jwealleans

If you've still got the Steve Banks article, Mick, it shows up well in the photo bottom of page 54.

This link says it all.

First trials this afternoon after it was all Araldited together. It all runs very smoothly and quietly, I must say. Details have been added to the bodywork (and yes, I have restuck that water filler). There's a fair bit of lead gone into it and it weighs 130 gm. We'll see how that translates into traction the next time I go down to Ormesby. The track it's on may be of interest; it's been a bit of a bugbear of mine that the rolling resistance of some of the stock we have is too great. I had the track on a batten which I used to hold stock being worked on; I've simply attached it to another piece of batten at an incline of roughly 1 in 36 (it drops slightly less than an inch in 34"). It may be unscientific but it's a standard we can work to. If stock won't roll down the incline without being pushed, it's not free running enough. Most of my stock passed except those items I thought didn't run properly already, which seems to prove the point.

I hope Mick's OK with the thread hijack, but I've found the photo I was looking at: it's in Railway Carriage Album by G M Kitchenside, page 64 and shows two of the coaches Larry mentions above. I believe the one nearest the camera is No. 99. It looks to be in a plain unlined livery to me, but the photo is undated so I'd be loath to guess brown or maroon. I thought I had more photos but I can't put my hands on them at the moment.

Hi Mick, You must have posted before I added my edit - there is plenty of space for lead sheet and I will be adding some fore and aft. I haven't weighed it yet, but there are weighting recommendations in the BullAnt instructions. I will miss the club night on Monday, though, so it may be a couple of weeks before it gets a run out. I bought a BullAnt Major at the same time to use in my railcar kit. If that's a success I'll suggest we adapt the Ormesby one the same way. We can't use it on the automated shuttle at the moment as it goes like the proverbial off a shovel one way and an arthritic tortoise the other. The coach has had Halfords Filler primer on the outside (the garish yellow) and a pale yellow on the inside - what you can see at the bottom is overspray from the pale yellow. I'm going to try it in Larry Goddard's recommendation of Precision Track Dirt.

A quiet and hangover free day today and I hope the rest of the year is as productive. I've got to the stage with the coach where I need to leave it for a few days for the paint to harden and to be able to pick out the details I've missed when I next look at it. Bill B kindly pointed out what the unidentified bits on the etch were so I've added those in. I added the stepboards to the bogies last night and primed everything so it can harden off for a week or so. Door vents were superglued into place after the etch primer on the body. So, today I turned my attention to what was actually supposed to be the project last Christmas. Now you can imminently get them off the shelf there may not be too many more of these built: Nu-Cast Sentinel Shunter, available (in this case) from Sherwood Models in Nottingham. Mine was just south of ??30 - I see tonight they're up to ??32.50. I have two of these in the kit pile, the other being a Crownline brass one. Now there's one on the way (and I shall have to have one) it's time they were built, otherwsie it may well never happen. I was more organised about things this year and early in December I contacted Geoff Baxter at Hollywood Foundry to sort out a power unit for it. He was very helpful and about a fortnight ago this arrived from down under: I've heard good things about these BullAnt units and I was not keen on the Spud or even Black Beetle for the Sentinel after seeing the poor performance of the one we have at Ormesby. This has a Mashima 1020 and a 38:1 belt drive (as recommended). As the kit is designed for a motor bogie there's a certain amount of modification to do, but I measured up the kit and specified a 26 mm fixed transverse 'batwing' mount. The kit has a large whitemetal piece which solders to the underside of the running plate, arches up inside the body and has a fixing hole for the bogie in the centre. I dispensed with this piece and made two small brass plates with 10BA captive nuts which I attached each side of the running plate. They were filed back so that the body is an interference fit on top. Hopefully the picture makes it clearer: With the fixings in place the assembly was checked for height and plastikard packed under the running plate until it corresponded to the buffer jig (another useful little Bill Bedford item). The packing was then glued into place and the whole thing checked again. The motor fits under and inside the body shell quite comfortably. The unit must have taken a knock on the way over as the batwing was bent when it arrived and the motor isn't straight on the chassis. I haven't had the chance to run it in yet so we'll have to see whether it's survived OK. A quick test with two wires seemed to show it running freely enough. As you can see below, there's plenty of room within the unit to add lead sheet ballast (important as I've removed a fair bit of weight by dispensing with that whitemetal lump). Once you've got that bit working, it's quite straightforward to solder on all the extra bits and make it look like a Sentinel. Here it's all just posed as I need to wash the chassis before I Araldite the body and lead into place. Disappointingly the kit seems to have a shorter wheelbase than the real thing (presumably to suit the Spud?) so one axlebox doesn't line up at each side. I have a plan, but it's no more cunning than painting it all black and running it in dim light. There are a few details to add; pipe runs along the solebars, handrails and the roof hatch, which I will try to replace with something more realistic than the lump of plastic which comes in the kit. Some other items which have passed over the workbench this week, mainly catching up with all the plastic kits I started when travelling late last year: Ex- L& Y van. An MAJ kit I bought at Middlesbrough show earlier in the year. This one has been built as the version with the roof door. I finally applied the transfers to the other ferry van I built in the late summer. This just needs handrails (they go through the transfers in a couple of places) to finish. This is not usually my thing, but it was in a job lot of kits I bought from a mate in the Ely club. I started to do the transfers but the HMRS sheet doesn't seem to have the right size 'GW' so I may try the Old Time Transfers which I believe are made for this kit. These are for the Ormesby Hall Corfe layout, finished in the (fictitious) livery of our local coal merchant using HMRS transfers. Finally, the new Cambrian Midland van, also for Corfe.

