TMNR Times - Edition 24

A PUBLICATION OF THE TRI-ANG MINIC NARROWGAUGE RAILWAY SOCIETY

ISSUE 24 WINTER 2021 ONLINE EDITION

CONTENTS 4

News All of the latest TMNR news

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John James Slatter (1934-2021) In memorandum

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Preservation, Conservation, Restoration & Conversion Barry Nixon looks at the differences between preservation, conservation, restoration and conversion and how they affect the TMNR system

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Introducing Points – Drawings SK837 & SK914 Continuing the series documenting the original factory drawings, Mike Slatter discusses the introduction of points into the TMNR range and drawings SK837 & SK914

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My MTC Journey Fred Stillwell writes from the United States about his own journey with miniature railways and his acquisition of a MTC locomotive

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TMNR Locomotives and their Control Panels David Matthewson discusses the original TMNR control panels and his design for a modern replacement

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Observations from the Footplate Class 71 driver Edwin Renahan recalls a journey past the Minic factory at Canterbury and seeing a very familiar engine

FRONT COVER PHOTOGRAPH: Susan Jubb and members of the Gainsborough Model Railway Society enjoy a TMNR ride at a railway in Doncaster during the late 1960s. Photograph by G Chapman and reproduced with kind permission of Kevin Hoggett.

£5 when sold

www.tmnr.co.uk

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www.facebook.com/triangminicnarrowgaugerailways

EDITION TWENTY-FOUR WELCOME to Edition Twenty-Four of TMNR Times.

Due to the positive response received last year following the publication of edition twentythree of the magazine for free online, I have decided to publish this latest edition online too, in a hope that it will provide some more enjoyable reading after another difficult year.

Personally, this year has been a challenging one, having lost my father to Covid in March.

As such we have had little time to work on the garden or reinstate the railway, however we hope to find time in 2022 to start the project and get back to welcoming visitors to join us for both cups of tea and train rides.

I do hope that you will enjoy this latest edition of the magazine - I feel that it has probably the largest variety of articles so far and I very much enjoyed putting it together.

As always I remain grateful for all of the help that I received so I would like to send a big thank you to Barry Nixon, David Matthewson, Fred Stillwell and Edwin Renahan for the wonderful articles and Kevin Hoggett for kindly allowing the reproduction of the wonderful photograph taken by Mr G A Chapman on the cover.

Although maybe a little early, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a very happy Christmas and healthy New Year.

Mike (& Megan) My father testing John Hall-Craggs’ “Diamond Jubilee” locomotive after he developed and installed a new switch gear, allowing the locomotive to reverse for the first time in many years, at the Brightwalton Railway in 2010.

MIKE SLATTER.

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NEWS Hastings’ Harold Gets New EWS Livery Hastings Miniature Railway's modified 7¼” gauge TMNR received a full restoration and change of livery last winter, being out-shopped in a striking EWS livery carrying the number 1066 and ‘Golden Arrow’ headboard.

For more information on the railway’s running days see: https://www.facebook.com/HMRalexandrapark/ HMR’s TMNR “Harold” in it’s new EWS livery. DAN RADCLIFFE.

TMNR Sells at Rotterdam Auction House A T.M.N.R.1 locomotive with both a Pullman and dismantled toast rack coach sold at the Vendu auction house in Rotterdam, Holland for 350 euro (approximately £300 GBP) plus 29% fees and VAT on July 13th.

The set was previously sold by Golding Young Auctioneers in Lincoln in May 2008 for £190 and The unrestored locomotive as advertised exported to Holland by its late owner James Reuchlin on the Vendu auction house website. who sadly passed away in 2020.

Original 1963 Publicity Material Reunited A September visit to the Reading Society of Model Engineers (RSME) provided the opportunity to bring together an original TMNR publicity brochure (T.M.N.R.190) and advertising poster (T.M.N.R.191).

The poster had been previously owned by Jim Osbourne, a toy shop owner in Rushden, Northamptonshire and was found in an antique shop in Newbury by its current owner and RSME member Karl Trussler.

