CKPR

 

 

I did originally try to scratch build some buffer stops making a jig for bending rail but found getting it right proved to be near impossible and when I realised just how much like LBSCR buffers the Peco ones looked I decided to modify them.

 

 

You and me both ! There are jigs for bending rail like this  (anti-clastic bending I think it's called)  and I think that Studiolith did one back in the 1970s but I've never seen one, let  alone tried to use one. 

As per jamie92208 with the use of small pieces of Tamiya masking tape (marvellous stuff, if rather pricey) to hold the individual pieces in place while you rub them down. I've used Powsides lettering sets in the past for scratchbuilt wagons (the "Moresby Coliery' wagon seen in the  'Mealsgate'  thread over on the pre-grouping pages uses these) but I now prefer to save up and pay extra to buy their pre-painted and lettered wagons, which require a fair amount of fettling and touching up but can look really good,  as I find applying rub-down transfers a nerve-wracking operation at the best of time. I much prefer modern waterside transfers used with Microsol and Microset or the old Methfix transfers, both of which give a really good 'painted on' look to lettering. 

Perhaps we happy few pre-grouping tyros are quite singular in our accommodation needs and circumstances - in my early 50s, I've just got engaged, sold my Georgian batchelor house , hired a transit van (oddly enough,  horse-drawn pantechnicons seem to be temporarily unavailable from vehicle hire companies these days ) and moved all my modelling stuff, including the 'Bolton Loop' , temporarily back to my elderly parents' loft  up in Cumbria. The future Mrs CKPR checks out houses for large kitchen-dining rooms and attic bedrooms whilst I'm looking at outbuildings and cellars...

Dapol have done it in N scale.

Phew, just as well I don't model in N or I would have to buy it !

I don't normally pay any attention to the post-privatisation railways, except to have pay exorbitant fares to get to work, but I was very taken with a train I saw yesterday at Cardiff Central, the 5.15pm (IIRC) to Holyhead, the   'One Wales Express' / 'Y Gerallt Gymro'. Loco-hauled (well, propelled) by a class 67, four MkIII coaches, including a 1st class dining car ,and a Driving Van Trailer and looking for all the world like a real-life model train ! (I expect that someone will now tell me that Hornby do it as train pack...).

The Bishops Castle had coaches from various railways - I have the LSWR and H&B in mind but I may be wrong. The Easingwold had an ex-GC (MS&L) brake third six wheeler. I think at one time there was quite a market for second hand coaches - and wagons. Colonel Stephens picked up all sorts of ancient carriages from various sources.

 

Just thought of a really obscure one - The Trafford Park Estates replaced their gas trams with partial electrification - but one section was changed to railway operation with some prehistoric GC (or possibly CLC) 4 wheelers.

...from the H&B via the B&M. That's the Brecon & Merthyr, not bargains (although they probably were). Talking of S/H coaching stock, Ratio MR low roof coaches would also  be in order on your line, as the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire had these.

I have just been reading an excellent book on the M&GN. It mentions in passing that records from one of the stations show that cattle wagons from practically every British company appeared there. I found this surprising, but also pleasing, and I imagine the 'practically' covers exceptions for very small companies like the Bishop's Castle.

 

The same book mentions cattle being brought to Norfolk for fattening from both Ireland and Scotland. I have come across similar traffic to Derbyshire and I expect it will have also applied to other areas where summer grazing was relatively lush. 

 Which begs the question of where the BCR sent it's cattle wagons to, as their cattle wagons (ex-MR / LMS) were among the better maintained of their rolling stock (I appreciate that this is not saying very much !) and were vacuum-piped if not necessarily vacuum-braked. 

There was an article in the Railway Modeller in 1979-80 on converting the (then) Mainline J72 to this very engine (sorry I can't be more specific but I'm away from home and can't look it up).

