Peter Warren

Andrew, As far as we are aware there are no etches available for these carriages. We purchased a copy of the original LNWR Wolverton Works drawing from the NRM (LNWR drawing 64/9863 dated 23rd June 1908). From this we were able to produce our own drawings, designed for etching in 7mm scale; I do not think they could be simply reduced down for 4mm scale. We have discussed writing up the Dia 213 project for publication but have not got a round tuit yet.

We were not aware of this but it seems you are correct! The photo shows the Chief Signalling Engineer has been working hard today to put this right. Many thanks for pointing it out.

Merely a case of BR trying to copy Twickenham MRC? Great photo, thanks for posting it Phil. This station has seen such a great variety of trains over the years that club members have been thinking of all sorts of possibilities: We would be interested to see other unpublished images of the station (preferably in steam days!).

If you are an LNWR enthusiast you will probably have noticed that Twickenham & District MRC have entered this layout into the LNWR Society Modelling Challenge competition on RMweb; if not you can find more photos and details about the LNWR features on the layout here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/140934-lnwr-infrastructure-equipment-at-kensington-addison-road-station/ As a separate entry I have also submitted details of the LNWR Oerlikon electric sets seen on the layout: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/140026-lnwr-3-car-oerlikon-electric-multiple-unit/

Thanks Richie - you can see the layout on 16-17th February when we will be taking it to the Milton Keynes MRS 50th Anniversary Exhibition at Stantonbury Leisure Centre. On 31st August-1st September we will be at Guildex at the International Centre in Telford.

Peter Warren The down side booking hall includes ticket windows, gas lamps and a clock. We couldn’t find any information about the interior arrangements at Addison Road so the model was inspired by details at Nuneaton station. The newspaper vendor was obtained, ready painted, from www.detailedminiatures.co.uk Tony Wright The platform canopy roofs were a distinctive feature. We modelled them in 3D CAD to check the proportions looked correct before designing a modular kit of parts which were then laser cut in plywood by Timber Tracks. Each group member assembled a few modules, enabling us to complete what would have been a formidable task quite rapidly. Tony Wright, courtesy BRM The platform canopies are fixed to a robust horizontal grid of brass sections, supported by ‘cast iron’ columns which are CNC-machined in brass following drawings which we deduced from photographs. The gas lamps below the canopies are hand made around large LEDs. Tony Wright Drawings of the ornamental ‘cast iron’ canopy support brackets were also copied from photographs, taken after the station was damaged in a WW2 bombing raid, and were laser cut by Timber Tracks in thin MDF. We drew up the standard Crewe ‘unclimbable’ iron fencing for etching in brass, using the details given by Jack Nelson in his book LNWR Portrayed. Peter Warren This construction photo shows the footbridge steps threading around the platform canopies. We designed the footbridge in etched brass as it has to be removable because it spans a baseboard joint. This was one of the few areas of the station where there were some original drawings to refer to; these were found in the National Archive at Kew. Tony Wright, courtesy BRM Kensington South Main signal box was a standard L&NWR design, designated type 4 by the Signalling Record Society. We made our own drawings following published information about the standard L&NWR dimensions and using an excellent set of photos taken just before closure and demolition in 1992 by Ian Spalding. We developed the drawings into a kit of parts which were then laser cut for us in ply and MDF by Timber Tracks. This enabled us to accurately reproduce the distinctive L&NWR brick coursing and other details seen in the photos. Interior detail includes a lever frame with 80 levers of the standard L&NWR design with stirrup-type catch handles; these were 3D printed from our own CAD file. All the signalling on the WLR was by the L&NWR; South of Addison Road, on the West London Extension Railway, GWR signalling practice was followed. Tony Wright, courtesy BRM The large running-in boards on the station platforms were modelled by tracing over a rectified photo on the computer. This enabled the distinctive typeface of the lettering to be copied exactly. The drawing was then sent away to be etched in brass sheet. The L&NWR platform barrows are from kits by Southwark Bridge Models. Tony Wright, courtesy BRM The distinctive down starter signals underwent many changes over the years and required much research to enable an accurate model to be produced. The ringed arms seen in the 1922 photo, installed by the LNWR to mark ‘slow’ lines, were removed in 1926 and the small repeater arms were lowered. As with all the signals on the layout, this one is hand built, servo-operated, interlocked to the traction current and lit with grain-of-rice lamps. The ground signals do not operate (yet!). On the left is an L&NWR fireman’s plunger, used to enable the crew of a train held at the signals to remind the signalman of their presence. The L&NWR platform seats are from kits by Southwark Bridge Models with added nameplates in etched brass. Peter Warren The up home signals for Kensington South Main were on a gantry squeezed in under the platform canopy; they controlled movements over the scissors crossover at the centre of the station. The L&NWR used short signal arms here in order to reduce the space between the dolls. The adjacent footbridge has been removed for the purposes of this photograph. Sadly our clubroom is not quite large enough to extend the layout to include the nearby Kensington Middle Box, an L&NWR over-track signal box which would make a super model!

