Nick Holliday

Lightmoor Press do a small number of books covering European and more distant locations. Not immediately apparent from their main index page, but mainly narrow gauge (or monorail).

This looks like a website https://www.alphagraphixkits.co.uk

According to the drawings on this website the brake lever itself was 3/4 in thick at the “curly” end (0.010” thick in 4mm) tapering up to 1 in thick at the V end (0.013 in thick in 4mm) although there is a thickening right at extreme end, more exaggerated where a clutch mechanism is required.

Unless I’ve missed something, I would be inclined to insert a crossover between the clockwise and anticlockwise sidings, so that some workings can disappear into the fiddle yard and then return, if they don’t require shunting; railcars, multiple units or pull-push trains. This breaks up the orbiting in the same direction effect.

The signalling diagram is not meant to be an accurate rendition of the full layout, but to clearly identify the various areas within the signaller’s control, and often there is a bit of distortion or omission to make things clear, rather like the London Underground maps. It’s probably better to consult a large scale OS map at the same time - it may not get all the pointwork correct, but it should give a better idea of the actual disposition of the tracks.

Not sure if this comment is with regard to the soft fruit or coal traffic. There was a route that did not require the use of the wagon hoist, using one of Liverpool Street's platform lines. This was the route used by passenger excursion trains, often quite long, with no height or width restrictions, as well as the lengthy horse box trains from Newmarket, whose "passengers" would not really want to be shunted/hoisted/shunted in the goods yard. The LBSCR certainly continued to be part of a goods service to Liverpool Street, at least until the 1918 working timetable. The Goods Working Book notes: "Working of Goods traffic between LBSC and Midland Railway (LT&S Section) - The GER will, when required, on week-days, run the following service (marked by B) to New Cross and back with traffic to and from the LT&S Line. It is very important that the train from New Cross to Liverpool Street should run punctually, and special attention should be given to the working. If there is not sufficient Tilbury Line traffic to make a full load, wagons from the GE Line may be attached." The WTT shows that a train from LS to NX left LS at 2.37pm Monday to Friday, and 10.33pm on Saturday, both Q paths, with a return trip at 7.05pm Monday to Saturday (not a provisional path!) and a Q path available at 12.15am on Saturday. On Sunday it would seem that Whitechapel goods was partially closed, as there Q paths at 2.15am and 4.30am southbound and 1.00am, 3.07am and 5.45am northbound, with one definite service at 5.50pm to LS.

Can’t vouch for this, but found some on Etsy https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/748366866/brass-square-wire-half-hard?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=square+brass+rod&ref=sr_gallery-1-8&sts=1&organic_search_click=1&variation0=1262519858&variation1=1281112045 or Wizard Models do 0.4mm square wire for point rodding https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/shop/tools/ls006_2/

There’s a clear picture of a B & M goods brake in H C Casserley’s David and Charles book, Railway History in Pictures, Wales and the Welsh Border Counties. Unfortunately for this topic it is an outside framed, double covered veranda four wheel type, with no apparent Midland or North Western lineage. The Welsh Railways Research Circle, in their excellent Data Sheet describing how to produce models of Welsh wagons using various kits from other lines, do note that the B & M did purchase four four wheeled brakes from the Midland, but of the single open veranda type, as per the Slaters kit.

What about this tiny LBSCR one? https://www.roxeymouldings.co.uk/product/97/4c67-lbscr-sr-stroudley-horsebox/ At least one survived into SR days.

Livery Register No 3 has been superseded by Southern Style Part One London & South Western Railway, although I suspect that little of the information has changed. However, it is a bit ambiguous about the frame colour. It states that the frames originally (1885?) were painted in the dark green but a later (1896) paint specification sent to Messrs Dübs & Co, regarding the 700 class requires "The outside of frames, guard bars ...... to have one coat of lead colour paint and two coats of Japan black." This instruction also appears in an earlier Adams paint specification for passenger locos.

