Holmside

Er, having yet to summon enough courage to subject a pristine model to weathering, I still regard this weathering business as rather a ‘black art’ (yes, extraordinarily feeble and doubtless unoriginal joke intended). That said, could I ask if john_41241 would briefly describe how he achieved these (to my eye at least) totally convincing results in this case ?

As ever, Johnster’s posts are well worth the trouble of finding and reading carefully. And the comments that he makes in this thread are no exception. I, for one, would , however, be very interested if he would be prepared to describe in more detail what he means by ‘deep cleaning’ and reveal the techniques and materials that he uses to effect this and his maintenance procedures generally. My thanks in anticipation of any reply that he may care to make on this important (in my view, at any rate) subject of getting slow reliable running.

Er, could Davknigh please explain (or direct me to where I can ascertain) what the ‘RP25’ standard is as it sounds interesting .....

I think that this is superbly observed and crafted: especially as these are close-up images which usually expose any inadequacies: but not here. To my eye, it is totally convincing.

Re: tomparryharry’s interesting point about a tar plant at Wernddu (posted january 3rd) . Was this the same one as the Thomas Ness plant at Caerphilly connected to the line to Cardiff, on the opposite side to the loco works (and fascinating to observe from the train ! ) or was there another one near to Caerphilly ? I’m not trying to be pedantic , just fascinated by the railways of South Wales in general and having known this part in particular during the days of steam, I am always keen to learn more . And if anybody out there has a photo of the goods shed at Trethomas ....i

1) I would first like to thank all who have contributed to this thread: for both the willingness to share with others their knowledge and expertise, as well as their excellent communication skills. It all makes for both a fascinating and enjoyable read. 2) As one who would like to gain some practical insight into the matters covered in the thread, I would like to ask the originator (or anyone else) what CAD package(s) were used and what are the requirements for the hardware ( ie the machine and operating system running the CAD). Additionally, please could information be supplied as to what 3D printer was used and what (if any) further computer-related requirements are necessary to drive it. 3) I would like to thank, in advance, anybody who cares to respond to these requests.

Re Johnster’s posts relating to the pros and cons of the existence of particular loco configurations and types (culminating last Sunday at 17.06 hrs), I found these discussions both fascinating and illuminating. Whilst there are many texts showing actual designs, I know of few ( but that’s doubtless due to my lamentable ignorance of these matters) that go into details of the ‘why’s’. Whilst it may be considered a small digression from the topic in hand, I welcome such asides as enriching the hobby enormously.

Sir, In a thread posted on November 3 2019 in ‘UK Standard Gauge Industrial Modelling and entitled ‘Hunslet 48150 from Hornby/Dapol Austerity Bodge/Bash [Battery Power/Radio control’, you wrote: ‘The Hornby/Dapol model has a HIDEOUS mould line down the saddle tank which detracts from an otherwise quite good (for its time) model. Oly and Chris over at OTCM devised a way to get rid of this shown here.’ Please could you direct me to where I can find the details of the method referred to whereby this mould line can be removed ? I would like to thank you in advance for any response to this request that you may care to make. I would also like to thank you for the many posts that you make on RMWEB. I invariably find your contributions both fascinating and enjoyable to read

Thank you very much martyn11post for taking the trouble to respond. Having seen the images, I now appreciate that all the complimentary commentary on this model is more than justified. It is a spectacular example of industrial modelling.

Er, cannot get to this . I just get directed to ( presumably the home page) of the ' modeltrainsweathered' website . It is not at all obvious (to me at least) how to get further. As a keen student of coke ovens in my youth, however, I really would like to see this. Can anyone help me out here ? Thanks in advance

You mentioned Bedwas in your post and also goods sheds associated with each station. I hope that you will forgive the impertinence, but can you suggest any places to look for a photograph of the goods shed at nearby Trethomas ? I have, I think, all the published books containing photos of Trethomas station, but all these except one are taken facing west towards the coke ovens and Bedwas colliery. The only one facing east towards the goods shed is of a trainstanding at Trethomas station which, of course, obscures any view of the goods shed or the associated sidings. I have been seeking such a photograph for several decades now at all the usual sources (WRRC, NRM York, photo collections at exhibitions, etc) but without success and have been advised by several archivists that if such photos exist at all that they are likely to be in private collections. One very well respected railway/industrial archivist that I consulted made the wry but well-meant comment that ‘even the GWR does not appear to have photographed Trethomas station and its surroundings !

