Brassey

Thanks for the interest. A number of the Tenbury trains started/finished at Ludlow so didn't run through Berrington an Eye. There was one GW Goods train to Stourbridge Junction that did and a RR GW Cattle train from Leominster to Bewdley. Both these are on my build list and gives me an excuse to build a saddle/pannier tank and/or a Beyer Goods to run them

I'm told that Brassmasters are working on a 2361 for the Martin Finney range I too have a Beyer to build (one day!)

PO Wagons generally split between those owned by the collieries and those operated by local coal merchants. You could research which coal merchants were active in Monsal Dale or thereabouts in the period. These kind of wagons were usually the ones to be found in local yards The collieries sent large quantities from the pits in long mineral trains to whoever has place the order. If your layout was on a main line near any collieries then there would be coal traffic in one direction and empties in the other. There are several books on PO Wagons not least the series by Keith Turton featuring many photos. PO wagons were built by private contractors such as Gloucester or Roberts and were not generally supplied by the railway companies. In terms of kits, POWsides produce pre lettered PO wagons and transfers as did Slaters and Cambrian which you can pick up on auction sites. I have come to the conclusion that life is too short to hand letter PO Wagons as my layout is on the West to North route out of South Wales and I need a lot of them so my source is pre lettered. Others may differ

I understood from Barry that he was developing some LNWR wagons. It would be good to see these in production.

The tail lamp in the centre was mounted on a shelf inside the van so that it can be tended from the inside, with the light shining through a hole in the end wall. Later a hinged flap was provided at the end, giving access to lamp brackets which held the lamp outside. The side lamps are on hinged brackets so that they could be rotated out of sight when not in use or for attention. In addition to the bracket being hinged, the lamp itself can rotate on the bracket in order to present different colours for different purposes. Normally three red lamps were shown at the rear of goods trains, but where there were extra tracks, the following lights had to be shown to indicate to following trains which line the train was travelling on: Four track sections, 3 red lights on the fast line, but when on the slow line a while light on the side nearest to the fast line. Loop lines adjacent to double track lines, a while light on the side nearest the main line. Loop lines off four track lines, both side lamps to be removed. Where brake vans were left in goods yards, guards were required to turn the sidelights inside before leaving the van. Source: Richard Foster "Forty Years of the London and North Western Railway Society"

Thanks. Having now dug out some old Romford wheels, I seem to recall that they had to be tapped 10BA or is my memory playing tricks with me. If so, my 1970's tapping might not have been that precise so the crankpins might be a bit out for P4.

Well I must have missed that thread though I did buy some P4 axles - any clues which post please

The carriage workings do not specify the actual make up of the local branch trains but most of the pictures in "The Tenbury and Bewdley Railway" show GWR 4 wheelers In addition at http://www.gwr.org.uk/prot36.html it states coach T36 Brake Third No. 949 was allocated to this work as built so I am sure my assumption is correct.

PM sent

Hi Duncan I'd already sent you these following your appeal on this site a few months back. We spoke about it at the EMGS skills day Peter

I need to build a whole fleet of loco coal wagons in 4mm to represent the loco coal trains that ran from Abergavenny up to Crewe. On the basis that they did not stop at my station but passed straight through, a large amount of detail will never be visible on a moving train. Your thread has inspired me to get on and scratch build a few though to supplement the Ratio kits I have managed to collect thus far.

You will find that a lot of these "authors" are loco fanatics and nothing else. Same with Ted Talbot and the LNWR.

On an old Great Western loco the vacuum pump was operated by the cross head and emitted a hiss every revolution of the wheels. It obviously did not operate when the loco is stationery.

Hi Mikkel, No not quite right. No Belpaires here. Quarryscapes of this Parish is probably utterly confused by the amount of number plates I have ordered as I constantly change my mind but here is the current running order: 1. No 835 inside bearings, short 15' wheelbase, slim Wolverhampton style valance, round top firebox, half cab. Allocated to Leominster in 1912. Rescued M&L (now Gibson) kit which only came with a 15' chassis 2. No 848 outside bearings, long 15' 6" wheelbase, deeper Swindon valance, round top firebox, enclosed cab. Allocated to Kidderminster in July 1912. Mainly modified Mallard kit with High Level 14xx chassis. This was one of the locos that was finished in the lined Chocolate livery. 3. Malcolm Mitchell 517 kit. I had intended to build this as a long wheelbase outside bearings, Swindon valance style half cab round top but it is likely to be no 1482 which was allocated to Hereford in 1912 but was also an enclosed cab. What is interesting is that, according to John Copsey's The 517 Class At Work in the Great Western Journal, on 25 Aug 1911 no 1424 worked the 11:40 Hereford to Craven Arms. Now according to the Carriage Diagram of October 1911, this was made up of LNWR stock so we have a GWR engine pulling an LNWR train. This increasing the scope of use for these 517s but the Mitchell kit won't be built till I get round to that train. In the meantime, here is a scan of a Polaroid of 835 as she was when I first finished her in the early 1980's when the kit first appeared. She is posed in front of an Airfix signal box my brother built: These are most of the parts I rescued though I won't be using the tanks sides: This is how the beams are arranged to allow the centre axle to be driven and yes the offside front Gibson wheel is really that wobbly though I have done my best to remedy this.: The original Sharman wheels were donated to number 848. The spare couple of axles of Gibson wheels that I had to replace them must have a much bigger throw cos I had to take a large amount out of the footplate to clear the cranks, now all hidden. Edit to add picture

GWR 517 class No. 835 on trials on the layout this weekend: This shows the salvaged parts from the M&L kit namely the smokebox, firebox, cab floor, splashers (and buffer beams). The Wolverhampton style valance is superfluous to requirements in the Malcolm Mitchell kit as are the cab side sheets (cut down from the enclosed cab variant). The tanks sides and footplate are Mallard. No. 848 is at a similar stage of progress. Need to scratch build two armchair style bunkers now for them.

http://www.lnwrs.org.uk/Mystery/index.php?display_large_photo_desktop=233 Apparently this is on the GER with the two LNWR carriages damaged.

