The Johnster

Hopefully my pension will increase sufficiently to cope. Yeah, right...

Yeah, didn’t understand the original problem properly; the worm is glued to the motor shaft, not the gear to the axle. Depending on gear wear the gear may be usable with a new worm, but if not it can be removed in the normal way and replaced. All this rubbish I’ve been going on about regarding axles and gears is irrelevant!

Strip the chassis down as much as you can. Drill the immovable screw out, and put the loco in the freezer overnight. Then give the motor a sharp tap with a hammer; it'll probably snap off. This leaves the problem of the gear. I cannot see how you can remove it from the chassis without major destruction. If the axle revolves free and true it may be possible to retain it and use it with the new motor, but the new motor will of necessity have a new worm, and previous wear on the gear may make meshing difficult. I'm wondering why this glueing was done in the first place, and it's possible that it was a bodge to overcome poor meshing, in which case it's odds on that the gear has been badly mangled. Your best bet IMHO is not to waste your time trying to save the gear and the axle. Using a Dremel or similar, grind the axle away between the frames (you won't have room to get a slitting disc or circular saw in there) until it breaks, at which you will be able to withdraw the broken part-axle from one side. If you are lucky, you might be able to wiggle the other piece out as well, complete with the gear, at which point you are ready to replace the axle and gear with new, fixed properly with the grub screw. If not, you need to grind the other part away as well, after which the old gear and the centre part of the axle will drop out and the other piece can be pulled out of the frame. This is brutal and time consuming, and goes against any principle of creative and disciplined modelling, but you might end up with a running loco from it and it will cost no more than you have already accepted as inevitable.

The only difference in the smell is that at art exhibitions it's bullsh*t and at model railways it's all too often real...

Hot boxes were a fairly regular occurrence with the horse hair boxes still common in your period, and not uncommon with grease boxes, especially if a train had a clear run for a bit of distance, something that must have happened quite a lot on the relatively quiet Berks & Hants. The crippled wagon has to be put off as soon as is convenient, and in extreme cases the brake had to be pinned down and the wheels locked, so that the wagon was slid to where it was put off. This of course works a flat into the wheels, and the wheelset has to be replaced in situ. So a road van turns up with the jacks and tools. It might be some time before they can get around to it and the wagon hangs around the yard for a while generally getting in the way. If loaded and a delivery date has to be met, of course the load must be transferred to another wagon, which either happens to be around unloaded in that location, or one has to be brought in by the pickup. You can have all sorts of fun with hot boxes!

Come on, Paul, by 1978 you couldn't see what colour any wooden bodied NPCCS vehicle was under the muck! I actually rather liked the plain blue, but not the full yellow ends that disfigured so many locos. Couldn't argue with the fact that they undoubtedly saved lives, especially before the early 70s when hi-viz became compulsory, though. My least favourite livery of all time was NSE, let's make a perfectly respectable railway vehicle that used to have a degree of dignity and style to it look like a pair of poundshop trainers.

