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Matthew Cousins

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Blog Entries posted by Matthew Cousins

  1. Matthew Cousins

    Winter Sunshine

    By Matthew Cousins,

    The garden railway in winter doesn't see any use outdoors, but when the sun comes out it is tempting to use the low angle of the sun to get a winter pic and think of the summer to come.
    Roedeer is particularly photogenic, I had thought of LNER green for the livery, buy with this being my favourite name for a B1 this loco was always a black one, but lined in red it is attractive and nicely weathered by Neil Podbery.

  2. Matthew Cousins
    After owning the DMR kit for a year Mike Russell offered to add it to his build of a batch of B1's from his kit and here about 18 months later (while I saved up!) is the result.
    Expertly built, with added roller bearings at my request and after livery by Mikes painter and fine light weathering by Neil Podbery I'm now the lucky owner of the loco!
     

     
    The Reading found E4 has now got as far as receiving a coat of black and red buffers from yours truly and will now be finished as 7490 the Cambridge Pilot pet.
     

  3. Matthew Cousins
    Having been spotted on RMWeb by a fellow rail artist Craig Tiley, my outdoor layout got featured in RM by him, which was very flattering considering that the railway is still a work in progress.
    Anyway, Craig asked what the name of the railway was and I hadn't really thought of one, so came up with my old spotting location of Cadwell plus a description of Moor, which I suppose goes with the rugged viaduct and heathers?
    Have had a couple of recent running sessions with some visiting locos.
     
    The Devon Belle seems to have got itself diverted onto my patch of the LNER This is a Golden Age model and is superb, but I didn't seem to have enough amps running to power it properly, which was a pity.

    Also a stray E4 and C2X seem to to have wandered my way.

    The C2X and E4 are radio controlled and worked well - made very nicely by Malcolm Saker, who has got a nice weathered tone and colour to them.
    Returning to the LNER here are a couple more pics of my stock, The blue A3 expertly painted by Colin Tyler is a modified Sunset model and the Royal Claud is a Mallard model by an unknown maker.


  4. Matthew Cousins
    Peter brought 60116 to the St Albans show to let me see progress, and it's posed next to Blink Bonny, these will be my two BR Blue Pacifics, although knowing Peter 60116 will be pristine as opposed to the weathered A3.
     

     
    I also received Colin Tyler's repaint of the J71 built by James King.
    It is such a well made loco that I felt that it deserved a special livery and so it has been given the almost unique hybrid livery of BR green with LNER black and white lining panels, as applied to the York station pilot.
    It is seen here on an outing to the Stevenage Club layout - pity that it's a hundred miles from me!
     

     
    With the turn of the year it will soon be time for the first outing of the travelling layout at Tonbridge.
  5. Matthew Cousins
    Friend Peter has now really got his teeth into building the A1 kit from David Andrews for me.
    Unlike the previous two kits (which he had to do significant scratch building on), he's finding this kit much more straightforward.
    To be finished in BR blue 1951 condition, with the exception of the chimney, which will be lipped, because it looks so much better to me, I'm really looking forward to this loco being completed.
    Had a good day at Reading trade show, selling prints and Christmas cards, but more significantly the stock from a modeller who had sadly passed away before he could make his stock of kits.
    This came a s a warning to me that time is passing quickly and I really need to get on with some of the wagon and coach kits that I have had for years.
    I don't trust myself much with loco building, as my soldering skills are a bit low, so I'm duly envious of Peter's skill and craftsmanship!

  6. Matthew Cousins
    A couple of years ago I bought a D49 named as Rutlandshire in LNER green and found that as it had been built as a display model really, as although is was nice the paint worked flaked (not properly primed) and valve gear had problems.
    I decided that I would have the loco as Hertfordshire and then have it in very early BR days and also paired it with an almost correct second hand ex-GC tender that is similar to that which was attached to that D49.
    I am using the group standard tender from this loco to go with a J39 that I'm messing about with - a half made set of parts that came without a tender - pics to follow sometime.
    Colin's paint job is as good as ever and transforms the model.



  7. Matthew Cousins

    Guildex finds

    By Matthew Cousins,

    Guildex at Telford had its usual grievous effect on my funds, but very pleased to have received the repaint from Colin Tyler - will post pic later.
    Also found a couple of LNER suburbans at the bring and buy, that were nicely made and with a bit of weathering will be a nice addition to stock, many thanks to the vendor for a very fair price.
    I hope they feel that they have gone to a good home!

    There were very many other opportunities for complete wallet failure, with RTR in 0 gauge offering some really nice products, one can always dream...
  8. Matthew Cousins
    The Sunset A3 has arrived and is running in on a goods. The paint job by Colin Tyler is first class and just what I wanted it to be - superb work.

