PD Hancock - Craig and Mertonford - Dundreich

[tedp]

Ted
As they would say in Glasgow; 'pure dead brilliant'
Malcolm

;D

[Malcolm]

Rod

Was it your good self who mentioned the Wainright connection in an e-mail?  Before replying to Graeme I searched two forums and my saved e-mails without success.  I could remember Wainright being mentioned by someone and with my memory being far from infallible I wrongly recalled meeting rather than correspondence.

Malcolm

[Malcolm]

Posted by: GraemeD 
Regarding Lord Craig - flicking through Narrow Gauge Adventure again I was reminded that he made figures from wax on a wire armature. Is this the case with this gentleman?

Graeme
Lord Craig is a lump of whitemetal.
Malcolm

[Graeme Dunbar]

Malcolm

I don't know if PDH and Wainwright ever met but I do know that PDH told me they had a degree of correspondence, being out of similar moulds. Indeed PDH made no secret of the fact in conversation that Hill Walking was his major passion, taking precedence over railways and railway moddelling. Of course, then there was Scottish Church Architecture as well.... He regretted greatly that his failing health, and the death of his long-time walking companion, led to a curtailment of his walking activities.

Rod

Many thanks Rod and Malcolm for shedding light on this. It just struck me the other night leafing through "NG Adventure" again that the essence if not the exact style of the diagrams was reminiscent of Wainwright. No doubt influenced by school tech. drawing and commercial drawing office style of the period.

For readers outside the UK, this is Wainwright or "A.W." (he never used his first name as he hated it).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Wainwright

The books are little gems.

[rod335]

Malcolm

I honestly can't remember if I mentioned the Wainwright connection to you, nor can I remember when PDH told me. I'm sorry to say that I was not aware of AW until Julia Bradbury's television programmes and the only time I met PDH was about 2006 although he and I spoke by telephone on several occasions before and after that meeting, so I can't really shed any more light on this.

Rod

[theelliotts]

Greetings all from a just joined west coast (of Canada) member. In the first copy of 009 News I was delighted to read of the 'surfacing' od Dundreich and other C&M relics.
I have a part copy of RM Volume 1 #7 Oct - Nov 1950 in which PDH wrote an article titled "Why not a Narrow Gauge Layout". I can scan a copy if desired privately. I also have a copy of his "Narrow Gauge Adventure".
I have indexed all the copies of UK Model railway mags in my posession including RM from 1955 in part with most recent complete years which I can check for articles.

Regards to all
David J Elliott

[Hugh Norwood]

Lord Craig is a lump of whitemetal.

Oooh, that's cruel! (I might remember that one. Makes a change from "lard tub")
;D

[invercloy]

I hear his lordship made the trip to ExpoNG recently.  Sadly I didn't get to meet him.  From a personal point of view it would be really nice to have a photo of him on Isle Ornsay at some point as PDH's work is partly responsible for my Scottish leanings when it comes to NG railways.

[Malcolm]

I hear his lordship made the trip to ExpoNG recently.  Sadly I didn't get to meet him.  From a personal point of view it would be really nice to have a photo of him on Isle Ornsay at some point as PDH's work is partly responsible for my Scottish leanings when it comes to NG railways.

Well Tom I'll give you an incentive.  His lordship does not like visiting building sites as he gets his boots covered a white stuff called 'Polyfilla' and then I have to clean them!   :(   So you finish the layout and I'll speak nicely to the old boy when he returns from his travels.  We'd both love a visit to Skye.   ;)

Malcolm MacLeod of MacLeod
Equerry to Lord Craig
Hon Chairman
Craig and Mertonford Light Railway
Craig Castle
Craigshire
[Somewhere east of Dunbar]

[rod335]

Dunber?!!!!!!

Rod

[invercloy]

That sounds good, Malcolm, I shall have to get cracking! :)

[Malcolm]

It is most remiss of me not to have updated this topic before now.  With the last postings in Nov 2012 anyone coming across this topic now might be concerned that the lack of postings from Craigshire mean that the Craig and Mertonford has closed.  Nothing of course could be further from the truth - it is just resting having successfully survived its first ever exhibition.  'Dundreich' survived its 500+ mile round trip undamaged and Lee Marsh has said he is prepared to make his locos and rolling stock available should 'Dundreich' be exhibited again. Mick's photos can be found at http://micksrovingreporter.blogspot.co.uk/

Having had a hectic time preparing

[Malcolm]

I notice it is some time since my last posting so here is brief update on what has been or not been happening.

I have been undertaking some not so scholarly research into the writings of PDH by going through the magazine articles and the book Narrow Gauge Adventure.  This has, for instance, enabled me to compile a list of the named characters of Craigshire and I will write this up in a Who's Who in due course and yes thank you, I have fully recovered from my stay in the Craigshire Sanitorium for the Sorely Afflicted [see posting #169 above] but completing the Who's Who may cause a relapse.  I have also started a survey of the CMR coaching stock, will have to update a survey of the goods stock then there are the locos, the standard gauge etc etc and so the list goes on.  Someone has even suggested a biography of PDH!!!   Thank goodness longevity runs in the family as I will need very moment of my time here on earth to get everything completed.  I am also busy cataloging some surviving notes, correspondance and drawings by PD which date from the early 1950's and now owned by Lee Marsh, who also owns most of the standard gauge and the CMR narrow gauge stock from Craigshire. PD was not a man to throw things out so it would be very interesting to be able to trace his work from the late 1950's onwards. PD was a dab hand at the engineering drawing but whilst his drawings are excellent for their time I suspect research in the past 50 years or so reduces their interest and technical worth to modellers.

I have also completed a brief history of what happened to the Craigshire and the CMR between 1987 and now and fully detailed in a separate document the conservation and restoration undertaken to Dundreich.  As work proceeds on other parts of Craigshire's remains it will also be fully documented.

And what of Dundreich and the physical remains of Craigshire?  Safely stored for the moment as I need to get through the cataloguing mentioned above and finish work on scanning and cataloguing papers, etc belonging to the Edinburgh and Lothians MRC.  I never knew archive cataloguing was a skill railway modellers required but I do now!

Malcolm

[rod335]

To reawaken this thread, those of you with an interest in all things CMR will be delighted to know that the body of the original 'Joan', the Kemtron Diesel, has resurfaced and will soon be winging it's way towards the Society's Heritage Collection. Quite what is to be done with it is another matter.

[MickT]

Well done Rod, another PDH item unearthed!

Keep looking for Agnes!

Mick