Nick Holliday

Rather than all that electrical trickery, I would consider a reverse Minic Motorway pick up system. That had a central pick up wheel, with insulation in the middle, running in a narrow groove with conductors on either side. Could you fabricate a rail section with metal on either side, with a central insulator? Perhaps a suitable plastic section, (inverted T?) with metal square section glued on each side to give a Vignoles' type section?

Not sure of its relevance to this topic, but Middleton Press published an album of OJ Morris photographs which claimed to be fairly comprehensive.

Obviously life's too short to even try to make her work, so she is destined for display following a repaint. Whether I shall attempt to make some correct scale track is another matter. 3' fishbelly rails on stone 'pot' sleepers would look nice though. (Plastic rod on top of carefully filed plastic strip fish bellies seems the way to go - there are only a few inches to do.) Yet another item for the 'to do' pile........ Ambis Engineering do etchings to create both plateway and fishbelly track in 4mm.

I have two contemporary watercolour paintings, circa 1880, which definitely show a dark green border to the IEG.

I know that open wagons were pooled to a certain extent by 1921, but the variety on the train at the end is fantastic. Apart from the obvious local companies I spotted a couple of Taff Vale, ones from the LBSCR and SECR, and I think I saw a Caledonian one as well!

Fascinating article, many thanks for uploading it. It sparked a bit of recognition and I looked in Edward Talbot's The LNWR Recalled from OPC. In the section on Goods Traffic there are two pieces, one by Fred West, Goods Agent at Crewe, written in 1907, describes vividly the organised chaos and emphasising the vast amount of paperwork involved, the second dating from 1924 being slightly more technical and sedate, but both complement the Engineer article.Regarding the Unentered Berths, I suspect that this relates to items where the invoice hasn't been fully completed. An army of clerks in the office would go through all the invoices as they were received, and would label each with the relevant bay or berth within the shed, so that the unloading team would be told to go to, say, 92 on 3, the number being "plainly indicated by the rows of great iron figures suspended in numerical order above the decks from one end of the shed to the other." I would imagine that, given the enormous throughput of invoices the odd one would slip through the net unmarked, or perhaps the destination was ambiguous, so these would be taken to the Unentered Berth to be dealt with separately, away from the hustle and bustle of the loading decks. There was also a workshop where inadequate packaging could be repaired, to prevent any damage on the next stage of the journey. The later article refers to the "trucking bridges" which connect the decks to each other when down. "The communication bridges between the decks call for special notice because of their ease of manipulation. There are two sets of them across the shed and instead of having wide bridges which will accommodate both the coming and going traffic, narrow bridges are provided in pairs operated on the balance principle, and each bascule can be operated by one man. The weight carrying capacity of each bridge is 18 cwt."

Would the Southern concrete station lamp standards be a suitable source? The Albert Goodall ones are currently available from RT Models, just needing to fluorescent fitting, perhaps from Knightwing.

Thanks, that makes sense and helps to understand the geometry. Presumably the mechanism is below the deck.

It looks to me as if the ladder is actually a lifting platform which, when fully lowered onto the support between the tracks, would connect up with those just visible on the right, to create a runway between the two loading platforms. The trouble is I can't see how it is raised, as all there seems to be is a rope or cable hanging underneath the platform. I can only assume that there is a cantilevered section below the decking which does all the work. I think there is another one, in the fully vertical position further along the platform, just to the left of the pillar in the foreground. Perhaps the block across the rail is a simple Scotch Block to stop a wagon hitting the walkway when it is down.I am amused by the Escher like optical illusion created by the wooden pillar. Because it doesn't actually reach up to the roof beam the eye gets confused, and, at least for me, it looks as if it is much further away than the runway and the end of the wagon, yet it is obviously tight against the runway which itself must clear the end of the wagon. Most odd!

Possibly. I don't recall the instructions being that specific, and I thought the long spring would stay in place better. Would it make any difference on a two axle wagon?

