Ian Simpson

I love the idea of Railway Speedway, finally gives a justification for all those double-track continuous layouts. And I'll definitely include a drag strip on my next shunting plank. But having read some Edwardian commuters' complaints to the company, I think I'll be betting on the navvies in the race.

Many thanks, Chris. I'm definitely looking forward to reading your update!

Yes, with a little bit of painting. I'd suggest using white / cream for shirt sleeves, mid-brown (=corduroy) or grey for the trousers, waistcoats and caps, and I think they'll look great. Just think how BBC Drama would costume the Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, and you're there. The poses already make them look suitably down-trodden, and being HO they'll look malnourished as well. And now I've got that off my chest, I'm off to join Momentum ...

That is a very interesting suggestion, Dave! They would be perfect in terms of size, and some N gauge drives do seem to be quite cheap as well. I think the problem might be the diameter of the replacement 16.5 mm axles. The thinnest HO/OO axles I know have a diameter of 1.5 mm. Does anyone know whether any N gauge chassis would take such axles without major engineering work?

Wishing you the very best with the project, I'd love to read updates on it. And that's still one of my favourite films.

Looks very good. But isn't that quite an intensive service on the Ffarquhar branch, and can it be justified?

Many thanks, Gary, now I'm glad I posted it warts and all, instead of waiting until I'd taken some better photos of the John Bull.

In addition to the Norris 4-2-0, Bachmann produced models of two other early US locomotives, the De Witt Clinton and the John Bull. Unlike the Norris loco, both these models have tender drives. Second-hand models frequently turn up at affordable prices on eBay (affordable, of course, if you don't have to use the US postal service ). The De Witt Clinton was built by New York's West Point Foundry, running intermittently on the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road during 1831-32 before it was broken up as a failure. I can only assume Bachmann decided to model it because it was the first locomotive to work in New York state. Despite the prototype's shortcomings, the model itself is decidedly cute. Small and primitive in design, it is ideal for any 1820s/1830s industrial setting (quarry, coal mine, early gasworks, canal feeder, etc) or a freelance local line. Personally I think the De Witt Clinton is worth buying just for its powered tender, which is the smallest 16.5 mm gauge power unit I've ever seen. (Actually Bachmann's Gandy Dancer is even smaller, and it was used by Andy Young as the tender drive for his model of Locomotion. But its tiny disc wheels make it less suitable for conversions.) The distinctive yellow Clinton tender body is plastic and it can be easily prised from its metal chassis with a small screwdriver, revealing a four-wheel power unit that is just 25 mms long with a wheelbase of 16 mms. Malcolm Carlsson realised this wheelbase exactly matches the tender from Dapol's OO Rocket kit. He trimmed the tender down to HO proportions (but failed to give any details; I suspect he merely filed homeopathic quantities of plastic from the top of the tender to salve his conscience), extended the chimney slightly and added buffers before writing up the conversion for the July 1983 issue of Scale Trains. The photos below illustrate my take on his tender conversion. I used Blutack to temporarily hold the body in place for the photos; this worked okay, and I suspect this could even be a long-term fix if you take a bit more care than I did to place the blobs where they won't show. You could also cover the sides with paper to produce the smooth tender sides that became fashionable a few years later, or simply build a flat-sided tender from plastic card or cardboard. The photos below show the loco and Dapol tender with a couple of cut-down Smallbrook Studios cauldron waggons, perfect for any layout where the train can trundle across a bleak Northern or Cornish moor. Peter Seviour's Pockerley Wagon Way shows early scenic layouts don't have to be large to be attractive! -------- The John Bull locomotive was built by Robert Stephenson at Newcastle in 1831 for the Camden & Amboy Railroad. He didn't include a tender so the local engineers built their own, which was basically a shed on wheels to carry wood and water. (New England didn't have much coal, but it did have an awful lot of trees and a hunger for newly-cleared land.) The leading bogie with its prominent cow-catcher was added the following year to help the loco navigate the railroad's sharp curves. Later in its life it also received a cab and a large smoke-stack chimney. Removing the bogie and other American features such as the large headlamp and the bell produces a loco similar to Stephenson's “Samson” class goods locomotive, and it could also be converted to a Stephenson “Planet” 2-2-0 by replacing the front wheelset. But John Bull's haystack firebox is not typical of the locos that Stephenson built for British railways - it could be replaced fairly easily with a more traditional firebox top made from card or thin plasticard. The tender can't be converted to an Anglicised version without an incredible amount of work, because the motor fills the complete tender up to roof level. It would be much easier to build a replacement British-style tender (perhaps using the Dapol kit?) and then convert the John Bull's tender to a primitive van that can run immediately behind the replacement tender. In fact, turning the tender through 180 degrees makes it look rather like an early brake van (although that over-hanging bit of roof, now at the rear, will still have to go). The tender is sitting a bit high in the photo below because I used the OO wheels supplied with the Dapol kit, instead of using smaller 10.5 mm diameter HO wheels. BTW the train in the photos below, including the 5 and 9 Models wagons behind the van, is exactly 12 inches / 30 cms long. Or I guess you could always model the St Etienne and Lyon Railway, where at least one of the locos had a similar tender... For more information on all the prototypes modelled by Bachmann plus other fascinating early American locos, I recommend Smith H Oliver's The First Quarter-Century of Steam Locomotives in North America, free to read or download at www.gutenberg.org/files/51976/51976-h/51976-h.htm Special thanks to Nigel Hill for drawing my attention to Malcolm Carlsson's article, and for all his support and advice. And for Nigel's own suggestions on the John Bull tender see this blog entry. Update 3/4/18: the Bachmann webpage that held service sheets for these locos doesn't seem to be working properly. As a result I have copied the diagrams from these two sheets below for reference so that modellers can see how the parts fit together:

