Wright writes.....

[Jesse Sim]

30 minutes ago, Woodcock29 said:

Jesse

Just a small point. On the conflat above the brake lever needs to be shortened so that the bracket is centered more or less on the right half of the W iron.

Andrew

That really doesn’t bother me, nor going to pull apart to fix that. I will however make sure it’s perfect on the next. 

[Headstock]

1 hour ago, Jesse Sim said:

I always knock up the basic shell first, with just a blob of solder on all four ends, fit the W irons, then check with wheels if it’s all good. Twist and bend if necessary, Then solder the body together completely. 

One thing I have trouble with is Parkside kits, the W irons and solebars are one and you have to glue them facing outwards so the wheels run freely. One thing I did do recently was use brass fittings to enhance the Parkside kit, what I might try on the next conflat I have to build is use brass W irons. 
 

 

 

Good morning Jesse,

 

it is probably something that won't bother you but that particular design of container branding was not blue, rather red oxide or bauxite.

[Jesse Sim]

22 minutes ago, Headstock said:

 

Good morning Jesse,

 

it is probably something that won't bother you but that particular design of container branding was not blue, rather red oxide or bauxite.

Good evening, 

 

I knew that there is some discrepancy with colours of containers, but I won’t be using this container anyway, I have some resin ones on the way from Mr King. 
 

I admit that I sound like a hypocrite but the colour of the container would bother me, as it stands out, but a brake lever that you won’t notice when it’s in a rake with 30+ wagons doing the scale speed of the Scotch Goods…… 

 

As I said, I won’t pull apart the wagon to fix that, but I will make it shorter on the next four I have to build. 

[Dylan Sanderson]

2 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

 

Show off

[Steven B]

22 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

In my ignorance (something I've got plenty of!), I had no idea that a self-trimming ex-GC tender was inappropriate (I didn't even know it was that type). I merely used what was supplied, lining it, adding real coal and a shovel.

 

 

Are those lumps of coal to scale? They look much larger than anything you'd see today on a preserved railway (I'm too young to remember mainline steam).

 

I'm not sure I'm convinced by using real coal - certainly in N I feel it doesn't look right. I loaded some coal wagons with real coal I'd sieved to size and whilst the shape was good it looked a lot better once I'd painted over it with Humbrol 33.

 

Steven B

 

[Jesse Sim]

23 minutes ago, Steven B said:

 

Are those lumps of coal to scale? They look much larger than anything you'd see today on a preserved railway (I'm too young to remember mainline steam).

 

I'm not sure I'm convinced by using real coal - certainly in N I feel it doesn't look right. I loaded some coal wagons with real coal I'd sieved to size and whilst the shape was good it looked a lot better once I'd painted over it with Humbrol 33.

 

Steven B

 

Sorry, but how can you not be convinced by using real coal? You can’t get any more accurate then the real thing…

[Jesse Sim]

53 minutes ago, Dylan Sanderson said:

Show off

Now now all because I finish my kits 

[Headstock]

1 hour ago, Jesse Sim said:

Good evening, 

 

I knew that there is some discrepancy with colours of containers, but I won’t be using this container anyway, I have some resin ones on the way from Mr King. 
 

I admit that I sound like a hypocrite but the colour of the container would bother me, as it stands out, but a brake lever that you won’t notice when it’s in a rake with 30+ wagons doing the scale speed of the Scotch Goods…… 

 

As I said, I won’t pull apart the wagon to fix that, but I will make it shorter on the next four I have to build. 

 

Afternoon, evening Jesse,

 

the Bachmann container can be converted into something more pre BR with a bit of work but some excellent container modelling has been done by the Grantham posse, you might as well take advantage of it. Fixing the brake handle is only a ten minute job but nothing that really shouts out at you like a dodgy livery would.

Edited January 12, 2022 by Headstock
clarify a point

[Roger Sunderland]

5 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

Sorry, but how can you not be convinced by using real coal? You can’t get any more accurate then the real thing…

Absolutely right Jesse. There was a huge variety in the size of the coal in steam days. Most locos carried a coal hammer to split the larger lumps that wouldn’t fit on the fireman’s shovel. As for painting coal with Humbrol 33- surely that’s a Matt paint? Coal was never Matt it was shiny!

[TrevorP1]

28 minutes ago, Steven B said:

 

Are those lumps of coal to scale? They look much larger than anything you'd see today on a preserved railway (I'm too young to remember mainline steam).

 

 

It really needs one of the ex footplatemen on here to comment but I think huge lumps of coal were not uncommon where hard coal was used. 

 

As a young spotter I remember being fascinated one day at Southampton Central when a fireman got a huge lump like that apparently jammed in the firehole of a Bulleid Pacific. That must have taken some doing. 

 

It was of course up to the fireman to break the coal into 'fist sized lumps'.

[Barry Ten]

Bogie wheels? Where we're going we won't need bogie wheels.

 

 

 

Work in progress, obviously. This is an old tender-drive Princess with the front splashers moved forward 3mm

to accept a correct wheelbase.

[Andy Hayter]

14 minutes ago, Roger Sunderland said:

Absolutely right Jesse. There was a huge variety in the size of the coal in steam days. Most locos carried a coal hammer to split the larger lumps that wouldn’t fit on the fireman’s shovel. As for painting coal with Humbrol 33- surely that’s a Matt paint? Coal was never Matt it was shiny!

 

 

That I think is the problem Roger.

 

If we put a gloss finished loco on the tracks it looks wrong.  Equally putting gloss (shiny) coal in a tender looks wrong,

[Steven B]

21 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

Sorry, but how can you not be convinced by using real coal? You can’t get any more accurate then the real thing…

 

Sometimes 1:1 colours and textures don't scale well and can look like a caricature.

 

I didn't feel the real coal scaled well to 1:148. From "normal viewing distances" the coal load in the model caught the light in a way I'd never seen on passing coal trains and looked fake. A coat of matt varnish might have been better than black paint, but the effect afterwards was much closer to what I'd seen.

 

Steven B.

[t-b-g]

10 minutes ago, Steven B said:

 

Sometimes 1:1 colours and textures don't scale well and can look like a caricature.

 

I didn't feel the real coal scaled well to 1:148. From "normal viewing distances" the coal load in the model caught the light in a way I'd never seen on passing coal trains and looked fake. A coat of matt varnish might have been better than black paint, but the effect afterwards was much closer to what I'd seen.

 

Steven B.

 

I agree with you. Real coal broken up small on models often leaves shiny surfaces that don't match the rather dusty appearance of the real thing in full sized tenders and bunkers. The shapes and sizes, however, of broken up real coal can look just right.

 

I usually paint mine with a matt very dark grey, rather than pure black. I recall one article (Likely Martyn Welch in MRJ) where coal in a loco tender was weathered using a dry brushed colour (possibly metallic gunmetal from memory) to create "highlights". I haven't tried it but it sounds like a reasonable idea and looked good on the printed page. 

Edited January 12, 2022 by t-b-g
To add content & correct typo x2

[Headstock]

7 minutes ago, Steven B said:

 

Sometimes 1:1 colours and textures don't scale well and can look like a caricature.

 

I didn't feel the real coal scaled well to 1:148. From "normal viewing distances" the coal load in the model caught the light in a way I'd never seen on passing coal trains and looked fake. A coat of matt varnish might have been better than black paint, but the effect afterwards was much closer to what I'd seen.

 

Steven B.

 

Good afternoon Steve B,

 

I've painted coal on occasion, or at least bits of coal, to get a more realistic effect. However, I have never found anything that fractures, crumbles and produces the shapes and dust of real coal as well as real coal. I tend not to sieve to much as I find this looks highly unrealistic.

[Headstock]

5 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

I agree with you. Real coal broken up small on models often leaves shiny surfaces that don't match the rather dusty appearance of the real thing in full sized tenders and bunkers. The shapes and sizes, however, of broken up real coal can look just right.

 

I usually paint mine with a matt very dark grey, rather than pure black. I recall one article (Likely Martyn Welch in MRJ) where coal in a loco tender was weathered using a dry brushed colour (possibly metallic gunmetal from memory) to create "highlights". I haven't tried it but it sounds like a reasonable idea and looked good on the printed page. 

 

Afternoon Tony,

 

I grind up a fine dust and spoon it on to whatever is sticky. Sieving loses the dust.

[APOLLO]

Buy your coal soon as you probably can't soon. I got a bag from my local petrol station a couple of years ago - it'll last forever !!

 

I use Johnsons Klear to fix it, and yes it's too shiny so a quick spray of matt varnish finishes it off nicely.

 

Brit15

[DenysW]

I'm not sure if this is silly as a post or not.

 

Anthracite is used in dual media industrial water filters (sand as the second medium), and is black and shiney, just like bituminous coal. It therefore seems likely to continue to be commercially available, possibly only in 25 kg sacks. The water filters include fish farms, so are not the exclusive province of people who regard 10 tonnes as a minimum rational ordering size.

[micklner]

On 11/01/2022 at 20:31, micklner said:

The last reissue of the Hornby  D49 a conversion from 2012. The photos of the completed loco have disapeared off the forum. I will do a couple of the finished Loco tomorrow . I believe she now has a Bachmann GS Tender .

