Penlan

Ther'in lies a tale or two....

The Consignee looks like A.A. Peate Ltd, ... and a quick Google >>> they are still there at Maesbury Hall Mills, Oswestry. BUT they now seem to be Property Developers, Estate Agents etc., However that is being specific, my hint was there is traffic with goods from over the Scottish border to Wales...... Of Course it may be for Welsh Whisky... perhaps even Potcheen, but that's Irish...... Remember this is a hobby.. So if you pick up a nice kit, cheaply, for a Scottish Van... There's a reason it's on the layout. This is why I have around 150 pre-grouping goods vehicles on the layout (OK, some are in stock boxes), the other 100 are PO wagons..... I think all the 45 coaches, bar two, are LNWR.

Further traffic - Origins. I have a Wagon Ticket dated 12/7/1952, for 50 sacks of Grain (Barley) in a Van, No. E176151. From Inverkeilor (North British), just north of Arbroath (my family home), to Oswestry - W Region, GW Section, via 'Bdgs' 'NB','Kare' 'LNW', 'Warrington'. Make of those letters what you will, but it's in pencil and typical doctors style..... . Yes I know it's 1952, but presumably, like Scottish first potatoes, it wasn't a new line of business exporting to England / Wales, Scotland's wonderful products...... in a North British Van.....

Re. RCH, though off track a bit - there's plenty of more important things to do in the modelling world - but there's a book on the RCH. 'The Railway Clearing House (in the British Economy 1842 - 1922) by Richard Bagwell. Published in 1968 by Geoerge Allen & Unwin (or my copy was). SBN 04 331037 0. Priced at 60s (shillings).

I don't know if there was much afforestation around Barmouth........ ...... but one of the traffics on the Central Wales Line, mainly around Bucknell, was bark. When the trees were stripped of their bark, it was transported by cart to Bucknell and then piled up into large (hay) ricks, which was then loaded into open wagons, once there was a decent train load to be moved. Again, somewhere I have some photo's of this traffic, but where.......... The bark was used in the tanning industry.

LNWR Goods stock is easy to paint...... The Coaches are a bug***, although in the past on this forum, both Coachman and LNWRmodeller have offered good advice.

I can't find any 50' Corridor Arc roofed coaches like the Ratio kits being built before 1897 for either the LNWR or for WCJS, or at least anything that might have got into your area. Again not likely to have reached west Wales, but you can cut down the all third to a 42ft Arc roofed non corridor coach on either a Radial or Bogie underframe, but needs two 'all 3rd compt'. sides and new ends. There was a time when you could buy spare mouldings from Ratio, I bought a few, for the roof I used the one from the Brake Compo - there's no recess halfway along for a toilet gas lamp(s). But of course the rain strip doesn't come down far enough at the ends, can always be sanded off and micro-strip added. I'm fairly certain I widedened the roof by adding 10thou (or more) square section strips along the edges, I did that for all my Ratio roofs. At least you have the correct curvature on the roof. The Radial underframe in this instance is a Red Rose product from 40 years ago, but London Road Models do one now I believe. Again, my painting and lining.

They were built 1897 - 1903.

Have we mentioned beer in Midland wagons from Burton-on-Trent. There was few vans that went regularly to Swansea from Burton-On-Trent.

If one has to have PO's that actually existed, then yes it can be a problem... When I was looking at the likes of Hollywell Town (LNWR) I used an old Kelly's Directory and picked out a Coal Merchant who had a number of outlets, plus making up a livery in the period style. I ended up with two liveries, one either side of a wagon.... Jones and Llewllyn Jones. Not sure why, probably not paying attention. The J.B.Deggwood wagon is a tribute to John Degg & Bill Wood, excellent modellers up Stafford way. Bettall Co-Op is from a joint venture layout BETTison and croALL - We were going to build a layout together some 25 years ago. Then I moved out of the Malvern area to the west country. I think the wheels are old PC P4 ones, they certainly have very thin tyres on them. Yes, there should be a runner wagon under the overhanging planks, but these are quick photos for this reply..... Yes, they are all hand lettered by me. The red plank was 'fashion' around 1900.

