Kend

I've not written anything for a few months. I have found that I can no longer manage to lift my layouts onto a table so have taken some drastic action. I have bought a small incomplete 009 layout that I can manage. So have purchased a Bachmann Baldwin and a couple of wagons. Have started scratch building and have a 4w coach and bogie timber wagon. The mechanisms in the 009 is now simply superb compared with 40 years ago. I have 2 resin printed bodies on Kato chassis, how do they get a flywheel inside? So the next thing is to sell off £4K worth of 00 and all my built 0-16.5. Think I will auction the lot but if you would like anything let me know. I will now be writing on the 009 Forum I guess. Thanks for all your kind words in the past. Ken D

Thanks for your comments. I have not been too well for a few weeks so work has stopped. I intend to use the Wizzard model's castle cylinders and fabricate the rest to fit the old hall chassis. Ken

Looks very good I have yet to close up the gap on my Star. I'll give this method a try.

Really interesting reading and the conversions look great. I am going to look at the Hornby 4-4-0 County as a possible cylinder donor. Having to wait a while for bits. In the meantime I have gone back where I started and attacked a Triang pannier. This was a bit of an Ebay steel as it was on Buy It Now. £49.99. In the box was a Wrenn Pullman which needed its 'glass' refitted, a Hornby blood and custard Mk1 brake, 2 x 21T steel double side door minerals (for coal traffic) and finally the pannier which made a whooshing sound. Off came the lid and it has a modern replacement motor (think its a Portascap), Romford wheels and a 3 stage gearbox. Tightened a wheel and the final gear on the wheel axle and off it went. Runs slow but will pull most of what I can add. I have made the topfeed and tank fillers (later oval sort) but they are a bit too big. Anyone know where I can buy these fittings from please.

Thanks for the comments. The Stars were indeed 4 cylinder locomotives and the cylinder casting was the same (rather you should say the Castle was fitted with Star cylinders as the Stars proceed the Castles by 20 odd years). It is the Saint that was the pre-runner to the Hall. Today I have added the black paint. I have 4 castles and I want to get a photo of the Castles and the Star together because the Castle is noticeably bigger.

Couple more photos as the conversion is almost complete. It was well worth removing the exhaust injector and pipework and adding new. Basic finish paint coat now complete. Am now trying to source an Airfix or early Hornby Castle for the cylinders and motion.

What great selections of locos built mostly from the humble Triang Hall, fantastic. Here are some photos of mine with the body getting close to being finished. Tomorrow will see some car filler added and the rear of the loco finished. The tender now has coal and the chassis is reunited and has been shorn of its Hall cylinders. These will be replaced by castle cylinders and slide bars. The model is taking on the Edwardian elegant look which is very pleasing. Photos so far attached.

Looks good, I'll put up some photos when mine is finished.

Well work on the shed trundles on so time to look at another loco bash. I have 2 x B12s and a Hall so fancying a bit of GWR I opted for the Hall. I hacked up a hall over 30 years ago. Modified the front end and reduced the length of the smoke box. A repaint saw it return to service as Sketty Hall. It was better but only just. So here we go, cut off the front of the running plate and front buffer beam. Remove handrails, remove the exhaust injector pipework and injector. Cut off cab and separate backhead for reuse. In this case remove the cab floor as a complete unit (it was cracked in half and repair). Remove chimney to reposition. I have employed a 3500 gal tender so the coal has been removed so that the tender can be shown as almost empty. All this work has been done so now it is the clean up of the boiler and sanding every scar smooth. The front of the running plate has been rebuilt and glued in place and the cab front, cab floor and cab sides have been made and fitted. Once everything is in place the handrails will be fitted after the exhaust injector and pipework is added. On this loco I am going to modify the entire running plates by creating a skin of thin plasticard with all the rivet detail. I have had a lot of success overlaying plasticard and it is easier to work than brass and much easier to glue.

So it is back to the shed for a while. I have managed 2/3s of the other side and added brick paper to the end wall. So now the roofs have been cut, 4 plain slate, 4 with North light windows and are now glued in place. Some photos have been added. One shows the new shed with a Hornby Dublo engine shed beside it to give some idea of the size. I have also put in a couple of tracks and the almost finished Triang Ivatt 2 to add a bit of scaling. I now have to make the slates. I use thin white card which I paint with various shades for grey and grey/blue. This is smeared around to make a complete mess and left for 2 days to dry. They are then cut and the edges darkened (dark grey to black). The tiles are then glued in place so that they overlap by 50% and this creates a good roof with plenty of depth.

