A Crew for HR 57

On the footplate of HR57, this pair were the inspiration for my own crew c.1895
 

 The driver on the left of the picture has a "drivers cap", possibly issued by the HR though it's the only cap of this style I've ever seen in a photo. Neither figure displays any other uniform item of dress, like most working men of the period, both driver and fireman are wearing their own working clothes. The light coloured jacket of the fireman may be of unbleached linen similar to the fatigues worn by the lower ranks of the army in barracks when on work detail, the so called "Regimental Sports", which involved getting the coal in and suchlike.



HR 56 shunting at Perth in Highland Railway days c.1920

The pose of this figure was the inspiration for my own driver (below) and is eminently suitable for a shunting engine. This is a rather later photo than the one above and the driver now has a uniform cap, his overalls and jacket are presumably his own working clothes.

Heroes of the Footplate : Driver for a Stroudley Tank Ref: R.23

The miniature driver at work on the footplate of my own model of "Lochgorm". Both the driver and fireman are designed to fit nicely into the cabs of a wide range of shunting engines, not just HR Stroudley Tanks, they'll fit just as well into that more famous Stroudley engine, the LBSCR Terrier.  The colours I have used are those I think most probable judging from the tonality of the two b/w photos above. Below you can see both figures in the cab... I think their contrasting poses work well together. Ref: www.borderminiatures.com





Heroes of the Footplate : Fireman for a Stroudley Tank  Ref: R 24







 

HR d.47 Open Carriage Truck with load.

HR d.47 OCT with Austin 7 Chummy.
 

The Austin 7 Open Tourer was introduced in 1923 and became known as the "Chummy". The white metal kit for the car came from South East Finecast and was the earliest car kit I could find. The spokes of the wheels are etched nickel silver and really set the model off well. The only addition I made to the kit was a gear lever and some blobs of glue for headlights. The car would have been secured on the wagon with wedges under each wheel. In addition there may have been straps or ropes from the side rails too as suggested by the photo on page 79 of "Hunter".

I made a master pattern for the springs and cast a set as I couldn't work with those in the kit; the axleboxes needed only a little modification before the springs sat comfortably on top of them. The retaining cross rails were made from square section metal with reference to fig 35 in "Hunter" as were the little chains that hang from the brake lever guard. Vaccum pipes and Westinghouse pipes are from my own castings. I added a Westinghouse cylinder and a vaccum cylinder with their linkages all of which make for a busy and interesting model.

The inspiration for this model came from the frontispiece to Tatlow's "A History of Highland Locomotives" which shows Inverness Station in the early 1900s. In the centre of the picture is an OCT, probably a d.47, carrying a car of the period which I cannot identify. The rear cross rail of the OCT seems to be tight against the rear tyres of the car and there may be additional restraint in place though I can't make out any detail of straps or other retaining devices, nor for that matter can I see any wedges, though I'm sure there's one on the deck of the OCT in "Hunter". I suspect more could be learned if the original photo could be studied rather than a scanned reproduction in a book. Perhaps Peter Tatlow's eagerly awaited and soon to be published "Highland Railway Wagons and Carriages" will add to our knowledge of these fascinating wagons.

HR Open Carriage Truck

Lochgorm Kits HR d.47 Open Carriage Truck
 

I managed only a peek into the packaging of this latest offering from Lochgorm as I unwrapped my presents on Christmas Day, it was not a day of modelling opportunity. On Boxing day however I managed to sneak an hour or so to make a start on what I intended to be my Festive Season project. The above photo shows the stage I reached by New Years Day when I more or less ground to a halt as the wheels haven't arrived yet.

I made a few changes to the kit, in particular I removed the buffer beam, which was attached to the floor, and used it as an inner beam. The buffer beam overlay was discarded though I salvaged the coupling plate which I soldered to a new buffer beam that I substituted. This extends upwards to meet the floor which, taking note of the "Tatlow" drawing included with the instructions, I made flush with the top of the bottom side-rails. Apart from this modification I made only minor changes and additions to the design of the kit.

HR d.47 OCT  Brake Details


 

Below the sole bar of the OCT is a busy place. The brake cylinder and its associated parts were built from tube and various metal sections as these parts are not included in the kit. The truck was Westinghouse fitted too but I don't think the fittings would have been visible, being mounted under the floor, so I probably won't model them; the underneath will be busy enough when the brakes and brake rigging are in place.
The truck weighs in at a hefty 150g at the moment so it'll not need additional weight and there's still a good deal of detail to be added below the sole bar.

I bought a very nice S E Finecast Austin 7 Open Tourer kit, which I thought would make a very apt load for the carriage truck, but I now realise that the wheel track of these little cars is only 3' 4" which means that the wheels would fall between the wheel plates mounted on the deck of the truck which enabled cars to be loaded from the platform. However I'm sure the loaders could have overcome that problem with a little ingenuity, a plank maybe? I considered the option of a die-cast car as load for the carriage truck but found that a good die cast model, as opposed to a toy, is not only expensive but hard to find, so I opted for a kit which I'm sure will set the truck off a treat. I've made a start on the car too.