Jonathan

Here are some more photographs of Bishop's Castle c.1932:- The first is a bucolic "down the line" shot with some of the local wildlife in evidence. We have a "spot the animals" quiz for our younger (and not so young) visitors. So far the hedgehog and stoats have evaded everyone's efforts to find them - but, along with the sparrow hawk, the badgers, the hare, and so on, they are there! The cow parsley is made from teased out green fibres and fine white scatter stuck on with hair spray; the hedges are from the usual rubberised horsehair and a mixture of coloured scatters. The fields are made from grass mats with added scatter. The results are very pleasing. The second photograph shows more detail of the rundown yard and rolling stock. The third is an exact recreation, deliberately in black and white, of a posed photograph taken on the railway in the 1930s, with the two engines and behind them the Gwilt wagon on the loading wharf siding. The final shot is of the layout being operated at the Ludlow Show in 2023. Jonathan

Thank you for your very kind comments. There are plenty more photographs of the layout in its present form - but I'm not certain how many I am allowed to post on here. I'll put some more up very shortly and see if they stay. We are building an extension to it taking the model down the line to the next station at Lydham Heath. This was where the mile and a half long Bishop's Castle branch joined what should have been the "main" line to Montgomery but was also where the line in fact ended beside a country lane when the scheme ran out of money. When complete we will have an "L" or "T" shaped layout but it works very well as it is at present from the station down onto a traverser. The rolling stock comprises the two locomotives which you have seen, a good selection of BCR goods wagons and POs of which we have photographic evidence of their presence on the line. Some of the wagons have been scratch built. Coaching stock comprises the ex 6 wheel L&SWR (ex Neath and Brecon and ex GWR) coach which by the date the layout is set was the only BCR coach then operational. We have two GWR 4 wheelers which the BCR hired in for excursion traffic and there is also an ex Hull and Barnsley coach not yet running. This survived - out of use - until the line closed when it was scrapped. We may twist history and have it trundling up and down as there are many contradictory tales of aspects of the BCR including when this or that ceased working. All the trains - save for cattle specials and the odd excursion - ran mixed. All the buildings are scratch built, including the weighbridge which is where the layout normally resides and is where we have our museum and wall displays which tell the history of the railway. The weighbridge is the last surviving railway building in Bishop's Castle, now fully restored from near total dereliction. The model weighbridge building (the one with the slate roof) can be seen in the first photograph at the top behind the pile of timber and the cattle pens. Replicating the rundown nature of the prototype with its grass grown lines, within a couple of years of closure (which came in April 1935) was our intention. By then, all of the buildings were falling to bits with the carriage and engine sheds propped up with heavy timbers to prevent their total collapse - as you can see on the model. Thank you once again for your kind comments and if anyone else wishes to ask any other questions about the model, please feel free to do so. Jonathan

I've seen several comments on here regarding aspects of the Bishop's Castle Railway. Members may be interested to see the image below which shows the 4mm Finescale layout built over the last couple of years of the line's terminus by a group of modellers in the Bishop's Castle Railway Society. The layout is out and about on the exhibition circuit and has been seen at the Ludlow Model Railway Show in 2023. Bishop's Castle c.1932 will be out on tour this year at both the Shrewsbury and Stafford Model Railway Exhibitions in June and September respectively. The layout features models of both the line's locomotives - Number 1 (nicknamed Tankie/Tankey by the railway) an 0-4-2T acquired secondhand from the GWR and Carlisle an 0-6-0 tender engine likewise acquired secondhand from a railway building contractor in the north of England in 1895. I've now added a second photograph which shows the two engines in greater detail. An amusing sidenote is that when the GWR sold the 517 class tank engine to the BCR, the GWR would only release the engine once the cheque from the BCR had cleared. Given just how impecunious the BCR was, it was a wise precaution!

Many thanks. Jonathan

Recently, I've been finishing off all of my Great Western and Southern freight stock - adding three link or screw link couplings, loads, painting, lettering, weathering and so forth - in all over eighty wagons, vans, opens and brake vans. Among them is the above, an ex-Parkside kit which I made up long ago. A beautiful model and when I bought it obtained for but a fraction of the cost of such kits these days. It didn't have any transfers with it. Is anyone able to point me in the direction of where these may be obtained, please? I'm trying to be as economical as possible in that, unless absolutely necessary, I don't want to have to order a whole sheet of letters and numbers of which I will use but a tiny fraction. Thank you. Jonathan

A very late reply! Had the same issue and all that was necessary was a little bit of masking tape wrapped round the pin. This made it slightly thicker and there was no issue of the bogie not turning.

Many thanks. Jonathan Many thanks. Jonathan

Many thanks for your reply. That is what I will do. Jonathan

Looks like my photo did not upload so trying again!

I want to lay 4mm rail across my Brunel timber viaduct. A temporary fix was a length of flexi track with sleepers attached but now I want to make it prototypical with the rails mounted on longitudinal timber baulks as per the attached photograph of Venn's Cross Waterrow Viaduct on the Barnstaple West to Taunton line. Has anyone done this please? Am assuming lengths of rail with chairs attached. obviously being very accurately laid on top of the baulks. Jonathan

Hardly that, merely a statement of fact. And while there may well have been factors outside of Kernow's control, it would have been helpful if down the years they had kept those who ordered these items abreast of what was causing the continuing delay. Given that I, and indeed others, complied with their eleventh hour request that they then take payment before the coaches were even in the country in order to guarantee the original discounted price, while I accept that there will be a staggered release, the company should have sufficient staff to process these items rather more expeditiously than is the presently the case.

Clearly not. Equally, I have to say I was not very pleased by the latest newsletter from Kernow making the point - in my words - that they would move more speedily in dispatching the coaches if people refrained from telephoning to find out the whereabouts of their particular order. I think waiting six years for an item is quite long enough. Surely, if there are difficulties, and they are, pardon the pun, snowed under, with other matters and their attendance at Warley, then temporarily hire a couple of extra staff - as used to be done at this time of year on the post and so forth to attend to this specific matter. For my part, my patience is starting to run out.

No, you don't sound like a whinging Pom (is I think what you meant!).Ordered mine several years back when they were commissioned, I'm still waiting for them, having responded, like many, to Kernow's surprise request to pay up front because of problems of the items being released when they arrived in this country - which they did at the beginning of November. Unfortunately, the lad at their end then failed to update my details properly. Another week went by before this was sorted - at the end of October. Now here we are at the end of the first week in December and still no sign of the coaches.