The Lesdham & Hereford Railway - some freelance models

[Johnson044]

The season is turning and the top of der bunker is fast becoming inhospitable to model railway vehicles. I must get my finger out and make a Sir Douglas style photo board. 

Still trying to post things in chronological order. This is tenuous but I’ve had some of the bits for ages and only fairly recently done anything with them. Amongst all the odd bits of etched kit leftovers that have come my way was this etch for mid-Nineteenth Century outside wagon axlebox framing. I have absolutely no idea of manufacturer and suspect they might be a on-off. The brass is incredibly hard and needs annealing before any kind of drilling- but with some carved-about Slater’s axleboxes and springs they make quite a convincing underframe- I’ve made one set up from pieces of Peco plastic sleeper strip and put them under a 422 modelmaking resin box van kit, with a tinplate roof covered with making rape, ribs from plastikard and some roof vents on top, making a sort of ventilated van.

 

[Johnson044]

The brake is from the wooden brake shoes in the Modelcraft Vulcan kit with a Jubilee wagon brake arm and Ambis ratchet, and I’ve added tie rods and maker’s plates and wire grab rails.

 

Although highly improbable – the underframe seems far too antiquated for the body - I’m quite pleased with this one – as I’ve said before, the 422 parts are great value, they go together really well- and they take paint readily too.

[Johnson044]

Probably time for a brake van.

 

Unusually, for such a long time ago, I do have a couple of rather blurry photos taken before painting. This is my take on a mixed-traffic road van, with lantern roof and dog boxes. For mixed-traffic use it really should have 3’6” wheels in lieu of the 3’ ones, but never mind – speeds on the L&H were pretty low so not the end of the world if riding was a bit rough. 

The body is 1/32” ply with framing from hardwood strips intended for marquetry repairs and I added hinges, lamp brackets, grab rails etc from brass and plastikard strapping. It’s fully-fitted out inside, although almost completely invisible and I tried to make a proper effort with brake gear, basing it on the underworks to the preserved NER one at hull Transport Museum.
 

[Johnson044]

The lantern roof and dog box louvres are a bit rougher than I would have liked but I’m not changing them now.

The varnished teak livery is possibly unlikely and bob Fridd took a bit of persuading not to paint it wagon cream or goods brake van reddish-brown, but I like the result. The lettering is from my own transfers.
 

[magmouse]

Bags of character! Lovely.

 

Nick.

[RedGemAlchemist]

3 hours ago, Johnson044 said:

The lantern roof and dog box louvres are a bit rougher than I would have liked but I’m not changing them now.

The varnished teak livery is possibly unlikely and bob Fridd took a bit of persuading not to paint it wagon cream or goods brake van reddish-brown, but I like the result. The lettering is from my own transfers.
 

Very quaint. If I could get one like that in OO I would in a heartbeat!

[NeilHB]

The 422 van looks lovely John, and that brakevan is superb!

[Johnson044]

Whilst we’re on the subject of brake vans (or break vans), here’s a truly medieval one that I made a long time ago- and, as usual, I sadly don’t have any in progress photos. Basically made from thin ply (scribed with the grain for planking – I can’t remember what I used – maybe a jeweller’s screwdriver- a bit wobbly now I come to look at the photos- looks like I used a bread knife) and hardwood strip with white metal axleboxes of unknown origin. Buffers are Slater's, with plywood pads turned up in the mini drill. I spent a lot of time on the brake gear and this is mainly soldered up from brass, although from memory, the actual shoes and hangers are white metal.

[Johnson044]

The roof is tinplate and the mouldings and door hinges plastikard, with brass lamp irons and handrails. I do like the coupling hooks – I forget who’s castings they are, and I’m quite pleased with the footboards and hangers.

[Johnson044]

The van is loosely based on a GNR Mineral Brake Van- and I’ve added a chimney for a stove (but with no roof vents the crew must have had the doors open whenever it was lit!). I’ve given it Gloucester works plates, although in reality I don’t think they would have had anything to do with such a prehistoric vehicle.

 

The bulk of the lettering is from my own transfers and Bob Fridd worked his usual magic with the livery and smaller lettering.
 

[Johnson044]

It’s probably time I concluded the saga of the Cowan 4-4-0. 

Firstly a word on the supposed history.

Edwardian has talked at length about the rationale behind locomotives that run on fictitious railways and the various justifications, and there are many possibilities. The L&H stud is, to date, made up of “off the peg” standard types from the leading manufacturers, locomotives built in the company’s own workshops, locomotives with chequered histories, bought second-hand from dealers and those bought new at bargain prices following a re-writing of history and, as Dylan sang “A simple twist of fate”. “The Lawley” and “Long  Mynd” fall into the last category, along with another 4-4-0, more of which anon. I’ve assumed that the sliding doors of history closed suddenly on the Great North of Scotland’s purse strings (now there are some mixed metaphors!) and Neilson were left with a pair of engines for disposal and, in the same manner that the Furness ended up with Cambrian small Sharp Stewart 4-4-0’s, so the L&H came into the possession of a couple of brand new mixed-traffic engines of GNSR Class K.