 

The Fitzwilliam completed aka 2012.

 

Chassis was rewheeled using Hornby A3 lined wheels , this got rid of the rubber bands on one set and the wheels were then lined out. Yes wrong number of spokes !! I can live with them as discussed before. I little bit of lead added as there is little room inside the body. She can manage to pull 5 suburban Coaches.

Bachmann Tender  with multiplug connector between the Loco and Tender similar to Tony's version without any bare connections ! . The Cylinders should be slightly further forward, but it is not viable with the Hornby chassis. A  close up photo of the Caporotti valve gear which I bought years ago from a Pickering Yorkshire Dealer sadly no longer with us .

 

edit

Dealers was Puffers

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2022 by micklner

[t-b-g]

48 minutes ago, Headstock said:

 

Afternoon Tony,

 

I grind up a fine dust and spoon it on to whatever is sticky. Sieving loses the dust.

 

I do something similar. There is always a bit of dusty stuff in the bottom of the plastic bag I crush the big lumps up in. A sprinkling of that helps take the shine off and fills in any little gaps that might have been left by the bigger lumps. Done "right" coal in a tender can really lift a model. Done badly it can spoil a good model. I have a few that I did when I was a novice that could really do with a second try now I have learned a bit more.

 

Not showing off at all here but last time I needed some real coal for modelling purposes, I mined my own. Proper "scrachbuilding"!

 

A few of us had a day out at the mining museum near Wakefield and while we were underground I asked the guide if it would be OK if I put a couple of lumps of the real stuff in my pocket. After an odd look from him and an explanation as to what I wanted it for, he said we could take some.

[FarrMan]

2 hours ago, APOLLO said:

Buy your coal soon as you probably can't soon. I got a bag from my local petrol station a couple of years ago - it'll last forever !!

 

 

Brit15

I still burn coal on an open fire. Plenty there for a tender. Perhaps I should crush some up and sell it! Though there is some dross in it already, so no need to crush?

 

Lloyd

[Headstock]

1 hour ago, t-b-g said:

 

I do something similar. There is always a bit of dusty stuff in the bottom of the plastic bag I crush the big lumps up in. A sprinkling of that helps take the shine off and fills in any little gaps that might have been left by the bigger lumps. Done "right" coal in a tender can really lift a model. Done badly it can spoil a good model. I have a few that I did when I was a novice that could really do with a second try now I have learned a bit more.

 

Not showing off at all here but last time I needed some real coal for modelling purposes, I mined my own. Proper "scrachbuilding"!

 

A few of us had a day out at the mining museum near Wakefield and while we were underground I asked the guide if it would be OK if I put a couple of lumps of the real stuff in my pocket. After an odd look from him and an explanation as to what I wanted it for, he said we could take some.

 

My bag comes from the Selby coal field, not a million miles or years apart from yours. They were probably once part of the same prehistoric forest.

 

Not suitable for models of GWR locomotives and wagons though.

[t-b-g]

7 minutes ago, Headstock said:

 

My bag comes from the Selby coal field, not a million miles or years apart from yours. They were probably once part of the same prehistoric forest.

 

Not suitable for models of GWR locomotives and wagons though.

 

You might get away with it if you don't tell anybody............

[ROY@34F]

3 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

 

It really needs one of the ex footplatemen on here to comment but I think huge lumps of coal were not uncommon where hard coal was used. 

 

As a young spotter I remember being fascinated one day at Southampton Central when a fireman got a huge lump like that apparently jammed in the firehole of a Bulleid Pacific. That must have taken some doing. 

 

It was of course up to the fireman to break the coal into 'fist sized lumps'.

You're quite right Trevor . Being a fireman in 1950s /60s I can confirm similar stories to yours. The coal hammer was used virtually all the time on the GN main line area at least .

 

Regards , Roy .

[Jol Wilkinson]

3 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

I agree with you. Real coal broken up small on models often leaves shiny surfaces that don't match the rather dusty appearance of the real thing in full sized tenders and bunkers. The shapes and sizes, however, of broken up real coal can look just right.

 

I usually paint mine with a matt very dark grey, rather than pure black. I recall one article (Likely Martyn Welch in MRJ) where coal in a loco tender was weathered using a dry brushed colour (possibly metallic gunmetal from memory) to create "highlights". I haven't tried it but it sounds like a reasonable idea and looked good on the printed page. 

I use real coal , fixed in place by PVA with black poster paint in it. It is generally matt with the odd shiny bit, usually the larger lumps. No weathering required.

 

This was John Hayes technique (he also gave me the coal as we had oil fired central heating).