Player of trains

That's what I love about them, they really are such uncanny machines, they were actually based off 4-4-0 locos delivered a few years prior which further makes them unique as its a reverse to how 4-4-0s came about from singles at least in Europe. You can see with it being fitted with a Belpaire how it looks a lot like a midland compound in outline.

I do too, I'm a Staffs native so have a great love for Bagnall and Kerr Stuart and its easy to forget they did build big locos when their bread and butter in the UK and preservation were industrials or contracted builds to the Big Four. Plenty of photos of large KS locos bound for Asia and South America and Bagnall cut their teeth on building huge eight coupled locomotives for India into the 1950s.

Bodged is the right word for it, I recall the Redruth and Chasewater tanks spent their last years with frames cracked clean in two, the engines were held together with ratchets, block and chains, and promptly gave an inspector a proverbial heart attack. Bishop sounds great as a prefix no matter what you go with Annie, its one of the few terms that was relatively immune to the language culture that can be mapped over Britain, probably because the spread of religion was after invasions were said and done with and far more uniformly.

Quick update to the layout as it’s now been put away for the time being and an awful lot of musing on possible standard gauge projects. The tramway needed some point levers. So some got made and printed, really it should be interlocked with Facing locks on the loop points but realistically this section would probably just be one engine in steam or one engine in steam for a tablet section. The levers aren’t any one design but largely based off large cast iron bases and levers. The two Superquick shopfronts have also begun to get their makeovers and I’ve made new roofs from the classic strip paper method, I’ll use small strips of aluminium foil for the flashing. Back to more standard gauge side of things a few models had a nice outing at the club on Tuesday night. 0-6-0 Hergé did a few laps with the converted Tri-ang Clestory coaches, which haven’t been off the shelf since November, the plum and white livery goes very very well with the LT&SR Lilac I think and its giving me the impetus to finish the rake off. I have six of these coaches overall, three of them have been fitted with three links and Bachmann Gresley bogies but I think I should design something less obvious to replace them and it also saves money buying a further three pairs to convert the others. does anyone have good photos of drawings of the typical bogies of the era? Were Fox bogies from Leeds Forge ever employed on carriages? I have a good design for a standard gauge fox plate frame bogie I would rather like to use if possible as I do like plate frame carriage bogies. A relatively new arrival in the form of a Dapol era Beattie Well Tank had its first and last run as a Beattie with me. It’s a very nice runner even if it’s not very gutsy. Jury is out on what it will become, I had got my heart set on Slaughter 2-2-2 tank with push pull gear and a single coach for branch line traffic but as my current layout plans won’t fit a branch line like I wanted it may become an off the shelf Beyer Peacock 2-4-0 of the Isle of Alnogg Central Railway after talking with parishioner @Schooner regarding a project we’re cooking up together. Next up are potential “big” engines for the Isle of Alnogg central, originally engineered by Robert Stephenson the IoACR got hooked on buying externally built and second hand locomotives rather than building its own, I’ve fallen down a real rabbit hole of C. 1900s Chinese locomotive design when a lot of it was still Anglican exports and I’m thinking with Alnogg being mostly wide open grass land with few natural hills singles and Atlantics are perfect for the Alnogg Central which operates largely over the grasslands or central valley between the two hill sections formed by glacial detritus. I’ve become rather obsessed with this Kerr Stuart built small driver Atlantic for the Taokow Chinghua railway, it’s just the thing I can see on fast secondary trains such as post and paper traffic and perishables. Though of course by mentioning China and singles I could only be talking about the 1910 Shanghai Nanking locomotives. I keep looking at the design and thinking it could be printed around a kitbashed midland compound chassis or outright printed and a tender drive in the large six wheel tender. A friend supplying me with works photos has really not helped. I think I have enough information to on from the photos and builders info to make a good guess at the proportions of these machines and I have a lot of suitable components already. The landscape of the island does just about justify a single driver machine being built so late with the sea level line west to east across the island. These locos would be best suited for the boat trains from Jutham to Norhaven and Boverking to meet Hamburg and Oslo bound ships, and the Parliament trains, the IoACR being originally built to link Jutham with the parliament at Seamers This probably won’t happen for a while but it’s absolutely going on the list of models to make and should look very debonair in the bronze green IoACR livery with a rake of twelve wheeler saloons whenever I get around to those as well! Too many ideas and not enough time.

