Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

On 13/09/2019 at 14:32, Jol Wilkinson said:

Nor High Level, Finney or Mitchell. Perhaps because those posting to this thread, Tony included, have no interest in the prototypes covered in those ranges.

 

I am far from impartial, but don't enjoy seeing Jidenco and LRM listed in the same sentence. John Redrup of LRM has absorbed other ranges into the London Road Models catalogue, which might otherwise have disappeared. That has ensured that those kits continue to be available although it does, as you suggest, mean that the kits are designed with a variety of different approaches. The design age of some of the kits also means that differences occur, particularly for those kits designed "pre-CAD". However, LRM has kept kits developed by Iain Rice, Steve Barnfield, George Norton, Planit Engineering, Danny Pinnock and Derek Munday available, which may not have been the case if other kit producers hadn't come forward to take them on. Andrew at Wizard,  Brassmasters and others have also done the same. Sadly, some have failed to keep things going, such as Falcon (Jidenco) and Blacksmith/Mallard (Coopercraft).

 

John has also continued to add kits by other designers, especially those who had the interest in a particular prototype but welcomed support in in getting the kit into production. Two recent examples of additions to the range are the LNER 0-8-0's designed by Frank Davies for the Shipley MRS “Clayton” layout, together with the forthcoming MR Railmotor (Andy Walker) and LNWR 0-4-0 shunting tank (Dave Smith).

 

Jol

Thanks Jol,

 

As I've already said, the list included manufacturers' kits I've built. In some cases I've had little interest in the prototypes, but they were what was asked for.

 

I'm also very puzzled as to how Jidenco and LRM models have been mentioned in the same sentence; other than to illustrate different ends of the spectrum!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

On 13/09/2019 at 21:25, ArthurK said:

Tony, please forgive me for publicising my range here.

My name has been mentioned a couple of times in the above posts. There are about twenty locos in range, all are NER prototypes.

NORTHEASTERN KITS PRICE LIST.pdf 69.78 kB · 63 downloads

Not all are available at any one time as they are produced in small batches.

Note the these are not complete kits and do not include handrail knobs,  nuts & bolts or wire. They do include all etches, castings and comprehensive instructions.

Many of these are detailed in MikeMeg's threads

 

ArthurK

Good morning Arthur,

 

What is there to forgive?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

As can be observed, I'm just catching up with Wright Writes after spending an excellent weekend at the Woking Show.

 

May I please thank all those involved and thank all those with whom I spoke? 

 

I managed to photograph a layout - Melangoose, by Nigel Crowe. 

 

 

 

There's even a bus on a bridge!

 

The show was personally very successful, especially with regard to contributions to CRUK, either from sales of donated items or my tinkering with things. The 'success' list included fixing a K's chassis, a 'Schools', a 9F, a Belgian electric and a German 2-10-0, as well as soldering on the wee deflectors on a DJH A2/2 kit. The one failure was an N Gauge American diesel, which twitched; then died!

 

May I please thank all those who donated so generously? That's taken Mo and me well past £3,000.00 this year now for CRUK. 

[BlackRat]

Talking of Centre Models........

 

 I bought this one from James and Lendons in Cardiff about ......38 years ago or more.......

 

In those days you coud buy the kit, Romford wheels, axles, crank pins, motor, gears, handrail knobs and wire etc ......all in the one shop!

 

Still runs well, tho it growls like a tiger with its nuts caught in a mangle! Mind you it was always like that.

 

Used to be able to pull any amount of wagons you would care to put behind it.

 

I guess it will still work in 50 years time!

[Barry O]

Blackrat.. that is the one I am missing. Never even seen an unbuilt kit let alone one I could take apart and rebuild.

Nice and heavy and sounds like it has thee same Tractive Effort as the real one.

Baz

[BlackRat]

12 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Blackrat.. that is the one I am missing. Never even seen an unbuilt kit let alone one I could take apart and rebuild.

Nice and heavy and sounds like it has thee same Tractive Effort as the real one.

Baz

 

And I still have the box! ( and the injectors AND the original split pin handrail 'knobs'!

 

[timbowilts]

This thread is such a marvellous wander through the history of this hobby. I hope that it can be saved for future generations to read once Tony and the rest of us of mature years have gone to the great layout room in the sky. It would be a shame to lose all the collective erudition, wit and knowledge shared on here.

Tim T

All packed up ready to move to Felin Foel

[t-b-g]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Did I manage to photograph the Jidenco Claughton on Narrow Road, Tony?

