sandra

Margaret Beaufort was mother of Henry VII so he would have made her Queen Mother. Also surely you mean “not in the earshot of Henry VII”. Whether you think Henry VII was legitimate or not, Margaret Beaufort was his mother and he did establish the Tudor dynasty.

Hello Tony, It was pleasant to see you and Mo on Monday. Our running of the railway went well in the morning on Monday but it rather fell apart in the afternoon, however a very enjoyable day. I was interested in your new A2/1 which was to be thrown away but which you resurrected. Coincidentally at the Manchester show before Christmas I bought two old locomotives built from DJH kits. These were an A2/2 and A2/3.They seem to have been built purely for static display as they had no motors or any pick-ups or any indication that they were intended to be run. This week I have been working on the A2/3. It has been converted to EM gauge, a Portescap motor has been installed and pick-ups fitted. Today after a number of problems I managed to get the locomotive to run and here she is hauling the stock of the “Northumbrian”. This is a 14 coach train with a number of kit-built coaches. She hauled the train with no trouble and it was very satisfying to see what had been a rather destitute locomotive successfully haul a heavy train. I appreciate that this is probably a sentimental view but it is very pleasant to resurrect a locomotive like this. I haven’t done anything cosmetic to the locomotive and there is much to do as it is a bit of a mess. It has to be stripped and repainted and various other modifications made but ultimately it will be a useful addition to Retford’s loco stock. At present it’s 60517 “Ocean Swell” and it will probably keep this identity. Sandra

I don’t think it’s the numbers which aren’t straight on “Humorist”, it seems to be the whole cab which has subsided slightly. I’ve noted this on a number of A3s and it does seem to be a feature of the class. However if you tried to model this feature it would look very strange on a model and everyone would assume you hadn’t built it properly.

Hello Tony, 63600 is an unlikely visitor to North Wales for in 1957 she was shedded at Darnall. I don’t think she was built by Geoff Kent for I had a look at her today and I think she was probably built by Roy Jackson as she seems typical of Roy’s work. The next time I speak to Geoff I’ll ask him who built her. She has a Portescap motor and runs very well and whilst I’m not absolutely sure I think she was built from a Little Engines kit. I took some photographs of her this afternoon on Black Lion Crossing. Black Lion Crossing is an amazing layout, beautifully observed and for those who like me come from the Welsh border area, very evocative Sandra

Sorry Tony I’m not actually complaining as I regard a kit like this as a challenge but some of the faults are rather irritating, particularly the coupling rods not being the same length, ones correct, ones too long. It does now work so I’m rather looking forward to finishing it. Sandra

Hello Tony, Some time ago you talked about DJH A1s. Retford has 5 DJH A1s of which 3 were built by Roy Jackson, one by me and one by Anon. The latter I bought on eBay. My favourite is 60123 “H A Ivatt” which was built by Roy and in my opinion is one of his finest locomotives. Here is a photograph I took today of her on an up express. I have an unbuilt DJH kit to build and a Bachmann A1 to convert to EM gauge. However you may recall that some time ago you sold me a ProScale kit for an A1. I have spent quite some time trying to build what is a very flawed kit. I’m not sure I would recommend to anyone that they build an A1 from this kit as so many parts are ill-fitting or poorly designed. However today did mark a bit of a milestone in the build of this kit. I managed to get the locomotive to work and haul a train on the layout. As you can see there is an immense amount of work to do but it does now work and is here hauling the stock of the “Talisman’. She has a Portescap motor facing into the firebox so the boiler is empty and can now be filled with lead but even without this extra weight she did have no difficulty with this 8 coach set. I built the frames as supplied for OO gauge but I overlaid the frames with lead flashing cut to shape which does put the weight directly over the wheels and lowers the centre of gravity. When finished she is to be 60120 “Kittiwake”. I will let you know how I get on. Sandra

I ordered one when they were first announced. A while later I got an extraordinary email from Kernow asking me, for some reason, to re-order. I was so annoyed that I decided I could live without one.

