Player of trains

On tonight's episode of Alec what on earth are you smoking and where can I get some, the North Ross & Sutherland Railway. I've had a lot of imaginary railway companies rattling about in my head for a while now and I'm by far from the first to base anything around the variety of North Highlands proposals but they've always seemed like a fun basis for a large narrow gauge system in the British isles after the NWNGR flopped spending all its money on a power station and the bottom fell out of the slate industry. https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1OpeuB3LjbAEYXU9jFwWgI2jxBE_RpDg&usp=sharing This is blatantly daft scenario but I'm imagining a situation where the stars aligned after some clever political maneuvering by Sir John Fowler to get the original Ullapool and Garve railway built as a 3ft railway with transhipment facilities which caused a mini scramble and boom as the herring industry took off and opening up much of the Highlands for mineral exploitation. By 1901 the railway had reached Durness and access the larger fishing ports on the west coast. The grandest expansion would be in 1914 when the NR&SR was expanded as a military project between the Royal Engineers and the Royal Navy to improve the access to northern sea lochs, striking northwards from Lairg coming off the once independent Lairg & Laxford Railway (1894) up to Tongue following the route of the modern A836 before swinging eastwards to Thurso meeting a construction party who started west in 1914. Fish traffic remains consistent and despite some pruning during the 30s and 60s much of the route survives to be grouped, nationalised then dropped onto a franchisee, saved for the modern day by a strange flavoured mix of social need, tourism and fish. So who fancies large Nasmyth Donegal tanks in British rail Blue alongside some 3ft gauge sprinters?

Good evening everyone. At least I think its evening at this time of year or is that only after 5pm. I've got a few items to update the thread with but first a question I'm hoping people can help with. I've bought two Bachmann O4s on hattons with view of back converting them to either GCR or ROD spec with the intention of them being sold to one of the island companies just after the end of the first great global tiff. Both of the locos are in BR Black and aside from the smokebox doors being the obvious are there any more changes I need to be aware of to convert them to pre 1918 builds? Chimneys seem to change across photos but I'm unsure if that's just perspective on the locos or not?

I'd say it looks like if Parry built a PW version of the Class 139s, not a bad idea thinking on it as little onsite manriders to keep the rain off.

Good gravy is this pretty! I recall a similar and just as pretty outside frame 0-4-2t bash?

Grinnensey Light Railway No.5, Ex NER/J&NR K class Hi again everyone, the K class has had a bit of a makeover now and I've finished it in GLR red. Grinnensey is a small tidal island at the entrance to Jutham Channel with a vibrant agricultural industry, the GLR was laid to the island in 1890 with a timber bridge over the channel, as a result the company was always willing to get its grubby mits on any light engines they could. When the J&NR began replacing the island K classes with Hawthorne Leslie diesels in 1922 the GLR purchased one and had it turned out in their colours by the C&SCR at the Tetra workshops. I am stonkingly happy with how this kit has scrubbed up, the lining is HMRS LNER lining and the lettering from a fox transfer sheet. The smokebox door 3D printed to replace the existing one to backdate the locos to the original condition with the traditional NER wheel darts, the back head was replaced with a 3D print too, I felt having the necessary details there was important with it being an open cab. Not entirely sure if the loco is finished just yet, I may still fit vacuum brakes and a Westinghouse pump for passenger working but No.5 will probably find itself working as a goods engine mostly. The carriage is one of the Hornby 6 wheelers I'm working on repainting with my teak method, a base of games workshop Zandri Dust and then several washes of sepharim sepia, I've never been very fond of the various teak shades model companies make and I find this makes a nicely worn and grimy varnished teak. I need to replace the torpedo vents and fit the coach with gas lamp pots and the acetylene pipework and generators so that's another job for the 3D printer. let me know what you all think and thanks for checking by again. Alec

Absolutely stunning model and one I'm surprised that didn't come sooner, but I will comment on the price too, that does seem a little steep for a model that has considerable appeal and a wide range of liveries, it's as much as the Bachmann Fairlies have been and those have a more limited scope even with the growth of 009. I will probably still obtain one though. But come on Heljan, be a little brave and do it in BR Blue with small yellow panels!

Looking quite fantastic Annie, the halt is really coming together.

