Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

21 hours ago, 30368 said:

Sorry to interupt the flow Tony. Have noticed what a large collection of A1's you have, but then they were very "front line" in the period you are modelling.

 

I have a quick prototype question (I know there is a thread for such things but suspect that this is where I will get an answer).

 

I am building a 4mm scale (00) V4 2-6-2 using Judith Edge Etches. It will be 61701 and in BR mixed traffic livery. I know that around 1953/4 these engines were downgraded from 5MT to 4MT (Why??) but my real query concerns the Route Availability. From the limited images available I can't tell if they were RA4 or RA6, I suspect the latter. Can anyone please confirm. I have searched the web but no joy.

 

Kind regards and thanking in anticipation,

 

Richard B

Good morning Richard,

 

As Bernard has posted, the V4s were, indeed, RA4 - a very good RA. 

 

Looking at others in the category, they include such 'lightweights' as B12/3, D40, F6, G5, J5, J17, J26, J55, J83, N5/2, N8, N13, N14, Standard 4MT 4-6-0, Standard 4MT 2-6-0, Standard 3MT 2-6-2T and (amazingly) the massive Co-Co EM2s (the smaller EM1 Bo-Bos were RA9!). 

 

Regards,

 

Tony

[melmoth]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

...and (amazingly) the massive Co-Co EM2s (the smaller EM1 Bo-Bos were RA9!). 

 

 

The comparative axle loadings are something like 22 tons for the EM1 and 17 tons for the EM2, which might partly explain that.

[FarrMan]

12 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Rich,

 

I have no idea if any member of of the group who came today has anything to do with 'Technology Forge'.

 

What I would say............................

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that they all operated LB brilliantly. In fact, probably better than many of the 'regular' operators!

 

Everyone had a fantastic day. If anyone else has a trainset they can use in this manner, I thoroughly recommend it. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Excellent, and I fully agree with the last paragraph as well.

 

Lloyd

[Barry O]

12 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Rich,

 

I have no idea if any member of of the group who came today has anything to do with 'Technology Forge'.

 

What I would say............................

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that they all operated LB brilliantly. In fact, probably better than many of the 'regular' operators!

 

Everyone had a fantastic day. If anyone else has a trainset they can use in this manner, I thoroughly recommend it. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Red Leader did something similar with Grantham . I "Helped out"..  in reality provided rerailing support while they operated...

 

Baz

[MJI]

I do like the BR 4MT 4-6-0.

 

Have had 75069 on the main line.

[Dunsignalling]

1 hour ago, MJI said:

I do like the BR 4MT 4-6-0.

 

Have had 75069 on the main line.

The Southern Region regarded their double-chimney 4MTs very highly and pretty much as the equal of the bigger 5MT on most duties.

[Mallard60022]

15 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Phil,

 

Indeed I wuz a member of that merry band of 'spotters who inhabited 'The Wall' at Retford.

 

But, as far as I know, I've never appeared in any pictures............

 

 

Just one inhabitant on this September day in 1962.

 

 

And whoever that is, it's certainly not me!

 

 

Just a couple on the top to watch this Deltic roar by in 1962. 

 

Did I say I'd make the telegraph poles for Retford? 

 

I'll keep looking, and maybe one day...........

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

  

Both these photo's are from a Local Estate Agent's collection (before and after shots he displays locally)

Posted with his permission. First time I've seen the 1965 shot and the recent one was taking using a Drone.

Maybe this is of interest and thanks for letting me intrude briefly?

All the best.

Phil

 

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

 

 

 

Both these photo's are from a Local Estate Agent's collection (before and after shots he displays locally)

Posted with his permission. First time I've seen the 1965 shot and the recent one was taking using a Drone.

Maybe this is of interest and thanks for letting me intrude briefly?

All the best.

Phil

 

See you can't trust old colour photos. All those others must be wrong as that Deltic is purple with an orange band, wow those wacky psychedelic days of the swinging 60s. 

