HonestTom

I'll be sad to see it go (I've still got my old Thomas from 1985), but I'm not entirely surprised. The last re-release of the Thomas range seemed pretty half-hearted - nothing new apart from some reliveries. Bachmann would be a better bet to take over the range. Apart from the cost of the licence for the UK and Europe, they've got all the tooling, so development costs are minimal. They also have a range of kiddie-friendly accessories and the push-together EZ track. And they know there's a market for a lot of their models in the UK which could potentially get even bigger if consumers no longer have the hassle and extra cost of importing. Their models look a lot more like the TV characters than the Hornby ones and are cheaper to boot. When Hornby got the licence, Thomas hadn't made it on to TV yet and was regarded as a risky proposition for merchandise. After all, what kind of madman produces a TV series based on a 40-year-old series of books about obsolete trains? Britt Allcroft wasn't in the position of power that Mattel is, where they can basically dictate terms. The initial plan Hornby had was to simply relivery the standard clockwork 0-4-0 for Thomas and the Caledonian Pug for Percy - Allcroft nixed that, but it gives you some idea of the level of faith people had in the brand back then. As a result, Hornby produced a range that includes a lot of compromises, where many of the characters bear little resemblance to their TV counterparts - I'm thinking of Dart, Henry, Annie and Clarabel, Diesel, even Thomas looks "off" proportionally compared to the TV character. Their models occupy a strange position in the market, where they're too expensive to be toys, but too compromised to be premium models (plus, they're for kids). In that particular case, the woman required skin grafts for the scalding sustained. It's a lot more complex than "health and safety gone mad." This page sums the case up quite well: https://www.caoc.org/?pg=facts

So, some reintroductions, some new liveries, and about 200 people opining that Hornby have lost their minds and will surely be bankrupt within a week oh if only they'd listen to me...

That is extremely helpful, many thanks. The backstory of my imaginary railway has it being upgraded from an early 19th century horse tramway (something like the Surrey Iron Railway), and the way I envision it being operated is more-or-less in line with the conditions you describe above re line-of-sight driving. Basically it looks like I can pretty much copy the Wantage Tramway's way of doing things without much fear of inaccuracy. I'm not a rivet counter by any means, but I like my layouts to be reasonably plausible.

Hi all, At the moment, I'm building a micro-layout inspired by various light railways and tramways in the UK, particularly the Wantage Tramway. The setting is pre-grouping, but I'm fairly non-specific as to exactly when. I have a couple of questions vis-a-vis the rules of light railway working, which online research has failed to answer. 1. I recall reading in a magazine article, many years ago, that 0-4-0s weren't allowed to pull passenger trains. Yet I can think of many examples in real life where they did - the Wantage Tramway, the Wisbech and Upwell, more narrow gauge and industrial lines than I can count. Was the article incorrect, or were there particular circumstances under which it was fine? 2. I understand that brake vans are a must on any unfitted steam era goods train, yet the Wantage Tramway seems to have got away with no brake vans whatsoever. Was this a light railway thing, a tramway thing, or was there some specific rule for the WT? Many thanks in advance.

If you include Triang, there's still more. And I've only listed the ones that use the basic Railroad 0-4-0 chassis, not ones like the L&Y pug, the Triang dock authority shunter, etc, etc...

In terms of liveries, more than I can count. In terms of loco classes...- GWR 101 - CR pug - The Thomas-esque tank engine - The GKN D class - The “International” engine - They released at least one version of the Triang Nellie - Class 06 - Bagnall diesel - Percy - Bill/Ben

Well, here are the latest additions. The Irit Valley sees a lot of agriculture, so a cattle van was a must. And here is IVR No. 4, an ex-L&Y pug. The weathering isn’t finished and it needs a crew, but otherwise I’m fairly happy with it.

One nobody seems to have mentioned anywhere is 4D Modelshop at the Arches, 120 Leman Street in Whitechapel. The closest stations are probably Tower Hill and Tower Gateway, although Shadwell and Aldgate East aren't very far on foot. It mostly caters to professional modelmakers - architectural modellers, propmakers and the like. However, they have a good range of materials and tools, and they're great for scenic materials and building components (albeit more in the architectural scales than model railway scales). Not a model railway shop per se, but I always find them good for a browse. Plus they have a few items that you don't normally see in the usual model shops.

Thanks! The lime wagon is actually Hornby. They briefly produced it as part of the Thomas range, with the modern, more detailed chassis. With the ironwork picked out in black, the detailing is pretty good. I’ve gone to town on the weathering, and it now looks like this:

I like it - those 0-4-0s may be basic, but they’re fun and cheap. I’ve lost count of how many I have. I think they breed in stock boxes.

Many thanks. The weathering is pretty simple - I just used cheapo watercolours and eyeshadow. I've almost finished weathering the lime wagon and will post photos when that's done.

Well, I’ve not got a whole lot done on the layout proper, but here’s some of the rolling stock that will be making appearances in Lower Dudgeon. We are in Shropshire, and the two railways in the area are the Irit Valley Railway, which runs from Coulton to High Dudgeon, and its larger neighbour, the Coulton and Shrewsbury. The main sources of traffic for the IVR are the mills along the River Irit, agricultural produce and the limestone quarry at Lower Dudgeon. The wagons of the Salop Lime Company, the IVR and the CSR ate hand-painted, and from normal viewing distance and with a bit of weathering, I don’t think they look too bad. As long as I don’t make any really stupid mistakes...

