NCB

Does this mean that if you order say 5 items from Shapeways then there's a postage charge for each one, rather than one charge for the whole lot? I'm planning that sort of order, partly because I thought I'd save on postage! Nigel

Chris, the link was probably to my kit-bashing attempts at Cambrian 6-wheelers using Ratio 4-wheel kits. According to Great Western Way page 222, red ends for passenger brake vans and coaches with brake compartments, starting when the coach livery changed from brown to bronze green. Discontinued from 1911, a couple of years after the change to all-over green. Nigel

I've been looking at the Borrowmore Model Railway Group's Johnstown Road Cambrian pics. For locos they seem to use a black with just a hint of green; see:- http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/jr_locos_Loco44.html Some of the pics further down seem too green but I think that's just the lighting. I notice that they use a different black for the smokebox and chimney, and maybe the cab roof. Not sure if that's prototypical or not. They don't have many coach pics, but:- http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/johnstown_road/johnstown_jdf_10.jpg seems about right, if you allow for the lighting making it look slightly darker than it is.

My approach is to do what I think is right, based on the description. Colours on a damp damp with grey skies overhead (typical Cambrian?) look quite different from the same colours on a sunny day; for a start, black often actually looks black. Saw an O gauge Cambrian coach at some show, at least 20 years ago; it was superb. To my eye the green said "bronze green". From memory it was darkish but not dull, with just a hint of bronze. Can't say which eye; my two are also slightly different! Keep intending to visit Penrhyn Castle museum again, to see if they still have the large scale model of a Jones 4-4-0 built (in 1904 I think) by the Oswestry apprentices. You'd expect them to get the livery right! Of course it might have faded over 112 years.

Brilliant!

The 97XX looks like the K's kit.

Not my scale, but couldn't resist one of these. Seriously impressed. Very smooth, very quiet (once I'd remembered to clean the 00 track I'd dug out from somewhere). Can see a possible issue with pickups not touching the wheel if it moves sideways too much, but generally excellent. At some point must take a look to see what sort of mechanism it uses.

Impressed! What colour did you use for the lower sides?

That's looks an excellent job. Like how a good paint job brings these models to life. Hmm, I could do with a large Prairie...

The 3mm Society now has a totally revamped website, covering a wide range of topics, products and issues to do with the scale. Worth a browse: https://sites.google.com/site/3mmpublic/3mm-society

Thanks. Heard of others using them, didn't know what they looked like.

Looking good. What sort of rivets(?) did you use to build the valve gear?

Jeff - like that. Good example of less is more. Aberaeron which I dealt with above had limited passenger traffic but healthy goods traffic. There were several sidings in the yard and more wagons would appear going to or from uni-directional sidings down the line. It would be a good one for those interested in shunting and other goods operation. Could be done with tension-lock couplings and manual uncoupling, but maybe remote type magnetic uncouplers would be even better. There's a pretty accurate model of it which sometimes appears at the annual Aberaeron railway exhibition; it occupies quite a space. Might-have-been layouts are more readily adapted to available space. A few suggestions: St Mawes; Land's End; St. Just in Cornwall; St. David's; Nefyn; Abersoch; Aberdaron in Wales. If the line is a light railway built after 1900 then it's more likely that a 64XX might appear on goods traffic, due to weight restrictions.

Not so of the Aberaeron branch. Clearances on the bridge leading into Aberaeron station effectively banned engines with outside cylinders. In the early days a variety of saddle tanks and the 517 class were used. The 14XX class took over the autotrain passenger workings in the 1930s and continued until those services ended. However, the 14XX wasn't powerful enough for the goods services. A 54XX was tried, but something yet more powerful was needed, and when the 74XX series, a non-auto more powerful derivative of the 64XX, was built, examples of those were drafted in. You COULD stretch things a bit and use a 64XX instead of the 54XX, or even instead of the 74XX; 54XX/64XX weren't used exclusively on auto train working. In the Aberaeron case, 54XX/74XX were used because it was a light railway and the 57XX were deemed a bit too heavy. A harbour branch was envisaged for Aberaeron but never built.

Just found out that Part II of the article on Cambrian Sharp's locos was in the October 2016 edition, vol 30 no 10. Looks a good one; just obtained it.

In 3mm scale there's a Martin Finney etched number plate kit; you paint the inside of the plate black, when dry varnish it, and while still wet you drop the digits you want to use onto the plate, position them, then leave the varnish to set (it acts like glue). I believe there's a similar kit in 4mm; Brassmasters have a pick of one, the only peculiar thing is that the digits seem to be blackened. If you can remove the painted bit of the Heljan number plate, you could use a similar technique.

As regards stock, as the Ruabon - Dolgellau route was worked by the GWR from the beginning, presumably they used ordinary GWR carriages. Whatever those were!

Reading Green "Coast Lines" vol II, it seems to me that GWR coaches working through to Barmouth and beyond was fairly common, even quite early on. So I don't see why they couldn't include complete trains, at least as far as Barmouth. There was one instance of an excursion which was quoted by the GWR as"would work to Barmouth using a GWR engine if the Cambrian couldn't find one"; the Cambrian found one.

Wondering how you printed the transfers. They look pretty good. The edges might disappear if you tried a waterslide transfer softner like Microset or Microsol.

Googling "railway manure wagon" is quite revealing. Several companies built special manure wagons. The Midland built 100 at one point. The GWR built six, to diagram R1 in 1905, mainly for use with the Fishguard cattle traffic. One survived until 1953, by which time it was carrying beer (!). Otherwise the GWR seems to have converted old opens (Atkins et al). Think there must have been more to it than that. Manure must have been disposed of / utilised more or less since early railway times.

The top one of your 3 wagons certainly looks like a D64. I'll go with that! Thanks a lot. Nigel

I did a couple of conversions to the Rhymney, in 3mm scale: The open was from a GWR O18 wagon; I added slightly different end stanchions, and straight door-bangers in line with the hinge strappings. The van was a GWR iron mink with commode handles added to the ends, and fitted with DC1 brakes; the side stanchions aren't in quite the right place, but near enough I reckon. The Rhymney's rather bold lettering was swiped from 4mm scale Modelmaster transfers.

Chris Thanks. I'll put out a search with fellow modellers who might have wagon books I don't (currently I've just vol. 1, although may acquire more) Nigel

Chris A question. Can't find anything about LNWR D63 wagons; any ideas? I've enough info for all the others. Cheers Nigel

I'd go along with the above, for several reasons. As toplights go these are amongst the cleaner (ie simpler) designs. It is possible that the rigid angle trusses are identical to those used by the subsequent Collets and could result in a saving on tooling, and even if not would be simpler than some of the toplight underframes. Yet with things like toplights and curved grab handles they remain quite distinctive and attractive coaches, looking noticably different from Collett's designs (I say from Collett's designs, but it's quite possible he had a hand in the later toplights). Incidentally, D56 (left and right hand versions) and E98 are available from Worsley Works. I've attached a pic of a D56 I've built in 3mm/ft from Worsley sides and ends.