Penlan

OK, yes I've been selective, BUT a dark mild, like 'Brains Dark', wonderful, though unfortunately seemingly no longer available via the pump. I still like Porter's too, though they can be very filling, like say 'Kirkstone Porter', 3 pints and I'm full - even though it's only 3.6%.

I think the Cambrian Rlys., Company only had two Hounds Vans, one of which I believe was destroyed fairly early on. Easier to have a number of Horseboxes... In fact thinking about it, you will need a few Horseboxes and a Hounds Van, if one of local Hunts registered in Wales was to visit another patch somewhere..... E.g. Dwyryd Hunt,

I sent a couple of sets to a friend to appraise.... He's kept them, in case there's no more available.... B*gg*r, I will have to order some more now. PS - Don't know if the Vet's been sorted, but a nose bag for the horse to feed from would be kind..

ChrisN - Assumption correct.

CARDIFF SHOW 17 - 18 October 2015. I'm sure it's here somewhere here, but I can't see it.... Their 30th South Wales Show, (Oh happy memories when it was in Sophia Gardens...) at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf (CF14 2JL) Admission £5, under 12's Free. Visit http://www.cardiffmodelrail.org.uk/for more details. I think the web site should have white lettering on the dark brown totems, might be easier to read.. ?

Seen at yesterday's Welsh Railways Research Circle AGM, was a new line of etched Cambrian Rlys., Coaches and a Horsebox. The flyer doesn't give any Dia Nos., (If there were any). Hopefully all you need to know is to be seen here. I have no connection with Camkits, and I couldn't justify, not even the Horsebox, as a purchase yesterday. I know this should probably go under Products etc., but I thought the specific market (Cambrian Railways) might be better seen here.

Boat builders are Shipwrights. We still have some in Mousehole and Newlyn, IF you happen to call them a Chippy etc., they soon correct you.

John, Brian Badger did a load of restoration and repainting a couple of decades ago of the Museum stock, I was able to view and handle the stock in his workshop at the time - wonderful. I've seen the wiring, I recall long ago being asked to have a look at it, I did, and just looked. Re. ground floor, everything seems to be becoming inter-active and seems to be like some current TV programmes, .... we seem to back to '.....Teaching Grandma to suck eggs...' a lot of the time. I still have my Visitors Book of the layout somewhere, can't recall the date now, but I think late '50's.

Farnells do 'Tippy' by Stannol, £8.82 + P&P plus VAT (I expect). CPC do something similar called 'Tip Cleaner' by Multicore, £5.15 inclusive P&P and VAT. (I'm told it does the same job - CPC are P&P free on any order at present)...

A friend is currently in The Volunteer Inn, Ventnor, Isle of Wight. I understand there are a number of outstanding reasons to go there, two are 'Brain's SA Gold' and 'Hook Norton', The other two, are apparently more outstanding.

Bike2Stream, they also do 'Cornish' bitter, which is the old 'Dartmoor' bitter.

Brain's SA Gold - 4.3%, Nice surprise for locals in the Legion, Mousehole, West Cornwall. Due to the care the cellarman takes, it was clear as a bell and very nice to drink. The usual is Betty Stogs and a guest, normally 'Potion 9' from Penzance Brewery (In Crowlas). Sometimes we have 'Bay' from Torbay. Looking forward to some more Brain's way down west. .... and IF they can get 'Brain's Dark'..... The Ship Inn, Mousehole is St Austell beers. The best 'Bass' in the area is at 'The Yacht Inn' in Penzance, they have two 'Bass' pumps on all the time.

It seems I'm interested old cars cars two old for this topic....

Photo 2 is Custom House Quay, Weymouth, in fact this is one of my favourite photos. Photo 1, I will check again, I see it's the 'Marine' - 'Channel Islands Hotel' in the background. Edit and here's the Channel Islands Hotel, Weymouth, recently...

I had the half plate glass negs for these years ago..... I think one of these has been used in a publication. It looks as if I was wrong about the Pigeons not being loaded onto a boat. The top picture is mainly LNWR Dia. 419 Parcel Vans (Also WCJS Dia. 103 Fish Vans), which at one time were available as an etched kit by MicroRail, don't know who does them now. The Boat to the left is the Melmore. Edit :- This photo appeared in Railway World, June 1961. The second photo is much more interesting as there's LNWR, GCR, North Staffs and Midland stock in there, somewhere, and I seem to recall, long ago, somebody identified a GWR Van as well. . Now obviously for 1895, you will have to back date to Victorian NPCS's, but the LNWR Dia. 419's were built in 1890 (5), 1891 (15) and 1895 (9), Some were converted to Fish Vans in 1903 - a zinc floor added etc., How big did you say your fiddle yard was? This is one advantage of having a fiddle yard with the facility to have a 'cassette' road as well, .... so 'rare' trains can be stored off-site. I have done this with one of my own fiddle yard tracks now.