I don't know if this is off-topic for this thread, but I've always had a liking for layouts from the

1940s and 1950s using LMC, Stedman and the other coarse scale 'model' manufacturers despite my not owning anything remotely similar and, I suppose, being too young for that sort of thing ! One of the first copies of the Railway Modeller that I owned back in 1974 was from 1966 and featured Bill Tate's Millport & Selfield railway and I've sought out all and anything on this layout ever since. All my adult modelling has been in EM but I just find the Millport & Selfield to be so atmospheric of the working steam railway that I never knew (seeing a clapped out Black Five at Workington when I was 3 yrs old is my sole steam era memory).

These K's kits are MR three plank opens, as per the later Slaters kit. The good thing is that the MR actively sold off old wagon and coaching stock to the smaller pre-group railways, so having some ex-MR stock on your line is actually very authentic.

Update - I'm moving house and so not much railway modelling (or pre-war AFVs or 1950s jet prototypes or even 1930s French bombers) for me for a while we get our new house purchased. In the meantime, I'll probably potter about with my various US 'craftsman' kits whilst I'm down in Cardiff - I reckon that the 'Aurora & Pacific RR' shortline and it's associated logging line will be take precedence over the Bolton Loop for a few months until we're ensconsed in Shropshire or Powys. 

Progress on the 'Bolton Loop' hasn't entirely stopped as I've made a FPL cover for High Blaithwaite -  just the one, mind you, I've still got the other one to do. All the other projects glimpsed on the workbench (the Potez 540, Bishops Castle Rly rolling stock, the HO logging wagon, etc) have all nearly reached completion so I might get on with Mealsgate station building in the New Year.

I say, has this forum gone all modern image ?! IRRC, some of these engines are most definitely post-1923 !

My contribution to this thread is that I still have the models built from kits I bought from KX model shop in the mid-1980s when I was a very impecunious student at the LSE , namely a McGowan Models' Furness Rly L2 tank engine and the last 4-5 of the Eames' Stockton & Darlington caldron wagons.

Whenever I paint plastic, I always use an undercoat of Halfords grey primer as it really helps with applying the subsequent colour coats and reduces the likelihood of a glossy finish. It also imparts a degree of 'organic' texture (ok, I know stone and brick aren't organic, but you know what I mean ) to the otherwise, well, plasticky styrene. Just a suggestion which I hope is useful.

"corneliuslundie" posted It is looking very promising. I think you were right to use individual strips rather than scoring. The only problem tends to be finding the right size strip as those who built the original structures we model were very inconsiderate and didn't always think in terms of multiples of 3/8 inch (5 thou).

 
It's worth having a look in the "American" section of the Evergreen range [i.e. the stuff that's obviously aimed at US modellers] as there's quite of bit of stuff that's in yer actual Imperial sizes rather than being metric. 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/G-G1-GAUGE-1-KIT-BUILT-GW-GWR-20-TON-BRAKE-VAN-WAGON-2123-WREXHAM-NICE-ei-/331126952505?hash=item4d18b45239:g:CJ0AAOxyOMdS-T0L

Ermm, well the 'western' bit is correct, I suppose...

. What we need are sheets of brick that go round the corner a bit (L-shaped) with stepped brick ends for slotting sections together.  Wouldn't that be nice?  

Didn't Formacraft (?) do something like this about 30 years ago with their individual bricks (!) and brick modules ? It all looked a bit fiddly to me and, to honest, none too realistic as is often the case when things are scaled down to exact size. Then again, I'm still using computer chads...

Yer I think that's my problem Marc they are over 1MB. il see if I can adjust them somehow

I had that very same problem  with my  photographs and ended up converting them to  .jpg files as these are much smaller and come in 1MB.

Well this pretty much puts the kybosh on the old Jamieson 'Jumbo' kit I've got stashed away...!

The first wagon I design as part of my degree project was based a drawing in a well known book of Furness railway drawings, not naming any authors. It was a steep learning curve, as it hit my student pocket hard. Now I have to have a photo to match any GA of I will not even look at it.

 

Marc  

We fools 'rush' in, etc...

