Wright writes.....

[Barry O]

9 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

The materials to complete the point rodding arrived today - great service from Wizard/MSE/Comet; thanks Andrew.

 

However, the enthusiasm to get on with it straight away was lacking (but not for long). Instead, I looked for a 'quickie' project.

 

How about another 'layout coach'?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Using an old Airfix LMS BTK as a donor, I've made another one using Comet sides; but to a different diagram.

 

I took off the duckets with a piercing saw and reinstated them. The above-door ventilators came from a Southern Pride etch (odd that Comet don't provide these). 

 

An afternoon's easy work, and there you are. Painting and finishing awaits.

 

 

Tony

No vents over the doors in BR days. They started to take them off fairly soon after nationalisation. Note they had changed the vent design in later Period III coaches.

 

With the amount of work you have done it may be quicker to build it without the donor. As  said before theyend up overwide and eventually the sides can come loose.

To stop sides flexing (particularly on panelled stock) add a brass angle strengthener to the sides before putting the ends on the sides. ( a tip borrowed from Larry Goddard).

Enjoy the painting!

Baz

[CF MRC]

11 hours ago, dibateg said:

Lovely crisp pictures of 60156 and 63925 Tony, the figure looks just like you, is it the posture I wonder or the colour of the clothes? The M&GN section captures the rural byway crossing a busy trunk route. There can't be many layouts that feature this - Retford of course, any others?

 

Best Regards

Tony

 

 

Not sure if the NLR  qualifies as a rural byway crossing a trunk route, but that is what we have on CF.  When it was designed, Mike Randall was adamant that we must have a layout with trains coming towards the viewer: not many can do that - especially in the larger scales. 
 

Tim
 

 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

Tony

No vents over the doors in BR days. They started to take them off fairly soon after nationalisation. Note they had changed the vent design in later Period III coaches.

 

With the amount of work you have done it may be quicker to build it without the donor. As  said before theyend up overwide and eventually the sides can come loose.

To stop sides flexing (particularly on panelled stock) add a brass angle strengthener to the sides before putting the ends on the sides. ( a tip borrowed from Larry Goddard).

Enjoy the painting!

Baz

Ah well,

 

Best stick to LNER carriages.

 

Given its 'status' as a 'layout coach', I don't think I could have built a complete Comet kit in a little under four hours.

 

The donor was bought for less than a tenner, the wheels are out of my stock and I've had the Comet sides for a while. Simple economics?

 

'No vents over the doors in BR days'

 

Thanks for that Barry.

 

 

 

The importance of observation of the prototype. Why don't I take my own advice? 

 

It's not mentioned in Comet's instructions. In fact, you're told how to make them. 

 

Fortunately, because the ones I put on were fixed with solder, they're now gone. 

 

 

Have you told Coachman about the non-ventilators in BR days? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by Tony Wright
typo error

[Tony Wright]

38 minutes ago, CF MRC said:

Not sure if the NLR  qualifies as a rural byway crossing a trunk route, but that is what we have on CF.  When it was designed, Mike Randall was adamant that we must have a layout with trains coming towards the viewer: not many can do that - especially in the larger scales. 
 

Tim
 

 

Good morning Tim,

 

'Not sure if the NLR  qualifies as a rural byway crossing a trunk route, but that is what we have on CF'

 

A perfect example I'd say.......

 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Compound2632]

58 minutes ago, CF MRC said:

Not sure if the NLR  qualifies as a rural byway crossing a trunk route, but that is what we have on CF.  When it was designed, Mike Randall was adamant that we must have a layout with trains coming towards the viewer: not many can do that - especially in the larger scales. 
 

Tim
 

 

 

Surely that's an instance of a rural byway passing under a trunk route?

[D.Platt]

Good morning all,

 

Hope everyone is keeping safe and well, my days are spent between working on the layout in the morning then bit of gardening weather permitting (it’s never been so tidy at this time of the year ) and then onto my K3, here’s where I have got to,

I have not used the motion that was with the kit it just didn’t look right so it’s mainly made from my collection of spare frets.

