Stoke Courtenay

[Coach bogie]

Could it be the Three Aitch kit?

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

[checkrail]

Cambrian D1667.  That's it!  Thanks Ben.  It's all coming back to me now - I bought one of each kit at the same time for a bit of variety.

 

But interesting to see there was a Three Aitch kit - I don't recall them.  

 

Revisiting the Cambrian website it says that 54,000 D1666s were built and would be found in goods yards all over the country "regardless of region (although less so on the GWR)".   Why "less so" on the GWR?  Doesn't seem to make sense.

 

 

[AlfaZagato]

I think the GWR region as a whole 'exported' more than it 'imported.'  I have not grounds to support this, though.

[checkrail]

It's Anthony Manor again, still resplendent in ex-works finish!   Coming in at the up end ...

 

... and coasting to a stop at the down end.

 

I've noticed in some recent pics that the brake compo behind the loco is listing a bit to one side.  It's since been on the bench for some attention.

 

John C.

Edited September 27, 2023 by checkrail
typo

[checkrail]

Fixed now - coach vertical again.  (I think.)

 

 

I added yet another strip of thin Plastikard (using double-sided tape) onto the coach floor underneath the bogie stretchers on the side to which the body was listing.  Looks like an 'orrible mess underneath but it works!  Of course this is because I'm using white metal bogie sides with Plastikard stretchers of my own devising, on a plain Plastikard floor. There's always a fair bit of trial and error in ensuring free-running and smooth turning (and no tilting) without ending up with the coach riding too high.  (Buffer height is the all-important check here.)

 

Having said that my Hornby B set showed a similar tilt - the vehicles were in slightly different vertical planes - so a bit of packing was added there too. And of course they still had their original 'clip-in' Hornby bogies.

 

John C.

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, checkrail said:

Fixed now - coach vertical again.  (I think.)

 

 

I added yet another strip of thin Plastikard (using double-sided tape) onto the coach floor underneath the bogie stretchers on the side to which the body was listing.  Looks like an 'orrible mess underneath but it works!  Of course this is because I'm using white metal bogie sides with Plastikard stretchers of my own devising, on a plain Plastikard floor. There's always a fair bit of trial and error in ensuring free-running and smooth turning (and no tilting) without ending up with the coach riding too high.  (Buffer height is the all-important check here.)

 

Having said that my Hornby B set showed a similar tilt - the vehicles were in slightly different vertical planes - so a bit of packing was added there too. And of course they still had their original 'clip-in' Hornby bogies.

 

John C.

 

Thats interesting John thank you.

 

I have had leaning carriages in the past... Toplights in particular... I thought the issue was that the bolt holding the bogie in place was too loose. I have changed a couple of the bolts to bigger ones and that seemed to work.

 

Its not always easy to get the right height and ride quality is it?

 

[checkrail]

A couple more from the studio floor the other week.  That Manor's going to have to be toned down somewhat  - it's a bit too iridescent for me!

 

 

Have just returned from hospital this lunchtime after a minor stomach op. All well but must now take it easy for 6 weeks, lifting nothing heavier than a kettle.  What would be the ideal way of spending such an enforced period of convalescence?  Playing trains of course.  Trouble is, I'm not allowed to go up a loft ladder for a fortnight.  Such irony!

 

But yesterday I had a very enjoyable photo session on the layout and will be able to amuse myself (and some of you too I hope) by posting the results on this forum.  Vicarious railway modelling - most therapeutic!

 

John C.

 

[Neal Ball]

19 minutes ago, checkrail said:

A couple more from the studio floor the other week.  That Manor's going to have to be toned down somewhat  - it's a bit too iridescent for me!

 

 

Have just returned from hospital this lunchtime after a minor stomach op. All well but must now take it easy for 6 weeks, lifting nothing heavier than a kettle.  What would be the ideal way of spending such an enforced period of convalescence?  Playing trains of course.  Trouble is, I'm not allowed to go up a loft ladder for a fortnight.  Such irony!