This is very interesting and relevant to my own endeavours concerning modelling railways of the south Wales valleys. What IS the FB group please ? BTW, your are absolutely right, the region is very under-represented in model railway terms, which is a great pity.

As a volunteer in the loco dept of a preserved line, it seems to me that one reason for there being apparently fewer diesel loco preservations than steam is because the latter is basically a bit of an ‘agricultural’ machine. As a consequence, relatively unskilled volunteer labour can be utilised in the maintenance and rebuilding of steam locomotive and their components. In contrast, to perform maintenance/ refurbishment functions on a diesel loco (replacing piston rings, or crankshaft bearings for example, or , say, effecting repair of a main generator after a flashover) I think requires specialist skills that generally beyond those available in a pool of volunteer labour and will , therefore, require an outside agency to complete with consequent expense.

Please excuse my ignorance (or lack of observation if this question has already been answered in this thread) but are the terms ‘ open spoke ‘ and ‘split spoke’ synonymous ?

Thank you very much but, er, as a bit of a novice on this site ( and rather computer illiterate, generally) where can I find it ?

As has been painfully apparent during the course of this thread, my knowledge of GWR/BR(W) - or, indeed, any - coaching stock is woefully inadequate. I am therefore very impressed that, in response to Penrhos1920’s post of 22 September ( which ontained a photo of a train at Ystrad in 1962), Chrisf was able to answer the request to identify the vehicles. And this for a photo in which the coaches were visible from near end-on only. Earlier in the thread Chrisf and others have kindly identified coaches from photos in which the vehicles have been viewed from similar ‘awkward’ angles. The point of this post (at last ! I hear you cry ) is to ask if those who have this enviable skill could please give some indication (to those of us who don’t, but aspire to it ) of what features to look out for so that we, too, can make an attempt at coach indentification with a reasonable chance of success. I would like to take this opportunity to thank in advance all who could find the time and take the trouble to help in this regard.

In his post of 22 September, Arthur kindly offered to supply the following information which seems very useful. He wrote: I tried to reply to this before offer before, but unfortunately my incompetence in using the quote facility of this site ( which I can’t get to work well using an ipad) did not result in the reply/request being very clear. So her goes my second attempt. Yes please if the offer still stands.

Thank you very much for posting these pictures. They are quite simply stunning. I have never seen a colliery presented so absolutely convincingly in model form. What a height for the bar to be set ! It makes me feel like giving up ....

In his post of 23 September, Bazjones1711 used the word 'perfection'. This is precisely the word to describe it: and it's a two-rope system into the bargain ! From this brief clip and from the way the buckets move, in my view it is a superb piece of miniature engineering. Are there any written descriptions of the construction anywhere ?

I am not sure whether or not this part of RMweb is appropriate for this topic but, if it isn't, I would be grateful for advice and guidance as to where a better place for it would be. Moreover I would be most interested to know if the subject has been addressed elsewhere (on RMweb or otherwise). My impression is that despite the books of Johnson ('modelling aspects of the coal industry' , Book Law, 2003 and ' modelling further aspects of the coal industry', Book Law, 2006) and Rowe ('industrial and mechanised modelling', WIld Swan , 1990) exhibition layouts which portray collieries in detail are small in number as a proportion of the total . This is a pity as the transport of coal was, of course, one of the principal drivers for the existence of railways. Collieries were fascinating installations in their own right to observe in operation and beyond winding-towers in model form in which the sheaves rotate realistically, I am contemplating the design and construction of a working aerial-ropeway: in 4mm scale. I seem to recall seeing one on a colliery layout around 15 years ago, but cannot now remember the name of the layout or the exhibition. I see no point in 're-inventing the wheel' and would like to ask any who are still reading this post if they remember seeing such a layout or can provide any further information (eg magazine articles etc) which might be relevant to how a working aerial-ropeway in 4mm scale might be achieved. It seems to me that even a single-rope working system is a formidable prospect in 4mm. As far as my aspirations are concerned, it would not be necessary for the buckets to actually discharge any load, simply for the bucket proper to invert (the load would not, of course, be seen anyway when the bucket proper is in the unloaded position). But, it would be necessary for the buckets to move slowly, steadily, and without vibration to be realistic. I am uncertain as to whether this aim is possible at all and would be most grateful for any observations , previous experience of attempting this or suggestions as to how this objective might be progressed.

