Stoke Courtenay

[AlfaZagato]

Any new coaches of late?  Did you finish your toplights?

[Brassey]

Received wisdom is that the Ratio roof profile is wrong. I have replaced the roofs with the MRD etched versions having punched all the half-etched rivets. 

[Miss Prism]

1 hour ago, Siberian Snooper said:

It would be nice if Peco revisited the Ratio kits now that they're in the Parkside range.

 

Peco buys up ranges but (unfortunately) isn't in the upgrading business.

 

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, checkrail said:

Gosh, it's been a while since I posted anything from Stoke Courtenay.  TBH I haven't had much new to show you for various reasons, but more to come soon.

 

Over on ANTB there's recently been some interesting discussion of the new Rails/Dapol iron mink, especially its price!  Mine arrived yesterday and is shown below in a class H goods behind mogul 6305 - and immediately behind its Ratio kit-built cousin.

 

 

Here are the pair again.  Once more the new Rails model is on the right in both pictures.

 

 

Will say a bit more about these when I've processed a couple more pics.  In the meantime the message from me would have to be that if you want an iron mink, buy the Ratio kit and save your money!

 

John C.

The Rails model looks wider, hence the roof flatter, and the ventilator hood looks odd.

[Dunsignalling]

13 hours ago, checkrail said:

Yes, that would be nice.  Don't know if it's featured yet in the series of informal mini-polls going on over at ANTB?

 

Funny how all those old Ratio kits keep on appearing year after year in the Peco etc. catalogue, like relics from an earlier age, but not that one.  

They are still the only route to a scale-width 17' 6" Mink/Mogo or a mid-late LMS van that actually looks like one.

 

The r-t-r equivalents are all over the place, even on the odd occasion when the brake gear is assembled correctly.

 

John

[MrWolf]

I do rather like the Ratio LMS van, I have a couple waiting to be built.

[checkrail]

10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The Rails model looks wider, hence the roof flatter, and the ventilator hood looks odd.

Yes, that's right.  The Rails wagon is 29mm wide, the Ratio one 28mm.  And the vent hood on the Rails one doesn't look deep enough.  I measure its height at the sides to be 5mm, whereas the Ratio version comes out at 7mm.

[checkrail]

15 hours ago, Brassey said:

I have replaced the roofs with the MRD etched versions having punched all the half-etched rivets. 

Have just had an enjoyable browse through your layout thread and seen the mink in question.  Nice work.  I admire your meticulous attention to detail but constraints of time, skill and patience mean that I'll stick to broad-brush bodging!

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, checkrail said:

And the vent hood on the Rails one doesn't look deep enough.  I measure its height at the sides to be 5mm, whereas the Ratio version comes out at 7mm.

Perhaps it's an optical illusion but it also seems to have horizontal striations across it.

[richbrummitt]

12 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

The Rails model looks wider, hence the roof flatter, and the ventilator hood looks odd.

 

There were two different lengths of ventilator hood on GWR iron minks. Initially short (1'7½") and then longer (1'11½"). There's an HMRS booklet on these iron bodied wagons with a wealth of detail. The rails model looks like it might have used the dimension from a pre 1899 build/drawing. 

[checkrail]

15 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Perhaps it's an optical illusion but it also seems to have horizontal striations across it.

Can't say I've noticed those but will have another look in due course.  (Temporary presence of a three-year old for a few days has rendered the loft temporarily out-of-bounds.)

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, checkrail said:

Can't say I've noticed those but will have another look in due course.  (Temporary presence of a three-year old for a few days has rendered the loft temporarily out-of-bounds.)

Chain him to his play pen for ten minutes...

[Nick Gough]

 

(Temporary presence of a three-year old for a few days has rendered the loft temporarily out-of-bounds.)

I know that situation well!

[Ramblin Rich]

On 27/07/2021 at 20:12, Miss Prism said:

 

Peco buys up ranges but (unfortunately) isn't in the upgrading business.

 

At least they do continue to produce the ranges though. Unlike a notorious 'business' in Somerset...

[MrWolf]

15 minutes ago, Ramblin Rich said:

At least they do continue to produce the ranges though. Unlike a notorious 'business' in Somerset...

 

Agreed, I wouldn't have the timber train that I needed as one of the typical freight workings for my layout were it not for the continued production of Ratio kits. At least I bought the livestock wagons necessary for the other traffic mainstay the best part of thirty years ago. Given the prices commanded for old  kits made by that - company - which - we - shall - not - mention... I think that anyone who could produce them again would be onto a real moneyspinner.

 

 

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by MrWolf
Wombat escaped.

[MrWolf]

I hold John @checkrailentirely responsible for this current diversion from layout building.....

 

I could have ignored these for another twenty years otherwise. 

 

 

On the other hand, because of John's post inspiring me to dig them out, they won't be sitting in a box for another twenty years.

 

I've fitted brass bearings, fitted 10 gramme motorcycle wheel weights inside and filed all the bits off the floor which are intended to mount the Tri-ang or Peco couplings. I'll be fitting 3 links because I have self loathing issues... 

 

[St Enodoc]

10 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I hold John @checkrailentirely responsible for this current diversion from layout building.....

 

I could have ignored these for another twenty years otherwise. 

 

 

On the other hand, because of John's post inspiring me to dig them out, they won't be sitting in a box for another twenty years.

 

I've fitted brass bearings, fitted 10 gramme motorcycle wheel weights inside and filed all the bits off the floor which are intended to mount the Tri-ang or Peco couplings. I'll be fitting 3 links because I have self loathing issues... 

 

Drill a couple of holes in the floor before you add the roof, to let the solvent fumes out. Otherwise there's a risk that the fumes will distort the body over time.

[Graham T]

Or you could drill a couple in the roof, so that the fumes can rise and disperse naturally.

[Nick Gough]

Or drill out the bonnet ventilators at each end, and convert them into 'working' ones?

[bgman]

18 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

Unlike a notorious 'business' in Somerset...

 

Nowt wrong with a few cider stills in the back garden ! 

[Siberian Snooper]

23 hours ago, Ramblin Rich said:

At least they do continue to produce the ranges though. Unlike a notorious 'business' in Somerset...

 

Unfortunately, I see that business has had a mention in the August Railway Modeller, I wonder how many unwary modellers are going to get bitten.

 

[Graham T]

Would somebody mind messaging this unwary modeller with the name?  I have a sneaking suspicion that I know anyway, but would like to avoid falling foul.  Thanks.

[MrWolf]

Perhaps on the new products page someone else is advertising a time machine so that you can go back to 1986 and buy a rake of W1 cattle wagons?

[Miss Prism]

12 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Unfortunately, I see that business has had a mention in the August Railway Modeller, I wonder how many unwary modellers are going to get bitten.

 

Very unlike Peco to drop a clanger like that, although I do not know what exactly has been said. It would be useful to know.

 

 

9 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Would somebody mind messaging this unwary modeller with the name?  I have a sneaking suspicion that I know anyway, but would like to avoid falling foul.  Thanks.

 

Cooper-Craft.

 

[Graham T]

1 minute ago, Miss Prism said:

 

Cooper-Craft.

 

 

Thanks, that was indeed the name I had in mind.  A shame.