[Gresley Junction]

I’m in Spain for a long weekend of rail touring. Today I’m doing a Talgo run from Murcia up to Madrid with a 334 (similar to our 67s).

The real fun starts tomorrow with a Class 321 Alco on the PTG rail tour

 

Anyway I took some photos before I left, so back to the 1950s and on Gresley Jn we have another new addition to the fleet in the form of a Dapol NB Type 2. Here we see D6106 standing at Gresley Jn with the 1706 Broad Street to Welwyn Garden City. Whereas I choose to terminate at Gresley Jn those trains timetabled to terminate at Hatfield, anything which ran further north runs through on the down slow. So here is D6106 on a quad art rake.

 

And here is a close up of D6106. I’ve changed the number, removed the ’Eastfield’ shed plates, added the pipes etc. and weathered her, but otherwise standard Dapol.

 

Here is a video of her arriving.

 

 

 

 

[Coulsdon Works]

50 minutes ago, FoxUnpopuli said:

 

@thegreenhowardsI do like your tourist stock set - any more action photos of them?  I don't know if their livery survived the war, but rule #1 would apply for me, I'd put them behind an apple green V2 and run a seaside special!  I think I'd be in a queue if they ever came up for sale...?

Thanks for your kind words, I’m afraid they’re not for sale!

 

I don’t have any other pictures as the layout is DCC but I haven’t fitted my pre war stock. I tend to just run it on the club layout. I’m away for a few days on a rail tour in Spain but when I return I’ll stick a chip in the V2 and take some video.

 

Andy

[Gresley Junction]

This afternoon we have the down Tees-Tyne Pullman headed by a new addition to the Gresley Jn fleet in the form of DJH A3, 60052, Prince Palantine (an eBay acquisition). 

 

 

This set earns its keep as it forms both up and down Tyne Tees Pullmans and (suitably shortened) the up Sheffield/ down Master Cutler Pullman.

 

 

[Coulsdon Works]

4 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

Andy,

 

I think your tourist set is too long if anything - my understanding is that they ran in sets of 12 or 7 - so your set should be BTO - TO/TO - RB - TO/TO - BTO.   That was the formation of the set we ran on Grantham once or twice when Roy Mears had just built it.   I've heard that referred to as a 'half set', but I'm not sure that was the official term.

Yes, I think I’d heard that. Weren’t some built as 7 and some as 12? I meant short for a 12 set. Sadly it doesn’t get much use as it’s too early for my period. Do you know when the last of the green and cream coaches were painted into Crimson and cream?

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

15 hours ago, Headstock said:

 

Good evening Andy,

plywood panelled, not bodied, and have you considered pivoting deflectors that gently wiggle?

The tourist stock are quite interesting as quite a few people have produced models of them over the years. The old Mailcoach carriages, though not the most detailed, have surprisingly been the best of the bunch in terms of the general proportions. All of the brass etched versions have cocked up in one way or the other. I have a complete underframe and bogies that have been sitting around for years awaiting a suitable Buffet car body. A friend of mine etched me up some nice windows to modify and correct one of the brass kits but forgot to produce the beading required. I have never found anything suitable as a replacement as the beading needed to be half etched. By the time  the etches had been produced, I had completely backdated the train from 1952 to 1949 and the Buffet car became surplus to requirements.

Interestingly, the arrangement of the underframe that I mentioned above, looks to be identical to your Gresley Kitchen Buffet conversion. I could have sent you the underframe as it has been sitting about doing very little. I've considered rebuilding it as a conventional underframe, but it looks kind of nice and I may return to it one day.

 

When a friend and I were at York some years back, we extracted all the drawings that the NRM had of the Tourist stock. This is a quite considerable amount, everything from windows,  to beading, interior fittings, GA's etc. One that may be of interest to yourself, was the underframe drawing for the Buffet car. There was actually four gas cylinders arranged longitudinally between the queen posts. They were mounted in two pairs, each side of the centre line, close to the sole bars.