In 1844 the London & Birmingham Railway (LNWR from 1846), jointly with the GWR, financed the West London Railway between Willesden/Old Oak Common and the basin of the Kensington Canal, which provided a link to the London Docks via the River Thames. The canal was a failure so in 1863 the LB&SCR and LSWR joined the LNWR and GWR to build the West London Extension Railway to Clapham Junction, with a link to Victoria station. Limited space in our clubroom means that we have only modelled the southern part of the station. We have chosen the mid-1920s to allow LMS and SR liveried locos and rolling stock to be seen. The first post-war Sunny South Special at Kensington in 1922 (E A G Smith in LNWR Soc Journal Vol 5 No 11) A great deal of research was required, on site, on line and from published sources. The Atkinson Collection in the NRM Library at York was particularly useful, as were the aerial photographs in the Aerofilms Archive, then being digitised by English Heritage at Swindon. Several visits were also made to the National Archive at Kew. The quality of this photo looking South from the footbridge was inspirational in guiding the T&DMRC team in the completion of many detailed aspects of the model. In the accompanying commentary, in LNWR Soc Journal (Vol 5 No 11), Richard Foster points out that: The basic station plan of long platforms and centre crossovers might be regarded as the LNWR's preferred layout for large stations, often, but not always, with centre through lines, and a significant number of stations laid out in this way could be found on the Company's system. A surprising number were at jointly owned or operated stations and it says something for the LNWR's status and powers of persuasion that the 'LNWR Plan' was adopted at so many of them when they were built or rebuilt. Tony Wright Our 7mm scale model portrays the half of the station to the South of the central footbridge as far as the Hammersmith Road overbridge. Although the actual platforms were the longest in London we have not had to compress their overall length. The pointwork is hand built using C&L components on a Templot track plan and we have added third and fourth (conductor) rails for the L&NWR suburban electric services between Willesden Junction and Earl’s Court. The signals, point rodding and facing point locks are also hand built following a close study of period photographs. Tony Wright, courtesy of BRM We could not find any drawings of the long-demolished station buildings, so we made our own using Ordnance Survey plans and rectified photographs as the basis. The design is a tall version of the standard L&NWR prefabricated timber station buildings illustrated in LNWR Portrayed by Jack Nelson. The buildings have an MDF carcass clad in limewood strips to replicate the tongued and grooved boarding and the repetitive window and door modules are resin castings by Ken Degroome from our own master.

