Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Tony, you may not be aware that Stuart Baker, creator of the Rail Atlas series, died late last year. He was a professional railwayman in his day job. A fine fellow, much missed.

I did know, John,

 

And I've suggested that this latest atlas (which is excellent) is a fitting testimony/tribute to his skills.

 

Regards,

 

Tony

[Tony Wright]

10 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Evening Andrew,

 

There are two issues here. One is which is more realistic and the other is the practicability of changing coaches.
 

Personally I find the SPM finish over glossy and quite plastic looking whereas I find the Bachmann / Hornby look OK. They could probably do with being a bit more glossy for the prime expresses which were well looked after but they don’t look unrealistic to me. 
 

However, the key issue is that with c.100 Bachmann/ Hornby coaches and 5 SPM glossy ones, there’s no way I’m going to change the 100 coaches to match the five!

 

Thanks for your comments on headboards. Maybe light blue is OK, although it sounds like black is the safe option.
 

Andy

Good morning Andrew,

 

Regarding the finish on models of BR maroon carriages, I think the Southern Pride one is the more-realistic; much more so than the 'dull' finish on the RTR equivalents from Bachmann and Hornby. In my own case, on several of the RTR MK.1s, what I've done is rub a cotton bud with a small amount of model oil applied along the sides (avoiding the windows), then buffing them up with a cotton cloth. It does the surface no harm, yet it just gives a slight (natural?) gloss. 

 

Anyway, not all carriages in a rake had the same finish. A Glance at my The Green-Blue Transition Years of Change on the East Coast Main Line (Irwell Press) will prove that (one of my books which has NOT been remaindered!). Thus, I'm quite happy to have different effects on my carriage sides in the same rake. What the book does show is that glossy sides were far more common, especially in maroon (though whether I'd have the b@lls to weather a model carriage to the extent shown in the bottom picture on page 27 is a moot point!). 

 

The principal actions which make any RTR Mk.1 carriage so much more realistic are the removal of the roof ribs, repainting/weathering the roofs and weathering the underframes/bogies. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[thegreenhowards]

8 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Andrew,

 

Regarding the finish on models of BR maroon carriages, I think the Southern Pride one is the more-realistic; much more so than the 'dull' finish on the RTR equivalents from Bachmann and Hornby. In my own case, on several of the RTR MK.1s, what I've done is rub a cotton bud with a small amount of model oil applied along the sides (avoiding the windows), then buffing them up with a cotton cloth. It does the surface no harm, yet it just gives a slight (natural?) gloss. 

 

Anyway, not all carriages in a rake had the same finish. A Glance at my The Green-Blue Transition Years of Change on the East Coast Main Line (Irwell Press) will prove that (one of my books which has NOT been remaindered!). Thus, I'm quite happy to have different effects on my carriage sides in the same rake. What the book does show is that glossy sides were far more common, especially in maroon (though whether I'd have the b@lls to weather a model carriage to the extent shown in the bottom picture on page 27 is a moot point!). 

 

The principal actions which make any RTR Mk.1 carriage so much more realistic are the removal of the roof ribs, repainting/weathering the roofs and weathering the underframes/bogies. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

I like the oil idea, much easier to avoid windows. I’ll give that a go on one or two.

[thegreenhowards]

8 hours ago, Headstock said:

 

Morning Andy,

I semi gloss varnished ( my own mix) twenty Bachmann MK1's for a friend in an hour. They looked awesome. I could do your fleet in a day for a gold bar or twenty. It might cause a few mismatch problems and gnashing of teeth when you buy your second hundred BM1's though. With regard to the BM1 SMP mismatch, I would just zap them with the same mix. 

I did full repaints on five BM1's to match the the Thompson and Gresley stock built for the 1952 Master Cutler.  They looked much better and the whole set defiantly looked like a prestigious train. I did the clever Tony trick of whacking the ribs, people thought they were some fancy Japanese brass models. I sold them off for many gold bars, I thought that two Master Cutler formations was an extravagance and the 49 set was always going to win out. 