 

But yesterday I had a very enjoyable photo session on the layout and will be able to amuse myself (and some of you too I hope) by posting the results on this forum.  Vicarious railway modelling - most therapeutic!

 

John C.

 

Hope you are ok John.

[gwrrob]

23 minutes ago, checkrail said:

A couple more from the studio floor the other week.  That Manor's going to have to be toned down somewhat  - it's a bit too iridescent for me!

 

 

 

 

Give James @toboldlygo a PM regarding the toning down of your Manor and put your feet up and have some rest.😉

[Harlequin]

50 minutes ago, checkrail said:

A couple more from the studio floor the other week.  That Manor's going to have to be toned down somewhat  - it's a bit too iridescent for me!

Yes, I agree. It seems too green for pre-war to me too.

 

50 minutes ago, checkrail said:

 

Have just returned from hospital this lunchtime after a minor stomach op. All well but must now take it easy for 6 weeks, lifting nothing heavier than a kettle.  What would be the ideal way of spending such an enforced period of convalescence?  Playing trains of course.  Trouble is, I'm not allowed to go up a loft ladder for a fortnight.  Such irony!

 

But yesterday I had a very enjoyable photo session on the layout and will be able to amuse myself (and some of you too I hope) by posting the results on this forum.  Vicarious railway modelling - most therapeutic!

 

John C.

 

Get well soon, John!

 

You know, this enforced rest period could be a golden opportunity - giving you time to think about the railway. A railway in a bigger room (bigger fiddle yard) on a more accessible level of the house would be nice, wouldn't it? I'm sure your family will see that too - especially if you get increasingly grumpy while you're not allowed up there...

 

A perfectly innocent and restful pastime is looking at the floorplans of houses for sale, to see which rooms would make good layout rooms...

 

😉

[checkrail]

16 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

Get well soon, John!

 

You know, this enforced rest period could be a golden opportunity - giving you time to think about the railway. A railway in a bigger room (bigger fiddle yard) on a more accessible level of the house would be nice, wouldn't it? I'm sure your family will see that too - especially if you get increasingly grumpy while you're not allowed up there...

 

A perfectly innocent and restful pastime is looking at the floorplans of houses for sale, to see which rooms would make good layout rooms...

 

😉

Thanks for good wishes Phil.

 

Are you trying to get me into serious trouble here? 😀

[57xx]

Get well soon John. As least you get 4 weeks of playtime one you are allowed up in the loft.

[Nick Gough]

Get well soon John. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your photo session while you recover.

[Coach bogie]

Get well soon John.

 

Hopefully you can model 'down stairs'. Modelling indoors kept me going when I was unable to get to the railway room (Garage).

 

Mike Wiltshire

[KNP]

Get well soon and look forward to the 'archived pictures' (as I call them!!).

Wagons kits, they are nice and simple and don't take up up much work space that should be your next target during your forced absence from the railway room.

All the best. 

[checkrail]

Many thanks guys for good wishes and suggestions.  I think I'll actually sit this one out - I'm afraid I've never really been more than a part time railway modeller in any case and I'll easily fill a couple of weeks.

 

Kevin's suggestion re wagon kits is a good one, but even there I can see difficulties, when I ask my wife to pop up to the loft and bring me a Cambrian RCH 9 foot underframe kit, a supply of MEK and 2 axles of Gibson's twin spoked and she looks at me like I'm speaking in Serbo-Croat.

 

But one useful thing I might do would be to explore more possibilities with the Affinity Photo processing package, which I've so far only used for focus merging. The cloning tool would be the first on the list to learn about. But one of the reasons I keep putting it off is that when I go to their online tutorials that geeky young bloke with the specs gabbles so quickly that 40 seconds in I've lost him.

 

John C.

[St Enodoc]

4 minutes ago, checkrail said:

when I go to their online tutorials that geeky young bloke with the specs gabbles so quickly that 40 seconds in I've lost him.

Try playing it at 33 1/3 instead of 45.

