Mrkirtley800

I think they would have been part of the kits, but I will ask him next time I speak to him. Derek Oh, I see Chris has answered your query.

Here are a few pics of my sons 0 gauge stock. The carriages are Slaters kits and apart from a couple of six wheelers, are his first attempt at kit building, painting and lining Derek

Very nice layout, Bob, with so much character. My own layout thread,Midland Railway in EM gauge, could be its twin brother. We are modelling our layouts based on a similar idea. Here is a pic of a local stopper entering the down platform at Kirkby Malham. Derek

Yes, why not scratch build one. I have now built four over the years, and they are not difficult, and you can build the size you require. I described the last one in my thread in layout topics — Midland Railway in EM gauge. It is a 48’ table and installed in my present layout. It cost me next to nothing since I built it from bits cluttering up my railway room. Scratch building a TT is not difficult, just needs a bit of care, like most things we do in our modelling. Derek

That last pic is so atmospheric. A wonderful bit of modelling. Derek

I managed to find my copy of MR Illustrated which features KM mk1, November1995, 26 years ago OMG Derek

Tell me more. The original editor, whose name escapes me, created in it a promising publication, but I think he, sadly, died suddenly and it passed into the hands of someone else, when the quality fell drastically. I had paid a full years subscription and only received very few mags. Derek

Hello Martin, Thank you for your nice comments. My Kirkby Malham Mark 1 appeared in the short lived Modelling Railways Illustrated mag. The layout was built as a branch off our Grassington layout, many years ago. KM mk1 was hawked around the exhibition circuit in the 1980s and 90s, before being sold. Grassington was scrapped in 1985, and Embsay Canal Road was built in its place. This was a four track roundy secondary main line station layout, with two tracks EM gauge and two 00 gauge ( my youngest sons). We could operated six trains at any one time, four on the main lines and shunting on both EM and 00. The noise in our railway room was deafening so that neither I nor Chris heard calls to do the washing up. Canal Road was the lead article in the Railway Modeller year book for 2015,but the layout became too much when my knees gave up on me. So it was cut about and converted into the layout we have now. The present Kirkby Malham is not yet complete enough for featuring in a mag. The final scenic board requires a fair bit of work, then I need some sort of backscene for the last three scenic boards. Many of the locomotives and much of the rolling stock appeared on all these layouts. It is all, like me, getting long in the tooth. Some pics of KM mk1 are included in this thread in the early pages. Derek

Hello Crimson Rambler, yes it is OK by me for you to go into detail of what is one of my favourite engines. I have to admit, I have no idea what you are talking about, but the bits I have picked up are fascinating. Derek

Looks very nice indeed

Hello Rowsley, what is the type of chimneyin your kit. In my period, many of the old Midland engines sported the lovely Johnson chimney. K’s did a nice one in cast white metal, and many years ago I bought a good stock, which now, sadly, are all gone. There are some very nice cast or turned brass which are advertised as the Johnson type, but they are more like the parallel chimneys of Deeley and Fowler, certainly not got the curves of Johnson’s design. Derek

Hello Rowsley 17D, I lusted after one of these 0-4-4s ever since I was at school. I bought a Model Railway News in 1953 and on the front was a layout by Frank Roomes called Lutton, and there in the foreground a Midland 0-4-4 well tank. It wasn’t until I was married with a house of my own that I bought a drawing of one of these locos by JAN Maskeline, editor of MRN. Unfortunately Maskeline made some mistakes in the drawing, which I, in my ignorance, knew nothing about. I started scratch building my loco in 1966. Used Romford wheels and a Triang XT 60 motor. It was later painted by Larry Goddard and ran many miles until the motor gave up. By then, compensation and Mashima motors were available, so I rebuilt the engine using Gibson wheels, compensation and a 1024 motor, no gearbox though, perhaps that will come on its next rebuilding, whenever that might be. Maskeline did a large number of drawings, all to fit on a size of paper. The 0-4-4 was scaled at 10 mm/ foot, so was easy to convert The 2-4-0 800 class drawing worked out at something like 8.23 mm/foot, so out came the slide rule, no calculators then. I built a well tank and 800 class in 00 for Larry. He eventually sold them on. I wonder where they are now? Derek

Hello D, no, the L & Y van is white metal, probably bought as a kit from David Gean, many, many moons ago. However, the Hull and Barnsley van is a proprietary model, either Hornby or Triang. I have two of them, again pretty old. I discarded the chassis in favour of a hand built one The three Spencer opens are part of a group of six, and are Lima. Again, I threw the chassis away and built them up with scale wheels. I also tried to reduce the very bright colour of the wagons. I rather think they are a bit too modern for 1908, but they are relevant to the area I am trying to portray. If I had many more years,I would scratch build a train of them more in keeping with the time. Derek

At last, after eleven weeks of enforced sitting around, I was able to go into the railway room (AKA. The garage), and continue where I left off before my incident with the chair. Since the weather warmed up in March, I had been running some trains. It was then I found a fault with inter baseboard connections on the last scenic board. So, because I am not, now, able to lift the boards, I waited for my eldest son to pay a visit. He lifted a couple of boards down for me to work on, and am now waiting for a return visit to put them back. Meanwhile, I spent my time running and testing my stock of engines, using just the station limits. I was pleasantly surprised they all performed well, after a long time in their boxes. I did do a bit of passenger operation using the shortened layout. Here is the layout in early July, just before my enforced layoff. The local, all stations, passenger from Skipton to Kirkby Malham was hauled by a Kirtley designed 0-4-4 well tank.

