London cambrian

Met 1 is also doing bodmin and wenford and swindon and cricklade, talk about doing the rounds! All this before she's even done the bluebell which i'd have thought woulda been sooner...

Cheers for that Gareth I got some photos of it too when i was there last weekend, has rather given me som interesting ideas for models, so may have to hunt out some really decent drawings at some point... When and if it gets its proper buffers back if you can please post a photo of the buffing gear and particularly how they go into the frame and spring off the frame... I may have to come down myself if this project gets off the ground Cheers again Mark

that settles it, am certainly making the trip down to MHR then hahah

Yes from what i hear, it was failed during the week by Dennis howell after suspect leaks under the smokebox, and i suspect a general feeling of poor pulling power... The concrete in the base of the smokebox was broken up and pulled out to reveal the problem which was apparently a crack/hole in the wall of the cylinder casting that had been previously repaired, hence the need to fail the lcomotive and call in L150 to do the honours...

I really look forward to reading this thread go on, Cwmafon was a layout i always remembered and admired from reading my dads old RMs (hope thats not making anyone feel old! haha), and was always very disappointed there werent more pictures, indeed this thread is the first time i've seen the bottom half of the layout other than as a plan! Haha As i say, look forward to it... Mark

yep, thats about the size of it. But really how big an interest in it is there? We've been discussing it on here, but only half a dozen or so people have expressed their interest in it here. Its a sad fact wagons are the over looked part of preservation. And restoring it would be a very large job as you rightly say. taking it apart is a challenge in itself, theres only a hand full of parts which are bolted, its all other wise rivetted, as well as removing the RSJs in the end of it, which for wall we know are holding to together! any strip down would mean a lot of work to drill out al the rivets, seperate the parts, which will no doubt be heavily corroded together, replace large sections of material which have just wasted beyond redemption, and then replace al the fixings which were removed. inevitably i reckon it would get to a kit of parts stage and be dropped because of other projects. plus there is still a lot unkown about this vehicle, i still havnt been able to confirm there was a central wooden floor on it, though i'm fairly certain looking at the holes in the supporting angle and their lower displacement to the rest of the floors. Its a pessimistic way of looking at it but thats facts. I'd whole heartedly support any attempts at its restoration and rebuild (and it most certainly is a rebuild, though fortunately the vast majority of parts are there for it) but it would require some serious impetus behind it for it to get anywhere in the current position!

I'd fear garath its getting towards that stage already! Its gotta be the only wagon onsite with exception of maybe the beetle (which is undercover) and the palvans (which arent much more than storage i dont think) that hasnt had any work done to it since it arrived. would make a very interesting addition to the freight set. And there obviously seems no reason for it not to be restored by didcot like they have at SVR apart from lack of interest, and what i consider may be a more relevant issue, the space it would take up in LOCOMOTIVE works, not the carriage and wagon, because it very definitely needs space in there which it would take up from other big name projects like Pendennis, the saint, the prairie, the county, the dock tank and the 72xx. i suspect thats the issue and obstacle to it. perhaps when a few have left there would be room to consider the coral A.

Cracking stuff there castle! Lovely little model thats turned out as! maybe showing around at didcot might fire some enthusiasm into restoration of what remains of the full size! Nice one! All the best Mark

I know whats being stamped on the boxes for inside my 5 inch gauge coral then... Does mean i'm going to have to make the inner crate frames now :/

Hi Paul Do you know why they were being carried on flat wagons at the time of your photographs? Were they on transfer to the NRM or something at the time?