Jutham & Nor'Haven Railway K class I picked up another great acquisition from the sorting office today, a NuCast kit of the NER K class or Y8 under the LNER and BR, I think they are fantastic little locos and fit thematically, the NER though the dubious practices of George Hudson operated the J&NR as a main East West route on the island branching off the Isle of Alnogg Central railway at Slake Gruffyd junction and also owning a tangle of branch lines both standard and narrow in County Eastwich. Most of the classes operated by the J&NR were NER types constructed either at Darlington or on the island, as well as a lot of redundant types dumped on the island to eek out a remaining existence. The LNER for example transferred a lot of Hull and Barnsley locos rather than withdrawing them. Some of these bespoke builds were the K class, the NER in this world built a further five more locomotives of the class in 1890 to work on the quays and docks it owned on the island, the number is far from set but this little thing will have worked on New Isle in Jutham before being sold off to my favourite light railway the GLR some time around the 1920s. The model runs well and it is currently in a tub of warm water to clean the gunk off, the plan is that the Island Ks were not rebuild and retained the marine boilers, so I think a few things will have to change, chiefly the smokebox door. Could anyone else tell me the major differences to the K class pre the 1904 rebuilds and were the changes pretty minimal cosmetically? Its seeming that way from the photographs. Thanks Alec

I was able to run the Hornby six wheelers at the club tonight, truthfully I think they're rather lacking and rather overpriced for what they are compared to what I've seen of the Genesis coaches but that means I can feel much less guilty about repainting them. As they are the BR crimson doesn't look all together that bad behind the red of the Class 1a. Printed roofs for these locos has been a bit ambitious and I think some brass replacements are going to be needed. Finnoch-Ven has already managed to develop a chip in its cab roof.

When I started planning Tumm/Alnogg I thought of a variety of hijinks and scandals for its various prime ministers, I thought at least with them fact couldn't get stranger than fiction...I'm going to have to put some more effort in. Granted I do have the one who lasted 13 hours after the election win, one hell of an election party and walked in front of a street shunting loco next morning at 5am...

There is just something remarkably lovely about looking at photos of the E&TLR, and remarkably high quality, the idea wheels are surely turning...

Thanks Johnson, its great to be back! I absolutely love these Beyer 4-4-0s, they are pushing it as an off the shelf design as I think only the M&GNJR actually had them and Beyer knocked off a design the LSWR contracted them to build, but I'm not saying no to them. Also Yahooooo. I picked up a very lovely rake of BR livery Hornby six wheel coaches from the sorting office this morning. I've taken advantage of Derail's 30% off sale, personally I would much rather have the Hattons Genesis coaches, they are far more generic and very suitable for a company like the C&SCR that is fully capable of building its own stock. But they are not available unliveried and I think its a real shame to just paint over them, happy to paint over the Hornby ones for the price I paid but I do hope the Hattons coach range is available unpainted one day. I am undecided what the final C&SCR coach livery will be, I had began painting my Triang/Hornby Clestory coaches in a LNWR plum and white livery but since getting fantastic results in 009 making teak coaches I am now thinking of varnished teak with NSR madder lake panels or waist and then a full madder lake livery for WW1 and the austerity measures that brought. Though I do think teak and plum panels could also work well. I have a Triang coach that is yet to be attacked with the drill to take the bogies off so I'll give that a go and see what livery works best.

Perusing though the thread Hattons have truly outdone themselves with these. I'm not the first to lament this fact but I really hope the core four models of, four and six wheel compartment and brake carriages will be available unpainted in the future. I've just taken delivery of some Hornby coaches bought in the Derails 30% off sale which I'm happy to repaint at that price, but these Hattons Originals coaches are certinaly the better design and far more suitable for freelance generic use on your own fictional railway companies.

Thanks Jim, Yes that is the name, I'm forgetting how I actually came up with it, I think it is in an earlier post my exact thought process.

