Stoke Courtenay

[Bulwell Hall]

5000 Launceston Castle on a Plymouth - Paddington express.

 

Grange & Castle March 17 011-min.JPG

 

As it approaches Stoke Courtenay it passes 6801 Aylburton Grange, whose fireman appears to be taking a quick breather..

 

Grange & Castle March 17 006-min.JPG

 

I'm quite pleased that I finally got round to detailing most of the current crop of locos - it does make a difference. 

 

Crews are once again from Modelu - lovely 3d prints.  But I must confess my painting didn't match their finesse, especially on the last few which were destined for the more enveloping Collett-style cabs.  By the time I'd painted a dozen and a half of the little b*ggers I was getting bored and wanted to move onto something else!

 

John C.

This really is a most beautiful layout!  It is exploiting modern RTR to the full and is a superb effort with masses of GWR atmosphere.  It really does make you think but I am far too far down the line with my own EM gauge project - and too long in the tooth - to think about starting again!  It must be wonderful to be able to take a loco or an item of stock out of the box and plonk it on the track and run it immediately without having to alter the gauge first.  The Castle in the latest photos just looks absolutely right!

 

Gerry

Edited March 28, 2017 by Bulwell Hall

[checkrail]

I have some weathered examples of the Teign Valley wagons on ANTB.

 

TV.jpeg

 

TV 1.jpg

 

Is the Teign Valley Chocolate quarry anywhere near the old John Harrison Treacle Mine?

[St Enodoc]

Is the Teign Valley Chocolate quarry anywhere near the old John Harrison Treacle Mine?

I think that was further west in Cornwall - near Torpoint and St Piran.

[gwrrob]

Is the Teign Valley Chocolate quarry anywhere near the old John Harrison Treacle Mine?

A bit of fun was had one Easter although as you can see it wasn't an Eggspress !

[jcm@gwr]

We are so in need of a Groan button!

[chrisf]

  But afraid Candy is a new one on me. 

 

Candy owned the pottery adjoining Heathfield station, served by the sharply curved siding seen in many photographs.  I could not tell you how authentic the PO wagon is or how long they lasted.

 

Chris

[checkrail]

A few more of Launceston Castle as it sweeps through Stoke Courtenay.

 

 

 

.

 

 

John C.

 

[Limpley Stoker]

A few more of Launceston Castle as it sweeps through Stoke Courtenay.

 

 

 

John C.

I love the close coupled coaches complete with hoses- could you give us a glimpse of the coupling arrangements?

 

Armchair loco spotting here, ANTB and Little Muddle is a full time occupation now! More please!

[KNP]

Beautiful layout and well photographed.

[checkrail]

I love the close coupled coaches complete with hoses- could you give us a glimpse of the coupling arrangements?

 

Armchair loco spotting here, ANTB and Little Muddle is a full time occupation now! More please!

 

Hi Limpley Stoker

 

See posts #137 and #148 on p.6 of this thread for details of the coupling arrangements and a couple of close-ups.  It's all very crude at close quarters I'm afraid - some rough & ready bending up of 0.8mm brass wire, but it looks ok from a distance!

 

John C.

[Limpley Stoker]

Hi Limpley Stoker

 

See posts #137 and #148 on p.6 of this thread for details of the coupling arrangements and a couple of close-ups.  It's all very crude at close quarters I'm afraid - some rough & ready bending up of 0.8mm brass wire, but it looks ok from a distance!

 

John C.

Thank you John, apologies for not keeping up at the back- must do better,

 

Mike

[checkrail]

More of Launceston Castle, heading towards the tunnel.

 

 

 

Once again I found difficulty in adjusting the livery to my preferred late 1930s look. By the time I'd persuaded the 'Great [crest] Western' lettering to disappear from the tender of Hornby's 'Tintagel Castle' I was through to the black plastic in some places.  Touching up didn't do it, so I ended up getting the airbrush out and repainting the area inside the lining with Precision GW green. Not a perfect match (I've since found by trial and error that a mixture of Railmatch and Precision can get you to the Hornby shade) and in the process I damaged some of the lining.  One day I'll take the tender body back off, strip it completely, and start again - perhaps!

