Wright writes.....

[great central]

7 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Tony,

 

I'm holding off on adding brakes until I'm happy with how 43037 performs on Retford (under load, over time). Should she need re-wheeling, it's easier without the impediment of brake shoes. 

 

The tender has a sub chassis, so it should be easy enough to raise it up.

 

4MTs at Retford? 43037 didn't get to 36E until 1962, but before that it was in the Sheffield district (as were several others). Many were at Peterborough in the mid-'50s, so could they have run up from there? Other sheds to have them were in the Lincoln district and Colwick. It would seem, then, that the GC section would be the more likely to see them at Retford. From my mouldering notes, I copped one at Kiveton Park in 1958. I remember seeing a picture in one of my books of one on the GN shed at Retford. Quite when, and in which book, I cannot recall, nor find. 

 

Some time ago, when visiting Roy, Tim Shackleton was also there and he was weathering a pair of 4MTs which had been 'EM-ed'. I wonder what happened to them, because they were on the layout for a time. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

The Peterborough allocated 4MTs were for the M&GN lines so fitted with tender mounted tablet catchers. Most of these then transferred to Colwick and Boston on closure of the M&GN.

The only Colwick allocated one without a tablet catcher was 43032, having bought a couple of Bachmann ones without tablet catchers, it took some research to find even the sole example. Unfortunately Bachmann haven't released a tablet fitted tender for some years. 

I also have a Millholme one built many years before.

[t-b-g]

26 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Tony,

 

I'm holding off on adding brakes until I'm happy with how 43037 performs on Retford (under load, over time). Should she need re-wheeling, it's easier without the impediment of brake shoes. 

 

The tender has a sub chassis, so it should be easy enough to raise it up.

 

4MTs at Retford? 43037 didn't get to 36E until 1962, but before that it was in the Sheffield district (as were several others). Many were at Peterborough in the mid-'50s, so could they have run up from there? Other sheds to have them were in the Lincoln district and Colwick. It would seem, then, that the GC section would be the more likely to see them at Retford. From my mouldering notes, I copped one at Kiveton Park in 1958. I remember seeing a picture in one of my books of one on the GN shed at Retford. Quite when, and in which book, I cannot recall, nor find. 

 

Some time ago, when visiting Roy, Tim Shackleton was also there and he was weathering a pair of 4MTs which had been 'EM-ed'. I wonder what happened to them, because they were on the layout for a time. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

I know there was a 4MT built, I think by Roy, for Blakeney.  I have a recollection of Pete Hill having one when the Bachmann one came out, so that may have something to do with the ones seen on Retford. They were probably just being tested on it.

 

I have an old Millholme kit unopened, from the days when I modelled the BR period. I did offer it to Roy but he declined it on the grounds that he had never seen one at Retford in the period of the layout and that is was a "insert suitable Roy word or phrase" awful kit!

 

So it stays in the "maybe one day when I have built all the stuff I really want and need a project" pile.

[landscapes]

Hi Tony and Eric

 

Thank you both for your replies.

Sorry it was my misunderstanding of Eric’s reply.

 

Yes I do agree 60519 Honeyway will be a good addition to my Haymarket Layout.

 

Unfortunately I have still a lot of expense finishing off Haymarket and add to that I have Bachmann’s Caley on order and the up and coming Hornby A2/2 60501 as well.

 

I was going to place an order for one of Hornby’s A2/3’s but thought better of it for now.

 

Maybe later in the year if funds are available I will order an A2/3 and carry out an identity change to 60519.

 

If that fails a few years ago I entered into a joint venture with Gareth of Replica Railways to produce Five Bachman/ Graeme King A2/3 conversions.

 

The two I ordered have been completed as 60511 Airborne and 60521 Watling Street.

 

A third is not to far from Completion and by coincidence that will actually  be Honeyway as Gareth has already fitted a rimless chimney to it.

 

I could possibly purchase that from him if Hornby’s A2/3’s have all been sold.

 

Thank you both again and may I take this opportunity to wish you both a Merry Christmas and a safe and healthy 2021.