[woodenhead]

53 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

See you can't trust old colour photos. All those others must be wrong as that Deltic is purple with an orange band, wow those wacky psychedelic days of the swinging 60s. 

Just wait till the next tranche of Accurascale Deltics come along - the lesser known livery series, then you'll see 🤣

[Tony Wright]

18 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

 

 

  

Both these photo's are from a Local Estate Agent's collection (before and after shots he displays locally)

Posted with his permission. First time I've seen the 1965 shot and the recent one was taking using a Drone.

Maybe this is of interest and thanks for letting me intrude briefly?

All the best.

Phil

 

Good morning Phil,

 

I remember seeing the 1965 shot in Modern Railways at the time, but only in black & white. 

 

Since there were no drones nearly 60 years ago, it looks like the photographer has climbed to the top of one of the telegraph poles. If the perspective is to believed, they're taller than that lift tower! 

 

Please, intrude all you like! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Woodcock29]

I have modified the tender of my Hornby Silver Fox to add the sheeting over the front and rear of the tender as it was from 1935 to removal late 1937/early 1938.

 

The first four A4 tenders had a variation to this sheeting at the rear that was not replicated on the later builds. There was a gap either side of the sheeting around the water filler - this is visible with careful observation of photos showing the top of the tenders of the four silver A4s. I used the rear cover sheeting from the top of my Hornby W1 tender as the basis as that tender only had this sheeting for around 2 months from completion of the rebuild of the engine in Nov 1937- Jan 1938 when it was removed. I had to reduce the width and build up the sides from below to create the voids between the tender side sheets and the cover sheeting. For extended front sheeting I used thin plasticard and fitted this onto the front plate after I had remove a similar thickness from the top of the front plate and the sheeting already on the model. Has anyone else undertaken this modification?

 

The W1 then had to have the front sheeting significantly reduced.  The only issue with the W1 was that I had already coaled it before I decided to do this so had to remove a lot coal!  Both could obviously do with some weathering - maybe? I generally don't tend to weather my express locos but I should. I did slightly weather the front of Silver Fox's tender some time ago.

Now for something completely different!

Two recent acquisitions - South Australian Railways 900 Class diesels introduced in 1951. They had English Electric 1588 HP engines  and were built at the Islington Workshops here in Adelaide. They were the first mainline diesels to enter service in Australia

Only ten were built and they were all withdrawn by mid 1980s. Three still exist, 900 the class leader in our NRM here in Adelaide and two in dilapidated state that were originally acquired for heritage running in mid 1980s but as they are very heavy were sold on. The models are from SDS, an Australian company producing Aussie models in China.

 

The original liveried 900 - named Lady Norrie after the wife of the then Governor of South Australia

1960s liveried 904  

 Maybe they were our equivalent of the Deltics? Here's a photo of mine taken in 1974 and an even later livery variation. Note the US 3 position upper quadrant signals similar to the three at Kings Cross in GN days!

 

Edited June 16, 2023 by Woodcock29

[30368]

On 15/06/2023 at 07:41, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Richard,

 

As Bernard has posted, the V4s were, indeed, RA4 - a very good RA. 

 

Good morning Tony,

 

Many thanks - as mentioned, the V4's seem to have been a capable and fairly powerful locomotive and RA4 is a very good design achievement. With the A1 and P2 building, one can see the sense in The A1 Locomotive trust's decision to build a third V4 given such a wide RA. Whilst I hope otherwise, I suspect I won't be around to see it!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

Edited June 16, 2023 by 30368

[30368]

20 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

The Southern Region regarded their double-chimney 4MTs very highly and pretty much as the equal of the bigger 5MT on most duties.

 

Good observation DunS. 70D had an allocation of five from the mid fifties until 1963 including double chimney versions. I always assumed that these were drafted in to replace the N15X 4-6-0s all of whaich were shedded there until withdrawal. Sorry Tony and many others, all a bit SR centric I know, but the LNER and its wonderous locomotives was/is my next favourite railway.

 

Kind regards.