I have recently had a look on the Isinglass website, pondering if they produced the body or sides for the Tourist stock Buffet car. It is rather confusing. One section being a long list of things in production that could be by an older printing method, it is not very clear. What is more of interest is a second list that seems to be focused on new or up coming products, some nice goodies there. Then there is another page where you can order not very much from a group of drop down menus. I was left baffled by what is exactly available. I confess to being a little wary of this method of carriage construction, I wouldn't want something of less quality than I am happy with now. However, they may be offering some unobtainium on wheels, this has some appeal. I shall look forwards to the arrival of your giant Sleeping carriage and hope that you will be publishing some revealing photographs of it.

Andrew,

 

I agree that the Mailcoach kits made quite good models.

 

 

I didn’t make this make this rake and I’m aware that its too short, but I suspect they ran in shorter formations from time to time. My experience of Mailcoach kits that I have made (ex streamlined stock) is that they go together well but are an incredible fiddle to paint.

 

I was quite pleased with my (plywood panelled) tourist buffet car.

 

This is based on the RDEB etches. What is wrong with this?

 

I also have a set of Mousa etches for a twin TO in the to do pile. Are they not worth bothering with?

 

My understanding is that all of the Isinglass range is being produced by the new method and that, in theory, he can produce anything of which he has a drawing (which means most LNER carriages). But those not yet listed will need some work to bring them on stream, so if you want something, it’s worth speaking to him.

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

1 hour ago, FoxUnpopuli said:

 

Yeah...  I was looking at this too thinking 'that's not right...'

 

 

They should look like this:

 

 

 

Thanks, I’ll see what I can do. They’re superglued on so should be easy enough to reposition.

[Dapol Class 21/29]

22 hours ago, davknigh said:

How have people been mounting their headcode discs?  Bachmann and Heljan have small pegs on the back so you can at least change assignments from time to time. I thought about blue tack but that seemed a bit, well, tacky...

 

Cheers,

 

David

I used superglue for both the discs and the buffer beam detail. It worked well but I’m stuck with inner suburban workings.

 

 

Will just have to buy another one if I want express or ECS headcodes!

 

 

[Gresley Junction]

Today I feature the 1315 Harrogate - King’s Cross. This was a slightly strange train in that it was long distance but had no catering provision. It’s not the most interesting formation being all mark 1 and I struggled to put it together as it requires three CKs and three BSOs as it had portions from Leeds and Bradford. So I had to rescue a BSO and a Thompson CK  (as the nearest I could do) from the ‘stored serviceable’ cardboard box.

 

 

Sorry about the soft focus at the rear. I find I get this when I go for low shots and my iPhone is not sophisticated enough to have manual focus. I might have to dig out the big SLR for some of these shots.

 

 

[Coulsdon Works]

Final addition to the fleet (for now) is one that has had a very long wait - a Dapol class 21. I sold my old Hornby class 29 in anticipation about 3 years ago, but its a fine model and worth the wait. 

 

I bought D6120 and have renumbered it as D6106 as I needed one of the pilot scheme locos which were allocated to Hornsey. I chose D6106 on the basis that my Modelmaster transfers had ready made D6100 and D6106 of the pilot scheme locos and the first three or four had the BR emblem in a different location so D6100 would have required it moving. I also removed the Eastfield shedplates (which were applied quite crudely with superglue which was oozing out of the side) and gently rubbed the paint finish back with T cut. I decided not to put Hornsey shed plates on in their place as all the photos of them while allocated to Hornsey show no shed plates.

 

 

The detailing pack went on very easily and all the pipes seem to be designed to work with the tension lock couplings which is an improvement over Heljan’s diesels. Look out for her on an inner suburban working on Gresley Jn.

 

Andy

 

 

 

 

[The Waverley Route revisited!]