Three TMNR Brochures on eBay Three TMNR brochures sold on eBay during 2021 including a particularly interesting example that was stamped “BassettLowke Ltd” and was used by the company to sell the TMNR product from their 112 High Holborn, London shop. It sold for £16.05 in September.

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JOHN JAMES SLATTER (1935-2021) From an early age, my father held a keen interest in fixing things, grinding his first set of Austin 7 valves at the age of twelve, and being “clipped around the ear” for not doing it properly.

He would help his father, a horticultural worker, by mowing the tennis courts of one his clients, and it was this gentleman who started his interest in photography by giving him his first plate camera. It was here that he would also watch the railway trains passing at the bottom of the garden, and this which started his lifelong interest in railways.

During his early teenage years he sang as 'head choir boy' at St Lawrence church in Cowley and this allowed him to travel to national choir festivals and provided him the opportunity to sing in such prestigious places as Westminster Abbey and St Pauls Cathedral.

Leaving school at age fifteen he responded to an advert in the local Gazette seeking “Tuner boys” at JW Walker & Sons Organ Builders in South Ruislip and was offered an apprenticeship. He deferred his national service until he was twenty-one and joined the RAF being trained as a teleprinter and posted at RAF Haydock in Lancashire where he met his future wife Margaret.

Although his job was that of a teleprinter, it was something that he seldom did. He would often 'arrange' other ways of spending his time such as repairing cars for colleagues or working on the organ for the local church. One afternoon he was challenged by a watch commander asking who he was - The commander stated that he had been supervising the watch for six months and had never seen him before!

He and Margaret were married in 1960 in Cowley, Middlesex and purchased a house which was to become the family home for the remainder of his life.

They would enjoy many trips out in their pair of ex GPO Morris vans, travelling the country to ride on and photograph the last days of steam on closing railway lines after the Beeching cuts.

Enjoying organs, he would often visit fairgrounds to listen to the music. On one occasion he found the operator was short of staff so offered to help 'pull down' which started his life-long friendship with several fairground families. He would drive heavy goods vehicles and assist with the 'building up' and 'pulling down' of the Galloping Horses and would proudly carry and show the photograph of his eighty-three foot road train to anybody who was interested.

Although he suffered with poor health, particularly in more recent years, his strong will and determination saw him celebrate his sixtieth wedding anniversary with Margaret in 2020 and receive their card from the Queen.

He knew many things, and for those that he did not, he would find a book to read and learn.

Whenever he received a book as a gift he would stop what he was doing and insist on reading it straight away on the chance that “the print might fade!”

He would often say “I can't die yet, I need to live to a hundred as there are still people that I haven't yet annoyed”. Unfortunately he did not make this milestone and passed away on the 13th of March 2021. Those people who he did not get chance to annoy do not know how lucky they are!

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Some TMNR were converted to 7.25" gauge. This particular example had the single original GEC motor replaced by four smaller axle mounted units.

MIKE SLATTER

Preservation, Conservation Restoration & Conversion BARRY NIXON looks at the differences between preservation, conservation, restoration and conversion and how they affect the TMNR system...

RESERVATION, conservation, restoration and conversion all have a place in protecting the TMNR system for the future, but do we understand the subtle differences between them? It may be useful to consider even if you have little more than a passing interest in the history of the TMNR.

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I will attempt to provide concise descriptions of

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each term - Professional museums and official historic bodies often apply more specific and detailed meaning to them.

Preservation is preventing the destruction of a historical item. In the case of the TMNR, it is what a number of Society members do as owners of equipment. Preser vation also extends to selling or gifting items to other

people who have the space and interest to look after them.

Conservation is preventing deterioration of the preserved item without making any structural or irreversible changes. That might be cleaning, removing sur face rust and applying rust prevention to protect what is there without replacing things. That is often how museum exhibits are treated to protect them so that they can be examined by future generations.

Restoration is something many owners of TMNR equipment already do - repairing and replacing parts to make equipment complete and usable. It may also involve small changes, but nothing that drastically changes the construction, appearance or function of the original item.

Conver sion is a more ex treme level of restoration, often to justify an item being preser ved. Many TMNR locos have been converted to battery power, some have had modern electronic controllers fitted and work may have extended to converting rolling stock to 7 1/4" gauge so that it can be operated on club tracks.

