James Harrison

Well, the first of the chocolate and cream carriages is finished to the point that it can be used. Of course, it does need the door handles picking out, transfers and varnishing still so easily anywhere between a week and three months until it's completely finished, given my current 'spoons' to get things over the line.

I've just had an email confirming that my order (placed August last year) has been received and is being processed. I'd be surprised if that means that they're incoming right now.

Chimney doesn't really bother me (ymmv), however I don't think it particularly looks well that of the four samples, all have warped/ distorted coal rails.

Yes, as you say, by that logic there'd still be some French grey stock lingering around. I haven't yet made an exhaustive trawl through my library to find the latest photograph with brown and cream stock, but we know that the transition took at least two years (there's that famous film of 1910 showing a GCR express still mostly in two-tone livery) and there's only four years between the change and introduction of the Sam Fays (November 1908- December 1912) and less than five years between change and introduction of the Directors (August 1913). That still seems an awful long time though- but then look at how long it can take today to relivery the entire stock of a TOC when a franchise changes. And, unless the carriage and wagon department were given the prior warning that a change was planned, they would presumably have had a large stock of cream and brown pigments to hand in November '08 and that would presumably have been used up rather than discarded. So I could see repaints in brown and cream ongoing into '09 and possibly even into '10, just to use up existing pigment stocks before a full change over into teak. When is that semi-mythical GCR carriage book due for publication?

I can get a 47" platform in as my longest. That actually tallies up quite nicely with my longest pair of storage roads, which are 49" and 49.5", and they would clearly be the arbiter of maximum workable train length. Now that's just shy of 300' of train, so my set of Barnums (180' overall) can come back into play, as can the bigger locos. I think however on balance I would want to retain the pre-WWI (say circa 1910 - 1912) period that we've been discussing recently. The reason being that the Rufford Mythos holds that the Mansfield route was a dead-end branch until the opening of the Mansfield Railway in 1917, and then remained single track for the last few miles into Rufford until the mid-1920s. (Also I do quite like the brown and cream carriage livery I've been playing with, and I have just about convinced myself that it could have hung around as late as 1913 or 14, depending how often the GC took their carriages in for heavy overhaul. I can't say I've seen photographs of Sam Fays or Directors with brown and cream stock, but that's not to say it didn't happen). Although not shown on my plans so far, I'm not intending to operate the Mansfield route as a simple shuttle to Cremorne & Pittance and back, instead what I have in mind is a (probably curved) secondary storage yard- literally just enough track to accept a Mansfield-bound working and despatch another back to Rufford. This is obviously going to be quite constricted in length as it will quite quickly meet Red Lion Square. Not an issue if all that goes up and down that branch are some short carriages and locos, quite a different thing however if I start sending longer rolling stock down there. So you see that will better suit the pre-1917 working arrangements than an extended 1920-something Marylebone to Mansfield service.

With a little bit of fiddling about I've managed to get the Worksop route into more of a smooth curve, which has saved me somewhere around 6" at the RH end. As drawn above, from about 3" off the outer rail on the RH curve to the stops is 11', so my station building would have been almost faceplanting the wall (and I don't want to do that). So with that 6" I've brought back, I've lengthened my platform roads by 2" and brought the station building 4" back into the room. But a thought also presents itself- the 36" figure I stated previous was a straight line, whilst the platform roads are partly curved. For instance one platform road measures 36" straight, however the actual rail length is more like 39" (actually 41" after my readjustment). The other platform I could reasonably make slightly longer, because the only thing stopping are the cattle pens/ loading dock/ loco stabling. It would certainly add to the operating interest if I arranged matters so that the express services had to arrive and depart from a specific platform.

Platform capacity is around 36", which equates to (I think) four short Hornby clerestories/ Ratio 48' stock and a big 4-4-0. Alternatively it's three 60'ers and the front of the loco off the end of the platform. Now I think I can slightly extend that- there is, I think, room to move the station throat further up, possibly by up to 9 or 10"- or I could just slightly extend the platform roads (the track plan being 10" long in a 12" room), but then that eats into the space for the station concourse and building. The appeal of this latest plan is that it appears to give a nice visual balance between length of platform, length of station throat, and length of plain unencumbered mainline. My earlier efforts seemed to have either long platforms and a compressed throat or vice versa.

I have a professed weakness for inside-cylindered 4-4-0s and 4-6-0s, especially those with cut-out cabsides, so it's not surprising I have no fewer than 3 11E/ D10 class and a 'Sam Fay' (and would like a 'Glenalmond' as well). That still only takes me up to 1913/ 1914 and if I decide I just can't do without them I'd have to ask myself just how likely it is that the larger modern rolling stock would make it off the MSLR mainline and London Extension at that time. Rufford I've already decided is a pair of branches (or a convoluted through route) between Worksop and Kirkby Bentinck, so probably >90% of the traffic is going to be local trains to Sheffield / Nottingham / Lincoln. The remaining <10% (maybe one or two trains each way a day) being longer 'express' services to Manchester and Marylebone. I'd expect that they'd be the only services likely to see a Director or Jersey Lily. And I suppose they could be reduced to only a few carriages if I argue they pick up more stock en-route. I'm reminded of the Mansfield Central- Marylebone service which loaded to all of four or five carriages north of Nottingham. Similarly with the freight traffic, by geographical coincidence (it would be the case, wouldn't it?) the heavy coal traffic of north Nottinghamshire is heading either via Mansfield (not modelled) or the ex-LDEC route (not modelled), so I don't need to worry about large mineral engines with 30 or 40 wagons hanging off the back. What I am likely to see though are pick ups and trip workings to Sheffield, Nottingham and Lincoln. It's definitely not a bucolic branchline but at the same time it's not a trunk route either.