Rightly so, it was heavily bombed in both wars from above and bombarded coastally, aiming to primarily disrupt the rail infrastructure and oil and gas fields. Although it isn't as close to the continent as you would think, invasion was never a practical threat, although it didn't stop the island being garrisoned and heavy artillery emplacements built. Some of the aforementioned big C&SCR tanks found use in both wars on coastal defense trains and the C&SCR line along the south coast to Codstall was built as a strategic line in WWI. While I can's say how any invasion attempt would go in WWI or II, The islanders like to claim the last successful invasion was King Cnut in 1017, anyone else has merely taken up the lease and job of ruling, not like anyone actually wanted the job. The French and the Danes have tried to 'take up the lease' in the past in both the 100 years war and Fourth Anglo Dutch War but usually found themselves in a local tavern imbibing a lot of wine and forgetting why they were actually there.

Plenty have Indeed, plenty have but I haven't seen it actually applied to model railways aside from a few occasional musings here in the Castle Atching mega thread. I'm reworking a lot of the history but in my mind its more Celtic than Germanic and would be considered part of the British isles. It was been ruled by the crown since 1067 when William the 1st occupied to prevent the Norse from attacking and I imagine it becomes a dependency and later commonwealth nation. Doggerland is a fun name but given the name comes from Dutch fishing vessels so a much older name has been needed, the original name of Tumm was supposed to be a corruption of the Latin name the Romans gave the island, Insulam Tumulis or Island of Low Trees, that name dates back to 2019 and as the island has developed I've been less happy with it. Alnogg came from wanting a similar name to Albion, and was originally Lalbion or Little Albion, Alnogg came about from trying any combination of sounds until one worked, only a day later did it hit me it was a fantastic Postgate Films reference with Noggin the Nog and the land of the Nogs. In this world Noggin the Nog is probably a historical epic 😆

Language is something I have been wanting to develop for a while, I was trying to find example of old Brittonic and went for old welsh for some loco names, I did not know anything about this bun-fight, Absolutely SMASHING!, thanks for bringing this to my attention Keith. That is a brilliant Quora thread and might really help rounding out some more words and place names. As it is the proto language is nothing more than a few words right now; Ven for hill, Goul for rocky crag etc

Well that depends on what the papers said, or didn’t say for that matter when it arrived, nobody is really sure how one ended up on the Grinnensey Light Railway and all the papers accidentally became kindling in the general managers greenhouse boiler, but it manages the bridge over Tarns Arch just fine and fits along the small quays of the Island just nice.

Thanks Annie its good to be back and posting, I've acquired a J70 over the interim hiatus and I admit I am greatly struggling to not borrow your new orchard sidings as a vignette on a layout. Tonight I've been finishing off brake vans two basic designs with verandas and one with ducketts and one without. Don't mind Elvis, he's just my ergonomic measuring aid. I'll get this pair on print and I should hopefully have a full goods train to run at the club on friday night, albeit unpainted. I do need to add a few more details first like lamp irons and shunting pole hooks at least as well as the route disk slots. The train identification on the island is something that I have been slowly simmering and I'm really looking forward to describing it. Thanks again. Alec

