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Jim Martin

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  1. Jim Martin
    This is quick job that I've been meaning to do for a while. The Farish BYA is a really nice model, which has grown on me quite a lot since it was released. It has a couple of faults: the unpainted red plastic used for some of the end details isn't very beautiful; and Farish's take on EWS red is too muddy for my tastes. On the whole, though, it's an excellent effort. As a piece of rolling stock, however, it suffers from the fact that it runs like a dog. I have nine of them and every one of them is the same: it barely rolls at all; and when it does, it often makes a marked screeching noise. This is not good.
     
    The problem isn't the running gear itself. The BYA uses the same US-style swing motion bogies as the HTA and MBA. Farish produce all three types in N and the other two run perfectly well. The problem lies elsewhere. Specifically, the problem lies in the moulded underframe detail on the BYA.
     
    I have mixed feelings about underframe detail in N gauge. I don't mind it on wagons with exposed underframes, when it can be seen from the side: Farish's MBA, for example, is beautifully done. On wagons where it's never going to be seen, though, I really don't care that much: for instance, the Dapol KIA coil wagon has no detail at all underneath and is none the worse for it.
     
    The BYA has a central sill and various cross-members moulded onto the underside. None of this is visible when the wagon is on the track. It's these cross-members that are the problem: the wheels rub against those closest to the bogie pivots, which act as highly effective brakes. The solution is straightforward, if a little drastic: the ribs have to go.
     
    This photo shows what the Farish underframe looks like once the bogies have been removed:
     

     
    The ribs closest to the bogie pivot are the ones you need to remove. I used a burr mounted in a mini-drill, which was easy enough, but a little wearing. I did two wagons tonight and I wouldn't do more than that in a session. You don't want to damage the bogie pivot; you really don't want to damage the curved bits around the pivot (which give the wagon some stability); and you really, really don't want to accidentally grind away any of the underframe side member.
     
    The finished article looks like this:
     

     
    Pop the bogies back on and you're good to go. Better yet, the wagon actually will go. The effect on its running is dramatic. All of my BYAs will be going under the knife (well, drill) for this modification over the next week or so.
  2. Jim Martin
    It's all right and it's coming along
    We've got to get right back to where we started from
     
    (Maxine Nightingale, "Right back where we started from")
     
    If Wikipedia is to be believed - and when is it not - J. Vincent Edwards and Pierre Tubbs knocked off their plinkety-plonkety classic in a mere seven minutes while driving to the local hospital to visit Tubbs' wife, who was about to give birth (although they did cheat a bit in that they used a tune that Edwards had written several years earlier). I always find these stories of huge success on the back of little or no effort - like smug youths describing how they reeled into their exams after partying till dawn, only to emerge with straight As - rather hard to believe. Nevertheless, it's safe to say that even if they'd spent days over every word and weeks over each note, they'd still have taken less time over it than it's taken me to get my replacement batch of IHAs up to the same state that the original ones were in when I discovered that they were the wrong size.
     
    For various reasons, this project has been very stop-start. Things have moved on a bit, though: so far, at least, these wagons are squarer and neater than the old ones and I'm reasonably confident that they're going to turn out all right. They look pretty messy at the moment, which is partly because I distress the surface with a scriber to give the filler something to key onto; and partly because the black styrene bleeds its colour all over the place when you brush solvent onto it.
     

     

     
    The hoods on these wagons "hang" in different ways, which is something that I'm trying to recreate. The various bits of rod stuck to the inner "core" of the wagon should act as guides for various fold patterns. I expect to be doing some sculpting of the filler as well.
     
    And that's the way it is. More progress soon, I hope. Maybe even before the end of the year...
  3. Jim Martin

    Give us a "D"

    By Jim Martin,

    Give us a "D"
     
    D!
     
    And I'll just stop right there and you can choose how this ends for yourself. I'd suggest one of the following: debacle, despondency, dire, dreadful. I think a pattern is emerging, don't you? Alternatively, you could just leave it at D, as in "D-grade: not very good".
     
    After several months of working on the three IHAs, I'd got to the point of adding the hood supports. It was then that I noted how lardy they appeared alongside the first wagon. I know the old adage "measure twice, cut once" as well as anyone (obsessive re-measuring is one reason why I work so slowly), but still...
     
