Ian Hargrave

Just put my newly acquired Hattons GNR Genesis behind LNER 5167 . It gives you a sense of how things progressed in what was quite a short timescale. Itsbulk ,though by no means inelegant,dwarfs them . Reflecting on how things are in our sphere of interest atm…..Aren’t we lucky ?

My lined green LNER version has its whistle on the cab roof. Incidentally,mine was left outside the porch door.( Also Staffordshire) No attempt made to knock or leave in porch. No damage btw. Maybe contacting Rails with the issue wouldn’t be a bad idea

And I’ll raise one remotely with you. My five arrived with Amazon’s customary efficiency at 2:30 pm and have this moment been united with No:1 in the gathering dusk .Later,I’ll add a Dynomometer Car to the ensemble (not strictly accurate but it’ll look good).It too has lights and tomorrow I’ll equip them with Hunt Magnetic couplings.If they don’t work the Hornby ones will. Then the ensemble will look even better. Here’s looking at you….Good health !

My two ..LNER green and BR l/c arrived this morning. Both are beautifully finished,solid models and both run smoothly. One quirky feature is that the BR one comes with lamps pre fitted..a nice touch. They come attractively boxed and remind me forcibly of my Planet Industrials Victory tank.Wonder if made in the same factory ?.IMHO in this day & age exceptional value

No he’s not. Mountain Ash is down the valley from Abercwmboi…thus you’d say South. Sorry to contradict.

Thanks for your response. Geographically,the infamous Phurnacite plant was in Abercwmboi and not Aberaman. I’ve been puzzling about the route trainloads of the evil stuff took .You’re obviously the best current historical source for this. It’s got me scratching my head. Obviously it would have been down the valley. The only freight I remember at Aberaman was the odd wagon or two from the gated branch that ran to the collieries in the Aman valleyI do remember the auto train having to creep over a virtually permanent speed restriction due to subsidence which was I think because of the track bed sinking on waterlogged subsoil between the plant and the ( then ) Cwmbach pedestrian crossing. I am referring to what was known as the Low Level line.( ex TVR ).Its counterpart,the Vale of Neath ( ex GW ) line was known as the High Level line and ran through Cwmbach Station . Cwmbach itself was not served by the Aberdare-Abercynon branch .Further news on this will be gratefully received.

That’s odd. I would be interested to see that photo and perhaps identify the location from which it was taken,being an Aberaman resident who used the line and lived there until the Abercynon branch closed. I never spotted one of those . Freight as such on that branch was usually confined to the Phurnacite plant between Aberaman and Abercwmboi and IIRC there were problems with the stability of the line involving a stringent speed restriction between Aberaman station and the plant. Yes,I often bunked 86J on my way to school. Quite a sizeable shed which was home to 8 coupled tanks .They worked the ex GW Vale of Neath line with duties as far away as Salisbury or closer to home as bankers on the Gelli Tarw incline in the Neath direction..

Date wrong . 1953 I should have typed 1953. Sorry

Aberdare’s 72 XX ..in especial particular 7216 .IIRC worked regularly via the Vale of Neath line eastwards through to Bassaleg & Newport on duties as far as Salisbury .From their introduction in 1953;Standard 3MT tanks worked most of the Western Valley lines along with both 56XX and both 41/51 Prairies and Panniers on auto trains until dmu’s arrived in early 1958. The major and significant upheaval in freight haulage then occurred in June 1963 whence cometh the EE Type 3 aka Class 37 .

Bringing aid & comfort to Hattons SECR P1 no doubt. Particularly like Rails special edition van. Lotta cash though…ah well . All very beautiful stuff .We are lucky. Saints alive ! ! ! Here follows a pregnant but meaningful pause full,of hint and innuendo. In memoriam Cefntilla Court and her sisters,South Wales Main line 1948 to early 1950 ‘s .Just HOW much longer must I wait. .? 9

I really should be able to answer this for you but for the life of me I cannot remember. Off on a tangent, the heavy 2-8-0 tanks didn’t progress IIRC beyond Ponty in the Rhondda direction or Nine Mile Point towards Abercynon.They certainly didn’t work the Aberdare branch.. The 56XX was a ubiquitous workhorse. Turntables .Now that’s a good question . Amazing what you both remember and forget. I think Mike’s time at Radyr post dates the steam era but he’s very much a go to authority on S.Wales coal working

See above

Calling Johnster…..

Indeed not. Paying a sizeable bill is always a pain in the ####.

