Stoke Courtenay

[Nick Gough]

You can never have too many toplights!

[St Enodoc]

14 hours ago, checkrail said:

Meanwhile a pair of Slater's toplight thirds are under construction

Which bogies are you using, John?

[Dragonboy]

On 17/11/2020 at 11:56, checkrail said:

Mainline action today as two Kings pass on the bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John C.

Won’t be long before they’ll be joined by another King with a Star in the distance. 

[checkrail]

7 minutes ago, Dragonboy said:

Won’t be long before they’ll be joined by another King with a Star in the distance. 

Well, they're all from the same stable.

[checkrail]

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Which bogies are you using, John?

They're bogie sides from old PC kits - AFAIR 8 foot Americans came with the compo and brake 3rd.  I've bought a few PC kits over the years, and when I've come to open them the contents haven't necessarily been what's shown on the box.  And some I've cannibalised for earlier projects, so what's left is all pretty mixed up.  Couldn't find any whitemetal bolsters so made my own from Plastikard.  (Of course, since then I've found them - but only three!)

Edited November 22, 2020 by checkrail
typo

[St Enodoc]

16 minutes ago, checkrail said:

They're bogie sides from old PC kits - AFAIR 8 foot Americans came with the compo and brake 3rd.  I've bought a few PC kits over the years, and when I've come to open them the contents haven't necessarily been what's shown on the box.  And some I've cannibalised for earlier projects, so what's left is all pretty mixed up.  Couldn't find any whitemetal bolsters so made my own from Plastikard.  (Of course, since then I've found them - but only three!)

Thanks John. I haven't got any of those but I do have some old Mailcoach and even older K's Americans. They should do the trick, when I eventually get round to building mine.

[checkrail]

Last month I was asked to do some videos of "Granddad's trains" for the delectation and delight of my three far-flung grandchildren.  (They won't be able to visit the layout anytime soon for obvious reasons.)  Here are links to two of them.

 

 

John C.

 

 

[gwrrob]

You have to say that’s magnificent.

[checkrail]

And there's more ....

 

Not the most professional videos you've seen but it was quite a fraught experience filming the action with the Panasonic TZ100 in one hand while driving the trains with the Prodigy wireless DCC handset in the other.  Narrowly avoided a couple of major pile-ups!  I'm no magician but I should have asked my glamorous assistant to help.

 

 

Now back to toplight bolection painting and mogul weathering.

 

John C.

[A Murphy]

I am definitely going to say that's magnificent. There, I just did. Lovely stuff John and can't wait to see the new stock,

 

Alastair

Edited December 2, 2020 by A Murphy

[The Fatadder]

Very nice, always good to see such a variety of coaches in the passenger formations, seeing that coal train (plus having had the Pendon one pop up on Facebook earlier in the week) is really making me want to get modelling some more private owner wagons.  I think 20 or so makes for a decent looking rake, (which I think means I need to buy another 10)

 

 

[88C]

Absolutely superb videos! 

 

Thanks for posting, it reminds me that we have all missed seeing moving trains at exhibitions. 

 

Brian

[KNP]

Great set of video's

[FraserClarke]

Great videos. I like the noise -- it seems to capture the all pervading rumble of being close to a train

[Limpley Stoker]

That was so much better than Virtual Warley!

[bgman]

Lovely "gift" for the grandchildren John, like many of your followers here I expect they have thoroughly enjoyed the videos.

 

Even if the 28xx is "slightly" short of is load it is very Pendon-esk and a treat to see it, as are all the other loco's and stock on the layout.

 

Thank you.

 

G

[snailpace]

John, those videos showed off your handwork so well!

[Dragonboy]

Lovely videos John and if you do any more, could you please squeeze some footage of your off scenes area in.

 

I do enjoy looking at the rest of the world when at shows. 

[checkrail]

Here are the first views of my 'tarted down' mogul (to use Mike's@Coach bogieapt phrase).  According to Beck & Copsey 6305 was allocated to Exeter in 1938.  At that time it seems it was the only Devon-based mogul that wasn't an 83xx conversion. (That's what I would have really liked but is not offered by Dapol, for perfectly understandable commercial reasons.)

 

I know that 6305 didn't receive outside steam pipes until after the war, but for all I know by the late 1930s it may well have had the lower safety valve cover, a later pattern vacuum pipe, and a shirtbutton monogram on the tender.  If so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. 

 

 

 

 

I said here a couple of weeks ago that I was very impressed by the running qualities.  I still am, but on further acquaintance it's proved to be a bit of a curate's egg.  If I were being kind I'd say that it had several innovative features, some of which were let down by poor execution.  But after my experiences over the last two days I'm disinclined to be that kind.  More anon.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

And here's 6305 in service, hauling an eastbound class D freight.

 

Weathering, or toning down, was done by airbrushing many, many light coats of Vallejo matt varnish with several drops of Vallejo black wash added, until I began to get the look I wanted.  No rust, streaks, dribbles or leaks - just that uniform film of oily soot which coated everything back then.  Crew and lamps are from Modelu, real coal from Peco and number plates from Fox. The motion and buffer faces have had an application of Lifecolor 'grease effects'.  The shiny loco and tender wheel rims were painted matt black - a PITA to do!

 

I think it looks a bit more like a workaday 30s mogul now - no more shiny bright green and jet black plastic.  The screw coupling on the front buffer beam is a Hornby item.  (I only noticed when posting that it's a bit hooked up in these pics.  It's been sorted now.)  Drilling out a hole to accommodate it in the mazak buffer beam was a bit of a 'mare.  Shortening the t/l coupling and its NEM pocket on the tender was the first job I did, invalidating the warranty immediately.  After that I knew I was on my own!  The coupling loop is now in line with the (sprung) buffer faces, which is fine unless you need to negotiate the old 13" radius curves.

 

 

I'm still accentuating the positive here.  I'll tell you more about the shortcomings I found with this model in the next post.

 

John C.

 

 

 

 

[martinT]

15 hours ago, checkrail said:

I know that 6305 didn't receive outside steam pipes until after the war, but for all I know by the late 1930s it may well have had the lower safety valve cover, a later pattern vacuum pipe, and a shirtbutton monogram on the tender.  If so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

 

John, I've references to a couple of pre-nationalisation photos of 6305 - both shew it to have a tall SV cover. They are

• circa 1932, Taunton Steam, Colin Maggs, Millstream Books, p107, at Taunton
• 17 December 1946, GWRJ 31, p376 at Taunton West

which might reassure you, but the 1932 photo does shew it to have a firebox with lower washout plug positions.

Very impressive looking weathering.

Martin

 

 

[checkrail]

19 minutes ago, martinT said:

I've references to a couple of pre-nationalisation photos of 6305 - both shew it to have a tall SV cover.

That's good to know Martin.  Thanks for this reassuring info.  I'll just have to live with the incorrect washout plug positions!  (TBH they're not the kind of details I notice - in my book 'overall impression' beats scrupulous accuracy any day.)

 

Cheers,

John.

[A Murphy]

6305 looks superb John. I do hope she performs as well as she looks.

 

Alastair

 

[bgman]

59 minutes ago, checkrail said:

'overall impression' beats scrupulous accuracy

 

Funnily enough that's what my ex-wife said about me ! 

[Stephen Freeman]

You have to be careful with all the variants, David Andrews Book is very good - Churchward 2-6-0s, depending on date and number you could have a choice not only of tenders, but liveries, short or long safety- valve, polished or painted, a lot depended on how far the location was away from Swindon, or so it seems.