Peterborough North

[trw1089]

Nothing quite beats a shiny A4 for shouting “look here, I’m the star of this show”…

[great northern]

Off goes Walter K  to New England.....

 

 

And it is replaced by our own dismally dirty Duke.

 

 

 

[davidw]

7 hours ago, great northern said:

Off goes Walter K  to New England.....

 

 

And it is replaced by our own dismally dirty Duke.

 

 

 

 I like both. But the A4 is cracking... 

[great northern]

More goodies arrived today, this time courtesy of Steve@31A. No time to take photos yet, but if the light co-operates I will do so tomorrow,

 

Featured trains tonight are the 9.25 Saltburn-KX, which Victor Wild has taken over at Grantham.

 

 

I bet you envy me, photoshopping all those lattices.

 

Going home is Kittiwake of Copley Hill, and the Queen of Scots.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Cameras continue to focus on the Pullman.

 

 

We even have someone back up on the bridge too.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

And so to goodies. For some time I have had to run my rake of all door Gresleys with four lovely kit built cars and four fat Hornby things, and so I asked Steve Pearce if he would do a conversion for me, as even etched sides improve them no end. Steve rather unwisely agreed to do four of them, something he has I know regretted more than once during the builds.

 

This left me with only six cars, as two had to act as donors for the rebuilds, and when the Saturday sequence started that became a real problem, as they do a lot of work. That means that for some time there has been careful cropping when they were called for.

 

Yesterday, enter Steve with all four, and he has done a lot more with them than just attach new sides and paint etc. Here they are. Well the first two anyway, as I get the exceeded 10mb message again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

And here are the other two.

 

 

 

 

So now it will only let me put up one.

 

 

 

[great northern]

What is going on? Lying ba*****d tells me it will only load one, and then does both. In the end, we have all four, and I'm delighted with them. They really don't look out of place alongside two professionally built and painted cars, and I can't think of a better compliment than that.

 

I was rather horrified when Steve told me how much work was involved, the glazing alone would have had me gibbering. I'll leave it to him as to whether he wants to go into further detail. So now I have a rake of eight very nice all door Gresleys, and that is enough for most of the formations I need. There are a few that call for ten, but I judged it unwise to push Steve's sanity further by asking for more. Perhaps later, when the memory may have faded a bit.

[great northern]

An evening loco shot as well for you, but I won't tempt fate by trying to load more than one.

 

 

I think I see what the problem is now. It was reading kb as mb. Computers do lie worse than politicians though. When i was preparing these images with Digital Photo Pro it told me that there was insufficient memory, so they could not be processed. Then it processed them.😕

 

 

 

[landscapes]

9 hours ago, great northern said:

An evening loco shot as well for you, but I won't tempt fate by trying to load more than one.

 

 

I think I see what the problem is now. It was reading kb as mb. Computers do lie worse than politicians though. When i was preparing these images with Digital Photo Pro it told me that there was insufficient memory, so they could not be processed. Then it processed them.😕

 

 

 

Hi Gilbert 

 

I have found that loading an image on my thread has changed.

 

Up until recently I could load as many photos I wanted irrespective of the file size.

 

But the last few times I have loaded images the combined  file size again irrespective of how many images you attach is back to a maximum 10MB.

 

Im not sure why maybe possibly linked to the problems RMWeb encountered earlier in the year.

 

Regards

 

David

[great northern]

More A3s now. Robert The Devil on yet another Leeds.

 

 

And coming in to Platform 6, Galtee More with the 1045 KX-Grantham stopper.

 

 

This is all beginning to feel very familiar to me now. Most of my spotting was done on Saturdays, and one KX or Grantham A3 after another seemed to come through every few minutes. They didn't get the appreciation they deserved when I was just a kid looking for cops, but by the time I got to 15 and above they became more like old friends. No single chimney engines left by then though.

 

 

 

[31A]

23 hours ago, great northern said:

I was rather horrified when Steve told me how much work was involved, the glazing alone would have had me gibbering. I'll leave it to him as to whether he wants to go into further detail.

 

Thank you Gilbert; I'm glad you like them!  I know how much you wanted them, especially for the Saturday timetable.  The main thing I found daunting was the amount of repetitive work involved in making four identical coaches, especially ones with doors to each compartment.

 

They were built using MJT sides and the equivalent type of Hornby coach, so at least things like ventilators, step boards and interiors didn't need to be altered.  As well as producing a vehicle with a better profile, this also means that the panelling on the corridor sides is now correct; the Hornby version having some spurious panelling detail next to some of the doors on this side.

 

The MJT method of construction means that each of the lower panels is a separate piece which has to be soldered on, as do all the droplights.  And of course, the number of hinges, door handles and ventilator hoods to be attached is multiplied by the number of doors.  The Comet method of panelled coach construction is simpler but strangely enough this type (which must have been the commonest of LNER Corridor Thirds) is not in the Comet range.  However, I think the MJT sides do give a better result.