No 400 was built in 1868 as an 0-4-0 saddle tank No. 27 to run a shuttle service on the Polegate to Hailsham branch and had to be quickly adapted as an 0-4-2 to improve running. It was rebuilt into the 0-4-0WT in 1874 to replace a secondhand Manning Wardle as Works Pilot at Brighton, finally being sent to Earlswood in 1877 to be the shunter at Redhill. The old MW had an interesting life, having been bought from the contractor Chappell in 1871, then sold back to him in 1874 and finally being purchased by the LSWR in 1884, where it lasted until 1894, carrying the name Sambo. The Brighton had some dedicated shunters earlier than that. Craven built two pairs of robust wing tank 0-6-0’s for shunting at Willow Walk yard, in 1866 and 1868. Three of them ended up on the Alexandra (Newport & South Wales) Docks and Railway Company in the 1880’s where they lasted until 1904/6.

Just an observation, but, in real life, mortar was seldom actually white, coming in various shades of grey, brown or yellow, depending on the type of cement and sand being used, and sometimes deeply coloured, perhaps black, to suit the architect's whims. There are only a couple of examples of white mortar I can think of. One is where Historic England or a client has demanded that lime mortar should be used, for authenticity, and this does start off white, but slowly mellows, and, when used for repairs, stands out starkly when compared with the, perhaps, hundred year old existing mortar, which may have darkened considerably over the years, particularly if the area was smoky prior to the Clean Air Act; sometimes the restorers will deliberately age the mortar to make it a better match. The other is in tuck pointing. This is a technique to make rough brickwork look superior, and can be seen in places like 10 Downing Street. The façade is built using dark bricks, and the mortar is coloured to match and is flush pointed. After a short curing period a narrow routing tool, perhaps ¼ inch wide, is run along the centre line of the joint, using a straight edge or line, and the resultant groove filled with white lime putty. A few examples from my area. A Victorian terrace, with London stocks and red brick quoins and arches, with a creamy coloured mortar. A more modern example - Elizabethan I suppose, with a a dark red brick and a darker shade of mortar. What is interesting is the way the top half here, which is a balcony, shows the effect of weathering, with dark mould and white staining where chemicals have leached out of the modern mortar mix. The lower section has been protected by the overhang of the balcony and shows very little weathering. And finally, a wall on the house opposite the first example, where the end gable had been painted black, and has been subsequently repointed. Thanks to the contrast the new mortar does look very light, but it is a pale grey in colour.

I think the coaches would be looking a bit drab by then. The SECR was created in 1899 and the P Class didn’t appear until 1909, and I think the teak would have been painted over in the intervening decade.

There are several pages on Stephenson Clarke in Simon's book, page 15 onwards, including a drawing. He has confused things by referencing them as Clarke Stephenson! Len Tavender in his Private Traders Wagons book has a brief but succinct precis of the CS shipping fleet, and an outline of their earlier wagons. To save people trawling through this topic, and perhaps finding the pictures missing, Simon Turner covered this batch of wagons extensively in LBSCR Modellers' Digest No. 7, which can be accessed on line, and is a thoroughly good read too. I have to confess I am baffled about "crossing a timber diagonal running the other way" as I thought it was a regular iron/steel washer strip on the inside, but perhaps I have misunderstood your comment. Simon and Len may have covered this between them, but I haven't checked.

Back in the seventies I found Richard Chown's original Castle Rackrent layout an inspiration, despite being a 7mm Irish layout, whereas I was a 4mm Brighton enthusiast. It seems ideal for the OP's layout. It measured 16' 4" x 3' 0", which reduces to 9' 3" x 1' 8½" in 4mm. I envisage that this would represent an early Victorian terminal station, many of which were initially provided with turntables, a la Bembridge as they operated using small tender locos as tank engines hadn't really been adopted. In this scenario, with the alternative passenger station provided, there was no need to upgrade the turntable, although it would limit the use of tender locos, but the GER were noted for their short tenders, and a 40' turntable would accommodate a GER 0-6-0, just! Richard provided a flour mill as part of the backscene hiding the fiddleyard, in keeping with the rural Irish idyll, but I envisage something a bit more robust, perhaps a two storey goods shed, as the LBSCR liked to build in rather unlikely locations, in line with the dedicated goods usage suggested, or perhaps a suitable industrial building, such as a sugar processing plant (plenty of incoming traffic in season) or an engineering works (Garratts of Leiston); Dursley provides an interesting example of an extensive manufacturing plant in a rural area. I wonder if the re-opening of the passenger facilities might just be because the town has spread over the years, and the provision of a shuttle passenger service to the main station became worthwhile, or a new town was built for London overspill, as Becontree and Morden, although predating the more likely Stevenage and Harlow new towns, which were post-WW2, or perhaps a third Garden City for the twenties. The old station buildings would have been used for other purposes in the interim, so perhaps they would be fenced off, and a small ticket office provided instead, on the exit path.

