AJC

Western Thunderer
Yes - I've seen (and contributed) to that. I hope Chris chooses to go ahead with the project, but if not, scratchbuilding an 0-4-0 can't be that complicated.

Adam
 

JohnG

Active Member
Hi, all.
As the Competition has been on going now for a few months I thought it was about time that I started documenting my entry.

Preface
My entry, 'Dudley's Coal' is a small P4 layout set in the early 1920's in the Black country, the layout is based on the railways of the Earl of Dudley. The Earl's railway (also known as the Pensnett railway) was a comprehensive mineral railway system in the South Western corner of the Black country in the West Midlands.
My cameo entry is designed to represent one of the railways many Landsale Wharves, where the local coal was offloaded to businesses and the public.

History
The Railway was an independent mineral and industrial railway, which at one point stretched for some 40 miles. The railway has a very long heritage and a little place in history. However with the last steam engine withdrawn from service in 1963, very little remains of the once important railway.
Perhaps though with one lasting connection to the present day, is that the railway once serviced the Round Oak steelworks, with much of the internal railway still left at the site once being a part of the Earls Railway.

Its little place in history (and the NRM) was assured in 1829 several months before the Rainhill trials, when large crowds gathered in the Pensnett area of the railway (at this time known as the Shutt End Railway) for trials of the locomotive Agenoria, which was seen pulling up to 20 mineral wagons, weighing over 130 tons, managing a speed of between 3 and 7 mph. Interestingly the builder Foster Rastrick, of Foster Rastrick and co, Stourbridge, was after this trial run of Agenoria invited to be a judge at the Rainhill trials. Agenoria can now be seen in the great hall at the NRM, minus her tender, but well preserved.

In the very early part of the 17th century it was discovered that the land in the black country was rich in minerals, Coal, Limestone, ironstone and clay were in abundance, however a ridge some 800' above sea level ran through the area, while to the North and East of the ridge the minerals were pushed to the surface and easily collected, the terrain to the South and West was more hostile, and it was for this reason that ultimately brought the railway in to being, alongside the many canals in the area. The owner of the land to the South and West of the line was the Ward family, who had succeeded the title and ownership of the Dudley estate in the late 18th century.

As the railway developed in the mid to later half of the 19th century, the railway purchased tender locomotives from Manning Wardle, which worked the line for many years, before the railways own workshops rebuilt them in to small 0-4-0 and 0-4-2 locomotives, these worked up until the turn of the century when further purchases were made trialling different makes of small tank engines, with locomotives from Avonside and Peckett being used on the line, but when a few Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 st were introduced to the railway they soon became the mainstay of the line up to until their withdrawal in the 1960's. Barclay 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 saddle tanks were in abundance on the lines. Very few survived in to preservation, as most were cut up at the works and the scrap used in the furnaces at Round Oak.

The Earl of Dudley's Railway was a very complex and interesting system, with vast workshops on site at 'The Wallows', a 90 deg crossing of the GWR mainline at Round Oak, connection to multiple coal mines, canal basins, landsale wharves, which for instance took the railway almost in to the town centre of Dudley, the railway has a long history and hopefully by modelling this little railway I can convey some of that importance and history.

If anyone would like to learn more I can highly recommend the book The Earl of Dudley's Railways, by Ned Williams.
Also find the book, A History of the Pensnett Railway by Keith Gale, lots of information as it was written when the railway was still open and contains a mine (no pun intended) of information about the railway and the locomotives, ISBN 9780900404283
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
It's not an error, exactly, and certainly not for the model you have. The wheelbase of 14" Barclays is 5'6", and of 16" Barclays, generally, 6'.

Hattons have tooled up a chassis that is correct for a 14" Barclay and for the larger engines simply put larger cylinders on it. I need to work out what additional 'compromises' Hattons have incorporated into the 16" model; I suspect - but have not yet checked - that the tank may be a couple of mm too short...

Adam

Hmm. I've just compared the dimensions of a 16" engine (real) to my Hatton's version and the results show that the Hatton's version of the larger engine is basically a 14" with bigger cylinders and a slightly longer footplate.

The tank should be longer (4mm) and wider (by a couple of mm) , the boiler larger in diameter... I suspect that the cab should be proportionately longer and perhaps taller too, but frankly I couldn't be bothered at that point to go any further. Mercifully, I've gone for the [not] 16" with the smaller tank since the larger (in fact simply taller) is simply fiction. I'm a little annoyed by this, but at least back-converting it to a 14" loco is straightforward since that's what it actually is.

Adam
 

Dave L

Active Member
Adam, hopefully this won't put Chris off making a chassis for it though. Considering the accuracy at which he'll want to apply to such a chassis.
 

