T49 Brake Third

[Prometheus]

A Shirescenes etch / Ratio chassis combination, running in later life as part of a Miners' train, for a layout based on Glyncorrwg which I'll never build!

 

 

Tony

[The Johnster]

Nice looking coach, Tony; approximately the right colour but perhaps not the typical inch-thick crud finish... 

 

However, the Glyncorrwg 4-wheeler brakes, and TTBOMK all the Dean 4-wheeler brake thirds used in South Wales in miners' workmens servicejk, post WW2 anyway, were of the side ducket type and not balloon-ended.  They were 3-compartment coaches, so the Ratio kit is unsuitable as well without modification.  The Glyncorrwg coaches, as you probably know, were marshalled BT/T/BT with a T strengthener at the 'downhill' end, brake ends outwards.  The 'uphill' BT had a droplight cut into the centre of the brake end for the guard to keep a lookout through when the train was being propelled up the valley between Glyncorrwg and North Rhondda Pit; later stock used on this service, bogie clerestories and a 3-coach Mainline & City set, had end windows and an auto-type treadle-operated bell to scare the sheeps with, like a sort of ersatz auto train for propelling purposes.

 

Shame you didn't build your Glyncorrwg layout, I'd like to have seen pictures.  It was an unusual and fascinating branch, and more than a bit wild & wooly, but the pits, while small, were highly productive until they were connected underground to Hirwaun in the early 70s.

 

 

[Prometheus]

Thanks for your comments - much appreciated. But I just couldn't bring myself to empty the vacuum cleaner bag over it and then spray it with varnish!!

 

For anyone interested in Colliers' trains on the GWR / BR (W), there is a fascinating and extremely well illustrated article on them written by the late Ian L Wright ['Last of the Great Western Four Wheelers'] in Back Track Vol 4  No 4, July/August 1990. Superb photographs and text covering  Senghenydd - Llanbradach, Nelson & Llancaiach - Dowlais, Burry Port - Cwmmawr and Cymmer Corrwg - Glyncorrwg - North Rhondda Colliery.  I found a copy quite cheaply online and it is well worth looking for.

 

Tony