But that was in another life….well 5 years ago. Actually,these GNR Genesis are arriving according to the schedule on Hattons website which under present circumstances seems exceptional.

Likewise. Thus my Rapido Stirling Single will at long last acquire some stock. Didn’t expect them quite as soon so a nice surprise but similar charge haemorrhoid.

Best described as gentle,”feel good” relaxing watching I think and perhaps not for the purist as long as you don’t lose the will to live during the interminable commercial breaks. So best viewed in recorded form. Fortunately,I have a (now 15 yo ) HDD recorder ….just as long as I remember to set it .Now where did I put that remote? I have to accept that a sure sign of one’s advancing years is forgetting where you put or leave things…the mobile phone being the object most mislaid.To find,ring it on house phone.

I wish you the joy of that and hope that unlike me & Robin Sweet of ANTB at the product launch at Gaydon last year you are allowed unfettered access to Hornby’s TT:120 . We both declined politely to the condition of signing up to extra media material in order to gain access to SK and his newbies ……which was a bit rich as both are in any case Hornby Club members.I sincerely hope that by now Hornby will have dispensed with such nonsense.That said,enjoy the show. I’ll be in Glasgow next month but for something entirely different.

Oops. My error. Wonder just how long that lasted in blue ,given the forthcoming air raids .

Oh yes, George Street was part of the way to Aberaman Station,now long gone and easily accessible to Eynon’s chippy,run and owned by May who always add a portion of scrunchings to your order.My mother visited a number of patients there.We lived further up in Godreaman in the bizarrely named Pleasant View Street. The “view” encompassed the infamous Phurnacite plant with its noxious yellow fume clouds and Aberaman Colliery where,I recently discovered,two Kerr Stuart Victory tanks resided to work the NCB branch up the Aman Valley. I remember their almost incessant barking but little suspected their significance at the time or that some seventy years later I’d be purchasing a model of one in OO gauge ! I did a little tour around last year .Much obviously has changed.But the chippy is still there as is the house in which I grew up ….with now a BMW 4x4 parked outside rather than my father’s Morris Oxford or my uncle’s Vauxhall ( visiting the local NCB stables and for a bowl or two of my mother’s stew and slices of apple tart )

On holiday ? Hmm…an interesting observation . Yes I know all about coal houses and back lanes and tin baths hanging on nails in the backyard..and Aberaman too.Well so I should as my mother was its very first District Nurse under the newly created NHS and Dad the hon.Secretary of the local rugby club. I grew up there in the forties and fifties. Not your average holiday resort though. For a change it was Barry Island,Porthcawl or Mumbles ( via the Vale of Neath ). No cars until my early teens to widen the horizons. My cousin up yonder …Ceinewydd…tells it too.His dad my mother’s younger brother,looked after the pit ponies in the area. Tondu being a centre for them. The house and street I grew up in is little changed since I left .But the landscape has. Its ghosts still remain

With regard to the running of these sets in everyday usage,I am using Hunt Extra Close magnetic couplings to good visual and practical effect. I only wish we had more sets developed and presented as these currently are. For those seeking evidence of post 1945 use please remember that railway photography was to a great extent dormant for a variety of reasons for several years.For the S&D,Ivo Peters was and remains the go to source.

No . I think not. WW2 bright blue an instantly recognisable target for any marauding Luftwaffe bomber ? I post this as an acknowledgement of the lousy aim which missed my mother on her bicycle round as her district nurse duties went around. He didn’t make it home. She did.though her patients were hit by his bombs and didn’t survive . Fortunately I’m still around to,post this …

Yes they cause quite a dent in one’s finances BUT temptation is what it is ( no answer). I decided…..no that’s untrue,I fell for,tart that I am….a WW1 theme at Doncaster and succumbed to two gunpowder vans ,a Salvage for Victory and a GW van. Oh plus two SECR types. So to complement them ,of the same period,I sourced suitable haulage in the form of a Planet Industrials Kerr Stuart Victory in original lined IW&D lined grey. The ensemble looks good and runs quite beautifully. I can justify the loco as two of them worked from Aberaman Colliery,in sight of the house in which I grew up.

Yes…in terms of access from the motorway network and the easy free parking,it scores hugely. I’ve been before so I didn’t miss out upstairs . It’s just great to be normal once again after a pretty unpleasant three years and I much enjoyed the show,particularly as I too fell for a Planet Victory which for me is a star purchase ,particularly at a show price. Had I not gone ,I’d have missed out on a very special piece of rtr model engineering..And of course those Iron Minks….