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…
The Engineering prototypes of the Accurascale SR Banana vans
The banana traffic through Southampton docks in the early 1930s had grown rapidly and whilst the SR had the 99 LSWR built banana vans these were not enough and resulted in the SR hiring suitable vans from the North Eastern Railway that also included some ex Great Central and Great Eastern Vehicles (see my post about the GER versions here).
Between August 1935 and February 1936 the therefore SR introduced 200 banana vans to Diagram 1478, numbered 50575-774. These were similar to the previous insulated vans (Diagram 1477), with the Southern ‘Power Brake’ arrangement with eight brake blocks, but had horizontal planking and fitted with steam heating to aid the ripening of the bananas.
D1478 (early version)
In December 1937, after the LNER had requested the return of all its vans that were on hire, a further 125 banana vans were ordered, To enable them to enter service quicker ordinary covered vans in construction were instead built as banana vans to Diagram 1479, numbered 50775-899. These had the same bodyside strapping and roof profile as the ordinary vans to give them a different visual look than the earlier D1478 vans.
The original SR livery of these vans was like the insulated vans of SR Stone body colour with red lettering
The Diagram 1479 (early version)
A slight difference in that the D1478 vehicles carried large SR lettering until 1936, before the SR switched to small lettered branding, which is how the D1479 vehicles entered traffic.
During the war some gained a red oxide livery, and in BR days were bauxite with a yellow spot indicating the van had additional insulation fitted. Most vans were taken out of traffic by 1958, those vans that remained in service found use in BR Departmental service, mainly being used as Fitted Heads and classified as Tadpole. Additional plating was also added to the top of the ends in later life.
The underside of the chassis
Accurascale have announced that their D1478 and D1479 models will feature details variations for both early and later (additional end plating etc.) versions of each van , a die cast chassis, brass bearings, three types of wheel (split spoke solid spoke and 3 hole disc), separate hand rails, grab handles, door handles, lamp brackets, vacuum and steam pipes, through pipes steam heating cock and full SR ‘Power brake’ gear along with turned metal sprung buffers.
ACC2045 D1478 Original SR Livery Pre-1936 triple pack-1
ACC2046 D1478 Original SR Livery Pre-1936 triple pack-2
ACC2047 D1478 SR Livery 1936 to March 1941 triple-pack
ACC2048 D1478 British Railways 1948-1961 triple-pack
ACC2049 D1478 British Railways 1961 onwards triple-pack
ACC2050 D1479 SR Livery 1936 to March 1941 triple-pack-1
ACC2051 D1479 SR Livery 1936 to March 1941 triple-pack-2
ACC2052 Mixed D1478/D1479 Transitional British Railways 1948-1950 triple pack
ACC2053 D1479 British Railways 1948-1961triple-pack
ACC2054 D1479British Railways 1961 onwards triple-pack
ACC2055 Tadpole mixed ex D1478-D1479 British Railways departmental triple-pack
ACC2056 Tadpole ex D1479 British Railways departmental triple-pack
A group shot showing the end differences.
Delivery is slated for Q4 2023, with decorated samples due in Spring of 2023.
These are often asked for prototypes, a good choice by Accurascale especially as they often ran in multiples at the head of Southampton goods trains, and will certainly be welcome on any SR/BRs South Western based model railway.
Some along with my older kit built versions will definitely be making an appearance on Canute Road Quay.
This is always an excellent show organised by the very friendly Stafford Railway Circle, and is the first in their now to become regular weekend date slot in September. This year the show is going to be bigger than ever before and located in the main Bingley Hall at the Stafford County showground which provides more space and much better facilities.
Saturday: 10.00 – 17.00
Sunday: 10.00 – 16.30
Admission Prices: Adult: £12, accompanied children under 16 free.
At Stafford County Showground in Bingley Hall, ST18 0BD.
The County Showground is situated 3 miles to the east of the town on the A518 in the direction of Uttoxeter. A free bus service will run from Stafford railway station to the venue on both days. Details (subject to confirmation) can be found here.
Hopefully some of you will be able to visit the show and if you do please come and say hello.
Note: Canute Road Quay will be back in colour for the exhibition.
One area of Canute Road Quay that I needed to correct, as it had been both constructively and bluntly pointed out to me on a couple of occasions, is that a few of the road vehicles were slightly out of my usual self-imposed modelling period of 1946 to 1946.
The two new period vehicles on Canute Road Quay
Obviously, I want all aspects of the layout to be correct and consistent, it is all too easy to contrate on rolling stock and miss other, more obvious to others, areas of accuracy. I have therefore been looking to source some replacement suitable vehicles. For someone like me, without an in-depth knowledge of all things internal combustion, I found this to be a much harder and time-consuming job than it could be, as very few of the manufactures of ready to run vehicles actually provide simple information such as the relevant dates of manufacture as part of their listings, resulting in having to google each and any model that I thought might be of roughly the correct period.
The nicely moulded resin and white metal parts are assembled
However, at a recent model railway exhibition I happened to be across the aisle from Road Transport Images run by the very friendly Graeme and Lorraine McQuaker, they produce a range of modular resin kits for British commercial and military vehicles in 4mm scale ranging from a 1930s Fordson AA up to a 2014 Iveco Stralis. All were displayed very helpfully, with yes, the date of manufacture for the prototype (as does their website), just what I had been looking for, making choosing the correct vehicle for my time period accurate and simple!
The range currently includes over 200 cab, vans and pickups, and 16 chassis and a wide range of bodies, trailers and unsheeted loads all cast in resin, with detailing parts in white metal or etched and 35 different wheel profiles.
For Canute Road Quay I purchased a Bedford Spurlings KV 2 ton integral van (built between 1946 and 1952) and an Austin K2-4 with a dropside body (built between 1946-48).
