Caley Jim

Another couple of wagons off my trial etch sheet. A pair of CR Dia 22 8T mineral wagons, one with dumb buffers and one with spindle buffers. The dumb buffered one was built over Friday and Saturday at Model Rail last week end. Unfortunately the underframe for it needed quite a bit of fettling, resulting in the artwork requiring several modifications. I'll have to get another trial etch done of it, just to be on the safe side. Jim

Has Cornwall declared UDI and affiliated itself with Oz? Either that or I'm getting too many emails from my friend in Melbourne and my computer's inverting photos. (funnily enough the photos i get from him are inverted too!) Puzzled of Lanark

Now, if you were working in 2FS............ Jim

The following quote from the CRA forum may help to inform anyone contemplating converting Oxford Road wagons to cupboard doors as I suggested above :- 'There are several reasons why Oxford Rail wagons are more finescale friendly than even the best RTR models. So far they have been produced on self-coloured plastic which has certain benefits for the modeller in terms of ability to modify without having to paint match and painting is easier without further obscuring the moulded detail.' Jim

And I thought Mathew was in Cornwall! Some nice shots of 'Scotsman' coming through that area on the BBC this week! Jim

I know nothing about GC practice, but my inclination would be that the home signal, with a bracket for the loop, on the left hand track would be about where the end of the furthest wagon is. (where is the bridge? Can't see it in the pic.). It would have a second doll on the bracket for that track which disappears off through the backscene. Coming the other way, towards the camera, the signals would be on the platform, just before the ramp. It could be a centre post with two equal dolls. If the road at the back of the platform is a goods line, then that might well have a dwarf arm or with a ring as Poggy suggests. You also need a signal for moves over the crossover between the centre and right hand roads. If that were only shunting moves, then ground signal might be appropriate. However, read my first phrase. My knowledge comes from the recent book on CR practice, though it deals fairly comprehensively with what was general practice dictated by the BoT. Jim

The ones from Oxford Rail don't have cupboard doors, as I indicated by suggesting how they could be modified. Jim

The end door n this looks distinctly weird! It's like a cross between the heavy outside framed type used by the CR and NBR, which was hinged by having two 'hoops' round a heavy top cross member, and the more common type and ends up looking like neither! Jim

Thanks, David. The two vehicles in question are GCR and MR, purely because there were kits available for them! So, no, not from 'the enemy', or 'the competition' (NB) for that matter! I'll be at Model Rail Friday and Saturday on the Roadshow, if all goes according to plan! Jim

The pens are now painted and fixed in place. They still need a bit of limewash splashed about! Standing in front of them are the two, as yet unpainted, 1870 cattle trucks. The left hand one is in the original condition with the ends open at the top while the other one has the later boarded-in ends. Jim

In 1873 Dunn Brothers had collieries in the Mount Vernon and Bothwell areas of the Lanarkshire coalfield, Burnt Broom (http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/Indexes/ListMines1873-3.html) and Newlands No 3 (http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/Indexes/ListMines1873-4.html) collieries respectively. Oxford models have announced a range of Scottish PO wagons (http://www.oxfordrail.com/76/OR76MW4.htm), but they are based on the NBR equivalent to the CR Dia 46, which had drop doors, but the same outside framed end doors. By a bit of judicious trimming, you could remove the door hinges, scribe the vertical division between the doors and add new door hinges. That might damage the livery details, though. I did this with the 2MM Scale Association kit for the RCH 1887 mineral wagon. Jim

This is certainly a CR 8T mineral wagon, either a Dia 22 in spring buffered form (the originals were dumb buffered) or a Dia 46. There were dimensional differences between them, mainly 9" longer wheelbase and 1'7" longer over headstocks for the Dia 46. A slight puzzle is the vertical planking of the door. The doors were double skinned and CR built wagons always had the horizontal planks to the outside, Private builders (e.g. Hurst Nelson & R. Y. Pickering) built many hundreds for colliery and coal companies to the same overall design, but theyoften put the vertical planks to the outside. In 1897 the CR took over 400 such wagons which had been built by H/N for Dunn Bros, but they had 5 planks instead of 4. The Caledonian Railway Association (link in my signature) have recently produced a kit for a Dia 46 wagon.

