CKPR

Here's an old picture of No26 on a very short train approaching High Blaithwaite from Aikbank Junction - she's obviously been drafted in from her usual haunt of the M&CR's Derwent branch from Bullgill to Cockermouth. If anyone is keeping notes, this is the first iteration of High Blaithwaite that was built before the second (!) photograph of the station at High Blaithwaite came to light and I realised that my presumption about the bridge being a stone arch was completely wrong. A pity really as I was rather pleased with the bridge as it turned out, especially the representation of the red sandstone construction that typifies West Cumberland.

Indeed and it probably goes both ways as Hugh Smellie worked for the M&CR before he went to the G&SWR to succeed James Stirling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Smellie . Somewhere, I've got a plan (G&SWRA ?) for an early G&SWR 0-6-0 (class 224 ?) that seems to be a first cousin of the Maryport-built M&CR 0-6-0s and in the absence of anything else, I'll probably consult it for cab fittings, etc.

I sometimes think the M&CR's locomotive policy waz ter hav deek aboot Carlisle Citadel fer wat waz barrie then gan and makzit at Merrypurt.

It's my now very battered copy of Essery & Jenkinson's "An Illustrated History of LMS Locomotives Vol. 2 - Absorbed Pre-group Classes Western and Central Divisions (OPC 1985) - it's an excellent source of information on the FR, M&CR and even the C&WJR. It also covers the L&YR and the North Staffs., so you can cross-reference 'out-sourced' engines built by Beyer-Peacock, Sharp-Stewart / North British, Naysmith-Wilson, etc.

Cheers Phil and some 4mm M&CR chaldrons for No.7 to haul in and out of Allhallows pit would be very welcome ! I hope you liked the subtle plug for the CRA...

Looks familiar ! This is my third attempt at M&CR No 26 and it may have the odd part from the Nu-cast 'BTP' kit that formed the basis of the first two attempts that are best forgotten about. It has the same basic specification as No. 7, with a Mashima 1220 and flywheel hidden in the well tank and connected via a neoprene shaft to a ModelYard gearbox on the front driving axle. All the usual 0-4-4T fun and games applied and after several attempts to produce a fully compensated chassis, the rear driving wheels are compensated and the bogie is centre pivoted and sprung vertically and, less successfully, laterally. Aside from the chassis, the most awkward part of the whole build was actually sourcing the parts for the buffers and from memory, these are fabricated from at least two different makes. Surprisingly, it runs really well, albeit needing some careful adjustment now and again and I really must finish the lettering, install her crew and wire up the GOW bulb for the firebox glow effect ( I've got a thing about fully detailed cabs that probably dates back to my teenage apprenticeship in military modelling - anyone else remember Bandai's 1:48 scale AFV kits with full interior detail ?).

This is the M&CR, remember, the master practitioners of the art of locomotive plagiarism !

At long last, there has been some progress on 'Mealsgate' ! Well, on the locomotives that will run on 'Mealsgate' at any rate as I've re-started work on M&CR No.7, an 0-6-0 built by the M&CR at their Maryport works in 1890. I hinted that there would be little in the way of 21st century technology in the building of 'Mealsgate' and so No.7 is being slowly sawn, filed and soldered from nickel silver and brass together with some judicious finds in the stores. Following the 'no styrene' rule I apply to my engines, the next step after tidying up the soldering of the splashers will be the fabrication of the distinctive double buffer beams from nickel silver and bass wood scraps from one of my US 'craftsman' kits - I'm quite looking forward to this after the battle with the splashers, which is always my least favourite part of scratch-building locomotives. The mechanical spec is EM, beam compensation on both the engine and tender with Markits wheels, a Mashima 1220 motor and a Branchlines 80:1 gearbox.

That is so so sad - Cheshire Models used to be my local model shop when I lived in Macclesfield. Iris was always cheery and lovely to chat with, whether about her working dogs who were usually behind the counter or the history of the UK model trade.

If you can get hold of a copy of Gifford & Gamble's 'Steam Railways in Industry', page 73 has a side on picture of the canal side discharge chute at British Oak and there was an article by Michael Andress in the Railway modeller in 1977 or 1978 on modelling the scene in this photograph.

