Stoke Courtenay

[St Enodoc]

Views of the compartment sides of the toplights, just to show that there was no skimping!  (But no roof boards as yet.)

 

The lavatory windows and the hammered glass toplights themselves were formed by applying short strips of opaque sellotape or Scotch tape to the back of the glazing.

 

T7.jpg

 

T8.jpg

 

T9.jpg

 

I quite like the look of this side and wouldn't mind making more to operate on the layout this way round.  Maybe when Slater's have taken these kits back in house and re-introduced to the market?

 

John C.

I like that Scotch tape idea - filed for future reference.

[gwrrob]

Beautiful coaches John.

[KNP]

Thanks Kevin.  Next project?  Well, I have an old PC kit for a toplight 3rd bought on eBay some years ago, which fortuitously arrived containing an unadvertised but very nice pair of brass sides.  Might be a gentle introduction to brass coach kits? 

 

But before that I need to change tempo to something a little less stressful and have a few minor scenic jobs to sort out.  One, on which I'd value your advice, is to improve the rather flat grey appearance of the plywood station approach road, as seen in the picture of Star and train below.

 

T20.jpg

 

Plenty of wagon kits to build too.

 

John C.

 

The first thing I would try to do is vary the colour using washes and dry brushing.

On mine I have dry brushed earth colour where the grass meets the tarmac gradually building up to vary the density to represent soil washed down onto the road.

In the gutter side a darker grey as a thin wash to represent dirt and undriven areas of tarmac, this could also be done in places on the grass bank side as well. Again building up the density but using various shades of grey to give tonal variation.

For the road a slightly darker shade down the middle where vehicles don't drive, aim in for a minimal tone variation so one shade blends into the other

 

I would stick to one colour but have a range of grey of slightly different shades and then apply them in washes, I don't bother to wash the brushes between shades as this further increases the variation.

Then dry brush in a lighter grey where the vehicles drive to highlight lumps and bumps.

 

Don't forget that you can do road repairs of newer tarmac as well to further randomise the appearance.

 

I would than sit back let it thoroughly dry and apply further tweaks as and when it looks right.

 

Hope this helps

[checkrail]

The first thing I would try to do is vary the colour using washes and dry brushing.

On mine I have dry brushed earth colour where the grass meets the tarmac gradually building up to vary the density to represent soil washed down onto the road.

In the gutter side a darker grey as a thin wash to represent dirt and undriven areas of tarmac, this could also be done in places on the grass bank side as well. Again building up the density but using various shades of grey to give tonal variation.

For the road a slightly darker shade down the middle where vehicles don't drive, aim in for a minimal tone variation so one shade blends into the other

 

I would stick to one colour but have a range of grey of slightly different shades and then apply them in washes, I don't bother to wash the brushes between shades as this further increases the variation.

Then dry brush in a lighter grey where the vehicles drive to highlight lumps and bumps.

 

Don't forget that you can do road repairs of newer tarmac as well to further randomise the appearance.

 

I would than sit back let it thoroughly dry and apply further tweaks as and when it looks right.

 

Hope this helps

 

Many thanks for this useful advice Kevin. Like many others I'm a great admirer of your use of colour and texture.  Though I definitely wanted the scenery on SC to be a fairly broad brush foil to the trains themselves, rather than the main event, I've begun to think that one or two bits need a bit more input.  I think this road, for instance, needs a little bit of subtle texture plus a warmer, sandier colouring - a bit more like a little-used rural 1930s road surface would have been.  It'll make a nice change to get back to scenic stuff in a small way.

 

John 

[St Enodoc]

Here's a request for information - I'm doing a talk on timetables at the upcoming British Railway Modellers of Australia Convention and I've decided to use the Kingsbridge Branch as an example. I've got all the actual timetable info that I need but if anyone can let me have details of the carriage workings on a 1950s summers weekday (not Saturday) that would help me a lot. I suspect there's something in Operation Torbay but I haven't got that.

 

I'm posting this in two or three places so apologies if you see it more than once.

 

Thanks.

