South Wales Valleys in the 50s

[The Johnster]

Yes, you're right.  The response from the guy on the Bachmann stand sounds a bit like a polite 'go away and stop bothering me' dismissal tbh, they're never going to retool this now, but it is a crude piece of modelling that spoils an otherwise very good piece of RTR.  The roof sheet always feels a bit too thick to me as well.   I can see why they beefed up the cabside at the top, it would be very flimsy in plastic even with the 'support' of the sliding weather protection sheet.  Which I'd rather like to see made to be moveable!

 

Back during the seemingly endless 94xx when is it going to be available saga, I asked the guy on the Baccy stand at a Bristol show in Thornbury about the loco, which had just been put back another six months, again, and he came out with 'we've had problems with the bodyshell, it's not just a plastic box you know'.  Well, actually, yes, I do know and actually, yes, arguably it is, and no more complex than, say, the existing 57xx/8750 or 64xx; I was being dismissed, and that was that...  I wasn't expecting him to commit to a date or even a year given the already troubled story of the lead time for this engine, but wanted to probe for a comment, and he didn't dissapoint, more waffle...

 

The time that Bachmann could have addressed these issues was when they retooled the Mainliine bodyshell, which they did with better lubricator and filler cap detail, a proper backhead, and lamp irons, but that opportunity has been lost now, and as I am of the view that Baccy are backpedalling on new steam tooling, is gone frevva.

 

I'll have a bit of working up to do on the new Mainline-bodied loco, and may try to address some of this, but it doesn't look easy!

[Darwinian]

As you say it doesn't look easy hence why I baulked at doing it when I did fill in the bunker recess. Since then I have taken the cab shutter off a Hornby 52xx ( detailed in the build a loco challenge). I suspect removing the shutter on the 56xx would be required too since it is too short, unless the unprototypical top strip could be smoothed off. I've not checked if it's the inside or outside dimension of the cab opening beading that is an issue.

The roof rainstrips should be fairly straightforward.

Hornby have managed the cab to roof proportions much better on their current 61xx so it can be done. 

[The Johnster]

 

Four, count them, four engines at once at Bethania Jc; it’s 14.00, shift change time at the colliery, and the 16” Hunslet & W4 Have retired to the shed for crew change and water top ups, leaving the 18” Hunslet in charge and poking itself into frame with a wagon to be put aside for the next load over the weighbridge.  8497 is also photobombing, as it runs around the single coach miners’ workman’s ready to take it back down the valley. Come back in ten minutes and this hive of activity will be tumbleweed central, as everybody draws breath before the afternoon goods and parcels workings. 
 

These photos are really useful for picking out tidying up jobs to do 

[1466]

3 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Yes, you're right.  The response from the guy on the Bachmann stand sounds a bit like a polite 'go away and stop bothering me' dismissal tbh, they're never going to retool this now, but it is a crude piece of modelling that spoils an otherwise very good piece of RTR.  The roof sheet always feels a bit too thick to me as well.   I can see why they beefed up the cabside at the top, it would be very flimsy in plastic even with the 'support' of the sliding weather protection sheet.  Which I'd rather like to see made to be moveable!

 

Back during the seemingly endless 94xx when is it going to be available saga, I asked the guy on the Baccy stand at a Bristol show in Thornbury about the loco, which had just been put back another six months, again, and he came out with 'we've had problems with the bodyshell, it's not just a plastic box you know'.  Well, actually, yes, I do know and actually, yes, arguably it is, and no more complex than, say, the existing 57xx/8750 or 64xx; I was being dismissed, and that was that...  I wasn't expecting him to commit to a date or even a year given the already troubled story of the lead time for this engine, but wanted to probe for a comment, and he didn't dissapoint, more waffle...

 

The time that Bachmann could have addressed these issues was when they retooled the Mainliine bodyshell, which they did with better lubricator and filler cap detail, a proper backhead, and lamp irons, but that opportunity has been lost now, and as I am of the view that Baccy are backpedalling on new steam tooling, is gone frevva.

