Wright writes.....

[Ian Rathbone]

From shelf queen to work horse -

 

 

7mm V2 built by Richard Spoors from the Martin Finney kit.

 

Ian R

Edited May 23, 2023 by Ian Rathbone

[Tony Wright]

31 minutes ago, Ian Rathbone said:

From shelf queen to work horse -

 

 

7mm V2 built by Richard Spoors from the Martin Finley kit.

 

Ian R

Splendid job, Ian,

 

(I assume you mean Finney? If not, who is this new maker of fantastic kits?).

 

Can you believe, Richard was in my 'class' at Missenden for at least three years? What he could have learned from me, I have no idea; other than nothing! More likely, I learned from him.

 

I'll deliver my 4mm V2 (and an A4) for you to paint next week. Though your painting of it will be top class (as in the model above), my model certainly be in the same class as Richard's.

 

As an aside, in case anyone thinks I'm dissatisfied with Geoff Haynes' painting of my models, this is definitely not the case. He has two of mine being painted at the moment, and soon there'll be three more!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

Regular Wws readers might remember some time ago, I helped find new homes for models (on behalf of his family) built by the late Geoff Brewin (late of Comet Models).

 

They included this.............

 

 

Made from a South Eastern Finecast kit, and also painted by Geoff; I sold it to Geoff West. 

 

Now, with Hornby Dublo's lates A4 manifestation being 60007, also with single chimney, I puzzled what to do with it. Alter it to 60009 or 60032, both of which retained a single chimney until late-'58? To do so would undoubtedly 'devalue' it. So, I struck a deal with Geoff West, whereby he now has the latest Hornby Dublo A4, and I've got this. But, having already got a 60007............

 

 

Which I built from the same SE Finecast kit, and Ian Rathbone painted. 

 

Now, with the best will in the world, Geoff Brewin's painting would not be in the same class as Ian's.

 

However,....................

 

 

It's certainly not that bad, and very much the equal (if not better) than anything I might achieve by 'wielding the paintbrush'. 

 

So, Geoff Brewin's A4 is now becoming GANNET. I've removed the flange from the base of the tender's tank (with the greatest care, so as not to damage the bottom lining). It should not be there on a corridor tender, but it is because Wills must have used either a Roche or Skinley drawing in making the masters. 

 

I've also made a representation of the brake gear on the tender, fashioned the bracket supporting the rear of the footplate, made the lubricator drive and cylinder drain cocks. Renaming will follow, having taken off the SNG nameplates. 

 

I was a friend of Geoff Brewin, and consider it a privilege to now own three of the locos he built, or was building at the time of his untimely death.

 

The other two are............

 

 

 

Class A1 60120 KITTIWAKE. This had been almost completed by Geoff Brewin, so I finished it, painted it and Tom Foster weathered it.

 

 

 

He'd almost completed this Nu-Cast V2 as well, so I finished it, and Geoff Haynes painted it. 

 

All three loco run superbly (all his work in that regard).

 

Though I personally have no belief in an after-life, for those who do, I think (I hope) that they might muse over the 'departed looking down' and being pleased that the models they made are still running, and are cherished.  

 

 

[PupCam]

10 hours ago, Sayajirao said:

<Snip>

 

Tongue in cheek, the Sir Nigel/he/she conundrum fits in well with the current PC debate, maybe male named locos should now be Them?

 

Please no!

 

Alan

 

[drmditch]

11 hours ago, Sayajirao said:

 

Tongue in cheek, the Sir Nigel/he/she conundrum fits in well with the current PC debate, maybe male named locos should now be Them?

 

 

As I have pointed out several times on this forum and others, this issue was settled in 1830 between Fanny Kemble (a lady well worth 'googling' in her own right) and George Stephenson. To quote Miss Kemble's diary "all the little fire-horses are made mares".

[Tony Wright]

Now, with alterations completed by me, GANNET is now 'flying' on Little Bytham..........

 

But first, a studio shot.

 

 

I should have pointed out that Geoff West had weathered it a little after he bought it.

 

There's certainly evidence that GANNET has a red-painted background to her nameplates when she had a double chimney, and I ordered such from Fox. Did she have them in her single-chimney days?

 

 

There's no doubt she looks the part.

 

 

On both Up, and Down expresses.

 

 

Perhaps the 'finesse' isn't quite there............ I need to adjust her lamps!

 

 

But what is compared with an Ian Rathbone paint job?

