CXW1

I haven't had a huge amount of time to make stuff and update this page in 2023 but I've managed to make some steady progress with a LNER D23 (ex-NER Class G). It is a mixture of scratch build and kit - the loco bit was built from scratch, the tender body is an North Eastern kit on a 52F chassis. There is no specific reason for not using the North Eastern tender chassis - I just haven't got around to making it yet and the 52F chassis is borrowed from something else. I am aware there is a perfectly good D23 kit available but I prefer to make life difficult for myself..... The loco chassis has twin-beam compensation on the driving axles and seems to be well balanced. As usual, there is nothing ground breaking and plenty lessons were learnt when I built the D22 and D24 further back in this thread. The loco is based on one of the prototypes that received fuller 'Raven' frames - easier to make than the original-style. The history of the D23s is well documented so I won't go into any detail here, and there are plenty of NER aficionados who know way more than me. In summary, they were originally built as 2-4-0s, became 4-4-0s in the early 1900s, and received super-heated boilers and longer smokeboxes between 1913 and 1916. Well, that is what the RCTS green book says so it must be true. The model is based on the super-heated rebuild. A few small detailing jobs are still to do (tender handrails being the most noticeable) followed by painting in LNER black with red lining. Merry Christmas!! Cheers Chris

Great minds must think alike - well, almost. Here is my attempt at a budget NER V4..... Mine started life as one of these questionable Hornby efforts.... I'd give it 4 out of 10 (at best) for accuracy, but 10 out of 10 for several enjoyable evenings that cost a few quid. It still needs several small detailing jobs doing but I think I got bored and moved on. Cheers Chris

The big Hawthorn Leslie has had a lick of paint. Still a few small detailing jobs to do but I think it's pretty much done.

All valid points raised by Tony, Mick and Jol about wheels in my opinion. I build EM gauge models so I can go either way with wheel suppliers and I accept the merits and disadvantages of both types. I’m not restricted to using friction fit wheels like Jol and other P4 modellers. My recent personal experience of Markits wheels is that they have been anything but foolproof or user friendly, having purchased them specifically for that very reason. I’ve recently had Markits driving wheels where the square hole in the wheel has been too tight to fit onto the axle and required careful filing. I think I managed to successfully deal with the problem, but if I'd been a bit too keen with the file it would have made a square hole into something not square and, I assume, wobbly. The other issue I’ve had recently with a set of Markits driving wheels is that they weren’t round. I took what was a very square chassis to pieces and reassembled it again twice and started to question my own ability before realising that a set of non-concentric wheels were to blame. At the end of the day I received a full refund from Wizard for a faulty product so I didn’t lose anything apart from my own sanity for a few evenings. The loco in question now has a set of Gibson driving wheels which were fitted with a GW wheel press and are OK for me. Admittedly the loco isn’t required to pull heavy trains at 90mph on the ECML so I can’t comment on the durability of friction fit wheels under heavy load. I don’t want to come over as ‘anti-Markits’ because I’m not, and I don’t have an axe to grind. I’ve had lots of success with Markits wheels. It is just that my personal and recent experience of Markits wheels hasn’t been the user-friendly solution as is often promoted. Cheers Chris

Within a day of saying I couldn't do much more until the motor and gearbox turns up, the motor and gearbox turned up in the post. So, the motor and gearbox are in, Gibson wheels fitted, plus a few other odd jobs like the cab interior, brakes and cylinders (which still need finishing off). It needs a few more castings, a couple more handrails on the tank, and a smoke box door handle, and then it will probably be ready for painting. My plan is to paint it in NCB black livery rather than the lined green Lambton & Hetton Collieries livery it currently sports in preservation. This isn't a case of me shirking away from lined green - I've been working from a photo of the real thing when it was in NCB ownership in the 1950s. Interestingly, in that photo which was taken during its working life, it doesn't have some fittings that it does now - most noticeably it now has a cage around the bunker (between the front of the cab and the back of the saddle tank) and some additional dumb buffers. Perhaps these were fitted in preservation and aren't accurate? I have found a photo on the internet of the loco supposedly in 'as new' condition - what is noticeable on that photo is that the back of the cab is different, whereas the cab as it currently is (and as I've modelled it) is what it was like in the 1950s NCB photo. I therefore think that NCB livery is possibly more accurate for the loco in its current condition. Then again, I could be completely wrong and happy to stand corrected before I get the paints out. Anyway, enough rambling - here is a photo of the latest progress... The overhang at the front and rear is pretty long, but that is what the real thing is like. As a result of the overhang it has a slight 'shuffle' as it trundles along but I can live with it. Going back to the prototype, it seems a bit of an odd design. I am guessing that it was built as an 0-4-0 so it could negotiate tight curves. It is basically the same size as a Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0 but with one less axle. I assume this means that the 0-4-0 would have a higher axle loading and potentially do more damage to track. All of which is totally irrelevant when trundling along my test track. In other news I'm saddened to learn of the demise of my regular supplier of brass and other bits and bobs. Cheers Chris