 

I'll have a bit of working up to do on the new Mainline-bodied loco, and may try to address some of this, but it doesn't look easy!

You are not alone , Johnster , in being politely dismissed.

I’ve tried suggesting to Bachman that a Bulldog would be a cinch . All that is required is a new boiler and cab and the rest is in the parts bins .

However,  they are a commercial operation and will prosper  or fail on their decisions.

I’ve come to the conclusion that they are focusing on diesels and that steam is on their back boiler( Ho ho ).

Mind , I’ve been telling Hornby that a Saint would be a huge commercial success and most of the bits already exist .

Perhaps demographics are at work . I model steam because that’s what I saw in the 1950s i.e . when I  were an impressionable lad . Things have moved generations on and the impressionable lads ( and lasses) grew up with diesels and electrics .So that’s where the market  probably lies .

I'm resigned to being a niche , 

but thank goodness for Accurascale and Rapido etc .

 

[The Johnster]

8 minutes ago, 1466 said:

’ve tried suggesting to Bachman that a Bulldog would be a cinch . All that is required is a new boiler and cab and the rest is in the parts bins

 

Well, there aren't any parts bins any more, except those containing the exact number of parts no more no less for the current production run.  A Bulldog from Bachmann would no doubt capitalise on the design and production engineering work done for the the Dukedog and possibly the City/Atbara, but any parts in existence or planned for those models are allocated to those models.  This is part and parcel of the Chinese sub-contracting system, which delivers exactly the right amount of components to the final assembly plant at exactly the right time, 'just in time'.  This precludes the need for warehouses or stock control, and is a major saving in costs, but the downside is that it is particularly vulnerable to any disruption such as Covid outbreaks, ships jamming themselves across the Suez Canal, or, this year's speciality, state-backed terrorist drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea. 

 

Modellers of our generation were used to being able to soucrce spares at any time from Margate or Binns Road, and for manufacturers to use mechanisms as generic to several different models, and magazine letters pages contained such as 'why don't Triang do a BR standard 5MT using their Britannia chassis', and such, which in those days they could have, albeit with a cab full of motor... 

 

Those days are long gone. and the quality of RTR models combined with the savage competitiveness of the market is ensuring that they will never return.

 

As you said, thank goodness for Accurascale and Rapido, and Dapol as well of late!

[The Johnster]

I’ve had a bit of quiet yesterday evening to have a proper look at the 2h 56xx, currently 5653.  The bodyshell is a Mainline, worked up with new smokebox dart, sprung buffers, and screw couplings, plus a repaint in eggshell black, new unicycling lions, and brass numberplates.  No complaints from me, all done to a high standard.  Work outstanding is cab window glazing, painting vacuum pipes red, coal for the bunker, a backhead for the firebox (might have to have a hole to clear the worm), crew (will help hide the hole to clear the worm), and lamp irons.  
 

The chassis is most certainly not Mainline. 
 

 

Excuse the orientation, and the light reflecting off the wheels.  It’s a lovely job someone’s done of what is I suspect a Perseverance chassis, though it could be a Comet.  The wheels are Romford and so are the 40:1 worm & cog, I think the motor is possibly an Anchorage DS10.  The chassis runs very smoothly, controllably down to a crawl, and, after a very sparing dose of lube,  almost silently, a quality job.  It is a live return with bent wire pickups on one side and only one feed wire to the motor; haven’t seen one of these in years!

 

As I say, tonight’s perusal was only supposed to be an inspection, but the front took an NEM mount off an old Baccy wagon from the scrap box.  A rear NEM pocket has been superglued in place but may have to be trimmed a bit.  As supplied, the chassis was missing the front sandboxes, with no sign of their ever having been fitted; once again the scrapbox snd the superglue came to the rescue. 
 

What this loco clearly needs is some heft to improve running and pickup at the wheels. Good news is that there’s room ahead of the motor and the inside of the tanks for plenty, so this will be this evening’s task along with haulage testing.  Once that’s done I’ll do the bodyshell work, order some replacement numbers, fit the NEMs and she’ll be ready for service, and should be a good runner, plenty powerful enough for Cwmdimbath!