 

Richard B

[Andy R]

On 15/06/2023 at 08:21, Tony Wright said:

Good evening Rich,

 

I have no idea if any member of of the group who came today has anything to do with 'Technology Forge'.

 

What I would say............................

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is that they all operated LB brilliantly. In fact, probably better than many of the 'regular' operators!

 

Everyone had a fantastic day. If anyone else has a trainset they can use in this manner, I thoroughly recommend it. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Brilliant outcome Tony…what a great concept for a team build. My last team build here in NZ was planting native trees on a hill side! 
I kinda like the layout operation option…😊

[Jesse Sim]

2 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

 Both could obviously do with some weathering - maybe?

 

 

I’ll be down in SA in September…could pick them up 😉

[john new]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Phil,

 

I remember seeing the 1965 shot in Modern Railways at the time, but only in black & white. 

 

Since there were no drones nearly 60 years ago, it looks like the photographer has climbed to the top of one of the telegraph poles. If the perspective is to believed, they're taller than that lift tower! 

 

Please, intrude all you like! 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Possibly auto-colourised?

[FarrMan]

1 hour ago, john new said:

Possibly auto-colourised?

Surely they didn't nip down to halfords. How many rattle cans would a deltic need?

 

Lloyd

[Barry Ten]

5 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

 

Now for something completely different!

Two recent acquisitions - South Australian Railways 900 Class diesels introduced in 1951. They had English Electric 1588 HP engines  and were built at the Islington Workshops here in Adelaide. They were the first mainline diesels to enter service in Australia

Only ten were built and they were all withdrawn by mid 1980s. Three still exist, 900 the class leader in our NRM here in Adelaide and two in dilapidated state that were originally acquired for heritage running in mid 1980s but as they are very heavy were sold on. The models are from SDS, an Australian company producing Aussie models in China.

 

The original liveried 900 - named Lady Norrie after the wife of the then Governor of South Australia

1960s liveried 904  

 Maybe they were our equivalent of the Deltics? Here's a photo of mine taken in 1974 and an even later livery variation. Note the US 3 position upper quadrant signals similar to the three at Kings Cross in GN days!

 

 

They look a lot like Alco PA1s to me.

Edited June 16, 2023 by Barry Ten

[zr2498]

I did have a look to see if this video had already been posted - the U-tube notification came through this afternoon.

Thanks for putting this together, with editing by Chris Walsh and thanks for the mention.

 

 

I see in the comments that a query was made about the girder bridge . Was it a kit? Well not really as something of a 'one off' and the design would need another iteration or two to make it easier to build.

Dave

[Woodcock29]

50 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

 

They look a lot like Alco PA1s to me.

A lot of South Australian modellers converted PA1s to 900s in previous times. There was a brass Korean model made back in the 1980s but this is the first plastic bodied model.

[Mallard60022]

4 hours ago, Andy R said:

Brilliant outcome Tony…what a great concept for a team build. My last team build here in NZ was planting native trees on a hill side! 
I kinda like the layout operation option…😊

I'm very impressed with that session Tony. Maybe some BR Staff might like to come and 'play'. Signallers are often quite interested in actual modelling. However they may 'know too much' and it is more fun using folk that are total novices. If it wasn't for all the Safeguarding Regs, however necessary those are of course, one could have younger people in as, after all, it is those very youngsters that we require to be enthused, take up and keep our lovely hobby alive and well. 

Brilliant concept the Team Building though. Probably a first?

Sincerely, 

Phil 

[Tony Wright]

5 hours ago, zr2498 said:

I did have a look to see if this video had already been posted - the U-tube notification came through this afternoon.

Thanks for putting this together, with editing by Chris Walsh and thanks for the mention.

 

 

I see in the comments that a query was made about the girder bridge . Was it a kit? Well not really as something of a 'one off' and the design would need another iteration or two to make it easier to build.

Dave

Thanks Dave,

 

There are two more in the pipeline (of which, more later).

