The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[Richard Gawler]

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I bought this wagon because it seemed so unusual.

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The buffers are retained and sprung behind the headstocks. Sadly the builder recorded only what was already written on the sides, and not their name.

Please, do we know when this buffer conversion might have happened? I don't have any books on the North Staffs, so general information on build dates and scrapping would be very helpful too. The model is very heavy, I think from a white metal kit.

I bought this North Staffordshire Railway wagon because the buffers appealed and the model seemed nicely-finished. In my innocence, I bought a wagon where the load of ballast was an integral part of the model . . . I want it to be able to carry something else . . .


Eventually, the floor succumbed. The kit has been assembled using glue throughout.


Amazingly, the four sides stayed together.


I soldered in a new floor, this is 0.45 mm brass.


The primer rather highlights the lumps of glue used during initial assembly.


The paint job survived my efforts at cutting out the ballast, the heat from the soldering iron and three minutes in the ultrasonic bath - but not the “low tack” masking tape.


Wheels and compensation unit tidied up and re-installed.


Cosmetic floor from styrene sheet.

I am trying to tidy up some loose ends before the end of the year. This model has been in bits for at least three months, so it is good to see it sitting on four wheels before Christmas. I know I have said this before, but Happy Christmas

 

[simond]

And to you, Richard!

 

[Richard Gawler]

The original builder has put some effort into the brake gear. The kit is mostly white metal so I guess these plastic parts are here to overcome a deficiency in the kit.


New blocks of styrene behind the headstocks to reduce interactions between buffers.


I reckon I have a fortnight to either put some lacquer over this floor or leave it to gently tarnish.


I ground away some of the glue from the internal corners. I have not seen anything like this before - it seemed to be impregnated with metal, and it is much tougher than solder. The interior is never going to look sharp so I will try to arrange some kind of lift-out load. Beer barrels seem a good choice.

The rebuild has taken a different skill set compared to building a new model from a kit, especially in deciding what to leave alone. I doubt I would have tackled this three years ago. Ignoring the green-tinted ballast this was a tidy-looking model. I know some modellers make an entire hobby out of rebuilding other people’s efforts but this was a bit of eye-opener for me. I need to be careful what I buy in future.


There are some aspects I would like to do better, especially the daylight between sole bars and headstocks, but I will ruin the paint job if I try.


The Heybridge Railway remains an open-ended project as long as I can invent cargos for fresh foreign wagons

 

[Richard Gawler]

I have had some fun trying to put a date on this wagon.

@Rob R kindly sent me a drawing of a similar wagon with different brake gear built c.1870 by the Metropolitan company, and a useful photograph. I have since bought a copy of the book on North Staffordshire wagons by Chadwick (*), which includes these.

Trying to study this book, all I can really deduce is that the wagon might have been built in the early 1870s. Supposing an overhaul or refurbishment was done seven or eight years later and this provided the revised brake, then the date becomes around 1880.

What I have not found is a wagon carrying the brake included on the model! I would be surprised if the original builder added it in ignorance given their super job on the paint and lettering, so I will assume it is prototypical.

I am told, a wagon might last barely 10 years carrying aggregates. We have a clear photograph of a similar wagon still in service in 1902 thank you @Overseer. This suggests the wagons had a life of over 30 years, and so a usual load of beer casks seems more likely than the ballast I chopped out.

So - perhaps running from 1880 onwards; and certainly good for the Heybridge Railway in the 1890s and into the 1900s.

(*)
Chadwick, G F
"North Staffordshire Wagons"
Didcot Wild Swan 1993

 

[Richard Gawler]

I built only one item of rolling stock this year and in a way I feel I haven’t really got very much to show for the last twelve months. So here are some photos to sum up what has happened on the Heybridge Railway during 2024.


In February I was extending the baseboard for Heybridge Basin


This has its track and initial scenics.


There are just two mass-produced finished models items here, the Setrack point and the Terrier.

I finished ‘Lady Marion’ and worked up a Terrier as ‘Heybridge’. I bought some wagons built by other people, of which the four here fit into the project really well. I have built a fiddle yard, and I have a working layout. My first for 7 mm scale. I am heading towards a railway where most of the models have been make by me or other modellers. This works for me though I know I could not do this in the smaller scales.

I am especially pleased with the colours on the layout. These caused some frustration and re-work but if they are wrong the whole project will look wrong. So when I concentrate I can see where the time went!

Happy New Year to everyone.

 

[Dog Star]

Sitting at my workbench, my take on your modelling year is that you have:-

* entertained, informed and challenged me;
* conducted your investigations clearly, thoroughly and without bias;
* achieved a believable chapter in the history of a corner of our country.

In short, you have been modelling a railway with a purpose.

