Martin S-C

I smell a double slip! And with that... ...we need a layout attached to that double slip so I have somewhere to run this little cutie.

Interesting discussion. I expect the GWR gasworks at Swindon just supplied the company's works, though its possible any excess was sold to the town, since there was a Swindon United Gas Co works east of the station on the north side of the line, opposite the Transfer Yard and tucked into the junction with the Highworth branch. This supplied the town, or at least part of it. Just north of here was the sprawling site of the ammonium nitrate works which in WWI supplied propellants for ammunition with long trains of GPVs being set to Woolwich arsenal on a daily basis (or rather, nightly). Swindon United gasworks in 1969. Transfer Shed on the left. Gasworks map. Ammonium Nitrate works map. I think a compressed form of this would make an excellent industrial layout. The works had its own 2-track engine shed and several industrial shunters, though I don't know of what make these were. I have quite a bit of info on the operations of this facility if anyone's interested. Photos of it however are very hard to find.

Its a dreadful waste of money. Our shareholders are pushing for carriages 7 feet wide and 30 feet long with no seating. Even roofs are seen as an unnecessary infringement on share dividends. The directors of the L&M in 1830 had the right idea. - Board of Directors, WNR

Indeed, watch out for the Hun in the sun! A bit more fettling on the gas tanker wagon. I added some end stanchions from a dead Hornby tanker then scraps of this and that from the bits box for hoses and such. Its not authentic but I feel it looks a bit better now the ends are busier. The plastic Hornby steel stanchions sort of merge under a coating of plastic putty into the model's wooden ones which will make the rivet counters howl but I just squint and think its sort of okay. This project isn't meant to be P4 accuracy or Bob Essery levels of vehicle correctness by any means.

The beauty of having them unfinished allows your dreams of how good they'll eventually be to remain untarnished. At least that's what I sometimes find. BTW, had you intended to post this in Edwardian's thread? I don't mind at all if you did and want to move it! I feel flattered that somebody is confusing my humble abode with his. Today's arrival I hope will be very useful. A chance encounter on e-Bay. Its the Eduard 1/72nd kit of 1917 RFC personnel. I think the officer and sergeant(?) will make useful passengers for my line while the ground crew all ooze potential for farm and industrial workers. I can see a use for the men in the heavy boots and protective aprons at my greaseworks and wood distillation plant.

Wonderful inspiration to use in a model.

It was a pair of Johnson Midland Ratio loco kits I put up photos of - the 4-4-0 and the 2-4-0... well the unopened boxes anyway... I think they are similar engines to what was being discussed here a few pages back. I have an Alan Gibson T26 and a Dragon Models 4-4-0 small Sharpie to get done at some point too. So many loco kits, so few years left to go... Neatly done GW 4-wheelers James, is the rear coach the Shirescenes brass sides Dia.T36 conversion?

Haha, that's funny. I have only known Peterb*gger for less than 3 years. Prior to that I only went there a few times - once to get a passport and a couple of others when the Midland mainline was broken and I had to get home to Leicestershire via Kings Cross, changing at Peterthingy. This was when I worked in London of course. I had another job for 2 years which involved me driving around the city quite a lot but only moved there a few months ago when I retired. A strange choice of retirement location one might think but there were reasons that I won't go into here. Prior to that I have lived in south London, Brighton, Kibworth, Kineton near Warwick, and near Kettering, hopping about the place fairly frequently, surfing live's waves of financial opportunity. At one time I lived only a few miles from Naseby battlefield, the last major battle of the First Civil War and then moved to Kineton only a stone's thrown from Edgehill battlefield, the first major battle of said unhappy conflict. As military history is my other hobby I got out and about exploring both places, though of course lots of Edgehill is under MOD occupation. When my layout is in suitable condition there will be a general call-up for volunteers to operate it since on my own I can only potter about at one station or another. I think it will need six operators to really function, so anyone interested in that sort of thing will be very welcome. I won't spam James' thread any more but announce it again on my own thread nearer the time. ...and yes, the very convenient but wallet-draining Trains4u is only a few minutes drive from me. That's both a blessing and a curse.

