Artless Bodger

Sorry, in a world of my own here - Head Gardener is my forum term for my wife - I dont think swmbo etc would go down too well - but she is definitely the head gardener here, I'm just the odd job person. Agreed about the staff, and family saloons, but I doubt if there were family saloons from Victoria to Maidstone in the 1950s / 60s. I think the uncle (who was said to have been a naval surgeon at the battle of Jutland) had a female house keeper and a male servant (valet?). The man travelled down from Scotland - apparently had to find his own lunch in Maidstone while Uncle was entertained at the house, Head Gardener's family definitely did not have servants, he was a bit unaquainted with the realities of family life.

The servants probably travelled 3rd if not required en-route. Head Gardener remembers a Scottish relative, a well to do, batchelor, surgeon, who occasionally came south to visit, he travelled first but his man-servant / valet or whatever his role was travelled 3rd / 2nd. That was in the late 50s, early 60s.

If the Fleischmann models are to be believed, Prussian (KPEV) had 4, carriage bodies coloured differently, so composites were 2 colours. Iirc, first blue, second green, third brown, fourth grey. The blue / green distinction lasted into DB days and catering vehicles were wine red - colourful trains!

Fish and Chip van? Serving hatch on the nearside? (Or burgers). Reminds me of the 'Chuck Wagon' that parked occasionally adjacent to one of our sites - allegedly so named because after eating the produce you'd chuck up.

Head Gardener used it a few times to visit relatives in Perth, iirc she arrived back in Reading just as I was waiting for a train to work in MHD on one occasion.

Maybe sufficient though for a heritage line using 0-6-0 tank engines? Has the advantage of not needing any expensive instruments (requiring calibration standards etc), and would presumably be enough ensure no wheel or axle was carrying significantly more or less weight?

Wood laminate in 2HAP 2nds under the windows, I can remember the dark vertical staining and dampness from condensation on the windows in winter as a child (it would overflow the channel in the metal window frame, the drain hole either blocked or inadequate). (Production CEPs however had formica panelling, remembered from changing to them from a 2HAP from Maidstone at Ashford late 60s on trips to Folkestone). In the smoking saloons, 2HAP ceilings were distinctly yellow! (You had to travel in a smoker if you wanted access to the toilet). I'm sure I remember green upholstery in a compartment on the Ashford - Hastings line once BUT, we may have been in either a 2H first downgraded for Saturday traffic from the holiday camps, or in a Hastings unit used for the same camp capacity reasons. I do remember itchy seat upholstery as a child wearing shorts!

I'd got to the point of being a bit frustrated with the smallness of N gauge and the fiddly nature of it, so took a bit of a holiday by buying a Dapol 15T diesel crane kit - I remember saving up to by the original Airfix version, 3/- or 3/6 iirc, at 6d a week pocket money. Every week we had to go into Woolworths to check it was still there. Dad actually made it for me. The kit looks a bit careworn but I had some fun building it and have got the bits to work. I've since built a Parkside plate wagon and adapted it as a crane runner. I look upon this dabble with OO as preparation for a future time when I can no longer cope with N. Having detoured into a bit of OO kit building, I got my N gauge modelling interest back and decided to have a go at finishing the E1, last seen as a rather filed down WIP. New plastic sheet cab sides - wider than the splashers, cab handrails, taken a sliver out of the chimney after all, and remodelled the cab spectacles to look more like a SR loco. Painted black, some very old Cavendish transfers and final satin varnish. As hinted above it has taken nearly a year before getting on with this project. Continuing the N bodging, I've got on with a bit more of the scenic development - coal yard, bund walls around the chlorine tanker siding (it has got an access platform now too) and mill yard fencing. Mostly fun doing the building / bodging, not so much fun painting it though. So far this is the furthest I've ever got with building a layout, and eventually I might 'complete' it, it has only taken about 4 years so far from deciding to scrap the previous N gauge and down size to this. However I hardly ever run anything, the terminus in particular acts as a sort of parade ground on which I can arrange my stock so it can collect dust. On a visit to Head Gardener's sister last autumn, when aksed how my model making was getting on I mentioned that I was considering a return to OO - fat fingers and eyesight being factors. BIL goes out and returns with two big boxes from the garage full of OO stuff (in fact a lot of it originally mine, passed on to the nephews when I went N again). Fairly old stuff, Hornby and Lima mainly. Not wanting to seem too greedy I came home with a 2721 pannier and 3 wagons. Bought an oval of OO track around Christmas and got some of my residual bits out of the display case (2 terriers etc) so had a short play. Now I'm tinkering with plans for a small OO layout in what space remains in the box room - probably about 8' x 1'. Thinking of the terminus of a small independent railway - Colonel Stephens-ish. So, I think I'll terminate this thread. If anything else develops maybe start a new one - "A New Beginning" or something like that. Thanks for looking, cheers.