Braking is also an important consideration, particularly if the plan is to run TMNR equipment on a club track. There is a requirement not only to be able to stop a train safely but to hold it in a parked position, e.g. for loading and unloading of passengers and this was not offered as a standard feature on the TMNR system.

Conversion has its place too and can be seen on full-sized heritage railways - the Ffestiniog Railway took a 0-4-0 coal-fired saddle tank loco with slide valve cylinders and converted it to a 2-4-0 oil-fired tender loco with piston valves. It made the loco more practical to use on the railway and gave them a reason to keep it.

Conversion may sometimes seem extreme but there may be very good reasons to do it.

Does any of this matter? Although a quantity of TMNR equipment survives, the focus is often on having a usable loco and maybe a serviceable carriage. Other TMNR equipment often comes a poor third in our priorities. There is a risk that no original TMNR track or transformers will survive. Track work deteriorates outdoors and it is now over 50 years old but who has the space to keep pieces of track inside and unused? The trans fo rmer s were a di s tinc ti v e feature of the TMNR as a ride-on garden railway system but they're not us able today, w hich means that for many people they're a wor thless box of electrics. However, the track and controller s show off the original design ideas and put the original TMNR system into context, even if most of the locos are now r unnin g o n b at t e r y power.

A motor bogie frame converted by Drummond Randall to have vacuum disc braking by extending the counter shaft arm. This conversion also includes the use of ball bearings on the shaft to replace the nylon originals.

MIKE SLATTER.

An original TMNR set originally consisted on a loco, carriage(s), oval of track and a transformer.

Where can you see such a complete set up today?

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Is an item rare or unique, and if so do you have the interest to preserve it? Rarity does not always equal monetar y value, e.g. TMNR transformers are getting rare but they are not useful, so their resale value is limited. However, that does not make them any less important to the history of the system.

The original design for the optional braking system was fitted by bowden cable to the motor shaft as shown in the 1963 TMNR brochure. MIKE SLATTER COLLECTION.

Often original mains power units find themselves redundant however are an important part of the TMNR story. MIKE SLATTER.

That is where preservation can mean selling or gifting something to someone who has the space and interest to look after it.

It is worth considering whether a restoration or conversion is reversible. Installing batteries and a modern electronic control system does not mean the original controls and resistor bar need to be thrown away. They might be left in-situ or stored so that a loco can be restored back to near original condition if you, or a future owner, wishes to do so.

That brings us to one of the purposes of the TMNR Society. One person's scrap is another per s on's missing pie ce for their TMNR collection. If there is something TMNR-related you no longer need or have space to preserve then consider advertising it through the TMNR magazine.

Barry Nixon

A rare occasion of publically exhibiting a complete TMNR set, consisting of a locomotive, Pullman coach and straight track panels powered by the original transformer at New Alresford Vintage Toy Show in 2008. MIKE SLATTER.

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Introducing Points

An original T.M.N.R.11 Right Handed Point.

DAVID MATTHEWSON.

Drawings SK837 & SK914

Continuing the series documenting the original factory drawings, MIKE SLATTER discusses the introduction of points into the TMNR range and drawings SK837 & SK914...

HE original production of the TMNR system in 1963 did not include point (or turn-out) track panels. They are first included on the 1st January 1964 price list which states both the T.M.N.R.114 Right Hand and T.M.N.R.115 Left Hand Point will be “Available later”. They next appear on the May 1966 price list priced at £10 1s 3d

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Figures recorded by Richard Lines show that orders for the points were taken in 1964 with total numbers sold by the end of 1966 as fifteen for the right handed and eleven for the left handed variations.

The design to introduce a point into a circular layout was completed by William Challis (WHB) on the 10th April 1964 as drawing SK837 with the geometry of the point as drawing SK914.

The drawing shows the use of a half standard 18 foot radius curve which was something that was actually not produced and thus would have required the cutting and drilling of a complete track length by the railway owner.

