Bulwell Hall

This really is a beautiful little model! The detailing is exquisitely done with restraint, the livery is superbly applied and model bodes very well indeed for future wagons from Rapido. My only regret is that by my post WW2 period they were getting thin on the ground so I cant really justify more than one. But I shall certainly be obtaining the forthcoming Minks and Opens in multiple - not to mention the LMS opens and hopefully others that we don't yet know about. Rapido really are coming up with the goods and I for one am excited about that! As for a GWR tank engine, the 2021 class lasted longer than the 850s so gives the apparently important BR aspect, even if they were less pretty! But I note that Rapido are doing a Highland Railway 'Jones Goods' none of which lasted into BR days as far as I know but that doesn't seem to be a problem - so who knows! Gerry

Like Tim I am delighted to see Steve Halls wonderful layout and likewise, am astonished at the speed with which it has been accomplished. The list of K's stockists was also welcome and illustrates just how many model shops there were at one time. I visited quite a number of them over the years and was surprised that a town the size of Reading had two - I recall only EAMES down by Reading General station. I also used to frequent Precise Models of Eastleigh although I never knew it by that name. It was always simply known as the 'Eastleigh Model Shop' and for a time was a regular haunt on a Saturday afternoon whilst en route either to or from the Locomotive Sheds as we witnessed the demise of Southern steam. Gerry

Here's another couple of photos of 1367 on the Tramway at Weymouth, this time in August 1939. They were among a number of photos taken at Weymouth that came to light recently. The view of the boat train just arrived at the Quay is quite routine and doubtless the engine crews were often asked to pose with enthusiastic young passengers. The second view was taken as an up boat train negotiated the recently completed new alignment at Ferry's Corner on its way to the station. The Collett K38 Ocean Mails passenger brake van was a regular feature of the boat train at this time. Gerry

I believe that 4566 was turned out to the high standard shown as she was the last locomotive to be 'shopped' at Newton Abbot 'factory'. There was a commemoration when she emerged from the 'factory' to mark the occasion. That said I think that it was normal for engines turned out in lined green at this late period to have the SV bonnets polished- at least when they were ex works. Gerry

Very much as I remember her. Photo probably taken near the end of her days at Yeovil Town shed, with a SR S15 in the background. I have a good number of photos of 4507 at various locations at different stages of her career, but most were taken in 1962 or 1963 by which time, she had become something of a minor celebrity amongst railway enthusiasts. Gerry

Quite correct Jon - 4507 had a 'heavy general' in 1957 I think, which included a new boiler. She was therefore within the timescale to receive fully lined green livery - started 1956 I think - and was also the reason why she lasted in service until 1963 making her the last Wolverhampton built engine to remain in service and also the oldest GWR locomotive in traffic at the time of her withdrawal. By the time that fully lined green livery was adopted the majority of early flat tank 45xx had been with withdrawn or were imminently due for withdrawal so very few would have received it. Conversely many of the 4555 - 4574 batch did receive the livery being younger and thus the reason that there are plenty of photos of this batch in BR lined green. These engines are as fascinating as the 44xx - there's just more of them to get your head around! Gerry

One thing that strikes me from the Rapido B set CAD files shown - and highlighted by the photo of the Lionheart 7mm scale B set - is the guttering at the eaves level. These gutters overhang the ends at both ends of the coach and is a quite significant feature of these vehicles. I am surprised to see that the 7mm version doesn't have this overhang, not having seen these models in detail before. This is an important feature and the overhang needs to be incorporated - Hornby recognised this and did it correctly on their Collett Bow - end coaches, both corrider and non-corridor versions, so there isn't really any excuse for its omission. And I'm rather interested in the claim that these models are made from official drawings. I have been involved with a friend in the design and production of a bespoke set of etches to build a 4mm scale Diagram E140 B set for our own use and, in spite of many enquiries, we found no trace of any official drawings. Having received the etches last November construction of the two coaches took a good few months earlier this year and the models are currently away for painting and lining. You might think that I would be dismayed by the news of the proposed Rapido models but I'm not - the rtr version is probably at least a year away and I hope that mine will be completed well before then. And I can use another set for a stopping service on the main line so I shall certainly be placing an order in due course once I know what the livery options are likely to be. Gerry