Can i just boost the profile of the miniature railway part of this event? Amongst a small group of us we have (all in 5 inch gauge) upto 3 Metropolitan railway steam locomotives, of classes A, H and K, (no guarentee of steaming but will be on display), atleast 1 LT pannier almost certainly in steam, at least 2 metropolitan railway electric locomotives (others to be confirmed) 5 Met railway Dreadnoughts, 3 Jubilee coaches (including a model of the preserved 353) 14 Met railway wagons, Met non passenger stock, and many private owner wagons that would have seen service over met metals and behind Met engines. All this will be running in between public trains, in what we hope willbe the largest ever gathering of Met railway rolling tock in 5 inch gauge and 7 1/4 inch gauge. Please do come and see us over the weekend, and we may organise photographic opportunities to create scenes such as a Met H at the head of a dreadnought rake, A at the head of jubilees, and K at the head over a mixed freight... sorry, shameless plug over in other news it has been confirmed by EOR that whilst the GER N7 cannot make it, LT liveried prairie will take its place, and that TWO dreadnoughts will now also be visiting for the event, along with Met 1, coach 353 and the Milk van.

I'd tend to agree, most vehicles of this sort of type would tend to be required at odd times, or only moved periodically, so unless there was a big batch going somwhere they'd be formed into ordinary freight trains mostly. However if there was a permenant way train going that way, or certainly even on other railways, ther was no reason they wouldnt form such vehicles into any type of train, including ballast. But it was more likely to be coincidental it was in the train, not usually there for an associated reason, if you see what i mean. On some railways if particular vehicles were required at specific places, they would more than likely be attached to the next train going that way. Certainly round london, on the GCR london extension i have heard tales of the returning empty fish vans being tripped across london in the small hours of the morning on the back of permenant way trains on the old metropolitan railway so they could be taken back to grimsby for the morning catch. But essentially vehicles like this are in the main considered as stock fit to run in any train, including passenger (unsure of the GWs policy on them) so you may well find them in ordinary pick up goods trains. A point of query, Stationmaster mentioned painters vehicles, is that literally painters or am i missing something there? Cheers Mark

The way that 9466 came storming up the bank at chorleywood on sunday i think they may well have got their own back on that one tbh! Just a few from me because i didnt get the ones i really wanted, but these will do pretty well. I never got to see Met 1 which is a shame, but was always going to folow her round the gala's she is booked in for, if they get her fixed in time that is!

Ah a location i am well familiar with, getting odd looks from other visitors as i get on the ground measuring and crawling around the frames! hehe! But i'd love to see the aero wagon converted back, and with an appropriate load of course! Another to model one day. And good news that they want to restore it, but the problem with it is it needs space in the main loco workshop more than just the carriage shed, and what with Pendennis, 1366, the country, the saint and the prairie in there its a little way down the pecking order! But please do post the pics of the model, always good to see. Back on the transport wagons, my first thought was as a converted conflat, but theres the extra framing on there it would be interesting to see a better pic of. And especially some better indication of the lettering applied, how it was used (ie what did it carry, what sort of train did it travel in, the next freight going that way or was there dedicated stores trains etc etc) and some more background info, for anyone with access to the wagon lists particularly. Cheers Mark

Hiya castle No problem and thanks very much. Been in planning for about three years now! The last picture was taken at GWR175! Like i say if you need anymore pictures, drop me a pm or something, i have plenty! Incidentally, if yourself or anyone else is around dicot in the near future and is able to do me a favour, i could do with the dimensions for the suspension, namely the bracket that attaches to the main frames, i neglected to dimension it when i was last there and its the last thing to do other than brake gear atm. If not i need to visit didcot again at some point anyway to look at some bogies and 4 wheeler coaches. Hopefully have it running by july august time, updates will be in the blog! Another point to note is i'm pretty sure they had a planked centre floor, indeed that is how i have left mine. The floor supports seem to be lower in the centre well, and the holes more akin to large wooden fixing coach bolts, than rivets, if anyone could confirm that i'd be greatful! So, whilst we are here, i shall take up castle's offer for a forum of GWR oddities This is from the didcot Facebook page (all credit to the didcot collection and its original photographer Mike Peart) The caption reads The question is, does any have or know of more pictures of any of the vehicles featured, the wagons used to transfer parts to depots. Anyone with any pictures, especially more unusual versions (this one appears to be an ex conflat or similar) love to see, and know about their origins, any extra info etc. Regards Mark