    However despite Colin's best efforts the loco is still massively inefficient and draws a lot of power for not much output. My layout has gradients, not huge, but significant and the rest of my front-line locos have ABC gearboxes which handle everything superbly, specially the James King built B17 which with ball bearing drivers is a fantastic performer! The Sunset models have some kind of belt drive and are massively heavy, so it takes most of their power to move themselves up a gradient!
    Also shown is the wonderful B17

  9. Matthew Cousins
    The garden has emerged from the soggy winter fairly well, with only a small amount of electrical bonding and track alignment needed.
    It has allowed me to have some fun taking pics after a spot of hedge cutting and garden tending.


  10. Matthew Cousins
    Had a nice time at the East Grinstead show, managed to finish a small painting and have plenty of chats on railways and art etc. etc..
    The sun came into the room nicely at the end of the day Saturday so grabbed a few pics and cheated a bit on the scenery with Photoshop..

     
    I displayed three LNER locos and by co-incidence these are models of what three different groups are endeavouring to create full size, I hope they succeed!

     
    Lastly on another site someone mentioned that streamlined locos looked best in blue, so I decided to photoshop a photo of my P2 to see what it might have looked like if Mr T hadn't chewed it up - it might have been classified 9P!

     
    Almost tempted to have it repainted blue, but I think the builder would have a fit, having carefully lined out those 8 drivers!
  11. Matthew Cousins
    After months of foul weather a little bit of late afternoon sun in the summerhouse prompted a bit of loco posing.
    The P2 had managed not to disgrace itself at the Tonbridge MRC show (always a nice show!) and had performed almost without fault, doing as much time as Thomas on the Drive-it-yourself layout.

    Also posed the old Sunset A4 - this still bugs me as to whether this is the right colour - looks too grey to me and not silver enough, so I weathered it.
    Anyone know what the exact colour should be and who makes it?

    Now to wait for the next sunny afternoon!
  12. Matthew Cousins
    Had a bit of a busy weekend.
    Off on Saturday early to set up my art stand at the excellent St Albans Show. and took 2001 to visit and thanks to Terry Yeend for allowing it to pose on Lough Engine shed - duly envious of this layout!

     
    As often seems to happen with me, I got double booked with a late wedding announcement and couldn't miss an old friends daughter getting Wed in the Roman Baths at Bath!

    Very enjoyable evening ! then back on the road before dawn to get back to St Albans Show!
    Sunrise as I joined the M4...

    Very glad to finally make it home to Sussex after 400 miles and a great weekend - particularly the CMRA Sunday Lunch!
  13. Matthew Cousins
    Friend Peter has at last finished the P2 after 5 years of struggle!
    We decided, after his suggestion that my purchase of a kit to make 2002 in it's original form, would be best transformed into the streamlined form that it spent most of its life as a 2-8-2 in.
    Having made that decision, I then felt that 2001 had a better name!
    The front end is mostly scratch built having decided that some A4 parts weren't right the kit manufacturer offered some parts of the streamlined kit that he was developing, but the chimney was not adequate and so on.....
    The chassis is a JPL models one with decoration details from the Ace kit.
    Much fettling and modification has had to be done and Peter handed me the result on Saturday muttering words like ..never again....
    The result is just great, although running in and some fault finding with the very long wheelbase still is to be done, but the loco is just stunning looking - thanks Peter!

  14. Matthew Cousins
    Having had the pleasure of receiving 3 locos newly painted (two new-build and one re-paint) in LNER green, I have been surprised by the range of colour between Doncaster and Darlington green and also the effect of gloss finish to locos making them appear even brighter.
    I have been exceptionally pleased with the workmanship shown by Peter Relf, James King and Colin Tyler in the building and re-painting of these locos. Colin is a professional with really exceptional standards (the V2) and the other two have been amazing all-round construction and paint jobs, with much detail work not readily evident and with the P2 Peter practically scratch built the front end and James did a really good compensation system on top of the great build of a good kit. Thanks to them all, I just need to keep painting to pay for the next ones!

  15. Matthew Cousins

    Latest Arrival

    By Matthew Cousins,

    I should like to say that I had managed to make this, but I'm too busy making a mess of other models and painting pictures!
    As there has been some adverse comment in the 0 Guild Gazette on DMR kits I thought that I would post this picture to say that if you get a competent modeller these kits make for a lovely resulting loco!

    The chap who made this had not done LNER lined green livery before, so purists will note that there are a few bits of lining missing, but that would be very picky!
    He has made his own compensation system and the loco runs perfectly, well worth the 2 year wait!
    I hope to post more on the Peppercorn A2 rebuild soon.
  16. Matthew Cousins
    Well I've started and it is not a pretty sight - as can be seen from the following the pickups have been removed from the brake gear fortunately the glue gave before the brakes did.

