Northroader

Can’t find the reference now, I’m afraid, but way back, 1950s 60s sort of era, there was an article done in the Railway Modeller by Norman Eagles, (who created the “Sherwood Section”) He had gone to Burton shed and been given access to measure up one of these engines, and did a drawing for it. Sorry I’ve slung my clipping for this in a clearout a few months ago, just have the model left:

It looks as if the upper body panels are stepped out above the wheels. This one looks as if it’s designed with rail transport in mind? Presumably those are securing chains hanging down, there are no placard boards above the roof to take down, and the front pole for the horse harness pushes back under the vehicle, rather than detaches. Suppose it’s painted chocolate? Pity the sign writing front or back doesn’t show.

I think that you should be able to look at a layout with no trains being present, and get an impression of where it’s meant to be, so that scenery can give a geographical impression, and the buildings and infrastructure such as signals give a much firmer idea of the company involved. If you look at a bare board populated by D299 wagons, you’re left asking “where’s this?”

I did a Duncan Models pantechicon in 0 scale, and used it as a load on a LBSC machinery wagon, which is how it would go by rail. The wagon had a flat deck, not a well, and the pantechnicon was a tight fit inside the wagon. The poster boards above the roof have to be removed, the drivers seat folded down, and the pole at the front removed. If it is loaded dead central on the wagon, I found it is just within load gauge limits, nothing to spare.

I’m sticking to the trademark name “Washbourne”, Don, but it’s got the capability of getting a Caledonian flavour by becoming “Washburn”, and if I can last long enough to do the NER, it’ll be “Washbeck”. The loco. is trying to be a GNoS “E” class, LNER “J91”, but I’m afraid it’s an awful bodge. I used a spare chassis for a South Wales 0-6-0T (all my finished stock for South Wales went in the Great Clearout) but the wheelbase is about 18” too long. Then Things happened during the superstructure build, dimensionally and square wise. Jonathan did a comment over on another thread this week about how you get more meticulous as you grow older, I’m afraid I’ve gone the other way.

Over eight years and eighty three pages into this thread, and we’re still bumbling along, with every so often the new version, edition?, revision?, appearing, keeping to an 0 gauge, pregroup, representative, adaptable small layout concept. I’ve been looking at what there is from an operational, and an appearance, point of view, and just shifted things round a bit. The main consideration is that I’ve moved from a terminus to fiddle yard approach, to a run through station with staging boards each end, mainly because there’s sufficient length available here. (Before the track exited at each end, but there was just a short pocket yard at the one end). This was discussed with examples back on page forty, although I’m afraid it’s a bit of a desert with the loss of pictures, and Tyn-y-Coedcae, just up above, is a good example. The other change is that the siding has been moved to go in front, and lengthened a bit. I should be able to run through trains, mainly passenger, and do some simple shunt moves using the siding, and that’s all I really need. The main running line has a nice reverse curve to make it look more arty, not parallel with the baseboard front edge. Here’s the main board as it is now, waiting for the reception roads at each end to appear: The dimensions are length 42.5”, 1080mm, and width 12”, 305mm.

Polish Air Force: or, French Stop signal:

Brighton has a seafront terminus. Trouble is, the line don’t go very far.

Highly impressive line up. Carriages to the left of ‘em, carriages to the right of ‘em.

No more progress to report, but just thought I’d show how I got to the design of that loco. Going back over seventy years ago, I got on my bike one day and went out past Pontesbury in Shropshire, to where the Snailbeach District Railway was still functioning. By then it was just taking crushed road stone from a quarry down to where road lorries could be loaded, using gravity working for hopper wagons, and hauling them back up with an ordinary Fordson tractor. Very enjoyable outing, and I progressed beyond the quarry, on to the abandoned stretch past the Snailbeach lead mine, where the quartz tips gave a “mountains of the moon” effect, up to the terminus at Crowsnest, where there was nothing much at all. Not long after the quarry laid an access road for lorries, and the line was abandoned. Anyway, the Crowsnest end became a peg for a talented modeller, Roy Link, to hang his idea of a small mineral line on. He tried various layouts in various developments and scales, all made in fabulous detail, detailed in his book “Crowsnest Chronicles”. In this book there was a drawing of a small narrow gauge Bagnall 0-4-0, which I’ve pinched and adapted. it gave me a good idea of the general assembly, and then it just got an overlay for a Hornby 00 chassis, and a person to the right scale. Doing an Emett adaptation, the length gets foreshortened, and the height, particularly boiler mountings, gets increased, although in doing this, you still need to keep the cab big enough to take a person, which will change the proportions a bit. Then the details get done to try and look more like a prototype you want. I’ve made the superstructure soldered up from nickel silver sheet, but plastikard would do just as well.

