Bacup - Mills in the hills

[Jason T]

Thanks folks.

 

I'll have to look at some photos re: balance weights; none came with the kit (no surprise there). I also forgot to add to the list of things to do:

- make a new backhead and cab floor, etc. (from Plastikard probably), as the one in the kit is raised to allow the loco to be driven off the rear axle, whereas I have altered it to drive off the centre axle.

[A Murphy]

Excellent work Jason and couldn't agree more about pre-grouping locos - this after all was a workaday freight engine, but surely one of the best looking 0-6-0s ever? And doesn't it look at home?? :-)

 

Best wishes,

 

Alastair M

Edited September 4, 2013 by A Murphy

[Rowsley17D]

A very nice build, Jason and you have managed to get a gearbox that still lets light in under the boiler.

[coachmann]

Thanks folks.

 

I'll have to look at some photos re: balance weights; none came with the kit (no surprise there). I also forgot to add to the list of things to do:

- make a new backhead and cab floor, etc. (from Plastikard probably), as the one in the kit is raised to allow the loco to be driven off the rear axle, whereas I have altered it to drive off the centre axle.

The outer wheel balance weights were opposite the crankpins whereas the centre balance weight was as near the crank pin....

(Photo by Jim Davenport. Courtesy Brian Green)

 

Unsuperheated belpaire boiler but the same arrangement of balance weights....Another view...

(Photo R H G Simpson)

 

A young coachmann on the left showing some backhead details in 1960.....

(Photo courtesy coachmann)

Edited September 4, 2013 by coachmann

[ChrisN]

Jason,

Could you glue the coal rail to the tender or am I not allowed to suggest that?

 

It is looking good I must say.

 

If you back dated your layout, and I certainly would not discourage you, you would not only need locos but coaches and goods stock as well, very little of it being R-T-R.  The amount of weathering you would need would be less though.

 

I know we discussed this before but it is a shame the building colours would be so different as otherwise you could have two sets of stock, people and vehicles and run them on different occasions.

[Mythocentric]

Hi Jason

                              

Re your comment on KL, this is the info I have for the L&Y Class 30’s:

 

52727*   (12727)                 r/n: 04/1948                       scrap: 1950

52782    (12782)                 r/n: 11/1948                       scrap: 1950

52806    (12806)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 08/1949

52821    (12821)                 r/n: 05/1948                       scrap: 1949

52822    (12822)                 r/n: 08/1949                       scrap: 1950

52825    (12825)                 r/n: 09/1948                       scrap: 1950

52827    (12827)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 08/1949

52828    (12828)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 08/1949

52831    (12831)                 r/n: 05/1948                       scrap: 07/1951

52834    (12834)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 04/1949

52837    (12837)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 04/1948

52839    (12839)                 r/n: 05/1948                       scrap: 1949

 

Notes:

*             52727 was the sole remaining small-boiler version and never rebuilt.

Numbers in italics were allocated but never carried in service.

 

Given the scrapping dates BR logos would probably be iffy. More likely would be BRITISH RAILWAYS in full on the tender if not LMS.

 

Compounds by the mid/late 50's were doing the same job as the 2P 4-4-0's on local services and occasional excursion services (together with anything else which could turn a wheel) so no reason for one not to appear at Bacup. Anyway, the Bachmann jobbie is such a superb model its hard to resist buying one! Rose Grove had a couple on shed.

 

Bill

Edited September 6, 2013 by Mythocentric

[Jason T]

And now for something completely different (again). For far too long, the majority of buildings have been devoid of items that are all too important in an area that gets as much rain as East Lancashire does; gutters and downpipes. One of the reasons for this is the scale of the task of adding them; fine for a couple of buildings but when you are looking at almost 60 houses that need them as well as mills, etc., it becomes a tad daunting. Now I have to admit that there is no great accuracy to the ones I am adding; one again, with so much to add, I am not about to start filing down brass tubes, adding every bracket, etc., on as life is too short. So instead, I've been looking at methods that look fine from a distance and ok from up close.

 

Initially, I started to wrap thin strips of sticky label around plastic rodding and attaching it to the buildings with superglue but apart from looking a bit basic, they keep falling off. So, I've gone back to an earlier suggestion of using wire with a protrusion at the back, drilling holes and attaching them that way. For the gutters, I am using Evergreen half-round strips.

 

I start by wrapping steel wire around a suitably thin screwdriver and then bending the end out at 90 degrees before snipping a couple of coils off, tweaking with the pliers to get them a bit tighter. When fitted to the downpipe and building, they look ok (but not perfect, as mentioned).

 

 

A bit overscale but not too bad

 

And when painted, they look acceptable. The stinkpipe, etc., on the left are Langley ones. The residents of this house are lucky enough to have an inside toilet!!!