Thank you for your comments D. In my ignorance, when first starting to build the Jidenco kit, I went ahead blithely putting together footplate and frames. It was only after I built the mainframes and put the wheels on that I discovered the outside frames were not identical, so, the axles were not in the middle of the cut outs. It was probably my fault for not checking, but had to slice thefootplate in half longitudinally, and solder it back again so that it fitted mainframes. File the front and rear so that everything was square and fill in with small strips on nickel so that it was the correct length. It is all so long ago, but that kit has stuck in my mind. Certainly, it spent more time in its box than being built. As Ian Rice said, “Jidenco kits are scratch builders aids” If anyone has been sent me any pm’,s, I can’t get my iPad to access them. Something seems to have changed, and if Andy York reads this, will he please get in touch. I need some assistance. Derek

I cannot access any pms. It has suddenly happened. All was OK last month. Any ideas? Derek

Another couple of pics of the Jidenco Kirtley

I bought a Jidenco kit for a Kirtley goods quite soon after they were issued. It took me about 20 years to build it. To say that I was disappointed with the kit would be an understatement, but did persist. The mainframes did not match the outside frames, so I scratch built the running gear. The footplate, when attached to the outside frames did not allow the axles to be square, so I had to cut the footplate down the middle and resolder, then filing the footplate so that it was square. It meant it was a bit short so had to fill in with bits of nickel. The boiler was so thin, I threw it away and used brass tube. Not too happy with the chimney now, but I have turned a blind eye. Gibson wheels and cranks, Mashima motor, but sadly no gearbox. painted by me in plain black. I couldn’t face trying to finish in full Midland lined crimson lake.

Wow, Queensquare, that is a beauty. Here is my K’s Kirtley, built back in the mists of time. I didn’t know much about Midland engines in 1966 (still don’t) but I had bought a Skinley drawing to help. In fact the drawing was in the form of a blueprint, but was partly dimensioned, so that I could check the accuracy of the drawing and of the parts in the kit. Some people were questioning the accuracy of Skinley. I built the kit as instructed, so fitted the Deeley smokebox door and parallel chimney. The cab is a bit high, I used the cast cab roof which was quite bulky. I have been tempted to rebuild the loco but loth to risk the paintwork by my good friend Larry Goddard. The mainframes (chassis) was the K’s brass keyhole type and the motor a mark 2. It ran very well, but over the years I have produced a scratch built running gear with decent wheels, a gearbox and Mashima motor. My son calls it “ye olde faithfull’ Here are a couple of pics. Derek

Thanks Andy. I very rarely fall over or trip, but when I do, I usually jump up and carry on doing what I was doing. Years ago, I was standing on top of the deep freeze doing some electrical work on the ceiling when I fell off, straight on to my left shoulder, but got up, rubbed the sore bit and climbed back on the freezer to complete the job. Am I an idiot, or what? Its OK D, I like to reply to people pretty quickly. This time I don’t have an option with my eagle eyed wife behind me. I have to behave. I am owing Douglas of Florence Locomotive Works a reply to a request. As soon as Ican get into my drawings etc I can reply. Derek

My apologies for not replying. I am laid up at the present time, having had an argument with a kitchen chair back in July. I finished up a very poor second best, and resulted in a heavy fall on my left side. To compound matters, I managed to pull my walking frame on to my right side. It had two heavy walking sticks hooked over it, so finished up black and blue from shoulder to knee, my right arm badly cut and needing stitching and breaking two ribs.. I couldn’t get up, I seemed to have lost my strength so Olga rang for the ambulance, which whisked me off to hospital for a ten day stay. On finally getting home, the local Nurse Practitioner sent me straight back, she found I had a large amount of water sloshing around inside me. However, medication has sorted that out and having lost a stone in weight, I feel much better. I haven’t been in the railway room since July, but hope to resume activity later in the week. As far as the Kirtley goods are concerned, I can’t remember much about building them. The K’s kit was bought for me by Olga as a birthday present in 1966, and built it as instructions. The Jidenco one took me about twenty years to build. However, when I get back I will be better placed to describe their building Derek

Tony, Some piccies of my youngest sons 0 gauge carriages, with two more on the stocks Derek

Busy day at Kirkby Malham. 4mm scale, EM gauge

I use Damask Red, which was, I think, a BritishLeyland colour. My youngest son has built a number or Midland carriages in 0 gauge, and painted them using this colour from a spray can, and they look superb. Derek