Phil Traxson

Just out of interest whereabouts were you in Leys? I ask as I worked there from 1969 -1983 in the Millwrights (Fitters) shops, mostly in 1958 foundry but also elsewhere as I used to replace conveyor belts, I took over from 'Bomber'Hill doing this, until the great sell-out and shutdown when I was declared redundant in April 1983. I remember some old, ex-NCB, ex- Private owner wagons, which eventually fell apart next to the weighbridge. In some spare time whilst waiting for the vulcanizing machine to cook a conveyor I spotted that the original livery could be made out under the black goo from the NCB paintshop as the sun shone at an angle and eventually traced out in chalk the outline of the "Suncole" logo and rest of the lettering , and for years i had a "Wrigleys" wagon builders plate off one of them but can't now find it, lost or given away in the (too many) intervening years I guess. Phil Traxson (ex-Derby now Porthmadog)

Now annoyed and bemused. Thought I would take some photo's of said models and can't find the box with my LMS liveried vans in, all other boxes are there, were all packed together for my house move and I brought all my rolling stock over myself when I saw how the removal men were packing the van. Stored for a while at my daughters in Beddgelert, Hope there is still a box I missed in her attic. Dohh. Phil T.

I built quite a few of these in the 1970's and they make up into nice wagons and vans despite the raised "groove" planking. They came with a nice chassis sprue which was common to all their L & Y wagon kits and had correct L & Y brake gear on and two different chassis lengths, in fact two complete chassis. Colin Ashby produced some other L & Y bodies to fit on the MAJ chassis which nicely used up the spares from the kits and I purchased quite a few only for MAJ to close down before I had enough spare chassis. These bodies still languish in a drawer as I discovered them whilst moving home last year! If I remember correctly there was a Double end door wagon,as in the OP, a lower sided wagon, the motor car van, and van with a roof door, all of which I still have, built, in one of my boxes of 4 mm. scale kits. My build of the roof door wagon even netted me a trophy for goods vehicles at the Nottingham Exhibition in 1982. They always added interest in a train as they were longer wheelbase than most other railway companies standard vehicles and so broke up the uniformity. I really must get round to cataloguing my 4 mm. stuff as the house move brought to my attention just how much I have, how did I manage to amass over 250 wagons? Phil T.

Slaters Coursed stone but for real!

Hattons have had my advance order since they first announced it about 12 months ago! Ordered it to cheer myself up whilst I was between houses, I moved in 11 months ago. Phil T.

And October came and is about gone and still nothing. Why am I not surprised? Be a nice surprise when it turns up, it's not needed, just a "nice to have". It's a bit like sitting in a traffic jam, no amount of fretting really helps. Phil T.

I'm afraid the full kits would be some what more than £10.50, this is the price for a set of sides and ends which I can put into production as soon as I am back from trading at ExpoNG in Swanley this next Saturday,(26th October). For the full kit I need to source or make patterns for all the running gear plus seats. Wheels I leave to the builders as there are so many different standards in use from S7 to old fashioned coarse Hornby. I think, based on the price I have to charge for my 7 mm. standard gauge wagons, that they will probably come out at around £35.00 plus. Bearing in mind that a set of sprung buffers are around the £7 mark, "W" iron/spring/axleboxes similar, plus seats and materials for floor, roof and glazing, instructions and packaging. (note the suggested collective name for a group of Traders/Manufacturers is a "whinge" !! ) Phil Traxson Port Wynnstay Models

They are working out at £10.50 for a set of two sides and two ends. Sole bars are moulded with the sides and buffer planks with the ends, and the sides have a recess in the back to locate the glazing. Thanks for your reply, Phil Traxson Port Wynnstay Models

During my relocation from Derby to Porthmadog I have unearthed some patterns for a casting commission I did for some R.V.R. 4 wheel, Hurst Nelson, coach sides and ends, for models of those supplied for the opening of the line in 1900.The R.V.R. had 6 of these coaches, 4 third class and 2 firsts, although externally they were identical. More importantly there is also a note giving me permission to add these to my Portwynnstay Models range if I so wished, which I had previously overlooked. I am just wondering if there is any interest in my marketing these, or even if it is worth outsourcing the rest of the parts to develop a complete kit for them (minus wheels) , with an apparent rising interest in light railways, I think this is probably the best place to ask to gauge the interest. Your opinions would be appreciated ladies and gents. Phil Traxson Port Wynnstay Models

One thing to be remembered is that extra trains need extra crews , both loco and on train, and enough available loco's. There are more vehicles and loco's to maintain, so more maintenance staff needed. Plus they are only fully utilised in the 8 to 10 weeks of the high season so spend an awful lot of time out of use. With the overall perrennial shortage of volunteers through the preservation movement the extra stock becomes the least of the problems. You also need some where to keep them, in it's attempt to rectify this the F.R. is being castigated by some folks for building sheds to keep them in because they look like sheds, some times you can't win.

