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Mostly to confound Mike and save him from turning blue here is a quick follow up to last night's posting. 48079 rolled majestically out of the SLW paint shops at the weekend sporting her shiny new BR livery following an intermediate repair. As some of you may notice the buffer beams still require a coat of red paint but the apprentice called in sick yesterday. Enough of the story. In actual fact 48079 is a rather beautifully scratchbuilt P4 model of a Stanier workhorse. It is owned by my friend Robin (a.k.a Barrowroad) and I'm sure he would be happy to tell a little more about it's heritage. It was acquired in LMS black livery and had a number of areas where the underlying metal was peeping through. To grace Barrow Road (the layout) it needed to be put into BR black livery so the best long term option was a complete paint strip and repaint from bare metal. Robin and I carried out some exploratory work, in an unseen area, with a variety of paint strippers to establish what type of paint had been used originally and how easy the stripping was likely to be. The only substance that removed the paint rapidly was Nitromors Craftsman paint stripper (the low viscosity stuff in a yellow can). We concluded that the paint was probably cellulose. Robin was also confident to press on with using Nitromors because the builder of the loco had told him that it was all metal and fully soldered construction. So after her investigative visit to SLW 8079 went away to be returned at a later date......naked!

Not much visible progress with the layout recently, so in view of some recent interest in Caprotti fitted locos on RMweb, I thought I'd post a few photos of my effort - BR Standard 5, number 73129 - intended to work my Wakes special (for the North Wales coast). I think it's fair to say that Caprotti fitted locos were not well liked by footplate crews during the BR era, being regarded as weak on banks but fast on the level and good coasters. The super performances by Duke of Gloucester in preservation have disproved this view which was probably due to lack of familiarity and a sharper exhaust than normal locos leading to working at too short a cut off. Not that these issues apply to our models. Anyway, Patricroft shed ended up with all the English allocation of these locos and one of these was the last BR steam loco I saw in everyday service - the west end (Horse Dock?) pilot at Manchester Exchange in 1968. I spent a pleasant half hour on the footplate chatting to the fireman whist waiting for my (Peak hauled) Newcastle bound train. Possibly for this reason, I've always had a love of these locos. The model is based on a DJH kit but using milled main frames from Alan Gibson. In fact, the only DJH bits on the whole chassis are the cylinder /steam pipe castings, the slide bars, brake hanger/brake block etches and the return crank gear box castings. The valve gear shafts, complete with representations of the universal joints were made from various diameters of brass rod and tube. The injector casting are Alan Gibson and the pipework, lubricator and valve gear support brackets, etc., all home made. The photos were taken by Barry Norman and i must apologise for the poor quality reproduction. This is due to way I've scanned them in and re-sized the files not any fault with the original photos. First some shots of the finished loco: Now some taken during construction: The front bogie frame, showing the hollow pivot tube which was later soldered into the chassis spacer between the cylinders. A pin passes down the pivot tube to transmit the weight from the bogie external compensating beams to the front compensating beam in the chassis. This arrangement allows full compensation of the front bogie wheels without the bogie frames moving vertically. The bogie slides sideways with rubbing pads on the bottom of the mainframes resting on the "ears" protruding either side of the bogie frames. Light springs resting on the bogie axles keep the frames pushed up onto the pads. Hairpin side control springs centralise the bogie on the pivot tube. A bit complicated, perhaps, but it works really well and is applied to all bogies on my locos. Now some shots showing how the cylinders and valve gear are made up from sub-assembles which are held together by small screws (14 BA, if I remember correctly). First the cylinders with slidebars and connecting rods: Next the main drive shafts. This unit fits on top of the cylinder unit. Part of the exhaust injector steam feed pipe is included - the "S" shaped piece of brass tube!: Then the reversing gearboxes and shafts. The long, separate shaft is from the cab to the valve gear: When it's all assembled to the top of the chassis, the valegear looks like this: At the rear end of the chassis, on the right hand side, there is the rather distinctive lubricator mounting and drive. The lubricator bracket is quite massive and has the steam feed from the blast pipe to the exhaust steam injector passing right through the bracket, or rather the lubricator bracket incorporates a tube which forms part of the exhaust steam supply pipe. On the model, sections of this pipe are attached to bits of the valve gear, as seen above, and some to the chassis mainframes. The injector castings are Alan Gibson. This shot has the brake gear removed. Also visible are the dummy springs, sand pipes/brackets, ash pan and hopper operating gear and the pick ups - all mounted to a removable keeper plate which retains the driving axles. The motor is a Portescap 1616 fitted with an MJT gearbox conversion. The electrical connection to the motor, via bits of gapped copper-clad sleeper strip glued to the gearbox side plates, has since been modified to include a DCC chip. The brake gear is made in two sections. The "herring bone" main section with the brake hangers, which clip onto the chassis mountings and is easily removeable to get the wheels out. The rear section with the operating lever is attached to the chassis by screws, below the cab: The complete chasis, unpainted, looks like this: From underneath and from above:

