Methuselah
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Posts posted by Methuselah
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There seems to be quite a clutch of models of the S&H line;- I've seen models of Leominster, Ludlow, Craven Arms, Brassy is doing Berrinton & Eye, you are doing Marsh Brook, and myself and another chap on RM are doing Woofferton - his in 2mm, mine in 4mm. Coincidentally - we have also been bidding on the same items on eBay too.....
I'm setting my infrastructure to the time of the Grouping, but I'll be happy to run groups of trains for any decade up to 1947.As an aside - does anyone have any documentary evidence as to the colour scheme used for infrastructure on Joint GWR/LNWR lines in around 1922...?
S.
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Been a privilege to have this Single and train running on the layout this weekend.
Now part of the Grantham roster and will be running at the Wakefield show in just under two weeks time...
Looks a great layout - what's the story of the coaches - they look great too.... :-)
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....now for the GNR......
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A late-build GWR Hall hurries south under the Park Lane Bridge with nine coaches during the ealy 1960's. Both northbound and southbound refuges are in use and in good order. In LNWR days, they were not ken to allow the GWR's 4-6-0's onto this line. After Nationalisation, the line became available even to Castles and Kings. One wonders if the mighty 4700's ever strayed this far from their usual rails....
Just behind where the photographer was standing, used to be the old entrance to the Ballast Pit Sidings for the gravel-pits.
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Thank you. I have various National Grid models all in 4mm which can be used on layouts as well as separately displayed. Although very common , they are seldom modelled so building and collecting them can give a representation to their scale. Another example is this 4mm scale scratch built substation which was made back in the 1970’s .
Can you tell me roughly when this pylon might have been erected please...? I suspect it's pre-war at least. (Image attached.). Please also see my PM to you.
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Trains At Wooferton.
1) A post-war snap of a 4500 in the west-bay at Woofferton, run round and ready to depart. Circa 1950's
2) A snap of a 1400 and GWR Autocoach waiting on the main southbound platform at Woofferton. It's probably slated to return to Kidderminster, but some did run-on to Ludlow of Leominster in earlier days. (Timetable patterns et al are not my strong point....!). The shot must be late '50's to early '60's, as the crossing diamonds to the West Bay have already gone.
3) A northbound GW Castle in BR days dragging a Hawksworth tender.
4) A 1400 under the footbridge, probably destined for Kidderminster, probably in the 1950's. The hexagonal gas-lamp in the photo was a bit of an oddball. Most were the usual four-sided.
5) A southbound GW Castle thunders past a GWR railcar, almost certainly waiting to head-off the Kidderminster. Again, probably 1950's. The spotters seem highly animated... It looks cold....!
6) A GW Diesel Railmotor is loading/offloading parcels & post on the south-bound platform - again 1950's.
7) This shot was probably taken at the same time as (1) above. The branch train may be awaiting connection to the north-bound train that has been given the Right O'way.
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A few more snaps;-
1. Loco diversity I. This is a wartime snap of the GWR's loco shed at Worcester - with LNER locos far from their home metals.
2. An old hand-tinted photo of Tenbury Goods Yard, looking towards the town itself. Hard to date - but probably around 1900-ish.
3. Loco Diversity II. One of the ubiquitous LMS 4F's at the ex-LNWR/LMS shed at Leominster post-war.
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Guys
These photo's are gems, I've found one or two of them already but they add so much.
The railwaymens cottages arte still extant by the way, I recognise them from my visit to the area. Also one of the photographs gives exactly, in my mind, the same feel as I can my trackplan giving so it confirms I'm on the right track (pun intended).
I have many more, - but I didn't want you to think I was hijacking your thread...! If there are any specific details you are after, just ask. The track-plan did alter over the years, but only in detail. If one ignores the later removal of the west bay, then it basically boils down to the removal of the wagon-turntable and the addition of more sidings for the timber-yard. There were sidings associated with the engine shed on the north side of the branch, most of which seemed to have survived until the end - even if disused, because the redundant shed was used for water. There was, as far as my research has shown, no water at Woofferton. The next watering-hole on the branch was Cleobury. Surprisingly, I have seen no evidence of a water tower or crane at Tenbury or any other intermediate points until probably Bewdley. What date are you basing your version upon....? I'm aiming for 1922/23, as then I can bring-in the LNWR, but I think the LNWR signalling wasn't replaced until some time later, so you can run quite a wide period of trains.