[Physicsman]

Nice bit of improvisation there, Jason. Very effective.

 

Jeff

[Andrew P]

Morning Jason, yet another bit of superb modelling mate, that looks the dogs ........ and I am sure from 5 feet away it looks even better.

 

Keep well.

 

Bodgit

[Jason T]

Cheers chaps.

 

In order to redress the balance of the inside plumbing, the neighbours will be deemed to have bathroom envy as they are stuck with one of these  

 

[clecklewyke]

Jason,

 

Have you thought of using Wills guttering and down pipes? This pack also includes eaves tiles and chimneys. They are economical, easy to fix and very effective (well, at least good enough for me

 

Ian

[Jason T]

I did think about it Ian but there really is so very much of it to do and I like the flexibility of making my own. Masochist, I suppose

[Old Gringo]

Hi Jason

                              

Re your comment on KL, this is the info I have for the L&Y Class 30’s:

 

52727*   (12727)                 r/n: 04/1948                       scrap: 1950

52782    (12782)                 r/n: 11/1948                       scrap: 1950

52806    (12806)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 08/1949

52821    (12821)                 r/n: 05/1948                       scrap: 1949

52822    (12822)                 r/n: 08/1949                       scrap: 1950

52825    (12825)                 r/n: 09/1948                       scrap: 1950

52827    (12827)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 08/1949

52828    (12828)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 08/1949

52831    (12831)                 r/n: 05/1948                       scrap: 07/1951

52834    (12834)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 04/1949

52837    (12837)                 r/n:                                     scrap: 04/1948

52839    (12839)                 r/n: 05/1948                       scrap: 1949

 

Notes:

*             52727 was the sole remaining small-boiler version and never rebuilt.

Numbers in italics were allocated but never carried in service.

 

Given the scrapping dates BR logos would probably be iffy. More likely would be BRITISH RAILWAYS in full on the tender if not LMS.

 

Compounds by the mid/late 50's were doing the same job as the 2P 4-4-0's on local services and occasional excursion services (together with anything else which could turn a wheel) so no reason for one not to appear at Bacup. Anyway, the Bachmann jobbie is such a superb model its hard to resist buying one! Rose Grove had a couple on shed.

 

Bill

 

Hi Jason,  Following on from Bill's post, here's a little more information regarding the last L & Y, 0-8-0s;

 

According to my 1950 shedbook, 52727, 52822 and 52831 were all residing at Wigan (ex-L & Y) shed, which had been recently recoded 27D.

 

A trawl through some likely books has produced two photos of 52727.  One by Henry Casserley, LHS 3/4, undated at Wigan shed, with the locomotive carrying a single headlamp for a mineral or empty wagon train, and B.R. numbers and front numberplate (photo appears in "Locomotives of British Railways", Casserley & Asher, Spring Books, 1961, revised 1965 ed., p325).  And another view turned up at Horwich in October 1950, which I would speculate is just before withdrawal (photo in "Pre-Grouping Trains on British Railways - The LMS Companies", Peter Hay, OPC/Haynes, 1988, about halfway through - there's no page numbers!).  In this Photomatic photo, RHS 3/4, taken alongside Horwich Works, the loco is still carrying the 27D shedplate and BR numberplate, but clearly has L.M.S. on the eight-wheel tender. 

 

The next photo in Peter Hay's book is of the large boilered variety (ugly brutes!), 52857, with side-window cab, trundling through Wigan and again still with LMS on the tender.  An undated Frank Dean photo, but before 1951 as the loco. was withdrawn during that year.

 

Hope this helps (Drop me a pm and I'll bring the books to Expo for you).

 

All the best,

 

Johnny Gringo ("Allegedly, I ate their parrots!")

[Jason T]

Cheers John, Bill and everyone else. I'm a long way off starting the 30 yet but it's useful to have the info. Will pm you near the time re: parrot eating

[P.C.M]

Hi Jason,

My first post here but I have been following your progress. 

Love you idea for the down pipes I have some to do on Llanbourne so might copy your idea as the ones I have done so far don't look right.

 

Layout looks great by the way.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Jason T]

Thanks Peter, and glad my post was of some use.

 

On the subject of drain pipes, etc., the ones on the shop (built a long, long time ago) are now painted up but as you may be able to see, I am having a bit of an issue with some matt varnish that I was trying to calm some glossy bits down with (on other areas). It's making it even more glossy than it was before. Stupid varnish.

 

I have also repainted the shop frontage. Previously, it was a lighter green that always looked a bit too clean, shiny and light so I have instead painted it in this darker colour that seems to be being used more and more as time goes on, with other doors, etc., repainted in it as well. At some point, all the additions and the shop front will be getting toned down and muckied up.

