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Wright writes.....


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4 hours ago, APOLLO said:

 

I nearly bricked the bu99er up in the tunnel as per poor old Henry !!!!!!!!!!

 

Here she is - Forgiven - She is a Delaware & Hudson Alco C628 - an Atlas loco.  A lovely runner.

 

1794291484_IMG_1409rszd2.JPG.957f67d0815b03469cb0cd6fdfd3c9a9.JPG

 

Another loco bought very cheaply off Ebay in January is this kit built General Electric U33C Uboat. Beautifully built and painted from a sheet brass Gilmour kit (I think). Large central motor and six wheel drive. Whoever built and painted her did a wonderful job. This loco also runs well but is not very heavy - indeed it could do with a bit more. Just needs the cab windows glazing and a bit of touching up on the cab sun shade. Each loco cost about the same as a Hornby Pacific !!  Who says O gauge is expensive ?

 

1840499026_IMG_1402RSZD2.JPG.55629847b80c05ca37585dd28ebdbe39.JPG

 

Brit15

I wonder if they came from my late friend Phil Hewson's collection. He died last year but I've no idea what is happening  with his collection. He built a D & H based layout and he had 3 or 4 locos.  I might have some photos of the layout somewhere. I think it made one appearance at Wakefield.

 

Jamie

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23 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon Andrew,

 

I don't know, but the article refers to 16T mineral wagons (though I think the wagons built represent steel ones).

 

My comment was that the 16T mineral wagon (of any kind, to qualify it) was probably the most ubiquitous type on BR. 

 

Were the likes of 12T vans more common? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Tony,

 

I've never seen a break down by load in tons. I think that you could say yes they were, for a limited time. As regards the steam era, this was perhaps a less than a decade. For the whole BR period, no. The first decade in particular, would have seen plenty of competition for the top spot from ten and twelve ton minerals and thirteen ton open wagons. With all three falling back as the decade progressed. I don't know how many 16t toners were built, presumably not all in the same year. It's an interesting thought, because the iconic 1922 RCH 12 ton design, was always outnumbered (not on model railways) by  earlier types such as the 1907 design, until the latter began to be scrapped.

Edited by Headstock
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48 minutes ago, Headstock said:

the iconic 1922 RCH 12 ton design, was always outnumbered (not on model railways) by  earlier types such as the 1907 design, until the latter began to be scrapped.

The economic crises of the 1920s had a significant impact on the coal industry through into the mid 1930s and drastically reduced mining output on a couple of occasions over that period.  Many collieries merged or closed  and there was less need for new wagons as the 1907s were still serviceable and obtainable from hirers or at asset sales quite cheaply.  Significant investment in the industry, such as there was, was directed towards reducing manpower requirements rather than new wagons.

 

Take up of the 1923 RCH design was therefore less than expected and, as you say, there a probably proportionately more on a model railway than would have been found in the real world.  Also, as modellers, we are also blessed with a myriad of PO liveries (often on RCH 1923s) belonging to collieries and concerns that no longer existed by the 1920s.

 

Alan

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2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Chas,

 

They look excellent.

 

Interesting motive power as well. Have we had an Austerity 2-10-0 on Wright Writes before? A DJH kit? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Yes, a DJH kit and a necessary class for our part of the world. The kit is excellent and the chassis goes together a dream with Markits WD wheels. Another appears regularly on Alloa.

 

Chas

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1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

I wonder if they came from my late friend Phil Hewson's collection. He died last year but I've no idea what is happening  with his collection. He built a D & H based layout and he had 3 or 4 locos.  I might have some photos of the layout somewhere. I think it made one appearance at Wakefield.

 

Jamie

 

They could be - the retailer was also in Yorkshire - Ellis Clarke of Skipton, a good firm to deal with also. In January they had five O gauge D&H locos for sale all at the same price. I bought four of them quick (don't tell the Mrs) as useful bargains like this rarely arise. They are all now in regular use.

 

I would like to see a photo of  your friends layout. One day (hopefully far distant) my collection will be dispersed and I hope someone will again make use of them - a sad subject to discuss.

 

Brit15

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9 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

 

They could be - the retailer was also in Yorkshire - Ellis Clarke of Skipton, a good firm to deal with also. In January they had five O gauge D&H locos for sale all at the same price. I bought four of them quick (don't tell the Mrs) as useful bargains like this rarely arise. They are all now in regular use.

 

I would like to see a photo of  your friends layout. One day (hopefully far distant) my collection will be dispersed and I hope someone will again make use of them - a sad subject to discuss.

 

Brit15

Thanks very much for that. They are almost certainly Phil's. He was a fellow member of the Wakefield Club.  I'm glad that they have found a good home. I'll have a look for the photos. The layout, I think, is in a friend's garage.