Hawthorn Leslie NCB No. 14 Over the past month or so I've been working on another industrial scratch build. This one is Hawthorn Leslie 'NCB No. 14' which currently lives at Tanfield Railway having been at Beamish before that. The prototype was built in 1914 for the Hetton Railway and is a fair bit bigger than the standard 14 inch Hawthorn Leslie/RSH 0-4-0 locos. It is more or less the same size as 'Coal Products 3' which is the light blue thing pictured further up this page, but obviously it is 0-4-0 rather than 0-6-0. It is certainly a purposeful looking thing. The real loco doesn't run anymore but recently had a trip out on the back of a lorry for the Hetton Colliery Railway 200 celebrations - there are plenty of photos and a couple of vidoes of this event on the internet for anyone who is interested. The wheels in the photo are some old Romfords that I use for setting up the chassis - these will be replaced by some slightly bigger Gibson wheels in due course. I've ordered a High Level gearbox and motor but this seems to have got caught up in the postal strikes. There is enough space to mount the motor vertically in the firebox which will allow the boiler to be filled with lead. The coupling rods will be thinned down, and the cylinders will be mounted on the small 10BA bolts that you can see towards the front of the frames. Still a few castings to stick down and it needs a good clean before painting. The cab roof is just plonked on for now and was a bit of a swine to form into the basic shape. The cab back is a separate fabrication to the front (as per the prototype) so there was a bit of fiddling and filing to get both the back and front profiles exactly the same (or at least as close as I can get them). I haven't taken any 'build progress' pictures because it is built in exactly the same way I've built everything else. And, as usual, I've just made it up as I've gone along. Can't really do much more until the gearbox and motor turn up. Cheers Chris

An army? That sounds a bit drastic, but thanks for the compliment. Here is my 'army' of scratch built industrial engines - all with a link to the northeast of England. The prototypes were either built there, were based there or both. From left to right we have the John Fowler and Chapman & Furneaux engines that worked at Lintz Pit, R&W Hawthorn 'Enterprise', South Durham Malleable No. 5, and Hawthorn Leslie 'Coal Products No. 3'.

NER Class K / LNER Y8 fun: My first attempt at scratch building was a Y8 - I thought that something small would be a good place to start but in reality, it was very small and ended up being a bit fiddly. Here is the original Y8 going about its business at Grandborough Junction on a visit to Buckingham a few years ago (pictures taken by Tony). This was probably an acceptable model for a first attempt, but it always bothered me that I got the curvature of the cab roof wrong - it is too rounded. Every time I looked at it, I thought 'one day I'll do something about that cab roof' but never did. We are only talking a couple of millimeters, but I always noticed it. So, I've spent the last few evenings re-profiling the cab roof and tarting it up. This ended up being a bigger job than anticipated because the back of the cab fell to bits when I unsoldered the original roof. Flattening the curve has resulted in the roof height being lowered so now the cab spectacles look to be slightly in the wrong place, but I can live with this more than I could the incorrect roof profile. It has had a rattle can repaint but I've ran out of LNER transfers so NER will have to do. It needs to be lined but that is for another day. The chassis is made from cut down Alexander Models Y7 frames which have the same wheelbase. It has a High Level gearbox of some description with 120:1 ratio, and an old Mashima 1015 motor. It runs OK, if a little loud, but it has no compensation which can be problematic with lightweight 0-4-0s. It is stuffed with lead to weigh it down. Most of the castings and lost wax parts were also out of an Alexander Models Y7 kit - Dave sold me the chassis and castings separately for not very much money. Whilst the old Y8 sat at the back of my workbench in disgrace and awaiting surgery on its roof I made a replacement Y8 from scratch - some of the build pictures are on here a few pages back. I think I made a better job of the cab roof profile on this one. It also has a compensated chassis and is an altogether better effort on all fronts. And here they both are with the 'whitemetal lump' of a Ks Y8 that I rescued/rebuilt a while ago. My grandfather built/butchered the Ks Y8 about 40 years ago and it never ran well. This got a replacement homemade compensated chassis and a bit of TLC a couple of years ago, but still has its shortcomings compared to the two brass efforts. The rebuild is further back in this thread and I've re-posted the pictures that went missing earlier this year. The issue with the positioning of the cab spectacles is more noticeable on the rear Y8 when compared to the others, but I can live with it, and it has kept me out of mischief for a few nights. There were only 5 Y8s in the entire class, so if I make a couple more I will have all of them. Then again, maybe not. Cheers Chris Edit - Picture added - the plain black Class K / Y8 has had its tanks lined, and I've corrected the spacing between the NER lettering. Front sand pipes also added.

