Wright writes.....

[Arun Sharma]

Tony 

 

"Still, I watched it with joy purr around LB today."

 

On that basis - Given that it was you who made it run sweetly, and that it gave you pleasure watching the results of your enterprise, I would say that you gained quite a lot. 

 

Arun

[Leander]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Still, I watched it with joy purr around LB today.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Is there any chance of you posting a video Tony?

[chris p bacon]

4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

As yet, nobody has expressed the slightest interest in the old, scratch-built L&NWR 'Prince of Wales'.

 

 

I shall send a PM Tony.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

44 minutes ago, chris p bacon said:

 

I shall send a PM Tony.

 

It will look good on the premier line through Sandy 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, chris p bacon said:

 

I shall send a PM Tony.

 

Thanks Dave,

 

It looks like it's already gone. 

 

The potential buyer offered £100.00, which is what I had in mind for the PoW, so I've accepted.

 

He just beat you to it. Sorry. 

 

That'll be £25.00 to CRUK. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

2 hours ago, Leander said:

Is there any chance of you posting a video Tony?

I can shoot a video, but editing it and posting it on here is something I don't have the skill for.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[chris p bacon]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Dave,

 

It looks like it's already gone. 

 

The potential buyer offered £100.00, which is what I had in mind for the PoW, so I've accepted.

 

He just beat you to it. Sorry. 

 

That'll be £25.00 to CRUK. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony. 

 

That was a bargain! I expected to pay more.

 

I do have a Gem kit (I think) of a PoW in the 'to do' pile, so I shall have to build my own instead...I look forward to it. 

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, chris p bacon said:

 

That was a bargain! I expected to pay more.

 

I do have a Gem kit (I think) of a PoW in the 'to do' pile, so I shall have to build my own instead...I look forward to it. 

Thanks Dave,

 

I think £100.00 was a fair price. 

 

As I said, I was given the Portescap as a non-runner, and the replacement wheels were from my vast stock of older-style Romfords, many of which were donated as well. Thus, I was hardly out of pocket, so why try and be a profiteer? 

 

As it stood, the PoW would have had almost no value ('stood' - or 'stand' - being most-apposite, because that's all it could do!). Who'd pay anything for a locked-solid loco which needed a fair bit more than just a bit of TLC? 

 

As it is, the owner will get something and CRUK will also get something, and the dear old thing is going to a very good home (no better than yours, of course). 

 

Anyway, thanks for the generosity of your offer. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

With my last post, Wright Writes has just flipped into 1,500 pages (it's now a B12!). 

 

May I please thank all those numerous contributors (some who've come and gone) who've made it such a vibrant, educational, argumentative, useful, informative (even inspirational - Headstock), current, interesting, humorous, thought-provoking and fascinating thread? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

11 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

Tony 

 

"Still, I watched it with joy purr around LB today."

 

On that basis - Given that it was you who made it run sweetly, and that it gave you pleasure watching the results of your enterprise, I would say that you gained quite a lot. 

 

Arun

'I would say that you gained quite a lot.'

 

That's very true, Arun,

 

And thanks for your kind words.

 

However, 'personal' gain was not the object of the exercise. Had the PoW not been sold, my work on it would have little value.

 

I state again, what I did was not through altruism. Both Mo's dad and my dad died of cancer (as have several dear friends and other relatives) and the guy who owned the PoW cannot model any more because of failing health. I'm lucky; I'm as healthy as any near-73 year old can expect to be (I never see my doctor!), I still have all my modelling 'faculties' and most bits needed for 'resurrecting' dear old models, I already have in stock. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony.  

[Tony Wright]

I suppose if I keep on posting, the pages will turn over even quicker!

 

That said, because of more rain-interruptions at Old Trafford, I was able to crack on with the K3 rebuild started yesterday afternoon. 

 

 

I'm doing it as one of the later-build examples, with LH drive and the larger cab (the type made by Bachmann). The tender's fine, and I'll have to match Geoff West's natural weathering. 

 

 

The task is made easier by my having recently (in the last 12 months) built another SE Finecast K3 for a friend. It represents one of the earlier K3s, and Geoff Haynes painted it perfectly. 

 

 

Speaking of Bachmann K3s, here's one I assisted Tom Foster with in 'improving' it. It rides on a SE Finecast chassis, has the correct-sized drivers, employs the Bachmann motion and is fitted with an earlier-style cab, but retains LH drive. 

 

It's now the property of Jonathan Wealleans and sees service on Grantham.

 

Bachmann's K3 was a bit of a disappointment, with its undersized drivers and indifferent performance. Apparently, it's not sold that well (because of the small drivers?) and kit-building still remains the way of getting a decent K3, especially mechanically. 

 

How many others out there have turned their Bachmann K3s into 'proper' K3s?

 

 

[31A]

33 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

 

Bachmann's K3 was a bit of a disappointment, with its undersized drivers and indifferent performance. 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure where "indifferent performance" comes from.  I've got three in regular use (plus one "spare") and I regard them as among my most reliable locos.  They always start, have good slow speed running, even across dead frogs without any jerking, pull whatever I want them to, and never need any attention.  I tend to think of them as good dependable engines, typical of Bachmann models of their time, into which bracket I would also put the likes of Ivan 4MT, Standard Class 5 and Standard Class 4 Tank, for example.

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

That said, because of more rain-interruptions at Old Trafford, I was able to crack on with the K3 rebuild started yesterday afternoon.