    Naturally, on checking, it turned out that the entire batch are too wide. Not only that, they're too wide by too much for me to ignore it; and too solidly-built to be dismantled without wrecking the whole thing. So it's back to Square One, except that this time every single part is being checked against a micrometer before it gets glued to anything else. This is going to make them even slower to build, but at least the damned things will be the right size.
     
    In the meantime, I've resorted to a bit of retail therapy to perk myself up. A Class 60 has arrived: 60054 "Charles Babbage" in Railfreight Petroleum. My intention is to repaint this as 60055 "Thomas Barnardo", with EWS "beastie" vinyls on the triple grey paint scheme. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten that Fox have stopped selling EWS branded items, so I'm not sure how this is going to work out. I could remove the sector markings and paint in the yellow panel easily enough, I think, but that would still leave me needing to source the actual beastie logo and I'm not sure how to do that yet.
     
    The other new arrival is another Class 66. This is another Farish 66135, so it'll have to be renumbered. That should be easily done: Fox still sell what they describe as "maroon numbering for freight locomotives" (no mention of DB or EWS, see) so I'll pick up a sheet of those soon.
     
    While I was at the Liverpool show recently I bowed to the inevitable and bought a new razor saw. The old one has been missing for well over a year now and it's clearly not going to turn up any time soon, or at least it wouldn't have until after I'd bought a replacement. I dare say it'll show up any day now; it's been that kind of week.
  4. Jim Martin
    In my first post on this blog I wrote: "I'm just a very slow worker... I'm kind of hoping that writing this might encourage me to get on a bit more". Well, just over a year to construct one wagon wasn't precisely what I had in mind but the IHA is, nevertheless, as finished as it's going to be for the foreseeable future.
     
    It isn't truly finished. I still need to add the eight hooks that hold the hood closed: I'll be getting these etched in due course. I need enough for four wagons so I'll need to do some research into whether that will be an entire etched sheet on its own, or if I could fit some other bits in, or what. The wagon also needs painting, of course, and it's sans couplers until I decide what type to fit.
     
    Still, right now it's sitting on its little length of Peco set-track, looking pretty much done. It isn't perfect: it's a tad too tall, the ends aren't quite square, there are a couple of other things that I'll iron out when I make the rest of my planned fleet. I would be lying, though, if I said I was anything other than extremely happy with how it looks. Off the top of my head, I can't remember feeling this pleased with a wagon that I've built from scratch.
     
    The Credits:
    Wheels and bogies - ATM Models
    Ferry cleats, lashing rings and end platforms - TPM (ref. 1809)
    Buffers - TPM (ref. 1806A)
     
    Finished wagon between two Farish BYAs for comparison:

     
    Platform end:

     
    Non-platform end (don't know what went awry with the colour balance here, I'm afraid):

     
    Getting this done has given me quite a fillip, so I'm hoping to make some more progress on a couple of other projects in the next couple of days. More on that as things develop.
     
    Jim
  5. Jim Martin
    These notes are a work-in-progress and I'll be more than happy to hear from anyone who can provide amendments or more details. I'm looking at the passenger services in and out of Liverpool Lime Street in 2006. Four TOCs operated into the main line station: I've started with Northern Rail, which operated by far the largest number of trains. Virgin West Coast, Central Trains and Transpennine Express will follow at some point in the future.
     
    Around Liverpool, Northern operated on three main corridors:
     
    Liverpool-Manchester Victoria, via Earlestown and the original L&M line across Chat Moss. In addition to the purely local service, Northern operated a Liverpool-Manchester Airport service which used the L&M route as far as Ordsall Lane Junction, then Manchester Oxford Road and Piccadilly and on to the airport. The local trains were mainly Class 142 and 150, while the airport trains were always 156s.
     
    Liverpool-Wigan North-Western, via St. Helens. I generally associate the Wigan service at this time with Class 150s, particularly the Regional Railways-liveried units, but I'm not certain how accurate that impression is. Some trains were extended via Preston to Blackpool North. These were generally operated with Class 156s.
     
    Liverpool-Manchester Oxford Road, via Warrington Central and the Cheshire Lines route. Operated by a mix of Class 142s (mainly) and 150s. Some trains terminated at Warrington.
     
