Stoke Courtenay

[Brinkly]

Morning John,

 

I do like the parcel wagons: the combination looks very effective.

 

Kind regards,

 

Nick.

[Guest ShildonShunter]

Hi John what a fantastic layout i have read your posts from page 1 to 16 a few changes along the way but most enjoyable to follow. Great pictures throughout John.

[checkrail]

Thanks for 'likes' and kind comments.  Just back from Cornwall after inspecting one week old granddaughter.  Now - what was I posting?  Ah, yes, parcels vehicles.

 

The K22 also looks quite good in a passenger train, and is seen here Paddington-bound behind Tiverton Castle.

 

And here are a few general pictures of the parcels train with the two brake vans marshalled within it.

 

John C.

 

 

 

 

 

[checkrail]

Thanks Martin and Kevin for useful hints re photography.  Have today received a comprehensive photographer's guide to my new camera (a Panasonic TZ100), so will be trying to do better in future!

 

At least with this camera I can start with 'point & shoot' and work up incrementally from there.  With the big DSLR I had briefly in the autumn (and never used) I felt way outside my comfort zone.  Reading the manual baffled me.  I felt like a total outsider to our fraternity being suddenly bombarded with loads of stuff about 4575 tanks, Dia. 140 B-sets, 1-Co-Co-1s, EM, PF, 00-SF, frog polarity, DCC etc. 

 

John C.

[checkrail]

And here is a closer shot of the Dean PBV, which I recently built from an ancient Ks kit obtained on eBay. 

 

I guess that by my period (late 1930s) most if not all of these vehicles would have been relegated to acting as general vans, one reason why I didn't have it as sole brake vehicle in the train.  I could also have got away with painting it in all-over brown, but I wanted a bit of relief from the fairly monotone hue of the rest of the train, so finished it in the 1928-34 livery. It's a bit of a hybrid, having had Keen Systems ends for Hornby clerestory coaches grafted on to it, and 247 Developments American bogies substituted for the Dean ones.  The Keen Systems ends needed a bit of fettling and filling to fit, and new buffer beams adding, but had the benefit of giving the correct scissor-type gangways.  The guards' lookouts were omitted, as having been removed, as I understand was often the case by this date.  The resulting vehicle is rather generic - let's just say it's a K something-teen.  I've no idea whether one in this livery with these variations existed at this time, but as ever I'm after impression, character, atmosphere rather than strict scale accuracy. 

 

As with the K22 I sliced off the moulded door and grab handles and rails, and fitted new ones from Brassmasters, along with their nice GWR luggage grilles. The second pic shows these details in cruel close up.  

 

John C.

[Barry Ten]

My camera of choice is still the Panasonic FZ50 bridge camera I bought around 2006 (to replace an earlier one I donated to my Dad); it's still my favorite for general photography even though I have a Panasonic SLR which is in theory more flexible and capable.

[St Enodoc]

And here is a closer shot of the Dean PBV, which I recently built from an ancient Ks kit obtained on eBay. 

382 min.jpg

 

I guess that by my period (late 1930s) most if not all of these vehicles would have been relegated to acting as general vans, one reason why I didn't have it as sole brake vehicle in the train.  I could also have got away with painting it in all-over brown, but I wanted a bit of relief from the fairly monotone hue of the rest of the train, so finished it in the 1928-34 livery. It's a bit of a hybrid, having had Keen Systems ends for Hornby clerestory coaches grafted on to it, and 247 Developments American bogies substituted for the Dean ones.  The Keen Systems ends needed a bit of fettling and filling to fit, and new buffer beams adding, but had the benefit of giving the correct scissor-type gangways.  The guards' lookouts were omitted, as having been removed, as I understand was often the case by this date.  The resulting vehicle is rather generic - let's just say it's a K something-teen.  I've no idea whether one in this livery with these variations existed at this time, but as ever I'm after impression, character, atmosphere rather than strict scale accuracy. 

 

As with the K22 I sliced off the moulded door and grab handles and rails, and fitted new ones from Brassmasters, along with their nice GWR luggage grilles. The second pic shows these details in cruel close up.  

387 min.jpg

 

John C.

Another nice model. It is way out of period for the Mid-Cornwall Lines of course, so I removed the bogies from mine and placed them under a Tri-ang clerestory coach which now does duty as a camping coach. The PBV body might end up grounded as a store or messroom one day.

[The Great Bear]

Very nice. I wish my painting, especially the droplights, and lining was anywhere remotely as near as yours!

[checkrail]

Not much modelling done recently - too busy familiarising myself with this camera.  But here are a few shots of action at Stoke Courtenay as I proceed along the learning curve.

 

First off, a couple more of Henry V.

