SteamingWales

This might be a stupid question but where is the coal space on the Mainline Hunslets? As from a casual glance there doesn't seems to be one

Well this was unexpected for a Thursday morning. I thought all the manufacturers would be saving up announcements for Warley! I'll have some Collett 60' Sunshine coaches for my Manor(s) to pull please

This means at Warley I presume? 😅

Not much to report in layout progress. I'm waiting on windows for the boiler house so that can be completed and painted before the whole south side receives a mortar wash. Some nice product news from ModelU as well. I'll take 2 please. One straight, one cranked

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02L4umQE82oGtgBgqB131JWnLjzkc8r3xW4kZjPRrg3K2YMw56s6gCJyaqLSYeWJwml&id=100063929594345&sfnsn=scwspmo

Have to agree with this. I would rather have a speaker (or additional speaker) in the smokebox rather than some feable smoke generator. Though I do like a flickering firebox if done well, which I'm sure A/S will do. I'll add no opening smokebox doors please. I recently had to reattach the one to my Bachmann 3MT as it just fell off one day!

This looks AMAZING😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Just another short update. All the brickwork for the south side of the shed has now been painted and awaiting a mortar wash (though I am away atm helping dig a wildlife pond) In the interem time I have been revising the CAD of the coal tubs. After a bit of interest from other RMweb members and a few Facebook group posts later there seemed to be quite a bit of demand, so they are now listed on eBay. Through this it was mentioned about designing a cut down version which were used for tank engines with narrow bunkers. A bit of spliting and creating faces and objects later and there are now 3 different coal tub types. A tender engine version and tank engine version, both L and R. I'd quite like to add these to Cambrian shed myself (as well as offer for sale obviously) so painting these once printed will be a nice change from painting bricks all evening! The other good news is the issuing of invoices for the Accurascale Manors. Obviously they are imminent now (but not too imminent based on the Manor thread) but gives a nice target for getting the baseboard sorted as the whole layout idea kind of grew from these models!

Yay !!!! Not bothered about missed Christmas delivery. Given the Jan/Feb delivery date I can have mine as a (very expensive) birthday present instead 🎂 EDIT Minor problem with my preorder with the GoCardless system and the invoice asking for full payment again. All sort by the team, no problem. Praise for the A/S customer service once again

Hello all Considering getting one of these in light of the expected FR versions of the Penrhyn ladies. Is it worth risking it now with one of the original batch, given the packaging issues and crank pin problems, or holding tight for the second run? I only ask as I am thinking there may be a price rise for 2023? Another question. How easy would it be to rename/renumber one of these to model Palmerston?

I've been rather busy of late, mostly poking around (quite literally) on peat bogs in the Trough of Bowland so haven't had any time to model with staying away Back home I thought it about time to start painting the shed. Painting individual bricks is VERY tedious. These sections (plus the 3 which are part of the boiler house) form the south side of the shed which I think is going to be my main focus for a while so best to get it painted? In other news I might have proper baseboards by next week!

Those instructions look very promising for a run of Linda and Blanche in FR guise. I haven't been tempted into OO9 yet. The current offering in RTR hasn't really appealed to me so far but if we get the FR ladies I will definitely have a dabble. Will certainly look nice with a couple of the Peco Bowsiders

With the Double Fairlie's, Peco England's it seems modelling the FR is quite doable now. Put me down for the preservation examples. The 2 ladies are my favourite FR locos

We must be due a new OO steam loco by now?

Thanks for the comment. I did pick up the thread asking about drawing by yourself from a couple of years ago but didn't think it ever came to fruition so I will go and have a look!

Back to some modelling. I think it is about time to start the massive job of painting the shed sections. I can tell I'm going to love doing all the brick highlights on these 😑

Steam: maybe GNR J13/LNER J52? but like already said, Heljan haven't done much steam The prototype HST would be interesting, but would people just buy a power car? No idea for electrics. The NER battery locos would be interesting Perhaps after the TT snub Heljan have been working on a broad gauge Iron Duke and are launching their new gauge tomorrow?

I've not really been in the mood for proper modelling at the moment, not sure why 😕 To get back into the mood I have been sat on a load of transfers I ordered from Railtec a few weeks back. So tonight has been a big renumbering with 6 locos on the work bench. In all the Dukedogs and 3MT have just had raised cabside and smokebox number plates, and the Moguls and Prairie have received identify changes Whilst choosing which Mogul to do for, see post from a few weeks back (BTW I went for 6395), I ended up looking through photos of to earlier 43xx/53xx, mainly as procrastination. If my history is correct the Moguls that worked the Cambrian mainline (not to Barmouth) were mostly the later versions and the early designs were withdrawn quite early. I think one made it to Jan 1958 but for me that is too early. I did stumble across a pair that were at Shrewsbury until winter 1960 so ordered some plates too in readiness for the new version from Dapol. Past me obviously knew what they were doing as I pre-empted the Dapol price rise!