    Northern's DMU fleet was based at three depots: Newton Heath (Manchester), Neville Hill (Leeds) and Heaton (Newcastle). Most of the trains which served Liverpool were covered by Newton Heath, so I've concentrated on the units allocated to that depot.
     
    Newton Heath's allocation totalled 113 units of three classes: 50 Class 142s, 40 Class 150s (18 Class 150/1 and 22 Class 150/2 - the entire Northern fleet) and 23 Class 156s. In the first year of the franchise, Northern had removed the branding from all of its inherited units and replaced it on some units with monochrome "Northern" logos. These were either black or white, depending on the base livery colour of the unit they were being applied to. This process continued into 2006. I've used "debranded" to describe units without any logos and "rebranded" for units with these monochrome logos, which are illustrated below.
     

     

     
    In addition to the debranding/rebranding exercise, several units received transitional colour schemes. A couple were placeholders for units painted immediately before the franchise handover, while others were experimental schemes designed for the new franchise. By 2006 a couple of units were carrying a scheme very similar in concept (although significantly different in detail) to the scheme which finally emerged as the standard livery and which is in near-universal use today. No units received the now-standard scheme until 2007.
     
    I've decided to sort this listing by colour scheme, rather than by class. For the purposes of N gauge I think that livery is more important than car or even unit numbers (athough obviously I plan to get those things right too). All of the prototype photographs are copyright of Martyn Read and are used with permission. Martyn lives on RMWeb under the name "Glorious NSE" and his website can be found at: http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/. The photos aren't necessarily of Newton Heath units: they're just to illustrate the liveries.
     
    At the start of 2006, Newton Heath units carried the following colour schemes:
     
    First North-Western blue/gold
     

     
    Carried by:
    Class 142 - 142001, 003-5, 007, 009, 011-014, 023, 027-040, 060-064, 067, 068, 070 (33 units)
    Class 150/1 - 150133, 135-144, 146-150 (16 units)
    Class 150/2 - 150201, 203, 205, 207, 211, 215, 218, 222-225 (11 units)
     
    Many units had been rebranded with white logos. One unit was reallocated away from Newton Heath over the course of the year. 150133 was loaned to Silverlink in November: it was sent to Bletchley, where it was used on the line to Bedford.
     
    Farish produce their Class 150/1 in FNW livery. The model could be "Northernised" by removing the logos and replacing with white Northern logos. Something that I'd like to look at is the possibility of converting the 150/1 into a 150/2. I'm not sure if this would simply be a matter of rebuilding the driving ends to add the gangway. Nor do I know how easy that would actually be. This livery is not among those that Dapol have announced for their Class 142.
     
    First Group "Barbie" blue/magenta and white
     

     
    Carried by:
    Class 156 - 156420-421, 423-424, 427-428, 440-441, 452, 466 (10 units)
     
    These units were rebranded with white logos. I believe that not all of them had been done by the start of 2006.
     
    Dapol produced their Class 156 in this livery, complete with Northern rebranding. Unfortunately, this model seems to be extremely hard to find.
     
    Northern Spirit turquoise/lime green
     

     
    Carried by:
    Class 156 - 156468, 470-472, 498 (5 units)
     
    These were former Arriva Trains North units which had been transferred to the North-West in 2005. Most had been rebranded with white logos, but a few were debranded and at least 156468 received black logos.
     
    The Dapol Class 156 is readily available in debranded Northern Spirit livery as Newton Heath's 156498
     
    Merseytravel yellow/white
     

     
    Carried by:
    Class 142 - 142041-049, 051-058 (17 units)
     
    These units had some significant differences from "stock" Class 142s. In particular, they had all been fitted with large dot-matrix route indicators - much larger than the standard destination blinds - above the cab windows. Many were rebranded with black logos and all carried Merseytravel's "M" logo on each car as well (at some point in 2006, 142051 suffered collision damage which required one cab to be rebuilt: this car did not receive an "M" logo when repainted).
     
    This livery has not been announced by Dapol for their Class 142.
     
