Stoke Courtenay

[gwrrob]

12 hours ago, checkrail said:

Another Castle takes centre stage in today's selection as 5041 'Tiverton Castle' hurries its train towards distant Paddington.

 

 

 

John C.

 

Looking at the history of 5041 and she was a long standing resident of Laira and long enough for me to model her too.

[checkrail]

1 hour ago, gwrrob said:

Looking at the history of 5041 and she was a long standing resident of Laira and long enough for me to model her too.

Indeed Robin.  According to Beck & Copsey she was at Laira in 1938 and still there in 1946. I've seen a few pre-war pics of her. There's a really good 1935 one of her at Exeter St D. on a Plymouth express in 'The big four in colour', p.107.

[checkrail]

Inspired by Kevin's @KNP 4112, seen recently on a van train at Little Muddle, here's my 4117 hauling a motley collection of brown (-ish) vehicles, perhaps waifs and strays being redistributed to their home depots or where they might be useful.

 

A gleam of late afternoon sunshine illuminates the train as it crosses the road bridge. ( That's real sun, shining through the Velux window in a brief respite from today's near-incessant Mancunian rain.) 

 

And 8709 continues to shunt the yard.  The Siphon F behind the large Prairie hasn't seen the light of day for some time. 

 

John C.

[KNP]

Nice collection of random vans there, least the doors look correct!!!!🙂

 

One thing I can say about this class of loco is they just look powerful even just standing there.

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, checkrail said:

Inspired by Kevin's @KNP 4112, seen recently on a van train at Little Muddle, here's my 4117 hauling a motley collection of brown (-ish) vehicles, perhaps waifs and strays being redistributed to their home depots or where they might be useful.

 

A gleam of late afternoon sunshine illuminates the train as it crosses the road bridge. ( That's real sun, shining through the Velux window in a brief respite from today's near-incessant Mancunian rain.) 

 

And 8709 continues to shunt the yard.  The Siphon F behind the large Prairie hasn't seen the light of day for some time. 

 

John C.

 

Yes indeed, a lovely selection of vans.

 

1 hour ago, KNP said:

Nice collection of random vans there....

 

One thing I can say about this class of loco is they just look powerful even just standing there.

 

Definitely agree - Loco & vans look great

[gwrrob]

2 hours ago, checkrail said:

Inspired by Kevin's @KNP 4112, seen recently on a van train at Little Muddle, here's my 4117 hauling a motley collection of brown (-ish) vehicles, perhaps waifs and strays being redistributed to their home depots or where they might be useful.

 

A gleam of late afternoon sunshine illuminates the train as it crosses the road bridge. ( That's real sun, shining through the Velux window in a brief respite from today's near-incessant Mancunian rain.) 

 

And 8709 continues to shunt the yard.  The Siphon F behind the large Prairie hasn't seen the light of day for some time. 

 

John C.

 

Very nice too and will be even better with the addition of some Accurascale siphon G's

[checkrail]

17 hours ago, KNP said:

One thing I can say about this class of loco is they just look powerful even just standing there.

Yep - know what you mean. They do have a certain presence, a bit of heft, don't they?

[checkrail]

Today's action features the return of the Star, heading for the Midlands. 

I quite like the first pic with the light catching the smokebox door - more by luck than judgement.

 

In the yard 8709 is still busy - in a leisurely sort of way.

 

The third pic illustrates something that's puzzled me for years: a) if glazed in the normal way with the material supplied the windows on the Slater's toplights are quite deeply recessed; b) On the inner surface of the corridor side there are little ledges to locate the horizontal corridor side handrails.  These have to be cut or filed off to accommodate the glazing strip.  Together these two features suggest that the windows should be flush-glazed with separate pieces of glazing.  But no such glazing is supplied nor is the matter covered in the otherwise comprehensive instructions.  In view of the long rumoured re-issue of these kits by Slater's it would be nice to know what was going on back in the day when they first came out. Another weird idiosyncrasy like those fiendishly complicated bogies?

 

John C.

 

 

[Neal Ball]

Lovely photos John thank you.

 

I can’t answer the glazing question, but I would like to ask about the formation please.

 

I can see the Toplight Brake 3rd; Collet 3rd; Toplight 3rd then it looks like the H25 or H33 Restaurant carriage, then possibly a Collet carriage…. Is that right? Do you have a compo included?

 

Thanks, Neal.

[checkrail]

15 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

I would like to ask about the formation please.

Hi Neal.  Yes, two compos in fact.  Formation is:

 

D47 (Slater's)

C54 (Hornby)

E88 (Slater's)

H33 (Hornby/Comet conversion)

E127 (Hornby)

C77 (Bachmann)

D95 (Hornby).

 

Not necessarily following an actual formation in detail but hopefully using what the trade and after market offer to capture the atmosphere and flavour of GWR 1930s trains.  They'll all be shown in the next few photos later today.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

6 hours ago, checkrail said:

They'll all be shown in the next few photos later today.

