Penrhos1920

Not quiet the top of the wall, more like 4 foot. At the squarish building on your map, according to the description of the building on the GNR warehouse, the road is 20 feet above the track bed, so it could be unloading under the road. I like that idea.

I’ve managed to grab the centre of the Historic England photo: there are problems with both of my suggestions as to what the little arched roof building is used for. AFAIK there wasn’t a basement below the track level and the buildings across the road look like shops with accommodation above.

Does anyone know what the little 'building' with a fews vans next to it is in this picture? Historic England aerial photo of Farringdon station It looks like it could be a van hoist or traverser that goes under the road?

Dig a hole in the floor with steps at both ends. We’ve found that lifting sections have a nasty habit of catching rail ends and knackering the track.

I think there’s a garter on the bottom of the lookout and you can see the supporters under the GWRs. So it’s the normal 1908 livery. Remember that with the exception of the special coaches that the GW didn’t use 2 garters on its coaches.

That's from a friend of mine. Maybe the fiddle yards are big and a lot of effort. But we all know that we all have too much stock for our layouts. Look at Mostyn; they've built a second fiddle yard and total fiddle yard baseboard space must be 3 times the scenic space. My intention is to start by building the AD route with just a minimal fiddle yard. Then when I'm happy with that running I'll slowly add more routes and bits of fiddle yard to accomodate the stock I've got.

First a view from the middle of board 17 looking under the Blackbrook Rd bridge which crosses board 18. It shows the AD tracks on the left and Rhymney tracks through the middle. In the background is the Rhymney Penrhos North signal box and the tracks spliting to Rhymney on the left and Caerphilly on the right. Now looking the other direction from the same position is the Barry viaduct over the lines to Barry, Taffs Well and Pontypridd (L2R). Ok, the track diagram in yesterday's posting is a bit confusing so I've broken it down into four separate drawings. First up is the Alexandra Dock route. This is completely separate from the other routes on the model. The Up direction was from Newport to Pontypridd and on the layout is anticlockwise. The bridge under Blackbrook Rd is on the scenic left and Old Nantgarw Rd crosses over the track at the right hand end, although I might model the bridge at Groeswen as I have a good drawing of it. Between Blackbrook Rd and the 2 water towers on the edge of board 15 there is little compression, but board 13 and the bridge should be 1/4 mile futher away. The AD fiddle yard splits into 3 separate sections. As you'd expect there are Up trains are stored on boards 2 to 4 and down trains on boards 3 to 5. The third section is on boards 1 & 2. In between the up & down lines are 6 sidings for passenger trains and a run-around for the locos to swap ends. Each siding is for a specific train, 3 versions of the AD 'auto' train, 2 versions of the GWR Newport to Pontypridd passenger service and a GWR steam railmotor which runs under rule 1; the AD did have 2 steam railmotors but they where converted to normal coaches by 1920 and appear on the 'auto' trains. Running along the top of the down sidings are 2 more long tracks for the GWR Aberystwyth 'Express' and a AD local goods, both can also use the run-around. Next up is the Rhymney route. The Up direction is from Cardiff, via Taffs Well to Rhymney and is clockwise on the layout. So starting at the Blackbrook Rd bridge again the track is double and there is a double junction with the Barry Railway. Immediately after the junction the line starts to decend Big Hill at 1 in 83. On the left is the Rhymney signal box call Penrhos South which controls the junction with the Barry and the top of Big Hill. All down goods trains have to stop on the 1 in 83 to pin down breaks. Where the track crosses from board 15 to 13 the gradient steepens to 1 in 47, but I'm not modelling that! The bridge under the farm track shouid be 1/2 mile futher down the hill. The track runs up 1 in 100 to the fiddle yard where the only thing of interest is the siding for the banker up Big Hill. By 1920 the Rhymney were not really using this route so you might just see a few random trains struggling up the hill. Maybe 3x 37s with 27 iron ore tipplers or the South Wales Pullman. It was not until 1928 that the GWR started to use this route down the hill and doubled the track as a route to avoid Cardiff Queen St for coal trains from the Rhymney valley. Then there is the Barry lower route. From the end on junction with the Rhymney the line ran down to Barry docks. Modelled only in part are the exchange sidings where Rhymney locos and break vans are swapped for Barry ones or vise versa. The Barry had loco coaling and water facilities and a signal box which controlled this end of the sidings; although it appears that the box was only built as a signal box, but was operated by the yard foreman. The fiddle yard runs into the scenic exchange sidings and off scene there are 4 sidings for different break vans and 2 loops for Barry and Rhymney locos to cycle through. The last part of the track plan is the Barry upper route from the other side of the Rhymney valley down to Barry docks. It appears on the layout under a separate bridge under Blackrook Rd and runs through a cutting to Penrhos Viaduct which has 4 spans across the cutting with the other routes in. The upper route then runs through another deep cutting off scene. This will be built last and so I'll plan the upper fiddle yard once I've been operating the lower tracks and so I can workout the best position for it. The plan is to build very little scenery directly on the baseboards. Instead I plan to make fibreglass shells that sit on the baseboards. These shells will replicate the contours and cuttings and carry all the green stuff and the smaller buildings.

