Midland Railway Company

[GWR8700]

That's brilliant, especially the view of the Blue Pullman going over Headstone Viaduct.  Thank you!

[Holmesfeldian]

On 13/07/2019 at 01:54, Holmesfeldian said:

 

Glad to help - we are now down to the last 1 or 2 copies of Midland Records Nos. 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13 & 14.
(Plenty of No. 26 and Nos. 29-35).

All other issues have now sold out!

 

Delete Nos. 5 & 9 from the above!

We now have only 1 or 2 copies left of Midland Record Nos. 1, 2, 8, 11, 12, 13 & 14

 

Remember these are brand new and free UK P&P.

 

[Compound2632]

Selling like hot cakes! The outgoing publications officer will be pleased.

 

No. 11 is, IIRC, the issue with reproductions of Derby LDO drawings for the 1121 Class 0-6-0T - in an article which is effectively and additional number of Midland Engines.

[Dave Hunt]

Today I got my 2-4-0 back from Bob Essery. I made it for Bob about 20 years ago and it has run on Dewsbury and the Warley club's Ellerton Road since then so all things considered it is in remarkably good condition. The flanges at the top of the rear boiler band are missing, the front vac pipe is a bit skew-whiff and there are a few very minor touching up spots to do on the paintwork but it has obviously been well looked after and I'm really pleased to have it back to join the rest of my stud. Like the others it has Portescap power and details of the paint, wheels etc. are as the majority.

 

 

Dave

[Tricky]

On 20/07/2019 at 21:10, Dave Hunt said:

Today I got my 2-4-0 back from Bob Essery. I made it for Bob about 20 years ago and it has run on Dewsbury and the Warley club's Ellerton Road since then so all things considered it is in remarkably good condition. The flanges at the top of the rear boiler band are missing, the front vac pipe is a bit skew-whiff and there are a few very minor touching up spots to do on the paintwork but it has obviously been well looked after and I'm really pleased to have it back to join the rest of my stud. Like the others it has Portescap power and details of the paint, wheels etc. are as the majority.

 

 

Dave

She’s a beauty. 

[jamie92208]

Over here in French France there are some Midland fans.   I went to see one layout last week.   Richard is a Gauge 1 collector and also a very skilled builder of locos and stock in that gauge.  He's built a circuit in his garden suitable for live steam and battery powered locos.   He didn't have any of his Midland coaches out but this lovely Belpaire was running.

Inside the house he has a large wall full of stock and amongst the clockwork and tinplate are these lovely's.

 

I hope to pay another visit to the layout soon and if Midland stock is running I will try and get some more photos and post them.

 

Jamie

 

[Titanius Anglesmith]

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

 

Inside the house he has a large wall full of stock and amongst the clockwork and tinplate are these lovely's.

 

 

 

 

That Tilbury tank 

[wagonman]

I see he's also a Peter Ackroyd fan...

[Tricky]

On 15/07/2019 at 19:14, Dave Hunt said:

Thanks Stephen and Nick - something I should have included.

 

A few photographs of engines that will feature on my MPD layout circa 1906/1907 or so. All are S7 and all except one are scratchbuilt and are many years old - the youngest being the H boiler 0-6-0 at a mere fifteen - and are lightly weathered as even the Midland's engines got a bit dirty in service. Sorry about the standard of photography - it definitely isn't high in my skill set!

 

Starting with said H boiler 0-6-0. this is one of those that were built from new with H boilers rather than being rebuilt from smaller boilered engines. I made it largely out of cussedness as several people at an S7 meeting declared that they were ugly locomotives (which I disputed) and later I read in a magazine that in order to scratchbuild 7mm locomotives you had to have a lot of machine tools. As a result I made this one using only hand tools (except, I admit, for the fluting on the coupling rods and the boiler fittings but I reasoned that these were available as castings so didn't count). Wheels and buffers are Slaters.

 

 

Then we have a Johnson Compound 2633 (sorry Stephen - missed you by 1) as running in about 1906 with simplified Deeley lining but before it was altered to have a Deeley regulator and paired with a six wheeled tender. Getting all the gubbins between the frames was interesting and not something I'd care to do in Finescale. Wheels are AGH castings.

