Charlie Strong Metals (and Watery Lane Sidings)

[417892]

With me being new to BRM. I hope to catch up this evening with the build of Charlie Strong Metals.

At least it will give me something to do while enjoying a bud or two..

[Ruston]

2 hours ago, 417892 said:

With me being new to BRM. I hope to catch up this evening with the build of Charlie Strong Metals.

At least it will give me something to do while enjoying a bud or two..

417892. Is your name Jim, by any chance?

[417892]

33 minutes ago, Ruston said:

417892. Is your name Jim, by any chance?

Ruston my name is Si, the number is of one of my Ruston locos.

[Ruston]

16 hours ago, 417892 said:

Ruston my name is Si, the number is of one of my Ruston locos.

Yes, 417892 is a 48DS, named Jim, at the DVLR.

[417892]

2 hours ago, Ruston said:

Yes, 417892 is a 48DS, named Jim, at the DVLR.

Ruston you are correct that's the number of my little Jim..

[Ruston]

Edited May 11, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

I have reinstated as many of the missing pictures as I can, going back to page 25. On pages before that they are mostly already there and what is still missing may turn up in due course.

 

To prove that this thread is not dead, but is merely resting, here's a new picture of the red Barclay.

[Sweet pea]

Dave it's nice to see you have reinstated some of the pictures in Charlie Strong metal. The red Barclay does look good.

[w124bob]

At the risk of repeating a question asked before, where did you get the branded (Mobil, Shell)oil cans seen on various locos? 

[Ruston]

15 hours ago, w124bob said:

At the risk of repeating a question asked before, where did you get the branded (Mobil, Shell)oil cans seen on various locos? 

Hardies Hobbies 3D prints with home-made decals.

[Din]

Dave,

 

As always love the stories woven into the world. Couple of queries.

 

First, what's the blue used for Shelby vehicles? Noticed Polly Gray seems to use a similar shade to the road vehicles and I rather like it.

 

Second, what happened to Shelby Group locomotive hire after the closure of Strong's Yard in 2000? After all, it seemed to have been their central depot for a while for the overhaul and even acquisition of locomotives for other Shelby Group Activities.

[Ruston]

17 hours ago, Din said:

Dave,

 

As always love the stories woven into the world. Couple of queries.

 

First, what's the blue used for Shelby vehicles? Noticed Polly Gray seems to use a similar shade to the road vehicles and I rather like it.

 

Second, what happened to Shelby Group locomotive hire after the closure of Strong's Yard in 2000? After all, it seemed to have been their central depot for a while for the overhaul and even acquisition of locomotives for other Shelby Group Activities.

The blue on the Atkis is a Phoenix Precision colour. I can't remember the name but it's for LMS streamlined pacifics. I don't think that I painted Polly Grey at all. It started out that colour as the NWGB Barclay, from Hattons. I may have painted some parts that were originally black and would have used Tamiya blue XF8.

 

The book that I get all this stuff from, The Shelby Group, it's railways and locomotives, by Billy Kimber (Plateway Press, 1988, reprinted 1999) obviously doesn't cover the period that you want to know about. By then, Shelby Locomotive Hire had moved to a new site near the M6 at Bescot that had no rail access and everything went in and out by road. Most of the older and smaller locomotives on the books would have been scrapped by 2000 but I believe some of those that were at the Peak District quarries became the property of the Tarmac Group after Shelbys sold the Minerals Division.

 

I have been told that Kimber was going to write a third edition and bring the story up to date but the loco hire business itself was sold off to one of these companies with a silly name and there were only a handful of boring ex-BR Class 08s left, which weren't proper industrials anyway. They spent most of their time on hire with ridiculous autocouplers bolted on so that they could shuffle modern plastic unit trains in and out of works and were adorned with the kind of paint schemes that made them look as if someone had graffitied them.

 

Kimber never did write the new edition. He was due to meet Andrew Neale, of Plateway Press, to discuss it but on the day of the meeting he jumped in front of the 10:15 to Wolverhampton and that was the end of the line for him. Rumour has it that in the course of his research he came across some information that the Shelbys would rather him not publish and so did he jump, or was he pushed? I wouldn't like to speculate.

[SteveyDee68]

On 20/11/2022 at 20:10, Din said:

As always love the stories woven into the world.

And then @Ruston tells a tale of the author of a reference book jumping in front of a train… or was he pushed?