Bachmann's SR PLV/PMV comes in at just shy of £40, and may be considered a comparable vehicle. A Parkside Fruit D is much cheaper than this (as is a Parky PLV), but arguably carries less underframe detail than blue or red box RTR Fruit D would, doesn't have sprung buffers, and of course must be built, painted, transfers added, and finished off, all stages which give you plenty of opportunity to mess it up. I also factor in replacement buffers for Parkside kits, as the plastic ones supplied are easily broken off and variable in quality. So, it'd be pay your money and take your choice is someone brought out a current standard Fruit D. Our moans about the Dapol offering, which is not expensive by modern standards, must be considered in the light of it being a very old tooling indeed, dating back to Hornby Dublo and with the chassis worked up a bit by Dap. My current thinking is that I am going to build a Parkside and retire my Dapol, but I am a bit nervous of flimsy steps on the Parkside and may recycle these from the Dapol. As for RTR manufacturers standing on kit makers' toes, my instinct is to agree with you. But this is a competitive capitalist market and the RTR people owe it to their shareholders (which may will include my pension funds) to chase profits, maintain share value, and pay out dividends. If a big RTR manufacturer were to bring out a GW 5-plank open in a variety of liveries it would no doubt affect sales of the Parkside kit (which would still no doubt compete on price, and probably interior detail), but it would be a good seller and fair trading. Many kit manufacturers have suffered from RTR 'predation', and current RTR is very good indeed in terms of accuracy and detail, and superb in terms of finish, if expensive; Parkside and Ratio are parts of the Peco empire, a fairly big hitter in it's own right that can stand on it's own two trodden on feet and fight it's corner well enough. But we have lost a lot of diversity with the downfall of so many of the small 'niche' kit manufacturers. Not all of this is down to RTR competition, mind, some were effectively cottage industries that were probably never going to survive beyond the point at which their owners retired or cost effectiveness was lost. It is my belief that the 3D printing industry and it's commissioners will be taking quite a bit of this slack up in future, and this is beginning to happen, but we are still in the lean years kit wise and some big names have gone. Whitemetal and (especially) etched brass kits can deliver very high quality models, but are time consuming and require a level of skill and ability to build, paint, and finish. To some, of course, this in itself is the attraction, but these sort of kits are to be honest beyond the ability of probably the majority of OOB modellers and are more like scratch aids. I can manage a Comet coach, but only do so because the prototype is necessary to my layout's location and period and would prefer to spend about the same amount of money on an RTR that could be in service this evening. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy building and finishing kits, but my main purpose is realistic operation, and the building process is a means to an end for me, not the end in itself, satisfying and fun though it is. Many kits were developed before the advent of current quality RTR, and because they are in packs or flattish boxes are cheaper to store than bulky RTR boxes, so can be kept profitably available even when an RTR item has flooded the market. I wonder how many mk1s Comet sell these days, but they are still easily available. Kits, plastic or brass, are cheap to develop and market compared to RTR and most have been redacted a very long time ago. This has ensured the survival of some of the more mainstream items despite better RTR being available, though it wasn't enough to save Kirk... I would contend that Parkside and Airfix/Dapol/Kitmaster plastic kits are within the capacity of most modellers (I built a Kitmaster RU Restaurant Car successfully when I was 10, and I'm about as c*ck handed as it gets), but Ratios are a bit more intricate. But painting and finishing them to RTR standards is beyond most of us, even if we can make a reasonable job of it; current RTR is about as perfect as it is rational to expect in this respect! There's another point to be made in the kit vs RTR debate, related to skill and ability, and it's an important one. A faulty or poorly built/finished RTR item can be taken back to the shop or sent to the supplier and exchanged for a good one, and a good shop will take it out of the box for you to examine before you part with your beer vouchers. Try that with a kit you've messed up...

4557, unusually clean for a Tondu loco and in ‘best guess’ lined black livery, is ready for the off to Bridgend with an early evening passenger bathed in the warm light of a fine summer’s evening. This is the return leg of the evening Tremains ROF workman’s, and is booked time to collect clearance traffic as required from Remploy’s, which it has done this evening.

Yes, I’m ever-hopeful, but if some models are reckoned to be available from April next year it sounds sensible to assume that a TBA for the 94xx puts it at May earliest, not far off a full year away. Encouraging to hear that we are at the livery artwork stage, but a model produced in China is subject to delays finding production slots in the assembly facilities, a matter not directly under Bachmann’s control. It’ll be here when it gets here.

Mine, got rid of years ago, would manage about the same as SignalEngineer’s without the traction tyre. I can’t help felling the root of your problem is something solvable on the loco, but still thoroughly recommend the Stafford Road bogies with Bachmann wheels.

Tim’s right; very few valleys pits had room on site to dump waste, but I can’t quite visualise it in your situation; the backscene has no spoil heaps up on the mountain. I suppose it would work if you suggested it coming off the viewing side, where there is of course a river and another mountainside...

'Rock salt', for putting on icy roads, was carried in wooden opens to prevent corrosion of steel ones, and not sheeted or covered at all, but this is not quite the same thing!

Not sure about that, LBRJ. I refer you to George Stephenson's famous comment about the 'coo' and it's embarrassment on the Stockton & Darlington.

