The Johnster

We did the Tunnel ferry a couple of times on Cornish Hollys, always good fun, Ford Prefect in our case! Severn Tunnel Jc station had a refreshment room on the island platform, which had a massive Cunard poster featuring the (scrapped by then) Mauritania; ‘holder of the Blue Riband’ in one of the end walls. We we also used the Beachley-Aust ferry sometimes, but the queues for it negated any time saving as against Gloucester and the A38. Almost impossible now to imagine life before the bridges. Never saw saw any large prairie except 5101s on Valley services.

Traction tyres are Satan’s expectorant in my view, and I immediately remove them from any model thus polluted that comes into my possession. Never had any problems on code 100, but on a facing turnout in code75... Not only do they destroy any chance the loco might have had of picking up current properly, they also spread crud everywhere ruining any other loco’s chances. And their pointlessness on a 14xx, seldom push or pulling more than one trailer, was pretty spectacular.

I like to see how people have approached and solved problems (or sometimes failed to) at exhibitions , and some of these are common to all model railway practice wherever based and whatever scale or standard of realism. There is also an increasing social aspect to them as I run into old chums and catch up, and, although it is something that has to be largely done online deze daze, one can still buy bits and pieces at exhibitions that one cannot get elsewhere. I certainly don't go just to see more South Wales 1950s layouts just like mine, much as I enjoy them; different things can be learned from even in my dotage...

If you are going to have a 'front of house' man to field questions I'd suggest making that his sole task and not giving him other jobs, as one will distract from the other. A question fielder of this sort can stand in front of the fiddle yard where he doesn't block the view of the layout. For exhibitions I agree with Mike that the 'L' should be the other way around, with the fielder standing in front of the right hand fiddle yard. Might it be possible to have the panel behind the layout and raised a little on some sort of platform, facing the audience, so that they can see what's going on; the panel operator can slide up and down on an office chair with castors. This allows the punters to get as close as the barriers allow to the layout and have an unobstructed veiw, and you can still show off the panel.

One hopes the guard'll put the lamps in position on the van before he passes the signalbox!

Wouldn't have thought of that, a perfectly cromulent solution. I'd forgotten about Kemilway; a blast from the past, there, Mr Isherwood sir and giving our age away!

There have been various attempts at this besides Leader. A loco for fast running needs to have carrying wheels to ride acceptably, safely, and without destroying the permanent way, but these and the axles and frames associated with them are dead weight that contribute nothing to traction and in fact reduce it on the driving wheels by taking weight that should bear down on the drivers. A pacific has a big boiler to supply the very large amounts of steam required for heavy express passenger work, and this needs a big, wide, firebox to produce the steam quickly, that cannot be fitted between the rear driving wheels; it can't be a long thin firebox as the fireman can't reach the front of it, so carrying wheels in the form of a pony truck beneath the cab take the weight of that end of the loco, assisted by the front of the tender. The way this is set up has a direct bearing on the tractive weight available to the driving wheels and the ride of the loco, and the set up is not always perfect... 'Booster' engines, smaller steam engines acting on the trailing wheels, were tried on some GNR and LNER locos, and IIRC the NER had a go with some Atlantics as well. Back in the 1850s, the GN's CME Archibald Sturrock designed a heavy goods 0-6-0 with a steam tender, an extension of the same principle. The boosters were intended to assist with starting and steam to them was shut off once the loco was under way and gripping properly. Success was elusive, and the idea never seemed to have been thought worth pursuing or developing. I suspect it's one of those things that sound like a good idea but introduces more difficulty than it solves in practice. The crews complained about the Sturrock steam tender locos that they were being asked to fire and drive 2 locos; they may have had a point! Pacifics are in some ways an extension in principle of atlantics, also designed for fast running with a big boiler and wide firebox. But the 4 coupled nature of atlantics sometimes made them better grippers than bigger Pacifics, and able to reliably start heavier trains, because although a pacific has an extra pair of wheels to power the train with, the adhesive weight bearing down on (which is the thing that prevents it from slipping) is less than on an atlantic. Braking is in some ways a reversal of some of the principles outlined (very crudely, I'm no engineer) above. It may seem counter intuitive, but a greater adhesive weight on the braked wheels enables more effective braking and less chance of the wheels 'picking up' and sliding. Once sliding starts, braking is very ineffective and the brake have to be fully released to get the wheels turning again, and another attempt at braking made. Sliding is Very Bad, as if it is unchecked it will wear a flat on the wheel's tyre which will damage the track and require the loco to be taken out of service for reprofiling on a wheel lathe, not to mention being a very poor and ineffective way of stopping a loco. Similarly, the reversal of the loco in an attempt to stop in an emergency often seen in Westerns is dramatic effect for the camera; the loco can stop much more quickly with steam shut off and the brakes properly applied. Braking performance is better with a train attached, as the train's brakes can assist, which is why light engines are speed restricted to 70mph so as to be able to pull up in the prescribed braking distances between signals. All this has a bearing on model railway practice, as the ballasting of model locos to improve pickup and haulage addresses a very similar problem and works in much the same way! On some locos, the non-driving wheels were braked, and on the GW, the loco's brakes were operated by the vacuum brake as well as the loco's steam brake, read straight air brake for diesel or electric traction.