[The Johnster]

Ok, time to wind up ‘23 with some snaps, which will be a bit of a catchup on how the scenics are proceeding. 
 

 

Early morning, not fully light yet, and the ‘papers’, 06.35 arrival from Bridgend, rolls in behind 4144.  Don’t be fooled, by the time the train gets up here it only has the few bundles for the Post Office and a small bundle for Bracchi’ caff, just emerging into the day with odd noises from the Espresso machine.  it can’t be much later than 1950, with 4144 in her Sunday Best BR unlined green Egyptian serif early BR changeover livery.  The coaches are ersatz Collett 60footer cut’n’shuts that started life as anAirfix B set, a supposed all 3rd in wartime brown and a brake 3rd in 1945-7 choc/cream, both now looking a bit scuffy.  The road, a bit rough but resurfaced in the 60s, and the lower slope of Mynydd y Gwair put in an appearance, new features!

 

 

Not the best shot ever, or even today, but 4144 has run around and propelled the train into position.  Idwal is making the return trip of an early collection from a farm down at Brynmenyn that supplies his fresh gelateria cream in his 7cwt Ford Thames, and Lorry Laurie Davies’ new green Albion dropside has been left parked overnight in the layby; Laurie will get it fired up and on the move after breakfast!  The station is waking up, the ticket office opening shortly for any punters wishing to avail themselves of the first service of the day to Bridgend and possibly even further…  The regulars have season tickets, but there’s usually one or two casuals!

 

 

Later that morning, Thorne no.1 is marshalling weighed loaded wagons to form the next clearance.  Mynydd y Gwair intrudes in the foreground again with the rather bare slopes of Mynydd Maendy and Mynydd Maesteg (left) as the backdrop.  Will’s grotty hut sheep shelter in the foreground

 

 

A very happy and prosperous 2024 from the rain-soaked, miserably Celtic, but highly atmospheric 4mm 1950s mountain fastnesses beyond Tondu to you all, and good modelling!  And from yours truly as well!

 

Edited January 1 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

 

Similar sort of angle but showing the almost accidentally developing Valley Motors’ ‘field’, which will become something of a repository for bits of rusting old vehicles and a place to keep the wrecker out of the way, not so much a scrapyard (that would be far too passe for The Johnster), more of a dumping ground and storage for the main workshop up the road.  
 

6642 is in the process of attaching a brake van to a loaded coal clearance brought up from the pit by ‘Thorne No.1’ (that name is gonna have to go), which has retreated to the far end of the exchange loop headshunt

[The Johnster]

 

 

4144 breasts the summit of the final 1 in 27 (actually happened at Nantymoel, next valley over) and runs past the colliery yard with the 17.10 workmen’s off Tremains for an on-time arrival at 17.35.  This service began in 1938 for the new ROF factory there, but this is the early 50s and the Goverment operation has been scaled back considerably.  The site is morphing into a trading estate, which it still is.  Mynydd Maendy rears up in the background.  
 

Thorne No.1 is spotting some wagons under the loader for, um, loading, and the loaded rake behind 4144’s train has been weighed and the colliery’s Austerity is on the other end ready to propel it up to the exchange loop in about an hour’s time when the next clearance is due. 
 

Funny how the sky over Mynydd Maendy looks like the corner of a room…

Edited January 13 by The Johnster

[Captain Kernow]

12 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Funny how the sky over Mynydd Maendy looks like the corner of a room…

One of those very rare vertical cloud formations...

 

[Budgie]

12 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

One of those very rare vertical cloud formations...

 

Maybe Peco can be persuaded to make a new backscene: a typical South Wales rainstorm.

[The Johnster]

Scenic fun has been being had around the goods shed area.  It has been decided that all goods activity other than mileage will now take place here, and the old loading platform at the station end will be reserved for mileage and the D & O ‘returns’ traffic.  Much remains to be done as always, especially fencing, but here’s photographic evidence of the week’s activity. 
 

