Jump to content
 

Please use M,M&M only for topics that do not fit within other forum areas. All topics posted here await admin team approval to ensure they don't belong elsewhere.

Wright writes.....


Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium
2 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

On a similar note regarding ‘armchair experts’. Once when I was showing at a classic car show a bloke told his young that my car was a Ferrari, I wish.  It’s actually a Lotus and is badged accordingly. I just let it pass, I couldn’t be bothered. I think sometimes it’s a good job I don’t hear some of the comments at exhibitions.

Regards ROBERT

553E1D1D-96EE-4BFB-83ED-B437A8F487AD.jpeg.055db0c706e16f1ae8f8a80f957a3232.jpeg

 

Is it RTR or kit-built?  

 

Also, it would look better if you fitted Markits wheels and wiggly wires...

 

;)

  • Funny 17
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Chamby said:

 

Is it RTR or kit-built?  

 

Also, it would look better if you fitted Markits wheels and wiggly wires...

 

;)

The Elans  were available as kits but the Plus 2 was only available RTR!

The wheels are like Markits, they have one centre nut (spinner) which if not tightened properly fall off!
regards ROBERT

  • Informative/Useful 1
  • Funny 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
34 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

The Elans  were available as kits but the Plus 2 was only available RTR!

The wheels are like Markits, they have one centre nut (spinner) which if not tightened properly fall off!
regards ROBERT

Are the threads opposite hands on each side?

Link to post
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Atso said:

Going back a little to locomotive haulage, I've been tinkering again with my N gauge C1 Atlantic. As it was last left it would just about pull five coaches which was pretty useless for my ambitions for Hadley Wood. Some redesigning of the 'Cartazzi' wheels and tender to convert them to split frame pickup (reducing drag) and a new drawbar to stop the considerable slop between the loco and tender (where the motor is mounted) has improved things considerably. Interestingly, this was achieved without adding any extra weight. I'm now looking forward to finally being able to put the finishing touches to this loco and not worry about it again!

 

 

Please excuse the temporary floor layout. I'm presently separated from my layout and usual workbench so this is the best I'll be able to manage for a while yet.

 

Good afternoon Atso,

 

What a beautiful locomotive.

 

Haulage capacity has always been of high interest to myself, or rather the interaction of loco and stock. One being able to pull and run freely and the other be pulled and run freely. If you build your own locomotives and stock it is basic 101 and is one of the elements that makes building things so much fun. I'm interested to hear of your experience with the Atlantic, there is more to successful haulage than just stuffing a loco full of lead.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Are the threads opposite hands on each side?

Yes.  Where I used to work in a previous life, we had a customer in Greece who was restoring a Triumph TR6 and complained to us that all his wheels fell off after spirited driving one day.  Guess what?  He'd fitted the splined hubs on which his wire wheels secured on the wrong sides of the car and thus fitted the centre knock-off nuts ('spinners') the wrong way round, too, despite the fact that all spinners clearly have stamped on them 'LH only' and 'RH only'.  When fitted the correct way round, the spinners are self-tightening - unless you drive everywhere in reverse of course.

 

By the way, we Triumph chaps used to say 'Lotus?  That stands for Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious'.

 

Pete T.

 

Edited by PJT
Repeated 'of course'
  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
  • Funny 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

One of my N gauge projects, Frogan’s Yard, is an inner city area small goods yard which I originally ran as Green Diesels however my original and first love of LMS has resurfaced as the pictures hopefully show. The problem I’m currently grappling with however is road transport to carry the off loaded goods away. 
 

I’m aware of a couple of options from PD Marsh and Langley but I was wondering if anyone could offer any further suggestions I would be grateful as the only road transport I’ve found of suitable age is a taxi.