I don't know if there would have been any, but what about a Pigeon Special, NPCS. Presumably on the Welsh coast with a flight over the mountains, you would have stock from 'up north. It's not all 2 plank wagons. I have a photo somewhere* of one at Weymouth, there's LNWR, GC, North Staffs and I think GWR (at least) in the train. The Pigeons are being unloaded, I assume for release, rather than moving onto a boat bound for France. I also have the complete GWR bound copy of the traffic at every GWR Station (based on post-grouping) up to I think 1936, I'm sure it starts somewhere around 1900, BUT that book was left to be rebound, the binders went bankrupt and the book is now 'somewhere'... I'm still trying to track it down. There's a previous thread on Pigeons >>>> http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/8027-pigeon-traffic/ Looks like I had better make an effort to find the photo's.... . * Somewhere? About 18 months ago I lost all my files on my PC, the copies I had where removed from the house by an unknown A.N.Other. I wonder what they thought the CD's contained, Music? I have a few thousand photo's in boxes, glass negs., etc., and books on shelves, but for quick replies on here, sorry not going to spend a lot of time looking....

Ah, yes, well...... I had been at Kew Records Office back in the long time past and had access to the early LNWR Coach Diagram book, I sketched out the details of both the 25' and 22' 6" Bullion Vans, this was long before digital and/or mobile cameras, before mass photo copiers etc.,, and I seem to recall no cameras allowed at all. No pens, only pencil. ... and when Danny (D&S) let me have some spare 25' chassis etches, it was a natural progression. At the same time in Kew, I was going through all the Neath & Brecon Records for Tudor Watkins. Accident Reports, I was able to do those at Birmingham Archives Library, as I lived in Malvern at the time....... .. and scripts, think ad-lib, freeform theatre, or "... and I want something nobody else has...".

Not sure where you are based ChrisN, but there's plenty of directories etc., held at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth. I did a lot of research and catalogue'ing work there in the 1970's.

Ships ? perhaps boats, and living near Newlyn I'm always surprised how small propellers are relative to the boats they propel, . Meanwhile, have you tried a period Directory, though I admit Kelly's are thin on the ground for your area, and at £21, this Slater's one on a CD seems a little steep, perhaps you may know a cheaper source.. It depends how bogged down you want to get in the research. . http://www.parishchest.com/north_mid_wales_directory_1895_slater_s__P9392

Kerry Gold.... A LNWR Dia.19 Irish Butter Van (D&S Kit) .. and a Page 277 (1898 Dia Book) 25ft Bullion Van NPCS. It was a special commission one off etched zinc sides/ends body by Trevor Charlton. It's mounted on a D&S 25' Chassis. This combo has run for many years on 'Penlan', though the Butter Van has only a hand brake and no through pipe.

... and another bit of variety, Furniture containers, these I think were the Dapol ones you could, and possibly still can, buy as separate items. Yes, I know I've got the North Staffs wagon in grey, it was based on B&W photo some 45+ years ago. The 'J.Harrison' unit is based on one in a North Staffs Railway Album. The 'G.C.Waithmans' lettering is based on a furniture van body I found on an allotment in LLandrindod Wells. I was interested in this one as I lived in Malvern Link at the time. Much the same as I now have one from a west Cornwall Firm.... There were of course some bigger units that had their own wheels fixed on etc., and required 'Lowmac' equivalents..... Yes, those are meant to be signal wire posts in the foreground, on the track side there are pullys/runners..

.... and other traffic.... I know I had some delivery notes, which are now probably with the Welsh Railways Research Circle, for Hen Houses, I think there were a dozen. These are the type of around 15ft long with small cast iron wheels on them so the farmer can move them around the fields, yard or whatever. They came from Carmarthen and were delivered to Knighton (Radnorshire). Presumably there were some chickens around Traeth Mawr ? They were delivered on GWR flats, much to the chagrin of the local Camarthen LNWR Goods Agent.

No help to you at all, but the ballast I use is Malvern Granite, as I use to live in Malvern. It's a sort of mid brown, which seems to look OK to me, slightly weathered, not that bright grey stuff people seem to use. I still have, from my days working on the M5 construction in the late 1960's, a set of brass sieves (Soil Mechanics was another string to my bow).. I use to collect Granite particles in buckets from the Malvern hills and then sieve down to the size(s) I required. I'm of the school that lays the ballast, then with some form of pipette, or more likely a syringe, ease dilute PVA (including Fairy Liquid) in to the edges of the ballast and let it permeate it's way in to the centre of the track - By implication, I've stuck the track down (long) before this happens..

I have a Ransomes (Ipswich) plough on a GE flat wagon..... making an occasional appearance near Swansea on my Layout..... Presumably 'Traeth Mawr' is to small to have it's own Cambrian Rlys Delivery Wagon..... I think I was pushing it a bit for my small station of 'Penlan'... No, it's not hand lettered, the paper cover (glued to a thin brass sheet former), is printed off. I used Excel, because I knew what I was doing with that, and you can use page set to scale the size for printing, I think this came off at 17% of the actual drawing size, with photo's etc., for the Barnum's Poster.

Meanwhile - Wagons... I have a wagon Label from Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen Colliery, for Malting Coals. It's for Benjamin Perry & Sons, Radcliffe Siding, Bristol. Dated 19 Nov 1918. So, we have the barley, proper Welsh Malting Coal, just the Yeast and somewhere near Barmouth... Oh, and a van or two to export the arisings..... I think in your 1890's period the Collieries would have been under the ownership of 'Richard Morgan & Sons', I'm sure I have a coal wagon with that name on, somewhere. There have been RTR models, but ... http://www.robbiesrollingstock.co.uk/images/Wales/Rich_Morgan_00.jpg