GRASinBothell

Thanks. Not sure elf'n'safety had been invented back then! Gordon

Were those capstans (?) common in milk depots, and what were they for? Moving the milk tank wagons when there was no loco? Gordon

Of course. I'd forgotten quite how minimalist the Central was, so I dug out Mr Parr's book and read up on it. There were never any passenger facilities, and, yes, just the one goods shed at Blakeney. Gordon

An S&W building for a Central station? Gordon

I agree. That train definitely looks the part - very much in keeping with both the photo Kevin posted and the one in the book. Of course, if you really, really wanted a bogie full brake, you could expand your collection to include the Bing shorty coaches... Gordon

Like the milk train, Brian. Your Hornby GW collection has been coming along by leaps and bounds since I last saw it. Interestingly, in "Great Western Album" by RC Riley, there's a photo of a Saint with a train consisting of two 6-wheel tanks and a clerestory-roofed bogie brake van. Perhaps an excuse to use County of Bedford with a really short train! Gordon

We always used to decant the top-of-the-milk into a small jug for use on cereal, etc. On one occasion my mother mistook a jug of egg nog for one of these jugs when she had her breakfast. I gather it was delicious! Gordon

Going back to your mention of Friar Waddon Milk Platform, are there any pictures of it? I couldn't find any on-line, and one website noted that its location was unclear (rather implying a lack of photographic evidence...). There was a Wild Swan book on the Abbotsbury branch that is probably the most likely place to find such a picture, but the asking price on Amazon is $153+ (delivery extra), so I'm not going to be buying a copy anytime soon! Alternatively, are there any other pictures of GW milk platforms? Regarding the Lionel milk van, I've pondered the thought of acquiring one (they can frequently be found fairly cheaply in a dilapidated state at train shows over here) and reshaping the body to put overlays of something rather like a GW siphon. Maybe one day... Gordon

Do it like the Festiniog, and only run the gravity-powered downhill trains, with the horse in a dandy cart, eating hay to prepare for exertions of the return journey! Gordon

So, will Paltry Circus be morphing into the Birlstone and Paltry Circus Tramroad? Gordon

Well, that's a relief! You could probably allow a couple more years of "progress" if you want to include the later BR emblem on your locos (and those lined suburban coaches), without having to allow for the Doctor. Get it up to 1959, and you can justify a mini on the overbridge (not that you could see it!). The only Doctor on my layout lives in a Tardis! Gordon

Alas, with nationalization the egregious Dr.B can't be far behind. I fear we shall be seeing notices going up at Paltry Circus about withdrawal of services... Gordon

Did the pictures get reversed? Or is the signal really hinged on the left? Gordon

Thanks. Gordon

Which thread was that? Gordon

Looking at the drawing (and text) in the GW Siphons book, it's clear they had clasp vacuum brakes. What isn't at all clear is how they could be applied by hand. There is no sign of any lever. And they have a wheelbase that leaves the ends of the springs pretty close to the headstocks, leaving little or no room for the normal D-C levers. In Jim Russell's book on the early GW coaches, there is a photo of a model that also has no sign of any hand lever... None of (perhaps I should say "neither of", since there only seem to be two!) the prototype photos allow you to see the underframe in any detail, so they are no help. My plan, when I get mine, is to ignore these details. I'll take off the traditional late-steam-age long brake lever (in the interest of making attaching the foot rails easier), and if I feel really adventurous, maybe attach a short piece of dowel or tube to represent the vacuum brake cylinder. Gordon

Personally, I think that turning a blind eye may be the best choice! By the way, I rather suspect the originals had Dean-Churchward brake gear, so you could probably do away with the brake levers.If nothing else, it might make attaching the footsteps a little easier! Gordon

No, the ABS kits were produced by Adrian Swain. I rather imagine his middle initial is B... I've only ever made 4mm scale ABS kits, and they have all been whitemetal. And no, it was Nearholmer's post I was responding to (thanks Kevin for your reply on that). Gordon

Did you get the ABS kit directly from ABS Models? And are they still in business? Or did you manage to find some old stock somewhere? Gordon

As regards running your LMS and GWR locos and stock into Paltry Circus, could they be services off the West London Railway/West London Extension Railway? Those were joint LNWR/GWR lines from Willesden to Clapham Junction. And the GWR was part-owner of Victoria Station... Gordon

Decimalisation was highly inflationary, and not just for model trains. I don't believe a single price ever got rounded down... I was at University in London at the time, and my tube fare from my digs in Chiswick to South Kensington was 1/3d. Fares were generally multiples of 3d, and London transport announced a few months ahead that fares ending in 3d would be rounded down, while those ending in 6d or 9d would round up. But before we got to the big day they had a little fare adjustment, and, you guessed it, my 1/3 fare was increased to 1/6, so that a few weeks later it rounded up, for an overall increase of 60%. And this was a nationalized industry that the government controlled... Gordon

Railway Executive Committee makes it wartime, when the blackout was in force... Gordon

Chris, That Palethorpe's van is very nice. At the time, I decided not to go for one of those, but I did go for the SR van. I was aware both of the tumblehome (I think my Ace/Wright bogie van has the same issue) and the fact that the SR had no six-wheel ones, but decided that on a tinplate railway I could live with both issues (and the fact that it was flat; a defect it shares with all my other tinplate wagons whose prototypes had external framing). I have an ETS champagne van with a long wheelbase, and it doesn't do well on the one Atlas turnout (O-54, I think) that I've tried it on, so having a 6-wheel Cleminson chassis is probably an acceptable compromise for the SR van anyway. The one defect I don't like (and which I can do something about eventually) is its white roof! Linny, Thanks for the explanation. I'm tempted by that kit... Just wondering if it will stand out amongst all those flat tinplate wagons... Incidentally, one thing that 4-wheel syphon reminded me of was the kind of goods van (aka covered wagon) built by the LSWR. A quick trawl through "An Illustrated History of Southern Wagons" Volume 1 (covering LSWR and SDJR wagons) revealed a number of such vans with very similar diagonal framing, usually with either a sliding door (also with diagonal framing) or a 3-door arrangement, but there was also a banana van (in an official BR photo taken just after nationalisation) with doors just like the ones in your kit. Obviously, the planking is different, but the overlays would work as is. Hmm... Food for thought... Gordon

Is SkinnyLinny someone on this forum who made the parts for you as a favour, or a regular purveyor of kits? Regarding the SR PLV, there was an Ace/Wright version (overlay on a standard 6-wheel coach). Gordon

It was definitely correct on at least one. There is a picture of it in Volume 3 of G.R.Weddell's treatise on LSWR Coaches, in which he notes that it isn't clear if the rest were so paainted. The same picture appears in Ernest Protheroe's Railways of the World (which was published ca 1912). I don't regret getting it at all, despite the slight fuzziness in the printing (I suspect certain colours are more difficult than others). Having that as well as an Ace/Wright LSWR full brake and a 3-coach set of six-wheelers from Ace gives a nice variation of livery colours and rooflines, as befitting such a train. Gordon