5&9Models

That’s a fine looking wagon and I think the speculative build based on research is perfectly acceptable. Nice work.

Fantastic work Mikkel, highly entertaining and superbly modelled. Have you received the carriage shafts yet? I sent them last week.

Your point about ‘giving the right impression’ is spot on. I think this wagon looks just right. A great job on a very interesting prototype. Well done.

I carved them in styrene then cast them in white metal. Got loads of them now. Do you want any?

I was supplied the masters for this kit by Simon Turner but I believe the wagon was built by Alfred Kitching for the Midland Railway. It was described by Richard Davidson in the HMRS journal Vol.20, No.1, pp20-23, Jan-Mar 2009. However, to my shame my HMRS membership doesn’t go back that far so I can’t look it up, sorry. I’m also not convinced by the accuracy of the ‘sketches’ in Bob Essery’s book. It’s a good book but the drawings of the early stock don’t stand up to close inspection. I might make a scratch built model from them but not a kit.

Why is it I always seem to build rolling stock in threes, does anyone else have this quirk? Firstly I completed my Norwich & Brandon Railway corn wagon kit. This one was from a lovely drawing in the HMRS collection of a frankly very rare beastie. An act of parliament authorising the construction of the N&BR was passed on 10th May 1844. The contractors were Grissell & Peto, consultant engineers Robert Stephenson and George Parker Bidder. Officially opened on 29th July 1845 the railway had already lost its title to the Norfolk Railway following a merger with the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway a month earlier. In the meantime the Eastern Counties Railway was making great progress and eventually swallowed up the NR in 1848, the assortment of Eastern Counties lines amalgamating to form the Great Eastern Railway in 1862. Thanks to Simon Turner for making the excellent masters for this and the next two kits as well. The second is a Midland Railway end door goods wagon of 1847. The drawing reputedly originated from Derby works and is dated 1847 but beyond that we know very little. The wagon is certainly typical for the period with wooden head buffers, a simple drop lever wooden brake and doors in one end pointing to a period when wagon turntables were plentiful and turning such a vehicle before or after loading was commonplace. Often loads would be sheeted over and the high round ends provide support for a canvas. The third is a little different, an open carriage truck of the London & Birmingham Railway. This one has a delivery to make, a cabriolet by James Braby of Lambeth to his 1837 patent no.7279. The patent document shows several vehicles including a very charming omnibus, Shillibeer style, which I may well be tempted to model at some point. Braby started out as a road carriage builder but found himself drawn into railway carriage building like many of his contemporaries and supplied several early railways with carriages. They're photographed at Bricklayers Arms. Please don't ask how on earth they came to be south of the Thames in 1845...! Now I have to find three more things to make!

May I make a suggestion as one who has so often had too many interests, too many things I’d like to model and never enough time to do any of it properly. It can create a terrible state of anxiety not knowing where to start and then not being able to start, leading to further anxiety as time slips by and there’s still nothing to show for it! For the last few years I have found the most settling and mindful solution is to model a real location. It has really helped to focus my modelling since I’ve had to research a very specific era and site with all the buildings, track layout and rolling stock prescribed. Random diversions have dwindled to nothing as all my attention has been on modelling to a fixed set up. It’s still a lot of work to ‘get it right’ but it’s been a fantastic way of focussing the mind and reducing stress levels. Perhaps this approach might help? I wish you all the best with your project and look forward to seeing it grow.

I note that from the same seller, for a mere £2.99 you can buy a figure of a girl being sick down a toilet !!! What is the world coming to?!

Thanks Mike, that’s fascinating. It’s very reminiscent of W.B.Adams first locomotive designs a decade earlier. Both engines after the same result, steady running, low centre of gravity, balanced reciprocating masses etc. I’ve not seen that image before so it’s of great interest. As you rightly say, these things need to be modelled. I’ll add it to the list!

Really interesting work. I can’t get used to seeing something so ‘narrow’ on your blog! I wonder if running a dehumidifier in your printing room would help keep the ambient moisture to a minimum? It might raise the temp a couple of degrees but presumably that could be compensated for at the print head? You’d be working in a nice dry atmosphere which the printer and filament might appreciate.

Thanks. Indeed they are. It’s nickel silver strip soldered in a bunch at one end then gently soldered, bent, coaxed and soldered a bit more until I got to the other end....I never want to do it ever again!

Really interesting question although we can be sure it wasn’t from DeHavilland. The thing about that period was that it was such a frenetic time of experimentation, many of these engineers would try anything, often to get around a problem that didn’t exist in the first place. A lot of Bodmer’s personal archive still exists with the family. I wonder if there’s anything in there that would explain his reason for making frames from laminated wood.

Although traditional sandwich frames are plated either side, these were plated above and below so must have beee even more flexible. I find the use of laminated timber beams way ahead of its time. The sort of thing you expect in modern architecture.

Indeed, the frames were laminated timber! Several layers of steamed and bent wood (I can’t remember the variety without looking it up) sandwiched between wrought iron plates top and bottom. Various bolts held it all together. It must have flexed an awful lot but perhaps that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing given the apparent ultra smooth running of the balanced engine.

