The Lesdham & Hereford Railway - some freelance models

[Johnson044]

The interior is from the Connoisseur card kit and the roof is tinplate covered in masking tape to represent felt and painted. I cut some recesses in the kit sides behind the solid duckets to give the illusion of a full recess should anyone peer in through the guard's compartment windows.

[RedGemAlchemist]

These coaches are gorgeous Johnson! Might have to think about getting some myself... Oh wait, these are O Gauge, never mind 😛

Joking aside, these are fantastic. Great work, and I love the livery. 

[NeilHB]

The latest occupants of the coal bunker roof look great John. I really like the flat sided Brake Third, that's rather charming. 

[Johnson044]

Amongst the various bits I bought from the box of 0 gauge odds and sods that provided the first set of wheels for the GN of SR 4-4-0 was a set of 3’7” Slater’s wheels labelled “Hunslet”. Again, these are the really early press-on ones with tapered axles. I also had a pair of (Underhill, I think) Terrier coupling rods and I thought long and hard about what to do with these parts. One option I considered reviving was the “Non-Terrier” – an outside framed jobbie that I’d originally thought up intending it to use Tri-ang Lord of the Isles driving wheels. I also contemplated a “Little Mogul of the Cotswolds” reduced even further to a “Seriously Tiny Mogul of the Cotswolds” but both seemed a bit silly and, having bought a copy of The Chronicles of Boulton’s Siding from a man in a pub (this was in the pre-internet world, the deal was done in The Fox in Temple Ewell and the book handed over in a discreet brown paper bag as if it were extreme pornography) I was rather inspired by one of the saddle tank conversions of long boiler 0-6-0’s, such as “Queen”. 
The disadvantage was the symmetrical Terrier wheelbase, most LB types being anything but. However, a Dennis Allenden article in an old Model Railway Constructor told the story of a French (L’Est) 0-6-0 which was an LB type and the wheelbase was entirely symmetrical, so I had a precedent – albeit not a UK one. 
 

[Johnson044]

A pet hate of mine is having to take wheels off axles to service alocomotive and, somewhere in an ancient Model Railway News someone had suggested having slots in the frames below and narrower than the wheel bearings, the idea being that you could un-screw the frame spacers, push the frames inwards and drop the wheels and axles out without having to separate them. I thought I’d try something similar. It worked, but, compared to having a simple keeper plate, dropping the wheels out is quite a palaver, especially as the loco ended up with a working crank axle (Martin Finney T9 ones with a huge stroke – the crank only just clears the rails when traversing pointwork) and paint has probably well and truly gummed the bearings to the frames by now.

I fretted out the frames from some quite thick brass that I had- and this was laborious as they are shaped and with many piercings. The frame spacers are commercial ones and I made up a simple reduction gearbox so that the small Mashima can sit vertically in the firebox. The loco does run quite well but is really noisy in reverse.

 

A mixture of old and new photos as glaring sunlight on top of der bunker today.
 

[Johnson044]

Brake shoes were made by drilling a 1” hole with a spade bit in a piece of mahogany, which gave me the radius and shaping the rest of the shoe with a razor saw, then pinning to brass strips which were soldered to short lengths of tube with lengthsof 12BA bolt inside so they can be sprung into place and simply pulled off should I want to take the wheels out. The coupling rods have been thinned down quite a bit.

The loco was quite a long time in gestation as I was studying for my qualification, holding down a full time job in a busy architectural practice and had two small daughters by this stage so railway modelling at the bottom of the priority list, although sometimes necessary to keep myself functioning as a reasonable human being.
 

[Johnson044]

The upper works are a combination of brass sheet for the footplate, firebox (Shedmaster firebox front ring) and plastikard for the boiler, saddle tank (built up bread and butter fashion from 2mm plastikard, shaped and clad with embossed overlays of thin stuff to represent the platework) and smokebox, with a brass smokebox front and wing plates. The chimney (wonky!) is from the dear old Minicraft 2-4-0 kit, the dome the end of a tea spoon stolen from work and the safety valves intended for a Hunslet 0-16.5 quarry saddle tank. I don’t remember at this length of time who made the buffers but they are internally sprung and completely self-contained and rather good.

