London cambrian

Hiya Oz I have thought along these lines, but decided because of the weight of the wheels already (all aluminium or steel wheels) the effect of a flywheel would be fairly negligible on the overall motio of the coach, even on roller bearings (which is will be) I hadnt thought of the generator, and i love the idea,but i rather fear that even in our spacious scale, the corners can get too tight , and i'd spend my life remounting it! The idea of the idler (a motor with a rubber tyre running on a disc on the xle, or even the wheel itself) is a get out of doge, to keep it going, in thei get it wrong with either braking, or release point. Its an insurance policy, because at the rallies we run at, there's everything is timetabled, and there are station and yard pilots who could come an collect the coach when necessary. I have no doubt it will run far enough, which some smaller models may suffer from, its the worry of human error than makes me think about putting an idler in. luckily we have a lot of space under it and already a raio channel going to it i don't for see it as a problem. I only wish we were able to use the dynamo belt for it! Though to tell you the truth i'm not sure it carried one, though you'd presume it would? Cheers Mark

Just caught up with this one, a topic i've always been fascinated with! The best example of working slip coaches i have seen ws on a gauge 1 layout at a model engineering show. A GW Clerestory slip was released from the back of the train, hauled by a GW City class, did a lap and a half of the circuit and rolled to a stop pretty in the station road, though i dont know if he had any brakes in it. Bu this was the genesis of my own project, i'm now aiming to build a working slip coach in 5 inch gauge (approx 12th scale). I'm almost at the stage of cutting metal and wood, this summer perhaps. its involved a lot of design work to take the GW F15 Double ended Toplight slipinto CAD, and include in the design a scale slip coupling, controlled by radio control, as well as working scale brake gear, and if needed, for emergency an ideler motor just to keep it going more than anything else, as it will roll to a stop of its own accord! Like the above i have a soft spot for the Toplight design! I chose the F15 design,because its double ended and i wouldnt have to put it on the turntable too often! Too my knowledge all the designs are available (though the russell ones have been redrawn, making my life difficult) this book i found the most useful http://www.transportdiversions.com/publicationshow.asp?pubid=2659 It contains by far the best plans of the single ended F14 slip coaches, being the works drawings. i borrowed the books from the local libraries, and scanned in the pages i needed, which i may be willing to share privately of course if people are in need of them. All the best, i look forward to seeing any results of this conversation! Mark

Thats interesting. Before they said Passengers will not be allowed in the Jubilee coach because it does not have central locking, or deabolts which it would require for mainline speed running. That was the last official story i heard.

Ooh yes sorry i see what you mean there! yes, sorry my typo, obviously something else on the brain! cheers, just change it mark

Hi keith not sure where you got that? Nope,the acton depot model weekend is being held in april this year instead of march, thats all, as i'm sure you'll know. There is a seperate event being put on by The bucks railway centre at quainton road, first weekend of August, where Met 1, 353, the dreadnought, the milk van and other things will all be there. Also running will be the miniature railway which is on the same site, its just that we are hoping to have several large scale model Met steam locos there, in steam, though i dont know if we'll be offering rides behind them, they'll probably be hauling scale rolling stock. and of course the Neasden depot open day. So its pretty mcuh as advertised on various sites, so it was a quick round up. Cheers Mark

Yep, guys, i already know, just not off the top of my head when i waswriting, anyway, i'd hope i'd know, we've got a stand there again this year! haha Mark

Just quick update on the rest of the year from various sources. From what i gather the jubilee coach will be running in the steam on the met services in may and September but you will not be able to ride in it because it doesn't have door bolts, that are required for 50mph running it and the runs shall be doing. From what i hear the Dreadnought will be staying for several months at the Bucks railway centre, and i have heard from the chairman down there, Tony Lister, it will be running in the up yard with a Mk1 brake coach behind it (though why they couldn't just get two dreadnoughts down ) But anyway, some report have it staying for anything upto 5 years at the centre, and it left ingrow the other day, so i imagine it is there now. When Met 1 comes to quainton in may and august, she will be in the company of the Jubilee coach and the Met railway Milk van which is her support vehicle effectively at the moment. Other events this year will of course be the steam on the met events, end of may bank holiday and in september time. The first of the twice annual acton depot open days will be in April this year, that is the one for modellers, lots of models of London underground stock and models in all scales. Met 1 will be in light steam there, and the jubilee and milk van will also be present. Neasden depot are holding an open day in august, i cant remember the dates off the top of my head. Also Quainton will be holding a Met railway themed gala on first weekend of august, several of the surviving met vehicles will be out in the hopefully sunshine, and the miniature railway will be in operation, with hopefully, several 5 inch gauge and 7 1/4 inch gauge models of Met railway Steam and electric locomotives, and with some luck a large amount of 5 inch gauge Metropolitan railway rolling stock runnng around, and on display, in between passenger trains. So please come and visit us! further details of that even have yet to be confirmed. Cheers all Mark