 

 

 

A year ago, at the Woking Show, I did manage to photograph this one, running on Metropolitan Junction (in EM). This year it was back again, on the EM Gauge Society stand. I was amused by the little note describing it. 'JIdenco kit, over 90% scratch-built, just parts of the cab, a few castings and some nuts and bolts from the original' or words to that effect!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

Indeed you did Tony. It appeared in the photos you took for the BRM article for the April 2005 edition.

 

Ours has a few more Jidenco parts than the Metropolitan Junction one but not many.

[ArthurK]

Regarding the use of only a few parts from the original kit, I bought a Nu Cast O2  from a local trader ( yes we once had one in Lytham but that was not his main business). The boiler was in two halves with the firebox made up from two more. There was no way that I was going  to get an acceptable round boiler from that lot. I made a round boiler from brass. Then decided I would prefer the LNER cab to the GN version. I ended up scratch building the footplate and chassis as well. The tender wasn't too bad and I did keep the backhead!

 

 

No doubt  Tony  with his better knowledge of these than I have will find plenty of inaccuracies but all I had to go by was a Skinley drawing and I did make some adjustments to that. I can't really blame the kit manufactures for all the bits I threw away but the boiler was horrible. Some day I might finish it, or perhaps I should just dispose of it and let someone else do that. I don't have the time.

 

ArthurK

Edited September 16, 2019 by ArthurK
Grammar

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, ArthurK said:

Regarding the use of only a few parts from the original kit, I bought a Nu Cast O2  from a local trader ( yes we once had one in Lytham but that was not his main business). The boiler was in two halves with the firebox made up from two more. There was no way that I was going  to get an acceptable round boiler from that lot. I made a round boiler from brass. Then decided I would prefer the LNER cab to the GN version. I ended up scratch building the footplate and chassis as well. The tender wasn't too bad and I did keep the backhead!

 

 

No doubt  Tony  with his better knowledge of these than I have will find plenty of inaccuracies but all I had to go by was a Skinley drawing and I did make some adjustments to that. I can't really blame the kit manufactures for all the bits I threw away but the boiler was horrible. Some day I might finish it, or perhaps I should just dispose of it and let someone else do that. I don't have the time.

 

ArthurK

It looks a lovely piece of work, Arthur,

 

Thanks for posting.

 

However, Skinley drawing? Hmmmm......................

 

What you've made is an O2/1, but the footplate height is that for an O2/3 (with long travel valves, causing the central footplate to be higher - thanks to Roy Vinter for pointing this out to me). The O2/1s were the original GN-built Gresley Tangos, but they had their boiler mountings lowered and a side window cab added in the 1930s. Some later became O2/4s, with a Thompson B1 boiler, but retaining RH drive. 

 

It looks like you've used 12mm pony wheels. They should be smaller. 

 

Whether this constitutes finding 'plenty of inaccuracies', I don't know, but your workmanship is exemplary. I'd count it a privilege if you'd let me finish it.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony. 

[dibateg]

I've been observing the shrinking of sources of detail parts for 4mm scale in this thread. 7mm scale is no different in that one or two suppliers have ceased to trade recently. Particularly ABS and although there are more RTR wagons appearing in this scale, the variety available is much smaller than in 4mm. I keep an eye out for second hand Freightman wagons ( it was a good range and utilised ABS underframes ) and at a show, I picked up a rather battered SR van with uneven planking that appeared to have been painted with treacle. This is where my 'professional' skills came in to play and in stripping the paint ( with rather unsuitable chemicals ) managed to reduce it to a horrible mess, ending up with just the underframe - actually that is the rare part- even the wheels were past redemption.. It just so happened that I had some spare Freightman sides in the cupboard and managed to obtain a new roof from Peco. So it's rather like Trigger's broom....

Talking of suppliers disappearing, I heard that when Frank Titman passed away, the Freightman moulds and tooling were thrown away by the family....

So here is the 'Triggers broom' wagon in the process of being reconstructed. Peco/Parkside do an even planked wagon, but ABS were the only source of the twin vac cylinder SR underframe. The 7mm market is much smaller that 4mm, my philosophy is if you see it: Buy it! Next year it probably wont be available..

 

Regards

Tony

 

[ardbealach]

How about A2/3 Pacific 60524 Herringbone on a fitted goods at Doncaster away back in 1969?  Perhaps makes a change from a rake of Mark Ones?  (AM)

[jwealleans]

1969, eh?  I bet that raised a few eyebrows.

