Grantham - the Streamliner years

[gr.king]

Go on, you know you want to commit yourself to saying which D class you think it is.

 

Without reference to a list of running numbers and without a definite measurement for the coupled wheelbase, it's not easy to decide whether to plump for D2 or D3, is it?

 

The level running plate makes one more likely than the other, but it's not conclusive proof......

[Barry O]

D3????

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I know a layout that is going to need a couple of sacks of ballastic.     

 

Hold on lads, I haven't finished track laying yet...

 

but thanks for the offer 

 

 

[Barry O]

Hold on lads, I haven't finished track laying yet...

 

but thanks for the offer

 

 

For a small, negotiated, fee we can show you how to ballast track.

 

Or come to Warley and see some ballasting on another layout the Ballastmeister has been busy with

 

Baz

Edited November 20, 2017 by Barry O

[St Enodoc]

For a small, negotiated, fee we can show you how to ballast track.

 

Or come to Warley and see some vballasting on another layout the Ballastmeister has been busy with

 

Baz

That's good to hear.

[Garethp8873]

Well, as you ask, and as the stock is relevant to Grantham, and as I've been able to find the pictures just now without too much bother.....

 

The work in each case involved some cutting and shutting of the sides to get the desired layout, I inset the sides on the brake portion, added framing to the windows where necessary (tediously) using plastic strip, replaced roofs and ends in several cases with home produced resin parts, cut and shut the interior mouldings to get the right layout in there too, stripped parts off the underframes and replaced with either new electric or gas fiitings of the approximately correct type, and in a couple of cases substituted Fox bogies. Even the Gresley bogies may be Bachmann rather than Hornby - according to what I had at the time of doing a budget job.

 

STA79107 SFO lined, plus end & int w.jpg STA79109 SFO lined corr side views w.jpg STA79117 lined BFK & int w.jpg STA79118 lined BFK 2 side views w.jpg STA79145 four GN conversions.jpg

Stunning work. Do you ever do commissions?

[gr.king]

Not at present I'm afraid. I did a few at one time, when I was less busy, but unless and until full-time work in a "real job" (which is quite busy these days) ceases, I can't see much chance of doing any more commission model building / conversion work. I'm making barely any progress on my own model railway goals theses days.....

[Barry O]

so if that was a D3 is this a D2??

 

[LNER4479]

so if that was a D3 is this a D2??

 

4329 Grantham side on.JPG

Yup!

 

FWIW, the D3 was rebuilt from a D4...

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

The D2's and D3's are a absolute minefield, almost as bad as the J3's and J4's.

 

manna

[Barry O]

Big problem with these D2s and 3s are:

 

1 they aren't crimson lake

2 they are not from Mr Deeley

3 or they could be green and designed for use on the GCR!

 

Baz

[gr.king]

Yup!

 

FWIW, the D3 was rebuilt from a D4...

Just like the real thing in that respect.

[Clive Mortimore]

Big problem with these D2s and 3s are:

 

1 they aren't crimson lake

2 they are not from Mr Deeley

3 or they could be green and designed for use on the GCR!

 

Baz

GNR D2s and 3s come second in appearance to Mr Deeley's rebuild of the Johnson 4-4-0 with Belpair boilers not Sir Henry's superheated 483 class but those left with the straight running plate. Equally as nice looking where Mr Deeley's class 4 passenger locomotives the so called simple ones, the 990 class.

[LNER4479]

Evening.

 

One or two may have cottoned on by now that half of Grantham could be seen at the Warley show this weekend - the fiddle yard! The other half of what was exhibited was however the very antithesis of Grantham. Not only on the other side of the country and the 'rival' mainline to Scotland, but also set in mountainous terrain, largely just featuring a double track mainline through the landscape. Yes - the Carlisle project has been well and truly 'launched' with the surprise appearance of a complete-ish layout featuring the climb of the legendary Shap bank (layout thread link in the signature below).

 

Let me say immediately therefore that this is most definitely NOT the end of Grantham! We have a full show diary into 2020 (with an advanced booking taken over the weekend for 2021, believe it or not!) and plenty of unfinished work on the layout still to be tackled. As of this afternoon, with the van safely unloaded, the Shap layout is now packed away and will not be touched again at least until Grantham has been to the Ally-Pally show in March (something I'm particularly looking forward to). Over the next few days and weeks, Grantham will be reassembled in the chapel and serious work will again resume in earnest.

 

So - apologies for relative lack of layout-based updates on Grantham in recent times (now you know the reason why!); normal service has otherwise been resumed

[St Enodoc]

Evening.

 

One or two may have cottoned on by now that half of Grantham could be seen at the Warley show this weekend - the fiddle yard! The other half of what was exhibited was however the very antithesis of Grantham. Not only on the other side of the country and the 'rival' mainline to Scotland, but also set in mountainous terrain, largely just featuring a double track mainline through the landscape. Yes - the Carlisle project has been well and truly 'launched' with the surprise appearance of a complete-ish layout featuring the climb of the legendary Shap bank (layout thread link in the signature below).

 

Let me say immediately therefore that this is most definitely NOT the end of Grantham! We have a full show diary into 2020 (with an advanced booking taken over the weekend for 2021, believe it or not!) and plenty of unfinished work on the layout still to be tackled. As of this afternoon, with the van safely unloaded, the Shap layout is now packed away and will not be touched again at least until Grantham has been to the Ally-Pally show in March (something I'm particularly looking forward to). Over the next few days and weeks, Grantham will be reassembled in the chapel and serious work will again resume in earnest.