 

 

Next is 0-4-4T No. 1636 which original was reputedly the last Midland engine to be painted green when built but in 1906 was crimson lake. It was originally built as a finescale model painted green and ran on the Matlock Bath layout that was made by David White but after that was broken up I converted it to S7 using re-profiled Slaters wheels and repainted it lake.  

 

 

Fourth is an open cab 0-6-0 No. 1980 that I original built for my son but he lost interest in railway modelling some years ago (poor parenting obviously)  

 

 

Then there is my Schenectady 2-6-0. When I was starting to research these engines I happened to meet the late Laurie Ward who offered me lots of valuable information and put me onto the Dewhurst collection at the Science museum as well as other sources. After I had built the model I used the fruits of the research, as well as that for the Baldwins that Tim Watson helped with and the Norris engines, to produce the Supplement to Midland Record dealing with the Midland's American locomotives. It was originally built to Finescale standards but later converted to S7. The driving wheels were cast for me by Alan Harris..

 

 

Next up is Johnson single No. 21 of the largest and last Class of these engines which, like the Compounds, original ran with bogie tenders. In order to fit working inside motion the drive is by two motor bogies in the tender. The model was promptly christened 'The Fastest Tram In The West' by the late John Horton and built to Finescale standards using driving wheels that Alan Harris cast for me. When John and Crimson Rambler finally persuade me that it would be a good idea to go S7 this was the first model I converted.

 

 

Finally is one of the few models I have built from kits. In this case I built it for Pete Kibble to run on his Severn Mill layout but when Pete went all modern and blue dieselish he gave it to me. I can't remember which make of kit it was but I ended up scratchbuilding the chassis (including most of the motion), boiler and a few other bits. You can see that it's had a lot of handling as the transfer numerals on the tank sides have partially worn away. I have yet to decide whether to replace them or just do some heavier weathering.  

 

All the locos are driven by Portescap motors with the exception of the Single, which has two home-made motor bogies in the tender with small coreless motors , the make of which I can't remember, and the Mogul, which has a Maxon driving through a home made gearbox as I couldn't fit a proprietary motor/gearbox combination into it and still have inside motion. Transfers are Methfix, brass numbers are Slaters, makers' plates by Guilplates or, in the case of the Schenectady, by Peter Thatcher from my artwork. Crimson lake paint is from a batch bought donkeys' years ago by David White from Joseph Masons of Derby, who I believe sometimes supplied paint to the Midland. 

 

The only one left is 2-4-0 No. 1505, which I hope to collect from Bob Essery next weekend, plus a few little industrial shunters.

 

All I've got to do now is strip down, clean and fettle them all and get the layout finished to house them. Don't hold you breath!

 

I hope all this is of interest.

 

Dave

 

 

Certainly is of interest! Can’t believe I hadn’t found this thread sooner. 

Beautiful locos and the finish seems to have a superb depth to it. 2633 looks familiar from MRJ 103. Seeing it in colour is a bit like stepping back in time to when I bought the mag, way back in ‘98. I drooled over it then and am now all over again, plus all the others on display, not least of all the single. Magnificent. 

I will watch with interest as this project continues and thanks for posting. 

[Tricky]

I have a prototype question as well..

I’m building a 1:24 weighbridge office and I’m a little uncertain of external paintwork colours. Reference to Midland Style seems to indicate outer window frames Venetian red (chocolate), inner frames cream, barge boards, fascias, downpipes etc cream, door and frame lake with black ironwork. Sounds like a bit of a combobulation to me! Have I interpreted that correctly?! 

[Dave Hunt]

On ‎28‎/‎07‎/‎2019 at 10:23, Tricky said:

I have a prototype question as well..

I’m building a 1:24 weighbridge office and I’m a little uncertain of external paintwork colours. Reference to Midland Style seems to indicate outer window frames Venetian red (chocolate), inner frames cream, barge boards, fascias, downpipes etc cream, door and frame lake with black ironwork. Sounds like a bit of a combobulation to me! Have I interpreted that correctly?! 

