Great Southern Railway (Fictitious) - Signalling the changes...

[Compound2632]

Hull & Barnsley is definitely North, though, and I'm sure acknowledged as such even by people who live to the north of its territory.

[Skinnylinny]

Going back to the Southern...

The LSWR horsebox has now been painted and awaits lettering and numbering. Horseboxes and carriage trucks on the LSWR were painted (as far as can be determined) in carriage brown with white lettering. 



Details still need to be picked out, such as the door and commode handle, as well as the end handrails. These are printed "solid", with the intention being to paint the "gaps" behind them matt black, and then dry-brush a suitable metallic colour over the rails themselves. With as dark a livery as LSWR carriage brown, I think this should look perfectly good enough, while being much stronger than trying to print separate handrails. I did consider wire, but given how close to the corners they are, I don't think I could have modelled a hole in the end to take the rails, due to the minimum thickness of resin required to be printable.

And yes, I still need to repair that footboard support at the far end!

[NeilHB]

Lovely work Linny, the Horsebox looks delightful. I like your idea with the door and commode handles, very sensible with what could otherwise be fragile areas of the print. 

[Regularity]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

Hull & Barnsley is definitely North, though, and I'm sure acknowledged as such even by people who live to the north of its territory.

My partner is from Dundee. Even Edinburgh is south.

[Skinnylinny]

I think, with some gold paint, the effect is convincing enough for me! Still a tiny spot of tidying up to do but the joys of enamel paints meaning that nothing is quite dry even this morning. Ah well! 

 

[Tom Burnham]

10 hours ago, Regularity said:

My partner is from Dundee. Even Edinburgh is south.

I once saw a headline in the Aberdeen Press & Journal that referred to Stonehaven as "down south".

[RedGemAlchemist]

On 30/07/2022 at 14:37, Compound2632 said:

 

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I think that's the fattest boiler ever put on a 2-4-0.

Certainly a chunky thing.

 

On 30/07/2022 at 18:20, Regularity said:

They were much prettier originally:

I concur.

[Skinnylinny]

Painting and lining is now well underway on the 6-wheel pull-push set. I wasn't happy with how thick the lining had come out on the first attempt, and then disaster struck! While opening the cross-joint on the ruling pen, the handle snapped off unexpectedly. I got in touch with Chris at Golden Arrow Models, from whom I'd bought it at the Uckfield show last year, and he's agreed to take it back to have a look and see if it can be salvaged. In the meantime, as I'd just had an income tax refund, I splashed a little cash on a finer pen, and now I'm really getting somewhere with things. Still a little tidying up to do, but I'm going to let this attempt dry fully before "trimming" back to the required line width with a very fine brush and some more crimson.

Lettering transfers have been ordered from Fox, so these are still a fair distance from finished. Even so, from two feet away the lining makes a huge difference to the appearance of the set:



The addition of 20g of weight per carriage has significantly improved how smoothly they roll, while hopefully remaining within the haulage capacity of a Hattons P class. There is also some warping to the bodysides and chassis (my fault - I didn't strengthen the design files enough!) but nothing that I don't think can be corrected with hot water and some gentle persuasion.

Edited August 9, 2022 by Skinnylinny

[Skinnylinny]

The signwriters have been busy! Compartment markings and ownership lettering have been added to one side of the pull-push set, although not the running numbers or set number yet, as the Carriage and Wagon Superintendent has been remiss and left the reference book with the set numbers elsewhere. Ah well, it'll show up soon enough. 



Lettering is by Fox. I'm looking forward to getting these coupled to a P class and giving them a proper run on a layout when one is next set up at the clubroom. They'd certainly make a change from the DMU that usually occupies the bay platform on Glendevon!

Edited August 10, 2022 by Skinnylinny

[Skinnylinny]

In a very different style, work has been continuing on the Baldwin 8/18C. With the cowcatcher pilot added, as well as a lot of other details, and some (basic for now!) tender bogies, plus some of the fancy tender lining, Eureka is definitely starting to look more complete. 



The loco, as built, was unbraked, having a handbrake on the tender. Figuring out tender-top detail is turning out to be surprisingly hard, as almost all of the photographs of the preserved locomotive either don't show the tender top, or show it entirely covered with firewood (including hiding the water filler cap!)

I'm definitely not looking forward to having to add the tender lining to the finished model, once printed. Or the lined-out wheel spokes (not shown), or the sand dome lining, or... And here I thought that British pre-grouping liveries were complicated!
 

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/19908866@N03/25842824041

 

[J-Mo Arts]

I suppose a solution to the tender detail problem would be to recreate the wood covering? 

[Skinnylinny]

Aaaaand heading back towards British pre-grouping modelling, some transfers arrived this morning from @Corbs, which means that it's time to start lining out the A12! The transfers fit beautifully, almost as though he had worked from the drawings I sent him from the CAD file. There are still a fair few to add on this side of the loco alone, and then there'll be the cab front, the tender (including frames and rear), and I have a couple of spots to just nick with a scalpel to let the lining sit flat around handrail knobs. Still, it's really starting to come together now! Should look even better once attacked with Micro Set and given a coat of varnish.

[mvrnut]

This A12 looks absolutely fantastic Linny. Great workmanship. Perhaps this could be a prototype model for  Rapido to do. That is after the T3 of course. Wishful thinking.