I'm impressed with Stafford Road Works/Shapeways 3D printed resin bogies, which are available in several GW types including the 9' Colletts you need. They are a straight plug in replacement for the old bogies and, fitted with Bachmann wheels, run very freely; you'll find gradients you never knew you had! They are not cheap but are a very high quality product, with the further advantage of NEM pockets. Replacing the plastic wheels originally supplied with the coaches is worth doing; not only will it improve the running but will help to maintain track cleanliness, as plastic spreads crud everywhere! But I can't help thinking your 14xx needs a looking at as well. It should be able to manage one trailer unless there is something very badly amiss with the trailer, and on reasonably well laid track I'd expect it to have few problems with two, unless very sharp setrack curves have to be negotiated. Which model is it exactly, the old Airfix, or one of the Hornby derivates, or a DJH/Hattons? An Airfix should manage 2 Dapol auto trailers (Dap inherited these toolings from Airfix and they are still made by Hornby), even if like me you remove the traction tyres from any loco that has them, but this model, a game changer in it's day, has a poor reputation for long term reliability because of problems with it's sprung plunger pickups. More recent Hornby iterations have redesigned chassis, but, again, the running is allegedly a bit hit and miss, as is the much more expensive DJH. 0-4-2s are a bit of a problem because they are difficult to 'balance' about the trailing driven axle and end up being too heavy at the front or too heavy at the rear, with adverse affect on the haulage. If you compound the problem with sharp curves, uneven track, or steep gradients matters will be worse. I would advise the following:- .Make sure your track is level, and smoothly laid. .Check that the loco sits square on the track with all the wheels contacting the track at the same time. .Check that the loco continues to do this when coupled to the trailer(s) and that the couplings are not lifting it off the track, or bearing down on it which will lift the other end off the track. .Get as much ballast inside the loco as you can to bear weight down on to the driving wheels to help them grip better. I use 'Liquid Lead', not actually liquid but small ballbearings/shot, sealed in with PVA glue, for this. .Try to get the balance as even as possible about the pivot point of the trailing driving axle. .Check that the trailer(s) are running freely, not just that the wheels spin freely in the bogies but that the bogies can pivot correctly in both the lateral and vertical planes as well. .Check that the loco and trailer(s) are not fouling and dragging on the track, including the 'droppers' of the coupling hook pieces which can foul on turnouts. I've had trouble with the guard irons of another loco that resulted in the driving wheels not sitting on the track properly; snipping off .25 of a mm had it running properly, but diagnosing the problem took a while... Does the spinning occur at specific places on the layout, or will the loco simply not pull the trailers anywhere? If the former, then the loco has proved that it can pull the trailers and that there are particular locations causing trouble that need looking at. If the latter, then we are looking at a traction issue. Let us know how you get on, Richard!

Mendips are very different geologically to the Carboniferous Limestone Quantocks, which are very typical of British limestone uplands, and are more akin to the Devonian Old Red Sandstone hills of South Devon. The underlying rock not only has an effect on the topography, but on the types of plants and trees that predominate; the area looks very different to the Mendips.

Waiting for 9487 early crest 94xx pannier, still 'TBA' despite pre-production models being in existence. I'm now assuming not for at least 12 months if then, which will mean a different approach to buying other stuff while I save up for this.

Lime was carried in similar wagons, and I've no idea how long they lasted either....

No gate and no fence, these were to keep trespassers and animals off and out of the way of the trains, and denoted the limit of railway owned land. A private yard, coal mine, steelworks etc would be fenced and gated off, but if the railway owned it it did not need to be fenced off from other bits of the railway, or even from other railways... Except... Fences and railings were used in some places as safety rails, especially where there were differences in levels or where a fast main line ran close to where men were walking or working on the ground. In this instance you might see a fence separating a loco yard from the running lines; my sense of yours is that there is plenty of space and one is not needed. But there'll be a concrete path across the end of the shed which will have a short railing to protect that blind corner where men might step out in front of locos accessing the turntable. Your engine shed does not need a railway gate, though. Where private sidings existed, there was a specified limit as to how far into the private area a railway company loco could operate, usually a notice 'Railway company/executive engines must not pass this notice'; it would usually be at the point at which traffic was exchanged between the main line loco and the works engine. The works engine was by and large not allowed to leave it's premises and venture on to the railway company's running lines, but some were licensed to do so, a particular feature of NCB locos in the North East of England, where they even operated passenger services in some places. It's crew may have suitable route knowledge and be passed out on BR rules and regulations, or require a BR pilot driver. As a general rule, though, the private loco does not venture outside it's own premises, despite what you see on some exhibition layouts... One of my Canton freight guard jobs in the 70s involved entering the gated and fenced off exchange sidings at BP's Llandarcy refinery. You had to sign in at the gate and there was a gatekeeper's hut at which you had to check in any lighters, matches, or flammable/explosive material you had on you, including your detonators and the train's oil lamp. Things were usually much less formal than this and many of the gates were left permanently open and would probably have fallen to bits if you'd tried to close them. But they were there all the same, denoting not just property but legal liability and responsibility.

