A look at a staple traffic - fish. It was an important business at one time and usually ran as special trains with high priority, for obvious reasons... Here we see a train of empties arriving, being shunted and loaded at Thurso.
Very realistic layout Ben. Love the idea of the fish outlet. I was just reading about how they transported fish from Anderson to Melbourne Australia , in a 280 hp Walker passenger unit. Even though it was packed in ice it was incredibly smelly. Phil
Congratulations on a super POTW Richard the Railway is looking better and better every time we see it
I have been gathering the occasional Jidenco HR loco as they come up on ebay, as I am never going to get round to building the kits I have of them stashed away - white metal I can rattle through, but never really got in to brass as such, and the reputation of the Falcon /Jidenco artwork is well founded. It can be a bit hit or miss buying ready builts, but in general I have been fairly fortunate with them. They are products of their time with standards to match, but a bit of TLC and extra pickups etc. can provide a good runner. Here is one such - a HR River class, built during the Great War and due to a departmental spat, sold to the CR, only returning to the Highland after grouping. This one came like this. The usual method of attaching bogies had been used - floating around, carrying no weight and doing nothing to guide the loco.... The paintwork was dire... but it had a Portescap motor, and ran well,thanks to its American style of pick up - one side loco and the other from tender. It can be seen that it has flangeless centre drivers and the usual lack of brake gear, but TBH, this isn't apparent to the eye - I'll just have to be careful photographing it...but it runs round the layout with no problems, unlike one or two others. The problem with them was the long wheel base some HR locos had, and I built the layout not catering for this, as I did not anticipate running such engines; the recent semi abundance of these on auction sites is a rather sad reflection of the demographics of this hobby, and is something that is going to become more common over the next decade or so... Anyway, cleaned, stripped and a rattle coat of primer and black saw it ready for its mythical BR service. To my mind it was an ungainly sight, most unlike the rest of the HR fleet, that always managed a simple elegance, and the tender just put the tin lid on it. However, I came across a shot of one in the second war with a eight wheeled one that originally ran with the Bens, so fitted it with that and it came more in proportion, I think. Lastly, on shed at Helmsdale - still not fully finished, but now in service. I'll look at one or two others as I get round to them. Edit - forgot to show the replacement bogie - a Hornby one as fitted to the Royal Scot and other more recent locos. It is sprung and doesn' t droop off like the original.
You've made a great rescue job of it Richard. It looks very good. Even better if you got it at a decent price. Excellent images as always. Thanks for posting. Cheers Toto
Thanks - it is a bit confused though, being a DJH kit and more or less white metal rather than a brass kit - I have been doing a few locos over the last months, and they all tend to merge into one melange of adjustments. The River was bought more or less as an accident - it was not reaching much of a price and I stuck in as bid as a whim. I had intended to tidy it up and sell it on, but I've grown attached to it in its present form. More pertinent to my post is a HR Clan, the subject of the edit pic. It was a brass job and got some years ago and halfheartedly worked on now and again. The Jidenco chassis's are flimsy compared to those in earlier WM kits, and this one had a pronounced limp that I eventually more or less cured by twisting the chassis till it stopped - engineer I am not.... The whole story is not worth going in to, but here it is as arrived -someone's pride and joy and no doubt state of the art thirty plus years ago - again with a Portescap -.. The finish wasn't as good as it looks in the image - the usual thick enamel gloop and hand painted lining, but must have pleased the owner. And here it is now - this engine lasted till early BR days but never gained lining. Mine has...