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Wright writes.....


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1 hour ago, Andy Hayter said:

I use crocodile clips.

 

Re use of brass strip: Brass is weak with regards to work hardening.  Bending back and forth - as I guess your strip will do as cassettes are added and removed, lakes the metal crystalline and cause it to fail.   It's the same process we use when that rusty nail fails to come out of a piece of wood.  Waggle it back and forth and lo, it snaps off.  

 

I'm not sure if there's any science to back up the following anecdotal observation, but in line with the weakness of brass, I find that when forming sharp bends in wire (eg for handrails or Spratt & Winkle loops) if I form the bend slowly, it seems to tolerate being undone and adjusted more than if the bend is formed quickly. Could be complete cobblers of course.

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5 hours ago, Tony Teague said:

I hate to disturb this stimulating discussion on accountancy, project management and the like 🥱, but may I ask a model railway related question?

 

My layout has a cassette system for extra storage and the cassettes are formed from a plywood strip with aluminium angle on either side which act as rails for trains stored on the cassettes; when installed for running, the cassettes are held in place and connected electrically by a brass strip to either side, and unfortunately, despite really very little usage one of these brass strips has snapped off.

 

This is a view of the arrangement pre-snapping, withe the cassette stretching to the left and the two brass strips curving out to the top & bottom of the image:

 

SJPP117010302200117.jpg.ab69254c8a5076a312c5b22be1ea3fdc.jpg

 

So my question is, how have other people located and connected their cassettes and should I be using something more flexible or springy than brass?

 

Apologies for this railway-related intrusion, but all suggestions appreciated!

 

Tony

I didn't look closely enough when I commented earlier. Rather than using those external brass strips, I made the internal flat strips that you have there differently. Mine are pieces of tin plate, cut from a can, folded over on themselves (leaving the protruding folded end slightly rounded rather than folded flat) so that when screwed down the projecting folded end exerts some natural downward pressure. They provide both the alignment and the electrical contact.

Edited by gr.king
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On 10/02/2024 at 22:40, Clive Mortimore said:

But I no longer drink alcohol.

 

And being too old to be a rocker, and chained to the sink by marriage preventing chasing the girls doesn't leave you with much now . . . . 

 

The salvation is railway modelling.

 

 

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Thanks for the several suggestions relating to the electrical connectivtiy of my cassettes; a further suggestion has been made to me 'off-line', via the use of audio jackplugs attached to the cassettes, which sounds interesting and if anything, even more fool-proof than crocodile clips.

The locating aspect for the cassettes is less of an issue because there are already brackets in place which make getting this wrong quite difficult.

 I will explore and report back in due course.

Tony

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29 minutes ago, grahame said:

 

And being too old to be a rocker, and chained to the sink by marriage preventing chasing the girls doesn't leave you with much now . . . . 

 

The salvation is railway modelling.

 

 

I think the railway modelling should be 'in addition to', rather than instead of......🙂

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14 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Just a taster of what's to come...............

 

SEFCastle5033BROUGHTONCASTLE.jpg.bbe78e77df602264bbffd7ea1f12a182.jpg

 

A South Eastern Finecast Castle, Portescap-powered. I'm asking £200.00 for this ONO.

 

WestwardGrange6831BEARLEYGRANGE.jpg.2ea64cf229258851b973ef61502df736.jpg

 

A Westward Grange, powered by a Comet/Mashima combination. I'm asking £150.00 for this ONO. 

 

Both these locos were built/painted/weathered by Peter Lawson. Although he only built models for himself, every one I've tested so far runs beautifully - far better than probably 90% of the 'professionally-built' locos I've had through my hands in recent times (including those by one or two 'well-known' names!). 

 

What I find particularly interesting about this collection is that Peter was basing his models on those seen in the Chester/Wirral area; meaning, I've seen every one of the prototypes they're based on. Including..................

 

57XX8729.jpg.1eb08b9189c70a0f6719485f3a5d6c70.jpg

 

8729. This was one of Chester's pet panniers, always fussing about at the western end of Chester General. I don't think there was a day when I visited the station that it wasn't present. 

 

It looks to be an RTR body (made by whom?) on Comet frames with Comet/Mashima drive. 

 

Just as I remember her, she's not for sale. Why not? Though I have no 'use' for her, I've bought her myself! How could I not?

 

Anyone interested in the two for sale seen so far, please PM me. 

 

There'll be more to come over the coming days. With RTR now in excess of £200.00 for many tender locos, I think I'm asking reasonable prices. 

 

Thanks in anticipation.............

 

 

 

Feel free to advertise them on my thread @Tony Wright

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1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Just a taster of what's to come...............

