Ian Major

Mikkel, I have had a look through my books for some dates plus some other maps. My above potted history is obviously a gross over simplification of a complex history that included the infamous "Battle of Mickleton Tunnel". The OWW was opened piecemeal up to 1855. It became the main part of the West Midland Railway 1860. The West Midland was absorbed in to the GWR 1863. L&B station was opened in the 1880s. I did see the exact date in a records book in of all places Stockport Library. I should have noted the date. My ancient brain does not retain dates very well now. The signal box was built 1884 which would probably be about the same time as the station. The lockup appears on the 1903 map along with the weighbridge but no stable building. Thus far I have not found a build date. It appears however to be well within the GWR days. As you put it it could have been a local design. I am not sure whether the yard predated the station. The nearby Aldington sidings (which never had a passenger station) was in existence before 1882 according to Mitchell and Smith. To get an idea how important these small goods sidings became, in GWR Goods Wagons / Atkins, Beard and Tourret they describe the Dia Y3 fruit vans (1911/12) including the statement "at least 200 vans were specially earmarked for return to Pershore, Aldington Siding, Littleton and Badsey and Evesham". The traffic reached its peak about 1923 falling away to nothing by 1964. (I will leave your thread alone now! ) Ian.

Mikkel, L&B was not one of the stations when the OWW was first opened. Brunel engineered the line so the early stations had his type of good shed eg as in Morton-in-Marsh and Camden. The line was meant to be broad gauge but the OWW directors did not want to be tied to the GW so it was to be built as dual gauge. In the event the part of the line through L&B was laid double track as narrow (standard) and single track broad. This was (intentionally) unworkable hence no broad gauge trains ran. At Oxford where a break of gauge took place the OWW got in to an agreement with the LNWR. A flyover was built across the GWR route which allowed OWW trains to run in to Euston. The OWW merged with the three Shrewsbury lines via the Severn Valley line producing the West Midland Railway. This was eventually brought into the GWR sphere resulting in the dreaded narrow gauge in to Padington. The OWW was never forgiven for this by GW broad gauge fans. Result - influences on building design from all over the place! Ian.

Mikkel, As we discussed here are some photos of the L&B lockup/goods shed which was fairly small. (Whoops -should I have put this in your Blog? I will move it if you prefer.) I took the first 3 photos on 31st December 1965. The first 2 photos were on a different reel of film and were not well printed by my local High Street chemist. Sadly I lost the negatives in a house move before decent prints could be produced. The yard track had been lifted the previous year. The interesting thing about this building is that there was no opening directly out on to the track. The first photo shows the double doors through which goods could be transferred to/from a road vehicle. The office part is on the left. I assume there was access from this office via steps in to the goods area. The building was adjacent the loop which was to the right of the photo. The second photo was taken from the rail side. There were a couple of high up windows to give light to the goods area. A raised area where vans could be loaded was at the far end of the building. The third photo was taken alongside the building. It shows the steps up to the loading area from rail level. Beyond is the grounded carriage body and the timber platelayers' hut. I had a hunt around for views of the opposite wall. The following is the best that I could find. Most shots taken by me and others tended to be of trains which usually obscured the building. I took this photo on an August Sunday in 1959. I know it was a Sunday because the "Flying Banana" ( W20W I believe) was on a return Worcester to Stratford-on-Avon trip complete with tail load. The lockup/goods shed has a door this end that leads on to the platform for van loading. There was a set of weighing scales on the platform and a petrol pump to the right of the window. A very frequent operation was:- A van in the loop would be loaded with fruit from the platform. Being an urgent shipment the van would be attached to the rear of a stopping passenger train. The train would often set back in to the loop to pick it up. Some drivers would refuse to do this so 4 shunters would push the van up to the rear of the train. The guys always grumbled at this since the gradient post by the grounded body marks the change from level through the yard to the start of the climb towards the Cotswold Hills. Alternatively, a passing (long) goods train would pick the van up. The train was usually in the charge of a Hall, Grange or Manor. The signalman would open the gates and set the signals clear to give the goods train a clear path through the station. The train would stop short of the home signal and the signalman would set all the signals back to danger. From that point the signalman controlled the shunting movements using green and red flags plus the ground signals. Great entertainment for a young railway enthusiast. Next up are a couple of details from an Alan Bunting photo (left) and from one of mine (right). The left detail was taken from a shot of 6387 shunting - its train is sat on the Down Main Line. Link to full image. It shows the relationship between the lockup, weighbridge and stables. On the right of the picture is the five lever ground frame that controlled the entrance to the yard furthest from the signal box. It was released by lever 3 in the signal box. Someone is standing on its platform controlling the shunting movements. Judging by the small number of vans in the yard I would date this as mid 1963 - the two middle roads were removed soon after. The doors at both ends of the lockup appear to be open since daylight is showing through. The right detail is an extract from a photo of mine from 1960 that shows the ground frame. Hope this is of use or is interesting. Ian.