I have a spare Baccy 57xx bunker, but am not sure if the extended version had found it's way on to 1730 in the loco's latter days, so have not made a decision to fit it. 1730 will look most like the left hand loco, in heavily weathered shirtbutton livery which I reckon is probably what the loco carried in 1948.

No argument there, Craig. That shot will be a guidance for the balance weights on 1730, which'll be a crude 00 compromise in comparison to this lovely very well made and finished Martin Finney loco.

Pretty much any small spring that can a) fit through the hole in the chassis and b) over the pin, and is c) long enough, will do the job, though you may have to trim it too length. Old VCRs, cassette players and the like are a good source of small springs and can often be found in skips. The Airfix 14xx chassis is regarded as a failure nowadays but was a very advanced and brave thing when it was introduced. Constant velocity universal joints in the drive train, sprung plunger ball bearing pickups; it was a ground breaker in it's day. It has a poor reputation because of trouble with the sprung plunger pickups, which got dirty and seized up, but, it if worked, it was a very smooth and controllable little runner. It wouldn't cut the mustard nowadays; we'd want full cab detail, but it's DNA survives as a Hornby Railroad version with a different chassis and motor but the same body tooling. If you get really stuck for a source of springs, the original locos are often knocked out cheap as non runners on 'Bay.

Yes, thanks for the thought though Dave. I've had stuff from them before, including a pair of Dean 8'6" for working up an old Triang Clerestory which never got used and are still in the odds and ends box. They don't do fishbellies; so far as I can tell nobody does except I can get them from Stafford Road/Shapeways. This is perhaps surprising as they were used on a good variety of GW stock during the Churchward era. I am assuming, because it seems likely, that their use under auto trailers rebuilt in the 20s and 30s from steam railmotors stems from their original use under the passenger ends of the railmotors. It would make sense for some bogies to be pinched off railmotors just arrived at Swindon to go under the new luggage compartment end of trailers ready to go into service, which also explains why some A31s went into service with Collett 7' bogies, but I am reluctant to state this to be a fact. One A31, 204, had American pattern bogies which are what are supplied with the K's kit, but the kit has the Gloucester RCW double passenger doors inherited from the railmotor and not the Swindon single door, so is thus incorrect. Whatever A31 you model from the K's kit, you need new bogies unless you model 204 and alter the passenger doors. Lewis has lists of what bogies were used on which A31, and whether double or single doors featured. My trailer is finished as 211, and is incorrect as this trailer had Collett bogies and a Swindon single door.

Well, looking at that confirms that it's an improvement on the one I've got, a solid mazak lump. and I'm fairly sure I can make it up once it's screwed, even with my soldering! There's hope for 1730 yet! I like the cab on your model, but mine will be a half cab with the canvas weather sheet in position. I did this years ago on an Airfix Dean Goods, and was quite pleased with myself; it drew some favourable comment at shows! Thanks LaScala, I've seen the gw website 2721 Bachmann chassis conversion, but I'm not at all sure the easy way out is a Bachmann chassis; I've measured one up for a Hornby 2721 which is not too different from an 1854; a good deal of surgery in the form of removing plastic from the inside of the 'skirts' is needed to clear the can motor, and the worm intrudes into the cab at the bottom of the firebox backhead. The 2721 runs fairly well with it's original Hornby generic Jinty chassis, which at least has wheels that align with the splashers even it they are wrong, and I've learned to love it... This worm intrusion into the cab is not acceptable IMHO on a half cab, where this area is very visible even with the canvas weather sheet over it. On top of that, the fishbelly coupling rods of the Bachmann panniers, correct for those models, are not correct for an 1854, which had either plain or fluted parallel rods. I am pretty convinced that a new Finecast chassis is the way to go with this loco.