 

Actually I have done some modelling today!  First thing I did after taking these pics was to replace the rather too meaty post on the 'Station' fingerpost sign with some thinner brass tube.  And that in turn meant a bit of primer, followed by a bit of paint.  

 

John C.

 

 

[checkrail]

And here are some of Tiverton Castle.

 

 

John C.

 

 

[checkrail]

Here's 5975 Winslow Hall heading for Plymouth with a local train.

 

 

John C.

[checkrail]

A different view of 5975.

 

John C.

[checkrail]

Think I've found a new camera angle on the goods yard.  

 

4574 propels a couple of vans into the goods shed, while in the third pic 4018 Knight of the Grand Cross swings by, taking holidaymakers back home to Wolverhampton.  

 

 

John C.

 

[checkrail]

And here's KGC continuing to head north west.

 

 

 

I finally got round to surgery on the footboards of the H33 restaurant car in this train - the new Hornby donor chassis had continuous ones.  I've added some curtains too.

 

 

John C.

 

 

[checkrail]

Some new photos of 2819 on returning coal empties.

 

 

 

 

 

Another loco in need of some weathering eventually.

 

John C.

 

[checkrail]

And a few more of the 28xx heading through the station and meeting a King coming the other way.

 

 

 

 

 

John C.

 

[checkrail]

Last few from yesterday's 28xx sequence.  I do enjoy watching this train trundle through.  Might even get it to run in the opposite direction one day, if I can ever get round to making 20 more detachable coal loads.  (Of course, in an ideal world I'd have enough offstage loops to store more than one coal train!)

 

 

 

 

 

John C.

 

[checkrail]

Here's the Earlsbridge train ready to depart from the branch platform at Stoke Courtenay, after running round its train.  The bloke on the bench doesn't seem interested in small prairies - maybe he has wider horizons.

 

 

 

Below the prairie pulls away down the branch with the B-set in tow. Recently I've gently scraped off the lower bit of the double waist lining which Hornby gave these vehicles in one of their more recent iterations of this time-honoured model.  Then I re-varnished the lower bodyside.  It's not that Hornby got it wrong - I've seen the works photos in Russell etc. -  it's just that I feel that double lining on these and other general purpose coaches was short-lived and unusual, and to me they look more 'normal' with single lining.

 

You can also see the replacement straight buffer beams and sprung buffers which I substituted for the Hornby ones on the outer ends.  There's still a guard's door window too many on one side and some rather suspect underframe arrangements, but I think I'll leave the work there for now.  (Heresy alert! If you showed me two pictures of coach underframes, one right and one wrong, I wouldn't know the difference.)  But perhaps the outer ends of the set cry out for 'Earlsbridge No. 1' branding?   

 

 

The final pic shows me that I'm still not getting the depth of field I'm after for this type of shot, even with the camera on its smallest aperture setting (f8).  In due course, when I've learned to walk, I must look into this focus-stacking malarkey.

 

 

John C.

[LBRJ]

I like the square towered church sneaking into the scene in the background of some shots.

It brings to mind the church at Little Hempston (near Totnes) which is pretty close to the mainline

[St Enodoc]

But perhaps the outer ends of the set cry out for 'Earlsbridge No. 1' branding?

I think our mutual friend gwrrob of this parish had some made for ANTB.

[checkrail]

I like the square towered church sneaking into the scene in the background of some shots.

It brings to mind the church at Little Hempston (near Totnes) which is pretty close to the mainline

 

Glad you like the church, and good to hear that it resembles a real one in that neck of the woods.  It's a 3/4 low relief Bachmann Scenecraft item.  Ideal corner filler!

 

John.

[checkrail]

I've also made a start on expunging the lower line of the double lining on the Hornby Collett 57' coaches.  So far I've done the two in the local M set, so quite a few to go. In the process some will be updated to 'shirtbutton' style.  (I should have been more patient and waited for Hornby to bring these out in the first place!) 

 

 

John C.

[checkrail]

One or two of you might remember that some time back I fabricated airstream ventilators for some Centenary coaches from cream self-adhesive tape.  I regarded the result as merely 'proof of concept', because in the event I didn't get it right first time and got some nasty adhesive residue on the glass.  I've now had another go, cannibalising the bits & bobs of wrecked ancient centenaries in my spares box.  An improvement I think.

 

At the same time I added curtains.  Russell says these were blue in first, gold in third.  Wasn't sure of the exact shades, but mine were from an assorted pack of coloured tissue paper from Hobbycraft, fixed with double-sided Scotch tape.

 

 

 

 

And here they are behind a KIng.

 

 

 

 

John C.

 

 

[Mikkel]

Great views! The shot with the two gents and the dog at the roadside is my favourite.

[checkrail]

Castles pass at Stoke Courtenay, 5000 Launceston Castle and 5041 Tiverton Castle.

 

 

 

 

John C.