[D.Platt]

Sorry I’ve not got the knowledge of inputting multiple images and text combinations, so carrying on with the K3 the valve gear is free running and clears the slide bars , I went down the road of contacting Dave Ellis and within days received the cab fret which looks brilliant value but no information comes with it, I’ve spoken to Dave but he didn’t have the answer so over to you guys 

The cab folds , cab sides , floor and spectacle plate then you have separate cab side  etching ,I presume you have to sweat these in place onto the folded cab side ? the folded cab side giving you the inside window detail , I’am concerned about the edge of the cab / spectacle plate / footplate so can anyone remember the best way to approach this ?

Dennis

[jwealleans]

I have the instructions at home and can scan them for you if no-one comes up with the information first.  I think you've grasped the basic principle, though.

 

If I recall correctly the cab I used (lower right set of sides in your picture) sat too far forward if I set it such that the cabside bottom curves were right up against the Bachmann footplate - I set it in the correct place and then filled the gap.  Yours may be a better fit (is it Jamieson?).

[D.Platt]

Thanks 

It will be the bottom left cab I will be using and it’s a old Anchoridge kit that I’am trying to get finished that I started in 1997!

Dennis.

[CUTLER2579]

Dennis,

you can't rush these things.

Keep Safe.

[Evertonian]

Good afternoon Tony, glad to hear that yourself and Mo are keeping well. Please keep the pictures

coming of LB, I suspect that many others look forward to regular doses of these to brighten these

worrying times.

I was amused to read of your train spotting kit including a gas mask canvas bag for the essentials.

I utilised a similar arrangement handed down from my dad - yours no doubt also - and it brought

back a long almost forgotten memory.

On a train trip from Exeter to Newton Abbot,must have been around 1958/9 I stupidly left the bag

on disembarking at NA, must have been the excited anticipation of all those cops awaiting if I

managed to bunk 83A. I was distraught at losing my " combined" and wrote to  Paddington lost 

property on my return home to B'mouth !

Amazingly some six weeks later I had a postcard advising that my lost property was awaiting  collection

at Central Station, the clerk handed it over with a rather odd look on his face - I realised why as the bag

almost walked off the counter, cheese and pickle sandwiches do not age too well, however my ABC

was there Lord be praised !  What great service by BR Western and Southern regions.

I learned a lesson and never took my treasured combined volume on spotting trips again, a notebook

sufficed until I got home.

All the best, we are hoping to take B. West to Wigan in early October if normality returns, catch up

with you there for a pint,

 

Chris Knight

[Tony Wright]

15 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Tony - is the roof on the wrong way round?  The roof vents don't seem to correspond to the compartments or the corridor.

 

Rob

It's the right way round as supplied, Rob.

 

I'll have to investigate altering to suit.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

16 hours ago, Buhar said:

Hi Tony,

 

Good grief! There's not much support left on the donor sides!  I asked Red Leader about his technique and he is of the view that the brass sides alone are a point of weakness, especially when handling the model, so leaves as much plastic as he can.

 

I presume you need to do some juggling with the roof vents as well as turning it round (I realise it's not fitted yet).

 

Alan

Good afternoon Alan,

 

Having done some 30+ donor/brass sides carriage conversions in the last quarter century and more, cutting away most of the plastic none has ever failed in terms of weakness (other than the Evo-Stik failing on one; easily fixed with a run of superglue). 

 

 

The dodge (if that's the right word) is to either solder brass strips to the tops of the sides, or, as here, fix brass strips as rebates underneath the roof cornice. Either way, it stops the tops of the carriage sides being pushed in in handling. 

 

Painting was done this morning (Halfords rattle can car acrylic, Ford Burgundy Red) for the body and matt black for the underframe/inside of the roof. All in all, including weathering the bogies, about 25 minutes' work.

 

For a 'layout coach' I believe this is the way to go, where several are needed. Granted, a complete metal kit would be superior, but would I have got this far in under four and a half hours? 

 

In my defence (I'm always searching for defences), in a rake of some eight carriages, among loads of similar types, who'll notice the discrepancies? 

 

I'll finish it tomorrow. Now, back to the point rodding! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, Evertonian said:

Good afternoon Tony, glad to hear that yourself and Mo are keeping well. Please keep the pictures

coming of LB, I suspect that many others look forward to regular doses of these to brighten these

worrying times.