[ardbealach]

Yeah you are right - 1959.  At least you all read my caption!  Apologies AM 

[bbishop]

5 hours ago, dibateg said:

I've been observing the shrinking of sources of detail parts for 4mm scale in this thread. 7mm scale is no different in that one or two suppliers have ceased to trade recently. Particularly ABS and although there are more RTR wagons appearing in this scale, the variety available is much smaller than in 4mm. I keep an eye out for second hand Freightman wagons ( it was a good range and utilised ABS underframes ) and at a show, I picked up a rather battered SR van with uneven planking that appeared to have been painted with treacle. This is where my 'professional' skills came in to play and in stripping the paint ( with rather unsuitable chemicals ) managed to reduce it to a horrible mess, ending up with just the underframe - actually that is the rare part- even the wheels were past redemption.. It just so happened that I had some spare Freightman sides in the cupboard and managed to obtain a new roof from Peco. So it's rather like Trigger's broom....

Talking of suppliers disappearing, I heard that when Frank Titman passed away, the Freightman moulds and tooling were thrown away by the family....

So here is the 'Triggers broom' wagon in the process of being reconstructed. Peco/Parkside do an even planked wagon, but ABS were the only source of the twin vac cylinder SR underframe. The 7mm market is much smaller that 4mm, my philosophy is if you see it: Buy it! Next year it probably wont be available..

 

Regards

Tony

 

 

Was it Titcombe?  I think the moulds were kept, but maybe like the Trevor Charlton zinc sides, the source materials were unobtainable.

 

I built a Freightman SR wagon, couldn't find the roof and, with trepidation, fitted a Parkside one.  Fitted perfectly, and there is no way the two companies  collaborated.

 

Bill

[dibateg]

Yes - you could be right Bill, my memory is not good at the best of times, so yes it could be Titcombe. I'm sure I have an old Freightman catalogue somewhere, I must dig it out.

Regards

Tony

[Tony Wright]

Just occasionally, something occurs which is wholly unexpected.

 

Just after the start of this century, I built a DJH A1 on commission for a new customer (with whom I then became friends). Ian Rathbone painted it. 

 

 

 

 

 

I made it to represent one of the five roller bearing examples.

 

At the Woking Show over the weekend, Frank Hueng brought it back, saying 'I'm giving it to you. For the last near-20 years it's been sitting in my cabinet and it never gets used. So, it's yours, and it can be run on Little Bytham. It deserves to be run!'

 

Now, there's no way I'm accepting this, so we've come to an arrangement. It's on a 99 year loan! Frank's really a Southern Region fan, but he loves A1s.

 

What a 'gift'. And, here she is doing what I made her to do, running as sweetly as when I built her. 

 

I actually already had GREAT CENTRAL. 

 

 

When John Houlden sold his Gamston Bank locos/stock (of which there's still a lot more - watch this pace), I bought this DJH one he'd made off him. Since it would be a sin to renumber/rename this (I have three roller-bearing A1s, which is enough), I've now sold this on. Not because it's not a good model - it's lovely - but because it's only my possession, which really isn't enough for me. It runs beautifully, and is Portescap-powered. Interestingly, I've sold it for less than a quarter of the price I originally sold my build of 60156 to Frank for!

 

GREAT CENTRAL is certainly a popular loco of late.

 

 

Seen before, this was Roy Jackson's last loco-build. Sadly, he never saw it painted. 

 

Perhaps Robert Carroll will post a picture of the GREAT CENTRAL which was sold at Wells. I'd have liked to have taken its picture, but it went so fast! 

 

There's something about a metal kit-built/scratch-built loco which no RTR equivalent can ever 'capture'. They have a mass, they make an all metal-on-metal noise as they negotiate trackwork, and their pulling power is so much more. 

 

You probably don't read this, but thanks Frank. Thanks indeed!

  

Edited September 16, 2019 by Tony Wright
to clarify a point

[Lecorbusier]

I couldn't help but notice ... on the first loco the number is below the hand rail on the smoke box door hinge .... on the second it is above ?????

 

The first one looks to my eyes to be a beauty ! It would be interesting to see it standing next to the second to compare and contrast.

[robertcwp]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Perhaps Robert Carroll will post a picture of the GREAT CENTRAL which was sold at Wells. I'd have liked to have taken its picture, but it went so fast! 

 

  

You mean this one, now under new ownership: 

IMG_0572m by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

[Northmoor]

12 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

As can be observed, I'm just catching up with Wright Writes after spending an excellent weekend at the Woking Show.

 

May I please thank all those involved and thank all those with whom I spoke? 

