Nether Madder and Green Soudley Rly

[Martin S-C]

[Nearholmer]

That sounds bl..dy painful.

 

Given the colour of the wagon, and the incident, perhaps the grease works should belong to Gore & Grume instead.

 

Their trademark could then be something based on three Gs, intertwined.

[Martin S-C]

"Grume" has a rather unhappy meaning in these dodgy internet days...

I don't think my signwriting skills would extend to intertwined anything! Let alone lettering that has curves in it. Many of my renumbered wagons end in 1s, 4s and 7s because they're the simplest digits to hand paint.

I rather like "Lye, Grabbit and Rhunn, Attorneys at Law, Solicitors for Oaths" which will be one of my town's businesses.

I need to name a brewery as well, and a tinplate works, and a wood distillation plant, and a water mill, and a stone masons and a wagon repairers, not to mention numerous coal merchants.

[runs as required]

At one time I followed in the footsteps of a very entrepreneurial Partner around the developing world opening up minimal new engineering offices.  I was expected to 'hold the fort' in unpromising places until my next Home Leave was due.

He had a rule "Never number anything as No. 1 - make it look as if we're a much bigger operation !"

It got absurd when I found the drawings for the only job we had in a territory beginning with 'M' were being numbered in the series: 

M 110.04.XXX

 

The above is rather a long winded way of suggesting the tank waggon should be  No 3

dh

[Northroader]

My favourite business name, and they actually do exist, are an estate agents in Kidderminster, messrs. Doolittle & Dalley.

[Martin S-C]

 

The above is rather a long winded way of suggesting the tank waggon should be  No 3

This is very true and especially true of PO wagons belonging to tiny tinpot companies but the other side of the coin is I don't think I have any wagons numbered 1 and would quite like to have one.

[Annie]

The other trick used by small PO wagon owners was to only use even numbers when numbering their wagons so it looked like they had more of them.

[Martin S-C]

I always thought they added 100 or 1000 in front of the actual number, things like that.

[Annie]

Yes they did that too Martin, but I only found out about the even numbers trick while I was doing some research into PO wagons.

[Corbs]

The other trick used by small PO wagon owners was to only use even numbers when numbering their wagons so it looked like they had more of them.

 

 

I always thought they added 100 or 1000 in front of the actual number, things like that.

 

Ahhh, that's what freelancers do with their invoice numbers to make it look like they have more work!

[Martin S-C]

Operators of PO wagons might also number new wagons in a continuing sequence, even though a wagon was being replaced and scrapped or taken back by the contract hirer. Another ploy to make their fleet appear more numerous than it was.

Not a lot is happening on the modelling front for the moment. I am a bit burned out on building and weathering wagons and I am still sat here staring at 6 part-painted coaches that I am dredging up the courage to try and line and letter.

I'm aware I must make a start on repainting, lining and lettering a loco or two very soon and that's filling me with dread as well.

As to the garage the build is finished and I'm slowly painting the interior white, but with an injured hand this is slow work. I also made the false economy of buying cheap paint and its not covering well so more than one coat will be needed. I should have gone for the expensive famed "one coat" emulsion by the big name company that advertises with a shaggy dog rather that Shyte and Co's Cheap and Nasty Thinnest Mix. Also - don't buy the cheapest brushes you can find. I am sick of picking detached bristles out of my new wet see-thru paint... Lesson learned.

[Joseph_Pestell]

As to the garage the build is finished and I'm slowly painting the interior white, but with an injured hand this is slow work. I also made the false economy of buying cheap paint and its not covering well so more than one coat will be needed. I should have gone for the expensive famed "one coat" emulsion by the big name company that advertises with a shaggy dog rather that Shyte and Co's Cheap and Nasty Thinnest Mix. Also - don't buy the cheapest brushes you can find. I am sick of picking detached bristles out of my new wet see-thru paint... Lesson learned.

 

That's what the other hand is for.

 

Without going to the expense of the OE sheepdog's paint, there are some good "trade" emulsions out there that cover very well. Realistically, no paint is going to be one-coat on a new surface. You need a mis-coat first to soak into the surface and give a key for the final coat.

[Corbs]

What loco are you looking at working on Martin?

[Martin S-C]

I have several ready for painting and lettering. I am going through a slow programme of getting engines fitted with sound decoders as funds allow. Then its time for painting and weathering.

I thought I'd start on something small, so its probably either my Bachmann MR 1F with the full cab or the LBSCR E4 0-6-2. I intend to leave the E4 in its umber scheme, so it only needs a relettering and renumbering but the F1 will probably be my first experiment in repainting into my ochre yellow (aka M&GN) scheme.

 

[runs as required]

I've always remembered a wonderful piece of advice I received years ago in my early teens:

"Always try and work at the whole - rather than finish one part and move onto another"

"Why?" I asked.

"Because

1

You might well have to re-do the part you spent a lot of time bringing to completion

2

You can't really judge progress on the whole sum of the parts unless they are all roughly at the same stage of completion

3

It is a more interesting way of working, encouraging creative inspiration

 

I think that was good advice - except that has become a hallmark of my projects: they rarely get fully completed....