Well the High Level RoadRunner and Mashima 1224 fit. This is the short wheelbase version 517 with inside bearings to the trailing axle.

In July 1909 the GWR painted County Tank 2225 Crimson Lake "like Midland Railway engines but a little lighter" RCTS. The was 3 years before the colour was supposedly adopted for coaching stock in 1912.

Well you might as well take some shots of the Station building too which was extended by digging out another storey below the existing building. This is why you have to go up to the platforms.

Here is the 517 boiler assembly complete with round top firebox. The design of this owes much to Guy Williams' article on building a 517 in MRJ a long while ago. Ignore the jaunty angle of the motor cutout, this will be hidden by the tank sides. It is posed on the footplate and chassis for number 835. There is method in this; it is so that I can assess how to fit a motor and High Level gearbox into that version which is using anything I can salvage from an old M&L 517 including the chassis. More on that later. There now follows an extensive period of testing for clearances etc. on the layout. This is a real chicken and egg situation as, in order to test stock you need a layout and in order to test a layout, you need stock. Progress on the layout has ground to a halt whilst I build stock. I have now gone back to bug fixing track. Pic shows one of the Dean Goods currently under test.

IIRC in my experience as a fare paying passenger, you can't go beyond the end of the platforms where most of them are located. No idea of access outside the station area. However, I have seen groups being shown around whilst I've been there so you may be able to get permission.

I guess I should really start this thread at the very beginning, a very good place to start as the song goes. But where is the beginning. Well the first train through Berrington & Eye (the station I am building) in the Summer of 1912 was the 23:40 Ludlow to Hereford GWR Goods train passing Berrington & Eye just after midnight. According to the Great Western working time table this was a “Stone Train”; pretty atypical and it arrived at Ludlow from Hereford less than an hour earlier so not necessarily the first train of the day but the last of the previous. I have made a start on this train as the stone would have been from Clee Hill (well I’ve bought a wagon kit). Thereafter followed a procession of mail trains and express freights all with specialist vehicles that would be again quite atypical and require the building of vehicles of limited use at this stage.. So the decision was to start with the first passenger train of the day which was the Leominster to Woofferton GWR circuit train which stopped at 06:47. It then proceeded to Woofferton from whence it worked the Tenbury and Bewdley line until it returned at 20:59 terminating at Leominster at 21:05. So that’s the beginning and where this thread is going back to. Ludlow, Leominster, Kidderminster all had a number of 517’s tanks on shed in 1912 for this kind of local passenger work and, as these are amongst my favourite Great Western locos along with the Dean Goods, it was the excuse I needed to build a few. The train also gives me the opportunity to build a rake of GWR 4 wheelers as these seem to make up the majority of stock used on that branch. For the 517 I had hoarded away a vintage Mallard kit to use along with an M&L (now Gibson) whitemetal version too I’d built from equally as long ago. However, I think it was Miss P of this Parish who pointed out that the Mallard kit was too wide and only suitable for a much later version. The M&L version suffers from similar width problems. Undeterred, I set about narrowing the Mallard footplate and the side tanks and shortening the length. Again I have cheated as I have a Malcolm Mitchell 517 kit to use as a template. As stated earlier above, I had also acquired some spare Mallard etches from way back and these included some from the 517 along with the DG and a Duke! So these spare etches will be used as a basis to relaunch the M&L 517. So that will make 3 x 517’s in total including the Mitchell version I am building. This first one will be the early enclosed cab version with the “armchair” bunker and longer wheelbase with outside axle boxes. Here is the current state of play. It features a modified High Level 14xx chassis and an old Sagami motor, which just fits, rescued from the now partly dismantled M&L model. And it all seems to come together. I've tightened up the crankpin nut since.

Thanks Mikkel. I did not know that Nucast did one so I will look out for that. And Duncan yes PeterK's was the only etched brass one with the River class that I know of. I have an old Jidenco Armstrong Goods for which I have pinched the 2500 gal Dean tender for this Dean Goods. The Broad Gauge Rover class has an older type of sandwich frame tender which I am planning convert and use on the Armstrong and should look like this: And here's one behind a Dean Goods and I am tempted: http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrls817.htm

Quite likely, though the source of this is long lost as it was in a plain plastic bag. It was the only one I could find that I could just plonk on for purpose of the photo without drilling a hole. The safety valve is PeterK. I've been collecting this stuff for a while!

Boilerbands, washout plugs and handrail knobs added. Boiler yet to be secured as well as the fittings. Roof, handrail and sandboxes next. Plus a lot of cleaning up...