The backhead (if those of a Midland Railway persuasion don’t object to the term) is brass sheet drilled many times, pins pushed through and soldered in and cut down to leave stumps representing the stays. 

 

Completely freelance and this one, purportedly, a product of the Iswaac Watt-Boulton’s own workshops, although with a Kitson works plate from a much later overhaul.

Bob Fridd, once again, is responsible for the really quite magnificent paint job, the name again one of my beloved Shropshire hills.
 

[NeilHB]

Caer Caradoc is absolutely stunning John. I love the concept of the outside framed non-Terrier as well, that's delightfully quirky. 

Edited August 18, 2022 by NeilHB

[Andrew Young]

Caer Caradoc is another fantastic looking machine. The livery suits it very well. 
 

I like how you’ve assembled / detailed thread loco using various parts from your ‘bits box’. Good to know there’s someone else with a similar approach. 

[2996 Victor]

An absolutely stunning locomotive, and the multi-media construction is an inspiration.

 

Thank you for sharing!

 

Cheers,

Mark 

[Hesperus]

On 29/07/2022 at 08:45, Johnson044 said:

Being a bit thick yesterday - I didn't say which kit the cornucopia was! ...but it's pretty well known. Worth getting hold of if you can.

 

It's a great kit, the coaching stock for my imaginary Herefordshire branch started there too but is built to far lower standards.

[Johnson044]

22 hours ago, Hesperus said:

 

It's a great kit, the coaching stock for my imaginary Herefordshire branch started there too but is built to far lower standards.

Thank you Hesperus - but you haven't seen my coaches in close-up- there are blobs and mis-jointed parts a plenty and the painting leaves much to be desired! I'd like to know more about your Herefordhire railway. Sounds like we are thinking very much along similar lines.

[Hesperus]

All your stock looks fantastic, I stick to a far lower standard but try to keep them consistant.

 

Really need to get on and finish this 

 

[Johnson044]

Aah- Leintwardine- A gorgeous part of Britain and really good to see that progress is being made again with the layout. I've been tempted many times by the Alphagrafix kits and I think they've got huge potential. Any thoughts on having another go with the little 0-4-2T?

[Hesperus]

Thank you, it's a lovely place and my kids were born there so it will always be special to me. 

 

I've been terrible at getting anything done lately so more work on the really difficult one might not be the best place to start.  I do have some nice stiff plastic in stock which might be good for chassis building though and colder weather is always helpful for keeping me nearer the modelling table than the outdoor projects.  Your mention of Alphagraphix is well timed, it's reminded me that it's Guildex this weekend so I can get some more :)

[Johnson044]

A gunpowder van, one of a handful owned by the L&H as they inherited a couple of quarries when they absorbed a plateway and they proved to be – well- not exactly lucrative but certainly useful. Although finished fairly recently, when I drew up some lettering in Autocad and had some transfers made, the kit had languished for many years, being a birthday present from my wife in about 1998 or thereabouts. I’d open the box from time to time and unwrap the tissue paper and look at the parts but the prospect of attempting any kind of meaningful livery daunted me.

I have to say that this was the nicest kit I’ve ever put together. ABS have a reputation for quality but I was astonished at the level of detail, absence of flash and distortion and the absolute precision with which the parts fitted together. I replaced the buffer heads, which are simple drawing pins in the kit and made a tinplate roof with some embossed strips of double rivets that came in a box of scrap etch material from ebay.
 

[Johnson044]

I struggle with transfers and, with the best will in the world I still end up with a visible square of carrier film around each one.

[Johnson044]

The Open wagon is an elderly Slater’s Gloucester six planker, backdated with dumb buffers and detailed internally with a thin layer of scribed plastikard and small cubes of the stuff to represent bolt heads.
As is very obvious (well- you can never see more than one side and end at any given time, so maybe not so obvious) it’s got two liveries and I need to side-track a bit to explain them.

