MartinTrucks

I have no intention of pre-ordering one until I have some idea what I am ordering! I have pre-ordered a 'Fag Packet' livery HST from a retailer as these have some sentimental interest to me and Dapol HSTs have appeared previously. I have pre-ordered Dogfish wagons from another retailer for the same reason. I want at least one loco in late steam era condition with a cut-down tender. Is the cut-down tender being offered? Or perhaps the whole project is, as one of my friends would call it, VAPORWARE!!! Martin

With regard to CADs, I have just found these in a post dated January 2013 in this thread:

Well here we are in late Summer 2021 and little seems to have changed. Is anyone in a position to let us know what the state of play with these models is? Thanks and best regards, Martin

No sign of mine yet (ordered June 2018). Martin

The livery samples for said tank are here: https://www.facebook.com/Oxford-Rail-2176618712550434/photos/pcb.2635107770034857/2635105620035072 Best regards Martin

Ah now, drawings are a topic in their own right! Some people who had worked at Eastleigh Carriage Works told me tales of construction being held up on a particular new-build because the components on the drawing would not fit in 1:1 scale. The draughtsman was summoned and a shop-floor discussion occurred; the foreman with artisan suggesting a modification. The modified component was trial fitted, found to be satisfactory and production continued. Shortly afterwards the draughtsman would return and measure up so that he could alter the drawing! Conversely, one has the case of 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair that needed a tender when it entered preservation. It had last run in BR service with a rebodied tender of 5250 gallon capacity. A drawing was obtained from (I believe) the NRM and the basic tender tank was built to this. When the half-finished product was inspected, it was queried why it did not look like the Hornby Dublo 'Barnstaple' tender with two rectangular fillers and one ladder on the rear. Answer - said drawing had been revised after the last 5250 gallon tender tank had been produced and it now had one rectangular filler and two ladders!!! Happy days! Martin

I don't understand the point you are trying to make, Paul. Standard 9"x4.25" wheelsets can be swapped around as much as one likes. All the Standard 3-hole wheelsets I have ever seen have been monobloc, i.e. solid, tyre-less. LSWR wheelsets will not fit in a standard underframe and vice versa, without modification to the frame. The SECR design wagons have a 9"x4" wheelset. Of course it is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that any surviving SECR (or for that matter, any pre-nationalisation company) wagon will still have the same wheelsets with which it was fitted from new. I never suggested that! The pair of wheelsets under wagon '5542' are 3-hole but with tyres. I have never seen similar sets and (although I have not lifted the vehicle to get to the axle ends, I assume that they are a SR replacement for life-expired SECR open-spoke wheels. <EDIT> Mike King etc., Volume 3, page 61 shows two SR-built diagram 1355 wagons with 3-hole wheelsets. Martin

Even building kits these days is not cheap. I run my kitbuilt fleet in with my RTR stuff, a cataract and occasional arthritis in the fingers having influenced a move away from the 3-links of my youth! The cost of a (rather nice) Cambrian kit is £8.10, a pair of wheelsets £3, pair of NEM baseplates 64p (pack of 10 £3.16) , pair of Bachmann 36-027 couplers £2.20 (£10.95 a pack), finish coat paint £3.85 and sheet of transfers £10 (cheaper if you are building more than one SR kit), brass bearings, paintbrushes, Microsol/Microset for the transfers, undercoat, varnish, post & packing for the various items and one is getting perilously close to the discounted Rapido price! If you want ONE, you are probably better off buying a Rapido RTR version. If you want half a dozen, providing you have the physical capability, the time and the talent, you are far better off with the kits! Martin

One of the 7-plank SECR design wagons we have on Bluebell (it is numbered 5542 and is in SECR grey livery despite being a SR-built wagon) has 3-hole disc wheels, but these are not standard and have tyres! Regards, Martin

