Nick Lawson

Oh sorry, remiss of me: 13 Aug 1862 Wolverhampton Chronicle & Staffordshire Advertiser Page 4, column 5 about 2/3 of the way down.

His first marriage, in 1854, was in Bridgenorth - 10 miles south of Madeley. I can't see a newspaper announcement of this event, which might have indicated where he was living at the time. I did find this item though, from 1862:

May I offer a quick trawl through census returns: 1841 Madeley, Salop. Age 10 1851 Madeley, Salop, 20 Pattern Maker. (His father was an Iron founder) 1861 Wolverhampton, 30 Pattern Maker 1871 Highworth Swindon, 40 Locomotive & Carriage Engineer 1881, Derby 50, Civil Engineer 1891, Normanton, 60, Civil Engineer Midland Railway 1901, Normanton, 70. Manager Railway Engine Works (Civil Engineer) 1911, Normanton, 80, Gentleman. The 1901 entry also lists two engineer sons who had followed their dad into the railway works. ("Gentleman" just indicated living on own income. I had a 19th century "gentleman" ancestor who was a retired publican).

I used to know somebody who had made fibreglass chimneys to put on top of Barry locos that had lost their real ones. This was just to make them look a bit more promising to potential buyers. I don't think the person in question would have deigned to do this for any non-GW locos!

That's the man. At the moment I can't remember where I read about him either. O.S. Nock ("LNER Steam") describes him as " a most vivid and forceful speaker always bubbling over with ideas and opinions". On one occasion "Gresley rose from his chair and brought his fist down with a resounding crash on the table with the words: 'damn it all Thom will you shut up, and let me get a word in edgeways!' ".

I have allowed myself to get sidetracked away from actually finishing this job, by instead starting to round up the little pick-up goods train it will pull. This has mostly been a tedious task replacing slot-in-the-bufferbeam Sprat & Winkle couplings (applied a few year back before I decided I didn't like them) with the under-the-bufferbeam variety. I had a partly-built-but damaged Slaters MR 10T brakevan that came in a job lot from ebay, I think during a covid lockdown. This wagon was missing the running board on one side. I have finally got around to faking up a replacement from scrap brass etch. The worst bit was (left-a-bit-right-a bit) placing the mounting stanchions which always managed to fasten in the wrong position. They are still not quite right, but are as good as they are going to get. I removed the broken ends of the original struts and drilled up through the upper steps to take the replacements. It's looking a bit low, so I may shorten them a bit before fixing. Also, somewhere I have a Mainly Trains rivet etch, so I will try to dab a couple on the centre strut before painting.

Presumably, in the smaller engines the large reversing lever sticking out of the floor didn't help? (The larger engines having a horizontal screw reverser ahead of the driver).

I think it looks very Thunderbirds somehow.

A few twiddly bits, in no particular order: I spotted that Light Railway Stores do etched worksplates, so I ordered a set of Neilson plates for this loco; and, as there is a lead time, a set of Dubs plates for a future project. In 4mm scale it is arguable that the Neilson plates (cruelly enlarged below) could have been replaced with any other small oval: but the Dubs plates are quite distinctive: Anyway here is a Neilson plate in place and in proper scale Also in the picture above, I have installed the sandboxes again. The one on the right was a bit wonky and has since been redone again. The pipes still need a bit of adjustment. The pipes should each have a support bracket, but the pick ups are in the way, so I will hope the pipes will manage unsupported. Also a while back I ordered a Midland smokebox numberplate transfer from @railtec-models . I made a numberplate from scrap brass etch, so here is the final result, which is much smarter than my previous diy effort: To assist Steve in working up Midland style numbers, I had sent him some pics of various numberplates which between them contained the right numbers. He sent me initially a transfer for 3157 (as seen on the cover of Midland Locomotives vol 4). I tried to give this back to him at Warley but he waved it away. If anyone wants this, let me know. Otherwise one day there'd be the temptation to build another loco just to use up that transfer....😁 Lastly, I have glazed the cab windows. For another project I got a set of cab glazing for an N2 from SEF. This came with a spare set, and the round windows fitted this loco. I cut them out and stuck them with glue-and-glaze. I haven't fitted them very neatly and they look a bit smeary, but I like to think it's better than before.

My layout-under-constuction has always been intended to be DCC and is wired accordingly. This is a new departure for me and up to now I have simply run it with an analogue controller and "one engine in steam". This worked fine when I only had one working loco, but the advanced state of the 2F meant I had to start getting my head around DCC. Phase one of this was to acquire a Gaugemaster Prodigy set which then sat in its box maturing for months. Phase 2 was to shop for decoders at Warley in November. I was a bit concerned at advice on the lines of "expect to blow the first one" and cheery references to "letting the smoke out". I came away with three decoders of different prices. Over Christmas I started by fitting the cheapest one (Lais something or other, £13) to my second hand 4F. This one has a tender drive (big chunky Mashima 1624) with plenty of space around it and nice easy access wiring. I managed to fit the chip and eventually press the right sequence of buttons to get it running. No smoke! I then set about fitting a £25 Zimo decoder to the 2F. This being my first loco build I had not wanted to bother with DCC until I was reasonably sure I'd have a working loco to control. This then meant I had another case of not having thought about something soon enough. I had not discovered the size of chips in advance and planned where to fit one. Because the loco has CSB suspension, the available width between the frames is insufficient; and the positioning of the frame spacers and motor in the middle together with small boiler and firebox meant there wasn't quite enough space anywhere. In the end I have had to glue a packing piece between the CSB springs (pic1) and mount the decoder on top (pic2), such that it is visible, although not glaringly obvious, underneath the boiler. The decoder is actually a dark colour, but in the picture light is reflecting off its clear insulation. I then needed to remove some of my industrial-grade pick-up wiring and wire in the decoder in its place. This was less easy than the 4F, but not too bad. Still no smoke! Hopefully soon I will be able to have a bit of a run with two locos at the same time for the first time in more than 40 years!