The sucker here is RoS who must have a "decent" sum for it in the first place!

Round of applause for the honest again by the team at Rapido This probably isn't a constructive comment, but I used to work for a well known clothing retailer and all the lorry lifts had guard rail things, basically a 12 inch high metal flap, to stop stuff rolling off and I never understand why this isn't a standard thing?

I know I promised actual modelling would resume but the Clan nameplates arrived yesterday so I couldn't wait to get them fitted. So.. Introducing to the fleet BR Standard 6MT "Clan" Class No. 72027 "SEAFARER" A Standard 6 on the Cambrian network, but how? I appreciate at this point not everyone has the time to read my whole thought process, so hopefully this executive summary should cover most points briefly. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY I wanted a 6MT on the layout properly, not just a "nice to have" I didn't want to simply invoke rule 1 or play the railtour card So what if? The international steel shortage wasn't a thing The BR Modernisation Plan was different/delayed The next Lot of Clans were built and then some The wooden bridges on the Cambrian mainline (not to Pwllheli) were replaced increasing route axle load The 6MTs were trialled successfully and negated the need for double heading express trains All the above is expanded on below in much more detail, though quite lengthy. Any comments, questions or blind range due to me trashing history are all welcome! N.B. This does not open the floodgates to all sorts of other classes to appear. The above what ifs apply to get a Clan AND ONLY A CLAN onto the layout CONTEXT Personally I have always liked the look of the BR Clan. They are very well proportioned pacific, not as bulky as the "Brits" or a power house like a Duchess, just a nice looking engine. Not too big, not too small. Before the idea for Cambrian Shed came into being and my general increased interest in Cambrian network as a whole, I had a pre-order for a Clan from Hattons, but as with their form with pre-orders this was cancelled. By this point a price rise and first ideas of Cambrian Shed bouncing round I decided not to seek one elsewhere. However, roll on April 2022 and Kernow had them on sale, the temptation was too great and I got one and so here we are with a Clan completely out of place amongst GWR machines. At this point I could just invoke rule 1 and have 72004 just out of place, or play the railtour card and have an occasional visit. I wanted her on the layout properly so have decided to retcon a Clan onto the Cambrian network WHAT IF... 1. The steel shortage wasn't a thing and the next Lot of Clans (72010-72024) had been built, along with more Class 7MT (see notes on 72010 history page) 2. Following improvements, the 6MT had been more of a success and an effective locomotive resulting in another batch of locomotives being ordered 3. The Modernisation Plan hadn't halted the construction of Pacific locomotives 4. The GWR and Western region of BR had continued improvements on the Cambrian Mainline with the wooden bridges replaced along the route to Aberystwyth which increased the maximum axle load of locomotives allowed on the line THE HISTORY OF 72027 "SEAFARER" Built at Crewe BR Standard 6MT "Clan" locomotive 72027 emerged from the works in November 1953 named "SEAFARER". Initially allocated to Crewe the locomotive operated along the WCML hauling trains to Glasgow and Manchester. This only lasted briefly with the loco allocated to Western region arriving at Shrewsbury in early 1954 with 2 other 6MTs. During this period the class proved themselves on the Welsh Marches hauling expresses from Crewe and Shrewsbury to Cardiff. After a spell at Shrewsbury she was allocated to Tyseley in Sep 1956 before returning to Shrewsbury in Feb 1958 following overhaul were she received BR Late Crest and nameplates with red background. By this time the infrastructure improvements on the Cambrian had been completed allowing for heavier locomotives to use the network. Given the success of the Scottish engines on the Dumfries to Stranraer working and Southern engines on the Somerset and Dorset the decision was taken to trial the locomotives on the Cambrian mainline during April 1958. This proved to be a success with the Clans being able to handle the heavy express trains over Talerddig single handily, eliminating the need for double heading of such trains and the Shrewsbury Clans started work on the Cambrian of May that year and could been seen alongside the Manors hauling the CCE and other expresses to Manchester and Birkenhead. Although never officially allocated to Machynlleth shed on the Cambrian the locos found themselves often on shed at Aberystwyth for working the CCE. Here the crews took a shine to the locomotives and being the top express engines were kept in immaculate cosmetic condition like the Manors, a real juxtaposition to the torrid cosmetic state of other Clans. 