 

Both these locos were built/painted/weathered by Peter Lawson. Although he only built models for himself, every one I've tested so far runs beautifully - far better than probably 90% of the 'professionally-built' locos I've had through my hands in recent times (including those by one or two 'well-known' names!). 

 

Thanks Tony, for taking on the initial batch of locos to be found new homes, on the usual 10% to CRUK basis.

For info to any who might be interested, Peter is a friend of my Dad's and has asked me to help find new homes for his collection. Sadly, he has become too frail to model any more and enjoy his models. It's a very credible decision and I feel honoured to be doing what I can to help out. The kit sales last year were from the same source. He is greatly heartened by the interest shown so far.

 

I estimate about 150 locos in total, a mixture of RTR and kit-built. Largely ex-GWR and ex-LMS types, with some BR standard types making up the numbers. All in 1950s/60s BR condition. It's going to take most of the year (I suspect) to recover, catalogue and package (not all have their original boxes) before passing on to Tony. A steady stream is probably better than all in one go in any case, to avoid overwhelming Tony & Mo. I've agreed with Tony that I'll look after the RTR items but I plan to provide a list on Tony's thread.

 

Oh - and there's coaches and wagons as well. Lots of coaches and wagons. 

 

1 hour ago, gwrrob said:

 

Feel free to advertise them on my thread @Tony Wright

Rob - that's very kind of you. Neither Tony nor I claim much expertise where it comes to GWR types!

 

Graham

 

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2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

57XX8729.jpg.1eb08b9189c70a0f6719485f3a5d6c70.jpg

It looks to be an RTR body (made by whom?) on Comet frames with Comet/Mashima drive. 

It’s either a Mainline, Replica, or early Bachmann body from the original design split chassis version of the 57xx.   They all used the same body tooling, which is pretty accurate,  it was changed and improved when Bachmann introduced the new chassis version around 2004.

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Had a look at these on Tony and Mo's stand at Doncaster. They are very well built and look the part. He has turned some Ks kits into beautiful models .. which speaks volumes for his skills! No good to me.. the BR/LMS ones will be of interest.

 

Baz

 

 

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On 09/02/2024 at 14:13, 60526 said:

Std 5's at 34A has got my attention, I've the Bmann model but it looked out of place for a southern ECML stud. I've just looked at brdatabase.info and found 4 allocated although the latter 3 are more relevant to your modelling of LB -

73071 - 02/56 to 05/57, BR1C tender?

73157 - 11/57 to 11/58, BR1B tender?

73158 - 11/57 to 11/58, BR1B tender?

73159 - 11/57 to 11/58, BR1B tender?

The tender information was obtained from a Dec 2005 Model Rail article.

 

Would any of the Sheffield std 5's have come past Little Bytham?

 

As usual I'm having trouble keeping up with WW but this caught my eye and jogged a memory of a comment in PN Townend's Top Shed where he mentioned the allocation of Std 5s. So I looked it up again and was surprised to find on page 109 (1975 edition) a mention of an LMS Black 5, 44911, also being allocated on loan to 34A which I had forgotten about. Apparently it was used for AWS testing. There was also some suggestion in the text that along with the Std 5s it may have been used sometime on the Kings X - Hull service although the B1s were generally preferred by the enginemen - larger locos not being permitted between Doncaster and Hull. So could it be possible that this LMS Black 5 would have passed through LB. It would be a little early for Tony's time period for LB (1958?) but close enough for Rule1.

 

BRDatabase records 44911 transferred from Chester w/e 25/2/56 on loan to KingsX until w/e 18/5/57 when it returned to Chester. Given the Chester connection Tony may well have seen it there. With the wide ranging of LMS Black 5s on specials etc I guess they may not have been that rare on the ECML north of Peterborough.

 

In connection with nicknames, also discussed earlier, I think I read somewhere that 'Black' 5s was used to distinguish them from Jubilees which were called 'Reduns'.  

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2 hours ago, Keith Turbutt said:

 

As usual I'm having trouble keeping up with WW but this caught my eye and jogged a memory of a comment in PN Townend's Top Shed where he mentioned the allocation of Std 5s. So I looked it up again and was surprised to find on page 109 (1975 edition) a mention of an LMS Black 5, 44911, also being allocated on loan to 34A which I had forgotten about. Apparently it was used for AWS testing. There was also some suggestion in the text that along with the Std 5s it may have been used sometime on the Kings X - Hull service although the B1s were generally preferred by the enginemen - larger locos not being permitted between Doncaster and Hull. So could it be possible that this LMS Black 5 would have passed through LB. It would be a little early for Tony's time period for LB (1958?) but close enough for Rule1.

