Arpleymodeller

Thank you for the replies ! Thanks Will definitely will be plenty of updates this layout is definitely getting built been doing bits almost everyday! Thanks rich yes it was built using Peco Il-111 wooden sleepers and Il-112 pandrol clips to represent timber sleepered FB track . The concrete sleepers are Exactoscale . These are soon to be available again now Exactoscale is a separate company again. C&L used to sell them that's where I got these from . Cheers Lewis

Looks like a great layout idea and will be following this with much interest! Love the hand built track and looking forward to the 60s being featured! Regards Lewis

Hello Simon, Not checked by on this layout for a long while, wow what amazing progress you've made! This is a superb replica of the real Dallam Sidings being a Warrington native I know this area very well! You've done a superb job. Shows that N gauge can achieve highly detailed results ill be following with much interest. Lewis

EWS No.60071 Ribblehead Viaduct is seen running round its train of HAAs before coupling up and back to the Bulk Terminal for more imported black diamonds to be sent to Fiddlers....2007.

MONKS SIDING signal box itself, a repainted Bachmann LNWR product with a Wills modern movable storage building located to the left.

The layout will feature prototypical working signals, the first, this RATIO LMS home semaphore, has recently been fitted. The current view towards the Fiddlers Ferry end of the layout. Coal trains arrive at MONKS SIDING to run round using the loop which was built in 1988 on the site of the former BSC Monks Hall Steel Works. They then return to fiddlers ferry to unload and then return here to run round and back to LBT to reload. This is a fictional scenario that imagines that Latchford Sidings were closed and the Low Level line joined Arpley Yard via a curve at Slutchers Lane. As can be seen the base for the scenery has been made from painted plaster cloth, track ballasted mainly, and scratchbuilt yard lamps added. These use RATIO telegraph poles with RATIO ladders and brass loops. The lamp itself is a pin point bearing! The one nearest the camera still needs painting.

Construction recommenced during Summer 2018 with plenty of time and more money being available to spend on the layout. So far the track is wired, weathered and ballasted with a start being made on the structures and scenery. The first buildings on the backscene have been added, these use a resin structure sold on Ebay that has been repainted and weathered. The trackwork is completely hand built using a mixture of C&L and PECO components. The main running lines are flat bottom rail construction using a mixture of timber PECO sleepers and pandrol clips and C&L Costain concrete sleepers.

Hello again, Well....when I started building this layout in 2011 never thought it would be 2019 before I made any updates to this thread! After a massive break....moving house....work family and everything else.....I'm finally back to building 'Monks Siding' although only the boards and stock are the same from 2011....everything else has changed! While the layout will still be MGR focused it is now built to 'EM' gauge and is an end to end rather than roundy roundy type layout. New dimensions 14ft x 1ft 6'' plus additional fiddle yard board that is dismantled when the layout is not in operation. Time for some photos!

Hello Jules, Well thanks for that, definetly looks like a late build MHA! I've heard back from the email I sent George at S kits, so got a couple of his resin MHA bodies coming! If you want to order anything his email is; skitsinfo@btinternet.com I've got his latest 2019 catalogue? Ill PM it you if you want to have a look. Regards Lewis

Excellent work love these Cambrian kits I'm building up some SPAs at the moment following your work with much interest!

Hiya mate just seen your post you left on my workbench thread last summer! (Shows how much I come on here!) Sorry for that Absolutely excellent work on the MHA ! Looks just as good as the resin skits version. I'm wanting to create a couple of these wagons might do what you have and make my own. What thickness/grade of styrene strip and sheet did you use? Cheers Lewis

Another 3 HAAs rolled off the workbench today all being ex coal sector yellow examples. First up No.354227 Second is No.354306 particularly grimy even by MGR standards! And finally No.350145, a low numbered wagon featuring ex 'BARRY' WRD logos and patch painted frame where 'Mainline' logos would have once been. Framework very faded too. That brings the number of completed HAAs to 17! Lewis

Hi James! thanks a lot well I've got a lot of HAA/HMAs nearly finished so some more pics coming soon! and more ballast wagons too. Yeah there was 10 originally according to Martyns Smugmug website - https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/M-Tops-codes/MHA-Coalfish-wagons/MHA-394401-394408-Coalfish-ex/ It appears Nos.394406-10 remain although haven't seen a photo of the rest so maybe their stored somewhere? Although DB has started making serious inroads with dozens of MHAs and MTAs sent for scrap recently according to Rail Express, hopefully these 5 wagons will survive the cull! Ah good well looking forward to seeing your model when you make one! Lewis