 

I managed to photograph a layout - Melangoose, by Nigel Crowe. 

 

There's even a bus on a bridge!

 

The show was personally very successful, especially with regard to contributions to CRUK, either from sales of donated items or my tinkering with things. The 'success' list included fixing a K's chassis, a 'Schools', a 9F, a Belgian electric and a German 2-10-0, as well as soldering on the wee deflectors on a DJH A2/2 kit. The one failure was an N Gauge American diesel, which twitched; then died!

 

May I please thank all those who donated so generously? That's taken Mo and me well past £3,000.00 this year now for CRUK. 

Lovely to catch up with you and Mo on Sunday, Tony and many thanks again for your efforts with my four non-runners.  The "Kreigslok": perhaps the HO section of this forum can advise on the conversion to 12V DC.......?  I went with 4 non-runners and returned home with 2 working, one that I don't care if it works and the other was barely working anyway.  I only spent a few quid on some odds-n-ends of transfer packs; I think the donation to CR will do more good than buying another project which I'll never get around to build to run on a layout I may never build.

 

Ynysybwl was the standout layout this weekend; I chatted to one of the operators about how they got the watercourses so "right" (riverbed gravel and varnish) but it is exquisite all round.  One observation about a couple of layouts - don't know if you agree - was how the front is presented to the public.  Several had clear screens to protect against poking fingers (entirely understandable) but what I find spoils the overall effect is the badges from previous exhibitions stuck along the bottom edge of the scenery.  A layout with a blank front frames the layout  and draws your eye in.  The badges are distracting, better placed at one end with the back story and layout description on a board hiding a fiddle yard.  Oh and that reminds me, I saw at least one farcical architectural feature used to hide a fiddle yard entrance, one of my real pet peeves on model railways.  It was a pity as otherwise the level of detail on this layout was impressive.

 

Rob

[Tony Wright]

47 minutes ago, Lecorbusier said:

I couldn't help but notice ... on the first loco the number is below the hand rail on the smoke box door hinge .... on the second it is above ?????

 

The first one looks to my eyes to be a beauty ! It would be interesting to see it standing next to the second to compare and contrast.

The reason for that is quite simple, Tim,

 

When train headboards were attached to the top lamp bracket on the Peppercorn and Thompson Pacifics, they were awkward for the fireman to get them into position (the bracket being so high). There was also evidence that the larger boards caused eddies around the top of the smokebox, nullifying, to some extent, the effect of the deflectors. Thus, from 1955 onward, the top bracket was lowered on the smokebox door, resulting in the numberplate being re-positioned on to the top hingestrap. This was completed by 1959/'60, though examples existed of the crossrail's/numberplate's positions being transposed (60129 and 60505 for instance). As the risk of electrocution increased, the lamp brackets were lowered even further, splitting the crossrail. This was applied to some of the A3s and V2s as well, meaning their front numberplates were fixed to the top hingestrap, though some had this feature when their top bracket was first lowered. Oh, those joys of loco-picking.

 

Usually, though not exclusively, the lowered top lamp brackets were accompanied with the later BR device. Again, more loco-picking.

 

I don't think it would be fair to put both GREAT CENTRALs side-by-side. John never claimed to be a professional loco-painter.

 

Actually, irrespective of whether one thinks the Rathbone-painted 60156 is 'a beauty', it's actually more-appropriate for Little Bytham's time period, which is 1958. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

Edited September 16, 2019 by Tony Wright
typo error

[Lecorbusier]

31 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

 

I don't think it would be fair to put both GREAT CENTRALs side-by-side. John never claimed to be a professional loco-painter.

 

respect 

[TheSignalEngineer]

Going back a few days to discussions about doing some modelling and building what you actually want yourself, a while ago I spoke to you at a show where you had a 'layout coach' made from brass sides overlaid on an RTR coach.

 

Despite lobbying and wishlisting the only open coaches currently available RTR are Mk1s and a Maunsell. I wanted to run an ex-LMS excursion or holiday train of my childhood in the West Midlands. These had mainly open coaches of all LMS periods. 

I had collected some sets of Comet sides so eventually I set to and after several diversions they are now nearing completion. First to finish is a D1913 BSO in maroon livery. The donor in this case was a Replica LMS Vestibule 3rd. For some reason the roof vent positions on the donor model were actually closer to a brake vehicle than a full passenger coach. 

