Shirebrook - N Gauge 1980's era layout.

[RBE]

The 31 looks good Duncan. I too did a lot of work on my Farish 31 to make it a proper 31/4 and I think it pays as the older model can really look the part. Here's mine passing Burton on Trent.

 

 

and the real one doing similar work.

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by RBE

[Stuart A]

Coal sector Brian looks great.  Pair of these are on my want list, planning to re-sector the petroleum one once it gets released, and reduced in price hopefully somewhere south of triple figures!

[RBE]

I'd be surprised to see it under £100. It's currently on pre-order at Rails for £123.99 and thats from a RRP of £150.

 

I'm torn between one of those and a RF grey one.

 

[Stuart A]

15 minutes ago, RBE said:

I'd be surprised to see it under £100. It's currently on pre-order at Rails for £123.99 and thats from a RRP of £150.

 

I'm torn between one of those and a RF grey one.

 

I live in hope!

I've only bought 1 loco at just over £100 and that was the Rfd 47. Everything else either Dapol sale, second hand or when Bachmann have a clear out and retailers flog them off.

[Duncan.]

8 hours ago, Cowley 47521 said:

Thanks for that Duncan. I’m up to page 6 so far and have just spent a good few minutes drooling at the AC electrics and the interior of the shed...

 

What’s really struck me so far is the way you’ve said that people should reimagine (or words to that effect) what they can do with N.

Coming to it as a bit of a newby and having a few years break from modelling (previously in 00) I’m finding that it’s not as hard to work with as I thought it was going to be and maybe that’s helped by not having too many preconceptions.

 

Having space around the layout so the trains feel like they’re in the landscape is something I’ve always found really satisfying and I think that’s one of the aspects about this that jumped out at me straight away.

Oh but the weathering too...

Hi Nick,

You have hit the nail on the head, re-imagine N Scale Modelling. When you are weathering a model the worst action you can make is to copy someone else's weathered model, always use prototype photos as your guide. I think that many publications make a similar mistake about N Scale, they use an OO/HO plan/design/ scheme and adapt to N. I would say observe the prototype and use that as your guide for an N scale model. One of the other moulds to break is the wall to wall flat top baseboard. In nearly all instances on the prototype the railway is seldom at ground level, the ground is continuously rising and falling (look at an OS map) while the railway cuts a flatter path through it, which implies that the track bed is just as often above the general lie of the land as it is below it (in a cutting), and in flat areas such as the Fens the railway is often on an embankment so it doesn't flood. Immediately you lay your tracks upon the flat baseboard any possibility of a lower area is removed and realism lost.

You will find several great N scale layouts on RMweb... Burton On Trent (RBE),  Blueball Summit (Andy Stroud), Dallam Sidings (87023 Velocity) to name a few.

Oh I liked the class 87's too, I miss them. They were a commission and now live in Europe...c'est la vie!

Cheers

Duncan

[RBE]

12 hours ago, Stuey said:

I live in hope!

I've only bought 1 loco at just over £100 and that was the Rfd 47. Everything else either Dapol sale, second hand or when Bachmann have a clear out and retailers flog them off.

 

Me too buddy. I am having to re-educate myself on the cost of things these days as I still expect a loco for £50.

[RBE]

4 hours ago, Duncan. said:

Hi Nick,

You have hit the nail on the head, re-imagine N Scale Modelling. When you are weathering a model the worst action you can make is to copy someone else's weathered model, always use prototype photos as your guide. I think that many publications make a similar mistake about N Scale, they use an OO/HO plan/design/ scheme and adapt to N. I would say observe the prototype and use that as your guide for an N scale model. One of the other moulds to break is the wall to wall flat top baseboard. In nearly all instances on the prototype the railway is seldom at ground level, the ground is continuously rising and falling (look at an OS map) while the railway cuts a flatter path through it, which implies that the track bed is just as often above the general lie of the land as it is below it (in a cutting), and in flat areas such as the Fens the railway is often on an embankment so it doesn't flood. Immediately you lay your tracks upon the flat baseboard any possibility of a lower area is removed and realism lost.

You will find several great N scale layouts on RMweb... Burton On Trent (RBE),  Blueball Summit (Andy Stroud), Dallam Sidings (87023 Velocity) to name a few.

Oh I liked the class 87's too, I miss them. They were a commission and now live in Europe...c'est la vie!

Cheers

Duncan

 

Something that I would also reiterate when it comes to weathering (and this goes against what a lot of people spout) but never ever weather based on a single photo of your prototype loco. You need a picture of the real prototype do not get me wrong as you need to apply paint conditions to the model (notice the lighter blue areas on my 31 above), but be very careful when it comes to dirt. An individual picture may have a weird weathering anomaly on it where a loco has weathered in a none typical fashion due to some incident, you shouldn't replicate this. It will look wrong. If you have to pull out a picture and say to someone, see the real one was like that then you've lost half the battle.

