Martin S-C

Bluddy norah, that's ruined my sleep tonight!

I had to read that, quite carefully, several times in order to determine if you were being rude or not. I still can't decide, but based on the probability of your fine character I must assume not. EDIT: I know I'm still quoting from the pre-grouping era of this thread back in the early 800s but no matter how quickly I read the blasted thing spews more and more pages in front of me! I will get there eventually I suppose. Or maybe not and my input will forever seem like a cable TV channel full of nothing but repeats.

I tried that but all I got was South African.

"I say old chap, you haven't seen a couple of horses recently have you? My pair have done a bunk!"

A shame its a silent film. It somewhat dampens the moment. I'm also curious about what they are playing. They look like handfuls of polished leeks. Perhaps they are and its a ladies allotment produce display club parade and not a band at all, hence the complete absence of music? One needs to know more... unlike the other video where one very definitely needs to know less.

I'd be interested in seeing these. Have you or anyone else a link please if they are collected somewhere?

Green has a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Perhaps because mixed in with them were things that still burned coal. Its when the blue paint came out that it all went downhill.

Complete with allotments and a row of workmen's cottages behind. Mind you some of those loops look very small...

Thanks for the comments Nick. I haven't used trap points anywhere on the layout, so using them here would look odd. I had a long think about whether I wanted to include them, even dummy ones but in the end decided against it. How does this look? The other couple of items I have been working on over the last day or two is small bits n bobs shelves beside the control panels. As these are all temporary I haven't gone OTT on design or looks. Here is the Catspaw and Exchange Sidings panels and the Colliery, the mimic diagram for which I don't think I've shown here before. If you squint a bit the colliery panel just reveals the blue lamps on the DCC Concepts alpha switch buttons. 7 and 10 are reversed. 12 is spare. I laid the paper printed mimic diagram over the buttons and then laid clear adhesive plastic sheet over that to keep dirt off. The blue lamps shine through and leave a smooth wipe-able surface which is useful though the whole feel of the thing is too modern. This is all a stop-gap until I can source some proper levers. Now that many points are powered and operated from the panels testing of train movements has become a real joy and I'm fairly happy with the arrangements of what I've determined are the normal and reversed positions for the points. A few things are arising operationally and being changed but that's why we play trains test things.

I would suggest its the same load photographed from both sides. Both photos are taken on the same occasion as the wagons behind have not moved. Did the Midland suffer from a lack of covered vans? All these three loads look to me they'd be much better off shake-jolt wise and take a good deal less labour to load and unload if vans were available - and that's before the extra labour of the tying down and sheeting is taken into account. When I saw the first picture with the sack hanging over the side I wondered if it was a "how not to" instructional picture, but probably not.

I tend to agree. A lot of very interesting loads are (somewhat annoyingly) hidden away under sheets. Regarding dirty wagon interiors, I think we are agreeing. Most RTR manufacturers depict open wagon insides far too dark. One tends to find that in many photographs, especially monochrome, dirt does not always show well and these older images with poor contrast can give an indication that surfaces are lighter than they were, hence why I brought attention to the three wagon interiors the image reveals have some obvious patina in them. To show up on these old emulsions they probably were pretty dark inside. By contrast the distant wagons in the long row appear almost white inside, perhaps due to sunlight.

It could be artistic license. The word "THIRD" might have conveyed something the artist wanted to, moreso than the digit "3". The interior fittings look similar and are certainly not outside the scope of artistic interpretation/memory etc.

So pleased you enjoyed it. Now you can understand why the Madder Valley is my own inspiration and also about the only inspiration I need. Pendon is indeed a jewel and largely unsung as well.