[checkrail]

When I showed my wife my bolections (ooh er missus!) she observed that after managing such an intricate bit of painting, redecorating the kitchen shouldn't be too much of a problem.  I've taken the hint, so no railway modelling for me this week.  But it's nice to take a little break now and then to commune with you guys.

 

So here are some pics of the toplights within the train, passing through Stoke Courtenay station.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm pleased with the way they've fitted into the train alongside the Hornby and Bachmann models.  The gangways, by the way, were another short cut - I filched the ones from the old PC kits.  They're made of a rubbery sort of plastic with the scissors quite nicely represented, and buffer up well with the various folded paper or Keen systems gangways on adjacent vehicles, avoiding the dreaded daylight between coaches.

 

The Slater's ones are said to be things of joy and beauty, but I felt I already had enough new challenges.  I'll treat them as a separate mini-project when time allows.  There'll be no shortage of candidates to receive them.

 

John C.

 

PS. Whoops!  Just realised that in one of these pics you can see through the footbridge and see the blocks that Mr & Mrs Preiser are standing on to disguise their 3.5mm scale midget status!

 

 

 

 

[Worsdell forever]

PS. Whoops!  Just realised that in one of these pics you can see through the footbridge and see the blocks that Mr & Mrs Preiser are standing on to disguise their 3.5mm scale midget status!

 

If you hadn't pointed it out...

 

 

I'm wondering if you or anyone else with a western kink could explain why these 'Toplights' are unsuitable for the RTR chaps but not a problem for Slaters and the like, please forgive me if this is common knowledge but being a 'Light Green and Crimson Lake' sort, I may have missed it. 

[checkrail]

 

I'm wondering if you or anyone else with a western kink could explain why these 'Toplights' are unsuitable for the RTR chaps but not a problem for Slaters and the like, please forgive me if this is common knowledge but being a 'Light Green and Crimson Lake' sort, I may have missed it. 

 

You're right to suspect that this might have been aired before!   There's a voluminous literature on the subject on this forum alone.  The consensus seems to be that because there were so many variants, and alterations over time, they'd be hard put to produce something that pleased everybody.  Others - me included - aren't so sure and still live in hope.  But see posts 408 to 415 above on this layout thread for a taster.  And try 'toplight poll' in the RMweb index.

 

Regards,

John.

 

John C.

[Worsdell forever]

You're right to suspect that this might have been aired before!   There's a voluminous literature on the subject on this forum alone.  The consensus seems to be that because there were so many variants, and alterations over time, they'd be hard put to produce something that pleased everybody.  Others - me included - aren't so sure and still live in hope.  But see posts 408 to 415 above on this layout thread for a taster.  And try 'toplight poll' in the RMweb index.

 

Regards,

John.

 

John C.

 

Thanks, I'll look that up, and so much for GWR standardisation... 

[sp1]

I’d be happy with just a few - if there were some detail discrepancies to allow this to happen then so be it: I’m sure that those to whom it mattered would carry out the necessary alterations.

No doubt many of us run the Bachmann GWR coaches, including the spurious one painted to look the part.....

Edited August 1, 2018 by sp1

[St Enodoc]

If you hadn't pointed it out...

 

 

I'm wondering if you or anyone else with a western kink could explain why these 'Toplights' are unsuitable for the RTR chaps but not a problem for Slaters and the like, please forgive me if this is common knowledge but being a 'Light Green and Crimson Lake' sort, I may have missed it. 

Stirrer!

[The Great Bear]

John

 

Now I have had chance to look at your toplight pictures on the pc, blimey your painting is very very neat, the droplights and bollections look perfect. If only I could print remotely neatly as that! I'd love to see what you could do with one of my nascent coach kits, my painting and liing rather lets them down.

 

I'd also say that even with the glitch in the GWR transfers being oversized I'd say your Toplights look better than the adjacent Hornby Collet. Fab.

 

All the best

 

Jon

[Coach bogie]

What impresses me most, Checkrail, is rather than waiting in hope that someone will bring a toplight out, you did something about it and built your own, Welcome to the club.

 

Many of us have done what you did and made our own.

 

Having spend much time going through the full list, there are not many diagrams NOT covered by kits/sides etc in as built state.