 

So - apologies for relative lack of layout-based updates on Grantham in recent times (now you know the reason why!); normal service has otherwise been resumed

This is a serious question - believe it or not. Have you modelled the actual gradient or is the track level with the scenery deceiving the eye, rather like the Shipley team did on Tebay?

 

Edit - just found the answer on Wright Writes - well done!

Edited November 28, 2017 by St Enodoc

[LNER4479]

And so, true to my word, standby for progress resumption...

 

I can forgive you for not quite recalling where we were up to(!) We were, in fact, just getting to grips with the third and most challenging vehicle in the Quint set, being a fusing of the BT etches specially produced by Frank Davies and a Danny Pinnock D.156 6-wheel composite. I'd done one of the sides last time we spoke so now here is the other similarly treated. Both now await duckets, hinges and droplights.

 

And a few evenings later, with all of the above done, now about to fit door handles (top right). The Quint set is an ideal project, for these cold evenings. Nothing like a late night soldering session in front of a roaring fire.

 

Meanwhile, in a sight to gladden the heart of those who prefer 1930's LNER to BR(LMR), Grantham itself is beginning to emerge from its recent chrysalis. In the background are the Shap scenic boards, which will remain firmly packed away over the winter. A spot of carpentry is going on out of sight, to the left, following which the Shap boards will be moved over there to allow the rest of the circuit to be set up.

 

More soon.

[LNER4479]

Another week of progress

 

Picking up the story from the previous post, this is the end result (for now) of the 'out of shot' carpentry. What you're looking at here are the first permanent boards for Carlisle (above the fridge). These will host some hidden running lines, hence use of wood that was to hand (no need for pretty-ness). Anyhow, for now, it facilitates neat(-ish) storage, away from where Grantham needs to be set up. The Shap scenic boards, seen to the right, have since been stored adjacent to this new structure, leaving the rest of the chapel clear to set the rest of Grantham up.

 

Meanwhile, what's going on here? Although I will eventually build a fit-for-purpose fiddle yard for Shap, some fairly simple alterations to the south end of the Nottingham fiddle yard will ease some problems we experienced at the NEC as well as making things easier for Grantham operations. This mainly centres around abandoning the turntable hereabouts. A nice idea but it has not been used in the hurly-burly of exhibition operation so it is being sacrificed in order to get rid of the older style double slip (centre) and make the roads longer.

 

The rest of the week has seen some steady soldering work on the Quint set, as the current cold snap limits time in the chapel to short bursts(!) With the sides complete (including all doors handles attached), here are all the parts laid out ready for assembly of the body.

 

Half way there. The excellent compartment partition pieces come into their own here as I use these to start assembling the shell. They can be adjusted quite easily and the soldering doesn't have to be too neat, being from the inside.

 

And - voila! One 45ft brake composite bodyshell. You can see the join at this stage but I'm confident the eventual paint finish will disguise most of it.

 

This means we're now up to three out of the five required bodies for the set. You can see the contrast between the two brake vehicles and how the D&S D.156 composite has been used to create the BC.

 

Next will be the 5 compartment third, made from the pieces of the brake etches that weren't required.

Edited December 17, 2017 by LNER4479

[gr.king]

You'll certainly have enough Howlden local stock by the time the layout next goes out.

 

I like the idea of fitting the whole Carlisle and North of England layout in just the space on top of the fridge. Very neat. It keeps all that other space free for 1930s LNER.....

Edited December 17, 2017 by gr.king

[ScRSG]

Can I please ask a question, although why this has jumped into my mind, I do not know. But, what colour was the "Hush Hush " loco painted, and would there be a modelling paint available? Thanks

[LNER4479]

Can I please ask a question, although why this has jumped into my mind, I do not know. But, what colour was the "Hush Hush " loco painted, and would there be a modelling paint available? Thanks

Others will do doubt answer more authoritatively but I understand that it should be a somewhat darker shade of grey than it is usually painted(!) Battleship grey, perhaps?

[richard i]

Others will do doubt answer more authoritatively but I understand that it should be a somewhat darker shade of grey than it is usually painted(!) Battleship grey, perhaps?

And horizontal surfaces and smokebox front were black.

[LNER4479]

This from LNERinfo:

 

In its original form, it was painted dark battleship grey with steel clothing bands. The number, 10000, was painted on the cab sides with 12in white numbers and 1.25in black shading. The bufferbeam was also grey with shaded white lettering.

[gr.king]

Here are one or two potential starting points for those wishing to agonise over the correct shade of grey:

 

https://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11351&p=117992&hilit=hush+hush+grey#p117992

[Woodcock29]

Graham

 

I love the photos above of progress on the Howlden articulated stock - please keep it coming. I must get back onto some of these next year. Oh that's not far away now - but I have some locos to build first!

 

Andrew Emmett

[LNER4479]

Thanks Andrew,

 

Progress should be more marked now as I have set myself a target of having the Quint set up and running in time for Ally-Pally show at the end of March. Now that 'Project '67' has been completed (and put to one side for a bit!) then I can give the Quint set due priority. Vehicle 4 (5 compartment third) was started last night...

 

Graham