What a spectacular photograph. Why haven't I come across this delightful view before? So unusual to see photos taken specifically of goods features and not of a loco and train with snippets of goods information in the background. Wonderful notable things: Sheeted opens loaded so high they are higher than the cattle wagon adjacent. Animal feed perhaps since it would need to be protected from rain. The bundles of sticks which might be for fencing or even they could be reeds for basket weaving? I can't see any lines securing them so perhaps these have been removed preparatory to unloading. Next to that an open that might be carrying bricks or cut stones/slabs (or slates?). I can't identify what is in the Mitchell wagon adjacent. Looks like coal but probably isn't as there's a dedicated coal siding. Big blocks of something. Peat maybe? On the far left the two GE opens are probably carrying animal feed, or it could be thatching reeds/grasses. The fact its unprotected from the weather tends me to think the latter. The almost complete absence of dark colouration/dirt inside most of the opens. The right foreground one and the two GE opens this side of the thatch look like they may have carried coals or other dirty loose produce at some point - maybe beets or turnips or some animal feed with lots of soil on it. Coal stacks were apparently more common than we think and coal merchants might just pile up different grades straight from a wagon onto the ground beside it in order to get rid of the wagon to reduce hire charges. The coal pile would either then slowly reduce as it was bagged up for sale or be recharged with the next wagon load. Coal bins tended to get used where space was more restricted (loose piles take up more ground than bins as this scene illustrates). One open wagon has been unloaded from its drop doors well down the yard where you wouldn't think there was room to turn a horse and cart. Maybe its contents were barrowed away. Note extremely clean and tidy ballast and a complete lack of weeds and grass at the stop block. Ladder against the platform rear fence for maintenance of lamps possibly. Or it could just be left there as a convenience. One would think a lamp man would rest it against the lamp he was servicing. Platform seat partly down the end ramp - an uncomfortable place to sit as you'd slide off! Overgrown track this side might have led to a private siding that's now out of use? Hornby uncoupling ramp

The LNWR brake van print was commissioned by me and another gentleman who is on the 19th century railways Facebook group. I have two of them but haven't done anything with them yet. I have noticed that the bodies are a perfect dimensional fit onto the chassis of a Bachmann GWR shunters truck. There's a fair bit of hacking away of shunters truck underframe parts needed but the wheel base makes them look ... different. I shall probably 'fictionalise' my pair in some way. I think a wire tilt and sheet awning over the open area might add some character. Its really encouraging to see someone else buying one and making good use of it.

This makes me wonder what on earth a modern-minded pre-grouper is. Please excuse the quoting of Neolithic-era posts, I have been away from railway modelling for a bit and have left Castle Aching's posts until last since I couldn't face catching up!

The awkward answer is 19342.

I really want to advise caution again here. As regards junk, grot and grass do please remember you're modelling the 1930s and not the 1960s. You need to google for branch engine shed images for your era, I would honestly suggest you avoid heritage railways and photos taken in BR days. I think you will be surprised at how tidy they are and how little grass is around. Your digitally edited image has far too much grass I feel. Engine shed areas were often dirty but immaculately tidy due to so many people working there and constantly tramping back and forth. I really don't think you'd see loco wheels at a GW branch shed at all, nor even much junk, all major repairs happened at Swindon or Wolverhampton so there'd be no reason to have big engineering parts at a rural location. These images generally show the places were dirty but in earlier decades very tidy. The 50s and 60s images show a greater and greater accumulation of waste ash and general junk with grasses only growing very sparsely. Grass tends not to like growing in places where there's lot of oil around! Pontrilas 1909 Pontrilas c1930s In the above pic the nearest track is the running line of the Golden Valley branch. There appears to be some sparse grasses under the yard lamp where people don't walk. The grassy embankment behind is beginning to encroach nearer the track. Tewkesbury 1950s Tewkesbury 1960s Boiler washout shed, Worcester, 1965 http://www.miac.org.uk/worcestershedsrnp.html

I'd suggest you go light on the static grass. Railways didn't usually get overgrown until the end due to lack of maintenance.

May I suggest replacing all Frisian cows with brown ones - Herefords maybe? Frisians didn't come into Britain until after WWII. Its amazing how many railway modellers don't know this so don't feel awkward that there's Frisians on this railway!