 

Jamie

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The subject of how common certain wagon types were is a interesting one. The LMS built 54,000 D1666 open wagons to a Midland railway design. On nationalisation, this one diagram would have out-numbered the entire fleet that British railways inherited from the Southern Railway. Yet it is never modelled in anywhere near the sort of numbers it really should be. Cambrian do produce a kit for it, however I do not believe it has ever been released in RTR form.

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48 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

Here's another one.

1614888605_9076308-10.JPG.28ba1e1049a37580a88a8163d8960b77.JPG

This one (the only English WD 2-10-0) is EM and runs on Carlisle - again from the very good DJH kit, I built and painted it Barry O added the filth.

 

Good evening Michael.

 

How nice to see the lubricator pipe runs modeled as separate item, very cool.

 

35 minutes ago, Daniel W said:

The subject of how common certain wagon types were is a interesting one. The LMS built 54,000 D1666 open wagons to a Midland railway design. On nationalisation, this one diagram would have out-numbered the entire fleet that British railways inherited from the Southern Railway. Yet it is never modelled in anywhere near the sort of numbers it really should be. Cambrian do produce a kit for it, however I do not believe it has ever been released in RTR form.

 

Good evening Daniel,

 

the LNER built another twenty thousand six plank general merchandise wagons to a single diagram ( available as a slightly inaccurate RTR item and a more accurate kit from Cambrian) and another ten thousand with vac brakes. At nationalization, and excluding mineral wagons, three quarters of all big four wagons were general merchandise types. I have been keeping up my percentages of dia 1666, though I think they were based on a Midland design, built to LMS standards.

 

 

On 16 ton mineral wagons built by BR, I have a figure of 300,000 built by BR though there was never a single year when this number were all in service.

Edited by Headstock
Add 16 ton mineral ref.
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46 minutes ago, Daniel W said:

The subject of how common certain wagon types were is a interesting one. The LMS built 54,000 D1666 open wagons to a Midland railway design. On nationalisation, this one diagram would have out-numbered the entire fleet that British railways inherited from the Southern Railway. Yet it is never modelled in anywhere near the sort of numbers it really should be. Cambrian do produce a kit for it, however I do not believe it has ever been released in RTR form.

 

A design produced by the Derby Carriage & Wagon drawing office, to be sure, but drawn up in 1922/3, so never actually a Midland wagon. They were a significant development from previous Midland high-sided opens, being 18" longer, at the new RCH standard length for merchandise wagons of 17'6" over headstocks - I suspect that the Derby drawing office had quite a strong influence on the RCH specifications anyway. To that total of 54,000 one should also add over 8,000 vehicles of identical dimensions but with steel underframes, D1667. These 66,000 wagons were built over a period of seven years, the last being turned out in 1930. That's an average of nearly 200 a week.

 

 

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Apropos nothing whatsoever, there is a precedent for an absolutely spotless long train of brand new 16T minerals. I have seen a published photograph of a [dirty] WD pulling a whole trainload out of the Pressed Steel plant [?in Renfrewshire] where they had been newly built. I can't recall where the photograph was now sadly.

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10 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Robert,

 

As Andrew has pointed out, if you're getting derailments/poor running on a variety of different layouts, it's likely that the stock is the common denominator. 

 

From my experience, well-weighted stock always runs better - consistently-weighted wagons at that. By this I mean, give or take, dependent on size, all wagons have the same relative weight. You then don't have the problem of a lightweight vehicle at, say, the front of a heavy train being pulled off the road because much-heavier vehicles are behind it. This is even more important when the same rake is propelled into a siding. 

 

Obviously, I have Little Bytham to thoroughly-test any wagons/stock I make, but before that was up and running I rigged up a test track on a board about five feet long by a foot wide. On it was the tightest radius point one would expect the stock to run over, backwards and forwards, pushed or pulled by a loco (never just pushed by hand). Cuts of several wagons would be tried. Part of the test track would also have a section of the tightest radius any stock might have to negotiate, in the form of a reverse curve; preferably slightly tighter than anything to be encountered on a layout. It also helps for testing if the test track is not as diligently well-laid as the final layout, with the odd dodgy joint. 

 

What this all means is if your stock runs on the 'dodgy' test track, it'll run perfectly on the layout. I used exactly the same test track for new locomotives. 

 

I assume you've put your wagons on a mirror to test if all the wheels are touching the surface at the same time?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Thanks for your and everyone else’s support and advice.

I understand that it may be the wagons at fault as they are unhappy on three layouts, however two of them were, shall we say not what I’d like my layout to be. (Granted these layouts have been built whereas mine hasn’t. Stones and glass house spring to mind). I have built approximately 50 plastic wagon kits and haven’t had this much trouble with any of them, except perhaps the Parkside LNER grain hopper. I have seven of the lomacs and they all seem to run equally badly so to me it seems a bit of a coincidence.