    Then there is the chassis it has box sections which make driving anything other than the centre axle a bit difficult.

    A general view of the side of the chassis.I have re-soldered the thin section slide bars, but feel that these may have to go as well - where do you stop?

    Next to make a decision on compensation/springing of axles......
  17. Matthew Cousins
    Having decided that all the locos on the layout have got to have some form of springing or compensation (or even just movable horn blocks) I started to look at my A2.
    This was probably built from a DJH or similar kit, and whilst some bits aren't too bad the pick-ups and flangeless drivers and rigid chassis make this a woeful performer on my admittedly slightly uneven outdoor track.

     
    It has an ABC gearbox and so was made at some expense, but apart from looking good at a safe distance it just has to come apart!
    The main consideration is how to compensate or spring the chassis, which has centre axle drive and doesn't seem to be conducive to altering the driven axle, so I'm pondering that one.
    I've had help from Dusty the cat - seen here supervising the work!

  18. Matthew Cousins
    Spent Friday trying to sort out a quarter inch gap that has opened up between the viaduct and the rockery. Given that all parts of the layout are massively over engineered, I was puzzled as to how this movement occurred with enough strength to shear the screws holding the trackbed down.

     
    Anyway have got this mostly sorted out in a day, with a friends help and had just enough daylight left to get a pic of his locos on a test run.

  20. Matthew Cousins
    After an embarrasingly long time I have managed to get the bridge painted, so there is some chance of running the complete circuit this summer.
    It looks a bit bright, so I might even weather it!
    The deck will be treated in the same way as the rest of the outdoor track with a base of resin and ballast followed by track pinned and finally packed with more ballast and resin.
    So far the rest of the track has lasted 2 winters with only very minor loss of resin adhesion to the plastic fascia boards.

  21. Matthew Cousins
    I have assembled the loco and tender briefly to check heights etc. and to see the overall impression in primer.
    My intention is for this to be in BR express loco Blue, which is enjoying a bit of popularity of late and to weather it a bit to try and get an authentic look.
    The problem is that The correct blue seems to be a real issue at present and Precision paints have withdrawn their colour, stating that it was not popular.
    Currently I am testing out a colour called Roundel Blue - which I take it is the RAF marking colour and to overspray with a Ford colour and then weather it all...
    It will be interesting to see how this all works out!
  22. Matthew Cousins
    I'm happy to report that the S scale models have found a new home, through the wonderful medium of the RMWeb!
    A last pic just to show the LBSC K Class Mogul, which I think must be around 50 years old and shows what a good level of model making was developed in this lovely scale all those years ago.
    It is good to know that these have gone to a good new home where they will be looked after and brought up to date (although I was intrigued by the skate mechanisms for stud contact and how the stud became almost invisible in the handmade trackwork).
    Having looked at the nice layouts made in this gauge, I have admired the workmanship and feel that this scale has been rather unfairly overlooked, as it is that bit bigger than 4mm so the smaller locos can be modeled well, yet is smaller and easier to deal with than 0 gauge,( which is my chosen gauge where the model making in 0 gauge is at some times absolutely sublime).
     

  23. Matthew Cousins
    The Old chap who built these models about 50 years ago was very good at construction - although painting has improved a long way in recent years.
    These items are available for sale and appear to be the 3/16th scale imperial form of the gauge and are 3 rail stud contact. An intriguing scale that I hadn't encountered before.
    It would be good for these nice locos to go to a new home with an 'S' gauge modeller who would appreciate them.
     

  24. Matthew Cousins
    At todays show the top end of the 0 gauge market seemed to be going strong with some really nice RTR locos now available.
    The Golden Age Merchant Navy (inc rebuilt) locos are really very good.
     

     
    Also having had another look at their purple/blue A4 has helped me make up my mind to put this livery on my kitbash A4
     

    Trouble is that I have Champagne tastes, but only the money for a bottle of stout!
  25. Matthew Cousins
    Whilst at the Seaford show an old couple asked me if I could help sell some of their brothers old locos. These included some S scale locos, which is a scale that I haven't seen before.
    I thought that I would post this photo to show the comparison of 0 gauge 00 gauge and the intermediate S gauge, which is 5mm /Ft ?
    The model is of course the well known Terrier with the S gauge loco being the A1X next to 'Brighton'
    It would be interesting to know if anyone on RMWeb does S scale and might be interested in these locos.
    The nickel silver A1 nearest the camera is a 4mm kit that was made in the 1970's by GW Models, who now make rivet tools and other builders aids.

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