 


 

860F6370-4EB8-430F-B3EA-CA8E1C59CE5B.jpeg

A9A06334-440C-49FE-A2E8-81B2315FF4BA.jpeg

Edited by Dragonboy
  • Like 10
  • Craftsmanship/clever 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Dragonboy said:

One of my N gauge projects, Frogan’s Yard, is an inner city area small goods yard which I originally ran as Green Diesels however my original and first love of LMS has resurfaced as the pictures hopefully show. The problem I’m currently grappling with however is road transport to carry the off loaded goods away. 
 

I’m aware of a couple of options from PD Marsh and Langley but I was wondering if anyone could offer any further suggestions I would be grateful as the only road transport I’ve found of suitable age is a taxi.

 


 

860F6370-4EB8-430F-B3EA-CA8E1C59CE5B.jpeg

A9A06334-440C-49FE-A2E8-81B2315FF4BA.jpeg

What year(s)? Coopercraft did an AEC Monarch lorry 1931 onwards. Don't order from coopercraft though

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Are the threads opposite hands on each side?

Yes they are.

Good job they’re  Markits rather friction fit Gibson’s!
Dont think it come in P4, wheel arch’s are too narrow.

Oxford diecast do it in oo.image.jpg.fd95d992f9379424ee35dd867a12a68d.jpg

Edited by Erichill16
Typo
  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
18 minutes ago, Paul Cram said:

What year(s)? Coopercraft did an AEC Monarch lorry 1931 onwards. Don't order from coopercraft though


Don’t think Coopercraft do N. Not mentioned on their site but thanks anyway.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just thought I'd show two locos just off the work bench.

The first is the London Road Models J6 which Tony W bought me as a retirement present back in 2008. It has been a massive learning curve for me despite having built scratch chassis back in 1974 and a DJH A1 when the first came out about 40 years ago.

It represents 64277 in 1962 shortly before withdrawal. Still more to do (missing steps).

 

 

The second is a Bachmann V2 bought years ago, quite cheaply. But I've never managed to get it going.

Having now got it moving have tried to make it look more realistic despite its design and dimensional problems. So white metal cartazzi sides added, cinder guards, lifting holes in the front frames, AWS bang plate, firebox support bracket, cylinder drain cocks and electric wire warnings and renumbering. Still to do cab bases and seats and crew.

 

Again its been useful working through the list to make a more realistic model, with weathering modelled from a photo when it was working on the Great Central lines.

 

 

model.jpg

mdel2.jpg

  • Like 16
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Dragonboy said:

The problem I’m currently grappling with however is road transport to carry the off loaded goods away. 
 

I’m aware of a couple of options from PD Marsh and Langley but I was wondering if anyone could offer any further suggestions I would be grateful as the only road transport I’ve found of suitable age is a taxi.

 

 

Choice and availability of road vehicles in N/2mm is pretty sparse but you are fortunate in that the steamy era is far better served than those suitable for the last half century. For 50s & 60s check out ODC RTP and for pre-war period look at the R Parker kit range. BT also do oldie type commercial vehicles. And consider 3D printed options, often available through Shapeways.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

However, I don't employ a wide-angle lens for most of my photography. If something is 'banana-shaped', then it is. 

 

 

 

Out of interest, if it's not too impertinent, what lenses do you prefer and tend to use most for model photography?

 

Recently I've been using a 40mm macro/micro lens a fair bit, stopping it down to f22. 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

A few general shots of Sowerby Road M.P.D. ( not to be confused with Sowerby Bridge m.p.d. , this one is totally fictional ) . Hope they are of interest .

   1 . visiting locos no's 45517 & 60031 GOLDEN PLOVER await their return workings in the shed .

   2 . A grounded coach body provides a less than salubrious mess room .

   3 . A view of the repair shed .

                              Cheers ,

                                     Ray .

p1010322a.jpg

P1010327a.jpg

P1010332a.jpg

  • Like 16
Link to post
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, grahame said:

 

Out of interest, if it's not too impertinent, what lenses do you prefer and tend to use most for model photography?