    Regional Railways blue/beige
     

     
    Carried by:
    Class 150/2 - 150228, 268-277 (11 units)
     
    These units had been rebranded with a mix of white and black logos. Starting in October 2006 with 150228, these units started to go into works for repainting into the early version of the Northern livery (see below). This process carried on into the following year: when the last two, 150271 and 150273, got their new livery in the spring of 2007, they were the last Regional Railways-liveried units on the UK network.
     
    The Farish Class 150/2 is available in the Regional Railways scheme. It could be turned into a Northern unit by removing the logos and replacing them with Northern logos.
     
     
    Plain blue
     
    Carried by:
    Class 150/1 - 150134 (1 unit)
    Class 156 - 156426, 429, 455, 459 (4 units)
     
    The 150 (photo here, in pre-Northern days: this thread also contains several other photos of units in early Northern liveries) was the same shade of blue as the FNW blue and gold, which it had carried until vandalism damage resulted in the gold vinyls being removed. The doors were blue, as per the FNW scheme.
     
    The 156s (photos here: this site also contains photos of 156s in all Northern liveries and is my first port-of-call for 156-related information) were painted the same indigo blue as the base shade of the "Barbie" scheme and had white doors. This was a placeholder scheme applied in the last weeks of the FNW franchise.
     
    Neither of these schemes is available ready-to-run.
     
    Northern lilac/white
     
    Photos here
     
    Carried by:
    Class 156 - 156425, 460, 464 (3 units)
     
    An experimental scheme applied in 2005 before Northern had settled on a corporate image (there was another version which was essentially the same as this, but with the white and lilac reversed: the only unit which carried it was based at Heaton). These units carried white and lilac "Northern" logos, much larger than the monochrome logos used for rebranding.
     
    This scheme has never appeared on the Dapol 156.
     
    Northern blue/lilac
     

     
    Carried by:
    Class 150/1 - 150145 (1 unit)
    Class 156 - 156461 (1 unit)
    Applied to several 150/2 units from October 2006 onwards
     
    Although the layout is very similar to the standard Northern livery of today, this differs from it in several respects. The upwards "swoosh" is angular, rather than curved on the later version of the scheme. Also, the colour is much more of a pastel lilac shade, as opposed to the richer purple used today. The Class 156 carried no branding at all at the start of the year, but soon thereafter received large white and lilac "Northern" logos and also the company's web address (on the lilac panel). Both these units carried promotional vinyls. 150145's advertised the Buxton Festival: they were applied in mid-2005 and were retained at least until mid 2007. 156461 received vinyls advertising the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway in August 2006.
     
    Although Dapol have produced a couple of Northern-liveried Class 156s, they have never offered this early version.
     
    Although Newton Heath covered most Liverpool-area duties, units from other depots were also seen. In particular, Heaton-based Class 142s in Northern Spirit livery (one of the schemes announced by Dapol for the first releases) and Arriva turquoise and cream seem to have been regular visitors to Lime Street
     
    Jim
  6. Jim Martin

    A gang of hoodies

    By Jim Martin,

    As noted in the last post, the "production batch" of IHA wagons is progressing, albeit very slowly, towards completion. I'm building three more of these wagons, which will complete the planned requirement for this type in my steel coil fleet (which I described in my very first blog post, back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth). I've made some changes in the building sequence for these models, the most notable so far being that I haven't added any surface detail at all to the underframes. The various flanges, strengthening ribs etc. won't be added until after the hoods are completed, so that stray filler can't get tangled up in them, which did happen a bit with the first model.
     
    At the moment, this is the state of play:
     

     
    The first IHA that I built ended up having a very "taut" look to the hood. This is fine, because many wagons actually do look like that; but others don't and I want to try something a bit more "sculptural" with a couple of this batch. To that end, I've been playing with some test pieces, which are bits of 60-thou styrene on which various strips, rods and what-not have been stuck down. These are then covered over with filler and sanded to shape in the same way as I did with the first wagon. The idea is to see what best represents the kind of sagging, pulling and bunching effects that can be seen on the prototype. So far, I'd have to say that results have been mixed. I'm not sure that the Humbrol filler I've used up to now is just that well-suited to this purpose. I've got a tube of Squadron White which I'm going to try as well, although I really don't know how different it is from the Humbrol. More on this once the next batch of tests have been done.
     