Yeah, you did. Lofty, and I went to Shapeways website. Couldn't find anything there that mentioned Stafford Road Models, or any model railway content come to that; gave up too easily. Great Bear has put me on the right track, and I'm grateful to both of you but we're not out of the woods yet...

I am fairly committed to British practice steam era modelling for my own enjoyment, but not blind to the skill of other disciplines or the visual attraction of them. The OP operates a Chinese steam/diesel exhibition layout which I consider in the top ten most visually interesting layouts on the circuit, featuring the only example of DCC steam sound that I find even remotely convincing. I don't have to be among the cognesiti of Sino-Ferroequinology to enjoy it!

I've seen 'Gordon' on the Severn Valley behaving similarly with no more than a bit of dew on the rail on an otherwise fine and dry sunny summer morning. Pacifics of all sorts were notorious for poor adhesion on starting, as the adhesive weight on the drivers is relieved by the trailing wheels that allow the loco to have a wide firebox, and this may well account for the sliding, though any loco will pick up and slide on a greasy rail. On top of all that, maybe our drivers are a bit heavy handed; they weren't all as good as some of them thought they were...

X meant excursion in those days, later replaced by Z for a special working not in the WTT. As we are talking about Gloucester, presumably Central, and 2 locos are involved, a working from Cheltenham reversing direction to continue to Swindon via Sapperton and probably up line from Swindon suggests itself, but I would be reluctant to commit myself to that idea; it's only a possibility. We might be talking about a through working from the South Wales direction with a booked loco replacement or a loco failure. The '1' denotes an express passenger train, but not necessarily for Paddington, could be going anywhere. Under normal circumstances the destination is denoted by the second character letter, X for excursion in this case, and the running number, 63, follows. Is this a bank holiday?

Great Bear, you may have saved W 207 W's bacon at the last minute US Cavalry style! That's a nice looking bogie. Decision deferred pending investigation of Stafford Road Models, and if the bogies include t/l couplings as in the photo...

Glad to hear that the lurgy is in reverse advance, or 'consolidation' as I believe the US army calls it when they are being routed by some 3rd world communist or other. Have a good rest of the show, bwtti bach!

As with the Manor, both Hornby and Bachmann gave chassis/mechs for GW outside cylinder 6 coupled locos whose wheelbase and spacing are suitable for the Saint, actually the progenitor of all these classes; large prairie, mogul, Hall, Grange, Manor. The Hall and Grange share a boiler with the Saint, and the cylinder block is common to all these classes. Not it quite as straightforward as knocking a loco together out of standard and already produced existing parts, of course; different driving wheel diameters meant that the ‘set’ of the boiler in the frames was different between Saint, Hall, and Grange, and the existing chassis blocks need to be modified even if other components can be used. But both Hornby and Bachmann, and to some extent Dapol, are in a fairly strong position if they wanted to produce a Saint. But would they want to? Don’t ask me, I don’t claim to understand the market or be able to predict what can be sold profitably. Arguments against the Saint are that there are already a lot of GW 4-6-0s out there, and there were a lot of variations to cater for in a relatively small class. A Saint is in many ways a secondary main line loco that lacks the glamour of the co-existent Stars. Arguments for are that it is a seminal GW loco that was very influential to future mixed traffic practice on the GW and LMS; the first Hall was rebuilt from one. And the new build will attract a lot of attention.

Wiz are at Bristol, but I don't really want to schlep over there unless I have to, as I'm scared of picking up too much in the way of booty when I've got plenty to do here! But neither Wiz nor Dart apparently do fishbellies or auto trailer buffers. If I'm going to command Mr Franks to make buffers for me, which would be very nice of him, I wonder if I can command him to have a go at at least cosmetic sides for fishbellies... Commanding people to do things for me is not a natural thing for me to do (born peasant stock here, I have a cunning plan, my lord), but I'm sure I'll pick up the basics easily enough. Chinless wonders do it all the time and they're thick as two short planks.

