M.I.B

C numbers: 1525 - 36 1515 - 22 1503 - 1510 1482 - 1501 Pre 1930s many of these had brandings including: RETURN IMMEDIATE:Y TO PENZANCE 1511 was branded "Return to Stourbridge" as it was a pigeon van. Post 1930s many of these were used for Harris' traffic out of Calne - snorkers and pork-pies......

I still need to do a little filling, add the vac hose and alter the rain strips. But it's firmly on the Ratio chassis (even if the running boards need re-gluing at one end) My "F" only had "GW" on it so I will continue with the fibre glass pen until it's gone. HMRS will provide the replacements and other lettering. As it is the late 1940s, the roof will definitely be a grubby black shade of grotty black.

There is an old article (possible from the Railway Modeller) giving you details on how to make the conversion. The only critical info in the article is where to make the cuts in the sides - you are taking the centre section out of the side by cutting down the gap between two pairs of doors. You should be left with: Left half section= pair of doors and a single left door Right half section - pair of doors and a single right door The two single doors make up the centre pair of doors for the SIPHON C.

the floor and running gear can be discarded - buy the Ratio 4 wheeler coach kit and you will have a "true and square" platform to fix the chopped up body to. If the body goes on to a "true" chassis a tiny bit wonky, you wont notice it. But if a chopped up body is to be mated with a "cut-n-shut" running gear, the potential for something quite wonky increases.

Rich, I too have an F in service, and also believe that to see two together is beyond my realm of acceptability, hence the C conversion. It really is an easy one to do. Compared to some of the things you have acheived this would be a doddle! Hoe broken is the roof? if it's just one end then that's ideal because you are going to chop an inch or so off it anyway.

Nearly 4 months after my last post on here....... I have been working away in Somaliland and doing rather a lot of work on my house in order to make it a little more habitable. So appologies for no updates. I am in the middle of doing a SIPHON conversion - from F to C using the old tried and tested method. Nothing outstanding or challenging, but it will fill a gap in my inventory, and has so far been a pleasure to do. I tried to get hold of an unbuilt SIPHON F kit but couldn't at a reasonable price. So I bought a finished one and broke it apart. Luckily it was well built with a minimum of plastic cement and Mekpak. The donor also came with two good white metal fish belly bogies which will go into the bits box for another project. Slicing the centre section out of the body sides was simple as the chunk to be removed requires cuts down door lines. A thin skim of filler will hide the joins. Sides were re-united to each other with a strengthener of plastic card, and a brace joins the sides to the Ratio chassis, which slips underneath very easily. A Ratio 2 wheeler coach kit (unmade) donated the chassis, which means I have a 2 wheeler body to turn into a Mess van for the shed or the brewery shed...... I have added some brass bearings and some metal tyred wheels form the bits box. This plus some tyre weights should help it roll better than the Ratio kit ever did. This will be added as "tail traffic" so at the rear a lamp will be added and a Smiths Instanter will be inserted, along withthe correct "drop down" Vac pipe, to clear the end doors and drop flap. The roof came off clean and is a simple conversion - just pare off the rain strips with a sharp knife and rub down with fine emery cloth. Cut to length , glue and make a new rain strip out of fine Evergreen rod. I hope to get this finished over Christmas - I need a break from decorating and fitting skirting boards.... Not the most technical of tasks on RM web, but it has kept me entertained. I hope that you are all happy and healthy - if I don't post again this year, I wish you and yours a wonderful Christmas season.

Absolutely first class John.

Was there not a regular rabbit working to the NE from the West Country? Plus the Harris' pies and sausage traffic from Calne - often in discretely branded dedicated PBVs and SIPHONs. As for what came back down the other way in a return working? I'm sure they would not have let it run empty on a regular running timetable - something would have been found to make the trip back pay.

Thank you both - I have pointed father Christmas in the direction of the TT website......

I have been otherwise engaged for most of the year so book releases have passed me by......... Have there been any recommended GWR ( or 50s UK steam) book releases this year - I need to get M.I.B Snr something as a gift...........

I have two (late GWR branded and BR black) on order. I can live with the chimney. Plates have been sat in the work-box for years along withthe plates for the manors on order and the Moguls which are packed away yet to be opened up - been busy on other projects. (turned a 2 bed bungalow into a huge house.........) Glad to see everyone is alive and well (ish). Greetings from Somaliland (where there are no pirates and no pasties)

@NickBaxter What year is that photo please Nick? Any idea? The white roof on the van is throwing my thoughts one way, but with it looking very clean and refurbished, it could be pre WW2 if this had just been convered/re-designated as a Stores Van. Now that I have read that the fourth word may be "Didcot" I can't "un-see it" If someone had a list of the routes where the different stores vans ran in what years...........but then again it was more likely to be designated with a route than a single destingaiton as these vans went to a lot of places on their 5 day round trips.

Thank you both.

