Wizard of the Moor

3 hours ago, davknigh said:

Hi Marc,

 

As a confirmed 4mm Dingham user I look forward to seeing your offerings. If I may make a suggestion; at the moment using the loop  on an engine with deep buffer beams means cutting off the tail that allows automatic uncoupling. Is there any way around this or does it just have to be accepted as a limitation? I suspect geometry and physics are against me here.

 

Cheers,

 

David

https://albionyard.com/2018/12/29/notes-from-the-man-cave-getting-to-grips-with-dinghams/

scroll down to see the solution with a Dingham fitted to a Class 03.

Another lovely pic has just come up on Facebook of BRCW Type 2 D5360 in the fish quay sidings at Mallaig on 23.4.1964 with an INSIXFISH as the fourth wagon in the train. The photo is by Keith Long.
 

Very interesting to me, as it's the first confirmed sighting I have of one of these vans on the West Highland.

As an addendum to my list of photos above, there is an undated shot on Facebook that shows one of these vans in the MoD storage sidings on Salisbury Plain, in the company of several other 'Blue Spot' vans. 

I've spent a few happy hours going through my library looking for pictures of these vehicles in traffic. My interest is Scottish railways, so I have next to no Western Region books to look through. In case anyone is interested, here are the locations of the pictures I have found. They are arranged from the earliest date, as the introduction of these vans on Scottish traffic is what sparked my interest.

Steam Memories North East Scotland (33) 1950 fish train to the south hauled by B1 61323 and unidentified B12. INSIXFISH is 11th vehicle in train, coupled to other 6 wheel vans, 5 total. (BW) Same pic in BR Steam in Scotland (O'Hara) #593.

British Railways Steaming on the East Coast Mainline p65 (119) B16 61416 at Pilmoor station circa 1955. INSIXFISH is the first vehicle in the train.

BR Steam in Scotland #579 Eyemouth 11th June 1957. INSIXFISH in company with other fish vans, including 2 ex-LMS 6 wheelers (BW)

Scottish Railways Then and Now p104 80011 at Fraserburgh Junction on 12th June 1959. INSIXFISH appears to be the penultimate vehicle in a rake of Blue Spot vans. (BW)

Scottish Steam Days Remembered p48 46201 Princess Elizabeth on a lightly loaded express fish working near Perth in June 1962. INSIXFISH is 4th vehicle in train. (Colour)

Lanarkshire's Last Days of Steam p16 46236 City of Bradford on up fish near Mossend Yard on 1st May 1963. INSIXFISH appears to be 11th vehicle in train. (BW)

Pic of INSIXFISH at Thornton Junction (possibly a cripple?) on 16th July 1963. (BW) https://flic.kr/p/xMh7E4

Steam Finale Scotland p142 44986 at Dumfries 16th May 1964. INSIXFISH partially visible in background.

BR Steam in Scotland #594 Black 5s 44998 & 45259 near Kinnaber Junction on 6th July 1964. 2 INSIXFISH vans coupled together in consist. (BW)

Last Days of Steam in the Scottish Highlands p32 (Undated) D2432 at Greenock Ladyburn shed with a short mixed goods. INSIXFISH is 3rd vehicle in rake of 12t van, carflat, 2 x lowfit and conflat. (BW)

John Boyes pic of Fraserburgh shows an INSIXFISH with open doors in the distance. (Undated) (Colour) https://flic.kr/p/VbZn13

I hope this is useful for other modellers of these vehicles, and many thanks to Ian (and Justin) for a really excellent kit.

Is the HD moulding dimensionally accurate for a chlorine tank, leaving aside the other shortcomings?

11 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

Does anyone know when these began to appear on the Eastern/Scottish Regions?  The only photo I recall seeing is the one reproduced above which is at Millerhill in 1963.

Thornton in 1963, possibly dropped off as a cripple. Dunno when they were first used, but there are quite a few pics of them in Scotland once you start looking.

