lapford34102

Built one years ago, finished it in desert colours with decals from a 109F. Stu

A Wunderwaffe 183, what's not to like. Is it the AMT one reboxed by someone ? Stu

A couple of 60's Mach 2 classics First up Special Hobby's 72nd Israeli A.F. Mirage IIICJ. A very good kit but needed to read some of the instructions twice before getting it wrong! The way the kit's designed looks good for the rest of the Mirage III/5 family so hopefully a IIIE at somepoint soon though would love to have a go at a desert como Djibouti IIIC. Second up an Eduard 72nd Mig 21PFM bodged into an Indian A.F. Mig 21FL which was basically a 21PF with a PFM style fin. The flaps needed backdating to the Fowler style flaps and PF canopy and early seat. Thankfully the PF canopy and seat are in the box as well as a GP9 gunpod. Decals from spares box for this one. Thanks for looking Stu

Oh #@£%& it, need Plan B, anyone got a spare balloon lying around? Stu

A link to the site I mentioned earlier, http://www.cornwallrailwaysociety.org.uk/castle-cary-to-weymouth.html Class 22's rarely got much south of Pen Mill as far as I remember only very occasionally getting to Weymouth so looking at the photo's assume they were pilots over the lumpy bits. Stu

The Cornwall Rail Society have shots of both D6338 and D6339 around Yeovil 06/65. They are on their Castle Cary to Weymouth pages Stu

Suspect you'll be waiting a deal longer for a "Bristol" 143, it's quite an involved livery when you look. There is a diy solution but that's not always everyones answer Stu

Hi, Thanks to Steve for the photo's and for the help on Sunday plus thanks to Bob for helping Saturday and Tim for both days. Meant I could I drink more Tea and get a bit Managerial (!) over the weekend. There's was quite a bit to see so the extra operator gave everyone a bit more time. The layout worked well apart from some odd behaviour on the Saturday with loco's sound turning off by itself and requiring selecting again. As it wasn't just one loco clearly a control issue though nothing obvious. Tim was suspicious of the Multimaus's base unit to controller cable so Sunday before opening spoke to Kevin of Coastal DCC. Didn't have any spares but offered to make up a new from scratch which he duly did plus he tested the old one which did have an intermittent fault. So great service and problem solved. Was a bit concerned about the LWB A/Braked stock but they worked fine. Steve's great photo's have finally shamed me into restoring all those that had been lost so there's at least some nod toward how the layout's progress over the years it's been around. One comment I've had a few times is about the additional siding I've put in and I've realised it's hardly got a mention. It was a gamble never having done anything like it before but the added siding, short as it is, allows for a brake van or a couple of 10ft WB wagons to be tucked away. The plan for the point was cobbled together using a Templot template as the basis, built off board and then put in place. The photo's show the process and one ballasted and weathered doesn't look that obvious. Thanks for looking Stu

Cracking work there Steve Stu

Still believe that's the best Rail Blue ever made, occasional unopened pots still turn up on sales stands and if they're only asking a modest sum worth a punt as even decades old can be perfectly usable. Stu

I've got Steve, SB67 on here, to thank/blame for this as he did a guide to improving the ancient Hornby OAA and I had a couple laying around and thought they'd be a nice addition for Sheepcroft. You can read about what he did here most of which I simply copied. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/84418-steves-4mm-workbench-lima-class-31/page/6/ The body is pretty good externally but let down by a basic underframe and incorrect height. The buffer slots were filled in and the interior given a new scribed floor after scraping off the ribs and then some plastic strip to represent the door stanchions and reinforcing strips plus lamp irons on the end. Some bits from the scrap box got made up into replacement air tanks and distributor, not exactly accurate but better than the original. Also some plastic strip was used to represent the missing posts for the brake levers. The articulated axle boxes were taken off and the and the mount cut off flush with the top, these were then glued in place with a couple of spacers from 20 thou plastic. Well not actually glued as nothing seems to touch the plastic used for the axle moulding so some hefty dollops of cold weld glue used for joing waste pipes was used and seems to work (so far!) . As the body sits too high to allow for the axlebox articulation the buffers were too low so these were cut off flush with the chassis and new ones added to the body at a more realistic height. To fit in with Sheepcroft when it runs as late 60's/early 70's they were finished in pre-tops livery. This needed non tops data boxes, a period comparatively less well covered by transfer maker. I did have one from an old Appleby sheet but the other was custom made by the ever excellent Railtec who also did the others I've used. I know Rapido are doing this wagon but these were a cheap win costing a few quid for the decals which were the only bits I had to buy plus I got to do some modelling :-) Thanks for looking Stu

Looking good. As you have a white primer I would mask the ends and then spray a coat of mediumish grey. The would give a better undercoat for rail blue and don't worry to much about having to reload the airbrush just take it in stages, 1 side, roof then other side. Stu