I shall look forward to talking with you at Albury in April.

Rgds, Graham

 

[Richard Gawler]

I shall look forward to talking with you at Albury in April.

Yes Albury should be good. I have been just once and I thoroughly enjoyed the meet-up and the visit to Love Lane too. I can take Lady Marion along this year. If the trackwork is not entirely to her liking then she can run on a table. Such is the joy of battery power with radio control

 

[Richard Gawler]

When I started this project I didn’t have a clue how I would represent the neighbouring GER. I have built two wagons and bought two more, and this week one more has arrived. This is a wool wagon to GER diagram 11, from the Ragstone kit and supplied by “The Train Shop” through eBay.


I doubt I will ever know the name of the builder but the build is nicely sharp and clean and flat. The paint was missing in a few places so I have repainted the inside.


The primer is Vallejo 70.601 Grey Surface Primer. This seems to hold on most matt surfaces including patination fluid dabbed onto bare brass.


The repaint is much as for my earlier wagons but with a little extra grey to imply an older wagon.


The transfers have not been varnished and I lost most of the second "2"s on both sides. I pulled off what was left with masking tape and I can try for something easy like "1"s another day.


The wool trade had diminished by the 1890s and GER repurposed these wagons for general merchandise. This wagon has given me an idea for another traffic on the railway: victuals for coastal and European shipping. I guess, packing cases and barrels.

I still need a GER brake van to recreate trains brought in by the Y14. This could be a way away, the only one I have seen was scratch built by its exhibitor.

 

[Richard Gawler]

The overhang at the ends of the wool wagon is as long as my 4-wheel saloon, and longer than a similar Stroudley coach.


This is as close as I will get to buffer locking on the Setrack point, about half a buffer width. The three-link on the wagon will reach too, though coupling/uncoupling needs straighter track. I have got away with bringing the wagon onto the railway

 

[simond]

Looks nicely built, looks like you got a good ‘un.

wool? Initially I thought, “surely that would be in covered wagons”, but on reflection, sheep are fairly waterproof…

was it, as I conclude, for unprocessed wool going to spinning/weaving?

 

[Richard Gawler]

was it, as I conclude, for unprocessed wool going to spinning/weaving?

With a bit of luck, @Rob Pulham will explain. He has told me about his own model but an explanation of the bales will be better directly from him.

 

[Rob Pulham]

This is mine





Strictly speaking in my modelling period these wagons were relegated to departmental use but when I found that I could actually get a wool bale load I chose to do that.

On the subject of wool bales, my late father was for many years a truck driver and living and working in and around Bradford he often carried bales of wool which was raw wool for spinning to the various mills. As a youngster I often went with him and on recent (over 12 months ago( trip to Bradford to see my son we went via Keighley and Denholme on the way there and I noted that all the mills that I visited with my father no longer existed and every site had housing estates on them now. Even the abattoir that slaughtered the cattle, pigs and lambs that my ex boss bought live at the auction mart when I was a retail butcher is now a small housing estate.

 

[timbowales]

This is mine

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Strictly speaking in my modelling period these wagons were relegated to departmental use but when I found that I could actually get a wool bale load I chose to do that.

On the subject of wool bales, my late father was for many years a truck driver and living and working in and around Bradford he often carried bales of wool which was raw wool for spinning to the various mills. As a youngster I often went with him and on recent (over 12 months ago( trip to Bradford to see my son we went via Keighley and Denholme on the way there and I noted that all the mills that I visited with my father no longer existed and every site had housing estates on them now. Even the abattoir that slaughtered the cattle, pigs and lambs that my ex boss bought live at the auction mart when I was a retail butcher is now a small housing estate.

It's called "progress" Rob

 

[Richard Gawler]

I tidied up a lot of loose ends at the end of last year. This was good but starting Heybridge Basin means I haven’t tackled even a moderately complex kit since ‘Lady Marion’ in 2023.


I found the Slater’s instructions for the Manning Wardle almost impossible to understand, but I did end up with a loco. So on the basis that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, I want to try a Gladiator horse box next. This is for LT&SR diagram 31, built in 1878. Such a horse box could be bringing a prize animal to an agricultural show near the railway.


A familiar story, I cannot understand swathes of the instructions. I mean, the opening sentence here leaves me completely bamboozled - who was the designer? The instructions include I think fourteen errata. There are two parts marked “do not use” which have to be used, and I have just found a fifteenth mistake working through the narrative to see which part goes where. A bit of a comedy really. Still, the Manning Wardle experience lets me prepare. And there is nothing in this paragraph here to influence the build.


