The Heybridge Railway, 1889 to 1913

[RichardG]

I bought this kit a few years ago. If it included some wire to make the details then this is lost. I have an etch and instructions.


With two true right-angles folded into the etch, the fourth side does not line up. The external corners on the top do not meet up either.


I broke off the fourth side and put it back in the right place, and added scraps of wire to build up the wonky corners. So there are seven parts in the frame here, not two as the designer intended.


Then I realised the levers are rather intricate to assemble. A two-lever frame will be correct for the location on my layout, and I certainly don’t want to make two levers with no purpose.

So I cut the model into two pieces to turn it into a two-lever frame. It would be daft to try to re-use the second side because it didn’t fit properly the first time round. So I added a new side oversize and trimmed it later.


It will be wise to make the levers movable in case of inquisite fingers. I can solder them both onto the pivot rod, or maybe squeeze in a spring or some pvc tubing between them after painting.


So, a simplified model. I have my doubts about the longevity of the levers. Nickel silver would be stiffer.


The marks from the wandering drill bit will disappear after I lower this into the ground .

There are just 15 parts in this model; eight from the kit and seven from me.

 

[RichardG]

I can include a point position indicator on the layout to help suggest the period being represented when no trains are in sight. This design by McKenzie and Holland rotates on a vertical spindle and was used by the nearby GER and other companies.


The first task is to drill a hole vertically through the base. This means a hole 0.75 mm diameter and 12.4 mm long, through a piece of white metal.

I find, if I hold the work in my fingers and start to feel it getting hot, this means the swarf is melting and forming a slippery coating on the bit. Stop and clean up and restart. I used Wahl clipper oil as the lubricant. I don’t think it really matters whether you use oil or silicone or just about any body fluid, just use something and keep on replenishing it.


The 0.75 mm hole in the base is a clearance for this 0.7 mm wire which forms the spindle.

The lamp housing is missing its third lens, so I took a brass panel pin and turned down its head to make something which looked a bit like a lamp lens. I was so pleased with this so I removed the cast lump representing the second lens and worked up another pin to match.


The business of fitting this onto the layout and arranging its linkage to the associated point mechanism are for the future.

 

[RichardG]

I have edited the last post because I put the balance lever in the wrong place. I have replaced the final photo.

There are just nine parts in this model; five from the kit and four from me. It does however look quite authentic when viewed from a normal distance.


Posed over a convenient hole in the baseboard.

Mangapps museum have one of these or something very similar, I might remember to take this model along on my next visit.

 

[RichardG]

I have a secondhand kit for a five-ton crane to take me most of the way to Christmas. I am unsure of the provenance of this kit - the instructions are from The Wagon and Carriage Works of Hoddeston, while the box is from Meteor Models. I guess one company/trader bought out the other.


Really this is two kits in one box.

There is an option to build the crane as a yard crane but I already have one such crane (from the Peco kit) so I want to try for a mobile crane this time.

Everything seems to be present except for one coupling link; but there are no spare parts. The curious insulator-shaped casting bottom left is six small wheels. The other parts are fairly self-explanatory.


At the outset, the crane mechanism looks more logical than the Peco one.

The kit portrays an imaginary wagon, “based on prototype practice but amalgamating ideas from several prototypes”, and the only illustration of the finished model is the tiny sketch above. So in the end I guess I cannot really get it too far wrong

 

[RichardG]

This is the sort of thing the kit builds into. The model jib can be posed up or down but not both, I think 'up' will be more fun for photos. The model will not be able to run in a train; but this saves me having to build a match truck to go with it.

This prototype is mechanically more sound than the design portrayed in the kit(!), especially regarding the bracing rods. Hopefully I can make some improvements along the way.


The castings are very mixed. The gears are good, some of the others are terrible. It seems the manufacturer has the ability to make a fine casting but sometimes cannot be bothered. The rubbing plate cleaned up in the lathe, quick and easy but some of the other castings have taken quite a while to fettle with a knife and files.


Most of my soldering is underneath so the model looks reasonably tidy.


The kit includes a piece of wood to make the jib. A previous owner has tried to carve this into an octagonal shape and failed. I know I couldn’t do a great deal better so I have made a new jib with a circular cross-section.


This is box wood from my garden. Twenty-five years ago the plant was a tiny sapling. Two years ago it was flourishing shrub, and 18 months ago it was dead from box blight. I dug it all out and the useful pieces have been maturing indoors ever since.


I have used wood dye to colour the box wood. If I paint it then I might as well have used styrene tube.

So this is my first ever model to include something I have grown myself. Maybe this is “scratch building”? I’m not sure. I know the cross section of this sort of jib is often octagonal but carving such a thing is really difficult. Well, I don't know how to do it. I would rather have something simple and reasonably neatly-made.

 

[daifly]

Can someone explain how that container is lifted on or off that wagon? I can only assume that it's a posed photo as it appears that the geometry of the fixed jib & brace will not allow the load to be raised high enough to clear the sides and/or ends of the wagon.

Dave

 

[40057]

Can someone explain how that container is lifted on or off that wagon? I can only assume that it's a posed photo as it appears that the geometry of the fixed jib & brace will not allow the load to be raised high enough to clear the sides and/or ends of the wagon.

Dave

I think the container is already in the air and not resting on the floor. Might only need a couple of inches more to clear the sides?