OK some time has passed since the last update, however some significant work has been achieved on the Speeder. Obviously painting aside, work has been undertaken on the more final detail parts and under frame and interior. Headlamp lenses, spotlight and wipers are on order from tiny-cars as is a sheet of fine decal film to use with the already completed decal image. Door handles, bonnet handle, towing eye and a small grill remain outstanding to complete. All up and running (and its quite a mover!) once the finer details are fitted general tidying up of the paintwork (especially around the windows) can be performed prior to weathering. You will see from the B End shot, a compromise has been made and the end of the motor/ gearbox is visiable. Not much could be done as the open nature of the under frame however I feel its a better compromise than a huge gear on show... A End 3/4 View B End

So far I only have a part completed 6 wheel coach, an IKB Models U28, pretty much all that needs to be done to complete the vehicle is to add the brass grab irons for the doors, however I am putting those off until I summon the guts to put the gold lining on which will go all around each of the panels just inboard of the raised mouldings. Also on the books are another couple of IKB 6 wheeled coaches (a U21 compo and an S6 all third), and a rake of 3 Slaters clerestory coaches.

LO peeps. Unfortunatley I didn't make the RMWeb day last Saturday. I was intending to attend, but a MRS tour of Kentish Town and Betjeman's Midland was the same day, and I had committed to go on it. I am sorry not to have met up with people again, but the London tour was unique, led by an ex-Kentish shed driver. I have taken my 1F chassis to pieces ( again)- still not happy with it! Was not running at all smoothly.Luckily I resisted the urge to hurl it at the wall! I was awaiting a new drive cog from the 2mmsoc but managed to order (another one) which is too big doh. I now have THREE that size! I wish they would give the diameter, rather than just the number of teeth, or is that not being engineer enough? I have kept one of the frames as a templete for the hole positions, the rest I've binned, and the loco body packed away until I get a bit of enthusiasm back for it. Glenfield can run perfectly happily on the converted 2F anyway. On a more positive note, I ordered a pait of GE drivers, which slipped perfectly into my N gauge Spinner, and look superb. Surprisingly for me, the engine worked as soon as it was returned to the track. Not that his should be appearing at Glenfield! [ I have been considering whether in my scenario the Midland actually carried through the proposed widening of the tunnel/ opening it up as a cutting, instead of re-routing the line via Kirby Moxloe..unlikely I know; and anyway they would almost certainly have double tracked it..) Last weekend I undertook the station shelter, and am fairly pleased with the result. I think it is slightly too wide and the windows are not quite the correct size ( had to cut about some BH Enterprise ones to get anywhere near). If this was N gauge, I would be happy with the outcome, but as it is I am trying to source some better windows and will rebuild at some point, as it only took a couple of hours to construct. Research has suggested that the mysterious curved siding at the end of the goods loop might well have been a dock, as I always suspected. As there was no other access to this siding apart from through the main goods/coal yard, such as it was, it is unlikely that it was for livestock, but am waiting to clarify this. Also I'm hoping to use my little mobile cattle ramp I built last year! Finally, I have added some sculptamold to smooth out the contours on the layout itself. Its the first time I've used it and I was quite impressed with how easy it is to use. No photo as yet. Regards, Chris

To ensure consistency of coupling heights throughout the project a small coupling height gauge has been fabricated. Made out of plasticard, the gauge provides a datum for all couplings from 'top of rail', the pin providing the centre point. To use, a wagon is gently pressed against the gauge and a small depression is left in the surface, this being your datum point, enabling you to drill holes in the correct position. So with the gauge complete it only seemed right to give it a trial run. Here a 7mm NG Society coupling has been fitted onto the Gp Van. Final painting, weathering of the coupling (and a dust of the van is required!). The small tail hanging below the coupling will remain until a decision has been made as to how/ what uncoupling method will be used.

Hi all. To begin with, a slight diversion from modelling, but in the name of research....Tangmere hauling the Dorset Coast Express just after passing Pirbright Junction on the 5th July: Back to modelling, following on from the previous entry I have constructed a larger test board to try out the method for producing bramble type ground cover. I was happy with the basic principals of using the Steel wool however I felt the Noch leaves were maybe a little on the large side for N. So, after a few passes through a sieve to weed (!) out the larger lumps I have tried producing a section of embankment similar to the section which will be needed on Ropley. This is the real thing, and the effect I'm aiming for: The test piece was knocked together using some foamboard scraps and polyfiller, although I think another method of producing the landscape will be needed for the layout as the polyfiller adds quite a bit of weight. Once dry, the whole thing was sprayed with RailMatch Frame Dirt and before this was dry, Treemendus Earth powder sprinkled on the base of the embankment and a short way up it. This was done to try and recreate the appearance of earth being dug away. Once this was dry, a light covering of Woodland Scenics fine turf was applied as a base layer but leaving some of the earth powder exposed at the bottom: After this, some steel wool was teased out, sprayed and the sieved leaves applied before being glued to the embankment. I left a few gaps here and there which then had Woodland Scenics Field Grass applied. Again I think Static grass will give a slightly better appearance here which is something to try next time: After this had dried a very light dusting of frame dirt was applied to even out the appearance. Sieving the leaves has helped I think. They are maybe still a little large but this doesn't stand out so much as part of a larger area. For comparison here’s the original test piece and the embankment together: Next on the cards is those trees along the top of the embankment! Cheers all, Tom.