Hiya Mark No probs, if you need anything, PM me an i can post them somewhere or alternatively email anything you need. I made a new set of sandbox of pull rods myself for the 5 inch one, though have only made the cams so far, havn't been able to get hold of any suitable section for the rods. My stuff tends to be smaller than what is common at model engineering shows! haha. But its sitting in the lounge looking at me, i've told myself i'm not allowed to touch it till after the exams! But after that we'll get the odd running issue sorted, get it a proper steam certificate (i was running at a private track and had an inspector check it before hand the other weekend!) and do a bit of detailing work, a proper new cab, pipe work, maybe another injector, lamp irons, and LT fittings like sleet brushes and trip cocks, before lining it when its all apart, maybe as late as september! but as i say, if you need anything, always pleased to help another pannier fan Mark

Hi all, Been reading this one with interest, after having just found it! Its seems like Castle i became interested i this wagon because it resides at didcot. Except in my case i went ahead and built a model in a much larger scale! I ended up making several visits to dicot just to photograph this wagon! But i posed a similar question on these boards on the same topic about a year back now, and got very little info so i'm glad more has come to light. I expect most of the research i have done you have already come across long ago so i wont repeat whats already said in the russell books! However whilst on the subject of liveries, doing a bit of practical research (yes hands and knees in the dirt over the thing!) if you take a peak behind the plate on the side side of the frame, something that is clearly a later addition, its possible to see a reasonable sized patch of BR standard freight wagon grey on it, so confirming it spent some time in this livery presumably making its living around the port talbot area. There doesnt appear traces of any black on it, the flakes being light grey or even possibly some traces of GWR freight grey lingering around the corners too. But anyway, lacking any really decent drawings, i ended up measuring the prototype, and redrawing the whole thing on Cad, and making a kit of bits for one in 5 inch gauge, approximately 1/12th scale. Its not finished yet, but will likely be painted GWR freight grey, with the large lettering. But its amazing what you learn of a vehicle just by spending time looking over it. It appears it was heavily abused in its service at Dowty as a head stock tester after withdrawal from BR. Theres a large RSJ welded in the frames one end, the buffing spring, floors, draw hook etc having bee ripped out. unfortunately having spoken to the secretary of the owning group, the 813 trust and the works manager at didcot, its unlikely to see any attention anytime soon. The frames, once an inch thick are heavily corroded, you can put your hand through them in places! It would require a lot of new metal work to be in any condition to be used, not to mention the reassemling and correcting the damage done at Dowty (though its use allowed it to be saved). And besides, its not at al high on the trusts list to restore, nor didcots. ( i have plenty more images from al angles if they are of any use or interest to anyone) Mark

excellent work there Mark, looking a little cracker. If you need any pannier pics and details, give me a shout, i have a shed load of photos that used from when i was doing my 5 inch gauge ones, and i did full all angle surveys of several engines, so if you need any detail photos i may well have something! you'll also find that because of their many and varying builders, Theres several detail differences, you only start noticing when you start looking closely to detail, something i've found to my cost on occasion! haha Great stuff again, Mark

Yeah, i'm afraid what modelworks failed to do was to design, develop and test their products properly. They also had the mentality you could build one of their kits on a tabletop, which is ridiculous, and there really wasn't the for-thought of design going into their products, and quality of build that would be necessary to work. Its only with the likes of Polly are we finally getting almost ready to run and decent kit built engines. But yes,the pansy is a very robust and strong design. I've driven and known several, always decent engines, once you get them right. fortunately a lot of work to correct the valve gear had already been done to mine, but i've put in a bit of extra time on it myself to sort the rest out. As to the LT re livery, in my opinion the best they ever carried, and certainly the reason why nearly a third of the panniers we have are still with us. That and the fact only 2 of the preserved 57xx engines (8 in total) didnt come from LT, and the other 2 came from the NCB. My own connection is the large amount of London transport and metropolitan railway rolling stock we have now built. So, a logical choice for a first steam engine, having had several others on loan in the past Mark

hey Paul. this is very defo a pansy, having had a winson brit for a while I wouldn't touch anything modelworks with a bargepole! hehe. if you go back to the first post in the blog there's a pic of when I got it. but they are very good engines and I have slowly been rebuilding/repainting this one now for the last 3 years. something I been working on a while, rebuilding and detailing to LT configuration

