t-b-g

As soon as I see the name "McGowan" my heart sinks! I started building a GCR Atlantic many years ago and rapidly came to the conclusion that it was up there with the worst kits ever produced. A new pair of frames, a new bogie, a new footplate, a new cab and a new tender were needed to make it look anything like what it was supposed to be. I used their boiler and firebox but after soldering them all together I had to file off all their detail and then shorten the assembly by 2mm and lower it by the same amount. I lost the will to carry on and it never did get finished. Funnily enough, the chimney, which so many kits get wrong, was spot on! It appears that the D9 kit might be a bit better but to a true GCR enthusiast, there are a few things that are just not quite right. The splashers are one of the most attractive features of the D9 and on the kit, the lovely curve doesn't go down to the footplate enough between the wheels and the beading on the cab should carry on curving and not straighten towards the back. The coupling rod pin cut out should be at the centre of the arc of the rear beading and in the kit it clearly isn't, which just spoils the elegant lines and proportions for me. The cab roof is poor too. There should be an angle on the edge with the thin part to the outside, so the edge of the cab roof should be thin rather than thick. I think, as always, it is a balancing act between work involved and final results. The choice between putting a kit together quickly and getting the loco running, rather than spending many a long hour altering bits or replacing them for what some may regard as a tiny improvement. The D9, in original form, was one of the best proportioned locos ever to go on the rails in this country. With many locos, I can look at them and think "If that bit was a bit longer or shorter, it would look better". With the D9, I cannot think of anything I would change. They were less well proportioned after rebuilding with bigger boilers but still fine looking locos. One did get rebuilt again with a smaller boiler later in life. I look forward to seeing the finished loco, although I suspect that I am hoping for too much if I want to see it in full magnificent GCR livery rather than 1930s black.

Sad news indeed. I didn't know Richard other than a couple of brief chats at shows. I do know one or two of his operating team a bit better and had been invited to come up to visit, which I never managed to get around to doing. As often happens with these things, it is too late now, which I regret greatly. He was a man who tackled projects way above and beyond what most of us would dare to dream of trying. I remember watching the team assemble that great French viaduct at Wigan show a few years ago and thinking that the number of people who could and would not only build something like that but transport it to shows must be tiny. Maybe he was unique in that respect. But it was Castle Rackrent that I liked best and he showed that he didn't just think big, he did it with much modelling style, skill and finesse. For me, he was right up there with the Denny`s, the Dyer`s and the Ahern`s of the hobby.

The B7 on Knutsford was one of the test etches from the "shrunk down" Gladiator kit. Roy Jackson's was the other. Roy's is not finished as he is was thinking about ways to make the rather unusual slidebar assembly but there wasn't much, if anything, left to do other than that.

I have posted this story before but in one of Richard Hardy's writings (I think it appeared in the GC Society Journal some time ago) he wrote about being at Retford during the war and there being a bit of a commotion on the platform. He went out to see what it was and found it to be a B7 on a 27 carriage train. After a bit of a struggle, it got the whole lot going. I have also seen it written that if you asked any GCR crew which loco they would want to get a difficult load over Woodhead, then they would always opt for a B7. I know there was a plan to reduce the Gladiator B7 kit to 4mm scale, which sadly fell by the wayside. I would certainly have had one, given the chance. Now I have one of the 7mm kits to have a tinker with and I am looking forward to it greatly. History has been a bit unkind to them but I think it seems to have been re-examined recently and the general view seems to be that on the types of trains and the route they were used on, any loco would have been a bit heavy on coal.

I wonder if the green vehicle livery dates from the period when buildings were painted two tone green.

For a check rail gauge, I have several lengths of 2mm x 1mm section (some are nickel silver and some are brass, it makes no difference). These are chemically blackened to prevent them getting soldered in place. If you have several, it allows you to set the wing rails either side of the crossing V. The first one I put in using a full width track gauge and one 1mm strip. The second one I put in using two 1mm strips. I rarely use a roller type gauge now. I have some flat plate jigs (I work in EM so they are 18.2mm), which are rectangular but with a slot cut in the end so they will go vertically over other rails. They are about an inch long so they give a tiny bit of gauge widening round curves too. I do have a collection of roller gauges that I have collected over the years. Some from the EMGS and others from other manufacturers and when I put them over track that I have built using my 18.2mm flat plate gauge (which is accurate and has been checked with my vernier), I find that none of them are exactly right! So it is worth being a bit wary. It is one of the reasons why I stopped using them.

The NLR I built was long before the etched frame kit was available and it still has the white metal block. I used Romford wheels which have too many spokes so I started to modify them by cutting all but 4 spokes from one wheel with the idea of replacing 3 metal spokes with 2 black plastic ones. Then I bought some correct Sharman wheels which never got fitted. So it has been running for years with one 4 spoke wheel. Yet another unfinished model. Thanks for the kind words about the layout. It is now part of a system with 5 stations, 3 of which are just wired up track and a few mock up buildings but one day.....

The shed where Narrow Road now lives is 40ft long and has a door at each end to help air circulate. A couple of years ago a blackbird flew straight through, along the length of the layout and made a superbly accurate bombing run that would have qualified him to fly with the Dambusters. He got the complex junction at the station throat, the signal box and the station building in one pass. It was pure mischief. He had no motive and was in no danger from enemy fighters at the time. It is horrible stuff to clean off!