 

Nonetheless, I'm very happy with GANNET. Of course, it's not as good as the latest RTR Hornby Dublo A4, but that's not the point.

 

It has a rather different story to tell............

 

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Tony Wright]

11 hours ago, drmditch said:

 

As I have pointed out several times on this forum and others, this issue was settled in 1830 between Fanny Kemble (a lady well worth 'googling' in her own right) and George Stephenson. To quote Miss Kemble's diary "all the little fire-horses are made mares".

Good morning,

 

I've read this somewhere, but I don't know if it's apocryphal, but on seeing BISMARK completed, Hitler insisted that the ship be referred to in masculine form - 'he set sail', or 'bless those who sail in him', for instance. Such a mighty warship had to be male, in his twisted logic!

 

Apparently, applying the female gender to ships is not confined to the UK.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

I mentioned loco lamps in my post about GANNET.

 

Having looked through some pictures of A4s, it's interesting to note that 60008's lamp brackets (those above each front buffer) were not at the same height - The Book of the A4s, by Peter Coster; rather as on the model of 60032, but not quite as pronounced. However, the real GANNET's would appear to be level. 

 

Oh, those joys of loco-picking! 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Chamby]

12 hours ago, drmditch said:

 

As I have pointed out several times on this forum and others, this issue was settled in 1830 between Fanny Kemble (a lady well worth 'googling' in her own right) and George Stephenson. To quote Miss Kemble's diary "all the little fire-horses are made mares".

 

Surely the world has developed somewhat since the probably tongue-in-cheek comment made by Fanny at a time only five years after the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway!

 

In the years since then, I suggest that locomotives with masculine names have far outnumbered females.  Most of the female named locomotives are probably titled - Princesses, Duchesses, Ladies and Queens especially come to mind, but the masculine names are far more varied.

 

The nicknaming of more modern locomotive traction is hardly complimentary to the female gender either:  There have been some female associations, such as the German first generation diesels nicknamed ‘Lolo’s’ owing to their bulbous front being reminiscent of a certain actress of the time.  But oh dear:  Skips, Sheds, Tractors and Gronks... hardly feminine associations, I suggest!

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2023 by Chamby
Typo

[Bernard Lamb]

11 minutes ago, Chamby said:

 

 

The nicknaming of more modern locomotive traction is hardly complimentary to the female gender either:  There have been some female associations, such as the German first generation diesels nicknamed ‘Lolo’s’ owing to their bulbous front being reminiscent of a certain actress of the time.  

 

 

 

Then there is the next generation of East German motive power. The Ludmillas, most definately female. Big, powerful, noisy, dirty creatures from the Soviet Union. The Ossies could be both observant and sarcastic with their nick names.

Bernard

 

[Willie Whizz]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning,

 

I've read this somewhere, but I don't know if it's apocryphal, but on seeing BISMARK completed, Hitler insisted that the ship be referred to in masculine form - 'he set sail', or 'bless those who sail in him', for instance. Such a mighty warship had to be male, in his twisted logic!

 

Apparently, applying the female gender to ships is not confined to the UK.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Hi Tony. I also frequent a warships website, and yes, have seen this usage there sometimes, especially for Bismarck and particularly from posters whose online persona is presented as ‘Germanic’ in origin. 

 

(You will note how carefully I phrased that by the way; unlike RMWeb as it appears in the main, there seem to be certain websites around that, however good the content - and it usually is - leave you a little unsure the participants are always quite who and what they claim to be …)!

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Apparently, applying the female gender to ships is not confined to the UK.

 

But neither is it exclusive, especially wrt warships, as this from the golden age of non-PC expression demonstrates:

 

The Liner she’s a lady, an’ she never looks nor ’eeds—

The Man-o’-War’s ’er ’usband, an’ ’e gives ’er all she needs;

 

R. Kipling

[iak]

He, She or It? All the same to me - living, breathing beasties...

Now weathering does matter to me. It brings models to life, allows the muse to serve your endeavours to create a scene. I hope the below illustrate that :

A humble BR steel Medfit, full of skanky, waste ballast.

An auld LMS Highfit, seeing out its days humping waste ballast.

A venerable, battered Grampus awaits its next duty.

An auld, fitted LMS Medfit, now with the Engineers Dept.

Another bashed up, former LMS Highfit; this time, in the service of the S&T Dept.

 

All this stock is runs on Mostyn. So what, it's P4, does that make it better? No; however, each item is an individual, part of the overall creation.