 

Regards

 

David

 

[Long John Silver]

Good afternoon all, Firstly Tony, thanks for hosting this fascinating and informative thread for another year, it’s been a pleasure to attempt to keep up with it. There has been so much interesting content, but for me the highlights were the photos of Little Bytham that illustrated the operating sequence, I am always keen to know how model railways are operated, and on a practical level the discussions about gearboxes were very useful. I’ve tended to use Comet boxes, but have some smaller GWR prototypes to build and found the views of the different boxes. Plenty of food for thought.

If I have one major achievement this year it is that I finally managed to successfully solder white metal after 35 years of trying and then giving up and using epoxy. I’ve been happily soldering nickel silver and brass for years, but I’m ashamed to say the only significant part that’s ever fallen of one of my kit builds was the result of a dodgy low melt solder joint.

 I was encouraged to have another go by the attempts of some of the younger contributors to this thread (Jesse and Jamie I think) shaming me into action. I have to say I enjoyed building the kit this way.

The result is a GWR Large Prairie from A SE Finecast Kit. The chassis has been modified to take a pivoting pony truck (Comet) at the rear. Apologies for the poor quality of the photo it is from a camera phone. Very much a layout loco and it runs very smoothly and will pull anything I can put behind it. 

This loco was built to try to keep my hand in at kit building, I know there has been a wonderful large prairie model produced by Hornby, but I’d made up my mind to have a go at this kit and went ahead regardless. I have taken delivery of a Dapol GWR Mogul though and very nice it is too.

Following on from this I dug out an old white metal K’s autocoach kit I was given a few years back. This has now been soldered up and awaits a floor and interior detailing. This may take a while as making coach interiors is a bit of a pet hate of mine.

The rest of my modelling time has been spent fine tuning my layout. Scenery has been refreshed where needed, and as an operator I needed to organise better stock storage for goods and passenger stock when not on the layout, and that has been done.

I used static grass for the first time, re-laid an replaced some dodgy trackwork and tidied up some of the layout wiring. Mundane jobs, but they needed to be done.

Tony, I wish you, Mo, and all the contributors to Wright Writes all the very best for Christmas and hears hoping for a better 2021.

Jon

 

 

 

 

 

[Taz]

Working on government IT, 2020 has turned out to be one of the busiest years in my working life. This has meant modelling output hasn’t been as high as I hoped. But a nice long Xmas break has given me the opportunity to finish off some models.

So in the spirit of showing what we’ve done over the past year here are some Comet coaches I’ve completed.

 

Collett E152 BCK

 

Collett E155 CK

 

Collett C73 SK

 

Collett C70 SK

 

 

Collett D121 BSK

 

This was my first attempt with a bow pen. Not perfect, but getting there.

 

Merry Christmas all!

[sandra]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Tony,

 

I'm holding off on adding brakes until I'm happy with how 43037 performs on Retford (under load, over time). Should she need re-wheeling, it's easier without the impediment of brake shoes. 

 

The tender has a sub chassis, so it should be easy enough to raise it up.

 

4MTs at Retford? 43037 didn't get to 36E until 1962, but before that it was in the Sheffield district (as were several others). Many were at Peterborough in the mid-'50s, so could they have run up from there? Other sheds to have them were in the Lincoln district and Colwick. It would seem, then, that the GC section would be the more likely to see them at Retford. From my mouldering notes, I copped one at Kiveton Park in 1958. I remember seeing a picture in one of my books of one on the GN shed at Retford. Quite when, and in which book, I cannot recall, nor find. 

 

Some time ago, when visiting Roy, Tim Shackleton was also there and he was weathering a pair of 4MTs which had been 'EM-ed'. I wonder what happened to them, because they were on the layout for a time. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Tony,

I would think that the Ivatt 4MTs were more likely to appear on the GC section for I can’t envisage what sort of working they would do on the GN. However on my one visit to Retford in steam days I seem to remember that there was one on the GN shed although I can’t remember the number.

 

The strange thing about these locomotives was that when I first started watching trains at Chester in about 1961 they were totally absent and there seem to have been none on former LNWR lines. The first time I saw one was a Saturday excursion at Hartford on the CLC heading in the Chester direction, and then only 15 minutes later another appeared on the CLC also heading towards Chester each hauling about 10 coaches. They only became more widespread right at the end of steam when I did see a few at Chester, but there weren’t common.