That does look nice. And is that CDC's Millwall Extension Rlwy tank making the Terrier look like a giant? Hope you're feeling better after a couple of days' well-deserved rest.

All the best today, Gary! Hope you're feeling much better soon.

I do like the way you used the design of the roof to correct the bowing-in at the sides. A very useful tip!

Well, I've really enjoyed reading all your Shelf Island entries - I think they are excellent. I may not always have clicked the like button, but I have always found them very useful and informative. And very well-written as well.

It's certainly showing now, so it's a pleasure to click the Like button!

Yes, I like dioramas a lot - and this one is excellent!

Well, I loved the photos, so many thanks for posting them. I'm just sorry that I wasn't able to make the exhibition because I was working all weekend, very glad it was so successful. And the station building at the back of Surrey Arms is wonderful.

Well, I do like a challenge, bruv! Many thanks. It's been a slow process of trial-and-mostly-error, but it has also been a very interesting project that's taught me a lot about modelling and given me a great deal of enjoyment. Just to reassure you, I don't do this weird stuff out of perversity. It's more necessity being the mother of invention - I'd like to do things the normal way, but I find that either I can't afford it or I can't make it work!

The magnet certainly seems strong enough, David, and I think the coupler arm is sensitive enough for the couplers to work on 4 mm stock. I will see if I can find some 4mm stock to try it out and report back, although I won't get a chance until the weekend. Yes, probably best with short trains and light loads - Cornish branch lines yes, the WCML maybe not. I guess the longer buffers might be an issue with modern 4mm stock, but the flat metal section on the coupler is around 5 mm long and it can be glued to the bottom of the buffer beam at any point along its length, so that does allow quite a bit of leeway. UPDATE: I was wrong about modern stock! I tried gluing a coupler to the bottom of a Hornby 7-plank wagon's buffer beam, and found the distance was too great for the magnet to move the coupler arm. Oh well ...

