've been tweaking the plan a bit recently, mainly pencilling in a scenic treatment and giving myself an idea of where the ground levels are with embankment and cutting slopes. As mentioned before the WELR branch has now attained tramway status and photographs of the Wisbech & Upwell and the Wantage are providing inspiration. This would originally have been a horse drawn tramway, common in the Forest but converted to steam haulage around the 1880s as other needs of the local communities expanded. I wanted some form of interest around the curves at the colliery end without adding clutter and a track along a roadside came to me as something not that hard to model, not adding any more clutter to the layout at this end but adding a fair bit of character and interest.

I have suggested a farm and inn complex on the open section of board just west/left of Snarling Junction which allowed me to sneak in another section of roadside tramway at the start of the branch. Following a comment on here about too much going on I have deleted the timber merchants business in the SE corner and converted this to a Crown timber siding which is more in keeping with Forest practices. There were several of these scattered about, timber being felled either for the war effort or pit props (not very likely), supplying cordwood to the wood distillation works or for general building trade. The siding is now much simpler with just a dirt platform faced with a sleeper-built timber edge and a stand of trees behind it. This facility also offers more traffic options than the timber merchants did - the idea of a timber merchant has also been done to death on a thousand layouts and this is something a little different.

There's a few areas I'm still not happy with but plenty of time to juggle ideas. I'm not a fan of straight platforms and will twist both the termini a little to introduce curvature into them, again, just as a way to add interest.

 

[Nearholmer]

Another thought is that, unless you own a magic wand or have command over a team of helper-elves, this going to take a while to build, so ideas can develop a bit in the light of progress. Sometimes spaces suggest their own solutions.

[Stubby47]

Having studied the plan, am I correct in thinking you don't have a complete circuit anywhere ?

[Annie]

The more I study your plan Martin the more I like it.  I've always been a country railways/local railways kind of modeller and your vision for your railway is exactly the kind of thing I love.

[Martin S-C]

Kevin - there is a team of helper elves, I refer you to page one where I rather reluctantly admitted this. I am having to pay them, unfortunately. Doing this on my own would take me the rest of my life, probably. I will insist on maximum input from me though, both decisions and actual modelling as I have so many ideas I'd like to put into practice here.

 

Stu - correct, no complete circuit. A deliberate early decision. An operator must drive his train from somewhere to somewhere else and shunt it en-route. He (or she) must concentrate on what they are doing. I have had recent experience of a roundy-roundy railway where people's attention wandered and crashes were frequent. Not my thing. While a circuit is useful for running in, I can do that on a rolling road.

 

Annie - thanks! I'm really stoked up about this, its the model railway I've always wanted and dreamed of and which rarely seems to be modelled. Usually with this much space people fill it with main lines which to be truthful do not actually interest me that much.

Edited October 31, 2018 by Martin S-C

[chuffinghell]

Kevin - there is a team of helper elves, I refer you to page one where I rather reluctantly admitted this. I am having to pay them, unfortunately. Doing this on my own would take me the rest of my life, probably. I will insist on maximum input from me though, both decisions and actual modelling as I have so many ideas I'd like to put into practice here.........

 

If it wasn't for the nearly three hour drive I'd happily come and give you a hand