4405 was an interesting one! She was a Newton Abbot engine in 1947 and her regular duty was to work the 'Ashburton Goods'. This involved a round trip from NA, over Dainton to Totnes where the train reversed. It then ran up the Ashburton branch, shunting the yard at Buckfastleigh and running on to Ashburton as required. She then made the return run keeping out of the way of the expresses on the main line. This turn remained her regular duty until the mid 1950s when she was withdrawn. I do have a photo of her piloting at BTM, but I guess on this occasion she had been put to use whilst en route from SDN back to NA. She had an extended bunker, and 1930s photos show the spacer behind the rear buffer beam. But at some stage the rear end must have been rebuilt - perhaps as a result of a 'heavy shunt'? - and she no longer had the spacer even though she still had an extended bunker. Also, interestingly the photos I have of her show no insignia on her tanks - either in the Great Western period or BR period - another little anomaly. 4410 was the last to retain the shorter bunker which she retained until she was withdrawn on the mid 1950s - one of the Princetown branch engines and one of the last to remain in service. Below is my version of 4405 built from a Mitchell kit. There is an interesting story attached to this model but perhaps this isn't really the place for it. Fascinating little engines! Gerry

There is very little information on wartime repaints - especially relating to wagons - but there is some circumstantial evidence that this Mink could be painted brown. I have dug deep into my files and came up with the following: In the January 1945 issue of The Model Railway News R.P. Walford published the first part of an article on 'Coach Livery of the GWR 1910-1944'. I don't know his sources for the earlier period but in the second part of the article - published in March 1945 - he goes into some detail on the changes caused by the prevailing wartime conditions. These details are based on his own observations and give examples of actual carriages that received the wartime austerity brown livery. He mentions that by 1942 many GWR passenger vehicles required repainting but that there were no supplies of cream paint. He states that " By contrast, there was so much brown paint that many wagons were painted in it too, and goods brakes at any rate are still coming out in brown coats (a marked contrast to the raw, paintless efforts of the L.M.S!)". R.P. Walford was a long-standing member of the RCTS and took a particular interest in GWR rolling stock and recorded what he saw in his locality. I believe he lived in Newton Abott, but if not, he was certainly in the South Devon area. For many years he reported on GWR rolling stock matters in the Railway Observer - the RCTS house journal - and an anonymous report of March 1942 could well have been by him viz "GWR goods rolling stock has been painted LMS brown". I think that may be what we would now know as LMS Bauxite and if the modern-day Precision Paints version is anything to go by then it could very easily be mistaken for brown. I would guess that as the brown was being substituted for the usual wagon grey any lettering would continue to be in white as they were not passenger rated 'brown' vehicles. But this is all supposition on my part, and I don't have any hard information that this was how it was. I do have a Parkside Mink on the bench at the moment and may well do it in brown to see how it looks - I have after all already done a Toad in brown - see below. I hope this is of some interest. Gerry 

I can't help thinking that this might be an example of a van painted in wartime brown. There is no way in which we can be sure, but it has been painted recently and looks lighter than if it were in the usual GW wagon grey. But I'm probably completely wrong...... Gerry

My van arrived by post late morning on Saturday and by the evening I had changed the wheels, removed the auto couplings and replaced them with three links, added some weight and weathering and placed it at the head of a train. Oh, and I had a trip across to the Dean Forest Railway to catch some real steam on the last day of BST! I am delighted with the latest from Rapido!

I suspect that I am of a similar vintage to you, and I too remember Southampton Docks well. I was born and grew up in Winchester, but my maternal grandparents lived in Southampton, and we visited regularly - weekly in fact. I remember seeing lines of banana vans in Allbrook Sidings - to the north of Eastleigh - ready to be worked empty down to the Docks for loading. I also remember the USA tanks on the Town Quay shunting wagons but not the E1s unfortunately. What is really needed now to go with a full train of banana vans is a Urie S15 which I well remember well working hard through Winchester with fitted freights heading for Basingstoke and London. Gerry

Through working of locomotives onto other companies' metals has aways intrigued me. I have a photo taken in the mid 1930s showing a LMS 4F 0-6-0 amidst the GWR engines at Weymouth locomotive shed. A bit of searching showed that it was a Bristol Barrow Rd engine at the time. There is also the well-known photo of a LMS 2P 4-4-0 at Swanage taken around the same time. I was recently shown a couple of photos of GWR 4-4-0 Bulldogs with trains of GW stock working over the Somerset & Dorset line to Bournemouth - again in the 1930s - whilst there are several published photos showing GWR Halls working through Bournemouth - Central as it became later - with excursion trains. The question is though was this a common occurrence or did people make a point of photographing these workings because they were so unusual? And another thought - many years ago I was shown a photo of a GCR 'Jersey Lily' at Weymouth shed in full pre-1914 Great Central regalia, but no details of the working are known. Gerry

There is still some standing near the GWML between Keynsham and Bristol. The last time I saw it was in quite poor condition but still standing. The fencing marked a footpath that led from the old A4 road to a footbridge across the line which is still standing - and in use - I saw 7029 Clun Castle roaring towards Bristol from this bridge a while back. There was formerly a tank house adjacent to the footbridge which supplied the Keynsham water troughs. All evidence of the tank house and troughs has gone but the footpath may also have served the tank house as well.