Thank you both and not forgetting everyone interacting with these posts, Castle Aching, Annie's routes and the grimy NWR have always been some of my best inspirations so I'm very happy you're both enjoying, Especially for you Corbs as I will probably be putting in a particularly big transfer order soon for all these wagons and coaches too. But now for tonight's episode. Gazelles, Stubbins & Lilac hues. I've not just been working on goods locomotives for the C&SCR but its passenger stud too. I largely have its roster hemmed out in my mind and between 1900 and 1939 the company perused large tank engines over tender engines but for now I've focused on the pre 1900 locomotives, and what's a fictional pre grouping company without some Beyer Peacock 4-4-0s. C&SCR 'Gazelles' and 'Galloping Gazelles' Beyer Peacock 4-4-0s Built 1880 - Rebuilt 1912-1921 This design is still a heavy work in progress and was reworked from a publicly available model of a Furness Railway larger seagull, as the model stands it was eyeballed from the available photos of the M&GNJR 4-4-0s but I have since acquired drawings and I'll be reworking the model from those drawings. Known as Gazelles by the C&SCR engine crews despite being named nowhere near anything similar the idea is that these locomotives would have formed the backbone of express workings and summer tourist traffic from delivery in 1880 until around 1903 when the company would begin constructing large mixed traffic and passenger tanks of increasing absurdity. (I have small class of 4-8-4Ts planned, god help the model that'll donate its chassis to that). Finding the gazelles outperformed the company relegated them to branch lines in the Jend and Gaerthorpe valleys and even sold several off, one would find its way to the Grinnensey Light Railway but the GLR is a story for another time. Those that remained were extended the curtsey of being part of a rebuilding program initiated by Owen Reed and continued by his successor Sir, James Allan then successor to the Earldom of Rardwicke county. Under him the remaining Gazelles became the class 8 (probably going to change) and were heavily rebuilt with belpaire boilers and superheaters. Crews took to these now very spritely machines for their vintage and took to calling them the 'Galloping Gazelles' on account of the locos always ready to have the taps opened up despite their sedate branch line retirements. Model wise I have built one prototype already which runs on a cut down oxford rail Adams radial chassis. @Corbsrecent Sodor & Mainland No.6 which uses the same tender design is a good indicator of what I've been working towards. A few photos of it posed on Whiteacres, it nearly looks Edwardian without any of the colour lights! The lilac livery has been one of my lesser brilliant ideas but I'm going to keep trying to make it work. It was under the artificial lights at the club that I decided I didn't like the lilac and I'll be trying a slightly darker shade of mauve. The loco is rather light on its wheels too, being rather front heavy so I will be cramming as much lead in it as possible to increase the traction although it did manage to haul seven clestory coaches and a mainline 57ft bogie brake I do have more versions planned for these locomotives, I would rather like to have several members of the class streamlined. I would absolutely adore one built along similar lines to the French PLM Coupe-Vent 220 with a windcutter casing, of course there's no need for streamlining at all on a mainline so short but it looks great on the posters! The Stubbins I don't know where the Gaerthorpe crews came up with the name Stubbins from but its stuck to the class 4s like glue. I am a sucker for tiny 0-4-0 tender locos and I have wanted to model something akin to the NBR Wheatley 0-4-0s for a while now, also a heavy work in progress the Class 4s were developed as the smallest of the modern C&SCR locos. As I already mentioned the Gaerthorpe valley lines are a profitable but dense tangle of tightly laid tracks mostly laid directly over all plateways and pack horse roads. When the C&SCR finished acquiring the three companies in the vale it set about modernising the railways it now had at its control, its answer to the motley clapped out collection of mostly Sharp Stewart locomotives that had obtained was the Class 4. These are punchy chunky inside cylinder 0-4-0s with a good power to weight ratio allowing them to run on the lightest and tightest tracks in the vale. I've not quite got a plan worked out for what chassis this model will use but it might well be a tender drive with a scratch built loco frame as I would absolutely love to have working inside rods and valve gear, models that pull that off are utterly mesmerising. There might well be a few other versions of these locos coming, a tank engine version is most plausible but also one without the recycled 700 gallon tender, I have been wondering what a North American inspired slope back tender would look like if anglicised for working in one of the islands hump yards. Thanks for checking out this update folks, no where near close to running out with topics to discuss, I think I'll either be talking lamp codes or coaches depending on if the sorting office is open tomorrow, I may have taken advantage of Derail's 30% off sale on the Hornby coaches. Many thanks again. Alec

I agree, the GER Holden tenders are just a bit too distinctive, the body is ok but the wheel spacing is the distinctive part. They are only small bodies though, I think it could be possible to use some styrene and cut the frames and chassis up to make a four wheel tender frame instead?