In some ways it is surprising that so few points where sold as the introduction of the panel must have made a welcome addition to commercial operators who wanted to store their locomotives away from the main oval of track when not in use. However, for the private owner the available plastic covers for engines and coaches (T.M.N.R.186) may have been suitable enough to keep trains safe from the elements at a fraction of the cost.

Mike Slatter TMNR TIMES

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My

MTC Journey

FRED STILLWELL writes from the United States about his own journey with miniature railways and his acquisition of a MTC locomotive...

EEING the article about the Miniature Train Company in Edition 21 of the TMNR Times prompted me to recall just how long I have been a fan of “ride-in” miniature trains. When I was very young, probably in 1957-1958 our family would spend time at the New Jersey shore. Each beachfront community had an amusement pier and invariably there was a train ride much like the G-16 pictured opposite in Wildwood, New Jersey.

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I was always attracted to trains of all sizes and types but passenger carrying miniature trains held a special fascination. If there was even a hint of a train ride I would badger my parents to visit so I could ride. Thinking back, I know I rode at least ten different trains as a kid. I would even tolerate a visit, with my little sister, to a fairy tale

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themed park called “Storyland” as long as I could ride the train.

My other major hobby was slot cars and it was in a hobby magazine from the UK that I first saw a mention of the TMNR system. Unfortunately, there was an ocean in the way and I had no way of seeing these wonderful trains in action. As I grew older I still sought out miniature train rides, but there was no opportunity to own one for myself.

In 1975 however, the planets aligned and I heard about the City of Raleigh, North Carolina junking their old MTC train sets. Even better, an acquaintance knew the man who had access to the remains. It turns out that for $200 and a new 16” chainsaw the engine and three

later I flew to Wisconsin from Georgia (about 900 miles) rented a truck and hauled the coach home. OK, so now I had a coach but no track and no engine. Now, I did have a 7 1/2” gauge line in the yard, but I could ride “in” this! An e n gin e w o ul d c o m e al o n g someday.

passenger cars became mine - Talk about eyes too big for your stomach! What I wound up with was thoroughly used up and almost all of the truck s had serious cracks in the castings (welding cast iron then was a black art). I had way more ambition than resources, so after moving the pieces around for almost ten years, I finally had to admit that this was more than I could handle. Even then though these trains were special and a buyer soon appeared.

Fast forward 34 years - About two o'clock one morning when I couldn't sleep a post appeared in my Facebook feed - There was someone who wanted to sell an extra G16 coach. Hmm, it was a start. We agreed on a price and two weeks

Sure enough in February of this year my friend from Wisconsin called and wanted to know if I would like to buy his spare locomotive. Oh yeah! So, I recruited a good friend from Pennsylvania and we headed north from Georgia in late April (to

miss the winter weather). Surprise! We awoke the next morning in Indiana to a frozen truck!

MAIN IMAGE: Loading my new G-16 locomotive with the aid of my friends Bobcat. FRED STILLWELL TOP: The MTC G-16 on the amusement pier at Wildwood, New Jersey, c1957.

MIDDLE: My first very poor condition MTC purchased from the City of Raleigh, North Carolina.

FRED STILLWELL BOTTOM: Waking to a snow covered frozen truck in Indiana. FRED STILLWELL

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trip from Georgia to Connecticut, through New York City towing yet another trailer.

What has been most gratifying so far in all of this is the sense of community that is shared with those who restore, maintain and operate these little trains. Advice and resources are never very far away, at least in cyberspace. In the short time that I have been working on my current train I have shared resources with at least seven different individuals or groups, a couple of whom deserve special mention - My friend Shaun in Wisconsin - without his help I would have no train and the American Heritage Railroad group in Greenville, Illinois that acquire, restore, trade and operate G-16's - Great guys!

My railroad is not done but hopefully will be operational by next summer and I will send an update then.

Fred Stillwell We spent the whole day driving through snow showers which is great fun when hauling a large trailer! Once we got to Wisconsin we spent two day s loading the trailer and taking an opportunity to explore the railroads in the area.

My friend had a Bobcat tractor in his barn which made loading easier. It was about 36 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) with a 20 mile per hour breeze while we were loading, but we got it done.

