LNWR / WCJS models in 7mm scale

[Tony Grumps]

When I moved from 4mm scale to 7mm scale in the 1980's my ambition was to build a complete, representative train of the London & North Western Railway. I eventually decided on the inaugural 2pm Corridor train from London to Scotland which left Euston on 1st July 1893. My ambition was interrupted by a busy family life whilst also running a business, probably typical of many people with an obsessive hobby! The other interruption was that, typical of me, I also wanted to make other accurate carriages of the LNWR. The result is that I had about 25 carriages, some complete but many incomplete. I haven't previously entered any of my models in a competition but I was encouraged by the positive reactions I received when I posted photographs of my models on the LNWR Society Facebook group pages. I am now living in Portugal and many of my models have been donated to the LNWR Society. However, in the UK, my favourite models are stored away. When I realised this competition was purely based on photographs I decided to submit entries. Unfortunately there isn't a category for "train" i.e. Engine + Rolling Stock so I have attached a video of some of the carriages running at the Stevenage & District MRC, behind a Midland Railway 4-2-2 'Spinner'! This video was taken before my 3 locomotives were finished and thanks are due to Neal Cooper of S&D MRC for taking the video. The photographs which make up my total entry are therefore split into locomotives and carriages (sorry Judges!). At this point I should like to acknowledge the gentleman who first inspired me to start building LNWR carriage models. He is Trevor Wilkinson, formerly of Crawley Model Railway Society (of which my father, Brian Howarth, was a founding member). Trevor, being a very skilled lathe & machine tool operator with the Parker Pen company, built his own very beautiful 4mm LNWR locomotives. On one occasion he presented me with a metal 42ft carriage underframe that he had made and I built a cardboard body to complete my first LNWR carriage

 

Video: https://www.facebook.com/tony.grumps.7/videos/154233345561431/

 

THE LOCOMOTIVES
 
1) LNWR Webb 0-6-2T Coal Tank No. 158
 
This was the first model to be built of my current fleet of three. I decided on Number 158 because it was the only decent photo I found of a Coal Tank located near my home town of Stockport. The photo is in Ted Talbot´s book "LNWR MISCELLANY Vol 1" Plate 159. The kit was manufactured by Adrian Rowland of Northstar Models. At the time of purchase Adrian was about to retire. He informed me that he had two kits left, one being promised to a friend. So I bought virtually his last kit. It's a very decent kit. As I am NOT confident in building metal kits I commissioned my friends Geoff Brookes & Colin Tyler to build and finish it for me. They are members of Stevenage & District MRC. Geoff undertook the body build whilst Colin finished the model with the painting & lining. I had already built the chassis but John Cross of SOMERGOG compensated it to GOG standards (all wheels touching the track all of the time). It is the best runner of the 3 models having pulled 9 carriages or 30 wagons. Please note the cab roof was made deliberately removable for maintenance work but mainly to assist with locating the cab crew who are not yet in existence

 

 

2) LNWR Webb Teutonic Class Compound 2-2-2-0 "Jeanie Deans" No. 1304

 

This is the famous engine which pulled the 2pm Corridor from inauguration (and for many years) from Euston to Crewe and back. The kit is manufactured by Mercian and was again built by Geoff Brookes and painted/lined by Colin Tyler. The model is built in "as new" condition with long frames at the front, later reduced in length. Apart from authenticity I prefer the look of the longer frames

 

 

3) LNWR Webb Greater Britain Class Compound 2-2-2-2 "Scottish Chief" No. 526

 

Whilst I chose a model of a Greater Britain (kit manufactured by Taff Vale Models - formerly Dragon Models) it would have been more authentic to have modelled a John Hick Class (smaller driving wheels for the journey over the gradients between Crewe and Carlisle) but there wasn't a kit available at the time. Anyway, who knows whether a Greater Britain pulled the 2pm? Again, model built by Geoff Brookes and painted/lined by Colin Tyler

 

 

THE CARRIAGES

 

I have divided this section into two parts. The first part is to show the models of the West Coast Joint Stock. All but the last carriage would have run with the 2pm Corridor. The second part is for some of the LNWR domestic fleet carriages that particularly interested me. Each photo gives details of the respective carriages. I built each carriage from plasticard, brass, metal, wood: any material appropriate for the job in hand. The only proprietary parts are items such as gas lamp tops, buffers, wheels, etc. Where a carriage requires them, corridor connections have been built to work! Research was of course a very difficult area but by use of photos and known design / building practices it has been possible to make, in my opinion, accurate models. I used Microsoft Office Visio to create scale 2D drawings in order to iron out as many mistakes as possible before committing to pencil lines on the plasticard. As usual any mistakes are of my own making! Painting and lining was also fully undertaken by myself

 

WCJS Corridor Carriages

 

The first carriage in the photo is a WCJS 45ft x 8ft Corridor Full Brake to D80. One of the easiest models to make: only two windows!