Working couplers can be a problem for early stock, as most commercial couplers are designed for the larger vehicles that developed later in the 19th century. Funnily enough, deciding on a coupler was one of the biggest challenges I found when I started modelling the 1840s, which is why I thought a separate post on the subject might be useful. Most British HO modellers use Kadee couplers. They are robust, very reliable and they make shunting an absolute pleasure. But the HO couplers are designed for 20th / 21st century stock, and the ferrous pins (designed to separate the couplers when they pass over the magnetic uncoupler) do tend to catch on point blades if they have been fitted to the lower headstocks / buffer beams of the smaller 1840s stock. Kadee makes 2 mm couplers, and a long shank 2 mm Kadee coupler might work with the Bachmann locos and coaches. But I decided to use DG 2mm couplers instead, and I'm very pleased with them. I think they are unobtrusive and they work a treat, as well as being excellent value. DG couplers are normally supplied as a make-it-up-yourself set, with a fold-up brass fret plus a length of wire to create the loop and the arms that are engaged by the magnet. I was able to get some ready-made couplers, and I'm not sure I would have dared to try them otherwise. But actually they're not too difficult to build. I decided to use one-directional couplers – in other words, the full loop-and-hook at one end of the wagon, but just the bare hook at the other end. It means sacrificing some of the auto-coupling features, but this was an experiment and I like to keep any moving parts as simple as possible. So I bought ready-made couplers for the full loop-and-hook couplers, and a separate kit for the stand-alone hooks. The basic hooks are very easy to make up: just cut them out of the fret and bend the end of each coupler so that the hook on the top of the coupler is facing slightly backwards (i.e. towards the body of the wagon) to catch the loop of the full coupler. All that is needed for the Norris loco is to trim down or remove the thin plastic pin that has been moulded on the tender, designed to hold the coupling bar from the Bachmann coach. Then the flat plate of the B&G hook is simply glued to the bottom of the tender, resting on the plastic housing that surrounds the moulded pin. (I left the brass hook unpainted in this exercise so that it would show up a bit more prominently in the photos - but I will paint it matt black eventually...) Fitting the full coupler to the front of the Prussia coach is just as easy. Simply undo the small cross-headed screw and remove the plastic connecting bar, then glue the flat plate to the bottom of the coach beneath the buffer beam. Despite being designed for 2mm stock, these couplers work very well, and I suspect they could be used with early-Victorian 4mm models as well. Given their small size I was surprised to find the turning circle that they give is rather more generous than I need, so in future I will glue then slightly further back under the buffer beams. I use 2mm B&B magnets for the uncouplers. These are small enough to fit unobtrusively between the rails of PECO OO/HO track if the sleepers are slightly opened out. How to hide the magnet? At this point, I have to admit that even I think my chosen solution for ballasting the layout is a bit dodgy. Poundland sell a pack of sandpaper in mixed grades for, well, for £1, as it happens. The backing paper on the sheets is very thin; not great for DIY work but so thin it's ideal if you want to lay it over the sleepers of your track! So I've shaken and vacuumed off as many loose grains as I can, spread a few coats of matt varnish over the sheets to hold the rest in place, and cut out strips of the treated sandpaper to act as over-the-sleeper ballast. BTW the unpainted figures in this photo are a new range of 1850s figures from Andrew Stadden. Fashionistas might notice that the skirts worn by the more upper-class women are slightly fuller than one would have seen in 1840, but otherwise these are ideal for the period. Andrew also sells these figures in 4mm. And the bollards on the edge of the platform are for rope shunting, but that's a post for another day.

Not an expert on landing craft, but many years ago I did build the Airfix landing craft (see e.g. http://atpkits.co.uk/shop/airfix-lcm-sherman-tank/) Would that be any good?

It all looks great to me, Gary! I'm amazed at the quality, the ingenuity and the output of your modelling (not to mention you writing all the posts!) I'm glad there's room in the hobby for draughtsmen and model engineers who are concerned with accuracy and detail ... and I'm even more glad there is plenty of room for the rest of us who aim at an overall effect and the creation of a believeable layout. All the best, Ian

"600 pieces of rail and 1375 pieces of wood" ... that's quite some task, but then the turntables do look very good indeed. Using three link couplers with such small, light wagons is an eye-opener as well! I'm going to explore that myself when I've finished admiring the appearance of your wagons.

Excellent modelling. I do like the press-stud idea, and the gold pin locators are clever too! If you don't mind, I'm going to nick both of them.

Sorry, Lancs, I have been a bit insular! They are simply pieces of stiff plastic the same size as a bank or credit card, and they are given away in shops that sell lottery tickets. They aren't the actual ticket, just an aid that lets players make a note of their numbers and carry them around in their purse, wallet or pocket until the draw takes place. Luckily you don't have to buy a ticket to pick up a handful of the cards. I haven't been able to add an image to this reply, so I've put a couple of extra photos at the end of the blog entry to show you what they look like. Unlike bank cards they are completely smooth, and underneath the glossy colours on the surface they are essentially 0.030 in (0.75 mm) thick plasticard. So they are great for modelling. Unfortunately they don't do planked versions, but Slaters make thin plasticard with 1 mm and 2 mm planking and so I simply paste a piece of this over the rigid Lottery card floor to prevent the bad language that is always involved in my attempts to cut parallel lines. BTW the videos on your blog really are excellent! I think even I could build a colour signal gantry after seeing your last one!

Now that really is a niche item, Chris! Thanks!

Yes, working horses are a problem! Although a cameo with a shunter hitching a stationary horse to a stationary wagon at the end of a siding could look pretty good. Mention of rope traction reminds me of another early railway company. When the Canterbury & Whitstable opened in 1830 it had rope haulage on several steep sections, but it also used horses and a Stephenson 0-4-0 loco Invicta which was similar to Rocket. It would be reasonably easy to bash the Dapol Rocket kit into Invicta, while Smallbrook Studios' chaudron wagon is suitable for the C&WR's wagons (it was primarily a goods line linking Canterbury to the coast, although it also carried passengers). Whitstable harbour in the 1830s would make a very attractive layout. I'm also fascinated by a third alternative to loco working that had a brief vogue in the mid-1840s: atmospheric railways. On my Bucket List is a model of Croydon station in the 1840s, possibly with the London & Croydon railway's atmospheric line included. The pipe between the rails would probably be 5mm plastic tubing, and I might use an aquarium pump to provide the power ...