1	Introduction In the time “Before the light of photography shone upon the world” there existed a very different and intensely romantic railway of which we know little today. By 1850 the railway network extended throughout the kingdom and train services had taken on a form that remained little changed for more than a hundred years. But the rolling stock that ran on these rails is quite unfamiliar to us now. This project is an attempt to capture some small aspect of those long lost days in minature.
2	The 1850 Train This is an attempt to replicate a typical passenger train as running on the Northern Division of the L&NWR in the period around 1850. The 1850 train represents a ‘best endeavours’ effort to reproduce in model form all of the information contained in contemporary drawings at a scale of 10mm / ft.
3	Background The early period of railways before 1850 is often overlooked by students and modellers because few, if any, phographs of railway subjects exist. This is a pity, because the atmosphere of these long ago times has a unique charm, and the small scale of the prototype suits modellers very well.
4	Wot no pictures? Well actually there is a certain amount of documentary material in the form of engravings, surviving works drawings and of course contemporary paintings. The task of gathering together and attempting to verify the available material is an undertaking in itself. Some respected material is of questionable authenticity.
5	Daniel Kinnear Clark Sometime CME of the Great North of Scotland Railway, DK Clark gives us the closest insight into the trains of the 1850’s in his remarkable 2 volume set “Railway Machinery” (1855) Other authors of the period adopted Clark’s style or collaborated with him. Clark completed Zerah Colburn’s great work “Locomotive Engineering and the mechanism of Railways”. (1871) The intricate detail captured by Clark is invaluable in interpreting other sources, such as the occasional surviving coach body. An example is the amazing ‘Wappenham’ coach, the model of which runs on a Clark underframe.
6	Clark’s legacy Much of the rolling stock depicted in “Railway Machinery” has appeared in model form and in railway publications over the years. However railway authors are often shy of crediting their sources and the importance of Clark’s work is often overlooked. I am fortunate to have acquired an original copy of the book and most of the models displayed here are drawn directly from it.
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8	Are they real? It’s sometimes said that Clark’s drawings depict subjects that may never have existed, or perhaps concepts that he was trying to sell. This view illustrates the difficulty presented by the lack of photography. It’s not just Clark’s subjects that failed to find a permanent record in photographic form – almost nothing running in 1850 survived long enough to be captured on emulsion. I can say that Clark’s drawings have good internal consistency. It would be entirely possible to build full size vehicles from them. Verification comes in surprising ways – for instance discovery of a horsebox running in Ireland in the 1920’s very similar to the one depicted by Clark.
9	The Method Clark’s work has been scanned by Google and can be found online. However the scans are incomplete and lack essential data. Working from the original publication I have sought to capture every identifiable detail from Clark’s drawings into CAD, so that I can reproduce them with good fidelity. The process involves tracing over a scanned copy of the original drawing, while correcting for actual dimensions where stated and geometric distortions. The finished drawings can be scaled to any size.
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11	Model production Once captured in CAD, the drawings have been converted into photo-etch masters by Scottish firm PPD Ltd. The resulting etches in 22 thou brass have been assembled using traditional and resistance soldering methods. Models are fitted with ball races to enable haulage by single driver locos. The etch method is ideal for 10mm / ft scale, giving very crisp edges to panelling while still fitting onto sheets of A3 size, compatible with automated machines.
12	The models ‘Megatherium’, L&NWR Northern Division Allen / Trevithic 2-2-2 built at Edge Hill, 1848. Although called a ‘Crewe Type’, this engine was built in the former GJR company’s shops. Model originally planned as a kit by John Dale (Old Originals) but never completed. Major parts of the prototype used by me including boiler and tender in combination with a sprung chassis and helical worm drive. Model is powered by a1.2Ah LiPo battery (11.1v) intended for toy helicopters and uses 2.4 Ghz radio control. Battery life is 2-4 Hrs.
13	Brown Marshall Coaches A set of four coaches described in exquisite detail by Clark and attributed to Brown, Marshall & Co., one of the constituents of Metro – Cammell. The first and second class coaches are finished in a deep blue colour still carried by a surviving first – class carriage in the Swedish National Railway Museum in Gavle, Sweden. The brake (spelled ‘Break’ in 1850) is a distinctive design featuring the notorious ‘sledge’ brake which was prone to tear up the rails. There is no documentary evidence of any of these vehicles actually existing. However, while studying the survivng ‘Wappenham’ coach body discovered by Mike and Bob Williams, it became apparent that it and the BM coaches are of very similar size and construction. While not proving that the BM’s were built, this discovery shows that coaches very much like them certainly were.
14	Wappenham The ‘piece de resistance’ of the 1850 train and the only item that is a model of a surviving prototype. Discovered in about 2004 by Bob and Mike Williams, ‘Wappenham’ is the grounded body of an 1850’s second class L&NWR Southern Division carriage. The model is based entirely on sketches, measurements and photographs made by the Williams boys. ‘Wappenham’ is painted in a colour called ‘Burrell Quaker Green’ and is matched to scrapings taken from the prototype by Ken Wood. When describing ‘Wappenham’ in the L&NWR Society Journal, Mike Williams suggested that the tilted droplights “would be a challenge in etched brass”. The model has adjustable, opening droplights.
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16	Great Northern Horsebox and Truck Almost every account of an 1850’s passenger train features a carriage truck, carrying a passenger’s private vehicle, and attendant horsebox. Clark gives a meticulously detailed drawing of a pair of Great Northern Railway vehicles attributed to Archibald Sturrock. Note the conspicuous dog boxes – no family would travel without their dogs in those days Zerah Colburn describes a very similar horsebox running in Australia but no other corroborating evidence for the existence of this vehicle has been found – until now. A model of an Irish railway in ‘S’ gauge shown at the recent York exhibition featured an almost identical horsebox, apparently still running in Ireland in the 1920’s. Clark was right after all. These models feature springs and hangers made in the ‘rapid prototyping’ process.
17	Hansard A very surprising discovery, relayed to me by Ian White of the Brighton circle, is a source of railway drawings in Hansard! The Parliamentary committee of 1845 produced their famous report on 3^rd class rail travel together with dozens of good quality engravings of contemporary carriages. Amongst them is a “London & Birmingham / Grand Junction Railway” third class carriage, remarkably similar to Wappenham and a clear ancestor of it. The Hansard coach takes us back to a time before glass windows were commonplace (Only about half the carriages described in the report have glass windows). Instead, it is apparently fitted with ‘Venetians’ (blinds) which might have been too fragile for railway use in real life, and bits of wood to block up the door openings. In real life we might suspect that these ‘Venetians’ might have been replaced by solid panels (like Wappenham) and versions of the model will be built to show both arrangements.
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19	Wappenham full break Finally, another Williams discovery: a London & Birmingham passenger brake van, also found at Wappenham! Sadly this survivor has now been dismantled and may be lost. At least, it survived long enough to be photographed and drawn in good detail. Notable is the horizontal panelling at the ends, characteristic of the L&BR and replaced by vertical panels in L&NWR times. The model will run on the underframe designed for Hansard, which bears a strong resemblance to that captured in the earliest known photograph of an L&NWR brake.
20	Operation The 1850 Train is a working model and the single driver ‘Megatherium’ is able to handle all 7 vehicles. It’s intended to add another three, making the train up to the 10 which seems to be the average of GJR trains running with one engine, as described in Wishaw. However, Wishaw also describes trains of 14 or more running behind two engines, and second loco – 2-4-0 ‘Mastodon’ built 1849 – is available. Hmmm.