Confined to the house for six weeks, following a hip replacement, I thought I’d tackle my kit mountain. For some reason I selected as a starter one of my more recent acquisitions, a Bill Bedford LNWR Glass Wagon, bought at ExpoEM this year, rather than pick something more appropriate for my LBSCR layout. As it is an unusual vehicle, I decided to record the process, and post it here. The kit itself comprises a moulded body, with a moulding containing the rest of the bodywork items, a fret for the excellent sprung chassis, moulded buffer housings with turned heads and fine springs, etchings for the various shackles and some fine chain to complete. Whilst there are some detailed instructions for the assembly of the shackles, I had to rely on his generic instructions on his website for the rest of the assembly, and the information in LNWR Wagons, Volume 1, was vital to complete the task. The first thing was to clean the thin flash off the mouldings, together with a few pips that had appeared. This was easily done with a sharp scalpel and a bit of filling. I am not sure of the materials used, so I assembled everything with Hafixs super glue, which worked very effectively. The buffer heads needed some turning pips removed, and I probably spoiled the springing with some over-zealous drilling out of the buffer stock, so they have ended up solid, which is a pity but I am not entirely convinced of the benefits anyway, as they don’t really behave like the prototype, in my opinion. Creating the shackles and turnbuckles was a time consuming nightmare, due to my inherent clumsiness trying to make maximum use of the fine chain. Eventually everything was assembled and installed, but this all took much longer than the rest of the kit! Everything else fitted very well, apart from a couple of items. As there were only three hooks on the etching and I felt I needed four, I made use of some spare PC Models etched screw coupling frets which also supplied some additional shackles, and I made a couple of the chains longer than the instructions stated, since I didn’t think they would actually reach across the wagon otherwise. If I were to tackle another glass wagon, I might consider investigating a more user friendly source, such as Ambis and Roxey provide, although there would still be a lot of chain involved. The assembled chains were blackened with Carrs’ Metal Black to minimise the need for painting later. The etched chassis went together well, once I realised that a) the springing units could slide along the wire, allowing the wheelbase to be adjusted to match the w-irons, and b ) it was easier to have the ears that retain the spring wire bent slightly away from the w-iron, allowing the wire to be slipped into place. Both fairly obvious, with hindsight but not clear from the instructions. The base of the wagon moulding had ribs which should fit inside the hole in the etching, but there was a protrusion on the latter that meant that some of the ribs had to be removed to allow the etching to fit snugly on the floor. This protrusion I think is to locate the moulded brake detail, but that had to be carved quite a bit to get it to fit where I thought it had to go. I did encounter a minor problem with the brake lever. The LNWR book had a detailed drawing and a high definition photograph, and there were differences between the two. Unfortunately it would seem that the brake gear has been modelled on the photograph, whilst the lever follows the drawing, resulting in the lever being roughly a foot too long. In order to get the bends in the right place, I cut the lever close to its fulcrum, and removed the necessary and glued the bits back together. For the brake guide I substituted an Ambis etching, which I thought was slightly better than the one supplied, and the coupling links are a combination of Ambis and Maygib. The completed wagon, with metal Gibson split spoke wheels, weighed in at around 14 grams, so I added another 30 grams with sheet lead glued to the underside, and it seems to run through a couple of P4 turnouts quite well. If it needs extra weight this could be added by building a wooden packing case for the glass load, with more lead stuffed inside, but then I would have to try and get the shackles to work properly to retain it. Altogether, an interesting and unusual wagon, which, apart from the shackles, was a delight to build. It now needs painting and the addition of, as a very minimum, some LNWR diamonds, before entering service, whether I can source the glass traffic lettering is another matter. I think I can justify its presence in the south east, but sightings of them on trains is extremely rare, especially the handful built by the LSWR and LBSCR, so I fear it may not see much use.

Lovely photograph. I like the way the shafts of the horseless carts are all held up at almost the same angle, as if the navy were about to launch a barrage! It is easy to forget how much space they would take up if just dropped to the ground, but what is keeping them up? I was also intrigued by the pipework that runs beneath the gas lamps, from bottom right to top left. I initially thought it might be something to do with the lights, but then I spotted that there were canvas flaps hanging from it at very regular, close, intervals, so I guess they are some form of loading gauge, but were they to check whether the load being delivered would fit into the waiting van, or to ensure the laden cart could get out of the warehouse door, or was it both?

Nice work, Jon, but with the compartment coaches you at least know where to put the bracing. Like Colin, but less successfully, I foolishly tried to keep them to a minimum, to retain the open nature of the van, but, with hindsight, with so few windows, I could have inserted lots more.

I've got one of these in the loft, which I started in the eighties, which, despite a bit of additional bracing, rapidly adopted more curves than Sophia Loren. Seeing this work I may be inspired to tackle it again, once I can get back into the loft after my hip operation.

