The Saltport Saga

[Sandhole]

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
I've thoroughly enjoyed reading about this superb layout.
Regards,
Chris.

[Barclay]

The Cupboard of Shame

 

The wife bought me a Craftsman class 07 shunter kit for my birthday (just before Christmas) - How perceptive of her!

 

It was while trying to cram it into the drawer under my workbench that holds all the other unbuilt kits, generally known I believe as the 'Cupboard of Shame' that I decided to pull them all out and see exactly what I have. As you can see not all of it is entirely suited to an industrial layout set in the North West in 1947:

 

Knightwing Sentinel with Branchlines chassis and other motorising gubbins

Crownline 08 chassis for my LMS shunter. Will use Sharman 4' tender wheels and etched cranks from Rhymney Models. 

K's GWR 1361 0-6-0ST, dismembered but with CSP etched chassis kit.

High Level big Barclay - have all the bits, good to go.

Sayer Chaplin LMS Armstrong Whitworth diesel - this will be a challenge...

Ratio 2-4-0. What can I say, bought new at the Engine Shed, Leytonstone, around 1988, and still waiting for the right moment.

Cotswold LYR 0-6-0ST. With an etched chassis by London Road Models, and a resin tank by...London Road Models. I know, I should have bought a LRM one. Had this about 25 years now.

Comet 4F chassis kit to go with my Airfix 4F.

Jamieson kit for Barton Wright LYR 0-6-0. Another challenge!

K's LNWR coal tank, with after market etched chassis and other goodies. May well be the next build

Craftsman 07

Judith Edge N5

Perseverance Fowler 2-6-4T chassis to go with my old Hornby  body, itself adorned with Perseverance bits when I was much younger.

Connoisseur J50, minus several important bits, but with a Perseverance chassis kit 

Midland 0-4-0st - etched nickel kit by Dave Basford, aka k22009 on RMWeb. Looks good!

 

I am also planning a couple of blue 08s and a class 25 - my old Hornby example now has an extra power bogie and is waiting for some Ultrascale wheels.

 

So - a fair haul, and, for the record, I am losing the race. They arrive more quickly than I can build them. I like to think that it's good to grab something while you can , and hopefully there will at some stage be a retirement that will afford me more time. I am not alone am I? Perhaps it's time for a New Year's resolution.

 

 

 

Edit - Oh, and I forgot the K's Fowler Dock Tank. Got that a year or 2 ago but it'll need a new... well, a lot of new !

Edited April 11, 2022 by Barclay
Missed one out

[Ruston]

I'm sure you're not the only one. I've lost count of how many unbuilt kits, and half-finished projects I've got lying around.

[Mol_PMB]

I'm just the same, I like the name 'Cupboard of Shame'!

I'm not sure whether I'm more ashamed of the unstarted ones that I needn't have bought, or the ones which I started and never finished.

 

Anyway, back onto Saltport, this glass plate negative is for sale on eBay this evening:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133971066847?hash=item1f314c3fdf:g:7z0AAOSwxw1hwjeW

 

[Regularity]

5 hours ago, Barclay said:

Jamieson kit

I believe the correct phrase is “Jamieson set of parts”…

[Andy WD]

4 hours ago, Regularity said:

I believe the correct phrase is “Jamieson set of parts”…

....nearly!

[Barclay]

On 28/12/2021 at 15:40, Mol_PMB said:

I'm just the same, I like the name 'Cupboard of Shame'!

I'm not sure whether I'm more ashamed of the unstarted ones that I needn't have bought, or the ones which I started and never finished.

 

Anyway, back onto Saltport, this glass plate negative is for sale on eBay this evening:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133971066847?hash=item1f314c3fdf:g:7z0AAOSwxw1hwjeW

 

Fantastic picture, thanks for sharing.

 

19 hours ago, Regularity said:

I believe the correct phrase is “Jamieson set of parts”…

Absolutely - if you treated it as a kit I think this would lead to a certain amount of disillusionment. But as a scratchbuild where someone has thoughtfully cast all the tricky bits for you and cut out the sheet metal, well, that sounds like an excellent prospect ! 

[Sandhole]

On 28/12/2021 at 14:37, Barclay said:

The Cupboard of Shame

 

The wife bought me a Craftsman class 07 shunter kit for my birthday (just before Christmas) - How perceptive of her!