Quite a lot of stuff was delivered/collected in urban areas; as well as the coal, we had a regular weekly laundry pick up/drop off, milk was of course delivered to doorsteps, sometimes with cream and eggs, and a rag;n'bone man came to the back entrance once a week. As well as taking anything you wanted rid of for scrap, he had a millstone on the wagon for sharpening your cutlery and tools, and bundles of firewood. Fire ash was collected with the rubbish collection, but my mum used a good bit of it as fertiliser; she was a dab hand with a flower border! This sort of thing was not restricted to the middle classes (well, perhaps the laundry was), but was fairly universal. On top of this, pools coupons were delivered door to door and money collected, and insurance money was done in the same way. The local pub delivered a bottle of whisky and one of rum for my grandfather (found dead in bed with his hand clenched around the neck of an empty rum bottle, how rock and roll is that!) and collected the empties, along with a crate of Mackeson stout for gran I am told (she'd gone before I arrived on the scene). Most of this trade was done on credit, with bills presented perhaps quarterly or monthly. 'Mummy, the laundry man's come for his money, can we pay him or do you want me to go out and play again'...

Or that I've just finished building...

As did the Rhymney, and the Great Eastern, and IIRC the G&SW and the LT&S as well. The GW thought it was better than everybody else and in some ways it was; it's vacuum brakes worked on the loco and tender wheels as well. It then let itself down by insisting on 23 inches of vacuum as opposed to everyone else's 21 inches which were perfectly adequate for the task, meaning that any vacuum fitted train that changed locos from a GW type to anyone else's had to have every cylinder on the train isolated (by hand, you pull a cord (position marked by a white star on the solebar) which equalises atmospheric pressure on both sides of the vacuum cylinder, which then drops under it's own weight and releases the brakes) while a handbrake held them, and then had to be 'recharged' by the new loco, a time consuming job that was real fun for the guard with a 60 wagon fitted freight on a dirty night... Isolating the brakes also had to be done when the train had to be shunted, as this is done with the handbrakes to save time. Any movement with passengers aboard must be done with the automatic brakes tested and working, though. At least air brakes were a Westinghouse standard. I suspect a steam loco probably could release vacuum brakes quicker than air, but there wasn't much in it! Diesels and electrics which had to use a compressor for this job were much quicker with air brakes, one of the reasons for it's widespread adoption after steam was dispensed with; some of them struggled with long vacuum trains.

To interpret black and white photo evidence of coaches painted in the WW2 austerity plain brown accurately is difficult; the vehicles are often dirty as well. But it does look to me as if there were 2 browns, a reddish hue used on lined coaches (gangwayed and some auto trailers) and a more plain brown shade used on non-gangwayed stock. As most of my research in this area has been about trailers where the ends were painted brown, I am not sure what colour the ends of gangwayed or non-gangwayed other stock were painted or if they were different, but some photos of non-gangwayed stock show the same colour extending from the sides to the ends; again, difficult to pin down under the muck, especially on South Wales workmen's stock. These were coaches that were used by miners in the days before pit head baths, and had the upholstery removed so that the dirt could be hosed out of the compartments; many services had specifically labelled 'clean' compartments for office staff to ride in. While the compartments were hosed after use, the exteriors got filthy and stayed that way. G W R initials amidships and the numbers were difficult to distinguish. As for 4 wheelers in crimson, W2774 and W289 were 'noted' at Caerphilly in a 'Railway Observer', date unknown but according to information on page 2 of my 'South Wales Valleys in the 1950s' over on Layout Topics, information from the inestimable and ever helpful ChrisF of this parish. Mine are out of use pending a relaying of the fiddle yard to include a road they can run on reliably...

The Sawdde comes off the Black Mountain, which is basically a topographical rain making machine; I can easily believe this rate of rise. Fair enough, caradoc.

Couple of photos in Lewis show one on the Pontypridd-Ynysybwl service.

I have this problem looking at photos of 4 wheelers and clerestories on miner's workman's trains in South Wales; they are so dirty it is next to impossible to be definitive about the liveries. Some 4 wheelers managed to be repainted in BR crimson, but they got pretty dirty pretty quickly as well.