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BLACKNEY, a Glimpse of the Forest


westerner
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There seems to be a lack of quality control on Dapol wheelsets. You may peruse at your leisure my findings about Dapol wagon wheels on '3 Pots Yard'.

 

Cheers

 

Phil

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That will be interesting to see being built up and particularly the painting results.

Several bolsters have been built for my layout in the excuse of the amount of timber produced in that part of the country for construction, pit props and fencing.

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More work done chassis now completed with buffers and couplings added.

Next will be painting and finishing off the bolsters, adding transfers and then weathering and adding the load.

 

The thoughts I've had on the load are the pipes which come with the kit for work being done athe colliery or tree trunks for Forest Furniture (Trees not naturally occurring in the Forest.

 

898530396_DBolster4.jpg.cee501dd6df72d67500a3f7f904deddb.jpg

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1 hour ago, westerner said:

Trees not naturally occurring in the Forest.

As daft as that may sound, the Forest of Dean was certainly less forested in the 1950s & '60s than it is now. Some of Ben Ashworth's photos taken along what is now the D.F.R. show views that were quite open at the time, but are now blocked off by woodland. 

The D.F.R. did run an actual revenue freight train in the mid-1990s IIRC, that was new plastic pipes for the gas main; there was a photo of it in one of the old 'Forest Venturer' magazines.

Back in the day, I'd have thought the most likely reason for a 'metals' load was traffic to or from Fred Watkin's Boiler Works on the Sling Branch.

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I really do seem to have got my mojo back as a new kit arrived through the post on Wednesday morning, (by the way excellent service from David Parkins, ordered at 11.am on Monday and arrived at 9.00am Wed.)

David has taken over quite a bit of Adrian Swains kits including the old Bob Barlow Classic Commercial kits. I decided it was time for Frank drake to have a smaller vehicle ie a van to deliver smaller items that need a bit more protection than a flat bed. Hence I ordered the Morris Commercial PV 15cwt van. The kit looks good with excellent castings and resin body and chassis, Almost no flash in fact none to speak of. Some pics of the kit. and the instruction seem to be very good.

 

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Looking forward to building it. I'll keep you informed of progress.

 

 

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Don't know if it's just me, but that gear lever looks a bit long? I'd say Frank would be banging his head on it...............

 

 

atb

 

Phil

 

 

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Van body now painted in Frank Drake's colours ie Tamiya Sky Blue. Th blue rod/tube which you can see in the second photo is to house the side lights and winkers and rear lights which will be pin heads. You may notice that the gear lever has been shortened. I do seem to remember that gear levers were far taller than they are now.

 

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 The grill I'm not sure about, some were chrome but others were just painted black. So a choice Bare metal foil (chrome) Paint it silver (more aluminium type finish or just paint it black

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You can get away with any colour for the grille it seems. The badge above it was chrome with a pale yellow enamel background. These vans were originally fitted with trafficators, rather than flashing indicators ( flashing indicators were illegal pre 1955.) so I wouldn't worry about those too much.

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Legislation of that nature is rarely retrospective so trafficators on a vehicle from that era would very likely still be street-legal now.

 

EDIT.  He's retired now, but my brother used to be a traffic policemen.  I've Whatsapped him the question but as he's laid up with Covid at the moment an answer is unlikely to be prompt.

Edited by mike morley
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Flashing indicators have never been made a legal requirement on vehicles not originally so fitted, you're quite right. IIRC the only retrospective requirements are for twin tail lights and stop lights and a windscreen washer on vehicles without an opening front screen.

As for the flashers, they were available as aftermarket items, either as the orange "Teddy bear's ears" fitted to car roofs, or conventional round indicators.

 

One thing to remember if modelling an early sixties scene is that the front indicators were often white lights. Orange didn't become compulsory until around 1965.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, westerner said:

Searching through my archives I came across this B&W photo possibly taken in the appalling winter of 1963 at Blackney. I decided to make a Christmas card from it. Seasonal wishes to you all.

 

242636995_2021cardBW.jpg.35208ad82ced843eb44b22832783b25a.jpg

 

 

Likewise from me ,Alan. Hope it's a good one.

 

Cheers,

 

Phil

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