 

To make later ones takes a little more work. Here is a couple of steel sides with the toplights plated over just for variety.

 

I am off toplights for a while as I want to balance my trains with more clerestories and have just finished this E75 brake compo using Worsley etches with a Hornby coach to complete.

 

Brilliant build, look forward to seeing others on Stoke Courtney.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[checkrail]

The Toplight Saga - concluding chapter.

 

Here a few pics of the Wolverhampton express, interspersed with some final observations on building the Slater's toplights and lessons learned.

 

 

Some aspects of the kits seemed designed to make things difficult.  One of the trickier bits was fashioning and attaching the end handrails from the 0.20 wire supplied.  The instructions sternly advise that the coach 'will reject all unsatisfactory efforts'.  Well, the only wire of this gauge in the box turned out to be steel wire, and bending it into a three-dimensional shape was the devil's own job.  'Unsatisfactory efforts' would also scratch the coach to bits when offering them up. .After a frustrating day I threw the stuff in the bin and dug out some lovely 0.31 brass wire from Eileen's I had in stock, after which  things became a lot simpler.

 

 

Another problem was the internal horizontal corridor handrails. There is absolutely no mention of these in the instructions or the illustrations.  But bizarrely there were little moulded lugs on the inside of each large corridor window which seemed to be there to support such rails. This had me absolutely baffled.  If the handrails were mounted on these lugs there'd be no way to put the glazing in, but if the glazing was added first it would cover the lugs  - indeed I had to slice the lugs away to get the glazing to sit flush.  The only thing I could think of was that maybe one was supposed to cut and shape individual glazing panes to fit flush within the window recesses (like a Lazerglaze type thing).  I quickly decided that that way lies insanity!

 

After lots of attempts to stick short lengths of handrail to the back of the glazing with Glue 'n' glaze I gave up - whenever I offered the glazing up to the coach (inside the very restricted corridor area) bits would fall off.  It was also a hell of a job to get them in alignment with each other (remember, every big window is separated from the next by a droplight).  In the end I used some 0.5mm black stick-on lining tape.  Not ideal and still not quite straight, but best I could do.  

 

Another lesson learned is that next time I'd buy new scratch-free glazing material - mine had spent several years being rattled around in the Slater's box along with various brass fittings and sundry bits of wire.

 

 

One absolute delight about the kits was the beautiful lost-wax brass castings for grab rails etc.  Far superior to any etched ones I've seen, and with nice long tails so they can be glued from inside, saving your paint finish from cyano.. If these kits really are going to be re-released by Slater's (I'd buy some) it would be great if these fittings could be sold as spares.

 

 

The final pic shows the other end of the train, including a Bachmann C77 third.  (There is a tail lamp; it's obscured by the last gangway!).  The 7 coach formation now consists of D47, C54, E88, H33, E127, C77 and D95.  Not an exact replica of any particular train on any particular day but in its variety, I hope, capturing a bit of the flavour and atmosphere of a 1930s GWR express by judicious use of what the trade provides.

 

John C. 

 

 

 

 

[checkrail]

What impresses me most, Checkrail, is rather than waiting in hope that someone will bring a toplight out, you did something about it and built your own, Welcome to the club.

 

Many of us have done what you did and made our own.

 

Having spend much time going through the full list, there are not many diagrams NOT covered by kits/sides etc in as built state.

 

To make later ones takes a little more work. Here is a couple of steel sides with the toplights plated over just for variety.

IMG_7589.JPG

IMG_7590.JPG

 

I am off toplights for a while as I want to balance my trains with more clerestories and have just finished this E75 brake compo using Worsley etches with a Hornby coach to complete.

E75a.JPG

 

Brilliant build, look forward to seeing others on Stoke Courtney.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

Many thanks Mike for kind comments and encouragement.  Having this year built a K's 40ft Dean PBV, a Mailcoach K22, and now the toplights, perhaps it's fair to say that coach construction is beginning to lose some of its terrors!   I've long admired your coaches and brown vehicles, and the extraordinary range of diagrams you've covered.  I always think you must have a great number of storage sidings!