Don, the link wasn't lousy - it was 95% good - I think when you copied it from your browser bar you just accidentally grabbed a space on the end. I would be interested in seeing those pictures of Shipton gas works. Have you used the Britain From Above website? Lots of really good aircraft views from the 1920s onwards which if you're lucky can get you some good layout shots of industries pertinent you one's chosen modelling subject. And of course station views. You can join for free which lets you zoom in more, view full page and download images for private use. Here is a rather grainy view of Kibworth gasworks, about 12 miles south of Leicester. I used to live here (one of the houses at the top of the photo in fact) and the gasworks office (the house fronting the road set back behind bushes with two end chimneys) still stands as a private house. There was a long siding from the station (which is out of shot to the upper right) that the locals called "Kibworth gasworks siding" but it was above the works on an embankment. Whether the gas company had coal shovelled down a chute from the embankment into their yard I have not yet been able to discover. For my interests I was delighted to find several aerial shots of Speech House wood distillation works, a compressed copy of which will be modelled on my layout. A couple of CANNOP coal wagons can be seen in their sidings.

I got a failed link from that post Don, but shortening it to this got it to work: http://warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrss3103.htm Very nice Lez, that encourages me a lot.

Thanks all, I am learning a lot here. To me town gas/gasworks and gas wagons on model railways are really just adjuncts to modelling. Nice to have a little gasworks on a layout (the Peter Denny pocket-sized versions) and the gas wagons are just vehicles that I know were in common use until maybe the 20s, I honestly have not given a great deal of thought to the technology and processes behind it all. Lez - thank you for the heads up. Yes, I was thinking along the lines of using a Gibson frames/chassis as a basis. I tried to build a whitemetal Dukedog way back in the 80s and got the tender built nicely and the chassis and frames and motor working with okay quartering but my soldering iron back then was a nasty cheapie one and it would melt the W/M parts... I never did get it finished. I have the plastic Ratio Johnson 4-4-0 and 2-4-0 Midland kits as well which will clearly need brass chassis and decent motors/gears. I just can't help myself when it comes to smallish late Victorian tender engines.

I hadn't thought this far ahead yet. I have a number of RTR locos that I can work on now that my transfers have arrived so these kits are down the list a way. I do like the open footplates even though they are not correct for 1918. I might have to invoke Rule 1 and declare that my company's footplate crew uniform includes silk top hats and frock coats and of course you cannot drive a train that has a roofed cab while wearing a topper. I also tend to fall back on my Madder Valley inspiration at times like this and if I ask myself the question "Would John Ahern have done it?" and the answer comes back even vaguely close to an affirmative, then I'll do it too!

Hi Colin It was coal gas, produced in the same manner that town gas was and used for coach lighting. Gas lighting replaced oil lamps in passenger coaches around the 1870s to 1880s I understand. All the bigger railway companies would have their own gasworks to produce their own gas by heating the impurities out of coal with the outputs being coke, tars and oils of various densities and gas. Attached are a couple of photos of the very large gasworks that formed part of the main GW works at Swindon. Photos from my collection. The gas tanker wagons would be charged up at such facilities, then parked at various strategic places around the system where carriages were stored to charge their gas lighting reservoirs. The GWR used the telegraphic code name CORDON for these wagons and had a later design of nine transverse smaller tanks stored in two levels secured by longitudinal steel straps. Photo copyright 53A Models (James Doubleday) Of course, following a number of bad fires at train accidents, most tragically at Quintinshill in May 1915, which were fed by the burning gas tanks, gas lighting was slowly replaced by electric and at the same time, wooden bodied passenger vehicles by steel bodied.

I imagine plastic putty wasn't invented when these first came out so many of my sins of white metal (non-) joinery have been hidden behind white swathes of the stuff. Blobs of superglue also work wonders in hidden recesses! Another post-60s advance. I don't know of the falcon bass kits and perhaps that's a good thing. I have these to build. I am however starting at almost impossible gas tank wagons and gently easing myself towards the deep end of the dark arts of early 70s K's models.

What was the source of the little yellow milk van? I need a couple of these 1880s GW O1s for my layout and am contemplating sawing bigger siphons up.

Thanks. The passenger brake van is growing on me. Yes, I thought the gas tanker needed some strapping, maybe even raised stanchions at the ends. One good firm shunt and you'd have a couple of gas-filled short range cruise missiles flying down your yard. I was also thinking some form of discharge pipework and valves need adding, like so: BlueLightning, I see you got yours knocked down to 9/3. A snip! *hint* Saw approx 2.5mm off the ends of the wooden dowels before you glue the cast tank ends on, or if you're feeling very adventurous (or you've run out of cheese and wine), make up a 2.5mm shim of card to make the frames longer before you glue the headstocks on! And don't forget the squeezy washing up bottle and egg boxes. John Noakes signing out.