As promised, Star and train in full, as it sweeps through the station and disappears into Stoke Courtenay tunnel.

 

 

 

 

 

John C.

[Neal Ball]

Lovely photos thank you John @checkrail

Edited January 16, 2023 by Neal Ball
Typo!

[Limpley Stoker]

Lovely picture from platform 2 !

[checkrail]

Progress continues, albeit a bit slowly, on the D33.  Today I mounted the underframe onto the bogies and temporarily fitted the carcass and gangways, then couplings before a test run.  It's seen here coupled to the toplight 3rd which will be its neighbour in the formation.  After a bit of twiddling I hit the sweet spot between close enough coupling for no daylight between coaches (using Keen Systems clerestory ends with floating end plates) but not too close to preclude smooth transit through Peco curved points in the fiddle yard.

 

The next pic shows the loco end, with new brass wire handrails replacing the moulded ones.  The gangway at this end is glued shut as it won't be used. This was fortuitous as the little spring pinged off my tweezers across the loft and hasn't been seen since.

 

The third pic shows the gangway connections between the two coaches and the new roof tank above the lavatory, fabricated from Plastikard and microstrip

The last shot shows the underframe detail, now converted to electric lighting with battery boxes etc. and with new V hangers and rods.  I did get  some more bogie steps from Dart Castings/MJT - quite a few as I realised I still had some stepless American bogies, for which they are actually intended. 

 

Now need to sort out the interior (it'll be sketchy!) and then think about the daunting bits - painting, glazing and door furniture.

 

John C.

Edited January 17, 2023 by checkrail
dodgy PC key

[checkrail]

Shunting completed and 8709 is ready to go.

 

But first she has to wait for a passenger service from Earlsbridge to arrive. 

 

John C.

[MrWolf]

Lovely pictures, but I'm finding all of those sawn off top feeds a bit depressing....

I also have a heap o' cattle wagons to build!

[richbrummitt]

10 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I also have a heap o' cattle wagons to build!

Me too. I started building a whole train worth (about 20) 2 years ago. So far about 5 are almost ready to paint. The others are just bodies at the moment. There’s a definitely a limit on how many items can be in a batch build (I suspect based on complexity) before it will become a slog at some point.

[MrWolf]

I have a similar number to build up, I kept getting all of the wheels and couplings together (surprisingly expensive!) and then pinching them for other projects!

[checkrail]

5557 pulling into the branch platform. 

 

 

John C.

[Coach bogie]

23 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

I also have a heap o' cattle wagons to build!

There must be a medical condition for it as I cannot stop building cattle wagons. Helped by there are still actual cattle trains run here in Queensland (container based-boring). I have a fondness for the 60 year old Airfix. I still have some unbuilt in box packaging-pre poly bag. It all dates back to August 1978 Railway Modeller with an article by Wing Commander Brian Huxley on adapting Airfix cattle wagons. It may be a 45 year old article but it has some great ideas. Here is one I started to alter over Christmas. With the vertical framing removed, and will be shortened into a W3.  My final visit to 1825 models in Stockton found this pair of Coopercraft in one of the boxes at a bargain price. Roof profile is a a bit suspect but they can be made into some thing reasonable.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

 

[1466]

19 minutes ago, Coach bogie said:

There must be a medical condition for it as I cannot stop building cattle wagons. Helped by there are still actual cattle trains run here in Queensland (container based-boring). I have a fondness for the 60 year old Airfix. I still have some unbuilt in box packaging-pre poly bag. It all dates back to August 1978 Railway Modeller with an article by Wing Commander Brian Huxley on adapting Airfix cattle wagons. It may be a 45 year old article but it has some great ideas. Here is one I started to alter over Christmas. With the vertical framing removed, and will be shortened into a W3.  My final visit to 1825 models in Stockton found this pair of Coopercraft in one of the boxes at a bargain price. Roof profile is a a bit suspect but they can be made into some thing reasonable.

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

 

Wing Commander Brian Huxley created some inspirational models over 45 years ago . I was inspired by his series on GWR wagons, Micas,  a Gadfly and his article on creating an 0-4-4 from a Triang Jinty forced me to do my own model . That’s quite a legacy !

[MrWolf]

I suspect that is the same article which I read in an old magazine sometime in the early 1980s.

A discussion about that article and a conspiracy with a friend on here resulted in two of these making an appearance.

 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, 1466 said:

Wing Commander Brian Huxley

Apropos of nothing at all, I was at school with his son, who wasn't a railway modeller though.

[1466]

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Apropos of nothing at all, I was at school with his son, who wasn't a railway modeller though.

Which confirms the theory that you can link any 2 people with 6 links between people they know .

[MrWolf]

I'm a big believer in the six degrees of separation, it works with just about anything.