C&SCR Goods Wagons. It's no use building two or more goods locomotives without anything to string behind them. British built imports are very common on the island, from all the usual builders, Metropolitan, Gloucester Wagon and Carriage and Birmingham RCWC. But the big companies on the island all did design and build their own wagons, as well as contracting out to Jutham Carriage, Wagon, Phaeton & Industrial Joiners, J.C.W.P.&.I.J or Jiffies for short. A local firm based in Goffard Holm that all but monopolised most wagon and carriage building for the railways on the island. The wagons of the C&SCR are no exception with most being built at the company works in Tetre or at Jiffies to several designs up until grouping in 1939. Model wise these came about quite by accident, the plan was originally to use standard RCH wagon designs but I changed up a design I had from a friend for a 7mm scale Southwold Railway wagon. With a bit of tweaking I had a rather good looking open wagon with arched ends for tarpaulins (The north Saxonian climate is appalling) and from there it has spawned a rapidly growing wagon fleet. The wagons in the fleet are mostly based off the range of wagons the Lancashire and Yorkshire operated, mostly down to the traffics being the same, the C&SCR and L&Y practically face each other from the Humber to the Jutham Channel but also the sheer amount of easily accessible info and works photos thanks to the L&YR society. The four plank mineral wagon and four plank drop side wagon, aside from some basic changes there wasn't much to change from the 7mm southwold wagon, I shrank and added the extra planks to make them chunky 4mm scale planks, adjusted the ironwork to suit and fitted buffers and hooks. They never stayed that way but I like wagons having red painted buffer heads, an early safety scheme, well intentioned but not that effective in the end. Coal is a mainstay of C&SCR traffic as well as various ores from the Gaerthope Vale mines, a glacial moraine with shallow seams of potash and barytes. The open wagons are just open wagons, nowt too special about them but a lot have wormed their way into private ownership. I've finished two of the drop side opens so far, both for private owners. I have got about five more of the mineral wagons in varying stages of progression to all go into C&SCR traffic. Vans are a more specialist case and I've built one van around the same chassis and then adapted them further into different types for different traffics. C&SCR 8 Ton closed van Livery: Battleship grey. Use: Dry goods, general merchandise and stores. C&SCR 8 Ton Meat Van Livery: Pastel pink Use: Seasonal meat traffic, poultry and general goods in off peak times. C&SCR 8 Ton Dairy Van Livery : Spilt Cream/Pastel Yellow Use: Churn traffic for Cattle, Goat and Reindeer, cheese traffic and egg traffic. C&SCR 8 Ton Fish Van (chippy van) Livery: Pastel blue Use: Seasonal fish traffic, Seasonal crab traffic, Seaweed traffic. C&SCR 20 Ton Bogie Van/20 Ton vegetable van Livery: Battleship grey, Pastel green Use: General goods, seasonal fruit, veg, grain and mushroom traffic. The bogie vans were actually the design that came first and all the other van bodies have been reverse engineered from them. They were inspired by the Guinness grain and later keg vans used over the Irish network, mine are largely used for the vegetable traffic and heavy goods use at other times of the year. Fruit and veg traffic is another mainstay of the C&SCR with the valleys and fens it runs though being a fertile strip of land between the Torrshire hills and sea. C&SCR Brake Van WIP Livery: Varnished Teak or Red Oxide Use: Portable tea stove, mobile post office, trumpet storage and occasional brake van All of these vans have come together quite quickly being based around the same general parts and chassis, the plan is for the roofs with lateral rails to have tarpaulin centres like the L&YR practiced for loading in oversize loads. I hope everyone is liking this sudden update dump, and could anyone suggest more varieties of wagons I could model? I am very much looking forward to modelling a very pastel rainbow coloured train and having someone turn their nose up before I tell them the prototype being the L&YR in the 1910s!