I was amused to read of your train spotting kit including a gas mask canvas bag for the essentials.

I utilised a similar arrangement handed down from my dad - yours no doubt also - and it brought

back a long almost forgotten memory.

On a train trip from Exeter to Newton Abbot,must have been around 1958/9 I stupidly left the bag

on disembarking at NA, must have been the excited anticipation of all those cops awaiting if I

managed to bunk 83A. I was distraught at losing my " combined" and wrote to  Paddington lost 

property on my return home to B'mouth !

Amazingly some six weeks later I had a postcard advising that my lost property was awaiting  collection

at Central Station, the clerk handed it over with a rather odd look on his face - I realised why as the bag

almost walked off the counter, cheese and pickle sandwiches do not age too well, however my ABC

was there Lord be praised !  What great service by BR Western and Southern regions.

I learned a lesson and never took my treasured combined volume on spotting trips again, a notebook

sufficed until I got home.

All the best, we are hoping to take B. West to Wigan in early October if normality returns, catch up

with you there for a pint,

 

Chris Knight

Good afternoon Chris,

 

I you and yours are keeping safe. 

 

Yes, the gas mask canvas bag; definitely a hand-me-down.

 

I once 'lost' my combine! I left it by the side of the lines running into the east end of Chester General Station. A new BR social club was being built and the place was deserted on a Saturday. Scaffolding and planking provided a grandstand view of the summer Saturday extras, and, on leaving home for tea (dinner used to be in the middle of the day in those far-off days), I left it. It was the next day when I discovered my loss! Fortunately, no rain fell overnight and I pedalled like fury back to the site (forgetting about church - we all had to go in those days) and breathed a huge sigh of relief to find it still there. 

 

I'll take some more LB pictures once I've finished the point rodding. Just three feet to go! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, D.Platt said:

Thanks 

It will be the bottom left cab I will be using and it’s a old Anchoridge kit that I’am trying to get finished that I started in 1997!

Dennis.

I don't know if any of the following images will be of use, Dennis,

 

 

Some little time ago I did a conversion of a Bachmann K3, altering it to RH drive and fitting an earlier cab from SE Finecast. It featured in BRM.

 

 

Dave Ellis very kindly (as always) supplied me with the spare cabs. I used the centre left one; the one bottom left is the type Bachmann modelled - the later one; all

 locos with LH drive. 

 

 

 

The fit was just about perfect. I didn't actually attach it to the boiler or footplate.

 

 

It made-up perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also made and fitted a LRM GN tender.

 

 

Despite the 'reasonable' bodywork, the under-sized Bachmann drivers and wobbly performance convinced me of the merit of building a SE Finecast chassis for it, employing the Bachmann valve gear (which isn't quite right). The Romford drivers are still a fraction too small in diameter, but the performance is much-improved.

 

 

I did a similar conversion for Tom Foster. I think Jonathan Wealleans may now own this loco. This one has dead-scale drivers (or as far as OO drivers can be described), but it meant removing metal from the underside of the footplate. 

 

 

The best way of getting a decent 4mm K3 (without too much altering/fiddling/swearing!) is to build a complete SE Finecast one.

 

I built this one for a mate in Scotland.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

Just to put the record straight regarding Goddard/Lawrence LMS carriages.......

 

 

This trio (correctly) doesn't have the above-door ventilators.

 

 

But Bachmann's and Hornby's do.

 

 

Hornby on the left; kit-built (builder unknown) on the right.

 

I've learned something today!

 

Just 18" of rodding left to build and install. See tomorrow.

 

 

[65179]

Much safer to rely on Barry O's comment that the door ventilators on LMS coaches started to be removed soon after nationalisation than the no vents in BR days shorthand.  On the Midland Division at least you could still find a BTK with a full set of vents in 1959, whilst in 1952 most coaches built with them (many of the last LMS designs weren't) still retained them. The devil is in the detail as ever.  There's certainly nothing wrong as such with mid-1950s crimson/cream Stanier coaches with vents.