All this talk of mixed compartment coaching reminds me of the one or two the West Somerset Mineral Railway had, the WSMR had kindly made drawings for such available online. https://www.westsomersetmineralrailway.org.uk/gallery.php the whole gallery might just be up your alley Annie. that is if I'm not telling you old hat news haha.

Smashing thanks Edwardian, largely as I thought with a little bit more harbour contracting, saw it as another possible nugget to grow to the teetering mass that Alnogg already is.

Either that or something like the exported EMD GL8s CiE purchased becoming their 121 class, have always wanted to paint one of the Murphy's Models ones in BR Blue but the gag doesn't justify the cost, so kitbashing an SD40 for the fun of it instead...

Oh I adore that, I'm going to let my 2000s child show and ask if anyone knows who the river commissioners were?, local form of a modern waterways trust maintaining rivers and artificial waterways and to that end this little engine would have been pottering up and down on temporary track?

Thanks Johnster I've never looked into how engines were collected, pretty much what I was getting at, you can justify dead engines on layouts if you get the context correct but not something that looks like the dregs of Barry yard in the 1990s

Rather forlorn thing isn't it, always thought it would make a fun what if for if British rail was allowed to approach American builders at least for pointers during the modernisation scheme. (pretty sure it was a policy of buy British even if most builders hadn't the knowhow) Although by the 50s and 60s would have been cut down GPs and SD types I think

Ugh I can't stand the stuff, hate to sound like an old fart but disappointed I'm of the generation that uses it most, I dread to think what's in all the canisters being sold cash in hand everywhere, already reports of lead showing up. Swapping tarring for leaded lungs, delicious...

Might weigh in with my two pence and suggest that this van can disappear off OO and would make an excellent 009 bogie van. Something along the lines of Leeds Forge vehicles would be possible wit some suitable strip and riveting, or even a continental van. Given how 00niners are fond of mainline style fictional railways one of these bodies, with a plasticard floor and solebars and peco archbar bogies we have a nice looking hypothetical plywood van from the 60s or a rebuild of an earlier planked van, right at home on late stage narrow gauge freelance or the RNAD or perhaps the VoR under the GWR or L&B on the Southern. I've been meaning to do this conversion for a long time, just never got around to it. BRB off to hatton's website to pick up a few and some bogies. An example Leeds Forge wagon destined for the Kalka-Shimla Railway in India.

Forgive me if this one has been posted but as I've just done one myself I've thought a dead engine no matter its form of locomotion can be a bit of a cliché depending on the context of where it is. Especially with the weathered models that can be found on EBay. By depending on context I mean usually some dead hollowed out engine at the back of a yard not necessarily near any engineering facilities that might be stripping it? Well at home on a heritage layout, light railway or engine shed but a bit odd elsewhere.

The station area looks a whole lot nicer now, textured the foam board and now looks like an actual platform. I’ve faced the platform with Jarvis single bond brick and the tarmac texture was a citadel paints technical debris paint, the name currently escapes me. The tramway office has had its first shade of brick red and is starting to come together too. Next and perhaps a little more somber is the dead engine in the shed headshunt. I’ve wanted to put an abandoned loco on this grassed bit of track for a while but until conversations in Annie’s layout thread pivoted towards the R&ER I hadn’t quite nailed what I wanted. It was probably going to be a Southwold style 2-4-2. I modelled the modelled R&ER Manning Wardle with regulation Elvis at the controls and then set to work making a battered version Sagging couplings and tube plate exposed and all the brass work stripped off. All printed and painted on Monday, productive use of a bank holiday I think I’m rather happy with how this bit of set dressing turned out but still needs a bit more work, the rust could be crustier and some more long grass and moss needs to be around it. Oh and some nettles that the fitter needs to grumble about stamping down whenever the old hulk is raided for spare parts for one of the trams or conventional locos.

