Tortuga

Lovely to see a post from you Tom. The teaser photo looks really good - is that winding house based on/inspired by the one that used to serve Abergynolwyn? (PS I tried joining your Facebook page to keep up with the developments of the Skarloey Railway, but wasn’t successful for some reason - nice to see an update on here though)

Interesting, though that would make sense as most of the photos of Gannets I’ve seen (from the group and from Jay) on the line are at locations between Parsley Hay and Middleton Top. I’ve not seen a photo of Mermaids on the Ashbourne line itself, but I think there’s a photo of some at Hillhead in one of the Foxline books. The only photo I’ve seen of ballast working on the Ashbourne line is this one from the W J Sutherland collection: http://sutherland.davenportstation.org.uk/aaprint/man.html#ash-62-10 which shows a train mainly of Catfish, at least three Trout and possibly one Gannet plus two ballast brakes passing through Parsley Hay en-route to Macclesfield in 1962.

Via a link from the Buxton Line and Railways of the High Peak Facebook group, I’ve found a photo showing the underbridge carrying Shawcross Yard over Randall Carr Brook. Unfortunately, not being sure of the copyright, I can’t post it here. Fortunately it has confirmed that the bridge was a stone built structure with quite a flattened arch.

One of the many photos posted on the Cromford & High Peak Railway Facebook group shows one of the J94s with ‘Gannet’ DM197392 branded ‘Empty to Parsley Hay’. Does this indicate some ‘Gannets’ were held at Parsley Hay specifically for ballasting work on the C&HPR (and potentially on the Buxton to Ashbourne line as well)? If so, arguments against getting a couple printed myself are growing thin on the ground!

Ah, that makes sense. I noticed them on Jay’s first photo, but they don’t look to be present on the above shot. They seem to be absent on prototypes I’ve seen photos of. Not having seen a drawing of a Gannet, I was starting to assume they were only present on one side of the wagon!

They look really good - and really delicate! Those sides are nearly translucent! The hand wheels look very nice as well. What’s happened to the rounded bits on the chassis?

Those sleepers still haven’t been used either though the ballast heap might’ve grown a bit! Fascinating photo: I’ve not seen that one before, have you any further information?

Is that the super secret test track for running in?

I’m heading up there on the Sunday by train; be good to put another face to a name if you do go.

That photo is probably my favourite of Alsop and most likely the reason I decided to model it. I just love the “private parking spot” for the signalman’s car, his chicken coops, the random bits and pieces lying around, the stack of sleepers waiting to be used and the northbound loco just feeling the easing of the gradient as it pulls in ready for the token and crew exchange. Although it was taken in 1962, I’m going to recreate most of the elements but backdated to 1953/4. So the locos will have early emblems, the wagons won’t all have vacuum brakes (I believe the Medium is M471281 (or 4?) from a hand brake only batch built in 1935) and the signalman’s car will be an earlier model.

Looking forward to seeing an example at Stafford Show!

Ah, you see, I “misread” the original photo and thought the circular “bits” on the side of the chassis were the hopper release wheels rather than a (?) backplate, hence my comment about replacing them with etched ones! When you said you should’ve taken a photo of the wheels Jay, I assumed you meant it came with 3D printed wheelsets for some reason! I mean, I have looked at the file, but it was a while ago and I’ve slept since then…

Glad to have been of help! There’s actually three in there: one at each end, across the width of the wagon and one between them, along the length of it. Would that mean the majority of Friden’s output would have traveled southward?

I’ve decided to put kit-bashing the ancient Ratio LMS Medium Wagon on hold as Ratio’s integrated floor/solebar combo means scratch-building a new floor. Far better to get hold of a Parkside’s LMS Medium Wagon kit and substitute the spare chassis parts to produce an LMS-built Medfit as that’ll leave me with a spare 10’ wheelbase chassis for potential scratch-building… In the meantime I’ll build the Ratio kit to represent one from my Alsop research material (shown below) though I’ll be modelling it prior to its fitting of vacuum brake gear. Photo from J W Sutherland collection / Manchester Loco Society, red circle, my own addition.

Probably not an idea to consider drilling out to create an open frame then… How difficult would it be to substitute in metal wheelsets? Would that help (a smidge) with weighting? Have to say I’m seriously considering getting one or two, but the wagon kit loft insulation needs depleting first…

That would be really helpful Jay, thanks. It’ll also be nice to put a face to a name and as I can only do one day at Stafford, Sunday it is!

Watching this with interest. Initial impression is that it looks good though a shame about the open frame and the operating wheels are crying out to be replaced with etched items! How noticeable was the open frame on the real thing given the overhang of the hopper? It looks like it’s mainly in shadow, so perhaps the lack of daylight/framework might not be as obvious?

Really nice work (you can’t even see the joins!) and a nice method for dealing with the roofs/rooves (one is right, but I don’t know which!); I can’t see me needing to use it, but you never know, so I’ve squirrelled it away for now.

I’ll give it a go! (I can see my shopping list for Stafford Exhibition is going to include a couple of cheap second hand wagons to practice on!)

That’s a nifty trick. Have you tried it on wagons painted black? Just wondering if it might just be the ticket for fading PO liveries to achieve that ‘almost obliterated’ look?

…some progress occurred today! Before I can lay any track on ‘Whaley Shunt’, I need to repair the PECO tandem point that I recovered from ‘Gibbs Sidings’. I’d previously attempted to modify this by removing the locking spring mechanism, the oddly shaped timbers and thinning down the tie bars and, while I was partially successful, one tie bar has snapped, the tags that hold the point blades in place have broken off and two of the frog dropper wires have parted company leaving me with this collection of bits: Holes were drilled to accommodate the frog droppers and, having carried out a minor soldering job to reattach one loose dropper, the point could be positioned (minus its blades and tie bars). I decided to tackle the tie bars (or more correctly, the leading stretcher bars) first as I need an easy, reliable and realistic method for making these for the points on Alsop. I felt the best solution was to have a hidden operating bar beneath the point to give the whole thing a bit of rigidity and to that end, cut out a patch of the cork to accept a ‘fake base’ with a slot in it through which an extra deep stretcher bar will fit I’ve made the base long enough to accept extensions to the existing timbers for hand point levers. Also in the above photo is the point operating bar, which will fit under the fake base and support the extra deep stretcher bar. …and that’s all I had time for!

Welcome aboard! Progress on here is very sporadic, I’m afraid! Having said that…

Thanks for an extremely informative and helpful reply Mike! I have a feeling that the hand levers at Shallcross were originally the weighted two-way lever, but were replaced by one-way levers. I’ll have to check the photos so I get them the right side and the right way round! Helpfully the fact they return to their original position means there’s no reason to make them move!

Forgive my ignorance, but I’d assumed hand point levers lay in one direction when the blades were set for one road and in the other for the other road. Did all hand point levers* operate in the way you describe? Was the different shape of the handles determined by manufacturer/company? (*Apart from the types with a weighted handle and the type that had to be held over when set for the other route)

Thanks Jonathan. I knew one was RHD and the other was LHD, but I couldn’t remember which was which. I seem to remember the Hornby (ex-Airfix) version is slightly ‘coarser’ scale-wise than the Bachy one. Does anyone know of a conversion kit to convert the Hornby/Airfix to a RHD version? I have an Airfix one from the bay of E that someone has swapped the reverser over on, but I’d like to take it a step further, which would mean a new backhead.