Woodcock29

Correct Tony. I built one maybe 12-13 years ago. I'd had it for maybe 20 years? Andrew

Chas My broaches don't have plastic handle coverings they're just square section so I always use a pin vice or tap handle as mentioned above. Watching with much interest! Andrew

Wouldn't think so as 4th radius appears to be 572mm whereas the inner radius of a Peco slip is around 24 inches or 610mm for only a very short distance.

The extra nameplates supplied by Hornby, like those for Cock'o the North, look awful to me - nothing like etched brass plates should be. I've recently painted up some old plates I had in stock from the Ks kit to see how the come up for Thane but I'll probably get some from Fox or 247. I've been playing around with the flanged wheels for the Cartazzi truck and have found that by removing all of the plastic section of the wheel hub on the inner sides back to level with back of the spokes and flange that, when fitted with 30 thou spacers to drop the keeper plate, it will just negotiate the inner 2ft radius curve of a Peco code 75 slip. I also had to put a narrow plastic 20 thou spacer above the axle itself to reduce any tendency to lift. Andrew

Depends where you are. In South Australia super for state govt employees was taken out before tax so I'll always be a tax payer.

A good option is to use brass pins instead of the rivets supplied in some kits. These can be soldered. I've been doing that for as long as I can remember. Tony does the same. I think I got my first packet of pins from NuCast some 35+ years ago. Should have read all replies above first!

Wonderful Gilbert - my favourite A3, the one my Dad took me onto the footplate of at Kx around 1962-3. Andrew

Yes they are and I'm informed by Kernow that it's not far away! Andrew

An interesting photo Tony. I assume the 2-6-2 in this photo is one of Graeme King's concoctions? It looks like an extended K2 with an Atlantic boiler - the GNs forerunner to a V2 perhaps? I think the O2/1 is his modification of a Heljan O2/3. Although I use Peco code 75 I unfortunately have a few deadfrog slips in my main station area because I reused that station from my previous layout built in early 1990s before Peco made its slips with live frogs. It didn't make economic sense to buy newer live frog slips when I started this current layout in 2006. Other slips adjacent to the reused section are of course live frog. Most of my tender locos have tender pickup and all 4 -coupled tanks have bogie or pony pickups fitted. Andrew

When I bought mine in 1983 when it was first released, the kit including wheels was 70 plus I think around 30 for the single Portescap I put in it. So 100 all up. I wonder which is better value for the time? Andrew

I had exactly the same issue with a Hornby B12/3 some months ago. It's been fine since I 'gutted' the DCC ready board. I've also had to do this on a Bachmann K3 and WD for a mate. Andrew

In the interest of D&S kits and short trains here is another photo of my D&S triplet on Gavin Thrum's Spirsby exhibition layout. The large (probably too large!) bracket somersault signals was my first go at building such from MSE parts. Andrew

Hi Mick Thanks for posting your photos. In the first post the second and third photos are of the same van - an LNER CCT built 1939 not what you describe although it maybe a Chivers kit? I'm glad to see the D&S NER CCT - I'm shortly to strip one of those and repaint it, along with one of the Chivers 4 wheel NER CCTs. Both were acquired built in NER livery and are likely to need some resoldering in places. Andrew

Tony I think there is some confusion here. The painted BR version of this van is one I think you built from a brass Isinglass kit? Its not the same model as the D&S brass one you show above. The end section louvres are different (and incorrect in the etch). These vans are actually general vans to Dia 86. The milk van version is Dia 87 which didn't have the toplights in the centre section and consequently the louvres in those two sections are directly under the cantrail. D87 was also made by Danny - I acquired a built one last year from a deceased estate in Sydney. I already had a built D&S D86 and have two more of those to build. The D&S kit is the better kit. Andrew

The NE cattle van shown by Tony is a D&S GC cattle van. I said previously that it was a fitted van but now I've had a better look (previously it was just before I went to bed after 12am!) I can see it is just a through- piped van - but should be in red oxide livery. I have 3 of these - a fitted version to build, the through-piped van I built around 40 years ago and an unfitted van purchased built, a few years ago from a friend here in Adelaide. All of these are full whitemetal kits there are no brass components other than the wire for the rails and bearings I supplied - I've just checked the unmade fitted version I have. Here on the right is the through-piped version I built 40 years ago. The van on the left is a D&S GN cattle van. The GC van shouldn't have a white interior - at that time I didn't know that the the use of lime for cleaning had been discontinued in the mid 20s. Maybe one day I'll remove the roof and repaint the interior. I bought my first D&S wagon kits from Chris Crawley on Lordship Lane at Tottenham during a visit to the UK back in 1981. I owe a lot of thanks to Danny Pinnock for producing all that he has. Overall I have around 140-150 D&S wagons (with around 30 of these still to be built), many bought new when released by Danny with a few bought on eBay - but not in recent times - I wouldn't pay the silly prices being asked now. I've also purchased quite a few from a friend here in Adelaide as he has down-sized his collection. Last year I bought a batch of 50 built wagons at auction from a deceased estate of one of our BRMA members in Sydney - nearly half I would say were D&S - most need substantial renovation - which is a slow process given the other projects I need to undertake. But that's very acceptable when the average price per wagon was $5.62 or about £3 per wagon. Andrew

Agree D&S Fitted GC cattle so wrong colour - DS67 Fitted GN vent van - DS252 Andrew

I had additional pick up on the front engine unit of the L&Y railmotor - you can never have too many pickups!

