Manxman1831

Morning all, Steadily catching up with your progress, and was tickled with the comment about the Class 13, and I agree with the sentiment - it can be a tricky little b****r. Donor parts get you so far - Hornby/Triang powered chassis with the ever useful DJH GCR kit (their number K24, sadly out of production for years with no sign of rerelease). Depending if you want to model one in later condition after they'd been transferred over to the CLC and superheating, there can be some real balance issues to sort out. The other issue to consider is the space under the boiler - try to model it, or fill it with a motor strong enough to pull a train? For my own choice from your selection of 'what next', I'm torn between either the J10, or the C4/C5. J10 as it was the class used for freight on the London extension prior to the J11s turning up, and even after. C4/C5 - they just look aesthetically pleasing, in a way that the C1s don't.

Not been doing much modelling recently. Been a hell of a month (couple of months really, what with me losing my job, and dad not waking up one morning), progress on all railway-related projects has ground to a halt and a couple of naval ones restarted as a distraction. The Kitchen First requires an interior, but is otherwise complete. The Dining First saloon is still in its basic form, as per previous pictures. Not sure when progress will restart, but be sure that pictures will be posted when it does.

A smidgen of progress since the last update. Underfloor components applied - battery boxes and dynamo for the lighting on corridor side, gas cylinder for the kitchen on the other. Labelling the coach and its ownership done on both sides (still waiting on learned friends to resolve the running number issue). Support bars added to the bogies. Labelling up the bellows connectors and varnishing them against possible wear when being put together in train. Sanity, what is that?

Certainly there used to be the matchboard-sided corridor coaches, albeit of varying degrees of accuracy. The Barnums (last available from Falcon Brass many years ago) were up to the usual Jidenco standard, and best left at that - if you like a challenge, get one. I did ask Worsley Works about the possibility of producing a scratch-aid for the Barnums, but I think he may have rather a lot of requests on the list at the moment due to the increased demand due to the lockdowns. The replacement stock (sometimes referred to as Armoured stock), again last available from Falcon Brass, were a better build, but still a challenge to someone who might not be as experienced.

The latest round of coach-building has seen the procurement of two of Worsley Works GCR dining coaches - specifically the Dining First and the Kitchen First. For the period being modelled, I'm about to cheat - all of the Kitchen First coaches had been converted into Brake coaches long before Grouping had taken place, but I wanted some form of catering for my train, so I'm having one of the 4 built by Gorton as having escaped and still running as intended in the mid-1920's. Intersting note, George Dow in his volume 2 states that in 1896, the ten dining cars built by Gorton (3 Dining Thirds, 3 Dining Firsts and 4 Kitchen Firsts) were all fitted with electric lighting, while every other coach being built had gas-lighting. What caught my attention, was the works photo of one of the completed kitchen cars sporting a rather large gas tank under the bodywork closest to the camera. Cue much confusion, e-mail fired off to the GCRS and checking every book both my dad and I had looking at kitchen/buffet cars. Much to our amusement, it would appear to have been normal for electric lighting to be in company with gas cooking - after all of our combined years of modelling and putting the bits on dining car kits, we are still learning. The pictures below show - 1. The basic Kitchen First with extra plasticard strip ready to build the interior walls. 2. The basic Dining First. 3. Underside of the Kitchen First, showing the slightly modified bogies. 4. Underside of the Dining First. 5. End prfiles for the Kitchen and Dining First. 6. The Kitchen Firsts first run out at Ruddington with the 1920's train.

Hi Richard, it's been a while. Looking at the late picture of 1033 as the Edinburgh inspection saloon, I think we are looking at it from the opposite side to that shown in the drawing - I've been having this kind of fun trying to work out underfloor details for the Kitchen First that I'm tackling - and I think that what is actually happening is the battery box is under the corridor, outside the attendants compartment, while there is a gas cylinder under the compartment itself (presumably for the stove). In the as-built picture, looking at the roof, there are a number of vents which appear to be as follows (left to right) - oil-lamp flue in the lounge room, two circular fan vents, stove flue (all three over the attendants compartment), (possible toilet filler vent), another oil-lamp flue (in the corridor outside the smoke room, and then the final oil-lamp flue (in the smoke room). As has been suggested before, this would indiate that the stove was solid-fuelled. The oil-lamps are intriguing me, since the one in the lounge appears to be hinged at the glass bonnet level (which would allow for the assembly to be tilted for filling from someone up a set of ladders), while the one in the smoke room appears to be a fixed unit, or it is hinged in the other direction? I can only imagine that 1033 was altered to electric lighting after Watkin had departed from the GCR, and it would not be the only coach of the time to have electric lighting and a gas stove - from what I can glean from the Dow volume 2, the Kitchen First had this arrangement as well, as did most every other buffet car on the LNER during that time as well.

A few shots from a running day down at the NTHC at Rudddington. Pollitt Single (LNER X4) is near as dammit complete. Parker Corridor First is complete (numbered and lettered). Glenalmond is my dad's build using an old Nu-Cast (formerly K's?) kit, and runs very nicely indeed. The D6 is from an old DJH kit, suitably and heavily modified to match the loco as shown in a B&W photo.

What will your DJH kit become?

Well spotted. I was trying to work out why we were seeing the composite toilet, but not the brakes one.

Very nicely done with the floors and interiors. Is the missing toilet window in the brake third deliberate?

968, back on the Parkers - showing that I really need to do some form of catering for a decent length 'Edwardian' train.

Next up was the Rapido Stirling Single - same coaches - strutting round as though she'd do it forever.

Had a running day down at Ruddington, on the outdoors loops. First up - 968 with her 'Edwardian' train, with a 1930s interloper for refreshment purposes.

Great Central is often quoted as being green for First class and brown for Third, though I can't remember the source for that. My own choice of First-blue was purely on a whim. Third-brown was chosen through looking at my dad's coaches. The white panels question is down to a couple of drawings in Jenkinsons tome "British Railway Carriages of the 20th Century" volume 1, figure 33 on page 67, and figure 44 on page 168. They do both refer to the Luggage Composite, and assuming you have the book will require a magnifying glass to view the details.

Cruel close-ups using my phones camera to show the visible interior of my all First. Corridor side is painted Humbrol 63 (sand), First class seats are painted Humbrol 25 (matt mid French blue from memory). According to Jenkinson, the First class compartments had white cloth on the partitions above the seats - I've continued this colour to the pillars (just left plastic white) - while the outer side had mahogany-inlayed panelling (leaving that as bare brass).