 

It might have been better in my introduction if I'd remembered to put my teeth in!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

Speaking of visitors to see Little Bytham, a few weeks ago two Australian friends came to see it. One, Mark Laidlay, hasn't seen RMweb, but his comments below about his whole visit are very gratifying......... Not just for me, either. 

 

'Tony,

 

I’ve been back in Australia for some weeks and when I am asked “what was the best thing?” I answer our day at Little Bytham and Retford.  I went to the UK to do York exhibition, a 9 day steam tour, ride behind Scotsman and the Spring EM Expo but it was the unplanned things that stand out such as meeting you, Sandra, Gordon Gravett and Ian Hunter (owner, builder and operator of Broadford, an exhibition layout in England based on a prototype nearish to my home).  Your friendly nature made me feel very welcome and I feel indeed privileged to have visited Little Bytham and Retford.  When I posted my daily Facebook report some highly regarded Australian modellers (of Australian prototypes) knew immediately which model railways I was talking about.  Both are that well known around the world.'

 

I've told him to just Google RMweb, so he might well become a member. I hope so. 

 

Thanks Mark.

 

 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

Some little time ago, I showed a white metal 47XX where I'd been asked to put a motor in it.

 

Its chassis was a machined brass block.

 

 

I did consider making a replacement chassis, but cost imperatives dictated retention of the original brass block. So, I've just fitted an ancient Romford 'Bulldog' and Romford 40:gears. Astonishingly, on bench-testing it runs very sweetly (I've yet to connect-up the pick-ups and feeds to the motor).

 

The chassis was fitted with glued-on white metal springs, but these were so low as to foul the track, so they're now in the bin! 

I've also repaired the slidebars and crossheads, but where the brackets are now, I've no idea. I've also no idea why the second pair of drivers are flangeless (to negotiate too-tight curves?). They'll remain like that. 

 

An attempt seems to have been made in fitting brakes, but I'm taking them no further. 

 

When will I learn to say no to such overall requests? 

[Tony Wright]

A happy day today as Geoff Haynes brought over some locos he's just painted/weathered for me..............

 

Remember this DJH 'Britannia' I made? 

 

 

 

 

Well, it's now painted and weathered, and in service on LB. Though Brits were not that common on the ECML north of Peterborough, they did run, because those allocated to the ER at the time were shopped at Doncaster - so this one's on its way. 

 

Geoff's lovely work is based on a prototype picture, and he's captured Owen's appearance perfectly - just as I saw her in 1958/'59. 

 

Those who consider my omission of axle covers 'lazy', please inspect this model closely. 

 

Another loco painted/weathered according to a prototype picture............

 

 

 

 

Is this (yet another) DJH A1 (I resorted to laziness here!). 

 

After a modeller died, I found new homes for his collection two years ago.

 

One of his models was...............

 

 

 

This scratch-built B17 by Ray Lightfoot. I bought it from the collection and, after making sure it ran to my satisfaction, eventually handed it to Geoff with a request he weather it to make it more-natural (it was a bit 'flat' overall). 

 

I renumbered/renamed it to one I saw. I wasn't sure whether to ask him to weather the smokebox to look like this........

 

 

Maybe I'll have a go, but it's a bit extreme! 

 

I've said many times that weathering really brings models to life, and I cannot understand those who don't do it, especially for realism. Maybe they think it'll devalue what they've got, but I don't get that. I know it would be daft to obliterate a top pro paint job, but I'm seeking realism; not a wonderful, make-believe railway world where everything shines. 

 

It's not the first model of GAYTON HALL I've had through my hands.............

 

 

 

I built this Crownline kit at the turn of the century for Gilbert Barnatt (it's seen on is previous loft layout), and Ian Rathbone painted it in ex-works condition (though March-based B17s usually sparkled in my experience). Even so, there is light weathering present, especially on the motion. 

 

It's a bit more-detailed than the scratch-built one (though I hope those massive lamps have long gone) and both (at least to me) are much more-interesting than an RTR equivalent.