 

I do look forward to seeing 43037 on Retford and hope it won’t be too long before this is possible.

Sandra

[Barry Ten]

29 minutes ago, Long John Silver said:

 

The result is a GWR Large Prairie from A SE Finecast Kit. The chassis has been modified to take a pivoting pony truck (Comet) at the rear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That seems like a very sensible step as sorting out the running of that radial axle in the original chassis cost me as much time as building the rest of the loco.

[Tony Wright]

46 minutes ago, sandra said:

Tony,

I would think that the Ivatt 4MTs were more likely to appear on the GC section for I can’t envisage what sort of working they would do on the GN. However on my one visit to Retford in steam days I seem to remember that there was one on the GN shed although I can’t remember the number.

 

The strange thing about these locomotives was that when I first started watching trains at Chester in about 1961 they were totally absent and there seem to have been none on former LNWR lines. The first time I saw one was a Saturday excursion at Hartford on the CLC heading in the Chester direction, and then only 15 minutes later another appeared on the CLC also heading towards Chester each hauling about 10 coaches. They only became more widespread right at the end of steam when I did see a few at Chester, but there weren’t common.

 

I do look forward to seeing 43037 on Retford and hope it won’t be too long before this is possible.

Sandra

Sandra,

 

There used to be a regular Ivatt 4MT working into Chester Northgate, some time after DMUs had taken over the rest of the passenger turns. It used to arrive from Manchester in the early evening, and passengers would disembark from the half dozen ex-LMS non-corridor carriages. Then, the loco propelled its train out through the remains of Liverpool Road Station to stand above Parkgate Road. It then crossed the top end of the CLC/GC triangle, parallel to Brook Lane, whereupon it headed back to Manchester as empty stock. I'd often be playing cricket with mates on the teacher training college fields adjacent to the railway and we'd adjourn to note which one it might be. Occasionally, it was a K3 or even, on one notable occasion, a named B1! 

 

I saw several of the class at Chester (on both systems) and latterly in the North East. Apart from the one at Kiveton Park, I can't recall seeing one at Retford. However, along with 8Fs (and the usual ex-GC 2-8-0s), the occasional one used to appear on coal trains passing through Anston on their way to/from Dinnington Pit.

 

A few remained at Peterborough after the M&GNR system had closed, so they might have worked northwards up the ECML, but that would be after 1957. Underlined in my rotting 1957 Combined Volume are 43082, 84, 86 and 43088 - all at 34E. I never got to Peterborough in steam days, so did I possibly see them at Retford? Similarly, I never got to Boston until years after steam had gone, yet saw several from 40F. I wonder where?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[FarrMan]

4 hours ago, Northmoor said:

Missed out on the chance to drive over it about ten years ago, when I would have been in the range control room at Applecross if I'd been included in a flight trials team operating out of Plockton.  I still have an ambition to cycle and ride a motorbike over Bealach na Baa .

If you do, try to make it in the summer. Of a winters morning on the outward school run, there was one of the hairpin bends that tended to be quite icy. If you approached too fast, you would miss the corner and hit the barrier, or worse still drop over the edge. Halfway round the corner, if you are slow enough to avoid that, then the back end just slides away on you. You had to know just when to put the power on to prevent that. Fun days!

 

Lloyd

[Tony Wright]

Regarding the discrepancy in height between the cab roof and the tender 'roof' on the Millholme Ivatt 4MT, pointed out by Tony Gee, I've just done some experiments..............

 

If I raise the tender up to match, then its buffers are too high. And, there's no way of lowering the body.

 

It'll have to stay I'm afraid..............

[cctransuk]

2 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Regarding the discrepancy in height between the cab roof and the tender 'roof' on the Millholme Ivatt 4MT, pointed out by Tony Gee, I've just done some experiments..............

 

If I raise the tender up to match, then its buffers are too high. And, there's no way of lowering the body.

 

It'll have to stay I'm afraid..............

