Clem

Good morning Rob, this made me smile - particularly the line 'Tunnels that appear from under buildings, or where it appears the railway engineers saw a small hill and decided to aim for it.' This weekend I think we will have finally finished clearing my sister's house and I can hopefully get back to doing some modelling. It's been a very long and sometimes difficult process of sifting through the personal life of someone we love, trying to figure out what to do with so much stuff, so many memories. For us, it has taken a long time and had the effect on me of complete demotivation with most things railways... and music too for that matter. Thank goodness for this thread. It's kept me in touch. Anyway, I'm looking for a fresh start next week. I have several projects all screaming at me "Me, me, me!" but I really have to do more on the layout buildings and scenery and not be drawn into loco, carriage and wagon work. I'll see what transpires. I don't know why but I find doing scenic work doesn't come naturally. I probably should have joined a club all those years ago instead of ploughing a lone furrow.

I wonder why they've taken the window frames out? It doesn't make a lot of sense unless they're somehow trying to remove the lever frame without taking the roof off. (Good luck with that, if so). I always think of Lowdham as having (to my knowledge) the last main line single slip in Notts into the single siding which was the goods yard. In the end it was taken out a few years back but there's still some isolated track there.

Well, panic over! Just back from Bingham and I don't know what they closed the road for at the level crossing, but it wasn't to demolish the signal box. To clarify why I was so worried about it, they actually published the date that they intended to demolish it a couple or so years ago and there was such an outcry from the local community that they deferred it. But they made it clear at the time that it was just a temporary reprieve. So I am much relieved that it still stands and while it does, there is hope it will eventually permanently survive.

That's looking superb Frank. What an absolutely brilliant piece of work from the design stage right through to the build. I'm very tempted to try my hand at CAD and the subsequent etch process but I do feel a little daunted by it. However I have at least two little projects in mind which may prompt me to take the plunge. I look forward to seeing the completed J2 - the last of GN 0-6-0s to be produced in kit form and to complete the full set!

Yes. I fear that Network Rail, who have wanted to demolish these boxes for some time, have used the COVID situation to get them demolished when local opposition - not insignificant, certainly in the case of Bingham - are well and truly distracted. Anyway, I have to go to my sister's house at Bingham this morning and I'll see if my worst fears have been justified.

I have a strong suspicion that we're going to lose another 12" to the foot signal box again tonight. Notices in Bingham, Notts of road closure starting at midnight tonight at the level crossing where the GN signal box still stands albeit devoid of steps. If I'm correct, it breaks my heart to see such destruction.

Good Afternoon Frank, It's quite eye-opening when you see them side by side (or should I say top by bottom). It's just a shame that with Ultrascale, the range is limited and the lead time between ordering and receiving them quite long, though it doesn't seem to be quite as bad as before. As a matter of interest, do you use a wheel press with them or do you hand fit and quarter them?

D5700 was the very first main line diesel I saw. I was seven years old. It was 1958, Nottingham Midland station. It pulled into platform 4 from the West, stayed at the West end of the station for a few minutes and then left for Derby. It was on a test run from Derby. A load of us kids crowded around looking at it in complete consternation. Nobody knew anything about it. Over the next few months we all got sick of them. Better memories of that year include being part of the crowd many times standing next to the Britannia in platform 5 on the 2-25pm London-Manchester, trips to Lincoln and Newark Northgate. But I suppose D5700 did leave an impression on me.

I think this layout is one of the finest and most appealing that I've seen. I am a bit biased with my love of the GN but it's captured that East Lincs GN feel so well. Lovely locos, passenger and freight stock. The buildings and scenery all capture the feel of the location and the time and I love the GN somersaults. Absolutely first class.

I've heard that one before!

Yes thanks Frank. I'd be keen to try your drive transmission system out on the J1 if/when released. I've still got a lot on this year trying to get the layout in better shape (signals, buildings and scenery) but a J1 would be high up on the list mainly thanks to a lovely John P Wilson photo of 65002 approaching Radcliffe-on-Trent with a Grantham train in 1954 that appeared in Locomotives Illustrated 153. The looks and running of the Q2 is very inspirational. I'm still tied to getting my sister's house sorted out for selling but I'm hoping that will pretty well be sorted out by the end of September and that should release some more time to get on with railway things. Cheers Clem

What an exquisite model Frank, and a lovely runner to boot. It's a crying shame it's operating period was too early for my layout. I wish I had the confidence to try a split drive like you've done here. I think it's the extra variables that put me off. What make of universal joint do you use for the transmission of the shaft motion to the loco gear box? I seem to remember Exactoscale made them. Weren't you looking at producing a J1 too? Now, with the last Colwick J1 going in August '54 (65002 with a short ex-J6 chimney), I could definitely squeeze one of those in.

Ha ha! I should check what I post. It's supposed to say 'Keep you p eck er up' but without the spaces between p and r. RMWeb must have automatically removed the word. Anyway, Keep your up! I'll have one of the T-shirts, Andrew. (When my mum used it, I think it meant nose - and with it your head)

Hi Tom, I think some of the replies to your original post give an indication of the support I have come to expect seeing on on this thread, and I am very much in agreement with the other replies' sentiments. The world is a crazy, unpredicable and frankly worrying place at the moment and the effects of lockdown etc. are invidious and cumulative. Something like modelling is such an important escape mechanism and it is potentially so very helpful not just to you, but to many of us - certainly me, anyway. All I can say is that your mojo will come back because anyone with the kind of specialised skill in weathering, modelling and filming etc. that you possess, will always find it again. And the world will move on. George Harrison's song words title is most apt - All things must pass. The main thing is not to put yourself under pressure because of how you feel at the moment. And if you're struggling to get much creative stuff done, remember that we all need a break from the things we love sometimes, in order to come back to it refreshed. What a fantastic piece of filming of the LCSG layout. You've really brought out the atmosphere - the most important thing for a model in my opinion. I've not seen this before and it ticks all the boxes for me. I do hope you get a chance to heed Andrew's plea for more filming of LCSG and give us all another show. I might be biased because of where I grew up, but LCSG is a tremendously evocative layout with much of what runs providing real links to my childhood memories. As my dear old mum used to say when things went wrong for me, 'Keep your up!'. I have absolutely no idea what it means but it seemed to work. Keep your up. Clem

