During WW1, some antiquated (by the standards of the time) GCR Sacre 4-4-0s were sent to the GNSR to help out. One wonders what the Scottish crews made of them. They had quite modest cabs, so they may not have been ideal.
Conversely, the newly-formed SECR obtained some GNSR 4-4-0s (similar to the preserved Gordon Highlander ) in 1900, and the Scottish cabs must have seemed luxurious compared to Stirling's minimalist provision on his South Eastern locomotives. The SECR men called them 'Glass Houses'.
Rapido UK are planning numerous versions, along with an SECR version, but this will only be available as a Rails of Sheffield exclusive - which means they will be ahem expensive...but they look good in SECR green, and also in Southern green (my personal favourite):
ETA: the Rails exclusives are just under £230 ( a lot more if you want all the DCC bells and whistles), whilst the 'normal' versions at Rails are about £195...
A lot of money, either way, though Rapido UK models are usually excellent, despite some faults and criticisms now and then. I have (I confess) several locomotives, coaches, and wagons from this firm, and they all suit me fine. The Suffix Border Railway's management (Captain Parsley and Sergeant Sage) is also well pleased, though getting impatient at the late arrival of our nice blue Barclay Fireless 0-4-0F to shunt the Friday Street Chemical Works sidings. The models arrived in the UK at the anticipated time, were found on inspection to be under par, and so were sent back immediately to China for modification...
Modelling, again, and Hornby have just announced their 2026 range. Totally underwhelming as far as I'm concerned, though there is a decent beginner's Train Set available, with quite a good selection of 'extras' at a reasonable sum of £££. Other releases are approaching the £400 mark...
By contrast, I have today taken delivery of a retro Triang locomotive, from an eBay seller who (I think) does a fair bit of trade at toy and train fairs, as well as online. It is the classic 0-4-0D 'Dock Authority' diesel shunter, dating (in my case) from around 1962 - it has the improved tension-lock couplings. In very good condition (the lining around the number is a little worn!), it cost me £20 plus postage.
A small retro 00 layout, using rails, accessories etc., from the 1960s, may ensue. Triang Super 4 track, I think...with Airfix and/or Bilteezi buildings, and Merit trees/accessories...remember them? I have some suitable bits n'bobs in stock...
Ah! nostalgia - it may not be what it used to be, but it's cheaper...
Modelling, again, and Hornby have just announced their 2026 range. Totally underwhelming as far as I'm concerned, though there is a decent beginner's Train Set available, with quite a good selection of 'extras' at a reasonable sum of £££. Other releases are approaching the £400 mark...
By contrast, I have today taken delivery of a retro Triang locomotive, from an eBay seller who (I think) does a fair bit of trade at toy and train fairs, as well as online. It is the classic 0-4-0D 'Dock Authority' diesel shunter, dating (in my case) from around 1962 - it has the improved tension-lock couplings. In very good condition (the lining around the number is a little worn!), it cost me £20 plus postage.
A small retro 00 layout, using rails, accessories etc., from the 1960s, may ensue. Triang Super 4 track, I think...with Airfix and/or Bilteezi buildings, and Merit trees/accessories...remember them? I have some suitable bits n'bobs in stock...
Ah! nostalgia - it may not be what it used to be, but it's cheaper...
I might have some bits of interest to you in the crap I have accumulated over teh years....
Modelling, again, and Hornby have just announced their 2026 range. Totally underwhelming as far as I'm concerned, though there is a decent beginner's Train Set available, with quite a good selection of 'extras' at a reasonable sum of £££. Other releases are approaching the £400 mark...
By contrast, I have today taken delivery of a retro Triang locomotive, from an eBay seller who (I think) does a fair bit of trade at toy and train fairs, as well as online. It is the classic 0-4-0D 'Dock Authority' diesel shunter, dating (in my case) from around 1962 - it has the improved tension-lock couplings. In very good condition (the lining around the number is a little worn!), it cost me £20 plus postage.
A small retro 00 layout, using rails, accessories etc., from the 1960s, may ensue. Triang Super 4 track, I think...with Airfix and/or Bilteezi buildings, and Merit trees/accessories...remember them? I have some suitable bits n'bobs in stock...