I guess I'm fortunate that I like the modelling aspect of the hobby, I wouldn't be very happy if I was trapped by the manufactures ideas about finish and colour. The fictiouse  green used by Hornby on its otherwise excellent Maunsell carriages is a real tragedy if you care about history. This livery has become so dominant on model railways, that the two different paint schemes that it has supplanted, have almost been written out of history in Orwellian fashion. Evil stuff.

Like you, I have an extensive carriage fleet,  though I actually find the accumulation of stock slightly annoying, but the building and painting of them has given me a great deal of pleasure over the years.

The black painted headboards were the standard on BR when they were introduced, 1948 being the year in the case of the South Yorkshireman. The dark blue was used later, mid 50's?. There are examples of other light blue headboards towards the end, I think the Yorkshire Pullman was one. Perhaps they ran out of dark blue paint and used something that was commonly stocked in the stores, waist paper bin blue anybody?

Morning Andrew,

 

When you varnish, do you spray right over the windows?

 

I’m afraid I rather enjoy accumulating stock when it’s with a purpose - I.e. to form a particular train. I enjoy the modelling side  too but I’m happy to mix and match to form up a rake.

 

It sounds like you have a gold bar fetish. You may need to see a counsellor!

 

Andy

[Headstock]

1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

Morning Andrew,

 

When you varnish, do you spray right over the windows?

 

I’m afraid I rather enjoy accumulating stock when it’s with a purpose - I.e. to form a particular train. I enjoy the modelling side  too but I’m happy to mix and match to form up a rake.

 

 

Morning Greenie,

 

Did you not know that Klear actually improves the look of glazing? Aviation modelers use it to make plastic bubble canopies look like the real thing. They just dunk them in a solution and leave them to dry. On masking, I do it quite a lot if the glazing can't be removed. With a bit of practice I've got a carriage side down to 15 minutes with the Maskol. 

 

1 hour ago, thegreenhowards said:

 

It sounds like you have a gold bar fetish. You may need to see a counsellor!

 

Andy

 

I did, they said clever boy. At least you're not a model railway geek with a fetish for collecting Bachmann MK1's.

[davidw]

39 minutes ago, Headstock said:

 

Morning Greenie,

 

Did you not know that Klear actually improves the look of glazing? Aviation modelers use it to make plastic bubble canopies look like the real thing. They just dunk them in a solution and leave them to dry. On masking, I do it quite a lot if the glazing can't be removed. With a bit of practice I've got a carriage side down to 15 minutes with the Maskol. 

 

 

I did, they said clever boy. At least you're not a model railway geek with a fetish for collecting Bachmann MK1's.

Hi Have you managed a repaint of an RTR coach from one livery to another. ie Crmson cream to maroon?

Edited January 2, 2021 by davidw

[Dragonboy]

20 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

Thanks Tony,

 

Useful advice, but the idea of replacing all my wagon wheels with pin points and Markits at £2 an axle is too much to contemplate! I’m not convinced of the need for pin point bearings on modern RTR wagons, but maybe that’s why I keep having problems.

 

I think the couplings are definitely part of the problem. The old metal Triang Hornby ones would probably work but modern tension locks are too inconsistent as you’ve said (apart from the aesthetics). One to ponder for the New Year.

 

Andy

Why not replace wheels for a few wagons that you want to reverse. I doubt you would want to do that with all of them. Maybe also add a little extra weight underneath. 
 

Brian

[Headstock]

14 minutes ago, davidw said:

Hi Are you saying you've managed a repaint of an RTR coach from one livery to another. ie Crmson cream to maroon?

Yes, that would be the case.

[Chamby]

22 hours ago, Chas Levin said:

I've just checked this with my wife: she says Tony's book will be fine for the start of the New Year and railway models generally are fine, but that lingerie models are most definitely excluded.

I just checked with my wife too.  She said that she doesn’t mind lingerie models as long as they’re 1:76 scale...

[cctransuk]

1 minute ago, Chamby said:

I just checked with my wife too.  She said that she doesn’t mind lingerie models as long as they’re 1:76 scale...

 

That's fair enough - it'd take ages to scale one up and 3D print it, anyway!

 

John Isherwood.

