Anyone who has followed this blog for more than a few posts will notice 2 things...
1. Posts tend to be very long (for which i apologise )
2. I have an ongoing project to rebuild a 5 inch Great western pannier tank to its London transport guise.
But in this shorter installment, the great day has arrived...
After 8 months of work, a few set backs and missing a good few target dates, she's steamed!
A very last minute affair, but we made it to the booked outing last wee
Image heavy, but i hope you enjoy...
Well, a rather delayed happy new year to you all, I realised I haven’t posted since the last event of 2012! But not to say much hasn’t happened, I’ve had a quick look back at what was going on with things back then, and projects on going that have moved on considerably!
Unfortunately time has rather overtaken me since my last post, no runs as such have happened, and I’ve had one round of exams, and am preparing for the next, the pannier is now weeks from
Or just perhaps a poor excuse!
Well, I've done 25 posts, and the readers have survived them all, I thought I'd get something a little more special in. Usually my blogs consist of progress and pics of variable quality, so for this issue, my good friend Michael Topham has contributed the the vast majority of these photos, his photography is a whole lot better than mine, so thank you very much mike!
the poor excuse could really come from the fact that i forgot my camera when we went down t
That old analogy about buses has come to mind again…
But anyway, whilst I’ve been pottering along with the pannier, the other resident of the workshop has done with building silly coaches and has no moved back to the original past time of wagon building. He blames me for this one but its his own fault really!
His original plan when we went along to the midland railway centre was to go there to get photographs of the Derby lightweight DMU, which we duly got. But I had happened to look on the
I'll be honest, i have been a little lax when its come to writing this little blog of workshop antics! But since Gilling, theres actually only been one run, and workshop has mostly consisted of pannier bits and pieces!
My other excuses are two fold, Just started my A levels, so thats rather eaten into my spare time for writing, and other time has been spent admin-ing and using the GL5 facebook group! So, anyone interested in getting involved, an easier way to reach us is via that group, its
Hi all, like a bus, two post come along at once!
Anyway, I'm calling it an excuse to test out my new laptop, so a few more pics of gilling August 2012
Yes the weekend was rather wet, certanly the saturday and by end of monday! train sizes were limited as the track became slick with oil, especially the passenger trains, also as we only had 2 passenger sets, though one could be split to make a 3 and a 10 set, an the timetable calls for it to be split later into 5 and 5.
Thi
I really am getting worse at this! If anyone is looking for an excuse for my lateness, just started my A-levels!
But anyway. The bank holiday weekend of august sees the annual second mainline rally at gilling rilway. The weather looked iffy but still we persevered!
Due to previous other reasons for which i shall leave space here to insert excuses [ ] , we didnt get our names in the running roster for the weekend. So, we would turn up to gilling with no guarentee of even a run, but no matt
Haha I'm back. I havnt had the time or opportunity lately to be posting on here, partially because of holiday through the finer parts of birmingham on a canal boat, and partly the furious activity in the workshop!
Right, having few issues with upload, since the new servers max file size is down to just 2mb, and most of my pics were around the 3mb mark! so sorry if the text isnt fully illustrated!
Im scratching my head actually what has gone on in the time since the post. We had anot
Morning all
A little later than intended but a quick catch up before another visit to Greystones this weekend, and pictures i'm sure.
Yes the last few weeks have mainly been pannier overhaul, most of it covered in the last post. The frames have gone from rolling chassis to flat pack and back in a matter of days, with a layer of paint in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Qg-yjXxyg&feature=plcp
The air test, a short clip above revealed the expected niggles. The biggest problem,
Hi again, thought you got rid of me didnt you!?
Nope, back after a while since my last post and alot has happend in the intervening time.
Most importantly the pannier has moved on in leaps and bounds.
If you look back to previous posts you'l see when last shown the frames we all bare metal, i was having varying issues, and it was realy grubby and covered in oil.
After a call from my grandfather to come over and stay for a few days, view latest progress on his 7 1/4 B1 and other th
Hi all.
Now, with time on my hands, progress can seriously rebegin on the pannier tank!
Right, bit of background. In 2010 we bought this fully built but almost totally unpainted pannier tank from a dealer.
Really it was a bit of a catch. We had just sold our part built winson Britannia (a battle in itself!) and we always wanted a pannier, the LT connection being evident!
So we purchased it, had it on a rolling road, and apart from a few niggles, all seemed well. So
Hi all,
Fun packed weekend this weekend, despite inclement weather, the GL5 AGM was held at brent house in cambridgeshire, Echills Wood railway held their Standard Gauge gala, which i wandered along to, and today has been busy.
Right, deep in darkest cambridgeshire lies the Brent House Railway, a 5 inch gauge railway, double track mainline with branchline, 3 yards and a 50 lever signal box!
The Yard throat and station approach with the smaller yard cabin
The main Motive power
Hi all
This ones gonna be picture heavy so sorry to anyone with a slow browser!