I've been very busy the past month, but not at modelling as I've changed jobs and I'm now commuting to South Wales three days a week ! I've managed to paint the brickwork on Mealsgate signal box (in a Cardiff B&B, not at my workbench) so before I set out on this weeks travels, I thought I'd post a quick update. As usual, it's nowt fancy just watercolour from a cheap paintbox set but using one of my recent modelling discoveries, namely Italaeri paintbrushes. I had always used artists sable brushes until recently but the Italaeri ones are excellent, as they keep their shape and point and are obviously designed for modelling as they come in a variety of useful sizes and shapes. The stuff in the background comprises GWR and Bishops Castle Rly (ex-MR) cattle wagons and a fire tanker (ex-Roundhouse) for my HO logging layout.

From memory, some LD&EC drawings are just not fit for purpose. I remember drawings being published in the Model Railway Constructor for the 0-4-4T and some coaches, all of which had glaring errors. A drawing of the 0-6-0T in the Railway Modeller was a bit better, but not much. The Skinley drawing of the 0-4-4T is drawn as if designed by Robinson, even though built to Kitson designs and built well before the GC/LDECmerger.

 

I guess that was true of many drawings in the model railway press in the good old days!

Don't get me started about those inaccurate loco drawings from the 1960s. My first two M&CR engines were written off as practice pieces when it became apparent that the drawings were so wrong, they were not even even wrong...

Hello CKPR I've only just recently discovered this forum and noticed your excellent construction work on the Bolton Loop displays,

 

I was fortunate to restore Allhallows Colliery signal box last year with the help of my family, I see your model of Mealsgate & Allhallows boxes are still under construction, the area size of the Allhallows box is 12ft X 9ft with a roof pitch of 6 1/2" in 12" but I must say for not exactly knowing the dimensions the model looks fantastic n very much to scale! also the original chimney was in the back left corner not in the back right like the CRA drawing shows, this was changed later in the buildings life when Isaac Blacklock occupied it as a shop (he had the back wall cut out behind new stove so the joining garage could benefit from the heat aswell as the shop) the original chimney cut out is still evident on the celing, there is also evidence of wooden hand rails cut off outside the side door, 2 at waist height and 2 at floor level, could this be suggesting this building originally had a platform outside the door ? or a staircase leading upto it ? raised possibly on bricks to allow space for the mechanical interlocking ?

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a picture of the signal box in its original position at the colliery yet but constantly looking, I have several from it in its roadside position dating as far back as the 1920's n 30's if your interested I could send you on !

Your very welcome to to come and take photos & measurements if you like

 

Richard Wilson

 

http://www.cumbria-railways.co.uk/allhallows-colliery-signal-box.html

Thank you so much for this information and I'm so pleased that you've restored it as I entertained the very same idea for many years, albeit merely as wishful thinking ! We lived in Cockermouth in the 1960s, moving to Keswick in 1970 and we usually went Saturday afternoon shopping in Carlisle, thus driving past Allhallows box, which always intrigued me. I've recently started a new job which isn't leaving much time for modelling of late (that's working in Cardiff three days a week for you) but I'll go back to the models next week and look at them again in the light of this useful information and hopefully get started on the windows and interior for both of them, having painted the brickwork on Mealsgate (photos to follow). Speaking of brickwork, I think you're right about a brick base and a set of steps for Allhallows as these are evident at Mealsgate. Also, Allhallows appeared to have been a 'proper' inter-locked signal box as opposed to the quite different design of covered ground frame / block post that was installed at High Blaithwaite ( I'm no expert on signalling but High Blaithwaite appears to have facing point locks but no interlocking) and elsewhere on the M&CR.

I posted this on another topic, but don't forget the goods stock either.

 

The inspiration for this was one I saw on the late Geoff William's 'Aylesbury' layout.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=1956

Similarly, what's the provenance of the E&WYU wagon ? I've always fancied one of these but not enough to cut loose with the plasticard...