John_Miles

The Manchester and Milford built a line from Penpontbren Junction near Llanidloes to Llangurig. They were planning to go further west but ran out of funds and ambition. Instead they did build a line from Pencader Junction to Aberystwyth. The line to Llangurig saw one train. So far as I know, the box at the Junction was then switched out and that was that.

Warning to potential readers of this: it contains some mistakes. On the first line of the introduction, it says something like Glamorgan is now part of Gwent (just in case you don't know, Gwent was carved out of Monmouthshire). Later is says that Barry Docks were named after the Civil Engineer who designed them. Wrong again.The photograph which is described as Roath looks more like Skewen to me. There are more but a complete list would be tedious. What the book does contains is a lot of good views, many pre-grouping and some of which I haven't seen before so enjoy the book for the photographs and be careful about what it says in the text.

I haven't noticed this thread before as it is hidden in the mass of threads that I mostly ignore.I have been involved with several pre-grouping layouts as one of the Cardiff 4mm Group. We exhibited Aberdare Taff Vale from the mid-1990s onwards and more recently Ynysybwl (https://www.flickr.com/photos/simage61/sets/72157633916398079/detail/). Also I have been one of Sandy Croall's operators on Penlan. Personally I model the Midland in EM.

A full Weatherburn paint job would be wonderful but probably a job for someone like Ian Rathbone. The result is wonderful but his waiting list is several years. He has a Taff Vale U1 of mine which is still not ready after 3 years.

By 1912 you could go for unlined black for some 1Fs but as suggested above, a photo would be necessary to ensure you have got it right. Having said that, there is nothing better than the full Johnson livery, if you are good at lining or have enough cash to pay someone to do it. There was a transitional livery around this time of a sort of brown - if you are going for this, borrow a copy of Midland Style be George Dow. It has colour samples in the back.

OK Kentish Town 1377 0-6-0Ts around the time period you are interested in :- 1660 to 1675, 1721, 1722

What sort of time period are you thinking of/ I can supply numbers. Also to convert to Midland condition will require major surgery. None of these locos had a Belpaire firebox in Midland days. They would therefore have had Salter safety valves before rebuilding (Gibson do a suitable dome). If you really want to be picky, the frames are too heavy, all locos were given replacement frames from the 1920s onwards. There should be a lock up safety valve on the firebox (again Gibson do these) and I think the chimney on the kit is a Stanier version - but you would need to check this. Depending on your chosen period, it should be a Deeley or Johnson chimney. Nobody makes a decent Johnson chimney. Gibson do have an offering but it is wrong. It might be easier to buy a Craftsman kit and make what you want from that or go LMS. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

The train was leaving the line from Tidal Sidings at Pengam and crossing over onto the up slow line. It was powered by a 66 and the wagons were what I call bogie bolsters. I had a friend who worked for Allied Steel & Wire in their rail depatment before they went bust and he has always maintained that Celsa don't send traffic by rail so this train intrigued me.

I saw a train of about 6 wagons leaving Cardiff Docks with steel rod today. I was told that the steel works wasn't using rail traffic since the new owners took over some years ago.

I bought some Glanze tools a couple of years ago - not cheap but they are really good and better than steel. I use a round nosed one for general shaping (really good for doing much of the work on chimneys and domes), a pointy one (as you can see I am no expert) and a patring off tool.

If you are doing Chesterfield in the later 1950s then you need lots of 8Fs and 4Fs on lon coal trains passing through the Midland station. A Fowler 2-6-4T waiting in the northbound bay with a train of suburban coaches for Sheffield - stopping all stations and double headed expresses on the fast lines with Jubilees or Black 5s with 2Ps as the pilots. My memory of Central is that is was much quieter. There were engines simmering down in the distance towards a huge brick goods shed and the occasional passenger train but very few goods trains - these mostly went through Stavelely up to Arkwright Town on the main line. If you are going to do this in detail it is a huge project so good luck.

History is full of anomalies in terms of fame. It's not just Flying Scotsman. For example Brunel is lauded as a genius but if you look at his record, he made some appaling decisions I7 foot gauge, Atmospheric Railway, baulk road, etc) and lost huge amounts of money for the people he worked for. He was also an awful manager and so his contracts never went to plan (read Adrian Vaughan's books). He caused at least one person to commit suicide. There were other engineers around at the time who built railways on time and to budget who have been completely forgotten. Margaret Thatcher is far more famous than Clement Atlee and yet he achieved far more in terms of transforming society. People are just inconsistent and illogical and so we often focus on things which when examined closely are not particularly deserving of the attention.