[Neal Ball]

18 minutes ago, checkrail said:

Many thanks guys for good wishes and suggestions........

 

But one useful thing I might do would be to explore more possibilities with the Affinity Photo processing package, which I've so far only used for focus merging. The cloning tool would be the first on the list to learn about. But one of the reasons I keep putting it off is that when I go to their online tutorials that geeky young bloke with the specs gabbles so quickly that 40 seconds in I've lost him.

 

John C.

 

Affinity also do a book of tutorials John, which might be easier to read through and digest. From time to time it goes on special offer as well.

 

Good luck with learning it all and of course, speedy recovery.

[checkrail]

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Affinity also do a book of tutorials

Thanks for this suggestion Kevin.  Have ordered the Robin Whalley book on Affinity 2, which claims to explain the areas I'm interested in. 

[Harlequin]

7 hours ago, checkrail said:

Many thanks guys for good wishes and suggestions.  I think I'll actually sit this one out - I'm afraid I've never really been more than a part time railway modeller in any case and I'll easily fill a couple of weeks.

 

Kevin's suggestion re wagon kits is a good one, but even there I can see difficulties, when I ask my wife to pop up to the loft and bring me a Cambrian RCH 9 foot underframe kit, a supply of MEK and 2 axles of Gibson's twin spoked and she looks at me like I'm speaking in Serbo-Croat.

 

But one useful thing I might do would be to explore more possibilities with the Affinity Photo processing package, which I've so far only used for focus merging. The cloning tool would be the first on the list to learn about. But one of the reasons I keep putting it off is that when I go to their online tutorials that geeky young bloke with the specs gabbles so quickly that 40 seconds in I've lost him.

 

John C.

I'm afraid it's de rigeur for all applications to be explained on YouTube by people being overly bright and breezy, speaking a mile-a-minute and wanting you to follow their channel. Urgh! Some of them are more than a reasonable person can bear!

 

Two words: Pause and Rewind.

 

And another suggestion: If you search for answers using Google, it usually shows YouTube videos first but if you scroll down you will start to get written answers (thank goodness!) and often the best of all answers are on a forum. Forums are good... 😊

Edited September 29, 2023 by Harlequin

[Buhar]

On 27/09/2023 at 10:13, checkrail said:

Revisiting the Cambrian website it says that 54,000 D1666s were built and would be found in goods yards all over the country "regardless of region (although less so on the GWR)".   Why "less so" on the GWR?  Doesn't seem to make sense.

It isn't sense at all.  After pooling the wagon fleets became increasingly mixed and, by your period with over 20 years of shuttling around, pooled wagons in any large location were probably seen pretty much in line with their proportions in the fleet overall.  

 

Alan

[checkrail]

There's a rare splash or two of colour towards the front of this coal empties train today, as 2818 heads towards the South Wales coalfields. One can readily understand why the majority of coal companies painted their wagons black - though i get the impression that a greater variety of colours was prevalent in other areas of the country.

 

The Diamond Anthracite wagon is from a POWsides/Slaters kit, while the Aberpergwm one is a straight Bachmann one picked up second hand at a show, and was one I hadn't come across before.  The Ocean wagon In between them is an ancient Trix/Lilliput body (to 3.75 or 3.8 mm scale IIRC) on a Cambrian 9 foot RCH chassis.  I have a couple more of these, including one with a 'coal' load that I just can't remove, so it currently languishes in a drawer.

 

 

Meanwhile Winslow Hall gets the rightaway with a down passenger service.

 

John C.

 

 

[checkrail]

The empty coal wagon train runs through the platform roads as the tail end of the down stopper moves out of sight.

 

 

 

Looking forward to getting some of the new Rapido 1907 RCH pattern wagons.  I see they do a Renwick & Wilton one as well as a couple of South Welsh examples.

 

John C.

[A Murphy]

Lovely stuff John, hope you're feeling better.

 

Alastair M

[Harlequin]

Beautiful!

 

Focus stacking really makes that middle picture work.