Our world in miniature, hobbies

Hello, I'm just popping out for a bite of lunch, but I hope you like my picture of delight. My son Michael was never a destructive child. Involved with toy kit building, he appreciated what went into them. This rebuilt Patriot loco was his eagerly awaited Twelfth birthday present, making it 44 years old. It lacks some of the detailing of the current ready to run models, even so, it looks the part, even with its original mechanism & spamcan motor. I've put a touch of clock oil on the bearings, I don't think that it has ever been run on our Hall Brooks railway. It runs like a dream.

That is a nice picture in the post above Philip, the canal & the railway. This is me today:

Thank you for your picture & kindness. I hope that you are able to keep warm through this coming winter. Quite a cold snap over the next ten days or so. Regards the subject of our model railway, I've had quite an intense period of bits & pieces of late. I'm reminded that there are other subjects & interests so its possibly time for a break before something else catches my eye & attention.

I'm stuck wandering round in circles in the archives, trying to find a property I can pin point.

Actually Helen, I struggle to keep out of the railway room. It's very comfy, just to relax in, maybe shunt a few wagons around whilst I sup a small tipple of Croft pale Sherry. A bit of my favourite chocolate, Green Backs 70% cocoa.

Somebody loves me, the song says! A friend brought me five railway wagons this morning, that belonged to his late father. Ron, who passed away a couple of years ago, often came to have a look at our railway. He travelled far & wide on public transport with his son for years often using rover tickets. He didn't have a railway, but had these five wagons in a cabinet. I'm so heartened. Friendship for me so important. Pam loved the big steam engines. The bigger the better. One of her last gifts to me was a Stanier Duchess locomotive in Crimson colour. It's beautiful, lovely runner, but simply so big for our secondary branch line. My friend John who lives in Holbrooks, loved the loco, the colour in particular. He was going to buy one just have on display, so I asked him if he would like Pam's. After much coaxing, he loves it. I mounted it onto a varnished plinth with weathered track. John wasn't so well recently, but upon a visit, it was a delight for me to see it pride of place in his lounge display cabinet. Hope you like it too. He still has his Ian Allen spotting books.

Today, I've got the Friday feeling. Yet I've never experienced that in past. At dances, the song "Doing the locomotion" was popular, but just now, I'm in the railway room "Doing the trucks". Oh I'm silly, oh so silly.

Philip, Your picture of the five wagons brings to mind a potentially nasty incident that occurred at the Wheelwright Lane level crossing back in the 1970's. Late one evening, one of the big hopper type wagons was sitting in a siding at Keresley Colliery, it was fully loaded with quite a few tons of coal. Either someone had forgotten to apply the brake, or someone released the lever, but the effect was the same. The wagon full of coal began to trundle slowly down the line. At the same time a lady was driving her brand new Austin Allegro along Wheelwright Lane towards Exhall. It was four door car, and was a sort of yellow/green colour, a very 1970's shade. At the very moment she drove over the level crossing the coal wagon made an appearance from her left. The coal wagon collided with the passenger side of the car and physically pushed it along the tracks. Fortunately after just a few yards the railway wagon somehow spat out the poor car and left it at the side of the railway tracks. The car was badly damaged, with all four wheels having been ripped off. The driver was very lucky to have escaped injury although the situation could have been much worse if there had been any passengers in the car. The coal wagon continued on its way down the tracks towards the connection with the main line. Railway enthusiasts will know that the siding was protected by something called a catch point which would prevent any unauthorised entry onto the main line unless the signals were set correctly. On reaching the catch point the coal wagon was tipped onto its side and the contents spilled down the embankment. In the meantime a breakdown truck was summoned to rescue the stricken Allegro and the call was given to Stuart Land from Smithy Garage in Brownshill Green Rd who turned up quite quickly in his forward control Land Rover breakdown truck. Under the sodium streetlights the yellow painted truck showed evidence of previous sign writing which declared British Railways as the first owner. He was somewhat surprised to see no trace of the road traffic accident on Wheelwright Lane but soon found the unfortunate Allegro several yards along the railway track. With great skill Mr Land was able to tow the Allegro with no wheels along the railway tracks like a giant sled, and he deposited it on the Hub Pub car park. He returned only a few minutes later with his ordinary Land Rover and a car trailer and was able to complete his recovery task. In the meantime people from the colliery had been to inspect the overturned railway wagon and to arrange for a fairly urgent removal. They were also worried about the several tons of coal strewn down the embankment. The following morning the coal truck was recovered but there was no trace of the coal. No doubt the residents of the nearby houses were able to tidy it all away.

Hello, Thank you for that recollection of the event. Yes, me living less than a mile from the location, although I was just a newcomer, moving to Holbrooks in Sept, 1968. It's a significant falling gradient, from the mine to Three Spires Junc. The manual brakes are applied by a ratchet rod, with quite a spring tension loading. Sometimes it homes on top of a ratchet tooth, which if settles will slacken.

I also remember that incident, April 1976, being just up the road in Ash Green. They later fitted catch-points about half-way between the crossing and the mine. If a train was going up to the mine we had to wait...and wait...and wait...and wait for the last wagon to pass the points before the barriers went up!

Hello, I usually enjoyed watching train shunting going on in yards. Newton momentum theory often demonstrated. Generally in railway yards, there was strict discipline of coupling wagons so as to prevent the end truck flying off. Protocol might not have been quite so keen on private railways, the Coalboard being in charge at Keresley but I don't know. I've watched over zealous shunting at Nuneaton where the end wagon has been sent off so hard that it wacks into wagons in the siding with such a bang, that half the coal has shot into the next wagon. Maybe not half the coal, hey! But you get the gist. Until the introduction of hump shunting, skilled shunters used Newton law to good effect, so that the loco clouting the line of wagons, only the end one would fly off. The point man or switcher changing the points for each wagon. The driver drove the engine, the fireman was the caller, the guard being the switcher. That's how pick-up freight trains worked as they moved along a branch line.

Hello Hump Shunting. Sometimes called gravity.

And that wasn't dangerous at all

Hello, Traditionally, the most physical accident rated industries by Lloyds insurer were. Mining Shipbuilding Railways. Fishing/Merchant Navy. A statement was once made by Lord Robens, A manual worker in any of those industries was fortunate to reach retirement age, even more fortunate to still be in possession of his limbs & body parts.

My Grandad on my mothers side worked at Whitfield Colliery in Stoke-upon-Trent. He retired with all of the toes on his left foot missing. They were chopped of when a full wagon broke loose.