Mikkel

Thank you Neal, this is quite a development. Well done by the GWS.

I do like the elevated section. Maybe it was an economy drive on the CR: Horse stacking. 🙂

Very nice, Neal. And with well positioned passengers too. I know that one, it's particularly bad when you realize that you've forgotten one whole side of the coach.

The photo in Fig 169 adds further to the confusion because the camera renders the "GW" and the numbering in quite different shades! The caption states that the Hydra is pictured as new, in which case are we seeing yellow + white? Or perhaps it is not in fact new, but has been touched up. These immediate pre-WW1 years are complicated and inconsistent, livery-wise. It's all Churchwards fault!

Hi all, a query regarding the GWR Hydras, which were rated for passenger trains and carried brown livery during part of their lives. Specifically I am trying to identify the correct livery for a Hydra G19 in 1913. Models of Hydras always show them in brown, but typically on grouping layouts. The instructions for the popular 7mm Connoiseur kit states the livery as brown, but without further detail. The only hint I can find in Atkins et al (p155) is this somewhat open-ended statement: "The HYDRA B code did not appear in the 1900 code book [...] Although later painted brown with ochre lettering, the HYDRAS did not change their running numbers upon reclassifiction". Should this be interpreted to mean that the Hydras didn't turn to brown until WW1, along with e.g. Beetles and Bloaters. And when did they lose the brown livery again, I wonder?

This is looking very good. The overall roof is impressive, a very substantial kit-bash!

What a sight, Tony. I looked at this and thought: Suburban Birmingham, early 1920s. The close-coupled coaches look the part even though they weren't, and the loco is a strong hint at the setting. Wonderful.

Just been catching up Annie. I trust your daughter and you are back on track after her concussion. And thanks for the recent cheer-up pictures. Taking them all in at once has a startling effect, as if I've had a coffeine overdose.

Quite a line-up of grounded coach bodies there 🙂 These are very appealing scenes, and a substantial amount of careful work is evident. I like your ground level shots along the track, they have that look of real lineside photos.

Unfortunately the Sutherland saddle tank parts don't match up either 🙂

Have you seen this ongoing 2021 build? Might be of interest.

But this is RMweb, so after 36 years you got the answer within an hour 🙂

Yes, they are all from the Shire scenes range. Although number three has been cut up and rebuilt for a different pose. Yes, the HMRS transfers are pressifx, I just colored them with a yellow marker after applying them. Only tried it that one time though.

I would never have believed that was a Hornby 0-4-0 chassis! This hobby will never run out of fun.

It's a bit of a problem, as there isn't really anything ready-made, to my knowledge. This is white lettering from the HMRS goods wagon sheet, coloured yellow with a marker: This is HMRS Hawksworth coach lettering (!): This is the only dedicated transfer for GWR horsedrawn wagons that I know of, included with an old Pendon dray kit: No, sorry, just paper. Seems I've saved the Pendon transfer for another project. This one isn't so good, but quick. It's just printed paper glued on:

Very Midland, already. Clerestory six-wheelers combine all the things I like about stock of this period, aestethically. Something about the balance.

That's a nice spring announcement, it actually made me look out the window. Time for a walk I think, thank you!

I never know what's next on your blog Mike, except that it's always fascinating and informative. The prints looks good, I wouldn't have relished creating those domes by hand! I like the door too, looks the part even without painting.

They look good Tim, proper workhorses. They also illustrate how elderly kitbuilt locos can still compete with all the shiny new superdetail RTR locos. I like your approach to improving them, it reminds me of the Repair Shop where the approach is to retain as much of the original soul and patina as possible (unless the customer wants otherwise). That seems to me a very sound philoshopy.

It's such an interesting van, horseboxes tend to be elegant but restrained affairs, this one has a lot going on - a whole little town in itself! The bowing and brittle nature is frustrating but, I hope, just the usual teething problems of a new technology that seems to be progressing fast. I've been carving away at my Bulldog body this week - made (not by me!) from Siraya Tech 'Build' resin - and it doesn't feel brittle at all.

Thanks Nick, I had the same thought but Tony Atkins also says it's the same vehicle - and he knew his GWR cartage. The GWR seem to have been quite free in rebuilding their motor vehicles - some of them extensively and several times - right since the earliest examples. So the notion of rebuilding road vehicles wasn't foreign to them. That said, the cost/benefit ratio of rebuilding a horsedrawn vehicle isn't necessarily the same as that of a motor vehicle, and Atkins may be wrong of course. His GWR Goods cartage book vol 2 has the fleet list for motor vehicles, but unfortunately not for horse-drawn ones. Edit: I've just had a look in Kelley's Great Western Road Vehicles, and found on page 255 a 1926 drawing of No. 2079, which has an outline that looks identical/very close to the original outline of 583 above (with upper body panels stepped out above the wheels). So either the original 583 was renumbered 2079 and the number 583 reallocated to another vehicle (but why?); or there was at least one other GWR horsedrawn pantechnicon to that original design, which seemingly survived at least into the 1920s.

I do have some EZ line, but thought it would not have weight enough to drop naturally. Still, worth a try though - thank you!

Here's a challenge for you Rob 🙂

Very evocative. And you must have friendly neighbours 🙂

This is a later shot of the same vehicle, taken in 1920. Smaller wheels with thicker spokes have been fitted, and the sides are now straight. There are a couple of drawings in Janet Russell's "Great Western Horsepower". She implies that the GWR made different types of these, but it is also possible that the drawings show the same van in different configurations. The best drawing says 8 ft high (and a bit, not quite legible). Tony Atkins GWR Goods cartage Vol 1 also has one of the drawings, although quite small.