Marshall5

Slightly off-topic but Clayton's also built at least two 3'6" gauge railcars for the Sudan Government Railway which lasted, albeit not in working order, until at least the mid-80's. To my untrained eye the only major difference from the LNER ones was that the driving wheels were inside the frames and coupled by chains rather than rods. When I photographed them in early Jan.'83 both had had the boilers/engines removed - possibly for use as hauled stock latterly? The first photo is of SGR No.900 at Ed Demazeen, the other, SGR No.899 at Kosti in use as a mess room. Despite appearances it isn't a grounded body the running gear was just buried in the ground. I wonder if they are still there? Ray.

The gentleman to whom you are referring may or may not have owned this shunter but he certainly didn't own a Fowler tender and it wasn't anything to do with his harebrained scheme to build a Patriot (or the Dreadnought which preceded it). The Fowler tender (ex 42756) was owned by two Steamport directors and was intended for 42765 which was reserved at Barry. It was later sold to Andy Wilson when he bought the loco. Hope this sets the record straight. Ray. (Steamport 1973-88, Director 1978-85)

As they say "A picture is worth a thousand words". The photo below shows tar from Harrogate gas works being transferred from the narrow gauge to standard gauge tank wagons at Bilton siding in 1952. Photo E. Sanderson. Ray.

Magee Marshall's brewery in Bolton had a fleet of rectangular tank wagons used for carrying water for brewing from Burton on Trent to Bolton. The photo below, from 'Brewery Railways of Burton on Trent', shows a rake of them at the borehole. Ray.

I agree with you that the reading on an uncalibrated speedo is unreliable 'evidence' - particularly if it only reads to a max. of 100m.p.h. Unfortunately I have to disagree with the next sentence as a Brit's cylinders are 20" bore against the 73xxx's 19". The Brit's boiler is also pressed to 250 psi , 25 psi higher than a Std.5 giving it roughly 6,000 lbs more T.E. Personally I think that most of the article is 'hyped' up for effect. Ray.

I seriously doubt that a Standard 5 was capable of doing much over 90 mph. I wonder if this is one of 'those' stories which gets passed around after a pint or two. Ray.

As most of the class were either built new with the heavier balance weights or had them fitted retrospectively Minerva might have been better to have gone with these as 'standard'. Of the 9 surviving 56xx/66xx only one, 5619, still has the small balance weights as built. Ray.

I've heard of adding weight for better adhesion but that's ridiculous. (Great photo BTW, thanks for posting it.) Ray.

Who else remembers looking into that window to the right of the door to see the 'bargains' marked with Norman's trademark phrase "Needs Attention"? Happy days! Ray.

Sorry, meant to say "not currently listed on Chasewater's site". Don't know where I got 'Jacob's Liverpool' from so I assume your info. is correct. Cheers, Ray.

Hi Mol, Your post got me looking through some old slide scans and found this one of a Barclay fireless at Chasewater in 1969. I don't see it currently listed and don't have an I.D. for it I'm afraid. Keep up the good work! Ray. Edit: It's AB 1562/1917 ex Jacob's Liverpool and scrapped at Chasewater c.1970. At least 3 of these have been scrapped after being 'preserved', one as recently as 2006.

For those modelling in 7mm the former Underhill/Zero Zephyr kit for the AB 0-4-0 Fireless has been reintroduced by CSP models after many years of being unavailable https://cspmodels.com/abante/index.php?rt=product/product&path=70&product_id=300 The, sadly missed, late David Smith had a build diary for this loco on his website https://www.davidlosmith.co.uk/Andrew-Barclay-Fireless.htm Cheers, Ray.

FWIW does anyone know what happened to this trio of interesting wagons, including what looks like an LNWR 4wh brake van in Llangollen goods yard in 1982? Could this van be the one that Jason mentioned as later being at Bettws-y-Coed? Ray.

The one on the W&LLR has been at Cyfronydd for many years. Seen here in June 2023. Ray.

Haywood (no website) do Hawksworth D133 and E164 kits. e-mail: gp.gill@yahoo.co.uk Ray.

It's not that hard to reach Johstadt as there is a regular bus service from Annaberg Bucholz and, on their special event days, a vintage bus link from Wolkenstein. Details on the Pressnitztalbahn website. ISTR that there is an irregular bus link to Cranzahl also. Ray.

I can't offer any sources of information on the Sudan Gov. Rlys. "gronks" but here's a photo of one (Hawthorn Leslie 3855/1936) I took at Atbara works on New Year's Eve 1982. Ray.

The person most likely to know posts as "Huochemi" on National Preservation. He has recently written a book on Chinese locos which specifically includes a section on the KD6's. Ray.

There is this fairly well known photo of a Cauliflower at Dinas in 1925. Ray.

Is there anything in this https://www.amazon.com/Princes-Risborough-Thame-Oxford-Railway/dp/0902888471 Sorry but I don't have my copy to check anymore. Ray.

Congrats on finishing your 2-6-4T it looks well. One doesn't see many Stanier 'Big tanks' being modelled nor, indeed, many Chowbent kits at all. When I built mine some 20 yrs ago the biggest obstacle that I had to overcome was that, if built to the instructions, the cylinders were set at too steep an angle so rather than relying on the slots in the frames to locate them I built the whole cylinder/valve gear assembly on a separate plate. I also seem to remember that if the slidebars were mounted as designed they were too far apart for the supplied crosshead. Other than that any errors were probably of my own making. IIRC The kit was designed with the cab steps to be attached to the chassis but I decided to fit them to the body - it was only when I came to fit the injectors behind the cab steps that I found out why! If I was doing it again I'd probably do it sprung or compensated due to the long coupled wheelbase. You obviously found your own way around these odd 'niggles' in an otherwise enjoyable build. Apologies for not posting sooner but I've only just noticed your thread. Cheers, Ray. p.s. When I built mine Slaters didn't do 5' 9" dia. V-rim wheels so I had to use incorrect 'flat' rim ones - must get round to changing them one day.

I did quite a bit of research into the development of the Siphon G's whilst building one of Ian Kirk's dia O22's. No. 1270 was actually the first of the O22's (inside frame with horizontal planks) and there is an official works photo of this in G.W Album 2. The O22 was a sort of half-way design between the better known outside frame O11 and the O33 on which the Minerva model is based. Interestingly (well to me anyway) despite all the Swindon drawings and some published works stating that the O22's were electrically lit all the photographs, including the Swindon official one, show these vehicles with gas tanks and lamp tops. It seems a bit of a 'schoolboy' error to put the wrong number on the O33 which is unusual for Minerva. You are quite right about the missing door handles and handholes. Lovely model otherwise. Cheers, Ray.

Dunno, but here's one I took at Fushun coal mine in China on New Year's Eve 1984. When I got home and showed the photo to the late Derek Foster he said "I've got to get one of those" - and so KD6 463 aka USATC 5197 came to the U.K. Ray.

Perhaps you have already done this but I leave the gearwheel loose on the axle and run the motor so the gearwheel finds its own 'happy' position on the worm before nipping up the grub screw. A bit of metal polish e.g. Brasso also helps bed in the gears. Ray.

As a family we spent most of our holidays on the Cambrian section from 1960 to the end of steam and saw most of the Aberystwyth Manors. Days out were often spent at Shrewsbury where one of 89C's 'bulled up' Manors would be seen arriving on the up CCE and departing on the down - and the buffers etc were always white, never silver. I'm sure other sheds may have used silver but I never saw it on one of Danny's Manors. The story of Danny buying his own white paint has been mentioned in several books/periodicals. The photo below shows 7818 at Aber prepared for the up CCE. Ray.