CEINEWYDD

I now understand "Limbys"!!! Nice work, and I have checked out black square too. So will be looking at them for scratch built hopper wagons for the Aberthaw & Bristol channel cement works.

Well, here's a thing.... I finally checked in my cupboard of doom, and in there (amongst other very unexpected things) was a Pow sides rub on transfer for .........A P O C. Unexpected items include about a dozen Peco OO gauge wagon underframe kits, and even more Peco buffer stops. God knows why for both items! Any way I shall have a quick look at Black square Decals. Many thanks one and all.

Oooer. There's a whole world of detail on these that is not included in the kit, and certainly has not been added by me!! Looks like there are tie bars between the tank supports, never mind the rivets on the ends of the tank barrels. Also the top mounted valve operating gear bears very little resemblance to the casting in the kit......See what you mean by the kit being 50 years old. Oh and thanks to the other posters about the transfers.

I am just about finishing one of the Wills Finecast "APOC" whitemetal wagons and am just adding holding down straps, that are not included in the kit. So far I have made a tolerable job, but I am having difficulty in sourcing appropriate transfer (total failure actually). Ideally I want waterslide, not rub on types as I will need to adjust the positions when adding them. Any/all suggestions will be gratefully received.

Start by eliminating variables - direction of travel, pushed or pulled, does an attached vehicle have an impact. I would check the back to back on the wheels, and that the wheels "run tru" - i.e. no wobble. Does the problem appear on only one point (i.e. the point is the problem) or on multiple....? go through the actions suggested by 33C above. Have fun.

Stone me Frank! Hugely impressive work on the electronics. Glad it was not me asked to carry out U.A.T. !

I would support the idea of getting a carpenter with model railway experience to do it for you. (I too have ten thumbs when it comes to woodwork - despite me having loads of tools it is the tool doing the operating that counts.)

I understand that many horseboxes (certainly for racehorses) had 3 compartments. One end had space for fodder, the middle was for the Geegees , and the other end was for groom/grooms. Race horse owners and trainers were (and still are) very particular about the care & transport of these big smelly candidates for the dog meat factory.

In my undated RCH handbook (no cover but clearly post grouping) there are about 30 different companies or sidings noted for Gurnos, and smack in the middle is an entry for Road & Rail Wagons Ltd. Sid. (LMS, Mid). I will try in the next few days to scan in the relevant page. I have now checked, my copy of the RCH handbook and I suspect from some of the other entries that it is post 1931.

There is a Wild Swan book on this branch. Probably out of print, but try ebay and 2nd hand booksellers???

Just a thought (oh gawd!), my late dad occasionally took his father-in-law with around South Wales collieries, in the late 40's early 50's. F.I.L. had been a chief engineer on oil tankers ( Royal Fleet Auxiliary ) in WW2. Life on the ocean waves provide loads of water for the boilers - almost none of it being suitable as it was rather salty. Consequently his experience was that fresh water was to be conserved. Fuel was also a matter of concern . F.I.L. was therefore staggered that at the collieries steam, was issuing from loads of pipes and water was leaking all over the place (allegedly). Don't think steam can be modelled, but lots of puddles?? I shall have to take notice of this myself !

There is a whole subculture of "wagon nuts" out there! Supplied with oodles of books, by (the now late) Bill Hudson, Keith Turton and other like minded bods. One of the specialist publishers is Blackdwarf Lightmoor in the Forest of Dean. Bill Hudson bookshop (now run by his son) supplies loads of other publishers. These books will give you more info, than you ever wanted to know as there were literally dozens of wagon builders and I think about 600,000 PO wagons at nationalisation used by collieries, iron ore mines, local merchants , builders, brewers, brick makers et cetera. Have a look on a well known auction site for 2nd hand books to set you off. Wickham Green is generally right about these things, but there are some notable exceptions - e.g. The ex N.E. railway area tended to use NE hopper wagons (including my local collieries in Garforth despite probably having PO wagons as well) , whereas in S. Wales huge volumes of traffic was carried from pit to port in rakes of PO wagons. Anthracite coal (from the west of the S. Wales field) was seen all over the place as it was used in the malting process. I have just searched on the bay "private owner wagons railway" and got about 70 responses from £2 to £90.

Not sure what the best paint stripper to use, - as this is aluminium I guess all the detail is glued on and roof to sides and ends too! I seem to recall that Precision Paints used to do small bottles, of about 200cc. Once you have the paint off. If you don't fancy the paint stripper route then very fine grade sanding paper for car bodywork prep might work?? Once clean try aerosol etch primer from your local car diy store. Let this dry and sit for a few days to properly cure. I did this for a GW slip coach about 20 years ago and it is still ok.

I have made a number of coach and NPCS kits in brass (plus white metal wagons etc), and approached the whole thing with some trepidation. An earlier comment in this thread mentioned soldering white metal as being a disaster. Unless you have a temperature controlled soldering iron, don't try! We all know how I found that out. As far as brass kits are concerned, I started with the easy bits to learn - soldering brass to brass. Got myself a decent soldering iron: Not too big, not to small (i.e. wattage and physical size important). I tried using a 60 watt iron, and it was a disaster. Moving to 25watts was much better, and lots easier to wave about too. Cleaning the parts to be attached is a big help. I prefer to use liquid flux as this can be washed off at the end of each session. Also use an appropriate solder. I use a medium temp solder, not a high melting point one if possible. Having sorted that lot out, try practising soldering some scrap bits of brass to each other. Apply tinning to both pieces (clean pieces, flux and then apply small amounts of solder), and then put some more flux on one tinned practice piece, place the other piece on top. Press the two pieces together (cocktail sticks??) and apply the soldering iron with solder on it, to the edge of the join. My understanding is that the heat from the iron causes the flux to "flash off" and evaporate. This causes the molten solder to be sucked into the join, melting the existing soldering which is why you need to hold pieces together - and how do I know?? Take the iron away as soon as the solder has melted. This is how I have been shown how to do it, and it works for me. (I also showed my then 12 year old granddaughter to do this and it worked for her too. )

