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A mixed bag. Expo EM-GWR 4 wheel coaches-Mainly Trains-Dapol 'O'

JDaniels

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Firstly apologies as I haven't looked at the blogs for a while. After the late snow the weather here has been great and the modelling has taken a back seat. My son and I walked the Limestone Way in May and I've been organising our next walk, the Cleveland Way in September.

 

I went to Expo EM mainly to hand over the SEF 517 to Geoff James for painting. There were a number of layouts there but one that did impress was Tim Venton's Clutton. There is a trend today for layouts the area of a Corn Flakes box but here was one, 24ft x7ft, built to the same high standards as these much smaller ones; clearly requiring a great deal more time to construct. I particularly liked the fact that it was based on a prototype location so there is little opportunity to use commercially available items. What was also good to see was that features in the landscape (I recall a particular farm) were identified by notices around the baseboard edge. I can only marvel at the dedication required, the trackwork, for example, comprised individual chairs glued to plywood sleepers. I think that would have driven me insane!

 

I also wanted to see David Geen's stand as I was hoping to purchases a couple of his wagon kits but regrettably he wasn't able to attend. It is interesting to see the trade stands though and see what is available. It's also useful to check up on the trader's websites. I hesitate to mention this as I was taken to task the last time I strayed into this field but I notice that Wizard Models, one of the traders at Expo EM, have a selection of Mainly Trains parts available. I don't know whether they have taken over and are now manufacturing them or whether this is old stock but bearing in mind that MT sold a wonderful selection of parts that no one else does I thought others might be interested. I see for example that the Cambrian 2-4-0T chassis is available, I have a vague thought about getting another to compensate it as the fixed chassis doesn't perform spectacularly well.

 

One of the effects of visiting a show with high quality layouts and rolling stock on display is that it prompts you to have another look at your own stock to se if that passes muster. Mostly I thought it did (I was able to correct some glossy weathering on some of my 1902 wagons - solution - stir the paint THOROUGHLY!).

 

One obvious candidate for refurbishment was a GWR T49 brake third. Last year I had a spare Ratio chassis and wanting something different purchased the sides from Shire Scenes last year. Unfortunately my painting looked as though it had been applied with a tar brush and, having Araldited the body to the chassis, one of the brake door windows fell off and rattled about inside. I manged to prise the body off the chassis, applied paint stripper to the sides and had another go at glazing, this time using Araldite rather than Superglue. This time I opted for chocolate and cream rather than all over chocolate and although still not perfect, the finish was better. The metal sides mean the surface needs priming which, for me, makes it harder to obtain a decnt finish. Glazing Shire Scenes sides is an absolute pig as the door droplights and hinges are seperate etchings that fit on the inside which therefore means that each pair of windows and every droplight has to be glazed separately. I still managed to get some Araldite on the glazing but as it is dark inside this shows up only as a dirty window (surely that happened even on the GWR!). Using chocolate and cream meant I had to apply the lining between the two which, I read, is not gold and black (that was only used on prestige stock) but a single yellow line. Fox transfers supply a suitable decal.

 

Lettering is a bone of contention. I have tried using Pressfix but just cannot get on with the smaller transfers. Every time I tried to apply the class designation to the doors, the individual letters floated away when I wet the tissue paper. They work for the larger items such as the coat of arms but for class designations and numbers; hopeless. I've varnished the sides and will apply the class designation and numbers once I can find transfers that do work, unfortunately Fox Transfers only do the later post war style.

 

I detailed the chassis with brake gear (Mainly Trains did a very useful etch) and the photo shows the result.

 

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Not brilliant but it's an interesting change from the usual GWR 4 wheeled brake.

 

To show what a difference a decent paint job (by Geoff James) can make, attached is a photo of Ratio composite sides on a Mainly Trains chassis. I have to say I like the lake livery which to my mind looks very dignified.

 

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Finally, those who read my blog may recall how taken I was with the Dapol 'O' gauge range, in particular the Stroudley Terrier. As a GWR fan though it wasn't too difficult to put this aside, the only GWR loco they did was a quite expensve 64xx 0-6-0PT. However the range is being extended with that old favourite, the GWR 48xx/14xx/58xx 0-4-2T at the same price as the Terrier. No photos at the moment but it's bound to be excellent and also tempt a lot of people, including myself to the senior scale.

 

i hope all RM Web users have a great summer, I'm putting the modelling away for now. See you all in the Autumn.

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Mikkel
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Good to see the finished coaches John, and what a difference from the original Ratio coaches - although we owe the latter a lot! 

 

I know what you mean about glazing the Shire Scene sides, not my favourite task either.

 

Regarding the Pressfix transfers: I am a happy user myself but I never rely on the glue on the sheets to hold them in place. If they float away (and they very often do, as you say), I use the dull tip of a used scalpel or similar to gently tease them back in place. Even when the glue works I do the same to gently re-position numbers etc that did not come on 100% straight (the glue is usually flexible enough to allow this). Once dry I apply thinned matt Vallejo varnish immediately over the transfers to fix them in place. So far this has worked well for me at least, I have 10+ year old coaches with no problems. It does make it a fiddly and time consuming task of course, and may not be to everyone's taste.

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Tim V

Thanks for the positive comments about Clutton, it doesn't often get praise. Railwells in August will be its last public outing.

You may be surprised to know that not all of the layout was built to those "high standards", there are a lot of acceptable (to me) short-cuts. Looking for those short-cuts turns the impossible to the build-able. I think such things means that even big/complicated projects can be done. I don't think any of my stock would be as good as those coaches!

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JDaniels

Good to see the finished coaches John, and what a difference from the original Ratio coaches - although we owe the latter a lot! 

 

I know what you mean about glazing the Shire Scene sides, not my favourite task either.

 

Regarding the Pressfix transfers: I am a happy user myself but I never rely on the glue on the sheets to hold them in place. If they float away (and they very often do, as you say), I use the dull tip of a used scalpel or similar to gently tease them back in place. Even when the glue works I do the same to gently re-position numbers etc that did not come on 100% straight (the glue is usually flexible enough to allow this). Once dry I apply thinned matt Vallejo varnish immediately over the transfers to fix them in place. So far this has worked well for me at least, I have 10+ year old coaches with no problems. It does make it a fiddly and time consuming task of course, and may not be to everyone's taste.

Hi Mikkel,

 

Apologies for the delay in replying. I've just returned from a Baltic cruise which possibly visited your neck of the woods (Copenhagen and Skagen). We very much liked Denmark and its' very friendly people.

 

With regard to Pressfix transfers, thanks for your comments I might be tempted to have another go. I wonder whether they have a short shelf life as the adhesive barely works at all on the admittedly old sheets I have. I got on better with the old Methfix transfers which used meths to activate the glue. I also wonder whether the panelling so close to the transfer makes it more difficult to get the transfer to "sit" properly on the coach surface.

 

You're also absolutely correct about the Ratio coaches. They were introduced at a time when all that was available were proprietary coaches and were a revelation when they came out, particularly as they were based on an older design when all that was mostly available were BR standards. They set the ball rolling and we have no end of prototypes to choose from. I particularly liked the Slaters coaches, I have the Dean Diagram E37 composite and the D14 brake third and the combination of plastic and metal parts (plastic sides, metal underframe and bogies) to my mind is ideal.

 

 

One final

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