It seems the heaviest Fowler ploughing engines weighed around twenty tons, so, theoretically, any machine wagon with adequate capacity would do. The LNWR Society has published a book covering some more obscure prototypes, including suitable Implement wagons. Unfortunately the relevant drawings are just weight diagrams. Although they are fairly well dimensioned they lack detail, including axle boxes and, apparently, there are no photos of them to flesh them out. However, I have found some examples from the south that come with both drawings and photos. Volume 3 of Southern Wagons depicts the SECR traction engine wagons, primarily to distribute the products of Aveling and Porter, while Volume 1 has a potential LSWR example, which, I think, is available as a basic resin casting from Gramodel. There is a nice picture of a traction engine, albeit a smaller type than the Fowler behemoth, on an MGNR Wagon on the NMR Gallery website, which shows how various bits were unfixed for transportation.

I think part of the problem is that the Keil-Craft kits were made to a slightly larger scale (1/72?) than 4mm - not a great difference but enough to make them out of gauge - the real things would have been delivered by rail and would have kept within the loading gauge to keep things simple. On the ploughing engine the chimney would have been left unfitted for transportation.

Not that it makes any difference, but the actual confusion was over Royston, again either a colliery in Yorkshire or a town in Hertfordshire, not as close to St Albans as Hatfield.

The E4 class were probably the first true mixed traffic design. The earlier E3 class were intended for goods workings, but showed promise when used on passenger trains, so the E4 was given larger driving wheels to give a better turn of speed. The first 6, built 1897/98, were actually painted in Stroudley Goods green livery, whereas the remainder of the class came out in Stroudley's Improved Engine Green (Yellow), the passenger livery. As part of their goods use, the next 40 of the class, including Birch Grove, retained the lever reverse, which was much better when shunting, as it allowed rapid reversal, the remainder being fitted with the screw reverser, which gave finer control, more suited to passenger work. By 1905, opinion was that the screw was superior, and there were intentions to replace the levers but the scheme was shelved after Billinton's death.

Very nice looking model. I have always thought that the Albion roof solution, whilst making the best of trying to form it using a flat etched sheet, required a lot of work and never really captured the look of the real thing. A good casting would be a better solution, as Peter K provided in his Stroudley Single and D2 kits. I imagine that the real roof was beaten out of a sheet (in two halves) using a steam hammer and a skilled operator, who used his eye, rather than a drawing, to get the required shape, which is why there were variations between locos, although it might be possible that there was a shaped block onto which the sheet was pressed, if there was enough production volume. One minor point on your model - recent discussion within the Brighton Circle eGroup showed that the upstand angle around the roof was painted in the dark green edging colour, and did not appear to have been white, which would reduce the impact of the white of the actual roof.

I have a set of Cambrian Railways' drawings including the Hounds Van, and this gives Nos 190 and 326 for them. The other drawings look as if they have received various annotations up to 1911, at least, and there is nothing to suggest that one had been destroyed, although there may have been one of an earlier, different design, which might account for the large gap between the two numbers.

This item on eBay (from Hong Kong) might be of interest - reference number 281697635843. At least it will save you over £120 pounds, and it looks quite good - quality seems vastly better than the equivalent GBL offerings.

Just for the record, the Horncastle set was formed from the coach sections of railmotors 5 & 6, built by Kitson with the carriages from Birmingham RCW. The Essendine pair came from the Avonside / Bristol RCW railmotors 7 & 8. The first pair, Nos. 1 & 2, were built by the GNR themselves and the carriage portions featured the "Gresley" high elliptical domed roof, apparently the first use of this profile. These, as articulated coaches, ran in Yorkshire for some time, but were scrapped, as someone noted, in 1937, after being damaged in an incident at Hatfield. GNR railmotor numbers 3 and 4 were reserved for petrol passenger railcars, although only one, No 3, was ever acquired by the company.

A number of E4s were transferred to both the Eastern and Western Divisions, initially during the war. They could be found, at various times, at Eastleigh, Nine Elms, Feltham, Salisbury, Guildford and Gilingham, as well as one which visited the Isle of Wight. As for heavy goods on the Western Division, the H16s were used on general goods, as discussed in the Waddon Marsh thread, and one shouldn't forget the W class, which may be an earlier prospect on the Bachmann wish list, with their N class for starters. I am not sure about the Z class, which had a more limited range of duties.

I know the period is rather before the OP's, but the second volume of Wallis photos in the Southern Infrastructure series from Noodle Books has a number of superb photos of Waddon Marsh and Beddington Lane from the twenties and thirties, as the line changed from a rural branch to an industrial complex.

What about road vehicles with the red and white trade plates strapped on at a jaunty angle? In particular those brave souls who used to drive coach chassis around the country in the fifties and sixties, with only a brown cap, coat or cape for protection. I imagine elf n safety stopped that some time ago.