 

[Andrew P]

Hi Jason, I love that shop front, I think that that green is now bob on, I expect to see Ronnie Barker and David Jason come out any moment, (can't think of their characters names, must be getting old).

 

Bodgit

[davefrk]

Hi Jason, I love that shop front, I think that that green is now bob on, I expect to see Ronnie Barker and David Jason come out any moment, (can't think of their characters names, must be getting old).

 

Bodgit

 

Mr Arkright and G-G-G-Granvillle. One of my favourite sitcoms. Oh that nurse Gladys Emanuel.

[Jason T]

Ok, so I was bored waiting for paint to dry and preparing gutters, etc.

 

The bloody bus, you know the one. The one that has been parked up by the shop, ready to go under the railway bridge for the past 18 months as the World around it has been created. It was there before the bridge was even built. Well, that whole time, it literally was parked up because there was no driver.

 

What a shocking state of affairs; a Ribble bus, miles from home, with no driver, no conductor and no passengers. Well, an advert was put in local rag for a driver and conductor and I am happy to say that we had three applicants, two who were successful. The driver used to work for Airfix as 'Man with pickaxe continuously held aloft' and the conductor, well I'm not sure what his previous job was. The unsuccessful applicant went for the position of driver but unfortunately, his arms were made of foam and as such, even after surgery, just weren't up to the job (even with Superglue, his arm wouldn't stay in position although when I got peeved and stuck his stupid arm to his face, shoulder first, it stuck fast and he looked like an elephant hybrid). His previous job had been with Hornby, as 'Short man who continually walks around carrying a wide box'.

 

Passengers, upon actually seeing a driver and conductor, flocked to get on and see whereabouts in the Ribble Valley this contraption would take them. All three of them. On board, we have short man with a bowler hat, badly moulded old woman and young woman with a bucket, although she left the bucket at home.

Disappointment awaits these keen daytrippers though, as it's a toy bus and therefore doesn't have an engine. They should have caught the DMU from the station instead, and enjoyed a thrilling 1/4 mile trip to the truncated Fiddle Yard next to my work laptop and some glue bottles. This is most definitely the age of the train.

 

(and yes, I will be doing a lot more work on the bus at some point )

 

 

[Jason T]

The biggest challenge of them all has to be to find a purpose and suitable relaxed pose for 'Muscly shortarse with his lump hammer poised to smash the crap out of something'. This poor chap appears on literally thousands of layouts, even seen on some finescale ones and his pose remains the same; just about to bring down some PAIN on an unsuspecting object with that hammer of his. He's been stood like that for years and judging by the cleanliness of his shirt, he's not done any work so far. Maybe he is not supposed to be using the hammer but is sorely tempted and at the same time nervous of the outcome, so is umming and ahhing about swinging it down.

 

On my last layout, he was poised ready to smash the living crap out of an AEC Monarch, that other stalwart of a thousand layouts. No place for him on Bacup though, I fear.

 

Anyway, in a roundabout way, what I am getting at here is why so many tiny people come in such animated poses. Looking in my box of bits, I've found around 40 people (not including the ones already glued on the station) and of those, only 10 are in restful poses. The most common seems to be 'man with arm held up' which is great if you have a position that needs someone to have their arm held up but I can't think of many of those.

 

Edit: I name most of my photos when I put them up on Photobucket. Unsurprisingly, this one is named MC Hammer:

 

 

Double edit: Or is it a plunger? Have I been wrong all these years?

Why would he be holding a plunger aloft?

[Worsdell forever]

The biggest challenge of them all has to be to find a purpose and suitable relaxed pose for 'Muscly shortarse with his lump hammer poised to smash the crap out of something'. This poor chap appears on literally thousands of layouts, even seen on some finescale ones and his pose remains the same; just about to bring down some PAIN on an unsuspecting object with that hammer of his. He's been stood like that for years and judging by the cleanliness of his shirt, he's not done any work so far. Maybe he is not supposed to be using the hammer but is sorely tempted and at the same time nervous of the outcome, so is umming and ahhing about swinging it down.

 

On my last layout, he was poised ready to smash the living crap out of an AEC Monarch, that other stalwart of a thousand layouts. No place for him on Bacup though, I fear.

 

Anyway, in a roundabout way, what I am getting at here is why so many tiny people come in such animated poses. Looking in my box of bits, I've found around 40 people (not including the ones already glued on the station) and of those, only 10 are in restful poses. The most common seems to be 'man with arm held up' which is great if you have a position that needs someone to have their arm held up but I can't think of many of those.

 

Edit: I name most of my photos when I put them up on Photobucket. Unsurprisingly, this one is named MC Hammer:

 

Double edit: Or is it a plunger? Have I been wrong all these years?

