Finally for October, and not an exhibition as such, but Canute Road Quay has been kindly invited to be on display at the Southern Railways Group AGM at the Cornerstone Centre, Camphill Rd, West Byfleet KT14 6EH.
The Group was formed over 40 years ago to study and disseminate information about the Southern Railway, British Railways (Southern Region), its successors and minor railways in southern England. It is well worth being a member by anyone with an interest, both historical and or modelling in the Southern Railway.
If you are coming along to any of the shows, please drop by and say hello.
p.s. the title is once again a nod to a favourite band of mine…
Released by Oxford Rail, back in February 2021 , their OR76TK2006 Graham’s Golden Lager No113 12 Ton Tank wagon was a bit of impulse buy due to its branding and the fact that I feel their 12T tank wagon is one of Oxford Rail’s best models to date. Little did I realise at the time that a wagon of a Scottish larger brewer would have an interesting Southampton, and by association Canute Road Quay, connection…
The real Graham’s Golden Lager tank wagon, image copyright and embeded from HMRS website
In 1927 a new beer was brewed in Arrol’s Lager brewery in Alloa, Graham’s Golden Lager. This was produced on behalf of Allsopp’s of Burton, following the moving their lager plant to Arrol’s in 1921.
Being sucessful, and as now Arrol’s were brewing all Allsopps lagers, Allsopp’s took a controlling interest in Arrol’s in 1930, prior to their 1934 merger with Ind Coope. Arrol’s was completely bought out in 1951 and the brewery converted to a lager-only plant.
Arrol’s of Alloa appeared to have a number of branded rail mounted tanker wagons that included the example as model by Oxford Rail.
In 1959, Graham’s Golden Lager was rebranded as Skol, though for a while it was branded Graham’s Skol Lager. It became the main lager of Ind Coope and later the whole Allied Breweries Group.
I think the Waterloo Tavern (Ian…) might have over ordered… the picture that uncovered the story…
…So where does this fit in with Southampton…
…following posting the picture left, on my layout thread on RMweb, Pete Cottrel kindly related the story that the Southampton branch of the Wine Merchants business of the Eldridge Pope Brewery was bombed in 1940 and that buried in the rubble were several intact crates of bottled Graham’s Golden Lager.
They weren’t actually near the docks but in Above Bar Street, in the area that is now Guildhall Square, no rail connection though, it was in the heart of the Old Town, inside the medieval walls.
The Oxford Rail 12T Graham’s Golden Lager tank wagon, picture courtesy KMRC
In 2005 while doing trial excavations on the site the crates were discovered with a JCB bucket that broke several of the bottles. The Eldridge Pope brewery and bottling plant were at Dorchester, so bulk lager could have been sent there. However Cooper’s Brewery in Southampton had a bottling plant and had ceased actual brewing due to war damage, so it could in theory have bottled Graham’s Golden Lager post war.
The find was also reported on the BBC website:
Archaeologists’ intoxicating find, by David Fuller BBC News June, 2005
One of the best and well detailed wagons produced by Oxford Rail to date. Picture courtesy KMRC
Archaeologists searching for remains of a city’s medieval past have made an intoxicating discovery, a cache of World War II beer. The hundred-or-so bottles of lager buried beneath Southampton’s Guildhall Square were still capable of developing a head when they were opened. It is thought they had been stored in the cellar of an off-licence which was destroyed in the Blitz. The routine dig was to study the site before a new arts centre was built. Pete Cottrell, the dig leader, was hoping to find evidence of a medieval leper hospital known to have been in the area. He said the bottles were in very good condition, but the liquid inside was not. “I think you’d be very ill if you drank that, it’s absolutely rank.” Some of the bottles have now been handed to the city’s museum, while the rest has been reburied.
I thought this was a fasinating story emanating from a simple impulse buy and a picture, and was worth sharing (even as a real ale drinker), I hope this little diversion from the normal is of interest…
Canute Road Quay is on the road again and appearing at two exhibitions the next two consecutive Saturdays.
B4s ‘Caen’ and ‘Trouville’ shunt on Canute Road Quay
The first this Saturday 25th March is slightly unusual as it the Guidelines Publications Spring Show. This is the first of a series of seasonal shows that bring together traders from all the modelling and collecting genres covered by its magazine titles. This will include toy soldiers and historical figures, model railways, military and aircraft modelling, fantasy and sci-fi figures and models, as well as car, truck and farm models, to name a few.
Other familiar Guidelines Railway titles that often contain excellent Southern content includes British Railways Illustrated and also Railway Bylines.
The springtime show will take place at the established venue for Guideline’s shows, Haverstock School, 24 Haverstock Hill, Chalk Farm, North London NW3 2BQ.
The venue has great public transport links and also free parking.
The show is open from 10.30am to 5pm with a £6 entry fee, although earlier bird access from 9.30am for £10.
Alongside Canute Road Quay will be 16 other layouts covering a wide range of genres in scales from N to 0 and including 009, 0-16.5 and 0N30. The show is open between 10.30am and 4pm entrance fee is £5.
Both venues have free parking If you are coming along to either show, please drop by and say hello.
p.s. the title is a nod to a favourite Aylesbury based band of mine…
In my Talking Stock#15 post here I discuss the background to the three Maunsell 350HHp diesel ‘trip’ locomotives. In 1937 Maunsell ordered three six coupled 350hp diesel electric locos, built by the SR at Ashford with English Electric power units, to compare against the Z class 0-8-0 tanks. They were numbered 1,2 an d 3. These along with later revised versions ordered by Bulleid, were the ancestors of the British Railways large class of 350hp shunters that became the 08/09 class.
