M.I.B

Whilst looking for something else in Russell "Pictorial Record of GW Wagons" (the thin first one not the Appendix.) I found an interesting Full Brake. It is 50' long or longer. With top-lights but a ducket just off centre. Page 98 figures 187 and 188. One shot shows perhaps the end of the roof which seems to curve down to the corridor connector. LNER Gresley full brake or ??

I've avoided calling this "PARROT markings" for obvious reasons....... Does anyone have details on what markings went where on the GW PARROT bogie wagons? Lots of Ex LNER pics of them as cable drum carriers, a few pics from their LMS service, but so far none found for GW service. I have looked online, in two Russell books, and also "Atkins, Beard and Tourret"...... Thank you.

Is this the beginning of the end of steam on ANTB? ): It's bad enough when the dark red carriages appear, but diesels............

Has to be on the list really BUT with a half finished one needing interior and paint, I'm rather hoping that something else ends up being put out in RTR... on the subject of railway furniture raised earlier - I have the roll fronted cabinet from the "Train Officer's Quarters" of the British Military Train (Berlin) and some shelving too. I had the pleasure of being "Train Officer" on a couple of occasions. Tales of the "metre high club" will have to wait...

Excellent painting John. Has really brought that outstanding building to life.

8 9 10 and 11 please. Thank you.

Rob I put Worsely Works brass sides onto a Mainline 57' coach. If you aren't super fussy about chassis and running gear, Mainline did a 57' in GWR and BR(W) livery and also one in LMS which will take the sides. Roof will need work in terms of ribs and vents adding. It was one that worked out well and stuck properly. The ones I did with Araldite went quite Pete Tong. Advise you use Evostick to join sides to RTR.

It would seem that these vehicles ran to a set timetable/route and were dropped off, perhaps taken to a bay or nearby goods shed, dropped deliveries, picked up "returns" and went on their way on a set following service. From the details I have seen they left on a given day and were always at the same stations on the same day of the week. A day or two at Swindon to load and unload, and away they went again. There were a few routes, but not every station on the network was visited, so one assumes that branchline/minor stations and outposts had their stores delivered to the nearest collection/drop point and the local goods or passenger brake took them onwards out into the sticks.

Option 1 for me on the poll please HOWEVER The K22 would be the last item purchased - there are still plenty of K22 kits out there either ready to make or well made and cheap on Ebay. Both brass and plastic. I have enough K22s to suit my needs for now, built to an acceptable standard.

So pleased to see you back in the railway room John.

Work on the 4mm etch for the "early" panelled (semi plated) version of W2W is coming along. Sorry for a delay in update - i was away and then caught COVID again! MartinT's post above has helped confirm a few things. Thank you for posting. The size of the three vent scoops is going to be a "best guestimate". As for location of the shell vents - does anyone have an accurate drawing of how there were on the original? That would be a good start point. Thank you

Hand starting a diesel engine !!!!! Thanks for that info- all helps with the etch which is coming along. Three squared off roof scoops - one is definitely for the generator room. The other two just to ventilate the battery rooms?

I have finally unpacked my books and immediatley found a few pages on Stroes vans and GWR Stores (Swindon) in "All In A Day's Work" by Tim Bryan. There is a shot of a Toplight brake based stores van, so I am assuming that as well as bespoke vans, some were based on lightly adapted available stock. That opens up the scope quite a bit.

2 - 8 on the Minks please. And the selection for the one to be saved - Bogie Mink F Van please

There is a very recent and outstanding 3D printed RTR Dyson ROTANK available in either twin or tri-axle format on a six-wheel railwagon. Amandalee on here produces it along with many other "hard to find" GWR oddities like AERO, MOREL, CROCODILE L, and the 9 tank CORDON They come with NEM coupling pockets and wheels. https://www.bygone-wagons.com/ I'm voting for: 1 2 3 4 8 9 and 11 Reasons: 1-4 The current RTR fruit vans (with the exception of Dapol's recent FRUIT D), are in the "Railroad" level of detail and accuraccy. 8&9 You can never have enough milk tankers of all varieties, especially on a London layout. 11 - I have to put up with Wrenn MICAs until something better comes along...... Suggestion: TEVAN please.