Mikkel, The back road on which the sheeted van stands was used for coal. I think the vans on this road had loads such as fertiliser and seed. The van would be sheeted because the roof leaked. The centre roads were mainly fruit (and veg) vans. I have another of Alan's pictures that shows 2209 pulling a train of approx 25 wagons. The first 9 are vans which are all sheeted. See image here on the Railways in Worcestershire site. Everything was a bit run down at that time. Ian.

My word Hendie, I just followed the link to look at the Wessex. From the first photo I assumed it was quite a large model. Then I saw your hand in some of the later photos. You have produced a raft of gorgeous detail in a relatively small space. Brilliant. It quite distracted me from Pegasus - for a short time. The Pegasus roof is looking great. Ian.

Mikkel, I have dug out a couple more photos of the two buildings from my filestore. They were taken by Alan Bunting and remain his copyright. He sent them to me with permission for publishing on the Badsey website 25 years ago. In the event I was rather slow off the blocks and someone else published them before me. You can see more of his photos at http://www.miac.org.uk/alanb.html but it does not include these two photos. Both show scenes of tomato picking. (Backbreaking). In the background of the first picture is another view of the stable building. The second shows the same group of growers but this time the rear of the weighbridge can be seen. It shows the building had a rear window (and the chimney pot was still in place). Alan's photos were taken in the late '50s and early '60s. Somewhere I have a photo from an LB Growers calendar which shows the stable building in the 1920s from the road. If I can get permission I will put a copy here. If I remember correctly it shows the widening in the brickwork just above ground level. The slope up in to the yard buries this widening on the yard side. The photo also has an interesting collection of road vehicles. I can but ask! Ian.

Mikkel, Northroader is correct. I have put keys on the map to identify some of the buildings. A was the stable block. B was the weighbridge. C was the goods shed which was more of a large lockup. D was a wooden platelayers shed. A grounded body from a ex 4 wheel carriage was later added for the shunters. E was my grandparents cottage from which I took the above colour photo. F were a set of wooden buildings that originally housed the L&B Growers. . Virtually every model I see of GWR country stations a cattle dock is included. This station did not have one. The records that I have see show that very small numbers of livestock were handled here. Nor was there any form of crane. The triangular area of fruit trees to the south of the yard was and is Tolkien's Nursery. Now where have I seen that name before? Ian. Tried to upload this last night but RMWeb died in the middle of my attempt!

Mikkel, I am pleased they are of interest. I dug out another picture I took of the stable building days before it was demolished. I am afraid it is not top quality since it is a detail from a photo that I took of my grandparents garden. It shows the road facing side and it was one of my first colour photos. Notice all the "public facing" walls were painted whilst the yard facing wall was untreated brick. Going back to the previous photo of the stable building. The L&B Grower's buildings were originally built for use as a chocolate factory and are shown as such on the 1923 O/S map. The tallest building to this day is called the Cadbury Building. Bournville is 25 or so miles away along country roads. This leads to the notion of a small country railway yard handling Cadbury traffic during pre-grouping times! Ian.