 

Goods shed overview.  The mountain road to Glynogwr is in the left background, and a new mountain slope has been cobbled up out of card formers draped in grass mat; the road can be seen starting to ascend away from the village direction, the village being around the sharp left-hand bend opposite the water tower. 
 

Here’s our local GP, Dr.Beynon, out on a call in his Austin Dorset (1950s GP’s car if ever I saw one), making heavy going of the 1 in 6 hill and the potholes.  This is pretty much how I remember unfenced unclassified mountain roads from my  childhood. Anyone know where I can get local numberplates printed?

 

 

Another angle on the doctor’s Dorset, an ugly lump even by 50’s standards, in second and lurching about like a clipper doing round the Horn; just listen to that transmission whine!  The road disappears off the edge of the layout world just out of shot to the right, but will revisit us eventually as it needs to cross the valley, including the branch and the stream at an angle on a bridge over the colliery yard throat, about two feet away.  It can then conveniently disappear into the hillside behind the colliery. 

[The Johnster]

More developments over this week.  I decided that enough was enough for roan no. 6 in the colliery yard.  It wasn’t serving much of a purpose, and was preventing a reasonable sloping embankment between the yard and the pithead level, so out it came.  This meant a turnout with nothing to do, an unacceptable state of affairs at Cwmdimbath, so I’ve resurrected Dimbath Metals (Electroplating and Galvanising) as a PSA siding off the exchange loop.  The loading platform that has migrated around the layout since the early days and was previously the colliery stores platform has followed it to the new location.  Temporary card buildings represent the factory for now but we can, and eventually will, do better.  
 

I’ve made a start on the new embankment between levels at the colliery, which I’m hoping will be able to include a connecting roadway or at least a path linking them; it would make more visual sense than claiming it to be ‘off-scene.  For some reason, I’m toying with the idea of cable shunting with capstans for the new siding, Rule 1 excuse being that the ground will not support the weight of a loco. 

I’ve managed (because I’m a clumsy oaf) to do some damage to the signal box during all the shennanigans, and it’s repaired now but looking a bit battered.  So I’m thinking about a replacement.  I liked the general look of the Metcalfe box and there were several similar ones in the Tondu Valleys, but I’m increasingly dissatisfied with printed card buildings with no physical relief to them, and while we’ve discussed this before, I won’t really be happy until it is replaced with plastic, lasercut, or possibly a 3D print.  Ratio is favourite at the moment, but my previous attempt at this kit found it very fiddly and faffy with delicate parts, it being particularly difficult to fabricate the windows, probably the most obviously noticeable part of a signal box. 

Pix tomorrow evening, probably…

Edited January 27 by The Johnster

[37Oban]

Hi,

 

on a previous layout I used various card buildings.  Adding various relief details, such as window sills, door frames, gutters/drain pipes and changing the windows makes a big difference to their appearance for not too much money.   

 

Roja

[The Johnster]

Good points, but not in line with the latest Dimbath Valley Railway Company policy, see below.

 

The signal box referred to is a Metcalfe, and the relief is built up in layers of card, so it doesn't look too bad, or didn't until the hammer fell on it, but I'm not really happy with it.  I chose the brick base because the stone is more obviously printed and reliefless.  Door and window detail is lacking, windowframes printed on to clear acetate sheets is not really good enough for a signal box where they are an important detail and need to be set in to each other as paired panels which slid open.  Ratio signalboxes manage this quite well, but are faffy to assemble without breaking the thin frame strips (answer to this is probably to attach the glazing before removing them from the sprues to give them a bit more structural integrity).  I need a new signalbox, and now is the time to look around at what's out there.  The Gaugemaster 'Fordhampton' is a common GW standard type despite the photo showing it's exterior timber framing in SR green, and I remember Llandeilo Jc as being almost identical, a definite contender*.  The interior staircase takes up some room.  I make it 23 levers with some crossovers being paired on the same lever, including fpls, which requires a reasonable size; I think the smaller Ratio is too small and the bigger brick-base box is a little too big, as is the Gaugemaster (I think ex-Heljan) 'Teignmouth', which in any case has an appallingly toy-like tiled roof, not that I could't replace it...  Fordhampton has a narrow profile suitable for the site, though of course there's no reason it couldn't be moved.  The curve of the exchange road behind the box (see photo 21/1) demands a raison d'etre, though.