 

But the worst bit was trying to persuade Humbrol spray varnish, in both satin and gloss versions, to behave.  I found it very hard to get a smooth coat and might give up on aerosol varnish cans altogether.  The sides of 5000's tender have an unfortunate mottled look at close quarters.

 

 

 

Have a 'Drysllwyn Castle' in this livery on order, though it'll probably receive a new identity. 

 

John C.

 

John C.

 

 

[M.I.B]

John,

 

I have had the same issue, and ended up being half a tone out on the green inside the lining.

 

I then used an aerosol semi matt finish from Testors called "Dullcote" and that evened it all out.

 

Sadly Testors hasn't been available for a little while.  I have a substitute ordered product from a different manufacturer but as I have not used it yet, I can't comment on it's coverage and finish qualities, let alone Testor's Dullcote ability to "even out" a shade or two.

 

Perhaps a light airbrush weathering of a light mix of Humbrol 112 and Humbrol 62 will hide it.

[duff man]

Hi

 

John,

 

I have had the same issue, and ended up being half a tone out on the green inside the lining.

 

I then used an aerosol semi matt finish from Testors called "Dullcote" and that evened it all out.

 

Sadly Testors hasn't been available for a little while.  I have a substitute ordered product from a different manufacturer but as I have not used it yet, I can't comment on it's coverage and finish qualities, let alone Testor's Dullcote ability to "even out" a shade or two.

 

Perhaps a light airbrush weathering of a light mix of Humbrol 112 and Humbrol 62 will hide it.

Hi.

I use games workshop aerosol matt varnish, Not a flat matt but gives a nice finish every time and has covered many of my blunders over the years.

You do get a slight silk finish which on a loco is fine by me and gives a good base for powders to hold to.

Craig.

[KNP]

Are you aware Testors Dullcote is back and available again?

​Just looked an Anticsonline and they are selling it again plus many wargammers shops seem to stock it as well. 

[81C]

Thanks 81C.  Yes, those brown vehicles don't look too bad from a distance!

 

I have a Teign Valley Granite wagon, but a whole bunch of them looks great.  I'd love to see pics of them after weathering.  I've also seen the Stoneycombe wagon and vaguely wondered whether to buy.  Think I'll now will look out for it.  But afraid Candy is a new one on me. 

 

As to the stone colour wouldn't the granite tors of Dartmoor suggest the right shade?  (Though I suppose newly cut stone could look different.)

 

John C.

Another wagon to add to the list Hornby's Scatter Rock Macadam I found 9 of them I forgot I had, I'm preparing a stock list now I've started to forget what I own.   

Edited April 13, 2017 by 81C

[M.I.B]

When I "re-started" in 2009 after a 20+ year layoff, I immediately made a stock and engine list, and have kept it up to date meticulously.,

 

It has helped no end when I have had a cull ( ie beige fuel tankers in the late 1940s, or 2 wheel milks in the 1940s.....), or when I have seen a wagon that catches my eye, only to quickly see that I don't need to buy a second one etc.

 

I advise anyone to make up a stock list.

[81C]

When I "re-started" in 2009 after a 20+ year layoff, I immediately made a stock and engine list, and have kept it up to date meticulously.,

 

It has helped no end when I have had a cull ( ie beige fuel tankers in the late 1940s, or 2 6 wheel milks in the 1940s.....), or when I have seen a wagon that catches my eye, only to quickly see that I don't need to buy a second one etc.

 

I advise anyone to make up a stock list.

I had an up to date stock list until window 10 lost it and other stuff those wagons aren't the only bits of stock that have pitched up so far in the past year a brand new Grange, Pannier 45xx, 4 Collett coaches I'm sure there are others I will find once the list is complete like a limited edition wagon I bought a month ago to find I'd already got one,** I started bidding on one last week today I found one in the tray yesterday** so all purchases have now been halted I can't believe I bought so much in the past five years.