Ah! nostalgia - it may not be what it used to be, but it's cheaper...
I might have some bits of interest to you in the crap I have accumulated over teh years....
Thanks! I'll bear it in mind, but it's all a bit of pipe-dream - I really don't have space on the Ark for anything more than the little shelf shunting-layouts I already have. Ideally, I'd like a continuous run layout, maybe 8 feet by 4 feet, using one of Freezer's plans...
It is the classic 0-4-0D 'Dock Authority' diesel shunter, dating (in my case) from around 1962 .
Does it have the noisy knurled wheels?
Yes, it does! Runs OK, though.
Hah! That’s my very first loco too, right down to the knurled wheels. For a few weeks it had a headlight. It’s in a Triang Continental set my parents got using cigarette coupons, which did for my dear old dad, but he wanted an electric train as much as I did.
It still runs too, but not on anything finer than Hornby System 6 track.
There is a company out there - sadly, I can't recall the name - that will turn down old Triang wheels to run on Code 100 track. (Not Code 75 as yet.) They also service old locos to improve their running.
There is a company out there - sadly, I can't recall the name - that will turn down old Triang wheels to run on Code 100 track. (Not Code 75 as yet.) They also service old locos to improve their running.
We are on a train from Munich to Manheim. Then on to Heidelberg. German trains are nowhere near as reliable as they were when we started travelling here seventeen years ago. Fortunately this one wasn't late or cancelled.
Some photos of modern trains at Munich Hbf today. 🙂
W J K Davies, a well-known author (in certain railway circles), reported many years ago (Railway Holiday in Northern Germany c.1965) that the Deutsche Bundesbahn - just Deutsche Bahn these days, I think - was not invariably punctual even then, though advertised connections were usually met.
Davies was an admirer of the DB, but wasn't afraid of pointing out its deficiencies.
(AFAIK, he's still in the land of the living, though he must be well into his 80s or 90s now. I have several of his erudite tomes, mostly on European secondary railways).
My last encounter with DB resulted in our missing our Eurostar connection in Brussels. The myth of 'at least they run the trains on time' died that day.
Well, Germany is a very large country, so even the DB can't get it right every time. That said, it only takes one bad experience to spoil the charm, so to speak.
On a happier note, I have (on behalf of the Suffix Border Railway) just taken delivery of our latest 00 scale locomotive - the Rapido UK Barclay Fireless 0-4-0F in lined Caledonian Blue.
Captain Parsley and Sergeant Sage are delighted with it, and Harry the Horse can now take a well-earned retirement from shunting the Chemical Works sidings. The model itself is an exquisite piece of work (despite the relatively high price), and has received good reviews. Similar locomotives worked in industrial settings until well into the 'blue diesel' age, so one could be justified on even a 'modern' layout.
Rapido UK found it necessary to send the entire batch of these models, when first received in the UK, back to the factory in China for certain modifications to be made. The company is rather coy about admitting what the problem might have been, but their action - intended to protect the customer and their own reputation - seems to have paid off.
Interesting about Rapido. When I was waiting for the Big Goods I was advised that they unpack and test run every single locomotive - not just a sample - after a bad experience with another model. One would think that it would cost less to sharpen up quality control at the factory, though perhaps it was a design issue.
The fireless engine is rather appealing, isn't it?
Rapido UK certainly take customer relations seriously. It isn't clear whether the problem with the lovely little Barclay 0-4-0F was due to design or manufacture, but I suspect the latter to be the case. At any rate, the firm's decision to get it properly sorted before releasing the models to paying customers was a good one.
Less hassle to the customer, and more kudos to the manufacturer...
I still have a Rapido locomotive on pre-order (the Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST), which may, or may not, appear later this year!
I rather like their predilection for 'what if?' liveries. Their planned Caledonian Single 123 looks stunning in CR blue, of course, but the BR lined black (which IRL it never carried) is very tempting to one - like me - who remembers how attractive this scheme looked on clean engines back in the 1950s...
