Wright writes.....

[Headstock]

Andrew,

 

I painted the roofs, so if they should be body-colour at the cornice, then that's my fault. That said, some cornices look black in some pictures. 

 

Evening Tony,

 

BR painted the cornice on its Crimson and cream stock black, as a result it could very quickly take on the appearance of the roof colour. The teak Thompson's were of course subject to the same conditions as the later BR livery, however they were less likely to become rof colour in the same fashion as the crimson and cream stock.

[Headstock]

Can we see some original colour photos of some of the ersatz teak stock when in use please?

 

Having been involved a little bit in painting a preserved coach don't trust what you see.

 

It's a bit like the colour frames and running gear are painted now...

 

Baz

 

I have a couple of colour shots of the South Yorkshireman circa 1948 with an LNER green B1 at the head. I also have some stunning colour film shot in the 1040's. The colour is what I would describe as golden orange, they stand out in sharp contrast to the Gresley stock running alongside them, some off which are a dark chocolate brown, though beautifully varnished.

[micklner]

Can we see some original colour photos of some of the ersatz teak stock when in use please?

 

Having been involved a little bit in painting a preserved coach don't trust what you see.

 

It's a bit like the colour frames and running gear are painted now...

 

Baz

 

I have never seen colour photo of a Thompson coach. 

 

This one has been used by Bachmann when listing their Thompson's . You can clearly see the grain effect in the bottom right end panel and the shade variations in the  photo.

 

[Headstock]

Just a quick post as I have to go out again,

 

A quick search turned this one up on my computer.

[polybear]

Just to let readers know; I posted off a cheque today to Cancer Research UK for £346.00.

 

The target this year is (as last year) £1,000, so we're well on the way.  

 

And if you've remembered to tick the Gift Aid box then the nice tax man (!) will add another 25p in the pound; therefore after only two months in you've already raised £432

[Clive Mortimore]

Hi Clive,

 

Old Elms Road featured in Hornby mag 105 (March 2016), and attended GETS 2016 and Warley 2014 among others. All before I joined them so I can’t take any credit, but there are some quality modellers in the club. It is also going to York this Easter weekend, though I’m not part of the crew for this trip.

Hi Phil

 

I am attending this years York show for the first time so I will look out for it.

[thegreenhowards]

Andy,

 

I think a 'reasonable' case can be made (as you have done) for using tension-locks to couple cars underneath corridor connectors, where they're not so visible. It also allows carriages to be separated if the layout's operation requires this. 

 

And, thank you for employing the goalpost, but I make no claim for its invention. 

 

Where I've fought shy of using tension-locks in the middle of rakes (and indolence did see my using of them at one point on modified RTR cars) was because I found them hopelessly unreliable if any cars so fitted had heavy, kit-built vehicles behind them. Because they pulled off the bogies, or a sort of collar around them, they'd 'bounce' on starting (careful starting), causing derailments. Since, as you know well, I don't tolerate derailments, then I make my own, the representation of the steam-heating and vacuum brake pipes more than filling the 'see through' gap; more realistically than a tension-lock.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.

 

Tony, I agree with the problems with heavy kit built stock - as we discovered with my Aberdonian rake! However, tension locks are pretty reliable on fairly long rakes of RTR coaches. 12 seems fine on my layout, and the closer coupling they allow while still negotiating tighter than prototypical curves is useful.

 

Andy

[Headstock]

Andrew,

 

I painted the roofs, so if they should be body-colour at the cornice, then that's my fault. That said, some cornices look black in some pictures. 

 

Tony,

 

I may purchase one of these carriages for a little experiment in the future, probably when I'm mixing a new batch of teak. I think that with a little patch painting, wash painting and airbrushing it may be possible to improve on the factory 'French mustard' colour. I think that it would be also be possible to correct the panelling that should run full length on the lower sides between the windows and the doors, as well as between the doors and the carriage ends. A similar process could remove the sub-division of the graining on the uprights between the windows, this was a feature of the open stock but not the corridor carriages. I could produce a mock up of what I was thinking if you don't mind your photograph being used.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Headstock

[Barry O]

[quo9te name=micklner" post="3074023" timestamp="1520273631]I have never seen colour photo of a Thompson coach. 

