Longdrem & The Pinkhill Branch

[trw1089]

Those Gresley non-gangwayed coaches are superbly weathered, I will have to attack my two sometime soon but hoping to add a few more to the roster yet. You've done such an excellent job on this layout.

 

Cheers

Tony

[60027Merlin]

Wonderful news from Bachmann, at last a Scottish ready to run loco. That being the case it will soon be time for the withdrawal of a familiar friend on the layout.

 

A couple of photos taken a year ago of an old Bec lady. Thanks for the years of good service.

 

1969 - 2012

 

[Markeg]

She has put in 'stirling' service for you for that long. I will attempt to convert mine to a D10 62654 Walter Burgh Gair, but will have to source new chimney, dome, cab and name plate. Then that will do me until we see a D10 arrive, which may be a few years away. I think a general release D11/1 will come after the NRM Butler Henderson model and then possibly a D10.

 

Does anyone know where these are available from?

 

It is great news. Save me buying a PDK kit to build.

 

Mark

[60027Merlin]

The winter running sessions on the layout presented many opportunities for photographs and below are shots of some of the action back then, in a few cases two shots of the same train from differing angles.

 

Whilst sorting them out I noticed that quite a few featured two locos/trains in action and with that in mind as a theme, here is a selection of duos from the northern part of the East Coast Main Line in the rock 'n roll years of the late 50s. - no Everly Brothers though.

 

 

 

Running out of time - 2nd. lot to follow

[Guest Tom F]

Good to see your layout again Eric. I've missed your thread!

Edited May 20, 2012 by Tom F

[60027Merlin]

Following on from yesterday.

 

[landscapes]

Hi Eric

 

As Tom said it's great to see more photos from your layout Longdrem & Pinkhill.

 

You have an incredible selection of locomotives.

 

Regards

 

David

 

[trw1089]

Great to see some more photos of your layout Eric, I was missing them. Love the theme of the two locos in each shot, double the value!

 

Cheers

Tony

[great northern]

Thanks Eric- always pleased to see more shots of these fabled beasts. I particularly love those NB 4.4.0s though. Can anybody prove that one never got as far south as Peterborough?

[60027Merlin]

Thanks Eric- always pleased to see more shots of these fabled beasts. I particularly love those NB 4.4.0s though. Can anybody prove that one never got as far south as Peterborough?

 

There were a few occasions in the 30s and 40s when they worked south of Newcastle on workings to Darlington and one was recorded at York but no reports of sightings further south. Unfortunately for your layout timescale of 1958 by then the remaining ones in service were more localised up here with the furthest south they got being Carlisle and possibly Berwick.

 

Of course you could always feature a dream sequence on your layout Gilbert, when anything goes! Here is another one for you this time in a rare zoom setting.

 

[great northern]

There were a few occasions in the 30s and 40s when they worked south of Newcastle on workings to Darlington and one was recorded at York but no reports of sightings further south. Unfortunately for your layout timescale of 1958 by then the remaining ones in service were more localised up here with the furthest south they got being Carlisle and possibly Berwick.

 

Of course you could always feature a dream sequence on your layout Gilbert, when anything goes! Here is another one for you this time in a rare zoom setting.

 

 

Lead me not into (more) temptation. I really do like Edwardian/Victorian 4.4.0's.

[60027Merlin]

Although the period of the layout ends in 1961 there is always room for flexibility on the odd occasion. Here is one such time with the recent arrival of the Heljan DP2 out on the layout on its second running in turn.

 

I first saw it one evening in July 1963 at Haymarket as per the accompanying photograph of it arriving on shed. This was only a brief visit as it departed from the Shed within the hour heading back to the Waverley and then for the south. Also on shed, amongst others, that evening were B1 Sir Alexander Erskine-Hill, A2 Sayajirao, A3 Blenheim, A1s North British, Edward Fletcher and Silurian, A4s Silver King and Silver Fox, Deltics Royal Scots Grey, Ballymoss and un-named D9016, D26, D1527 and D5305. By September all steam had been transferred away and things were never the same again.

 

So here we are with a handful of snaps of DP2 in 1963 with another 4 years left before its fatal accident plus a couple of surviving beat up A3s with nothing like that number of years to go.

