Tony Cane

The Airfix turntable is a GWR style example as per the drawing here

The Big Four in Colour has some 30 pages of images from 1948 to 1950 of transitional liveries, 10 are of ex SR locomotives.

I have nearly completed my pail of 4mm scale coaches just need to fix the roof on.

Well nearly. The coach roofs are not fixed yet but I like to check the model carefully before doing this irreversible step.

If you decide to use the brass pins and need some turned up, please let me know.

Guilty as charged.

The 700 class were fitted with superheaters from 1920 onwards. This is the form of the locomotive modelled by Hornby with the extended smoke box, so only a few were in this form while in LSWR livery. Also the Goods engine livery was dark green with black and light green lining.

Here is my take on fiddle yard cassettes. While I would be the first to admit that these represent a significant amount of extra work compared to gluing two bits of aluminium angel to a wood base, the complications are for reliability and ease of use. The cassette shown is for a loco. There is a basic U shaped box with an MDF base and ply sides. I have used the same track as on the layout soldered at each end to copper clad strips. Alignment and electrical connection is provided by square brass pins and tube. This needs to be slight interference fit to give continued good connection. On this version a springy wire sits in the top of the pin. On the next version a simpler brass finger will be formed in one side of the brass socket to do the same functions. The brass handles allow the cassette to be lifted, and provide a latch for the gates. These, as well as preventing any stock from rolling out, have rubber pads to protect the couplings. The deck has been filled in on both sides of the rails with plasticard, and with the addition of re-railing diamonds in the 4ft ensure that all wheels are on track as they exit the cassette. The diamonds are missing from this cassette as we had some stock with negligible clearance above rail height. While any of these features can be incorporated on other designs the complete package gives simple and reliable operation. My experience with the use of aluminium angle was that it got dirty very quickly, probably down to the type used, as others have reported no such problems. Also the use of bulldog clips I found to be tiresome where separate loco and train cassettes were used.

Ex NLR 4 wheel coaches from a WWI ambulance train used on the LMR in the 1920's. The KESR coaches were bogie vehicles

The key reference for the liveries of individual Ex LSWR locomotives is the D. L Bradley series of books. This gives full details of dates at which the changes were introduced on each locomotive. For the M7s there is a broad range of possibilities, from Malachite and British railways with 30,000 number lasting on one locomotive until 1953, Through plain black with British Railways, with s prefix and 30,000 numbers applied from 1948 , to BR lined black from 1949 onwards.

For sheer modelling inspiration can I recommend Britain's Railway at War by Alan Earnshaw, either the WWII only or the combined edition. Available on Ebay for less than £6.00

Glad to be of assistance. What is amusing is that there are pictures of the Swindon fitted fire iron tunnel, in use on the Western Region, with the irons still stored on the tender. The "fix" it seems was worse than the problem.

I have a date for the decision to add the fire iron tunnel to the WD 2-8-0 locomotives. On the 9th Dec 1947 complaints about the locomotives were formally put to the Railway Executive by GWR drivers. Included is item 6 Tender tool racks: To be modified to GWR pattern. This comes from the Rowledge book on the Austerities published by Ian Allan, page 83.

The post I was referencing did not have any pictures just referred to some commonly published ones, as show below

The diagram has the tank length at 37ft 2 3/8 inch

Probably the most significant, and well documented, use of the USATC wagons in the UK during WWII was that of the bogie petrol tank wagons. A total of 500 are recorded as being in service supply aviation fuel to the air bases in East Anglia. A 1000 bomber raid required the equivalent of 650 tank wagons of fuel. While an HO model in USATC livery has been produced a quite accurate 4mm scale model can be kit bashed from an Athearn tank wagon or two. The pictures below show both models and a direct comparison of the two. The Athearn kit provides all but the minor details, the main work being the splicing of the tank parts. Comparison of the picture of the prototype with the HO model shows that the domes are a couple of mm too tall. The 4mm kit bash gets this right but the domes are 1mm too large in diameter. The wagon has two domes due to UK loading gauge restrictions. For use in the UK some minor modifications were needed to the as built wagons. The brakes were improved, but I do not think this was readily visible, and siphon pipes were added to comply with UK unloading practices. Visibly this modification is a short length of pipe close too and to the outside of the each dome. If others are interested in creating these USATC tank cars in 4mm scale I can post further details.