 

It was while trying to cram it into the drawer under my workbench that holds all the other unbuilt kits, generally known I believe as the 'Cupboard of Shame' that I decided to pull them all out and see exactly what I have. As you can see not all of it is entirely suited to an industrial layout set in the North West in 1947:

 

Knightwing Sentinel with Branchlines chassis and other motorising gubbins

Crownline 08 chassis for my LMS shunter. Will use Sharman 4' tender wheels and etched cranks from Rhymney Models. 

K's GWR 1361 0-6-0ST, dismembered but with CSP etched chassis kit.

High Level big Barclay - have all the bits, good to go.

Sayer Chaplin LMS Armstrong Whitworth diesel - this will be a challenge...

Ratio 2-4-0. What can I say, bought new at the Engine Shed, Leytonstone, around 1988, and still waiting for the right moment.

Cotswold LYR 0-6-0ST. With an etched chassis by London Road Models, and a resin tank by...London Road Models. I know, I should have bought a LRM one. Had this about 25 years now.

Comet 4F chassis kit to go with my Airfix 4F.

Jamieson kit for Barton Wright LYR 0-6-0. Another challenge!

K's LNWR coal tank, with after market etched chassis and other goodies. May well be the next build

Craftsman 07

Judith Edge N5

Perseverance Fowler 2-6-4T chassis to go with my old Hornby  body, itself adorned with Perseverance bits when I was much younger.

Connoisseur J50, minus several important bits, but with a Perseverance chassis kit 

Midland 0-4-0st - etched nickel kit by Dave Basford, aka k22009 on RMWeb. Looks good!

 

I am also planning a couple of blue 08s and a class 25 - my old Hornby example now has an extra power bogie and is waiting for some Ultrascale wheels.

 

So - a fair haul, and, for the record, I am losing the race. They arrive more quickly than I can build them. I like to think that it's good to grab something while you can , and hopefully there will at some stage be a retirement that will afford me more time. I am not alone am I? Perhaps it's time for a New Year's resolution.

 

 

You could have bought my LYR saddle tank. Gone when I got a Cotswold loco on ebay.
The Jamieson L&Y 0-6-0 is fascinating.
Can't wait to see that beast built.
Regards,
Chris.

[Sandhole]

On 29/12/2021 at 00:56, Andy WD said:

....nearly!

My dear Friend Coachbogie's Dad, the superb Brian Wiltshire, was the Jamieson Obi Wan.
I have odd Black Five's built from scratch from Brian, as well as a superb 'British Legion' built from a Royal Scot kit.
I have 'Girl Guide', a pure Jamieson Royal Scot kit.
The Jamieson Pannier Tank makes a regular appearance  on Oldham Road, as a pilot.
Mike and I think it's a 16xx. I don't care, she runs like a sowing machine. A typical Brian Wiltshire loco.
Don't EVER knock Jamieson, they were 'of their time' and superb models were built from them, when the builder had, not just the skill, but the bravery to just 'Do the job'.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
Chris.

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Sandhole said:

Don't EVER knock Jamieson, they were 'of their time' and superb models were built from them, when the builder had, not just the skill, but the bravery to just 'Do the job'

I certainly wasn’t, and I don’t think anyone else was, but on a scale going from shake-the-box to build-from-scratch, they were closer to the latter than most other kits, but that was by design and intention.

Mind you, some of the kits that are intended to be closer to shaking the box are so poor, that they end up being easier to throw in the bin and start again. (Or you can melt down the misshapen lumps of white metal and use them for something else, such as some of the GER 5-plank opens running on East Lynn, which were once a K’s “Terrrier” kit. The teenage attempts at building which made me realise that maybe S scale was easier than 4mm, rather than harder as everyone kept telling me…)

 

Jamieson: an aid to scratch building.

K’s: an impulse to scratch building.

[Andy WD]

10 hours ago, Sandhole said:

My dear Friend Coachbogie's Dad, the superb Brian Wiltshire, was the Jamieson Obi Wan.
I have odd Black Five's built from scratch from Brian, as well as a superb 'British Legion' built from a Royal Scot kit.
I have 'Girl Guide', a pure Jamieson Royal Scot kit.
The Jamieson Pannier Tank makes a regular appearance  on Oldham Road, as a pilot.
Mike and I think it's a 16xx. I don't care, she runs like a sowing machine. A typical Brian Wiltshire loco.
Don't EVER knock Jamieson, they were 'of their time' and superb models were built from them, when the builder had, not just the skill, but the bravery to just 'Do the job'.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
Chris.

