Stock building underway

Having made life more difficult by modelling the 1920’s, with the majority of reference photos and details dating to mostly the 50’s & 60’s. Without finding details about which wagon company or companies the Railway used, not to mention the engineering talent and facilities that were available at The Wallows (the engineering works and sheds) there was a chance that some wagons were built on site, like some of the locomotives. Finding suitable stock off the shelf is very limited.

There is a reference to The Midland Railway wagon and carriage works, about a hopper wagon with a similar design built for export to Australia. Which is visible in a photo taken at a land sale wharf, which sadly I can’t post.

So to establish a base of wagons for the layout to get things underway I’ve chosen both the 5 & 7 plank Gloucester 1907 15′ po wagons. Simple but well detailed kits from Cambrian kits.

The buffers have been replaced with Lanarkshire Model white metal buffers for wooden underframed early po wagons. The coupling hooks will also be Lanarkshire models white metal which although originally designed to be cosmetic are more than strong enough for actual coupling use, especially given my rakes would be between 5-7 wagons max.

P4 wheels are from Alan Gibson and although I’ve built the brakes from the kit, they will be retro fitted with Masokits and Bill Bedford brakes and levers a long with all future builds. I always try and build atleast one to the original instructions.

The chassis is the base for the 5 plank and the 7 plank is just awaiting couplings and brakes retro fitting.

These Cambrian kits will be in a reasonable good condition given the 1907 design heritage. For the more older wagons there’s a large variation of types available to model but will mostly require scratchbuilding.

The railway used many plank variations including 1,3,4,5,6 &7 plank wagons. The railway did have many dumb buffered wagons. As seen in this photo, which will require scratchbuilding.

Dated early 20th Century, this is Abbiss coal merchant’s landsale wharf. The third wagon from the right is a 4 plank dumb buffered wagon. There’s a few variations in the rake too, near the back appears to be atleast 1 slope sided hopper.

The following is an extract from the Dudley archive which accompanies the photo:

Mr Joe Abbiss, who owned the coal merchants whose company name is on the lorry, is the gentleman standing in the lorry. The man on the left holding the horses, is believed to be a Major Westwood. The “E D” on the sides of the trucks indicate that the colliery belonged to the Earl of Dudley. The description “Landsale wharf” in the Black Country, usually means a railway siding at which coal is unloaded for sale to merchants or consumers. Coal is usually loaded from the train to lorries by hand. (Courtesy of Mr. J. Abbiss).

Courtesy of Dudley Archives and the Black country History website

First Published article

 

I couldn’t resist a quick post as I’ve had my first article published. The Partwork series that is Your Model Railway Village on reaching issue 19 has published my article about building Model Railway Dioramas and small layouts, based around my Long Logging Line Layout which is the On30 layout I’ve mentioned on here and the little wooden wagons a few posts down. Whilst it may not be in one of the big 4 magazines, not that all of them would entertain an On30 layout in their pages, its still a great feeling to know that some people will get to read your article and hopefully gain something from it. It takes you through the thought processes needed for a small layout, and aims to get across the message that it doesn’t take long to build  a small layout or diorama and that they can really help you refine your modelling skills if your aim is to build a large layout.

The partwork can be ordered from Hacette if your local shops no longer stock it.  https://www.hachettepartworks.com/our-titles/model-railway/

 

 

The Cornish way.

I’ve been through quite a questioning of why I enjoy Model railways of late, I’ve found it so easy in the last few years to model US railroads, and I struggled to understand why I couldn’t get motivated to build something British. I didn’t lay this at the door of modelling to P4 standards, although I think that it may have crossed my mind at times, but I struggled to find something worth modelling. However after a discussion on the Scalefour forum( http://www.scalefour.org/ ) I decided that I would use a ‘Track plan’ rather than find a prototype and copy it. Its this barrier I think that’s kept me away from a British layout for some time, but I have always been fond of a track plan that Iain Rice published many moons ago, and I decided to modify the operation but keep the track plan, but it couldn’t think of a way of including my usual theme of 1980s West Midlands. However the ace up my sleave was a Cornish China Clay layout. My Parents run a B&B ( http://www.thechapelguesthouse.co.uk/ ) in Carthew, Nr St Austell and are surrounded by China clay and Wheal Martyn is just a 2 min walk away. I have always had a fascination with Cornwall and the China clay layout has a lot going for it.

So here it is, a settled plan, its small, compact with plenty of operational potential, a scenic setting and very much manageable!

Iain Rice track plan, to be adopted for a Cornish china clay layout in P4

The operational changes to Iain’s plan is the mainline enters from the track bottom right of the plan, and enters the loop area. A local shunter will be available to help split the train up. The exit off scene top right allows access to the clay dry which will be the long building along the top of the plan, but off scene will be a coal power plant and bagged clay loading facility, so wagons for both of those can be used on the layout and can come in full and leave empty and vice versa. From the plan the engine shed will not be present, and could be replaced by using that small spur as a cripple siding. The longer siding which will occupy the front edge of the layout scene will become a slurry loading facility.

Some stock has already been purchased and others I already have which is always good, I’m going back a little further than I usually do, back to about 1976, so I can for the first time have an excuse to use a Western, but I go as far forward as 1984, thus allowing everything from the Western, to 25s, 50s, 37s, and 47s and peaks. I’m working on the wagons to start with as this will be a slow project, little pieces will be completed over time. I plan on using the Ratio Clay hood kit and I’m not totally convinced of the Bachmann version and their tarp hood is far from pleasing. A set of old Airfix 5 Plank open merchandise wagons will be modified for a Clayliner service. There’s a myriad of other wagons that will be looked at over time and hopefully you’ll be able to follow along with my attempts at modelling these trains.

Slowly but surely…

You know when you have so many plans and the actual time to do them you don’t alway end up getting anywhere near what you want to do done. Well thats me at the moment, I know there is a deadline looming but working odd shifts at work including night shifts get to you after a while, (recovery time isn’t as good as it used to be!)

Any way work has been going on regardless of my lethargy, the boards are built although legs need to be attached but the layout is sat upon adjustable trestles Clicky clicky

A very useful piece of kit that seems to be having a good impact on small exhibition layouts, they fold up very nicely but can be bulky if you use more than 2 or 3 of them. I have 4 of them in my workshop where they come in very handy.

The backscene is painted, its only painted pure white whether it stays this is way is another matter although at the moment I like it but it may be changed down the line. The lighting pelmet is all attached and the lights will go up tomorrow.

The plans were laid out on the boards today and although the boards looked huge when the plan was put over the top makes it look compact but quite open which is what I was aiming for! woohoo. This means that I can get the layout outside in the sunshine (fingers crossed it lasts) and take some progress shots. The P2k GP38-2 put in its first appearance too although I’m lacking in freight cars must get some in.

The only problem I have at the moment is that I ordered ME code 70 #6 turnouts back in January and I’m still waiting for them, there being ordered for me but its been a while now and I may well have to build the point work myself, I’m more than happy to scratchbuild these but the problem there in is I cant seem to find anywhere that sells copper cladding/ PCB board the right size they’re all designed for 4mm 00 gauge layouts, although the nearest I can find is too thin but could be packed with plasticard. I’d try using rail spikes but I reckon that would be too much hassle.