Oh Dear all this talk of the original Ravenglass & Eskdale has been rather a bad influence... Sadly only static but just what I needed if you'll forgive the Hijack Annie, been wanting to make a loco under overhaul on my 3ft layout and this has given me the impetus to make it. For once I've actually been able to model everything underneath too, rather helpful the R&ER managed to tip Devon over once.

Good morning everyone, a chance find at the railway club on Tuesday has resulted in the line now having its head offices. Being Wantage inspired I’ve been looking for a townhouse style building to work as head offices and perhaps a booking hall on the ground floor, so the chance find of an IHC homes of yesterday HO kit made me rather happy. Originally I just modified the kit to have a 4mm scale door but the flat roof wasn’t working. Far too North American looking so some quick work with Wills fancy tiles and it looks a lot better. I could just about fit Saxonia Tramway Co into the brick hoarding and I think it looks good enough. https://imgur.com/a/PqGW1eS The embossed Co is a bit clunky made from two chopped up 8s but it works from a distance The office is going to sit parallel to the road though the station plaza with the train shed coming out of the side. The two low relief buildings are both old Superquick kits that I want to use as the core of a building to reface. Not sure what I will reface them with just yet but probably pebbledash. I’m not too keen on mixing plastic and card buildings so closely as I find the texture change a bit distracting without a buffer.

I perhaps shouldn't find the misfortune humorous as people were hurt but it does tickle me that the original Ravenglass and Eskdale and even the Isle of Man Railway despite the scope of their operations still managed to end up with a locomotive on its side every now and again. If you wanted to work in metal still Annie why not aluminium? I've used thick cheap disposable aluminium trays? I've used it from time to time over card superstructures or on its own or over a card base for locomotives and structures, it's a material that glues best with epoxies which is what you want to work with. The material is relatively rigid but it cuts well with scissors, scribes nicely and rivets and bolt heads can be easily pressed in with a punch. An extra benefit is that the crimped edges of those trays is suitable for beading in larger scales so could function as tank edges and boiler bands.

In my experience water washable resin is somewhat absorbent and retains some flexibility compared to solvent washable resin, it may have absorbed moisture from the PVA glue and split along the weakest lamination of the material. Annoying they've split like that, warped prints with bowing sides genuinely look fantastic as old wagons when weathered appropriately.

Might not be too out of the realms of possibility to include a transporter wagon on the O.16.5 layout with a transporter siding for a standard gauge wagon to roll on and off of to satisfy the standard gauge itch for a moment? Seems just right for a narrow gauge line inspired by Bishops Castle, a fairly flat agricultural branch and it would make for some interesting shunting if chain and capstans were used to pull wagons off the transporters.

Oh quite the opposite of not being a touch stone! The Hinden Dam is for sure something I did look at, especially its sea defenses way from the main causeway itself, St Williams is smaller than Sylt, closer to Holy Island really, just about big enough to have some weight to throw around