 

A meeting on Friday night of the board of the Dimbath Valley Railway in the snug of The Forge passed a resolution that no further card structures were to be acquired unless for background use or in poorly lit areas, and none at all for railway use.  I know brickwork is more or less flat in real life if it is pointed properly, but, well, I do not like them Sam I am.  A long-term intention to replace brick and stone paper with plastic or scratch-built card/paper structures for physical relief was discussed, but deferred to a future meeting in order to ensure that there will be one soon; those boys like their beer, and a private party booking  the snug means a lock-in!

 

 

*Which I once got evicted from because I spilled tea on the polished timber floor.  And quite right, too.  Boxes were spotless in general, but a polished timber floor was above and beyond the call of duty, and it was a busy box, so not with a lot of spare time to carry out such embellishment; somebody had taken a lot of trouble to sand it down!

 

 

[The Johnster]

Ok, sitrep photo time.  
 

 

Here’s the new Dimbath Metals siding, buzzard’s eye view looking south down the valley.  There will be a low relief building to represent the factory, with ground to be built up to the rear of the platform.  An access road has to run along that side of the valley but it will need to be suggested rather than modelled.  Perhaps a line of hedgerow along the hillside.  Left to right new Dimbath Metals siding, exchange loop/colliery branch, Cwmdimbath Branch running line (turnout for goods loop in foreground), and goods shed.  ‘Bethesda Junction’ NCB loco shed in background. 
 

 

Not so much sitrep as a study of one end of the goods yard with a Parkside Python hogging the limelight, as viewed from the mountain road.  Given the discussion about printed card earlier and the distortion of the sliding platform doors, replacement of the goods shed is on the cards (sorry) as well, but the priority is the signal box.  More or less decided on Fordhampton, which looks nothing like an LBSC box, painted in WR colours and I reckon I can improve the roof!  Already got a stove with a working flickering light to go under the stove pipe…

[The Johnster]

 

About 08.25 on a dull morning, and 6642, having brought up the first mineral empties of the day, which have already been moved down to the colliery yard, has just got the road to follow the 08.15 Bridgend auto on it’s run back down to Ogmore Jc with the brake van.  4144 sits on the goods loop with the empty stock for the 08.40 Tremains workman’s, which it will shunt over to the platform as soon as the ebv is out of the way; the regulars are now just putting on their jackets and slurping down the last of the morning cuppa.  Billy Twice (William Williams), the junior porter, has a side fiddle buying their newspapers, ciggies, &c from the Post Office over the road and will hand the goodies out as the Tremains punters enter the station.  Billy isn’t actually on duty until 09.00, so this is not the railway’s business…  He used to be a steward on the big liners, a magnificent schooling in how to make money on the side…

 

The signalbox damage from the dropped hammer is obvious, worse in the photo than in real life; I’m putting it down to mining subsidence for now!

[The Johnster]

Orders gone in tonight for replacement signal box and goods shed (both Gaugemaster Fordhampton) and Fair Price lasercut ‘Simple Workshop’, which will be the new Dimbath Metals factory, cut’n’shut into low relief and placed on the new siding loading platform.  This is my third Fair Price kit and I’ve got a lot of time for them, the sort of plain and unimpressive but workmanlike minor subsidiary industrial buildings that don’t shout out at you but are all the same very well-proportioned and credible on a model.  It’ll probably need a separate chemicals store and I’ll need to pay attention to ventilators; galvanising and electroplating involves some quite unpleasant stuff and nasty fumes!  This sort of operation is perfect for a model railway; goods in and the same goods out after treatment, plus supplies and chemicals in and empties out, trade for the pickup.  Vans and opens including shocvans and opens, acid carboys, chemicals in drums and the return empties, even an occasional chemicals tank wagon!