I have at least one of each of the USATC wagons in HO scale from effectively two sources, as detailed in the British HO web page. The principle dimensions match those in the official diagrams to within a fraction of a millimetre.

This picture shows the extent of the problem.

The loading ramps had such extreme changes in angle to allow loading at all states of the tide that plates were needed to prevent vertical locking of the buffer heads. Both wagons are USA flats, a close copy of the British warflat. There main use was to carry Sherman tanks and other AFVs. This was possible on the continent but not in the UK due to loading gauge restrictions. They could carry British tanks in the UK but the brakes were considered to be inadequate and required pairing with a UK warflat if so used. Many were re-designated USA Case wagons and used to transport the enormous number of American vehicles, including two part Shermans that were arriving in crates. When they checked the clearances in the hull of the LST,the vessel shown in the picture, they found that only the 4 wheel and low bogie vehicles could be carried. It is believed that the Germans did not think that a sustained second front could could be maintained as railways were need to move the vast tonnages of supplies, and we did not have many rail ferries. They did not envisage the innovation to convert the LSTs. By December 1944, 1523 locomotives and 19,383 wagons had been sent across the channel.

All vans of this type were pooled during the war, the banana vans being insulated, were used to carry meat. So on a wartime layout anywhere that a meat van can be justified, a banana van of any company can be used in stead. On the Southern the livery of banana vans was changed during the war but they were still, discreetly, marked differently to meat vans. This may suggest that at least some banana traffic was being carried.

Steam days No 20, Oct-Nov 1990, has 6 pages of pictures of the USATC 0-6-0t locomotives, but more importantly seven pictures of the USATC wagons. Steam Days 24, June-July 1991, has an article by a wartime driver with details of the USATC wagons in regular use on the railway, dimensioned diagrams of three of the wagon types, and details of the nearly 5,000 wagons built and in store in the UK as of the 8th May 1944. Continental Modeller of Nov and Dec 1994 have articles on the USATC wagons including drawings of four of the 4 wheel wagons, and mostly post war pictures. The bogie petrol tank, refrigerator and flat cars were in regular use, the box vans were considered to be too flimsy for general use, and be returned in good order for their primary use of supporting the invasion of Europe. All would have been moved in block trains to the docks for “export” to the continent.

The London Transport depot in the pictures is Hainault. While Tourret has much detailed information the Oakwood Press book on the USA 756th RSB at Newport, by E. R. Mountford, has further details of the USATC locomotives. many of the diesels arrived in desert sand livery and were painted black before being sent to France. There may be some debate about how black they were as there in good evidence that those sent directly to France and used in Italy were painted dark gray. While the Oakwood book confirms the running in turns, the author could find no solid evidence for use on freight trains. During the war the Whitcombs were used on passenger trains on the Longmoor railway for a few months, according to Tourret. One significant barrier to the use of diesel road engines during WWII would have been the lack of qualified drivers. The S160 locomotives were apparently put in to service with crews who have never seen one before being expected to drive them!!!!

Good video on you tube at

These anti glare screens would only be put up at dusk. Note the spring supports. The GWR designed screens for each type of locomotive. The Southern just welded a piece of tube to the tender and threw a tarpaulin over it !!!

Can not help with the bogies as I have just built the 4mm version. However I would suggest that strips (fret waste?) are soldered on the tops of the end walls, and the top strip at the ends, to improve the fit of the roof. Also the end platform gates appear to be too far out on the 4 wheel coach. I suspect you found the end detail far easier to do in 7mm scale than I did in 4mm.