Alternatively, drop the near side of the wagon and swing the jib moving the wagon along as the jib swings. I think that would work.

 

[daifly]

I think the container is already in the air and not resting on the floor. Might only need a couple of inches more to clear the sides?

Alternatively, drop the near side of the wagon and swing the jib moving the wagon along as the jib swings. I think that would work.

Probably that's the sort of dodge when you have the wrong wagon load to deal with or the wrong crane for the job!

Dave

 

[simond]

well, I see they made a special effort to chock the crane wagon too. Presumably the lumps of ballast are carried in a suitable bucket on board!

and the rail clips remain on their hooks.

If it was a "posed shot" I guess the local superintendent was not involved!

 

[AllenM]

I think the container is already in the air and not resting on the floor.

Looking at the slope of the writing on the container compared to the line of the top of the wagon I would agree.
Allen

 

[RichardG]

If it was a "posed shot" I guess the local superintendent was not involved!

I'd like to think the supervisor was behind the camera. This photo being taken to accompany a letter to his superiors, and showing why he needed a taller crane to deal with the new-fangled shipping containers

 

[RichardG]

I am sure the designer of this kit got the basic proportions of the crane wrong. The jib ought to be at a steeper angle, and this could be arranged with a taller frame or shorter horizontal rails for the balance weight or a bit of both.


I have raised the tip of the jib about a scale foot by locating the bottom ends of the bracing rods into “brackets” on the sides of the frame. This copies the design of the real crane with the shipping container. The brackets are split pins bolstered up with solder.


On this side, the bracing rod is one piece passing through a hollow boss made from parts of the kit. I have copied this arrangement from a crane preserved at Shildon. The tubes and nuts on the bracing rods are a fiction from me to suggest some kind of connecting mechanism.


On this side, the bracing rod is in two parts with the lack of any detailed fixings onto the frame masked by careful positioning of the gear wheel.

I still find it quite amazing how much crud washes off a white metal model, even on its third visit to the ultrasonic bath.

 

[ovener]

Looking at the crane photo, I'm sure it's just me but I can't see any brake rigging or brake handles. The ex Midland Railway crane on the IOWSR website also doesn't seem to have brakes. Surely that would be something you'd want really good brakes on
and not rely on a few scotch blocks! I know the IOW crane has chained railhead clamps for added stability but surely they'd move about a bit.
Does anyone know more about this?

 

[Osgood]

Looking at the crane photo, I'm sure it's just me but I can't see any brake rigging or brake handles. The ex Midland Railway crane on the IOWSR website also doesn't seem to have brakes. Surely that would be something you'd want really good brakes on
and not rely on a few scotch blocks! I know the IOW crane has chained railhead clamps for added stability but surely they'd move about a bit.
Does anyone know more about this?

Well spotted - how odd, but yes they should ideally be used with rail clamps.
The Chasewater Rly’s 1880 MR crane appears to have brakes (see attached).
Some pics of these little cranes in use show the match truck attached - perhaps they relied on the match truck brake.
But I can imagine a lot of scenarios where this would need to be detached for lifting purposes.

 

[simond]

Looking at the crane photo, I'm sure it's just me but I can't see any brake rigging or brake handles. The ex Midland Railway crane on the IOWSR website also doesn't seem to have brakes. Surely that would be something you'd want really good brakes on
and not rely on a few scotch blocks! I know the IOW crane has chained railhead clamps for added stability but surely they'd move about a bit.
Does anyone know more about this?

They’re bits of ballast, not scotches!

 

[RichardG]

Six-wheel crane with a brake to compare with the crane without a brake at the Isle of Wight Railway.


Another example with brake on both crane and match truck.

It looks as though some cranes had brakes and some didn't. Mine can have brakes because the Meteor kit includes them, as long as they fit.

I think the biggest problem facing the modeller is, a kit manufacturer will look at a handful of prototypes and take features from each of them to make a kit with a wide appeal. The result can a be something nonsensical, like the winding mechanism on the Peco model, or a peculiar feature like the open-topped balance weight box on the Meteor kit.

 

[Osgood]

That's how you get the ballast into it.....

 

[simond]

Until the lower picture in Richard’s last post, I hadn’t realised how simple the arrangement was for lowering the jib.

 

[RichardG]

They’re bits of ballast, not scotches!

A scotch can be a wedge or a block, anything placed to prevent a wheel from moving. Here, the scotches are pieces of ballast.

 

[simond]

A scotch can be a wedge or a block, anything placed to prevent a wheel from moving. Here, the scotches are pieces of ballast.

Well, yes, but there are devices that are specifically and suitably prepared for the task.

I believed that the use of stones was actually prohibited, as the have a habit of unpredictably turning into smaller stones, and smaller yet, just when you most need them not to do so.

I just had a look through the rule books I have - a Reprint BR 1950 book authorised to 1st October 61, and a replica 1904 GWR one, both of which are clear about the use of scotches, and scotch blocks, but neither actually mentions the use of “unauthorised materials”in such an application.

I recall that a runaway train in Ireland was mentioned in Red for Danger, so looked it up: it had been held by the brake van and stones under the wheels but was nudged by the loco and ran away with loss of 80 lives. Newry & Armagh, 12 June 1889.
Railway act 1889 rapidly followed requiring continuous vacuum brakes on passenger trains.