 

I’ve got an electrical gremlin to sort out; the platform road, the oldest part of the layout, has gone dead.  Not going to bother fault-finding, it’s easier and quicker to just put new wiring in to restore running; shouldn’t present any trouble (famous last words) but I’m too tired for that sort of shennanigans now just.  One of the 8750s has a broken motor feed wire, luckily at the accessible motor terminal end, so I need to get the soldering iron out anyway.  

Edited January 31 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

Simple workshop (Fair Price lasercut) arrived yesterday.  I decided not to assmble it as the kit suggests, a squareish single-storey building with two parallel gable-end roofs, but as a long thin one, to be mounted to the new Dimbath Metals loading platform, as it is to be Dimbath Metals' factory.  So, the floor was cut in half and splinted together lengthways, and the gable end walls also cut in half.  Windows and main door have been assembled, painted, and fitted to the structure, the door on the lh end of the rh half-building front, so as central as possible.  Exterior painting of the walls (approximate render colour), brick arches and lintels (blue engineering brick), and window sills (grey concrete) has been done, and the outstanding for this job is a new rear wall and roof, probably asbestos sheet.  One window has been sacrificed as a grille for the ventilation system, vital in a factory where there are such unpleasant fumes about...

 

Fordhampton Signal Box turned up this morning, and I've made a start on preparing it for assembly this evening as distraction therapy to help cope with Wales' so-near-and-yet-so-far defeat to Scotland; at least we had a decent second half...  And at least it wasn't England...  Anyhoo, back to the signal box; curate's egg.  It's pre-coloured for the Southern Region, and is assembled by inserting cream-coloured lapboard panels onto malachite green plasic side/end pieces, leaving the timber framework visible in malachite.  The kit was co-opted into Gaugemaster's Fordhampton scheme, purporting to be a main-line LBSCR station & town with compatible buildings, and is probably coloured correctly for a box in such a location, but it is in reality a model of an all-timber 1896-1927 standard design; there were many of these built, and they could be found all over the GW's former territory.  I suppose the Gaugmaster 'livery' appeared on such a box on ex-GW routes that became part of Southern Region under BR, such as Salisbury-Dilton Marsh, but it is not correct for an LBSC box or the correct 'livery' for a WR example of this GW standard design.   So I have some painting to do, basically all the green bits must be brown.

 

The interior is a little odd.  The floor is what I assume to be moulded to represent a panel box, for use with MAS signalling, and has a large desk-shaped lump in the middle of it.  There is no provision for the interior stairwell, balustrade, or staircase, despite these being very clearly visible through the windows.  The windows, incidentally, are tooled as part of the side/end mouldings, and should ideally be separate pieces that slide behind each other, but this is not an option with this kit.  It seems to be a bit of a problem for kit and RTP manufacturers, as TTBOMK the only firm that allows for this in it's plastic kits is Peco Parkside, and my experience of assembling these very delicate, flimsy, and fragile parts is not conducive to me wanting to repeat the experience.  I know they can be made up into very effective models, but they are frankly beyond me.  The previous Metcalfe box should have had them, but made do with white ink printed on to clear acetate.  At least this kit has some relief in the frames; I suppose I'm lazy and entitled but why can we not have this tooled in as part of the moulding, maybe with one half-open.  Etched brass kits do it of course, but the thickness of the brass does not allow the correct relief and depth either.  I'll live with it, though.

 

Some flash, which I don't mind, but some in awkward places which I do.  There are unsightly tooling spots, about 3mm diameter, on the outside surface of the pieces (why can't they be hidden on the inside?), and they are depressed into the piece, so cannot be trimmed off.  There was some awkward flashing in the nooks & crannies of the top of the stove pipe as well, but I managed this.  The stove pipe is a loose fit in it's hole in the roof while I had to ream the ventilator hole out quite savagely before the ventilator would fit; not a massive challenge to even my ability but one feels it might derail a novice.  Tools reccomended in the instructions are plastic glue and a cutter; a knife, and drills or something to ream out the ventilator hole are needed as well. 

