MR Chuffer

Gardening to the extent of your ambitions is a full time hobby backed by knowledge and experience, it's either that or railway modelling, both will be v hard to accomplish together.

There seems to be lots of bidding for items from them on eBay.

Agree, its just that the 2 middle vents in the photo appear offset amongst the 6, which offends my sense of symmetry, just as it does on my model. I use tension lock couplings but would have taken on board screw links for passenger train running. Now the footboards, I can believe that but they may have to wait pending a better drawing/photo but a roof replacement, new vents and replacement Mansell wheels are first up. Thx

That's what I thought, if they were vacuum fitted and it has longer springs associated with NPCS vehicles, so will revert them but will have to prise the white metal brake shoes wider. And you're probably right, there may be a 2 inch discrepancy in my measurement. But diagonal vents, I've just found this, although it is a GN model and there are 6 vents in total, 2nd photo down. Hmmm... For completeness, further investigation of this site shows he's referenced Tatlow's LNER Wagons Vol 1, which I haven't got access to, but its open on a page with a van with 6 vents with 2 diagonal, like his model.

Yep, it does, so something to go on. The roof is stiff card, that's how old it is, so easy enough to refashion the roof for 4 ventilators. Thx

- 30 or more years ago? White metal kit, probably Wills, why are the torpedo vents like they are on the roof, just 2 diagonally? I can't remember! Should that be 4 or 6? Other details, has vacuum actuated clasp brakes but I seem to have used 12mm 8 spoke wheels, would that be correct? Note the 4 verticals on the end, a GN feature, and that its lettered 6 tons with a 7-11 tare. Its sits on a 10' wheelbase and is quite a big van so it stands next to an MR D.364 vent van for comparison. So is this real, when was the prototype built, how many, what sort of traffic would it be used for? It'll be running into a MR station in the northwest pre-WW1. Any advice will be much appreciated, its heavy but a good runner, even after all this time.

I read somewhere that it was bad practice to have the turntable at the entrance to the loco shed on a BLT. It's mechanical and if it fails, it could trap a loco in the shed which is why you're more likely to see the turntable off a spur.

So what diagram is this when its at home? Or is it pre-diagram days?

Fascinating, that's this morning taken up reading...

Excellent, good news indeed!

Yes, off Amazon and other electrical suppliers, I ordered 10 Mini (On) Off(On) Momentary Toggle Switch Miniature SPDT - £4.65. I'm not using a CDU though, and not planning to, but not sure that it makes a difference. And yes, these were any old SPDT switches....

My newbie experience, code 75 with double slips and 3-ways, was that I purchased SEEP PM1s' for frog switching on the slips and 3-ways, and PM2s relying on point blade contact for the rest, because of cost. Due to inexperience, basically not getting the PM1's exactly lined up under the board so they didn't switch over completely and burnt out, I have blown the internal switching on most of my PM1s but the motor still switches the blades. So I replaced the slips and 3-way motors with Peco PL-10Es and the associated mechanical accessory switch unit PL-13E and developed an under board fixing setup which is much easier to adjust laterally to ensure optimum frog switching performance. So the PM1s are relegated to ordinary blade switching and which I have not had a problem with yet. I don't think your switches make much difference provided they are single pole, double throw, I use cheapo ones off Amazon. And as a previous poster has said, have some wires hanging off your transformer to test each switch with before locating it in place.

I saw elsewhere the huge number of MR open wagons to covered vans (Essery quotes something like >60% open wagons to 2% for van) and I was thinking to structure my goods trains in such a proportion, but then realised this gives a false picture of goods trains' makeup. So many of the D299s were used for mineral traffic, many laid up in sidings as coal storage units, say 50%? So this would decrease the proportion of open wagons to covered vans, anyone care to venture a guess? My own would be that for a mixed traffic goods - non-mineral, I have 2 covered vans for every 8 open wagons, or 20%. And of course, mineral trains would be 100% open wagons. The Bristol goods survey elsewhere on RMweb draws similar inferences, though post-WW1, and the other point of conjecture is that this is a picture, along with many others of Lawley Street on the same site, of goods being discharged undercover in and goods shed, and therefore more likely to be unloaded from covered vans than tarped open wagons.

