Robin Brasher

I have bought my milk vans recently at Hornby Railway Collector meetings or at sales stands. That is something you cannot do in 00 gauge because no-one makes them. You can also have the fun of opening the doors and putting milk churns in. My 0 gauge stock does not take up as much space as my 00 gauge stock because 0 gauge is more expensive: I paid about £30 for a good boxed milk van although I have bought some for about £15. I keep them in Post Office boxes in which I have built dividers. On June 5th from 5.30 to 10pm there is a meeting of the West Essex and East London group at St John's Scout Hall, Church Lane,Loughton, Essex unless the weather is inclement. There should be a sales table there.

For further information about the attack on 120 by two ME 109s please see http://www.swanagerailway.co.uk , click on "Latest News" and then click on "Second World War Luftwaffe attack survivor to star in first ever Swanage Railway Spring Steam Gala..." There are also lots more pictures of the T9.

]This topic is for people who enjoy playing trains. There has recently been an upsurge of interest in coarse scale 0 gauge trains. It is as if Hornby had developed their O gauge trains instead of leaving it to stagnate and concentrating on Hornby-Dublo. Ace and Darstaed have developed ranges of coaches that are the envy of the 00 gauge manufacturers and locomotives that have been built to last. One example is my Darstaed SDJR Jinty 0-6-0T with a rake of Hornby goods vans running past a Hornby Windsor Station. The club layout has 4 tracks and we regularly have about 40 people on our club night. There is a huge variety of locomotives and rolling stock. The coaches range from pre-grouping six wheelers to modern Mk1s. There seems to be a far wider range of rolling stock than is available in 00 gauge. Some of the locomotives can pull 40 wagons and can be left to run all day.

My model railway club has a level test track with 3' radius curves so I could use this to test the haulage capacity of new locomotives. So far I have not tested locomotives to their limit but my Hornby T9 had no problems with 6 Hornby Maunsell coaches. On the other hand my Hornby M7 could not cope with 5 Bachmann green Mk1s and a 00 Works Devon Belle Observation car whereas the prototype had no problem with this load. Perhaps we need to standardise on the make and type of coach. I don't think the new models have the haulage power that Hornby-Dublo did. The Model Railway Constructor usually included the maximum load pulled without slipping and Model Rail often continues in this tradition.

T9 20120 on 50' turntable at Swanage on Sunday 30 March 2014. The turntable was large enough for most engines normally using the Branch before it was preserved. Engines that were too big to be turned included the Bulleid Light Pacifics and BR standard 4MT 4-6-0s and 4MT 2-6-0s with large BR1B tenders.

To clarify the position about LSWR Royal Green livery you may be interested to read the attached extracts. 1) Extract from HRMS Livery Register no 3 LSWR and Southern by L. Tavender and published by the Historical Model Railway Society on page 8 under heading 2.9 The Drummond passenger engine livery 1895-1917. The first colour in italics is Royal Green. It is in italics because the colour was in use by the LSWR Railway itself. 2)The next extract describing the colour as Royal Green comes from the paragraph headed Some Details, Liveries on page 14 of the Book of the T9 4-4-0s by Richard Derry and again published by Irwell Press Ltd. 3)The final extract describing Drummond LSWR livery as Royal Green is taken from Chapter Four, Liveries on page 47 of the Book of the M7 0-4-4Ts by Peter Swift and again published by the Irwell Press Ltd.

If the down freight from Brockenhurst to Dorchester had continued on its journey the crew would have a good view of the damaged sustained to T9 120.

I attach a couple of extracts from The Fireman's Tale on pages 52 and 55 of The Fireman's Tale in the Swanage Branch Then and Now by Andrew P.M. Wright published by Ian Allan. This is a first hand account of the attack on T9 120 when Stan Brown was firing a down freight. You will see that the attack took place on Saturday 28 November 1942: not 29 November, there were two ME 109s: not a single German aircraft. The T9 was stationary by the Ship Inn near Wool Station. At the time of the attack it appeared to have more than minor damage as it was riddled with bullets and cannon shells from end to end.

There have been two sightings of a Q class 0-6-0 hauling Maunsell pull-push coaches on the Swanage Railway. On Tuesday 22 August 1961 M7 30107 broke a valve spindle at Holme propelling a Swanage bound train. Q 30539 deposited the M7 at Corfe Castle goods shed and took the train to Swanage. Please see George Moon's picture and caption on plate 50 of Swanage Railway Album.. There is also a photograph of Q 30541 with Maunsell set 611 at Swanage at an unknown date in Mike Stollery's collection. Graham Farish produced a three rail ready to run Q class in 1953 and Ace Trains recently made an 0 gauge version. Wills made a kit to fit on a Tri-ang Hornby 0-6-0 chassis. The model in the picture is a Crownline conversion of a Hornby 4F 0-6-0.

Yes. I have altered it now. I am sorry that I did not notice the error at the outset.

A couple of pictures of 30120 at Swanage Station on 23 March 2014. The smokebox is painted matt black whereas the rest of the body is gloss black and this seems to have been the case in British Railways days. A close up of the smokebox shows the 72A Exmouth Junction shed plate. When this T9 was at this shed from 19 March 1961 the T9 would have worn the late BR crest which would have been the correct livery for hauling the BR SR green coaches on the Swanage Railway. I accept that some locomotives retained the cycling lion crest well into the period when SR coaches were green.

