Silver Sidelines

Recapping from my last Post, some fifteen years ago when the layout was conceived there was a Mainline Terminus and a high level Branch Terminus, both constructed up against the plasterboard enclosure housing the Aga flue.  It was not long before the Mainline Terminus was converted to a through station with the running lines skirting the outside of the plasterboard enclosure.  This provided for a dumbbell shaped layout with reversing loops and storage sidings at both ends.  Most importantly it allowed continuous running.  I do like to watch trains running.  How could the single track branch line be made into a continuous run?   Life moves on, the Aga is now electric and the flu no longer carries hot gases.  I mused about a tunnel through the plaster board enclosure with a new connection back down to the through station (the Mainline Terminus that was).   The Plaster Board Box   The catalyst for this work was the appearance of some off cuts of...

The past couple of years have seen a number of exciting modifications to the railway that have so far passed unrecorded.    I was first alerted to the misuse of the initials GWR by George Behrend (Ref 1)1 in his 1966 book G one W ith R egret.  In his recollections of the G reat W estern R ailway he extols the virtues of G od’s W onderful R ailway and notes that opponents of GW methods would dismiss the company as the G reat W ay R ound.  (Something about Brunel’s original route to Bath and Bristol via Didcot and Swindon not being convenient for reaching Plymouth or Penzance.)   In the 1950s the Reverend Awdry’s railway books were almost compulsory reading for children, well probably just boys.  However there was another model railway cleric, the Scottish Presbyterian Minister the Reverend Edward Beal (Ref 2).  He wrote and published a series of modelling guides later to be bound as a compendium and published as ‘West Midland, a Railway in Miniature / ...

The summer weather has disappeared so an incentive to spend time on railway matters. This Post was initiated by the purchase of a Dapol Fruit D van.  One of Mr Dapol’s Fruit D vans   Over the last twelve months I have been imagining a Welsh themed layout. What better for inspiration but to follow Katerfelto’s pictures on Flickr https://flic.kr/ps/SokUv .  I was fascinated by one particular picture which featured an ex GWR Fruit D in the process of being shunted between passenger trains. Machynlleth by Katerfelto  https://flic.kr/p/2oAZyMc   Apparently a major source of the old GWR's parcels traffic was market garden produce. Small growers would take their fresh produce and load it into a van at the local station. The vans would then be moved speedily to market at the larger towns and cities. To cater for the fresh produce the GWR provided vans with additional ventilation slats in their sides to allow cool air to circulate. The vans could be attached to pas...

This Post brings a closure to my last two Posts.   Those of you who have read my accounts of rebadging a Hornby Clan and Britannia will know that there was some unfinished business.   Hornby ‘Britannia’ alias ‘Morning Star’ still needed cut outs around its lubricators.   Hornby ‘Clan McLeod’ alias ‘Clan Stewart’ needed its top lamp iron repositioning.  / A reminder, as received TMC Morning Star alias Hornby Britannia R2562 Completed – my 1959 version of 70021 Morning Star with solid rods, lubricator access, large dome, raised sand box covers, front step and rear cab supports Lubricator Cut Outs, one with (right) and R2562 without (left) In the same way that Hornby have engineered the Britannia body shell to cater for different numbers of raised sand box lids, the body moulding has also been set up to make it easy to alter from an engine without lubricator access (the early 1950s engines) to engines with an access hole in through the side of the footplate...

This Post is a continuation of my recent foray into Hornby Super Detail Britannias https://longsheds.blogspot.com/2021/06/no-164-tale-of-two-hornby-super-detail.html Back in 2014 Hornby sold off a lot of Diamond Jubilee boxed sets.   These included 70000 Britannia in ‘Special Duties’ livery.   This was Britannia’s preserved livery as featured in 2012 when Prince Charles was a passenger and included an Early Emblem and the original ‘dangerous’ pattern smoke deflectors.   The model also featured a speedometer drive which Britannia itself gained around 1956.     My Hornby model also had fluted coupling rods which on the prototype had been changed to solid rods in the early 1950s. Hornby R3094 Diamond Jubilee Train Pack In a past Blog Post in 2014 I described overpainting the cab roof of the Special Duties model and backdating the overhead warning plates. https://longsheds.blogspot.com/2014/04/no91-shades-of-green-hornby-britannia.html   My Britan...