Chas I've now started to follow this closely given I'll eventually be building the same kit and also have second-hand NuCast kit for parts as required. If you did decide to use both black beetles (not that I think you'll need to) it's not difficult to build one in with a raised floor under seats - I did that with my L&Y steam railmotor as the motor in that is in the coach. Andrew

Well Doug we'll have one in Adelaide to soon. Couldn't resist it in red lined LNER black! Mine is 1752 though as 2082 was too late for me with push pull. Andrew

They're very very nice. I actually bought 2 at the same time in one of our model shops here in Adelaide - even before they arrived in UK which was really very strange. One LNER and one BR. The LNER version runs on my horse box train to the imaginary race course on my layout. It's been renumbered to 8810, the one recorded at 90 mph and now has a brass chimney. The BR version renumbered to 62513, one my Dad took a photo of at Cambridge. I'm still to find time to build my Crownline kit which will become 8900 in LNER green - the plates are waiting. We even had a D16/3 back in the late 60s/early 70s as Dad converted a Triang B12/3 intro a D16/3 using a Triang L1 chassis (following an article in MRC I think?) - not sure what happened to that body, I know the L1 got its chassis back eventually and was sold, Andrew

On the subject of flangeless drivers on the prototype, here in South Australia we had two classes with flangeless leading driving wheels. A 4-6-0 and a 4-6-2T. I have models of both classes and they run with flangeless leading drivers. The 4-6-2T are RTR models but the 4-6-0s are Korean brass and a wm/brass kit built loco. Here's a preserved example of the 4-6-0 The kit built example with flangeless leading drivers

A lot of South Australian modellers converted PA1s to 900s in previous times. There was a brass Korean model made back in the 1980s but this is the first plastic bodied model.

I have modified the tender of my Hornby Silver Fox to add the sheeting over the front and rear of the tender as it was from 1935 to removal late 1937/early 1938. The first four A4 tenders had a variation to this sheeting at the rear that was not replicated on the later builds. There was a gap either side of the sheeting around the water filler - this is visible with careful observation of photos showing the top of the tenders of the four silver A4s. I used the rear cover sheeting from the top of my Hornby W1 tender as the basis as that tender only had this sheeting for around 2 months from completion of the rebuild of the engine in Nov 1937- Jan 1938 when it was removed. I had to reduce the width and build up the sides from below to create the voids between the tender side sheets and the cover sheeting. For extended front sheeting I used thin plasticard and fitted this onto the front plate after I had remove a similar thickness from the top of the front plate and the sheeting already on the model. Has anyone else undertaken this modification? The W1 then had to have the front sheeting significantly reduced. The only issue with the W1 was that I had already coaled it before I decided to do this so had to remove a lot coal! Both could obviously do with some weathering - maybe? I generally don't tend to weather my express locos but I should. I did slightly weather the front of Silver Fox's tender some time ago. Now for something completely different! Two recent acquisitions - South Australian Railways 900 Class diesels introduced in 1951. They had English Electric 1588 HP engines and were built at the Islington Workshops here in Adelaide. They were the first mainline diesels to enter service in Australia Only ten were built and they were all withdrawn by mid 1980s. Three still exist, 900 the class leader in our NRM here in Adelaide and two in dilapidated state that were originally acquired for heritage running in mid 1980s but as they are very heavy were sold on. The models are from SDS, an Australian company producing Aussie models in China. The original liveried 900 - named Lady Norrie after the wife of the then Governor of South Australia 1960s liveried 904 Maybe they were our equivalent of the Deltics? Here's a photo of mine taken in 1974 and an even later livery variation. Note the US 3 position upper quadrant signals similar to the three at Kings Cross in GN days!

Tony Going down the PDK chassis route for the 47xx is probably the way to go. However, it is quite possible to fit modern gearboxes to the solid brass chassis. Although perhaps lacking in detail from my experience the Cotswold milled brass chassis are very true and add a lot of weight low down. I built a Cotswold LNER F1 (ex GC) quite some years ago and because it was so heavy (the body in particular) it struggled with most motors I tried. In the end I got the files out and opened up the gear wheel slot so it would take a Portescap gearbox - now it runs like a dream! I have a spare chassis for one of these and will be using it in my Graeme King resin D7 as the driving wheelbase is the same and I also have a Cotswold Q2 to build sometime again with the solid brass milled chassis. Andrew

All this talk about signals and only yesterday I resurrected a project that had been in the wings for more than 18 months. After building the GN somersault signals for our exhibition layout 'Spirsby'and one home starter for my own layout (that was the trial one to see if I could get them to work!), I commenced to build a double starter for the bay and main platform on one of the stations on my layout. I've based it somewhat on one of the the signals on the Skegness Junction south of Firsby on the old East Lincolnshire Railway. Its got to the stage where I need to clean it and paint it before I can start to assemble the arms and cranks etc. Yesterday I added the handrails around the platform. The timber dolls are from salvaged signals from the layout of one of our BRMA members from more than 20 years ago and have been sitting in a drawer for that long awaiting a suitable project. The remainder of the parts, other than the timber post, are MSE components. If I persevere it should be finished within the week. The other project I resurrected yesterday was fitting the rear sheeting around the water filler on the top of Silver Fox's tender - when silver. I'll show some photos of this once its fitted. The curiosity here is that the sheeting on the first four streamlined bow-ended tenders was different to that on the later builds. There were gaps between each side of the sheeting and the turnover of the tender sides. Interestingly I noticed that in a photo of of Silver Fox in later BR period the frame for supporting the edge of this sheeting was still in place even though the sheeting was removed after the catastrophic accident on the footplate on 4491. I've based the sheeting on that I've removed from the tender of my Hornby streamlined 10000 - 10000 seems to have only had this sheeting for not much more than one month after its rebuild. Andrew