I acquired three scratchbuilt P4 locos from Graham Warburton as a result of a chat with him at the Taunton members day earlier this year. The stud consists of a Patriot, 8F and a Crab all of which were in LMS livery. I spent some time deliberating on whether to put them into the paint shop for conversion to BR livery but eventually made the decision - after all Barrow Road is intended as a BR 1950/60s era layout. The most difficult decision was the lovely crimson lake livery of the Patriot. The decision has been made and all three have been stripped of their former LMS clothing. Morgan kindly offered to deal with the Crab and I did the 8F and Patriot. The Crab and 8F entered the paintshops at SLW a few weeks ago and the result can been seen in the photos - a wonderful job on the 8F. The Crab is to have mixed traffic livery. The Patriot is booked in for a BR lined green paint job plus light weathering with Ian Rathbone later this year and will emerge as either 45504 Royal Signals or 45506 The Royal Pioneer Corps, both Bristol engines in the late 50s. All three engines are around 30 years old - the 8F actually 38 - and were built by Richard Hersey. They are all scratchbuilt in nickel silver and brass to P4 standards the 8F being his first attempt in P4. The standard of construction is truly awesome especially as they predate such tools as RSUs. Richard, I understand, is currently involved with the manufacture of Alan Harris 'O'guage wheels. I will let Morgan post further photos of the locos in due course.

Hi Tom That looks really good. Dave

Hasn't N gauge improved so much! Looks excellent, beautifully smooth. Regards, Nick.

That is cracking Tom, really glad I came across your blog! Regards, Nick

Hi Tom, That is a really nice effect, it looks just like scrub land on the modern railway scene. Best wishes, Nick

You have this pretty well sussed out Tom, if ever you need a slightly larger test plank I will gladly send you one in the post... It is about four feet long with a bridge in the middle I have been developing some related techniques using bunched up crumbs of sand and PVA, which when painted green give a remarkable suggestion of low, leafy balls of shrubbery... albeit dense, hardened balls, but at 2mm ish scale it works pretty well, the plan is for static grass to lightly flourish around the denser shrubs for a variety of textures.. more on this on my blog tonight if I get chance. Keep up the good work!

Perfect

As what Pete said! That does look very convincing, I will definately have to try out those leaves! Missy

That's lookin' rather nice Tom...

D816 is one of the examples that retained or were refitted with multiple working jumpers. These have been made from a scrap of plastic and some thin wire. I've also added the odd footstep under one of the buffers. This came from the etch in the Craftsman detailing kit for the Lima Warships (which claims to cover D813-870 - but actually only covers the class 42 unless you ignore all of the class 43's detail differences ). It needed some modifications to fit, and one of these etches had to be reversed as Craftsman etched them as mirror images rather than identical. The rest of the buffer beam detailing will be a mix of Bachmann and Craftsman pipes. The oles are there, and they'll be added after painting. I've also filled the rather large gaps around the bodyside windows. Since I'd managed to damage one of them, it was filed back to the frame and will be modelled as open. This was a bit of a pain to do, so I'll only be having one open window. The main outstanding piece of work is the speedo. There's a reason why that's been left to last, and it's not because I'm looking forward to doing it

Maybe. If you keel over Paul has volunteered to give you the kiss of life.

Am i right in thinking then that the Special Edition is basically a Hornby railroad Tornado with a couple of extras added. Better than the railroad version but no where near up to the standards of other Hornby loco's?

Another excellent review. I agree with the comment above, having gone to the lengths they have.. it seems a shame that the model doesn't come with the same level of detail found on other Hornby "Super detail" products today. It sounds as if we're left with a compromise... cost or quality; but then accuracy or precision? Perhaps there will be a super detailed Hornby version when the moulded details are dispensed with and a true accurate and precise model of Tornado is produced; yes, we could expect a higher cost... but hopefully it'd be worth it. Thanks for taking the time to post this review. Well worth the read. Jon

Can I....should I...hold my breath? Glad to see your back in the swing, look forward to the photos! Mike

That's really good Tom Dave

That looks really good Tom. I have been using a very similar technique to that but with carpet underlay instead of the steel wool. I like the idea of using the leaves though, is there any chance you could post a picture with some kind of scale next to it please so I can get a feel for the size. Thank you. Missy

The only problem with steel wool is that it has been known to migrate towards magnets in motors, doing them a great deal of no good. I'd keep a small rare-earth magnet around, and pass it over the area every so often, in case of loose bits.

Tom looks great - these are big cruel close ups and they're more than passable!