Hello Tony, I visited Croes Newydd several times whilst the last GWR locomotives were still in use. However the last time I actually saw a GWR locomotive in ordinary service was 1628 on the coal stage at Chester. I do remember that Croes Newydd had a stationary boiler which seemed the be the boiler off a Duke or Dukedog. As far as I know there were no passenger workings using GWR locomotives from the shed but there were parcel trains to Chester and local freight, particularly up to Brymbo steelworks. This is 9641 at Croes Newydd and depicts the very poor external condition of these locomotives just before they were withdrawn. Unfortunately I did not have a decent camera at the time as I was still at school and so this was taken with my mother’s Ilford camera which had two settings, sunny and cloudy. As you can see on the day this photo was taken it was very cloudy and wet. Sandra

So sorry to hear this news and I hope that all the staff find new jobs. The very first locomotive kit I ever bought was from Hattons, a Wills body kit for a 2251 class. I have been a regular customer ever since. They will be much missed.

I think it was a Board of Trade requirement dating from the early days of the railway. It no longer applies and most new platforms in Britain don’t have ramps.

I think that 2007 along with 1925, was one of the last two GWR saddle tanks in service which were not converted to pannier tanks. This is probably why this number is listed by both Fox and 247 Developments.

Hello Tony, I’ve recently converted two Little Engines kits to EM, they having been built in OO. The locomotives themselves have not been a problem but the tenders have been a lot more difficult because the tender frames are rather thick and require an enormous amount of filing to thin them sufficiently to get EM wheelsets between the frames. This is O4/3 63881 coming round the Whisker Hill curve. It took a lot longer to convert the tender than to convert the locomotive. On the locomotive the most difficult work was altering the brakes to the wider EM gauge. The locomotive still needs to be weathered which is a job I must get round to. This actually is the first time this engine has hauled a train on Retford.Similarly this is O4/8 63728 on an eastbound loaded coke train. Again the work on the tender took up most of my time in doing this conversion. I do have an unbuilt kit for another O4/8 which will have to take its turn in the pile of kits to be built. Sandra

Thanks for that, I’d forgotten about those based at Birkenhead which did have open cabs. However according to the information I have 1965 was withdrawn from Machynlleth in 1950. I don’t think I’d fancy an open cab pannier in Mid-Wales, particularly in winter.

I can’t speak for Carlisle but as the owner of Retford I can assure you that main line trains hauled by pacific locomotives regularly haul 15 coach trains at scale speed (and sometimes over scale speed) on Retford. I can’t claim responsibility for this as it was built by the late great Roy Jackson. I would post a video on here if I knew how to do it but there are videos of Retford on You Tube.

I think it’s rather a shame Accrascale didn’t decide to model one of the older Pannier or Saddle tanks. The Bachmann 57XX is very good and an older tank, some of which lasted to the mid fifties, would have been nice. I did fairly recently buy a kit built model of an 850/1901 tank off Ebay. This is a model of 1965 which I believe was withdrawn in 1950. I don’t know if it’s an accurate model of the locomotive, I’d be surprised if an open cab Pannier lasted to 1950 but it may represent its appearance earlier in its life. It’s built compensated in EM gauge from an M & L kit and is fitted with a Portescap motor. It would be nice if a manufacturer produced a model of one of these older and to my eyes, more interesting Panniers.

Hello Tony, I realise that this is probably not what you meant but it is a U1, albeit a Maunsell U1. I built this some years ago from a DJH kit. It’s not really suitable for Andover Junction but rather surprisingly I have found three photos of these locomotives near Andover. It is an example of a locomotive fitted with a decoder but where the body is live. It still needs a front number plate and southern headcode discs fitted. Sandra

When I acquired Retford quite a few of the trains contained Kitmaster coaches. These have now all been replaced by more modern Bachman or Hornby coaches but the Kitmaster coaches were by no means too bad. Here’s a photo of two of them. I don’t know the history of these coaches or whether they have new bogies or the original ones or what other changes have been made. However they do illustrate that a reasonable result can be achieved using Kitmaster kits.

