Jesse Sim

Is that that wagon wheelbase jig/tool? Does anyone know where to get one?

Tony we don’t watch films anymore, we read the subtitles and watch half the movie.

I blame this This thread for my interest. It goes back to March 2014, I just turned 18, walked into my local newsagent on my birthday and grabbed the latest BRM and in all her glory on the front cover was Grantham. I was hooked. Sold all my stock that wasn’t LNER and started annoying everyone left right and centre. Graham(@LNER4479) copped it first, then @Tony Wright and now it’s @jwealleans🤣. All jokes aside Grantham had a profound effect on me, as did the group of people building her and I would not be the modeller I am today without the three mentioned modellers, they are not alone either there many, many more who have helped, continue to still help me. The variety in the secondary services was another aspect that had drawn me to the LNER. You had the new prestige services of the Flying Scotsman and the Streamliners flying past humble workings of ancient ex-grouping stock. As the LNER was one of the poorest they kept old stock in revenue earning service. I’ve tried to show this but some things take time and I may move faster than others, but I’m that fast, still some decent kit building to replace RTR coaches. The fiddleyard isn’t actually that big, compared to other layouts, she’s quite small. However, I have tried to fit as much as I can into the room, there’s nearly a dozen kick back sidings, some trains run more than once with simple loco changes to give the impression it’s an entirely different train.

I thought some of my other taste in music my scare some viewers.

I’ll get my shopping list emailed to you.

Evening all, Last week a friend from the UK visited, we spent the morning down at Thirlmere Railway Museum before heading home to run the sequence. Ashley has a decent fan base on Instagram and is fantastic at taking videos which just an iPhone, so whilst I operated the sequence he filmed some of the trains passing by. I have since edited that footage into one, added an intro, and some voiceover work. I hope you enjoy seeing some trains run, the layout is still very much a work in progress, as is the stock.

Evening all, Last week a friend from the UK visited, we spent the morning down at Thirlmere Railway Museum before heading home to run the sequence. Ashley has a decent fan base on Instagram and is fantastic at taking videos which just an iPhone, so whilst I operated the sequence he filmed some of the trains passing by. I have since edited that footage into one, added an intro, and some voiceover work. I hope you enjoy seeing some trains run, the layout is still very much a work in progress, as is the stock. Sorry for hijacking Tony.

Well, as I said, I’ve never seen 4903 modelled. I didn’t say a 4903 never existed 😉

I knew you’d like my sausage

Good old fashioned “why are you building this when you could have bought one from Hornby”. Back in 2020 I took a delivery from Mr King, containing some resin conflats and one of his W1 conversions. I got on with the build but never finished her- I had to buy a SEF tender to suit as I was under the impression it was a specially made one for her, not realising it was streamlined corridor tender. Then came the Hornby announcement, I immediately ordered the W1 in original condition but I decided I wanted to finish the rebuilt project. More years went and I can finally say she’s nearing completion. The tender is from a Hornby Bittern model, I need to remove the tender over head wires warning markers, and the non corridor tender that was from the W1’s donor A4 will go behind Bittern to become 4903 Peregrine. I’ve never seen 4903 modelled and being an avid fan of Tolkien (Peregrin (Pippin) Took) it was a no brainer, even if the spelling is different. I tried to use as much of the original parts from the donor A4 and I also tried to not lost too much lining…which I don’t think I’ve accomplished. I’m hoping to patch paint her and weather her to blend it together, the curved lining is already giving me nightmares….I have a K3 to do as well. Shes not perfect and definitely not in the same league as the Hornby 10000 but she’s mine, can’t wait to get her painted.

I know most motors can be DCC’d, but I was hoping for a quick turn around on the model to get it straight into traffic. Lazy? Perhaps…

Tony is the O4/3 suitable for DCC? I’ve been on the hunt for an O4 that could pull one of my heavy trains…

How quick do you think I work? 🤣

I should have them Wednesday week, that’s when my mate gets here after travelling via Melbourne and NZ for a few weeks.

Nothing worse when you send a friend some bogies and he scratchbuilds the wagon better than yours 🥲