well i'm glad i chose last weekend to watch it, simply because of the weather, but now rather gutted i missed out on this run simply because of the free platforms! But looks superb here, always room for pictures of sarah though! Had avery fun trip back from alexandra palace last night at about 6pm, upto warwickshire, so dread to think what it would have been lik if we had stayed and gone back later! but thanks for posting the pictures, superb, better than all my shots! Mark

Just been thinking doing one of these burnt out brake vans in 5 inch gauge would be superb, i'll be sure to come to you if it ever goes ahead!

yes, the little box should be near to you when the brake comp is on the right. thats where the huntley drawing is wrong from what we see *edit* sorry yes my error, my post should have said on the right hand end. the drawing has the chassis on back to front. reiterate when brake on right, small box is frontwards, from my research

sorry yes, that wasnt that clear, the drawing is generally correct except the fact that the larger box should be on the far side with the brake compartment on the right. the dynamo i think is fine as it is, i'd have to check to confirm, though i dont have access to all my photos atm, Bu from memory that is how it should be, little box to near. The other major problem is the boxes are to a very different 2 bay designcompared to the 3 bay design on here. the pics i posted are a better resemblance to the real things than huntleys drawings Unfortunately we only found out about the arrangement once we had done one of the brake coaches (we have 5 in 5 inch gauge) so our brake coaches remain wrong for the time being! as an aside the axleboxes on the bogie are for the later K2 replacements,yet the bogies shown are the earlier Fox pattern bogies on the drawing!

Just bevery wary of the huntley drawings, they appear to be an amalgamation of later and earlier designs of underframe/bogies, and the underframe is the wrong way around. As Lord of narnia says, there were two boxes, one long one short, with two vacum cylinders and a dynamo under the chassis. If you are doing a brake coach then it needs to be reversed from what it is n the huntley book Other than that, below is an underside shot of our 5 inch gauge Dreadnoughts, we did a great amount of research to get it right. So, its the two boxes, which again differ from the huntley drawings and also below is a pic of the two boxes that go under met dreadnoughts. Hopefully this helps, give us a shout if your still unsure, i have plenty of shots of the underside of both dreadnoughts and ashburys if you need them Mark

Indeed. thats what i meant! Looking forward to it, running hopefully scale models of met steam locos next to a genuine one, with genuine rolling stock next to our models. Very excited!

From what i read in the vintage carriage trust newsletters, the Met dreadnought will be staying there for a fair bit longer, a good few months, mainly because they're running out of space! But theres a big met themed gala there on first weekend of august. During that time the Vale of Aylesbury model engineering society will be running trains for the public as well as a display of Met models in many scales, some running on the miniature railway there as well

Well since L49 has done it, i thought I'd share some of our LT rolling stock, this time in a much bigger scale! 5 inch gauge scale rolling stock of Met railway goods wagons, Dreadnought coaches and a Metropolitan growler belong to myself and my dad. Unfortunately as of yet we don't possess a met steam loco, but that might change soon, and a friend is part way through building a Met Railway K class, pictured. Also known to exist are models of a Met H class 4-4-4, and atleast 2 of the Met A classes, all in 5 inch gauge. As an aside i am also rebuilding a pannier into LT livery, they of course had a long connection with the capitals first underground railway Mark

Anyone other than me think the Met is being short changed, the event being called LU150, not Met150!? but anyway, last night, Met 1, The Milk van, Met Jubilee 353 and Sarah Siddons made the move to Lillie bridge to set up with the Bluebell Ashbury Chesham coaches, which arrived in the last few days. The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that Met 1 has also been lined out and had its Met Railway livery applied Mark

Th money they are making is incredible, still, all goes to fund the overhauls they've carried out, its mainly cos they borrowed the money for no 1 from TfL, so need to pay back quickly. But actually if you look again, the figures become even bigger. Th stock was designed as 5 and 4 per seat (depending on class, so that makes it 8 per first class and 10 per 3rd/ I've travelled with 10 to a compartment, in them, that a fun experience! But yes, they do stand to do well, and no doubt they wil drag more money out of you when it comes to the steam on the met and open day events! And also for the record, the milk van will also most very likely be in the formation, its has had ultrasonic and fitness to run exams at wolverton works in the last few months, much in the same way the ashbury coaches did a few weeks back. And more recently has undergone running in at the epping and ongar railway. This vehicle is even more interesting because it actually has wooden frames to it, not just the body work like the coaches. The milkvan arrived back at acton a few days ago and there have been pictures showing it and the jubilee coach together. The ashburys should also be in the capital, if not as i type, then very soon. There is a photo of one of them being loaded onto the low-loader somewhere about. And with a bit of luck the E class has had some lining work done on it! Its big outing is next weekend and so arts been in plain maroon!