 

BRDatabase records 44911 transferred from Chester w/e 25/2/56 on loan to KingsX until w/e 18/5/57 when it returned to Chester. Given the Chester connection Tony may well have seen it there. With the wide ranging of LMS Black 5s on specials etc I guess they may not have been that rare on the ECML north of Peterborough.

 

In connection with nicknames, also discussed earlier, I think I read somewhere that 'Black' 5s was used to distinguish them from Jubilees which were called 'Reduns'.  

Good afternoon Keith,

 

Thanks for that info'.

 

44941? Yes, I definitely saw it (though at Chester, not on the ECML). Still, for Rule 1, it's a definite possibility; definitely something different! 

 

Interestingly, Irwell's The Book of the Black Fives, Part 4 makes no mention of its loan to 34A, nor any mention of it ever being shedded at Chester (6A?). 

 

I wonder if Hornby will be doing a manifestation of its type (domed boiler, centre top feed and (what looks like) a welded tender? It would be quicker than my building it (hypocrisy with regard to RTR in this case!).

 

Lovely cats, by the way..........

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Edited by Tony Wright
Wrong Black Five - see later posts
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9 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon Keith,

 

Thanks for that info'.

 

44941? Yes, I definitely saw it (though at Chester, not on the ECML). Still, for Rule 1, it's a definite possibility; definitely something different! 

 

 

 

 

Hi Tony

 

The number is 44911 - was that what you meant to type?

 

Keith

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Keith Turbutt said:

Hi Tony

 

The number is 44911 - was that what you meant to type?

 

Keith

 

 

Of course - what a clot I am!

 

Yes, 44911 - there in the Irwell book as at 6A in 1955, 34A (on loan) in 1956, and back to Chester in 1957.

 

1956? Two years before Bytham's depiction, but only a year before when the Black Five returned home. That's good enough for me!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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2 hours ago, Keith Turbutt said:

In connection with nicknames, also discussed earlier, I think I read somewhere that 'Black' 5s was used to distinguish them from Jubilees which were called 'Reduns'.  

The quote I'm convinced I've read - but, frustratingly, couldn't put my hands on just now - went something like:

 

'The Black 'uns are alright*; but the Red 'uns won't steam!' [1930s LMS enginemen]

(*if I've got that right, then one of the classic understatements of all (railway) time)

 

The statement would have been 1935-ish when both the new Stanier mixed traffic and express passenger 4-6-0s were coming on stream in numbers. As is well-known, they had markedly different introductions, the 5MTs making an immediate (positive) impact, whereas the 5XPs suffered from indifferent steaming and were soon being compared unfavourably with the 'Patriots', a type they were supposed to be an improvement on. A J Powell in 'Stanier 4-6-0s at Work' records 17 different boiler configurations in an attempt to get them right! Not that they didn't tinker with the Black 5 boilers, mind ...

 

The 1937 exploits of 5660 'Rooke' over the Settle & Carlisle proved what a good inherent design the 5XPs ('Jubilee) were, with the draughting and superheating optimised.

Edited by LNER4479
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36 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

I've been taking some 'similar' shots to the ones I posted the other day; those taken by John Forman. 


Any comments?

 

 

Other than the colour, the greater depth of field in my pictures is the biggest difference I can detect, though I don't know if John used a lens which stops down to F.45; unlikely, being hand-held. 

 

Tony

Also seemed to me that there were differences in the focal lengths used in several of the shots; without knowing what he used it would be incredibly difficult to replicate things precisely. Nevertheless an interesting exercise and some different angles from those normally seen.

Tony

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1 hour ago, Tony Teague said:

Tony

Also seemed to me that there were differences in the focal lengths used in several of the shots; without knowing what he used it would be incredibly difficult to replicate things precisely. Nevertheless an interesting exercise and some different angles from those normally seen.

Tony

They do show up just how  small a radius curve is required to get the track layout into a reasonable space. Tony does a brilliant job in his photographs to conceal this.

Bernard

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13 minutes ago, JamesSpooner said:

I do like the additional depth of focus you have in your photos, as well as the slightly cooler colour palate.  The black and white photos also resonate well, partly I suppose, because one is so used to seeing photos of the prototype in black and white. When I had a carpel tunnel op just over a year ago I tried experimenting on my layout in the absence of being able to model.  One of those photos is attached.

 

Nigel

IMG_9452.jpeg.1a8202e5f04f93b8fc2197afb48e9511.jpeg

 

Nigel

Lavenham ?

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