Philou

Where does one start? Peer pressure for one. Nothing new there - I remember well in the late-60s that in the sixth form we would have to give a talk about 'something' - any subject for half an hour. I think it was for English, no matter. Someone knew that I was into model railways (there were three of us in a college of 600 that were into railways) and I had to talk about 'that'. It was then, as now, not seen as 'cool'. I didn't get any stick, but it probably just confirmed that I was 'nerdy'. I didn't think it uncool, just didn't like sport - full stop! I did win first prize though one year in the model making section at our school Eistedfodd for my model of a Will's ex-TVR U1 0-6-2T loco. Here it is, approaching its 55th birthday: I'm no longer young, but I do 'collect' an eclectic range of stock - from modern block trains to (aiming to acquire) one of each of the 4-6-0 GWR locos (because I like them and no other reason), though I was never, ever into steam or copping loco numbers - really boring that seemed to me! Where does that leave the OP? I think it's all been covered by the contributors above - but one thing I am pretty well certain, you won't be able to fob-off a four a five year-old for very long if it's not the real McCoy - I know having been young myself (oh yes, really) and now having two grandsons both whom are quite discerning. Cheers, Philip

@The Johnster Is this tin-plate enough for you? My original two TTR trains - they cost quite a bit relatively speaking back then. Just look at them - under fed, unrealistic and basically, well, carp. I don't think this would fit OP's bill really. OTOH, they have survived nearly 70 years this year. The blue one was bought the day I was born in 1950 (allegedly): Cheers, Philip

On t'intertubes, there is a video of that very same helicopter 'dropping in'. Happened in the Whitchurch/Coryton area IIRC.

The 1977 greeting is not paint - it's that rather gaudy faux stone cladding that was all the rage in the 70s. Most of the terraced streets in Cardiff had some examples in them. In fairness, someone took a lot of time and trouble setting it out and getting scaffolding in place to do it. The 2002 one below is paint. Cheers, Philip

I agree, the younger grandson who is nine, much prefers steam locos only ever having seen two. His is the Holden above, his first steamer bought about four years ago. The next Christmas, he requested a Hall (lad of good taste) with some GWR stock. Last Christmas, it was the 'Coronation Scot' in blue and for his birthday last April, were last three coaches in stock to go with it. The 'Scot' and coaches were not cheap whereas I did get the Hall and three coaches for under £80!! To me, that seemed very reasonable. I didn't mind buying him the 'Scot' as he is quite meticulous and careful. I don't know what will be in the stocking this year though! The other grandson is TGV mad, though he was looking at a French 4-6-2 earlier - but I think they're rather too expensive for what they are - we'll see. So, I'm with Southport on this - but with a caveat - not ALL kids like diesels. Cheers, Philip

Is that 4mm? Crikey!! Philip

Oooh ..... oooh before I forget, on the previous page, a picture was posted up by @Happy Hippo showing the Crumlin catwalk - so thank you for that. Regarding the question of 'how did you get to the catwalk?', I can't answer that but I can guess that access was at either end via the brick approaches, or there was a way down between the brick pillar parapets and the steelwork. There is a picture during demolition works that shows an arch at parapet level between each span which would indicate a complete means to walk through without having to walk along the tracks. From one of the websites from wherein I borrowed some pictures, the author related that as a 'yoof' he walked the catwalk from one end to the other, but didn't say how he got there. (I had assumed, wrongly, that he was referring to the parapet at the top of the spans). The arch walk-throughs can just be seen below the cross-bracing, together with protective hand-railing: Better view of the arch walk-throughs: Cheers, Philip

Not only a saving in weight but a saving in bricks too. Bricks = £money. Here are the pillars being demolished, but unfortunately no hollow centres visible from the viewpoint. The bricks of these didn't go into the A470 as it had already been built: WalnutTreeDemolition.pdf Cheers and I'll try not to mention W Rs again ........... Philip