 

Recently I've been using a 40mm macro/micro lens a fair bit, stopping it down to f22. 

 

It's not impertinent at all Grahame.

 

For studio work I use either a 60mm Nikon Micro lens, which stops down to F.32 (smaller, with fiddling - how, I don't know) or a 28mm-105mm Nikon zoom, with a Macro setting, which stops down to F29. I never use it on less than 50mm. These lenses go on the front of a Nikon D3, on a tripod. 

 

For layout work I use an 18mm-35mm Nikon zoom, which stops down to F.29. I also use an old Nikon 55mm Micro lens which stops down to F.32, and the 60mm Micro. The zoom is always at 35mm (yes, a bit wide angle), and the lenses are on the front of a Nikon Df. 

 

Everything on both cameras is done manually. The hardest part (initially) was finding out how to turn off all the functions where both cameras wanted to take the pictures automatically, telling me it was 'impossible' to take a particular picture because of focus/lighting/shutter speed/ISO restrictions. The Df was the easier because it's more like a film camera, with all the controls in the form of external knobs. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

I have a question for the assembled masses!

 

I was having a look through some videos on Youtube and came upon this one. As my friend Vincent Worthington is building some of the buildings shown in the film for his Camden Bank layout, I pointed him at it but we have a query over the date and the livery of one of he locos.

 

Firstly, the date is likely to be wrong when it says 1950. The signal box which appears wasn't in use then, so it is probably a few years later. So we looked at loco liveries to try to establish a date. At one point, loco 46247 City of Liverpool is featured in a close up of the cab side, which has lining which looks like white/black/white. The continuity is, as usual, dodgy, so the tender and another shot may not be the same loco but that cab view is not in doubt. So what livery is it in? Several books say that loco was never in BR Blue livery.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRytH3vAzh0

 

I could start a thread but I have a deal of respect for those who gather on Wright Writes so I thought I would try here first, if TW doesn't object to the hijack!

 

The colour footage of the pre-war Duchess of Sutherland in blue (really Coronation with a fake ID!) is worth a look.  

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

With the J6 out of the way, and the L&Y 0-6-0 temporarily shelved (it's not the most-urgent), I turned my attention to what's next.

 

A Blacksmiths NLR 0-6-0 Tank, the type which ended its days on the Cromford and High Peak. 

 

I've never built one of these before (it's obviously a commission, in EM), but it seemed an interesting project. Until I opened the box!

 

1952090834_NLRtank01.jpg.8a728e14cad9c34d81db9392276c08cc.jpg

 

This is what one gets for the boiler/inner smokebox. Two pieces of roughly-cut brass tube, with an amusing 'notch to clear motor as necessary' instruction. 

 

There is no scale drawing, so whether the tubes are anywhere near the right length, I have no idea. What nonsense in my view! I'll make these parts from brass sheet, rolling them accordingly. I might have considered the brass tubes had they been accurately-machined, but not like this. I no longer have access to a comprehensive metalworkshop (teaching did have its ups!), so there's no way I'm going to try and file the edges true. 

 

I know I extol others to make things, but what chance the beginner/inexperienced with something like this? Dismal failure, unless they're brilliant, then disillusionment and another kit gathering dust in a crumbling box.

 

Has anyone else built this kit?

 

I put it to one side, seeking 'inspiration'.........

 

276767464_SEFA301.jpg.638091c2e813428ce2f9405f3a020649.jpg

 

It came in the form of a SE Finecast A3 (I know, yet another). I put this together this morning, cut the lawns and then looked at the NLR tank again. 

 

Yes, it's got a big Portescap. I acquired this very much second-hand at a show last year. It was with a part-built DJH/Model Loco Black Five, and it was gummed up solid (I think the loco was 'gummed' together as well!). I got everything for £50.00, freed the motor and took the kit apart with my fingers - it was superglued together, even the frames!!!!!! A good buy? Definitely, and I'll rebuild the Black Five, using a thinner motor. 

