Brassey

I took the option of making longer axles at 34mm but, low and behold despite looking hopeful, once the rods and crankpins were on, they fouled the platforms and neither is there clearance for the dock in the goods yard. So that must have been a reason why the AGW were shorter. I have one other completed outside frame loco (Barnum) and I based the axle length for that on the Ultrascale axles (32mm). This clears the platforms so is the standard to aim for. The next option that remains is to move the outside frames and revert to shorter axles. All this has thrown up another issue though. The Barnum is 4 coupled whereas the the longer rod length of a 6 coupled may prove more of a problem with the clearance. I have some other GWR outside frame locos to build, so I will try to see if the problem persists and is a bigger clearance issue. These will be built pretty much out of the box with components almost exclusively from the Alan Gibson stable. Hopefully his wheels should work on his locos! But with P4 who knows. Until then, these 0-6-0's are on hold.

In the Summer of 1912 the 09:45 Birkenhead to Bournemouth was made up of: Van Third, Compo, Dining Car, Van Third (LSWR Corridor stock). An ex-Manchester portion (dep.10:15) was added (presumably at Crewe) made up of: Van third, Compo, Van third (GWR Corridor Stock). The overall instructions stated that: "1. Through Trains must be formed with Coaches of the best class." Source: Great Western Railway Programme of Working of Coaches in Through Trains July 13th to September 30th 1912 inclusive

The Marshalling Diagrams were published to describe the make up of each train. For example, in pre-grouping days on the North to West joint line, the train would have been made up of carriages from both the LNWR and GWR. There were also other through carriages such as a Calendonian break composite that ran from Glasgow to Weston super Mare. The Sunny South Special was an LNWR train that ran down to the South Eastern cost. Marshalling Diagrams (that's what the LNWR called them anyway) unfortunately are rarer to find than Working Timetables (Service Timetables in GWR parlance). If you can get hold of one for the line and period you are interested in, then that should provide the information. A line Society may have access to copies. As a starter, most through carriages were break composites (for obvious reasons as they would have been marshalled many times between trains). GWR break composites are hard to come by but in 4mm Worsley Works have some kits.

There is a strategy to my building 2 outside frames together. Firstly they both shared the Armstrong Standard Goods S4 boiler. The also had springs above the footplate which is a challenge I want to tackle in one go. And I intend to build 2 outside frame tenders that also share the spring issue. So the Armstrong Goods now has a cab and rear splashers: Smokebox, boiler and roundtop firebox: The Beyer Goods, being bits of old K's kits, is further on but I have now hit a problem common to trying to get old whitemetal kits to work in P4: The width across the outside frames is 29.5 mm Alan Gibson OSF axles are measuring up at 31.75mm. (Ultrascale OSF axles that I have for a Duke and a City measure 32mm) With 2.25mm to spare, this does not leave sufficient clearance to fit the AGW outside cranks which are about 1.5mm thick and then a bit more needs to allowed for sideplay. The solution could be to fit thinner, brass cranks (and I do have some in my stash). But I am not sure about the appearance and also the idea of soldering them to the axles fills me with horror. Eagle-eyed would have noticed that the above shot is the Armstrong chassis not the Beyer one. I have used the AGW axles on the Armstrong as, being brass, the frames are more slender. These wheels are actually Mike Sharman. Mike in his wisdom did not cut down his axles so I have a number of over length axles that I can cut down and use on the Beyer. My worry now is if I make them too wide, they could foul on the platform edges. At 34mm (which might be what's needed here) that's 8'6" which is near to the loading gauge. Watch this space. For some reason I seem to be choosing to build the most challenging of things at the mo. Maybe it's lockdown! I seem to have similar problems with my Metro builds (common feature the springs above footplate) . In the meantime, here's the current status of the two goods engines, the Beyer just needs handrails and then onto those springs. As this was just a few parts on eBay, it did not come with any springs or castings. The Armstrong on the other hand has springs on the etch that need o be laminated up. Next stage, the remaining 4 splashers:

A 12 wheel Caley brake composite worked from Glasgow through to Weston-super-Mare prior to WW1. Caley Coaches make the correct diagram.

