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).

Yes, the basic interior is 7mm strip along the bottom and bench ends, with 3mm (First class) and 2mm (Third class) strips for the internal window pillars, topped off with 1.5mm 'L' angle. I did cheat with the faux-BTK, with that having the First class spacing in the compartments, those Thirds actually have the thicker pillars. Did you get to the bottom of why certain ones were derailing?

Hi Richard, hope you don't mind my sharing the progress with my own interiors. I started with measuring and cutting seating strips for each of the compartments (15 in total for my own 4 coaches), and then working out how they'll fit within the coach. Each 'bench' is 20mm wide, which allows for a corridor width of 10mm (roughly, as at least one of the interiors is narrower than it should be for some reason). A 7mm wide strip (cut to length appropriate to the individual coach) is glued to positon at one end 'bench', and the rest of the seating installed. Looking forward to seeing your own take on the interiors.

Having had a bit of fun with the different sized compartment pillars, I thought that I'd show off the built interior of the Luggage Composite, as well as some other works I've carried out on it. Picture 1 - Overall shot of the interior (2 First class compartments on the left, 3 Third class on the right). Picture 2 - close-up of the luggage space (as laid out in the Jenkinson book). Picture 3 - close-up of the Ladies toilet (again as according to Jenkinson). No glass yet as I need about eighteen more etched 'glass' panels, for this, the proper Brake Third, First Class Dining Saloon and the First Class Kitchen car. Picture 4 - extra 'closed' corridor connector, for running with non-corridor coach attached at the First class end. Usual fridge magnet strip, ex-Ratio bellows connector and Comet LNER end plate. Picture 5 - 'closed' connector fitted. Picture 6 - labelling as a reminder to me which end the connector goes on, as well as a glimpse of the double-leaf springs fitted late on yesterday. Picture 7 - a clearer shot of the springs. Not really sitting right as they are retro-fitted, hopefully the next ones to be fitted will be as part of the bogie build-up.

Interiors. Why do we go to the trouble of putting them in? Is it more hassle than it's worth? Don't know, as I've been grafting some passenger spaces into my Parkers, and inhaling lots of poly cement fumes. First picture - installed interiors for the (top to bottom) Brake First, Corridor First, faux-Brake Third. These were straightforward enough to put in (even after fitting the supports for the roofs). Second picture - the (dreaded) Luggage Composite. Nothing on this has been simple, and the interior has me questioning my sanity. The pillars in the First class compartments are 18mm by 3mm (show installed). The pillars for the Third class compartments are to be 18mm by 2mm (not installed). Third picture - showing the size comparison between the two lots of pillars... In other news, the coaches all have their respective toilet and luggage spaces in place. Looking at the plans for the Composite in Jenkinson's book, it infers that the toilet in that coach was for First class Ladies only. First class Gents would have to use the toilet in the next carriage. Third class would definitely have to use the toilet in the next coach along - between the locked corridor door and the luggage space, they don't have a toilet in this coach.

Small update for today. Interiors - ex-Ratio seating strips in the process of being sorted out for the compartments, 13 left to sort out after the BFK, for now; toilet compartments cut out, along with the luggage divider. Roofs - single coat of Humbrol 27 slate grey applied to the four of them; not done the rain strips yet, but they'll require some thinking about with them curving around the shoulders. Underframes - single coat of coal black (Humbrol 85) applied to the dynamos, battery boxes and brake cylinders. Last shot shows just what can be seen through the corridor windows of the BFK.

I've used Glue n Glaze for my windows, though any thick PVA glue should work just as well. I've avoided using superglue for windows for a while now, as I got fed up trying to rescue them after the frosting got hold.

Hi Richard, I thought that I might share my own take on the corridor connection issue. I used fridge magnet strips to hold the bellows in place.

Howdy folks. Todays extract from my mad scheme with the Parkers sees me showing off with a little bit of magnetism. I had a plan to originally hold down each roof with a couple of ceramic magnets attached to cross-pieces (aimed at keeping the bodies from deforming each time they are picked up) and lengths of paperclip glued to the underside of the balsa plugs. INSERT 'FAMILY FORTUNES' WRONG ANSWER SOUND HERE. Turns out the little things are not strong enough to pull the skin off of a rice pudding, and the roofs had started to warp with the warm weather. Next theory - use stronger magnets, set into the corners; cue an order for small neodymium magnets from EBay (alongside an order for fridge magnet strips), more paperclips being sacrificed, and each roof will now sit reasonably flush with the tops of the sides. What happened to the fridge magnet strips? They too wound up being sacrificed.... short lengths were cut and stuck to paper bellows (one pair of bellows for each connection), while shorted off-cuts were stuck to the inside of each coach end. Small shelves were glued to the underside of each functioning end, to save having the magnets slip down onto the couplings. The pictures show better how I went about this. And lastly, frosting.... or to be accurate, representations of the frosted glass that went into the toilet windows. I have it on good authority that these survived well into LNER days, and being at the appropriate stage, both the BTK and BFK have had theirs fitted.

Day off from work, and I felt the urge to detail my bogies (not the green ones). 0.5mm microstrip and footboards left over from the 10ft bogies (might not be able to actually see them), cut and stuck to the brake end bogies. Edit :- photos taken of the brass bogies, since the footboard shows up better than against the black plastic.

Done a little more perusing of blown up photos from Mr Banks' collection, in particular one showing 11B at the head of a 6-coach train. My educated guess is that the crests on the compartment side go on the plain panels between the doors - the corridor first only has two on that side (going off the smudges on the B&W photo), but it is hard to tell as it is the fourth coach back.