Anyone who has followed this blog for more than a few posts will notice 2 things... 1. Posts tend to be very long (for which i apologise ) 2. I have an ongoing project to rebuild a 5 inch Great western pannier tank to its London transport guise. But in this shorter installment, the great day has arrived... After 8 months of work, a few set backs and missing a good few target dates, she's steamed! A very last minute affair, but we made it to the booked outing last weekend down in the west country. In the last 3 weeks since the last posting, all the tanks and platework have been painted red, handrails black and everything put together. The during an extended lunch break on the 2nd May, she steamed for the first time in nearly 3 years. Theres a good few niggle with her yet the tanks arent sealed properly so theres a slow leak out the water feed to the crosshead pump On the saturday we had a steaming in the afternoon, pottered round the yard a little, did half a lap or so. It quickly became apparent because of a machining fault, the injector would not put water in the boiler. Theres a myriad of small issues we discovered on that first run, but nothing to put us out of action. Small tweaks to be made mostly. So i took the plunge and steamed her up again sunday morning. Pottered round the yard a bit, then did a transfer move with some coaches with a similarly new Pug. A few issues cropped up, but in the end we ran for several hours, just doing light duties, and generally proved it works! Overall very pleased with it. compared to some engines, especially ones that have been to bits there is very few faults with it, and nothing major. And she sounds fantastic, set up just right, credit due there to grandad! Sorry no video, maybe next time with a few more last few progress shots. But she's by no means finished, so this saga will carry on a little while longer... In other news.... Dads latest projects broe cover. a very hush hush quiet project to produce 3 Met railway 4 wheelers in super quick time, started 13th december, finished 29th april! He's done a superb job, the upholstery in the 1st class is the actual material used on the full size... These were always built to sell to finance the full size van, so we'll play with these for a month or two then they'll go to pastures new. He's already ahd enquiries about more to be made... and finally a few other pics of the weekend. Thanks again t all the regulars who attended, and the laughs down the pub in the evening! The amount of western engines present called for a photoshoot... 2 prairies, saint city star manor metro. a mini swindon line up in 5 inch gauge! And some really fantastic models in there. the aforementioned pug, very expertly weathered by a mateof ine. I intend to eventually finish mypannier to this sort of scheme! red panniers were never clean! Hope you enjoy the slightly shorter installment, mainly because off to Harrogate model engineering show tomorrow, so i'll keep it short and sweet. Cheers Mark

'plus special guests attending...' on EOR site. Could that be something else rather interesting? Sarah parked in the sidings? An LT pannier perhaps? another as yet unknown big engine? ( all speculation and what i'd want to see of course ) Anyone with connections able to elaborate?