 

[Guest Tom F]

I do like that last photo Eric. The A3 has a particular nice oiliness to it!

[60027Merlin]

I do like that last photo Eric. The A3 has a particular nice oiliness to it!

 

Glad you like the poor turnout Tom! The picture of Colorado does not show up the dirty oil sheen due to the light in the room when the picture was taken a year ago.

 

Both locos were "Brown Jack" from Hornby as I was after the 2 GN tenders that went with them for 2 other Haymarket A3s. After the tender swapping etc. I sold both Blenheim and Colorado so they won't be on the layout again. However I have Blenheim in an earlier and cleaner guise and Colorado is still awaited. Here is one of the few photos I took of Colorado before its departure which shows up that oiliness as well.

 

[great northern]

Very nice shots Eric, and the finish on the A3's does look very good. Shame to see Haymarket's finest looking shabby though. Had things descended to this level by 1961? Oh, and I do like that word "flexibility". I can use it to cover a multitude of sins. particularly that D11/1 in Bachmann's showcase at Railfest. I still can't find an excuse for a D30 though.

[60027Merlin]

Yes Gilbert flexibilty is a great thing - well recommended!

 

Fortunately things had not gone to that level in 1961 but by the end of 1962 a fair number of Haymarket's pacifics had been transferred and some withdrawn as the Deltics and class 40s were making inroads into the diagrams and of course the run down gained momentum during 1963 when the Shed lost its steam allocation in the September. That is why I prefer to stick to the 1956-61 time-frame when the locos were maintained in tip-top condition at 64B.

 

The two A3s pictured, after transfer from 64B, are in that messy state typical of the 1963/64 period with no. 87 being withdrawn in late 63 and no. 94 in early 64. However, to finish on a bright note to bring things back to normal, here is a picture of, to quote Harry Knox, one of Haymarket's denizens in 1960 in all her glory.

 

[pwr]

That DP2 does look the part

 

Paul R

[great northern]

Yes Gilbert flexibilty is a great thing - well recommended!

 

Fortunately things had not gone to that level in 1961 but by the end of 1962 a fair number of Haymarket's pacifics had been transferred and some withdrawn as the Deltics and class 40s were making inroads into the diagrams and of course the run down gained momentum during 1963 when the Shed lost its steam allocation in the September. That is why I prefer to stick to the 1956-61 time-frame when the locos were maintained in tip-top condition at 64B.

 

The two A3s pictured, after transfer from 64B, are in that messy state typical of the 1963/64 period with no. 87 being withdrawn in late 63 and no. 94 in early 64. However, to finish on a bright note to bring things back to normal, here is a picture of, to quote Harry Knox, one of Haymarket's denizens in 1960 in all her glory.

 

 

Yes, that's how I like to remember them. Pride in appearance eh? We could do with a resurgence of that nowadays. I've often marvelled at photos of St Johnstoun in the '50's, it really must have been a sight to behold.Was that the absolute pinnacle of Haymarket cleaning, or was there something even better? It's hard to imagine that there could be.

[Torr Giffard LSWR 1951-71]

There is some marvellous stock on this layout....well done!

[kingfisher24]

 

merlin

 

i have just been looking at your photos while i am laid up and unable to move, and i must say that they are excellent, espacially the dp2 which looks very impressive, i also like your j88's that appear here and there.

would you mind a little observation, looking at your j88 which again is an excellent little model. i was thinking that there was something differant on it when compared to the prototype photos that i have been looking through this afternoon, but i could just not put my finger on it. i even fished my conversion out to try and see what it was and, then i found it. going by the photo that i found of 68335 at gorgie in 1961 i noticed that the loco doesnt have a coupling hook, instead the loco only has a shakle chain. now looking through at other locos on various sites it appears that they were all like this although,i cannot be entirely sure. i have altered my loco to match the photo of the real 68334 (the loco that i have modelled).

were some locos in the class fitted with the more usual hook and chain?? again i cannot be sure, i just thought i would bring this to your attantion.

 

i have attatched a very strange photo.

 

keep up the excellent work.