An Eclipse 180 instrument makers vice is excellent if you can find an original one. 

Thanks for that. I see it lists the layout as 1950's Scotland, surely that should be 1970's going by the photo's on here?

My long term plan is to have removable scenery and two sets of stock to cover both steam and diesel periods. The temptation to rebuild the thing with a scale length and the original trackplan is strong. More sidings, more tedious, pointless shunting...

great tankers, how did you make them? Is there an easy way of modifying a kit or making an rtr model for chemicals? Thanks

The CO2 tankers were built from Appleby Model Engineering kits by David Furmage, and lovely models they are too. I thought that someone had announced one of these as RTR, but that won't cover all the variations.

I've only just seen that there are some new messages about Waterloo Street. For some reason, I don't get notifications when new posts arrive any more. Anywho...

Thanks for the kind words, and for the chance to bring the layout to ExpoEM Autumn, which was very enjoyable. Following a long spell in the doldrums, and some damage in a house move, work is in progress again. The next outing will be to Scaleforum in September 2019, unless anyone has a better idea

Thanks to the organisers from the Waterloo Street team. We had a very enjoyable weekend and thought the show was excellent. The only major problem was that the pub next to the hotel had run out of beer by Saturday evening. Not sure how that happened...

Where do you get the clamps that you use in the water filler assembly pic? They look very useful.

Lovely work, by the way

Just a quick Thank You to Chris and the Railwells team for inviting Waterloo Street and looking after us for the weekend. It was an excellent show all round. Thanks also to Pete and Paul for helping out with operations and testing my dodgy trackwork with some quality locos.

Are you saying that I organise an odd show? :)

It's my third year in a row exhibiting at this show and it is always very relaxed and friendly. There's not much can be done about the weather, but the bonus of some Sulzer and English Electric sounds outside is great.

Here's a short clip of the stone loading in progress on Tanpit Lane

Some of the 11 thou wire please, Dave. Two packs is enough for the time being.

Thanks for that, Dave. I dare say I'll have some off you at Scalefour North then, along with everything else...

Some even made it down the Waterloo branch in Aberdeen.

https://flic.kr/p/5KkPMm

Lovely work, Ian.

Does the wire solder easily, Dave? Thinking of AJ couplings...

James

I do apologise for the lack of updates. I was pretty ill for much of last year, got divorced this year and am now living in a much smaller house with no room to set the layout up. However, my modelling mojo is slowly returning and I hope to have some updates on progress soon.

Waterloo Street is at the Epsom show this weekend, so say hello if you're visiting.

What speaker have you used, Paul? And where is it located?

Sounds very nice to me

There are a couple of BR standard brake van rarities in recent shots:

J1568 - Brake van with one long rainstrip instead of two short ones.

J294 - Vacuum fitted brake van of D1/504. This is from Lot 2741, which Don Rowland identifies as being vacuum fitted in British Railways Wagons. All other pictures of VB brake vans that I've seen agree with the information in this book, despite some sources saying that no BR standard brake vans actually received the equipment. A lot of them clearly had it removed, as Paul Bartlett's photos will testify.

Thanks again for all of these wonderful pictures.

Thanks Martin, just been and got all the wood for the fiddle yards including the aluminium angle, being DCC i wont be able to have the angles touching each other they'll need a slight gap between them

Mike,

Insulating tape down the sides of the angle is a good idea. It stops shorts when the bits of angle touch, and it stops you getting all warm and tingly when you touch both sides of the angled track at once.

I bashed two Masokits girders into one for my representations of the Tarry Brig on Waterloo Street. See, for example in this post

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/33349-waterloo-street/?p=963470

There's nothing difficult, if you're familiar with etched brass kits, but there is a lot of it. Just take it calmly and all will be well. It took me two weeks of modelling time, roughly 2 hours per evening, to put it together. An RSU helps.

Nice! Nothing beats an Inglenook for a relaxing shunt.