RedGemAlchemist

I have a question to ask the board, seeing as I apparently do not have as much knowledge of vintage 00 as I thought. I was scouring the vastness of eBay a few days ago while looking for parts for my usual RTRbashing adventures and came across this chunky burgundy tank engine shell amongst a job lot of 00 gauge body shells. I am relatively knowledgeable in old Triang, Wrenn and Hornby but am not familiar with this tank engine. I did not purchase said lot (choosing instead to buy four Triang blood-and-custards to modify into workable coaches), but the question nagged at me for a bit so I posed the conundrum of its origins to the regulars on my workbench thread. Sandhole suggested it was maybe a bash of several shells but I am not totally convinced, to me it looks too clean. So I ask you for a second opinion, and maybe even a positive identification if you can. I will, however, certainly be buying it next time should I see this thing again.

Only a slight Nelliebosh, but I'd say that my own KLR No.1 Bulldog deserves to be on here (depicted here with my B12 rebuild No.2 Wild Rover for scale.) Opened up the cab, new whistle (from a Smokey Joe, amusingly enough), new paintwork, some minor resculpting on the tanks. Come to think of it, Wild Rover itself has the smokebox from a starter loco and the chimney and dome from a 101, so it kind of fits to be on here itself. Also, FUUUU-SION! HA! (Automatically dating my own childhood with that reference while making myself look like even more of a dork in front of my peers. Nothing new there.) No.3 here (shown with Bulldog in an early stage of development) is... (phew...) Smokebox, bunker and whistle from the same 101 that was brutalised to provide a dome and chimney for Wild Rover, and the rest from a cut-and-shut Caley Pug; plus the chassis will probably be from an L&Y Pug. So it's technically a 101-Double-Pugbash. Christ. You may recognise these photos from my workbench thread. Sorry for the reuse of photos.

Oh wow. I love it! It's utterly adorable! I WANT IT. In seriousness though, great job, man.

Railmotor, you say?

Another Hewe update! The station now has a car park... which it shares with the pub. This has been the case ever since the car park was built in the '50s, due to the location of the pub.

Taking a leaf from the book of my frequent assistant / inexplicable fanboy DoubleDeckInterurban, I've decided to place a lot of my more outlandish or in the least case wildly bizarre locomotive and stock concepts onto this thread here to clear the air in my head a bit. And believe me there's a lot of them. Most of them will be in the form of probably quite bad Photoshop mockups, similar to those some of you may have seen in my Workbench thread. You are free to attempt to build any of these, so long as you let me know and let others know the initial idea came from this page. The only payment needed is to give credit. Let's start then with one some of you may be familiar with if you read my Workbench thread. I put this up here again now because... actually, it's quite a good idea, in my mind anyway, and I want to share it with those that might be willing to try and build this little thing. So, men and women of the jury, I present Exhibit A: The Brakevan Tram.

That being said, I could live with one of the older diesels that still have a bit of panache and charisma, like one of the older Class 03 to Class 08 diesel shunters, or even a Metro-Vick Type 2 if I could get one of the hilariously scarce Heljan ones and convert it to have tension-lock couplings.

Agreed. My nan's family were all LNER workers so I grew up with stories of them working in the BR steam days. I've always loved steam locomotives, so that's what I work with. That and my great-grandfather, himself an LNER fireman, reading me the Railway Series when me and my brothers were very young. So the KLR is a combination of the East Anglia I love and grew up in, and the steam locomotives I've always been fascinated by but was born in time to see in real action.

Sadly, the only diesel you'd be likely to see on the KLR would be a small industrial shunter, say a converted Triang Dock Authority or a BR Class 02. Something small with actual character. No offence.

Hmm. Definitely food for thought. Though DMUs themselves are kind of irrelevant to the KLR, yes.

Building locomotives is fun. Then again, I enjoy making models anyway (I also do Warhammer 40k, I think I mentioned that before) but I am terrible at working with the electrics or motorising stuff. Hence why I use pre-motorised chassis from existing locomotives, usually the one the bufferbeam comes from (see Wild Rover). Wow, that siding IS tiny. Almost impractically so.

Hewe update. The bridle path is added, as well as the embankment and the local pub, "The Journeyman", which has stood alongside the river ever since the River Thet was used to transport goods to Thetford on horse-towed barges.

Just had a look. I like the 2-6-4 tank. Not what I'd build, but I'd expect you're probably better at the actual construction than I am and I do like the design.