The attachment is a list of Maunsell Pull-Push sets with sightings which I have developed from table 11 SR Maunsell Sets on page 148 of An Illustrated History of Southern Pull-Push Stock by Mike KIng published by OPC. Maunsell Pull-Push.docx

Hornby T9 30285 with 71A shed plate hauling a rake of Hornby Maunsell coaches on the Isle of Purbeck Model Railway Group's layout. The locomotive was maintained at Eastleigh shed from 6 December 1951. There is a picture of the prototype at Eastleigh on 14 August 1956 in the same livery in the Book of T9 4-4-0s by Richard Derry on page 69. 30285 is similar to 30120 which is currently on the Swanage Railway.

M7 arriving with the Royal Wessex in the Swanage sandwich formation. The Royal Wessex coaches were the only BR SR coaches to wear the demi rampant red lion crest. The Pull-Push set is from a BSL kit and the photograph of my layout was first published in the Railway Modeller.

The train at the bottom is a Hornby M7 30108 pulling a Dapol air control van and a Hornby Pull-Push set. On page 170 of the book of the M7 0-4-4Ts by Peter Swift published by the Irwell Press Ltd is a picture of the prototype. It shows 30108 complete with roses in the 0s that the M7 acquired after hauling the Rambling Rose excursion. The M7 is approaching Lymington Junction on the railway from Bournemouth via Ringwood with air control van S1624 and a Maunsell Pull-Push set on 4 May 1963. S1624 is one of five BR plywood built bodied vans (Nos 1621-5) fitted with air control equipment for Pull-Push working between November 1962 and March 1963. It was only used from Bournemouth to Brockenhurst and mainly for the conveyance of prams. See page 153 of an Illustrated History of Southern Pull-Push Stock by Mike King and published by OPC. See also the diagrams on the previous page. Before that five ex SECR utility vans Nos 2001-5 were used from 1939.

I have not seen any pictures of an M7 with a working two car Push-Pull at each end but it probably could have operated like that.

Hornby T9 729 at the Isle of Purbeck Model Railway Group layout at Furzebrook Village Hall. It ran well with six Maunsell coaches and I am planning to find out the maximum load. The model represents the T9 in Maunsell green after the E prefix was removed on about 28 April 1932 and before the T9 was repainted in wartime black around 26 June 1943. It was at Nine Elms shed by August 1937 and after 1 July 1940. For further information please see the Book of T9 4-4-0s by Richard Derry pages 196-199.

The Swanage Railway shop has now sold out of R4534A Set 616 as has Hornby, Buffers and Rails of Sheffield but it is still available at Hattons, Antics on Line and Gaugemaster. A lot have come up on Ebay so it looks like some people have been making speculative purchases. R4534B Set 603 seems to be more widely available. Osborn's says it is a limited edition of 1,100 pieces.

I do not know enough about the subject to give a definitive answer. 1) Some of the strengthening coaches were motor fitted. On the Swanage Railway S1096S was the regular strengthening coach until it was damaged in a shunting accident in 1962. This was motor fitted and could run between the locomotive and the pull-push set. It was two old SECR 6-wheeler bodies on a new SR under-frame with match-boarded sides. See George Moon's caption on plate 48 of Swanage Railway Album. I think an open second was also motor fitted which ran somewhere else. If this was the case you could have two open seconds and the driving trailer. On the Swanage Railway two Mk1s or two Bulleid coaches from the Royal Wessex were attached to the M7 with pull-coaches at Wareham and were probably attached as ordinary coaches. The attached coaches had carriage crests and the Royal Wessex was the only southern steam train to carry carriage crests. 2) I have heard that the motor fitted locomotives could run smoke-box against the pull-push coaches and be operated from the leading coach. I have not seen any photographs of this. I hope that this helps.

Set 603 arriving at Swanage propelled by M7 30057 which is sandwiched between the Maunsell set and an unidentified strengthening coach. Good Friday April 12 1963. Photograph copyright George Moon.

It looks like R4534A Set 616 has been selling well. It is out of stock at Hattons and Hornby and Rails have only got a few left. They are still in stock at Model Railway Direct and Gaugemaster. Local shops may still have them. For me it was a pleasant surprise to see eight of them at the Swanage Railway shop. There were seven left as I bought another one there. In the past for coaches I had waited for notification that they were available from Hattons and then bought them at the railway shop but I got caught out badly with pull-push R4534 and had to wait 1 year 8 months to get one. It is interesting that the running number of 6695 on the driving trailer coach of set 616 is the same as the running number of the BR WR 0-6-2T that often runs on the Swanage Railway.

According to the caption on plate 172 on page 147 of An Illustrated History of Southern Pull-Push Stock by Mike King published by OPC Set 616 had yellow first class cantrail markings on 18 September 1964.

T9 30120 at Swanage Turntable this afternoon. Unfortunately it was not working probably due to a broken injector. You can see from the picture that it is a preserved locomotive because this T9 probably did not visit Swanage in British Railways cycling lion days and because of the position of the small totem. On the preserved engine the totem is mounted centrally. In British Railways days the cycling lion totem was mounted higher up. Please see the top picture on page 50 of The Book of the T9 4-4-0s by Richard Derry.

It looks like R4534A Set 616 is becoming generally available now. The Swanage Station shop has got eight in stock. Will someone please remind me of the set number of R4534C which is due out later this year? I have seen it somewhere in this topic.

The black Princess was probably Tri-ang's best seller. Over 720,000 were made according to page 129 of Tri-ang Railways, The Story of Rovex by Pat Hammond. I had a green one. I had a smoke unit fitted and replaced the body with a BR maroon one and bought a tender to match. It seldom derailed and the Margate Factory used to repair it when parts wore out. The black one was excellent value for money at £2. 7s 6d. With magnadhesion and see through wheels it could pull a long train. It was the sort of engine you could run until the flanges wore out.