The completed Oerlikon set was tested on the Twickenham club layout Kensington Addison Road. The success of this prototype resulted in other club members deciding they would like to build one too, so more etches were ordered and my instruction sheets put to the test, resulting in four electric sets for the layout. To add variety, two of these are still in LNWR livery and two in LMS livery and differ in details such as arrangement of louvres. The original LNWR livery must have looked very splendid for humble local suburban stock and I wanted to recreate this on my model. Looking at the livery in detail I realised that it was worth paying for professional assistance at this point and the set was painted and lined by Alan Brackenborough. His work transformed my first attempt at designing in etched brass: For more LNWR atmosphere the completed Oerlikon set will be in service at Kensington Addison Road this weekend (8th-9th December), when the layout is exhibited at The National Festival of Railway Modelling at the East of England Arena and Events Centre, Peterborough PE2 6XE. Come and see us!

The driving trailer 3rd was relatively plain, with the recessed doors being the only complexity. With such large windows interior detail was essential and the seats were made up in styrene sheet; the saloon arrangement with longitudinal seats in 3rd class seemed way ahead of its time. Driving controls were made up using castings from Ken Degroome.

With the centre car successfully completed as a prototype, I went on to complete the artwork for the two driving cars. Designing the etch for the motor brake third was complicated by my desire to include the possibility to model the modifications carried out later at Wolverton, including the addition of a second window in the double doors of the guard's compartment, the replacement of three wide louvred ventilation panels by four narrow panels of louvres within opening doors, and the fitting of side destination plates and non-stopping indicators. A further challenge was how to represent the characteristic louvres. Various ideas were suggested, including resin moulding or 3D printing them, but I opted for etching them. Simply twisting each louvre blade to the desired angle created the desired effect. The motor bogie turned out to be surprisingly similar to an 8' 9" wheelbase SR type and I modified a Roxey Mouldings motor bogie and side frames to look like the LNWR design. It fits neatly hidden by the louvres in the guard's compartment.

Initially I made the roof by fitting a block of solid balsa to the carriage and sanding it down to the profile of the brass ends using a sheet of sandpaper taped to a flat workbench. This is very quick and easy and the roof is then overlaid with cartridge paper to give a canvas effect. The small buffers between the cars within the set were distinctive and as I was unable to source them commercially I had to persuade a friend to turn them up for me on his lathe. The large buffers at each end of the set were obtained from NMRS Models: The non-powered bogies are of a standard L&NWR 9' 0" wheelbase type and the model versions are by Wayoh, fitted with 3' 7" diameter steel disc wheels from Roxey Mouldings. The roofs of these carriages were finished with a very large number of ventilators (I used brass castings from Sidelines), as shown in the photo below taken by Dewi Williams: Any ideas as to what the large frying pan is on the roof? They do not appear to be present in pre-grouping photos so I left them off the model.

The first etched sheet was for the TC and it looked superb, much to my relief, and I decided to assemble this one car as a prototype before ordering the etches for the other two. It took much less time to assemble the model than it had to design it. I had taken time to think through the design of the tricky bits, like the extraordinary variety of hinged toplight windows and the recessed sliding end doors, and was relieved that these all came together as planned. I took some photos and made notes of the assembly process as I went along, and these ultimately became a set of instructions for other club members to follow.

My previous attempt at uploading one of my drawings was unsuccessful. Hopefully this shows the stage I had reached, with a simple 2D CAD drawing of each car: Having prepared the ground, it was time to work out how to make a model. I had built some etched kits and scratch-built some carriages in perspex and styrene sheet before, but these electric sets had large windows and would be quite a challenge in styrene sheet. For a long time I had wanted to try to design my own components in etched brass and here was an opportunity. With the CAD drawings I felt I was half way towards designing an etched kit. Brass would make a stronger model and, if it worked, there was the advantage that I could make the etches available to other club members so that one day we might have more than just one Oerlikon set. So the fun began - copying parts of the drawing on the computer as simple fills to make the shapes of the components I needed, then editing them so there were different colours for full thickness, half etch front and half etch back areas. Multiplying/mirroring these shapes to give the number required of each component was easy, arranging them economically within a standard width of metal sheet took a little longer. I decided to use PPD Ltd for this first attempt at etching and followed the artwork instructions on their website. Cautiously I emailed the artwork for one car to them.