Oh wow. Thanks man. Really glad that I could be such an inspiration to you

Thank you. Pre-planning is always a good idea with the route. I don't however pre-plan the locomotives though because, well, where's the fun in that? Seriously though, the KLR's locos are kind of meant to look badly planned and cobbled together because most of them are. The KLR, despite being owned by an incredibly rich family and having additional funding from English Heritage, still hasn't got infinite money. It never has. Most of their engines are either cobbled together from second-hand, barely working engines that the LNER dumped on their hands or were designed in their own workshops and built from spare parts, with the exception of a couple of small industrial tank engines and a single, slightly out of place GWR 14xx (No.7, Wanderer, the only engine I've actually planned - which I don't actually have at the moment. Got an interesting in-world backstory too, as all the KLR fleet do.) Glad I could provide you with some inspiration

Duly noted. Will do. Also, FINALLY got that map done showing where the KLR is. Starting at Kelsby, then down into Cambridgeshire and into Hewe, then Alnerwick, Elmtree Heath and Berkham. The line into Telham Town is in the process of being restored at this point, and the final "stop" is the abandoned former Telham Fen station... which appropriately sits in the middle of Telham Fen, slowly being overgrown and sinking into the bog, and unable to be restored due to Telham Fen now being protected. Nearest major city to the line is Ely, and road access is best achieved by going to Berkham from Ely or to Kelsby from Thetford. Accessing Hewe, Alnerwick and Elmtree by road is, for the most part, a real challenge due to confusing road signs and terrible road conditions due to them being consumed by the boggy ground. Hence the important of the KLR to these communities. (Note: yes, Elmtree was originally called Dawsbury; believe I mentioned it earlier as having a dairy. Decided to change the name as I liked the name Elmtree better.)

Another minor update to the Hewe layout. Goods platform now has a crane, and I added the river underneath the bridge. There's going to be a bridle path running alongside the river. I also plan to have the station on an embankment, but how do I denote this?

Update to Hewe. Signal box and station building added, along with goods shed, platform and an extra siding. Might as well give such a simple station a teeny bit more "play value"

Coming from you, Edwardian, that is high praise for me indeed. They're still not 100% complete (more like 98%) but thank you very much.

Agreed. Plus it's just a really pretty, quaint, almost "cute" little station that would look perfectly at home on the KLR.

Thanks Northroader. I am quite proud of Wild Rover myself, especially considering the amount of work that went into it (fitting the new boiler and smokebox was a royal pain in the backside) and the fact it's my first locomotive bash, of what will undoubtedly be many. Again, can't test if it works or not, but like the Nellie chassis I can easily find a similarly sized 0-6-0 tender chassis to fit it if it doesn't.

Small update to the two existing locomotives. Bulldog and Wild Rover are now fully liveried. Only numbering needed now, which will be done with 7mm letters from Slater's Plastikard done up in gold. But either way, here are the first two Kelsby Light Railway locomotives, done up in full KLR green-and-blue. No.3 on the other hand will be done up in KLR goods black.

Thanks. I'm making a freelance light railway (see first page of this thread where I lay out my overall plans and the history of the KLR; it was greatly inspired by Colonel Stephens as well as the Sand Hutton Light Railway) and am modelling the first three stops on the line. Might model the other two if I have the room though, who knows?. Hewe is a little more rural than Kelsby, and is out in the Fens. In my mind it's a mix between Guyhirn (with the bridge) and one of my favourite local stations, Kimberley Park on the Mid Norfolk. At the moment though it's just that basic framework and I'm brainstorming with you guys to see what ideas you all put forward. All shapes with no form as it were.

So, still snowed in, and my postal orders are probably not going to arrive until the snow melts, if ever. Faaaaantastic. So, I have very little to work on. So, let's start on Stop 2. Hewe Station, just over the Cambridgeshire border and out in the fens. Entering from the left, through the station, over a bridge on the far side and out into the fens towards Alnerwick. People, let's brainstorm! Also quickly, an edit to the Kelsby final version as I forgot the signalbox.

Little bit of progress with KLR No.3. Got as far as I could with it, but without the chassis or bufferbeam I have no way of going forward any further at the moment. So, KLR No.3, which has no formal name at this time, is stuck like this until I have the money to get the remaining parts. Also until I know what chassis to use. EDIT: In case anyone's curious, here's a comparison between No.3 so far and Bulldog to show you how tiny No.3 will be. (This photo also has the whistle added, which that initial one didn't.) Not a great photo but it gets the point across.