5050

Here's a small selection of adverts from the early 50's when CCW were still involved with both 4mm and 7mm scale kits. Also some interesting track on offer. A 'basic' coach kit shown in parts. Very nice GWR Siphon. LMS Parcel stock in both 4mm and 7mm. Track advert 1. Track advert 2. Editorial about the track. Manufactured from milled cork sheet. Also note that the trade name of H G Cramer Productions is used.

Yes, I know, but my version is well and truly a lot later so Railway it is.

Perhaps you could consider this? http://clevermodels.squarespace.com/models-gallery/

Ooo, I remember them rumbling up the M1. First time I saw one I thought time had stopped still! Nice concept Dave, looking forward to seeing progress. If it's as nice as your 7mm work it'll be grand. I'll get Jamie to book it for 2015??

Thanks. I had tried that but then realised that you have to use the 'Full Edit' function. Learn a little every day etc. - and that's the 2nd thing I've learned today!

Yersterday at the Northern Counties American Modelers meeting I was taken to task by my club chairman for heading this thread as 'Western Maryland RR' - the RR referring to 'Rail Road'. Now, as I'm sure all of you know, it was not a 'RR' but a 'RW' - the official title was 'Railway'. I hang my head in shame - but can't find a way to alter it.

That's a very interesting piece of kit. Can you buy them in the UK or only direct?

I had one once (Mrs 5050 bought it for me) but sold it at a car boot sale. I can't see that doing this subsequently made any appreciable difference to either my ability or my inabiity to manage my workload around the house or my modelling. Regarding gadgets, I have an extremely battered, singed (burnt!) and holely piece of 4 x 1/2" wood that I drill, solder and generally abuse bits of metal and plastic on. It also has several cut-down panel pins knocked into it here and there which are the remains of crude 'jigs' to hold stuff whilst being abused. I'm to embarassed to photograph it for public consumption..................

I don't remember having any problems telling the future Mrs 5050. After all, she accepted my being a racing cyclist without any complaint - and that was just as bad if not worse in the 60's before it became very fashionable. I even took her to Pendon during our 'courting' in 1969 and, as it was a Saturday, it was officially closed but Roye England took pity on us and gave us a guided tour. After that she was pretty well hooked and, as she is very 'crafty' herself so appreciates the time and skill involved, doesn't complain. Very much.............

This last week or so has been spent trying to get the layout to run after its long 'hibernation'. Not an easy task I'm afraid. The rails needed a damn good clean and the recent ballasting hasn't helped even with the care I've taken (or thought I had!) - and my trials and tribulations with Kadee trucks is documented elsewhere. The main point leading into the coal tippler etc. needed electrical attention because the power wasn't being fed to the frog etc. Now I've discovered that my P2K locos all have split gears. Is stamp collecting any easier as a hobby.....................................

Nice ones again. I visited Ruthin station a while after closure with my Dad and his friend on our way back from Rhyl. Everything still there basically. These days it would have disappeared overnight! Denbigh had a fascinating station building with that 'spire'. Have any drawings ever been published? Interlaced sleeper point work would be rather unusual for a North Wales location I reckon. A good 'prototype for everything' example. Very common in the North East though.

I've now discovered - by finding 2 totally unrelated photos in 2 different books, piecing them together and realising what I was seeing - that the 'edifice' on the front is actually the truncated remains of a 3 arm train order signal! Why it was not a separate signal and why the whole signal wasn't fully removed when it became obsolete will probably never be known. This means that the piece of 'exhaust piping' I had carefully integrated into the top end is completely wrong............................... Probably.....................

Some more great shots, thanks. I like the ones at Cadeby, we used to have regular club visits there as one of our members was a good friend of Teddy's. I remember sitting inside the hill on the OO layout trying to maintain the timetable, Teddy was very insistent on that! And High Dyke - I recognised that from Roy Jackson's (and friends!) layout!

As usual, brilliant sets of photos. The Blaenau branch ones in particular are super, I never realised Llan Festiniog had such as interesting platform canopy. I wish I'd had the foresight to travel along the line BITD. Mike Lloyd sent me a series of shots of BF when I was considering modelling it way back in the 70's. Yours add to the overall picture. Many thanks.

Cracking set of shots from a time when I thought that Yorkshire was a foreign country. Now I know better. It seems hard to believe that virtually all that is in those photos has disappeared, not just the locos but the surroundings as well. At least the bridge and part of the platform is still at Normanton! Even the cooling towers at Wakey have gone. Now that was spectacular!

They were very good BITD (when Pete still had a say in the business?) but they are a bit long in the tooth now. Tools/moulds don't last forever. For example, I've recently been trying to build a Cooper Craft Bedford lorry. The fit of the parts, the moulding lines and associated flash are awful.

I liked the Hornby O gauge clockwork layout at Warley this year. Excellent running, bags of action, always something moving and no finger-poking to get things going. And the occasional exciting moment when 2 trains were both heading towards the diamond crossing! Now that's a PROPER trainset.

Ian was a Wakefield club member for a few years while he was working in the area and I'm sure the bones of this were built during this time? I always liked it and it's good to hear that it still exists. Could be considerd as a ground breaking layout in its treatment of diesels as clean and desirable locos rather than grudgingly accepted steam-killing outcasts.

Excellent thread, the work you have done in both modelling and research is to be congratulated. In no way could I duplicate your digital artistry in creating the lazer cutting etc. files so I am in awe! In 1970 I lived in Oswestry just behind the station and my employers had a store in the works, actually in the part you are modelling. I went there a couple of times and was surprised to see how confined it seemed considering the scale of the work undertaken. I seem to think that rails, pits etc. were still there. It's great to see how this example of classic British industrial architecture now has a new lease of life.

Ooo yes, I remember that! I also have a feeling that - just once or twice - the inevitable happened and the 'held back' train was let go only for something to derail before it got to the other end where it was normally caught by someone who was also good at wicket keeping. The resulting carnage was impressive. Didn't happen often. Thankfully. Someone will now reply that it never ever happened.

I vaguely recollect possibly seeing one of these layouts at York (?) complete with a computer screen showing the timetable? If it is, then this was the first time I saw this sort of thing in use. It'll never catch on.........................

I love the bike related sign in this post. I need one of them in my shed to remind me how to put my bike back together next time I work on it!

Like the other photo threads, I've come to this one late as well. Super photos bringing back memories I didn't think I had of the Blue period. It was all so 'normal' then, I suppose we didn't think that in due course it would become 'historically important'. There's been some really excellent and historically interesting photos appearing on all these photo threads, keep 'em coming guys! And 1970, I remember that OK. I should do - I got married! Unfortunately at the time I wasn't really into trains. A pity because I was in High Wycombe at the time with all those hydraulics whizzing through. And my girl friend's (later wife's) office was right next to the station with a good view of the line and my flat backed onto the Bourne End line. I was often woken up in the night by a waiting loco throbbing away at eye level. Wigan Wheelers - I was 5th in their 50 mile time trial in 1966. Oh dear, was it really that long ago................................

Would the yard only be shunted by either Up or Down trains? I suppose there is a choice but is one direction more appropriate than the other?

Great shots again. I've never seen the gas works line even though our twice weekly cycle training sessions were around the estate, even going over the bridge in the background. This was around '63-65 and I remember virtually the whole line around the estate being full of old wagons with gaps only where there were level crossings. The line through Broxton was exactly the same. Who knows what gems were there waiting to be photographed in their dying days. Keep 'em coming! BTW - thanks for all the 'likes' on my models. I didn't want to hi-jack the thread but as someone mentioned the line's potential for modelling I thought I would show that it is possible.