Attached two images of the old Woofferton Engine Shed. The eastern shot is from a book, the western shot from an old snap. It's quite similar to a number of commercially available kits with it's water-tank over the entrance. The width at the tank is different, so I think that was a slightly later addition, but the shed itself was built in the 1860's I believe. The shed 'officially' closed in about 1900, but was used for water until the station and yard closed.
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Do you have the Wild Swan book "The Tenbury & Bewdley Railway"? Some of these pictures are in there with captions.
General Strike pic: 'Civilian' driver Lampitt, guard Riley and clerk Bailey
Loco on Wribbenhall Viaduct, Bewdley: 2-4-0 No. 180 (ex-WMR) (West Midland Railway)
Here are another couple of rather poor shots I took of the Station Master's House in January 2011; now a private residence that is fenced off from the old Booking Hall. They might help in modelling the building
woofferon_station_masters_house.jpgThe design of this and booking hall is similar to those at both Berrington & Eye and Church Stretton both of which are in stone rather than brick
PS: on double-checking, the 1926 strike pic in the book is similar but not identical to yours with fewer people (4). The other guy on the footplate is not identified
I may have the book - but all my books have been in storage for ages pending a house move, so I'm not sure. The photos I'm posting are some that I happened to have on my laptop. Not all, but most of them are snaps of originals.
The shots of the house are useful thanks. Thankfully there aren't too many buildings to model at Woofferton - and they aren't too fancy.
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Last one today.
Date;- General Strike;- 3rd May 1926 to 12th May 1926.
GWR staff driving what appears to be a 0-6-0 Dean Goods, pauses at Tenbury facing tender-first on the westbound platform. Number sadly obscured, but starts 2***.
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Three early-period images for Brassy's delectation.
1. General view of Wooferton Station. Some nice period details. If it's a southbound pick-up goods, then it's headed for his station.... In LNWR days, there was quite a complicated set of south-facing shunt signals by the footbridge on the south-side for trains reversing into the sidings or crossing. Later, the GWR installed a simpler set-up with a route-indicator. Oil lamps seem to have been fitted to ordinary gas-light standards in anticipation of a supply becoming available - which did happen later.
It may be a trick of the light - but the points in the bay loops seem to lack any check-rails whatsoever...
2. I know where, approximately when - but not wot....! This was taken in Victorian times of a Wooferton bound train on the viaduct in Bewdley. I'm guessing 1880's - '90's. What is the odd 2-4-0 loco...? Dean 3201 Stella Class....? Answers on a postcard...! PS;- Yes - that's a rope-walk on the left....
3. An old grounded four or six-wheeled coach. It was either at Wooferton or Tenbury. No idea if it's GWR or LNER, but it must be a pre 1900 coach anyway.
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The railwaymen's cottages and refreshment-rooms/pub in the station yard.
The same view as posted by Brassy - but in original configuration. The notice-boards are for both the GWR & LNWR.
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I'm having some difficulty attaching sets of .jpegs.
Here is a nice shot of the station staff at Wooferton - and a great straight-on shot of the stations name-board.
Also a shot of a typical branch pick-up goods in post-war days, running along beside the River Rea - probably little different to fifty or more years earlier.
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Another shot of the Wagon Weigh-bridge and associated hut. This was taken after the west bay had been mostly lifted and the junction simplified. The Bay area had become disused and relegated to a siding only.
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A few self-explanatory Wooferton-related shots. The loco, as the board attests, was the last official train from Wooferton down the Tenbury Branch, as they all closed to passengers at the same time, although some goods services lingered-on for a while.
The wagon weigh-bridge is worth noting, as is the associated hut. Early maps show a wagon turntable near this location - but no images of this seem to have survived and it's likely it was removed in the 1800's. There are some references to a loco turntable at Wooferton, but these are erroneous. The old small turntable from Bewdley was relocated to Wooferton after the Tenbury - Bewdley section was completed.
