Pragmatic Pre-Grouping - Mikkel's Workbench

[Compound2632]

I don't recall seeing the 3232 Class 2-4-0 in the bottom right picture before - a remarkably conventional-looking late 19th century locomotive by Great Western standards with, I rather suspect, a good deal of Ratio MR 1400 Class 2-4-0 about her?

[Mikkel]

Ah yes, No. 3245 – a bit of a problem child, although I have hopes for her future. It is actually a Finney kit that was professionally built for me many years ago. It has since had one complete motor failure and one or two other problems, interspersed with periods of good running. The tender also needs improvement, as you can see.
 
My plan is to give the chassis a complete makeover at some point, as the loco features in my long term plans to build the “Up Main” at Farthing. I’ve got a stash of the Slaters Clerestories kits to go behind it. I look forward to building the coaches, less so the chassis makeover!

GWR 3232 class 2-4-0 No. 3245 by The Farthing Layouts, on Flickr

Edited December 25, 2016 by Mikkel

[bgman]

Shall we have a "Stash" competition for the new year Mikkel ?

 

Meanwhile, enjoy the festives my friend !

 

Grahame

[Brassey]

Ah yes, No. 3245 – a bit of a problem child, although I have hopes for her future. It is actually a Finney kit that was professionally built for me many years ago. It has since had one complete motor failure and one or two other problems, interspersed with periods of good running. The tender also needs improvement, as you can see.

 

My plan is to give the chassis a complete makeover at some point, as the loco features in my long term plans to build the “Up Main” at Farthing. I’ve got a stash of the Slaters Clerestories kits to go behind it. I look forward to building the coaches, less so the chassis makeover!

 

GWR 3232 class 2-4-0 No. 3245 by The Farthing Layouts, on Flickr

 

Hi Mikkel

 

I too have a 3232 on my build list which coincidently will also be 3245 which was sheded at Chester in 1912 and was the only one still with an S4 boiler in the area.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Peter

Edited December 25, 2016 by Brassey

[peter jf]

Hi Mikkel,

3245 looks great.

I am building one myself.

Some help please

I have most of the transfers I require but...

Where did you source the numbers on the rear splasher?

Peter

[Brassey]

Hi Mikkel,

3245 looks great.

I am building one myself.

Some help please

I have most of the transfers I require but...

Where did you source the numbers on the rear splasher?

Peter

 

The numbers on the splashers are part of the Finney kit. Peter

[Mikkel]

Shall we have a "Stash" competition for the new year Mikkel ?

 

Meanwhile, enjoy the festives my friend !

 

Grahame

 

Sounds like fun. I can't compete with the exciting stuff you have in your closets though, Grahame! Here's the "long-term" drawer - a rather unholy mix! I think this years builds will mostly be goods stock for my sidings though.

 

 

 

Hi Mikkel

 

I too have a 3232 on my build list which coincidently will also be 3245 which was sheded at Chester in 1912 and was the only one still with an S4 boiler in the area.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Peter

 

Hi Peter, that's a funny coincidence, but then again maybe not as the S4 boiler attracts. Your lovely photo made me take mine out of the stockbox. I think the builder underestimated the complexity of a Finney kit (not that I knew better myself at the time), so there may be inconsistencies with the real 3245. I made a removeable coal load for it once - which has since disintegrated! Merry christmas to you too.

 

 

 

Hi Mikkel,

3245 looks great.

I am building one myself.

Some help please

I have most of the transfers I require but...

Where did you source the numbers on the rear splasher?

Peter

Hi Peter, you can see the etch that Peter mentions here: http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/gwr_3232_etches.htm. The first two numbers are part of the splasher etch. There is a jig for fitting the last two numbers in the correct arch. I'm not sure that is an ideal solution, but then I am in no position to tell anyone how to do etched kits! I suppose you could ask Brassmasters if they would supply the numbers separately, although it could be tricky as they are part of the larger etch.

 

[Mikkel]

PS: A quick snap of the sidings - just to prove that there is actual modelling going on in the background. Last bits of track and chair painting planned for today.

 

[Brinkly]

Morning Mikkle,

 

Lovely work as always; I do like your storage solution. I might need to invest in a set of drawers to store modelling items in.

 

Seasons greatings and kind regards,

 

Nick.