I have therefore come up with a plan (not the cunning type of Balderick).

1) Check again for squareness.

2)Check  the back to backs.
If there is an issue I’ll sort it out and try running them when I get a chance after lockdown. 
If there is still a problem after  1 and 2 then,

3) Change the couplings and use a barrier wagon at each end of the cut. I use tension locks as not having a layout I think  it’s the best answer to use the ‘industry standard’ .

4) If I have any enthusiasm for them at this point I may try compensation.

5) If 4 doesn’t happen incorporate the wagons into a static scene!
Now on with the J10.

Regards

Robert

 

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2 hours ago, GH in EM and O said:

Someone requested an update on the painting of the six locos I primed just over a week ago. They have all had the black applied, over the course of a couple of spraying sessions, and today the two pacifics were painted green. Next will be the buffer beams, possibly over two sessions due to all the masking, then I can start on the lining.

DSCN2968.JPG

DSCN2971.JPG

Great work Geoff,

 

Many thanks. 

 

Jesse will be pleased to see progress on his C2.................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

As it seemed to be mineral wagon ‘show and tell’ time, I thought I’d post mine. Here is a picture of my newly finished empty mineral train.

41335CDA-8731-46B2-B6A9-121F8DE380F7.jpeg.af4d7690e645b111a1cb704af8044d8e.jpeg

The first 18 wagons have all been through the weathering shop recently and fitted with ‘Tony’s Trains’ couplings Like this:

8C24BA59-68B5-44B3-8CE7-EA05635FF27A.jpeg.a48e6cbf189d6db5b485139031051ac0.jpeg

I find these an excellent compromise between inelegant tension locks and impractical 3 links.

 

And here is a video showing my loaded and empty mineral trains passing.

 

 

Apologies to those of you who follow my Gresley Jn thread and have already seen these photos.

 

Andy

 

 

 

Please, never apologise for putting your work on here, Andy.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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4 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

Apropos nothing whatsoever, there is a precedent for an absolutely spotless long train of brand new 16T minerals. I have seen a published photograph of a [dirty] WD pulling a whole trainload out of the Pressed Steel plant [?in Renfrewshire] where they had been newly built. I can't recall where the photograph was now sadly.

 

I would love to see that photo.

 

I am building a model of Paisley St James in 2mm Finescale (slowly), and the plan is to have  a train of 16t Minerals on delivery.

 

How upset will the purists be to see a full rake of unweathered wagons, in numerical order!!

 

Ther is a very poor photo of such a train, but anything else like that would be of ineterest.

 

https://images.app.goo.gl/QCE7h9R569Qhh1nX6

 

Regards

 

Ian

Edited by Ian Smeeton
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6 hours ago, GH in EM and O said:

Someone requested an update on the painting of the six locos I primed just over a week ago. They have all had the black applied, over the course of a couple of spraying sessions, and today the two pacifics were painted green. Next will be the buffer beams, possibly over two sessions due to all the masking, then I can start on the lining.

DSCN2968.JPG

DSCN2971.JPG

I spy a C2 

 

Is it possible for you to do a bad paint job? So it matches my painting skills haha

Edited by Jesse Sim
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4 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

I spy a C2 

 

Is it possible for you to do a bad paint job? So it matches my painting skills haha

 

Possibly, but work "out of the ordinary" costs extra.......:D

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13 hours ago, Headstock said:

How nice to see the lubricator pipe runs modeled as separate item, very cool.

I agree, Andrew. I was frustrated to find that on mine, after I'd built the cab and put it in place, that I'd missed it off. I wasn't prepared to attempt to drill 4 tiny holes perfectly in line on the front of a cab already in situ. Seeing it on Michael's lovely rendition does give me a pang of regret.  Being forewarned, my next one will include them. We live and learn.

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56 minutes ago, Clem said:

I agree, Andrew. I was frustrated to find that on mine, after I'd built the cab and put it in place, that I'd missed it off. I wasn't prepared to attempt to drill 4 tiny holes perfectly in line on the front of a cab already in situ. Seeing it on Michael's lovely rendition does give me a pang of regret.  Being forewarned, my next one will include them. We live and learn.

 

Good morning Clem,

 

I like the diamond shape of the runs above the middle sandbox filler. I've seen this feature on a number of real locomotives. Great observation.

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6 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

My second attempt at painting teak has worked wonders, I think, Using Mike Trice’ methods. 
 

I think another light coat and some weathering she’ll turn out alright. 

85C3A895-53D6-4513-BB2A-39EAC56B0626.jpeg

Perhaps a sparing use of a darker tone to add variety of colour and some way to tone Down the few very bright yellow bits would help the colours flow more seamlessly into each other. 
richard

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