wagonman

MR policy was to paint new(ish) wagons with a relatively light grey (like your LH example but older wagons would be repainted in 'smudge' (I think that's what they called it) which was basically a darker grey made up of whatever stuff was lying around the paint shop. Not the red stuff though, obvs. Looking at photos older wagons are usually darker but not just through the effects of weather. Richard

I believe the Blacksmith kits were also available in 4mm scale but I don't have any photos of them either – there is a photo of the Lav 3rd on the Coopercraft website, for what that's worth. There is also mention of Composite Coupe, Composite Luggage, and 3rd Luggage. You could contact Russ Garner and ask him I suppose... Richard

VERY impressed...

For what it's worth, Marsh Son & Gibbs were taken over by Bath Stone Firms in 1910, and the Timsbury Colliery wagon is in the old style style livery that was superseded when Beaumont Kennedy & Co took over following the death of the previous owner in 1904, so I would guess at a date c1905-6. The Camerton Collieries wagon 310 in the foreground was supplied by Wheeler & Gregory (of Radstock) in September 1901. Richard

Easily done these days....

The D1410 were built with wooden underframes too – the earlier ones (1885 on) were all wood framed. The use of 6.5" and 8.5" planks also causes confusion! The 'low' vans were approx 11ft from rail to roof centreline while the 'high' ones were about 7 inches higher. Not easy to determine just by looking, so maybe your model is D1410. If it is the 'low' version then all you'll have to do is change the axleboxes to grease type, and possibly the brake gear...and before you ask, I can't find a diagram of the Panter brake! Bixley et al seem oddly reticent. Does the South Western Circle still exist?

I've had a look through the GER registers: the early pages (1887ish-1890ish) are damaged – principally it's the edge of the page with the wagon numbers that has gone or is otherwise unreadable – but there are various batches of wagons (usually 10 at a time) built by Harrison & Camm, G R Turner and S J Claye with known numbers between 520 and 570, 713-9, 800-829, 900-944 – all these between 1890 and 1898 – and then 260-1 in 1902. In 1910 came 301-359, built by the Ince Wagon & Iron Co, and registered to W H Booth. No sign of Mr Mitchell. All wagons were 10 tons rated and many were recorded as "15ft long" though no indication as to whether that was internal or external. In other words I haven't managed to find the wagon shown in the photo of the M&GN loco.

The LSWR vans are a bit of a minefield! So far as I can see, the high roof version with Panter brake, oil 'boxes and steel frames (as per your model) were dia 1406 built in 1912; Fox pressed steel underframes had been used since 1899, though, but you'd need a lower roofed version with ordinary brakes and grease 'boxes such as dia 1410. Does anyone produce a kit? I've not idea. Will anybody notice? I've no idea.

Since then I have copied most of the GER PO wagon registers (and the M&GN one too) but have not had the time to transcribe anything. I might have a trawl through to see if I can find Mr Booth... Richard

Ah, but which family? It's so ostentatiously bling-y one could almost thing it was built for the Trump family – wrong continent/century of course, but...

The GWR referred to Private Owner wagons as Freighters' wagons, this being the case from the 1860s onwards, though in other contexts they used the word 'Goods'. Just to confuse everything.

The B-B measurement in Scale 7 is 31.20 (minimum) so there would be no problem with the B16 firebox. 'Finescale' is a different matter...

Few things look more ridiculous than a 4mm scale model of an Irish loco on 00 track! Mast, colours, nailed. That said, the model of the 101/J15 looks to have been tweaked to suit the narrower gauge and is thus a model of a Beyer Peacock loco wearing a GS&WR-style cab, rather than the actual Irish loco.

Oops Sorry! Not doing my homework properly!

Through trains to Barmouth in 1895 might have been considered a bit more important than some backwater branchline – access to the appropriate Carriage Working Book would useful – so may have used arc roofed 6-wheeled stock. By the time of WW1 these trains would have been made up of non-gangwayed bogie clerestory stock. It's unlikely that there would have been any of the Ratio style coaches, many of which were only built in the early 1900s and used for Bristol Division local sets. Two T36s sandwiching a U4 was a common branchline set in the South West in Edwardian times. Otherwise you're looking at very old 4-wheelers of the sort that were mostly scrapped before the diagram book was set up. Get out your Plasticard and your scalpel...

James, Your assumption about the prevalence of, usually Primitive, Methodist chapels in north Norfolk is correct. There were also a number of Quaker meeting houses, mostly in the towns: Wells still has an active Quaker house though most of the chapels have been sold off and converted into holiday homes or youth hostels. Catholics seem to be rather thinner on the ground and more recent arrivals – Walsingham apart. Blakeney has a newish Catholic church which looks rather like a generous double garage, as well as a still just about functioning Methodist chapel. There is an excellent book on religious dissent in East Anglia edited by Tom Williamson and Norma Virgoe should you feel Castle Aching to be in dire need of a whiff of religious non-conformity... I had forgotten about the Suffolk Tithe War. For once the BUF were on the right side. There are other connections with fascism in East Anglia in that one of the main financiers of Mosley was Henri Deterding of Kelling Hall. He was the man who engineered the merger between Royal Dutch and Shell oil companies. But I fear this is a digression too far!

That's because God in this instance is a proper noun. The bearer of the name doesn't need to exist – after all we are happy t refer to Castle Aching... One can also refer to gods in a generic sense without using capital letters.

At times like this I thank God I'm an Atheist

I remember taking a train from Histon station in about 1969 – class 31 with a couple of, I think, non-corridor coaches.

To state the blindingly obvious, sales to other interested parties – the queue starts here – would help to defray the costs of mould-making if that is the route you and Alan choose. Also, this is just the sort of production that I've been banging on about in the S7 Newsletter! I'll follow this saga with great interest... Richard

Will these wonderful No.2 axleboxes be available commercially? Please! By the way, the early LNWR diagrams (D1 to D5) were unusual in that the corner plates were fastened with rivets rather than coach bolts. The rivets were 3/8in diameter – heads larger obviously – and are probably best represented by punching the crner plate material before fixing. Failing that there is probably an Archer rivet decal that might do the job. Lovely stuff. Richard

Truly a cast of thousands...well hundreds anyway. A bit of useless information: Denham Studios became Rank's film processing lab.

As Indian Red was derived from the iron oxides in the red laterite soils of the sub-continent, and was available as such from Artists' Colourmen in the C19, it should have been the same for all companies; I doubt it was though. Wiki gives hexadecimal CD5C5C and RGB reference 205, 92, 92 – what this is in terms of a Munsell chart I've no idea.

With respect, nobody is forcing you to read this thread, or indeed any other...

Zen and the art of wagon building...