zephyrman

Ah thanks for the detail Pete. I Remembered somwthingbto do with the SECR but I though it was unusual for SECR sourced wagons. Am I right that the ex IWC did not retain its IWC axle boxes after rebuild or does it still retain them?

This view shows an E1 at Shanklin with a brake van in the consist. This could have been to split the train for local coal merchants such as those at Brading, Cowes etc or for local Gas works.

These are actually the ex IWR ballast 4 plank rebuilds but show the Es designation.

Now for coal trains. E1's were ordered for the longer trains as these trains were often 20 wagons or more. Some often had two or more LSWR road vans and or the 20T van. The wagons were either 5 plank ex LBSCR converted round end wagons (available from Cambrian) or of the later 13T ex SR "Medina Wharf " wagons with double doors atop the side door (Also Cambrian). Some wagons were also Designated MP (Motive Power Coal) ME (Mechanical Engineers) And Ds for Departmental or Es for Engineering ( Civil?). Some carried domestic or loco coal. Some carried loco ash. First pic shows such at Ventnor.

The IWR crane Match

Cranes 1st! up The Kirkstall Forge Crane which was saved and at the factory. The Ex MR crane preserved at the IOWSR And lastly the IWR crane, action shots too!

SECR mail coaches/full brakes can easily be made using my method of kitbashing a Roxey SECR Brake 3rd and a Farish coach. The easiest of IOW SECR coaches to replicate. Even ex LCDR full brakes were around in the late 50's in use as stores vans, tool vans or brakedown vans. This one is at Ryde in 59. Some were often spotted at St Helens or Ventnor West in the siding behind the station. And mixed freight and parcels. It all went on here chaps

Now PMV and mail vans. Post 20's ex LBSCR vans were behind the engine to carry PLA Passengers Luggage in Advance. This could be ex fish vans.......nice. Latterly these were PMV vans and some of the SECR brake thirds lost on extra compartment on top of the luggage space in the guard end. On early morning mail trains formed of SECR converted full brakes/mail coaches and sometimes PMV's, these were double headed to save another light engine movement.

Next up wagons used as match wagons for delivery of tube stock. This included one LBSCR bolster, one ex LBSCR 5 plank and an ex LBSCR van.

Ok you want freight pics here goes. Starting off with stock that made it into the BR era, we have ExIWR five planks converted into 4 plank dropsides with mixtures of Ex LBSCR parts. And Ex LBSCR 5 planks behind the 05. One PMV received rail blue. Two PMV's were still in use at Newport well after steam as it was still in use as a BR parcels depot and the PMV's became departmental Stores. Here is a close up of a 4 plank ex IWR blallast. The next view show them behind the 05.

Close up of tube match wagon.

Close up of the 4 plank Ballast wagons.

Here we go JZ.You want pics of Isle Of Wight Freight, you are gonna get your fill buddy. Starting in BR and getting older One PMV servived into BR Blue but that was not the only steam stock that did. 4 Wagons were rebuilt into 4 plank Ballast wagons using sides from LSWR or SECR sides from ex IWR wagons As well as a few ex LBSCR five plankers. These are behind the 05. Tube Match wagons fitted with tube couplers.

Not a good pic. Will post more tomorrow!

Just read the book "The Island Great Train Robbery" You can see how hard it is to oppose government to an obvious catastrophe. Its no different now. Closed doors. Personally I think the council should pay for their mistakes. The Vectarail thing was a right stinker too. More council bloodindedness. They would not allow Vectarail to operate unless they had the track. BR would not sell the track unless the council allowed them to operate. And so the circle went until The Parish Council set fire to the coach at Droxford. Or should I not have suggested that. :-o But the Vectarail Coach still lives....well in model form. Here are some partly finished pics.I have since added light etc.

When the Island Line Franchise began the Steam Railway proposed using a fleet of Thumpers but it was suggested by the CME that underframe Diesel Mechanical Units (Class 108 -121) would be better suited for maintenence costs as Thumpers required dedicated equipment.

The miss leading thing of trams is the civil engineering required. As with tran scheme which allways runs millions overbudget because of the lack of understanding of the stability a tram system needs. The Island cannot afford that kind of monetary mistake. Trams may be light rail but they need hard 100% fully engineered trackbeds as they cannot cope with the kind of misalignments experianced with Heavy Rail. Rowborough will allways continue to move and would never be stable enough for trams. Let alone overhead power lines requiring added infrastructure costs. Simple solution is to regauge the tunnel and Rink Road bridge ( or turn it into a L/C and make use of cascaded Diesel stock or modify it. A gauging test was carried out in the 2000's by SWT and its surprising what the results were. 141-3 Classes fit as do 150 and 170's although appatently SWT" could not justify placing such a highly technological unit the Island". lol

Is there any chance of an add on pack of the push pull parts?

I will post some pics of IOW freight trains shortly along with some of my models. Hope it helps?

The beauty of the Island is that its so well photographed. I believe Mike Reed is producing a book like the one on coaching stock. A hope he does produce it. I will go though all my books to make sure I try to get both sides of a vehicle if possible photographed.

I used the Mike King books. The series covers SR( IWR included) LBSCR, SECR, LSWR and LCDR. Mos have drawings or really good pictures. I may have some excess stock as now I model BR era. I built SR and IWR stuff for my Mill Hill layout.

Post script. I have just asked Allen at Worsley Works to make up etches for SECR comps. I sent him some artwork and he has agreed to make some, some part panelled some unpanelled! At least you will not have to cutvand shut so much. He has said a full body kit ,sides and ends and roof will be £45 and available in about 3 weeks?

You are correct the use of Graham Farish Suburbans is that it gives tge right shape for the tumblehome and a good sruface to bond the bottom of the etch sides to and gives a nice straight edge. The roxey kits are for the 60ft coach not the 54ft and require so much cutting about you could not build the kit afterwards, hence the need for a former to build on. There is a big difference with the width issue. I used to just use the graham farish coaches at first. Then I boughtva Roxey LBSCR 3rd and you can see the width difference when in a train with Farish coaches. The look is similar to a tadpole unit. Hence why I started to chop mine. When I found out the only way to build a decent SECR comp was going to need to be kitbashed then its only logical to do the same.

Oh yes also in addition to the blue circle/vectis cement wagons were three Royal Daylight wagons/tank wagons. These had also been rebuilt many times over.

There was a kit for the brake van used in the earlier weed killing train. It was an ex MR van the IWR used if your doing SR. The IWR water tanks were very unusuall in profile!!! And had several chassis over the years. For the odd shaped one, please do not laugh but due to the wierd profile, the only think close was a sweetex sweetner dispenser which I cut into sections!!!!! It is slighty tapered too so I had to sort that. But by cutting ito into quarters for the top, then the bottom tapered bit was sectioned into quarters again. The chassis I used an IWR chassis from Smallbrook Studios I think. For the private owner Royal daylight wagons on the Island I modified a mainland tank wagon. I think the tank wagons and Isle of Wight cranes have taken the longest and are the hardest to build. The next hardest are the SECR composites!!!