Don't bother with the telly, listen to TMS. The pictures are much better. Then you can model for three full 2 hour (or more) sessions, just stopping for lunch and tea.

[Tony Wright]

2 hours ago, 31A said:

 

I'm not sure where "indifferent performance" comes from.  I've got three in regular use (plus one "spare") and I regard them as among my most reliable locos.  They always start, have good slow speed running, even across dead frogs without any jerking, pull whatever I want them to, and never need any attention.  I tend to think of them as good dependable engines, typical of Bachmann models of their time, into which bracket I would also put the likes of Ivan 4MT, Standard Class 5 and Standard Class 4 Tank, for example.

Might you be lucky, Steve?

 

I've had three through my hands and all of them waddled and wobbled in a rather un-K3 like way (though the real things could be rough, I know). The valve gear also jumped up and down at the junction of the radius rod/combination lever. Others have also reported poor performance from their Bachmann K3s to me.

 

How do you 'live' with the way-under-scale driving wheels?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

Just a quick note...............

 

My email seems to have gone down this morning. I keep on getting 'temporary error, try later'. Is this normal? I know nothing of such matters. 

 

If anyone wishes to get in touch with me, please send a PM. 

[Dr Al]

16 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

My email seems to have gone down this morning. I keep on getting 'temporary error, try later'. Is this normal? I know nothing of such matters. 

 

 

I'm experiencing the same with Yahoo Mail - it appears to be a problem at their end.

 

Cheers,
Alan

[MarkC]

Yahoo! email issues again? This is happening far too frequently now

 

Mark

[DougN]

I'm with 31A my K3 is one of my most reliable locos for years a lovely runner. I am totally aware of the short comings of the Bachman rendition... but it does match my OO layout as easy straight forward modelling. I have a SEfinecast kit which I really need to pull out and have another go at as it has been started and stopped for about 18 years! 

[Andy Hayter]

The whole of Yahoo seemed to be down earlier.  I prefer them over Google for their search engine.

[Re6/6]

4 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

The whole of Yahoo seemed to be down earlier.  I prefer them over Google for their search engine.

It is. Both e-mails and the search engine are down.

 

All very irritating if one is waiting for a parcel arrival notification.

 

https://downdetector.co.uk/status/yahoo-mail

Edited September 5, 2019 by Re6/6

[Neil]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

.... How do you 'live' with the way-under-scale driving wheels? ....

 

A really interesting question and while I wouldn't presume to answer for anyone else, it strikes me that all models are somehow flawed or compromised. If we do more than open the box and put the model on the track then some activity must have taken place whether it's attending to a small detail, some painting or all the way up to a wholesale rebuild. Maybe it's easier to understand by looking at the point we decide to stop at. A useful parallel would be the point the artist puts down his or her brushes and says 'enough'.  For me it's less about a mental checklist comparing each bit of the model to the real thing and more about getting to a point where it satisfies, where it has some semblance of life. It doesn't have to be perfect but it has to trigger a recognition of the real thing. My most recent example would be this hack of a Swedish liveried Prussian G8 into a Belgian type 81. It's a far from perfect model but it triggers recognition for me.

 

[Clem]

6 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

With my last post, Wright Writes has just flipped into 1,500 pages (it's now a B12!). 

Congratulations, Tony. It's a brilliant thread. It's great to see what you and so many other talented modellers are working on and to admire the sheer skill and craftsmanship involved. I'm please to see other people  apart from myself see a number and equate it to an locomotive. (usually LNER post 1946 numbering). I'm half way through the O4s on consecutive day two and a half mile walks without missing a day. (ten years plus if you're wondering) and most of my passwords and pin numbers are railway connected. Chris thinks I'm a nutter. But it doesn't show when you're in a crowd of them.

[Barry Ten]

2 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

The whole of Yahoo seemed to be down earlier.  I prefer them over Google for their search engine.

 

One good thing came out of the Yahoo downtime, for me at least. I went on Twitter to check the Yahoo status

and saw a post from the journalist Sarfraz Mansoor mentioning the problem. This in turn reminded me that I'd

meant to see the film "Blinded by the Light", which is a fictionalised account of his experiences as a Bruce

Springsteen fan growing  up in Luton in the 80s. I checked the local release schedule and found that there

was only one showing in our area and it was in 45 minutes! So my wife and I said sod the work and went

to the pictures instead. Thanks, Yahoo!

[AY Mod]

Nice to see the Westernisation of Little Bytham here. 

 

 

Westerns and Warships next please; but I expect that would get as warm a reaction as 'Diesels on Pendon' did last year from some quarters!

[31A]

4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Might you be lucky, Steve?

 

I've had three through my hands and all of them waddled and wobbled in a rather un-K3 like way (though the real things could be rough, I know). The valve gear also jumped up and down at the junction of the radius rod/combination lever. Others have also reported poor performance from their Bachmann K3s to me.

 

How do you 'live' with the way-under-scale driving wheels?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Well maybe I am, but as I said I've got four, and four people have ticked "agree" to my post so I can't be the only one!  The K3 which is "spare" (only because its number duplicates one of my others and I haven't got around to renumbering it yet) did exhibit the "jumping valve gear" syndrome you mention; I couldn't work out why that one was different to the other three, but I cured the problem by bushing the valve chest with a piece of brass tube to provide a decent guide for the valve spindle, and it now behaves properly.  I must admit, despite being aware of the small size of the driving wheels, it doesn't especially bother me, perhaps because there are no splashers so all the driving wheels have to do is fit below the running plate.