Wright writes.....

[TrevorP1]

40 minutes ago, Dunsignalling said:

The question I don't seem able to find an answer to is how much load those can handle.

 

Does anybody out there successfully use them on 10-12 coach trains of RTR stock?

 

Layout has minimum 3ft curves and is almost level throughout.

 

John 

I’ve used them without problem on a 10 coach rake which included 2 kit built coaches. 

[BritishGypsum4]

9 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Yesterday, Tom Foster and Ben Valentine came down to operate Little Bytham. 

 

A good time was had by all.

 

They brought with them some very interesting models (not to run on LB, obviously), the like of which I don't think I've ever photographed before. 

 

Including..................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I believe they're based on The Isle of Sodor prototypes. 

 

Perhaps Tom will explain. 

 

 

 

Thank you Tony for such a lovely day. I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed being able to operate Little Bytham.

So I'll start with the little purple machine. I appreciate that the colour won't be to everyone's taste. However I wanted something I could test out this particular colour and so sitting in the bottom of a box was my target, a Springside Wren kit based on the locomotive that worked at Horwich works and now preserved and on display at the NRM in York.

It sits on an Ibretren Cuckoo chassis that I had to butcher to get it to fit right. That was my fault for building a kit long before I had the chassis! We live and learn I suppose.

The kit was purchased off ebay and didn't have any instructions. The locomotive runs on 009 track but is to the scale of 7mm.

 

The two blue vans some might recognise. These are from the Peco range. They are 7mm scale running on 16.5mm track. I do have soft spot for the Talyllyn Railway and so I wanted to fit them with buffers (which come with the kit), as well as 4mm scale screw couplings. In my little world they are luggage vans hence the vacuum pipes on them. The M S is for Mid Sodor Railway. Like @Tom F, I grew up reading the stories that the Reverand Awdry wrote. I built these kits at the start of lockdown and I find them nice and easy to build, they don't break the bank and they gave me a chance to try some painting techniques that I had learnt from several Youtubers during lockdown.

 

The grey open is also from the Peco range. I have three of these. One is still to be finished, one is in a clean condition and this one is my favourite. I wanted it to be grubby given that goods stock never seem to be given any attention unless they break.

The dark brown open wagon is a lovely Port Wynnstay kit. I wanted to give the impression that this was made of more substantial wood, hence the colour choices. Again, heavily weathered with washes and then powder to represent a well used coal wagon.

 

Paints were a mixture, some Humbrol, many were Vallejo and Army Painter and used dark washes from the Citadel range. Transfers from Fox and the couplings were all Smiths. Now to get on with a locomotive to pull the stock....

 

Big thank you to Tony once again for taking these pictures and for being a great host.

[Richard E]

On 21/06/2022 at 10:18, Tony Wright said:

It was my privilege to be invited as after-dinner speaker. I don't know if I was entirely on my best form, but Mo and I attended my younger brother's funeral yesterday, and different thoughts were present.

 

Sorry I'm a little late with this but I heard about your loss from a mutual acquaintance a little while ago. My thoughts have very much been with you since.

[thegreenhowards]

5 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

The question I don't seem able to find an answer to is how much load those can handle.

 

Does anybody out there successfully use them on 10-12 coach trains of RTR stock?

 

Layout has minimum 3ft curves and is almost level throughout.

 

John 

I’d echo the other responses on here that they work very effectively on rakes of 10-12 or more RTR coaches. However the big proviso is that they have to be set up carefully for the layout that they are going to run on. Tony may repeat stories of mine playing up chronically when I brought some of my rakes to photograph on LB. This was caused by turning coaches round inadvertently and thus changing the gaps between them.