L22 L23 and L24 for me please. L22 because they were as explained above "everywhere" for a long period. L23 & L24 just to add some variety. Take all 3, add a long SIPHON or two and a full brake trailing - perfect mail train. Or drop any of them into a mis matched consist = adding variety into a stock move for works etc.

Dublo has been packed away after a good noisy session. With hard floors and plasterboard walls, the not inconsiderable noise generated when running Dublo was accentuated. Instead, and in between Zoom calls I have managed a sort out of kits and work in the projects boxes, and then got stuck into chip fitting and programming. I have one more "plug and play" engine left to chip - 3031. After that the soldering iron needs to come out. There are about 15 to do. Some have plenty of space inside (Parcels Railcar) and some are incredibly tight on space (panniers and Airfix/GMR Castles), but by selecting the easier ones first, confidence and ability will grow. Scotland are playing England at the "other game" tonight, and the weather certainly favours us - I don't ever remember turning out for school rugby practice when it was dry or sunny - unless there was a frost involved. There was no football played at my High School until you got to 6th form, and by then most footy folk had been converted to rugby (: On Monday the nights start drawing in............ Regards from North Essex.........

Worsley can adapt the etch for the K15 to make this diagram. I have been corresponding with Allen. It would seem that it had two distinctly different appearances after what could be estimated as a "major" shop in 57 when it seems the sides (might) have been heavily plated. So who would be interested in an "early" (1944 - 1957) semi-plated version, and who would like a "late" post 57 heavily plated version? PM me please - I need fairly firm "yes" numbers before anything further gets done. Obviously if we get to critical mass and the etch (es) go (es) into production/catalogue, the "Maybe's" can then commit on their own later. I'm going for an "early"

Thank you - I may have to subscribe.

This seems to be one of a very small pool of long parcels vans which had a weekly route. But what were they delivering on such a routine basis; (taken with full credit to the Penrhos site): Stores Van No.2 - West of England 1946/7 route - Monday: Swindon, Didcot, Reading, Slough, Paddington (Old Oak Common overnight). Tuesday: Paddington, Plymouth, Penzance, Truro. Wednesday: Truro, Plymouth, Exeter, Taunton. Thursday: Taunton, Weston-super-Mare, Yatton, Bristol, Westbury, Weymouth. Friday: Weymouth, Westbury, Chippenham, Swindon. Saturday: Loading at Swindon. No doubt one did the Midlands and perhaps up to Chester and Liverpool, another doing Wales....? Please can anyone add detail on routes and what they were delivering. Was it Company goods - stationary, uniforms, new/repaired tarps from Wolverhampton, office furniture, Station Master's new chair, new clocks?????????

I have the Roxey Mouldings K15 etch in front of me. It would take some serious modelling to turn it into that later van - all the panelling would have to be covered in with filler and smoothed, then a number of doors filled with louvre vents. That would also make for quite a weighty van - a brass kit with sides full of filler. Even the earlier version of it with less panelling would be a challenging model to make. But not impossible. The louvre doors are challenging me at the moment....... Or I might just build the K29 I was planning...........

I take back my words - 7.5 KVA is not very big at all. Add a fuel tank and some space for a radiator unit of sorts, and you would still have 2/3 of that van free. Steam generator unit has been suggested, so I go along with the ALIVE train proposal.

There won't be a small site generator in there, so I'm thinking it would be big enough to power up a medium sized station or a large signal box, or a goods shed while major repair works or builds were ongoing.

When I type "I hope that you are all happy and healthy" I do genuinely mean it. Sorry to hear that one of our bretheren in Canada has not been well. I wish John Dew a speedy recovery - his building making skills are very much envied here in Nth Cranford at the opposite diagonal to Granby.

The LMS coach behind the two pre-war teak ones, is a brake compo from the same period. Its a bit of a "friday afternoon job" because it has two identical sides on it - the Guard's compartment is always on the right hand side whichever way you see it. I have bought a couple of items over the years - mainly in the early days of car boot sales, when people didn't ask a fortune for everything they sold. I definitely bought 2 more NE Brick bogie opens, and a WELTROL I think. I'm sure I picked up a Dublo Mail coach as well, but it doesn't seem to be here. Not to worry - my local model shop has a couple on the "pre-loved" shelf for reasonable money.