    Jim
  7. Jim Martin
    I've noticed a number of posts about motivation on RMWeb recently (here and here, for instance). I've been experiencing a distinct lack of "get up and go" myself where completing the IHA is concerned: since my last blog post I've added the four lettering boards to the sides of the hood, and that's it.
     
    I'm one of those who believes that the problem is that all the jobs at the very end of a project like this don't add that much to the finished model, but their absence would nag at me. The other day I sat down with a photo of the prototype and worked out how many pieces still needed adding to the IHA for it to be complete to a degree that would be acceptable to me:
     
    4x hood operating lever assembly (4 pieces each - 16 in all)
    2x upper hook operating bar assembly (5 pieces each - 10 in all)
    2 buffer base extensions (for the platform end)
    4 buffers
    2 ferry tie-down cleat mounting pads
    2 ferry tie-down cleats
    8 ferry lashing rings
    2 brakewheel mounting rods
    2 brakewheels
    2 raised panels for the underframe sides (to mount the brake valve control levers)
    4 brake valve control levers
    2x low-level lettering placard assembly (5 pieces each - 10 in all)
    end platform
    2 end platform supports
    2 bogie pivots
    2 bogie retainers
    2 bogies
     
    That's a total of 73 things to add to get to the point where I think it'll look right (not including the couplers, which I'm still mulling over, and the hooks that hold the hood shut, which I still don't know how to make), and at the end of it all it won't look much more like an IHA than it would if I added just the end platform, the buffers and the bogies. Some of these pieces (17, I think, plus the bogies) are ready made, either etched or moulded; but the majority are very small indeed and will have to be tickled together out of tiny shards of styrene, which probably isn't going to be much fun.
     
    Tonight I'm going to steel myself (appropriately enough) and try to push on as far as possible with getting things fitted.
     
    Jim
  8. Jim Martin

    Proof of life

    By Jim Martin,

    Well, despite not having updated this blog for months, I have been working on the IHA in fits and starts. This where we are now: hood completed, end platform (from TPM's lovely ferry fittings etch) in position (temporarily, for the photo), still just balanced on its bogies for now but generally looking quite like the real thing.
     

     
    This was the only decent shot I got before the batteries in my camera packed in, so it'll have to do for now. There are some wierd perspective effects in this photo which I think are linked to the macro setting on the camera. The model is actually pretty square.
     
    More on this over the weekend, I hope. Lettering boards to be added to hood sides and underframe, brakewheels and ferry tie-downs to be fitted, buffers (and the buffer beam at the platform end) to go on, a couple of minor end details to complete and that'll leave just the hood securing hooks, which I still don't have much idea about how to tackle.
     
    Jim
  9. Jim Martin

    Fill 'er up

    By Jim Martin,

    Filling in the gaps between the hood supports has started. This proving to be much harder work than I'd expected: there's a lot of sanding away then filling back in where I've taken too much off, or where there are surface blemishes. Nevertheless, I do think that it's getting there:
     

     
    When the filler first goes on, it looks as rough as hell:
     

     
    But it does come together - eventually (bear in mind that these photos are far bigger than life-size: the whole wagon is just on three inches long):
     

     
    I commented on my last post that I was going to remove the 30-thou lettering panels and replace them with mounting pads, so that I could add the panels themselves after all the sanding was complete. I've done that now (note the absence of the panel on the second photo above), albeit at the cost of stabbing myself in the finger. Another lesson that I'll be taking on board for the other three wagons is that I won't be adding any detail to the underframes until the hood is complete. That includes the strengthening ribs and even the web along the lower edge of the u/f. As it is I'm having to clean off stray bits of filler as best I can and it would obviously be better to have a flat surface to work with.
     
    I'm not expecting to make any progress on this for the next few days because I've got a lot on at work. I'm reasonably happy with how this is going, though.
     
    Jim
  10. Jim Martin

    IHA progress

    By Jim Martin,

    Yes, just ten short weeks have passed since I started this blog and already I've made some progress! Go Me! High fives all round!
     
    In truth, I did virtually no modelling at all for the first half of that period. Real life came crashing in in the shape of a family bereavement which took up all my time and didn't really leave me in the mood for wresting with tiny shards of styrene in what little spare time I did have. In the last few weeks, though, things have been getting back to normal and I've been (by my standards) quite productive.
     