 

As is some scratch-building of details (again, I think I can cope, but I've been around the modelling block a few times).   A cabin floor needs to be cut to accommodate the stairwell and the stairs need to be built, at least the top of the staircase, and the stove pipe, if it were provided in the cabin (it isn't), would come down far too close to the end of the panel, just where the phones are...  I will need to build a new floor and staircase as well as the other interior details I intend to provide.  I already have some rugs, an armchair, desk, teacan, flickering stove, and will go with a Ratio interior kit for the lever frame and instruments, being a little disappointed with Metcalfe's crude card lever frame.  I made a real wood planked floor for the Metcalfe box (wooden coffee stirrers scribed in the middle lengthways), which was effective and rather satisfying modelling, so I'll do that again.

 

Not all bad news of course.  This box is a little narrower than the Metcalfe, meaning that I will have a little more choice in the fine-tuning of it's siting, and the provided base should make for a strong and rigid construction, not that I intend destruction-testing it with er namma & Newton's First Law again like I did with the Metcalfe.  The lapboarding is sharly defined and the colour needs little more than a coat of matt varnish to take the rather toy-like shine and brightness down a notch.  Best news is the slate roof, which I suspected would be a scrapper or at best a base for a scratchbuild overlaid one, something to do with the lighting in the GM photo.  It's a pretty decent tooling as it turns out, the slates overlap each other correctly, and it will pass muster... 

 

I'll be happy with it when it's finished, I'm, sure, but for now am mildly frustrated by niggly little faults and having to paint green stuff which should be brown.  Once the pre-assembly painting and matting down is done and I'm sticking bits together, I'll start enjoying the build!  And it'll be another nail in the coffin of printed card with no relief at Cwmdimbath, which is a relief!  Second coat of white for the window frames tomoz and I can put the glazing in, but I won't be using the very flimsy stuff provided with the kit.  I'll prolly cut the base for the floor as well.

 

I might be able to re-use some of the card timber framing fret and the stairs from the Metcalfe, we'll see.  I can certainly rescue it's interior fittings!

Edited February 4 by The Johnster

[The Johnster]

An enclosure in the 'Fordhampton' signalbox box informs me that it is produced by Faller, not Heljan as I'd thought.  Pretty sure the Teignmouth signalbox and station building are, or were, a Heljan product, as was the goods shed, which did and does not claim to be from Teignmouth; I have no idea what if any prototype it is based on. 

 

Faller are not the first name one thinks of when one is considering 4mm scale kits for GW buildings, even if they are being incorrectly marketed as LBSCR buildings, but, hey, what do I know (answers on the back of a postage stamp to...)?

Edited February 4 by The Johnster

[31A]

1 hour ago, The Johnster said:

Pretty sure the Teignmouth signalbox and station building are, or were, a Heljan product, as was the goods shed, which did and does not claim to be from Teignmouth; I have no idea what if any prototype it is based on. 

Not sure about the Goods Shed kit, but the signal box which they call Teignmouth was originally made by Heljan and sold in a Heljan box, then later sold by Knightwing.  It's actually a pretty good model of a Great Northern Railway signal box, based it appears on Biggleswade North box, of which a drawing appeared in the Model Railway Constructor around 1974 (I think).

 

Actually having lived in Cardiff myself in the early 1980s, it occurred to me that the Taff Vale Railway signal boxes that were still around at that time bore a passing resemblance to some Great Northern Railway boxes!

[BMS]

TVR and GNR similarity  (and other SW companies) not unexpected as they  used McKenzie and Holland for signalling systems, and they used standard parts. ref MickLNER.

As aside where can I get roof end architraves in 4mm  - a series of semi-circles?