Talking of which, back to the workdesk. More scuzzy, decrepit, filthy stock needs finishing...

[Northmoor]

On 20/05/2023 at 21:02, Ian Rathbone said:

 

 

Lovely, as I remember it from two of my first main line steam railtours. 

The first was the return leg of the Cumbrian Coast Express from Ravenglass to Carnforth, on my seventh birthday (Leander hauled the outward leg); the second the North Yorkshireman a couple of years later, which I think was Carnforth to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and back.  It hammered down most of that day but the sound of 75078 and then 48431 on the run to Oxenhope still stick in the memory.

[Tony Wright]

Whenever I photograph models I'm involved with; those I've built myself, those I've rebuilt (at least in part) and those I've altered/modified/etc, I always notice something amiss or something I've omitted. 

 

Such was the case with GANNET..............

 

 

By taking off the inaccurate flange at the base of the tender tank (or as much of it as I could), I appear to have lost some of the lower orange lining. It's actually too low down, anyway, so I might see if I can find some similar transfer lining/corners, scrape off the lowest bit and replace it. 

 

I've added the handrails over the tender gangway, and glazed the corridor porthole. I've also made the grate lever, and lowered the boiler handrail at the cab end - it went straight, just as it was when SILVER LINK was first built.

 

 

I also made a dust shield for the bogie. 

 

What I'll have to address is the relative ride height between the loco's footplate and the tender soleplate (it looks like the latter rides a little high at the front). 

 

Has it been worth it? I think so, especially since it runs so well and (because every spare bit of space inside is packed with lead!) it'll haul anything I choose to put behind the tender - 30 carriages and counting!

 

This GANNET won't pull anywhere near as much..................

 

 

 

Even though it's a superior model. However, it's only modified RTR - new bogie wheels, renumbered/renamed, loco-to-tender close-coupled, and everything weathered. 

 

Because it doesn't fit in with my non-RTR locos philosophy, I sold it on.

 

Even though............

 

 

This is how I best remember GANNET, from the summer of 1960, by now fitted with a double chimney, on the 'Lizzie'. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[APOLLO]

Weathering certainly does enhance a model railway in terms of realism, BUT I don't weather expensive RTR locos, especially my North American O scale locos with their intricate and colourful liveries, a step too far for me, though a few tatty freight cars exist on my layout - just a few though as many freight cars are just as intricately and superbly finished as my locos. They stay as is.

 

I remember a while ago buying a OO Bachman Standard class for well under retail price from Hattons. Lined green, I intended to grot it up to a typical late 60's Patricroft loco. When "it" arrived I was gobsmacked at the near perfect finish, and I found that her ("he," "she," "it," "we," "they," "them," "us," "him," "her," "his," "hers," "its," "theirs," "our," "your."  !!) last shed was Bolton, and still to the end remained in green livery, and also I noted was marked in my ABC as copped on shed at Bolton (after a long bike ride from Wigan on a borrowed from my mate pink girls bike - another crazy story) !!. Well, that was that - she stayed as is, and still looks wonderful next to a mucky Bachman WD. 

 

Brit15

 

 

 

[Not Jeremy]

On 20/05/2023 at 06:15, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Simon,

 

Sorry? No, rejoice!

 

WINSTON CHURCHILL is magnificent (the brake van is impressive, too). What's its scale and origin, please?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Thank you Tony. The scale is 1/32 and "Winston Churchill" is an Aster live steam model, in fact the locomotive belonging to Andrew Pullen, who developed and brought to the UK market a great selection of highly regarded live steam locomotives in collaboration with Aster in Japan.  Andrew very kindly let me have many of the components  of one to produce my own electrically powered version with scale wheels - "project Watersmeet" as I have dubbed it.  More years ago than I care to remember, I must get on with it!

 

The brake van I scratch built in Plastikard, using  Slaters wheels  and buffers.

 

Here is a brake van I made earlier, after I (eventually) weathered it.

 

 

For myself, I aim to have everything weathered as in my mind I am trying to recreate a real railway scene, albeit a highly improbable one!

 

A bit more akin to your own layout and approach, perhaps, is this youtube clip of Bob Hunter's converted Aster on my old garden line.

 

Bideford at speed

 

I love the differences in approach that we all take in enjoying what is a wonderful hobby, as is so well evidenced by this great thread.

