Hudswell Clark 0-6-0T PLA Type

Just came across a leaflet I picked up recently at a show. It shows the range of kits produced by Agenoria 0 Gauge moels. In it is a kit for a HC PLA loco. Maybe he can help and from memory the chap who had the stand seemed very helpful. Tel no 0151 474 8080, his name is Mike Williams,............... e mail agenoria0gauge@hotmail.com

 

I'm fairly certain that HC 1334 Sir Thomas at the Bucks Railway Centre (Quainton Road) is of the same design as the PLA's that you are wanting to model Buckinghamshire Railway Centre Stockbook

Not sure what its current status is, though. It might be in a thousand bits!

 

Steve : I have contacted BRC and have so far had nothing back (4 weeks)

osprey : Thanks for that, I will contact Agenoria

 

Not really surprised. My experience with their 'admin' side is that they don't know what they have or what is happening on the ground. Perhaps 'Eightpot' can help?

 

I've just noticed that the Aln Valley Railway have an ex-Port of London loco, called Richboro' which is the engine im looking to build.
Does anybody have, or are there any photos of besides, the photos from AVR themselves.
The photos I have found are of a large group standing by it, another of a few members in the cab, another which is the same as the last but a wider shot and a front view by a signal.... ?

 

Broadening this topic somewhat ... I'd like to ask if anyone has knowledge of what happened to Hudswell Clarke archives after the business ceased trading. I was a junior design engineer with them (HCCL) from 1956, and later was Head of Drawing Stores. The company had a distinguished record not just in the railway industry. As with many companies in WW2 they had to diversify and and formed an Aircraft Division, taking over the Blackburn Aircraft plant in Roundhay Road, Leeds, where they manufactured Swordfish and later Barracuda torpedo bombers for the Navy. After WW2 with the new Atomic Bomb programme getting started, HCCL in Roundhay Road got huge amounts of business of that nature. I worked on these myself. All the casings for the Mk.1 Atom Bomb, Blue Danube, it's successor, the Red Beard tactical kiloton bomb, all the casings for the Christmas Island H-Bomb tests, and the Interim Megaton Weapons known as Violet Club and Green Grass. They also produced numerous parts for the Skylark research rockets (over 800 were built), and the Black Knight research rockets. Both these were launched from Woomera as part of the research programmes for the Blue Streak IRBM and later Chevaline, a part of the Polaris Improvement Project. In addition to these more well-known projects there were numerous others, including the Centurion Bridgelaying Tank that served in the Royal Engineers from the 1960's until the Gulf War.

Nuclear historians at numerous universities have searched fruitlessly for the HCCL archives that list these affairs and would dearly like to get access to HCCL archives. My understanding is that HCCL lodged their archive with the West Yorkshire Museums Service (WYMS) in Leeds. Then a businessman (allegedly) purchased the HCCL name and asked the WYMS to hand over the archives, which they did. After that the archives disappeared from view. The rumour goes that they were lodged in a barn, on a Welsh farm. But the real truth has been hard to establish. Wherever they are, the railway archives and the nuclear weapon archives are an important and irreplaceable part of British national history. Anyone who can help trace them (if they still exist) IMHO will deserve a medal. Or perhaps two medals.