brumtb

I couldn't resist Rapido's Great Western Dia. O21 4-plank open wagon. Here it is in Bull Ring yard, lightly weathered with a load of empty barrels destined for Flowers Brewery at Stratford on Avon.

Excellent, a veritable "tour de force"! I believe every word (or every word is believable). Well done Tony

Butts were where archery was practised in the days when the longbow was the principal English weapon of war and towns and villages were expected to provide their quota of bowmen. Butts comes from the French but meaning target. My own village has a Butt Lane but no archery theses days!

Another old model rescued for further use. Great Western outside framed brake van classified AA16 many years after it was actually built.

Ah well, there's something else to look at then! When were the buffers changed? Lucknow hopefully won't be Lucknow for much longer as I understand it was withdrawn in 1919 and I'd prefer one with a little longer life.

After buying Lucknow, I got a Hardwick, swapped tenders and then sold Hardwick on again. So now have Lucknow in post 1895 condition just waiting for 247 Developments to produce their etched names and numbers.

Also Hardwick has tender coal rails which Lucknow doesn't.

As I know only too well these things can come out of nowhere. Very glad that you got such swift treatment in theses difficult times and hoping by now you're beginning to feel better. Take it easy but don't give up! All the very best. Tony

This is on a Bachmann Prairie chassis, I know the wheels are undersized but otherwise it works well. Tony

Interesting, despite the age of the models they can still be useful. I've always found they ran better without the traction tyres (on code 100 track, at least). Tony

Rob @MrWolf scans now sent. Tony

OK, will do later today. Tony

Thanks both @Ruston and @PaulRhB, I hadn't picked up on the need for tape. Although my Victory seems to be running fine at the moment I'll certainly add the tape as suggested to be on the safe side. Tony

I can PM you scans of the M&SWJR pages in the Register of GWR Absorbed Coaching Stock if it would be of any interest. Includes numbers and renumberings, dates of acquisition and disposal by GWR. Tony

I did eventually get it to work reasonably satisfactorily by trial and error experimentation with CVs 29 (to change the direction of travel, why that was wrong out of the box, I don't know) and then 2, 5 and 6 to build up a speed profile, mostly relying on 2, and 3 and 4 for acceleration and deceleration, I didn't find the downloadable CV instruction guide very useful for someone (like me) with only basic DCC knowledge but searching the internet helped point me in the right direction (literally!). Knowing what I now know I think I'll be reluctant to use a Rails Next 18 again although they may be fine with other locos. Tony

Thank you Stephen, I rather thought you'd have more information and it certainly adds a lot to what I'd discovered. I do like "Free on rail", as you suggest it seems more likely that the coaches went direct from the Midland to to the Brecon and Merthyr and in my version the B&MR might well have paid for delivery to Birmingham for collection by No 605. So, thanks very much. Tony

As I mentioned recently, during my enforced layoff from modelling, after strong resistance, I finally succumbed to the temptation of a Planet Industrials Kerr Stuart “Victory” loco just before the price went up on January 1st. I’d had a soft spot for these locos long before Planet Industrials announced their model especially as three of the locos became part of the Great Western fleet at Grouping. But my modelling is set in the late Pre-Grouping years and although very impressed with the model I just couldn’t see how to justify it in the pre-grouping Birmingham area. However now that I've got one, I’ve got to provide a plausible back story. My layout is already a complete work of fiction, but I do like to set it within a historical context where possible. So, here goes: The 10 Kerr Stuart locos were built in 1917 for the government Inland Waterways and Docks Department and subsequently transferred to the Royal Engineers Railway Operating Division before being put up for sale in 1919. One of the locos, ROD number 605, was purchased by the Brecon and Merthyr Railway, which, although the locos were only 2 years old, insisted that number 605 received a full overhaul by the manufacturers, Kerr Stuart, in Stoke on Trent. After the overhaul the B&M plan was to move 605 to Birmingham where it would collect several second-hand Midland Railway 6-wheel coaches, the purchase of which was being simultaneously negotiated. So, 605 made its way to Birmingham via the NSR to Colwich and on to join the Midland line to Birmingham at Walsall. It was here that the plan went awry. Either by accident or design the coach purchase negotiations stalled and 605 was stranded in Birmingham. The MR kindly offered 605 shelter at Saltley shed until the coaches were ready. However, given the maintenance backlog following World War 1 the shed foreman at Saltley couldn’t resist putting a newly overhauled 605 to good use on local goods trip working, often being found working between Camp Hill and Church Road Sidings via Digbeth, as below: It was 1920 before the coach purchase was completed and 605 (to become B&M number 35) and the coaches made their way to South Wales over Midland rails via Worcester and Hereford. I acknowledge that a lot of this is fiction but: The ROD did put the locos up for sale in 1919. The Brecon and Merthyr did buy number 605 and it arrived on the railway in 1920. The Brecon and Merthyr did buy 14 Midland coaches in 1920.* See MR 6-wheel 5 Compt Third, later Brecon and Merthyr 111 (rhrp.org.uk) I don’t know of any Victory Class locos being overhauled by the manufacturers but Don Townsley’s article in Railway Modeller September 1966 states “Kerr Stuart’s records are somewhat vague and full of anomalies” so who knows! *I’ve subsequently discovered from A Register of GWR Absorbed Coaching Stock 1922/3 that the 14 Midland coaches weren’t supplied directly by the MR but were initially sold to J F Wake of Darlington ( MR C&W Committee Minute No 6029, dated 18/12/1919) but were sold to the Brecon & Merthyr by E E Cornforth of Trentham, Staffs in !920. This makes me wonder whether these second hand rolling stock dealers actually took possession of the coaches but merely acted as (in modern terms) commodity traders who bought and sold the right to acquire the stock. If not, would the coaches really have been hauled from the MR to Darlington (J F Wake had a large engineering operation, dealing, rebuilding and scrapping a wide range of railway and associated equipment on around 60 acres at the Geneva Engineering Works, Darlington) and then back to Trentham (Cornforth seems to have been a much smaller concern) before being passed over to the B&M? Thanks for reading Tony

Still looking at the wider West Midlands but info on Birmingham markets here: The Markets of Birmingham – The Iron Room (wordpress.com) Economic and Social History: Markets and Fairs | British History Online (british-history.ac.uk) History - Birmingham Wholesale Market Livestock To Market | Birmingham History Forum I find Birmingham markets are a fascinating area to look at in terms of social history and sources of railway traffic. Tony

There is an interesting article on Taunton Concrete Works in the Great Western Study Group Journal number 45, Spring 2020. It includes a Great Western Railway Magazine article which implies that the first concrete products, paving slabs, were produced around 1899 and production expanded in 1911 to include "different types of concrete articles on a large scale". By 1937, the date of the GWR Magazine article, the production range was very extensive so could quite easily have included coal bins before WW2. Tony

I always thought the Airfix church was modelled on the Church of Saint Boniface at Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight? Tony

Clun Castle and Earl of Mount Edgecumbe just south of Leamington Spa en route to Didcot today https://www.facebook.com/851105382/videos/526208529637740/ Tony

Just a thought, when wagon pooling came in, WW1 and after, were sheets pooled as well? E.g. could we see a Midland wagon with, say, an LNWR sheet? Tony

I really do like those luggage trunks, the brasswork makes such a difference. Something I'm now moved to have a go at, so thanks! Tony

I do find mine very useful, its always there and ready on the workbench. Tony

Excellent Graham Very atmospheric, well done. Tony