 

I find that I can use the short couplings provided only one corridor connection is used between coaches. But if two corridor connectors are together then this can force the coaches further apart on corners and cause the couplings to separate. Obviously this depends on the radius of the curves - mine are minimum 3ft radius apart from a couple of Peco curved points on which the inner radius is 30”. So, my advice would be to experiment with short, medium and long coupling lengths to get the right gap between your coaches to suit your curvature. Set up correctly, I have had 15 RTR coaches running happily with these couplings. I find them excellent for fixed rakes or for rakes where you want to swap coaches in and out in a regular basis in the fiddle yard. The magnets make this very easy.

 

Andy

[Tony Wright]

11 hours ago, BritishGypsum4 said:

 

Thank you Tony for such a lovely day. I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed being able to operate Little Bytham.

So I'll start with the little purple machine. I appreciate that the colour won't be to everyone's taste. However I wanted something I could test out this particular colour and so sitting in the bottom of a box was my target, a Springside Wren kit based on the locomotive that worked at Horwich works and now preserved and on display at the NRM in York.

It sits on an Ibretren Cuckoo chassis that I had to butcher to get it to fit right. That was my fault for building a kit long before I had the chassis! We live and learn I suppose.

The kit was purchased off ebay and didn't have any instructions. The locomotive runs on 009 track but is to the scale of 7mm.

 

The two blue vans some might recognise. These are from the Peco range. They are 7mm scale running on 16.5mm track. I do have soft spot for the Talyllyn Railway and so I wanted to fit them with buffers (which come with the kit), as well as 4mm scale screw couplings. In my little world they are luggage vans hence the vacuum pipes on them. The M S is for Mid Sodor Railway. Like @Tom F, I grew up reading the stories that the Reverand Awdry wrote. I built these kits at the start of lockdown and I find them nice and easy to build, they don't break the bank and they gave me a chance to try some painting techniques that I had learnt from several Youtubers during lockdown.

 

The grey open is also from the Peco range. I have three of these. One is still to be finished, one is in a clean condition and this one is my favourite. I wanted it to be grubby given that goods stock never seem to be given any attention unless they break.

The dark brown open wagon is a lovely Port Wynnstay kit. I wanted to give the impression that this was made of more substantial wood, hence the colour choices. Again, heavily weathered with washes and then powder to represent a well used coal wagon.

 

Paints were a mixture, some Humbrol, many were Vallejo and Army Painter and used dark washes from the Citadel range. Transfers from Fox and the couplings were all Smiths. Now to get on with a locomotive to pull the stock....

 

Big thank you to Tony once again for taking these pictures and for being a great host.

 

 

Thanks for the descriptions, Ben (and thanks to Tom for his).

 

I'm glad you enjoyed operating Little Bytham (amazingly, I only made a few mistakes). 

 

What it did illustrate is the folly in not thoroughly checking a 'new' vehicle's running before an operating session; as in the case when that Gresley carriage derailed a couple of times. It's not new (it was built some time ago from, I think, a Kemilway kit), but it had never been in that position in that train before (some of my cars are with Hornby at the moment, helping with the development of new models). The 'cure' was, of course, immediate and simple - just a half turn of the 8BA nut holding the derailing bogie's bolster on to the carriage's solebar pad, thus allowing a twitch more movement up and down from the horizontal. All the carriages I make employ this system, and the 'trick' for good running is to provide the minimum of up and down 'pivotal' movement by the bogie; thus ensuring there's no 'jelly-like' tendencies as vehicles roll by - all too common on some systems, I'm afraid. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Roger Sunderland]

Just to echo the views on Hunt couplings in fixed rakes. On our Bournemouth West exhibition layout we run a 12 coach Pines express including a 12 wheel diner and other kit built coaches without any issues. Setting up/packing up at exhibitions is now so simple. Kadees at outer ends of all fixed rakes.

[Dunsignalling]

19 minutes ago, Roger Sunderland said:

Just to echo the views on Hunt couplings in fixed rakes. On our Bournemouth West exhibition layout we run a 12 coach Pines express including a 12 wheel diner and other kit built coaches without any issues. Setting up/packing up at exhibitions is now so simple. Kadees at outer ends of all fixed rakes.

