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I have sometimes wondered how rigorously overheads were treated when the Brighton reported the costs for locos that had been built at Brighton Works. Labour and materials (particularly the reuse of scrap material) were accounted to the penny. But, once you have a factory, it would be very tempting to regard it as a sunk cost on the revenue account and only take account of the marginal cost of the new build activity, much of which would fall to the capital account. J C Craven was particularly adept at trickle construction of new locos in pairs, which suited his taste for experimenting with all the latest patent devices. An incidental benefit would have been the development of a drawing office. Taking the distinction between cost and value, there would have been considerable perceived value to the company to maintain a stable workload and therefore employment of its skilled workforce. Best wishes Eric

Steffan Lewis used to have the same thing under his Maindee East layout but he rarely used it, having set off the fire alarm at one venue

Just had a brief skip through the article, and I think that it doesn’t touch on the main point, that railway workshops needed to carry out repairs and maintenance of the fleet through the life of the machines, possibly over thirty years and more. The private contractors were interested in new build, and maybe supplying a batch of renewal components such as boilers, but didn’t get involved in bread and butter work of looking after their products, here or America. Go round any of the Railway workshops, and “new build” was a lesser activity than scheduled repairs, and had the virtue of keeping the workload and resources balanced, always assuming that traffic needs kept fairly level.

I was rather lucky as I saw Laira at a show and had a chance to discuss it with John while he showed me all the bits. Regarding bought in locos. In the US most railroads seemed quite happy to buy standard classes if they suited them. Whereas most British Railways wanted distinctive locos. Don

Thats in 2mm ? Very impressive indeed.

John Dornom's shed is featured here. The chimney smoke looks pasted in, but the light haze hovering above ground in the second photo is superb, I think. Not pea soup though! https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/67-how-realistic-are-your-models-photo-challenge/&do=findComment&comment=1048664

Yes a bit odd that the author doesn't go more into that, although it does crop up occasionally (e.g. mid-p59). It's also not clear why it developed differently in the US, although in fairness that would be a whole study in itself. More generally speaking, I found this table interesting: Source: Boughey, D. (1999) The Internalisation of Locomotive Building by Britain's Railway Companies during the Nineteenth Century. 'Business and Economic History , Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 57- 67, 1999

Whilst I agree that the atmospheric use of such machines can impart something rather unique I would be wary of their use. Frequently used , or were used at events, disco's etc for a useful addition to the lighting ( I used them at most gigs when asked for ) they are no longer allowed generally due to being a possible fire hazard and venue managers are not often willing to allow the use of such machines. Although the better ones give a nicely regulated "fog" they also generate a fair amount of heat due to the element within the machines. Not certain if canisters are still available but I'd suggest using these for a one off scene if purely wanting to get that haze affect. I cannot recall the name of the modeller who created a superb French themed layout but I believe he also DJ's and uses a smoke generator to great effect on his layout ( its somewhere on YouTube ). Maybe with care they could be used at home, and a word of caution......Do Not try to adapt the output into a smaller tube for that "secret outlet" on a layout.....I know ! G

John Dornon used a stage smoke machine for his model of Laira Engine shed to have smoke and steam coming out around models. If strikes me you could use one to create a fog effect no point in a real pea souper but one of those where it drifts across in waves could be effective. You might want a bit of yellow lighting if it is meant to be smog. Come to think of it there may have been touches of that in some of the Little Duck End videos. Don

see: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/entry/13643-special-unique-photo/ It was a very difficult scene to create, one April 1st.

Point of pedantry: E.B. Wilson's Jenny Lind didn't appear until the following year - a batch of ten for the Brighton (David Joy had developed it from sketches he had made of an engine designed by the much-maligned Grey) followed by 24 for the Midland. An interesting link there - part of the success of the Jenny Lind was down to eliminating Grey's valve gear, which was done at the insistence of Grey's succesor - not Craven, but Thomas Kirtley, who held the of Locomotive Superintendent for just under ten months before his premature death. Thomas was of course the elder brother of Matthew, who had pipped him to the post of Locomotive Superintendent on the formation of the Midland, although Thomas had held that position on the largest constituent, the North Midland, and Matthew on the relatively insignificant Birmingham & Derby Junction. One can imagine Thomas dropping the hint to his brother as to just what excellent machines Wilsons were building for him.