A dusting of Halfords’ Plastic primer
The resin parts, that comprise of cab/body/dropside, chassis parts, cab interior, fuel tank etc. are very crisply moulded, well detailed with very little flash to require cleaning off. These particular kits also included white metal head and side lights either etched or white metal steering wheel, the relevant white metal wheels come with brass rod for axles and are designed such that the wheels rotate. I angled the front wheels slightly on the angles to enable a ‘steered’ position to be allowed rather than the usual ‘straight on’ seen on most RTR vehicles.
Having fixed the cab interiors to the chassis parts I used the trusty Halfords’ Plastic Primer followed by a top coat of other aerosol colours that I happen to have had to hand; you should be able to recognise at least one of the colours…
The Austin K2-4 with a dropside body passes Canute Road Quay
As the windows were relatively small, I used Delux Materials ‘Glue and Glaze’ pulled across the aperture for the glazing, although the front windscreens were possibly on the verge of being large and cutting individual clear plastic glazing would have been an alternative method (if you use this method run a black maker around the edges before gluing in place with a little Glue and Glaze, as this then represents the rubber windscreen seal).
The inside of the headlamps (white metals castings) were painted with a little silver paint and when dry the lens was created with a small drop of Glue and Glaze.
The Bedford Spurlings KV 2 ton integral van
All that is required now are some registration number plate transfers to be added, I have obtained a set of suitable transfers from Scale Model Scenery.
Overall, these Road Transport Images resin kits are excellent, simple and enjoyable to build, and I consider them good value for money. I will certainly be adding more of their kits to the fleet of vehicles available for use on Canute Road Quay to provide variety whilst being consistent with my time period.
B4s ‘Caen’ and ‘Trouville’ shunt on Canute Road Quay
It is good to be at exhibitions again, especially as many Model Railway Clubs/Societies have lost such valuable income from the lack of exhibitions during the pandemic, so if you are able to visit the show, and support the Silverfox DCC MRC, please drop by Canute Road Quay and say hello.
p.s. the title is a nod to a favourite Aylesbury based band of mine…
Rapido trains UK confirmed back in January that they are going to produce the LBSCR ‘E1’ 0-6-0T in ’00’ gauge, as part of their growing range, despite it no longer being a commission by Model Rail magazine. My friends at Rapido trains UK have kindly provide me with copies of the latest CAD renders for this project and allowed me to post them here.
CAD renders of the Rapido ex LBSC E1 note the different dome and safety valve versions
They advise me that they will hopefully be confirming soon which running numbers and liveries they are going to produce and I will of course publish the details here when known. I understand it will cover a number of the class variations throughout their lifetime and geographical working area. As I model 1946 to 1949 I am hoping at least one will be in SR sunshine black, or suitable for a quick repaint and renumber to that period, as a number of members of the E1 class were often seen shunting at Southampton Docks and will be therefore be suitable motive power on my Canute Road Quay layout.
The early E1 version
It should of course be noted that these CAD renders are a work in progress and some areas in particular are known to require some amendments, such as tank tops. I am also hoping that the couplings might be revised slightly to reduce their protrusion.
It is the purpose of such renders to help evaluate the overall shape and details to confirm they are totally correct before approving the CADs for tooling to commence. Contrary to the belief of some, the first impression from tooling / the Engineering Prototype is to confirm fit and function and perhaps make some minor adjustments, not to see if the basic shape is correct…
A 3/4 rear view of the early version note the open coal rails
The class were originally introduced in 1874 by William Stroudley for local goods and piloting duties, as the E class. Many gained a Marsh type boiler from 1906-7 with a larger dome moved rearwards, encased Ramsbottom safety valves and the whistle relocated to the cab roof. The last six engines were built by RJ Billinton that also has slightly different boilers, Ramsbottom safety valves and a manhole cover, with whistle, was fixed over the firebox. These six were also given different chimneys, to Billinton’s design, (a cast-iron type in one piece) and were known as Class E1, subsequently all the earlier engines also became known as Class E1. Withdrawals commenced in 1908 and continued in SR days
The later Marsh Boiler version with revised dome position and Ramsbottom safety valves
during the 1920s, with some examples sold to industrial railways rather than scrapped. Eight examples were also rebuilt as E1/R 0-6-2 radial tank engines for use in the west of England. Four E1s were also transferred during 1932/3 for duties on the Isle of Wight and renumbered W1-W4 and given names related to the Island:136 (originally Brindisi) became W1 Medina, 152 (originally Hungary) became W2 Yarmouth, 154 (originally Madrid) became W3 Ryde and 131 (originally Gournay) became W4 Wroxall.
Thirty survived to British Railways ownership but during the 1950s they were gradually replaced by diesel shunters. The last survivor,
The tank tops, that should be recessed are an area already noted to be improved
BR no 32694, was allocated to Southampton Docks. It was withdrawn in July 1961.
Number 110 was withdrawn in February 1927, and sold to the Cannock and Rugeley Colliery Company and fitted with a revised boiler design. Withdrawn again in 1963 she was preserved and now resides on the Isle of Wight steam railway and is being restored with the identity of W2 ‘Yarmouth’
It is good to see this project progress and as soon as Rapido trains UK let me know their intended versions being produced I will post the details accordingly.
The pair of SR Diagram 1478 banana vans being shunted along with the daffodils bring a splash of colour to Canute road Quay this Easter
The budding trees, the new flowers, and birds that sing, whisper to me that it’s Easter, and that the supermarkets are full of chocolate of all shapes (many irrelevant), sizes and special offers!
Here is wishing a warmth in the firebox of your soul on Easter & always!
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The model railway world and mainly Southern Railway meanderings of Graham 'Muz' Muspratt