I've finished off a few bits on 'Lintz No. 1' - painted the wheels, fitted some brakes, 3-link couplings etc. which I think improves the overall look. Works plates have been ordered from Light Railway Stores/Narrow Planet and it will get some light weathering at some point.

Dart Castings/Monty's.

I haven't done much modelling this year for various reasons, but I've still found a few hours every now and then to try and build something which resembles the old John Fowler locomotive pictured on the previous page. This was an old engine that was based at one of the collieries that my grandfather worked at almost 100 years ago. This is very much a 'spares box special' and hasn't cost much to make - I think the only things I've bought are the Gibson wheels, High Level gearbox and motor. The rest of it was made from bits of brass and castings that I already had. As a result, the finished model isn't 100% accurate and is more a representation of the real thing. To be honest I was just looking for a quick project to get me back into making stuff rather than something where I was concerned about it being accurate. It has ended up being a bit of a 'freelance' engine, but I'm pleased with how it has turned out, and it runs nicely. There are a few jobs still to do like finishing off the cylinders, making some brakes etc. Cheers Chris

Some progress has been made with the Hull & Barnsley Railway G1. This was intended as a quick project but has ended up taking ages due to a series of problems (including a set of non-round wheels). If I'm being honest I'm not 100% happy with the painting and lining and I might strip the paint off and have another go. In the meantime the areas I'm not happy with have been covered in dirt. It will live on the shelf at the back of my workbench and have the odd trundle along my test track until I decide what to do with it. The consolation is it runs nicely. The picture below shows all of the Hull & Barnsley 'G' classes - from right to left we have G1, G2 and G3. The G1s were scrapped just before the grouping. The G2s became LNER J80s and G3s became J75s. Cheers Chris

Coal Products No. 3 has been painted in Ford Olympic Blue. I found a photograph of a Mark 1 Escort Mexico in Olympic Blue on the internet and it looked not too far away from the colour I had in mind. The local Halfords had a can of it, and an hour later there was no going back. Edit - picture added to show the aftermath of the first coat of blue paint. At this stage I wasn't convinced I'd made the right choice. The 'Coal Products' transfer was made from individual Fox letters and is far more noticeable to the naked eye than it appears in the picture. I took the picture on my phone under a fluorescent tube in the garage which doesn't do it any favours. The colour is also slightly paler to the naked eye than it appears in the photo - more like the picture in the previous post. Number plates and works plates are on order. It still needs a few bits doing like front sand boxes, cab glazing, crew, coal etc, and the cab roof needs to be stuck down. Further weathering should tone everything down a bit. It has so far just had a gentle once-over with some powders.

The nameplates for Malleable No. 5 arrived yesterday from Narrow Planet/Light Railway Stores. Stephen at Narrow Planet has done a superb job in creating something which is a faithful reproduction of the real thing. No connection - just a satisfied customer etc.... Cheers Chris

The red lining is interesting. I have seen some colour photos of No. 3 where the blue is a bit brighter with no lining, and the 'coal products' lettering is in a different font - so perhaps it had a repaint at some point. The pictures of No. 3 at Tanfield in the 1980s (not long after it arrived there) appear to be bright blue with no lining.