PD Hancock - Craig and Mertonford - Dundreich

[Malcolm]

Congratulations to Rod for negotiating the safe return of Joans body. That is two locos that have been saved for posterity this year, dare we hope Agnes is out there, as you know I have my doubts but then I never thought Joan would turn up!!!  Lord Craig of course is not amused at Joans return.
I note Agnes had a Kemtron Stubby chassis so did Joans chassis end up under Agnes? 
Good year for PDH and the CMR.
Malcolm

[Graeme Dunbar]

That is good news. I wonder what an eavesdropper might think? - "return of Joan's body"  :)

[rod335]

I have been thinking EXACTLY the same thing!

[MickT]

Cue innuendos about her needing a thorough overhaul of her big end etc.....................

Mick

[rod335]

I couldn't possibly say....

[Malcolm]

That is good news. I wonder what an eavesdropper might think? - "return of Joan's body"  :)

Yes what would you think if you were an eavesdropper in the Burke and Hare pub in Edinburgh!!
Malcolm

[Malcolm]

Following on from the donation of 'Joan' the diesel to the 009 Society.

Circa 1967 Bob Milne from Kirkcaldy answered an advert in the Railway Modeller placed by P D Hancock and met with him shortly thereafter and purchased six 'American' wagons and the body of 'Joan' the diesel from the CMR.  Earlier in the week Bob crossed the Forth to visit the little bit of Craigshire that exists in my spare bedroom and to deliver the wagons back into Lord Craig's care and back onto the CMR stock lists. 

The wagons are : -
1. A bogie open wagon described by PDH on page 112 of his book 'Narrow Gauge Adventure' as 'adapted from an American HON3 gauge kit of parts.' 
2. A bogie work car or works vehicle, part open wagon part brake van, as described by PDH on page 110 of his book 'Narrow Gauge Adventure'. See also page 39 of the February 1955 Railway Modeller.
3. A bogie caboose, No.18, which on page 107 of the May 1954 Railway Modeller is described by PDH as 'Kemtron Denver and Rio Grande Western caboose'.
4. A bogie box car which on page 107 of the May 1954 Railway Modeller is described by PDH as 'Nevada County Box Car'.  A photograph of appears on page 111 of the May 1960 Railway Modeller.
5. A 4 wheel caboose about which nothing is recorded by PDH however what appears to be one end of the vehicle appears in a photograph on page 32 of 'Narrow Gauge Adventure'.
6 A bogie open wagon, No.7, converted from two Rokal TT wagons and seen in a photograph on page 26 of the February 1956 Railway Modeller [and in other unpublished photographs].   

The wagons have been donated to the Edinburgh and Lothians Miniature Railway Club's P D Hancock Collection whilst, as you are already aware, the body of 'Joan' has been donated to the 009 Society. 

Photographs of the wagons can be viewed here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/112904466287746079405/CMR20TheAmericanWagons

Malcolm

[Malcolm]

Crikey, two and a half years since I posted here.   Time really flies by which at my age is not a good thing!

A few weeks ago Dundreich, Craig Castle and the CMR rolling stock were moved into the Edinburgh & Lothians MRC clubroom to give the members a private viewing of the main artefacts within the E&LMRC P D Hancock Collection.  I only took a few photos [which were taken for Rod Allcock's benefit]  and attach two of Duncan and Moira when we took the opportunity to run them with rolling stock contemporaneous with their short lives on the first layout in the mid 1950's.

Duncan can be seen with the American work / boom car, a very light wagon which, according to PD, was just about all he could haul uphill.  He has a new chassis which enables him to pull a much heavier load nowadays however he is still to fat wide to squeeze through the platform road at Dundreich and must always use the back loop.   Moira with her new chassis, old one preserved in running order, looks quite at home with her train of Rokal wagons and 4 wheel American caboose.

Layout back home with me so that I can modify one of the fiddle yards which I have been intending to do since the layout was at the 009 Convention in 2013!!

Malcolm

Duncan with American boom car Nov 2018 by Malcolm MacLeod, on Flickr

Moira with Rokals and 4w caboose Nov 2018 by Malcolm MacLeod, on Flickr

[MickT]

Great photos Malcolm.

Without repeating in full what has already been posted on NGRM, for the benefit of those who don't already know and for those who have an interest in Philip Hancock, re-awakening this thread is very timely as this year marks the 70th anniversary of "PDH's" first published article in Model Railway News in 1948, what would have been his 90th birthday and this month also marks exactly 68 years since his 2 separate pioneering narrow gauge modelling articles appeared in the October/November 1950 issues of Railway Modeller and the November issue of Model Railway News - which are agreed to be the foundation markers of the Craig & Mertonford Railway, acknowledged as not only one of the first narrow gauge layouts in any scale, but the pioneering 9mm gauge NG railway in what we know and celebrate today as 009.

Still an inspiration after all this time!

Mick

[Malcolm]

Some additonal photographs of Dundreich at the E&LMRC clubroom have been posted by Linny Linehan.

WARNING some are of a heretical nature as they feature the NBR / NER standard at Dundreich

https://imgur.com/a/H8KxWrv

Malcolm

[Paulc]

Great photos.  What impresses me about the C&MR is that it looks so good in colour photos.  Many older layouts looked very garish when colour pictures started to appear.  There was of course nothing like the range of material that we have now which made life harder; but the CMR looks as good, if not better in colour than it does in B&W.

[Malcolm]

Paul

Considering its age, Dundreich dates from early 1970's, the colours have survived well.  Dundreich was stored for 25 years in PD's loft away from natural sunlight which has kept the colours wonderfully fresh.  I myself store it in a darkened room so the colours should survive for a good few years.

The album below has some more photos of Dundreich taken while the layout was displayed at the Edinburgh and Lothians MRC's clubrooms. They were taken by Jeremy Christie partly as an exercise in 'Focus Stacking' by using a tablet to control his Canon SLR to take the photos which were then combined in Photoshop to give the final image.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/gCgVg1FVLYD2qX2L8

Malcolm

[Paulc]

Malcolm,

Thanks for posting those.  I've been a fan of the CMR since my teens when I first saw it in RM. To me it has a quality that I find very hard to define - something like character or charisma that is missing in many other, otherwise excellently modelled layouts.
I'm familiar with photo stacking from seeing it used in astronomical photos but only recently heard of it being applied elsewhere (actually photographing cactus flowers) to achieve greater depth of field in close up photos.  It looks to be a worthwhile technique to use on models as well.
Good to know that Dundreich is in safe hands.

Paul

[rod335]

I think it is fair to say that for me, the CMR achieved the status of a 'real' railway when I was discovering the narrow gauge. Things that happened on the CMR were just as real, maybe more so, than what happened on the TR and FR as the CMR was more accessible to me. If it happened on the CMR, then it must have happened in real life.

[B.Meldon]

I think it is fair to say that for me, the CMR achieved the status of a 'real' railway when I was discovering the narrow gauge. Things that happened on the CMR were just as real, maybe more so, than what happened on the TR and FR as the CMR was more accessible to me. If it happened on the CMR, then it must have happened in real life.

What ever you were on Rod, it must have been good stuff!!

Seriously I do get what you are saying and in many ways I agree, if perhaps not as literally as you, the CMR did take on a life all of its own through the words of PDH.

Brian Meldon