Besides modifying old Triang locos the practice is also applied occasionally to wagons. here are some photos of a couple of Lima Horseboxes. These were made in the 70s and now released by Hornby with a significant body and roof upgrade as a main item it is also released as a Railroad model at half the price. You can find unboxed Lima ones for as little as £1. The 2 I have are boxed but I was happy to make a few changes mainly with the roof. First remove the roof and carve off the proliferation of pimples that represent roof ventilators. Drill a mounting hole for you favourite ventilator. I was setting mine up as a couple of horseboxes rtransferred to the western region from the midland and numbered with their old LMS number proceeded by a 'W' and suffixed with a 'M'. The window glass was removed along with the rear handrails and the entire body sprayed with ArtFX paint. A quick word about ArtFX. It is sold in Halfords and is basically an acrylic outside paint for stone work etc. (Used by graffiti artists I believe). It is easy to use as long as you keep it warmish. Shake it well and then shake it again and spray some away in the dustbin as I have found these nozzles sometimes dribble. When clear spray with the can upside down to clear the nozzle. Now spray the wagon body with the underframe masked. You wont need long as this paint covers very well. The paint dries to a flat matte finish. I allow 24-48 hours for the paint to fully dry then apply gloss varnish to the area where the decals will go (they will not adhere to the matte finish). Now with decals give a quick coat of protecting varnish, I use Games Workshop what was called Purity Spray. This dries fast and you can start weathering. I use 3 different mediums for this, viz., powders, washes and weathering sprays. The 2 horseboxes are simply weathered using Sleeper Grime and Frame Grime. I see lots of information on weathering but very little on spray techniques. When using 'rattle cans' it is as important to have the nozzle the right distance from the work. This can very from about 100mm to 300 mm. When you are close to the work remember much more paint is laid on than when farter away and you need to adjust. The closer the faster is the guide and you will have a good gloss finish. As you move away towards the 300mm several things happen. You get less paint in the given time and the paint droplets will begin to dry so you will end up with more matte finish. The only way to get this right is to practice. Budget shops sell cheap rattle cans and also cheap odd rols of wallpaper. Use the back of the wallpaper and spray away you will be amazed how quickly you get the hang of it. Here are a few photographs of the horseboxes. As they were added and taken off from expresses it alows for some interesting movements. Good Luck

Hi Phil, thanks for your info, the sandboxes are simply a couple of layers of 2mm plasticard filed to shape with a bit of soft copper wire for the delivery pipes. The fillers are a sliver of plastic pipe with a piece of micro rod glued in. It is more about looking right than scale although it is pretty much there. The Ivatt 2 is next to be followed by a pair of B12/3. My association with Taunton goes back years and very occasionally we had a visit from an eastern region loco, usually a B1 sent on from Weston Super Mare to rectify a small problem. So the B12/3s were a natural choice. 1 is already stripped of moldings and the other is waiting. I found the perfect tool for removing the molding marks in a 1/4" x 1/4" x 3" new lathe tool blank. Used on its side as a scraper it will remove much less than a thou of material and leaves the body ready for paint. It can be sharpened as you would a cabinet scraper. Works brilliant especially if you put stop cuts down beside the boiler bands etc. Ken

Hi There, my first modified Triang loco is almost ready to join the Canal Road roster. Little bit of work on the underframe of the Deeley tender and lamp irons and tender plates. She has some frame and sleeper grime added and will next have some weathering powders and a final coat of protection varnish. Who would think a Bovril top was exactly the correct height to stage the tender!! As I haven't done one of these since the early 80s I am really pleased. She runs a dream (good old XO4 motors). She is buffered up to my latest HD 8F. She had not ran in years and everything was gummed up. All good now.

I like modifying older locos as the old X04 motor is relatively bomb proof. I have just spent an hour or 2 adding the handrails to the 3F. I am using the Alan Gibson 0.043 handrail knobs and my eyesight is a bit dodgy so it is a struggle. Also the tender wheels and axle boxes for the Deeley tender have arrived so the loco will be finished as soon as the chimney and dome arrive. Will add some photos when she is ready for respray. Ken

So time rolls on and I sat down, with a large malt, to think about what I was doing. I worked out the cost of just the locos for this new layout and was astounded as at least £2000 would be needed to buy modern locomotives. Now that isn't really an option so something else was needed. When I was promoted to Bristol back in the 70s there came a shock because as a new manager I was earning less that a field engineer (good old Post office/BT). So I started super detailing Triang/Hornby locos. The pannier sold well and I even sold a few through Kings Cross Models in London. I had always buy all my bits from Max Williams in Bristol. From about age 10 I would go by bus, with my Dad, to Bristol. He was a bus inspector so we rode on service buses for free. I got off at the top of Old Market Street and Dad went on to watch Rovers play at home. Max and his good wife could lay their hands on most bits and I spent many hours browsing. This was always interspersed with visits to Lawrence Hill Station where the western region to the midlands ran through, the midland region down into Temple Meads and the local oil depot kept my interest. A 10 minute walk would get me to Barrow Road shed So the die was cast and I plunged into the great auction site and bought a Triang 3F tender loco, a mickey mouse and 2 x B12s. These 4 cost me, in total £60 odd. These will have their handrails and other molded detaail removed and replaced with brass and white metal fittings. The photos show the 3F complete with half built Deely tender. The Ivatt 2 (Mickey Mouse) has been shorn of moldings resprayed in primer and the handrail knob holes drilled. All th parts needed are now on order. I now have 4 castles, all to be renumbered. A Dutchess has joined the fleet and will be City of Stoke On Trent (seen on Shrewsbury shed one evening in 1961. A damaged Hornby black 5 is awaiting a works visit. 45519 Lady Godiva has been renamed and resprayed green. An Airfix Royal Scot waits to be renamed British Legion, last seen in 1959 heading a fast up express near Tring, This machine was rebuilt from Fury an experimental high pressure loco that suffered a boiler explosion killing both crew members. So I have spent some £160 on locos and that is a good saving. I also picked up a 70 foot turntable that needed some TLC. The pit is fitted to one of the baseboards. Hoping that I will feel stronger in a couple of days and I can fit the baseboards together. More soon, Ken