Image heavy, but i hope you enjoy... Well, a rather delayed happy new year to you all, I realised I haven’t posted since the last event of 2012! But not to say much hasn’t happened, I’ve had a quick look back at what was going on with things back then, and projects on going that have moved on considerably! Unfortunately time has rather overtaken me since my last post, no runs as such have happened, and I’ve had one round of exams, and am preparing for the next, the pannier is now weeks from steaming (and due out on first weekend of May with a bit of luck!) with all the important bits made, Dad has bought a full size wagon and has been ploughing on with projects other than the tank wagon and Motor van! All that on top of two model shows (Alexandra palace model engineering show and Acton depot open day) a day removing bits from our new wagon and a couple of days getting mucky under the full size! So, more than anything we’ll have a photostream of various things and maybe a little bit of an aside about it. To anyone with a slow internet speeds my deepest sympathies, lots of images here! I'll deal with everything in chronological order, so from December... Hopefully the various railway presses havnt let you forget its the 150th anniversary of the worlds First passenger underground railway, the Metropolitan railway, and you may have noticed alot of my modelling focusses on it, so only right when the LTmuseum organised the return of steam on the underground, we spent most of the first saturday of runs chasing it round london! Sorry the images are poor quality, it was very difficult shooting mostly at night! The last image belongs to a friend who was stood right next to me when he took the shot! The weekend after, we had been invited by the 7 1/4 society to put on a display as part of their Met 150 themed stand. So we set up a siding for shunting the same as we do at acton depot, and had an interesting weekend after that! Problems of many miles for this weekend, when we got to Alexandra palace exhibitio hall, the one coach we had taken was looking stranded as in the cold the bolts in the tie bar! But much cussing swearing and frantic searching for tools, we got it free. Dad was ill most of the weekend, so that was no fun, and the weather closed in for the sunday evening. The Met 150 specials were also on that weekend, but i'm glad we didnt wait till that weekend to seem Met 1 and sarah siddons, the roads on the way back, especially with a trailer were not at all fun! On another note of Metropolitan railway interest, and general railway preservation, Dad became proud owner the last unrestored Met railway vehicle. The history of the van is long and convoluted, but essentially its a workshop van to a standard Met railway van design, that spent its last days in Quarry service as Glendon Quarries. Fro there it was preserved at Rocks By Rail in rutland, and when it became surplus to their collection focus, we stepped in to see if LT museum or Quainton railway society, we ended up buying it!Any way, at the back end of last year it moved to its new home for restoration, The northamptonshire ironstone railway trust, at Hunsbury hill, where it will be restored under contract by their volunteer staff. Also on fullsize front; I spent a couple of enjoyable days at Tyseley locomotive works working on Dinmore Manor, with my good friend, Dinmore Manor of this parish (of course ) She should be back in traffic later this year, rumours are rife already, and i look forward to seeing her running! But anyway, very few ictures of my time there, too busy cleanin several thousand miles of somerset muck off the coupling rods, and putting the odd bits back on and more than a few off as well! Very cold but good fun! (credit to DML group for permission to use their images) Back on the home front... The only progress on Dads wagon projects have been the arrival of the CNC turned tank ends, done as a favour for us... Pannier news... lots and lots of stuff done... tank fillers, lots of paintwork done, tons of pipework made up and put into place, bulges i the back of the tanks so, like the ful size the fillers do go into the tank! So, i'll just leave you with the pictures... Also the cover plates for the top of the tanks have been made Another interesting project going on is my A level project... i managed to wrangle it so i ended up building a 5 inch gauge wagon! I saw this little wreck first at didcot back at the GW175, and i was rather taken by it. Dunno why, its a total wreck! But since then i have spent the odd moment designing it in autocad. Finally i found the time to finish the designs and get it all laser cut, not a cheap excercise it turned out, but so far its not turnd out too bad! Its been mostly soft soldered up, with the upright frames being made of brass angle, amongst other things and seperate pieces My local line, Battlefield line played host to a north Cornwall theme... The Beattie well tank from Quainton Railway society, and the T9 from the NRM/Bodmin and wenford And finally... still with me? Acton depot open weekend was delayed a little this year, but was by far the best and busiest ever! Mainly because of the presence of In steam Ffestiniog railway Prince (a railway also celebrating 150 years, and who also restored the Met railway Jubilee coach 353) as well as Met 1 in light steam with said coach and Milk van. I'l leave you to be a judge of how superb the jo they did on the both of them was... Our stand, much the same as last year, but longer with more stock! and before the show opened. we took the opportunity to reunite Sarah Siddons with some former headboards from its southern region wanderings... exclusive pictures, only a few people got these pictures! But if your still here, well done! Any questions ask away, hopefully we'll get back to 5 inch gauge work next time, perhaps with a bit more frequency of posts! Theres plenty going on this year, this weekend GL5 have set up a track inside the hall at NRM Shildon! I wont be there this weekend, but if anyone is about, drop by, support us and have a watch of what we do. Cheers Mark

By saying working how would you mean? A DCC operated slip coupling? DCC brakes/motor?