Blowke

Give me a few days or so and i'll see what I can get.

4 hours ago, Richard E said:

 

Wow, thanks for the compliment. I hope having snatched this picture from the road doesn't offend. I really need some better pictures before I start scratchbuilding to suit my layout. At least I get a start to the feel of the building even if I was guessing a bit at scale. I now feel I need to revisit at some point or rely on local input

 

 

I did a site visit a couple of years ago with plenty of pictures taken albeit from the road. The resulting view across the bridge is how I pictured, in my mind, the way it would look. The whole idea, for me, was to get something that worked in providing a realistic view even if it wasn't totally faithful.

 

Unfortunately work stalled a bit at the end of last year due to an incident in another hobby that has weighed on my mind much more than I had realised. The next fortnight should finally see closure on that though so I'm hoping motivation will return soon.

 

The biggest issue is a lack of prototype photographs in period so a lot is going on interpretation and infill on what is available. Also I'm shed based so better weather will help, it's not pleasant with a heavy frost on the shed roof despite the shed being insulated.

 

Just as a teaser I'll add this picture that represents the branch where it went under the main A49 road near the pub, still very much a work in progress. That view just does not exist these days, the area once occupied by the railway under the bridge has been filled in. It will be more fiction than reality though around here especially as the yard layout isn't totally faithful. Not a bad picture given it was taken on my phone ...

 

Hi Richard,

Not at all! Research is an entirely neccessary animal!
Our garden does have access to the ballast pit and old sidings just before the a49 Skew Bridge, although it's not official, it's our and the neighbours only pedestrian access to the village of Woofferton and Brimfield just accross the way. Although the sidings are gone, you can still find all the old track and buffer stops amongst the undergrowth between ours and the mainline, which is situated between the Park Lane and Skew Bridges.
I'll get snapping for you, please do let me know which bits are most useful and those which you've been unable to gain access and i'll happily oblige. My boss is the daughter-in-law of the Woofferton and Ashford Carbonell Signalman and has pictures and books stashed away, although she also has MS, which makes finding them a time consuming business, so i'm sorry, but I can only try with those.
How exciting!
Were you aware that the land was purchased from the Leominster Canal Company and did indeed used to be a canal, before being filled in and the track laid? Parts of it have been turned into a footpath that can be walked from the A456 junction at the Salwey Arms down towards Little Hereford where it joins the Teme where you can find an old aquaduct amongst lots of other intereresting things, There is also an abandoned 300ft Tunnel a little further down, between Woofferton and Orleton.
The Station building and Engine shed now form part of the premises for the Ludlow Salvage and David Ward Firewood yard, Kev is an excellent sort and would probably let you have a proper nose about if you asked him nicely. There is also sure to be a bit of a campaign to get the station reopened under the new Beeching-reversal bill, so i'll keep you updated if I hear of an open day or some such fundraising.
Let's me nose!

Morning morning,

What a thing to stumble across.
I actually live on the Skew Bridge at Woofferton! We back on to the ballast pit just before the Skew Bridge and seeing someone model what essentially is my back garden is utterly amazing. The view of the scale Skew Bridge with Clee Hill in the background is really quite faithful, as you can imagine, it's a view I see many times a day and considering you're working from old photos and scraps of information, you've done amazingly well.
Are you still working on the project? If yes, you'd be more than welcome to stand in my garden to take a panorama for the background. I make decent tea!
Alex

Hi Everybody,

I've been looking for a front bogie for a Bowman 234 Express Live Steam loco for many a year with no luck.
Prefer a Crimson Lake one, but any will do!

Would also be in the market for a Hornby Special Express Bogie too, as I believe they can be modified to fit.
Cash waiting, or could possibly swap for something as I have a mountain of Hornby, Lima and Bassett Lowke spares. What do you need!?

Thanks Fred!

I've just gone and got a copy on order, so that's very much appreciated, it also gives me reference as to what buffers and ancillaries it needs which is very helpful!

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

His clockwork locos in 0 and 00, and clockwork tramcars, were made between the end of WW2 and about 1955 (maybe 1953?), and that's when I think yours dates from. From what I can work out, he built in fairly small batches.

 

His post-retirement work was in Gauge 1.

 

It is really difficult to find out about the clockwork period, old adverts seem to be the only solid evidence apart from the models themselves. I do know that Allen Levy, leading light of Ace Trains, the classic 0 gauge revivalists, knew JvR, and I had high hopes that he might know more, but he doesn't - I asked him about it, and he said they'd never talked about that phase of JvR's work.

 

If you wade through my thread, there are photos of my two, and I think of my Walker-Fenn, which was the ancestor.

A-wade-ing I shall go.
Thanks heaps, thats all very exciting. I'm very grateful.

9 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

It looks like Riemsdijk to me - he certainly made locos in 00 as well as 0.

Wowzers, OK, well that's good news and a bit of an honour. He was quite a bloke.
From what i've read about him, he didn't start producing locos until his retirement in the early 80's, would you say that this is an acurate assesment, or is this possibly a throwback from his earlier years. Did he produce batches of the same locos, or were they individually modelled? Sorry for all the questions after you've been such a good egg and replied already, but this is facinating to me, i'm used to Bowmans throwing hot oil everywhere, not this intricate loveliness!

Seeing as it was found amongst such scarce stablemates I figured it was interseting. Thanks Nearholmer.

Evening all,

Utter noob to the site here and I already fear that me trying to be original with my profile name (and not checking here first) will upset, I sincerely hope not!

I come with seasonal greetings and hopefully intriguing photos with which to prise out your seasoned knowledge.
I have been lucky enough to have come across a group of three OO Gauge clockwork tank locos, One is a Hornby Dublo Clockwork GWR N2, which is very nice and i'm lucky to have found, the other is a very early Pyramid Toys N2, which again is very nice and i plan to add SR Decals to, but the third (and the example pictured) is an utter mystery. I cannot find anything even remotely like it. I do note that W&H or Walker-Riemsdyk did produce something quite similar in appearance (Pistons, sloped coal bunker, double nipple safety valve), but that was only ever produced in O gauge to my (very limited) knowledge.
The body is made of tabbed brass,  and appears to have been stamped and folded by a machine, Is it possible this is a kit that was sold by one of the myriad of garden shed companies in the 70's and 80's? If so, can anyone help identify the mechanism?
I offer my sincerest thanks in advance.