Siphon C

History

In the period of the layout milk traffic on the Great Western was carried Siphons, 4 or 6 wheeled passenger rated vehicles with open slatted sided to aid air flow to keep the milk cool. The first vehicle to be built for milk traffic on Hallatrow is a Siphon C (GW diagram 08 & 09). The only difference between the two diagrams was that the 08 were 8' 0" wide and the 09 were 8' 6".

Construction and numbering details:

                  Diagram 08  Lot 1125 18 built in 1907, nos. 1524-42
                                       Part Lot 1133 4 built in 1907 nos. 1515-18
                  Diagram 09  Part Lot 1133 6 built in 1907 nos. 1519-24
                                       Lot 1162 12 built in 1909 nos. 1503-14
                                       Lot 1183 20 built in 1910 nos. 1482-1501

For more details about Siphons C's can be found in the HMRS book 'GW Siphons' by J N Slinn and B K Clarke. A hand written note added to the caption against a photo of no. 1503 in the book states that it was taken in September 1920 after the fitting of handholds in the doors and that the vehicle was b built without them in 1909. An email to an a Great Western web forum confirmed the dates the handhold were fitted and that the vehicles in Lot 1183 were built with handholds.

.... and chimmneys

Just a quick update. I have finally completed the chimneys for the station building. As see the chimneys on Clarke buildings are ornate so you can see they were made in many parts before being assembled. I have started work on the canopy skylight and have placed it to see what it will look like.

The sum of the parts.

The chimneys temporally fitted held in place with blu tack and the canopy skylight.

The windows, doors.....

It's been some time since my last post, but things have been started put down when I get stuck and other things picked up. Well as the winter modelling season is upon us I moved from the shed at the bottom of the garden to indoors and so have been doing less messy modelling and I decided that the station building needed to progress - so it time for the windows and doors.

The platform side of the station building. 

The rear side. It is interesting that all the station buildings built by William Clarke, the consultant engineer
for the Bristol and North Somerset Rly, had no doors on the rear, only on the platform side. 

A Pannier with CSB's

To replace the chassis of this Bachmann Pannier I have again used a High Level chassis kit. However this time instead of building the chassis with the beam compensation system provided I decided to have a go at 'continuous springy beam' (CSB) suspension after reading the article in Scalefour News 182. For more information about CSB's go to "the theory of CSB's".

To allow for the fitting of the CSB's a number of amendments have to be made to the kit. The CSB fulcrum points were drilled using the High Level CSB Jig. The front three frame spacers were modified to allow for the CSB wires to move and CSB carriers were fitted to the bearings.

A kit of parts before fitting the hornblocks. The high level hornblocks with the

CSB carriers are in the top left. To allow for the bearings/wheels to be removable

 the dummy springs have been pinned to the chassis sides.

The hornblocks and frame spacers are fitted using a 'Chassis²'. After fitting the hornblocks/bearings and the frame spacers I made a major departure from the kit's instructions by making up the gearbox, fitting and quartering the wheels. I find that it is easier to setup the loco at this stage rather than when all the valve gear and other bits have been fitted in case it is necessary to adjust the position of any on the hornblocks.

The chassis after setting up.

Close up of chassis showing the CSB and CSB fulcrums. The front axel
hornblock has a High Level 'spacesaver variant' which being thinner than
the standard (which is on the middle axel) thus making the provision of the
dummy inside motion easier.

The Bachmann temporary placed on the chassis.

For more information about building a CSB chassis for the Bachmann Pannier go to "Pannier CSB".

Milk Traffic

In the early photos of Hallatrow there are always lots of milk churns and in 'Through Countryside & Coalfield' it quotes figures for milk traffic over the branch in 1925. For Hallatrow it quotes over 7000 churns. The milk was sent either to London (via Frome) or to Cardiff (via Bristol). All this traffic had gone by the mid-1930 as Express Dairies took over collection direct from the farms by road.

14xx at Scaleforum 2014

Whilst at Scaleforum 2014 last weekend I took the chance to give my GWR 14xx, an Airfix body with a High Level chassis, a run on the Risborough & District MRC's test track. After a strutting start it completed several laps, in both directions, without stoping. Earlier in the day I had spoken to Andrew Ullyott to see if I could give the loco a run on his 'Wheal Elizabeth' when the show started to run down on the Saturday, as you can see.

Working Timetables

Originally when the layout was designed I had intended to set it in 1923 (just after the grouping), however I later decided to set the layout just after the opening of the re-modelling of Hallatrow and the opening of extension of the Camerton branch around 1909 - 11.

I visited the Public Records Office (PRO) to obtain copies of Working Timetables (WTT's) and other documents. However all the sections of the WTT's are bound together and because of the fragility and condition of the pages it is not possible to get good copies of the pages.

I was then told that there were a number of WTT's published on the web and just after that a post was put on a GWR web list asking for WTT's of the branches of the GW main line in Devon in the BR period. The reply gave details of a site with copies of a number of BR(WR) working timetable plus a number of 1911 GWR WTT's. Fortunately this included sections 3, 4 and 5 (i.e. 3 being Reading, Westbury, Taunton & Weymouth, 4 being Bristol and 5 being Weston, Taunton & Exeter). The Bristol section includes both the North Somerset and East Somerset.