 

kind regards

gary patterson

[60027Merlin]

Hello Gary

 

Your query had me delving into the past, approximately 35 years ago, when the J88 kit was released. When I built it then there was not the same number of photographs or books available for reference as nowadays. However I had a few J88 photos which I used for reference and one of them was 68320 of St. Margarets photographed at Haymarket Shed in 1959 which was fitted with the usual coupling hook. I did not have a layout then and only concentrated on building kits but I always planned that all freight stock would be either 3-link or screw couplings when a layout came about so I fitted the coupling hook purely for operational convenience as I did not know how much stretching over baseboards would be involved thinking that it was better to have two hooks to choose from rather than one. How many were so fitted I do not know but am sure that it was a fairly small number.

 

Earlier this evening I looked out the Norrie Blackburn kit instructions and to quote Norrie "One curious feature of this class was the lack of drawhooks when built, but these were later fitted in some instances". As a matter of interest the kit purchase price then was £7.56!

 

Hopefully you will not be indisposed for too long and will be up and about soon. Many thanks for highlighting this detail and for the excellent photograph of the loco at Kirkcaldy harbour, it's not often we see photos of the undersides of locos. I have always fancied building another J88 so you have set me seriously thinking about this!

 

Cheers

 

Eric

[kingfisher24]

Hello Gary

 

Your query had me delving into the past, approximately 35 years ago, when the J88 kit was released. When I built it then there was not the same number of photographs or books available for reference as nowadays. However I had a few J88 photos which I used for reference and one of them was 68320 of St. Margarets photographed at Haymarket Shed in 1959 which was fitted with the usual coupling hook. I did not have a layout then and only concentrated on building kits but I always planned that all freight stock would be either 3-link or screw couplings when a layout came about so I fitted the coupling hook purely for operational convenience as I did not know how much stretching over baseboards would be involved thinking that it was better to have two hooks to choose from rather than one. How many were so fitted I do not know but am sure that it was a fairly small number.

 

Earlier this evening I looked out the Norrie Blackburn kit instructions and to quote Norrie "One curious feature of this class was the lack of drawhooks when built, but these were later fitted in some instances". As a matter of interest the kit purchase price then was £7.56!

 

Hopefully you will not be indisposed for too long and will be up and about soon. Many thanks for highlighting this detail and for the excellent photograph of the loco at Kirkcaldy harbour, it's not often we see photos of the undersides of locos. I have always fancied building another J88 so you have set me seriously thinking about this!

 

Cheers

 

Eric

 

Eric

 

i never knew that some of the loco's had the 'ordinary' style coupling - well 'they' say you learn something every day (although in my case i think its every other day). i just wish i had the skills to make the falcon brass kit to compare with my scratchbuilt example. that will be somthing to do in the future. the cost of kits these days is the main reason why i tend to try and scratchbuild/kitbash models from bits and pieces, that way if it goes wrong i havnt lost a fortune. and in this case it came out not too bad i think, considering the fact that it cost less than thirty pounds.

 

kind regards

gary

[Guest Max Stafford]

merlin

 

i have attatched a very strange photo.

 

keep up the excellent work.

 

kind regards

gary patterson

 

 

I'd no idea Thornton Junction was THAT short of cleaners!

 

Lovely wee model, by the way!

 

Dave.

Edited June 29, 2012 by Max Stafford

[kingfisher24]

I'd no idea Thornton Junction was THAT short of cleaners!

 

Lovely wee model, by the way!

 

Dave.

 

itd certainly remove aw the dust - like a railway sheep dip

 

gary

[60027Merlin]

My father, who was a great Gresley admirer cut this article out of The Scotsman and gave it to me and I then folded it away in one of the many books containing pictures of LNER pacifics. Last month whilst searching through some books for a photograph of a particular loco I came across this newspaper cutting and it gave me the idea for this set of photos.

 

In 1958 the Rank Organisation filmed a re-make of The 39 Steps starring Kenneth More and in the August/September they shot the outside location scenes in Scotland. For Richard Hannay's escape to Scotland the East Coast Main Line was chosen with the Waverley Station and the Forth Bridge being featured for the action. Haymarket provided the motive power with the final cut highlighting four of their pacifics. As a feature here is that quartet going about their daily business in those days without the film cameras present.