Finished as SR No.2 the Maunsell 350hp makes an appearance on Canute Road Quay
Many years ago I built an example of the SR 350hp shunter utilising a Golden Arrow Productions resin body mounted on a Lima chassis. The Lima chassis was the best chassis option at the time. Golden Arrow Productions have since revised the resin body to fit the far superior Bachmann Class 08 chassis, so I thought I would build another before stripping down and updating my original version.
Although 3D Printing is becoming more and more popular, I believe there is still a place for such resin kits, that are simple to handle and clean up and give a smoother finish straight from the mould.
The modified Bachmann 08 chassis
The kit nicely captures the SR shunters including their distinctive feature of the Ashford body, when compared with the later Class 08/09, the overhang at the rear of the cab with two angled lower windows, as well as the more normal two vertical windows, giving clear visibility of the buffers and coupling area.
Following the kit instructions, the Bachmann 08 chassis requires a little modification to take account for drop in the running plate at the cab end. I also increased the width of the running plate edge with the addition of some plastic section.
The body with its handrails and bonnet catches etc. added
The resin parts were carefully (the resin material is much softer than other plastic / £SD print materials) cleaned up to remove any flash and the windows opened up. The main body parts comprising of the body, bonnet top, radiator and radiator cowl were assembled simply using superglue. I then pre drilled the locations for the four cab door and multiple bonnet door hand rails and handles, these were then added using 0.45mm NS wire and for the bonnet door catches I used some etched brass T handles from a coach detailing fret in the spares box.
Lamp irons at each end were added using as usual Bambi staples cut and bent to shape.
A 3/4 front end view the front air tank can be seen either aside of the coupling mount
Although a bonnet ladder is included within the kit, I felt this was a like coarse so I used a finer signal ladder etching.
The kit includes white metal front bottom steps which I added to the chassis and folded up some spare brass etch fret to make the middle and top steps. The two handrails for each of the front steps were again made from the NS wire.
The Bachmann 08 has two small air tanks mounted at the front of the chassis either side of the NEM coupling pocket, the SR shunters had in reality a single air tank mounted across the front. Rather than keep the 08 arrangement, to better represent the SR shunter arrangement, I cut a suitably sized white metal coach vacuum tank, again from the spares box, to fit around the coupling pocket.
The 3.4 rear view showing the characteristic rear overhang with lower windows
If you are not using the coupling pocket then the tank can be fitted as one piece across the front.
The chassis was brush painted, whilst the body was given a dusting of the reliable rattle can Halford Plastic Primer before a top coat of their matt black. The usual HMRS transfers finish the model, she just awaits some weathering (and replacing one of the bonnet door catches that I now notice is missing). After painting I added the window glazing by cutting 20 thou clear plasticard to shape and glued in place using Deluxe Materials Glue and Glaze.
Overall this is a quick and simple project using the Golden Arrow Productions resin kit to build one of these distinctive SR three shunters, and will although a bit far from Norwood their usual stomping ground make an occasional appearance on Canute Road Quay.
Merry Christmas to you all, fill up your life with love, compassion, tolerance, peace, happiness and perhaps hopefully some time for modelling.
It looks a lot like snow at Canute Road Quay…The SR 1924 Christmas advert
The wonderful Southern Railway Christmas press advert from December 1924 seen left (click for a larger version) was recently unearthed by friend and Railway Historian Dr, David Turner, and is a fascinating glimpse back to a different, possibly non striking, time.
I love the promise of “Jolly Parties at the seaside”, I know “summer comes soonest in the south” but that must have been optimistic in December? A neat use of the holly leaves to show the list of Southern Railway served seaside destinations…
As the festive season and New Year break is upon us, I just wanted to say many thanks to all of you whom have taken the time to read my ramblings over the past 12 months. I hope you have found such ramblings interesting and informative. I have always enjoyed corresponding with many of you that have made contact me via email or the comments field on my various posts. I look forward to corresponding with you again in the New Year and maybe in person at an exhibition…
A further flurry of activity will be taking place at the start of the new year with Hornby (January 10th we beleive) announcing its 2022 range followed a few weeks later, at the beginning of February, by Bachmann making the next of their now quarterly range announcements. I will as always bring you all the Southern Railway / Southern Region related news on here as soon as their announcements are made.
Seasons greetings, whatever your faith or beliefs, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (or Nadelik Lowen ha Blydhen Nowydh Da! from the boss’ side of the Tamar) to you all!
For some of the even earlier wagon designs, such as the delightfully small ‘Chaldron’ wagons now available from Accurascale their size meant that there wooden ‘buffers’ were both lower and closer together than the ‘normal’ adopted buffer position. This meant that for shunting to easily and safely be undertaken the locomotives being used required additional buffering arrangements to be added.
This usually took the form of vertically mounted wooden blocks that were simply / crudely bolted onto the locomotive buffer beam.
B2 Peckett 0-6-0t ‘Leader’ fitted with the 247 Developments dumb buffers
My friends at 247 Developments have created 3D printed vertical dumb buffers available in sets of four either painted (£2.50) or unpainted (£1.00).
These can be simply glued to the buffer beam (I advise just removing any raised rivet from the buffer beam at the mounting position first) providing a dumb buffer solution in a matter of minutes at a pocket money price.
Even without the Chaldron wagons the additional dumb buffers add some further character and individualism to the industrial locomotive fleet.
247 Developments are of course also a great port of call for etched number and nameplates, SR Head signal discs and a wide range of locomotive, coach and wagon detailing parts.
Hornby 75T Crane legs
Continuing the 3D printed theme also new to the 247 Developments range are both short (£1.50) and long (£2.50) legs for the venerable Hornby Cowans Sheldon 75T Breakdown crane (similar to the one based for a while at Eastleigh).
