Nearholmer

And, a very pretty picture it is too! K

Wow! Is it an etched kit? K

Mornington Crescent!!! Oh, no, sorry. Wrong game. K

Persons of a Fine Scale disposition are advised to look away. Here is what umber looks like to those who pursue the art of coarse railwaying in 0 scale. K PS: still trying to think of something nice to say about Burgess Hill, and failing. The same space and general disposition could be used for Eridge, which was a far more interesting station.

You can't not, can you? Very smart indeed. K

Now, here is something extraordinary http://thesussexmotivepowerdepots.yolasite.com/sussex-railway-scenes.php If you look down the page, there is a picture of an E2 running on the sand tramway at Hassocks! I'd always understood that is was worked by a combination of gravity and horses, but no. And, not only that, but a main line loco let loose onto a private tramway. The Sussex motive Power Depots website is enormous, and contains vast amounts of lore and many unique photos, so, if you haven't explored it already, I strongly recommend it. Kevin

Hmmm, I can see this turning into the entire Brighton Line! The tramway at Hassocks served sand pits. A colleague of mine is mildly obsessed by it, because it ran through what is now the end of his garden. What happened to the SECR angle? K

Two exceedingly atmospheric pictures! I particularly like the washing. The one showing the "Glowcomotive" (B****y Martians! Forever mucking about with that death-ray thing of their's! It's all down to that bloke from Woking, if you ask me. If he 'adn't a started poking his nose into things, we'd all be a lot better off!) shows the line from Lewes, approaching Keymer Junction, with the chimney of Maidenhead (latterly Keymer) Brick and Tile In the left background, and the houses in Nye Road on the left. The brick and tile works had quite an extensive standard gauge internal system, but I'm not sure if that had any locos; it also had a narrow gauge system, which began as cable-hauled, then I think was horse-worked, but latterly had locomotives [Yep, both 24" and 18" gauge, internal combustion engined, and only from the 1930s onwards. The IRS book says that the works was opened in 1875, and rebuilt after a fire in 1883.] [edit: I presume that the building adjacent the train, on the down side, is Keymer Junction station, which closed in 1883, but would welcome confirmation.] It would require either a lot of compression, or a hooge layout, to get both into one scene. Kevin

Have you got a copy of C J Freezer's "60 Plans for Small Layouts"? He provides a lot of interesting ideas for 8ft x 4ft. A lot depends on how old the children who will play with it are. My experience (self, and offspring!) is that "whizzing round with wagons filled with zoo animals/pirates/dinosaurs/soldiers" lasts up to about age 5 or 6, then things progress to deliberate crashes (boys) and "journey stories" (girls), lasting up to about age 8 or 9, then either the railway gets forgotten, or an interest in prototypical operation begins to set-in. In the first two phases, it is really important to have all the track within small-arms-reach. By coincidence, I was just looking in a 1949 copy of "Model Railway Constructor", which contains an article by CJF, before he became well known as editor of "Railway Modeller". Said magazine contains an article by a Mr Dove, which gives a plan for a "roundy-roundy", with a branch to a terminus at a higher level, using an 8ft x 6ft plan. In short what, with a bit of tidying-up, to cut the width to 4ft, to fit a standard sheet of plywood, became one of CJF's classic designs. The resemblance is too close for coincidence, and tends to illustrate that we all get inspiration from others. Kevin

Purley, SECR, loco shed, with the Brighton line, at a slightly higher level, as a moving backdrop? http://maps.nls.uk/view/103315207 Isn't someone going to make an H tank in 00 soon? I think lots of them lived at Purley, and the branches probably had C class locos for goods trains. The loco shed was still there last time I looked, having been the BR(S) document archive for donkey's years. Or, Smitham station, also with the Brighton Line. As a backdrop. St Leonard's Warrior Square station, with a very tiny model of Rev Peter Denny, who, I'm pretty sure, spent his childhood living in a villa overlooking the station. Kevin

Aha! Thanks, Dave. "Crowborough" has to be my favourite Terrier, indeed favourite standard gauge loco, because I was born there. Fortunately, Mr Bedford of Lewes left us with an absolutely marvellous photo of it. Kevin

Gents As someone who both operates coarse-scale 0, using tight curves and all the slop inherent in that set of "standards", and likes to shunt, I'm beginning to build-up quite a bit of experience of ABL (anti buffer locking) measures. One measure that helps if you are using three-link couplers is to use very wide buffer heads, as was done by the Leeds Model Company on their products from the 1930s onwards. However, what is really needed is rigid a coupling that keeps the buffers slightly apart when propelling, and there are two good ones: - "drop links", which are essentially single-link couplers. They look fairly un-intrusive, if made carefully, and can be made of wire or pressed tin. But,be aware that the detail of the design is quite "natty": the back of the hook has a little depression in it,mot prevent the link jumping out. - three-links, soldered-up solid. They become "drop links", but look slightly better, and could probably pass the "fine scale" test. The trouble with "Talgo" arrangements is that they can lead to forces that twist, and derail, bogies. Auto-couplers tend to become a bit "gross", because they need to be so wide to cope with curvature. Personally, I quite like the "involvement" of manual coupling, but I know that some people aim for totally hands-free. Kevin

Fittleworth - More superb modelling of a wonderful railway. I followed it up on the S4 website and discovered that a lot of the scenic work formed an 0-Level art project. Talented young builder! Here is some Brighton techno-porn. The production locos had a different boiler, of course. But, what about the loco number? Wasn't No.84 "Crowborough", a Tertier? Kevin

Indeed. If you are thinking of getting an M7, I suggest that you move quickly. The production runs for each livery are surprisingly small, and I have it on genuinely good authority that they are shifting like hot cakes, with Ace wishing that they'd ordered a few more from the manufacturer (ETS). The other smaller SR loco that is about to hit the rails is the 'Yank Tank', from Raylo and WJVintage, again made for them by ETS. Kevin

I haven't seen "Brighton Road", but I shall certainly be looking out for it - very interesting indeed! Thank you for drawing it to our attention. The railways of London, c1900-1914 must have been absolutely fascinating - so much variety, with things that dated back to the 1860s, rubbing shoulders with some serious high-teckery, and service-patterns that are now mostly-forgotten. Kevin

Two interesting examples of pre-grouping modelling. The locomotive is by Bing, for Bassett Lowke; the lady's name was not recorded.