Currently in the Postscript Books catalogue at £22.50.

I like your underboard wiring, at least I'm in good company! I shall follow your new project with interest as I'm tinkering in OO again (N gauge getting frustrating) and rather like the NG skips etc too, shades of quarry and sand pit railways around my home town. https://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW038101 Aylesford Sand Co wharf, plenty of skips.

My interest is an up and down thing - sometimes dead keen or railways, other times more industrial archaeology or military history etc. I find I'm not that keen on the latest new thing but over time it mellows as it becomes the last old thing. I've been lucky to have had opportunity to see 'new' (to me) things over the years as Head Gardener has worked for periods in NI, Newcastle, Bristol and briefly South Wales, while I remained based in Reading. So, in NI I got to see and hear thumpers after they had gone from the SR, HG lived in North Shields later, overlooking the river so ships became more interesting, but there was still plenty of railway interest, Metro etc. HG is now back in Reading and though we havent been travelling much and not by public transport for health reasons, I still enjoy a glimpse of a train if one passes over the road at Grazeley Green on our weekly drive to the greengrocer, or hope the gates are down at Bramley if we go to the Vyne. Things I look back on with fond memories include an H tank at Maidstone West, an unexpected 4Cep turning up instead of the Electrostars I'd come to expect on a trip to see M&D, the first time I saw a 59 on the stone train from Merehead blocking the whole of Reading station while I awaited my train to MHD for work - and the empties crossing MHD bridge on my walk back to the station in the pm. And it's not just trains but also odd infrastructure things, like the remnant viaduct off the Picadilly line at South Harrow that served the old gas works (now Waitrose), or SECR rail chairs in the remaining siding at Maidstone West (now lifted). It's a sanitised, plasticky railway these days, good in some respects but still odd bits to keep me involved.

Maybe it is optimised for the Nurburgring?

Nice to see the MAN gasholder in the background of this and the preceding photo, now sadly gone, as well as the LH one at Southall. Recording our diminishing industrial history.

Don't some trains carry glow sticks for emergency evacuations? Iirc some in boxes at the end of HST carriages?

Aerial photos on Britain From Above might be useful if you are after the external appearance?

A bit ot but following the mention of the German diesel train, the first part of this film; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=figiSSgjvk0 covers the construction of the Fliegender Hamburger and similar sets, including assembly of the diesel motors. Of interest to me was the mounting of the diesel motors on the unpowered bogies rather than on the vehicle frames (which appear to be very light weight), electric motors on the articulating bogie. And now back to the topic - sorry!

Would that have been such a loss? However presumably initially pacifics would have been used south of York. Seeing what transpired overseas with mainline electrification, it may have been a very interesting time. One question about the use of the bevel drive loco as a load bank - there would need to be a supply of electricity to the loco to excite the motor for it to act as a generator? I presume it might also be used to investigate rheostatic braking too given the putative resistors behind the grilles?

It's great to see these photos with all the ancilary interest, thank you to the posters. This sort of infrastructure is always of interest - more so than yet another picture of xx class loco. The inclined lift is an interesting variant, compared to many vertical ones, such as those in the GNR and MR goods depots on the widened lines, or GWR at Moor Street. It deals nicely with the lateral displacement to the low level lines parallel to the viaduct.