Hello Peter,

 

I’ve just read through your thread from page 19 (as you suggest on p1). Sorry to hear about your health problems, but it looks like you have a good (railway) solution going forward. I’d echo Phil and Gilbert’s thoughts on cassettes - they allow variety on an occasional basis and also allow us to do what we all love - buying more trains than we have space for!

 

I look forward to hearing about progress.

 

ATB

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

19 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Yo Andy dude

 

Get out your craft knife and the plastic card.  Or try making some from off cuts of an etched kit. You are more than capable to do so. 

Maybe so, but I was looking for a lazy man’s solution!

[Coulsdon Works]

3 hours ago, Headstock said:

 

Good evening Andy,

 

there were four twins built to dia 307, along with two brake thirds to dia 308, all at York in 1939. They were not similar to the tourist stock, they were tourist stock, the last set to be built by the LNER. The bodies were not made from steel, they were wooden bodied with steel panelling, the underframes were steel but of welded rather than riveted construction. The carriages were not the only steel panelled tourist stock, many of the original plywood batch received steel panels over the course of their lives. I look forward to seeing the quality of the finish on these, the second, not yet available, batch from isinglass may contain some things that I may be interested in. Have you tried or seen any of the teak panelled carriages that they are producing?

 

P.S. The smokebox deflectors on 60061 should lean inwards not outwards.

Evening Andrew,

 

You are, as always, Correct! I think most people think of the tourist stock as being the green and cream plywood bodied stock (I certainly do) and what I meant is that these D.307s are similar to the plywood bodied stock. 

 

This is my first Isinglass kit, although I have some 65ft sleepers on order from him. I suspect the teak panelled stock will be more difficult because the beading will get in the way of rubbing down. These are better than most 3D printed kits I’ve seen, but will still need some smoothing. I’ll report again after I’ve painted them.

 

Andy

[Gresley Junction]

7 minutes ago, bigwordsmith said:

 

No doubt when I get Waverley Route V2 up  and running it will give you an awful sense of Deja Vu - I suspect our collections of stock and locos are very similar, although I've not gone DCC - I don't think I could cope with the operational complexities, and hearing the horror stories of folks like Phil the Duck, I'mnot sure I want to go there!

DCC has its moments but I wouldn’t go back. I love the sound and the sense of controlling the loco rather than the track. Wiring would be easier if you had a small fleet of DCC ready locos but with my fleet I actually think dc would be easier as all the hardwiring of chips takes a long time.

 

I suspect a lot of ECML modellers have very similar fleets, but it’s still fun recreating all those iconic trains.

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

...and finally I’ve finished off my two horse boxes - a Parkside d.5 (with the toilet window) and a D&S d.4. They will need weathering in due course, but I will run them like this for a while.

 

[Coulsdon Works]

I’ve also finished off 60061, Pretty Polly which is my own conversion from a standard Hornby ‘St Gatien’. I know the wing deflectors weren’t successful but they’re an important part of the ECML story, so I thought I needed one A3 with them on. This time she’s got the correct double chimney!

 

[Coulsdon Works]

6 minutes ago, davidw said:

60108 needs a double chimney. That and front steps can be got from Graeme King. He regularly contributes on Wright writes.

Good point - Why didn’t I notice that! I have some in stock so will remedy before she makes her debut.

[Gresley Junction]

Today we have Falcon on the up Sheffield Pullman. She was a regular on this service while on loan to the Eastern.

 

I hope you enjoy the ‘Maybach music’ on the video as I went to considerable effort to squeeze a large speaker into the fuel tanks!

 

 

[Coulsdon Works]

I’ve had a few days of trying to fit decoders to kit built locos and finish off a few projects. So the operational loco stud for Gresley Jn has just increased significantly.

 

First, the kit built locos. These have all been purchased built from eBay or at shows but, as always, needed a bit of tweeting to get them running smoothly and sometimes a bit more tweaking to get them to run on DCC. 