 

..... in which case, perhaps the boiler / cab are mounted a little too high? It does look a tad 'lanky'; (no not L&YR)!

 

John Isherwood.

[Beechnut]

22 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Regarding the discrepancy in height between the cab roof and the tender 'roof' on the Millholme Ivatt 4MT, pointed out by Tony Gee, I've just done some experiments..............

 

If I raise the tender up to match, then its buffers are too high. And, there's no way of lowering the body.

 

It'll have to stay I'm afraid..............

It’s getting worse but then that’s forums. I like it despite its faults.

 

Brendan

[t-b-g]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Regarding the discrepancy in height between the cab roof and the tender 'roof' on the Millholme Ivatt 4MT, pointed out by Tony Gee, I've just done some experiments..............

 

If I raise the tender up to match, then its buffers are too high. And, there's no way of lowering the body.

 

It'll have to stay I'm afraid..............

 

I had hoped it would be a nice easy fix, raising the tender up a bit. I don't know what Roy did on the one he built for Blakeney, which was a Millholme kit but his cab and tender were just about level. I found a photo in MRJ No 65, way back in the early 1990s.

 

Perhaps the amount of work required to achieve that contributed to his colourful description of the kit! He did mutter something about having to alter lots of things to improve it.

 

Very few of us build perfect models. I certainly don't. If its biggest fault is a slightly high cab, then that is a very good result bearing in mind what kit you started with!

[great central]

Given the discussion about Millholme flying pigs, I've dug mine out to check if the cab and tender roof line up. Built pretty much as supplied over 30 years ago. 

To get a decent idea of the layout of the pipework under the running plate and cab I took a trip with my son to the Severn Valley railway. 43106 was parked up out of use, I think, at Arley so armed with note book for scribbling rough diagrams in and a few photos, I hope I've made a reasonable job of it.

The cab roofs seem to line up pretty well, but the gap could be narrowed somewhat I think, a job for sometime in the future perhaps when the loco is likely to run on a layout.

 

Sorry I've managed to put one of the pictures in the middle of the text!

 

Edit: I know there's no brake gear or sand pipes, I didn't bother with such things all those years ago, another maybe job. But I did fit lamp irons!

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by great central
Add last paragraph

[Tony Wright]

2 hours ago, Beechnut said:

It’s getting worse but then that’s forums. I like it despite its faults.

 

Brendan

So do I Brendan,

 

I think between us we've made a decent enough, workaday loco. 

 

Let's look at the story again. According to the stickers on the box, you bought it at the Derby Exhibition on the 23rd of April 1994 for £49.99 (quite a price then). Did it include wheels and motor?

 

I assume you built it not long after, and for over two decades it's been in the same box, incomplete. This was before the advent of the Bachmann equivalent or the PDK kit. At the time, for an Ivatt 4MT it was either Millholme or scratch-build. 

 

Then, in a moment of splendid altruism, you sent it to me, asking me to get what I could for it for CRUK. I finished it (though 99% is your work), painted and weathered it and it's now destined for Retford. I won't mention the amount I sent to the charity, but it's considerably more (as it should be) than £49.99! 

 

So, the finished loco is a product of its origins (Roy Jackson's description of Millholme kits would make Roger Mellie blush!). The 'critical' observations made are, no doubt, true (this is Wright writes after all), but, please, let's have a heart. It is a 'success' story. You're happy that it's been completed, I'm happy to have been able to do it, CRUK is happy with a donation and Sandra's happy for it (eventually) to be on Retford. 

 

It has no brakes, the cab roof and tender don't quite match in height, but, in a way, so what? 

 

I say, well done to you. And, many thanks again.................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Chas Levin]

19 hours ago, Headstock said:

 

Evening Chas,

 

I've never been much of a hobby photographer, perhaps because I've worked in the industry for many years and have had two ex Girlfriends, both of whom were photographers . I kind of regret my lack of interest now, as Leicester South GC is in storage between shows, so the opportunity to photograph the trains in their natural habitat is gone. The space was needed in the club rooms for other layouts under construction. That is until Corona got his membership card, now everybody is stuffed. 

 

I have relied on a bunch of pros to take the pictures over the years, I just directed operations from a comfy chair. Nothing from TW though, he always gets distracted by the signals on Tebay. The  majority of my stuff, of which seventeen trains have been built for LSGC, has never been photographed, beyond individual pieces taken for insurance purposes and posted on here. The ones that have been photographed, are in strictly limited supply, so apologies if the photo below has appeared before.

 

Image courtesy of Derek Shore.

 

Good evening Andrew, no need to explain, quite understood - I always hesitate to ask if someone will post pictures they haven't posted of their own accord, in case it's an imposition and at the moment, with clubs closed and layouts packed away, even more so.

But the photo you have posted is an excellent one and fully confirms how I (and I'm sure many others on here too) thought your coaches would look in a long line: gorgeous!

Thank you for posting it...

[Bucoops]

4 hours ago, Taz said:

Working on government IT, 2020 has turned out to be one of the busiest years in my working life. This has meant modelling output hasn’t been as high as I hoped. But a nice long Xmas break has given me the opportunity to finish off some models.

 

 

Definitely IT is the career to be in at the minute if you like to be busy. We've actually taken someone on despite making redundancies in other areas of the business.

 

I've barely achieved anything this year, working all hours. But as I said way back - I'm happy that I'm still working when so many others have sadly lost their jobs.

[Headstock]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Regarding the discrepancy in height between the cab roof and the tender 'roof' on the Millholme Ivatt 4MT, pointed out by Tony Gee, I've just done some experiments..............

 

If I raise the tender up to match, then its buffers are too high. And, there's no way of lowering the body.

 

It'll have to stay I'm afraid..............

 

Evening Tony,

 

I believe we also had a Falcon brass Ivatt 4, dose that kit ring a bell? I believe it was Derek's, I was told it was a pig to build but the finished result looked very nice.

[Tony Wright]

21 minutes ago, Headstock said:

 

Evening Tony,

 

I believe we also had a Falcon brass Ivatt 4, dose that kit ring a bell? I believe it was Derek's, I was told it was a pig to build but the finished result looked very nice.

Good evening Andrew,

 

Yes, Falcon Brass - ex-Jidenco, I believe. 

 

I was offered a Jidenco 'Flying Pig' part-built at a show last year. I politely declined.................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Long John Silver]

4 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

That seems like a very sensible step as sorting out the running of that radial axle in the original chassis cost me as much time as building the rest of the loco.

That's true for me as well, hence the modifications. I tried various methods of springing the radial axle but once I'd run of ideas, and patience to be honest, I changed tack and used a spare Comet truck and cut away a fair bit of the rear framing. It now runs perfectly. I much prefer the radial truck set up that Perseverance used on their 56xx 0-6-2T chassis, which was effective but could be put together by someone like me with ten thumbs. That said, I enjoyed building the kit and it went together well, and was pleased to give Dave Ellis the business.

Next on the workbench is a 2021 class pannier - how appropriate is that for the coming new year.

Jon

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, drmditch said:

Then, on one southbound railway journey, there was the story of the Flying Scotsman and the soup.........

Do tell...

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

That seems like a very sensible step as sorting out the running of that radial axle in the original chassis cost me as much time as building the rest of the loco.

I bought a ready-built one from eBay a few years ago, which runs fairly well. It's never occurred to me to look at the rear axle. I'll report back.

[St Enodoc]

26 minutes ago, Long John Silver said:

Next on the workbench is a 2021 class pannier - how appropriate is that for the coming new year.

Look forward to seeing that - I've had one waiting to be built for over 20 years (so far).

[Barry Ten]

The DJH 7F I showed a week or two back has now been numbered, weathered, lamped and crewed:

 

 

I don't think it sits too badly next to the Bachmann one:

 

 

Incidentally the DJH has a live chassis but it's been converted to DCC without any difficulty, just making sure the chip, wiring and motor contacts are nicely insulated.

 

Al

[Barry O]

I think the millhome tender is incorrect. It took my father ages of hacking and filing to get it to the right tender cab height. I have another kit built example with a resin boiler. Looks better than the millhome one but cannot pull the skin off a rice pudding.

 

Baz