Quite possibly an enclosed accumulator for the local equipement, fed from a hydraulic mains system, pumped from elsewhere maybe? The capstans etc would likely also be powered off the hydraulic mains - there is a film clip somewhere on the net showing the operation of capstan and wagon turntable, actuated by foot pedals in the ground iirc, the wagon turntable is rotated by using the capstan rope ataced to the end of the wagon frame. Operator cabin, I suspect the diagonally planked panel with the notice is a door as it opens onto the railed walkway. Top buffer stops - normal rail built stops - maybe the buffers to stand off the wagon to ensure it is centrally positioned on the lift deck. The baulks below are closer to the deck end - constrained in part by the angled wall behind, one seems to be just a vertical timber, the other has a raking strutt where the wall is further away. 'Passengers' perhaps also includes the geezer standing beside the wagon on the lift, in a precarious position, a sort of catch all notice in case someone gets injured taking a short cut not officially permitted? Maybe he's there to release the wagon brake when it has reached the lower level?

Considering hydraulic towers / accumulators; some were enclosed, one tower and the pumping station still exists at Wapping, Shadwell Basin, opposite the Sight of a Wholemeal Loaf pub (Prospect of Whitby), it had been converted to an expensive restaurant, is now an arts venue I think - the arts space uses the now empty boiler house, when I visited a few years back the roof water tank was full, quite a few tons of water. http://www.glias.org.uk/glias/lhp.html There is an 'unclothed' accumulator and hydraulic pumping station in the Bristol Docks, phto from wikipedia page By Rodw - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2709849 The most spectacular accumulator tower I'm aware of is the one in Grimsby docks - modelled on the Torre del Mangia in Siena - though this accumulator relies just on hydraulic head from the tank at the top, rather than a weighted piston.

Isn't there something about speed of a single power car being limited due to brake force, higher speed is possible if a coach is attached to increase the brake force? Applies to light engines as well I think I've seen commented.

That's one way, the Austrian approach was to drive a hollow axle mounted in the frame, the axle carrying the wheels ran inside this, connected by articulated linkages - quite common for frame mounted motors but unusual in using a vertically mounted motor rather than co-axial motor(s). Maybe of interest, the BBO 1670, with SSW vertical drive was said to be susceptible to machinery damage if towed, and the problems with the locos were partly remedied by conversion of the drive (to what not stated), as related in https://austria-forum.org/af/AustriaWiki/BBÖ_1670, both 1570 and 1670 classes needed an extra crew member to monitor the lubrication, so, perhaps it is not surprising the 'bevel drive locomotive' was short lived.

Following up on some of the above - perhaps just a transmission trial vehicle? The BBO 1570 used single axle drives with vertical motors with bevel drive to hollow axles - quote from the below wiki page - Für die Reihe 1570 entwickelten die Österreichischen Siemens-Schuckert-Werke nach französischen Vorbildern einen eigenen Vertikalantrieb, bei dem die stehend angeordneten Motoren über eine Kegelradübersetzung die Achsen antrieben. Das Großrad sitzt dabei auf einer trommelförmigen Hohlwelle, welche über eine gelenkige Kupplung mit vier Kugelköpfen mit der Achse verbunden ist. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBÖ_1570 So to try out such a transmission only a single axle need be powered. There were other transmission types considered, including gearless (like the Milwaukee Bipolars), No 13 eventually went with the quill drive, but there were also the Buchli and Tschanz drives. One Swiss loco was powered via 2 such different transmission types as a trial, Be2/5.

Hope these work - a few in Maidstone. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Subway/@51.2754591,0.5224858,3a,75y,331.68h,106.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUq_Ojr8JmN_jjqqzvlC_Vg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x47df323103c2bb17:0x8681f7f2910751c0!8m2!3d51.2756911!4d0.5225778 https://www.google.com/maps/@51.273372,0.5222973,3a,75y,138.82h,119.13t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sDq9n0cQ67D12xLKRyiunwg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DDq9n0cQ67D12xLKRyiunwg%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D107.461296%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@51.2735577,0.5227061,3a,75y,146.64h,127.16t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s1ALgWO1Hbipk_WDhXB_0SA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

That loco looks a lot like the Fire Queen, built 1848 for the Padarn Railway.