Dunno what make of wagon, but is that the Pilkington Glass logo?

You are correct, it was not down to you. In the parlance, the "front end" is the "client side" user interface, e.g. your web browser. The "back end" is the "server side" on the other side of the Universe, e.g the Wizard website and all the gubbins (to use the technical term) behind it. Any 5xx error code is a problem at the back end. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes for further details.

Ah I didn't think of looking there. Thanks Stephen. Anyway I can't use that number for my second D664. Yes that appears to be the case. Yes, sorry for muddying the waters.

There were a number of joint lines in W Yorks, so depending on how closely your what-if connected to one of them it might affect the mix. Or you could deliberately make it a joint line, and/or give running rights to other companies to justify anything you like!

Happy New Year everyone! Hopefully it isn't too early to ask wagon numbering questions: I have a couple of Cambrian D664 kits, for which I have acquired transfers from Old Time Workshop. These include the two known D664 numbers ( plus two for D663 & a fifth for a grainstore wagon) listed by Bob Essery in Midland Wagons vol 1. Question 1 Merde alors, I have scrunched the transfer for "26223". However, the sheet also includes a sixth number, not in the above volume, "70323". Crossing my fingers - does anyone know what sort of wagon that belonged to? Question 2 Am I right that the large "X" is only applicable to the vacuum fitted wagons?

Alan Gibson milled brass J50 frames?

Hmm, I never did finish off the story above. Maybe one day. In the meantime here's my Triang R10/13 upgrade. This started life as a green Triang R10/13 wagon with a BR(W) number. (I have no idea what the real prototype was, if any). I was given this when I was around 9, by another lad I was friendly with at the time. He didn't want it as he had lost interest in his trainset and this thing (typical Triang) didn't roll well. Even then, I instinctively wanted to salvage it (and it was free!). Fifty six years later, I have finally done so. ("You SHALL come out of the loft"). This was a lot of work, but a great exercise in wagon-bashing, inspired by seeing that others on RMWeb had trodden this path before me. This version of the wagon has a cast steel one-piece chassis. The original plastic tubular axles ran on pins pressed through from one side. These were easy to push out, but the rigid frames meant that replacement axles with pinpoint bearings couldn't be eased in without dremeling & hand-filing slots in the insides of the axles boxes. Eventually I got there and eased in EM gauge wheelsets, running in brass bearings glued into the slots. I set the first axle by eye to be parallel with the bottom of the frames. Inevitably the second axle didn't sit parallel with the first, so I had to hold one end in position while the glue dried. Pleasingly it does sit squarely on all 4 wheels as a result! I cut away the Triang couplings and their mountings; drilled through the headstock and inserted some old 3-link couplings salvaged from something else. This wagon is only going to run occasionally as part of a long train and won't be shunted individually. I ballasted the wagon underneath with lead shot to about 50g all-in. This is a 16' wagon. To give it an older kind of look (admittedly still undermined by the massive buffers and axle boxes): - I cut away the brake gear on one side The wagon had no brakehandle, so a spare plastic one has been added on the other side. (MR short pattern). I bodged filler into the metal solebars to make them look more like wood. This is really rough and does not bear close examination. I had a go at a generic private owner paintjob (an ancient tin of Humbrol R143). You can see my hand isn't steady enough for picking out the ironwork. Hopefully some heavy weathering will disguise this; and One Day I may add some lettering if I can choose a PO that looks about right. Merry Christmas or Other_Holiday_Of_Your_Preference!

Even at Warp 8! Respect!

Have you seen the "small print" for the High Level chassis: "Note: As far as we know, our kit will not fit the Airfix (latterly Dapol) glue-together kit. Using a ready-to-run model is by far the easiest option." I know that sort of warning is often take as a challenge in this thread of course😁

Ah no that was me. Thanks for the tip! I have now found one on their website. Also, their set for the Cambrian Midland D663/664.

Shapeways are offering free UK delivery this week only on orders over $50 USD.

Resin casting is one of the many things on my things-to-try list. I had hoped, but failed, to get a slot with Graham King at Warley the other day, for a tutorial. I do have a specific Cunning Plan to try one day, so happy to hear more. However in this instance I had another, badly damaged, Jinty body which I plan to replace with a J83 body I acquired decades ago; so I robbed the scrap Jinty.

See also Cambrian kits for straight wire & brass section: https://www.cambrianmodelrail.co.uk/store/Metal-Materials-c156948007

Um, yes apologies for hijacking your build.

@billbedford Well, earlier @Jol Wilkinson was describing LRM's situation where they don't have digital artwork for their own range, so I was wondering whether they could get this without having to create it from scratch. If so, they would perhaps be in a position to consider tweaking some of their etches. From the sound of it, at the moment they can only do this by adding extra corrective etches, which presumably makes each set more expensive to produce. Of course, they might well still find themselves wondering why they had done something a particular way first time around🙂