Once again thanks to all for their responses. For me this is a truly fascinating subject but am reminded of (I think) Donald Rumsfeld's remark about there being ( I paraphrase) ' known unknowns and unknown unknowns' and the longer this thread goes on, the more ( for me ) the more unknown unknowns there are and the more interesting the subject becomes. The position also reminds me of the saying in science that if you think the solution is simple, it means that you don't understand the problem. While firmly ( well, fairly firmly) on the GWR/BR(WR) wing of the South Wales valleys side of the hobby, I am intrigued by the statements regarding ex LMS passenger stock being employed in the region (and even former MG & N vehicles !) This aspect has some resonance for me as I recently came across an article ('Caerphilly-A Railway Crossroads' , by Sands TB; pp 719-726 and concluded on p769 of the Railway Magazine, Nov. 1952) which contains a map referring to a Barry Railway scheme dated 1907 - 1909 to link Caerphilly with the Sirhowy valley essentially running parallel to the Rhymney and B&M's Gwernydomen-Waterloo-White Hart halts line and tunnelling between the Rhymney and Sirhowy Valleys ( and with a connection to the B&M) at Machen. Unfortunately, The scheme was never effected, but what an opportunity for a 'might have been' layout running former GWR and ex LMS stock !

Er , I'm getting a bit confused by all the TLAs flying about. TLA = Three Letter Acronym BTW [!] First there was Johnster with 'South Wales BLT' , Yesterday there was philip-griffiths: ' cascaded down to the MTA in 1932' and ' Vale of Neath WTT' and 'LMS BTL' ( Ok, even I know the LMS bit, but BTL ? I am assuming that BTL = Brake Third Lavatory, but after being shot down in flames with my presumption concerning the universality of B-sets, I am, as I have indicated before in this thread, markedly averse to making any assumptions at all on this topic. My head's begining to hurt and I am becoming strangely drawn to considering day-time television as an alternative passtime. Please help us ignoramusses ( or at least, this one ....)

I was drafting my reply to Chrisf's post of 11:17 this morning and got distracted. So I didn't spot that he had answered my queries before I posted As a consequence, this seemed like a violation of the principle of causality in physics ! Anyway, many thanks to Chrisf for his efforts in this regard: they are much appreciated.

Again, my thanks to all contributors to this thread. I am most definitely staying tuned to Chrisf's efforts concerning the book authored by Russell. I tend to regard this as a standard reference: though the comments recorded here, this view could well be misplaced. If other participants in this thread could cite other works whereby I could develop the capability to identify vehicle diagram-numbers from photographs as, for example Chrisf and Johnster have done, I would be most grateful. As I have mentioned elsewhere on RMweb, it is clear that I should have spent a far greater proportion of my youth observing railway operation/procedure generally (along with carriages and wagons) , rather than simply gawping at the locomotives. Concerning my post of 13th September regarding the photograph I observed at last week's PBR gala, I am currently attempting to identify the source of this illustration. As intimated subsequently in the thread, it seems that I was probably mistaken in identifying the vehicle as a former GWR auto trailer. On a matter connected to this topic of coaching stock in the early to mid 50's, I am intrigued that there have been several references to substantial modifications to former company vehicles. Are there any texts available where photos and drawings are documented ? Also, were there any BR designed loco-hauled non-corridor vehicles used on these services ?