5050

That's the one I was thinking of. Chris Hewitt built it.

I think the cable was attached to the 'brake wagon' after running underneath the wagons so it took the load. The haulage rope couldn't have been permanently attached otherwise, as you say, the mainline wagons couldn't have been attached/detached. I wrote an article and a drawing of the brake wagon in the late 'Modelling Railways Illustrated' magazine in the 90's but not sure of the issue. I'll have a look. The photos in the 'Bylines' articles came in useful as did an old issue of the HMRS Journal which had a drawing of the original version of the wagon. I've always had an interest in this line. Chris Hewitt from Liverpool has/had a small layout based on it (and an Iain Rice plan) on which he ran a brake wagon built from my drawing. At least someone read the article!

Following my 1956 Model Railway News thread, here are the adverts for the Kirdon items. The first full page one shows the availaibilty of the 2 diesel locos. I think the comment about the 10000 loco now being produced in-house relates to an item in the magazine editorial where Kirdon apologise for late delivery due to being let down by an outside contractor. The second full page ad doesn't mention the shunter but includes the motor bogie with the spring drive system. Also note the 'digs' at other manufacturers of power equipment (H&M?) over the use of the 'Minor' model branding. Also, what was the Coupling they were advertising? The W&H ad shows the English Electric '08' design shunter. Is this the same as the Hamblings one? The last photo shows that the Kirdon diesel shunter did actually exist (as a sample if nothing else!) and the 10000 model is running on Hornby Dublo 3-rail

Can't believe it's 6/7 weeks since I started this thread! To much going on in my life at present I'm afraid. However, I have done some work on the layout and a couple of shots show this. The industry is intended to be a tannery which will need lots of incoming traffic (skins, chemicals, fuel etc.) and outgoing finished products. So plenty of box cars, hoppers, tankers. The buildings shown are mock-ups based on the Railway Design Associates 'Delaney Iron Works' plus some odd ones I have knocking around the railway room. I will probably 're-design' the kit buildings somehow to hide their origins slightly. TBH, I think the mouldings are a bit crude but they'll do the job. The company houses are re-designed Grandt Line ones (as per Tony Koester) obtained at a Northern Counties group meeting a week ago. They are exactly what I wanted. The basic ground forms have had a coating of 'grass etc.' and plaster rock faces added but there will be more work required in due course to improve it all. At the moment I just want to get the basics on so that I can see progress being made. I've also been working on scenery at the other end of the board around the general coal tipple area. Tipple buildings ahve been made for some time and are stashed away in a box waiting for painting and installation. When I'm working like this I tend to only have a general idea of what I want and usually make it up as I'm going along. Sometimes it works out OK and sometimes not! If not it's easy enough to change it.

I'm going to miss the Wakefield shop, less than a 10 minute walk away if I suddenly found I needed something. Very handy for brass wire, tubing, paint etc. Mind you, the level of my purchases wouldn't have kept them going! The shop in Wyle Cop, Shrewsbury - I still have a selection of tools I bought from there in 1970. Quality always lasts. Chuffs I remember being in a cellar? A right tip with stuff all jumbled up on tables and benches. I felt a bit out of place. Constructeon - I had one of their Class 14 kits but compared to the Modern Outline Kits version which I had already built it was a bit crude. It got 'sold on'. When I was a lad there was a stall on Wrexham market that sold model railways. I don't think it lasted all that long. They wanted to sell Peco but another 'toy' stall on the same market already had the concession so they couldn't.

As an aside to this, weren't the aluminium extruded coach bodies Westdale? The late Mike Bradley whose stock still runs on the 'Hungerford' layout was very adept at building these into some excellent models and I'm sure some of them are still in use on Hungerford now.

The track assembly tools sold by Studiolith in the early days of P4 were made from modified hair grips with various width shims added for correct width clearances for blades etc. Very useful items for the tool box!

Yes, I'm gradually feeling a bit more relaxed about the processes involved in creating countryside. Glue, card and paper seem to be about my level so far, nothing to adventurous. However, plaster, ground foam and ballast are beckoning. It's a good job I built the boards strong enough to crawl on so I can get to the back corners etc. Mr Chairman's locos are very nice. I have the same ones only half-sized.