The kit is obviously well-presented, and the use of heat-sealed polythene for the detail parts seems really sensible. The etch nearest the camera is signed by George Dawson of Majestic Models. Some of George’s other models are now with Connoisseur Models, and the tender truck is George’s design. The red ink is marking the parts I know I need to ignore.

I will try to put everything together in my head first, then sit back and enjoy the build. The photos included in the kit are encouraging, and I can look at the similar horse box at the Middy if I think this helps.

 

[Rob R]

I tidied up a lot of loose ends at the end of last year. This was good but starting Heybridge Basin means I haven’t tackled even a moderately complex kit since ‘Lady Marion’ in 2023.

View attachment 230743
I found the Slater’s instructions for the Manning Wardle almost impossible to understand, but I did end up with a loco. So on the basis that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger, I want to try a Gladiator horse box next. This is for LT&SR diagram 31, built in 1878. Such a horse box could be bringing a prize animal to an agricultural show near the railway.

View attachment 230742
A familiar story, I cannot understand swathes of the instructions. I mean, the opening sentence here leaves me completely bamboozled - who was the designer? The instructions include I think fourteen errata. There are two parts marked “do not use” which have to be used, and I have just found a fifteenth mistake working through the narrative to see which part goes where. A bit of a comedy really. Still, the Manning Wardle experience lets me prepare. And there is nothing in this paragraph here to influence the build.

View attachment 230744
The kit is obviously well-presented, and the use of heat-sealed polythene for the detail parts seems really sensible. The etch nearest the camera is signed by George Dawson of Majestic Models. Some of George’s other models are now with Connoisseur Models, and the tender truck is George’s design. The red ink is marking the parts I know I need to ignore.

I will try to put everything together in my head first, then sit back and enjoy the build. The photos included in the kit are encouraging, and I can look at the similar horse box at the Middy if I think this helps.

Richard,
The horsebox on the Middy is an early GER vehicle on a modern underframe. The original MSLR horsebox is usually quoted as a second hand LTSR vehicle so photos of that may be useful.

Quick snapshot from Vol 2 of Midland Wagons.
Rob

 

[Richard Gawler]

The original MSLR horsebox is usually quoted as a second hand LTSR vehicle so photos of that may be useful.

Well these photos are almost certainly useful.

I'm glad I'm building the earlier version without a turnunder.

 

[Osgood]

Some good historical info here:

GER Horsebox No. 180 / MSLR No. 15 - Mid-Suffolk Light Railway Museum

May 11, 2021 The MSLR Museum is very proud to have Great Eastern Railway (GER) horsebox no. 180 as part of its collection of historic railway vehicles. It is believed to be the oldest preserved horsebox in the country and is of great historical importance.

www.mslr.org.uk

 

[Richard Gawler]

Back in June 2014 I was having a black and white thing with a rangefinder camera.




The "grain" is noise from the Boots scan of the negative.

If memory is correct, we watched a demonstration of the then newly-finished horse box the same year. We were told, the horse box cannot be used to convey a horse, because of modern animal welfare regulations; but people can travel in the groom's compartment.


The bottom door of the Middy horse box is extremely heavy. It looks as though the original LT&SR ones (photo posted by @Rob R) had some kind of support.

 

[Richard Gawler]

Some good historical info here:

GER Horsebox No. 180 / MSLR No. 15 - Mid-Suffolk Light Railway Museum

May 11, 2021 The MSLR Museum is very proud to have Great Eastern Railway (GER) horsebox no. 180 as part of its collection of historic railway vehicles. It is believed to be the oldest preserved horsebox in the country and is of great historical importance.

www.mslr.org.uk

The similarity of MSLR horsebox no. 9 (ex-GER no. 408) and the LT&SR horse box of 1878 (this kit) is clear to see.

I am intrigued to read (*), MSLR no.9 was built by the Swansea Wagon Company in 1883, while MSLR no.10 (ex-GER no. 484) was built by the Birmingham Wagon and Carriage Company in 1881. Gladiator cite the Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Company as builder of the LT&SR version in their kit, so we have three companies building near-identical vehicles. Grace's Guide is helpful when companies subsequently merged and changed their name.

The present-day detail which I am sorry to say completely mislead me is, the livery of GER horse box no.180. This vehicle was withdrawn some years before the Middy opened, yet it is restored as "MSLR no.15". I guess I have the wrong sort of brain but I do find this sort of thing misleading. Then I remember, preservation is not conservation and things start to make sense. It is wonderful to be able to look at the preserved horse box and start to comprehend how these vehicles were put together.

(*) Paye, Peter
The Mid-Suffolk Light Railway
Didcot Wild Swan 1986

 

[Osgood]

GER No. 180 (now masquerading as MSLR No. 15) was built by Samuel Claye (ref. MSLR article), so does that make it four companies?