Hi Trailrage, thanks yeah its the original body with the top lip made angular with the addition of some 1mm plasticard strip shaped with a file. have a look at my workbench thread about this wagon. Lewis

Hi Rob, thanks! Yeah its about 3 layers of railmatch frame dirt/sleeper grime and a coat of Humbrol matt varnish to tone it all down. Wanted to create the really weathered effect the surviving VKA/VGA vans have, doubt they have been cleaned in 30 odd years! Lewis

Hi James, excellent work as always! Love 58017 looks superb at the front of all those MGR wagons! Just modelled one of the ex MAA wagons cut down to MHAs...and giving you really like these wagons I thought id post a pic of it here hope you don't mind. The old Hornby tooling, although way oversized and chunky for a accurate model of a EWS MHA makes a good base for modelling one in the 394405-10 range. Lewis

I'm back! Thanks James!, sorry haven't been on for a while just seen your post. Some more wagon progress has been made with more MGR wagons done bringing the total up to 17 completed hoppers as well as some other types being worked on. Started on my ballast train which will include MFA, MHA and MTA wagons. First up a model (possibly unique?) of one of the ex-MAA coal box wagons converted by BR from HAAs in the late 80s. Cut down to MHAs in the 90s for carrying ballast, I chose to model No.394406 which is still in service today with DB. Using the original Hornby body, inaccurate for standard MHAs but surprisingly similar for one of the ex MAAs, I have added detail to the lip to create the triangular effect as well as adding number panels, new scale cast oleo buffers to replace the awful Hornby mouldings, as well as EM Gibson wheels and a heavy faded weathered finish. Tried to create the 'two tone' effect with the upper half of the body in better shape thanks to a repaint when it was converted with the bottom half retaining its original paint. One you will love I'm sure James! Next up a standard MHA with replacement buffers and wheels. Renumbered to represent 394190 in standard EWS maroon. A couple of scruffy MFA wagons with painted out EWS logos... A MTA wagon No.395118 featuring correct Brunninghaus suspension springs (Cambrian mouldings from C40) Another EWS HEA this time No.361833 one of the few remaining in existence. Finally my first VKA van wagon. Converted to EM using the Cambrian C40 W irons and roller bearing axleboxes and brass alan Gibson bearings. The standard Bachmann 2007 released 'GI' model No.210579 featuring realistic weathering though. Close up of new axleboxes. Much improved compared to the factory mouldings. More to come, just need to photograph them! Lewis

Hello again, Well im back modelling again after a long break through the summer and autumn and now half of winter! Been working on progressing with the MGR rake, another 4 wagons finished today with another 4 currently on the bench. This batch includes another 2 modified brake HMA examples. First up, EWS patch painted No.353763. Second, a battered Railfreight red liveried example, survivor No.355459. Third, another patch painted EWS HAA, No.354601, notice the remnants of Railfreight red. Finally, a former Trainload coal yellow liveried HMA No.351316 patch painted in EWS maroon, note the painted out black diamonds logo. All wagons were modelled from photographs of the prototype and were still in service during 2006-07 as per all the other wagons in my MGR rake are. More scruffy MGR hoppers to come, and the first of my battered ballast train box wagons too! More updates coming soon, Lewis

Just found a webpage with some HAAs from 1998 onwards that will be of use if you haven't found it already - type 352619 HAA into Google - on railfaneurope.net​.

