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The Johnster

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About The Johnster

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    The mean streets of inner-city Cardiff
  • Interests
    Railways of course, especially those of South Wales, Photography when I can get out to do it, Latin American percussion, beer, ranting about stuff that winds me up and being a miserable old git.

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  1. The bodyshell & tender castings are (bar the boiler skirts), but the rest is very much a product of the late 1950s.
  2. Tbh I think I’d rather see resources used on new models that have either not ever been produced in RTR form, or at least not to current standards. The Hawksworth County (and the Churchward 4-4-0) and parallel-boiler Royal Scot fall in to the second category, to which I would add the 2721, 81xx large prairie, and R1. Never produced low-hangers might include the 3150 large prairie, Metro, 517, 2021, Austin 7, B16, and any number of South Wales and Scottish pre-grouping prototypes. The Stanier 8F is a very frequent player in this sort of wishlisting, and a very large class with a wide geographical spread and a common sight right up to the end of steam. There is clearly a reservoir of demand for a new tooling but I am not aware of any particular deficiency with the current Hornby model. No model of this loco has ever captured the character of the prototype as well as the Hornby Dublo, but surely nobody these days would want such a crude tooling; cab full of motor, flangeless drivers, no brakes, stamped motion, lumpen cast detail, boiler skirts….
  3. The above answers are indicative of just how much room a main line junction station needs if modelled to scale; lots! If you can accept compromise in terms of train lengths, curve/turnout radii, and clearance space, you should be able to reduce the length needed considerably, but it will still be a pretty big layout once the fiddle yards are consdidered (you will need four; Exeter, Basingstoke, Westbury, and Eastleigh/Southampton. It will be difficult to compromise on station buildings without losing their recognisable 'Salisburyness' but restricting train lengths will mean that platform lengths can be reduced a bit. A ten coach train with locomotive is about ten feet long in 4mm, and a 40-wagon goods is about 20 feet. As a very rough rule of thumb, for a through station layout, I would suggest dividing the layout's scenically treated length into thirds, with the station occupying the central third and the outer thirds containing the junctions and other pointwork. If you can manage any plain track run before disappearing into the scenic breaks, so much the better, and the curves at the eastern end are pretty sharp anyway. If you're going to model the steam shed, you need to be talking in quarters not thirds. Not sure what goods facilities remained in the late 60s early 70s, not been there since '67. Now you can see why Pete Waterman needs cathederal naves...
  4. If anyone were to copy Cwmdimbath I would be a) highly flattered and b) interested to see somebody else's 'take' on the place. It exists in reality, but never had a mining village or a railway; there was at one time a tramway serving a forge. This probably ceased operations before the main industrialisation of the surrounding valleys, and I doubt there has been much more than the top few fields of the local farm and the forestry to account for human activity for over 150 years up there. The tramway can be walked as far as the ruins of the forge.
  5. In the future when nobody has direct memory of the colours, much like the present when nobody has direct memory of the colours, it is advisable for modellers to consult records of the exact paint mixes used, where they are recorded and the information is available. Our experience of, say, LNWR coach livery or Stroudley 'Improved Engine Green' and many other liveries is informed by museum pieces in museum condition, and lighting. What these colours looked like in service when weathered and faded a bit (we all know that pre-grouping locos and stock was always kept in immaculate condition, but steam railways are dirty places even when they are not located in heavily polluted industrialised areas) is anyone's guess, as nobody is alive who remembers them in daily use (I rather doubt the small number of surviving centenarians from pre-grouping days bothered to take much notice). I agree that colourised colours will make very poor guidance for modellers or anyone else interested in liveries, but no more so than existing paintings of pre-grouping locos and stock. There are some examples extant that are probably pretty reliable; the NRM's collection of NER locos for example were painted at Darlington not long after the NER had ceased to exist, and the J72 pilots and J69/N17 pilots of the 1958 era were painted at Darlington and Stratford by men who may well have worked in the paint shops in pre-grouping days. But by and large copying preserved locos and stock is fraught with all sorts of accuracy issues. We can, I contend, only do our best with whatever information we have, and be prepared to modify our models if better information comes to light, but I still contend that attempting to pin down colours with any degree of accuracy when the only reference material is colour film photographs is a pointless waste of time, and no worse than relying on colourised images.
  6. The difference may be that Pontrilas, St.Devereaux, and Tram Inn stations were still open in 1961, and IIRC the Cardiff-Birminghams were mostly all-stoppers.
  7. I'm sure I remember reading that 45xx were used on Paddington suburban work in the 1920s, though probably not on any Mainline & City services. But Metros, County Tanks, and the inside cylinder praires (39xx?) converted from Dean Goods locos would be the main contenders. The 31xx large prairies, despite being developed into the 61xx which were very much associated with Paddington suburban work, were originally concieved as short-haul main line freight engines, and were uncommon in the London area.
  8. Any discussion on pinpointing an exact colour is going to run and run, mostly in circles. There are just too many variables; perception on the day the photo was taken, ambient light conditions (not just strength but cast and diffusion), reflectivity of the surface, degradation of the image in the camera lens and by the film or light sensitive panel, whatever printing method is used, the paper the image is printed on or the qualities of the monitor screen, ambient lighting in the viewing room, and ambient colour in the viewing room, plus ambient outside light if the room has windows and possible glasses tints. Good luck with all that, gentlemen. Oh, and your eyes see large blocks of colour differently to smaller areas. I work to the principle that of it looks like the colour I remember, that’s good enough; any more is a hiding to nothing, IMHO.
  9. You don’t, you design the layout to fit the space. This is probably not the answer you want to hear, but you can’t fit a quart into a pint pot and, as a general rule, when it comes to laying the track and maintaining clearances, it is better to make the plan a little smaller than the full available space to give you some ‘wobble room’. Even Pete Waterman needs more space!
  10. Running the chassis without the tyres and not replacing the wheel with a plain one also risks derailment on facing points as the groove ‘picks up’ on the blade. This will be particularly evident where the track is not absolutely level and joined absolutely perfectly to the adjoining piece.
  11. Rails of Sheffield’s site has a ‘due in April/May’ section, and the autotrailers are not on it, so we’re gonna have to be patient a little longer. Plenty Hawthorn Leslie saddle tanks, but no diag Ns!
  12. Build whatever you want and call it whatever you want, so long as you get fun out of it. My advice, if you choose to model a prototype that has been already done, or a popular track plan, would be to design and build it yourself from the baseboards up from your own research, taking as little lead as possible from the existing models beyond a general awareness of them, but I do not wish to influence your interpretation of Rule 1. I'd respectfully suggest some general principles, however. Be aware at the planning stage of how far you can reach from the edge of your proposed baseboards, and take consideration of how effectively you can operate it with the operators available; as a lone wolf, I find my busy South Wales BLT enough of a challenge to operate to a timetable to keep it intersting and satisfying, but not too challenging or tiresome. And keep within your budget; I never buy locos or stock I don't really need, and can assure you absolutely that none of us here would ever consider doing such a foolish thing... That last sentence may possibly be mildly facetious.
  13. How ‘bout one of those 16” Barclays at Talywaun? Brutal!
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