Tying this in to two paintings, one a modern one of Queen Victoria arriving in 1842, with plenty of activity; and one from the NRM, a contemporary? painting of the scene, one detail which might show how things were done is the smoke box doors opened, presumably to help the fire cool down and reduce boiler pressure?

The Pop Up kits are in unpainted ply with laser etched detail, so if you want a stone built station, you can face it with “stone” plastikard glued on, once you’ve smoothed the projecting locating tabs off. The Glasgow show sounds great, pity it’s too far for me. Tallindalloch is news to me, have you spotted Rosehearty, a GNS based branch in 0 gauge, also it has a P4 version. https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/rosehearty-gnsr-new-aberdour-branch.8035/

Don’t forget Acker Bilk….

I think you’ll have difficulty getting much of a station building on that platform width. Here’s a Pop Up Designs kit I’m using on a GNoS line that’s taking shape. (It has needed a bit of tailoring to be fully suitable) It’s in 0 scale, and the board width is 10”, so equivalent to about 6” in 00. Your goods siding and shed has required over half your board width, so there isn’t really enough left to get what you want. You might make do with the front half of a Colonel Stephens type building, perhaps in wood rather than corrugated iron, otherwise add a few inches on the back of the layout? I'm enjoying the build, it is looking promising.

May I bring a layout that’s taking shape to your attention, as it’s on a club blog that possibly you aren’t following. It’s small and simple, in 0 scale, with a quality finish. The club is Newport (Gwent) MRC and Rodney Hall is heading the team. He has produced Llanastr in the past, (featured on page 8 of this thread),which should be sufficient recommendation. https://newportmrs.wales/members-layouts/tyn-y-coedcae/

What’s the glue/s you’re using, please?

You, sir, are starting to reveal yourself as a person with emerging good taste and perspicacity. I like the new signal box,too.

Well, it’s getting warmer and lighter, and spending more time doing some modelling. Doing scratchbuilding in 0 scale for pregrouping is slow progress, but I find I’m acquiring a mental outlook and philosophy to the job very like the stalwarts working on the smaller preserved lines, where mainline steam is an 0-6-0 tank engine, major progress is the delivery of fifty sleepers, the film on the rail might start to polish away after Easter; Truthall, Abergwili, Blunsdon, Brockford, Horsehay, Fimber, Brechin… Living the Dream….

Thanks for that, Dana, it’s a fascinating read. I was on the last year of my apprenticeship when we had the two locos, Locomotion and Derwent, into the works from off their plinths at Bank Top station. At the time the erecting shop had just had a rebuild of one half of one of the bays to take in main line diesels. All the pits had been filled in and a smooth concrete surface applied, then painted over green with lines, so that it looked almost like a tennis court. The first occupants were these two locos plonked down in the middle, looking very incongruous. A lot of the woodwork was replaced, and there was one story of replacement bolts being needed for some work. They thought a rather antique finish was needed, so the job was given to one blacksmith well known for his rough work, without telling him what they were for. The later careful archaeological approach wasn’t at that time being applied, it was more just tittivating the engines up.

I do like it! As to the coupling rods, the centres of the axles are quite get attable, could you not just gauge it from them? (Taking the picture I had to have the gauge slightly away, so it doesn’t line up looking at it) Hope you and your wife are fully recovered from the lurgy, best wishes.

Agreed, paintings of early railways are always going to form a good basis for a model:

Try Cuneo: (more of a “Regency” titfer.)

That stretch of beach is about all there is at Ramsgate.

Jus’ outa Newcastle this big bridge, and the engineer say to the tollman “I got cows, I got sheep, I got mules, I got all livestock. I got all livestock, I got aalll livestoooockkk….”

Nice building, without looking it up, it looks like an Austrian design and with a FS logo. Tyrol?? And a quick Google…. So it is, looks like an interesting prototype you’ve got there: