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Wright writes.....


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11 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Andy,

 

Snap!

 

60523.jpg.0716f88c29b7e7fc7ae69de0280032f7.jpg

 

Tim Easter's King/Bachmann A2/3, done for Gilbert Barnatt.

 

1566600240_60523studio.jpg.76903c45e3d5d2583d63b41a4ce06169.jpg

 

And my own SUN CASTLE. Built by me from a DJH kit and painted by Geoff Haynes. This is the actual loco which was loaned to Hornby (unpainted) during the development of the firm's Thompson Pacifics. 

 

Might I suggest wiggly pipes on yours? However, full marks for the extended lamp brackets!

 

And the real thing.....................

 

1315315621_605234thJan62Tuxford.jpg.f6052bf400d659048b80e9f9684e6bbc.jpg

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

How could I forget the wiggly pipes! I will add some before weathering. The other thing that I wanted to add is the old speedo bracket on the rear LH driver. But I couldn’t find a decent close up photo to model one on. Did you add one and if so what did you use to make it?

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10 minutes ago, Chamby said:

 

I find it remarkable that, with all the detailing parts provided by RTR manufacturers these days (including coal irons in a few cases) that lamps are not provided by the likes of Hornby and Bachmann as standard.  It would be a simple and low-cost addition that would generate a greater awareness and wider interest in railway operating practice.  Most continental suppliers provide working lamps as standard these days...

 

Still, it does provide an opportunity for specialist suppliers to fill the niche, and gives us all something to talk about re: ‘proper’ modelling!

Bachmann do (or certainly did at one stage) offer lamps with their A1s. They were rather overscale but I use them sometimes as I need so many.

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31 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Bachmann do (or certainly did at one stage) offer lamps with their A1s. They were rather overscale but I use them sometimes as I need so many.

You get (or at least you used to get) a tail lamp permanently fixed to a gangway end board with Bachmann Mk 1 brake coaches.

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54 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

From time to time, particularly during the Brits' period of operating the North Country Continental, an ex-GE Restaurant Car was employed.

 

It was.  It was usually E667E.   I built it for the version we ran on Thurston.   They were all different after the LNER had finished with them but there are quite a few photos kicking about including some which show that it was still on that working after it had acquired maroon livery.

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On 19/10/2020 at 10:46, Tony Wright said:

A good question. I have to say it's personally annoying to find (historically) that I'll have built, say, a loco type from scratch, only to find that weeks (if not days!) after its finished, a kit for the same appears. Or, I'll build a kit, and in even less time there's an RTR equivalent!

 

It must be doubly annoying if a kit designer spends hundreds (thousands?) of hours working on a new kit design currently unavailable in RTR, only for a Manufacturer to announce it's own version in RTR format just as the kit is about to become available.

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1 hour ago, Chamby said:

 

I find it remarkable that, with all the detailing parts provided by RTR manufacturers these days (including coal irons in a few cases) that lamps are not provided by the likes of Hornby and Bachmann as standard.  It would be a simple and low-cost addition that would generate a greater awareness and wider interest in railway operating practice.  Most continental suppliers provide working lamps as standard these days...

 

Still, it does provide an opportunity for specialist suppliers to fill the niche, and gives us all something to talk about re: ‘proper’ modelling!

 

I think one problem now might be that supplying lamps might require (in the mind of the general purchaser) that they work.  You then have the issue of where should they be placed.  Probably OK for an A1 to mount them in the express passenger positions, but many other locos would be rather difficult - anyone got a good syggestion for a V2?

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5 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

How could I forget the wiggly pipes! I will add some before weathering. The other thing that I wanted to add is the old speedo bracket on the rear LH driver. But I couldn’t find a decent close up photo to model one on. Did you add one and if so what did you use to make it?

Good afternoon Andy,

 

I don't think I fitted one to 60523 (should it have it?). 

 

I have, however, fitted the redundant brackets to other Pacifics..............................

 

1210675509_DJHA160121A260526.jpg.941dcce7b5a1a2fa64944583b683e9ac.jpg

 

74564138_LittleBytham20.jpg.9a1d4299037478f43046ed9c0b59debc.jpg

 

Including 60121 and 60128. I've just made them from scrap etched bits, referring to photographs. The cable for operating the cylinder drain cocks passed through the bracket. 

 

It's a sort of triangle, with an extra piece at the front.

 

1185259139_60500EDWARDTHOMPSON.jpg.cb23bd8ec115c8672ab8090dbf7adfd7.jpg

 

Where fitted, the Thompson Pacifics had it on the driver's side. The reversing lever passed through it.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

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Tony,

 

The pictures I’m working to of Sun Castle clearly show the same device as on your model of 60500. There are some good views on p74/5 of The Power of the A2s. Your 60500 photo is very useful in terms of how to model it, so I’m going to break a cardinal rule and base my model on yours!

 

Thanks

 

Andy

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Bullfrog Snot is a traction tyre replacement compound. It was developed originally as I recall for US N gauge locomotives, when supplies of spares were scarce. The concept is that  the compound is applied into the tread groove for the tyre. It then fills the groove ‘cures’ and becomes a traction tyre. An uneven coat will obviously give lumpy running, and too much of it can be detrimental to electrical pick up. Like traction tyres it does wear out and become contaminated requiring replacement, and when old may contribute to additional  dirt on the track in the same way regular tyres can. 
An option might be if the B17 has Romfords, to turn a shallow groove into the tread and try the BS in that. I vaguely recall that the BS had been applied to a flat tread which might not have been the optimum use for it.