 

What you should do instead is base the paint condition on a picture of the prototype and then for the dirt collect as many photos of a variety of the same class of loco (or wagon or whatever) as you can and assess those. Look for the areas where the weathering patterns are the same and note them, those are the patterns typical of the class (item of stock) and will likely be there on every loco of that class to one level or another. 

 

Once that's done, simply replicate that on the model. Vary your stock by varying the levels you do the effects to give the variety rather than adding odd weathering to mix it up, that part will jar with an observer and look wrong even if they don't know why. They won't care they will just decide the weathering is bad.

 

As a couple of examples, there are many more, class 37's have a darker weathered band that extends up to the roof from the top of the large side grill. It's not always severe but it generally there, and of course the bottom of the tumblehome and top of the bonnet  (the bonnet always weathers from the back though as exhaust is sucked down onto it when it is to the rear due to airflow between the loco and the stock). 

 

Class 47's almost always have a delicate line of dirt running from the end of the rainstrip on the drivers side number 2 end due to the exhaust port being drivers side and rain washing the soot down onto the rainstrip and off the end. It's generally the only run present besides general bodyside streaking which should be applied as barely visible anyway. If any other streaks are done (they do happen but always at rainstrips), the number 2 end drivers side one is the one to do first. and will be the most prominent of any others that are applied.

 

Just something to think about.

Edited June 23, 2020 by RBE

[Steven B]

The class 31 is probably the best diesel to come out of Farish's Poole factory. Even compared to the current "Blue Ribbon" model it still stands up well.

 

Here are my efforts with the Poole/early Bachmann model:

 

From top to bottom:

31 273 (Petroleum sector)

31 276 Calder Hall Power station (Coal Sector)

31 423 Jerome K Jerome (Intercity Mainline)

 

All three are simple repaints with Ratio headlamps added where needed. '276 runs on the Ian Stoate dummy chassis.

 

I loosely model the North Wales coast and the Calder Valley routes so 31's are a common loco in my stock box.

31 273 will be in charge of the 7E34/7M25 Ashton/Lindsey Total Tanks

31 276 will be hauled by a Dutch liveried on with nuclear flask wagon (although I should really triple head     but that feels excessive!)

31 423 will end up on a rake of Regional Railways Mk1/2s

 

 

Steven B.

[RBE]

They look great.

[Duncan.]

Hi,

My thought for the day when modifying locos....

Cheers

Duncan

[Cowley 47521]

2 hours ago, Duncan. said:

Hi,

My thought for the day when modifying locos....

Cheers

Duncan

‘Eat Twix, cut thrice, measure again, drink more wine, worry about it in the morning’.

 

Ah maybe not...

 

Edited June 23, 2020 by Cowley 47521

[Padishar Creel]

On 23/06/2020 at 08:47, Duncan. said:

Oh I liked the class 87's too, I miss them. They were a commission and now live in Europe...c'est la vie!

Cheers

Duncan

 

Or in their case..... so ist das Leben

[Duncan.]

1 hour ago, Padishar Creel said:

 

Or in their case..... so ist das Leben

I wasn't sure of the German version of Ces't la vie! and what key should I press if there was an umlaut in the word!!

[Duncan.]

Modellers' Licence?

Good afternoon everyone. So here's an impossible photo (I think). Am I right in saying that Derbyshire County Council banned the transportation of Nuclear waste through the county? My apologies it's happened on our model!

 

A more likely event  is this view of 31312 with a couple of cripples slowly making its way to Worksop where the HAAs will be repaired. The loco is my recent repaint project with Taylor HEA kits a Farish rtr Flask and my converted Minitrix Brake Van brings up the rear.

 

Here's a couple of views of my other recent repaints/conversions at home at Shirebrook.

 

Cheers

Duncan

[MrSimon]

Did they? Hope not I’ve got flasks on Gresby and that’s just down the line from you 

 

The 31s looking great

[Timmy84]

On 23/06/2020 at 12:04, RBE said:

 

Me too buddy. I am having to re-educate myself on the cost of things these days as I still expect a loco for £50.

I was reminded of this discussion a few moments ago when I noted a single unboxed Farish seacow on an auction site going for £54 with 6 days left. Has the world gone mad? That’s 100% more than they were new! Sod stocks and shares I should have bought hundreds..!
 

Tim.

[Duncan.]

6 minutes ago, Timmy84 said:

I was reminded of this discussion a few moments ago when I noted a single unboxed Farish seacow on an auction site going for £54 with 6 days left. Has the world gone mad? That’s 100% more than they were new! Sod stocks and shares I should have bought hundreds..!
 