Cheers, 

Chris

[Skinnylinny]

Thanks Chris!

Sadly I suspect not an ideal model for Rapido to do - only four lasted into BR ownership, of which all were withdrawn within a year (except DS3191 (formerly LSWR 612), and even that only made it to '51!). None wore a BR number.

There would be plenty of variations, to do though - screw or lever reverser, Adams or Drummond boiler and chimney, vac' or dual-fitted, with or without Adams cast numberplates and/or splasher beading, Beyer Peacock or Adams tender...

And then the liveries - LSWR: Adams pea green, Drummond green (as above), Urie green, and then Southern lined green or black with Sunshine lettering... 


As for the T3, sadly the comment about not lasting to BR days applies again (although at least there is the preserved T3 here!) - all but two were withdrawn by 1937, with the last one surviving until August 1945. Many of the same variations as the A12 (and more!) apply here. 

[Compound2632]

18 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Sadly I suspect not an ideal model for Rapido to do - only four lasted into BR ownership, of which all were withdrawn within a year (except DS3191 (formerly LSWR 612), and even that only made it to '51!). None wore a BR number.

 

High time some enterprising manufacturer challenged this shibboleth. Indeed, Bachmann/Rails have already done so with the Precedent, though I understand that it is the version in BR livery (!) that has sold best, and of course Rapido themselves with the Jones Goods. The Jubilee would look good in LNWR livery too!

[Skinnylinny]

38 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

High time some enterprising manufacturer challenged this shibboleth. Indeed, Bachmann/Rails have already done so with the Precedent, though I understand that it is the version in BR livery (!) that has sold best, and of course Rapido themselves with the Jones Goods. The Jubilee would look good in LNWR livery too!

Fair point, well made! Indeed, Rapido/NRM managed it with the Stirling Single, and that didn't even make it to the Grouping! At least the Jubilee has several colourful liveries it can wear, but I suspect that the T3 would have an advantage in that there is a preserved one being returned (rather nicely!) to steam in Drummond livery by the 563 Locomotive Group, after the loco was donated by the NRM. 


Image source: https://563locomotivegroup.co.uk/restoration/563-has-been-re-wheeled/

Some matching LSWR carriages would be nice, too, with the Hornby 58' rebuilt stock not being suitable for repainting in LSWR condition without major surgery (including the loss of 10' of body length!). Granted, we have the Hornby "not-Stroudleys-honest-guv'" and the forthcoming Hattons Genesis carriages in LSWR livery, but neither is really befitting of such a large express engine! 

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

Indeed, Rapido/NRM managed it with the Stirling Single, and that didn't even make it to the Grouping! 

 

Twinge of guilt at not mentioning that. I think because it was a Great Northern loco, it hadn't managed to wedge itself firmly in my memory!

[Tim Dubya]

2 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Some matching LSWR carriages would be nice, too,

 

Well, as I have a stash of kits to build, it would only be logical for someone to release the LSWR Ironclads.  Something a T3 might have pulled in the mid- 1920's perhaps? 

 

 

 

[Corbs]

11 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

the Precedent, though I understand that it is the version in BR livery (!) that has sold best,

 

Ha, I see what you did there 😉

[Skinnylinny]

The LSWR horsebox has also gained lettering. Poring over Southern Style and Weddell there seems to be some confusion over whether these received white or gold lettering. I've assumed gold, as the consensus seems to be that they were painted carriage brown rather than wagon brown. 

The underframe wasn't painted with gloss black, honest! It'll be getting a coat of matt varnish to tone that down...

[Skinnylinny]

Nearly there with *one side* of the A12's lining... just the loco footsteps, and the tender valance to do. Oh, and one more boiler band, and tidying up the not-perfect one by the dome.

'm really pleased with how this project is turning out, even if some of the smaller lining transfers have led to me questioning my own sanity (before remembering that I was never sane!). 

 

[Skinnylinny]

Right, last photo of the A12 until it's fully finished (including numberplates, which are on order from 247 developments).

Pity about the backdrop, but the only layout available at the club for photography at the moment is a 21st Century TMD ("Traction Maintenance Depot" - what happened to "shed"?). Still, it's very satisfying seeing a matching pre-grouping train coming together - loco, horsebox, and two carriages. This is one side of the loco (and the cab front) fully lined now. The plan is to leave it a day for the transfers to fully dry and harden, then a coat of varnish before working on the other side.

[Skinnylinny]

Well, I had decided that my next CAD project was going to be an Adams 380 class 4-4-0... but then fate brought me some drawings of some lovely pre-1887 private-owner wagons. Nearly finished is this covered lead ore wagon owned by J. B. Balcombe of Blaencaelan [sic] (I can only assume an anglicised spelling of Blaen Ceulan). Build to carry 8 tons, it is adorably tiny!



The drawings also included several short-wheelbase coal wagons, and a D-shaped tank wagon built in 1881 for C. Kurtz & Son of Liverpool. Neither of these are easy to justify on the layout, they're more being done as part of the "weird and wonderful wagons" collection.

[Skinnylinny]

...well, the lead ore wagon is now ready to print.

Now I can get on with what I was supposed to be working on!

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

...well, the lead ore wagon is now ready to print.

I'm not jealous at all over you finding a collection of pre-1887 PO wagon drawings.  That lead ore wagon is a truly lovely thing.