Ruston

To be pedantic, stone dust wasn't used in coal mines to combat firedamp, which of course is a mining term for methane gas. Stone dust was used to prevent coal dust explosions, which could be caused by firedamp explosions but were far more devastating than an explosion of firedamp alone.

Back to the trains. I have built up a large collection of O gauge industrial locomtives over the past 5 or 6 years and I've been sorting them out, taking them out of their storage boxes and testing them. Some will never run on Royd Hall, either because there is no way of fitting sound, or because they are very poor runners. Apart from one that is a good runner but is extremely heavy and would knock the track to pieces, not to mention that it's painted in a very distinctive colour scheme that really doesn't fit in with a colliery loco fleet. One loco that fortunately runs well and is to be sound-fitted, and added to the working fleet, is the old BT&S No.4. I have had new name plates made up by Narrow Planet and it has become Stringer & Jaggar No.4. The company so named were colliery owners in the area in which the layout is set. Although some sources show Jagger and there is a Jagger Lane very near the site of one of their collieries, I chose to spell it Jaggar because it was spelt this way on their private owner wagons.

National Coal Board Royd Hall. Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST Stringer & Jaggar No.4 heading for the landsale yard with an assortment of ancient internal use only wagons.

I think the first edition was 1825 so mine is a second edition. I have just had a search online and a first edtions are on sale from £100 to £2500! Mine cost precisely five pounds, which isn't bad at all when you consider that the modern reprint costs over £20.

Early railways and their locomotives are a subject that I find fascinating. The oldest book in my collection is the 1832 edition of Nicholas Wood's A Practical Treatise On Rail Roads and one of my most prized books is C.F. Dendy Marshall's 1953 publication of A History Of Railway Locomotives Down To The Year 1831. I don't remember ever having seen a model railway, other than a static model of the Stockton & Darlington, of a pre-1831 railway. The reason for the year 1831as a cut-off would be something to do with the Livepool & Manchester being the first "proper" locomotive-worked railway (but then that opened in 1830...) where the earliest were the original industrial railways. Are there any proper working layouts for this time period? If you have any models of early locos please share them here. P.S. If anyone from Bachmann, or Hornby is reading this, can we please have a RTR Steam Elephant, or Royal George? (more chance of me winning the lottery).

It's finished. Hydraulic lines and control fitted and as for the counterweight, I machined up some wheel weights.

There is an even easier solution, which doesn't need the same level of dexterity to catch hold of the links. I use a tiny torch that has a length of 1mm brass wire fixed to it, and to the other end, a tiny magnet. Pick up the links and slide them over the hook and pull the magnet down and away. Of course you need to use steel links. I made one and have another, which I believe is available from the HMRS.

Very informative, Arthur. I take it the hydraulic pump would be fitted to the rear PTO? I could model some simple representation of it. I guess it would probably be covered by the weight at the back though?

I've been thinking about the loco coaling facilities at Royd Hall shed and how a bloke with a couple of buckets isn't a very good way of coaling some of the larger locos, such as the 15-inch Hunslets. So I bought a die-cast Fordson Major, at Leeds exhibition, last week. I've scratched the hydraulics, arms and bucket from card and plasticard. I wonder if a tractor such as this, with a loader, ought to have a counterweight attached to the 3-point linkage at the rear?

It's the faffing around making multiples of things such as axleboxes and springs that are a pain when scratchbuilding. If I ever get started on one of these I may look at making one part and getting the others cast in resin.

I was recently given an old slide, taken at Royd Hall Drift Mine, in the early 1960s and featuring the E class Peckett that used to work there. The slide also came with an old picture of one of the loco drivers at the pit, dated 4th January 1947. So that would be just a few days after "vesting day" - the nationalisation of the coal industry.

Looks like a Hudswell Clarke to me, Arthur.

Since I posted the previous photo I felt there was something not quite right with my E class Peckett. It was that the cab steps and the valance under the running plate really ought to be green and not black. I have rectified that and have added more dirt to the frames, wheels and rods. It also has another oil can on the running plate, plus a wrench and a shovel for cleaning out the smokebox. Tamiya NATO green is also a pretty good match for the main colour. Hauling "dirt cans" on my Royd Hall Drift layout.

This is looking really good. Do you think it will be finished in time for Wakey exhibition? I'll bring along those whitemetal wagon frames for you...

This is really coming to life now that you've added people and junk lying around. I'm a real fan of having junk lying around.