 

Colour me confused! Did the Shelby Group really exist, or is that a ”story woven into the world” for @Ruston’s layouts backed up by references to imaginary sources of information written by equally imagined authors?

 

If the latter, then I salute you, sir, for the depth and convoluted turns of your imagination!

 

If not … crikey! 
 

Steve S

[Din]

5 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

And then @Ruston tells a tale of the author of a reference book jumping in front of a train… or was he pushed?

 

Colour me confused! Did the Shelby Group really exist, or is that a ”story woven into the world” for @Ruston’s layouts backed up by references to imaginary sources of information written by equally imagined authors?

 

If the latter, then I salute you, sir, for the depth and convoluted turns of your imagination!

 

If not … crikey! 
 

Steve S

 

Psst, try looking up the names of the Peaky Blinders characters and there might be a clue ;)

 

The entire layout is littered with references.

[SteveyDee68]

15 hours ago, Din said:

Psst, try looking up the names of the Peaky Blinders characters and there might be a clue ;)

 

The entire layout is littered with references.

Now, you see, I’ve never watched a single episode, so those have all gone right over my head! Very enlightening - thank you!!

 

Steve S

[Corbs]

16 hours ago, SteveyDee68 said:

Now, you see, I’ve never watched a single episode, so those have all gone right over my head! Very enlightening - thank you!!

 

Steve S

The Peaky Blinders were a real gang in Birmingham (but were not as depicted in the rather stylish TV show) - the nickname actually referred to their appearance and behaviour rather than the razor blade in the cap (which was applied as an explanation retrospectively).

I believe the Shelbys are purely characters in the TV show rather than having a real-life counterpart.

[Firecracker]

One of the reasons I followed this thread are the constant references to one of my favourite TV series (which I’d highly recommend watching and lead to me being greeted quite a few years ago at King’s Cross by the friend I was visiting with a full on, word and pitch perfect Alfie Solomons imitation  “Yew on yer own?  Yer a brave lad, aintcha?”)   The (frankly) superb modelling was the other (and lead to me following Dave’s other threads).  As a tribute, I started to work odd references into my own efforts, which as a fictional preserved railway, maybe acquired locos from Charlie’s yard?

Owain

[Din]

I rather suspect I will do similar, @Firecracker!

[Ruston]

4 hours ago, Firecracker said:

One of the reasons I followed this thread are the constant references to one of my favourite TV series (which I’d highly recommend watching and lead to me being greeted quite a few years ago at King’s Cross by the friend I was visiting with a full on, word and pitch perfect Alfie Solomons imitation  “Yew on yer own?  Yer a brave lad, aintcha?”)   The (frankly) superb modelling was the other (and lead to me following Dave’s other threads).  As a tribute, I started to work odd references into my own efforts, which as a fictional preserved railway, maybe acquired locos from Charlie’s yard?

Owain

Do you own an inkjet printer? If you do, buy some clear decal paper and I'll send you the file to print your own decals for the skip. I've also got the Shelby Company logo and others that you can put on locomotives.

[Firecracker]

1 minute ago, Ruston said:

Do you own an inkjet printer? If you do, buy some clear decal paper and I'll send you the file to print your own decals for the skip. I've also got the Shelby Company logo and others that you can put on locomotives.

You’re a true gent.  Yes, yes I will and yes please!  Because I’m a cheeky git, any chance of the lettering for the yellow Alfie Solomons Ruston as well?  I’ll PM you an email.

 

Owain

[Din]

5 minutes ago, Ruston said:

Do you own an inkjet printer? If you do, buy some clear decal paper and I'll send you the file to print your own decals for the skip. I've also got the Shelby Company logo and others that you can put on locomotives.

 

I'd certainly like to get in on this too...

[Ruston]

Rather than reply to individual messages and emails, I'll try adding the images here so they can be downloaded by whoever wants to use them. The skip lettering seems to have disappeared, probably erased after I had used it, but there are some that may be useful here. I'm not entirely sure if these are copies for screen or for print so you'll just have to experiment and print on normal paper and to discover what size and quality they print to before committing them to decal paper.

 

[Ruston]

Having a play with CSM and some of the yet to be Harboro Stone engines.

[Ruston]

Another day, another Peckett.

[SteveyDee68]

11 hours ago, Ruston said:

Another day, another Peckett.

Like this loco, but must admit that the buffers make my eyes go funny!