C&SCR Class 1 Goods Locomotives And here is that next episode of self multiplying J15s, I think its easier to break these long updates into several posts but please say if it would be easier as a single post? The Hornby J15 is a lovely model to kitbash into a viable looking fictional 0-6-0, I rebuilt the loco on the left back in December January earlier this year but my cat decided he didn't like it and dropped it off a shelf. It sat around for a while until I bought another cheaply off a friend, LNER No.7942. Both locos have new printed chimneys, smokebox doors with wing plates and new cab roofs. The running idea is that the gentleman who designed these was either an acquaintance or student to the Drummond siblings and picked up a penchant for them off of the pair. The one I rebuilt back in December has my Beyer Peacock style six wheel 1500ish gallon tender, I decided for the 7942 kitbash it would get a four wheel 700 gallon tender for which I will explain in a moment. the design was adapted from my file for the Beyer tender although it might have taken an attempt or more to get the wheel spacing correct... I do regret not taking more build photos of the two locos but I now have them approaching completion. Although I truly wish for better photography conditions. I keep saying I should built a photo plank and one day I will. The black 0-6-0 is still missing fittings like the whistle and safety valves, originally I had replaced the Ross valves of the model with Ramsbottom ones but I have since changed my mind on those and need to print some replacement Ross valves for the black loco. Evidence of its fall can be seen with the cracked buffer shanks, I am considering replacing the buffers with dumb ones for shunting at Somyard. Classifications Originally just called the Class 1, these saturated 0-6-0s were introduced by CME and Alnogg native Owen T Reed in 1885 alongside his team at Tetra, thirty of the class were built between 1885 and 1887 as well as an additional fifteen in 1891. The Class 1A were a batch of seven built in 1899 upon the acquisition of the Gaerthorpe Valley Railway by the C&SCR, these were mechanically identical to the Class 1s but were fitted with four wheel 700 gallon tenders taken off seven ancient Sharp Stewart 0-6-0s that the C&SCR had flogged the GVR in 1878, and they were old then! The tenders were refitted and kept in use due to the sharp curves and small turntables of the GVR. The 1As were turned out in the distinctive passenger red as they were used as mixed traffic locos on the GVR metals. The Class 1Bs were regular class 1s refitted with vacuum brake gear from 1901 onwards, the 1As were included in this conversion and all existing locomotives were upgraded to 1B by 1904 but the 1A's did keep their own classification. The Class 1C are superheated rebuilds done just before 1914 with five of the 1B's from the 1891 batch being rebuilt with schmidt superheaters and extended smokeboxes to fit. Post war the remainder of the 1899 batch would be rebuilt with rebuilds completed by 1922. The class 1C is the last type I am yet to model depending on when I can next find a cheap J15, overall its a fun and simple kitbash and not too costly to do, I rather look forward to the day I can model a C&SCR shed and have these locos on roster. These goods locomotives were all names after hills and small mountains in the C&SCR's territory, the lighting is pretty poor as I've already lamented but the Gaerthorpe 0-6-0 has the name Finnoch Ven and the regular working loco will be taking the name Kibri Ven, a ven being the local Noggish word for Hill or large mound. (The original Alnogg Celts never were very creative with names). Next up, the C&SCR wagon roster, Vans of every flavour, Open wagons, and bogie vans stuffed with Agaricus arvensis. Many thanks., Alec

Ha it does actually help if I upload legible versions of the maps. You should find a clear one below, some zooming in might be required as its an A1 size canvas but the new topography is there and it, that is if Imgur hasn't compressed it into a postage stamp again. A lot of these names will be recognisable from the first map, with perhaps a few additions. Red are mainline railways and secondary routes, Blue being narrow gauges, industrial, 2' to 3'6" Purple, the oddballs, Light railways, large tramways or in one case a military railway. And for good measure the Jutham regional map This map largely shows the connection of railways into Jutham and I have a full history for this network at its height, but the principle routes are Chevrilshire & Southcoast into Kingsway station from the north, South Torrshire Railway in from the South East below Blackmere terminating on New Isle. then the Isle of Alnogg Central Railway to the industrial suburb of Goffard Holm from the North East. The Great Northern Navigation Railway encircles much of the town in a loop and functions like the Manchester Ship Canal railway serving several industries around the city but it also has shades of the Tyne electrics and the main loop is electrified with EMU units employed. Join me for next episode talking about Chevrilshire & South Coast Railway rolling stock, (don't leave J15 kitbashes alone, turns out they reproduce via osmosis).

Hello everyone, been a bit hasn’t it, I hope folks are still keen to hear about my own slice of madness. Suffice to say Tumm has been going though a bit of a rework ms rewrite since I last posted to the point it’s not even called that anymore! and although I have posted some items in my workbench thread I’m going to try posting here much more often. First things first a new map. It’s still a heavy WIP but this is the final topographical shape of the island, I found some excellent bathymetric maps of Dogger Bank while looking at wind farm proposals which has really helped shape the final design. The railway companies have had a bit of a rationalise and at the same time names and places have changed vastly but finally I have a good base to begin working off. As well as the main island map I’ve started more detailed drawings of maps including this one of Jutham, in time it’ll show the full extent of the capital town of the island and it’s railways and the immediate area. I’ve a lot more to post stock wise, all J15s should be terrified of what I have planned for them, for now I’m glad to be back. many thanks Alec