Dave L

Active Member
Also find the book, A History of the Pensnett Railway by Keith Gale, lots of information as it was written when the railway was still open and contains a mine (no pun intended) of information about the railway and the locomotives, ISBN 9780900404283

Thanks John
I have been meaning to get hold of a copy, Ned Williams does refer to Keith's photos, but if there is a lot more written info then I may go and get a copy now.

Regards
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Adam, hopefully this won't put Chris off making a chassis for it though. Considering the accuracy at which he'll want to apply to such a chassis.

Here's hoping! The mouldings deserve a proper boiler bottom.

Adam
 

Dave L

Active Member
Couplings

The original plan for Dudley's Coal was going to be 3 link couplings and the usual bent metal uncoupling pole. I was prepared for the pain of 3 links.

However I recently offered up the proscenium arch piece to check in was happy with the location and height of the trees. It is a letter box style after all. I began wondering whether I would actually be able to use the 3 links or atleast couple and uncouple on the middle and rear sidings.
I decided that I wouldn't risk it and began trying to decide on what other coupling to use.

I'm not a fan of the AJ and the dingham works only one way round, not a deal breaker but it wasn't what I was after.

Having looked again at the cameo layouts book, Ian Rice made mention of The Lincs auto coupler. There's a few mentions of it online and Rice held it fairly high regards although admitted he hadn't tried it.

The Lincs autocoupler appears as a simplified AJ, but more robust and less fiddly. The only slight downside is it doesn't have a delay function, so you need to work out your spots carefully, which is quite easy to do on a 3 fan sidings layout. It does allow uncoupling on curves if so required, plus with its neat design you can lift a wagon out of a rake in a fiddle yard just by lifting it straight up, with no tangles.

The Lincs has a nice little jig for you to solder the coupling arm with which basically makes the whole process real simple.

The jig and armature set up. You can see the tube in the jig, which has the armature soldered on top.
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With hook bent and tube attached a fishing shot is added as a counter balance and the base is folded up from the etch and the tube is attached to the base with more rod. Which creates the pivot point.
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This is then fitted to the wagon floor, thank you Cambrian kits for deciding to use flat bottoms on your wagon kits. The fixing of the armature is 2mm off centre which allows you to fit cosmetic 3 links which don't get in the way, which is nice!

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They easily couple up and when used with a magnet the hooks pivot down and to the side to allow uncoupling. The hooks will push past each other to couple up very easily and on curves too.

Just need to find the right magnet and find the right distance to mount it so the axles aren't drawn to it.
 
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Dave L

Active Member
Hi Jonte,
I wasn't until I read the Cameo book. It seems the original designer stopped making them, until an interested party took over the range, they're available in 7 & 4mm.
Cheap, simple and very effective.
 

jonte

Western Thunderer
Hi Jonte,
I wasn't until I read the Cameo book. It seems the original designer stopped making them, until an interested party took over the range, they're available in 7 & 4mm.
Cheap, simple and very effective.

My daughter bought me the book when it was first published but I have to say I must have overlooked the reference.
 

Dave L

Active Member
Ah the joys of kit building.
A couple of Cambrian kits with the wrong parts included.

I'd built the underframe as with all the others, I'd added one side then tried an end piece and it didn't sit right so I tried the other piece and it fitted fine, then I offered up the other side and oops it's a different length, wrong piece, as it happens the fitted side although the right length was 1/2 a plank short at 6 1/2 planks.

The unopened kit, has the same sides and ends but are for another 16' kit and are to long and wide for the floor.

Oh well into the spares box they go. I do plan on scratch building a few wagons from the Midland railway carriage and wagon works, for which there aren't any kits. So maybe they'll come in handy.
 

Dave L

Active Member
Finally nearing completion of the turnout formation.
Progress has been steady but longer than straight soldered track and plastic chaired track, but at the end of the day I have solid turnouts with chairs that match up nicely to the fastrack bases and at a cost point I'm very happy with!
Other than folding up the chairs the biggest and time consuming aspect is the cleaning up before, during and after every session. I've never gotten on with Carr's orange flux and even with the La-co flux I use it takes a lot of tidying up.
However the rail tops won't need cleaning too much as I've got a plan to get around that issue, more later!
Considering these are the first turnouts I've built in P4 despite being a scalefour member for about 5 years I think, they work which is all that matters right now. ( I have built turnouts before but it a less crucial gauge.)
There is one further aspect to these turnouts that's a little mind numbing and that's the inside half chairs, as this job is last, and after you've added the outside chairs which make your track rigid and useable. So you have fully working turnouts but you still need to add a further few hundred inside small half chairs, which are tougher to fold correctly and even harder to solder in place. So I'm glueing them in!

This is what my life has been full of for the past month or so!
IMG_20180510_201404.jpg

Piles of tiny bits of brass and empty frets.
It's kind of been fun.

But the turnout complex is looking good I think. Just a few half chairs still left to fit and a final major clean up and adhesive tape removal. I have a bottle of IPA set for that task. Then it'll have the turnout blades tiebar droppers added, then it can be fitted to the baseboard and we're over half way there!!

State of play tonight.
IMG_20180510_201138_20180510203646060.jpg

All my wagon test stock goes through well enough without any major bumps. Just waiting on a few wheelsets from Alan Gibson to get a test loco up and running. Which for now is going to be a J94, while I wait on the high level kits for the Barclays, or build the Mercian Barclay kit.
The J94 is not unprototypical however, ok in the 1920's it is, but once the line was operated by the NCB, Austerities were used up until the lines dieselisation. So I could have an early and a late stock list.

Time for a drink.

Dave.
 

Dave L

Active Member
Quick update on progress so far, as I've had to submit my confirmation of my entry in to the competition.

Track work, the turnout section has found its way to the baseboard after a good clean and removal of the sticky tape from underneath. The tiebar droppers have been added and are awaiting their underboard tiebars.
IMG_20180519_151937.jpg


Ground cover as you can see above is well underway. This is DAS clay and will also form a compacted cinders ballast on the track too, once it's fixed down. The area seen above isn't flat as it's going to be under a Martin Welberg grass mat with the clay forming a natural undulation.

IMG_20180519_152941.jpg

The area this side will be flat forming the land wharf coaling area. A selection of stock can be seen testing in the sidings. You can make out the curved grey backscene in these images too, hopefully portraying the black country theme well enough.

However as I've mentioned before the Earl's railway ran through a good few miles of countryside and so the trees required have mostly been finished although they're due a final dry brushing with a grey colour as they're still a little too brown I think.
pixlr_20180519190920264_20180519191014098.jpg


Hopefully over the next week or two there should be quite a few big updates as everything starts to come together and added to the layout. The J94's wheels are ready to go, while the Barclays are on the sideline.

Thanks for following still.

Dave.
 

Dave L

Active Member
With Powsides transfers for E D only suitable for 7 planks and in reality for the later RCH 1923 12t open. I decided after reading John Hayes book again I thought I give hand painting a go. One thing on my side is that many of the real wagons for the period appear to be hand brush painted in a fairly quick manner and so differ in size and location. Perfect as I'm no Van Gogh.
Numbers still to be added but, I'll trial a paint pen for those as my 3/0 brush is too big.
Rattle can Halfords red primer for the body and Tamiya paints for lettering and ironwork. A few days to cure and then on to weathering.
IMG_20180604_165843.jpg


IMG_20180604_222051.jpg
 

Dave L

Active Member
The clay has dried and has been painted, and the track cleaned, and on the plus side it all still seemed to be in gauge.

Scenic work is now well underway, the base hedging along the backscene came out of the very old suitcase of bits I still have from my Dad, it's probably older than I am, but covered in various scenic items and static grass its starting to look the part.

Buildings have been started and just require finishing off and a little weathering.

The wagons have had the Lincs auto couplers fitted and all seem to work well with the magnets, they just need weathering and weights adding.

IMG_20180608_154119.jpg
IMG_20180608_154546_20180608163304449.jpg
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IMG_20180608_154253~2.jpg
IMG_20180608_154453~2.jpg
IMG_20180608_154438.jpg

At least it now looks like a layout, still plenty to do though.
Dave
 

Bullhead

Western Thunderer
The clay has dried and has been painted, and the track cleaned, and on the plus side it all still seemed to be in gauge.

Scenic work is now well underway, the base hedging along the backscene came out of the very old suitcase of bits I still have from my Dad, it's probably older than I am, but covered in various scenic items and static grass its starting to look the part.

Buildings have been started and just require finishing off and a little weathering.

The wagons have had the Lincs auto couplers fitted and all seem to work well with the magnets, they just need weathering and weights adding.

View attachment 88805 View attachment 88806 View attachment 88808 View attachment 88809 View attachment 88810 View attachment 88811
At least it now looks like a layout, still plenty to do though.
Dave
Looks great Dave, especially the B/W shots. I need to get my skates on now!
 

jonte

Western Thunderer
A restful scene, Dave.

A scale workman would almost certainly end up with dusty boots after walking on that ash/cinder ballast!
 
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