 

WCJS 45ft x 8ft 6in Corridor Composite to D31

 

WCJS 50ft 6in x 8ft 6in Third Class Dining Saloon to P3 (1895 Diagram Book). This carriage is in the right foreground

It is incomplete because, apart from other small details, it isn't yet fitted with the ornate end vestibule frames. They were supplied

very kindly by Francis Pearce, another LNWR carriage builder and member of the LNWR Society

 

WCJS 42ft x 8ft 6in Corridor Composite to D54

 

WCJS 42ft x 8ft 6in Corridor Brake Third to D68. This carriage is in the left foreground

 

WCJS 30ft 1in x 8ft Parcel Sorting Van to D103. Third vehicle from the camera. Next to it is the LNWR 50ft Full Brake described below

 

LNWR Domestic fleet carriages

 

LNWR 50ft x 8ft Full Brake to D378

 

LNWR 42ft x 8ft Lavatory First (Club Saloon) to D106. I have agreed with Philip Millard, the recognised authority on LNWR / WCJS carriages, that my model more

truly represents this type of carriage by having a longlight window in place of the arrangement shown in the drawing in Philip's book "L&NWR Non-Corridor Carriages"

 

LNWR 30ft 1in x 8ft Picnic Saloon to D84. This model is incomplete as I have not yet added the end step under the far end lavatory

Edited March 7, 2019 by Tony Grumps
Inaugural 2 pm Corridor - June to July

[Tony Grumps]

I should add that the photos featuring "Cranleigh" is the very fine 7mm Modern Image layout belonging to my friend Andy Shepherd who, would you believe, lives in Cranleigh, Surrey!

[Jol Wilkinson]

Tony,

 

very nice models. 

 

I think that the GB kit was originally in the London Road Models 7mm range, designed by John Redrup. It then went to John Shelley's Fourtrack Models range, with some of the other LRM 7mm kits. John Shelley got me to upscale the LRM  4mm Jubilee I designed and that is also in the Taff/Dragon range now.

 

Jol

[Tony Grumps]

Hi Jol

 

A name I know well! Yes, you are right about the "provenance". In fact my model is on the Taff Vale / Dragon Models website, strictly without permission but, so what!

 

Happy New Year

[Tony Grumps]

Readers of this topic may have noted that I said it's possible a Greater Britain may have pulled the 2pm Corridor. I'm still not sure about that but I have just seen a photo of a Greater Britain resting at Euston. Not only that but it's my engine, "Scottish Chief"! At the time I had the model built I found only one decent photo of her. This one is an absolute gem. Credit goes to John Low who posted on the LNWR Society Facebook group pages. Apparently he has a few glass negatives. Bless you John!

Edited January 26, 2019 by Tony Grumps

[Coal Tank]

Lovely models Tony 

[Denbridge]

On 29/12/2018 at 00:38, Tony Grumps said:

When I moved from 4mm scale to 7mm scale in the 1980's my ambition was to build a complete, representative train of the London & North Western Railway. I eventually decided on the inaugural 2pm Corridor train from London to Scotland which left Euston on 1st July 1893. My ambition was interrupted by a busy family life whilst also running a business, probably typical of many people with an obsessive hobby! The other interruption was that, typical of me, I also wanted to make other accurate carriages of the LNWR. The result is that I had about 25 carriages, some complete but many incomplete. I haven't previously entered any of my models in a competition but I was encouraged by the positive reactions I received when I posted photographs of my models on the LNWR Society Facebook group pages. I am now living in Portugal and many of my models have been donated to the LNWR Society. However, in the UK, my favourite models are stored away. When I realised this competition was purely based on photographs I decided to submit entries. Unfortunately there isn't a category for "train" i.e. Engine + Rolling Stock so I have attached a video of some of the carriages running at the Stevenage & District MRC, behind a Midland Railway 4-2-2 'Spinner'! This video was taken before my 3 locomotives were finished and thanks are due to Neal Cooper of S&D MRC for taking the video. The photographs which make up my total entry are therefore split into locomotives and carriages (sorry Judges!). At this point I should like to acknowledge the gentleman who first inspired me to start building LNWR carriage models. He is Trevor Wilkinson, formerly of Crawley Model Railway Society (of which my father, Brian Howarth, was a founding member). Trevor, being a very skilled lathe & machine tool operator with the Parker Pen company, built his own very beautiful 4mm LNWR locomotives. On one occasion he presented me with a metal 42ft carriage underframe that he had made and I built a cardboard body to complete my first LNWR carriage

 