Yes it is the Bachmann model. Reports from an EMGS member are that AG wheels fit in without modifying the castings. Only joking about pushing P4 wheels in as just pulling out OO wheels is the normal suggestion - which works for diesels but not for steam locos with cylinders or cast side tanks.

When you’re talking GWR it’s shewing, not showing 😉

Barry J (ex L&Y 2-4-2t), 64xx, a couple of 56xx, Peckett, ROD Victory (when it arrives), they’re all genuine Penrhos locos. Plus a Manor and a Grange which are rule 1 locomotives. The P4 locos are GWR 645pt, ANDR 517 class, and I’ve just looked through the stock list to find that the 56xx are both P4; so they just need their wheels pushing in! Don’t they?

So not long after my previous post in 2016 the EM society brought out RTR EM points. Although tempted I stuck to my OO plans and built about 100 wagons that year. But try as I did I couldn't finalise a trackplan for Penrhos. The problem was the miles of hidden track and fiddle yards. Eventually it dawned that I was trying to attain the, for me, unachievable. So I've turned Penrhos around and reduced the amount of scenic track to this: Even this has taken a lot of toing and froing. But I think I've got there. Here's the new templot output. I only drawn the scenic part of the top layer as that fiddle yard will sit above the lower yard. Planning for old age, which is creeping up all too fast, all of the wiring, point motors and dcc boards will be on top of the boards; which is why the fiddle yard boards are a lot wider than the track. Most of the scenery will be built as lift off sections that sit on the baseboards. Only the scenic items that I've drawn will be on the baseboards. And now Wayne Kinney is bringing out his British Finescale's EM point kits, so guess what, it's all in EM !! I've only 100 OO waons to convert, plus 40 odd P4 wagons which will be easier because they've got the breaks in the right place, 2 P4 locos and 10 OO locos.

I agree with that theory. The clerestory is structurally a longitudinal 3 sided box that is rigid enough to support the main roof over the van area. In stevel’s photo the van section is open between the end and the partition that is just beyond the third clerestory window, so front an engineering point of view it’s logical to strengthen the joint between the clerestory and main roof with the L brackets. If you have a look at www.GWRCoaches.org.uk/Clerestories.shtml#D9 most vans have 2 or 3 L brackets.

Yuk Why didn’t they paint it platinum?

Aren’t there some on the mjt w-iron etch?

Am I right in assuming that the width given in the GA refers to the maximum body width, rather than the width over handles? Because if it's the later then the GWR didn't build many coaches 9' over handles after 1904 for travelling over LNER and SR lines. When did the 'yellow-disc' classification come into being? There's a pair of articles in MRJ 129 & 130 which refer to a 1938 coach as being classified 'yellow-disc'.

Could it be TPO no.842. Drawing here: https://gwrcoaches.org.uk/JackSlinnCollection.shtml , near the bottom. Unfortunately the drawing is of the other side so you have to 'guess' and 'imagine' a bit.

Does anyone have any idea what the trailing spur on the westbound Metropolitan line is for? It's on the map on the Basilica Fields website. The turnout is under the Vine St bridge and it appears to run all the way back towards Farringdon almost as far as the 25 mph speed limit sign in the April 5th post.

I just thought I'd leave this here: https://media.davidrumsey.com/rumsey/Size4/RUMSEY~8~1/185/13564010.jpg you don't get much more tastey than that!

I’ve been looking at online historic maps and I’m convinced that this photo is neither located at Stourbridge Junction, West Mids., or Stalybridge Junction, Denton, NE Manchester. So where is it?

Are you sure you want a H25 in a Paddington Penzance rake? The H25 was a special narrow (8’6) body restaurant car for cross country services onto lines with restricted loading gauges.

Only in ‘56 or early ‘57 you would have seen one in Bristol on the running-in turn from Swindon. Usually a stopping service that returned later that day. Any ex works loco would have turned up, from a pannier to a king. Once the livery changed you’d have seen them in the new livery , unless they’d been in for a sole & heal.

Stalybridge Junction ?

I’ve found that there was also a 1920 edition. Was there an earlier one? I’d have thought that by 1905 there would have needed to be one as Churchward had introduced the Dreadnought coaches which were a lot bigger than the usual Dean coaches.

I don't think so Jonathan as the photo is probably pre 1923. The loco has a nameplate but lost it's name in 1930. The train looks like a pair of Birmingham district 4 wheel coach sets, possibly as many as 18 coaches. Most were formed in 1890s until early 1920s when bogie set took over.

I have a photo of a GWR Bulldog with a very long rake of 4 wheel coaches. The previous owner or photographer has written ‘Stalybridge Junction ‘ on the back. Now the only Stalybridge I know of is north east of Manchester, not the normal location for such a train. There are typical GWR lower quadrant signals in the background, so I think it must be a GWR location. But where please?