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10 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

Many of the plastic bogies on Retford were beginning to suffer from wear as the pin point axles were turning the holes in the side frames into vertical slots. That made the drag even worse.

 

A replacement program was underway to rebuild the bogies with an etched innards and brass bearings but I am not sure how far it got. There was a big pile of etched bogies knocking around in the room somewhere.

Last time I was there, I only saw five etched bogies in the pile. Several Bachmann Mark 1s have been converted.

 

Do you by any chance know who supplied the etches as they seem to have been designed specifically for Bachmann Mark 1 stock?

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38 minutes ago, robertcwp said:

Last time I was there, I only saw five etched bogies in the pile. Several Bachmann Mark 1s have been converted.

 

Do you by any chance know who supplied the etches as they seem to have been designed specifically for Bachmann Mark 1 stock?

Try Andrew Hartshorne at Wizard Models, pretty sure he was Looking to do the etched bogies for Bachmann Mk1’s

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4 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Tony,

 

The pictures I’m working to of Sun Castle clearly show the same device as on your model of 60500. There are some good views on p74/5 of The Power of the A2s. Your 60500 photo is very useful in terms of how to model it, so I’m going to break a cardinal rule and base my model on yours!

 

Thanks

 

Andy

Rats! I'm going to have to make it now.

 

110885476_60523onlayout.jpg.ced963cef63f5623075fc4ae7cc31e1c.jpg

 

When you know that something's missing, it has to be attended to!

 

This might help..........

 

333308644_CrownlineA2360500EDWARDTHOMPSON.jpg.4f46f19004e11af7afe13e494d32e6b8.jpg

 

It's just bits of scrap brass etch/wire, soldered together, and securely soldered to the loco - glue's no good. 

 

The central disc is just that - a small brass washer/disc.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

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3 minutes ago, robertcwp said:

Thanks, Andrew has been involved with Retford so they probably are his products.

 

Nope! As far as I remember they were custom designed for Retford by Buccaneer John, the same chap who did the etched footbridge down near the goods shed. There were definitely at least two large sheets of them.

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36 minutes ago, pete55 said:

 

Nope! As far as I remember they were custom designed for Retford by Buccaneer John, the same chap who did the etched footbridge down near the goods shed. There were definitely at least two large sheets of them.

Teddy Bear

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Thanks to everyone for their thoughts on the B17 boat train problem. I had another go at the train today. I removed the heavy Thompson SK and the B17 managed the rest of the train - just. It’s almost painful to watch the poor thing struggling to lift the train out of the fiddle yard. I then added an ordinary Bachmann coach but the loco couldn’t manage it not even with a run at the slope. 
 

I then tried the train in the opposite, down direction, albeit wrong line. It managed the train quite easily. The problem is that there are too few storage sidings in the down direction and it makes more sense to have it running in the up direction. So for the time being I have left the train as it was and I have put the Britannia back on the train. The trouble is that the Britannia is out of period for the summer of 1957.
 

I might try building a new B17 with the motor in the loco and with a small tender. in an ideal world I would like the boat train in both directions but I will have to add some extra storage sidings first.

 

Sandra

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47 minutes ago, pete55 said:

 

Nope! As far as I remember they were custom designed for Retford by Buccaneer John, the same chap who did the etched footbridge down near the goods shed. There were definitely at least two large sheets of them.

I wondered if they had been custom-made for the layout. That explains it, thanks.

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12 hours ago, Chamby said:

 

I find it remarkable that, with all the detailing parts provided by RTR manufacturers these days (including coal irons in a few cases) that lamps are not provided by the likes of Hornby and Bachmann as standard.  It would be a simple and low-cost addition that would generate a greater awareness and wider interest in railway operating practice.  Most continental suppliers provide working lamps as standard these days...

 

Still, it does provide an opportunity for specialist suppliers to fill the niche, and gives us all something to talk about re: ‘proper’ modelling!

 

As a few others have replied since you posted this, RTR folks do sometimes provide lamps. The last RTR loco I bought was Bachmann's J72 and it came with with some rather nice lamps that had a neatly done grip / groove in the back and fitted the brackets very well. 

But I agree that it's odd  for that to be the exception rather than the rule...

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1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Rats! I'm going to have to make it now.

 

110885476_60523onlayout.jpg.ced963cef63f5623075fc4ae7cc31e1c.jpg

 

When you know that something's missing, it has to be attended to!

 

This might help..........

 

333308644_CrownlineA2360500EDWARDTHOMPSON.jpg.4f46f19004e11af7afe13e494d32e6b8.jpg

 

It's just bits of scrap brass etch/wire, soldered together, and securely soldered to the loco - glue's no good. 

 

The central disc is just that - a small brass washer/disc.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Thanks although I’m not convinced solder would work very well on Bachmann plastic running board!

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jesse,

 

D&S did the longer wagon as a kit... i sold the ones I had plus the brake to RD Brown for use on Gresley Beat unfortunately.

 

The conversions look fine though...the train is coming together nicely

 

Baz

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10 minutes ago, Barry O said:

jesse,

 

D&S did the longer wagon as a kit... i sold the ones I had plus the brake to RD Brown for use on Gresley Beat unfortunately.

 

The conversions look fine though...the train is coming together nicely

 

Baz

Which longer wagon?

 

cheers

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