It doesn't seem to a very good marketing ploy, not to advertise somewhere that can be accessed by the internet. I'm thinking things like the S4 Society etc.,

I looked for a online ABS catalogue, for LNWR wagons etc., Obviously my search facilities are not good enough to find any. The LNWR Societies Model Kits page doesn't list ABS as a provider either - other than the D43A Gunpowder Van. http://lnwrs.org.uk/Modelling/4mmWagons.php The D21 Medium Cattle Wagon was introduced in 1868. The D22 Long Cattle wagon was introduced in 1869. The fitted or through pipped versions were introduced in 1919 - both Medium and Long.. I don't think anybody still produces the Medium kit's now, D&S on Ebay etc., or Expo.... are the likely places to find kits. The Long Cattle Wagon has never been available as a kit as far as I know. The D33 7T Van (7, not 8 tons) with roof door and doors BOTH sides was another D&S kit which I believe is no longer available. Introduced in 1894. Prior to this the D32 Van had a roof door and a side door on ONE side only. The ABS Dia 43A Gunpowder Van was introduced in 1906. The D43 was smaller - Not in the style of a Iron Mink. No kit available. BTW - The London Road Models D438 Horse Box was introduced in 1883.

Cannot sleep.... I think I may not only be cross eyed, but cross referencing as well... These new tablets are !!!!!! Reading up about Mike Morton-Lloyd's layout 'Tafolog', (MRJ No. 3 - Autumn 1985), he has a Powell Dyffryn coal wagon supplying 'Steam Coal' for the local quarry, other domestic coals where delivered in 'Ruabon' and local merchants wagons (Robert Pugh). I knew the layout well and operated it a few times too, but details now ellude me. Mike was a founder member of the Welsh Railways Research Circle (I joined at the 3rd meeting), he also worked very closely with C.C.Green on Cambrian matters. I know he had original Cambrian coach paint in a tin (or two) and these are now safely held by a mutual friend.

The late Mike Morton-Lloyds 7mm model 'Llangynog'/'Tafolog', had FB rail soldered directly to plain copper clad sleepers, it was not evident that the spikes are not visible (missing) - As will be known, the Cambrian Rlys was Mike's speciality and he did a lot of research before building the layout. The 1:1 scale GWR replaced the FB rails with chaired track in the 1920's - Tanat Valley line. The Cambrian Rlys of course had proper chaired track on it's main routes. Looking at the photo's of the Rhymney Rly's 1904 accident at Brithdir, there is little evidence (if any) of visible spikes to the FB track, and the sleeper spacing seems wide too. corneliuslundie, if you know the photo(s), the brake down van has a interesting roof light, like a long cloche.

First of all be mindful, I've been exhibiting or working behind layouts for 45+ years, thus I've slowly come to my senses over various aspects of exhibiting... Not all, but some. I couldn't work out if you had magnetic bottom links on the couplings, although I think the shunting pole was a hook. I have both hooks and 'earth' magnets onthe end of Penlan's shunting poles - attached to strong lighting LED torches. And magnetic bottom links - But I'm introducing auto-couplings, slowly, on the end of block units. The lighting from that single, short, flouresent lamp would not have helped either, especially as there was no cover to keep the light out of your eyes for the whole day - I have my lighting boxed - been there, got the shades. I also find I've always got the wrong bi-focals on at any given time. I looked at AJ's, but have gone down the P4me type, similar to AJ's RMWeb Archived at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=16787 - DON'T go to the P4me web site, it's now likely to activate your anti-virus software. I bought the AJ fitting kit (the bit that slots over the buffers for location), altered the wire slot to be a little bit off centre, and no problems. 'Cheddar' had the AJ's working at the show. BTW - Deepest Cornwall ?, as you can see I'm west Cornwall, the very edge of Europe...

I mentioned Ossington Bldgs., in Marlybone earlier, we lived in them from '49 to '52.. Each floor had 8 rooms off a landing, though 4 were down a 'hallway'. Every room had a single door that opened onto the landing. On the landing was a cold water tap into a Belfast basin, 2 toilets and a refuse shute access door, all open to a staircase with 'outside' ventilation. 'Pairs' of rooms had one room with a cast iron stove unit. You rented rooms as you needed them, presumably pairs, one day, one night. You carried water into your room(s) by metal jug or bucket from the Belfast sink tap. Gas lighting everywhere, though I don't recall any on the landings or stairs, all of which were covered in tiles. So getting water into a private room area, even in London is not that long ago. In '52 we then moved to St. Johns Wood, initially to a similar set up, though we did have our own tap(s), then into proper accommodation. As an aside - Living in Marlybone, of course we were round the corner from W&H Models, I remember them in Baker Street, then they moved to Paddington St. - where my father traded in all the Hornby 3 rail stuff for 'TT' when it first came out. We had left London before W&H had moved to New Cavendish Street, though I recall dropping in there once and noting a lot of the cabinets had been in the old Baker Street shop.

Earlier, somewhere I've mentioned stand pipes - New to Inverkeilor around 1953, I know Mousehole has the remains of Standpipes and apparently they were in use till the early 1970's. So back to 1890's, it seems there is little likely hood of basic houses having internal water supplies.