 

Simon

Edited April 9, 2020 by 65179

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, 65179 said:

Much safer to rely on Barry O's comment that the door ventilators on LMS coaches started to be removed soon after nationalisation than the no vents in BR days shorthand.  On the Midland Division at least you could still find a BTK with a full set of vents in 1959, whilst in 1952 most coaches built with them (many of the last LMS designs weren't) still retained them. The devil is in the detail as ever.  There's certainly nothing wrong as such with mid-1950s crimson/cream Stanier coaches with vents.

 

Simon

Thanks Simon,

 

So, I could have left them on the model I'm building? Provided some retained vents when painted in BR maroon? 

 

By 1959, maroon was the livery for any repaints.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[Jesse Sim]

New wheels, motor/gearbox for this bargain J10 I got off eBay is almost complete. Thanks Tony for the help via email. 
 

Little bit of tweaking here and there and she’s ready for the paint shop. 

[Tony Wright]

16 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

New wheels, motor/gearbox for this bargain J10 I got off eBay is almost complete. Thanks Tony for the help via email. 
 

Little bit of tweaking here and there and she’s ready for the paint shop. 

Great stuff, Jesse,

 

You've turned a lame duck (though reasonably good-looking) into a beautiful little runner. Though the gearbox is visible, painting the sides of it matt black will disguise this.

 

You are, indeed, a 'real' modeller. And, you say, DJH want to use one of your pictures in their advertising. Fame as well!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[65179]

Tony,

 

You could have done, but no vents makes the lining easier! It looks like you are modelling a diagram 1968 BTK. They were all built with vents. As I can see the top of the solebars you are also building a Wolverton built D1968. One lot of 56 built in 1939. The remaining several hundred Derby-built carriages to the same diagram had the sides overlapping the solebars (associated with the use of welded underframes according to Jenkinson & Essery). Larry Goddard had some like this etched specially I recall. The BTK I noted with a full set of vents in 1959 was a Derby built D1968 (found by nothing more scientific than grabbing the first book to hand I knew would have photos spanning 1948 to the 1960s). Your coach has also had a bogie swap at a works visit because it's lost its welded bogies.  

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

[Jesse Sim]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Great stuff, Jesse,

 

You've turned a lame duck (though reasonably good-looking) into a beautiful little runner. Though the gearbox is visible, painting the sides of it matt black will disguise this.

 

You are, indeed, a 'real' modeller. And, you say, DJH want to use one of your pictures in their advertising. Fame as well!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

I agree, she’ll be a beaut. Now to turn my attention to that J6 I’ve always wanted and now I have all the bits to do it.....

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, 65179 said:

Tony,

 

You could have done, but no vents makes the lining easier! It looks like you are modelling a diagram 1968 BTK. They were all built with vents. As I can see the top of the solebars you are also building a Wolverton built D1968. One lot of 56 built in 1939. The remaining several hundred Derby-built carriages to the same diagram had the sides overlapping the solebars (associated with the use of welded underframes according to Jenkinson & Essery). Larry Goddard had some like this etched specially I recall. The BTK I noted with a full set of vents in 1959 was a Derby built D1968 (found by nothing more scientific than grabbing the first book to hand I knew would have photos spanning 1948 to the 1960s). Your coach has also had a bogie swap at a works visit because it's lost its welded bogies.  

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

Thanks again Simon,

 

I'll number it in the series 26265-26320 then (I assume the LMS numbers were retained by BR?). 

 

The bogies are the original Airfix ones, with replacement wheels. 

 

Note to self; don't tell anyone when I'm building any more LMS carriages. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

Almost there!

 

 

 

If ever a modelling subject matter needed a 'sketch-book' approach, then point rodding (when/where there's lots of it) is it (or at least as far as I'm concerned!). 

 

 

[65179]

22 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks again Simon,

 

I'll number it in the series 26265-26320 then (I assume the LMS numbers were retained by BR?). 

 

The bogies are the original Airfix ones, with replacement wheels. 

 

Note to self; don't tell anyone when I'm building any more LMS carriages. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Yes, they retained the same numbers.  Achieving consistent standards across all of your modelling is easier said than done isn't it! Fortunately I have no intentions of building a Gresley Pacific.

 

Simon