 

This one has been used by Bachmann when listing their Thompson's . You can clearly see the grain effect in the bottom right end panel and the shade variations in the  photo.

 

a lner thomson.jpg

 

A very nicely weathered coach by the look of it....so not really a good example of the original paint work unfortunately.

 

It's a bit like looking at the colours of preserved "teak" Greeley stock. After being painted by BR then the teak oil making the paint peal, then, in preservation, the use of ply on some to replace rotten teak it's a patchwork quilt. The last mainline Gresley vehicle I travelled in was a blue grey modified Buffet Car on my way to Grimsby. The paint job was good, the ride good, the plastic chairs...awful!

[Enterprisingwestern]

I have a couple of colour shots of the South Yorkshireman circa 1948 with an LNER green B1 at the head. I also have some stunning colour film shot in the 1040's. The colour is what I would describe as golden orange, they stand out in sharp contrast to the Gresley stock running alongside them, some off which are a dark chocolate brown, though beautifully varnished.

 

Have you got colour film of the battle of Hastings as well?

 

Mike.

[Bucoops]

Have you got colour film of the battle of Hastings as well?

 

Mike.

 

Was that the fight to keep the line double track?

[Enterprisingwestern]

Was that the fight to keep the line double track?

 

A bit earlier than that I believe, although life in that part of the world seems somewhat somnambulent, so maybe it was, those frenchies wanted metre gauge as well!

 

Mike.

[Tony Teague]

To add to the tension locks debate, I certainly agree that they are ugly, but as has been said, they work.

 

I also share the view that with coaching stock, corridor connections are the higher priority - and once these are in place the couplings are far less obtrusive.

 

I see no point in Kadee's fitted to coach bogies, but I have tried (and still have some rakes) where they are fitted to the headstocks; this looks better for buck-eye fitted coaches but I have found it really unreliable where changes of gradient are involved, and so those rakes are confined to the flat!

 

In terms of freight I have tried everything - Kadee fitted coal wagons included! - but it is when it comes to reliable shunting without recourse to the "hand of God", that I believe tension locks plus Heathcote uncouplers (no connection) excel; these are totally reliable and I now have around 20 (uncouplers) fitted at key locations.

 

Obviously for fixed rakes there are better looking alternatives.

 

Tony

[Headstock]

Have you got colour film of the battle of Hastings as well?

 

Mike.

 

[Bucoops]

What would the "best" tension lock coupler be for fitting to kit built stock? As above for my purposes I need couplings that can be disconnected easily and remotely. I've been looking at Kadee but am still open as they are quite bulky?

[grahame]

I also have some stunning colour film shot in the 1040's.

That was the year that the son of Canute, Harold Harefoot as king Harold l, died and was succeeded by Harthacnut.

 

G

[glo41f]

 Thompson Coaches

 

"The colour is what I would describe as golden orange"

 

That is how I remember them too. In fact I commented on this at the time and asked why the coaches were orange? (The Gresley stock was by that time soot stained dark brown in colour being in the early 1950s). I also feel that the ends were black but that could be down to dirt etc. They certainly did not strike me at the time as being the same orange as the sides. Thinking about it on the GE we had a wide variety of coach colours namely GE stock in a dark brown though some in a crimson, Gresley stock in teak with some in crimson and cream (and one set in brown and cream!) Thompson stock in orange and brown and then the new BR mark ones in crimson and cream. Certainly never a full train of the same colour stock apart form the brown and cream set which did not last long. It was not until the late 50's that trains had a common livery. Unfortunately no pictures to prove it but there are some in the Colour Rail collection which show the variety around.

 

Martin Long

[Ray Chessum]

That was the year that the son of Canute, Harold Harefoot as king Harold l, died and was succeeded by Harthacnut.

 

G

 

i have been using kadees'  for years on my coaching stock  and find that they are best affixed to the bufferbeams, they enable any coach to be easily extracted and reinserted and of course all you have to do is to push them together to reliably recouple up

[Tony Wright]

Tony,

 

I may purchase one of these carriages for a little experiment in the future, probably when I'm mixing a new batch of teak. I think that with a little patch painting, wash painting and airbrushing it may be possible to improve on the factory 'French mustard' colour. I think that it would be also be possible to correct the panelling that should run full length on the lower sides between the windows and the doors, as well as between the doors and the carriage ends. A similar process could remove the sub-division of the graining on the uprights between the windows, this was a feature of the open stock but not the corridor carriages. I could produce a mock up of what I was thinking if you don't mind your photograph being used.