[Tony Wright]

At the start of this new decade, I thought I'd have a brief look through the files to see what Little Bytham looked like ten years ago..................

 

 

 

Still very much in the 'mock-up' stage, though fully-operational with regard to the running (but the signals were temporarily fixed to 'off'). 

 

A year or two later, more had been done.................

 

 

But not much, and still mock-ups.

 

 

At least the station buildings were in place (just visible) a while later, and the station master's house is now longer a mock-up (partly visible just to the right). 

 

This picture was on the first Little Bytham brochure presented to visitors.

 

 

The footbridge is now no longer a mock-up, but the original girder bridge is still there. 

 

 

Almost there now (earlier last year) with the proper girder bridge in situ, but the point rodding not quite finished.

 

 

At last, all complete. Thanks to Ian Rathbone for painting several of the featured locos................

 

And the best layout I've photographed in the last decade (in my opinion)?

 

 

 

Richard Turner's Camp 93. 

 

Some more layouts I've taken pictures of in the last decade tomorrow......................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 2, 2021 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Chas Levin]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

At the start of this new decade, I thought I'd have a brief look through the files to see what Little Bytham looked like ten years ago..................

 

 

 

Still very much in the 'mock-up' stage, though fully-operational with regard to the running (but the signals were temporarily fixed to 'off'). 

 

A year or two later, more had been done.................

 

 

But not much, and still mock-ups.

 

 

At least the station buildings were in place (just visible) a while later, and the station master's house is now longer a mock-up (partly visible just to the right). 

 

This picture was on the first Little Bytham brochure presented to visitors.

 

 

The footbridge is now no longer a mock-up, but the original girder bridge is still there. 

 

 

Almost there now (earlier last year) with the proper girder bridge in situ, but the point rodding not quite finished.

 

 

At last, all complete. Thanks to Ian Rathbone for painting several of the featured locos................

 

And the best layout I've photographed in the last decade (in my opinion)?

 

 

 

Richard Turner's Camp 93. 

 

Some more layouts I've taken pictures of in the last decade tomorrow......................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good evening Tony, all lovely pictures (of both LB and TC93). I was particularly taken with the sky+clouds background of the first two LB ones. With the greatest respect to the work that I imagine goes in to replacing the real-life background with even the simplest plain blue or white (something I've never done with a photo so I don't actually know what's involved) I'm sometimes a little underwhelmed by those plain single colour backgrounds because they look a little unrealistic to me and I've even thought that perhaps I'd rather see the real room in which the layout is situated... but those first two, with the deeper blue sky and good solid clouds look really excellent and enhance the layout's realism to an extraordinary degree: does it take more time and work to add a real sky background like that, rather than a plain colour?

[Tony Wright]

11 hours ago, Chas Levin said:

Good evening Tony, all lovely pictures (of both LB and TC93). I was particularly taken with the sky+clouds background of the first two LB ones. With the greatest respect to the work that I imagine goes in to replacing the real-life background with even the simplest plain blue or white (something I've never done with a photo so I don't actually know what's involved) I'm sometimes a little underwhelmed by those plain single colour backgrounds because they look a little unrealistic to me and I've even thought that perhaps I'd rather see the real room in which the layout is situated... but those first two, with the deeper blue sky and good solid clouds look really excellent and enhance the layout's realism to an extraordinary degree: does it take more time and work to add a real sky background like that, rather than a plain colour?

God morning Chas,

 

Thank you for your kind comments. 

 

I must admit, I no longer put real skies behind my model pictures nowadays. The main reason for this is that many are published, and I leave it to the designer to put his/her background in. All I do is provide a neutral colour for a sky now, cloned from the colour of the backscene or just chosen from the colour palette. 

 

It does take more time to put a real sky in, though the real work involved is taking the 'lasso' tool around all the edges, isolating the background and adding another layer. My photo programme has a 'smart edge' tool, but it's the opposite of that, cheerfully nibbling away things like telegraph poles, signals and chimneys. No, it has to be 'free-hand', point to point. Painstaking, but necessary. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Northmoor]

Personally Tony, I prefer the overall white sky as I think these look much more realistic, although that this may be skewed by being born after the end of steam, so my "memories" are based on overwhelmingly B&W photographs.