Thanks Andrew. Senior moment with the first example. Yes of course it's the D322. I'd clocked it on table 89 but didn't clock it on 92. And yes, the second must be a GN218RR or should I say two of them as the consist was BT(5)-CL(2-5),T(10),CL(2-5)-BT(5). Presumably the T10 was a GC 60' matchboard? That train would certainly be an interesting build and great to have on the layout. If I remember correctly, the GN twins had top-lights on the windows and instead of vents on the doors. That certainly would be a challenge from Kirk kits! I've checked out the Bill Bedford site and my direct link to the GC etches has ceased to work. It's only very recently stopped, though. Isn't he replacing all the GC stuff with 3-D or resin? They'll all presumably re-appear as 3-D versions eventually but personally I much prefer etched sides.

I'm hoping I got my order in before he pulled the plug! Thanks for the chivers van heads up on dimensions. I always hack the Kirks about in an effort to get buffer and body heights as close as possible. When I get it, I'll do my best. I must admit to being pretty puzzled by one or two of the CWNs for summer 1954 where I can't find a diagram to fit the twin or twins in the consist. It quotes a BT(5)-CL(2-5) twin which I can't seem to identify at all. There's also a BT(6)-CL(3-4) that I'm struggling to find also. Any ideas?

Yikes! No pressure then!

I put everything on an Access database many years ago and have largely kept it up to date. Tables for locos, wagons, passenger stock, chassis (plural), motors, gears, carriage parts, wagon parts, etc. A bit over the top maybe, but its saved me from buying things I've already got but forgotten about. I can run queries which identify kits, part built and completed models. It's all very helpful bit it brings it home when I look at the kits stash and the the completed models. I suppose it's my way of feeling organised (and about as close as I get).

Just a short addendum to the photo: When I was about 4-5 years old - probably roughly about the time of the photo - my brother took me there. In the background, behind and just to the right of the GC overbridge, there was a area of land where you could pretty well see the whole layout. It's a vivid memory for me. I remember 60102 Sir Fred Banbury rush by on an up express and, unusually for then, an L1 on the spur on a down Derby or Pinxton train. However, although it was well safe away from the railway, I think we were on railway property and a bloke appeared out of nowhere and chucked us off. I'd have loved to have stayed there for several hours! These little memories make us into the enthusiasts we are!

It certainly looks like a D322. I'm not surprised. There was a fantastic variety of stock on the East Mids GN lines in the early 50s. Another example (which I may have posted posted before) is an A5 with a D192/3 coupled with a D310, whilst in the right hand siding a D210. The train has just passed Basford North carriage sidings. Most twins were classed as a single type - i.e. D322, D210, D310 but for some reason the D192/3 was split, the D192 being the BT(5) and the D193 being the CL(3/4) - I'm not sure why? I like this photo a lot. Three twins for the price of one! It's a shame I haven't a copy of it in better quality. The photo was taken by A G Cramp on September 11th 1955.

You can't beat bodging!

Good afternoon Andrew, Raining here too, now. Klear? Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do after I finish all of the glazing. I got a supply of Klear in a while ago and I'm looking forward to trying it out. Having said that, I'm not sure it'll cure Covid if you drink it.... not that magical, then. On the whole, for a given model I like to work from photographs, then use the drawing if the photo confirms it. Failing that, no other choice but to consult the drawing. I have quite a few photos of D246s but as law of SOD states, not one which confirms the positioning of battery box/boxes. So, for the D246, I have to go on the drawing - at least for the moment anyway. For the D210, I managed to get a few photos which pretty well showed me everything about the underframe and yes, it showed that in reality it was quite different from the drawing. For the D210, there only seems to be one set of battery boxes and that is on the composite carriage of the twin. It's situated on the side where the set of three thirds is to the right and the two are to the left. Yep I intend to paint the van section grab handrails faded black as I have with the D210. What you say about the BT(4)s helps confirm my thoughts that those in the pictures I have of the versions with duckets are D128s. Here's an illustration on the Pinxton branch at Jacksdale (ex Codnor Park) with one of the last two J5s in charge:

Some really nice models and very nice weathering there, Tony. I think the Hornby non-gangwayed carriages are superb but the range is very limited, isn't it? I only know that my kirks are good enough when they can run along side the Hornbys and not look too crude and out of place. As I mentioned in my post, you can vary the BT(4)s by adding a ducket to make them D128s, although only 5 were built for the Southern section and 8 for Scotland. I entirely agree that where they made a sow's ear with the gangwayed ones, the non-gangwayed ones are the silk purse. It's just a shame that they've limited themselves to the obvious diagrams. I've so far not tried to cut and shut the Hornbys but it's probably something I'll try (maybe only once!). You'll needing them for Basford North, Tony. They look very nice in 7mm. I think they were around until 1959 when the Ivatt 4s first appeared in March of '59, although LM stock tended to swamp the carriage formations from that year with the Peppercorn Lavatory Composites and Brake thirds lasting the longest into '60 and '61.

Another shot of the D246, this time, the brake end in natural lighting. Pressing on with the second side glazing shortly....

Isn't there a lamp code for partially built/lbuilt locos under test then? :-)