Daves C & W Works

[Dave]

Thank you Pebbles for that info, but as I have a scrap body I was going to cut out a bit of the boiler and use that.

Atlantic, it's a long story, body was in a tray, put in shed, door slammed shut in wind, heard crash, I was inside the house taking a phone call,
sometime later investigated the crash, several cans of spray primer on the floor along with a broken bottle of solvent and the body floating in the tray.
Nice smell though.

Lesson learnt......close door possibly.

[JASd17]

Dave,

I would offer to come and drown your sorrows, in this respect.

But perhaps enough liquid has made its mark for now!

John

[Dave]

Time for an update on the NER E15 Pulley Wagon.

Cross beam assemblies made and fixed in place, the screw handles were a bit of a faff to make, the brass wire came from around a wine bottle.
The buffers have been changed to the correct type from those by Mike Trice, and fitted with metal heads, now nearly finished just finish painting it and finish the transfers.

[jwealleans]

Nice. You bringing it to Wakey?

[Dave]

Thank you.

Yes I can do, it should be finished by then .

Which day are you thinking of, I've not decided yet but thinking of Sunday.

[jwealleans]

There all three days, mate. I've gone all LNWR for the weekend.

[JASd17]

Thank you.

Yes I can do, it should be finished by then .

Which day are you thinking of, I've not decided yet but thinking of Sunday.

I will be around most of the show, but certainly on Sunday. Hope to catch up with you both then.

John

[scottiedog]

Sunday for me, too. Catch up with you then, Dave. Will you be brining anything interesting for us to see?

[Dave]

JW, is it curable ? looking forward to seeing the change in you.

Will you be bringing any little gems with you John.

Scottiedog, well me of course, that should be interesting enough for anyone.....oh and the E15 so JW can have a look, I've not been very productive this year, sorry.

Anyway sounds a good show if we all manage to meet up.

[Dave]

The pulley wagon is finished as some of you saw it at the very good Wakefield show, I must get a photo of it, I'm very pleased with how it turned out, only a year to build.

So a start has been made on a NER dia A14 Traction Engine wagon, it will be 5243 built in 1914, again some of you saw the beginnings. Well it's well on the way now, I just need an recent picture. Here is an old pic showing the bits.
The buffers are from the Mike Trice Shapways NER set, the bogies will be Cambrian LNER.

[JASd17]

Dave, the Pulley wagon is a brilliant piece of work. I should have brought the camera to Wakefield.

Looking forward to seeing how the A14 progresses; Scalefour North? Will a load be required, to the same standard, too?

John

[drmditch]

I did contemplate this vehicle the year before last. According to the NERA 'Specially constructed wagons' books, some were (logically enough) based in Leeds, Wellington St, convenient for Fowler's and Leeds Forge.

I couldn't however work out a suitable traction/ploughing engine load, even with the chimney, crankshaft and flywheel dismantled, that would be within loading gauge.

I was particularly interested in the plough engines that were produced as an Anti-U-boat measure in the later stages of WW1. (Lest that seem a bit odd, the reason was to boost home food production when so much food that had been previously imported was being sunk. In April 1917, Britain came closer to defeat that at any other time in any of the 20th Century wars. At one point there were only six weeks food in stock.)

I did have a most helpful and interesting exchange of emails with members and officers of the Steam Plough Club ... website here...

If you are interested I will try to get back to my project, and summarise some of the information.

I was advised that Fowler's did send out some of their smaller engines by rail, such as rollers and some of the smaller traction and plough engines. The larger ones such as the BB/BB1 were too large for rail transport and went out on their own wheels. Fowler's employed twenty-four full time drivers for this work.

The Langley white metal kit purports to be a BB1 - but is at least 10% overscale. I'd got mine half built before I realised this! In any event the BB1 weighed 18 tons!

The same helpful person identified the ploughing engine loaded on a GN 15 ton machinery wagon on page 62 of Tatlow Volume 1 as a Fowler TE1, dating around 1910/12. This one only weighed 14 tons!

I eventually compromised, and loaded my NER A2 machinery wagon with a road roller (I think from Oxford Diecast) with the canopy etc removed.

But it is an interesting subject. I wish you well with your build!

EDIT - Just remembered I did start a thread ....here...., but neither I nor anyone else followed it up!

[drmditch]

Have just caught up with the news that Oxford do a model of the BB1, ...here...

Hopefully, it will be more to scale than the Langley kit, but still too large for rail transport, especially on an A14 with it's 'high level' floor.

[Dave]

JASd17, Thank you, but I would not say it was brilliant, but then I know where I bodged it.

Drmditch.
That is an interesting thread you started, how did I miss it.

The Steam Plough Club have some very interesting items and engines, I had a very enjoyable day at the World Ploughing
Championships held near York in September. I spent hours watching the steam ploughs. Two of the most interesting engines
I saw was 2 diesel conversions, Fowler ploughing engine AL 8510 a BB1 of 1918 and Fowler NK 1755 a BB of 1917.
They do mention in a booklet I bought at the event, that deliveries and return journeys to the works by the larger engines
were by road under their own steam.

Yes I would be interested in what you found out, like you I've wondered what they would have carried as they are high,
a well type wagon, I would have thought, been more versatile with the larger types of engines.
I notice that there were 2 types of Traction Engine Wagon mentioned in the NERA book NER Specially Constructed Wagons,
the A11 and the A14 that I'm building, they only mention 2 A14's 3217 & 6334 and not mine 5243 or 22086 that was built in
1913. The only difference I can see between the A11 & 14 are the headstocks (the A11 appears level with the deck whereas the
A14 is raised above) and the removable chocks. Which is another interesting point how did they load the A14 with the raised headstock
which is an inverted channel, the drawing shows a timber pack in the channel to make it level, but even with this it must have been a
bumpy loading. I assume they were driven on from an end loading dock due to the clipped buffers.

If you would like a copy of the GA plan I have PM me with your email address.

[Dave]

The pulley wagon is now complete.