Roger Maslin

Pictures by the author

The fictional setting for the story is a remote Welsh coal mining valley in 1938

OURS IS A STRANGE HOBBY. We aim for realism yet are prepared to sacrifice it in part to achieve more convincing effects in other ways. We have moving locomotives and rolling stock responding convincingly to remote control, but the crew and passengers are either absent or inanimate. We elect to model a setting that actually existed, then condense distances to fit our layout to the available shed, loft or spare bedroom and so on.

In the end we depend on our imaginations to bridge the gaps. There will always be some enthusiast that will frown on one's own particular compromise, but in the end it's an individual choice.

The base for the project

But has one of my latest projects gone beyond those subtle boundaries of acceptability? The fictional setting of my layout is a GWR station in a remote Welsh coal mining valley in 1938. It was 3rd of September and the day I was born. One year later was not a good day for a first birthday!

Over the last twelve years I have constructed a disproportionate number of gauge O locomotives from kits. It's the part of the hobby I most enjoy. Several familiar GWR classes feature, but I wanted a reasonably convincing excuse to tackle other interesting prototypes. Enter the owner of several prosperous coal mines in the valley – Hugh Pugh (me). Hugh has obtained permission for his company's locomotives and rolling stock to use GWR tracks to travel between the company's mines. The pithead gear of the largest mine is a feature of the layout. It has its own private siding.

Hugh obtains some of his unusual locomotives from a friendly dealer, Cuthbert McGrew (Alphagraphix) who specialises in secondhand Irish equipment. Hugh has long aspired to a locomotive mounted crane, but he didn't like the configuration of those available on the market. Then, following a chance conversation at a trade show (Guildex), he bought a jib crane from a Derby company (Gladiator). Inspired by photos of GWR's Cyclops 0-6-4PT, he realised that he could then buy a second Inchicore Cab from his Irish source. The first was already being used as a saloon to ferry him and his senior managers between their working sites. The appeal was that it had the same 0-6-4 wheel configuration as Cyclops.

Hugh discussed his idea with Barney, his engineering shop foreman (me – talking to myself). A resourceful man with a skilled team (also me), up-to-date equipment and with a good stock of raw materials (brass rod and sheets, polystyrene sheets and sections, balsa, solder and adhesives), Barney could see the potential. A second locomotive was bought (Alphagraphix's kit containing the familiar brass frets and white metal castings, plus a motor and gearbox, brass bushes, couplings, hand-rail knobs and wheels all sourced elsewhere.)

Barney set enthusiastically to work. He retained the outer panels of the bottom half of the passenger compartment. With the addition of handrails and some reinforcement they formed a safety barrier round the edge of the crane platform. The access steps and balcony were retained, but the original handrails (etched brass sheet) were replaced with a more robust design of the same configuration (soldered brass rod). Other handrails were added along the top of the safety barrier and up the access steps.

The crane needed to be mounted centrally within the enclosed area. It also needed to be mounted on a base or turret to set it to the right height for the jib to clear the locomotive's cab roof and within which the crane assembly could rotate through 360⁰. A box-like structure was fabricated from soldered brass sheet, incorporating the bearings for the vertical spindle (a block of balsa with a close fitting drilled vertical hole – surprisingly effective) extending below the crane and held in by friction and gravity.

A timber planked floor (polystyrene sheet) around the crane's base was matched to the floor level of the balcony, using the reinforcement (balsa strips) needed to support the weight of the crane also to pack the floor up to the correct height.

The crane jib is hand rotated with a worm and worm- wheel mechanism. A new, more convenient bracket subassembly for the fore and aft worm bearings was designed, fabricated (brass sheet and tube), then machined as a single entity so that the fore and aft bearing housings were in line. After initial fitting to the turret (with two pairs of 14BA screws all in line), this subassembly was removed and split (between the pairs of screws). This ensured that when re-assembled to incorporate the worm with its extension shafts and hand-wheel, everything lined up correctly.

All that remained was to provide storage for lifting slings, tools and other paraphernalia (DCC decoder), smart new paintwork and a name. A cupboard was built (Plastic card and polystyrene cement) against the back face of the locomotive's cab.

Hugh decided to experiment with the livery. The scheme chosen was black (Halfords' matt black spray paint) and a brush painted mossy green (Humbrol 150 matt - conveniently in stock). Gears, hand-wheels and buffer beams were picked out in red. Gold paint was used for polished brass items.

Finally, Barney found a pair of old name plates tucked away at the back of his workshop (a box of miscellaneous odds and ends that might come in useful). The name SHAMROCK seemed very appropriate.

Test running produced the familiar problems. Mysterious derailments at the pithead's private siding, but nowhere else, were eventually eliminated using packing washers to adjust the height of the bogey relative to the footplate. And then when all seemed to be sorted, an electrical short occurred where the main line runs under a bridge. This meant the tell-tale spark was out of sight. Eventually, a bit of finger probing showed that the end of a check rail was just slightly proud of the running rail. This was being brushed by a tiny filament of wire inboard of the wheels that had escaped a soldered joint. Frustrating, but still for me a better past-time than golf!