Leaderboard

Having not been in the workshop on Monday, I was hoping that I would of got all the brass work finished yesterday morning. Well usual story takes twice as long as you think. I had a good day today, fortunately I had to be at the house all day as we were getting some furniture delivered. The castings for the body were reasonable except some were missing, not the end the world but it adds to the time, as they needed to be made. The ladders went together better than I expected, but are too long. the bottom had to be butchered to fit. The air filters needed just a little fettling to fit, you will see the bottom holes on one side were too long, I have already filled them which will be cleaned up tomorrow. I also had to do a repair casting on a side box, again will be made good tomorrow. The lamps and other fittings were OK although some did have holes and there where holes where there are no fittings. I really should of cleaned the whole thing up before the photos. I thought I had less time than I actually did. The 08 was given a scrub up and looks much better. I will hopefully get it clean and primed tomorrow. I am trying to get this and the 2F finished so they can be sold before Christmas. I need to get some wheels on order. There is a 850 pannier and a 2MT tank in the wings. There is not much in the way of fittings for the cab. But I think there is enough to give a good impression. I do not really know what goes on in them anyway. Once there is a driver and mate there will not be a lot of room left.

I assure you I have better things to do than actually count the number of sandbags I have made in the last couple of days but it has to be around the 1000 mark. I have got pretty quick at making them now and thankfully this is probably all I will have to do now. The sandbag emplacement is a railway control post copied from a picture in the Davies book and is complete with lots of little details like the ammo boxes built into the sides and the plank for the flag man to stand on - all off which will be pretty much invisible as faces the back but at least I know they are there. About 250 little bags went into this alone! Shows the construction. Being blended into the slope. Nearly finished. Some more bags went on the third dugout; But most of them went on the communication trench that again will be pretty much invisible as it is on fiddle yard portion so will be behind the fascia but should serve to add depth to the off stage section. The right hand wall and parapet have been finished off since this picture. Next task is to find a way of making duck boards quickly and cheaply as I need them not only for the trench floor but a considerable number as wagon loads.

We all like a funny photo ..... Tonight I was laying some grass on embankment sides and decided as I was finishing to take a few photos. This one kind of caught me out !! Have you ever seen such pretty smoke coming from a chimney ? Brought a smile to my face. Dad-1

I have been weathering a J25 scratch built many, many years ago by Mike Edge. The "real" loco was loaned to the Derwent Valley Railway (DVR) in Yorkshire - this one is owned by someone who has a model of part of the DVR and is pictured in the new book on the DVR. It has been washed over with a mix of black ink and water followed by a dusting of black weathering powder for the body of the loco and tender and a brown/black mix around the lower part of the chassis and wheels. Detailing was then added using black powder added to wet ink on the loco and as shown in close up . Along the bottom of the tender tank a similar approach has been used - and a bit of "rust" added around the tender tank filler Ant questions - feel free to ask

Stocks of the latest Bachmann Midland 4Fs have appeared in the shops and I have taken delivery of one of the examples with a Late Crest. Well I have taken delivery of two engines but more of that later. Bachmann Midland 4F on unfitted freight It is now over 100 years since Sir Henry Fowler introduced his 4F goods engine. 192 of these engines were built by the Midland Railway between 1911 and 1922 and according to Casserley and Asher (1961) all these engines were still in service up until May 1954. The ‘Midland’ 4F continued to be constructed by the LMS Railway after grouping. Between 1924 and 1940 a further 580 engines were built giving a final total of 772 engines, the highest of any class in the UK. Casserley and Asher reported that withdrawals of the later engines constructed under LMS ownership did not commence until 1959. The fact that such large numbers of relatively small 0-6-0 goods engines were still being employed in the 1950s has often been used as evidence to demonstrate the inefficient way that freight was handled by the UK rail network. You might also say that it shows that the 4Fs were simple to maintain and cheap to run. Ex LMS 4F 44605 passing Barrows Green Widnes in the early 60's I admired the 4Fs and my picture from the early 1960s shows the penultimate member of the class gently sauntering along on a sleepy summer’s day. Those of you with an eye for detail will notice in the distance the wooden outside framing to the lead chambers used to make sulphuric acid (the lead chamber process for those of you who studied ‘O’ Level Chemistry!). Airfix ex LMS 4F Airfix I think copied the LMS. When they introduced their model in the 1970s they seem to have manufactured copious numbers of their model. Certainly by the early 1980s there were lots for sale and I bought a couple. One came from C&G Models – trading from Newton Aycliffe, and another from Kings Cross Models – all at around £10.00 approximately half the manufacturer’s recommended price. Airfix LMS 4F renumbered 44605 As a tribute to the engine in my Widnes photograph I renumbered my first Airfix ex LMS 4F to represent the engine in the picture. Adding a smoke box number and shed plate I think makes a huge improvement – as does the addition of some black paint to the metal tyres on the driving wheels. I thought the Airfix models to be good for their time and with their heavy tender drive and rubber traction tyres they had excellent haulage capacities. Why some motors were noisy and others extremely quiet was always a mystery – although I did have theories about the strength of the brush springs. Soft springs might equate to quiet motors? Hornby Tender Drive I guess the 4F has always been a popular model and Hornby re–released the Airfix model with a revised tender drive and improved handrail detailing. Small changes that I thought made quite a presentable looking model. I had to change the bottom plate on my Hornby model which seemed over brittle and just disintegrated. It now says Airfix which might puzzle a future buyer! Bachmann Engine Driven ex MR 4F I know very little about the design of the various prototypes. However comparing pictures of the ex MR and the ex LMS 4Fs does suggest that new Bachman model is a good representation. Obvious difference between the MR and LMS versions are the position of the reversing lever and what I think might be the top feed. On the MR version these are on the right hand side looking from the cab, whilst on the LMS version they have moved to the left hand side. Does that mean that the MR engines were RH drive the LMS ones LH drive? It also looks as though the LMS company indulged in a bit of value engineering because the fine beading on the MR version disappeared on the LMS version. Bachmann are to be commended for their rendering of this detail. In fact the Bachmann model as a whole seems much more finely detailed than the older models. A friend summed it up by saying – ‘neatly superior’. Bachmann 4F left, Hornby Tender Drive 4F right The view above shows the old and new models head to head and highlights the heavier detail and thicker handrails used on the older models. Wiring harness made too long I mentioned at the start of this post that I had taken delivery of two Bachmann models. The view above shows the first model. The wiring harness was over long and it was just not possible to get the engine and tender close enough to couple them together. The little ladies in China had obviously tried and the surplus wire had pushed sideways and bent one of the copper tender pickups. A word of warning – I parcelled my engine back up and posted it straight back to the retailer. There were very good family reasons why I wanted it out of the way. Subsequently the retailer refused to refund my postage on the basis that he had sent out a prepaid postage slip and that I should have waited to use that before posting. Black marks to Rails of Sheffield they should have been quicker to acknowledge a problem and say that they would send the return postage label.