On the basis of 'it's not done, 'til it's done', I've been looking once more at the trackplan- this time revisiting that set-track version of Marylebone and wondering whether it still holds true for streamline/ Peco bullhead geometry. Well, I think it does, if I'm happy with 3' or 3'6" long trains. For that to look convincing I'd need to eschew 'Directors', 'Sam Fays' and 'Lord Faringdons' and their matchboard sets in favour of something just a little earlier- around the 1910 period rather than the 1919-22 I originally had in mind- and that way I think I can get 4-carriage rakes in use, on the Worksop route at least. Thoughts, comments and brickbats invited.

Very, very sad news. My thoughts go out to his family and friends. His 'Mainlines in Modest Spaces' and 'Designs for Urban Layouts' are well-thumbed volumes on my bookshelf and never fail to inspire.

In one of my graduation photos the focus isn't the background, but rather my cherry-red hands. ~~~ The ceremony having been conducted in a medieval Cathedral in the middle of January.

I made it over today with a couple of friends and we spent a very enjoyable 5 hours or so going around. Great show by the SRC.

Curved points, a 'Y' and a three-way point would be welcome, there is, after all, only a fairly limited number of things a common or garden LH or RH point can do. Small radius points would be welcome but to my mind a three-way point is preferable.

Hi-jack away; it's a technique I'm curious to try myself. The reason why I thought to do the cream first on this carriage is because the beading isn't particularly deep (these are older secondhand/ new-old stock Ratio kits, I'm assuming that the moulds must have been renewed at some point because this particular example isn't as finely moulded as some I've bought new). What I also have though, as well as these kits, is a rake of the Hornby short clerestories (which is supposed to arrive over the weekend). Now, if I remember rightly, the beading on those is a lot deeper, so I'll be trying the flooding technique on those.

Yes, I see. I'm happy enough with how this first one has turned out but there's definitely room for improvement. I'll try the flooding technique on the next one so I can compare.

Well, I've had a go and this is the result so far: So with a steady hand, good light, a lot of patience and a thin brush I think I can achieve an acceptable result.

I had the same email and had to double check (as I thought, I've had Invincible on order since first announced). A lot of various identities and liveries announced, but do we know anything about variations in details? Are these going to be like the Hornby Pecketts which have different domes, chimneys etc depending on which model you order?

Well, I've run some numbers and I've got a loco stud of somewhere around 15 - 20 engines that would be suitable for the pre-1914 period. The best way, I think, to see if this is something I really want to do is the same way I dipped my toe into pregrouping in the first place- paint one item into the appropriate livery and see how much I enjoy it (and whether I like the result). So to that end I've bought some chocolate and cream paint and I'm going to finish my current 48' carriage project in the 1903- 08 GCR livery (which hung around until at least 1910 and probably longer). We'll see how this goes...

Aah; now that's something to ponder. Thanks- I'll have a look.

Well, I've pushed on with the first of my Barnums but I've been brought to a screeching halt as there are no buffers in the kit. I know that Wizard Models make some, but they're currently 'out of stock' on their website so until they're available there's no point carrying on, is there? So I've resorted to my stash of Ratio 48' carriages. I know they're Midland diagrams and not GC but I can live with the differences. And I've also been fettling with the trackplan some more. Something about how I've got the main terminus planned doesn't quite ring true and I can't put my finger on it, despite having redrafted a few times now. But- I know that Marylebone has been drawn up for 10' length in set track, so I'm wondering if that could be put into flexitrack and medium turnouts in the same sort of length. Bearing in mind that I'd then need to make a 90-degree turn in 2'- which I think would have the longer mainline stock complaining. Those Barnums barely squeek around a 20" radius at dead slow... but then if I increase the radius I'm cutting down the length available for station throat and platforms to the point I've only got 3' platform lengths... so a 4-4-0 and 3 60" carriages would be my maximum train length. Well, if I accept that- and realistically I think I'll have to- that's still room for 4 48' or 50' carriages and a small 4-4-0, or 3 60'ers and an atlantic. The 'problem' is- by my 1918/22 period, even if I say RLS is a bit of a backwater, I've still got large 2-8-0s on coal traffic. I could get around a lot of my issues- real or imagined- by backdating to say 1910/14, which considering that allows me to run both teak and chocolate and cream coaching stock, is appealing, but it means needing more engines of the sort that are already hard to come by. Hmm.

The photograph shows the end closer to the single door. The drawing simply says 'end elevations see M' and 'M' is a blank panel end.

There's a three-quarter view of van #520 in Dow volume 3 showing a blank panelled end. There's also a drawing of the corridor version likewise showing blank panelled ends.

Now you might think that not much has changed since the last update but- there's a lot of painting to be done on one of these. The roof, ceiling and internal sides are now all painted and I've started on the partitions and the seating.

Yes, I think it is.

A little while ago Graeme King on the LNER forum mentioned an acquaintance of his had drawn up and printed parts for Barnum carriages, contact was made, money changed hands and a box arrived. I'm the pleased owner now of two open third saloons and a brake third. The quality of the prints I think is really quite outstanding, I should point out that these are practically complete kits (the builder just has to source wheels, couplings and buffers). I believe that the carriages are modelled in their LNER appearance, with some of the ventilators replaced with small windows and some additional roof furniture, but I can turn a blind eye to that. So, as you can see, I've teaked the first of them and then I'll be moving on to paint the roof and ceiling before looking at the underframes. I'm debating whether to review my current approach to couplings, these could be finished with my usual coaching stock Kadees or I might fit them up with three links.