Thanks Roger, If I were beginning again, I might well adopt these, but most of my rakes are already equipped with Roco couplers within set and Kadees at the end.

 

My arrangement up works pretty much as yours , albeit mechanically and has never given me any hassle in a number of years. I'll get some Hunts to try out when I have a new set to prepare, but a changeover on my existing fleet wouldn't seem necessary or justifiable.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Simon A.C. Martin]

Have just managed to win for £60 an R3736 Flying Scotsman with some damage. I intend to fix it myself and then put it on display. Sometimes you can grab a decent bargain on ebay. I am hoping I have all the right parts, however there is one mystifying thing I need clarifying.

 

Hornby's model of FS in its 1924 Empire Exhibition guise has cylinders with no red lining. Is this correct? As my understanding was that from 1923 and the formation of the LNER, they did have red lined cylinders. If that is the case I will swap out the offending item post haste...

[jwealleans]

Black cylinders, no lining.

[Guest Simon A.C. Martin]

Many thanks Jonathon, appreciate the swift response. Perusing some photos on the net shows 4472 without cylinder lining at the exhibition. When exactly was the red lining out added? I don't have my RCTS 2A to hand.

[jwealleans]

Doncaster never lined cylinders to my recollection.   I don't have an A1/3 painting specification, but I do have one for a C1 which shows black paint only, no lining on the cylinders.

 

[Tony Wright]

My Accurascale Deltic arrived today.

 

What a fantastic model!

 

 

On test on LB this afternoon, it took 36 carriages (about a third built from metal kits). Adding more caused the wretched tension-lock coupling to be pulled out and broken. Great!

 

 

After I'd added the detailing bits on one end, and the nameplates. 

 

And, with a bit more detailing, heading the Down 'Flying Scotsman'.............

 

 

 

 

When built, the actual NIMBUS had the horns on her cab roof, but this model represents her in 1963/'64 condition (exactly as I saw her at Darlington). 

 

So what if Little Bytham Station was demolished three years before D9020 appeared? Rule 1 applies.

 

The question is, what to do now with my eight renumbered/renamed/detailed/weathered Bachmann Deltics?

 

 

Such as this? In fairness, this model has been out quite a long time. 

 

The Accurascale one is in a different class, at an astonishing price. All it needs now is weathering.

 

 

[JamieR4489]

22 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

I don't have an A1/3 painting specification

There's a copy of the 1928 specification in the Haynes manual for Flying Scotsman and that shows no lining on the cylinders. However, looking on the Colour Rail website, there are a couple of late '30s or post-war photos of A1/3s (2573 and 2582) and V2s (4771 and 4843) with lined black cylinders. The specific locos in the pictures all seem to be ones shopped at Doncaster. It doesn't seem to have been universal, though, as there's a colour photo on Steve Banks' site of 2548 with unlined cylinders in 1937. The switch might have coincided with painting the class on the bufferbeam?

[Jesse Sim]

38 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

All it needs now is weathering.

 

 

I know a bloke in Aus, he’s a bit of a knob though. 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Jesse Sim

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

When built, the actual NIMBUS had the horns on her cab roof, but this model represents her in 1963/'64 condition (exactly as I saw her at Darlington).

Was the "flying thistle" used as a headboard at that time? If so, that would set it off nicely.

[Jesse Sim]

6 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

I know a bloke in Aus, he’s a bit of a knob though. 

That’s two people now that have agreed to that post, now I don’t know if it’s because I’m good at weathering or that I am a knob…. 🤣

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Was the "flying thistle" used as a headboard at that time? If so, that would set it off nicely.

Good morning John,

 

I think the fibreglass FS flying thistle came in about 1963/'64 (I took a shot of the FS behind a Deltic carrying it, in 1965), so I'll dig the one I've got out and see what it looks like on that great nose. 