 

I particularly like the clerestory brake compo.  I came back to this game just too late to obtain any of the 247 sides for Hornby clerestories, but would like in the future to provide mine with some relief panelling.  Must look at the sources you mention.

 

And as I said a few posts back I have an old PC toplight 3rd kit with some very nice matching brass sides, which might form a gentle introduction to working with brass?  Anyway, you've got me thinking.

 

Cheers,

John.

[88C]

John, well done on building the toplights, they certainly do blend in well with the rest of your stock and make the complete train look much more authentic. You put my coaching stock to shame, I really must get on with the kit that I bought from an infamous trader at the Nottingham show a few years back.

 

Well done,

 

Brian

[bgman]

John,

 

I hope you don't mind me posting this here ?

 

About a year ago one of my RMweb friends and posters enquired about producing some sides for an F15 Slip coach using my Silhouette Cutter in the absence of available kits etc.

I used 10 thou plasticard to make overlays and internal partitions, here's the result

 

 

I am uncertain as to whether the coach has been started yet using a donor vehicle but I am assured it will be carried out one day.

 

As I have now moved up to 7mm GWR "stuff" I may well have a shot at it for more stock for myself once I've decided upon suitable victims to model.

Grahame

[checkrail]

John,

 

I hope you don't mind me posting this here ?

 

About a year ago one of my RMweb friends and posters enquired about producing some sides for an F15 Slip coach using my Silhouette Cutter in the absence of available kits etc.

I used 10 thou plasticard to make overlays and internal partitions, here's the result

 

image.jpeg

 

I am uncertain as to whether the coach has been started yet using a donor vehicle but I am assured it will be carried out one day.

 

As I have now moved up to 7mm GWR "stuff" I may well have a shot at it for more stock for myself once I've decided upon suitable victims to model.

Grahame

 

That looks very promising Grahame.  Those sides are nice and crisp and even.  Would be nice to see your friend's finished model in due course.  Thanks for sharing.

 

John C.

[81C]

John,

 

I hope you don't mind me posting this here ?

 

About a year ago one of my RMweb friends and posters enquired about producing some sides for an F15 Slip coach using my Silhouette Cutter in the absence of available kits etc.

I used 10 thou plasticard to make overlays and internal partitions, here's the result

 

image.jpeg

 

I am uncertain as to whether the coach has been started yet using a donor vehicle but I am assured it will be carried out one day.

 

As I have now moved up to 7mm GWR "stuff" I may well have a shot at it for more stock for myself once I've decided upon suitable victims to model.

Grahame

 

John Grahame done a excellent job on these to replace some sides of a P.C.kit made of acetate which had starting to decompose.

 

 All the bits are waiting to go it's a matter of getting some top of door vents it seems all the casters have packed it in .

 

Bob

[Limpley Stoker]

John Grahame done a excellent job on these to replace some sides of a P.C.kit made of acetate which had starting to decompose.

 

 All the bits are waiting to go it's a matter of getting some top of door vents it seems all the casters have packed it in .

 

Bob

Door vents would seem to be an ideal subject for 3D printing if no one can cast them.

[81C]

Door vents would seem to be an ideal subject for 3D printing if no one can cast them.

 

I'd prefer it if the origin Blacksmith Models were still going not that clown who ran Cooper Craft  

I've a Blacksmiths dia: 013 milk van with etched one's they really look the part, I think it's time

to ask Larry he's always been helpful to me in the past.

 

Bob

[gwrrob]

Nice to meet you yesterday John and put a face to a highly regarded RMweb layout owner.

[checkrail]

Thanks for kind remarks Robin. Likewise, it was good to meet you and the rest of the gang - great day out! - and various chats yesterday have revived my modelling mojo, which had been a little faded in recent weeks. So back to work for a bit more bodging!

 

Regards,

John C.

[checkrail]

Not added to this thread for ages, but thought it about time I blew the dust off the camera. (And even more to the point, off the manual, prior to actually reading the b..... thing!)

 

Recent talk of stars suggested this:

 

 

And here's 5557 on the pick-up goods.

 

 

Not much new to show you, but a couple of things on the bench.

[Mallard60022]

That's a damn fine looking loco that Star. 

Phil