Firstly, I have never heard of the South Western Circle - I am sure that is my fault! Secondly, would the registers have fared any better with these organisations AT THE TIME THEY WERE DISPOSED OF? I can recall in the 1980s, one Bluebell Railway Preservation Society member vociferously criticising the then Bluebell Railway archivist for keeping 'treasured material in a leaky garden shed'! Following the appointment of another archivist, I assume the archive was moved to another garden shed! It was later housed in a brick-built building acquired with a land purchase, but had to vacate that building when it was demolished to make way for a carriage shed. It is only in recent years with the establishment of the Bluebell Railway Museum organisation, that the archive has expanded and has now moved off-site. However, it is still not quite as accessible as being in the reference section of a public library. The ideal is, I suppose, the sort of building that the HMRS has at the Midland Railway, but that has obviously cost a fair amount. Regards, Martin

Sorry, what do you mean by 'line society'? Martin

Agreed, but the reason that they have ended up that way is that the public/taxpayer-funded organisation(s) that one would have expected to take custody of them, declined to do so. Martin

Alan Blackburn also worked in Southern House but I think it was probably Mike King that transcribed the details from them. I was told that the NRM/PRO had no interest in the registers. Paul Ramsden (now of Rampart) took custody of them with the eventual intention of lodging them in Ashford Public Library. The last time I spoke with Paul must have been over 20 years ago. At that time he was going through a divorce and the registers were stuck in the garage of the house his wife was occupying! I regret that I know nothing more re their present location. Regards, Martin

SOUTHERN RAILWAY WAGON REGISTERS In my first appointment after the completion of my BR apprenticeship, I occupied a desk on floor 10 of Southern House in Croydon. The Wagons section, led at that time by a man named Arthur Meaby, was located immediately above me. I used to sneak upstairs after hours to use the TOPS machine. During one of these visits, I was shown the SR Wagon Registers which were about three 2ft square bound books containing (in 'copper-plate' script). the running number, lot number, week-ending build date and cost, together with other data. If a wagon was scrapped, a line was neatly drawn through the details and the scrapping date was written in. That number could then be re-used if desired, there being sufficient space between vehicle data for a new line of data to be inserted. Those books did not contain details of overhauls or repairs. One of the chaps that I frequently used to encounter on floor 11 was named Bill (I forget his surname). He had started as an Oiler Boy at Norwood Junction Yard in the days when there were still a lot of grease axleboxes in service. I am sure that he looked older than his years but his hacking smoker's cough made me suspect that he wasn't destined to last too many years longer! IIRC, Bill was one of several Grading Inspectors, who would examine green-carded wagons requiring anything above basic repairs, to determine at which level of workshop they would be dealt with. At that time, we were British Rail and had wagon repair workshops at New Cross Gate and Ramsgate, in addition to the numerous 'cripple roads' in yards like Norwood Junction where resident BR examiners/repairers resided. Our nearest Main Works for wagons would be Ashford (BR Engineering Ltd.) although some wagons were sent off-Region. I can only imagine that this system developed from one that was in place pre-nationalisation. Regards, Martin

The railway business is and was, just like any other traditional business, about MAKING MONEY!!! Covid has demonstrated that no business is really in control of its TURNOVER. However, the business is able to control its COSTS. Why would the LMS, SR, GWR or LNER 'OVERHAUL' another company's wagons unless there was a contract in place for them to do so? Answer? - Because they did not? Wagon overhauls were somewhat confusingly termed Intermediate and General Repairs by BR and I assume that the Big Four did the same. Regards, Martin

The original, 'The LMS Wagon' book contains the 1935 LMS paint specifications. Mix 5, Lead Colour for Wagons, contains 3 to 4 pounds of ultramarine blue in oil. IIRC, the earlier specs. did not. Regards, Martin

This is the first release of brand new tooling from Hornby. The 'A' suffix to the part number indicates that there is a choice of two running numbers in that livery. Martin