On an end loaded van/CCT such as an ASMO, or SIPHON C or F, how were vac hoses mounted? Did they pivot down, or were they connected at the solebar so as to be below the drop down lower portion of the end door system?

Sorry to be late in reply, but been otherwise engaged... As said you have a few options: All over brown "jaded" chocolate and cream "Austerity" brown is also plausible, however also doubtful. and even Lake - but only on a summer season "special" or holiday relief: not for branch line regular traffic. There have been a few mentions of lake stock in the late 40s on this site, and M.I.B Snr remembers clearly seeing Lake stock moving into and out of Swindon carriage sidings, reserved for use at extremely busy times. I agree with previous posters too - footboards removed, lots of over plating. Certainly realistic to see these vehicles around in some scenarios, but you'll need to do some modelling and adapting. I have one or two in each of those each colour schemes for just such summer mainline workings in the 1947 period.

King action - King marvellous.= if you ask me........

Brian, I would buy 1 or two any of 1-6 but not them all. Any two would do. and either one 8 or one 9 7 and 11 are too late for me, and I have a J12. That's why they don't get my vote. Thanks,

Marmite time again......3d printing. Love it or loath it I am a convert, with reservations....... From AmandaLee of this parish........actually of "DownUnder" some more GWR rarities to join the supersized wagons in the POLLEN and CROCODILE classes. Some of these are available as a brass kit, but I don't have the skill.... some of these are just not available at all. 3d printing has nicely filled that that gap in the RTR inventory. These arrived as "RTR" needing some modelling: wheels couplings and "small" items not attached. Especially with the Dyson milk tanker trailer, this meant that access to paint the tank was so easy because ladder and walkway were added after. I still have some (tiny) lettering to do on these but last night these took a dive off the mantle piece in the office after the black furry beast became "interested" in them. Repairs done and packed away - they will come out for final lettering and weathering. Detail is incredible, but there are also "downsides" - small micro "spiders web" is found in gaps and cracks - it is the 3d print version of "flash" that bad Airfix mouldings had. This is easily removed with tweezers. Look at the ladder on the Dyson trailer and you will see a black bit I missed. Also the texture of 3d is a little "grainy"- the tanker got a rubdown with wet-n-dry and a healthy coat of Halfords spray primer and that cleared it up. I'm no 3d expert, but from experience I think 3d is probably great for panels with texture , but items that have to be faultlessly smooth, like a tender side, or cylindrical tank - these need sanding and filling and heavy primer-ing the AERO (above) and the PARROT ( below) come with crates pre coloured - all I did was treat them to some Dullcote and they were good enough to fit. The PARROT crate was tied down with saddler's thread. That took patience....... These come in great boxes with bubble wrap/sponge paper etc inside - and the boxes will fit the finished article too - incredibly well thought out. The MOREL came with a flywheel which is removable. Some of these have a limited lifespan on NC - carriage gas was seldom used in my period - CORDONs were on the way out in the late 40s, and hence no running boards any more on mine - much like my clerestories. AEROs were about to go back to being OPENs...... Hornby/Dapol/Bachmann/Oxford are not likely to ever make wagons with limited appeal , due to limited running life or geographic restriction etc, but 3 D printing makes running these possible. On the day that the West formally left Afghanistan to the un-elected Taliban, I hope that you are happy and healthy. I have spent at least 1000 nights in many parts of Afghanistan and met so many wonderful people - I hope things can be sorted out for them somehow. There is no easy solution sadly.

Love the treatment on the 94XX John. Rule 1 applies.......extremely hard to stretch Rule 1 for a 97XX........... Glad to hear that it has haulage capacity too - the real ones did.

By the mid 50s a Mk XIX would be a rare beast in the RAF's operational inventory. That one could be on the way to somewhere to become a "gate guardian". Anyone's guess for a very used aircraft being moved by train. Still has it's engine in, and the third wagon could well be another PARROT with the wings on it........

Many thanks TMc A ton of relevant details. I shall get the tiny tiny HMRS numbers and letters out.......... Every day is a schoolday on RMWeb

In such a light colour and with a 5 blade prop, I'm thinking it's a PR variant and quite high up in the numbers - 14+....

Probably is one of those Michael. Thanks Oxford was a site to three of the "Big 4"

These were built for a specific shipment of US made Buffalo aircraft which came "CKD" from the US. So they would have come in at a West coast port anywhere from Brizzle to Glasgow. Not LNER turf. GW ones and LMS ones differed - one lot were welded and the others were rivetted. By the time these were built and running the Buffalo were sent out to the Far East and these wagons were redundant. They then became the rail equivalent of the RAF's Queen Mary trailers - used for moving large repairable aircraft parts to RAF MUs. That's when they spread out to LNER and no doubt SR turf, although none are thought to have got to run in SR or LNER colours until some were converted and ran as LNER stock. BUT as with most things on RM Web, I stand by to be educated and corrected - you never know what people dredge up - which is what makes this a great place.

wondered how long that would take..........