Mikkel, This photo may be of interest to you. It is the GWR weighbridge in the yard of Littleton and Badsey Station. This station was located between Evesham and Honeybourne on the OWWR. I took the photo on 31st December 1965. The yard had closed and its rails lifted the year before. The weighing mechanism had been removed by this time. The station was officially closed on 3rd January 1966 but in practice the last train had already gone - it was also the end of steam on the WR. All the buildings were demolished soon after. The building is an interesting variant with the entrance door on the front. In line with Stephen's comment the door frame has a recess to the rear indicating it opened inwards. This being the Vale of Evesham, in the background are fields of sprout plants. On the horizon are rows of fruit trees (plums). Fruit and veg grown in the area made this yard very busy at one time. Since I am here, I will add another picture! This was taken same day and to take it I turned 90 degrees to my right. It was the yard stable building. The advert on the end was replicated on the other end. Barnett Emanual bought asparagus from the local growers (including my Father) for Covent Garden Market, London, The buildings behind to the left are those of the Littleton and Badsey Growers Association. This was a co-operative for the local growers and was a big source of railway traffic including seed and agricultural equipment. BTW its chairman was Charles Binyon. His better known brother Laurence wrote the poem "To the Fallen" ("We Will Remember Them") which is recited every Remembrance Day. As my South Wales friends would say "There's distinction". I will go back to sleep now. Ian.

George, You will have to be like me. I gave up thinking, it hurts too much! That wiring with those plungers looks good. Ian.

George, I see what you mean about the wire. Another potential issue is that the wires being soldered in to the ends of the plungers and lying "straight on" means the two wires will interfere with each others movements. My approach would to bend the wire at 90 degrees at the point that they meet the plunger. The route them back parallel to the underside of the chassis towards the wire holding the brakes then bend at 90 degrees down towards the other holes which are either side of the fixing nut. This will give a sort of swinging arm effect that will offer the least resistance to the plunger movement and avoid the wires interfering with each other. I use Slater's plungers which use a little tag on the end of the wire which itself is held on by two nuts. This arrangement automatically gives the first bend mentioned above. The down side to the Slater's version is they are a faff to assemble plus the tag needs insulating else it is liable to short to adjacent parts of the chassis. The type you are using are much neater. What make are they by the way? Keep up the good work. Ian.

Fabulous work Hendie. It just gets better. I assume that when you go back to aircraft modelling you will have a log on an appropriate forum. If so, drop a link here and I for one will come looking. Along with my railway modelling I have been slowly progressing a 1:72 sailing ship. I was updating a log on modelshipworld until a spell in hospital brought it all to a grinding halt. I like looking at other model forums because the guys from other branches of modelling have skills from which we in railway modelling can learn and vica versa . I was able to demonstrate railway modelling type skills with a model of a ships stove scratch built from nickel silver. The lower pulley on it has 4 spokes and is 2mm in diameter. Great fun to make. My specs in the one photo give an idea of scale. My apologies for the diversion. Back to Pegasus. Ian.

Hendie, Each time I read your log I learn several things about carriage design and construction that are new to me. I think my poor brain is going to go pop soon! A suggestion - rather than spending money on expediting delivery of, say, paint, how about using the wait time to prepare for the next project with which to enthrall your fan base. .......OK - I will shut up and crawl back into my hole. Ian.

That's looking very tasty George. What do you use for the primer? I have been using Halford's grey primer from a rattle can. I find it produces a very slightly gritty feel. I am trying to decide if I am being over sensitive. What is your experience? Ian.

Hello George, Great to see progress. I am finding the high humidity is causing problems with painting. Can't win! Ian.

George, Same query from me. I find it a bit of a strain not being able to see other people's work, including yours, in the flesh. I miss the inspiration it gives. Ian.