Went to Railfest on the tuesday bank holiday, took a look around, and despite the weather had a thoroughly enjoyable day. I'm guessing knows the big deal about railfest, so as per you might expect was dominated by the big names in preservation, Mallard, Tornado, Lizzie, truro, and even scotsman, just about back in loco form made it. But luckily a few more workaday forms made it, with everything from the small
Hi all
With the excitement of the last few weeks with gilling mainline rally, things at Neasden carriage and wagon outpost have calmed down!
The lull in any running and with the exam season in full swing the opportunity was taken to do a bit of finishing and new things in the loco. so this post will be a bit of a workshoppy type post
The project to build the full rake of coaches nears completion. My dad, the builder of the coaces has received the final eight wheels, the last few d
Right since i got such a great response last time, a few more photos can be posted! That and a few of the best videos from the day and one for Kempenfelt
Before i collapse from what is almost certainly alife threatening ailment, i shall continue!
You heard all the details yesterday so few more piccies wouldnt go amiss.
To satisfy john, here is a pic of his admittedly lovely sounding western, nearly twice the length of my loco!
Double heading metrovicks, literally minuter before
How do all.
Well, I'll take abreak from my constant schedul or revising to bring you the news of the weekend just gone
Twice a year, Ryedale Society of model engineers and The Lindsey Model society (Yes the LMS!) Organise a Main line rally at the Ryedale track at Gilling (Village of Gilling East, look up 54.184772,-1.061845 in google maps).
Its a double track mainline with three yards, an MPD and rolling stock storage bunker, semi automated signalling system as well as two manual si
Hi all.
Your in luck, double helping of my crazy antics. Thanks for all your comments on previous posts, keeps me putting them up!
The reason for the title is that there are three greystones runs a year, so if i go, there'll be plenty more this year!
With the gilling mainline rally this weekend, i'm off tomorrow evening to go camp in a field, get up at 8am and run trains in the wet! Lots of fun.
Heres a few more photos, this time from the camera, rather than my camera phone (r
Hi all.
Exam revision has put paid to a large amount of the model engineering, that and lack of laser cut components, but that hasnt stopped me going out and playing trains!
The greystones railway is a private railway near bath, built into a hillside. its featured on here before but not this year. The owner has alarge collection of engine and wagons but they were hardly needed because we were so full!
The roster,
2 metrovicks, which we bought because we had given the other an ov
Hi all
You may have noticed that the last week has probably been rather damp underfoot. But last weekend, for a few glorious hours it wasnt too bad.
Our first proper run of the year (yes i know its april already!) saw us go down to swindon track, in coate water country park.
Each year they hold two 5 inch open days for just 5 inch gauge engines, we've been along to a few now, and each time taken a load of wagons. We meet up with a few mates from the area and have a bit of a run.
Hi all.
this is gonna be words only unless I get some pics on tomorrow.
lots of activity, little progress I am afraid. last few days, buffer stocks have sprayed up for the van, and holes drilled for all 12 buffer stocks on the wagons. door frames corner brackets have been drilled and the body drilled for them, mostly done with a little hand twist drill, because I can't get the battery drill in the door way! The roof arches are all drawn, just waiting for access to the router. But really
Looking back over the short period of this blog its strange to find that my main project has received no coverage. So to redress the balance!
The little van which i have recently been working on is technically a sideline and afterthought to a pair of 3 plank dropside wagons like the ones shown and mentioned earlier. The project is for two more MET ballast wagons commonly used from 1896 uptill around 1980, when the last two were retired.
My two are BD704, a wagon adapted from BW251 for carryi
Hi all
Dont know what happened with the last post, some images wont display and others are in wrong places so oh well!
The problem so much of the time is that visual progress is slow so i wont always have something to show for hours work. So going back a little, theres this, proving it is still model railways!
Every year the london transport museum depot at acton holds two open days, the first of the year being themed on London transport in miniature. For a few years we have attended with t
Yet again my day saw little activity on my part, something to do with get up unusually late and punctuated by a visit to homebase and Halfords.
However the van SC630 progresses. The planks for the other two doors were fitted, a time consuming job. Then, while one pair fitted, the other doors would not due to a mistake on my part, the changeable nature of wood, a miscalculation of about a mm and the fact the door frame was ever so slightly askew Oops.
Anyway after some gentle persuasion
Today hasnt seen a huge amount of activity so i'd thought i'd do an introduction to part of my current project.
When my dad first started with the wagon building a few years back, his first wagon was a brake van seen previously. then came four wagons then the outside framed box van. My first were the rail wagons and i am currently working on a follow up, two open ballast wagons and a much smaller box van. The van presents more challenge than the wagons so that has been the focus of recent work
Pannier wise, dug out some pics of the current state of affairs. We're fiddling with the valve gear atm, though work has stalled for a long time now.
As anyone who has built an outside cylinder loco kit knows, valve gear is the tricky part. and being quite a lot bigger doesnt make valve gear any easier in 5. Its something of a black art, few people understand it fully, many people get the basics and are happy with that, but being live steam it is essential to the working. Parts of our gear