A bit premature. I put some skimpy pickup wire on and, on the rolling road, one got wedged in the spokes which caused a jam. Unfortunately the motor under power forced the quartering out. The whole thing has seized. These old wheels have been on and off various things so the lesson remains, don’t move wheels once on. (Also use thicker pickup wire).

I originally resurrected my old Wills GWR Metro tank to see if I could get its original Ultrascale EM wheels to work on my P4 layout. The short answer is no. Having got a free running chassis it refused to stay on the 18.83mm rolling road and would shoot off as soon as power was applied. With hindsight I think this is due to the wheel profile making the wheels overgauge despite the back-to-back being correct. Thus the wheels did not bed down and fully engage. The last straw was, when I tried the chassis on the body, the crankpins fouled the valance. Again this was due to the wheels being wider than P4. I could not face the prospect of yet again filing down another whitemetal valance to get P4 wheels to clear so applied plan B. This was to replace the wheels with P4 Alan Gibson wheels that I had spare. As can be seen the crankpins clear the valance, just: And it successfully stays on the rolling road under power: Lesson learned! PS: to the right on the bench can be seen the cab for the Armstrong Standard Goods. More on this later...

In pre-grouping days there were around 5 North to West expresses in each direction daily. There were no complete fixed formats because south of Bristol, some of the through carriages went on to Penzance whilst others didn't. They came back North attached to different services. So the balancing services were different. IIRC there was one complete train of GWR stock that left Liverpool Lime St. each day. I'm sure there was also one made up of LNWR stock that went South. The dining cars would have been in a fixed sub-set with a LNWR or GWR vehicle either side probably a brake composite. I doubt this changed much in LMS days as, in pre-computer days, it must have been a challenge to organise the timetables. My interest is pre-WW1 so I don't have much info after that though the LMS carriage diagrams probably still exist.

I can't remember how it went together either as It is at least 35 years since I originally built it. I must have used a saw to dismantle some of it. I came to realise that the smokebox is in two halves as it fell apart when I was soldering it to the new boiler! I still have the instructions which include an exploded diagram if anyone is interested. I'm pretty sure the SEF body kit will be the same as the Wills. Today the chassis and wheels received a coat of dirty black so these will be finally assembled when fully dry then the brakes fitted.

I'm currently rebuilding my old Wills Metro and a new chassis. This is a recent pic though things have moved on since. More details are in my blog:

The Broad Gauge Society do (or used to) lost wax castings

Yes but not always the case. This earlier one with S2 boiler; still lined though

Thanks Mikkel, I wondered if anyone would notice. The early Metros had far fewer rivets than on the Wills kit so I filed them off (you can see it on one of the early photos) and soldered in some wire as rivets. 18 each side but whose counting. It needs a lot of cleaning up which I hope to do towards the end. Of course it might not work in which case I'll probably file it flat. I do think they are noticeable and a quite feature of this loco:

Standard thread is here: Locos workbench: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124584-gwr-lnwr-pre-grouping-4mm-locos-workbench/

Not too sure it's worth putting much up but I've added the next stage to the blog. If I'd put a coat of Johnsons Klear on a Hornby RTR loco they'd be 100's of comments! There does not seem to be much interest in actually modelling something. (NB: Not bought any RTR since my brother and I had a layout in our bedroom and that's a long time ago)

As is my wont, I am batch building again, this time two GWR Metros (amongst other things). Another blast from the past: back in the day, M&L Leisure sold a discounted pack of 2 kits a couple of which I acquired. The 633 kit in the header photo became surplus to requirements but it has donated some of its contents to this (re)build of a Wills Metro - mainly the bunker - hence its inclusion in the header. The 850 is in the roundtoit pile These are the etches for the Rod Neep kit. The chassis has been built since this photo. They are dated 1986 But I am starting with rebuilding my Wills kit. The tank sides broke of from the front valance when I dismantled it. (can't remember when that was!) Edit: you can see that I've filed off the rivets on the right hand tank side to be replaced later. I srcatch built a new footplate based on the Neep one as a template and, having fitted the front and rear buffer beams, I then decided it needed some rivets which was a bit back to front: The Wills kit is designed around the extended later bunker so the ends needed shortening as marked on the pic Soldered to footplate with bunker plonked on to check along with the cab front in progress. Now to the boiler which needed rolling (this from Nickel Silver). Again the Neep kit providing a handy template Held in position with screws. In the meantime both the chassis completed, the guard irons being the last bit to be added. and chimney attached: Currently the chassis and wheels are in the paint shop before final assembly.