Thanks for your comments Phil. i do not profess to be any sort of an expert on WM, I just know some general facts about the line - all taken from books - and in particular the Thomas Subdivision on which my layout is loosely based. The main through freight traffic on the main line to Connelsville was the 'Alpha Jets', a fast freight route called the 'Alphabet Route' from Pittsburgh through to Baltimore and/or New York. Google it for more info. Whether Ford DTI boxcars for Florida were part of the consist I don't know and the same goes for the RDG coal but there is a man who might. Have a look at this link, he may be able to help you a lot better than I can. http://www.wmrywesternlines.net/ Good luck!

Many, many are the layouts that inspired me as a lad - but I can remember the photos etc. but not the names! Several of them have been mentioned above (especially Craig and Potwell) so I'll have to have a sit down in a dark room and think! BTW, the GWR layout seen at Wakefield in the 70's was 'Ceiriog Valley' which grew over the years from my original 1973 OO 'Preesgwyn' layout. It expanded until the late 70's when EM took over for several of the group which resulted in 'Kingsbridge' and 'Hungerford' (which was built as a Wakefield layout originally). Quick edit to add a note on Tony Miles. I visited the Manchester Show in 1972 for the first time and saw his Irish P4 chassis on display complete with the inside motion. I could hardly believe my eyes. When I saw it years later at working faultlessly on 'Adavoyle' my admiration for his work grew even more.

Just had a very enjoyable 30mins or so reading through this thread. Very nice, at first I also thought it was HO until I read it wasn't! It has inspired me to write a piece about my HO layout which is a very similar size to yours. I must admit I am jealous of your ability to run long trains! Well, a lot longer than mine anyway. A layout big enough to run 100+ coal hoppers with mid train and tail end helpers is a pipe dream of mine! I like the wooded hillsides, must get on with mine! It can't really look like West Virginia without.

After a 5 year break/hiatus/lethargy and due to the rotten weather we've had plus a dose of pneumonia (both of which have stopped me riding my bike for quite a while) I've decided to 'have a go' again. As I don't reckon my somewhat rusty skills are, as yet, up to the demands of P4 Chassis building etc. and as my WM layout still needs a lot of work and is staring me in the face under its protective layer of dust, I thought I would start with some scenery on the still naked second half. First though, I had to clear away 5 years worth of inactivity on my workbench which, along with my layout room in general, had become a dumping ground for all sorts of extraneous household 'things' that don't have an immediate use. An afternoon of work - accompanied by grunts and sayings such as 'I'd forgotten I had that' and 'so that's were that is!' - and the resulting disposal of a quantity of evaporated jars of thinners, solvents, dried up tubes of glue, things that 'will come in useful' (but haven't!) and dead insects, resulted in the relatively tidy expanse in the photo. I also took the opportunity of refreshing my memory as to what I actually possess in the way of US stock, locos and kits (quite a lot as it turns out - but don't tell the wife!). My WM books came down off the shelf and I found it rather surprising as to how much I discovered I had 'forgotten' - or rather temporarily displaced from the inner recesses of my memory. I was soon getting up to speed and finding half-finished projects (eg. chop-nosed GP9, old-time Baldwin 2-8-0, hammerhead RS3, a complete coal mine and tippler). These are, for the time being, on the back burner until my eyes and fingers hopefully rediscover their aptitude for handling things smaller than 10mm. A bit of messing about with cardboard, paper and glue will suffice for now. I use the corrugated card, cornflake packet card strips, j-cloth and brown paper method for forming the basic contours which is quick, easy and lightweight. It also has the advantage that major sections can be built on the bench in front of me rather than having to stretch across wide boards to reach. The basic construction should be readily seen in the photo but if anyone needs a fuller explanation then just ask. As part of this I had to make a small 'box' that I use for protecting the point motors under the scenery on the more distant parts of the layout. This was the first thing I had made from 'scratch' for years and I was pleased to find that it was relatively straightforward. I suppose modelling is like riding a bike, once you've done it the ability stays with you even if it can be a bit fiddly at first. The attached photos show the current state of the 'new' scenery (the basic 'bones' were made over 5 years ago) along with a view of the more complete 'half' of the layout which contains 'Gordon' station and industrial area (on the WM there was a 'Thomas' sub-division and a 'Henry' station etc. - so why not a 'Gordon'!). This still requires work, especially lots of trees on the hillsides above the climbing section. I've got views of it's general construction as well if anyone's interested. I hope I haven't bored you with this, I felt I had to write something about my return to the hobby. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it for a while now!