This loco was, like so many of mine, very protracted in gestation and there would be long periods where the project stood still through lack of time with work, DIY etc, or energy for railway modelling through lack of mojo - or because I’d hit some kind of wall where I couldn’t fathom out how either the real loco was detailed or I couldn’t decide how best to overcome a particular problem, such as how to divide and unite separate sub-assemblies for painting. Progress would be made in fits and starts and suddenly I found that I was ready to hand the main bits over to Bob for painting and they came back to me just before Christmas 2014 and I was able to spend the Christmas break fettling and assembling. 
 

[Johnson044]

What came as a real shock to me was the void that was left when it was finished. Whether the Cowan 4-4-0 precipitated the event or whether it was co-incidental I am still unsure but work finally stopped on The Lawley just at the onset of an existential crisis.
I’d had the loco on my mind for so many years- so many little problems to be solved, the eternal anticipation of some pleasurable time in the shed, the need to re-make some component that I’d cocked up because I’d forced myself to work on it when tired- many reasons why it had always been in the background- a veritable anchor. Suddenly there it was, complete. I felt reasonably pleased with the loco but where was the rush of exhilaration? Just a sudden numbing feeling that something was missing now, a lack of desire to work on other projects - and, very alarmingly, an awareness- at first creeping, then a tide – that the project had dominated so much of my life for such a long time, to the detriment of more important things. As this isn’t the right platform for such things, when I’m feeling brave and sufficiently articulate (or have more than the usual evening’s quota of Morrisons Merlot inside me) I might post something in the “Modelling mojo and state of mind” thread in “Modelling musings and miscellany”. Maybe.

So – back to practical matters.

 

Information is scarce on these beasties – I’ve only ever seen two photos of one as-built. One is the well-known Neilson works photo (sadly sans tender) and the other is a very distant view looking down from a mountain side, which doesn’t really help much. I found a 5” gauge one in The Warehouse at the NRM (photo below), but it lacks authenticity in certain areas – mainly the cab interior, which is simplified greatly and adapted to suit practicalities and the control of full-size steam. I think it’s a fairly modern model made from drawings and castings by Brunell Models, who weren’t desperately willing to part with any of the research they’d carried out to prepare their own drawings – I didn’t really want an expensive set of 5” gauge drawings that didn’t detail an accurate loco, which was all that was on offer. Never mind, the GNSR Society were very helpful and let me have an abstract on the later Class C, Cowan’s final design- and, although there were significant differences to the Class L, a number of mysteries of construction did get explained.

[Johnson044]

The tender provided its own set of interesting chalenges. It took a while to work out how the brake gear works – and it really is quite idiosynchratic. I fitted longer axles made from nested steel rod and brass tubing, fitted to Slater’s 3’7” 10 spoke carriage wheels- the axles on the prototype are quite slender, and normal Slater’s tender wheels and axles looked too chunky by comparison. They sit in axleboxes made from Gloucester wagon ones, held in slots in the outside frames, in the manner of the real thing, as false inside frames would have been very visible. They pick up current via wipers on the tops and this is transferred to the loco via the feedwater pipes- and here is the big mistake I made, which I have yet to rectify. The drawbar is attached to the tender and so the weight of the tender isn’t transferred to the driving axle – an elementary error and one that is hard to put right. This means that too little weight is available for adhesion and the loco wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding, as they say. I occasionally come up with a cunning plan to put this to rights without too much dismantling but not been able to find a solution that won’t enable ready un-coupling.

The pipework, as on many a similar project, is the bugbear with the loco – there are many pipes and fittings that weave their way between the various sub-assemblies that need to be separate for painting. Most of these, like the reversing rod, were just araldited in place after painting and could probably just be carefully prised off should the various parts ever need to be dismantled.
 

[Johnson044]

Autocad, which I learned to use during the loco’s gestation, proved a real boon. It was useful for such things as calculating the minimum amount I’d have to distort the frame width and cylinders to get it to go around a 7’ curve, setting out the stays on the backhead and getting the handrails dead straight on the boiler – as well as a multitude of other things.

Spectacle rims are thin slivers cut from spent .303 cartridge cases- I live in Dover and the things are still to be found on many local footpaths. The cab is unusual- the spectacle plate rises vertically from the very rear face of the firebox backplate, without the usual brass beaded firebox surround. Should be two Salter balances but the drawing showed one, so that’s what the L&H loco had…

“Fairlie” style nameplates and Neilson works plates are from Narrow Planet – “The Lawley” is the hill immediately north of Caer Caradoc. The style of nameplate seems to have become the norm for the other L&H locos that have been or are being built – and more of them anon.

 

[Johnson044]

Just to be quite clear - the magnificent paintwork has absolutely nothing to do with me! All Bob Fridd's incredible patience and talent.

[JCL]

That is absolutely beautiful

[Johnson044]

Glad you like her JCL!- and thank you! 