Why would he be holding a plunger aloft?

 

Attach a wire and call him Karaoke Chris...

 

[Andrew P]

The biggest challenge of them all has to be to find a purpose and suitable relaxed pose for 'Muscly shortarse with his lump hammer poised to smash the crap out of something'. This poor chap appears on literally thousands of layouts, even seen on some finescale ones and his pose remains the same; just about to bring down some PAIN on an unsuspecting object with that hammer of his. He's been stood like that for years and judging by the cleanliness of his shirt, he's not done any work so far. Maybe he is not supposed to be using the hammer but is sorely tempted and at the same time nervous of the outcome, so is umming and ahhing about swinging it down.

 

On my last layout, he was poised ready to smash the living crap out of an AEC Monarch, that other stalwart of a thousand layouts. No place for him on Bacup though, I fear.

 

Anyway, in a roundabout way, what I am getting at here is why so many tiny people come in such animated poses. Looking in my box of bits, I've found around 40 people (not including the ones already glued on the station) and of those, only 10 are in restful poses. The most common seems to be 'man with arm held up' which is great if you have a position that needs someone to have their arm held up but I can't think of many of those.

 

Edit: I name most of my photos when I put them up on Photobucket. Unsurprisingly, this one is named MC Hammer:

 

 

Double edit: Or is it a plunger? Have I been wrong all these years?

Why would he be holding a plunger aloft?

Jason, I thought the Bus conductor looked like our Jeff, on a day off from Wall Building, Patio Laying, Grass Growing and Sheep Rustling.

 

Bodgit :locomotive:

[62613]

And now for something completely different (again). For far too long, the majority of buildings have been devoid of items that are all too important in an area that gets as much rain as East Lancashire does; gutters and downpipes. One of the reasons for this is the scale of the task of adding them; fine for a couple of buildings but when you are looking at almost 60 houses that need them as well as mills, etc., it becomes a tad daunting. Now I have to admit that there is no great accuracy to the ones I am adding; one again, with so much to add, I am not about to start filing down brass tubes, adding every bracket, etc., on as life is too short. So instead, I've been looking at methods that look fine from a distance and ok from up close.

 

Initially, I started to wrap thin strips of sticky label around plastic rodding and attaching it to the buildings with superglue but apart from looking a bit basic, they keep falling off. So, I've gone back to an earlier suggestion of using wire with a protrusion at the back, drilling holes and attaching them that way. For the gutters, I am using Evergreen half-round strips.

 

I start by wrapping steel wire around a suitably thin screwdriver and then bending the end out at 90 degrees before snipping a couple of coils off, tweaking with the pliers to get them a bit tighter. When fitted to the downpipe and building, they look ok (but not perfect, as mentioned).

 

 

A bit overscale but not too bad

 

And when painted, they look acceptable. The stinkpipe, etc., on the left are Langley ones. The residents of this house are lucky enough to have an inside toilet!!!

 

Cracking stuff, Jason! I know the sun doesn't shine that much in East Lancashire, but when it does......!

[glasspusher]

The biggest challenge of them all has to be to find a purpose and suitable relaxed pose for 'Muscly shortarse with his lump hammer poised to smash the crap out of something'. This poor chap appears on literally thousands of layouts, even seen on some finescale ones and his pose remains the same; just about to bring down some PAIN on an unsuspecting object with that hammer of his. He's been stood like that for years and judging by the cleanliness of his shirt, he's not done any work so far. Maybe he is not supposed to be using the hammer but is sorely tempted and at the same time nervous of the outcome, so is umming and ahhing about swinging it down.

 

On my last layout, he was poised ready to smash the living crap out of an AEC Monarch, that other stalwart of a thousand layouts. No place for him on Bacup though, I fear.

 

Anyway, in a roundabout way, what I am getting at here is why so many tiny people come in such animated poses. Looking in my box of bits, I've found around 40 people (not including the ones already glued on the station) and of those, only 10 are in restful poses. The most common seems to be 'man with arm held up' which is great if you have a position that needs someone to have their arm held up but I can't think of many of those.

 

Edit: I name most of my photos when I put them up on Photobucket. Unsurprisingly, this one is named MC Hammer:

 

 

Double edit: Or is it a plunger? Have I been wrong all these years?

Why would he be holding a plunger aloft?

Plunger I reckon.

Could he be an Obstetrician?  About to perform a ventouse delivery?    He's no plumber, the trousers are too high.

Edited September 6, 2013 by glasspusher

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

I know what you can do with him - get a model Austin 1100 estate in red and replace the hammer / plunger (could that be a hamnger?) with the branch of a tree and hey presto - Fawlty Towers homage!

 

Coat on and heading out of door...

 

All the best,

 

Castle