David B - that's probably the one, sounds like it. I remember it now as the Essar body. Once upon a time I had a yen to build a similar one with a Kitmaster body and a lot of lead - but it never happened!

I vaguely remember an article in RM which describes the building of a 'super hauler' diesel shunter (08 style) using a cast body and reduction gearing. I suppose this could have a Hamblings body but alternatively a Kirdon one??

A friend of mine spent some time at Gresford pit when we were just leaving school (Grove Park) in the late 60's. He told me that the coats etc. of the miners killed in the disaster were still hanging where they left them as a mark of respect. I wonder what ultimately happened to all this when the site was redeveloped? Interesting concept for the layout. I'm always interested in anything from my old stamping ground and often think about ideas for 'might have beens' for the area. Geoff Kent's 'Black Lion Crossing' layout has similar origins.

I went to Chuffs once when waiting for a train from Marylebone as it wasn't to far away. I remember it being in a basement? Piles of stuff all jumbled up on tables? Met a guy from my cycling past who I hadn't seen for years! It took us a few minutes to realise that we knew each other. Also went to Kings Cross when train waiting. Seem to remember them being a bit 'off hand'.

Nice to know I've inspired someone However, have you included the deliberate minimum space sidings etc. to make shunting more 'entertaining'?

The layout has come out great, I really like it. The card system looks familiar................................

D11 is smaller than XO4. I have several new in boxes along with D13's as well. I found the D11 to be a better motor than it's big brother.

The 14xx looks as if it was based on the Roche drawing as was the K's one. The footplate area in front of the smokebox is to short on both models. The 'Airfix' one was based on a better drawing and is 'longer' in this area.

'Arrived today with a Wills Collet goods body and an old motor.' I don't reckon that it is a Wills body as it is sheet brass construction. Wills are white metal. Like you say, probably Jamieson but without boiler bands etc. as 32a's is.

Are you suggesting that Leonard of Quirm has discovered the harnessable power of steam?! I thought he had dismissed it as a frivolous no hoper! Or is there an as yet unpublicised cunning artificer of self-propelled steam driven carts?

I have one of the High Level kits L&Y Battery steeple cab loco kits that one day might (WILL!) get built using a Somerfeldt small pantograph. I have thoughts of a small industrial layout with o'head etc. Just one of my many 'future projects'................................................. Actually getting down to doing some modelling instead of just thinking about it would probably help!

This old faithful along with the Cl22 (if it ever gets finished!!) and assorted panniers would be perfect.

Good Evening Captain,long time no see etc. Nice to see a section on the FoD which has interested me since I was in short pants over 50 years ago and found the 2 David and Charles 'Dean Forester' books in Wrexham Public Library of all places. They must have been quite new then and why Wrexham Library got them I've no idea. However, I'm eternally grateful to them as they sparked an interest that has never really died. My first visit to the FoD was in the early/mid 80's on a week's family holiday B&B'ing in Lydney. At that time Norchard was quite primitive and there was no 'mainline' running. Parkend still had the sidings etc. and the docks area was full of interesting 'things'. We did a bit of walking in the forest with the kids and found various relics and trackbeds. I returned home full of enthusiasm but the next visits would have been 10 or more years later with a friend and we looked for the Mineral Branch and it's tunnel mouth, Serridge Junction, etc, all before the 'tidying-up' occurred for the Mountain Bike trails (which, as an avid cyclist, I have yet to tackle!). The Wild Swan books have helped along the way and a couple of years ago we had a week near Ross-on-Wye and spent a couple of days around the forest and the railway. I believe it is a modeller's paradise if you're into industry, mines, short trains, PO wagons, small stations etc. etc. I keep planning layouts - but not built one - yet! I also have an LP record (one of those round, flat, black things if you can remember them) of a double headed pannier goods train on the Coleford branch - absolutely brilliant! It is possible follow the progress of the train along the line from the exhaust sounds and having the relevant Wild Swan book along side you whilst listening is great.