Thanks for putting those photo's up. I'm looking very hard at the bottom one and wondering if it's not my late Dad. Where WADMES used to hold their summer exhibition. Stu

Full fat 14XX and new Autocoach Stu

Having had a look at the photos on Kernow's site https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/72519/3534-Heljan-Class-35-Hymek-Diesel-Locomotive-number-7052 all I can say is amatuerish. Stu

50 has a class data sticker under the LH number and a shed plate behind the door, so later in it's life, 41 is as delivered. The blue faded/weathered one; I'll reserve judgement until I see one but from the pictures, Hmm..............!! Stu

The steam was always mentioned to me as the big advantage of the Grange over the Hall and and as you mention ideal for heavy Perpots from Weymouth up to Westbury. Wey crews would have liked to see more of them but with only 80 compared to 300 odd 49XX's there weren't enough to go round. Slightly OT but the odd Manor that appeared on the coast wasn't greeted with much enthusiasm. Stu

Have family and friends in both ASLEF and RMT and when it comes to quality of life vs Toy Trains there's not much to argue though I doubt the irony of a train strike affecting a model railway show is lost on many. But following on from this comment I'm strongly tempted to email a number of traders or if they read asking them if they would put their "show bargains" on their website for those who can't make it. Stu

IIRC the Hobby Shop one was done in association with a Preservation group and actually said "electric blue" in the blurb which as you point out is nonsense. Probably rambled on earlier in this thread but the units/KBs/JB's were technically all Rail Blue but looked a tad different from each other because of the way they were painted. I did more or less the same to mine and like yours it looks a good deal better. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/149877-1967-and-all-that-bournemouth-electrification-class-74-dckitsheljan/#comment-3762577 Dapol sadly haven't been able to get some colours right even if you paid them which, if you think about it is precisely what we were doing though it does look better on the recent batch. Stu

What a great thread, very interesting. Previous car was an Altea MPV which was a good sized load carrier and it's a pity MPV's have seemingly fallen out of favour for SUV lookalikes. Got a Golf hatch now which is a very good car 90% of the time but not a great capacity obviously. Golf estate is evidently very good with big space but you don't see that many around, there's also a Golf SV which is the MPV version which seems equally uncommon. Friend has a Toyota Corolla hybrid estate, nice car but the loadspace compromised by the rear roofline and tailgate shape, a problem that seems to afflict a lot of modern estates. Stu

As I said AFAIK........ Yes 50's did pull TC's and it was earlier than I remembered, pre NSE. Perhaps someone can comment on how regular this happened compared to 33/1 haulage on the WoE line. Stu

Weymouth had a TC turn to Bristol TM and back for a time. Memory foggy but wasn't it in theNSE period and possibly connected with the problems the 155 units were having, someone might know. Anyone remember the three 3TC sets 301-3? Built so a 4TC+4TC+3TC+loco could fit onto Waterloo's platform. They were turned into 4TC's at the same time as the 4 extra REP's were built Stu

Correct, the Southern had a number of 09's and 03's air braked with hi-level pipes to shunt TC's, plus the odd Class 12 350hp. As for main line traction AFAIK no TC was moved by anything other than a 33/73/74/REP/VAB until after they'd be made redundant by the Wessex units and then it was vanishingly rare. Stu

Just one side needs connecting, pair of brake pipes and the 27 way control jumper. Having a pair meant redundancy and possibly convenience thjough if a 33/1 coupled up to a TC at Bournemouth bhy the time it had been to Weymouth and back it was on the "wrong" side for the shunter when the 33/1 came off. There was also the ETH jumper but that was at buffebeam level on the TC You can also haul a TC with a green 33. The TC's carried brake pipe extensions to connect the hi-level pipes to the beam mounted ones. The TC's buckeye had to be dropped and the buffers extended as there was no rubbing plate on the 33/0. The 33/1s buffers could be extended/retracted depending on what stock they were working with, retracted for the rubbing plate, extended for normal stock. Stu

Just to add to what's already been said you'll have to modify the cab handrails as well. The KA ( TOPS 33/0) had 2 that went from under the cabside window right round to under the headcose and another on the other side as per your model. The KB ( TOPS 33/1) has 3 rails, cabside to just round the front - jumpers- handrail - jumpers - handrail, if you have a look a photos it's pretty clear. Good source here https://www.flickr.com/photos/59835095@N02/albums/72157627812692593 The bottom edge of the cab front cut back to clear the rubbing plate modification, not that noticeable but there and while we're at it to be completely accurate you'll need larger buffers, the TC fit had 22" compared to 20" on the unfitted but it's not really worth the hassle plus the horn enclosure on the cab roof needs filling in for a pre-TOPS one. Stu