Following a two day drive back to Georgia, spring had returned and we unloaded in 80 degree Fahrenheit (26 degrees C) sunshine.

Remodelling of my garage was the next step - I added a new garage door in the back wall so the train would be able to run through.

The next step was right of way preparation which required close to 30 tons of fill dirt to allow a 1 in 50 slope out the back of the garage.

Following a bone-jarring morning with a power tamper the grade was ready for fabric and a base course of crushed granite. Next step are the ties and rail. The 8 pound rail acquisition was an entirely different adventure involving a

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ABOVE: The garage after adding a new door to enable me to get the new engine out.

FRED STILLWELL. BELOW: The newly laid track bed ready for track laying. FRED STILLWELL.

TMNR Locomotives and their control panels

The newly designed control panel.

DAVID MATTHEWSON.

DAVID MATTHEWSON discusses the original TMNR control panels and his design for a modern replacement...

HE original 'Golden Arrow' TMNR locomotive was manufactured in three variations, some having two motors instead of the basic single motor unit and some being controlled from a line-side controller rather than from the driver's panel. This later version was intended to allow children to use the trains safely whilst a grown up controlled the power and speed from the external control unit.

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There were also two different control panel designs with the later introduced to simplify the operation of the locomotives.

The panels were manufactured from Perspex (acrylic) sheet with screen printed text that

looked very much a product of their time – elegant and stylish. One of the problems with the panels was that the Perspex was prone to fracturing if kicked or caught with a shoe or knee and several of the examples which came into my hands displayed this type of damage.

The basic controls consisted of a power on light, direction control, speed control and then switches for lights and (optional) horn. The revised version combined the speed and direction control into one lever.

By the time most enthusiasts started restoring and rebuilding these locos, they were around a minimum of 40 years old and many had suffered from commercial use with little TMNR TIMES

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maintenance. Some brave souls like Mike Slatter have made a brilliant job of restoring a few of these locos to fa c to r y c o n di t i o n an d h a v e manufactured replica panels and sourced switches and control gear to match.

In my case, I decided to convert the two locos that I acquired to 24v DC battery operation and to replace the 1960s vintage control gear with modern thyristor units, LED lights and similar twenty-first century hardware.

This makes, I feel, the locos much more flexible but also means that the original control panels are now longer suitable.

So what to do? I wanted to retain some of the 'look and feel' of the original – after all, it is part of the charm, but making and screen printing new panels would be quite a task! Technology has advanced a long way since the 1960s and so I investigated using a vinyl overlay mounted on a hard 4mm PVC panel which was cut to shape. (I originally tested Nylon 6 which was strong enough but is not good to work with as it tends to melt rather than cut when drilled). Copying the curve of the old panel as a pattern was simple enough and the mounting holes were carefully drilled for the switch gear and meter.

David Matthewson

The vinyl was kindly drawn up in Photoshop by Mike and printed by some very helpful guys at the “Stickershop” in Bristol. I ordered five

ABOVE: The original, damaged two lever panel.

BELOW: The cardboard template for the new design. DAVID MATTHEWSON.

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copies for £40, not knowing how many I might damage during installation but as it turned out, I only needed one. The adhesion to the PVC seems excellent – after all, full size trains mainly use vinyl rather than paint nowadays.

Only time will tell how it wears but I'm confident we have a low cost, flexible design process that has enabled me to update the TMNR locos whilst retaining some of the original style.

Observations

from the footplate

Class 71 driver EDWIN RENAHAN recalls a journey past the Minic Factory at Canterbury and seeing a very familiar engine...

N one occasion, when I was driving a van train through Canterbury West, I noticed a small replica of the engine I was driving standing outside what I knew to be the Tri-ang factory, just outside Canterbury West Station.

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I, as some of you will have worked out, was driving a class 71 electric locomotive.

I'd commented on this class of locomotive on a Facebook site which prompted Mike Slatter to contact me, with a view to sharing some of my knowledge of working on them, and a bit of the background behind them. I confess that I knew little then of what I now know to be the TMNR, but as I said, the narrow gauge engine I saw that day caught my attention.

