Nick Holliday

It is the steam reverser - the SECR was a vacuum brake line.

If you turn through 90 degrees to look into the yard, you can see they have the same problem as modellers have, trying to join two baseboards together!

Ambis Engineering do a variety of fine chains, and they have etches for different sizes (and types, I think) of shackles, so a one stop shop!i

I'm surprised you've got this far without the John Lewis book, as it has comprehensive coverage of all the variations with plenty of photos too. Some of the drawings are only small scale weight diagrams, but there are several GA drawings which provide the detail for a number of versions. You also get a good introduction to the absorbed GWR railmotors - Taff Vale, Rhymney, Cardiff, Port Talbot and Alexandra Docks, some with plans, so that could keep you going for a while longer. A book that is often ignored is R W Rush's Oakwood Press one, covering ALL UK railmotors, including Irish ones, as well as self-contained inspection vehicles like Drummond's Bug and Billinton's Inspector. Plenty of drawings, albeit to something like 3mm scale. Unfortunately Mr Rush did acquire a poor reputation for accuracy in his other works, but I haven't heard any comment on this one, good or bad, but, to me, they look quite good, and provide a useful starter, even if some modification might be required once photographic evidence has been collected. David Jenkinson's book on the subject, although rather patchy and inaccurate in places, does have some good photos and drawings, with, I think, Barry Lane's input onto the intricacy of the L&YR units, and Gordon Weddell has provided full coverage of the LSWR varieties, including the LSWR/LBSCR Joint railcar for the Southsea branch.

I would suggest you increase the length of your run-round loop, as that will restrict the length of trains more than the platform. I would be inclined to use the straight side of your platform for the main loop, and perhaps not bother with the second point to the curved platform. However, I do realise that, with a superfluity of locos, as often happens on such lines, there might be other ways of getting locos to the correct end of the train before departure. PS Just noticed you have a duplicate thread in the Layouts section, where The Johnster's response is far more comprehensive than mine. I suggest you ask the moderators to merge the two topics to save confusion.

There's a nice short piece on Becontree here https://www.lbbd.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Infosheet16-Becontree-Estate.pdf with a photo of a Manning Wardle 0-4-0ST in action. A very similar set up was used constructing the St Helier estate in South London, the next major LCC scheme, and I think the contractor Wills worked on both projects, and brought his steam locos with him. An extensive layout was created, with sidings connecting to the ex-LBSCR line between West Croydon and Wimbledon (now Croydon Tramlink) a little south of Mitcham station. There is a lot of detail of this at http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/st.helier_estate_railway/

I would have thought MJT at Dart Castings would be your best bet.

I think it was the other way round. The LBSC loading gauge was larger than the other Southern constituents, and the SR rebuilt the cabs to a lower and more rounded profile to allow them to run on the lesser lines. The chimney and dome were also reduced in height to suit.

To cover a number of the recent points raised: The LDCR style of coach panelling is similar to the "standard" type as on the Tri-ang clerestories and the Ratio Midland suburban stock. The SER and SECR style, similar to LNWR, lasted until around the Great War, when they changed to a more orthodox panelled style, but with rectangular rather than curved ends, so unlike the usual donor vehicles. I suppose this is roughly the same in intent as the Ration Midland corridor stock, but I don't think that would work, but I'd like to be proved wrong. The Roxey birdcage set is based on this later rectangular design. Shortly before grouping the SECR adopted a flush side, usually with matchboarding, but some with smooth sheets, and Worsley Works do simple etchings for a few of these designs, as well as older types, whilst Roxey have a wide range of earlier (LNWR-ish) kits. They also do LCDR four wheeled stock, and D&S used to produce, I believe, both SER and LCDR non-bogie coaches, and Branchlines have a variety of LCDR bogie coaches alongside their SER 6 wheelers. Mallard produced an earlier form of the birdcage trio set, but these have to be found second-hand. Oakwood Press also publish another David Gould book, covering the bogie stock of the SECR, and Lightmoor Press have a very well illustrated book by Phil Coutanche covering the SECR bogie stock as well. The Oakwood book on Isle of Wight passenger stock is also very useful, covering LSWR, LBSC, SER and LCDR stock transferred to the island. Q Kits used to produce a kit for the T Class 0-6-0, but probably rather rare as they didn't seem to have a great market penetration. I cannot vouch for how easy it is to build, even if you can find one, but their diesel kits had a rather poor reputation, but they, I believe, were cast resin, whereas the steam loco was in white metal. The LCDR R and R1 classes were actually slightly different designs of 0-4-4T, whereas it was the SER R class 0-6-0 that was rebuilt into the SECR R1 class. SEFinecast do kits for both R1's as well as the SER R. I am not sure there are a lot of actual SER loco kits on the market, the bulk of those on offer date from after the union.

You might have more luck if you re-title the topic with Richard's correct name - Chown!

