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Wright writes.....


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6 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

LB has many modellers work, from signals, track and buildings. So I thought I’d like to build you something from one friend to another, as you have helped me enormously these past few years. I’m really getting the hang of building wagons, well I think I am and it was the least I could do. 

I’ve helped on Grantham, the station canopy brackets and now I have a small slice of my work on LB, the two layouts that have meant a lot to me. LB since I was a teenager and Grantham since the March edition of BRM in 2014, which inspired me to go LNER.

 

Enough of my waffle, it’s a whitemetal NER open from Wizards. 
 

I just hope it runs..... 

'I just hope it runs.....'

 

It does: beautifully!

 

Best regards and many thanks again,

 

Tony.  

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Good day Tony,

 

Sorry to interupt the flow.

 

Just had a look at the Virtual Show and Little Bytham. It is a really outstanding achievement Tony, you must have worked so well as a team to create such a great piece of work. The loco's and rolling stock all first class with a totally correct sideways "shudder" on some of the head on shots.

 

I was particularly taken with the appearance of 46245 City of London pulling, what I assume to be, the Home Counties Railway Society trip to Doncaster Works and Shed on June 9th 1963? I was on that trip with my late brother and Father and it is still such a vivid memory. I remember my brother "cabbing" Mallard and Willbrook I still have the pictures somewhere. It was our last trip out together before I started work at Eastleigh Works on September 2nd.

 

Thanks.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

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3 hours ago, 30368 said:

Good day Tony,

 

Sorry to interupt the flow.

 

Just had a look at the Virtual Show and Little Bytham. It is a really outstanding achievement Tony, you must have worked so well as a team to create such a great piece of work. The loco's and rolling stock all first class with a totally correct sideways "shudder" on some of the head on shots.

 

I was particularly taken with the appearance of 46245 City of London pulling, what I assume to be, the Home Counties Railway Society trip to Doncaster Works and Shed on June 9th 1963? I was on that trip with my late brother and Father and it is still such a vivid memory. I remember my brother "cabbing" Mallard and Willbrook I still have the pictures somewhere. It was our last trip out together before I started work at Eastleigh Works on September 2nd.

 

Thanks.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

Thanks Richard,

 

The whole virtual show seems to be going well.

 

I think the principal reason why the LB team worked so well was the common goal. In a way, there was no 'democracy' involved. By that I mean that the layout was to be very site-specific and time-specific (the latter, perhaps, a bit flexible?). No matter what the principal interests each team member had with regard to his/her railway allegiances, what they built was for an ECML actual location at a particular time.

 

We all had our own roles as well, with some overlap (mine being to build most of the locos and passenger rolling stock, plus some scenic/architectural work). It's an immense privilege to be part of such a team.

 

With regard to 46245; I claim complete self-indulgence. As you correctly suggest, it is on the Home Counties trip to Doncaster and return (nearly four years after the station was demolished!), though its train should really have a Gresley catering car in it. For 'filming' purposes, it's the 'Talisman' rake (which also appears both A1- and A4-hauled as well). By all accounts, the run was a bit of a disappointment; any hope of a 100 mph dash down from Stoke on the return journey was dashed by a crawl through Grantham. 

 

I built 46245 from a DJH kit and Geoff Haynes painted her.................

 

763595382_DJHSemi25onlayout.jpg.a51f1ed66c84e2a7dbb19b05868329f6.jpg

 

Here she is on the northbound run.

 

1688353117_DJHSemi27onlayoutpanning.jpg.041fa7edf60ec6b7e455f31d574ae676.jpg

 

Going very well!

 

569318478_08Semi46245.jpg.af01adbd5dceaef7d41984f6315dd4d5.jpg

 

And on the return journey.

 

692432733_Shap21646245atSummit02.jpg.d0e49edc4d30c2be875e2a91e54cc017.jpg

 

Though I built CITY OF LONDON for Little Bytham, she's (naturally) far more at home on the WCML, and here the big 'Semi' is running on Shap. Had it not been for Covid, she'd have run a lot more on Shap. Perhaps in the future, Graham? 

 

Returning to the virtual show, any further comments, from anyone, please? Bouquets and brickbats accepted with equal relish..................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

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11 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Returning to the virtual show, any further comments, from anyone, please? Bouquets and brickbats accepted with equal relish..................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

Just bought yet another Bachmann diesel - the show special D5146, which was a must given this photo in my collection:

 

2168696245_8bbe71f7a1_c.jpgD5146_Derby_17-3-68 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

I also watched the Retford sequence. I think it really shows what an incredible achievement the layout was for Roy and the 'Mob'. I even saw one of my sets of stock that is now on the layout, along with an A1 (60156) that I sold to Sandra, via Tony. Sandra re-gauged it to EM. It now has a fitting home. What also struck me was the progress that has already been made since that footage was shot. Sandra has been adding more engines to the fleet. I have reshuffled some stock to improve the formations and various details have been added by Sandra, Tony and me. A few carriages in the sequence have been withdrawn from service too, albeit only temporarily in some cases. Lots more to do, Covid permitting.

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44 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Returning to the virtual show, any further comments, from anyone, please? Bouquets and brickbats accepted with equal relish..................

 

 

Like Robert, I just watched both the LB and Retford sequences and each illustrate the respective layout superbly. As you know, I am pretty familiar with LB, but having visited Retford only once, it brought back to me just what an epic project this has been and how worthwhie it will be to get it finished.

The variety of trains plus the quality of running on LB was superb as ever!

 

Tony

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8 minutes ago, 2750Papyrus said:

Thoroughly enjoyed the LB and Retford sequences, also the servicing tutorial!

 

Some impressive signals on Retford - who built  them?

Tony Gee is probably best placed to answer your question.............

 

However, most have been built by Rick Hunt, Martin Lloyd, Mick Nicholson and Mick Moore. Apologies for missing anyone off that list.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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5 minutes ago, 2750Papyrus said:

Thoroughly enjoyed the LB and Retford sequences, also the servicing tutorial!

 

Some impressive signals on Retford - who built  them?

 

At least 7 different people did work on the above baseboard parts and several others contributed to the technical side, sorting out wiring and servos. I would add Andrew Hartshorne, John Phillips and myself to those who did some of the above baseboard bits and several others helped with the wiring and setting up the servos. I would say that Mick Moore, Rick Hunt and Martin Lloyd did the bulk of the fancy, impressive signalling, others played a supporting role, perhaps providing perhaps one signal, or in the case of Andrew, the exquisite ground discs.

 

It is a lot of names to remember and if I have forgotten any, I apologise!

 

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3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

Returning to the virtual show, any further comments, from anyone, please? Bouquets and brickbats accepted with equal relish..................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

 

I have enjoyed what I have so far watched. Two minor irritants, the annoying repeated intro music on each snippet and having to wait for items to come up rather than one menu at the beginning with all the links. 

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3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Returning to the virtual show, any further comments, from anyone, please? Bouquets and brickbats accepted with equal relish..................

I haven't had a chance to watch all of the content as of yet but there clearly has been a lot. of work put in.

 

Very interesting mix and something for everyone I'd hope.

 

Good mix of layout features, competion engagement, demonstrations and interviews. I enjoy the layout footage and features but the interviews I've watched so far have been entertaing.

 

On the whole, and in the face of overwhelming restrictions, I highly commend the efforts of the cortributors, organisation and execution by all involved.

 

Not brown nosing here.

Firstly it's nice to be nice and secondly the organisation involved in bringing such a virtual event to fruition is not to be underestimated and I truly appreciate those that do.

 

Feel free to pass on as feedback.

Edited by Iain Mac
Correcting my dyslexia...
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6 minutes ago, Iain Mac said:

I haven't had a chance to watch all of the content as of yet but there clearly has been a lot. of work put in.

 

Very interesting mix and something for everyone I'd hope.

 

Good mix of layout features, competion engagement, demonstrations and interviews. I enjoy the layout footage and features but the interviews I've watched so far have been entertaing.

 

On the whole, and in the face of overwhelming restrictions, I highly commend the efforts of the cortributors, organisation and execution by all involved.

 

Not brown nosing here.

Firstly it's nice to be nice and secondly the organisation involved in bringing such a virtual event to fruition is not to be underestimated and I truly appreciate those that do.

 

Feel free to pass on as feedback.

Thanks Iain,

 

I'll pass your comments on. 

 

My input to the event was really quite small - just a bit of 'filming' and waffling.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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On 10/08/2020 at 20:21, APOLLO said:

Why British Railways continued with the archaic system of buffers and chain (type) couplings I will never know. The Yanks got it right with the Janney (Buckeye / Knuckle) coupling back in 1868. Works then, works now,especially in model form  (Kadees).

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janney_coupler

 

The old Hornby Dublo coupler (early metal) works well. I live with tension locks on my OO stuff but I vehemently I hate the modern small, flimsy tension locks - try reversing a rake of stock so fitted over reverse pointwork !!

 

I love my O gauge American stock with metal Kadees's fitted - Nuff said.

 

Brit15


Also having this problem currently with the tiny T/L couplings on my modern rolling stock. It is supposed to be only a fun shunting puzzle layout to practice scenic techniques on; however, the fun is disappearing due to the problem couplings. The new one’s are not progress in their prime function of joining up rolling stock.

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Tony

you asked for brickbats.  Before I give one may I say that the standard of modelling by you and the team far surpasses anything that I could ever hope to achieve but  right at the beginning we see a number of vehicles outside of the station building.  I could imagine that the taxi might indeed have a damaged front bumper however I cannot imagine that the inhabitants of L. Bytham and its environs were allowed to drive around with no number plates on their cars and lorries.  Sorry it was just something that I saw immediately and once seen cannot be ignored - much like missing lamps on a loco.  

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Have spent a very pleasant morning and lunch time reflecting, reminiscing, telling tall stories and celebrating those that couldn’t be there. Lest we forget.

 

Medals(3).jpg.b72382c762ae6251bc191a2151390fc4.jpg

 

Even managed a bit of modelling chatter!

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

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8 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

Tony

you asked for brickbats.  Before I give one may I say that the standard of modelling by you and the team far surpasses anything that I could ever hope to achieve but  right at the beginning we see a number of vehicles outside of the station building.  I could imagine that the taxi might indeed have a damaged front bumper however I cannot imagine that the inhabitants of L. Bytham and its environs were allowed to drive around with no number plates on their cars and lorries.  Sorry it was just something that I saw immediately and once seen cannot be ignored - much like missing lamps on a loco.  

I'm right up to date, Andy,

 

Whenever one sees cars in the media, many of their numberplates are obscured!

 

You're right, though. Next time I take a picture of the station booking hall, I'll remove all vehicles. It's an element (or omission, really) which is cruelly highlighted by the camera; along with all wheels not touching the road and bodywork of dubious quality. Things unnoticed by the naked eye. Unlike the omission of loco lamps.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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9 hours ago, john new said:


Also having this problem currently with the tiny T/L couplings on my modern rolling stock. It is supposed to be only a fun shunting puzzle layout to practice scenic techniques on; however, the fun is disappearing due to the problem couplings. The new one’s are not progress in their prime function of joining up rolling stock.

You can get larger tension-lock couplers from Hornby and Replica Railways. The latter do the intermediate (Mainline/Dapol) size with assorted offsets to deal with the wandering height of Bachmann pockets.

 

Some friends take a shunting puzzle to shows and they use Kadees, very successfully. You do incur the "double shuffle" when uncoupling (though that can be minimised with practice) but the beauty of them is that if you fit them right at the outset, they stay that way almost indefinitely. That's a great help when it's being operated by the inexperienced, as is the ability to lift wagons off without having to untangle tension-locks. 

 

My advice, born of some hundreds of fittings, is to use "traditional" Kadees with draft boxes as far as possible, (#146 is my default for UK wagons) and just use the NEM ones where it's too much work to make room for them, which mainly means locos. The NEM type are OK, but the "real thing" is better...

 

John 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

You can get larger tension-lock couplers from Hornby and Replica Railways. The latter do the intermediate (Mainline/Dapol) size with assorted offsets to deal with the wandering height of Bachmann pockets.

 

Some friends take a shunting puzzle to shows and they use Kadees, very successfully. You do incur the "double shuffle" when uncoupling (though that can be minimised with practice) but the beauty of them is that if you fit them right at the outset, they stay that way almost indefinitely. That's a great help when it's being operated by the inexperienced, as is the ability to lift wagons off without having to untangle tension-locks. 