    The plan was to construct four IHA steel coil wagons. Moria pointed out that there is actually a kit available for these wagons from Ian Stoate. I hadn't realised that, but I've decided to press on down the scratchbuilt route. If it doesn't work out as I'm hoping, I might fall back on the kit; but for now I'm still committed to building my own.
     
    I'm building a single prototype model so that I can iron out the build sequence, note any pitfalls etc. Once that's completed to my satisfaction I'll build the other three as a batch. I expect to make mistakes with the first wagon, so there'll probably be a fair bit of fiddling with the design as I go along. For a start, the original underframe needed beefing up considerably with a hefty stiffener of 40-thou sheet.
     
    Here it is in its current state:
     

     
    The mass of filler is the result of trying to build the body section straight on to the underframe without taking proper measurements. In the batch-built models I'm going to assemble the body separately and then attach it to the underframe when it's done. That should be a lot easier than the way I've done it here. Above the bogie on the left, you can just see where I damaged the flange at the bottom of the underframe while I was trying to get the roof to sit down properly. This was more difficult than it needed to be because I made the roof too thick. On this wagon it's 30-thou, but it'll be 20-thou on the production batch. The end platform will go on the left end of the wagon. You can just see that the underframe extends beyond the end of the body to form a shelf which the platform will rest on.
     
    The idea is to lay 20-thou rod up the sides and across the roof at the points where the hood supports go; then fill between them with filler, which will be sanded back to create a degree of sag between the supports. The hood will extend as far down as the lower edge of the strip that runs along the side of the underframe. After that, there's detailing to be added to the ends, various lettering panels on the sides (those on the body will be attached to mounting pads set into the filler), the hooks that secure each end of the hood (also attached to pads), ferry fittings, buffers and a few other bits and bobs. In this photo the wagon is just placed on top of the bogies: I use acrylic rod to mount ATM bogies, because I've never found anything else which is quite the right size. Short lengths will be superglued into 4.5mm holes already drilled in the bogie bolsters.
     
    Here's the model alongside a Farish BYA. This really illustrates just how dumpy these wagons are:
     

     
    More on this as things progress.
     
    Jim
  11. Jim Martin
    More progress on the IHA: the hood supports have been added, as have the lettering panels and small pads for the hooks that hold the hood shut to mount on. The next job is a key stage. The area between the hood supports has to be filled and sanded back to create the surface of the hood itself. I have trialled this idea on a very crude test piece and it came out all right, but if it doesn't work in practice then not only has all the work on this wagon probably been wasted, but the entire IHA project will have to go back to the drawing board for a major rethink.
     
    This is the current state of play:
     

     
    The general tagginess of the model isn't really a problem. All of the grotty bits should be covered over with filler by the time it's finished. So long as that's all that's covered in filler, everything will be fine.
     
    Jim
  12. Jim Martin
    Okay, here we go...
     
    At one time or another, I've been into N-gauge modern (when "modern" meant "1982"), 3mm finescale Great Central Railway and N-gauge Union Pacific. Through much of that time I didn't pay much attention to what was happening on Britain's railways. Back in 2002, though, I travelled down to London for work and returned to Liverpool in the evening. I was quite surprised by the number of freight trains that I saw; and particularly impressed when my train stopped at Stafford alongside a container train. Immediately outside my window was a KTA "pocket wagon", something that I'd never seen before, and I was hugely taken with the sight of the brake gear all clanking away in plain view on top of the end platform. After that I started looking out for freight trains a bit more; then "considering" modelling some of them until eventually I decided to switch over entirely to modelling the contemporary British scene.
     
    One day, I'd like to build a layout based on Edge Hill, the first station out of Liverpool Lime Street, as it was in the period between 2000 and about 2006. This would be a huge undertaking, but that's what I'd like to do. In the meantime, I have several layout ideas based on the Bootle Branch, which runs from Edge Hill to Liverpool docks. These would give me somewhere to run trains which could later be used on an Edge Hill layout, if that ever came to pass. Building these trains is going to be a long business, for two reasons:
     
    (1) I don't max out my credit card on vast fleets of RTR wagons and locomotives, because I don't have the disposable income to do it and I'm not really the kind to go over my pretty rigorously-enforced budget on model railway bits; and
    (2) I don't assemble large numbers of scratchbuilt or kit-built stock all that quickly because I work quite amazingly slowly, as may become apparent as this blog goes on. It isn't just time: people with less time than me seem to get on quite well. I'm just a very slow worker, end of story. I'm kind of hoping that writing this might encourage me to get on a bit more, but only time will tell on that one.
     