I don't think that the LBSC used air sanders. Certainly both Stroudley and Billinton fitted steam sanding gear when the locos were built. Air sanding would probably had difficulty handling damp sand, and the Westinghouse pump was designed to create and maintain a set pressure, rather than providing a supply of compressed air. I would also suspect that there would have been a severe loss of pressure in the system if a large quantity of air was diverted for sanding purposes, resulting in a sudden brake application, which wouldn't help the loco get its feet.

The photo I mentioned of the apparatus at Mintlaw shows a white painted box, just like those at Fraserburgh. In the front, on the side closest to the track, is a large circular hole. I assume that the rather flimsy bracket shown in the Mr Sandison photo fits into this hole, to provide a temporary version of a Whittaker style exchange apparatus, hence the presence of Mr S whilst the train passes, so it can be dismantled, and perhaps put back in the adjacent cabinet.

I do remember this, as it came as a large sheet of yellowish paper folded up to go in the magazine. I seem to recall it dates from the era when the old Model Railway News was trying to re-invent itself for the beginner, changing its name several times, Your Model Railways springs to mind, and changing editor a couple of times too, Cyril Freezer was poached from Railway Modeller, and I think David Lowery also tried his hand at steering it into profit, but the good ship MRN ultimately floundered and sank without trace. As I never throw anything vaguely useful away, much to my wife's annoyance, I must have the plan somewhere, but probably buried amongst over fifty years of model magazines, so don't hold your breath!

There's a clear view of the apparatus at Mintlaw in the Ian Allan Great North of Scotland Railway album, but without the actual bracketry shown in Oil-burner's, which might suggest it is only put in position when the train was actually due. There is a more distant view of the Mintlaw item in Railscot's gallery. In the album there is also a similar double installation at Elgin.

I am not sure where your "standard" 30 ton wagon came from. The typical steel open of BR days carried a 16 ton load and I don't think it's tare weight would have been 14 tons, and a seven plank wagon would have been lighter, and probably couldn't take such a load. However, if you want a quick set of examples showing the development of wagons, visit the 5&9 Models website. The first part of his wagon page runs through an LBSCR timeline, but further down there are some examples from the very early days too.

A couple of Pendon's takes on the subject.

There's an interesting website https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2012/10/20/lost-railway-schemes-the-city-terminus-railway/ that outlines early schemes to create a main line highway between Paddington and Kings Cross, almost 150 years before Crossrail. (Sorry Elizabeth Line)

Is this the one, seen from the other side?

I seem to recall that, initially, the City of London refused to allow any railways into their city, which is why so many of the main lines stopped short of their intended destination. All the stations actually within the walls were the result of later extensions, the GER from Bishopsgate (has that been mentioned?) and Minories, NLR from Dalston, SER from London Bridge and the LCDR from the original Blackfriars Bridge terminus on the south bank ((St Pauls) is a later station on the north side of the Thames). The Waterloo and City line to its Bank terminus was the LSWR's attempt to gain access to this lucrative market.

I appreciate that exactly scaling things doesn't always achieve the hoped for result, but I do think that modellers have got rather used to the idea of overscale slates. I see from their website that Penrhyn Slates now come in three thicknesses, 5.5mm, 7.5mm and 9.5mm. In 7mm they scale at around 0.005", 0.007" and 0.009" respectively so 10 thou plastic is actually thicker than the thickest Welsh slate, although other sources may be thicker. I don't know what thickness the vinyl comes in, but I rather like the potential of it to achieve the almost smooth effect of a well made slate roof.

I recently bought British Steam Locomotive Builders by James Lowe. It is a large book, over 700 pages, listing a huge number of builders, from one-offs to enormous outputs. Within the illustrations are a number of manufacturers' drawings, some of them GA types, although the size of reproduction rather limits what can be made out, but it would be a useful starter and a guide to who built what and when, for tracking down on the internet.

You probably need to exercise a little caution, as some of those in the POW range may be from smaller, local companies, although a fair number of London located companies would have operated fairly large fleets across the Metropolis. I would suggest cross-referencing with the excellent catalogue of POW's in book, on the Lightmoor Press website, and then consulting the relevant volumes, as I would hope that someone in your club would have access to most, if not all, of the books referenced. Looking through the listing, which is searchable, I found Taylor Brothers, based at Harrow, the other end of the Stanmore branch, together with a couple of local(ish) traders, P Bar and Sons of Pinner and Jeayes Kasner & Co., of Bushey and Shepherds Bush, with a long shot of West Middlesex Coal Co., based at Ealing.

Judith Edge Kits produce it, so presumably there are models, at least in 4mm, out there.

Many of the old directories can be accessed and searched at http://specialcollections.le.ac.uk/cdm/landingpage/collection/p16445coll4 A quick scamper through one came up with 3 merchants using Stanmore Station, Herbert Clarke, William E Highams and John Jesse TIms. I think Herbert Clarke were a large company and had their own wagons, but cannot vouch for the others.

Didn't the original Sharman wheels all have the crankpin cast integrally?