60842. A Nucast V2 on a brass chassis with (whine free) portescap. It’s got ‘american’ pick ups, so I was worried about short circuits, but it seems very reliable. It’s missing front footsteps and I’m inclined to fit plastic ones for fear of short circuits. Does anyone know of a good source? I don’t really have a use for a NE V2, so she will become 60814 when I get round to it.

 

 

60052, Prince Palantine. DJH with Portescap (low whine). I had to redo the pickups as they were brass and not springy enough. Now with nickel silver she runs like a dream. I think I’ll keep her in ex works livery as the paint job is so good.

 

 

60513, Dante. This one had all the trimmings glued on, and they’ve been falling off with Monotonous regularity, but I’ve stuck or soldered (where possible) them back on. She's fitted with insulated drivers both sides and pick ups to all drivers - just what I like for DCC. Motor is a DJH GB1 mashima can and gearbox. Now runs very smoothly. Those who follow Gresley Junction will have already seen her in action.

 

60108, Gay Crusader, a KX regular. DJH kit. Fitted with DJH GB1 mashima can. This one has American style pick ups and runs well so far. Needs front foot steps (plastic I hope) and a smoke box door number, but has entered the operational fleet pending cosmetic finishing off.

 

Look out for them making their debuts on Gresley Jn over the next week or so.

 

Andy

 

 

[Gresley Junction]

It’s my birthday today and my wife took me to the theatre to see ‘Touching the Void’, so a late update this evening.

 

There were two evening peak outer suburban trains from King’s Cross which consisted of Peterborough and Cambridge sets combined and splitting at Hitchin for their respective destinations. The formation was basically a standard Cambridge 6 set and a Peterborough 5 set combined.  The first was at 1700 with the Peterborough portion leading while the second at 1752 was the other way round. The second train tended to be double headed to Hitchin with the two engines working forward on the two portions, but I think the 1700 was a single engine. The 1752 will be featured in a few days, but today we have the 1700 headed by A2/3, 60513, Dante (DJH). I bought this engine (ready built) over a year ago, but I find chipping kit built locos quite problematic and tend to put the job off, so I only got round to doing it over the weekend (with a few others which will feature soon). There were some problems - bits fell off and needed reattaching - but it was easier than many others. Here’s the train. You’ve seen the rake before in it’s separate portions, so I’ll focus on the loco and the leading artic which is the most interesting part of the formation.

 

 

And here’s the video.

 

 

 

 

[Gresley Junction]

Today we feature a brand new engine (it must be new because there isn’t a speck of weathering on it!) arriving at Gresley Jn on a parcels train. It is crossing from the down slow to platform 4 where it will recess while parcels are unloaded and it’s overtaken by an outer suburban train (which will be next to feature). 

 

And here is the video.

 

I really must put a division into the tunnel to black out the view of trains leaving the fiddle yard!

 

While, I think I know what the various passenger trains should consist of, I’m less clear on parcels trains. I’ve seen photos of mixes of vans like this, but I’m not sure whether a type 1 is appropriate power. Any comments welcome.

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

37 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said:

Hi Andy, thanks for the clarification. Looking at your top picture carefully, I can see the insets. That's a good design I'd have thought, as it makes the main body of the kit thicker and so less fragile.

 

John.

Agreed. I don’t think you could get away with it being that thin all the way along.

[Coulsdon Works]

21 minutes ago, 31A said:

Looks good Andy, I was thinking of trying one of the Isinglass kits myself.  What did you use to glue it together?

 

I used superglue as he recommends. It works very well and grabs almost immediately. I also tried the gel type superglue to give me slightly longer to adjust parts, but that didn’t seem to work. Luckily the fit is so good that you don’t need long to adjust things.

3 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said:

I felt the same after seeing his stand at Peterborough. Interesting that the sides look quite thin, invaluable for modelling steel bodied stock and achieving reasonably flush looking glazing.

 

John.