Thanks Hendie, I have found micromesh being offered for sale in the UK by model shops(?) via Amazon. When postage is taken in to consideration the price works out at about £3.20 per 6" x 4" sheet or cloth. I imagine it would be cheaper via jewelry sites. Some advice from one of the suppliers looked helpful. I include it here for other RMWeb members (OK - probably teaching Grandma how to suck eggs!). "Use Micromesh in straight lines, never in the more usual circular pattern. Clean off residue regularly. When satisfied use the next grade at right angles to the first, lightening the pressure as you near the end of each step. Micromesh should preferably be used wet and will last even longer if supported by a rubber block." Looking forward to your next project. Ian.

Hendie, Cracking work as ever. I do like the fact that you never try to hide any errors from the community but demonstrate how you correct them. You regularly mention Micromesh which was unknown to me. When you described dealing with slightly gritty primer with the stuff, I had visions of miniature chicken wire that you may have had etched from brass sheet then used like a cheese-grater! I decided to find out what it really was - I am now going to get some for my slightly gritty primer. So, thanks for the pointer. Ian.

David, Thanks again. You are really tempting fate asking me about anything else to expand upon. If I answered that you would spend all your time answering questions and never do any more modelling! I too have developed, to a degree, asbestos fingers though when introducing my grandchildren to the delights of modelling I try to avoid teaching them my bad habits - they will, in time, develop their own. Ian.

David, Thanks for that. At great risk of sounding like a giggly groupy I am a great fan of your work (join the crowd). I like to think of myself as a reasonably good modeler. My philosophy, which I teach to my children and grand children, is that the more you know, the more that you realize you don't know. so it is important to carry on learning. Oh dear - now I'm sounding pompous. So, in answer to your question "what warrants closer inspection and description! " I would go so far to say "anything" - but that is way too open. Therefore lets try that exhaust steam injector as an example. I can see how you do much of it but for some parts I wonder about how you hold it together to solder it. Now I have a series of videos by a well know editor which included how to solder metal kits. His method was to hold it all together with his fingers. You could see the liquid in his flesh bubbling whilst the iron was doing its thing. Very macho but very stupid in my view. I am sure you don't do that - so I'm all eyes to learn the right way (but little brain to work it out for myself.) Ian.

David, Please define what you mean by "nothing noteworthy". Your use of the phrase does not seem to correlate to my understanding. There is an awful lot on this model that warrants closer inspection and description! Ian.

Chris, As an aside you may be interested in this video of the pair of Fowler BB1s ploughing with a 6 furrow balance plough. It's hard work! Takes me back to my ploughing days. Ian.

Chris, The traction engine that you illustrated above is a ploughing engine. The were among the heaviest of traction engines. They normally worked in pairs hauling the type of plough that you show back and forth between them. The cable drum being mounted under the boiler meant they were very long beasts. I dug out my copy of Steam on the Farm by Jonathan Brown. He says the lightest were 17 tons. There are others at 22 tons plus. In reality they were always driven from job to job in a land train along the road rather than by rail. Apparently Tom Rolt worked for Bomfords who were ploughing and drainage contractors. Tom recalled that the true weight of the engines used by Bomfords was a closely guarded secret. When in public the engines had to carry a plate stating their weight but Tom said they all carried 14 Ton plates! Ian.

Lovely work Peter. I was intrigued by the photos of your painted components and how they were suspended whilst drying. It then dawned on me how you achieved this (I'm a bit slow). Brilliantly simple - like all good ideas. I will be stealing this on my next paint job. Ian.

Thanks George. Not sure if I emailed this photo to you. The body is plonked on the chassis and the smoke box and cab roof are plonked on the body prior to painting. I ordered up some more paint. my original body colour was "dull" . I thought this referred to the shade but actually means it is a satin finish. Ian Rathbone told me that to stand a chance with lining with a bow pen the surface needs to be gloss. Doh! So I now have gloss. The "dull" will be used on eg the inside of the cab, bunker etc. I have also got hold of some blank "decal" paper to produce my own waterslide transfers. Should be good for a laugh. All part of the learning curve. My MACAW is waiting for FOX lettering. I am holding off on the order until I get the BR emblem transfers for the loco. Save on postage. Ian.