[bgman]

Hi Mikkel,

 

Nice drawers ! Some very interesting items in there that will do justice to your projects I'm sure.

 

I may well have something on the boil too ! ( New layout planned for the New Year - obviously GWR !)

 

All the best for now

Grahame

[Rail-Online]

 

 

Hi Peter, you can see the etch that Peter mentions here: http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/gwr_3232_etches.htm. The first two numbers are part of the splasher etch. There is a jig for fitting the last two numbers in the correct arch. I'm not sure that is an ideal solution, but then I am in no position to tell anyone how to do etched kits! I suppose you could ask Brassmasters if they would supply the numbers separately, although it could be tricky as they are part of the larger etch.

 

You could use the numerals from the Finney 'make your own' numberplate etch, available seperately, http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/images/Finney%20castings/E1.jpg GWR numbers were standard type face.

 

Tony

[Compound2632]

It is actually a Finney kit that was professionally built for me many years ago.

 

Apologies for my faux pas - altogether classier origins. The splashers and cab profile do look very like those of a MR 2-4-0. However if those are 6'7" drivers (per Wikipedia) I suspect the coupled wheelbase is less than 8'6". A very hansom-looking engine anyway - glad my comment winkled out all these other examples folk are building!

[Northroader]

Slaters do an etch for brass numerals in 4mm and 7mm, parts 4965 or 7965 respectively. Intended for their MR loco kits, but quite suitable for GWR usage.

[Brassey]

"Hi Peter, that's a funny coincidence, but then again maybe not as the S4 boiler attracts. Your lovely photo made me take mine out of the stockbox. I think the builder underestimated the complexity of a Finney kit (not that I knew better myself at the time), so there may be inconsistencies with the real 3245."

 

Hi Mikkel,

 

The comment I would make is that I think it unlikely that 3245 would still have had coal rails with that post 1908 livery.  Your model has the cover on the sight feed lubricator pipe on the smokebox which is a post 1910 update according to Russell, and being pedantic, 3245 received the S4 boiler as late as 1911 which dates it.  With such a major overhaul I would have thought the tender would have been updated too at the same time with fenders.  There were other members of the class that got S4 boilers earlier and prior to the livery change probably.

 

The Finney kit comes in either a belpaire of round top version and I went for the round top because, you are right, the S4 boiler does attract.  3245 was the only one with an S4 boiler that could have run on the Shrewsbury to Hereford joint line in 1912 because it was shedded at Chester.  The picture is an up train (Northward bound) at Leominster on the S&H line passing the South signal box with a nice section of 6 wheel and clerestory bogie stock.  I see you have a 6 wheeler in your stash along with the Slater Clerestorys which would make a grand train behind 3245.

 

Peter

[Mikkel]

Morning Mikkle,

 

Lovely work as always; I do like your storage solution. I might need to invest in a set of drawers to store modelling items in.

 

Seasons greatings and kind regards,

 

Nick.

 

Merry christmas Nick. The drawers are 3 cheap Ikea units next to each other, with the added advantage of having room for a layout on top 

 

 

 

Apologies for my faux pas - altogether classier origins. The splashers and cab profile do look very like those of a MR 2-4-0. However if those are 6'7" drivers (per Wikipedia) I suspect the coupled wheelbase is less than 8'6". A very hansom-looking engine anyway - glad my comment winkled out all these other examples folk are building!

 

No need for apologies, it might just as well have been a kitbash. I know we should aim for consistency of standards but I'm afraid my stock is a bit of everything!

 

 

Hi Mikkel,

 

The comment I would make is that I think it unlikely that 3245 would still have had coal rails with that post 1908 livery.  Your model has the cover on the sight feed lubricator pipe on the smokebox which is a post 1910 update according to Russell, and being pedantic, 3245 received the S4 boiler as late as 1911 which dates it.  With such a major overhaul I would have thought the tender would have been updated too at the same time with fenders.  There were other members of the class that got S4 boilers earlier and prior to the livery change probably.

 

The Finney kit comes in either a belpaire of round top version and I went for the round top because, you are right, the S4 boiler does attract.  3245 was the only one with an S4 boiler that could have run on the Shrewsbury to Hereford joint line in 1912 because it was shedded at Chester.  The picture is an up train (Northward bound) at Leominster on the S&H line passing the South signal box with a nice section of 6 wheel and clerestory bogie stock.  I see you have a 6 wheeler in your stash along with the Slater Clerestorys which would make a grand train behind 3245.

