drandles

I see that Dapol have now also announced an OO Manor class to go along with the prairie and, 43xx.

I have rather belatedly come across this thread. Funnily enough I am also assembling a military train with vehicles bound for Castlemartin - My modelling project is trains from the 1950s in South West Wales. I have on my work bench in front of me a rather nice Wild Boar printed Warwell wagon body supplied by Shapeways together with a Revell 1/76 kit for a Comet tank, which were used at Castlemartin until the early 1960s - I once went for a very unofficial and rather hairy ride on one across Castlemartin range. I think these were the last tanks that were rail transportable but I am not certain. The Airfix Cromwell tank is another possible alternative. But I note that both models are a several mm wider than the Warwell wagon which is about 33mm across the frames. Unfortunately I have yet to find a photo to confirm that Cromwell/Comet tanks were indeed rail transportable. Also can anyone give me livery details for the MOD owned Warwells in the mid 1950s. Information on the livery of MOD wagons in this era seems hard to come by. David

Cattle trains (with cattle !) were quite common on the South Wales mainline well into the 1960s. I recall long trains of cattle wagons carrying imported Irish livestock from Fishguard Harbour to various destinations in the east and north. These always ran under control orders (ie they were not in the working timetable) and were quite often duplicated or occasionally triplicated. One one occasion I remember a very large train full of noisy cattle passing through Ferryside with a brake vans in the middle and the rear, headed by two County Class 4-6-0s - obviously two trains combined. There was also a regular Wednesdays only Carmarthen-Crewe cattle train. Latterly (from about 1962) this was formed almost entirely of BR standard horseboxes, mostly in Southern green livery, and was worked by a Stanier Class 5MT or 8F. A decent cattle train is next on the list for my modelling project - the trains I remember from the 1950s in South West Wales. David R

How easy would it be to remove the mechanical lubricator from Earl Cairns ? Is it a separate detachable item ? I don't think the Castles fitted with the original 2-row superheater boiler ever had such a lubricator. David

The Hawksworth and Collett tenders have a totally different chassis so I don't think it would be realistic to just swop the bodies. You need to swap the whole tender ! David

Just got my 5053 and what a nice job Hornby has done. It has just the right look for a Castle. As other have pointed out there are lots of detailed variation among members of the Castle Class, so I thought I would list main "variable" featues of 5053. It has: 2-row superheater boiler with small oil feed pipe covers on both sides of smokebox wide frames at the front, with flat inside cylinder cover and rounded front edge later BR style "curly" outside steam pipes mechanical lubricator behind right had steam pipe tall single chimney cab side brass beading horizontal cab side handrail just below window exposed sandboxes under cab fire iron tunnel on left hand side Hawksworth tender This is a good match for many of the 5013-5097 batch (excepting the Star rebuilds). The only obvious error is that 2-row superheater boilers didn't have mechanical lubricators ? A minor issue is that for most engines (including 5053) the fitting of BR style steam pipes (between 1952-1954) coincided with a change to a later style inside cylinder cover with a flat chequer plate and right-angled front edge. Some engines later got another variant with a raised center section. One my first tasks will be to investigate removal of the mechanical lubricator. Has anyone done this ? My engine will become 5030 Shirburn Castle of 87G (in 1958). David