Not at sure that I can work up such passionate distaste for the Epoch system, but it seems to me to be an overly sophisticated way of conveying information that could easily be summarised by printing a couple of dates on the box the model comes in, and in the catalogue, e.g. c1926 to c1953. BTW, Edwardian, I have a better idea than you modelling Kew Gardens in 4mm scale. Why don't you build a layout using actual pre-WW1 model trains, drawing inspiration from the pages of 'Model Railways and Locomotives', the model railway magazine of the time? You might be surprised by how far advanced railway modelling was within about ten years of its emergence as a hobby. There are some very good pre-WW1 model trains around in the market. Have you looked at "The Station Master's Rooms" website? Kevin

Crikey, MD! Is that a regular working? Rough date? And, where is its nameplate? Apologies if that is a lot of questions, but a photo like that invites them. Kevin

Edwardian When I get an obsession, it takes a while for me to work through it, so here is more regarding Kew Gardens ....... In 1901, F C Blake, an early motor car manufacturer, opened a new factory, slap bang in the middle of the scene under discussion, and provided a 33" gauge petrol-mechanical loco to work the lines of the pumping station next door (see 'The Engineer' Jan 9, 1903, p47) ......... More cutting-edge Edwardian technology to include on a layout. The other, not in the pumping station, narrow gauge tramway seems to have been extended during the early-1900s, then disappeared somewhere around WW1. I'm beginning to think there might have been some connection between the tramway and Mr Blake, because the whole scene is very similar to what went on at the works of McEwan, Pratt & Co, another early motor-car and petrol-locomotive builder, at Wickford, Essex, at pretty much exactly the same time. They had a tramway adjacent their works for testing new locomotives. Early car and petrol-loco builders folded-up, or went into combinations with one another, during WW1, I think because only those that secured substantial War Office orders could survive. And, the adjacent tramway was electrified c1901, but I can't find a picture, so here it is in 1894.[ Wrong! The route was horse-worked until it closed in favour of motor-buses in 1912, and the photo may show the final run, K] Kevin

On not mentioning the war: A discussion in another forum educated me about the fact that WW1 was not fought as "total war" in anything like the same way as WW2. If you delve into contemporary sources, you will find all sorts of normality continuing until very late dates in the conflict, and an astonishingly amateurish approach to the actual conflict and its direct impacts. An instance is the creation of hospital provision for the wounded, which seems to have been conducted on the basis of a series of village fetes for funding, keen gels for nursing, and grand ladies in 'drawing-rooms as coordinators. And, the byways of the Sussex Weald seem to have been choked with wandering artistic types, who were deeply impressed by the fact that they could hear the big guns over in Belgium, but felt it quite acceptable to float around in floppy hats, writing poetry about hedgerows. On Kew Gardens station: Go for it Edwardian. If you get the date exactly right, it allows for electric and steam stock inter-running, and you could depict the ultra-modern concrete footbridge under-construction. BTW, if you look closely at the map that I linked to, you have an excuse to include two narrow-gauge railways too. One at the pumping station, and the other more of a mystery ........ To me it looks as if it might be an agricultural line, and the presence of a loop hints at a locomotive, rather than just horse-haulage. I shall be pursuing that one further. It would make an uber-Edwardian scene, showing both elegance and technical advance. You might even add a few chaps with TB, and some children with no shoes to get the necessary balance into it. Kevin

Interesting thread. Could I provoke interest in building a model of Kew Gardens station c1903? It was a modest, two-track, semi-rural place, with a small goods yard, but was served by LSWR, NLR, District, Met and GWR, with a train-frequency that would satisfy any operator. http://maps.nls.uk/view/101201988(well worth a "research visit", because not only is the station in quite original condition, but there is a very good pub on the up platform) If it is too small for your tastes, Gunnersbury had the same, with more platforms, plus an extra set of LSWR extra services that got to Richmond by going round the sun to meet the moon, using railcars and rail-motors, and some extra goods services too. I haven't got the time to do it myself, you see! Kevin

Exceedingly good! K

Kenton Simply that if I have enjoyed something, I would like someone else to enjoy it too - the "right" person would; the "wrong" person would stick it in a skip. Perhaps this is why I rather like old model trains - they come with a history. And yes, once I'm dead, I will neither know nor care, but this is more about the enjoyment of the next person. Kevin

Sometimes I think that an equally important question is: will it go to someone who will appreciate and enjoy it? Books (er, I have collected far too many over nearly fifty years!) aren't such an issue, because the way the secondhand book trade works, specialist stuff either goes direct to a specialist dealer, or finds its way there, and hence to aficionados. Models are a bitter more difficult - very hard to guarantee finding the right future-owner. Kevin

Ah, your eyesight is better than mine; I was trying to work out what it said on the boxes! Lots and lots of sweetie shops on front at Brighton. K