Grantham - the Streamliner years

[Barry O]

Now if it was an Allegheny.... it would be worth while making .. a true masterpiece of pure, unadulterated C & O grunt....

[LNER4479]

Some further pix from the second half of the US trip (then we'll get back to some modelling!)

 

Leaving Williams, we followed the original Route66, which parallels BNSF's tracks most of the reminder of the way to Los Angeles...

 

No less than five locos as head end power for this double stack container train (overtaking another) at Seligman

 

A plinthed 4-8-4 at Kingman....

....whilst another container train pounds through the station alongside.

 

More trains in the midday heat (104F) of the Mojave desert.

 

The iconic 'Roy's Cafe' at Amboy. In the left background...

...a car transporter train. Quite a short one this one, only 77 freight cars (wagons to you and me)...

 

Moving north a little (approx. 500 miles!), we ended up at San Francisco - within striking distance of the Napa Valley Wine Train (s'very nish...hic!)

 

Finally, a trip to Sacramento to visit the seriously excellent California Railroad Museum

One of them funny cab forward thingys. Almost on a par with a Big Boy...which is kinda where we came in.

 

Hope some of this was of some interest to some. Back to the models next time (promise!)

Edited June 15, 2014 by LNER4479

[New Haven Neil]

The cab forward shot really shows the size of these locomotives.  This will not negotiate R1 curves.......

[Alister_G]

The cab forward shot really shows the size of these locomotives.  This will not negotiate R1 curves.......

 

Or get through UK bridges and tunnels! They are big!

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Kingman and Seligman shots bring back happy memories.... I hope to get back there soon.

[gr.king]

 Back to the models next time (promise!)

 

Here's my latest piece of Grantham-related modelling, in resin, just to encourage you to get going again.

 

 

I'd like to appeal to anybody with suitable knowledge, or a secret vault of 1930s Scunthorpe area photographs, for assistance with the matter of livery for the period before state control of these Appleby-Frodingham peak-ended 20 ton steel ore hoppers. I'm led to believe that bodies, before being bashed around and allowed to become filthy and corroded, were painted a rich reddish brown, possibly verging upon maroon. Precise colour isn't a problem if the models are finished in "rough service" condition anyway. The nature of the lettering on the wagons is more of a challenge. I have access to one very clear HMRS photo showing a brand new wagon in elaborate Appleby Iron Co Ltd (The United Steel Companies Ltd) livery, wearing the additional legend "steel plates". That's fine, but it is evident from other poorer pictures that this livery wasn't universal on the wagons. A photo of grimy wagons under the concrete footbridge at Frodingham shows one branded "Frodingham", plus possibly the words "Iron & Steel Co Ltd" but that part is very indistinct. A very restricted view of part of another wagon suggests that it wears a simpler version of the Appleby livery too, but I have no more to go on at present.

It would be nice to a have a variety of authentic brandings on these wagons....

[LNER4479]

Thanks Graeme. Been following its evolution on the other channel and once again in admiration of your artistry with the resin. A fantastic piece of historical research and modelling. Thompson pacifics (and the like) are all very well, and naturally more popular as a modelling project - but it's unglamorous vehicles like this that were what the railway were all about in the pre-motorway age.

 

Don't worry about the need for encouragement - the soldering iron was being wielded again last night...

[unclebobkt]

 

IMG_0636.JPG

 

      One of them funny cab forward thingys. Almost on a par with a Big Boy...which is kinda where we came in.

Hope some of this was of some interest to some. Back to the models next time (promise!)

 

 -- Mr. Bulleid should have visited those 'Cab-forward.' locos. before designing his 'Leader.' class.

 - I suspect that those American locos. were oil-fired, thus the fireman could be up front with the driver instead of amidships and trying to keep the coal-fired fire-box replenished in the 100+oF. heat! 

 - But doubtless the British gov't. of that time - and Mr. Scargill! - might have refused to countenance oil-firing, the need to spend USD. and so on and so forth,  especially if the needs of the coal-miners were to be down-graded!

[gr.king]

Has Jill fixed that chapel roof yet? Tell her to get a move-on if not, she's delaying progress on your model railway.....

 

 

Hi Jill - only kidding.

[LNER4479]

Ooh - you're risking it   I was going to respond with a predictable 'funny' about supervising her doing the work, pointing out when she's using the wrong tool (etc). However Mrs4479 has asked if you could send Mrs3279 round at the weekend to lend her a hand to speed the work up...

 

Here is the current state of play in the chapel

You can be excused for not noticing things 15 feet up in the air(!) but there was quite a bit of the vertical panelling missing above the main door way, so this is what Mrs4479 we have been concentrating on - basically, the left hand side looked a bit like the right hand side a few weeks ago

Although this may appear merely decorative, there should be a definite benefit - at the moment, there has been a steady shower of dirt falling down on the layout at this end, coming from the old plaster gradually flaking off where the gaps are, so these repairs should put a stop to that. I also intend fixing the right-hand light fitting which has not been working (and thus leaving the north end fiddle yard operator somewhat in the dark) whilst I'm at it. I was fearful this would lead to some rather involved mains re-wiring working at height. However, if you look closely at said light fitting, it looks as if the solution might be a little simpler (doh!)

 

Meanwhile, there IS some modelling going on...

Remember the GNR (Howlden) 45ft NC vehicles? Well, next task was to fit the door handles to the Compo. Here, the handle is positioned, with card spacer to give the necessary gap then sellotaped over to hold it in place, allowing me to turn the body over and attach with a splodge of solder from the inside

Two of them done. You can see how the solder has flowed from the inside outwards, giving good assurance that the joint is there to stay (needs a bit of cleaning up though!)