In 1845 the Swiss engineer John George Bodmer constructed a pair of 2-2-2 locomotives at his Manchester workshops for the Joint Committee of the Brighton, Croydon and Dover Railways. Born in Zurich in 1786 and later apprenticed to a millwright, the young engineer showed much promise and a strong talent for innovation. He moved to Lancashire in the 1820s but continued his connections with Switzerland and Baden in Germany. His particular invention was that of an opposed cylinder steam engine in which two pistons moved in opposite directions driving two crankshafts, a 'balanced' engine. He continued to expand this idea and the two locomotives for the Joint Committee were his most famous, or perhaps infamous, machines. Purchased for £2100 the Committee took delivery of the engines in July and December 1845 and numbered them 123 and 124. The locomotives each had a pair of double pistons, the conrod of one passing through the hollow conrod of the other. This complicated arrangement was powerful but very costly to maintain. The tenders supplied were carried on six wheels with a mechanically driven feed pump mounted between the frames to feed the loco via a substantial hollow pipe which also served as the coupling between tender and loco! Typically the loco itself had no brakes but the tender sported huge wedges of timber with iron shoes which when wound down, wedged themselves between the wheels and the rails which in extreme circumstances could lift the tender clear of the rails altogether. Predictably this had disastrous consequences and the engine allocated to the SER after the dissolution of the Joint Committee left the rails at Pluckley on the 23rd May 1846 killing the driver. However a subsequent enquiry proved that a large stone left on the line by errant youths was the cause of this particular accident. Unfortunately this did nothing to assuage the opinion that this 'foreign' locomotive was more trouble than it was worth and after some modifications and very little further service the loco was sent to Ashford where it languished until being dismantled in 1880. The Brighton engine had better luck although it was rebuilt first by Craven, then again by Stroudley who even saw fit to name it 'Seaford'. Thankfully a photo exists of it in this guise but it can be seen that not a great deal of Bodmers original design survived, certainly not his balanced pistons which did not survive the Craven rebuild. And so to the model. A friend of mine declared that he was going to build Seaford which prompted my response that i was intending to build the 1845 version. "Let's build them simultaneously and do a joint article for the HMRS" he said. "Great idea" I replied not fully aware of what I was letting myself in for. Nevertheless the short straw had been drawn and everything else put on hold to scratch build Bodmers 1845 balanced locomotive in 4mm scale to EM standards. Since nothing about it is conventional it has tried my patience to the extreme and progress in painfully slow, however I hope the following photos show that it is at least getting somewhere and I hope to be able to add to this blog in a positive manner in the not too distant future. If you never hear from me again you'll know it didn't go well! Portescap gears in a scratch built box to get them in the right positions. It fits, just! Haycock firebox. I hate doing these....! Frames and springs. The trailing springs were double coil springs hidden in the axle guide casting as per the tender. The story so far..... Thanks for looking!

I love it. What a great engine and well worth the time and effort. I think you’ve done a brilliant job.

Fabulous, and I love the back story too. Beautiful brickwork. Only thing troubling me is the joints between the roof tiles lining up, that roof would leak like a sieve.

I quite like the challenge of the cryptic ones, just try the one described in Latin!

Oh! I love this film.

“Even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day”.

This evening’s test was to see if Little England would actually pull six cast white metal 1st class carriages on a level road, and... “Oh ye of little faith”... it did! But, (and there’s always a ‘but’), it would only do it bunker first and the gears make quite a racket! I also need to adjust the spring loading on the front axle as the wheels slide a bit. Perhaps a weighted collar around the axle would help. For the sake of BBC style balance, I also tried my 0-4-2 on the same rake and it strolled quietly away with them like they weren’t there! I love that engine..!

In Mr England’s obsession with lowering the centre of gravity he seems to have forgotten that the buffers really do work better with the support of the frame behind them. As you say, one heavy shunt and they would buckle.

To be honest I’ve yet to see if it will work the ordinary stock of a model railway!