Hello again, To add to what Brian said earlier I thought I would add a couple of observations from researching on MGRs; - HMA (modified brake hoppers) were seen mixed in rakes of HAAs in the EWS era. - HBA (HDAs with canopies) and HFAs were seen mixed in rakes of HAAs,HMAs and HDAs in the 2000s - Im sure I read that the canopied hoppers were originally inteneded to run in block formation on Scottish opencast coal flows heading south on the WCML to prevent coal dust falling off. HBAs and HFAs were also seen in block workings. - HDAs (final batch MGRs with upgraded brakes enabling higher speeds both loaded and empty) were seen in both block workings and mixed in with HAAs and HMAs in the EWS era. - Some of the original 150 HOP32 ABs fitted with canopies and original bodywork (no horizontal rivets) survived into the EWS era coded HCAs. (Martyn Reads site has some photos of these - including EWS maroon frame liveried 350077) - HNA was another code used on some of the original batch of canopied MGR hoppers which retained their original bodywork (again with no extra rivets) until withdrawal. Again thanks to Martyn modellers have a chance at recreating some of these wagons. One was 356432 touched up with EWS maroon and stencil numbers. - One final note regarding the HCAs, at least one wagon - 356771 - lost its canopy but retained its HCA code! Again thanks to Martyn taking a photo I can model it! Although EWS used the HCAs on lime stone workings in the North East around 2005-2007 they could be used on MGR coal workings in 1998-2000 era. As far as I know these initial 150 wagons had worked their entire careers in Scotland until privatisation when EWS redeployed them. Although the prototype MGR B350001 is preserved without a canopy when rolled out in 1964 it did have a canopy in the same design as the later ones fitted to the HBAs and HFAs. If you do decide to model some of the canopied hoppers it would be more cost effective to use the standard new tooling HAA you have and add the Parkside canopy kits as Hornby HBAs and HFAs are no longer available from any stockist and on Ebay are all selling for around £15-20 each. Hope this helps, Lewis

Very true indeed I was thinking the same when I found Andy and Martyns sites 'surely more than two people took detail shots of these wagons?' Also 'beast66606' has a thread on the forum of late 90s early 2000s era HAAs - 'The ubiquitous MGR' - which will be of help for you if you haven't seen it already. Also Flickr member Ernie Puddick (an EWS employee) took literally thousands of photos of EWS wagons in the early 2000s, including HAAs, HMAs, HDAs and canopy fitted HBAs. (Also plenty of battered OBAs if your modelling any more of these!) Will any of the 62 other wagons be modelled as these derivatives? HMAs can be modelled without any alterations but the HDAs would require a brake distributor fitting above the chassis. If you want any stencil type number/ data panels for a particular wagon let me know as I make them in large (~10-20 wagon) batches and print them all off in one go and varnish using Humbrol Matt aerosol. Ill let you know If I find some more HAA galleries on the web, keep up the good work! Lewis

Absolutely top class work on the HAAs James. I will be following the next 62 with much interest! I'm currently working on a rake of 21 of the old Hornby Railroad tooling, you were lucky to get hold of them for bargain prices, £20+ each is simply unsustainable or justifiable. A few of details Ive noticed when researching 2000s era MGR wagons which may be of use; - Initially from 1996 until around 2000 EWS repainted the whole frame in maroon and stenciled 'EW&S' or more commonly 'EWS' in gold. Also data panels were made up properly with standard white boarders all in the same font. - After 2000 wagons number panels appeared to be the stencil type applied in white on a black background. No attempt at uniformity or neatness of any kind! Even several different types of stencil fonts were used. By ~ 2005 stenciled numbers/data panels achieved dominance and remained so until final withdrawal in 2010. - EWS frame repaints in the early 2000s onwards only covered the main side frame with the base, supports and ends in what ever colour they were last painted in (mainly covered in grime). - No standard position of the post 1998 OHL flashes , some wagons I have seen had 2-3 flashes on each side and 1-2 on the ends. Others only had flashes on the ends and none on the sides. - EWS maroon ended up being the dominant livery by ~ 2005 with the rest in faded Railfreight Coal yellow, faded Railfreight Red and Mainline blue in that order. - Andy Jupes (gingespotting) and Martyn Reads Smugmug sites are very useful for reference photos of HAA and their derivatives in the 2000s era. Hope this helps, unless you have noticed these points already! Lewis

Hello Mike, Im not bothered about the shape of the ends of the tubs, the old tooling HAA is full of errors but in a rake they look convincing enough for me. Im sure the tubs could be modified but I could not be bothered as if I did one I would have to do all the others - same reason why I left the original buffers. Lewis

Hello John, Thanks, after attempts at using filler I now use 1mm plastic card cut to fill the shape of the indents and fixed in place with Loctite. After being left overnight to dry the plastic is filed down to match the angle of the hopper slope. A quick touch up using Humbrol 11 silver and job done, after weathering all is blended in. I recently bought 4 boxes from Pennine Models for £15 each. They have sold out now but I'm still looking for other suppliers - Hornby should really have the old tooling HAA as a permanent fixture of the Railroad range like Smokey Joe. By this weekend all 12 wagons being worked on should be finished,photos to follow shortly. Lewis