And some lovely footage of Prague station to boot !

Ah, the pre-grouping equivalent of today's Christmas shopping in Morrisons - less chance of two plastic bags splitting and a bottle of Old Peculier exploding I'll warrant !

I would add to the suggestion that 1/64 is the ideal scale. There's an interesting comparison between our scales and the model aircraft scales, with the latter being neat and logical i.e. 1/24, 1/32, 1/48, 1/72, 1/96 and 1/44 - although 1/50, 1/100 and latterly 1/200 have been used for model aircraft over the years, they've never really caught on.

If you find yourself in Ludlow, pop into 'The Blood Bay', where you can now procure a very quaffable draft table beer made to an authentic late Victorian recipe, albeit not at late Victorian prices.Which is a real pity as I've just unearthed two caches of pre-decimal coinage.

Definitely not worth the risk in my book !

Seeing as how CA often seems to be a hybrid of 'Only Connect' and 'Mornington Crescent' in which all the answers are supposed to relate to the pre-grouping era, I've been musing on how we go from Ayn Rand back to the old-time railways (to use the Rev. Beale's terminology) and so alighted on Sir Wilfred Lawson, '2nd Baronet (4 September 1829 – 1 July 1906) was an English temperance campaigner and radical, anti-imperialist Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1859 and 1906... the leading humourist in the House of Commons'. And director of the Maryport & Carlisle Railway, which contrary to his nom de plume is CKPR's main interest. Sir Wilf seems to have been the antithesis of Rand's heroes as he clearly cared about his constituents and employees, exercised a beneficent autocracy over north west Cumberland and was by all accounts a decent if rather eccentric cove who was generally well regarded. Shame about the temperance nonsense though.

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs"

Good heavens, we have an actual time-travelling johnnie from the far future ! Pray tell, do your steam engines travel at 100mph yet ?

I use Fulgarex / Lemaco point motors and direct replacement switches are available from Peco (PL32 microswitches).

https://www.petersspares.com/mega-steam-smoke-oil-with-grandpas-pipe-smoke-smell-60ml-dropper-bottle.ir My abiding memory of the Harrogate model exhibition in the mid-1970s was the overwhelming smell of pipe smoke and arcing open-frame motors !

Post-grouping I know, but I recall reading that when the British army was recruiting for the Kings African Rifles in WW2, they expected legions of war-like Masai warriors but found that the recruits were mostly factory workers and office clerks from Nairobi...they still put the wind up the Imperial Japanese Army though !

This has cheered me up and not just because my middle name is, well, Julian !

Without breaking the bank, I've managed to acquire all of these bar the trailers and the Vickers Medium - you'll see refurbished post-war models (apparently this is kosher in Dinky collecting circles) on offer at every toy and train fair. The light tanks can be obtained for £15-20, but you're looking at £100+ for the medium tank. I realised that I was drifting into Dinky Toy collecting when I started to buy the 1950s ones as well, so the latter were donated en masse to a local charity shop !

Another possibility might be the original Dinky pre-war military vehicles as these are mostly of late 1920s - early 1930s vehicle and equipment: 6-wheeled lorry with field kitchen and water trailers Vickers Medium tank Vickers Light tank Crossley 6-wheel recon. car Searchlight lorry 3" AA gun Light Dragon artillery tractor, limber and 18pdr gun Austin 7 staff car There are not as expensive as you might think as most of them bar the Medium tank and the trailers were put back into into production after the war until replaced by the classic 1950s Dinky military range.

Not just older, but from the USA and probably not really a layout, the 'Sierra Pintada RR' was one of those 'how we built it' staff projects that used to feature in Model Railroader in the 1960s. This one was featured in the 1966 volume (Dec 1965 - June 1966) and was an HO switchback mining layout supposedly set in Arizona (not in Argentina as you might think !) with echoes of the Colorado Midland. It was pretty much as you would expect, Atlas set track, elaborate L-girder construction, the then new 'hardshell' and 'zip texture' scenics, wooden buildings and trestles, etc and it still looks impressive over 50 years later