I would suggest creating a hollow box in a 3D modelling program and texture the floor with dirt/dark ballast and the sides and roof with very dark brick or stone and slide it under the tracks. It won't be a true arch but you can hide that by fitting it so it joins against the arched portals.

That Hamilton Collieries wagon is a long way from home! Having thought a lot about freight movements for my own various layouts it seems reasonable for a town like Little Muddle to be a consumer of most goods and producer of not very much unless there is a specific regional or local industry. Most coal wagons would carry house coal inwards and go out empty ('house coal' includes coal for local industries that don't have their own private siding). Consumables for agriculture like machinery parts could be inbound with items like a traction engine maybe going back and forth if the machine required extensive repairs or maintenance that wasn't available from an industry in the town. Pit props in the UK were very frequently Scandinavian imports and were stored and loaded by agents or factors from vast stacking grounds at the docks so they would be a highly unlikely outgoing load from a town like LM. Likewise no import of props either as they went direct to the colliery. After coal, most cargoes in opens were sheeted so yes, having sheets is a good way to explain away almost anything. The problem is representing the wagon that the sheeted load arrived in being sent away empty. If that doesn't bother you them just have a sheeted open. If it does you could have two identical wagons, one loaded and sheeted and one empty. Unsheeted items might be anonymous crates or barrels without specifying the contents. There is an art to representing barrels in opens. Crushed limestone for use as roadstone was a thing in the 20s and 30s as local dirt roads were surfaced by councils. That would be carried loose in unsheeted opens and gives you an excuse to get the dust-toned weathering powders out. Slates? Bricks? Dressed stone - maybe there is an architectural or monumental mason in the town? Vans are a great cheat for the railway modeller as they look the same loaded and empty and they can carry whatever you like, within reason.

Lovely sound project on the loco - whose work/file is it?

Thanks all. Yes, the discussion about hand worked yard points has been raised a number of times. I'm going with all points and signals worked on the one model railway control panel per station - some of the levers on which represent the signal box and some represent yard points but I don't distinguish. When in full cry the layout will most likely be worked by a team of more-or-less casual visitors and simplicity/ease of use of the control panels outranks historical accuracy on my list of modelling priorities. Its not ideal from an accuracy point of view but I need to make compromises. The EFPLs were suggested by another expert here (sorry, I forget whom) and their origin wasn't specified but I am not intentionally using Midland practice. I'm using the fictional practice of the NM&GSR which takes its inspiration from a wide range of sources My model is not intended to be a light railway but a fictional medium sized independent line. The pre-joint management Severn & Wye comes to mind in terms of likely track mileage. It does however have a number of obscure practices that I am sure would give a real BoT inspector fits. I've retained stop boards and hand signals from the bobby on the branch and disc and crossbar signals at the lesser stations along the main line. Only the two termini have "proper" semaphore signals as these I assume would be where any available money would be spent first. The Witts End branch is classed as a tramway or at the very least a light railway though it doesn't protect the motion of its locomotives with skirts. As I said... a bit of a beast as historical accuracy goes (*) though I do like to try and get most things right as regards British railway pre-grouping practice in most areas. That's correct, goods workings departing that side of the station exit via 14. However shunt moves that require a loco to run around via the tinplate siding would use crossover 11 but in such cases signals 4 and 6 would be at danger. Question - if a goods train arrived via 13 and 12 to stop on the canal wharf and the loco then ran around via 11 and 5 to halt before the signal box in order to propel wagons onto the tinplate siding I presume that move would require a signal. If so would it be before the platform end of the crossover 11 so that 5 and the running line are protected? Is that right? (*) As a supporting example I understand the Wantage tramway habitually didn't enclose the motion on its roadside locomotives in later years.

The very last signal box diagram, Green Soudley. The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that this is an almost direct steal from John Ahern's Madderport. I added an extra industrial siding and converted his harbour line to a canal wharf, other than that I think its a complete copy. Once again, comments welcome on the placement of signals and the lever numbers.