By the time of the last shot, all the signalling had been changed for GWR long ago.
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And the local trains that started from Leominster or Ludlow on the main line and ran down the branch all day plus the goods that did similar; are they going to be P4 or OO?
Clearly not..... It's a simple fudge to allow two separate models to run side by side as they are at the same 4mm scale from the same area. The OO will run into the garden too - and P4 in the garden is a non-starter, even if I could afford a fleet of mainline P4 locos - which I cannot. Branchline P4 is as much as I can manage. The west bay platform was much used and the LNWR had their own little engine shed at Wooferton, so the bay and it's loop will be P4 and the P4 will run across the OO main-line etc. Later the west bay was removed, but I'm modelling it pre-war anyway. Most of the rest of the sidings will be OO, so in theory N-S pick-up goods can still work. I'm not bothered about Ludlow & Leominster - they aren't within my scope. I'm not running a timetable. I'm not shunting. It's a historic tableau in which trains run - it's model you see - it's not real. On the plus side, there will be no compression or distortion - all the dimensions, lengths, curves will be exactly 1:76. It'll run from Station Road to the old A49 overbridge north of the junction, to include the relief loops and most of the Ballast Hole Sidings.
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Looking at tween wars as the starting point but I'll be mixing liveries up a bit so it won't be 100% correct on period.
I've managed to get hold of some timetable info which could prove useful.
My biggest issue so far is getting some decent info on the buildings and, as such, I'll probably put more of a Western slant on it than an authentic model would, at least at the start. I've got some photos of what little remains of the buildings taken last year though. Given the connection to the Severn Valley via Bewdley it 'could' be postulated that the architectural style would have been similar had it not been a joint line. Still a joint line would be nice to run some LMS and even LNWR motive power as a break to lots of green stuff, it's a good excuse for an 8F or 3 ...
There are some fairly useful well known pictures of steam and a railcar on the main line there but they don't really show much else.
The buildings at Wooferton never really changed in any significant way. Nor did they on the Tenbury Branch. If you look at early photos and late photos - the only real differences relate to signalling - and then mainly in style. Early period seems to have been LNWR at Wooferton, then over to GWR - probably between the wars. Platforms and footbridge aside - all the main building remain pretty-much intact today - the signal cabin, main station building and goods shed, as well as most of the bridge-structures. The engine shed was basically derelict and just used for water from around 1900 onwards. The footbridge remaining at Ludlow is quite similar to Woofertons - and worth a look.
I some ways the main line gets more interesting the further back in time one travels. Pre-Grouping there'd be lot's of LNWR - and they serviced the branch until the GW took over the running completely. The LNWR/LMS retained running-rights as far as Tenbury, but it's not clear as to whether they exercised that right very often - if at all.
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Great to see you are forging ahead. I'm modelling Woofferton, Easton Court and Tenbury in 4mm. I've been collecting gear - I only returned to this hobby about 18 months ago so literally had nothing whatsoever - and planning. I have yet to convert and extend the outbuilding to house my layout, so sadly nothing to really show as yet...
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Hi,
I don't know if pictures/post has been put on here before comparing the Golden Age Models Dyno Car with the Rails Dyno Car, so I thought I'd put some pictures up comparing parts, for this I am comparing my LNER 1938 Mallard Record-breaking Dynamometer Car from Golden Age Models with the, 1948 Exchange trials Dynamometer Car from Rails of Sheffield.
I'll let the pictures do the talking; "A Picture paints a thousand words and all that".
Both nice models - and whilst the coach does seem to have been lined, the GAM version is probably too heavy - certainly going by the 1938 record images on the day. I'm also rather baffled about the white roofs and dyno' wheel as depicted on both versions, as they certainly do not appear white in the contemporary period images. I have the Rapido version and I'm going to tone both of those items down to fit the 1938 photos.
M.
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Thirty seven is not a very round figure at which to stop van production for a while, so I decided to put together three more, giving a nice round forty. Sad! I needed a few more ex LMS vans and, fortuitously, I had a couple of Ratio Southern 12 Ton van kits in my box of goodies. The Southern built some of these for the LMS during the war so would fit the bill. I also had one remaining GWR 12 Ton V23 van kit, so that made up the three. I still have loads of BR 12 Ton vans to build along with a rather large number of ex LNER ones, some of which may go to bring and buy.