A bright sunny sky would produce obvious shadows, which you don't get with your long exposures and multiple light sources.  Prototype photos with (that's most days in Britain!) overcast skies, even on bright days , produce very even lighting with no strong shadows; black and white film requires very strong contrast on cloud cover (or use of a yellow or green filter) to show up any cloud detail, normally you just get a fairly flat grey sky.

But you know all this....

 

Rob

[john new]

Given the responses above I am one of the odd ball readers. I quite like shots that show the railway in its room rather than a forced in extra. A layout needs a fascia and a back scene and they are part of the modelling totality and, as in the recent DVD/YouTube link you recently posted, it is useful to see how modellers successfully do, or don’t, process their edges.

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by john new

[Tony Wright]

As promised (or threatened!), a (small) selection of layouts which I've photographed in the last decade. There are many, many more.......................

 

All show a very high standard of modelling 

 

The first few.............

 

 

Abingdon.

 

 

Arigna Town.

 

 

Arnside.

 

 

Arun Quay.

 

 

B. A. Bodil.

 

 

Ballyconnel Road.

 

 

Banbury.

 

 

Bridgwater.

 

 

Brinklow.

 

 

Brixham. 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

And some more.................

 

 

Burshaw North Western.

 

 

Clifton and Lowther.

 

 

Copenhagen Fields.

 

 

Durham Street.

 

 

Edington Junction.

 

 

Euxton Junction.

 

 

Goathland.

 

 

Grantham.

 

 

Grindley Brook.

 

 

Harlyn Pier.

 

 

[Tony Wright]

And more.................

 

 

Herculaneum Dock.

 

 

Hope Under Dinmore.

 

 

Ivybridge.

 

 

Lakebank.

 

 

Lighterman's Wharf.

 

 

Llangerisech.

 

 

Marsh Chipping.

 

 

Netherwood Sidings.

 

 

Nine Mills.

 

 

North Foreland. 

[Tony Wright]

And still some more................

 

 

Old Mills.

 

 

Otterington.

 

 

Pempoul.

 

 

Portchullin.

 

 

Retford.

 

 

Rosedale.

 

 

Sanford and Banwell.

 

 

Sandy Bay.

 

 

Shap.

 

 

South Pelaw. 

 

 

[Bucoops]

All great layouts. Gives me a lot of food for thought.

[Tony Wright]

And, the last for now. There are dozens more...................

 

 

St. Merryn.

 

 

Staly Vegas.

 

 

Tetleys Mills (the second manifestation, after Dave Shakespeare had died and taken on the day it was broken up).

 

 

Trowbridge.

 

 

Tucking Mill.

 

 

Wansbeck Road.

 

 

Wickwar.

 

 

Woodhead.

 

 

World's End.

 

It only remains for me to thank all those exhibition managers and layout owners who've given me the opportunity of taking pictures. 

 

What I find most amazing is that almost all of these shots have been taken since I retired! 

 

 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

And it's not just layouts....................

 

 

Bob Dawson's exquisite scratch-built architectural modelling...................

 

 

[StephenB]

Tony
 

A lovely selection of some very fine model railways. Have you ever come across Blueball Summit, a rather fine 2mm layout? It’s worth it.

 

Stephen

 

[Jol Wilkinson]

Hello Tony,

 

wonderful photos of great modelling, Portchullin in particular being a favorite of mine.

 

Brinklow catches the feel of the Trent Valley line, although I can't find the location where the canal passes under the  railway. I have two Barry Freeman prints of Coronations at Brinklow, with the canal in the foreground, both original paintings being from the towpath near the Fosse Way bridge.

 

I believe the bridge baseboard from Tetley Mills is still in existence, in the hands of a friend in Essex.

 

Jol

 

 

[bbishop]

Thanks Tony,  if one excludes the Certain Other Railway layouts (that I never look at), I got over 50% correct.

 

Could you have a look at St. Merryn.  What does it have that Little Bytham doesn't?

 

Bill