I know there's a bit of topic drift, but here's a photo of a TGV duplex (Jouef in this instance) and a Hornby 0-4-0 Holden having a Grand Prix race by the two grandsons. The point of the photo is that what you see cost no more than about £160 - €80 for the TGV (track included), £40 for the Hornby (track included), £30 for scenics and the base, and £20 for some extra track. The point is, for a (in my view) minimal outlay, hours of fun have been had: The one grandson has the Mehano TGV Duplex - absolutely no issues whatsoever. BTW, the Holden won - every time!! Cheers, Philip

In respect of rolling stock and if you're capable of making kits, there's a good range of wagons to be had at reasonable prices - wheels included and self-coloured plastic - so no painting needed if you shouldn't want to. The downside is they are not as robust as RTR. When I were a lad ..... we too, were not too well off and trains were added to at birthdays and Christmas - I believe it to be a perennial problem. I could only afford to buy stock (locos were paid for bit by bit) when I worked in a model shop! Jump forward 40 years and it's only being recently retired that I had been able to permit myself to buy what I wanted - family life, mortgage and the like got in the way in-between. As Nearholmer said above, it's a question of budget and even now my recent free-and-easy spending has been severely curtailed over the last 12 months and will be so, for forseeable future. Just my two pees. Cheers, Philip

The real edge of the world was Menelaus Street in Splott. You couldn't get any closer to the Dowlais works. I think that part of Splott was gone in the 70s. Not leaving Cardiff, but returning to a railway theme, here's an interesting picture that I'm sure would make a nice model. It's a Cardiff Railway twin-car SMU: Cheers, Philip

Well, when I was the teccy, there were two ways of ensuring that it did work a) plenty of lighting all around the sample in its tube, and left on overnight, or b) introduce some oxygen from a bottle before anyone noticed. My experiments always worked!! . Did I tell you the story of some finely ground silver nitrate, finely divided magnesium powder, a drop of water and a very black faced chemistry teacher - all during morning assembly? No? ......................................... Cheers, Philip

Agreed that it's a cut'n'paste job. Just look at the train and the conductor and then look at the garden bench just behind the front of the loco - or else it's a huge seat!! I think it's a poorly done job just to 'make something' for the cover. Cheers, Philip

Your having us on again, Mr Johnster, and I quote from that organ of veritude, Wikipedia: 'The location which is now referred to as Upper Boat was once a ferry point over the River Taff. There were three major ferrying points over the river, one at Taff's Well, a second at Willowford, and the 'upper boat' was moored where today the Upper Boat Inn is located.' You really are being naughty - good try though . Cheers, Philip

No, no, no. As a Cardiffian I'm rooting for my home airport. Lulsgate is poorly placed regarding road and rail infrastructure - whereas poor old Rhoose has a station at one end of a disused runway (there is an opportunity to create a short spur into the airport itself from the Porthkerry viaduct). I don't know how or why the consortium that previously owned Rhoose let opportunities slip by .............. even the (as was then) modern terminal has been reduced to two-thirds of it's original size. What I do know there was a report, possibly a Government White Paper, issued a number of years ago (before Bristol was expanded) that more or less wanted to concentrate aircraft movements closer to London (as ever the UK being 'London') and the use of Cardiff was kicked into touch. The only thing that was going for Cardiff was that BA have their engine shed (this is a railway forum, no?) at the airport, the biggest shed in the UK (so I am told). However, given Covid, I wonder if there will be further use for this engineering base as the fleet of 747s that were maintained there, are now parked up at the airport awaiting their fate - presumably facing the great runway in the sky. So boo, hiss to Bristol. Seriously though, such is the way of things and it may well be that with Covid things will change and possibly not for the better. Cheers, Philip PS: Back to OPs proposal, I suspect Filton was too close to what is now the outskirts of Bristol and especially as Concorde was built there, I expect many of the populace said 'thanks, but no thanks' and hence airport at Lulsgate which was always the route to Paris from Cardiff via Lulsgate and Hurn (in the times of Cambrian and BEA).