I'm 71 (there's a link there!) now, but back then I was a relatively newly qualified driver based at Tonbridge Mixed Traction Depot. Mixed, not in just the variety of engines in our stable, but because we 'worked' (footplate terminology) passenger and freight trains. From the slowest passenger trains stopping at all stations, to the fastest passenger expresses, and freight trains from the slowest, calling in at every little yard, to heavy freight over long distances weighing in excess of 1000 tons.

This is where the 71's came into their own. I don't use the term lightly but they were but they were awesome!

ABOVE: E5006 arriving at Faversham with an up train of vans on October 31st, 1959 with E5001 in the siding. PHOTOGRAPH ROGER JAMES.

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You had 2,552 hor se power (hp) available on starting (or for up to an hour if needed) dropping to a continuous 2,300 hp. Once you'd got a heavy train rolling, you didn't need as much 'grunt'.

So, we had a piece of kit that would pull a heavy freight at speeds up to 60 mph and a fast passenger train at up to 90 mph. We all knew that they could go faster. Quite a lot faster!

Any train spotter will tell you that they also worked the Golden Arrow and the Night Ferry out of London Victoria. The Night Ferry was the heaviest passenger train that ran on the network. Weighing in at up to 850 tons. Even with a 71 a banker (assis tance from behind, unattached) was used to climb the steep grade out of Victoria Station. They could do it but would draw too much current from the local substation and possibly blow a breaker (large circuit breaker) After that they walked it.

The short coming of the class was their reliability on an electrical supply. This was overcome in some yards by installing an overhead supply.

The third rail, at 750v, was deemed to be too dangerous to have at ground level in a marshalling yard. The 71s were fitted with pantographs for this purpose. They were interes ting engines to drive, and ver y responsive. You could select power in 33 stages with the controller. Individually (notching up or down) or 'run up/down' which would energise the contactor camshaft to run until all the positions had been selected or unselected. It wouldn't be advisable to select 'run up' if pulling away with a heavy train. No more than it would be advisable to try and pull away with a heavy vehicle in a high gear. Otherwise, like any other engine it would be an experienced driver that would get the best out of them by manipulating the controls.

Gaps in the third rail supply had to be avoided at all costs when running at slow speed or coming to a stand. They had a booster set in the engine ro om which was essentially t wo 1-ton

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ABOVE: A previously published photograph (TMNR Times 1) showing the main railway line running adjacent to the Canterbury factory and its close proximity to the the ‘figure-eight’ TMNR layout. RICHARD LINES.

flywheels that were driven by a motor when the engine was drawing power but free wheeled when the power was cut off. The stored kinetic energy drove the motor that had been driving them, as a generator. This would supply current to the traction motors so that when you encountered a gap in the conductor rail the current wasn't suddenly cut off or reconnected. Smoothing out the process. If you were going very slow however that stored energy would quickly dissipate and could leave y o u s t u ck in t h e mid dl e o f n o w h e r e .

Explanations would be requested! That's another reason why we had to know the routes like the back of our hands.

One little anomaly which isn't immediately obvious is that they had spoked wheels. That technology was still in use when they were built. Why re-invent the wheel! Over the years if a wheel set had to be replaced disc wheel sets were fitted. One axle on E5001 had disc wheels on one axle the last time I saw her.

Eventually, a few of them were fitted with an auxiliary diesel engine to overcome the absence of a third rail in yards and sidings. (Class 74s) Unfortunately, the powers that be decided to use them for working trains over non electrified routes - They weren't designed for it and it didn't go well!

All but one has been scrapped now - E5001 which is now part of the national collection. My last contact with her was when I hauled her to

Chart Leacon with a Class 33 ( what an indignity!) on the first leg of her journey into preservation.

I hope you've enjoyed my little piece on the big brother of your little engine. So, I'll sign off with an image of my own little engine. It never leaves you.

Edwin Renahan

CLASSIFIED ADVERTS TMNR TIMES BACK EDITIONS A limited number of back editions of TMNR Times Editions 16, 17, 19 and 20. Priced at £5 each + P&P. Contact Mike Slatter via the TMNR Society at: mike@tmnr.co.uk TMNR TIMES

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