A favourite author of mine is Phil Rickman, whose “Merrily Watkins” series is based mainly in Herefordshire. Merrily is a young lady vicar who gets lumbered with the job of Diocesan Exorcist (or Deliverance Consultant in today’s parlance). She fights evil in many forms, battling with satanists, neo-nazis, a vampire (or sanguinary predator), drug barons and corrupt local councillors and is asked to bring peace to disturbed spirits of all kinds – including Edward Elgar and Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. She’s got a wonderfully varied support network including the local SAS, her boyfriend, who is a troubled musician rather based on Nick Drake, the Hereford Constabulary and the local JCB owner, who when he’s not putting in cesspools (and finding bodies) is also her sexton.

It’s all in here and well worth a look!
http://www.philrickman.co.uk/

 

Ok- so – two of the leading characters (or their ancestors) are here. Francis Bliss is a Liverpudlian Detective Inspector with the local police and, like many fictional detectives, brilliant at what he does but flawed and troubled domestically. When I found a private owner wagon in “Frederick Biss” livery I knew what I had to do..

[Johnson044]

The other side belongs to one of Gomer Parry’s forebears and he too installed cesspools…

The lettering was done with white gel pen and a black fineliner, all infilled with Humbrol’s finest. I might have another go at the G Parry side one day as I’m not entirely happy with it.
 

[NeilHB]

Smashing stuff John, the Gunpowder Van is lovely, and the private owner liveries are great! 
 

The Merrily Watkins books sound rather fun, I shall have to investigate them. 

[Johnson044]

Thanks Neil - glad you like them. Yes- the Merrily Watkins series is very absorbing - a bit like Biggles books, it's great when you find an author that hits the spot and you know you've a good supply of stories awaiting you. Suggest you start with "Midwinter of the spirit". ITV did a mini-series based on the book a few years ago but it deviated from the story so much that it made future dramatisations very difficult. Some of the books a bit dark - "The lamp of the wicked" particularly so.

[Johnson044]

I picked up a set of etches for a five compartment third on Ebay a few years back – no idea at all of whose kit it is or, indeed, the prototype. At the time I had an hour to kill each week whilst my daughter was at Guides and I would spend the hour at my parents’ house, which we were emptying following my Dad’s passing. I had some time and a kitchen table so hand tools were easy but soldering difficult- so, apart from a very few areas the carriage was made up without solder. I made the sides and ends up from layers of 1/32” ply, with a slot for glazing to be dropped in from above, the ply and layers of brass held together with double-sided tape and the corners, partitions and floor held together with epoxy. All surprisingly strong and durable. 

[Johnson044]

The chassis is from 1/8” x ¼” hardwood strip and the footboard assemblies pinned in place. The end steps were just about the only soldered bits, I think. The layer method meant that I could draw on ventilators and door boarding “in the flat”, which was much easier. The seats and mirrors, pictures etc are from the Connoisseur card interior kit. The pictures are strange- if you look closely they are depictions of modern European trains. On future carriages I might reduce some images of fantastic art- or maybe a Goya or a Fuseli or two- and in future carriages I’ll have some passengers…they’ll probably have nightmares.  There are very simplistic representations of door locks and window straps.

[Johnson044]

The roof is brass sheet curved to shape on a thick card lining cut to fit between the partitions. Needs some luggage racks, really.

Lamp tops and lamps are all IKB models castings, and the simple  inside bearings are from an IKB etch. The axleguards are really ancient whitemetal castings that I’d had for many years- from Tennent’s Trains, Halesowen, I think. The livery is, as usual, un-lined Humbrol Nr 73.

I left the carriage, as seems to have been common, without brakes of any kind. It really speeded things up not having to make up brake gear. The couplings shouldn’t really be three link. I’ll replace them one day. Maybe.
 

[Johnson044]

This little four compartment job is also from Ebay – no brakes again and the partitions are only as high as the seat backs, so very much third class, but I think it has considerable charm. It’s plastikard and I’ve no idea who made it. I carried out some general repairs and a re-paint, plus addition of lamp tops and new buffers and couplings. It has a decidedly Scottish feel about it but it came with a rather wide (prototypically, I think) SER North Kent line four wheeler so may not be Scottish at all. How the L&H came by it is something of a mystery. I don't think it would have lasted until the grouping and if it did the GW  probably would have scrapped it immediately.