As you say, Ravenser, I'm sure we had this discussion on the old RMWeb (or an old RMWeb at least). There were both Midland and LNWR coaches in M & GN stock and they went to the LNER in 1936. I was looking at a photo today of a Midland corridor clerestory in M&GN livery and there are others if I dig around. There's a fairly recent book on the M & GN which has photos you'll probably find useful. I was flicking through it at the Leeds show. The 51L coaches were from the Chowbent range, I believe. The stock did include a number of Great Eastern coach types just like the ones I built last year (on my workbench thread) and available from Worsley Works or Bill Bedford. Livery would certainly have been brown - the LNER didn't bother trying to strip paint from coaches once they'd been painted, they just painted them brown. There's a thread on the LNER forum somewhere about the shade - Dan Pinnock says it was close to Humbrol 133, some photos show it very close to Humbrol 186, Coachmann reckons Precision Track Dirt (I haven't tried that one yet). I've used Triumph Russett Brown on NPCS which looks on the dark side of the range, as does Precision 62 (Coach Teak). As with all things East Anglian, Buckjumper probably has the most comprehensive answers. Mick - I meant to say something complimentary a couple of days ago when you posted these pictures. TPO is a top job. Have you thought of making the lights work? I do like the A3 as well. Did you see my note on the LNER forum about 51L doing a Jubilee kit next (still next) year?

I've spent a bit of time contemplating details (and jigsaws!) over the last couple of days (that and the shower blew up, which is more modelling time wasted...) The end drawing in Nick Campling's book is a composite of the two ends, I've decided. All the photos I have (6 different coaches, including the one in said book) show steps and handrails at one end, alarm and electrical gear at the other. Bill has etched up the kit with everything at the one end, but it's no great hardship to move the alarm and switch gear to the other. Most of the pictures I have also show two more torpedo vents over the luggage compartment, but I have two good shots of one in this condition, so that is what it will be. The underframe had had truss rods and dynamo added. Battery boxes I made up from plastikard and they'll be stuck on once it's been primed. Brake cylinders were in the bits drawer; 51L or mainly Trains, probably. While I had the plastikard out I started to make up bits for the interior. I usually have these removable, but as the partitions are soldered in I'll probably build this one in situ.