The same goes for their BR version of the Jones Goods...O! if only I had the room for a simple stretch of double-track main line, on which I could run anything I liked...
Our school Transport Society had a trip to the Bowater's Railway (as it then was) in - I think - the summer of 1970. We were at the time a bit disappointed that we would only be travelling on the railway between Kemsley Down and Ridham Dock (on flat trucks - eat your heart out H&S!), and that we would be hauled by the fireless loco "Unique". Looking back I can see how fortunate we were, as "Unique" has long been out of service and the present day preserved line (which I've never ridden) does not include that northern section. We also had a good look around the loco shed/workshop - I'm pretty sure "Chevalier" was there, with some others.
IIRC, 'Unique' was, in fact, a standard-gauge locomotive which was been regauged simply by putting its wheels inside the frames...
There certainly can't ever have been all that many passenger trains hauled by fireless locomotives - a unique experience, indeed.
The present-day Sittingbourne & Kemsley line (the southern section of the erstwhile Bowater's system) is worth a visit if you're in the area, but it's not exactly the most scenically-attractive heritage railway! For those interested in industrial archaeology, it's a must.
FWIW, a late acquaintance of mine (GD) once built a model of 'Unique', to 16mm-to-the-foot scale, but using 32mm gauge track (rather than the slightly more accurate 45mm gauge). This was in my 16mm 'live steam' days in the 90s. GD's model ran on compressed air, and, like all his many idiosyncratic creations, worked very well.
My last encounter with DB resulted in our missing our Eurostar connection in Brussels. The myth of 'at least they run the trains on time' died that day.
So sorry to hear this, MH!
Re DB German Railways - Due to years of not investing enough into regular engineering work and further poor management decisions, Deutsche Bahn has become very unreliable and is a mere shadow of itself, see e.g. here or here, picked quite at random.
Extremely annoying for travellers, as in above first-hand testimony. Apparently, only 70% of all trains arrive on time these days, inside Germany and also cross-border services.
Sadness. - Can we loan them the two remaining Warship Class locos? (Though the problems are in the management, less so in the rolling stock or railway workers.)
IIRC, the Warships were based on the DB V200 class, but the European loading gauge allowed the German locomotives to be somehow more visually imposing IYSWIM.
I'd guess it was quite difficult to squeeze the necessary "works" into the British locos.
I remember seeing them at Waterloo and thinking how out of place they looked. Of course any locomotives (except 74s and perhaps 33s) were something of a rarity there.
The redoubtable Kevin Jones' 'Steam index' shows an illustration of what is stated the be the North British Railway Crampton in tartan, https://steamindex.com/people/crampton.htm. Bearing in mind that the painting is by Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis, it may just be what he thought it might have looked like based on what someone else may have told him that he had heard from a friend whose grandfather had worked on the NB.
Didn't we have this same conversation a couple of years ago? It may have been when someone suggested that a Crampton would make a rather lovely model, as indeed it would.
I can't offhand find the reference, but IIRC Hamilton Ellis did indeed depict the Crampton in Tartan as it may have looked - but he had his doubts as to just how much of the poor engine was so mistreated...
I like Ellis's paintings, though I know they have their critics. This is one of my favourites:
I'm very suspicious of that picture - I know that the L&W had a restricted loading gauge, but that locomotive (apart from the chimney) seems underscale, especially alongside its crew.
I'm intrigued by the three candlesticks on the boiler ... I mean, if you put candles into them to light the way in the tunnel, they'd blow out!
I presume they're really safety valves.
I think one of them at least is the 'Steam Trumpet' - reputedly the first railway locomotive steam-operated whistle, devised by a maker of musical instruments at the request of George Stephenson. From the Wikipedia article on the L & S:
The historian Clement Stretton relates that towards the close of the year 1833 a collision took place between a train and a cart crossing the line near Thornton. The engine was “Samson”. The engine driver had a horn, but could not attract the attention of the cart driver, and the engine struck it. Mr Baxter, the line manager, suggested the use of a steam trumpet or whistle, and by Mr George Stephenson's instructions such an appliance was at once constructed by a local musical instrument maker, and it worked satisfactorily.