If there was any truth in the fanciful ideas of priority roads etc. I would have thought there would be some mention of it in the Highway Code. However, they have kept things simple and straightforward - all roads entering a roundabout have to give way to traffic from the right. As @Compound2632 says, as far as I can tell, the local traffic planners have identified that drivers approaching a roundabout which appears to just be a traffic island in the middle of their through route, need further reminders of the need to give way, hence the double-line road markings, which frankly are not always visible, the additional warning triangle in the middle of the road and the triangular Give Way signs. Those poor souls approaching the roundabout "head on" can usually be expected to be intelligent enough to identify the obstruction as a roundabout, and drive accordingly. My local authority is hot on Give Way markings at almost every junction, and apply them to all roads entering mini-roundabouts as they such low profile that they are very difficult to see when approaching at any speed.

The three Terriers that were sold to the LSWR and SECR were sent directly to Nine Elms and Ashford respectively to have various modifications and a repaint before entering service, so presumably travelled in Brighton livery for that short journey. Five were sold to the Admiralty, and Bradley (RCTS) notes that two were noted still in Brighton livery in store at Dalmuir in Dumbartonshire, in 1921, three years after entering military service. Two years later they were sold to the Shropshire & Montgomery Railway, and presumably if they hadn't been repainted whilst in store, they would have travelled in Brighton umber south to their new home. On an earlier occasion, around 1885, the LB&SCR had sold at least three surplus locos to the West Lancashire Railway, and two retained their names, as well as the livery, which must have puzzled the new locals as to why Horsham and Dorking should have been so honoured. The Brighton gave the a good refurbishment before sending them north, and included supplying and fitting new numberplates in the Brighton style. Curiously the Brighton had acquired a couple of goods locos from the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway in 1857, and they retained their MSLR chocolate brown livery until 1857!

Had this security strip on a George Ezra CD Can't seem to find the volume control on my microwave, though.

In the thirties Sentinel produced a few six-coupled shunters with coupling rods, and Clayton’s, who provided a few steam rail motors for the LNER, seemed to prefer conventional coupling rods, and they produced a few shunters as well.

This is the signal box I was thinking of; Hornby R8721 Wooden platform signal box - Skaledale "Railside" range and the track plan, although the OS surveyor has managed to lose the crossover at the departure end of the loop. At 4mm scale the overall length comes to over nine feet, showing that even a small station took up a lot of room.

As far as the LBSCR is concerned, the only comparable station is Devil's Dyke. Photo courtesy of fulking.net website The only real difference is the siding by the platform. Perhaps a dead-end siding could be introduced between yours and the back-scene, or perhaps a 2D representation of wagons or carriages behind the platform could give a similar impression. Note that the signal box looks, if not larger, more impressive than the rather simple station building, and the old carriage put to use as a refreshment room, maybe a use for the old Hornby four wheeled coach. Other modellers have found the Skaledale(?) RTP ground frame box a good match for a Saxby & Farmer box and I think came in a suitable livery.

Not exactly a kit, but Newman Miniatures on Shapeways have 3D prints available of Coppernob, the preserved 0-4-0. https://www.shapeways.com/product/7BSFEWTNF/00-scale-coppernob-loco-scratch-aid?optionId=65331383&li=shops together with its tender. You’ll have to devise how to motorise it.

Sanding using gravity had been used from early days, a review of the locomotive Satellite on the London and Brighton Railway in 1841 noted its provision. It was the development of steam sanding around 1880 that resulted in the renaissance of singles, such as Johnston’s Spinners.

Also on the wonderful Britain from Above website

I don't know why Hornby haven't considered producing their ex-LSWR/SR rebuilds in LSWR livery and perhaps others. I know that they are slightly different from genuine pre-grouping designs, but within the context of generic types, they would certainly look the part, and fill a corner, and perhaps spike the guns of EFE with their pricey cross-country set.