WFPettigrew

There is certainly photographic evidence of side door two planks on the Furness being used for slate, handy as you can walk into the wagon with an armful of slates without having to step over the side, as well as the FR's fast side two planks being used for slate. The Furness did also have a fleet of drop side two planks, I haven't seen a photo of one loaded with slate but that's not too say it didn't happen (absence of evidence but being evidence is absence etc.)

I can recommend it, it's very therapeutic. And being Welsh slate you don't have to worry about a myriad of different lengths and widths, and dressed top corners... My effort made it to LRY territory andKerrinhead earlier this week.

I think you're right. on all of this - larger slates at the near end too. So the way the Furness transported slate stacked transversely might not have been such an outlier after all! I refer the honourable gentleman to my previous posts and calculations upthread about slate density, which might help confirm this is slate rather than brick by the size of the gap, if you know the maximum load of that Cambrian wagon. All the best Neil

I agree with the idea of being able to get into the main platform from the down line, and anyway you said your one-engine-in-steam set up would require this. So a facing crossover is needed somewhere - from what Nick says, you can have that off towards the countryside (even off scene if needed). That would obviously require FPL and a crossover lever, plus a second home signal - and you would also need an FPL on the loco release crossover between the two platforms. The only other points I would make are that the levers 16-20 ideally need reversing - so that the P1 starter is 20 rather than 16, and with the others "inside". I like the idea of the cluster of red levers including the P2 starter in the middle of the frame - that was certainly typical of some frames (possibly including Saxby and Farmer ones) and visually it breaks things up. And depending on the distance from the box to the loco release crossover, it might not have been possible to control that direct from the box due to the limit on rodding runs. In addition it might not be possible to see from the box when it was the right time to change the points. A solution here would be a lever in the box to release a ground frame operated by the loco crew but again I don't know if that was S&F/Brighton practice. All the best Neil

Well known for its Epiphany Carols service, beginning with a rousing rendition of "We Free Kings"...

LNWR D33 roof door van, taken on the "other" side without the roof door? Oops. Sorry. Yes this is a LNWR thread... 😉

According to "LNWR Liveries" (HMRS) the diamonds were "apparently discontinued soon after A.F. Trevithick took over as wagon superintendent at Earlestown in 1910." Quite when is a bit unclear - but the book says that by an official photo dated October 1911 the diamonds had definitely gone. From this I had always taken the beginning of the "no diamonds" livery as being from sometime in 1911. But have I got this wrong?

Mike Thank you for the vote of confidence, but actually decent photos of the key bit of the D38 FR horseboxes are not exactly plentiful. One photo that I admit is more helpful to my 1914 era than your 19th century one is this: Embedded image from the Sankey Archive (c) Cumbria Archives. This is Ulverston station no earlier than 1911. It might be post war - the stored Lake Side branch train in its siding beyond the double-sided platform features a further vehicle which is all over blue - it could be a passenger carriage in the post war all over blue livery but equally it could be a passenger brake van in which case the 1911 date would still work. Peeping out from the old East box is a D38 horsebox. Note that by this time at least, the panels at the ends appear to be painted the same as the bodyside. Also note that at some point secondary suspension has been added to the spring hangers. But quite how things were back in your day.....!?! All the best Neil

You have done a lovely job! I need to get round to the two in my stash...

A stray upper quadrant arm.. Also note that the two signals facing us on the gantry appear to have a darker band than the rest of the arm...?

Hi James I cannot confirm one way or the other what Branchlines do for the LSWR, it being 300 miles too far south for my interests, but Brian Osborne responded swiftly by email when I asked for their catalogue for Midland Railway carriage kits a year or so ago - sales@branchlines.com. The email footer also included the following: Branchlines, P.O. Box 4293, WESTBURY, BA13 9AA, UK Tel./Fax: +44(0)1373 822231 Mon.-Thurs. 9.30-13.00, 14.00-18.00 Hope this helps! Neil