@Happy Hippo Yes, I used Google to establish some dimensions - for example I knew that the first span was 120' long and by simply using an appropriate scale on an engineering 'ruler' I was able to get approximate sizes for the pillars - all on screen - no paper copies - they're for wimps! I was very surprised by the angular nature of the southern embankment approach and the first pillar. Here's the original screen-grab - the latest view is more overgrown: WalnutTreeGoogle.pdf Thanks for the video. The still picture of the viaduct shows the demolition of the bridgeworks with what looks to be a hefty crawler crane presumably lifting the bridge decking. Following a link to another video at the end, the first is from which I took stills showing its original construction - worth a look. Cheers, Philip

Before the Coryton Interchange was built, one of my duties as the Lab Technician at the Bishop of Llandaff HS, was to go Melingriffith (one 'l' not two as I have been writing) alongside the Taff and then onto the former Glamorgan Canal and fish some Elodea Canadensis (pond weed) from it for biology studies (oxygen from plants). The samples were enormously long! If it was a nice day, I didn't need to be told twice!!! Cheers, Philip

Ian, thanks for that. That was indeed my route between the Maes-y-Celyn estate and the Treforest Estate station. Some of the route was on this minor road and the rest was a metalled PRoW across a field. I've just had a quick Google, but the PRoW is not discernible due to the growth of trees though its position is probably indicated by the new footbridge over the recent re-aligned A473. And to think I did that route on foot for 5 years every Saturday without knowing its origins! (I can't remember how I got from the house onto the PRoW without going to the top of Power Station Hill. There was probably an internal estate link to it.) PRoW? Public Right of Way. Cheers, Philip

But .... but .... wait .... you mean there's a word different to daps?

@jamie92208 As a yoof, I remember a rather large watertower on the edge of Cardiff city centre adjoining the 'Dowlais' steelworks site that was spread east of the docks. (The Dowlais name coming from when the steelworks moved from Dowlais in Merthyr to Cardiff East Moors). The name emblazoned upon the tower was GKIS (no N) that I assume was Guest Keen Iron and Steel - when it became GKN, I don't know. I think it may have changed names a few times before finally closing down. I don't even recall when East Moors closed down permanently - sometime after Margam and Llanwern came into being I expect. There is still today a specialist steelwork plant on the site with the ladles still transported on rail. I remember (here we go again) being young walking down to East Moors and watching the ladles with their white hot slag being tipped onto the foreshore - accompanied by a rather loud explosion as the slag hit the sea. Cheers, Philip PS: I'm back in as the rain decided to come back - but now the blazing sun has arrived - drat!! PPS: I just googled GKN - the name did change a lot from the 1930s until its closure in 1978.

Good morning chums, Our heatwave has broken and it's raining at the moment and so no scaffolding until it eases off. Here is 'Princess May', an 0-4-0ST loco (of unknown provenance to me), 'one of the locos' used at the Gwaelod-y-Garth foundry, so the name Gwaelod-y-Garth was also in use in the early days. I've just noticed that in the background of the photo it says 'Keen & Nettlefolds'. Were these small ironworks part of the GKN group? Princess May.pdf This one concerns the 4-track Mellingriffith works flat crossing with the TVR: MellingriffithCrossing.pdf An unusual shot taken from an ex-GWR hauled passenger train over the viaduct: WalnutTree1958.pdf Here is a more usual view of the viaduct but with an ex-LNWR hauled passenger working: WalnutTree exLNWR.pdf Here"s a little something to test your weathering techniques: WalnutTree Dolomite works.pdf I also have OS maps of before and after the viaduct showing two Pentyrch Ironworks - possibly one of them is the Gwaelod-y-Garth works referred to above. There is shown a continuous rail link between these two sites and the Mellingriffith works that was broken after the viaduct was built. There you go, Mr Hippo. I have other photos if anyone wants to have a look. Cheers and have a good day everyone. Rain has stopped my play indoors and I'm off onto the scaffolding. Philip

