Wright writes.....

[gr.king]

Surely, the colour is most closely associated with the Great Western Railway?

It's time you went to see the headmaster.

 

 

 

Tourist buffet in "correct" colours:

 

Edited August 8, 2018 by gr.king

[MJI]

Being of a certain vintage myself, I have yet to see what is so new and/or special about Internet Shopping that gets everyone so passionate.

 

We had a virtually identical mechanism back in the 1970s when I got married and my new wife, to generate a little extra income, became an agent for the "Kay's Catalogue" (there were others, such as Littlewoods, Grattan etc.).  The only real difference was that instead of computer screens you 'browsed' a dirty great thick paperback book about two inches thick and in Glorious Technicolour.  You read the descriptions, selected the item you wanted, filled-in a form to order it, your Agent submitted the form (by 'snail mail' of course), you sat back and waited, and two or three days later a Man in a White Van turned-up with a parcel ... which you examined the contents of and then, 50% of the time, immediately sent it back by a 'returns' procedure - because once you actually saw 'it' in the flesh, or felt the material, or whatever, you realised it wasn't actually  what you'd expected or wanted - and had you only gone to a proper shop in the first place you'd have known that within seconds.

 

For all practical purposes, where's the difference?  Or am I missing something? 

 

Yes, actually I realise I am - you could, if you wished, pay for the goods in instalments to the Catalogue Company, rather than as nowadays having to pay up-front and in full, with any 'instalments' then owed to your Credit Card Company instead.  Big deal!

 

Last thing I bought like that was a telly.

 

Offered a big lump off so worked out rather cheaper than it should.

 

£1200 for a 32" flat widescreen - bargain, catalogue was £1500, retail £1400

 

And yes it was a bargain.

 

[jamie92208]

It's time you went to see the headmaster.

 

 

 

Tourist buffet in "correct" colours:

 

STA75227 tourist buffet 2.jpg

Midland Locos were green until they saw the light and started painting them a proper and more fitting colour.

 

Jamie

[t-b-g]

It is close to GCR express green.

 

Now you are just making things worse!

 

How could you suggest such a thing?

 

Wash your mouth out. GCR loco green was a magnificent Middle Brunswick Green, fully lined out in black, white and vermillion. The GWR and BR used "dull cowpat green".

 

Nothing like!

 

ps. My tongue is firmly in my cheek. Please don't take any offence as none is intended.

[davidw]

Good morning David,

 

The Tourist Buffet was to be part of a range of etched brass kits for all the Tourist stock. It was etched over 25 years ago, but remained no more than a test piece, consisting of the sides, ends and floor pan. For reasons lost in time now, the range never came on to the market, and the bits I had were all that was produced. They were given to me by a friend of a friend.

 

The best way of acknowledging the gift of a kit is to put it together, which I did last year. I acquired MJT bogies, underframe/roof/end detailing parts from MJT and Comet, and fitted an MJT extruded aluminium roof. The interior came from Southern Pride and the concertina gangways from Modellers Mecca.

 

I'd normally paint my own carriages, but Geoff and I barter with regard to his skills and my photography. I think (at least I hope) it's turned out quite well.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.

Thanks. It and the A3 look stunning. I always thought the A3 was one of few locos to 'look right' from all angles. Edited August 8, 2018 by davidw

[jwealleans]

You know there's a brass Tourist buffet in the RDEB range through Wizard Models, David?

[davidw]

You know there's a brass Tourist buffet in the RDEB range through Wizard Models, David?

I  didn't thanks; I'll take a look something else to add to the list.

[jamie92208]

I've just had a heart stopping moment when I looked t the photo of the bridge etches for a second time.   I thought that I'd made some ghastly mistake at the proof reading stage and that various parts had ended up as sludge at the bottom of the acid tank through not having enough tabs on or something similar.   However as usual Tony's photos are very well focused and I was able to see that things look to be in order.  A quick check with the artwork confirmed this.  I'm just osrry that I didn't get it done in time for the bridge to be in place this coming weekend.

 

Time for a glass of something methinks.   The ticker as returned to normal.

 

Jamie

[Clive Mortimore]

I've just had a heart stopping moment when I looked t the photo of the bridge etches for a second time.   I thought that I'd made some ghastly mistake at the proof reading stage and that various parts had ended up as sludge at the bottom of the acid tank through not having enough tabs on or something similar.   However as usual Tony's photos are very well focused and I was able to see that things look to be in order.  A quick check with the artwork confirmed this.  I'm just osrry that I didn't get it done in time for the bridge to be in place this coming weekend.

 

Time for a glass of something methinks.   The ticker as returned to normal.

 

Jamie

Hi Jamie

 

A question regarding the bridge. Has anyone done any theoretical load testing? Will the brass act as it should and not buckle with the weight of a white metal 4F or D16 in mid span? 

 

I am sure all will be fine, it was just a thought that was going through my head.