More wagons for Woolmer Green Alrignt, bit of a big update this evening. First off we have those RTR bashed LNER Dia. 2 wagons. One featured earlier, it was one chosen for carrying horse , so here are the remaining three, with maybe two or three more to feature later on. As I mentioned earlier these are altered from various Bachmann wagons and majority of the work was changing the brakes, adding four door bangers (two each side), and repainting/lettering. The main let down is that the wagons are about 5 odd millimetres short. If I had a small layout where only a few wagons featured they might stand out, but four wagons spread out over different trains mixed in with 40 odd other wagons? I think they’ll be fine and they’re a good “layout wagon”. So… to disguise them even more they received some sheeted loads: This particular one I originally had lettered as part of the CLC, but I decided to paint over and re- letter her in post 36 livery, I’ve seen this before in some photos. However I’ve left the pre-36 numbering for some variation, as if the wagon is waiting for a complete re-paint. Another view of the same wagon showing the ends of my tarps. I do my tarps as if they’re real. I glue the top, leave it over night and then the sides and ends are pulled down and tied like the real thing, I think it looks more realistic. This wagon seems to be loaded with a crate perhaps, flat top and perfectly squared edges… This will go perfectly along side this wagon; a whitemetal GCR variant (I forget the diagram) from Wizards models. She had a load origionally, that I did a few years ago, I wasn’t happy so I decided to re do her. Unfortunately it ruined the paint job, so, not having the same colour paint I decided to do a similar patch paint to the diagram 2. Using different shades of grey I use for LNER freight grey I painted over the areas that had lost paint in ways that showed the wagon had been repaired in areas and repainted quickly. I also had her lettered for the Cheshire lines, so I’ve left the L and repainted the left side and lettered her in post 36’ livery. I think it’s worked beautifully and really shows a tatty in use wagon in dire need for repair. I also built the crate out of plastikard and I made the transfers on the computer. ‘CDS’ is a homage to my grandfather Charles (C), my mum Donna (D) and my dad Steve (S). The ‘Brighton’ has no relevance to the town in the UK, it’s another reference to my grandfather who’s trucking company was called Brighton Transport, no idea where he got Brighton from though… Last, but not least, the LNER Flat T. I’ve repainted her back into grey like I said I would. The black just didn’t look right, even though technically she should be black being a steel underframe. She’s also had a load made up which has taken inspiration from photograph in Tatlows. It’s very hard trying to make it exactly the same, but it’s still turned out quite nice. I need to make more lashing rings still for her, but I would consider her finished.

I think paint reacting is one of the most annoying things that can happen when building/painting a model. I’ve had it happen a couple of times and it normally only happens when the model you’re working on is near finished.

Tony, I have a B1 tender, I’ll swap it for say… a K2?? Done. Lock her in. No take backs or do overs. Pinky promise.

If Sovereign Hill ever decides to add a heritage railway, boy I’d be beside myself.

It was lovely John, dad throughly enjoyed himself. He apologises again for almost taking out that signal.

2025 yeah?

Apologies, some people would have seen me post with just photos.... I accidentally clicked "submit reply" and I hadn't typed anything out yet......

Alright, the last of the updates before moving into describing each individual train. We are in August last year (2023). My workbench looked like this, a right mess after a recent rebuild; new bench and fascia which allowed me to add another kick back siding for the Down lines. After getting back into watching Everard Junction's YouTube videos religiously I noticed he employed a workbench modular design on his own workbench and I started investigating for something similar that would keep my undiagnosed autism and OCD in check. Unfortunately I could not find something here in Australia and had to source the same design from the same manufacture as Richard from Everard Junction. The Hobby Zone workbench modules are brilliant and I was able to tailor their products to suit my needs using their designer on the website. It was so much fun. I eventually decided to bite the bullet and purchased the lot through Hattons, my last purchase from them, not that I bought all lot from them. The postage killed me... It went together really easy, each section comes with magnets and that is how the whole thing is held together. I'll post up some photos later this arvo with how the workbench looks now. Something else I worked on in August was the patio at the front of the "Train Room". Some of you may remember my room didn't fare well in heavy rain, flooding on numerous occasions, with one really bad one that stopped progress entirely for a few months. This was due to the room being at a low point of the entire property, I was gifted this room by my Grandfather and I didn't want to whinge but something needed to be done or I would risk losing what I have spent my early adult years building. The solution was a drain that wrapped around two walls and this has worked perfectly, over the top for a garage but for a train room.... it was needed and I am forever grateful. This leads onto what was accomplished in August; some new concrete to replace the paving job I did myself, that's being a bit unfair to myself but it wasn't the best and the heavy rains had washed away the pavers in some sections, so the solution: Looks a bit bland doesn't it? My Grandfather, Charlie, who worked and lived on this property, as I do now, was known for his love for gardening and took out many Local Council awards. Myself and my family have kept up his gardens and take pride in our home/workplace so it was only fitting that I made the front of the train room just as nice. The railway seat is from the Hawkesbury River railway station, how long they were in service I am not sure but I remember them as a kid when I was travelling by train to skateparks with mates. September/October my lovely partner, Rachel, and I did a little road trip South in to Victoria, along the Great Ocean Road and into South Australia. A few photos of the trip... if I may? One of the first stops was Sovereign Hill at Ballarat, a place rich in early Australian History, particularly the Victorian Gold Rush when local miners revolted against the British administration of the Colony of Victoria, mostly it was down to taxes being handed down onto miners. It was known as the Eureka Stockade and occurred in the early 1850s. Sovereign Hill (pictured) is Victoria's answer to Beamish. I visited many times when I was a kid, so it was good to be back. Couldn't help myself somewhere along the road between Ballarat and Apollo Bay, came over a bridge and I saw two locos parked to my left, quick u-turn sorted that out, Rachel was thrilled as always. Another photo of the financial mistake (a 4WD) at Robe, South Australia. Down along the South coast of Australia is absolutely stunning. Lot's of shipwrecks also. Before long we were in Adelaide and I was sniffing out railway museums... and Rachel was absolutely thrilled!! If I am honest, the photo above was staged, she is very supportive of my hobby. Right, that brings us almost to the end of 2023, I did some railway work over the Christmas break so I'll post that up a bit later.

I run my express’ around twice but the slower trains just the once. I stole mimicked this from Grantham.

Can’t wait to do the shutting in both directions next Easter (2025). I’m glad I’m not the only one that does this, no wonder my back feels 50.