If this is factual, it would appear to be the creation of the first steam whistle. However many factories used steam power supplied by stationary steam engines to drive mill machinery, and it seems remarkable that steam whistles had not been in use to indicate for example the start and end of the working day. Clinker is dismissive of this story for several reasons; in particular the board minutes recorded considerable detail of trivial events, yet this is not reported.
L T C Rolt also mentions the accident in Red for Danger.
The Leicester & Swannington is an interesting early Rail Road, with a mixture of sleepers or stone blocks supporting the rails, and trains conveying passengers and freight in the same consist.
Rapido's new 00 scale Ivor range isn't yet available, but I get the impression that it will be high-quality and FUN. Ivor wasn't part of my childhood - I was brought up on Thomas, Toby, and the others!
In my childhood, Hamilton Ellis paintings used to be found on the partitions between non-corridor compartments on the Midland Region, but I cannot remember now whether they were in ex-LMS stock or early BR stock. Other carriages used to contain photographs of places served by the railway.
A question for you train afficionados if I may:
I sing songs in folk clubs and I like to find out if I can the meaning of the words of the songs.
One song I do is In the Sidings written in the 1960s by Cyril Tawney in response to the Beeching cuts, I believe. The song is from the point of view of a station master made redundant. It contains the line "my bogie fires are burning low". Usually pronounced 'boggy'.
What are these bogie fires?
A question for you train afficionados if I may:
I sing songs in folk clubs and I like to find out if I can the meaning of the words of the songs.
One song I do is In the Sidings written in the 1960s by Cyril Tawney in response to the Beeching cuts, I believe. The song is from the point of view of a station master made redundant. It contains the line "my bogie fires are burning low". Usually pronounced 'boggy'.
What are these bogie fires?
If it's the stationmaster's POV, I wonder if he might be referring to a fire (perhaps in the waiting room?) burning peat, or bog, as in Ireland. Granted, that's a bit of a long shot.
A 'bogie' is, as I expect you know, an arrangement of wheels on a locomotive or piece of rolling stock. Made almost entirely of metal, it would hardly be likely to catch fire...or to possess a fire! The word can also apply to something feared, or a move in golf, neither of which would seem appropriate to Mr Tawney's song.
It doesn't sound like something I've any memory of, but I'm wondering about two possibilities. Either:-
1. It was written by somebody who knew nothing about railways and who selected words he thought sounded vaguely railway like. Cyril Tawney appears to have been a sailor.
Or
2. It's a Mondegreen but what of, I can't even guess.
A question for you train afficionados if I may:
I sing songs in folk clubs and I like to find out if I can the meaning of the words of the songs.
One song I do is In the Sidings written in the 1960s by Cyril Tawney in response to the Beeching cuts, I believe. The song is from the point of view of a station master made redundant. It contains the line "my bogie fires are burning low". Usually pronounced 'boggy'.
What are these bogie fires?
I wonder if he is using 'bogie' to mean engine? (Interestingly, 'boggi' is the Swedish word for 'bogie', but I doubt that's relevant here).
Comments
Rapido UK are planning numerous versions, along with an SECR version, but this will only be available as a Rails of Sheffield exclusive - which means they will be ahem expensive...but they look good in SECR green, and also in Southern green (my personal favourite):
https://rapidotrains.co.uk/secr-g-class-4-4-0/
Get thee behind me, Satan...
A lot of money, either way, though Rapido UK models are usually excellent, despite some faults and criticisms now and then. I have (I confess) several locomotives, coaches, and wagons from this firm, and they all suit me fine. The Suffix Border Railway's management (Captain Parsley and Sergeant Sage) is also well pleased, though getting impatient at the late arrival of our nice blue Barclay Fireless 0-4-0F to shunt the Friday Street Chemical Works sidings. The models arrived in the UK at the anticipated time, were found on inspection to be under par, and so were sent back immediately to China for modification...
Modelling, again, and Hornby have just announced their 2026 range. Totally underwhelming as far as I'm concerned, though there is a decent beginner's Train Set available, with quite a good selection of 'extras' at a reasonable sum of £££. Other releases are approaching the £400 mark...