[The Johnster]

Progress to report on the new signal box; another coat on the window frames, coat of brown on the main wooden framing, bit of back & forth touching up between white window frames and brown main frames until I was happy with this aspect (important to get this right on a signal box and the windows are not separate so you can't paint them on the sprue), lapboard panels inserted, second coat of white for the cabin interior, glazing put in, and the basic shell of the box assembled and set on it's plastic base.  All went together perfectly and the structure is square and rigid.  I made a token start on my interior by glueing a staircase in at the rh (viewed from the front of the layout and the track, lh viewed from the box) end ready to put a dividing wall between the stairwell and the locking room and shape the new floor around the top of the staircase.

 

Put it in it's position with the roof resting on top, and it looks the part reasonably well.  Gutters are to be painted brown, also the downpipes which need fixing to the model.  There was a piece of black plastic rod with the kit which is supposed to fit around the cabin windows, which has made a break for the border, but it was curved up to fit in the box anyway and would have resisted straightening.  I'm probably better off bending up and painting a piece of steel or brass rod.

 

Kudos to Faller, btw, for a kit that has been around for a while now but went together very nicely indeed, a great example of a kit designed for easy assembly so that production costs can be lowered and the saving passed on to customers.  Presumably the German company didn't do the original drawings the tooling was based on, and I would have been happier with separate window pieces, but a square, rigid, and plumb building almost fell together, and I can't say that of all the RTP plastic building kits I've come across...

 

The combination of a slightlty lower cabin floor and the shallow pitch of the roof means that this box is lower and generally smaller than the Metcalfe, which is similar proportionally but a much larger building.  This plays well on Cwmdimbath, where the site now has clearance from the running lines that is a good bit more believable and the box doesn't dominate that area in the same way as the Metcalfe.  It's turning out to have been a good choice!  Tomorrow, I mean later today, I'll finish off the kit and cut a cabin floor and internal walls to block light and make the building look less of an empty shell until I can get to grips with the cabin details and lighting.  Anybody know of a source of 4mm locking frames to go downstairs, or suggestion of something that looks a bit like one?

 

But what is it with Gaugemaster and inappropriate models for their purported locations and even companies?  Fordhampton is claimed to be on a main line across the South Downs, making it Southern Region Central Section if the builidngs are representative of a period.  Presumably the idea is that modellers can create a Fordhampton layout with appropriate buildings, bridges, &c, like Hornby's Skaledale or whatever the Bachmann one is, but Skaledale is pretty firmly set in NER territory (not that that stopped me cut'n'shutting two Skaledale resin NER lapboard waiting rooms to make Cwmdimbath's station building).  Why pretend a distinctively GWR signal box is a Southern, ex-LBSC, structure which it looks not even remotely like.  The Teignmouth signal box is another example, a Holland & Mackenzie with a poorly modelled tiled roof; I can't think of one like it anywhere on the GW and certainly not Teignmouth; there are H&M boxes on the TVR and possibly other grouping acquistitions, but they have slate roofs.  You could obtain everything you needed to build and operate a railway from companies like this, and many of the smaller railways without extensive workshop or building facilities did exactly that; the Barry never build anything, it all came out of catalogues!  GM's Teignmouth station building OTOH looks like the real Teignmouth, a standard GW type of the early 20th century in Bourbon Baroque Louis quinze style; another example was Ross-on-Wye, which was the model for the SVR's 1984 Kidderminster terminus, the only GWR station in the world made of metric bricks...

[Welchester]

The 'Fordhampton' signal box had an earlier life with Hornby as a GWR box.

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/178626/hornby_r186signal_gwr_signal_box_crossing/stockdetail

 

I think it's a model of the box which was formerly at Dunster and now at Minehead on the WSR, although the lower windows are wrong.

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Minehead_Signal_Box.jpg

[Welchester]

My memory was jogged to remember that in the early 1970s Eric Ilett produced some 4mm plans of Dunster Signal Box in a volume published by Peco under the title Ericplans.