As the owner of Retford I consider myself very lucky. However I do own another layout which is a model of Andover Junction as it was in 1953. I am building the layout entirely by myself in EM gauge and it is DCC fitted. Most of the stock is converted RTR but I have built a number of items of rolling stock. At the moment I’m building a Remembrance class N15X from an ancient Nucast kit. Here she is undergoing testing on Retford using the stock of the down Talisman. The N15Xs were all shedded at Basingstoke and could be occasional visitors to Andover. One of the problems I’ve had in building locomotives which are to be fitted with decoders is to ensure that there are no short circuits. A locomotive of this type made entirely from metal and with a front bogie which fits between the cylinders is very prone to short circuits so she is being throughly tested and fettled before the decoder is fitted. All the driving wheels are insulated so the body should be electrically dead but it has proved difficult to isolate the front bogie from the body and under frame. It is possible to fit a decoder to locomotives where the body is live to one side but I think it’s not to be recommended.Retford is fitted with ammeters so any short circuit is immediately apparent. I would thoroughly recommend the fitting of these to analogue layouts as it’s surprising how many very minor short circuits are recorded by the ammeters which are not apparent in the running of the locomotive. This locomotive is still very far from finished. By filing away a lot of excess metal I have got the bogie to not short circuit on curves but there are still problems due to uneven track which I’m still working on. However the loco can now haul the stock round the layout without problem but the ammeter needle does still twitch a number of times and this is simply not acceptable and will have to be sorted out before the decoder is fitted. The locomotive itself still needs lots of details added.

Hello Tony, You will remember that some time ago you very kindly built the under frame for a B17 which was to go under an old Hornby B17 body. I have now nearly finished the locomotive and I tested her on the railway today. I decided that I couldn’t live with the Hornby tender and as I had a spare DMR tender kit I decided to build this to go with the locomotive. I also removed the moulded ejector pipe and replaced the handrail knobs and handrails together with various other modifications.Here she is, 61657 Doncaster Rovers. This locomotive was the only B17 with a group standard tender which was allocated to March in 1957 and as March usually provided the engine for the Parkeston Quay/Liverpool boat train it was the only Footballer likely to be seen at Retford. There are a number of photos of this locomotive on the train. This is the Boat Train heading west just before crossing the ECML. Thanks for very kindly building the locomotive which needless to say performs beautifully. Sandra

Hello Tony, The only rival to Flying Scotsman could be Mallard but I suspect it doesn’t come close. There is a Flying Scotsman on Retford but it’s a repainted and reworked Hornby blue model. It has rather limited pulling power which is why it’s on a local stopper.However if you wish to see a poor model of Flying Scotsman how about this:It’s almost magnificent in its awfulness. But it does have the number 4472 and an interesting variation of the LNER livery. Sandra

Hello Tony, Not sure this was the most extreme rebuilding. Think of the GWR 3521 class some of which started as 0-4-2 Broad gauge tank engines and eventually became 4-4-0 standard gauge tender engines. Or the Decapod which was a 0-10-0 tank engine but became a very peculiar 0-8-0 tender engine. Sandra

Hello Tony, I must firstly say how much I enjoyed my visit to LB on Monday and therefore my thanks to both you and Mo. You mentioned the K class mogul I brought with me. I thought I might post a photo of her and here she is rather precariously balanced on the EM track of my Andover Junction layout.The locomotive is to be converted to EM gauge, have a decoder fitted and be repainted into BR lined livery. I hope to get the number straighter than it is now. The origin of the loco is a K’s kit but the underframe seems to be either scratch built or from another kit. It certainly isn’t K’s. It may be some time before I get round to her as these locomotives were rare visitors to Andover. I do have a photo of one at Battledown flyover having come off the Salisbury line but I imagine that they only got to Andover on specials or troop trains. There were a lot of the latter at Andover because of the proximity to Salisbury plain.

I was on a train from Crewe to Euston hauled by a class 87 when south of Kilsby tunnel the loco hit a bird which shattered the driver’s windscreen. The train then proceeded slowly to Bletchley where a class 31 was placed in front of the 87. The train then continued hauled by the 31. It struggled up the hill to Tring, I think we must have passed the summit at about 10 mph but after passing Tring we fairly bowled along and she took us all the way to Euston.

Hello Tony, I’m pretty sure Siphons would have been painted crimson after nationalisation although it’s possible that initially they were simply renumbered until they made their next visit to the works. Certainly the two Siphons you have look brown to me. When I acquired Retford rather surprisingly among the coaching stock was this Siphon in GWR brown livery rather nicely built from a brass kit.I don’t know where this originated from as Roy rarely had a good word to say about the GWR. In fact he maintained that the initials GWR stood for Gresley Was Right. Sandra

There is a photo of a Stanier 8F at the buffer stops in Waterloo having brought in a local from Basingstoke.