 

Peter

 

Thanks very much Peter, very useful info. Sounds like I need to take a good look at photos, and add the RCTS volume on four-coupled locos to the collection. I do like the "elegant-but-fast" look of the 3232s! 

[Dave John]

A comfy chair, a handheld controller and room for a glass of christmas cheer. 

 

Thats modelling style..... 

[Mikkel]

A comfy chair, a handheld controller and room for a glass of christmas cheer. 

 

Thats modelling style..... 

 

The photo is a bit old (from 2009 it seems, good grief how time flies), and I have since stopped putting glasses there as they ended up on the floor twice!

 

On a completely different matter, last night I was looking for some posters to put on my buildings, and I discovered the world of Victorian/Edwardian agricultural posters: http://www.heatons-of-tisbury.co.uk/postersr6.html

Edited December 27, 2016 by Mikkel

[Compound2632]

On a completely different matter, last night I was looking for some posters to put on my buildings, and I discovered the world of Victorian/Edwardian agricultural posters: http://www.heatons-of-tisbury.co.uk/postersr6.html

 

TWO American Organs? In Bicester?

[Mikkel]

TWO American Organs? In Bicester?

 

 There's your storyline for a railway tale 

 

I've added a few to my lock-up. They seem to have come in a variety of sizes, bigger ones quoted as 77x52, others as 44x35, etc.

 

 

 They need a little more "bedding in", I wonder what Microsol would do to them...

[bgman]

Following your link to the posters really took me back as it's an area in which I lived and worked !

If nothing else, thank you Mikkel just for the memories it brought back to me. There were some happy days spent there

[Mikkel]

Following your link to the posters really took me back as it's an area in which I lived and worked !

If nothing else, thank you Mikkel just for the memories it brought back to me. There were some happy days spent there

 

I think I know what you mean Grahame. Place names are like music sometimes, they can bring back the past.  I don't suppose your planned GWR layout will be set in those parts?

[raymw]

The American organ blows, the harmonium sucks, or vice versa. Both were a common instrument in chapels, and the like, but got too expensive to keep going due to moth's larva eating the felt, and mice chewing the tosh.

[bgman]

I think I know what you mean Grahame. Place names are like music sometimes, they can bring back the past.  I don't suppose your planned GWR layout will be set in those parts?

Hi Mikkel,

 

It would be very tempting as many years ago I scratch built a model of Banbury with the overall roof ( don't know where it ended up?) .

The late Jim Russell, who was local to me back then, gave me lots of early photographs to work from which were very well detailed and I think they were used in one of Wild Swan's books eventually.

There are some lovely buildings in and around the various places named on the posters which would produce a "Pendon-esque" layout if modelled carefully.

That said my proposed layout will be slightly closer to home and ironically I've just printed off the track plan this afternoon.

A great deal more to do yet !

[Mikkel]

The American organ blows, the harmonium sucks, or vice versa. Both were a common instrument in chapels, and the like, but got too expensive to keep going due to moth's larva eating the felt, and mice chewing the tosh.

 

It seems they suck, if it is the same as a reed organ?  http://tardis.dl.ac.uk/FreeReed/organ_book/node3.html#SECTION00033000000000000000

 

 

Hi Mikkel,

 

It would be very tempting as many years ago I scratch built a model of Banbury with the overall roof ( don't know where it ended up?) .

The late Jim Russell, who was local to me back then, gave me lots of early photographs to work from which were very well detailed and I think they were used in one of Wild Swan's books eventually.

There are some lovely buildings in and around the various places named on the posters which would produce a "Pendon-esque" layout if modelled carefully.

That said my proposed layout will be slightly closer to home and ironically I've just printed off the track plan this afternoon.

A great deal more to do yet !

 

Banbury must have made for an interesting layout, I've just read this bit about the GCR branch - I like the 1906 picture of the GCR service. I hope you'll be posting about the new project?

Edited December 27, 2016 by Mikkel

[Mikkel]

Finally done with the rails and basic groundwork. I've posted some pics and a status update in the blog, along with some new ideas.