@tomparryharry My reply crossed yours - sorry. I never knew about the rope/tramway! And despite living in Tonteg, I never realised the platforms were still there. I had an inkling of the general run of the railways that were there as I worked in what was the Mid-Glamorgan Highways Department had access to the OS maps for the area. I was also one of those responsible for using most of the old lines for new roads (though not the Tonteg bypass, I hasten to add). Nelson, Tonyrefail to Trehafod, Talbot Green, Aberdare and Bargoed bypasses were all my (and colleagues) designs - sorry! However, I did make amends somewhat, by getting a station built for me on the City Line (Waun-gron Park/Parc) - yes, for me, seriously. Cheers, Philip

I can't find a way (at the moment) to extract the pictures from my OpenOffice document directly into a reply here - there is a way as I did in a PM ages ago to someone else. Failing all else, I'll do either a .doc or .pdf file which I shall reduce in size as presently it's 22Mb!! Regarding the remaining pillars of the viaduct, I have some that were taken when the tree cover was much reduced. I was able to determine approx. dimensions from them for the viaduct (counting bricks for a start!). Recently I came across some design drawings of the viaduct and I was gratified to see that I was only inches out overall - not too bad for guess work and abstracting info from a few photos. The photos of the erection of the viaduct showed the principle of the steelwork and details that were hidden. Interestingly, the photos seem to show that the steelwork was erected at near-ground level for some spans, others were 'launched' onto half-built pillars, and then using hydraulic jacks, the pillars were raised bit by bit. Shades of Brunel and the Clifton suspension bridge appear as the viaduct pillars were hollow - something that was only known to me by way of the drawings. Regarding the catwalk, is there any way of knowing if handrails were provided? Nothing I have (not even the drawings) show the catwalk in detail. I'll try and post up tomorrow. Here's the 56xx as a Word .doc for the moment: Walnut1.doc and a photo of 'Emerald Isle' belonging to the Mellingriffith works that I think is a Peckett. The quality is poor: I'll do 'Princess May' belonging to the Pentyrch ironworks tomorrow.It's an 0-4-0 but I don't know its provenance. Having seen mention of TGV/other locos in the same breath here's a photo of the two grandson having a Grand Prix race last year between a TGV and a Holden - the Holden was fastest! Cheers everyone, Philip

Ah, while I think about it, I think Upper Boat takes its name from a ferry across the Taff that once existed there. I lived in Tonteg from 1976 to '82 (hence my Saturday commute above) and I was quite surprised when I discovered a whole load of railway infrastructure just behind our estate. All swept away now by the new A473 bypassing Tonteg, Church Village etc using mainly the old railway alignment. There were also some concrete-filled cast iron columns standing in the river bed at Rhydyfelin where the Cardiff Railway crossed the Taff in its abortive attempt to connect with the TVR. As the terminus of the CR was Rhydyfelin, I expect the bridge was only ever used the once and that was the day the CR made the only connection with the TVR and the junction removed thereafter. There are pictures of the old Glamorgan Canal 'tunnel' that ran under the CR embankment - but I didn't save any of those. Cheers, Philip Here's a Google view of the columns: https://www.google.fr/maps/@51.584703,-3.3175223,73m/data=!3m1!1e3

Right-ho - I'm happy to post under Research as that was what it was for - though I may not be able to give credit where credit is due as I just culled the picture without any additional notes - buqqer. The one lot are still pictures from a YouTube video - very informative as some show the launching of the steelwork of the viaduct from the Garth side over the Cardiff railway. To think that I thought steelwork launching was relatively modern! I'll need to extract the pictures from an OpenOffice document, so I may be a little while ..................... Cheers, Philip