 

As the droplights are soldered behind the sides, the glazing had to be broken down into sections fitting between the doors, with separate pieces for the droplights themselves.  As you can see from the pictures, this leaves very little 'land' to put glue onto next to where the glazing pieces end behind the doors.  Consequently the glazing is mainly attached to the vertical panels in between the doors.  I use Evo Stik to attach the glazing, so there is plenty of scope for it to go where it is not wanted!  It all seems to have come out fairly OK in the end, though.

 

Anyway, they seem to have come out fairly well and I'm looking forward to starting on Gilbert's next commission, which is some Diagram 155 end vestibule Corridor Thirds, which thankfully have only 4 doors per coach!

 

[great northern]

Galtee More is now having a rest for ten minutes at Platform 6, but Robert The Devil has rolled straight through, and Platform 2 is now occupied by a B1 on its regular duty, a lunchtime London stopper. On Saturdays though it terminated at Broad Street, no doub to ease platform occupation at KX.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Our man skulking under Spital Bridge captures Galtee More as it leaves for Grantham.

 

 

But got told off for choosing an angle which shows off the over sharp curves.

 

You may have noticed a light engine on the Up slow in a previous shot, so in case you wondered what you were missing , here it is, a little further along the way. 61643 is going to East to work an Ipswich train, but it looks like it was on New England shed, rather than Spital Bridge. It couldn't use the main, which was occupied by the London stopper.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

We have a rather more sensible look at Galtee More pulling away.

 

 

While 61282 is off towards Broad Street.

 

A slightly disconcerting event occurred while operating the layout today. As it was rather hot, and still is, I'd left my bedroom window wide open, and very unusually, the railway room door too.This allowed a visitor to come in to watch the trains, a young looking robin. Of course it couldn't find its way out again, and kept zooming round the room, getting ever more agitated, poor thing. Not wanting any gifts left on rolling stock or layout, I opened a window in the room, and hoped. Sadly, the robin did what most things seem to do, and banged itself against the upper and closed part. This continued for some time, and even when it got down to the lower sash, it still took  a while before it finally got out. I hope I don't find any offerings when i next go in. I don't want people to be able to say my layout is cr*p.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Here's something for those who usually enjoy a procession of heavy freight through PN. Even in the middle of the day on Saturday, a small window allows some more coal to be started on its way to London. Class F, so probably one of the new accelerated turns earmarked for 9F haulage. Straight out of the yards onto the Up slow though.

 

 

 

That is because the Sunderland-KX will take precedence on the main, as usual a Heaton duty, but the loco, in this case 60088, appears to have cariied on to KX on Saturdays.

 

 

[great northern]

A3s again tonight. Book Law about to plunge under the bridge, while Tagalie emerges with the 1200 KX-Leeds. I think I should stop taking photos on that very sharp angle coming off the curve.

 

 

But not so bad if I do it this way round.

 

 

 

 

 

[mullie]

The layout is superb but the curves and any head on shots show a shortcoming of 00 gauge because it does draw attention to the narrowness of the gauge in my view.

 

Sorry!

 

Martyn

[great northern]

5 minutes ago, mullie said:

The layout is superb but the curves and any head on shots show a shortcoming of 00 gauge because it does draw attention to the narrowness of the gauge in my view.

 

Sorry!

 

Martyn

I agree Martyn, so why do I keep drawing attention to it? I found I couldn't contemplate trying to do something this size in EM though.

[trw1089]

I'm happy, two A3s in the one shot, nowt wrong with that!

[great northern]

Jolly hot folks. I'm up earlier than usual to get a good walk in before it gets much hotter still. First though, a look at Tagalie, stationary at Platform 3.

 

 

Somone on the loading bay got another angle on Book Law before it left too.

 

 

 

 

 

[PMP]

Hi Gilbert,

Phil R suggested I let you know on here of a pm on its way.

Brgds Pmp 

[great northern]

Book Law having gone on its way, the 9F is allowed across to the Up side, but will no doubt be almost immediately consigned to the slow. Its progress was recorded twice at slightly different stages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[landscapes]

23 hours ago, great northern said:

Jolly hot folks. I'm up earlier than usual to get a good walk in before it gets much hotter still. First though, a look at Tagalie, stationary at Platform 3.

 

 

Somone on the loading bay got another angle on Book Law before it left too.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Gilbert

 

I do like that second photo going under the bridge, especially  with the platform and wagon in the foreground.

 

Is that a new view you have photographed?

 

Regards

 

David

[great northern]

1 hour ago, landscapes said:

Hi Gilbert

 

I do like that second photo going under the bridge, especially  with the platform and wagon in the foreground.

 

Is that a new view you have photographed?

 

Regards

 

David

Yes, first time I've tried that. It wouldn't have been viable until the lovely new lights arrived.