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checkrail

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Everything posted by checkrail

  1. Really enjoying seeing views of your layout again Jon - it's always been a favourite of mine. More please! Great looking track, regardless of your current ballast issues. And neat looking Mogul.
  2. Lovely looking carriage Neal, finished beautifully. I think the 1934 livery suits them well.
  3. You're still finding new angles Kevin. That one's great.
  4. The other change made to the new Rapido wagons was to swap the 'orrible shiny wheels for Gibsons. At this price I'd expect the wheels to be either blackened or painted. Seems like spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar. And priming and painting bare metal wheels and cleaning the treads is soul destroying. Will the 44xx emerge with shiny wheels in the pony trucks? Don't think so. While I was at it I dug out the Rapido Toad which has been 'parked' for a while, as it has no current duties. Makes me wonder why I bought it (but see yesterday's post). It had the same treatment plus the fitting of lamps. I'd just run out of Modelu lamp lenses so improvised in the time-honoured way with white and red paint and a drop of gloss varnish. Now it just needs a bit more weathering below solebar level. You can see the slight misalignment of the Toad roof here. Rapido did warn that once it had been removed to open the interior for viewing it wouldn't go back on perfectly (in other words they cocked up) but it wouldn't be noticeable. It is. I tried supergluing it but to no avail. Wish I'd left it now - why did I want to see the inside anyway? You can see here that I have some reservations about Rapido, but they are very nice wagons. John C.
  5. Look forward to those Robin. Have one of each on order. I suppose I'm really just duplicating kit-built examples, but one feels one must support the trade when it produces the GWR goods - until the bank card starts glowing in the dark.
  6. Ah, that's better. The recent Rapido Minks and Opens after roof repainting, closer coupling and light weathering (mainly Vallejo black wash with a bit of umber. John C.
  7. Been messing around fettling wagons today, and seeing these two freight trains passing in the cutting prompted me to reach for the camera. 6305 and 2818 doing the honours. John C.
  8. I'm with you there John. I have two panniers, a 57xx and an 8750, and am holding back from ordering an Accurascale one. Just more of the same, and at least parts of mine were my own work/bodging. But small prairies are the locos I covet in numbers. I've got another Bachmann 45xx on the bench awaiting some fettling to add to the roster, and will be ordering a Rapido 44xx when I can decide which one. Although if an earlier type of pannier came out - a 2021 for instance - I think I'd go for it.
  9. Yes. Other ways include a bit of springy wire attached to the floor and bearing on the axle, or slivers of Plastikard stuck between axle and coupling mounting block to add a little friction. All need a bit of careful adjustment by trial and error. Of course steel axles don't help the situation and on many of my earlier wagons I replaced them with brass ones (sourced from somewhere in California!). Must get round to ordering some more. I seem to remember that they were offered in Imperial measurements, so had to order 1 1/32 inches for 26 mm.
  10. Can't recall seeing LM from that angle before. A wonderful view - just stunning.
  11. These lovely little models were delivered this afternoon. Even better, Rails of S. had offset the price with a gift voucher I'd had at Christmas and forgotten all about! The glaring white roofs will soon go, as will the yawning gap between the vehicles. And after a bit of weathering or toning down I might get around to replacing the wheels with Gibson's. If I allocate them to the pool of 'shuntable' wagons to appear in Stoke C. yard they'll need further work. They're so free-running that otherwise there'd be no chance of operating them with sub-track uncoupling magnets. They'd just run back to the magnet every time you thought you'd just uncoupled them. John C.
  12. 5557 is on freight duty today, shunting the yard at Stoke C. while 6305 drifts past on a down class J freight. John C.
  13. I do love a nice 'get out' clause!
  14. I suppose, if one could be bothered, one might buy 20 quid's worth and sell on those surplus to requirements on eBay to cover costs? I might soon be reduced to this. Here are my last two sets, already primed and painted before removal from the fret. They carry Martin Finney's name. Note one thing that Hornby missed with their printed versions: the double spacing between vertical bars in the bottom right quarter of the left hand door. When building my first brake coach I puzzled over this for a while until the penny dropped: it's so the guard can get his hand through to turn the door handle from the inside. I nearly put the first one in back to front, if not upside down! John C.
  15. I use Slaters plastic rod, bought in 'assorted sizes' packs. Handily it also comes in assorted colours, including red/brown!
  16. Always a treat to see pics of your layout Mike.
  17. Had a look at mine and, yes, they are more noticeable than I thought so worth doing, especially when there's light behind them. Here are the Brassmasters items (forgive the dirty windows!): And here the Hornby ones: Going back to internal corridor handrails one of the weirdest things I found with Slaters toplight kits was that there were little notches or pegs for these handrails but you had to remove them to fit the glazing in, unless you cut glazing to the exact dimensions of the window aperture and glued them in flush (a la Laserglaze). But there's nothing on the instructions which suggests or advises that approach - which would have been beyond me in any case. John C.
  18. I use the Brassmasters ones, usually bought at exhibitions as I believe they have a £10 minimum order for sales by post. I paint them black, which I think is prototypical, though TBH this means that at NVD it's quite hard to see them. That's probably why Hornby et al do them in white or silver, so you know they're there. (And I never bother replacing those.)
  19. Nor do you need to - looks great.
  20. AFAIK they had them from new, replaced from late 1940s (?) onward by 4,000g types. I've certainly seen post-nationalisation pics of them with 3.5000g tenders as late as 1959, though most had the 4k job by then..
  21. Here's the other half of today's snaps. Have always liked my Hornby Grange (truth to tell, even more than my Accurascale Manor). John C.
  22. A stopper pulls into Stoke Courtenay as a Grange-hauled parcels train passes through on the up line. John C.
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