My kit came with a cast whitemetal chassis but I never used it. I scratchbuilt at least 2 for it. I think that South Eastern Finecast probably do an etched chassis for it. I was going to say I was open to offers for the EM Ultrascale wheels but they went into the paint shop this morning. Currently waiting for the primer to dry.

Yes like I said: "...height from the running plate." (The LNWR called the footplate, running plate)

I also have a set of those. Before they and jigs came along, I first used Romford EM extended axles for outside frame locos. Still got them.

Your build is impressive and quick compared to my efforts. I model the LNWR/GWR joint line but pre-grouping GWR is also still a challenge. The LNWR used many standard features whereas the GWR employed a myriad of alterations in boilers, livery etc. I happen to live quite close to what was the joint line in Cheshire between Chester and Manchester but happen to model a station just in Herefordshire about 100 miles down the A49.

I also have 2 x 4mm Coal Tanks that need doing (old Jidenco). I have a LRM 4mm Coal Engine on the go and the instructions gives dimensions of the spacing between the handrail knobs and the height from the running plate. IIRC it suggests marking the line in pencil. I have done this already successfully on a LRM Special DX . Unfortunately, I don't know if the Coal Tank uses exactly the same dimensions but if you need it I can send you the dimensions I have in 4mm and you can convert to 7mm.

Surely Mikkel the old broom handle was never discarded but used for something else! And so it continues - In these days of austerity/lockdown/80% salary furlough, I have become even more mean than usual and have looked to reusing things that I once discarded but never actually got rid of. OK I'm a hoarder. So this Wills Metro kit may have a London Road Models gearbox which I abandoned some time ago in favour of High Level boxes. I've so many of the LRM versions, I thought I'd put them to use. This Frankenstein's monster will also have the bunker from an M&L 633 kit that I decided long ago was surplus to requirements (the front sandboxes of that are on my Beyer Goods, the chimney went elsewhere long ago). The jury is still out on the EM Ultrascale wheels and whether they will run on my dodgy P4 track. If that fails, I do have a couple of axles of Gibson 5' 2" P4 wheels left over after I broke a set trying to get them off a Dean Goods! Anyway I seem to enjoy trying to make silk purses out of these pigs ears rather than attacking the pristine newer kits in their boxes. I must build some carriages though!

Here's a GWR 2-4-0 MetroTank on my Hobby Holidays jig this afternoon. This P4 chassis has twin beam compensation with hornblocks on every axle. I bought this jig as the late Geoff Holt, who wrote the Wild Swan series on Locomotive Modelling, used one. If it was good enough for him, it would do for me. Not cheap but it is extremely useful. Not least as I have found you can take the work off the jig to check it and then put it back on again sometimes the other way up! PS: my bench often looks like a bad game of pick-a-stick but here you can see a number of tools in play: 1/8" reamer, tapered broaches, back-to-back gauge, needle files, pliers and ruler. I have found kits where the rods don't match the wheelbase centres on the chassis so it's always worth checking.

Like a lot of my stash, this is like the fisherman's knife that's had 3 new blades and 2 new handles but still the same knife. I bought the Metro kit donkey's years ago and scratchbuilt a chassis in EM. Then swiftly moved to P4 and scratchbuilt a compensated P4 chassis. Then bought a new chassis and then bought an etched kit. The original EM chassis had Ultrascale wheels which the EM Gauge Society sold at the time. I recently put the EM wheels on the scratchbuilt P4 chassis to see if they would be usable and coxed around my P4 layout. Ultrascale wheels are nice and I was loathed not to use them. Scratchbuilt P4 chassis with EM wheels: Having satisfied myself that it might work, I thus embarked on another distraction of building not one but two Metros including rebuilding the whitemetal one. I have two chassis from the Rod Neep/Perseverance stable (the etch is dated 1986!). Herewith the second on my trusty Hobby Holidays jig. This one has twin beam compensation and dummy valve gear.

Possibly right. I might be mistaking the front lamp for the bufferbeam. Eitherway, I'm not changing it now. No 453 at Craven Arms circa 1910: