Northroader

Well, Hattons were very popular with their “generic” range… (what’s that? Oh, yes….)

SWEDISH BEYER PEACOCKS. As it’s Easter, here’s a parade of elegance, some of the old engines running on Swedish State: First off, a 2-2-2, which you also get in Scotland, the Netherlands, or Portugal. Then a 2-4-0, firstly in its preserved state, which also shows the livery, Olive green with black and white lining out, then after a rebuild, Belpaire firebox, and spark arrestor added. This looks like an early built up pattern, most of them appear to be a casting, and to me they do nothing to help the appearance. Perhaps choose the 1880s era before they became widespread? What about a nifty little 0-4-2ST? So to the class F. Looking things up in my Bradley, the LSWR directors needed an engine capable of working the newly built Ilfracombe line, steep gradients but also lightly built. They had learnt to grow wary of Mr. Beattie, junior’s, bright ideas, and he was told straight to ask Beyer Peacock. They proposed copies of their newly built Swedish engines, and the Swedish Railways engineer gave a glowing recommendation to Waterloo. (It must be one of the few times an English company took advice from a foreign railway?) Much later the Ifracombe line gained heavier rail, and the “Ifracombe Goods” became a popular asset for various light railways, the Colonel Stephen’s Museum site doing a handy words and music article on them: https://colonelstephenssociety.co.uk/light railway modelling/light railway modelling - ilfracombe goods.html Now here’s a funny thing. There’s a variety of plastic storage boxes which had stuff crammed in them Willy Nilly before my house move, and I’m slowly trying to make head or tail of it all. I knew there was some small American C&W items in the Continental C&W box, which I’ve turfed out and put in the right box, but then down in the bottom of this box I spotted an old chassis I was doing twenty or more years back, a 6’ 4-6-0, which isn’t the sort of thing I’m into now. Get it out and see what could be done, and do you know, the wheelbase is within 4” of an Ifracombe goods, and I’m not going to start a fight about that. Any 4’6” drivers around? None in the wheel store but there’s some in the projects box, and the 6’ drivers will be most useful in other projects. The frames are a bit deep, take a 4mm strip off along the top so the platform can sit lower, trim the extension over the lead bogie off and a bit of a scallop underneath. Re drill the pickup guide holes and fit plastic tubes in, and touch up the paint. There we are… Where to now? Sweden? LSWR? Colonel Stephens? I fancy all or any of them, but there’s no back up rolling stock been made for any, so the chassis will have to go back into the queue waiting superstructures. It does have much more potential now than it did have.

It looks like hoops either side of the centre door to support sheets, quite a rare arrangement.

Kids, eh??….

Happy Easter, Annie, here’s a feel good picture, the Brixham branch train (with a fish van) coming into Churston.

Not quite a steam roller wheel, but there’s a bit of meat.

Theres two aspects strike me, first off the bogies are mounted in ball and socket joints, with no allowance for any sideways movement. This means any sideways displacement on a curve has to be met by the driving wheels, and any movement there looks to be blocked by the suspension arrangement. Hence the need for flangeless drivers, but the tyres don’t look especially wide. It must have been very tricky to run over any restricted point work. Then there’s the rubber suspension, which looks as if it’s applied to the bogie wheels as well. Getting the weight distribution set up is bad enough on an ordinary engine with leaf springs and adjustable nuts on the spring hangers, quite how it was done on this one would be a challenge, to put it mildly.

Pre WW1, surely? Best route, from Paddington to Fishguard, then there’s an overnight boat to Waterford, not the Rosslare route, pretty run up the estuary to Adelphi Wharf, then direct to Tipperary. She will end up as “Becky” anyway.

An Ifracombe Goods?? (Parts thereof)

And if I got it right, it’s 7mm? One single point, one three way point, no more? I think you can now settle down to have a happy and contented old age.

“If you see something that doesn’t look right……”

Oh, right, there’s me thinking… https://www.bart5.com/bar-t-5-home/

It says “Mogul” but it’s a 2-4-0?

They do some very nice stuff, but all 4mm. scale. I meantersay….

SWEDISH RAILWAY SETTING. I have to thank @Schooner of this parish, for alerting me to this shot. Just occasionally you get a totally formed picture that you can damn near do a complete model from, and I think this is one. A railway pier linking into a ferry service in 1880, in this case somewhere up the Gulf of Bothnia, that leg of the Baltic up between Sweden and Finland. A setting a bit like Tollesbury Pier in Essex, or Bantry Pier in County Cork. Statens Järnvägar, Swedish State Railways, had a very good selection of Beyer Peacock locomotives in their fleet, and if you fancy doing some browsing, you’ll find quite an attractive system.

Some time back, I put in a link to a Gn15 Emett line “Tippy Ashwood”. Just been watching his latest video, showing ideas and gear for battery operated loco. High tech for me, but it’s worth a look for keeping up to date with what’s around, and I note the Hornby 0-4-0 chassis can benefit with slower speed running, something well worth considering:

Best not go there, Saint! (We’ll say dirt)

Theres these two camellias in pots either side of the front door step. What possesses such a delicate, tender flower to start blossoming in February, I’ve no idea, every evening we’re watching the weather forecast for overnight frost, and take them in the house, otherwise that lovely bloom will be turned to brown mush. This last week, they’ve stayed out all the time. Back in November, I was putting together some strips of 10mm foamboard to make up a fiddle yard base, and was very disappointed to find the glue didn’t “take”, just staying wet and messy 24 hours later. It seems you have to store the stuff at over +5 C, so it’s lived with me on top of the chest in the bedroom for the last few months. Now it’s warming up, so mix a dollop with about three parts water and a few drops of washing up liquid, and go round the “Western Fringe” line ballast with an eye dropper. It’s now set rock hard. Then dig out the foamboard, and try again… Result! That’s set nicely, so push on with the Washbourne fiddle yards. So now we can definitely say its warming up, and we can celebrate Spring with Hilda.

Could be East/West…

What we now call Taplow was originally the Western terminus for Maidenhead, before the bridge over the Thames was completed. The goods shed is contemporary with the one at Paddington, sharing the same design, but the Paddington one is larger. The Taplow shed lasted until quite recently, but then demolished, which was a real pity.

There’s an 0 gauge line, Blackney, set in the Forest of Dean, terminus to fiddle yard set up, with a kickback siding into the fiddle, where he’s recently made the fiddle yard a scenic section. Works quite well, IMHO.

There’s no whitewash patches round the 13amp sockets to tell which one’s tripped, either?

Annie, when they first tried digging the Channel Tunnel in Victorian times, they found a coal seam, so this led to the development of coal mines in East Kent, and so it is possible to find NCB sidings on the Southern, if only limited. From a rail fan / modeller point of view, this led to the East Kent Railway, a Colonel Stephen’s job. So to Wingham Canterbury Road, my kind of station. http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/w/wingham_canterbury_road/

On the subject of iron bodied GWR wagons, there’s 31076, the number falling between blocks of the various 3 plank builds listed above. It’s pictured at Newquay Harbour, loaded with coal, presumably imported by sea from South Wales. Would it be one of the mentioned jobs, or just absorbed from the Cornwall Minerals Railway? The wagon next to it still has dumb buffers… then there’s the spring shoes, either they’re a very good fit, or there’s extensions down from the solebars? Flitched?

May I add that the article and drawing I was on about was in Railway Modeller No. 69.