 

I'm not a great user of Portescaps, but this one is an old one; silky-smooth, and very quiet - no whine thank goodness. 

 

 

  • Like 14
  • Agree 1
  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

I have a question for the assembled masses!

 

I was having a look through some videos on Youtube and came upon this one. As my friend Vincent Worthington is building some of the buildings shown in the film for his Camden Bank layout, I pointed him at it but we have a query over the date and the livery of one of he locos.

 

Firstly, the date is likely to be wrong when it says 1950. The signal box which appears wasn't in use then, so it is probably a few years later. So we looked at loco liveries to try to establish a date. At one point, loco 46247 City of Liverpool is featured in a close up of the cab side, which has lining which looks like white/black/white. The continuity is, as usual, dodgy, so the tender and another shot may not be the same loco but that cab view is not in doubt. So what livery is it in? Several books say that loco was never in BR Blue livery.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRytH3vAzh0

 

I could start a thread but I have a deal of respect for those who gather on Wright Writes so I thought I would try here first, if TW doesn't object to the hijack!

 

The colour footage of the pre-war Duchess of Sutherland in blue (really Coronation with a fake ID!) is worth a look.  

How could anyone object to that footage, Tony?

 

It's clearly post-'50; there are several BR Mk.1s in the train, which means 1951 or later. 

 

David Jenkinson tells us 46247 was never painted BR blue (the Irwell 'book of' doesn't give livery details as such). If he's right, then I suggest the loco's in BR green, but the film is high-contrast, giving a too-bright impression of the lining. That being the case, I'd say the year is 1952. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

You very rarely get scale drawings in kits - but you do in all of ours....

Thick tube boilers were quite popular once but I think they are more trouble than they are worth, they need a great deal of heat to solder anything to them.

  • Like 2
  • Agree 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Headstock said:

 

Good afternoon Atso,

 

What a beautiful locomotive.

 

Haulage capacity has always been of high interest to myself, or rather the interaction of loco and stock. One being able to pull and run freely and the other be pulled and run freely. If you build your own locomotives and stock it is basic 101 and is one of the elements that makes building things so much fun. I'm interested to hear of your experience with the Atlantic, there is more to successful haulage than just stuffing a loco full of lead.

 

Thanks Andrew,

 

You're dead right, there is a lot more to successful haulage than just stuffing the loco full of lead - as I almost found out to my cost with this locomotive. Originally, I just tried to get the COG over the driving wheels but this didn't work at all. I then added more weight and ended up with a very nose heavy loco. Unfortunately, the lead was too well glued and too inaccessible to get it back out of the smoke box!

 

Originally I designed the loco to make use of a sprung front bogie, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop this lifting the front driving wheels (which, being off a Dapol Britannia, have traction tires fitted - I'll hang my head in shame now) and so fitted a Farish free swinging bogie instead. This now resulted in the loco pitching forward and lifting the rear drivers slightly so I put a screw back in the fixing hole for the old bogie and adjusted this to prevent the loco pitching forward while still allowing the bogie to track the rails. The tender is also full of lead (as it provides six of the ten wheel pickup) so I ended up designing a new drawbar to more securely fix the loco and tender together. All of this seems to have done the trick and rescued this loco from potentially a major disaster.

 

The main loco chassis came from a Dapol Hall (as did the coupling rods, cons rods and cross heads) but I fitted an 8mm coreless motor in the tender rather than the 'Super Creep' motor that Dapol likes. The Dapol motor would not have fitted inside the GNR tender anyway and the coreless motor is much smoother and much much quieter.

 

Hopefully, Hadley Wood will end up with six of these locomotives and the experienced gained, over a protracted period of time, with this one should mean that the other five will be even better!

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

49 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

It's not impertinent at all Grahame.