I'd rather lick the goalies, but I've been watching ladies' football over the part this avo...

Good idea!

Near my home in Cardiff was Crwys Coal Storage yard, the back roads of which were used for storing withdrawn wagons awaiting disposal until about 1960; I can recall seeing such 'ghost' liveries here, though not in traffic. My memory is fairly clear from about 1958, when I was 6. When the the sidings were removed a decade or so later for a housing development, it released a plague of rats into the surrounding areas. Cherry Orchard sidings, also on the Rhymney and just the Cardiff side of Caerphilly tunnel, were also used for this. Storage of withdrawn wagons, I mean, although the rats were no doubt a feature there, too. The usual livery for wooden 7 plank XPO wagons in the 50s was heavily weathered coal dust finished off with general crud, and the decrepitude was remarkable. You could see the sides wobbling and warping as the wagons moved, and total collapse always seemed imminent; they held together, though, probably because they were too mucky to fall apart! Replaced planks and missing planks that had not been replaced were common, especially but not exclusively top planks. Bottom ones got wet (coal was soaking from the washeries when it was loaded) and rotted out, whereas the top ones just got smashed off by the loading machinery and the hoists at the docks. The replacement planks could just as easily have been pinched off another wagon to keep a loaded vehicle in traffic as new wood, so 'hybrid' liveries could be seen. Despite this, they probably lasted better than the steel replacements, which were rust prone. Water coming off wet coal is actually dilute sulphuric acid, and highly corrosive.

Coopercraft are not listed at Bristol. so this is becoming a bit of a problem as I am becoming disheartened about them. I will not make a decision today, but a coach with fishbelly bogies is looking increasingly unlikely. I want a Gloucester double doored coach, as my existing trailers have examples of the Swindon type door, and would like to increase the biodiversity of my bogies by using fishbellies or Americans. But only 204 had Americans and this had a Swindon single door. The Gloucester trailers seem to have been divided between fishbellies and 7' Collett bogies, so a Newport Division trailer with 7' Collett bogies and a late withdrawal date suggests itself. I'd also like a coach with plated toplights, but can't find photographic or even written confirmation of a Gloucester one with Collett 7' bogies; Lewis does not list toplight plating. The best I can do from Lewis is number W 209; toplights not plated, Gloucester type double doors, Collett 7' bogies, and early 1948 chocolate and cream livery with W prefix to number on left hand end of coach side, i.e. the GW position, photographed at Newport Godfrey Road from the station on a fine, possibly winter's, afternoon. The paintwork is faded and dirty, and the date is probably 1950 or maybe 51. W 209 was withdrawn in August 57, and may well have received crimson livery as W 209 W, the number going to the right hand end of the side in the normal BR position, but I can't confirm this and will, if I take this option, model it as in the Lewis photo. It is extremely unlikely to have ever been painted in plain maroon post 1956 livery. This would require the removal of the Milliput plating I've put over the toplights, but this is not a major operation. On the plus side, I have the bogies to hand, and can crack on with the work, though I have still not sourced buffers. I won't even have to repaint the coach, the exterior of which is not in a bad state, though removal of the numbers and replacement with BR Sans Gill will be necessary, along with some fairly stringent weathering. The roof in the Lewis photo (attributed to D.M. Lee) is very similar in shade to the K's plastic roof, which will only need a squirt of matt varnish. This is now officially plan B, and plan A is dependent on being able to find fishbelly bogies. B is looking stronger and A weaker by the minute, especially as I am keen to crack on with this project and not lose momentum. I have a definite feeling of time running out for option A W207 W unless I can find fishbellies. So as to avoid more faffing and indecision (this is Johnster's A31, not Brexit) I will make a decision tomorrow and stick to it hell or high water. But the smart money has to be on W 209!

There would have been a good number of what had originally been PO wagons on the GC section up to the early 60s, wooden bodied 7 plank minerals, but the PO liveries would be painted over in BR grey, and the wagons renumbered in the BR ‘P’ series. Any surviving previous livery, and I’m not saying there were none, would be indistinguishable beneath the filth.