Yep, great to see this back again. Always worth taking the time to appreciate it.

First thing today was to attach body to roof. This was done from one end, then tacking the roof at each of the bracing ribs, alternating from side to side to keep it square and ensuring that the roof and the other end still met. I didn't see the need to seam the solder all the way along as it's quite rigid and there are no visible gaps as it is. I usually put some .75mm angle along this joint to hide any irregularities and straighten the sides, but there just isn't a cornice on this coach. As it happens it all fitted together really well. Next the interior. Bill provides all the transverse bulkheads which go right across the coach, obviously intending that they be used to brace the body and the roof be removable. My method makes that impossible so you have to remove the part of the partition which would foul the tumblehome, as below. I have to do this with al my coaches and I've found that the gap inside is almost impossible to detect even if you're looking for it. On a layout it's invisible. The partitions were then built up and tacked to the body. Between these and the buffer beams they've straightened the transverse arch in the floor. I made up the bogies next. These are 247 Developments HR stepless as I was advised they're the nearest to GE you can readily obtain. I was a bit disappointed with them - they were way out of square and I had to extend them sideways a long way to get even 24mm axles to fit and turn freely. They still need steps adding. Here I've also added the buffer beams and buffers - 51L L & Y coach buffers, again the nearest you can obtain commercially. There were two laminations for the buffer beams - I know that in the past I've found the thickness of brass Bill uses a bit flimsy for buffer beams but these were fine once made up. The body is also very rigid now it's all built up and soldered together. Put together it's starting to look much more like the finished article. It sits about half a mil high, which needs working on. I've added the vents on the roof - the GE were a bit tight when it comes to ventilators. That will be it for tonight, then I have the joys of the underframe to move on to. Which brings me to my last point - unidentified bits on the etch. Perhaps anyone with more knowledge of underframes than me might help: what are these bits for? I can see the stepboards and supports (bottom and upper centre) - these were removed by the 1950s so won't be used. Brake linkage arms I can also pick out. The four items with a triangular end and hole I can't identify, nor the bits centre right - are they battery box supports? There were also some parts I assume were for use with Bill's own bogies to space the body to the right height and allow some lateral and fore and aft movement. I've used those with the 247 bogies by soldering them to the underside of the bogie mounts to allow the bogies to rock, one for and aft, the other side to side.

Back to the sides today, once I'd reattached the roof rib which came off when I was washing the whole thing down. Droplights were the next job. I generally hate these as I get them both cockeyed and too high/low. However the vertical formers for the hinges also serve to locate the droplights vertically, so all you have to do is decide whether you want them open, closed or at a point in between. There were two too few droplights. This wasn't a problem as I have plenty left over from the GE rake I built last year and I wanted to do something different with the lavatory windows. Nick Campling's book shows one open, revealing that it is a hopper window (it is hinged at the bottom and opens inwards from the top). I wanted to show this on the model and so a bit of scrap etch and a spare droplight and away we went. Droplights done, I went to grab handles. I do these last so I don't risk deforming them by pressing on the back of the side when working on something else. They're slightly cranked at the top then curve in towards the side as they go down. I bent them up from .33 wire and then used a bit of card to space them off the side and soldered them from the back. It's also worth going back over all the holes you drilled out in the sides at this point as you may well have filled them with solder, droplight (if open) or both. Once these are done, grind/file/sand the back of the side smooth. That will help when you glaze the coach and also ensure that the sides fit over the floor, which has a small fold up section at each side which holds the sides straight. It was now time to put sides and ends together. Bill provides these fold up bits of etch to help attach sides to ends. That done, I moved onto my own method of attaching body shell to floor. I put a brass strip with two captive nuts across the end of the coach and then use 10 BA bolts up though the floor to fasten it all together. I found that the lower attaching bits above fouled my brass strip so I ground them off again at this end. I could have attached sides to roof, but I wanted to give it all a thorough wash first. I also still need to attach the vents to the roof. I moved on to the floor. This is quite thin brass and has become curved across its width while still in the etch. I expect attaching the internal partitions and buffer beams will help straighten it out. Here all I've done is attach the bogie mounts - captive 8 BA bolt inside - and make the holes to screw up into the body to marry the whole thing up. Finally here it is looking much more like a coach. Note that I haven't put all the end gear on - alarm gear and the like will be attached after I've soldered roof to body as there's too much of a likelihood of it falling off if I put it on now. Last thing is another scrub in shiny sinks and into the airing cupboard overnight. Only one of the grab handles came undone, so I must have had a good day with the iron.