Tim.

Yes Tim the world appears to have gone mad, I see hundreds, no thousands on the beach at Bournemouth, why  have we been isolating for 14 weeks, it a hard conversation, I remember Lockdown started when there was just 20 tragic deaths per day, about 140 today? There appears to be 'madness' everywhere.

Cheers

Duncan

[definate maybe]

1 hour ago, Timmy84 said:

I was reminded of this discussion a few moments ago when I noted a single unboxed Farish seacow on an auction site going for £54 with 6 days left. Has the world gone mad? That’s 100% more than they were new! Sod stocks and shares I should have bought hundreds..!
 

Tim.

A Dutch one went for £150 last week.  I put in one of the early bids so I got an email with 3 hours of the auction left advising the latest price and that I didn’t have long left to win the item. I declined!

mark

[RBE]

Madness, I'd hand carve one from diamonds first.

[Cowley 47521]

11 minutes ago, RBE said:

Madness, I'd hand carve one from diamonds first.

A young friend of mine managed to build up a pretty decent Meldon style ballast train for his 33 including quite a few Seacows, having seen the prices they’re going for now he’s hoping to retire early...

[The Pilotman]

1 hour ago, definate maybe said:

A Dutch one went for £150 last week.  I put in one of the early bids so I got an email with 3 hours of the auction left advising the latest price and that I didn’t have long left to win the item. I declined!

mark

 

£150!! Time to reassess whether I still need all seventeen...

[millerhillboy]

17 hours ago, definate maybe said:

A Dutch one went for £150 last week.  I put in one of the early bids so I got an email with 3 hours of the auction left advising the latest price and that I didn’t have long left to win the item. I declined!

mark

 

And I thought maroon mk1s were off the scale in terms of price!!

[Timmy84]

If only our wealth was measured in seacows...

 

I quite like my rake of 10 but is it worth £1500? No.
 

It’s getting harder and harder to get wagons for a reasonable price. I welcome the fact that products are significantly improved but for me one of the biggest pluses in N Gauge is running prototypical rakes so it gets very expensive. I’ve been umming and ahhing over some revolution IPAs which I didn’t preorder but at £25 a deck based on this they are a bargain! 
 

I wonder if anyone will put together a long loaded rake with cars on. You could easily spend over £1000. It’s the same for intermodal. Once you add containers it’s crazy money for a proper length train.

 

Tim.

[Duncan.]

A Tale of two Cities Twenties

The two twenties featured in this post are over 20 years old. They were manufactured by Graham Farish at Poole in Dorset. The Grafar class 20 was not the most detailed or reliable  locomotive produced and in common with other Grafar locos were prone to split gears which produced poor running and if left could cause the motor armature to overheat and burn out. The production models were modeled on the 4 character headcode  box versions of the prototype, from 20128 onwards. The disc head code variant was never produced, Bernard Taylor came to the rescue with detailing/conversion kits to model the first 127 members of the class.

 

 The kit comprised etched detail parts and a cast resin replacement nose. The conversion was quite a big job but I deceided to do more starting with a complete strip the body back to the metal. The handrails on the bodyside were crude mouldings, I removed them using a scalpel. The roof radiator grille was also cast, I drilled that out and opened out the exhaust ports. 

The conversion kit requires the removeal of all detail on the cab front, all is filed away to leave a plain flat surface. The replacement etched cab front is glued to the prepared end. I drilled holes for the handrail  knobs along the bonnet and added an etched roof grille to the roof. The loco was painted and the final detailing added, including etched discs and the handrails. The nose end was painted and detailed remotely before adding to the completed body.I took the opportunity to add my own etched window frames to the cabsides and add bufferbeam detail. As I outlined above these locos suffer from split gears and during today's planned maintenance I had to replace 3 gear wheels to get 20010 running! They will inevitably split again. I fully dismantled the loco cleaned the bogies in my ultrasonic tank  relubricated and all is well for the time being. 20088 required just a clean. These locos run as a pair on Shirebrook as they have different running characteristics from the China produced Bachmann models. While not as accurate as the Bachmann model I am happy to run them on the layout as they remind me of the effort  that used to be required to make a unique model.Here you can see the cast resin replacement bonnet noses. I took these photographs today after I serviced the locos.

Cheers

Duncan

[RBE]

I saw those when I came up to see Shirebrook and I would be more than happy to run them. 

 

As for wagon prices, our Cavalex 2mm PGA hopper wagon was priced at £25 and although we had lots of interest we struggled to get retailers on board. At £25 we were barely breaking even on it. I would like to see it come back at some point as I would love for Cavalex to break the 2mm market.