The design of the Oerlikon sets was certainly unusual - after the full panelling of the Siemens units it was as if the LNWR wanted smooth flush-sided stock but couldn't quite give up having a bit of panelling on the driving cab of the DMBT - oddly the driving cab of the DTT has no panelling! The photo of a unit under construction shows that the panelling appears to be steel: The simplified panelling of the Oerlikon stock was one reason for not choosing to model a Siemens set!

Fortunately other club members provided a lot of help in researching the variations and modifications, and in finding as many photos as we could. These were compared with the original GA drawings. Our in-house LNWR enthusiast Graham Barker obtained permission to photograph inside and underneath the preserved vehicle at York: Producing the drawings took a long time as I wanted to included the modifications we had identified, such as the non-stopping indicators and destination plates: V2_22B DRIVING TRAILER THIRD DRAWING.PDF

The first challenge was finding information on which to base the model. The following sources were used: General arrangement drawings of 1915 Oerlikon Driving Motor Brake Third and Driving Trailer Third held at NRM York Preserved Driving Motor Brake Third at NRM York Unattributed 7mm scale drawings published in the model railway press (date unknown), with some apparent inaccuracies Photographic survey from as many collections and sources as we could find British Railway Carriages of the 20th Century Volume 1 (David Jenkinson) Railway Carriage Album (G M Kichenside) London's North Western Electrics (F G B Atkinson, B W Adams and H L Clarke), published by The North London Railway Historical Society, an updated version of an earlier publication by The Electric Railway Society ​ It was apparent that there were differences between the two batches of Oerlikon electric sets as well as subsequent in-service modifications. I decided to produce my own drawings based on the original GA drawings which we were able to photograph in the library at the National Railway Museum.

Several years ago members of the Twickenham & District MRC decided their next O gauge layout would be a model of Kensington Addison Road c1925, the station nowadays known as Kensington Olympia. Considerable research followed and the working timetables showed that a large proportion of the passenger services were operated by L&NWR electric trains running between Earl's Court and Willesden. This route was the first part of the L&NWR inner suburban network to be electrified, using 3rd and 4th rail DC, in 1914. The L&NWR placed orders for three-car electric multiple units from Metropolitan-Cammell in Birmingham. These units were formed Driving Motor Brake Third (DMBT) + Trailer Composite (TC) + Driving Trailer Third (DTT). All the cars were open saloons and the electrical equipment was in a compartment behind the driving cab in the DMBT. The units were delivered in three batches. The first batch, introduced in 1914, was fitted with electrical equipment from Siemens of Germany. Due to the War, the following two batches, introduced in 1915 and 1921, used equipment from Oerlikon of Switzerland. Back at the club, everyone agreed that 3rd and 4th rail electrification would be an unusual feature for the layout and for some reason I volunteered to build a 7mm scale electric set.

Looks great (even in simple bauxite livery!) - I have not tried them but the welding beads certainly add something to an otherwise large and featureless roof. Some rust patches would probably also be prototypical but I have not summoned up the time or courage to weather my VIX yet.

Hi Brian, The VIX looks very fine, I'm looking forward to seeing how you paint it - masking the red/grey was hell on the livery I chose! You are right, I did use EDM 1/2" bolts, as they are so noticeable on photos of the real thing, although on the model they look a bit more prominent than I hoped. I added them to the door top runner covers too but I could not drill holes for these so they are bonded in place with adhesive. If you are looking for extra work, I noticed after I had finished and painted mine that there was no representation of the wagon repair label clip(?) seen on the lower edge of the panel to the left of the door. These appear to have been omitted from this kit, a pity as PH includes very nice ones with his KFA kit.

Looking good! I found it all went together well but you are right to identify the roof as the only tricky bit in this kit - I didn't quite succeed in avoiding a wavy edge as the attached photo shows.