After about 5 years, the build of this David Andrews A1 kit has been completed by Peter Relf for me and a very nice job too. Will require a little fettling to put up with the vagaries of my outdoor track (it is compensated/sprung) but the wait has been worth it! We had a debate about the BR Express blue and I found a BS colour called 'Roundel Blue' that I think looks good, but this livery is always one for debate as regards the blue. The next stage will be very light weathering as apart from e
The B12 has now been finish painted by Colin Tyler and weathered by the local chap The Weathering Service. The E 4 has been lettered and lined by Colin Tyler, after basic painting by me (Halfords Satin Black) but will not be weathered as the prototype was kept as a pet by Cambridge shed as station pilot in the 1930's. Both taken on the inside part of the layout when the evening sun shines in.
The garden railway in winter doesn't see any use outdoors, but when the sun comes out it is tempting to use the low angle of the sun to get a winter pic and think of the summer to come. Roedeer is particularly photogenic, I had thought of LNER green for the livery, buy with this being my favourite name for a B1 this loco was always a black one, but lined in red it is attractive and nicely weathered by Neil Podbery.
After owning the DMR kit for a year Mike Russell offered to add it to his build of a batch of B1's from his kit and here about 18 months later (while I saved up!) is the result. Expertly built, with added roller bearings at my request and after livery by Mikes painter and fine light weathering by Neil Podbery I'm now the lucky owner of the loco!
The Reading found E4 has now got as far as receiving a coat of black and red buffers from yours truly and will now be finished as 7490 the Cam
The pre-Christmas Reading Trade show, did me in again, as I couldn't resist buying this part made E4 from a friendly trader.
It has been very nicely made, but needs the loco chassis assembling - a task that friend Colin has undertaken to help me with! He assures me that the Alan Gibson cast wheels can be made useable even though the insulated wheels are turning on their axles.
The E4 had always been on my long term list to get, so I felt that this was very opportune!
I managed to sell a surpl
Peter brought 60116 to the St Albans show to let me see progress, and it's posed next to Blink Bonny, these will be my two BR Blue Pacifics, although knowing Peter 60116 will be pristine as opposed to the weathered A3.
I also received Colin Tyler's repaint of the J71 built by James King.
It is such a well made loco that I felt that it deserved a special livery and so it has been given the almost unique hybrid livery of BR green with LNER black and white lining panels, as applied to the
Friend Peter has now really got his teeth into building the A1 kit from David Andrews for me.
Unlike the previous two kits (which he had to do significant scratch building on), he's finding this kit much more straightforward.
To be finished in BR blue 1951 condition, with the exception of the chimney, which will be lipped, because it looks so much better to me, I'm really looking forward to this loco being completed.
Had a good day at Reading trade show, selling prints and Christmas cards, bu
Although my layout is an LNER main line, the wayside station has a group of LBSCR preservationists using the old loco shed.
Having presented the Gladstone to the LNER railway museum, they have gone on to preserve other LBSCR locos and have recently got their G class single nearly complete.
They rolled it out into the sunshine - alarmingly without buffers! and had some pics taken. Thanks to Pete Wisdom for the build after taking on a part built scratch build for me and to Ian Hopkins for lining
A couple of years ago I bought a D49 named as Rutlandshire in LNER green and found that as it had been built as a display model really, as although is was nice the paint worked flaked (not properly primed) and valve gear had problems.
I decided that I would have the loco as Hertfordshire and then have it in very early BR days and also paired it with an almost correct second hand ex-GC tender that is similar to that which was attached to that D49.
I am using the group standard tender from this
Guildex at Telford had its usual grievous effect on my funds, but very pleased to have received the repaint from Colin Tyler - will post pic later.
Also found a couple of LNER suburbans at the bring and buy, that were nicely made and with a bit of weathering will be a nice addition to stock, many thanks to the vendor for a very fair price.
I hope they feel that they have gone to a good home!
There were very many other opportunities for complete wallet failure, with RTR in 0 gauge offering s
Having been spotted on RMWeb by a fellow rail artist Craig Tiley, my outdoor layout got featured in RM by him, which was very flattering considering that the railway is still a work in progress.
Anyway, Craig asked what the name of the railway was and I hadn't really thought of one, so came up with my old spotting location of Cadwell plus a description of Moor, which I suppose goes with the rugged viaduct and heathers?
Have had a couple of recent running sessions with some visiting locos.
The Sunset A3 has arrived and is running in on a goods. The paint job by Colin Tyler is first class and just what I wanted it to be - superb work.
However despite Colin's best efforts the loco is still massively inefficient and draws a lot of power for not much output. My layout has gradients, not huge, but significant and the rest of my front-line locos have ABC gearboxes which handle everything superbly, specially the James King built B17 which with ball bearing drivers is a fantastic perfo
The garden has emerged from the soggy winter fairly well, with only a small amount of electrical bonding and track alignment needed.