 

My advice, born of some hundreds of fittings, is to use "traditional" Kadees with draft boxes as far as possible, (#146 is my default for UK wagons) and just use the NEM ones where it's too much work to make room for them, which mainly means locos. The NEM type are OK, but the "real thing" is better...

 

John 

 

 

 

Thanks for the above. I know at some point I will have to change many of the couplings, the annoyance is that in the pursuit of making them less obtrusive the manufacturers of r-t-r for the UK market seem to have forgotten they are supposed to work and work over train-set/factory yard curves in all configurations and couple up on said curves. My stock with older couplings manages this aspect better than the new - that is a step backwards in operational matters the many undoubted improvements elsewhere in modern stock does not correct.

 

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20 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Returning to the virtual show, any further comments, from anyone, please? Bouquets and brickbats accepted with equal relish.................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

At least one brickbat here I'm afraid. I don't know who has been put in charge of management of the images that have appeared, but could somebody explain to him or her that pictures of locomotives and rolling stock, amongst many other things, cannot be stretched simply to fill a publication space neatly, with no regard to aspect ratio, as it simply makes the subject of the image look ridiculous!

Three large images of the model of Valour, the GC war memorial loco, have been abused in such a way, made to look far too tall with oval wheels, and there's an image somewhere of a DMU which appears to have unlikely individual body lengths of about 80 feet...

Shouldn't demos do rather more than to provide extremely superficial coverage of very basic procedures too?

I do realise of course that it has all had to be put together in very restricted circumstances owing to the pandemic.

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21 minutes ago, gr.king said:

At least one brickbat here I'm afraid. I don't know who has been put in charge of management of the images that have appeared, but could somebody explain to him or her that pictures of locomotives and rolling stock, amongst many other things, cannot be stretched simply to fill a publication space neatly, with no regard to aspect ratio, as it simply makes the subject of the image look ridiculous!

Three large images of the model of Valour, the GC war memorial loco, have been abused in such a way, made to look far too tall with oval wheels, and there's an image somewhere of a DMU which appears to have unlikely individual body lengths of about 80 feet...

 

We have continually had issues with the software handling images in an inconsistent manner. The vast majority of images were uploaded to the RMweb server and pathed to see them from here rather than on the World of Railways site and are absolutely fine. You've chosen to pick on an isolated example that did not become evident until today.

 

I could say more but I won't as I'll bear in mind the sort of things my mother used to say to me.

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1 hour ago, gr.king said:

 

At least one brickbat here I'm afraid. I don't know who has been put in charge of management of the images that have appeared, but could somebody explain to him or her that pictures of locomotives and rolling stock, amongst many other things, cannot be stretched simply to fill a publication space neatly, with no regard to aspect ratio, as it simply makes the subject of the image look ridiculous!

Three large images of the model of Valour, the GC war memorial loco, have been abused in such a way, made to look far too tall with oval wheels, and there's an image somewhere of a DMU which appears to have unlikely individual body lengths of about 80 feet...

Shouldn't demos do rather more than to provide extremely superficial coverage of very basic procedures too?

I do realise of course that it has all had to be put together in very restricted circumstances owing to the pandemic.

 

I looked through the layouts and the "highlights" section but must have missed the bit about Valour. Whereabouts is it? You don't have to guess that I would be interested in looking at it!

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There is a clickable link from a photo, one of the items I haven't looked properly at yet. This is the link - https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/virtual-exhibition-highlights/for-valour-the-story-of-a-loco-kit-build-project-by-graham-nicholas 

 

As another aside - has anyone managed to open the spot the differences pictures? That isn't working from my Mac although the email answers link is.

 

Edited by john new
Actually added the link I had copied (Duh) Senior moment..
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33 minutes ago, john new said:

There is a clickable link from a photo, one of the items I haven't looked properly at yet. This is the link - https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/virtual-exhibition-highlights/for-valour-the-story-of-a-loco-kit-build-project-by-graham-nicholas 

 

As another aside - has anyone managed to open the spot the differences pictures? That isn't working from my Mac although the email answers link is.

 

Yes, no problem at all on my Mac.

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