Just a point of interest the loco is not a "Crab" but a Stanier 2-6-0. Apart from the number, Crabs start 42700 onwards, the immediate giveaways are horizontal cylinders and no step up in the running plate over the cylinders. From a sad old trainspotter.

https://www.snapfish.com/library/share?via=link&token=W5xFmO_EH_yBc0XYZ9ylNA/AUS/27950854341070/SNAPFISH https://www.snapfish.com/library/share?via=link&token=W5xFmO_EH_yBc0XYZ9ylNA/AUS/27950855166070/SNAPFISH https://www.snapfish.com/library/share?via=link&token=W5xFmO_EH_yBc0XYZ9ylNA/AUS/27950857124070/SNAPFISH https://www.snapfish.com/library/share?via=link&token=W5xFmO_EH_yBc0XYZ9ylNA/AUS/27950857341070/SNAPFISH I think these photo's might help with my previous posting (or not!) Phil T.

I spent quite some time studying the construction of Loughborough GCR station a few years ago. I was thinking of resin casting units to build the station at the time. The apparent brick columns are only cosmetic finishes to steel goal post type structures which incorporate the main canopy outriggers. (think of a goal post rectangle with the top beam extended either side of the uprights). As you point out the walls between the columns are modular and all consist of three panels each of which has either plain brick, a window opening or a door opening in them. the ends of the building are exactly the same size too, ie. if you put two end panels and two side panels together you get a square. Without looking for my photo's and sketches I seem to remember that the final goal post arch supports the end of the canopy clear of the building at the toilet block end of the building and its structure is easily seen. If you go into the station buffet (nice cake and the beer wasn't bad) and look up into the join between the outer walls and the ceiling you can see the inner curves of each goal post where they intrude on the square ceiling to wall join. One other point, which I was slow to gather, is that the building has a flat roof level with the valley of the canopy ridges, the gables only fill in the back of each ridge and when viewed from above protrude above the roof on each side. (best appreciated over the bridge parapet from the road outside the station entrance) The modules on the smaller stations, eg Quorn & Woodhouse, are only two panels wide rather than three, and the buildings that much narrower too. Incidentally I realised while measuring this all that the station is quite short and could possibly be modelled with little or no compression on a club or group layout. Five coaches with the loco already halfway into the fiddle yard under the bridge! Hope this diatribe has not bored you too much and is perhaps of some use to someone. Phil T.

Colin has 10.5 mm diameter too, spoked and disc, very handy for 0-16.5 narrow gauge as are the "ratio" bogies.

You also have to remember that they were trying to justify the fact that they intended scrapping almost new steam loco's, that were being built alongside the diesels, in the interest of "economy and cost saving".

I've never used a release agent for my resin casting either, but the castings do leach out a little of the silicone from the silicone rubber moulds onto the surface of the castings, particularly if it is a new mould, so I always recommend a scrub with a toothbrush an Cif or similar in my instructions. I also use Halfords car primer and that too is mentioned in my instructions. It's very useful in the case of a lot of my kits as it needs no top coat, other than final varnish, to represent the grey or red of Festiniog Railway goods and quarrymen's coaches, it's also pretty close to the red and grey of some of my Scottish pre-grouping standard gauge wagon kits too. I favour Halfords rattle cans for top coats too, with a little care a "close enough" colour can usually be found among their many cans, Dullcote usually takes care of the high gloss finish of these cans. Phil T. Port Wynnstay Models

No you're right, I'm the one that's being thick.

But note it is a drop side wagon, with the side down the crane would only need to lift the container clear of the floor.

I was working in the ship repair yards in North Shields on Tyne side for a while in 1966 and there was still a constant stream of "flat iron " colliers (small coal ships) to be seen, mostly registered in London, full out, empty in, even this late period. Twenty years later there were no coalmines left in the North East to supply them.

Just out of interest , looking at the size of the sacks on the lorry (compared to the person) they look taller than coal sacks and the two nearest wagons appear to have high sides, it looks as though the nearest two wagons were possibly coke rather than coal.

I doubt it, it was Diesel Hydraulic not DE!!!

Leicester and Nottingham had more platform faces than Burton, Burton had one island platform with bays at either end.

Burton-on- Trent?

This has been going on for some time for merchant vessels, whilst working as a BP tankers engineer apprentice in Smiths Dock at North Shields in 1966 they added a centre section to Booker Venture, an ore carrier ISTR. Unfortunately I left BP by mutual consent whilst there due to a brain meltdown, aiming too high I couldn't cope with the academic side of the training, but well remember the practical stuff I learned whilst in the shipyard even now. Phil T.

On most main roads the lorries already run in grooves anyway!