 

I've just started working my way through your thread- nice to see a bit of Lincolnshire on these pages - my wife is from Louth and over the last couple of decades or three I've been slowly finding my way around the (mainly long-abandoned) railway byways of the area. Very much a Cinderella part of the UK and little known generally in the south east. So much that is really beautiful- the Louth to Bardney line for one traversed some stunning countryside and there is so much History- and still so much to explore!

 

Best wishes

 

John

[JCL]

Thank you! I’ve been away from it for a long time (logistics and motivation), but I’ve moved house and have a place to start again, so hopefully I’ll be able to resurrect that thread :)

[Johnson044]

Really saddened by the loss of Iain Rice. I'd hoped for a long time that one day I'd maybe get to meet him. He was such a prolific, witty and inspiring writer.

[Johnson044]

A long term project which has been kicking around for ages is a small double-framed 0-6-0. I’ve long been attracted to them – I like the slightly brutish feeling of robust durability – and they often attained great ages. Sadly, to the best of my knowledge there are only one and a half of the type left in the world – a whole one in Cairo and the (sectioned) front half of another at Armley Mills Industrial Museum – surely a double-framed goods is THE big hole in the National Collection? There was also a single surviving Beyer-Peacock example rotting in Java until the early ‘70’s but long gone, I fear – it’s described but not illustrated in “Iron Dinosaurs” by Colin Garratt.

 

The one I’m building came about from a set of old-type Slater’s press-on 4’3” tender wheels- intended for a Midland / LMS tender, I think – and the discovery that they press very nicely onto Slater’s extended axles with their own brand outside cranks – so no quartering issues. I’ve accumulated all sorts of bits over the years, including a really beautifully made LNWR Webb tender body (which came atop a pair of plastic wagon bogies- I think it had been meant to go behind some sort of American 4-4-0) and some Slater’s steel coupling rod etches and, following an article on etching artwork in MRJ that set out tolerances and design parameters I did the Autocad artwork for a set of etches for the flat or fold-able bits. I added some other useful parts for carriage brakes and for a Furness / Cambrian small Sharp Stewart 4-4-0 that I’m resurrecting.

[Johnson044]

I gave it a Stirling type cab for a change and looked at various options for the boiler assembly- I had some spare smokebox bits left over from the Cowan 4-4-0 and dithered for a long time over whether to have a similar boiler to that.  I drew up a number of options and vaccillated between them for ages. I eventually plumped for the parallel boilered version, and thought I’d use a resin 01 boiler from SER Kits and added a smokebox wrapper from tinplate, having borrowed the East Kent 0 Gauge Group rivet press. 

[Johnson044]

The etches, which were made by PPD of Lochgilphead, went together reasonably well, although I mis-understood some of the tolerance guidance in the MRJ article and some of the slot and tab parts were a bit of a sloppy fit.

Buffer beams are hardwood with etched overlays – and the bolt heads on these and on the outside frames and tender frames are American ones from Scale Hardware – quite expensive but worth every cent. The buffers are ancient turned solid ones of unknown make – un-sprung – but I like the profile.

This was as far as things got before I became dis-satisfied with the loco and it was shelved.
 

[magmouse]

Keep going with it! It looks great - full of character. The Stirling cab is almost enough to make me change allegiance from the GWR…

 

Nick.

[Johnson044]

Thanks Magmouse. 

 

The boiler ended up quite a bit higher pitched than I’d intended, making the loco look rather more modern and clumsy. I took a good long hard look at the developing loco and although it does give a feeling of brutish strength, I really don’t like the rather high boiler – it reminds me rather of one of the Deeley rebuilds of a Midland kirtley 0-6-0 and I wanted something far more Nineteenth Century in aspect. I’ve since made a lower boiler with raised firebox (Laurie Griffin firebox front casting plus Laurie Griffin chimney and dome from a Beattie well tank). I used some leftover Cowan 4-4-0 bits and, having various odd bits of etch kit leftovers from Ebay, gave it a riveted front (from something Stroudley maybe?) and a riveted wrapper (from a Mitchell GWR 517) and I’m much happier with this. The resin 01 boiler has a completely different future in store on a forthcoming 2-2-2. The safety valve upper part started life as an LNER Spencer buffer.

[Johnson044]

There are gaps that I need to fill between the projecting front parts of the cab side sheets (I've never known what the proper term is for these bits) and the new firebox. 

 

I tried making up the Slater’s steel coupling rods but got nowhere with them – entirely my own cack-handedness without doubt as plenty of others have managed to make these up but I couldn’t get the solder to flow.

I’ve discovered Model Engineer’s Laser, who will produce parts from brass or mild steel from Autocad at incredibly reasonable cost and they will produce a pair of rods in 1.5mm mild steel for about a fiver. I had two sets made and will form a simple lap joint at the knuckle so that I can have a sprung centre axle. 

 

MEL also made the keeper plate sides, which retain the inside bearings and are just wedged in place by the ashpan in the photo.