 

Sorry to go off topic Kevin 

 

(**Lucky some wanted to pay more money than I did**)

Edited April 18, 2017 by 81C

[checkrail]

A few pics of 'Knight of the Grand Cross', now replete with crew, brass plates, real coal etc.  I kept the KGC identity because the Hornby 'Star' thread showed me that the detail and modification history of the class was a minefield.  (Perhaps 'Queen Charlotte' would've fitted the bill? Some good pics IIRC in the Lockwood and other albums.)  However, I did repaint the front buffer beam and apply new transfers, as the Hornby colour had faded to a sort of salmon pink.  I think this Knight had his home somewhere north of Bristol in the late 30s, hence my deployment of him on the Wolverhampton - Penzance express. 

 

 

A while ago a couple of people commented favourably on the way all the railway land was properly and neatly fenced off.  Like thousands before me I used the excellent Ratio GWR post & wire fencing, which I think adds a lot to that generic GW flavour I was after.  Well, I used the posts anyway!

 

Reading through other layout threads recently I've come across a lot about nylon filament, cotton etc. It was another 'usual method' which proved impossible for me. So, not being an angler, I threw Ratio's curly fishing line stuff in the bin and used 5 amp fuse wire, bought on the roll, and melted into the slots on the Ratio posts with a touch of the soldering iron (redundant bit deployed).  As long as the posts are superglued firmly into the landscape first it works a treat.  Once you've got the wire onto the first post you can pull it to full tension and stick it to the next one, making long continuous runs.  At the front of the layout, where more visible, I've put in the full 7 wires, but at the back there are often only 5 or 6, the lowest ones supposedly obscured by the depth of grass.

 

I claim no originality for this.  I found it on a narrow-gauge website, but no idea how I got there!  Full marks to the guy who first thought of it. 

 

 

John C.

 

 

[81C]

I've 3 packets of this fencing to fix not a job I enjoy as I have done some before, a chum gave me some copper wire for rewinding armatures it's a nice dark colour so that should at least improve the

appearance I will also melt it into the posts placed in a small jig to get even gaps. 

[Chris Dark]

Hi John

 

Fantastic layout. really interesting to follow the progress of.

 

In your post 230 you show the Markits steam heat pipes. Can you explain how you fitted these? did you drill a hole through the buffer beam or connect the pipe under the beam?

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[checkrail]

Hi John

 

In your post 230 you show the Markits steam heat pipes. Can you explain how you fitted these? did you drill a hole through the buffer beam or connect the pipe under the beam?

 

Thanks

 

Chris

 

Hi Chris

 

Thanks for kind comments.  The Bachmann 45xx tanks (current ones anyway) actually have a hole in the front buffer beam for the steam heat pipe, and IIRC a plastic pipe is supplied, so it was just a case of gluing the two halves of the neat little Markits item together and then gluing into the hole.  There wasn't such a hole in the rear buffer beam so I drilled one. ( It's best not to have too much poking out at the rear of the buffer beams lest it gets in the way of loco body removal.)

 

John.

Edited May 26, 2017 by checkrail

[checkrail]

Not had any time for modelling recently.  Acting as executor for a recently deceased friend has landed me with a near-full time job for the foreseeable.  (He's commemorated in the name of Stoke Courtenay's local coal merchant, below.)

 

 

Really looking forward to getting back to the layout - loads to do.  In the meantime here's a train sequence just to show that no Beeching axe has fallen on Stoke Courtenay.

 

Below, Winslow Hall heads home towards Newton Abbot with a stopper from Plymouth. (It seems that the tail lamp wasn't removed at North Road at the end of its outward journey.)

 

 

 

 

A few more to follow.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Priorities when I get back in harness are: 1) To add usual details to my new Hornby King. Yes, I succumbed and bought one, just a couple of days before the post-Hattons 'pause' in the DJM project was announced.  Must have been a premonition!  King Edward V will re-emerge as King Henry V, also of Laira shed. 2) To fettle another express rake for it to haul.  Have some purchases and some ideas that I'm eager to try. 3) To give my rake of assorted brown vehicles the coach treatment - roof dirt, gangways, close coupling etc.  Then they might be fit to photograph. Above all to get rid of the remaining glaring white roofs.

 

Here are some more of 5975 coasting into Stoke C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John C.

[checkrail]

A few more.  This time the lady in the brown tweed suit has identified the right train.  In the final pic the fireman leans on his shovel for a breather as the train comes gently to a halt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John C.