CKPR

Indeed and it's been staring me in the face since I started railway modelling in the mid-1970s. Also, architectural modelling isn't really my thing and the thought of making Cockermouth station building in 4mm was pretty daunting !

The upper picture is from Bowtell's 'Rails through Lakeland' and the lower one from Robert Western' s 'The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway' (the latter is also reproduced in Peter W. Robinson's 'Railways of Cumbria')

I'll be doing some more work on No.3 later on after tea but I've also been doing some armchair modelling as well. Given the previously reported changes in the plans for our house, the 'last great project' of building Cockermouth has obviously been shelved, but I had a moment of inspiration the other day - what about another CK&PR station ? Obviously, it would have to be modellable as a 'cameo' layout within the now much reduced space available to me. Hence, the obvious choice for personal and practical reasons is Embleton, the first CK&PR station out from Cockermouth - no loop, a small two siding yard, a single storey station building, a level crossing and a stationmasters house [still standing by the side of the A66 !]. As an aside, I was always very taken with Ian Futers' NBR layouts that I saw at the York shows in the 1970s, but it has taken 45 years for the penny to drop that the CK&PR equivalent was practically on my doorstep. So, Embleton it is and a through station to boot, perfect for NER coke trains, M&CR through trains and even the latterday 'Lakes Express'. Of course, I might be tempted to pretend that the line remained open after 1966 and run my early 1970s class 25s and 40s on through freights to west Cumberland...

Not bad for a couple of evenings work given my slow pace of model making - time for a well earned cuppa I reckon.

Not GEM but very similar and made of brass - is it a good match for the existing lever frame ? It's set up for passing contact point control so might be a drop in for the old one.

Back to reality ! Luckily, the later M&CR 0-4-2s are pretty similar under the footplate and here is the existing chassis with the wheels after a bath in gun black.

I started building No.4 solely because I had W Hardin Osborne's 4mm sketch of it from RM February 1965 [but see the correspondence in the May 1965 edition]. As I accumulated more photographs and information, I became aware that No.4 might not be the most appropriate choice, footplate complexities not withstanding, as she was very much a 'mainline' engine and thus unlikely to be seen on the Mealsgate or Derwent branches. The question of which of the other M&CR 0-4-2s to build was resolved with reference to this iconic photograph in Bowtell's "Rails through Lakeland" that shows an M&CR 0-4-2 [with a straight footplate - hurrah !] with a train of two hired LNWR coaches on a Keswick service near Bassenthwaite Lake. A spot of logical induction and a subsequent discussion thread on the CRA's "electronic telegraph" led to the conclusion that the engine in the photograph is actually No.3.

A rather belated Happy New Year to all and sundry, albeit that it is still 1908 hereabouts, and here's one resolution that I might actually keep - building M&CR No.3. You might recall that the chassis for a proposed model of 0-4-2 No.4 was built but the project had stalled due to the complications involved in forming the footplate and splashers. I've done some more work on 0-6-0 No.7, which is now nearly complete and awaiting painting when the weather warms up, and so turned my attention back to the nascent 0-4-2. These mixed traffic engines were very much the iconic M&CR engine design and were closely related to their cousins on the neighbouring G&SWR. Therefore, any self-respecting M&C layout has to have an 0-4-2, but which one ?!

I think I encountered the very same 'expert' at ExpoEM North a few years ago - he told me that I was wrong in not putting a numberplate on my model of M&CR No.26, which was displayed in front of a widely published photograph of said engine sans any form of numberplate. I was still wrong in his expert opinion !

This is a long shot and it would require a lot of work, but David Jenkinson wrote an article in RM in 1966-7 [i.e. it will be in the Peco digital archive for RM] on building a Midland Rly Pullman and gave very detailed instructions for making the roof. An updated version of his method can be found in his book on carriage modelling published by Wild Swan.

Some consolitary reading is required, I feel

There wasn't that much mineral traffic after WW1 and by the 1950s, traffic through Distington was pretty sparse as west Cumberland was becoming post-industrial even back then.

Really off the beaten track options might include Titley Junction (Herefordshire) and Distington (Cumberland), both of which were pretty compact and eminently suitable for modelling.

PM me - I might have an old one knocking about.

Exactly the same thing happened to me at pretty the same time.

These look excellent and to say I'm interested is a bit of an understatement - any thoughts of an M&CR 2-4-0 or 0-4-2 to head up a train of these coaches ?

My plan until quite recently was to model the entirety of the Maryport & Carlisle in EM as it was it in 1976. By that date, the track layouts at Maryport, Aspatria, Wigton and Dalston had been severely rationalised with a couple of sidings at each one. In fact, the whole line looked like a CJF track plan and would have been interesting to work given both the then still substantial through freight traffic and the very small yards at each station. I had plans to run it as both 1970s BR and pre-WW1 M&CR and I have the stock for both. Alas, the building allocated to it is to be demolished to make way for an extension to our house.

This looks a lot better than the DIY lash ups under my M&CR coaches.

I suppose I could find room for a third rake...

My partner actually went to buy me an etched brass coach kit from a well known 7mm manufacturer and he managed to work out that I needed disc wheels rather the earlier spoked ones, seemingly from their conversation about our recent holiday to Seahouses.

Missing pages

Sorry, my mistake - there are two middle pages that describe the baseboard, track, electrics, etc but as these aren't particularly relevant to pre-grouping modelling (and there are no photos of M&CR engines !), I omitted them.

It does end rather abruptly, hence why I expected a part II appear back in 1982. Re. FR roof door and open top cattle wagons, I've built examples of both and they're pretty straightforward given a good selection of Evergreen strip.

Yes - both his and the related collection of models built by Bill Shillcock.

The stock list and constructional details for "Harringham"