I had a request on the LNER forum to go into detail with this coach so here it is. I have had a bit of time before Christmas and today to crack on with it and it is coming together as I hope you'll see. I had got as far as preparing the roof and clerestory, the main thing I had been asked about. Bill supplies bracer/forming pieces for the roof which were soldered into place. I had some trouble bending the quite sharp curve of this roof and it will need tidying up. Conversely as this coach will be towards the end of its life some irregularity won't be the end of the world. The clerestory itself folds up from a one piece etch with these cross pieces to space and brace it. Already quite solid and square. This was then tacked to the roof piece. I did have some trouble with the ends, which are a separate piece and weren't as high as the clerestory sides no matter how I tried to get them to fit; I had to attach about half a mil. of scrap etch on the bottom to fill a gap. No photo, I'm afraid. The tabs on the clerestory sides locate into slots on the roof - here it is all in place, a satisfying first time fit and very much better than the floppy mess I had with the Peter K kit. Finally, I will make the clerestory removable to glaze after painting (or if the glazing ever falls out). I drilled a 2mm hole through the roof from underneath, making sure to mark the underside of the clerestory with the drill. The mark was then used to site a 10 BA bolt which is soldered into place. I usually use some 1/4 " ones you can get from Eileen's, but I seem to be all out. These will be trimmed later. The nut then screws up from underneath and hold it in place. The complication with this coach are the ventilators which look like plates attached to the roof along each side of the clerestory. I intend to solder these to the roof and make them a snug fit against the removable part. It shouldn't be coming on and off very often.

I was going to ask about transfers, Brian. Let us know where you get them from.

A little progress with the CL - sides now have the hinge sections fitted, steps added to one end.

ISTR I asked Gary that at Leeds and yes, they are. Mick's got them in his hand, of course, but my inclination would be to go for these over the Peter K ones as I believe the latter are dimensionally challenged somewhere. You won't be surprised to hear that I have a pair in the 'to build' pile....

I think you're right, Jon, I haven't seen those before either. I'll have to have another search myself.

I thought Miss P's post was quite out of character. While I agree with the basic request, I'm not sure that a limited edition commission is the place a manufacturer or sponsor would take a punt on the market for such a model being there. Maybe Andy can amend the forum code such that every time anyone froths about a Blue Pullman it's replaced with a request for undecorated models?

So, here we are on Page 2. While some paint dries I've started another kit, which has been hanging around since early summer but was unavoidably delayed. It's a Bill Bedford Great Eastern Clerestory Lavatory Composite. Drawn and pictured in Nick Campling's carriage book. Very early days with this one, so here's the kit laid out as it came in the packet .. and a short time later with the door seams graven into the lower panel, tumblehome formed and the hinge pieces ready to be attached to one side.

I think the photo Mike refers to is in Ransome-Wallis, Train Ferries of Western Europe - a highly recommended book which can be picked up very cheaply. There's another photo in there showing aferry heeled over to the maximum (IIRC) 5 degrees of list - looks alarming but apparently wasn't excessively so. The Harwich ferry doesn't seem to have used this parallel shunting approach - I've more than one photo of a single loco on the linkspan with no reach wagons in use. One is a J19 as well, so not lightweights. Did this technique evolve at Dover after they did away with the reach wagons?