The sides have insets for the windows on the inside, so I think one is supposed to cut individual windows. Sounds fiddly! I’ll let you know how I get on.

 

Andy

[Coulsdon Works]

As I mentioned over on Gresley Junction, when I was at the Stevenage show last weekend, I bought an Isinglass 3D printed resin kit for a Gresley D.307 steel twin artic TO. These are similar to the tourist stock twin artics but made from steel and there were only two of these built. Last night I got it out for a play. The body kit looks like this.

 

You also get an Isinglass drawing and some basic instructions. It all goes together very easily and no instructions are really necessary. The chassis just clips into the body and the bogies are designed to clip into mountings line on Hornby Gresley coaches and are interchangeable with Hornby’s. Provision is also made for MJT bogies if preferred. So after an hour or two in front of the telly, this is where I’ve got to.

 

 

This must be the easiest kit ever! I’ve tried Hornby bogies on the left hand end, and Isinglass for the others. The middle one is Heavy duty. I suspect the ride height is too high, so will need some filing, but other than that, I think it looks the part.  It’s very light so will need ballast. The chassis has the angle iron but no other detail, so I will add white metal MJT bits to give some ballast and then see what else is needed. 

 

One word of caution; the instructions tell you not to use a knife to clean up the bracing parts which have to be cut off, but instead to file them smooth. I got bored with filing so tried a knife and the window frame chipped (far left above) and will need filling. 

 

These kits are not cheap (£85 for the pair with under frame), but you get everything you need except for wheels, interior and under frame castings. So as a quick way of getting an esoteric piece of rolling stock for the layout, I think they’re fantastic. Although for those that like to measure value for money in kits in terms of £/ hour entertainment, they’re not quite so good!

 

Andy

[Dapol Class 21/29]

6 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

The day it is a mistake to use a Zimo decoder is the day I give up on DCC!

 

That the mechanism runs smoothly suggests to me that getting the factory lubrication properly distributed is probably the source of any noise. (Mine started out a little 'growly' but with silky smooth movement on DC, and now has a MX638 and completely quieted after about two hours accrued running so that all I now hear is the wheels on the rails.) I may yet try it with the old Bachmann 36-554, as this basic decoder does well on intrinsically smooth running mechanisms which present no challenges to the motor control system.

 

Lights all to cock just as you report! Could it be 'bespokery' to suit their own brand decoder rather than conforming to accepted standards? One day I will have the time and a clear head to sit down and work it out! (At present I have the cold that just keeps on giving and my head feels full of cotton wool. Lights really don't matter to me, so not much bothered.

 

The all important traction task: first class, and it looks like the prototype too. It's right up there with my other favourites in RTR early BR diesel traction models: Bach's DP1 and Cravens DMU, Heljan's BTH type 1 and EE type 2.

I certainly didn’t mean to diss Zimo. They are my decoder of choice, hence rejecting the Dapol one. Hopefully the noise is mechanical as you suggest but it did seem quieter on DC. I’ll remove the decoder tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. If not then a good oil round.

 

As for the lights,  I naively thought that as it said NMRA standard settings on the Dapol instructions that it would work the same on the Zimo decoder. I obviously need to do more puzzling!

 

Andy

[Gresley Junction]

There has been a lot of discussion of the ECML cement trains on Wright Writes recently, so I thought now would be an appropriate time to run mine (it doesn’t have a fixed place in the schedule as I don’t know what time it ran). I’m modelling the presflo era train - I.e. between 1960 and 1961. I have seen photos of it with two brake vans, possibly because it served two destinations in Scotland, so that is how I have chosen to model it. The train is about half made up of airfix kits picked up for next to nothing at toy fairs and rewheeled and, in some cases, repainted with the rest being Bachmann. I’m not sure about liveries. There should definitely be some yellow wagons and probably some bauxite, but I suspect the grey ones were slightly later. I have a lot more Airfix wagons to resurrect, so will harmonise the train then.

 

Here is the video: