RMweb Gold The Fatadder Posted December 19, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 19, 2016 Very nice, can never see too many castles! Very lucky to have enough people needing the bits you don't want. Sadly with Hawksworth tenders and GWR castles they are impossible to swap it seems! Which does rather limit the opportunities for renumbering, particularly when you have to reprint the splashier to get rid of the "castle class" plate if you want anything other than Fairly Battle Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 .....The worst bit about all this is that Hornby's wiring of electrical plugs and mechanical tender to loco connections has changed between the first and the last of the releases being used here. .... I wonder if it's done deliberately to discourage engine and tender swapping? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 19, 2016 Author Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi Rich, I am very lucky in having friends that will come along with my mad schemes... Little No. 5004 looks pretty cool with the 3,500 tender in Garter Crest so I'm surprised Hornby hasn't done one yet. Those with the 'Castle Class' plates do represent a bit of an issue. One of my friends wants to go the other way and do one of his as (I think) Hurricane, so we will have to get plates and the extra transfers from Fox. As I said earlier, the BR post '54 green from Pheonix is a good match for Hornby's green so it is possible but it's a bit more work to sort out. As is the wiring... Did you get your Kings sorted out? All the best, Castle 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 19, 2016 Author Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi Horse, The way the model of No. 4073 was wired up as supplied, it would not have operated under DCC under any circumstance so I think it is more down to errors at manufacture than anything more. They have changed from a pin and hole draw bar between the loco and tender to a semi - permanent screwed in version but I am fairly sure this is an update to protect the loco to tender wiring loom as 2 Castles had one version and 2 had the other. They are fairly easy to swap between the two designs however. All the best, Castle Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Fatadder Posted December 19, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi Rich, I am very lucky in having friends that will come along with my mad schemes... Little No. 5004 looks pretty cool with the 3,500 tender in Garter Crest so I'm surprised Hornby hasn't done one yet. Those with the 'Castle Class' plates do represent a bit of an issue. One of my friends wants to go the other way and do one of his as (I think) Hurricane, so we will have to get plates and the extra transfers from Fox. As I said earlier, the BR post '54 green from Pheonix is a good match for Hornby's green so it is possible but it's a bit more work to sort out. As is the wiring... Did you get your Kings sorted out? All the best, Castle Today is the first day I have managed to get outside since I got back from Sevilla, and as everything I touched seemed to be going wrong with the track I was working on, decided to give up and come back inside. Trying to work on the King in that frame of mind was going to end badly! If work is quiet and I can get home before my eldest gets picked up from nursery hopefully I will get time to try in the week.(though I probably out to be trying to fix the double slip, or spraying the roofs of the wartime brown coaches... Shame re the plates. If I had read this a week ago I would have happily swapped the etched off of my first Wellington (now Nunney) before I fitted the plates. Now it's got one side with an attempt at removing the castle class plate with IPA (now part bare brass) awaiting a repaint of the plate to fix. The plates from my other Wellington will probably now end up as Spitfire, eventually getting next years castle's tender (which in turn will have to become a castle named castle which was running with a Hawksworth in 47... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 19, 2016 Author Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi Rich, Sounds like a plan! It's worth noting (I'm sure you know, but it might be helpful to others) that the Earls (such as No. 5051 Earl Bathurst and No. 5043 Earl of Mount Edgecumbe) had name plates without the extra 'Castle Class' bit underneath but many of the others with non - castle names had it added underneath. As always, pick your prototype and get a photograph! All the best, Castle Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted December 19, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 19, 2016 Good to see you posting again Castle! when we get round to building our layout This will be a sight to see, no doubt. Is it to be exhibited at Didcot or a private project? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 19, 2016 Author Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi Mikkel, We are going to build a layout together as a private project but I don't doubt it will go to its spiritual home from time to time. The idea is to give it a permanent base off site but to make it mobile as we would like to exhibit it as well. It is very early days as of yet but when we get going, we will no doubt start a thread! All the best, Castle 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 Dependent on transport costs, consider this an open invitation to bring it to the Kenavon (East Reading) show when done. We could have 'Little Didcot' and my 'Little Wallingford' next to each other! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 19, 2016 Author Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi RJS1977, That's very generous - thank you! We just have a few ideas rolling round at the moment but nothing concrete. As we get a bit more confident in what we are going to do, no doubt a thread will occur... All the best, Castle 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 If it was concrete, it would be Carnforth ;-) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 If it was concrete, it would be Carnforth ;-) Concrete crumbles, doesn't it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 7007GreatWestern Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 Very nice, can never see too many castles! Very lucky to have enough people needing the bits you don't want. Sadly with Hawksworth tenders and GWR castles they are impossible to swap it seems! Which does rather limit the opportunities for renumbering, particularly when you have to reprint the splashier to get rid of the "castle class" plate if you want anything other than Fairly Battle Hi Fatadder & Castle, I apologise in advance if I am stating the blindingly obvious here, but it wasn't obvious to me ;-) I recently had need to swap tenders between two apparently near-identical Hornby Stars - Glastonbury Abbey & British Monarch. On swapping said tenders over I found they shorted out. On closer examination I found that both were wired with 'red' to the Driver's side wheels, but the incompatibility lay in the wiring to the 4-pin tender interface socket. The solution I used was simply to removed and swap over the electrics between the two tender chassis. To do that I removed the tender under keep and wheels to expose the brass pick-up strips. These are each held on by two small plastic lugs but pull away easily. Pull the pickups strips sufficiently clear of the plastic under frame. You can then un-solder the wire linking the decoder PCB to the pickups without the heat of the iron distorting the tender. The PCB and interface plug are held in place on the tender chassis by screws (2 for PCB, one for socket). The tender electrics can then be whipped out and swapped over. You then of course have to re-solder the red & black wires onto the pickup strip on the "new" tender. A word of warning - the brass pickup strips are quite fragile. The alternative to this approach is to re-wire to 4 pin interface socket but that is what beyond my abilities! I now have a Glastonbury Abbey tender running around behind a British Monarch Chassis. Just please don't ask why this was necessary........ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 19, 2016 Author Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi All, Blowing off the cobwebs 2 - a tender behind... Stop giggling at the back there. Honestly... Right, the next instalment of Castles - The Movie deals with the tenders. There were several modifications to make here. Some self inflicted, some not so much. The first thing I did was to sort out the electrics. As a DCC chip will provide all the suppression we are ever likely to need, I stripped out the bits of wire that added up to the suppression capacitor. Now, this again is something that has changed over time and on some locos it was in the tender and in some it was in the loco between the motor and the back head detail in the cab. On the basis that Hornby's wiring was suspect anyway, it all got ripped out, replaced with plain wire and heat shrink where needed for length. I won't bore you with photos of that... It got interesting when I used a multimeter on the pin holes of the socket and found that what was supposed to go to the track in some cases didn't! What was supposed to go to the motor didn't either! What I did to fix this was to simply re-wire it at the 8 pin socket using a Gaguemaster DCC decoder manual as a guide. I did this for each new loco and tender combination and found that I had to do work on all of them in one fashion or another. I know Hornby don't expect you to swap tenders around but some of the wiring wouldn't have worked in its original combination either! Having got back to square one (!) I then turned my attention to the improvements I wanted for our fleet. First thing was the firebox flicker LED. I caught up with YouChoose at Warley and found both their approach and products to be exactly in step with my ideas (usual disclaimer). This is where I bought some of their excellent firebox flicker SMD LEDs pre-wired. I have history with trying to wire up SMD LEDs and none of it is good... They provide the heat shrink, the resistor and in a separate purchase, the 2 pin loco to tender plug as well. About £5 a loco and well worth it for the ease of fitting in my book. This is how they were received. The next job was to put the wiring in and I connected the blue common positive pin of the 8 pin chip socket to the resistor and then to the 2 pin socket and the other wire from the socket went to the green Auxilliary pin on the 8 pin socket. Suitably heat shrunk and tidied away, the first approach was to create a cable duct in the top of the tender weight as shown below but I soon realise this was silly and put it underneath in future versions. The tender weight is useful as it gives you something to push against when you are plugging the 2 pin plug into its socket. I attached the socket with a little cyano glue to the frames of the tender. A little slot by the water scoop column in the tender drag box gave the plug access to the socket. I used a dremmel drill with a slitting disc on it to cut the required slot. On the back head of the boiler, there is a wealth of detail that doesn't really need a great hole drilling through it to let the light out. On the other hand, there is no point in fitting the LED if the light can't get out... My solution was to make it as if the fireman has opened the doors just a crack to allow a little more air into the fire. I took a 0.8mm drill bit and chain drilled along the line that is between the two fire hole door mouldings. I then used the drill to carefully open it up as a slot all the way along. The LED was soldered to the plug, leaving enough wire to get to the tender and the joints were then made good with heat shrink. The whole lot was then unceremoniously glued in with a dab of cyano glue and away we went! It looks ok to my eye at least... There is also a few Springside tools splashed about in there and No. 7026 here also got an experimental Pep Pipe slung over the cab side. Why? Because I hadn't seen it done before! The tender to loco draw bar was a simple fix. The two types are shown below. On the left is the semi - permanent screw in type with optional close coupling extra hole and on the right, the type that connects to a plastic peg in a temporary fashion. Which you use is dependant upon the type of connection on the loco as some have the plastic peg and some have the post with the hole to receive the screw. The only modification I had to make was to check that the shoulder of the screw fitted in the hole in the draw bar. This wasn't always the case but I can't remember which one I had to modify. In any case I simply reamed it out with my axle box reamer until it was a good running fit. Then screwed it all back together. Jobs a good 'un! I make up my own fire irons as I find the cast white metal or plastic ones a bit too thick. They start life as a roll of soft brass wire from a craft store intended for the manufacture of jewelry I think. I straighten it by pulling a length of it between two pairs of pliers and then fashion the tools from there. Here you can see the set made up for the 3,500 gallon tender. I like doing sets for the Hawksworth tenders best as you only have to do the handle ends! The other ends are made either by shaping the wire in the jaws of pliers or by adding small pieces of scrap etch to them with a little cyanoacrylate glue. Once I have checked they fit, I then spray them with grey primer and do top coats in either Vallejo or Games Workshop acrylics. I of course use my extensively complex painting jig to achieve this... That will do for now - the dog needs walking and there is coffee that won't drink itself! All the best, Castle 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 19, 2016 Author Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi Fatadder & Castle, I apologise in advance if I am stating the blindingly obvious here, but it wasn't obvious to me ;-) I recently had need to swap tenders between two apparently near-identical Hornby Stars - Glastonbury Abbey & British Monarch. On swapping said tenders over I found they shorted out. On closer examination I found that both were wired with 'red' to the Driver's side wheels, but the incompatibility lay in the wiring to the 4-pin tender interface socket. The solution I used was simply to removed and swap over the electrics between the two tender chassis. To do that I removed the tender under keep and wheels to expose the brass pick-up strips. These are each held on by two small plastic lugs but pull away easily. Pull the pickups strips sufficiently clear of the plastic under frame. You can then un-solder the wire linking the decoder PCB to the pickups without the heat of the iron distorting the tender. The PCB and interface plug are held in place on the tender chassis by screws (2 for PCB, one for socket). The tender electrics can then be whipped out and swapped over. You then of course have to re-solder the red & black wires onto the pickup strip on the "new" tender. A word of warning - the brass pickup strips are quite fragile. The alternative to this approach is to re-wire to 4 pin interface socket but that is what beyond my abilities! I now have a Glastonbury Abbey tender running around behind a British Monarch Chassis. Just please don't ask why this was necessary........ Hi 7007 Great Western, My solution was to accept that the wiring in the loco to tender plug was different and to re-wire the 8 pin socket for each loco. All I did was to take all the wires off the socket PCB and follow the diagram on the Gaugemaster OMNI decoder instructions and the continuity test function on my multimeter as to which way round I put them back. If you need any more help or would like a photo of what I did then please let me know. It does mean that the tenders can't be swapped around but as the locos are all in different liveries that are specific to a time period, why would you want to do that anyhow?* I hope this helps! All the best, Castle *This is my argument and I'm sticking to it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 7007GreatWestern Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 Hi 7007 Great Western, My solution was to accept that the wiring in the loco to tender plug was different and to re-wire the 8 pin socket for each loco. Hi Castle, Thanks for the offer of additional help but not necessary. I'm watching this thread avidly - your work is excellent and I'm learning a lot from it. I like the firebox glow - very effective. What a shame that firehole flap won't pivot up! The replica pep pipe is a nice touch as well. All you need is a tea bottle and oiling can can for the warming shelf, a spanner to wedge the damper handles open that extra inch or two and a pie to rest against the Mason valve for complete authenticity ;-) PS Those fire-irons look superb! Thanks & Best Regards, Andy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 20, 2016 Author Share Posted December 20, 2016 Hi All, Blowing off the cobwebs 3 - work those bodies! So, the Castle Castle epic continues... The engines all got a firebox flicker LED and have had their resistors wired in. They then all got Gaugemaster OMNI decoders as this is the decoder we have standardised on. There are various versions of this and the model shop had a selection of direct and wired 8 pin versions so we bought the 4 in stock and used them! The next thing was to make sure that all the tender logos were correct. Again, the Joe's Decal and Detail remover came into play.this is No. 5051's tender top in the left and the modified tender top for No. 4079 on the right to reflect the latest photographic evidence received. Another job I did was to make use of the Cheltenham Flyer headboard included in the Caerphilly Castle set. The instructions said to use Bluetack to stick it to the smokebox front but I can't accept that as best practice... I took some thin scrap etched brass fret and formed it into two clips to connect it to the smokebox handrail and a centre spacer that keeps it at the correct angle to the smokebox door. I put this in the box with my friends model of No. 5004 as its of an earlier design that is no good to either my period or my friend who is into the later BR(WR) scene. Does anybody spot Hornby's other mistake? Top lamp iron? The base model for this engine was No. 5011 and by rights it should have had the top lamp iron on top of the smoke box, not on the door which was a later feature. Having the lamp iron in the right place also makes the attachment of the headboard easier too... The engines were fairly extensively stripped down in order to weather them. I know you can do it otherwise but I am a worry wort when it comes to messing about with somebody else's £100 worth of Castle! What I do is that I take out the wheels all round and fill the axle holes and contacts with either blutack or a stick on which you can hold your engine. This is No. 7036 awaiting its slot in Little Didcot's paint shop. This is No. 5004 not far behind and awaiting an emergency order of 4mm Garter Crests from Fox. I'm glad I noticed before I started weathering that the No. 4073 tender is in GREAT [Crest] WESTERN, as it the real No. 4073. For some reason, I assumed that it was in Garter Crests in preservation. It goes to show that you can look at something in both real life and in pictures dozens of times and not SEE what you are looking at! The weathering ranged from "light as the engine has only just got out of Swindon for the first time" to "used but well looked after". Even pictures of No. 7036 at the time that she pulled a Hawksworth tender when equipped with a double chimney showed a reasonably well kept machine. This is the tender from No. 5004. My usual weathering techniques of Tamiya Waethering Powders of various flavours, a few inks from Games Workshop and a splash of Humbrol Acrylic Varnish from a rattle can to seal it all in. The only slightly technical bit was the wheels in that I used some paint thinners on a cotton bud to clean the weathering off the tread, flange and backs of the wheels. The only thing I didn't dismantle was the bogie as it has no electrical complexities to speak of, I didn't see the point of doing so and with no ill effects on my locomotive, I felt confident to continue with the others! A dose of genuine Didcot coal was then applied to the tender. I know it's taking things a bit far to only use coal that has been through a full size GWR coaling stage but there we are! I have taken to fixing it in place with Deluxe Materials Balast Magic adhesive which works very well if introduced via a dropper. A little more splashed around on the tender back gives the impression of spilt water while filling. Then all the locos got a spin on Little Didcot's Home Trainer to check for faults. This is a sneak peak of the finished product - No. 7036 in this case. We will see the finished engines tomorrow but that's it for now people! All the best, Castle 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Fatadder Posted December 21, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted December 21, 2016 What's your source for this decal remover, and how well does it shift the current Hornby logos (also does it shift lining?) I still have one side of a King tender, plus footplate lining of a King and a castle to remove, and Microsol and IPA are not doing nearly a good enough job. I also have at least two locos, maybe 3 on which I want to model in unlined condition... Second question remthe third from bottom photo, how was the bogie removed like that (and more importantly how was it re attached.) my ex Tintagnal bogie fell off a long time back and currently has to be placed under the loco before use... Models are looking very nice, I have yet to break up the lump of didcot coal I obtained a couple of years back, must get on with it as looking at those photos it makes a hell of a difference Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzler Fan Posted December 21, 2016 Share Posted December 21, 2016 (edited) I like the firebox glow - very effective. What a shame that firehole flap won't pivot up! Andy. We were mindful of this with the S&DJR 25a - the flaps are slightly open to give flicker into the cab, and the grate has raking holes in the frames. Noel Edited December 21, 2016 by Dazzler Fan 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 21, 2016 Author Share Posted December 21, 2016 Hi Rich, My good friends Stuart and Farah at Model Junction in Slough do all sorts of goodies such as the decal remover. You will find their website along with reviews and directions here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/346-model-junction-slough/ It will take off modern Hornby decals and details but it requires a carefull approach. Let it soak and soften for a couple of minutes and very gently rub off with a cotton bud. If you go through the paint, as I said before, Pheonix Post '54 Loco Green well stirred is the best match I have found for Hornby's green. I had to repainted a couple of details on No. 4079 but once it had been repainted and varnished, you couldn't tell the difference. Weathering sealed the deal. There are two versions of the fixing for the Castle bogie. The later one (not on Tintagle) is a screw with a long shoulder on it which goes through the mounting plate with the slot on it. The second, earlier version, is where there is a pin cast onto the top of the bogie. This would have been fixed in place with a small piece of silicone tube squeezed over the end which, in your case, seems to have gone missing. The way to fix it is to unscrew the 'T' shaped plate with the slot in and take it off. Then add a replacement for the piece of tube to the top of the pin. You could use a scrap of plastic card or anything. I found a scrap of tube and used that. I glued it in place with Delux Materials Rocket Card Glue as it made a semi - permanent fix. If I ever need to get them off again, it's no hassle to remove. I can recommend real coal as it has the uncanny ability to look like real coal (!) and the Ballast Magic also requires a careful touch - don't over do it or you will be doing what I did which was a spot of careful tender balancing until it was dry... I hope this helps! All the best, Castle Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 22, 2016 Author Share Posted December 22, 2016 (edited) Hi All, Blowing off the cobwebs 4 - the Castle marathon comes to an end! Well, we have all nearly made it to Christmas for another year and 4 Hornby Castles have new identities, new tenders and new capabillities to start 2017 with. We had better start off with the classic GWR publicity style shot I suppose! Locomotive's are front to back in chronological order of original manufacture of prototype: No. 4079 Pendennis Castle, No. 5004 Llanstephan Castle, No. 5051 Earl Bathurst (ex Drysllwyn Castle) and No. 7036 Taunton Castle. The first locomotive needs no introduction as it is the most famous member of the illustrious 171 Castles that were built. No. 4079 was completed in 1924 and gained its fame when at just a year old, it was selected to take on the LNER's finest in the 1925 interchange trials. It showed its utter mastery of the East Coast Main Line and after a somewhat contentious period of display at the 1925 Empire Exhibition (opposite a certain other green and famous engine that has just made a somewhat momentous return to traffic), she re-entered traffic. She served with distinction for almost exactly 40 years and after travelling for nearly 2 million miles in service, she was retired after an accident that occurred on a rail tour at over 96mph. She was saved by Mike Higson with the assistance of the GWS but he quickly sold her on to Sir William McAlpine and Lord John Gretton. They kept her first at Didcot and later at Market Overton. Lord Gretton sold his share to Sir William and he eventually sold her to Rio Tinto who exported her to Australia. In Australia, she had the distinction of running for over twenty years for the entertainment and education of many lucky antipodians. She met up again with No. 4472 in Australia in the county's bicentennial celebrations in 1988 down in Perth where, I am told, she stole the show from Flying Scotsman at times! Time caught up with her and in 1994 she was steamed for the last time. She was offered to the GWS by Rio Tinto in 1999 and she returned to the UK IN 2000. A team, which I have the great privilege of leading, look after her for the GWS and we are in the closing stages of her return to steam overhaul. Stay tuned to Little Didcot for further 12":1' scale updates as they occur... The model depicts her as seen in a 1948 photograph from Colour Rail that shows her in this unusual transition state with no tender markings. She will run with my Little Didcot fleet. No. 5004 Llanstephan Castle represents a type of the breed not represented in preservation. The 'Mk. 2' version of the Castle kept the style of the earlier machines 'Vauxhall' style inside valve covers but, due to the modification to the locomotive's frames that now went straight through from front to back with a dish arrangement to allow the leading bogie wheels to turn. The earlier machines had the same arrangement as the Stars whereby the frames pinched in or joggled shortly foreword of the outside cylinders and a narrow inside cylinder block was fitted. The model represents No. 5004 as she was built in 1927. She pulled the 3,500 gallon Churchward tender as depicted from construction until 1929 when she received the first of the 19 Collett style and 1 Hawksworth style 4,000 gallon tenders that are more normal to our modern eyes. She was an Old Oak Common locomotive for the majority of her career although she became distinctly nomadic towards