Cheers, Pete. They're a bit fiddly for my rather ham fists - probably be better with a hold and fold, when I treat myself to one - but they certainly look the part. I have asked Andy for his pictures of the van (see the Hull Show thread) and if he's agreeable I'll pass them on to you if you want to use them. This is port #25 - I'm hoping Page 2 will start now as people have apparently starved to death waiting for Page 1 to load .... (photo download speeds at fault, not RMWeb).

More plastic in hotel rooms last week. I picked these kits up from Leeds a couple of weeks ago; most of them are for Corfe but the Long Low was for me, initially to satisfy my curiosity about backdating to the MR version but now I have it it will go onto Thurston. We're going to build a few wagons for our (fictitious) coal merhant on Corfe. As we're in the general south west of the country we decided some of the round-ended varieties of wagon would give a bit more character. These are a Hurst Nelson (C52) and Wheeler and Gregory (C53). They take a bit more care than most plastic kits but can be made up quite well. The different profiles and sizes of these wagons is what gives pregrouping stock and trains so much character. The other Cambrian kit I put together is the Midland van which was discussed on the old forum. The one piece underframe speeds up assembly no end. These are all assembled as they come out of the packet apart from substitution of steel buffer heads for the plastic ones. The white ends are some Evergreen strip - I managed to make the body longer than the roof, not sure how, but the strip will ensure that it projects slightly over the end as per the prototype. The Long Low; well, what can you say - usual Roger quality, opened the bag and it almost assembled itself. The only change I made was using .9 wire for the brake cross shaft instead of what was supplied.

Cheers, chaps. Rob - the crests were actually sent to me by Graeme King, who'd traced/drawn them out of the Dow book. They're just printed onto plain paper and stuck to the back of the glazing material. The glue has discoloured one of them slightly but it'll not show when weathered. The Peter K kits are a bit of a challenge; the clerestory on mine was very flimsy indeed and still doesn't really bear very close examination. The one Mozzer built (is he still building it?) had the etchings doubled up so you folded them over, which would be much stronger. The sides are done like that to the upper half has more relief. You can't get the bogies either, of course. I am tempted by some of the others they advertise but, like you, I have a few things to build first.... Jon - look forward to seeing your van. Who did the transfers for you? I ordered some for mine in April from some German firm - forget the name now - but they never turned up and he never asked for payment. Bit late now if he gets round to it.

There has been progress with a few projects recently but nothing worth posting. Reinvigorated by a visit to Hull Show, however, I thought I'd put some of it up here to remind anyone reading that I am still active. Just. These coaches are now pretty well complete. I picked up a pack of Preiser figures at Hull and they'll be riding in style sometime fairly soon. This GWR fish van is now done and I have another matching one to give the same treatment to. We did eventually manage to get the BB spring units to derail but we had to go awfully fast to do it. Finally most of my modelling time has been spent on this, with which I'm mighty pleased. These were the first ferry vans I came across when I started researching and I've just had a yen to have some since then. There's another on the stocks and then we'll see how many more I can motivate myself to knock up. Sincere thanks to our Glorious Leader for allowing me to use Keyhaven Quay to photograph it and then keeping it on display for most of the day. My camera was about to expire when I took this - I'll replace it with one of Andy's eventually as they'll undoubtedly be much better. Is it me or is there a man in the foreground being sick?

While it's relatively quiet on here, Brian, I'd just like to say how much I've enjoyed this thread now and on the old RMweb. I don't model diesels or 7mm, but it's a pleasure to see fine modelling clearly explained and clearly enjoyed as well. That 20 with the cab lighting really was outstanding.

Satisfying, isn't it, Rob? You've made a nice looking job of that - once the wheels are painted and possibly a more satin finish to bring out the detail better, that will really look the dog's. The lining really brings these black locos out - once you've started doing them you really notice when it hasn't been done.