I have had a further perusal (!!) of the GWRJ issues 20 & 55. Unfortunately as John Copsey's article is sadly lacking regarding dates I am unable to add anything useful in that regard. However looking at both articles, it does seem that most (if not all) the 'A' and 'C' sets are non corridor but I am not an expert at all. The only additional piece of info. I can add from these articles is about the the 'C' sets where it states that the toplight stock in the local 'C' sets no s 1 to 6 were as follows: D62/ C37/E101/E101/C37/D62. Set no 7 was different - sets 8 and 9 were the same as each other, but differed from 1 to 7. I guess that the 'A' sets could also have varied so the 'firsts' in those could have varied too. I have also checked 'Harris'. The only info I can find on a quick look, is that on P82 a reference to Suburban sets as being 61ft 4.5 inches in 1930 to 1933. In the 'Lot' list at the rear of the book, refers to Lot 1456 in May 1931 20 coaches to E141 were built "to form London Area Sets". All in all totally NBG ! .

I am currently working my way through the Burry Port & G V R volume 2. Pages 288 & 289 have 3 photos of coaches in 1947, by H C Casserley and R C Riley, of 2 x 'S17' and one 'S 9' . All are in GWR chocolate with GW roundels, but S17 no W180 is repainted by BR, and ' is without any lettering'. These are not the only coaches imported by GW to Burry Port.

I have just dug out GWRJ no 55, which has an article by John Copsey which confirms that in the 1930's the make up of 'A' sets was van 3rd, third, first, third , van third ( all '8 - wheel) and approximately 20 sets operated. The normal Fairford train was an 'M set' of 6 wheelers, of van, third, compo, compo, third, van. Unfortunately , despite it being a fascinating article no coach diagrams are quoted - or at least not in a cursory look! Sorry.

Just to add confusion, my late father claimed that his uncle, who was a shunting driver at Park & Dare (Treorchy), prior to nationalisation, went to Swindon to accompany 'his' loco when it was returned after major repairs. I'm not sure that his memory was totally reliable, but there was certainly a kernel of truth in there. According to "Mainline to Industry" by Frank Jones (another Lightmoor Press publication) former Rhymney railway 0-6-0 saddle tank was sold by GWR to Ocean coal in Treorchy in 1928 . So looks like there is a precedence for GWR Panniers going to Swindon.

I have had a close look at the photo of the initial query in my volume, under a magnifying glass (and a bright light!) and at the near end of the wagon is indeed a very slight image of a capital letter 'G'; ties in with the G & S.W. identification.

It is a most peculiar item to appear in the land of my fathers! Not only has it got (or appears to have) end opening doors at both ends, and cupboard doors, but also a wagon number (?) at the top right hand end of the nearer end door. The brake lever looks like a very archaic type similar to North British wagons.

Welsh Highland and Ffestiniog railways have a discount scheme for members, which I think differ between the two railways, depending on which railway you join - if you see what I mean.

I have had a look at my RCH stations "handbook" ( all 654 pages) to see if that will add anything. The only thing it provides is the fact that all stations had 'goods' facilities except Hayburnwike which was a passenger only station at the time of this handbook. Which rather begs the question as to when was this edition issued? No idea - the private siding at Ravenscar brickworks is recorded. Clearly it is post 'Grouping' , but it also includes the Irish (i.e. post independence ) companies: Any ideas gratefully received. Incidentally one company name not mentioned in earlier posts is Micklefield, based in the village of the same name. This operated the Peckfield (already mentioned above) and Ledston Luck pits, output from the latter being taken to 'Micky' by a narrow gauge line. Keith Turton's 12th collection has photos of a number of the Micklefield wagons all of which are branded for Micklefield. Some of the wagon photos have been retouched , but the front cover photo (also appearing on page 105) is a Charles Roberts photo from their own records. Apparently Vol 3 of Bill Hudson's books has photo of a different wagon on plate 41. I am sure I have read somewhere that after ownership moved to Briggs, that some of their wagons were used at Micklefield. According to Mr. Turton numbers 200 to 299 (in 1909) , and 305 - 399 (in 1904) 400 - 499 (in1906) and 500-599 (1909 again) were all registered with N.E.R.. Page 104 of Turton v.12 also has a photo of the Ledston Luck winding engine house which still exists, although without most of the glass! According to Don Townley ( of Hunslet engine works) the Ledston site was used to test some of their underground haulage locos on a specially built facility. I am not sure when surface haulage to Micky from Ledston ceased but I have a half memory that when I moved to the area in 1983 some narrow gauge tracks alongside the old Roman Road were still in existence . Anyone any idea??

Connoisseur's Choice models were designed by the late George Norton, and were taken over by London Road models. suggest you contact them . www.londonroadmodels.co.uk Can not help any further.

Try Avon (as in river) loads of them in England: Afon is Welsh for river.

Those of us who have read James Page's book "Rails in the valleys" will know that M.I.B. is "Dead right". He claimed that it took him years to bring himself to eat a particular manufacturer's products having discovered a coffin on one occasion.