This is a joke isn't it? Is someone at the Guardian having a laugh? Or they've misread their calendar as April 1st...

You may find value in this topic I started and the responses. And BTW, I'm with you on your operational sentiments, average modelling but bang on WTT.

I've got the book, thanks, from whence the Adlestrop (GWR 1852) reference came from. Whilst the book covers a wide range of company styles, it occurred to me that when it came to wooden sheds, anything goes making it easier to fit a custom shed to the space I have set aside, and also easier using tongue and groove wood "brick" paper to construct, so to speak.

Nice one, much patched in later years by the looks of it but it gives me details of windows which is useful, thx.

My immediate reaction was to jump to Disused Stations website but annoyingly, the good shed keeps featuring in the background, so I haven't got a clear picture of what's what. But I think it's not on a scale I'm looking for, to service a town of 20,000+ people. Will investigate further so thanks for the heads up.

Having travelled through it for many years, stopped over last September to feed hungry son at lunchtime, a gem, many individual specialist shops, easily walkable and with an Ossett pub to boot! Well worth a day, whenever some degree of normality returns.

As my layout develops, I'm looking to build an OO gauge goods shed. My requirements are double track, supporting unloading/loading for up to 8 wagons so bigger than available kits and probably wooden (lots of embossed papers for exterior finish), for speed of custom development and uniqueness. I understand that wooden ones were often put up when a previous facility had been outgrown and wooden was a quick fix expansion. Example wooden ones include Adlestrop (GWR 1852), Bury St Edmunds (GER 1840s), Gloucester High Street and Barnoldswick, both MR - my focus, though the relative rarity and uniqueness of wooden goods sheds means I am prepared to adapt most designs. I envisage 2 tracks entering it centrally with an unloading platform on each side with access for the drays along the longer sides, and the floor plan area fitting onto a single sheet of A4 paper (8-1/4 x 11-3/4 inches/21.0 x 29.7 cm). Anyway, that's the space I have left to play with... Can anyone add to this, as I said, point me to other photos or even plans? Thanks.

If its the one I'm thinking of, the show window displays from the main road on the ground floor are all hardware/DIY stuff, the model shop is up some steep rickety stairs to the first floor when I visited in 2019 but I recall quite an extensive range of products and a live model roundy DCC controlled to play with.

An observation, many wagon turntables in goods yards were built from not long after the dawn of railways to the late-19th century, often for use by horse shunting and later, powered capstans in larger yards, and therefore unsuited for most 20th century locomotives to run over. P.9 of C. Richard Wilby's Railway's Around East Lancashire has a photo of Brierfield station, L&Y circa 1920 (opened 1 February 1848) which shows a wagon turntable in the yard affording access to the local mill across the road and the sign warning "No engine must pass over this turntable". This would have been unlikely to be upgraded to support a loco's weight and had probably been in place since the opening of the mill, late 19th century. Locos would push wagons over the turntable by using "reach" wagons thus avoiding crossing the turntable themselves.

Thanks @Guy Rixon, I'm much wiser now and will mix and match as suits.

Yes, it seems apparent that there were different practices across the various companies, mine being MR and L&Y, though I only have 1 Lanky break van at the moment and they quite obviously allocated break vans to specific locations from the photos I've seen, and much else in their wagon portfolio.

Thank you all, very enlightening, and entertaining... My takeaway, principally from @Robert Shrives and @Rivercider is to look at it from the other end of the telescope, that the rather busy BLT I operate has its own allocation of Brake Vans and therefore the early morning goods departures can be prepped with a BLT Brake Van in place, and the arriving one is turned round and despatched later in the day. Makes sense. Good to know that all options appear open for Brake Van management, so I'll now revisit my WTT to review.