 

Simon

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, Not Jeremy said:

 

Thank you Tony. The scale is 1/32 and "Winston Churchill" is an Aster live steam model, in fact the locomotive belonging to Andrew Pullen, who developed and brought to the UK market a great selection of highly regarded live steam locomotives in collaboration with Aster in Japan.  Andrew very kindly let me have many of the components  of one to produce my own electrically powered version with scale wheels - "project Watersmeet" as I have dubbed it.  More years ago than I care to remember, I must get on with it!

 

The brake van I scratch built in Plastikard, using  Slaters wheels  and buffers.

 

Here is a brake van I made earlier, after I (eventually) weathered it.

 

 

For myself, I aim to have everything weathered as in my mind I am trying to recreate a real railway scene, albeit a highly improbable one!

 

A bit more akin to your own layout and approach, perhaps, is this youtube clip of Bob Hunter's converted Aster on my old garden line.

 

Bideford at speed

 

I love the differences in approach that we all take in enjoying what is a wonderful hobby, as is so well evidenced by this great thread.

 

Simon

Thanks Simon,

 

Wonderful work!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Dragonboy]

19 hours ago, iak said:

He, She or It? All the same to me - living, breathing beasties...

Now weathering does matter to me. It brings models to life, allows the muse to serve your endeavours to create a scene. I hope the below illustrate that :

A humble BR steel Medfit, full of skanky, waste ballast.

An auld LMS Highfit, seeing out its days humping waste ballast.

A venerable, battered Grampus awaits its next duty.

An auld, fitted LMS Medfit, now with the Engineers Dept.

Another bashed up, former LMS Highfit; this time, in the service of the S&T Dept.

 

All this stock is runs on Mostyn. So what, it's P4, does that make it better? No; however, each item is an individual, part of the overall creation.

Talking of which, back to the workdesk. More scuzzy, decrepit, filthy stock needs finishing...

Living breathing beasties - surely makes em female

[t-b-g]

On 23/05/2023 at 17:06, Ian Rathbone said:

From shelf queen to work horse -

 

 

7mm V2 built by Richard Spoors from the Martin Finney kit.

 

Ian R

 

What a superb example of model making, painting and weathering.

 

I had the great pleasure of seeing Richard work on this model at Missenden and I was very impressed by the way he would alter or replace parts in the kit that were a just a tiny bit out of scale or not correct in some way. I recall him explaining that the use of an etch means that you don't get the variety of thicknesses of metal that you get in the real thing and that an over thick etched component could throw dimensions out by a few thou, so he was using the kit parts as templates to make new parts in metal of a different thickness. I hadn't seen anybody go to those lengths before.

 

He really was going "the extra mile" to build his locos and it shows!

Edited May 25, 2023 by t-b-g
typo

[iak]

5 hours ago, Dragonboy said:

Living breathing beasties - surely makes em female

I couldn't possibly comment...

[john new]

The feminist perspective I read somewhere is that in the past men having a traditional misogynistic attitude saw machines as things to be bossed about and tamed hence them being seen as female. That has a certain credibility to the origins of the attribution of female gender to machines. Same with ascribing he to unknown vehicle drivers, before the modern era the driver would have been male. 
 

I am sure someone somewhere will have made a PhD thesis out of the subject.

[Curlew]

English used gender for everything once upon a time, just like the French still do. Even a couple of years ago an old gentleman in rural Derbyshire was quite happily referring to a teapot as "she" in normal speech. Unfortunately the conversation was unavoidably brief, but it was a fascinating peek into older English.

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, Curlew said:

English used gender for everything once upon a time, just like the French still do. Even a couple of years ago an old gentleman in rural Derbyshire was quite happily referring to a teapot as "she" in normal speech. Unfortunately the conversation was unavoidably brief, but it was a fascinating peek into older English.

Most interesting. Thank you.

 

Interestingly, had the old gentleman been from the Black Country, he'd have referred to the teapot as 'her'. As in 'her is on the boil' or 'her' will be nice and brewed by now. 50 years ago, when I first moved to Wolverhampton, I was quite confounded by this.  Trying to be clever (always dangerous, because I'm not), in a local with some local mates, including women, I foolishly said "It's she's turn to get the round in". I just got blank expressions.........

 

It only applied in the feminine; I never heard the likes of 'him is making the tea'. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[D-A-T]

I find the different dialects and way of speaking fascinating. It’s a pity they are dying out or being homologised.

Being Yorkshire born and bred I can still remember the broad accent, especially from Farmers and, strangely, miners.

https://youtu.be/ScELaXMCVis