 

For studio work I use either a 60mm Nikon Micro lens, which stops down to F.32 (smaller, with fiddling - how, I don't know) or a 28mm-105mm Nikon zoom, with a Macro setting, which stops down to F29. I never use it on less than 50mm. These lenses go on the front of a Nikon D3, on a tripod. 

 

For layout work I use an 18mm-35mm Nikon zoom, which stops down to F.29. I also use an old Nikon 55mm Micro lens which stops down to F.32, and the 60mm Micro. The zoom is always at 35mm (yes, a bit wide angle), and the lenses are on the front of a Nikon Df. 

 

Everything on both cameras is done manually. The hardest part (initially) was finding out how to turn off all the functions where both cameras wanted to take the pictures automatically, telling me it was 'impossible' to take a particular picture because of focus/lighting/shutter speed/ISO restrictions. The Df was the easier because it's more like a film camera, with all the controls in the form of external knobs. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I've got a Nikkor micro 105mm lens that stops down to f36 (with no special fiddling) and it is a good sharp lens. But with my camera being a DX APS-C sensor the crop factor effectively increases the focal length to telephoto and I've found that it can be necessary to have the camera set up in the next street for a decent view and composition, even for N/2mm models. Consequently I don't use it often enough.

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
28 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

How could anyone object to that footage, Tony?

 

It's clearly post-'50; there are several BR Mk.1s in the train, which means 1951 or later. 

 

David Jenkinson tells us 46247 was never painted BR blue (the Irwell 'book of' doesn't give livery details as such). If he's right, then I suggest the loco's in BR green, but the film is high-contrast, giving a too-bright impression of the lining. That being the case, I'd say the year is 1952. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

 

Thanks Tony. It is a nice little film. The Mk 1s certainly rule out the 1950 date. I hadn't thought of that! Good spot.

 

Vincent has been having a look too. One of his books gives the loco livery as black until 1954, when it went Green. However, the loco had long spells at Crewe earlier than that, sometimes of over a month, when it very likely should have been painted blue and it may be that the records are wrong.

 

We have both convinced ourselves that the lining is too bright to be orange. It isn't any darker than the cab side numbers. I know different black and white still films picked up reds in different ways but I know nothing about motion film colour rendition. We do think the loco backing onto he train is not the same one as seen in close up with the shunter climbing out after coupling up. The one backing down doesn't have bright lining and the film has a slightly different quality to it, so perhaps they used some "stock" footage. The loco departing with the out of focus number doesn't have visible lining, so we think hat might be a green loco with black and orange lining.

 

The reason it makes a difference is that Vincent is putting he finishing touches to the carriage shed for the layout. In the film, it is nice and clean and we are trying to work out when it was painted!    

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

 

1952090834_NLRtank01.jpg.8a728e14cad9c34d81db9392276c08cc.jpg

 

This is what one gets for the boiler/inner smokebox. Two pieces of roughly-cut brass tube, with an amusing 'notch to clear motor as necessary' instruction. 

 

There is no scale drawing, so whether the tubes are anywhere near the right length, I have no idea. What nonsense in my view! I'll make these parts from brass sheet, rolling them accordingly. I might have considered the brass tubes had they been accurately-machined, but not like this. I no longer have access to a comprehensive metalworkshop (teaching did have its ups!), so there's no way I'm going to try and file the edges true. 

 

I know I extol others to make things, but what chance the beginner/inexperienced with something like this? Dismal failure, unless they're brilliant, then disillusionment and another kit gathering dust in a crumbling box.

 

Wow, I've been in the wrong profession all this time.  I could have written/drawn those instructions and just as easily cut a length of tube, get someone else to make the finer parts on commission.  Then I just paste a picture of the prototype to a cardboard box, add contents, and sell them for about £90 (telling the purchaser they still need to purchase wheels, motor, gears.....

 

That is a very, very poor product.  I can't think of too many markets where you could get away with selling something of that standard.

  • Agree 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...