So what did I mean by passport? Well Alnogg has a neighbor... Since a visit to St Michaels mount in Cornwall in 2016 I have wanted to build a railway running across a causeway to a tidal island, only further compounded when I found out that Mont Saint Michael in France actually did have a railway too it although I've never quite sussed if it was submerged at high tide or super tides, a question for Mr Northmoor perhaps? As a result a tidal railway has been a part of Alnogg for a while and you can find the original St Williams Causeway Railway on the older maps I was posting in 2021. I also have an interest in microstates like San Mariana and Bermuda which both had their own quirky railway systems. After watching Passport to Plimlico a few weeks ago a plan was properly hatched. (read as I stole and repurposed the plot) The Island of Saxonia and Saxonian Railways In 1477 after the disastrous ending of the Burgundian wars with the battle of Nancy, Charles I of Burgundy was able to escape to England with the vestiges of his guard where after probably a lot of nagging to Charles IV and probably some dosh he was seceded the small tidal island of St Williams, a uniquely Christian enclave on the still predominantly pagan Alnogg. St William himself being a missionary who landed on Alnogg around 1031. History has a funny way of reclaiming people no matter the timeline and the now Duke of St William (what a down grade) was shipwrecked off of Black Lantern Isle supposedly by wreckers. Suddenly without any ruler and nobody to exactly tell them what to do the fishing port of Great Broch utillised its new independence establishing a very early democracy with a ruling council and chief magistrate. By the time anyone realised what was going on the wars of the roses had ended and the small island community had grown quickly in the following seven years to the point it was actively trying to join the Hanseatic League. Henry VII only learned he did not actually control the small island in 1490 when the small island gifted him several horses as a show of goodwill, after some brief dialogue and more money changing hands the island was allowed to remain independent. This is where the history is still rather a work in progress as this isn't yet perfect and a huge chunk is missing between the 1400s and 1800s but either way in the 1870s the island government was investing in the construction of a new causeway to the mainland town of Boster, this causeway was about a mile long across the mud flats, and the work was being undertaken to coincide with the connection of Boster to the island network by the Postgate and Granthwaite Railway. The decision was taken to invest in building a railway across the causeway to link Boster and Broch making the journey much easier between the island and mainland and increase the flow of goods to the mainland. Seacoal, local mushroom wine, agriculture and other items. The railway along the causeway would open between Boster and Broch in 1889 built to a gauge of 3ft with two Sharp Stewart 2-4-2 tanks and rolling stock built locally. finding success the railway would be built further inland connecting small hamlets ending up with a motley collection of trams being bought to run the inland section and a large Dubs 0-6-0 for heavier freight as oil began to be transported over the causeway by 1905. In so far its a fun experiment and backstory behind the new 3ft layout and everything is up to change, what's there is a work in progress and might be added too or I'll decide the whole thing is daft and close it down and keep St William as a local island. I have far more concrete pieces of history that have been written in the meantime ranging from breadrolls and wine to survival of a certain paddle steamer and the Kamchatka which I want to write up as well, the notebooks are getting rather full at this point and I think I'm taking it all a bit too seriously for a model railway hah.

I've got to stop weighing in like this 😄 I have the 16mm WLLR drawings at home Annie, I'll see about getting a photo or a scan of the sheep wagon to you, although I'm partial to the Rheidol method of stick them in an open wagon and throw a net on top myself. The sheep wagon is a really simple model to make if you decided to use Tinkercad. I would personally make a standard upright and cross beams for the walls and cut and shut the different sides out of that. The best bit about tinkercad is its very easy to copy and paste parts between workbenches and before you know it you have a catalogue that looks like the spare parts department at Darlington with 120 boiler designs.

Time I get back to posting, I’ve still been working on Alnogg but things have taken a recent back seat to my third year internship for my university course with some pretty important audits coming and going so I’ve been pretty distracted from posting but I’ve still managed to make a few updates worth of posts, that and rather a few short bits of written history should anyone be interested. Rather unexpectedly I have acquired a OO12 layout for a fantastic price alongside the rolling stock used on it. This is rather useful as I bought a kit for IMR15/MNR4 Caledonia at Warley last year and I’ve been meaning to billd it since. The layout is built to resemble the track plan of Wantage top yard and I adore it. I’ve been working on rebuilding it to resemble the works of Peter Barnfield as I mentioned in Annie’s new thread at the time of writing. The engine sheds are original to the layout but have been repainted and given good old wriggly tin roofs, the station with its train shed is going to say there but I’ll be junking the shed although I want to try and salvage the canopy, as built the layout had trees behind the station and I want to open it up with proper buildings and a small plaza for the locals. To this end I’ve already fitted a cobble alleyway down the side of the workshop shed to reach the goods platform. Though not entirely all pictured current motive stock are two Kitson trams, Matthews steam tram, GE 25 tonner and a dubs 0-6-0/Caledonia which is currently being built for me by a friend. A follow up post to soon appear regarding the small history of this little line and how it fits into the greater Alnogg story, now please get your passports out as the guard is required to check them.

Its possible, I am actually heading that way for their open day in later this year, as it is now they are just taking up room, have done for several years now so happy to pass them along