Seeing this on Saturday morning at Helston, I had the impression it was some of the white metal chairs on the point(s) that seemed to be causing slight lifting of wheel rims etc., not battered track. Certainly where the treads where being lifted, the 'white metal' of the chair tops was clearly seen. I know your not using them again, but I think a little bit of work with a needle file will help with what's already there.

Yes, it was per Dylan. I think the original broadcast of 'Under Milk Wood' is terrific, and pushing it a bit, the town clock sounds just like the one in my Village, Mousehole, mindful Dylan stayed in the Village at one point and thought it the 'Prettiest Village in all England' (perhaps the beer was free?). And yes, 'tis Buggerall. I thought the recent attempt to do it on TV didn't work, it's a Radio play. I seem to recall other aspects of Penlan Mk1 had subtle references to 'Ivor the Engine' too. Re. outside loo's, My family over generations use to live in Inverkeilor in Scotland and the buckets (enclosed in sheds) were at the top of the garden, by a wall with a field on the other side. That corner of the field use to have some of the best crops around, certainly when laid to wheat etc., they grew twice as quick as any other part of the field. Now the Lane has a silly name and they are all on mains drainage and water. THINK - heavy mist, rain, forgot to bring the potty in, but need more than a wet anyway, so must go up the garden, 3am, torch battery flat ("who left it on?")... thank goodness for inside toilets. They don't know they're born these days.. WATER - Ah yes, lets not forget, water into the house is not something that's been around forever. When I was a small lad, we had to carry a bucket down to a hand pump by the Kirk in Inverkeilor (about 150yds), then around 1956 we had a standpipe at the end of the Lane (20yds). All around the Village I now live in - Mousehole West Cornwall - there are still plenty of Concrete stands with the remnants of lead pipes in them that would have had taps at the top, must ask a local when these were disconnected.

In Scotland, outside the towns in Angus, a row of cottages had a communal one. In the 1950's when family moved down to Marlybone in London, the housing (Ossington Buildings) there had a BIG communal one, I can recall looking in through the doors, full of washer woman, my parents told me I must never go in there.... I mean what could a group of women do to a young lad..... Then again when I started work in 1959, fortunately not on the production line in a factory, the young lads who did join the woman on 'the line', found it difficult to walk home afterwards, some didn't come back the next day. Imagine the curpufal these days if those events still took place.. . But I'm straying away from 1890's interiors, though recalling some memories for me...

4mm, my eyesight was better 45+ years ago. The terraced houses these backed on to was 'Llareggub Place'. I would have liked to have used 'Row A', but as there was just the single row of dwellings, it didn't make a lot of sense >>> >>> because in Ebbw Vale, there were at least 4 rows of terraced buildings back in the 1960's, and yes, Row A, Row B, Row C etc., I think they have all been knocked down now and the area (Newtown) is occupied by a new estate with 'Tre Newydd', 'Princess Ct'., etc., South East of Pant-Y-Fforest Road. I think the single door side view is the neighbours dumping ground. ... the other door (next to the wash room?) there may be a sink in there, but more likely a bucket.. No, the mangle would be outside, with a bit of tarpi over it....

Looks like I used the ubiquitous green paint too...

On the Barmouth pages, especially page 1, they look to be rustic cottages at Arthog..... . Made nearly 50 years ago, these out-houses don't have a place on my current layout, there's no artisan cottages, but they were on 'Penlan' Mk.1. The picture with the 2 doors, as there's a chimney stack, I'm assuming there's the boiler behind the right hand door. Now when I say boiler, I mean a stone/brick built fire hole with a 'Couldron' set in the top - this was filled with water on Mondays and the weekly wash started.... I can remember back in the 1970's, measuring up buildings etc., at Bucknell on the Central Wales Line, one of the cottages there had a LNWR engine steam dome set in the brick work as a 'Couldron', the curved lip (to mate with the boiler) was the give away.

Victorian internal views seem to be like hen's teeth. Presumably you've viewed Dolgellau's web site here > https://www.flickr.com/photos/dolgellau/sets/72157625778471425/ Again there's plenty of photos (pages and pages of them) of Barmouth > https://www.flickr.com/photos/abermaw/page12/ But interiors... Harlech, apart from the Castle seems devoid of good social photo's.

Off Topic, but I am always amazed at how Victorian employers seemed to pitch the wages enough to basically keep workers alive (to work) but no more to enable them to improve their situations. I'm thinking Miners - Coal, Tin, etc., Quarry workers and of course all those associated with Foundries, Steel works, etc., I'm enjoying this topic, good modelling.