I like this layout, it's very evocative. The attention to detail is great, which I think is very important on a micro. The working hopper is a particularly nice touch for increasing operational interest.

My other hobby is theatre, and having just finished working on a show I've been getting a bit of the post-show blues. The best way to combat this, in my experience, is with something creative. And what better than a bit of railway modelling? I was in Poundland the other day and saw a bunch of rather mawkish wall plaques for 50p each, which seemed like a pretty fair price for baseboard material. With a bit of work with a glue gun, I had my baseboard. Playing with spare track gave me the basis of a shunting plank. The whole thing measures 2' 1" by 8". For a while now, I've wanted to do something based on a light railway - the Wantage Tramway and the Colonel Stephens empire are favourites of mine. With the tiny space I had available, I figured now was the time. Only the smallest engines are capable of shunting the yard - a pug and a Peckett will be the main motive power, and small wooden wagons will be most of the rolling stock. It's a silly little thing really, but it should keep me busy for a bit.

I like this layout. It's very evocative of the light railway - I can just imagine some tiny antiquated tank engine playing with a few trucks while the one passenger awaits his train. Out of curiosity, does anyone know how terminal halts such as these would have operated in terms of running the loco round?

A London Underground sleet locomotive, or possibly Puffing Billy.

A lot of the early Underground electric trains were American-influenced, largely because so many of the lines were controlled by the American Charles Tyson Yerkes, who had extensive experience of public transportation in America. Electric trains in Britain were then a relatively untried concept, so it made sense for him to go with what he knew worked. If you compare the early Metropolitan and District Underground trains with, say, the New York elevated railways of the period, they could almost be the same company.

On the subject of American imports, the Bachmann John Bull makes for a reasonably convincing pioneering loco (it was a Stephenson import, after all) if you remove the pony truck. I'm currently trying to figure out what to do with the tender, though, which looks nothing like anything that ever ran on British rails and can't be cut down without exposing the motor.

I don't know why, but I quite like these. I think it's the fact that they're so odd-looking that they're almost compelling.

Is Furness Railway No. 20 still in steam? I don't think they have any plans to retire that any time soon.

Townstreet do some pretty good modular industrial buildings which are ideal for this sort of layout and you can tailor according to space/cost requirements. For instance, I bought one wall of one of their larger warehouses which makes a suitably imposing low-relief background and, at the time I bought it, was around £17.

That is very handy to know, ta for the info. One possibility I considered was something like what happened at Beckton gasworks. I don't have the book to hand, so I'm not clear on all the details, but basically Beckton had a very well-equipped workshop and decided to build their own locomotives, based on the ones they already had. However, the first loco they built was basically a direct copy of the Barclays they already had, which Barclay were not at all pleased about, and the resulting legal threats put an end to Beckton's building programme.

I'm playing with ideas for my next micro, and I'm thinking in terms of going back in time to the late Victorian era for a light railway. Mostly because I really like pre-grouping wagons, private owner liveries and small engines. The rolling stock probably isn't going to be all that plausible (for one thing, the Lancashire and Yorkshire have apparently sold off a virtually new pug), but I've stitched a history for my company together out of various lines' histories, mostly the Surrey Iron Railway, the Liverpool and Manchester, the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the Wantage Tramway. The line is the Irit Valley Railway, in a fictional part of Shropshire. I chose Shropshire partly because I have family down there, but mostly because of the painting 'Coalbrookdale by Night,' which I think is my favourite work of art. The story goes that the River Irit (rhymes with "spirit") is a fast-flowing, shallow river, wholly unsuitable for navigation but perfect for powering watermills, and it had several dozen along its length. The problem was transporting the goods produced. Deepening the river is not an option, as this would slow the flow. A possible option was to build a branch off the Shropshire Union Canal at Coulton to run alongside, but the canal company dragged its heels about building it. Another option suggested was to build a tramway, and this was the course chosen. The tramway opened in 1805. In 1848, the Coulton and Shrewsbury Railway reached Coulton (the GWR having little interest in Coulton), and the decision was made to re-gauge the tramway and adopt steam traction. At the time the layout will be set, the tramway is worked by a mix of small locomotives and a hotch-potch of second-hand rolling stock. I envision the layout as being set around the point where the IVR meats the CSR, so I can have my tiny IVR locomotives, but also some larger CSR locomotives dropping wagons off.

Smallbrook Studios produce an NER chaldron wagon. It's a resin kit and comes with wheels etc, so probably wouldn't be too difficult a project.

Re the coffeepot, I've been wondering about the concept myself. I had some vague ideas including using a Bachmann 'Gandy Dancer' or 'John Bull' mechanism and I played with the idea of using a Hornby/Dapol pug chassis with the motor hidden inside an oversized boiler/tank, but nothing's been entirely satisfactory (but I'm a complete bodger). If someone came up with an HO/OO equivalent of the Kato 103 underfloor mechanism, they'd make their fortune.