And now the rain strips. This needs doing on both vehicles. If you recall, the roof installation left a horizontal lip, forming a crude gutter. For most of its length, the rain is just allowed to drip off. But over the doorways, there were vertical edges, apparently designed to at least ensure no rain dripped on the passengers as they got on or off(!) Nothing in the kits for this so all I'm doing here is using some scrap etch of appropriate size, folded at the end of the intended length (so I only solder what I need to) and positioned ready for soldering

After soldering, I've snipped off the left hand end, then carefully filed to shape. Cruelly enlarged to show all the imperfections but an important detail (well I think so!) and should look fine painted up. Some later photos appear to show some of these having been removed (or did they just not bother repairing them towards the end?) and the preserved example doesn't sport them, but they're definitely there on more original photos of the type.

So this is where we're up to at present. Mainly roof detail to do now, then I can (at last) wave the spray can at them.

 

 

[jwealleans]

Now those rainstrips are a proper job - I just stick 20 thou square strip above the doors, slightly chamfered at the ends.  I don't add grab handles until after paint either - makes lining so much easier (not that that's a consideration here). 

 

I can let you have the dodgy used tube from my drying room if you're short of one for that light. 

[micklner]

Maybe the pictures ? The Grab handles look enormous or where they that size on the original coaches??  MJT do much finer ones.

 

I agree with JW I make rainstrips from microstrip and a drop of super glue or plastic cement .

[LNER4479]

I think it is partly the photo, Mick - they don't look too bad in real life. Maybe a slight lip on the edge of the etching? (easily removed with a file). I've used them before on Bill B kits, on the 6-wheelers and they came out all right in the end - certainly pass the 'three foot' test:

Edited June 26, 2014 by LNER4479

[jwealleans]

I thought they were MJT without looking too hard.  The holes are in the same places I make them for MJT ones.  They do look fine on the 6 wheelers.

[micklner]

Very strange on the six wheelers they are in line with beading and beneath the beading on the new build sides perhaps the beading is etched wrong ? I agree ,photos can have weird effects !!

Edited June 26, 2014 by micklner

[jwealleans]

Can't speak for Graham, but if the holes are etched in they're often on the beading, which is correct.  If they're not and you have to drill them yourself then it's easiest to go right in the corners of the two panels, which gives the right spacing for the MJT handles.

[Black Marlin]

Being off work with a chest infection, I have today had the opportunity to read all 48 pages of this wonderful thread. Fabulous trains, praiseworthy attention to detail, great research, fine modelling - but most importantly, a sense of fun and an awareness that somewhere along the line part of the intention has to be simply to play trains

You've made what could otherwise have been a fairly dreary day far more interesting and entertaining than I had expected, and I am very grateful. (As a 1930s LNER modeller myself, I am also wildly biased, but let's not let that stand in the way of the sentiment!) Please, keep up the good work!

 

Regards,

Gavin

[ArthurK]

The apparent double beading is simply a trick of the light. The upper "beading" is in fact at the same depth as the window framing. The true beading is outside that. LNER Gresley and earlier coaches must be etched in three layers or the same effect achieved by using a separate etch for the lower panelling.

 

ArthurK

[LNER4479]

Well, I never thought a set of brass etchings would cause so much interest(!) If you look at the first picture of the coaches in post #1185, then you can see that the bottom hole for the handles is in fact below the beading, whereas on the 6-wheelers it is in line - so well-spotted Mick. Can't say I'm over-troubled by this discovery. Overall the coaches look the part and I have to accept the fact that, much though I love how they add to the overall depiction of the pre-war era, they will be largely overlooked in favour of the streamliners by the average exhibition viewer (sigh!)

 

In terms of the relative prominence of the beadings, for clarification this is indeed one of those kits where the lower panel and upper panel are separate and the lower panel is soldered to a half etch at the bottom of the window panel. So in fact the body beadings are half an etch different in depth to the window frames.

Edited June 27, 2014 by LNER4479

[LNER4479]

Being off work with a chest infection, I have today had the opportunity to read all 48 pages of this wonderful thread. Fabulous trains, praiseworthy attention to detail, great research, fine modelling - but most importantly, a sense of fun and an awareness that somewhere along the line part of the intention has to be simply to play trains

 

You've made what could otherwise have been a fairly dreary day far more interesting and entertaining than I had expected, and I am very grateful. (As a 1930s LNER modeller myself, I am also wildly biased, but let's not let that stand in the way of the sentiment!) Please, keep up the good work!

 

Regards,

Gavin

Well thank you Gavin, that is a most generous posting and I'm delighted that such ramblings kept your mind off things yesterday.

 

Stay tuned and as long as folks are interested I'll keep posting updates as things develop. Once the layout is back up and assembled in a few weeks' time then we'll be very much focussed on what we can present at Warley in November.

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

 they will be largely overlooked in favour of the streamliners by the average exhibition viewer (sigh!)

 

 

Not by me!

[ArthurK]

Six wheelers did last a long time especially those demoted to engineering service. This one was photographed in the1960s at Darlington Bank Top station. A bit the worse or wear but it was still there!

 

ArthurK

Edited June 27, 2014 by ArthurK

[jwealleans]

Lovely picture.  Great Northern/ECJS?

[LNER4479]

Not by me!

"All exhibition viewers are equal...but some are more equal than others", perhaps?

[ArthurK]

I assumed the it was an NER 5 compartment 3rd but I could be wrong. That centre W iron is a strange one but it could have been altered during it's engineering service. The departmental number should be the clue if there are records around for those. I don't expect that it was equipped with the handbrake whilst in passenger service. There were other curious vehicles in this train. Doesn't really belong to this thread but if the interest is out there I can post them.

 

ArthurK