I did try to assemble a  Jamieson 4F from my dad's 'stash' many years ago as a much younger person, (when I was a fellow Junior club member with @Regularity) . It was an education in metalwork technique and soldering!

 Was it a huge success, no, did it run, yes, sort of. It looked something like a 4F, ran like a...!!

 

I have the greatest respect for those who can take a piece of brass sheet, or punchings, like those in Jamieson kits, and create a masterpiece.

As noted though they were a product of their time.
 

[Barclay]

Heart Transplant - A few years ago I built this Neilson 0-4-0ST from a chopped up Hornby body on a Branchlines chassis. The running gave me some bother during construction but I thought I had it sorted by the time the loco. was finished. Unfortunately the trouble came back pretty quickly. It was a slight surge or hunting action to the movement, which I just could not get rid of, although it worked fine on the bench. Much fiddling ensued, but last year I had similar trouble with another loco that had the Mitsumi motor, and this was eventually identified as excessive end float, corrected by fitting a High Level motor in its place, so I changed the Neilson's motor for another Mitsumi several months ago, with no improvement.

 

Eventually last week I stuck one of my spare Mashima 1024s into it. This looked promising but then I was having trouble with gear mesh and locking up. In the end I ordered a High Level Road Runner and this weekend it has been installed.

 

It works. Sadly all my faffing around has battered the chassis somewhat but at least we're good to go!

 

I still have Mitsumi motors in four loco's and they seem fine. I must also admit that all but one of mine have come direct from China and there is a chance that I had a batch of fakes. Nevertheless I have become more wary of them, and my next project, a LNWR coal tank, will have a 1227 motor from Taff Vale Models. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Barclay

[Mol_PMB]

Great work and a lovely loco.

I've worked on plenty of real locos with that battered look. Maybe a touch of chemical blackening fluid on the brightest spots is all it needs?

[Barclay]

14 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

Great work and a lovely loco.

I've worked on plenty of real locos with that battered look. Maybe a touch of chemical blackening fluid on the brightest spots is all it needs?

To be honest it doesn't really show, although I'm sure it had brakes when I built it !

[Sandhole]

17 hours ago, Barclay said:

Heart Transplant - A few years ago I built this Neilson 0-4-0ST from a chopped up Hornby body on a Branchlines chassis. The running gave me some bother during construction but I thought I had it sorted by the time the loco. was finished. Unfortunately the trouble came back pretty quickly. It was a slight surge or hunting action to the movement, which I just could not get rid of, although it worked fine on the bench. Much fiddling ensued, but last year I had similar trouble with another loco that had the Mitsumi motor, and this was eventually identified as excessive end float, corrected by fitting a High Level motor in its place, so I changed the Neilson's motor for another Mitsumi several months ago, with no improvement.

 

Eventually last week I stuck one of my spare Mashima 1024s into it. This looked promising but then I was having trouble with gear mesh and locking up. In the end I ordered a High Level Road Runner and this weekend it has been installed.

 

It works. Sadly all my faffing around has battered the chassis somewhat but at least we're good to go!

 

I still have Mitsumi motors in four loco's and they seem fine. I must also admit that all but one of mine have come direct from China and there is a chance that I had a batch of fakes. Nevertheless I have become more wary of them, and my next project, a LNWR coal tank, will have a 1227 motor from Taff Vale Models. 

 

 

As usual, lovely work.
That's not battered, my friend, that's the patina of hard work.
Regards,
Chris.

[Barclay]

Historical interlude - whilst retiring my old back-up hard drive last week (and discovering that everything on it fitted easily onto a memory stick!) I found a folder of older photo's of the layout. This Robinson 04 was built 14 years ago for my friend Roy's Grimsby layout, using the Pro-Scale kit, albeit in one of its later guises, and at the time I couldn't resist the chance to capture it on the layout next to one of my loco's, to contrast the size. It is 00 so was only balancing on the track. The water tank on the shed road has had its support structure replaced since then, but I still haven't painted out the sky that shows between those buildings...

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Barclay

[Jamiel]

What an excellent layout. I am a big fan of urban layouts, especially those that have a bit of dirt and weeds around the edges, and Saltport fits that perfectly.

A really nice selection of rolling stock, and lots of photos to show the details.
 

I found this through your post on the ‘Scratch built buildings’ thread.
 

Thank you posting your work.