It has allowed me to have some fun taking pics after a spot of hedge cutting and garden tending.
Had a nice time at the East Grinstead show, managed to finish a small painting and have plenty of chats on railways and art etc. etc..
The sun came into the room nicely at the end of the day Saturday so grabbed a few pics and cheated a bit on the scenery with Photoshop..
I displayed three LNER locos and by co-incidence these are models of what three different groups are endeavouring to create full size, I hope they succeed!
Lastly on another site someone mentioned that streamlined l
After months of foul weather a little bit of late afternoon sun in the summerhouse prompted a bit of loco posing.
The P2 had managed not to disgrace itself at the Tonbridge MRC show (always a nice show!) and had performed almost without fault, doing as much time as Thomas on the Drive-it-yourself layout.
Also posed the old Sunset A4 - this still bugs me as to whether this is the right colour - looks too grey to me and not silver enough, so I weathered it.
Anyone know what the exact colour s
Had a bit of a busy weekend.
Off on Saturday early to set up my art stand at the excellent St Albans Show. and took 2001 to visit and thanks to Terry Yeend for allowing it to pose on Lough Engine shed - duly envious of this layout!
As often seems to happen with me, I got double booked with a late wedding announcement and couldn't miss an old friends daughter getting Wed in the Roman Baths at Bath!
Very enjoyable evening ! then back on the road before dawn to get back to St Albans Show!
Having had the pleasure of receiving 3 locos newly painted (two new-build and one re-paint) in LNER green, I have been surprised by the range of colour between Doncaster and Darlington green and also the effect of gloss finish to locos making them appear even brighter.
I have been exceptionally pleased with the workmanship shown by Peter Relf, James King and Colin Tyler in the building and re-painting of these locos. Colin is a professional with really exceptional standards (the V2) and the oth
Friend Peter has at last finished the P2 after 5 years of struggle!
We decided, after his suggestion that my purchase of a kit to make 2002 in it's original form, would be best transformed into the streamlined form that it spent most of its life as a 2-8-2 in.
Having made that decision, I then felt that 2001 had a better name!
The front end is mostly scratch built having decided that some A4 parts weren't right the kit manufacturer offered some parts of the streamlined kit that he was develop
I should like to say that I had managed to make this, but I'm too busy making a mess of other models and painting pictures!
As there has been some adverse comment in the 0 Guild Gazette on DMR kits I thought that I would post this picture to say that if you get a competent modeller these kits make for a lovely resulting loco!
The chap who made this had not done LNER lined green livery before, so purists will note that there are a few bits of lining missing, but that would be very picky!
He
Well I've started and it is not a pretty sight - as can be seen from the following the pickups have been removed from the brake gear fortunately the glue gave before the brakes did.
Then there is the chassis it has box sections which make driving anything other than the centre axle a bit difficult.
A general view of the side of the chassis.I have re-soldered the thin section slide bars, but feel that these may have to go as well - where do you stop?
Next to make a decision on compensat
Having decided that all the locos on the layout have got to have some form of springing or compensation (or even just movable horn blocks) I started to look at my A2.
This was probably built from a DJH or similar kit, and whilst some bits aren't too bad the pick-ups and flangeless drivers and rigid chassis make this a woeful performer on my admittedly slightly uneven outdoor track.
It has an ABC gearbox and so was made at some expense, but apart from looking good at a safe distance it j
Spent Friday trying to sort out a quarter inch gap that has opened up between the viaduct and the rockery. Given that all parts of the layout are massively over engineered, I was puzzled as to how this movement occurred with enough strength to shear the screws holding the trackbed down.
Anyway have got this mostly sorted out in a day, with a friends help and had just enough daylight left to get a pic of his locos on a test run.
Perhaps Sir Nigel might have produced this, if not for the war? I suppose that it might have been classed as an M4 and then named after the top bods in the LNER with the bird names being restored to the swifter A4's?
After an embarrasingly long time I have managed to get the bridge painted, so there is some chance of running the complete circuit this summer.
It looks a bit bright, so I might even weather it!
The deck will be treated in the same way as the rest of the outdoor track with a base of resin and ballast followed by track pinned and finally packed with more ballast and resin.
So far the rest of the track has lasted 2 winters with only very minor loss of resin adhesion to the plastic fascia boards
I'm happy to report that the S scale models have found a new home, through the wonderful medium of the RMWeb!
A last pic just to show the LBSC K Class Mogul, which I think must be around 50 years old and shows what a good level of model making was developed in this lovely scale all those years ago.
It is good to know that these have gone to a good new home where they will be looked after and brought up to date (although I was intrigued by the skate mechanisms for stud contact and how the stud