By contrast, I have today taken delivery of a retro Triang locomotive, from an eBay seller who (I think) does a fair bit of trade at toy and train fairs, as well as online. It is the classic 0-4-0D 'Dock Authority' diesel shunter, dating (in my case) from around 1962 - it has the improved tension-lock couplings. In very good condition (the lining around the number is a little worn!), it cost me £20 plus postage.
A small retro 00 layout, using rails, accessories etc., from the 1960s, may ensue. Triang Super 4 track, I think...with Airfix and/or Bilteezi buildings, and Merit trees/accessories...remember them? I have some suitable bits n'bobs in stock...
Ah! nostalgia - it may not be what it used to be, but it's cheaper...
I might have some bits of interest to you in the crap I have accumulated over teh years....
Thanks! I'll bear it in mind, but it's all a bit of pipe-dream - I really don't have space on the Ark for anything more than the little shelf shunting-layouts I already have. Ideally, I'd like a continuous run layout, maybe 8 feet by 4 feet, using one of Freezer's plans...
Yes, it does! Runs OK, though.
Hah! That’s my very first loco too, right down to the knurled wheels. For a few weeks it had a headlight. It’s in a Triang Continental set my parents got using cigarette coupons, which did for my dear old dad, but he wanted an electric train as much as I did.
It still runs too, but not on anything finer than Hornby System 6 track.
Here it is. Just found it. https://scalespeed.co.uk/
I’ll save that! Thanks.
Some photos of modern trains at Munich Hbf today. 🙂
Sorry about that. I've deleted the link and will try again later when I've got better connection.
Davies was an admirer of the DB, but wasn't afraid of pointing out its deficiencies.
(AFAIK, he's still in the land of the living, though he must be well into his 80s or 90s now. I have several of his erudite tomes, mostly on European secondary railways).
On a happier note, I have (on behalf of the Suffix Border Railway) just taken delivery of our latest 00 scale locomotive - the Rapido UK Barclay Fireless 0-4-0F in lined Caledonian Blue.
Captain Parsley and Sergeant Sage are delighted with it, and Harry the Horse can now take a well-earned retirement from shunting the Chemical Works sidings. The model itself is an exquisite piece of work (despite the relatively high price), and has received good reviews. Similar locomotives worked in industrial settings until well into the 'blue diesel' age, so one could be justified on even a 'modern' layout.
Rapido UK found it necessary to send the entire batch of these models, when first received in the UK, back to the factory in China for certain modifications to be made. The company is rather coy about admitting what the problem might have been, but their action - intended to protect the customer and their own reputation - seems to have paid off.
The fireless engine is rather appealing, isn't it?
Less hassle to the customer, and more kudos to the manufacturer...
I still have a Rapido locomotive on pre-order (the Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST), which may, or may not, appear later this year!
I rather like their predilection for 'what if?' liveries. Their planned Caledonian Single 123 looks stunning in CR blue, of course, but the BR lined black (which IRL it never carried) is very tempting to one - like me - who remembers how attractive this scheme looked on clean engines back in the 1950s...
The same goes for their BR version of the Jones Goods...O! if only I had the room for a simple stretch of double-track main line, on which I could run anything I liked...
There certainly can't ever have been all that many passenger trains hauled by fireless locomotives - a unique experience, indeed.
The present-day Sittingbourne & Kemsley line (the southern section of the erstwhile Bowater's system) is worth a visit if you're in the area, but it's not exactly the most scenically-attractive heritage railway! For those interested in industrial archaeology, it's a must.
FWIW, a late acquaintance of mine (GD) once built a model of 'Unique', to 16mm-to-the-foot scale, but using 32mm gauge track (rather than the slightly more accurate 45mm gauge). This was in my 16mm 'live steam' days in the 90s. GD's model ran on compressed air, and, like all his many idiosyncratic creations, worked very well.
Re DB German Railways - Due to years of not investing enough into regular engineering work and further poor management decisions, Deutsche Bahn has become very unreliable and is a mere shadow of itself, see e.g. here or here, picked quite at random.