the end of steam on the Western Region, finishing her 1,780,907 recorded miles at Neath where she was withdrawn on 03/04/62. She was cut up 2 months later at her Swindon birthplace. The model belongs to my friend Ali who has two collections, one based in the 1920s and another centred around the GWR in WW2. No. 5051 also needs little introduction although her fame comes from the fact that she had the good fortune to be thrown away at a little place beside the sea in South Wales... She was completed in May 1936 as part of the sort of Mk. 3 Castle type. They had updated inside valve covers and tended to be attached to 4,000 gallon tenders from the start. As released into traffic, she was named Drysllwyn Castle but on 18/08/37 she, along with a number of other Castles were renamed after the great and the good and as such she became Earl Bathurst. The 'Mighty Bathtub' - as she is affectionately known at 81 E (!) - was another loco that got attached to a shed and refused to leave. From construction until her final heavy general overhaul on 26/04/1961, she was resolutely a Landore locomotive. She ran 1,316,656 recorded miles and all but the last few months were done towing a Collett 4,000 gallon tender. She was withdrawn in May 1963 but by great fortune, ended up in Barry Scrapyard from where she was rescued by the GWS in February 1970. She became a favourite on the main line and had two boiler certificates that took her operation up until 2008. She now awaits her turn in the works and is being presented in her 1936 condition for visitors to enjoy in the mean time. She will return... I also own this model as part of my Little Didcot collection. The final machine is No. 7036 Taunton Castle. This is one of the final batch of Castles and indeed this is the 170th machine built or modified to become a member of the class. It represents the ultimate development of the Castles, not only is it a Mk. 4 version built in 1950 originally with a three row superheater in the boiler but it was also part of the few selected for conversion to double chimney and 4 row superheater standard. She was always an Old Oak Common engine until the very end in 1962 when she was transferred to Stafford Road. Her conversion took place 1208/1959 and she ran a comparatively small 617,653 recorded miles in traffic. She has the mechanical lubricator shown here on her running plate that was indicative of her post war heratige. All castles that were built from No. 7000 onwards carried this equipment as did all engines that were converted to double chimney. Double chimneys and Hawksworth tenders were unusual but No. 7036 carried one quite often in her short career so she was a good choice for the proposed model. She was withdrawn on 09/09/1963 after a projected design life of 40 years service and an actual working life of just 13. She met her end at Cashmores Great Bridge not long afterwards... This model belongs to my friend Leigh who has a collection from the end of steam on BR(WR) and the spread of our collections means that a good visual representation will be possible, our combined fleet ranging from the 1920s to the 1960s. Our express passenger fleet includes several more Castles, a few Stars and it will include a King when Mr DJM Dave finishes his good works... We might need to start with a loco shed model! Well, that it from me for 2016. From my friends in the Little Didcot fleet, my friends at 81E, myself and a certain 1:1 scale Castle pictured below I wish you all a happy and peaceful Christmas and a safe, prosperous and above all, a train filled new year. There is lots to look forward to with models coming out from various sources, projects to work on and plans to plan. All the very best, Castle Edited December 22, 2016 by Castle 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 Our express passenger fleet includes several more Castles, a few Stars and it will include a King when Mr DJM Dave finishes his good works... We might need to start with a loco shed model! If only there was some GWR loco shed still in existence somewhere you could make a model of.... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Castle Posted December 22, 2016 Author Share Posted December 22, 2016 I have no idea what you mean RJS 1977... Amazingly, the obvious prototype is too small for our growing fleet! Between the three of us we have quite a few engines. It doesn't mean that elements can't and indeed won't be incorporated however! We have looked at a few of the smaller end of the large size GWR sheds and there is lots of potential in there and lots of good ideas flowing round at the moment. It will have to wait for the good weather for any execution of ideas as part of the deal is the rebuilding of the building we get a home in! All the best, Castle 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzler Fan Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 (edited) Castle Sent a copy of your book to a friend in South Africa.for Christmas. They want 2000 Rand "Import & Customs" on it (115.50GBP) On their eBay the book ranges from 300 - 400 Rand. Noel Edited December 22, 2016 by Dazzler Fan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted December 22, 2016 Share Posted December 22, 2016 Castle Sent a copy of your book to a friend in South Africa.for Christmas. They want 2000 Rand "Import & Customs" on it (115.50GBP) On their eBay the book ranges from 300 - 400 Rand. It all goes towards President Zuma's "security arrangements" Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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