Oxford. The church is St Barnabas Church in the Jericho area of the city. The clock was known to generations of railway men as 'Barneys Clock'.

But surely a talk by the wonderful Professor Alice Roberts must have made the early departure worthwhile?

All looking very good but a couple of comments on the GWR brown livery. The only sample in brown so far shown is the transition period from GWR to BR with the W prefix to the running number. By this time I suspect the roofs would be painted grey rather than white. White roofs disappeared early in WW2 and I don't think they re-appeared post war. And we haven't seem samples in the full GWR brown livery yet but in this instance the white roof would be correct except that I am certain that the brown continued onto the roof up to the lower rain strip - quite a distinctive GW feature. But keep up the good work - they are looking brilliant! Gerry

Sorry Tim but I think it is Horsebridge. But it is on the same line and your comments on faded SR paintwork still apply. Best wishes Gerry P.S. Also read your very evocative account of 9th July 1967. In those very pre internet days I had no idea what would be happening that day so I just sat beside the line at Hookpit - just north of Winchester - to see what turned up. I saw the same train heading towards Basingstoke and Waterloo and that was it - just left with an empty feeling and wondering what I would be doing next now that it was all over.

Thinking about this a little more - the lines that I recall having been re-laid with concrete sleepers were ex GW lines that had 'fallen' into the hands of BR Southern Region. I'm thinking primarily of the Bridport branch and the Didcot, Newbury & Southampton line. These lines became the responsibility of the Southern Region in 1950 so perhaps it was only the SR that used Dow Mac sleepers? Just an idea. Gerry

I am wondering why you removed the DOW-MAC markings Steve? On all the concrete sleepers that I encountered 'back in the day' they had this marking. Gerry

Probably obvious and already spotted but in the top view the short footstep is not below the door to the veranda and the number plate is at the wrong end - looks like the same error that the Oxford LNER cattle wagon had. And please do something about the wavy hand rails! Gerry

A lovely model of a lovely locomotive Ian. It was a treat to see it at Expo EM last weekend. Gerry

It certainly is done from a photograph Rich - see Russell, GW Coaches, Part Two, fig 234, pp136. I always work from photographs wherever possible and fortunately, in the post war period, the GW 4mm Circle went to great lengths to record the GWR before it disappeared at nationalisation. The period was a time of flux - which is what makes it so interesting - and there were many variations in carriage liveries and insignia. Jim Russell was an early member of the Circle and he and Pat Garland started their photographic record of the old company in 1947. Mike Longridge was a founder member of the Circle - which resulted from a meeting with Pat Garland in 1946 - and he had been recording the GWR in detail before the war. Some of his earliest photos date back to 1934 I believe. We have much to thank these gentlemen for. Gerry

Some interesting photos and comments on weathering coaches here just lately. A friend of mine prefers to use the term 'characterising' as it also includes adding passengers, roof boards, etc. And for what it is worth I rarely use an airbrush for weathering - coaches or engines - and much prefer to use enamel paints applied by brush and some weathering powders following the teachings of Martyn Welch. Attached are a couple of photos of a GW 'Toplight' coach which I built from a David Geen/Martin Needham kit. The excellent paint job was done by Ian Rathbone and I did the weathering/characterising - having taken a large brave pill first! The intention was to show a coach which was well maintained for use in an express but showing some signs of use. The second photo shows it in a train with an upgraded Hornby Collet bow - end coach which largely retained the Hornby applied livery but which has also been 'characterised'. Gerry

I went to Expo EM yesterday and had the most wonderful time! It was just so good to be there after the covid interruption and to see everybody again. It was very apparent that everyone else was just as pleased to be there as I was and the event had a real buzz about it. All the features that we had taken for granted at Expo EM were present but I felt that there was a realisation of what we had been missing for the last two years or so. The saying goes that you don't really miss something until it is gone and I have certainly missed Expo EM. It was just so good to be back and I shall not be taking it for granted again! Gerry P.S. One dramatic sign of the covid effect was the absolute mountain of second hand stuff on the bring and buy stall - many members seem to have had a major clear-out during the lockdowns and there was more stuff for sale than I have ever seen before. I too had such a clear out and did very well on the day returning home with a healthily fat wallet! Thanks to the chaps who ran the bring and buy sales for their effort.