Andrew,

 

Please use it as you like.

[Tony Wright]

There were comments about the O4s some little time back (is there any thread on here which moves faster?). 

 

I've probably used these images before, but there are always new readers to this topic. 

 

 

 

When Bachmann's original O4 appeared some eight years ago, I wrote a review for BRM and immediately used it as a guinea pig for further 'improvements', including renumbering, detailing and weathering. There's no doubt that it's a fine model at source, and runs well, but the blanked-in footplate (obviously not visible in these shots) rather lets it down. I sold this not long afterwards, largely because it doesn't fit in with my 'make-it' philosophy. 

 

 

 

Though I'd already built a K's O4 years ago, I acquired another from the estate of the late John Brown of Spalding. I don't know who'd built it (from a Little Engines kit), but it was rather anomalous, being in later LNER condition but still with GC fittings. The chassis needed some tweaking before it ran to my satisfaction, and after I'd replaced the (12-spoke) pony wheels with the correct (ten-spoke) sort, fitted the lower boiler fittings, added a vacuum ejector pipe, vacuum standpipe, repainted it, lettered/numbered it and weathered it, it replaced the Bachmann one (even having the same number). One thing I forgot to fit (now done) was the snifting valve behind the chimney.

 

There's just something about a kit-built loco which no RTR equivalent quite gets near in my opinion. The former always has a greater mass and 'presence' (and also superior haulage powers), even if they can be a bit 'wonky' in comparison. 

 

And, before anyone squeaks 'hypocrisy!', yes there is a tension-lock or two visible in these pictures. They're not there now!

 

 

 

Done really well, as with this Tony Geary-built/finished Little Engines O4, the difference is noticeable, even if, as with this one, it might have the wrong number for its sub-class. 

 

Certainly, the debate about RTR/kit will carry on (not just confined to this thread), but I know my stance and preference, even though I didn't actually build the two kit-built items shown. 

Edited March 6, 2018 by Tony Wright

[Compound2632]

That was the year that the son of Canute, Harold Harefoot as king Harold l, died and was succeeded by Harthacnut.

 

G

 

Harold Hairbrush and Halfacanute surely?

[Clive Mortimore]

Back to tension locks, couldn't do this with a Jackson coupling.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Clive Mortimore

[Chris-GNR]

Back to tension locks, couldn't do this with a Jackson coupling.

What would stop this being possible if using Alex Jackson couplings?

 

Chris

[Jol Wilkinson]

Back to tension locks, couldn't do this with a Jackson coupling.

 

I can't see the relevance of that comment, Clive, nor the point of doing it anyway.

[Headstock]

Can some one tell me were the real Wright Writes has been moved to on the forum? The one that doesn't celebrate steam roller bogie wheels, tension lock couplings and all the other c**p from the toy box.

 

 Thompson Coaches

 

"The colour is what I would describe as golden orange"

 

That is how I remember them too. In fact I commented on this at the time and asked why the coaches were orange? (The Gresley stock was by that time soot stained dark brown in colour being in the early 1950s). I also feel that the ends were black but that could be down to dirt etc. They certainly did not strike me at the time as being the same orange as the sides. Thinking about it on the GE we had a wide variety of coach colours namely GE stock in a dark brown though some in a crimson, Gresley stock in teak with some in crimson and cream (and one set in brown and cream!) Thompson stock in orange and brown and then the new BR mark ones in crimson and cream. Certainly never a full train of the same colour stock apart form the brown and cream set which did not last long. It was not until the late 50's that trains had a common livery. Unfortunately no pictures to prove it but there are some in the Colour Rail collection which show the variety around.

 

Martin Long

 

Evening Martin,

 

a fantastically evocative image that you are recalling there. Plenty of scope to go at for those who still own a paint brush and wish to give it a go. Personally, I would love to see your recollections recreated in model form.