All five varieties appear to be in stock at Hornby with low stock shown for the Churchill van: https://uk.Hornby.com/search?encoded=lVVLj9sgEP418cWq1M2h2h6sKo_e9hDVK_UQRQjDhCBjQwFvmn_fMdhptt1dyCHCYr4HzAyTbxbcoPzzxUBlrOYD84WivdhRf6pO2vbN5dPQFox6ENpeKqoUmXCucENDrhGmu0b2wItflRqEoAKKo1QerNt7S2VPHHhHaM-J1UrJXhDnNWsPN9HDvsM49Sh32E8uV4ND9TwCyxqBdykbyto86d2IzNRWGi-svXyBlPbTX2SmNtOUncCRsGadfxMZ5WL5pQzfd93lTIXuHQlLlt3PQAhu4TO6LZabKYDc20DmMQy1GHC4JHO6G6HBvw7wTAcMKqspT6j_mGC3qqwNgkafwR6mDSOBQUZrsbbcBWhKEH576J3U2U2Lyt9nzv-5fm3BrHYuJEOKnipMEMMjOZTKa7GJjlUu66gQCrCaVVL-XArpqcKu7kYjXHuP9SGcsYT1NjKxswMT18BE-8ftZrNYfn3f1OmjP2OHJBzqCfa-0KnDgxJqDGmoA44hqrQYYL5GwmBlTLkeieVqIs63-LAnuPRYWUzav3bkYfmCB0q5BtZtvpBWbl-lrBmk4ljX-GDmnpBjXxtF_VHbzpHGSi7Sr3LGh8ZYR06OkWupAseglyzlUY_QOkKz7gDaKMB92WHHpi4QwLGtIyHLAkcOzpsz4H8m2PGFYQE5kpJDbOTFKXrllrvIxWc2xcMwfSv-5uaK2YuSrNxabQzYcq29V3dUgeMvpwQjLluUDl5nFXY1AnNk59CdQ2w9KxZI8aS5VJ8LC0xb7ghmCzUEVA_LIq5_AA Best regards, Martin

The Bulleid Society have this data page for MN pacifics. It gives speedo fitting dates but not when the late crests were applied: https://www.bulleidsociety.org/OVS_Bulleid/OVSB_Merchant_Navy.html There is a similar page for the WC/BB classes: https://www.bulleidsociety.org/OVS_Bulleid/OVSB_Light_Pacifics.html Edit 26 April 2021 Sorry, the MN page does NOT give the data that I stated, but the WC/BB page does - Doh! Martin

Is that so? 34023 Blackmore Vale and 35028 Clan Line both had (painted) brass tender lamps in BR service, I am reliably informed. Best regards, Martin

The postman delivered the replacement 1609 this afternoon (any delay down to me) and, although it still needs to be run in, it seems to be performing perfectly. I am a happy bunny once again! One query I have though ........ Did all the (full-size) locos have red numberplates from new? Thanks, Martin

I agree with you regarding #17 Kadees. I have used them on several Bachmann (UK) locos, but #18s seem to be most suitable for wagons. Looking at the wagon again, I have fitted Bachmann short straight couplings (retaining the Oxford pocket) in place of the original over-long Oxford ones. I did not notice that when I snapped it this morning. Regards, Martin

They look like relatively standard NEM pocket couplers to me, so #17, 18 or whatever.

Would a peanut console you?

Sorry, it took me a while to figure out what point you were trying to make. Those of us who model in 12" scale (in addition to smaller scales) normally number our wagons on both sides, hence two patches, in the plural, one on each side! Congratulations on discovering my error. I wrote 'tare', but should have written 'load capacity'. The tare weight on that wagon, which is a SR diagram 1375 design built BY the SR FOR the LNER was indeed painted towards the bottom of the lower RH corner plate on each side. In fact, I was discussing this very point with a Bluebell Railway colleague only a week ago. The photo which you quote also appears in the SR Wagons Volume 4 book. Regards, Martin