 

Here it is bringing up the rear of a train, just a bit of finishing required. The the vehicle in front is another Replica Vestibule, this time repainted. The windows of that one haven't been flush glazed but I painted the inside edges of the openings in matt black which to my mind improves the look of old plastic bodies. I think the shell vents on these may get changed for something  smaller as they tend to look a bit oversize. I must check out the actual dimensions

 

 

Incidentally the engineers coach partly visible in the foreground started life as a Triang Clerestory on my first 00 layout which existed from 1959 to 1967. The internal user van at the end of the siding started as a Ratio Iron Mink on a layout which ran from 1976 to 1981.

 

Eric

Edited September 16, 2019 by TheSignalEngineer

[jamie92208]

I have been following the discussions about old kits with interest.  The first loco kit I made was a Wills King complete with WM chassis.  I could never get it to run.  I also tried to make a GEM compund and an L&Y 2-4-2T, neither of which ran well.  I had more success with a K's Garratt that could only haul about two wagons. I then out an MW5 under the rear rotary bunker and after that, with both motors it would haul anything I put behind it. It still has the K's wheels.  I did make one Jidenco kit, a 6 wheel Midland brake that I stuck together with superglue as I didn't have a reliable soldering iron.  I suppose that all this shows how my skills needed to increase.

 

Now to the real poi t of my post.  I have decided to dabble in 3D printed models and have ordered a print of a Heysham to Lancaster Electric trailer car. I'm not happy with my plasticard ones for various reasons and discovered that both the power cars and trailer cars are available from Rue d'Etropal via Shapeways.  Can anyone give me any tips about how to go about painting such things.  Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Jamie

 

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Going back a few days to discussions about doing some modelling and building what you actually want yourself, a while ago I spoke to you at a show where you had a 'layout coach' made from brass sides overlaid on an RTR coach.

 

Despite lobbying and wishlisting the only open coaches currently available RTR are Mk1s and a Maunsell. I wanted to run an ex-LMS excursion or holiday train of my childhood in the West Midlands. These had mainly open coaches of all LMS periods. 

I had collected some sets of Comet sides so eventually I set to and after several diversions they are now nearing completion. First to finish is a D1913 BSO in maroon livery. The donor in this case was a Replica LMS Vestibule 3rd. For some reason the roof vent positions on the donor model were actually closer to a brake vehicle than a full passenger coach. 

 

Here it is bringing up the rear of a train, just a bit of finishing required. The the vehicle in front is another Replica Vestibule, this time repainted. The windows of that one haven't been flush glazed but I painted the inside edges of the openings in matt black which to my mind improves the look of old plastic bodies. I think the shell vents on these may get changed for something  smaller as they tend to look a bit oversize. I must check out the actual dimensions

 

 

Incidentally the engineers coach partly visible in the foreground started life as a Triang Clerestory on my first 00 layout which existed from 1959 to 1967. The internal user van at the end of the siding started as a Ratio Iron Mink on a layout which ran from 1976 to 1981.

 

Eric

'a while ago I spoke to you at a show where you had a 'layout coach' made from brass sides overlaid on an RTR coach.'

 

This is the coach in question, Eric. 

 

 

 

It's been seen before, but there are always new readers to this thread. It represents a Dia. 1791 ex-LMS Composite, made from Comet sides over an old Airfix donor, with a much-modified underframe (again Comet). I've yet to alter the roof rainstrips.

 

This sort of 'layout' carriage suits my 'layout' philosophy perfectly. I have neither the skills nor the time to produce rakes of 'glass case' carriages, and with hundreds of cars made/modified, then I can 'populate' a largish layout with a suitably wide variety of rolling stock. 

 

Items of rolling stock like the following pair, unavailable RTR. Both have brass sides over RTR donors, have much-modified underframes and run on cast metal bogies. 

 

 

A Thompson RK; Southern Pride sides and an original Bachmann donor.

 

 

A Greslet RF: MJT sides over a Gresley donor.

 

Both have been painted (like the LMS car) using Halfords rattle can car acrylics, and the lining is transfer. 

 

Others employ similar methods......................

 

 

This Collett RF conversion was made by Westerner (Alan). 

 

Apologies for these all having been seen before, but, as I say, there might be many who've not seen them (over 1500 pages is a lot to trawl through!). 

 

Apart from the Gresley, donor cars (which aren't very good at source) can be picked up very cheaply, and even with the cost of the brass sides and replacement bogies/bits and pieces, the whole lot still works out at far less than a complete brass carriage.  To me, they're ideal ways of easily getting that myriad of variety which the RTR market will never cover.

 

Many thanks for posting images of your work; excellent!

 

Regards,

 

Tony.