CKPR

As a nonplussed observer of the P4 vs S4 vs everyone else feud of the late 1970s-early 1980s, the most bizarre aspect was the P4 Society's trading arm Studiolith (who became Exactoscale) actively refusing to sell to members of the S4 Society or even to 'non-aligned' customers who might be purchasing on behalf of a member of the S4 Society (The command of my avatar comes to mind...).

That explains the similarity as William Pettigrew, the FR CME who designed the FR 0-6-0Ts, had previously worked under Adams at the LSWR before moving to Barrow (a drawing of the FR engines in the RM in the 1960s included a sketch of the G6 for comparison).

The 7mm scale ruler has arrived...

Indeed so, the very same Sharp Stewart 0-6-0 engines and other FR tender locomotives as built by Ross Pochin and now in the care of the Cumbrian Railways Association (search the CRA website for the Pochin & Shillcock collection) mostly have the motor mounted in the tender as described. As well as Tony Miles' articles, there's a good article by Sid Stubbs in RM from 1968-9 or so on this method of motorisation (basically 'old school' Manchester Model Railway Society "EM-F" from the 1950s - 60s).

Re. motorising a Sharp Stewart 'small goods' 0-6-0, this is a bit of a pig to do to put it mildly. I speak from experience having two Furness engines of this type in EM, both of which have the motor in the firebox to drive the rear driving wheels. A more straightforward albeit throughly heathen solution that I have subsequently come across is to power the tender with a Tenshodo SPUD of the appropriate wheelbase.

Pop over to the M&CR branchlines thread as we're discussing (ex) S & D /NER Central Division wagons.

That's got me thinking of the 0-6-0T engines of the Furness Rly. from 1910.

I am with you in thinking that there were probably second hand from the NER (CD), the more so as the Darlington Wagon Co. who supplied the C&WJR wagons was probably more likely to be a wagon repairer or brokerage than a builder of new wagons. The name is also a bit of a give away as well.

Thanks Marc and that's pretty much how I've interpreted and built the C&WJR wagons.

Well remembered, sir! Just had a look through my set and it's in vol. 4 - here's a quick snap of the photograph in the book.

RM January 1967

Tell me about it! I've been unwell for 10 days now and positive since last Thursday and whilst the cold /flu symptoms ebb and flow, the tiredness is debilitating and actually painful. Luckily, I work from home so I'm going to try to do a bit of work tomorrow and see how I feel.

Yes, those are the dimensions I used for these models and I also wondered if they were basically NER wagons, either rebuilds or by design. However, the extended sole bars incorporating the buffer housings don't look NER to me and are very similar to some FR coke wagons and Furness area PO wagons (e.g. North Lonsdale ironworks coke hoppers). There was some correspondence on this very topic between Philip Millard (who has just sadly passed away) and William Hardin-Osborne in the RM in the mid-1960s, with the latter supplying a sketch of this type of extended sole bar / buffer arrangement.

For the record, I built my models of these wagons on the basis that the sides were 15' X 4' and the w/b would be 9' as per my earlier models of the C&WJR 10t hoppers and then worked out everything else from there.

Hi Marc - it's the Cumbrian Railways Association journal from this February. It's a really good article packed with information about the C&WJR wagon fleet and mineral traffic working.

You will be pleased to know that very similar if not identical engines were supplied by Beyer-Peacock to UK railways - I thought this design looked familiar and a quick check in Simmons' history of the M&CR and my photograph collection revealed M&CR No. 23, an 0-4-2 built in 1872 by Beyer-Peacock who of course supplied several similar 0-6-0s to the M&CR. The Smellie / Stirling cab is obviously a contractural requirement or a local fitting, possibly the latter as the M&CR's B-P 0-6-0s tended to sport the usual B-P style cabs.

Thanks for this review - I recall 'Amberdale' appearing in an early(ish) edition of MRJ but I had forgotten about it until now. Seriously good scenic and architectural modelling and a real sense of place, but then as now the instantly recognisable motive power tends to somewhat spoil the illusion.

Feeling a lot better today so undertook some occupational therapy in the form of redoing the end stanchions. It didn't take too long and the improvement is very evident - I've posed the wagons on the sole reference photograph from 'Cumbrian Railways' vol. 14(1) (Feb. 2022). Hopefully these will be finished off over the holiday weekend and I might then get on and finish No. 7 or restart work on Mealsgate Station building.

Hmm, nowt like a dose of COVID (pretty grim so Heaven knows what it would be like if I wasn't triple vaccinated) and a week in bed to make one mull over the errors in those C&WJR wagons. The end stanchions need to be removed (here's hoping that the Thixofix can be softened with solvent) and replaced with the wooden ones from the Slaters NER hopper kit to give a clog buffer. Time to raid that NER hopper 'maxi kit' I've been hoarding for years when I'm feeling up to modelling again.

Thank you, that is exactly what I needed - for some reason, the NBR used very odd planking sizes that confounded me when I tried to mark out the NBR brake van. Being part Scots, I'm allowed to make the observation that presumably the sub-6" planking was to save the NBR the odd bawbee or two per van...

Just to let you that I'm still working away on the old O gauge stuff and stocking up on kits and materials. There's now a Connoisseur H2 (J79) kit and an Alphagraphix 'Lady Armstrong' kit in stock along with various Slaters and ABS wagon kits. To my shame, I haven't started any scratch builds in the larger scale as yet, not least because I keep forgetting to buy yer actual 7mm scale rule (how on earth do you work out something like 5 3/4" in 1:43?!). When I do, expect some posts relating to building NBR brake vans and NER 4w coaches...

Oh, and the extension boards of course!

A proper update on the progress of the C&WJR coke wagons will be forthcoming but here's a workbench picture to show work to date. Just the bolt heads on the side corner plates, 'monkey tails', brake levers & linkage (Wizard Models NER pattern) and the buffer heads to add. And yes, these aren't dumb buffered wagons and have self-contained buffers fitted in extensions to the sole bars. I am currently wondering if I am the only person still scratch-building pre-group mineral wagons in 4mm, at least in the 'old school' way of using plasticard and brass.

I'm still working through a large box of genuine ModRoc obtained via an educational supply company for a fraction of the then retail price. Mrs CKPR-to-be is an infant school teacher and all I had to do to get her to order the ModRoc was to use some of it to make a lunar landscape for her class...

Perusal of 'Rails through Lakeland' reveals that the M&C only got to run trains through to Keswick after 1919 when the LNWR permitted a 9.45am train from Keswick to Maryport via Cockermouth and the Derwent branch. This was augmented in 1922 by a 'teatime' working arriving Keswick 6.05pm and departing 6.30pm. The 9.45am involved a LNWR corridor composite that was worked through to Carlisle. Alas, there is no information about how these services were handled at either Cockermouth or Keswick. The only clue is that M&C stock was stabled at Cockermouth.