 

In the book I co-authored with Gavin Glennister, Diesel Dawn 1-Deltics (Irwell Press, 2019), there's a terrific shot (not of my taking) of NIMBUS at the top of page 27 about to depart from the 'Cross with the centenary Flying Scotsman' on the 18th of June, 1962. The loco is incredibly clean (carrying its horns on the cab roofs). It's not even had time for the 'frog's eyes' marks on the buffers to appear! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[31A]

Good morning Tony.  The new Deltic looks very fine on LB, and I'm very pleased with mine too - the unnamed D9004.

 

I wondered whether you (or anyone else) had given any thought to reducing the size of the lower vertical handrails on the corners?  To me, they seem to stick out a long way and are much more prominent than they should be.  In theory it ought to be possible to pull them out and shorten the 'legs', or maybe replace them with shorter ones, but so far I haven't dared try it.

[johndon]

10 minutes ago, 31A said:

Good morning Tony.  The new Deltic looks very fine on LB, and I'm very pleased with mine too - the unnamed D9004.

 

I wondered whether you (or anyone else) had given any thought to reducing the size of the lower vertical handrails on the corners?  To me, they seem to stick out a long way and are much more prominent than they should be.  In theory it ought to be possible to pull them out and shorten the 'legs', or maybe replace them with shorter ones, but so far I haven't dared try it.

 

That's what I'm planning on doing with mine, it's one of only two issues I have with an otherwise superb model.

[Tony Wright]

16 minutes ago, 31A said:

Good morning Tony.  The new Deltic looks very fine on LB, and I'm very pleased with mine too - the unnamed D9004.

 

I wondered whether you (or anyone else) had given any thought to reducing the size of the lower vertical handrails on the corners?  To me, they seem to stick out a long way and are much more prominent than they should be.  In theory it ought to be possible to pull them out and shorten the 'legs', or maybe replace them with shorter ones, but so far I haven't dared try it.

Good morning Steve,

 

I noticed those, especially in the photographs. 

 

I haven't investigated how to alter them - pull out and shorten the 'legs'? Or replace them? I don't know.

 

Having looked at the model further, and run it more, it really is astonishingly-good overall. Mine, of course, is not DCC-fitted, so there's no Deltic 'sound', though that doesn't worry me. As it speeds by, I'm back as a 16-year old (in 1962), seeing these magnificent locos for the first time.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[FarrMan]

14 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Steve,

 

I noticed those, especially in the photographs. 

 

I haven't investigated how to alter them - pull out and shorten the 'legs'? Or replace them? I don't know.

 

Having looked at the model further, and run it more, it really is astonishingly-good overall. Mine, of course, is not DCC-fitted, so there's no Deltic 'sound', though that doesn't worry me. As it speeds by, I'm back as a 16-year old (in 1962), seeing these magnificent locos for the first time.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Ah yes! The sound of these rushing UP Stoke Bank with a heavy train, then braking for the 90mph speed limit through Stoke Tunnel, or the sight and sound of them accelerating away from Peterborough North with a heavy train, and I'm back as a slightly less than 16 year old. I would have been 13 in 1962.

 

Lloyd

[Guest Simon A.C. Martin]

I’m going to have to look more closely at photographs showing the cylinders for lining from now on, I had assumed it was more widespread than it seems, and it explains why a few of Hornbys recent releases have not had red lining in that case.

[robertcwp]

I don't model the East Coast Main Line so I have no need for Deltics. Therefore, I restricted myself to three Accurascale ones. The are excellent models at very competitive prices. I have only test run mine so far and they all ran very well straight out of the box.

 

I did wonder if D9020 should have had the horns on the cab roof - it did when new - then I looked at one of my own photo collection:

 

D9020_York_m by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

No horns on the roof but still with fabricated bogies, as per the Accurascale model. 

[Compound2632]

13 minutes ago, robertcwp said:

I don't model the East Coast Main Line so I have no need for Deltics. Therefore, I restricted myself to three Accurascale ones.

 

Thank you - that gave me my first proper laugh of the morning!

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, johndon said:

one of only two issues I have with an otherwise superb model.

What's the other?