That is some lovely modelling there on a prototype that has nearly been modelled by me once upon a time. My dad once took a photo of 27505 (an NLR 0-6-0T) shunting there in 1947 and I got as far as building 3 locos, that one, the LNWR Chopper 6428 (both GEM kits) and the LNWR 0-4-2T (M & L kit), all in EM gauge, before the project ground to a halt in favour of something much bigger when more space became available. The locos now run on "Narrow Road", which has an unfinished canal wharf scene but not one based on Cromford. Seeing a taster of what it might have looked like has awakened some happy memories. Keep up the good work. Tony Gee

What have I started? Sorry Tony, it was a tongue in cheek remark that seems to have been taken up rather enthusiastically. As for coal, last time I needed some, I went several hundred feet underground and mined some for myself. Anybody can do it at the mining museum near Wakefield. I have seen the odd comment about scratchbuilding not really being about making something from raw materials unless you mine the ore and smelt it to make your own metal. That was my small contribution to the cause.

The hottest I have ever been exhibiting was at Manchester a few years ago. We took Leighton Buzzard and were upstairs in the sports facility. The poor old layout sulked like mad and we had a real struggle to run anything. I recall it was the hottest weekend on record for the time of year.

Shows do get reputations. Exhibitors sit around on the Saturday night and exchange tales of "I did such and such a show last month. What a shambles the catering was" or conversely "They were a great bunch and we were really well looked after". Of course the venue can't control the weather but saying that all is well as long as there are medical people on hand to deal with people who collapse is not really something that would encourage me greatly.

I have often seen exhibitors at the end of a show who can see that they will be ages getting away and just say "sod this for a game of soldiers" and do their own thing, going against instructions. They may get away quicker but cause extra delays for others. If I was involved in the organisation I would be looking to create space for a dedicated exhibitor parking space next to the marquee, even if it meant reducing the size of the show slightly. Size isn't everything in a show and there is so much there that seeing everything in a day was difficult if you spend some time riding on the train. I certainly missed big chunks as the show closed before I had got round.

I do think that something needs to change. There is much "word of mouth" on the show circuit and it doesn't take much for a show to get a reputation of "I wouldn't go there again". I spoke to a chap last week who had been on a layout there. Some of the operators had to go home and missed the Sunday as they were feeling I'll. He had stayed with a couple of others, who then had to do extra work operating and breaking down. He had been ill for a week afterwards. Hearing things like that may just put some people off accepting invitations. I don't think the breaking down arrangements helped either. After a show like that, all anybody would want to do is to get home asap. Hopefully the vehicle may have air con, which would have been bliss. The 90 minute wait to get the vehicle near is exactly what is not needed. I applaud the organisers for the idea and think that it is a show that has potential to become a major event in the model railway diary but a few things need to be sorted out first otherwise the people who trade and exhibit, having many shows to choose, may vote to go elsewhere. Edit to correct a predictive text silly!

Your first plan had a great deal of the feel of Chesterfield Market Place about it, the second one less so. That wasn't built by the GCR but became part of it in 1907. As a rare example of a real terminus in the area it has given me much inspiration over the years. My next project is a "what if" based in the area. The GCR was a late comer to Mansfield but what if the MS&LR had built a branch there earlier to compete with the Midland. Using the buildings and canopies from Chesterfield Central but with the building probably at ground level, that should give it the right feel. I wish you all the best with the project. Anything GCR is OK by me!

If it is any consolation to you, we have the same problems on t'other Buckingham. Fluorescent tubes and old eyes make it very difficult to tell colours apart and some have faded. So the cry goes up "where does pink go?" with the answer being "there is no pink, it is faded purple". Orange to red and green to blue are worst with white to yellow close behind. Of course I can see them all perfectly and it is the other operators who need tests for colour blindness......... But I am delighted to see the method used on the layout. The Denny way lives on. Cheers, Tony

Well, I asked the old boy. I asked him about watching the streamliners and without prompting he said "Was it called Silver Link?" and went on to recount how word got round that it was coming through on its first run and everybody went down to the sports field to watch it. I asked him how fast he thought it was going and he looked blank and said "It was a long time ago and I can't remember!". Seeing that lovely set on the layout makes me think that maybe Tony W should keep it and build an alternative set of 1930s stock to run as an alternative........

The only problem with either entering it into the cameo competition or exhibiting it is that it will show so many other layouts up! It is the sort of modelling that would cause me to make a special effort to get to a show to see, small or not.

No apology necessary as far as I am concerned. In some ways a forum like this can be a good place to talk about these things in a way that is not possible with people close to you. Maybe it warrants a thread of its own but I just thought that this one might not be the best place. Regards Tony

As one clever sod once said when I told him that his model railway looked real. "It is real, just small"

Is there a chance that we could get this thread of a "People and animals who have been killed on the railways and how much blood and gore they left" and back to what it does best. Talking about model railways. Such incidents happen. They are very unpleasant for those involved and they can have long lasting impact on the mental health of people. Bearing in mind what Tony W has to contend with in that department and that he has been personally affected by such an incident, it is hardly the place for such a discussion. Tony Gee

My friend is going to be building one of these before too long, so your choice of prototype couldn't be better. If you point out the problems and show us how you worked around them you will save him hours of "thinking time". I will look forward to seeing this one progress. Which livery and condition will it be in?

I have told this tale before on RMWeb but this brings it to mind. Many years ago I was exhibiting a layout at a show in Doncaster and a young girl told me "My granddad drove the Mallard". I have heard this many times at shows, with the loco either being Mallard or Flying Scotsman. I replied that I knew the names of some of the drivers and if she told me his name it might be one I knew. "Joe Duddington" she replied. I don't take such statements quite so lightly now!

I will ask my father in law. He was on the platform at Bawtry to watch the first streamliner go through.

Not sure about Bawtry! I am not 100% sure if it was always there but wasn't there a great speed restriction over the viaduct for most of its existence until a major reinforcement in concrete was made in the fairly recent past, around the time of electrification if my memory is any good. There certainly was a severe restriction in the mid 1970s when I first knew the area.