Extremely annoying for travellers, as in above first-hand testimony. Apparently, only 70% of all trains arrive on time these days, inside Germany and also cross-border services.
Sadness. - Can we loan them the two remaining Warship Class locos? (Though the problems are in the management, less so in the rolling stock or railway workers.)
IIRC, the Warships were based on the DB V200 class, but the European loading gauge allowed the German locomotives to be somehow more visually imposing IYSWIM.
I remember seeing them at Waterloo and thinking how out of place they looked. Of course any locomotives (except 74s and perhaps 33s) were something of a rarity there.
The V200s were (and are - I think some are preserved in running order) impressive beasts.
Our 'Warships' were OK in their way, and would have looked best in GW livery...worthy successors to the long line of 'Kings' and 'Castles'?
Maybe not. YMMV.
Indeed. That really Was Outrage...
Didn't we have this same conversation a couple of years ago? It may have been when someone suggested that a Crampton would make a rather lovely model, as indeed it would.
I like Ellis's paintings, though I know they have their critics. This is one of my favourites:
https://uk.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=leicester+and+swannington+railway+hamilton+ellis&fr=mcafee&type=E211GB642G0&imgurl=https://live.staticflickr.com/4121/4782965581_411d84a43b_z.jpg#id=0&iurl=https://live.staticflickr.com/4121/4782965581_411d84a43b_z.jpg&action=click
A nice subject for modelling, especially as Rapido and Hornby produce 0-4-2s of the late 1830s...
Some of his other paintings also seem a bit underscale.
I presume they're really safety valves.
I think one of them at least is the 'Steam Trumpet' - reputedly the first railway locomotive steam-operated whistle, devised by a maker of musical instruments at the request of George Stephenson. From the Wikipedia article on the L & S:
The historian Clement Stretton relates that towards the close of the year 1833 a collision took place between a train and a cart crossing the line near Thornton. The engine was “Samson”. The engine driver had a horn, but could not attract the attention of the cart driver, and the engine struck it. Mr Baxter, the line manager, suggested the use of a steam trumpet or whistle, and by Mr George Stephenson's instructions such an appliance was at once constructed by a local musical instrument maker, and it worked satisfactorily.
If this is factual, it would appear to be the creation of the first steam whistle. However many factories used steam power supplied by stationary steam engines to drive mill machinery, and it seems remarkable that steam whistles had not been in use to indicate for example the start and end of the working day. Clinker is dismissive of this story for several reasons; in particular the board minutes recorded considerable detail of trivial events, yet this is not reported.
L T C Rolt also mentions the accident in Red for Danger.
The Leicester & Swannington is an interesting early Rail Road, with a mixture of sleepers or stone blocks supporting the rails, and trains conveying passengers and freight in the same consist.
Rapido's new 00 scale Ivor range isn't yet available, but I get the impression that it will be high-quality and FUN. Ivor wasn't part of my childhood - I was brought up on Thomas, Toby, and the others!
I sing songs in folk clubs and I like to find out if I can the meaning of the words of the songs.
One song I do is In the Sidings written in the 1960s by Cyril Tawney in response to the Beeching cuts, I believe. The song is from the point of view of a station master made redundant. It contains the line "my bogie fires are burning low". Usually pronounced 'boggy'.
What are these bogie fires?
If it's the stationmaster's POV, I wonder if he might be referring to a fire (perhaps in the waiting room?) burning peat, or bog, as in Ireland. Granted, that's a bit of a long shot.
A 'bogie' is, as I expect you know, an arrangement of wheels on a locomotive or piece of rolling stock. Made almost entirely of metal, it would hardly be likely to catch fire...or to possess a fire! The word can also apply to something feared, or a move in golf, neither of which would seem appropriate to Mr Tawney's song.
1. It was written by somebody who knew nothing about railways and who selected words he thought sounded vaguely railway like. Cyril Tawney appears to have been a sailor.
Or
2. It's a Mondegreen but what of, I can't even guess.
Fixed link
jedijudy-Heaven Host
I wonder if he is using 'bogie' to mean engine? (Interestingly, 'boggi' is the Swedish word for 'bogie', but I doubt that's relevant here).