That's often the way when scratchbuilding in any scale, especially 2FS. One of the reasons I try to plan everything out in as much detail as I can before I start. I've been in the position of having to go 10 steps back!! Jim

Another item on the trial sheet was etches for some cattle pens. These are based on those in a photo of Peebles with dimensions from a drawing of a similar NER one. The etches were designed as one to build a single pen and another to add as many further pens as required. Kirkallanmuir will have three. The parts for a single pan laid out round a printed plan. The plan was stuck to card and holes drilled at the location of the posts to make a jig for assembly. The single pen assembled. The three pens assembled. They were removed from the jig and this then used as a template to drill holes for the posts in the livestock landing. The three pens in situ prior to painting. Only a couple of 'foreign' cattle trucks (MR & GCR) available at present, but a couple of CR 1870 ones are under construction while the paint on the pens dries. Jim

The holes have been drilled in the livestock landing and the pens fitted in place. There will be a sleeper fence between the landing and the road in the foreground and across the road, behind a wall and on the backscene, will be the market. Only two foreign cattle trucks available at present, but 2 CR 1870 ones are under constructions while the paint on the pens dries. Jim

More progress on the cattle pens. All three are now assembled as a unit and are cleaned up ready for painting. A fair bit of fettling was required to get the sections to fit together properly, but once i had done one, i knew what to do with the rest. i also had to use some low melt solder to fill in gaps where the angled sections met the posts, but I knew that would be necessarry. They are still sitting in the card jig and the next step will be to use the jig as a template for drilling the holes in the cattle landing. I want to make sure they fit before I paint the pens so that they don't have to be handled too much after painting. Jim

Since older layouts seem to be flavour of the month on this thread at the moment, here are a few photos of my first layout 'Connerburn' which was started in 1970 as a test bed for techniques in 2FS, but grew a life of its own. It was exhibited on several occasions, mostly up this end of the UK, but did appear at Warley in 2002 and last appeared at Aylesbury in 2009. It is a fictional CR branch terminus set somewhere on the Lanarkshire/Peeblesshire border c1885-1910. the track plan is loosely based on a mirror image of Moffat, with the station building, goods shed etc taken from a variety of places. The backscene was painted by a good friend and fellow 2mm member who was an art teacher. This last photo was taken after a new tandem turnout had been installed to provide a further siding. A link to my current project is in my signature. Jim

Taking a break from wagons, another set of items on my trial etch are three cattle pens for Kirkallanmuir. They are based on a photo of Peebles which has some pens in the far background, with the dimensions taken from a drawing of similarly shaped NER pens. I decided that an etch would be preferable to trying to make them up from styrene, but working out how to arrange the various layers to provide approximately the correct thickness to the posts, rails etc was an interesting excercise! They are designed rather along the lines of the old Hornby Dublo engine shed kit in that one etch provides a single pen, while a second provides the parts to extend that by one pen, replacing one end section with a 'partition' section. As many extensions as you like can be added (I'm making up three pens in all) with the end missed off the first pen used for the last one. First photo shows the parts for the first pen laid out on a paper template of the posts. The template was then stuck to card and holes drilled at each post to form a jig to aid assembly of the parts. The second photo shows the first pen in the jig. Once all three have been assembled and removed from the jig it will form a template for drilling the holes in the livestock landing into which the pens can be secured. Jim

The Caley had two types of prize cattle wagon - Diagram 40 (2 off) and Diagram 70 (4 off). Diagram 70 had a groom's compartment. Jim

Up until the recent re-signalling at Stirling there was, IRC, a Stevens lattice post with an upper quadrant signal, carrying a bracket with a CR lower quadrant subsidiary signal and at its base were a modern disc signal alongside which was a Stevens drop-flap ground signal. Jim

Much of this traffic came from Strathearn, around Crieff was a big seed potatoe growing area, hence the preponderance of CR vehicles. Details can be found in 'Branchlines of Strathearn' by John Young. Jim

The reply on the CRA forum was as follows: I think you will find that the animals sold at the Perth Bull Sales ( the Stirling sales are a fairly recent innovation) were of such value that they would be transported in horse boxes or special cattle trucks of a similar style and comfort. The HR at least had two vehicles described as "Prize Cattle Vans". Ordinary beasts would be transported in normal cattle trucks and I guess that they would be either NBR or CR depending on destination or the preference of the consignee. So perhaps Stirling didn't figure in pre-group days. Jim

I've put the question to the CRA forum. There's bound to be someone there who knows the answer! My own thoughts are that it would be CR and/or NBR ones. Jim

Somewhere, and at the moment I can't recall where, I've seen a photograph of a CR train passing Perth ticket platform and in the background is a Metropolitan Railway cattle truck, so such vehicles certainly got about! Jim