It didn't take long to finish them as it has been raining a lot lately. Here they are at the head of a fitted freight hauled by 92006.
I now have no excuse for not getting the Grampuses painted and lettered.
....ooooh - I recognised that bridge as soon as I saw it. It's a lovely little nook by the canal in Worcester where I have, on occasions been known to go to hire a van. Lovely model too....
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I am starting to get concerned.
I sent an email last week just confirming my order but there was no reply. I realise they have been run off their feet but a simple, short reply would have been suffice.
I live in Australia and have a private post office box and I check every week, but still, there is nothing.
I am considering cancelling my order and getting a credit on my credit card.
May I introduce you to a simple concept, old, much maligned and greatly neglected. It's called 'Patience'. Give the poor beggars a chance.
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This morning the postman brought my dynamometer car. What a wonderful model this is. Thank you Rapido, Rails and everyone else who purchased one thus making it possible.
Postie also brought my September 2018 Railway Modeller which contains a review of the dynamometer car.
After returning to railway modelling after a forty-year hiatus, I also bought this issue of Railway Modeller - mainly to read the revue of the excellent Rapido Dyno' Car. I used to be an avid reader of this august tome back in the day - but it is now transformed. The colour is nice, but there are a lot of adverts - and a very heavy emphasis on RTR - quite unlike it used to be. The 'revue' of the Dyno' Car was perfunctory - and worse, there was relatively little otherwise on 4mm. Now - the magazine always used to cover N to O.....but I counted one article on TT, two on 009, - three articles on N, three on O, and only TWO on 4mm/OO. 9:2..... (Nowt wrong with those other scales/gauges of course.). Given the predominance of OO/4mm this is totally ridiculous. 'At the heart of the hobby' reads the banner on the front cover. Err...noooo....
.....and only a paltry mention of pre-Nationalisation.
The great thing about the magazine as it used to be was it was a 'keeper' - there was a lot of very useful reference work ready-done, with lots of drawings too. I see little evidence of that now. Will I spend almost a fiver on it again..? Absolutely not. A year of that will buy me a decent loco - no contest.
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I received my Dyno' Car today, and it's a lovely model. Top marks again to the wizards at Rapido. It must be all that Maple Syrup...!
I, like many buyers I suspect, hope to assemble an authentic-looking record-run train in due course. The model looks great - and I'm not enough of an LNER buff to offer any meaningful critique anyway. I'm sure the model is as it was shopped-out from it's last re-fit.
All I would say, is that it seems that the vehicle had been in use in that scheme for ten years or so, and as even the image supplied in the accompanying leaflet shows, the roof and flangeless wheel were certainly not white - on that famed day at least. I'm not a great lover of 'weathering', as it is used, more often than not as a blunt instrument and ruins many a good model. Having said that - in this case, it seems a modicum is required to get it closer to the surviving photos taken on the day.
That's not a criticicism in any way - just a buyers adjustment to suit his preferences.
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In addition to the front running plate ski-jump as mentioned, pictured, and force-straightened above (lastingly or temporarily I wonder), how many recipients have found that on examination (try looking along the side of the loco and tender from the front if you cannot spot it any other way) that the rear of the loco running plate is angled upwards, so that it sits (wrongly) higher than the tender soleplate at the rear and so that the truly square lower edge of the cab side doesn't quite sit flush on the running plate? The only example I've seen in the flesh was like that, and for the price, with no assembly diagram even provided to assist any owner wishing to investigate and rectify, I don't think the quality control on parts and assembly procedures is good enough.
I bought two - and they are both perfect in very respect. Well-done Rapido.
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Marches Line & 1936 WTT questions
in UK Prototype Questions
Posted
Thanks for that. I've just found an excellent website that goes into some detail about LMS and constituent company station colours;-
https://stationcolours.com/lms
Attached is an image of I think B&E signal cabin...? - It may in fact be one you posted, as I have so many saved photos I can never remember where they came from...!
S.