A Tale of Two Wagons. Chapter One - in which a small luggage van appears from the most unlikely of origins. The chunk of luggage section I hacked out of the GWR clerestory brake coach being made into a small guards luggage van as I mentioned before. I added a spare wagon underframe and wheels and gave it a coat of grey primer, then added lookout duckets but it just didn't look right - too tall... too... cartoony. I don't mind some cute looking freelance designs but this was too much. After a day of glaring at it on my workbench I took a saw to the roof and replaced it with an arc roof. Then I sat contemplating it a little more. It was an improvement but still a little odd looking. The next day was one of adding plasticard shims to make the sides and ends meet properly then trimming and rubbing these down. I gave the various joints and gaps a covering of plastic putty then rubbed this down as well. After that I removed the existing (now out-of-position) rain strips and added new ones. Then it was a case of adding all those lovely small details that make a railway vehicle what it is - buffers, coupling hooks, running boards and step boards, lamp irons, brake gear, grab rails, door handles, vacuum brake hoses and handrails on the crew step access end. I've grown to like it now and I think it'll serve its purpose. I keep telling myself "would John Ahern or Peter Hancock have built such a thing?" and I keep getting a more-or-less affirmative answer so it will run like this for now. It is too short, that's obvious, but it has that certain freelance charm that I'm seeking. = = = = = = = = = = Chapter Two - in which some wooden dowels, some criminally bad instructions, some Prosecco and some runny French cheese combine to test the forum's profanity censor. The twin gas tank wagon was an absolute b*gg*er to assemble needing - so far as I could work out - a person with at least 4 arms to hold every part steady as glue was applied. I needed to hold the headstocks, solebars and main frames in place while the wheel-sets were inserted. With loose brass axle bearings that kept falling out if I tilted it just a weensy bit. Bloody silly. I cursed those crappy concise instructions more than once. Eventually I had a square(ish) underframe with freely turning wheels but it was a chore and required a good couple of hours break during which aforesaid sparkling wine and runny cheese were consumed in excessive quantities to calm my nerves. On the second day with the basic underframe assembled I added the tanks. Lo and behold, with the cast ends glued on these were several millimetres too long. Such awesome kit design. No wonder Wills stoped making these kits - you have to be a masochistic octopus with no imagination to build these. So I then had to carve out the inside edges of the headstocks to get the tanks to fit. It was like whittling a branch with a penknife. Took ages. Thank god I can paint this little beggar and park it in my carriage sidings and forget it! Anyhow, got the little s*d finished. Now needs a squirt of grey primer and a paint job. I have been thinking more about the livery rules for my four railway companies. All the departmental vehicles (that is the engineering wagons like cranes, tool vans, ballast wagons and such, plus this gas tanker and a water tanker kit I have yet to tackle, and things like loco coal wagons) need a livery of their own. The GWR used black which seems totally boring. I may use an olive green or dark black-green which I've seen used by some-company-or-other. Other colours like greys and red bauxite tones have been allocated to other freight liveries, so probably a dark green it will be.

Its from Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds" album released in 1978. I have listened to it thousands of times. Richard Burton did some superb narration on it. There was some excellent steam-punky artwork in the book that opened out inside the (33rpm vinyl) gatefold cover.

Hi James, I hope all is okay and virtual hugs are sent in abundance.

Yes the steps are an interesting feature. There's a triangular cut out of steel plate welded or bolted to the footplate and rear drawbar (which it reinforces) and then two steps offset, bolted on. You'd need to mount this right foot up first, then left foot to the second step then right foot into the cab. Its very ergonomic but not altogether intuitive, especially when dismounting.

Hm. Pretty close.

John Bower, I asked more about the 0-4-0 industrial loco here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/138303-identifying-a-wwi-period-0-4-0-loco/&do=findComment&comment=3330478

I wonder how the denizens of Castle Aching feel? Their home reference is a fictitious fold in a map, that must be jolly confusing.

Note the "M" marking on the undercurve of the ducket.

Thanks Annie. I'm hugely excited by the whole idea of finally building the layout of my dreams. You're welcome to come round and play! I will need an operating team eventually... Northroader - yes, security is in my thoughts. The only access will be made more secure and I am considering external grills on the windows. I've specified an extremely secure door as well. However the area is a very good one for security with excellent neighbourhood watch and a major emergency services facility right across the road.