Chuffnell Regis

[Graham T]

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

Coopercraft have become a famous basket case in recent years. Don't have any financial dealings with them unless you can get the product in your hands in person when handing over money. Secondhand on eBay might be more trustworthy but either way I gather that the tooling they used became very old and worn so kits might not be high quality - lots of scarf and mis-registration.

 

 

A shame, as the kits are (were) very nice.

[Graham T]

3 hours ago, longchap said:

How are you securing the railway on the other side of the station building? Will cars be parked in part of this area, as evidenced by the MG?

 

Yes, I posted up a plan for the fencing a few pages back.  The track will all be protected!

[Neal Ball]

As Phil said earlier @Harlequin avoid Cooper Craft these days. I doubt we will see their products again

[MrWolf]

Best hunted down on eBay if you can't get to swap meets or exhibitions.

 

Some of.my Cooper Craft items (in fact most of the wagons) date back to the 1980s when I was at school.

[longchap]

3 hours ago, Graham T said:

Yes, I posted up a plan for the fencing a few pages back.  The track will all be protected!

 

Sorry Graham, I hadn't spotted that. That's the problem with you young chaps, leave you alone for a few days and you've filled several more pages with posts!

 

Good progress, keep it coming.

 

Bill

[longchap]

38 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Best hunted down on eBay if you can't get to swap meets or exhibitions.

 

Some of.my Cooper Craft items (in fact most of the wagons) date back to the 1980s when I was at school.

 

Well in fact Cooper Crafts have been attracting very high prices by eBay sellers, but I've collected many from Hattons' previously loved sales at sensible prices in the past, seldom seen nowadays however, but the original kits are superbly well made and are a joy to build.

 

[MrWolf]

There's people who have been asking very high prices, but the kits have been on eBay quite a while.

High prices are attracted by the right kind of wagons in auction lots, particularly cattle wagons, because there's no modern equivalent, even so they average out at £12-15 apiece. Provender wagons and loco coal wagons turn up regularly and don't fetch a lot.

Possibly the rarest kit is the platelayers tool set with jacks, rail saws and rail bending crow. The platform trollies aren't all that common, but the tools and barrows or platform seats turn up fairly regularly.

The old kits were great and are what got me into "proper" railway modelling rather than just running a train set.

So whoever it was that had the original moulds made, thank you for a lifetime hobby.

 

 

JWmodelrailways

Edited August 26, 2022 by MrWolf
Picture

[Andy Keane]

If somebody was willing to loan some well built coopercraft platform stuff it would not be that hard to scan them and 3D print some fresh ones, ready assembled. Better would be getting ModelU to scan the real thing and print.

Edited August 27, 2022 by Andy Keane

[Graham T]

10 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

As Phil said earlier @Harlequin avoid Cooper Craft these days. I doubt we will see their products again

 

I've made some tentative efforts with the current Cooper Craft, and got nowhere unfortunately.

[Graham T]

9 hours ago, MrWolf said:

There's people who have been asking very high prices, but the kits have been on eBay quite a while.

High prices are attracted by the right kind of wagons in auction lots, particularly cattle wagons, because there's no modern equivalent, even so they average out at £12-15 apiece. Provender wagons and loco coal wagons turn up regularly and don't fetch a lot.

Possibly the rarest kit is the platelayers tool set with jacks, rail saws and rail bending crow. The platform trollies aren't all that common, but the tools and barrows or platform seats turn up fairly regularly.

The old kits were great and are what got me into "proper" railway modelling rather than just running a train set.

So whoever it was that had the original moulds made, thank you for a lifetime hobby.

 

 

JWmodelrailways

 

I've used JWM from time to time, they have some interesting pieces in stock usually.

[Graham T]

2 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

If somebody was willing to loan some well built coopercraft platform stuff it would not be that hard to scan them and 3D print some fresh ones, ready assembled. Better would be getting ModelU to scan the real thing and print.

 

Wouldn't there potentially be copyright issues with scanning the Cooper Craft items though?

[Graham T]

Here's how things would look using just the Ratio fencing.  Of course, the pack only has one of the gates that I need, so I'll have to order another one.

 

There will also be some post and rail fencing continuing across the end of the buffers towards the goods yard, to protect the tracks from rogue road traffic!

 

 

And of course post and wire fencing here to separate the road.

 

[Andy Keane]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

Here's how things would look using just the Ratio fencing.  Of course, the pack only has one of the gates that I need, so I'll have to order another one.

 

There will also be some post and rail fencing continuing across the end of the buffers towards the goods yard, to protect the tracks from rogue road traffic!

 

 

And of course post and wire fencing here to separate the road.

 

That's exactly what I had in mind, except perhaps I would truncate the picket fence at the gate post for the end loading bay (or rather shorten it at the station end and move it up to the gate post).

Andy

[Andy Keane]

How about these for the road junction?

https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/dart/L4.php

[Graham T]

19 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

That's exactly what I had in mind, except perhaps I would truncate the picket fence at the gate post for the end loading bay (or rather shorten it at the station end and move it up to the gate post).