Haha yes i have heard that incident! That was back before brent realigned the formation, used to go in front of the box. Dont think its the only loco that came foul through those curves, think one of the LNER02 heavy freights has straight-lined them once or twice! But nothing will ever slow bill down! He hares round gilling, regulater open past erimus, up round the corner, over the levele crossing, shuts off in the station, doesnt open up again till 2/3rds the way up the bank! Then shuts off past the headshunt, to open up again past erimus! Top bloke though. But bill is famous for his SPADs, so after one incident early on saturday, there was two great troughs of ballast where he'd put his feet down after having run a red, not having had time to top, the speed he was going! Oh good times! Not of course encouraged!

Or just perhaps a poor excuse! Well, I've done 25 posts, and the readers have survived them all, I thought I'd get something a little more special in. Usually my blogs consist of progress and pics of variable quality, so for this issue, my good friend Michael Topham has contributed the the vast majority of these photos, his photography is a whole lot better than mine, so thank you very much mike! the poor excuse could really come from the fact that i forgot my camera when we went down to Brent house last weekend, and then spent most of my time in the signal box again anyway! We've almost come full circle, when i wrote the first post,i featured a few pics from the December rally at Brent house in 2011, so its back to that time of year again. Colloquially known as the freeze your nuts off rally it certainly did that this year! Mighty cold it was all weekend, luckily i had a nice warm signalbox again... A luxury? by the end of the day almost a chore! But anyway, arriving at about 11, with a good few trains going around already, and good to see old familiar faces, as well a a few new ones. A newly revived loco from a track down in kent was up with our photograph provider, a LBSCR C2X that has been through 3 boilers and nearly 40 years in its time, surviving heavy use and long periods of inactivity in bits! But it was paired with our ever increasing numbers of milk tankers, there are probably about 25 in the nationwide club, though we've only ever seen a maximum of 5 together, it was nice to see 4 in a train, including a newly completed example. We'd bought the coaches out for a final run of the year, the wagons staying at home, their boxes are still in use as a workbench for the pannier tank! here under the overall roof modelled on bath green park, they sit with the yard shunter, a brilliant little model of a brush shunter, that will haul considerable loads One of the owners of the LSWR 02s bought his new toy out for a play, built from a kit, the SR King arthur is no doubt due for a complete rebuild, the kits were never famed for its engineering prowess, but done well do make good models. But all my time was spent running the brent house signal box, a mammoth 50 lever box, mostly electrically interlocked, though the lack of mechanical interlocking keeps you on your toes! Offering to relieve Brent, i presumed for maybe a few hours, meant i was still there flying solo 6 hours on! Unfortunately there seems to be very few people who will take on the job of running the box, and it should be a two man job. so, understandably, a tiring job, constantly moving, and keeping everyone happy! (Yes if it looks familiar i have used this picture before!) but anyway, traditionally, the host and railway owner cooks a christmas meal for those attending in the evening. But such is its popularity, by september it was booed out! So, the greystones regulars descended on a local pub, and a long and enjoyable evening ensued! All culminating in fitting 5 people in a smart car and paying the waiter to take us all back to the hotel down the road! Well all part of the service considering the twelve of us did the pub staff well for their christmas bonuses! But anyway, day 2 was just as cold, and i vowed i wouldnt end up in the box again! So much for that! But the sunday was much quieter, and i took the opportunity to train a few replacements! Dad included! But anyway, a few more photographs with the other 02 on the teak coaches, and other things that went on. so, even with 2 days there, i didnt get to drive any locos at all, next time someone else is running the box! I have a friend up north who says he wants to learn so he'll be my relief! We packed up and leftto warm our hands about 2pm, and after a few little hitches with the trailer that the coaches move around in, got home in the lightto unload, for once! But anyway, i do hope you enjoyed this post, next time normal service shall resume, mediochre pictures and all! That'll be when i have some more bits and pieces done! Once again, thanks to Michael Topham for the pictures, and all for turning up, hopefully see all the regulars again sometime next year. Cheers all, if nothing happens between now and then, Merry christmas and happy new year and all that Mark