I hope the title of this one will be a little less controversial! So today I have been making - yes, you guessed Rosebay Willowherb to further liven up the bank. I adapted a method outlined in Gordon Gavett's book and got pretty quick at making them. Where I changed things was to use one full length of Hornby 'Field Grass' and dipped each end in tacky PVA and then a rather nasty Javis flock called 'Sandstone' (just about as far from sandstone as you can get!). When this had dried, which didn't take long I snipped them to length and dipped the other end in PVA and then some Woodland Scenic scatter. By the time I had finished a batch the first ones were ready for planting with a dab of PVA. See what you think. I have also planted some bushes and other sundry weeds and have to declare myself pretty pleased with the results. Have also done a bit more fine detailing and this portion is almost finished. As it represents about a sixth of the total that is not bad going. I have another dug out to go in further down in the section that is actually on the fiddle yard board and then I can start work on this side of the track (the scatter you see in the pics is just mess from the other side. A bit of stock gives an idea of what it will all look like.

As the Weston-on-Trent show creeps closer here is a further update: The show What a difference a few days make. In my last blog I reported that a layout pulling out had reduced the total to 18. Within a few days it has increased to a provisional total of 21. One small layout which had pulled out earlier in the year is now coming again, and I have received a kind offer from another RMWeb user to bring their shunting layout too! It will certainly be good to welcome one of the website's younger members to the event. I have also confirmed arrangements for our first ever guest demonstrator. This has resulted in me opening up another small room in the school for this year's event. As part of the demonstration stand RMWeb user DonB's developing model of the Bridgnorth Cliff Railway will be on show. Although work in progress it will be well worth seeing! As thing stands the show will feature exhibits in 4 rooms and 2 corridors. This should be made up of 21 layouts, 8 traders and 2 demonstrations. At present there are just a couple of layouts awaiting final confirmation. Once this has been received I will post a full list of visiting layouts on the blog and the show page. The layout I now have the extra flowers and some more stock boxes courtesy of the Burton show last weekend. Now all I need to do is complete the extra scenic touches and decide on a loco roster for this year's show. I admit that I have a little bit of a dilemma with this. I am struggling to decide which of my vast collection of locos to roster into service for the day. For many years I was a railway modeller without a layout. During this time I did build up a rather large collection of steam outline models. These cover all of the “Big Four” regions as well as a selection of B.R standards. The majority are liveried in British Railways colours with a mix of early and late crests. Skaleby West does not represent any particular location or era. It could easily pass for a preserved line or a branch line in the latter days of steam. The only scenic items which suggest a location are the Midland region signal box, and the maroon liveried benches and station lamps. It was for this reason that I chose to run the layout with a Midland region feel last year. The initial loco roster included the following weathered models; Bachmann Standard 4 number 75065 Hornby “Black 5” number 44762 Bachmann Fairburn tank number 42667 Bachmann Standard 4 number 80120 (seen below on my home layout) The first two locos did look a little too large for such a small layout, and a certain amount of artistic licence was used when running them on the short passenger trains. A second passenger set was worked regularly by my unweathered Bachmann Ivatt tank number 41324. This was borrowed, along with the coaching stock, from my permanent home layout, Skaleby. The loco and carriages worked at regular points during the day to depict a service from the model’s sister station (see below). My spare locomotives were two Bachmann unweathered models, “Jinty” number 47279 (seen on the layout below) and Midland 3F number 43474. These were both pressed into regular service due to problems with the Standard 4 tank and the Fairburn and ran impeccably. But what should I do this year? Do I stick with the Midland theme? If so what models should I choose? I definitely need to make some changes to last year’s roster. The Fairburn tank has developed a fault and cannot run and 75065 and the Black 5 really are too big. My plan is to run with two passenger sets and two mixed freight sets throughout the day, with the freights being shunted in the yard in between each arrival and departure. This means I need 5 regular locomotives and a couple of spares. Perhaps I will throw it open to others. Any suggestions as to what I should run??