Video: https://www.facebook.com/tony.grumps.7/videos/154233345561431/

 

THE LOCOMOTIVES
 
1) LNWR Webb 0-6-2T Coal Tank No. 158
 
This was the first model to be built of my current fleet of three. I decided on Number 158 because it was the only decent photo I found of a Coal Tank located near my home town of Stockport. The photo is in Ted Talbot´s book "LNWR MISCELLANY Vol 1" Plate 159. The kit was manufactured by Adrian Rowland of Northstar Models. At the time of purchase Adrian was about to retire. He informed me that he had two kits left, one being promised to a friend. So I bought virtually his last kit. It's a very decent kit. As I am NOT confident in building metal kits I commissioned my friends Geoff Brookes & Colin Tyler to build and finish it for me. They are members of Stevenage & District MRC. Geoff undertook the body build whilst Colin finished the model with the painting & lining. I had already built the chassis but John Cross of SOMERGOG compensated it to GOG standards (all wheels touching the track all of the time). It is the best runner of the 3 models having pulled 9 carriages or 30 wagons. Please note the cab roof was made deliberately removable for maintenance work but mainly to assist with locating the cab crew who are not yet in existence

 

 

2) LNWR Webb Teutonic Class Compound 2-2-2-0 "Jeanie Deans" No. 1304

 

This is the famous engine which pulled the 2pm Corridor from inauguration (and for many years) from Euston to Crewe and back. The kit is manufactured by Mercian and was again built by Geoff Brookes and painted/lined by Colin Tyler. The model is built in "as new" condition with long frames at the front, later reduced in length. Apart from authenticity I prefer the look of the longer frames

 

 

3) LNWR Webb Greater Britain Class Compound 2-2-2-2 "Scottish Chief" No. 526

 

Whilst I chose a model of a Greater Britain (kit manufactured by Taff Vale Models - formerly Dragon Models) it would have been more authentic to have modelled a John Hick Class (smaller driving wheels for the journey over the gradients between Crewe and Carlisle) but there wasn't a kit available at the time. Anyway, who knows whether a Greater Britain pulled the 2pm? Again, model built by Geoff Brookes and painted/lined by Colin Tyler

 

 

THE CARRIAGES

 

I have divided this section into two parts. The first part is to show the models of the West Coast Joint Stock. All but the last carriage would have run with the 2pm Corridor. The second part is for some of the LNWR domestic fleet carriages that particularly interested me. Each photo gives details of the respective carriages. I built each carriage from plasticard, brass, metal, wood: any material appropriate for the job in hand. The only proprietary parts are items such as gas lamp tops, buffers, wheels, etc. Where a carriage requires them, corridor connections have been built to work! Research was of course a very difficult area but by use of photos and known design / building practices it has been possible to make, in my opinion, accurate models. I used Microsoft Office Visio to create scale 2D drawings in order to iron out as many mistakes as possible before committing to pencil lines on the plasticard. As usual any mistakes are of my own making! Painting and lining was also fully undertaken by myself

 

WCJS Corridor Carriages

 

The first carriage in the photo is a WCJS 45ft x 8ft Corridor Full Brake to D80. One of the easiest models to make: only two windows!

 

WCJS 45ft x 8ft 6in Corridor Composite to D31

 

WCJS 50ft 6in x 8ft 6in Third Class Dining Saloon to P3 (1895 Diagram Book). This carriage is in the right foreground

It is incomplete because, apart from other small details, it isn't yet fitted with the ornate end vestibule frames. They were supplied

very kindly by Francis Pearce, another LNWR carriage builder and member of the LNWR Society

 

WCJS 42ft x 8ft 6in Corridor Composite to D54

 

WCJS 42ft x 8ft 6in Corridor Brake Third to D68. This carriage is in the left foreground

 

WCJS 30ft 1in x 8ft Parcel Sorting Van to D103. Third vehicle from the camera. Next to it is the LNWR 50ft Full Brake described below

 

LNWR Domestic fleet carriages

 

LNWR 50ft x 8ft Full Brake to D378

 

LNWR 42ft x 8ft Lavatory First (Club Saloon) to D106. I have agreed with Philip Millard, the recognised authority on LNWR / WCJS carriages, that my model more

truly represents this type of carriage by having a longlight window in place of the arrangement shown in the drawing in Philip's book "L&NWR Non-Corridor Carriages"

 

LNWR 30ft 1in x 8ft Picnic Saloon to D84. This model is incomplete as I have not yet added the end step under the far end lavatory

I knew Trevor fairly well in the late 70's early 80's as I did your father. I've often wondered what became of Trevors fine models. Do you perhaps know what became of them? When I knew him he seemed to have lost interest in modelling and was more involved with music.