    Over the last few years I've assembled a varied collection of N gauge stock, nearly all of which was appropriate to the dock branch, without ever getting very near to assembling any complete trains. Earlier this year I decided that this was no good and that I would separate my rolling stock requirements into particular groups and concentrate my buying, at least, on one of those groups at a time. I'll still build odd things "out of sequence" for light relief but the bought-in stuff will be in accordance with The Plan, unless there's a good reason to do otherwise.
     
    The first group I decided to concentrate on was the steel coil traffic. At the moment these trains only run a couple of times a week, often combined with scrap metal workings, but they used to run more or less daily. Trains of empty wagons would work across from Warrington, collect loaded wagons from Gladstone Dock steel terminal and return. The empties would be loaded in time to form the following day's train.
     
    From the train formations that I'd seen myself or had seen photographed or recorded in the Liverpool-Rails Yahoo group, I settled on three. These were formed:
     
    1. BYA (x4), IHA, KIA, IHA, JSA (x2)
     
    2. BYA (x5), KIA (x3)
     
    3. IHA (x2), KIA
     
    (all the links above are to Martyn Read's very splendid UK Rolling Stock fotopic site)
     
    I chose these for several reasons. They're all prototypical, they cover the extremes of length for these workings and although they're varied, they include almost all of the coil wagon types generally seen on the branch - they're reasonably typical in that BYAs (and the externally-identical BRAs) are the most common types on these trains. They also have a good balance between available RTR (the BYAs from Farish and the KIAs from Dapol) and what would have to be scratchbuilt. As much as I enjoy scratchbuilding wagons, even producing the six wagons required here is likely to take me months.
     
    The KIAs are all on hand (courtesy of Hattons' recent sale), as are most of the BYAs, so I've started on the IHAs. The prototype model is based on Robert Stephens' article in the August 2006 Model Rail and the drawings that used to be published - but aren't any more, sadly - on the SNCF website. The most striking thing about them is that the underframe is longer at one end than the other. The end platform is at the long end, which should make it a bit easier to attach the etched (by TPM) platforms. I did take some photos, but they didn't come out too well: I'm going to try again in daylight tomorrow and see if I can do better.
  13. Jim Martin
    Wow. I've managed to get through an entire calendar year without adding so much as a word to this blog. This is going to change: the modelling mojo is strong right now and I'm adopting a more organised approach to this whole business. In a shameless ploy to attract more readers I've also added a link here to my signature file; but the quid pro quo is that there has to be stuff for them to read. Look at that: they're not even here yet and already I feel a sense of obligation towards them.
     
    So, what's happened since last time? What, exactly, have I done since October 2011?

    All of my Farish BYAs have had their underframes modified to improve running, as per a previous post
    Since I finished the RTR buying-in of steel coil wagons about two years ago, I've moved on to buying the required RTR scrap metal wagons. There aren't that many of these - 10 Farish MBAs - and these are now all on hand.
    I've acquired a couple of DMUs - a Farish class 150 and a Dapol 156. Both are in base liveries that suit my modelling period and place, but the 150 will need to have the logos replaced with Northern Rail ones.
    The production batch of IHA coil wagons is oozing its way towards completion. They've actually progressed by leaps and bounds recently (which doesn't say much for the progress over the preceding twelve months, but never mind).
    I've ordered an Ultima kit for a BR Mk.1 inspection saloon, which will be built as no. 999506 "Amanda", as running between 2003 and 2007 in maroon livery with "Railtrack" lettering and cast nameplates
    Under the influence of RMWebber Scouser999, I've resolved to at least make a start on a layout. I think that having somewhere to run stock will help to keep the mojo in its current state of rude health. I find building stock very satisfying (not, note, always "fun") but seeing it run is more important than I've sometimes allowed in the past.

    So: new year, new attitude. The future starts here.
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