Yesterday I built the final hopper to fit inside the screens building. The design of these has been evolving and on this latest one I did away with the springs, thinking that if it is fixed then the motor/weight would shake just the spout and so be more efficient. It does seem to work better but the downside is that it shakes the entire building and makes the next hopper discharge its load! It's firmly fixed in place and I can't be bothered to take it out now so it will have to be used to load wagons only when the adjacent hopper has been emptied. With the hopper for waste also operational I now have all four roads capable of loading wagons, and with all the buildings constructed and in place and the tippler fully working, the layout is in a state of near completion. There is still work to be done on details and additional greenery, and the possible construction of a low sleeper-built platform for the paddy train. The next big thing will be to build up a collection of private owner wagons so different time periods can be operated by switching BR stock for PO's, changing/removing road vehicles and by using the less modern steam locos and no diesels. I'm thinking Second World War so PO's can be used from any company and region.

It is in a bit of a state, isn't it? I too remember when it was freshly painted. 48DS always seem to get negelected at preserved railways. I suppose because their uses and opportunities to work are limited they don't get the attention, or undercover storage, that revenue-earning locos get. I first saw that particular loco when it was at Buxton. It had a broken gearbox, which was probably due to someone fitting a Gardner engine of over twice the horsepower of the original Ruston engine. I went to look at it with members of the GYRPS, who bought it and took it to Starbeck. I don't think it ever worked at Starbeck though. IIRC the Gardner engine was put to use in a Fowler there.

The sound definitely travels through the tunnel but it's difficult to tell how far the train has got. Sounding the horn (or whistle) helps.

Would that be the 4mm kit? I don't see why not. I began the conversion, for River Don Works, on a loco that I built years ago. It's still in bits though and will now probably never be finished.

Thanks for posting that, Paul. I notice there's a weighing machine inside the building. I can't see a weighbridge in front of it, so I assume the tippler doubles as a weighbridge? This is something I have been wondering about. Since making the original post, and from the answers given, I have made a simple outdoor control post with buttons but I may change this and have a control/weigh cabin instead.

I meant mechanical noise. There's some grating with the worm and gear at higher speeds. I wonder if grinding paste, the sort you used to lap valves into car cylinder heads, would help?

The Yorkshire is finished, sound-chipped, and has entered service as National Coal Board North Eastern Division Area No.6, loco 15. Propelling 21-tonners toward the weighbridge. Ready to depart for the exchange sidings. Arriving at the exchange sidings. it's slightly noisy but I'm hoping that will go with running-in. The fold-up chassis, being rigid, and my trackwork being prototypically rough, means I am going to fit a keep-alive. There is one particular set of points that it cuts out on. No other loco has problems on this and I put it down to the weight of this thing - it's flippin' heavy, being whitemetal!

National Coal Board North Eastern Division Area No.6, Loco 15, a Yorkshire Engine Company 0-4-0DE, hauls a train of 21-ton hoppers into Royal Oak sidings - the BR exchange sidings on the former L&Y Wakefield to Barnsley line. The loco will leave the loaded hoppers for the BR trip to Healey Mills and will take a train of empty 16-tonners back to Royd Hall Colliery.

I have made some progress on the Yorkshire diesel. Engine compartment doors now have overlays, made from plasticard. The rods and brake gear are on and most of the handrails have been made and fitted. The front and rear handrails that come with the kit are truly awful things and are more suited to Scarborough seafront than a locomotive. The cab has been glazed using thick clear plastic from an Oxford diecast car box. I had tried putting thin plastic on the inside and building it up with "glue 'n' glaze" but it was a complete disaster. The chassis/frames on this kit are a simple fold-up affair but are very narrow. So narrow that whitemetal spacers are provided to fit over the axles before fitting the wheels. I have built the width of the frames up using thick plasticard overlays. PHOTO UNAVAILABLE THANKS TO PHOTOBUCKET MUPPETS The rear handrails need to be made and fitted, the engine compartment door handles ditto. The originals were cast on to the body and had to be filed off before I could fit the overlays. Sandpipes to add too and then a light weathering. The tippler now has a set of controls and an operator, complete with brake stick and bothy. I don't know if brake sticks are something you just don't notice because they're so small, or if no one ever models them? PHOTO UNAVAILABLE THANKS TO PHOTOBUCKET MUPPETS

Now you just need an 88DS to complete the set of the 3 main standard gauge Rustons.