Jim15B

Please excuse me butting in - I came across this thread about a week ago whilst trying to find the Battersea Wharf discussion. Since then I have been trying to catch up. I've made page 100 so far but every time I get back to the computer another half dozen pages have sprung from nowhere. As a result of my studies I have broadened my knowledge on a range of subjects from vernacular architecture (the recommended read is in the post) to dry cell batteries (I think) and manure transport. I have also discovered the wonderful Stadden figures a set of which I will be ordering soon (though as they are unlikely to fit with my Corby Steelworks project I will have to come up with somewhere for them to populate). This is now costing me as I am supposed to be working, making a set of leather drive shaft gaiters for a pre-war Austin, but instead am writing this. Edwardian, I wanted to ask you about your buildings. I may have missed something in the rush of information, and I will return to the early posts to check, but I believe you said that you produce your buildings from photos edited in Word. Do you only use word or do you manipulate the images first in another programme to straighten the edges and correct the proportions? If this has already been explained just point me back to the start and I'll read it all again! I'm hoping to use the same technique but want to cut out the hours of faffing about trying to work out how to do it (just being lazy really). Thank you all for the entertaining read. 36 pages to go and I'll be up to date. Jim

They look fantastic. Could you make me a fleet of fifteen or so! I do need to make one in due course for my (now starting again) Corby project. Just getting into things after a hard twelve months work with little time for modelling.

It was put there to stabilise the bank - all the ground above it is not natural, but is overburden from quarrying to the east. The wagon stands at Manton Corner on a quarry line that was taken out of use in the 1930s as quarrying moved east. I'm going to go down with a trowel at some point and see if it's still standing on track. I guess that it was staked there to stop the overburden moving down toward the Midland Main Line. If there is track it would be interesting to see if there are any more wagons. The wagon itself looks like a calcining tipper, and ore was being calcined at Glendon in 1917. The quarries themselves pre-date this by some time, roughly the 1870s, so this wagon may date back to then. I will head down with trowel, camera and tape measure in the near future (once I find some time) - hopefully before the summer vegetation returns. Jim

Here are some pictures on my 7mm scale model, temporarily assembled. Sorry about the picture quality, I haven't worked out how to reduce picture file sizes, so I took these on my phone. Cheers, Jim

Whilst sorting through a file of railway related documents and drawings, I found a folded piece of A3 paper, which turned out to be a plan of the site. In about 1999 I had access to large scale OS maps of Corby which must, looking at this small extract, have dated from the 1970s. Sadly I didn't have the foresight to copy the whole lot, but I did copy the section covering Pen Green workshops. I had completely forgotten that I had done this, so it came as a pleasant surprise. There is no connection with the exchange sidings to the south, though I suspect that it would have been connected at some point. There is a line running around the east side of the site as I have envisaged for my layout, so other than the extra couple of sidings at the works (which, looking at the site on the ground, may have existed before the map was made) it should be fairly true to the prototype - almost by accident as I was not previously aware of the east line. So, I now have drawings and pictures of the buildings and a site plan. Now to get something on paper.

It was a very atmospheric area. I took about twenty photos, but wish I'd done more (pre-digital, so I used only what I had left on the film). The road leading down to the site is called Heritage Way - now completely devoid of any heritage whatsoever. Shortly after photographing this I located the old Gretton Brook locomotive shed, complete with roller doors and inspection pits, having been recently vacated by a tyre remoulding company. I went back to photograph and measure it a couple of weeks later and it too had gone. I very much regret not getting there in time.

I have returned to railway modelling after a number of years away from the hobby, due to work and family commitments. With the aim of building something that I can actually finish and have space for, and starting out with a completely blank canvas, I have settled on a layout based on the Inglenook Sidings shunting puzzle, in 4mm scale. I have started this blog with the intention that it will keep me focussed as I have a habit of not sticking to one idea for very long. My prototype choice is Pen Green Workshops, part of the extensive Stewarts and Lloyds (later British Steel) steelworks and ironstone extraction industry based in and around Corby. I photographed the site about 15 years ago, and since then it has been completely flattened. The site lies next to the former Midland Corby to Manton main line, between the exchange sidings of the steelworks and those of the minerals division, and was rail connected. When I photographed it the rails could still be seen in the ground infront of the main brick building. In fact there was a a long wheelbase wagon outside the large Vayland Engineering building (in the background of the above picture with the roof vents) for a number of years, though I never thought to identify it. I believe that the site may have been where extraction equipment and plant were maintained, though that is pure speculation - if anyone knows better and can give me more detail I would be most grateful. I have called the area Pen green Workshops as that is how it is labelled on one of Eric Tonks' maps, though I have also seen "ironworks" used. The site's location will allow me to feature stock from both the steelworks and the minerals divisions. My current plan is to model the front two bays of the brick building above, with the tracks of the shunting puzzle running to the two main doors with the third between them. At the headshunt end the sidings will join a "main line" that will run along the rear and behind the building, the idea being that I can add a fiddle yard at either end should space allow, and run short minerals or works trains behind the shunting area. The exit at the headshunt end will be hidden under a pipe carrying a brook over the railway. If space allows I would like to include the above office in the model, but I suspect it may clutter things up too much. Well, that's the project committed to the world for posterity. I'd better get something moving now.

My models have been in storage for about ten years now, but I've dug them out with some renewed enthusiasm. Unfortunately my Kettering Furnaces No 8 didn't progress as far as I remembered, but here's a photo of the 3' gauge Wellingborough large Peckett in 7mm which I may now get finished, time permitting. Excuse the quality of the photo and the state of the brass! I'll give it a good clean before work continues. Jim

Back on the late 80s there were rumours of a wagon buried in the cutting side at Glendon Junction on the Midland Main Line just north of Blue Bridge. In about 1990 I climbed along there and eventually found it. I was 15 at the time and with hindsight wish I'd taken photographs and notes. It's unlikely to date from the opening of the line, and I suspect it may be one of the Kettering Furnaces ore wagons, though how it came to be embedded in the bank at the side of the main line I have no idea. I guess it's been there since the 1960s, and may even pre-date that. I have a photo somewhere which I will scan and add if I can find it. I might try to locate the remains again if I dare - the intervening 25 years may have reduced my willingness to climb the fence! Jim

Hi Black5f, I have posted a comment on your other thread, but having just read this I wondered if you would be interested in the scale drawings I have made, produced in CAD from the works drawings that I obtained many years ago from the Manchester Museum of Science and Technology who hold the MW archive. Looking at your model, it may be a bit late for them to be of great use, but I have drawings of 6 & 7 too in original (cabless) form. Some years ago I also did some speculative drawings of the articulated Sentinel based on a few photos, and diagrams and dimensions of contemporary similarly sized engines, though never got as far as building one. Jim

I have an almost complete scratchbuilt brass dumpcar in 7mm with working tip doors. I'll post a photo soon. I made drawings from photos and measurements taken at Rutland a number of years ago. I haven't sorted out the wheels yet, but intend to use Kaydee couplers for the knuckle coupler.