This probably comes down to the perspective for defining a golden age. Yes probably from a company point of view, taken across the whole industry, the final Victorian age decade was the pinnacle of their powers. But... I bet the passengers who were being treated to bogie carriages preferred these to the six wheelers that went before. I bet the railway workers who had pretty dire Ts and Cs in Victorian times would consider the advent of something approaching due reward and improved working conditions/safety standards was preferable to what went before, etc. (Although having cited George Jackson earlier, his cabs were not exactly designed with comfort in mind, and you had to be an orang-utan to work the loco vacuum brake with your head outside a Churchward cab, such was the lack of consideration of what we would now call ergonomics...) As for infrastructure, well yes, but in a small island, you can only build so many railways so I don't think you can automatically infer reaching saturation point marks the golden age. And how many majorly significant railways were built in the 1890s even? Going back to what I said before about Churchward, the technological advances in locomotives in the Edwardian period informed steam loco design in this country until the end. All the best Neil

More golden than 1900-1914? While perhaps some Victorian elegance was lost, would a golden age not include amongst other things Churchward's genius, a more interconnected railway network, and a railway for all people not just the rich? Cue a "heated debate"! (© Mrs Merton)

Isn't that just fantastic?! If you can capture even just a small bit of this magic Mike, it's going to be stunning... Though I had a wry smile about the twice mention of the: Is this finally the proof that @Compound2632, @Dave Hunt have been seeking regarding the alleged MR "small engine policy" ?!

Thank you for this Jamie. There are some documents relating to him the the archives in Barrow, so I will go and look at these when I get the chance, and will report back!

Out of curiosity, if the need for hand of god access wasn't an issue, would you still be wanting to do some sort of forced perspective around the roof? Just wondering if a hinged roof would solve the former more easily? All the best Neil

Not an expression that gets used enough on RMWeb I feel! (Eh.)

Seeing as you cited ultramarine and bluish-white as it is perhaps worth noting that the Furness Railway had a previous carriage livery of "cream and lake". Though like Stephen says for the E&WJ In other words no-one really knows...! Brown and buff was a later description which may or may not have been the same livery. Would it be worth considering just what relatively stable and cheap pigments were around in the 1860s which may narrow things down a bit?

Sorry to not answer the question - but what is the build origin of that lime wagon please? I am looking for some four plank roofed wagons.. But as for the question - what the others said...

If it is whitemetal on the pony truck beam (and is it? That looks rather crystalline but then I have not tried to smash a beam of whitemetal in half to see how it looks inside) then as it would appear that the arm is on a hinge so can drop down clear of the rest of the chassis, if you remove a bit of the paint around the crack, you should be able to solder it back together with lots of flux and low melt solder. But if it isn't whitemetal then probably this is not going to work. In which case... If it is a clean crystalline break, then it should knit together well if you offer the broken section onto the break? If so then you do have some registration to hold it all square, in which case a smear of araldite across the break, just enough to cover, not enough to act as a buffer between the two sides, then as long as the two bits are firmly held together until the glue goes off, you may have a pretty strong joint which may not need drilling so rods can be put in, etc. If you did the latter - or put a brass shim on, I would be inclined to use araldite again, rather than superglue. HTH - and good luck!

Or avoid the pain, and model the Furness. No Morton clutches. So a staple through thin air. Much less eye watering!

Embedded link to the Rapido PO Wagon site. As it happens I have one of these Glasshoughton ones to come on pre-order. Certainly Glasshoughton coal was coming to Cumbria - the lovely little Lower Holker Coop's one single wagon (yes, their Number 1, built by Hurst Nelson, 4 planks, curved ends) was "empty to Glass Houghton Castleford" (not Pontefract!). If @SteamAle gives his blessing I will post a photo of this wagon - but better not just now as it is part of the Cumbrian Railways Association Shillcock Collection. All the best Neil

Corrected it for you...

And that hand lettering is really very well done. I saw the top photo on my computer monitor (fairly big one - courtesy of work) and had to go back and have a look after reading that you had hand-lettered them, and couldn't immediately see that you had done so. The younger you really did a great job with them!

What have physicists, done to upset RMWeb this week?!