Over the few years I've been a member of RMWeb, I seem to have erroneously created several blogs. My clumsy grasp of computers has been a bit frustrating as I never know where I've posted and have a horrible habit of posting new material on the wrong blog and so on. Therefore a little bit of belated Spring Cleaning is required and I have copied the info from my previous 'George England 2-2-2' blog to this one so that I can have it all in the right place. So, apologies to those who have read the first bit before and I hope that the new material is sufficiently interesting to make up for it! The Railway Chronicle for December 16th 1848, carries an article on 'a specimen of a light locomotive, called the 'Little England', which, with its tender on the same frame, will work the ordinary stock of a company. The 'Little England' and tender weigh together when roadworthy 9 tons 5 cwt. It has a 7-in. cylinder, a 12-in. stroke, and 4 ft. 6 in. driving wheels. The diameter of the leading trailing wheels is 3ft. The distance between the extreme centres is 14ft.' The article goes on to describe the journey from New Cross to Brighton station with three first-class carriages containing 31 persons of note. Its sprightly performance was much praised and George England went on to produce several versions at his Hatcham Iron Works just off the Old Kent Road. In the Summer of 1849, George made his first sale of his little 2-2-2 engine to the Dundee, Perth & Aberdeen Railway. Before the year was out, a further example (named Dwarf) went to the London & Blackwall, and the following year six more were sent to a variety of destinations. Of these, three (named England, Samson and Hercules) went to the L&B, one (also named England) travelled north to the Edinburgh & Glasgow and another to the Liverpool, Crosby & Southport Rly. A further locomotive (named Little England) was prepared for the Great Exhibition, becoming exhibit no.509 and receiving a Gold Medal for it's efforts. A charming contemporary illustration apparently shows 'Little England' and is probably the Great Exhibition engine with a wheelbase of 15ft. Clark also illustrated one of George's engines with a 12ft. 6in. wheelbase, so there were different versions along the same theme sometimes with the same name. Finally, a photograph of 'Dwarf' on the Sandy & Potton confirms the 15ft wheelbase version. The aforementioned etches provide a good basis for what is essentially a scratch build. Motorising such a tiny loco is always a challenge and I chose to hide an H&S mini motor in the bunker and drop the gears down under the footplate, up into the firebox, to a 40:1 worm and pinion on the driving axle. The gears themselves were robbed from an old toy engine from my childrens wooden train set, (don't worry, the motor was burned out beyond redemption - I'm not that mean)! It all seems to run very sweetly and does the job at a total of 90:1. I'm going with the 15ft wheelbase for my model although I'd like it to be 14ft to represent the original 'Little England' I can't face 'cutting and shutting' the etches and it's not obvious where to loose the 4mm without making it look very odd indeed. I suspect I would need to steel 2mm from behind the drivers somewhere and 2mm in front which is just too much hassle! I appreciate this little locomotive has graced the pages of RMweb before thanks to the excellent contribution by chris p bacon, however, thanks to the aforementioned gent sending me a set of etches to aid the scratch building of my own attempt, I thought I'd share the progress here. The Railway Chronicle for December 16th 1848, carries an article on 'a specimen of a light locomotive, called the 'Little England', which, with its tender on the same frame, will work the ordinary stock of a company. The 'Little England' and tender weigh together when roadworthy 9 tons 5 cwt. It has a 7-in. cylinder, a 12-in. stroke, and 4 ft. 6 in. driving wheels. The diameter of the leading trailing wheels is 3ft. The distance between the extreme centres is 14ft.' The article goes on to describe the journey from New Cross to Brighton station with three first-class carriages containing 31 persons of note. Its sprightly performance was much praised and George England went on to produce several versions at his Hatcham Iron Works just off the Old Kent Road. In the Summer of 1849, George made his first sale of his little 2-2-2 engine to the Dundee, Perth & Aberdeen Railway. Before the year was out, a further example (named Dwarf) went to the London & Blackwall, and the following year six more were sent to a variety of destinations. Of these, three (named England, Samson and Hercules) went to the L&B, one (also named England) travelled north to the Edinburgh & Glasgow and another to the L.C&S.Rly. (although what that stands for I'm not sure - help me out someone)! A further locomotive (named Little England) was prepared for the Great Exhibiton, becoming exhibit no.509. A charming contemporary illustration apparently shows 'Little England' and is probably the Great Exhibition engine with a wheelbase of 15ft. Clark also illustrated one of George's engines with a 12ft. 6in. wheelbase, so there were different versions along the same theme sometimes with the same name. Finally, a photograph of 'Dwarf' on the Sandy & Potton confirms the 15ft wheelbase version. The aforementioned etches provided a good basis for what was essentially a scratch build. Motorising such a tiny loco is always a challenge and I chose to hide an H&S mini motor in the bunker and drop the gears down under the footplate, up into the firebox, to a 40:1 worm and pinion on the driving axle. The gears themselves were robbed from an old toy engine from my childrens wooden train set, (don't worry, the motor was burned out beyond redemption - I'm not that mean)! It all seems to run very sweetly and does the job at a total of 90:1. I'm going with the 15ft wheelbase for my model although I'd like it to be 14ft to represent the original 'Little England' I can't face 'cutting and shutting' the etches and it's not obvious where to loose the 4mm without making it look very odd indeed. I suspect I would need to steel 2mm from behind the drivers somewhere and 2mm in front which is just too much hassle! Having cobbled together a working gearbox the rest of the loco could be built up. It's a combination of etches and bits of brass and nickel silver. The copper firebox top, dome, chimney and other round parts were turned up on the lathe, an essential tool when modelling engines of this period as one can certainly never expect to find the correct size and shape from proprietary sources. The final chassis has wiper pick-ups to the leading and driving wheels, but the trailing wheels had to be cast from resin. An issue I hadn't foreseen was that the usual steel-tyred wheels ran so close to the sides of the motor that all they wanted to do was stick to it. The only solution was to make them from plastic and the resulting wheels work just fine... thankfully! Facing right. Facing Left, and not quite on the rails...!

Nice work Ian!