(But then that was always said of great cathedrals)

dh

[Martin S-C]

Good advice. I think it may have been you who gave it before, right near the start of this thread!

I think my creative juices will get flowing again once the baseboards and first track goes down. When electricity is connected I'll be much more in the mood to get a couple of locos properly finished and running.

 

My problem is I have this dislike of leaving projects part done. Right now I have the Wisbech & Upwell coaches to finish, 2 pairs of kitbashed Hornby clerestories to finish, my pair or trio of GW Diag. O1 milk van kits to finish, the greaseworks tar tanker, another oil tanker and a set of 4 Victorian 1850s 4-wheel Keysers coach kits to do. When I turn to other projects without completing the current one I just feel like it'll never get it done if I don't do it now. Then of course I end up not being "in the groove" any more to finish that one delayed project so everything grinds to a halt. It must be a very minor form of OCD.

I am also feeling cross with myself for being so stupid as to saw into my own thumb Tuesday evening. That's put me in a grumpy mood all week. Makes modelling a lot harder and gives me a stronger excuse to sit and do nothing!

[Nearholmer]

“My problem is I have this dislike of leaving projects part done.”

 

Sounds as if you may be what occupational psychologists term a ‘completer-finisher’. As much a virtue as a problem, i’d say.

 

I’ve got a near-converse personality, in that I absolutely love starting things, then loose interest once they are about three-quarters done. I have to beat myself with a stick to get anything finished.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Nearholmer

[James Harrison]

I have a mantra of one project at a time.  It does at least mean things get done; itchy fingers to start something new get promised 'just so soon as this current thing is finished'. 

[Martin S-C]

“My problem is I have this dislike of leaving projects part done.”

 

Sounds as if you may be what occupational psychologists term a ‘completer-finisher’. As much a virtue as a problem, i’d say.

That's correct. I went on a management training course once and the tests resulted in me being given that title.

 

I often put off starting things with a fear and loathing... but when I do finally get round to it I usually wonder why I was so averse to doing it. And finishing something that's all my work is a great feeling. I love ticking those mental boxes of "done that", "done that one" etc.

[Nearholmer]

This is where team efforts come in, which is probably why many MRCs work so well; a mix of starters and finishers, and three blokes who always turn up every week to drink tea and provide advice.

[Corbs]

I think I'm the opposite, something of a scattergun modeller with lots of projects on the go at the same time. For me, I don't mind it so much because if I get bored or frustrated with one (or if I need to solve a problem) I can do another task on another project and get a sense of satisfaction. Many times I have been able to solve the first problem by working on the problem in the back of my mind while I work on another project. Of course the downside is I have hundreds of unfinished projects, but lots of them do get completed because I rotate their priority depending on the mood I'm in.

When I was trying to restrict myself to one at a time, it took months because I didn't want to do one simple task.

[81C]

I suppose a coal merchant by the name of R. SOLES would appeal to you judging

by the humorous name of the layout.   

[Martin S-C]

My dad worked as an accountant for the coal board back in the 60s and his one good after dinner story was that he and a couple of other accountant types were visiting an office for an audit one day and were eating lunch in the canteen when over the PA a female voice, in impeccable Home Counties English anounced: "Would Mr R. Sole please report at once to the managers office". The poor fellow had to stand up and leave while the entire canteen around him dissolved into gales of laughter.

[Compound2632]

Very nice. I do like the solebar plates. What does the left hand one say? I think I read "WALSALL" on the lower line.

 

I have checked my fleet and they are all still here, so we need to get Inspector Trunnion of the Yard on the case. It appears there is a black market wagon trader in the district. Would you know anything about that Annie?

 

I do note you seem to have lost some rails though.

 

I am just getting over a week or so of procrastination and then I really SHALL get the garage interior painted. I have the emulsion and brushes, I just keep finding excuses to stay inside in the warm. I have encountered the first downside of a model railway built in a garage. It has a heater but its just getting out of the house and across the miserable grey damp intervening 30 feet...

 

I have distracted myself with a few cattle wagons, though I suspect I have way too many now for the layout. Still, variation is the spice of something-or-other.

 

Dsc02561.jpg Dsc02562.jpg Dsc02563.jpg Dsc02564.jpg Dsc02565.jpg

 

There was a fair bit of hoo-ha over the Oxford Rail's LNER cattle wagon's accuracy I recall and I have encountered another bonus of building a freelance layout - if the wagon is inaccurate... it just doesn't matter

 

Have you seen how Nile is taking decades off these by giving them faux wooden solebars?

[Martin S-C]

I hadn't seen Nile's work, Stephen so thank you very much for the link. His putting together 2 Hornby 4-wheelers for a bogie coach is inspiring and his re-use of cheapo Hornby vans ends up with vehicles that look just like the kind of thing I need to represent Madder Valley vans on my layout.