Andy

 

Yes, I was planning to do just that.  I won't cut any of the fence until I figure out the size of the station building though.

[Graham T]

11 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

How about these for the road junction?

https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/dart/L4.php

 

Funnily enough, I had also found those.  Now I just need to order some 🙂

[Neal Ball]

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

Here's how things would look using just the Ratio fencing.  Of course, the pack only has one of the gates that I need, so I'll have to order another one.

 

There will also be some post and rail fencing continuing across the end of the buffers towards the goods yard, to protect the tracks from rogue road traffic!

 

 

And of course post and wire fencing here to separate the road.

 

 

That fence / gates combination looks so much better.

 

Apologies I didnt reply earlier, I was working through my decoder issues and whilst I had photographed some gates for you.... I didnt have the iPad with me to PM a message for you. But those Ratio gates and fence are exactly right for that scenario.

 

One photo might still be of use though. This is the book I have referred to:

 

 

If you can get hold of a copy it would be worth while. Plus of course the Stephen Williams 3 books on GWR branch line modelling.

 

Have a good afternoon.

[Gopher]

4 hours ago, Graham T said:

Of course, the pack only has one of the gates that I need, so I'll have to order another one.

Graham - I've hit the same problem in the past, so I made a gate out of one of the straight fencing pieces.  Our local station (ex GWR) had gates like this.  I cut the straight fencing piece to the required length, added dummy hinges out of micro strip, and added some gate posts.  It was a cheaper option than buying a whole pack of fencing just because I wanted the gate.

 

Just looked on the web and Watlington station had gates like this.  I forgot to mention I also added appropriate cross bracing out of micro strip

Edited August 27, 2022 by Gopher

[Graham T]

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

 

That fence / gates combination looks so much better.

 

Apologies I didnt reply earlier, I was working through my decoder issues and whilst I had photographed some gates for you.... I didnt have the iPad with me to PM a message for you. But those Ratio gates and fence are exactly right for that scenario.

 

One photo might still be of use though. This is the book I have referred to:

 

 

If you can get hold of a copy it would be worth while. Plus of course the Stephen Williams 3 books on GWR branch line modelling.

 

Have a good afternoon.

 

Thanks Neal.  I have the Stephen Williams books so will have a trawl through those.

[Fishplate]

On 19/08/2022 at 19:37, Andy Keane said:

It would be interesting to know how the GWR dealt with station approach roads. I don’t even know who was responsible for such roads, the railway or the town.

 

I'm about 5 pages behind and catching up this morning and maybe someone has already  answered your question @Andy Keane.

 

Whilst I can't answer specifically for the GWR, I can from my general knowledge of being involved in new works on BR that required a railway Act. I would suspect the general principles were unchanged.

 

If the railway had not designed its station to be adjacent to an existing road, the station approach road would become part of the 'permanent works' necessary for the construction of the railway. Hence it would need to be identified as part of the land to be acquired through compulsory purchase following Royal Assent to the Act authorising the railway. I would therefore expect the station approach road to belong to the railway company from its junction with an existing road.

 

As a consultee, the local authority may have been able to have particular conditions accepted by the railway company to remove opposition to the act. That may have included construction details such as the type of surfacing and possibly how any surface drainage was to be dealt with. So although the station approach road may look of similar construction to the local road, it may have been built by the railway to standards agreed as part of the Act. 

 

Similar conditions could be imposed by any consultee affected by the acquistion of land. Hence local land owners could (and did) get various concessions from the railway, such as the architectural style of the local station, or lowering a railway so it didn't spoil the local Lords view. 

 

I think this Ian Allan book is out of print now and it is many years since I read it, but has many fascinating details of these sort of negotiations. I've pulled it off my bookshelf and had a quick dip to confirm my recollections are accurate:     https://www.amazon.co.uk/Railway-Surveyors-Story-Property-Management/dp/0711019541

 

Hope this is of interest.

[Graham T]

Thanks for that John.  I think the planting of Scots pines as screening around GWR stations was also sometimes a part of the conditions imposed that you mention?

[BroadLeaves]

3 hours ago, Fishplate said:

Hence local land owners could (and did) get various concessions from the railway

As part of building Eggesford station in Devon, there was a requirement from the local lord whose land the line went through that every train passing the station also stopped at it, as that would be more convenient for him.

More than 150 years later, the relevant charter is still in force, much to GWR's annoyance, I imagine.

[Graham T]

Lord Chuffnell tried to have a similar condition imposed when the plans were taking shape for the Chuffnell Regis branch, then his trusty valet pointed out that the station was going to be a terminus...

[MrWolf]

2 hours ago, Graham T said:

Lord Chuffnell tried to have a similar condition imposed when the plans were taking shape for the Chuffnell Regis branch, then his trusty valet pointed out that the station was going to be a terminus...

 

That sounds like a Geeves and Wooster moment...

[Graham T]

Indeed it is.  Nothing original about Chuffnell Regis 🙂