72027 remained at Shrewsbury shed until Nov 1964 when she was allocated to Carlisle Kingmoor joining classmates 72005-09 working trains over the S&C. She was withdrawn from service on 4th December 1965 with classmate 72007. (The soppy bit, it's my personal engine so its being preserved) Owing to her good mechanical condition, in part thanks to the efforts of crews at Aberystwyth, 72027 was privately preserved following withdrawal and was overhauled at Crewe. She initially worked railtours before settling onto the heritage rail network with her home base at the Severn Valley Railway, not far from her old stomping ground, whilst also working occasional railtours on the national network. SUMMARY Entered Service Nov 1953 Allocations Crewe Nov 1953 Shrewsbury Feb 1954 Tyseley Sep 1956 Shrewsbury Feb 1958 Carlisle Kingmoor Nov 1964 Withdrawn Dec 1965 PRESERVED WHY THE NAME AND NUMBER? NUMBER I'll start with the easy one first. I did think initially about just having the next Lot built in my alternative reality and have one of the southern locos reallocated due to surplus requirement given the number of Bullied Pacifics, but scrapped this as they would have had BR 2(?) tenders and the original Scottish engines proved themselves so why take engines from the 2nd batch. So I went for the hypothetical 3rd batch and 72027 has a nice symmetry to it NAMING This was a lot, and I mean a lot, more difficult than choosing a number, though I have tried to stick to the BR naming principles. See here (and sorry to cite Wikipedia) First thought was given to historic figures of Welsh origin. The Welsh didn't really have houses or Clans at best there were a bunch of semi-Kingdoms. I did think about HYWEL DDA/HYWEL THE GOOD, a 10th Century king who united much of Wales, but I am only aware of HYWEL thanks to Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories (The Last Kingdom on BBC/Netflix) so scrapped that idea. The next idea was OFFA or OFFA OF MERCIA, again a historical figure and more well known thanks to Offa's Dyke and similar context with Hengist, Horsa and Canute. I did settle on OFFA for a while as it satisfies a geographical rule and historic figure rule but looking for weathering reference at "Brits" the little piddly names like Ariel just look silly. OFFA was on borrowed time! Next, a brief thought was given to birds and being an ecologist and ornithologist this seemed personal to me. RED KITE? Typically a Welsh bird in my mind, though increasingly less so, and fits the layout theme but is straying into A4 naming territory. So that idea was binned. A few months ago I was watching the Ffestiniog Moving Pictures on YT where an update on the overhaul of Taliesin was being given. TALIESIN isn't a bad name. Already proven on a locomotive, a Welsh poet and ticks some boxes from the naming criteria. Then came the epiphany moment linked with Taliesin. I'd recently finished a book called "The Seafarers", a cracking read btw, which explores British sea birds and pulls its name from a similarly title 10th Century poem "The Seafarer" LINK. The important link being the gannets mentioned in these lines.... I took to myself as pleasure, the gannet's noise and the voice of the curlew instead of the laughter of men, The Seafarer also appears in my current read material "Curlew Moon" with the obvious curlew link. I might add the "Exeter Book" in which The Seafarer appears also has some other decent names for steam locos like WANDERER or VAINGLORY So take out THE and you get SEAFARER. It's personal to me with the wording/bird link, historical, rolls of the tongue and has the double maritime meaning. Perhaps? 72025 OFFA/OFFA OF MERCIA 72026 TALIESIN 72027 SEAFARER 72028 WANDERER 72029 VAINGLORY Congratulations if you made it this far. Quite a long read (and thought process for me) but I hope followers of the thread appreciate the choices made, rather than just playing rule 1 and giving the middle finger to any die hard rivet counters. Any feedback, comments or blind rage is welcome!

Built up the confidence to take the masking tape off the Clan to reveal the new paint job and I'm pretty happy. A couple of areas need touching up but a job well done me thinks! I promise normal Cambrian Shed updates will resume over the weekend 😅

There is a blog on the Hornby site which provides a bit more info on the releases and yes, a new loco-tender coupling is mentioned. Although at present a black square on a line drawing doesn't tell us much about it https://uk.Hornby.com/community/blog-and-news/news/flying-past-100

Wow!!!! £360 for the Dublo locos 👀 I wonder if there will be any new releases of the normal tooling? I guess we will have to wait for the 2023 range release?

I received an email today that my custom name plates were on the way so thought it about time to put words into action and paint the footplate and top of the tender tank. So it was out with the masking tape and airbrush to get the loco ready to receive the new nameplates I'm scared now to take the masking tape off 😅