 

It is my interpretation of Midland Style that the standard colours for stations, goods depots and locomotive sheds were as you have outlined, the chocolate also being described as Venetian red or in those non-PC days as ' ni**er brown', the cream as Denbigh pottery and the doors dark crimson lake, which I am led to believe was actually very close to locomotive and carriage lake. It would seem logical to suppose that a weighbridge office would have the same colours.

 

Dave    

Edited July 29, 2019 by Dave Hunt
It wouldn't let me put ni**er in full

[Compound2632]

Doors: there is some photographic evidence for wood panelled doors being painted with light panels and dark framing (of the door, not the door frame) rather than an all-over dark colour (crimson lake) - which I'd interpret as Denbigh pottery cream and Venetian red. For example, photos of Hawes Junction c. 1900 and c. 1905, in Anderson & Fox, Stations & Structures of the Settle & Carlisle Railway (OPC. 1986).

[Dave Hunt]

Quite right Stephen, I'd forgotten that (hangs head in shame expecting to be voted out of office at the next AGM).

[Compound2632]

I don't think it's a resigning matter!

[Tricky]

Thanks chaps. The door in this case is flat vertical tongue and groove, so I will presumably go with the door and door frame lake all over. Other features painted as described above. Still sounds like a hotch-potch to me...! 

[Dave Hunt]

 

12 minutes ago, Tricky said:

Still sounds like a hotch-potch to me...! 

 

Don't forget the lemon chrome on signalboxes too.....

[Northroader]

To quote Dugald Drummond: “Tar the bluidy place over!!”

[Compound2632]

15 minutes ago, Northroader said:

To quote Dugald Drummond: “Tar the bluidy place over!!”

 

Do you have a citation for that quote?

[Northroader]

11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Do you have a citation for that quote?

Not much to do with Derby, Stephen, I’m afraid, but as you asked, it’s Hamilton Ellis, “The South Western Railway” (Allen & Unwin, 1956)

”But he was ever a terror at large. The company gave him a house on the south side of the Surbiton cutting, and he was won’t to go down to the station at any time- his hours were infinitely irregular- to watch his men and his engines. A safety valve blowing off, a whiff of dark smoke, and astonished passengers, tranquilly watching their trains, would see a redoubtable figure shaking his fist and waving his umbrella, while frightful language thunderclapped above the roar of the passing train. Someone was for the carpet! There is a little story about the house itself at Surbiton- it was called Morven. Being railway property, the company was responsible for painting and decorating it. One day when this was necessary, the paintshop foreman arrived from Nine Elms. The well-drilled maid said she thought Mr. Drummond was engaged; could she take a message? The man said he would be obliged if Mr. Drummond would say how he wanted the house painted. From the half- open door behind the girl a great voice suddenly bawled: “Tar the bloody place all over!”

(SWMBO has grabbed me this last week for some decorating, and I’m at one mind with the great man)

[queensquare]

12 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

 

Don't forget the lemon chrome on signalboxes too.....

 

Indeed.....

Jerry

[Compound2632]

29 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Not much to do with Derby,

 

Even the great Dugald does not escape the far-flung web of Derby connections. He was at Cowlairs with Johnson and Stroudley in the mid-sixties. They must have stayed on pretty good terms - his daughter Christine married Johnson's son James - he of the GNoSR.

[Caley Jim]

12 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Even the great Dugald does not escape the far-flung web of Derby connections. He was at Cowlairs with Johnson and Stroudley in the mid-sixties. They must have stayed on pretty good terms - his daughter Christine married Johnson's son James - he of the GNoSR.

Every Scottish Pre-grouping company came under the Drummond influence in one form or other! 

 

Jim 

[Compound2632]

4 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

Every Scottish Pre-grouping company came under the Drummond influence in one form or other! 

 

Forcing the Stirlings to find work abroad?

[Tricky]

Just harping back to my weighbridge colour scheme musings if I may....looking at photos of Bob Essery’s Ellerton Road, the Goods office there seems to show the door in lake and windows all in brown. No cream. Is this another possible scheme? 

[Tricky]

Last question before I let the subject drop - I promise.

Would anyone hazard a guess at a Halfords car paint close enough to Venetian Red?