Jamie

[Barclay]

The old and the new (ish) outside the loco shed. Not much happened on the layout recently, while I dabble with American models, only as a sideline you understand. But I can't let this week go unmarked because, God willing, we will have the EMGS demonstration stand at The London Festival of Railway Modelling at the weekend. This will be my first exhibition since Stevenage 2020 so a massive moment for me in the return to 'normality'. If you are there please come and say hello.

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Barclay

[Mol_PMB]

The Kerr Stuart looks great in that setting! I hope you are getting your ‘fifteen shillings change’. 

 

[Barclay]

Great to be back at an exhibition this weekend - lots of talking, voice hoarse at the end of each day, brilliant.

 

Good chance for a few loco's to have some running time, too, though I soon realised that diesels on a rolling road don't look like they're doing much... The old RSH was a good stand-in though. The number of exhibitions it's been to, it must have covered some tens of miles by now, without going anywhere! The K's coal tank in the background might get built soon, I have all the bits, and the original builder has made a lovely job of it. The odd fleck of paint here and there suggests it had a previous life, was stripped, and prepared to have a new chassis, and then got moved on for whatever reason. It will have London Road hornblocks, which I've not used before, but which look very promising, and I have a big 12/27 motor from Taff Vale Models, which I'm hoping will fit.

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Barclay

[Barclay]

Andrew Barclay wheels

 

My friend Nick Ridgway has recently finished a Barclay, based on an improved DJH kit, and it makes me think that I need to do something with my poor old example. Thanks to @Down_Under back on page 2 we have established that the Kingdom Kit was probably based on the 'Fife Special' type, with 7' wheelbase, and interestingly the wheels on nos. 2260 and 2261 (you can google for pictures) look like normal wheels rather than the Barclay type. Further searching shows a number of post-war Barclay 0-4-0's with what look like normal wheels. Does anyone know if these could have come from the factory like that, or were they later modifications? 

 

Am I also correct in thinking there were two different kinds of Barclay wheels? Some of the pictures show loco's with chunky square section spokes that look like the Sharman wheels on my loco., but others show the sort that look more like a Boxpok wheel with rounded 'holes' between the spokes, rather like the Gibson 3'8" wheels I have for the High Level 0-6-0T.

 

Any experts out there?

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by Barclay

[Ruston]

12 hours ago, Barclay said:

Any experts out there?

I thought that was you?  😁 It's certainly not me but I have been looking into Barclays recently. Markits does several sizes and two types of wheel. One looks more "normal" and has 10 spokes, whilst the other is the more usual Barlcay style and has 7 spokes. There is a particular prototype engine at Waterside that has the 10 spoke type I'll look it up and get back to you. I have some of the 10 spoke 3ft. 5 (I think!) type that may be surplus to requirements. I need to do an audit of the kit stash first.

[Barclay]

19 hours ago, Ruston said:

I thought that was you?  😁 It's certainly not me but I have been looking into Barclays recently. Markits does several sizes and two types of wheel. One looks more "normal" and has 10 spokes, whilst the other is the more usual Barlcay style and has 7 spokes. There is a particular prototype engine at Waterside that has the 10 spoke type I'll look it up and get back to you. I have some of the 10 spoke 3ft. 5 (I think!) type that may be surplus to requirements. I need to do an audit of the kit stash first.

Expert ? Me ? That'll be the day...

 

They do a 3' 6" 10 spoke that looks about right. Of course it has Sharmans at the moment so I'll have to check that Markits will fit behind the slidebars. At some stage I'll then have to build a small Barclay to use those 3' 3" wheels.

[Barclay]

I am very fond of old commercial vehicles and there are a fair number on the layout already. I bought this mid-thirties Morris semi forward control cab from Road Transport Images at an exhibition several years ago. I didn't buy the complete kit as I always thought they were quite pricey, and I am pretty tight.

 

This has meant having to cobble together the rest of the vehicle. There's a brass ladder chassis, a plasticard flat bed, and some Coopercraft wheels from a sprue I bought ages ago. The mudguards are taken from the Coopercraft Bedford that lies as scrap behind the shed on the layout.  On the first loose assembly I think it's looking OK, but obviously there are details to add. I hope lorry enthusiasts will let me off what's wrong with it - it's amazing what you can get away with when you don't know much about a subject.

 

 

 

[Ruston]

I have been looking at pictures of the engine that I thought had 10 spokes but, to be honest, I'm not sure how many it has. It's difficult to tell when the crank pin boss is larger than the other spokes. Anyway, these are 13mm wheels, both by Markits and both sold as Barclay wheels.