[jamie92208]

Hi Jamie

 

A question regarding the bridge. Has anyone done any theoretical load testing? Will the brass act as it should and not buckle with the weight of a white metal 4F or D16 in mid span? 

 

I am sure all will be fine, it was just a thought that was going through my head.

An interesting question Clive.   I'll try and give a semi serious answer.  Most of the steelwork in bridges was various sections of half inch plate, L's T's flats etc.   When I did the big river bridge on Green Ayre I used 12 thou brass which is exact scale.   The surprising thing was that when folded up and soldered the load bearing capacity was fabulous.  The strengthening girders between the caissons would take my weight (16 stone) despite only being built from 12 thou brass.

Here are two of them attached to the caissons with the upper and lower cross girders of the third part assembled.

These were also drawn from the original plans that I badgered Lancaster County Council for for 2 years. They had them as it's now a road bridge. The law of S0d applies as I didn't realise that one of the diagonals had come astray till after I took and uploaded the photo.

 

Tony's bridge is etched on 8 thou which is slightly overscale and I am sure it would take the weight.  However in the best traditions of modelling we have cheated and the deck is actually going to be a piece of PCB.  However it would have been very easy to do the whole lot as an etch and I'm quite sure it would have taken the weight.    As Tony and I measured the abutments and back in May I just hope that I've made the necessary allowances for the whole thing to fit.

 

Jamie

Edited August 8, 2018 by jamie92208

[pH]

When I did the big river bridge on Green Ayre I used 12 thou brass which is exact scale.   The surprising thing was that when folded up and soldered the load bearing capacity was fabulous.  The strengthening girders between the caissons would take my weight (16 stone) despite only being built from 12 thou brass.

 

 

I'm trying to imagine the scene of utter despair if they hadn't!

[Barry Ten]

Anyone remember that article in Railway Modeller on building an 00 version of the Royal Albert Bridge entirely out of cardboard? I seem to remember the author testing it with a Wrenn Castle or similar and not seeing any deflection. I always wondered what became of that bridge.

 

Al

[Enterprisingwestern]

I prefer the "Heggsomatic" bridge tester, and you can drink the contents of the test pieces!

 

Mike.

[Tony Wright]

Some northbound freights from 80 years ago feature this evening. 

 

 

 

As usual, my camera 'takes no prisoners'. Before we run these past the camcorder, that K3 tender will need looking at, and that leany bogie fish van. 

 

 

Some beautifully-distressed private-owner minerals to delight the eye. 

 

 

Because of the operating imperatives and parameters of Grantham (where most of the LNER stock usually runs), it's impossible to have trains of this length, and still operate the fiddle yard successfully. No such restrictions apply on LB - we could (and will) add more to this empty mineral rake for the running weekend. 

 

 

A bit of Mr King's resin wizardry heads this Down freight. 

 

 

Those with keen eyesight might observe that I've 'chopped down' one of the usual background trees in this shot. It was 'growing' right out of the J11's chimney. 

 

What am I finding out as I take pictures of this wonderful stock? 

 

I'm finding new photographic viewpoints (which I'll exploit for the usual time period). 

 

Both tension-locks and Kaydees just look awful on British-outline steam stock! I'm speaking here as a photographer, not as an operator. 

 

The 'list' I insist upon with my own stock is (was?) not universal in 1938. This includes weathering on all stock (even ex-works), full glazing in loco cabs (particularly spectacle plates), crews added, real coal in tenders, a uniform ride-height in train sets and rear lamps on all trains (this is to be attended to). 

 

What a privilege it is to have such a mouth-watering selection of items to point my camera at (and my camcorder). 

 

What a privilege it is to be part of such a team which has put this whole event together, and how committed everyone is to make it a success.  

 

Because we're all free from the tyrannies of DCC, everything and anything can run. 

 

Speaking of running, how well it all does perform (on a strange trainset, where precious little of it has run before).

 

How much of what's on display has been made, showing true model-making, self-reliance and real craftsmanship - no great RTR-dependence and farming jobs out to others. 

 

How much support I've been given by the team, and, particularly, Mo. I can't imagine too many wives being entirely happy with their homes being taken over on two weekends and during the weeks by a bunch of 'trainspotters'. 

 

That it really has been worthwhile so far, and will be this weekend.

 

That the event has generated a great response on RMWeb. 

 

Finally, I hope, from the visual point of view, I can do it justice. 

Edited August 8, 2018 by Tony Wright

[Barry Ten]

Thanks for these continuing updates on the exciting build-up. It really does look terrific with the LNER stock.

 

If it's all right, I'll just mention a couple of loco-related modelling projects which may be of interest?

 

Tony very kindly gave me the chance to build this Schools, from a Craftsman kit married to the Airfix body. I built and reported

on it an earlier stage a year or two ago, and all was going well, until I damaged the supplied motor. I have to say it ran really

well as it was, very smoothly and powerfully, so I was a bit disheartened to have made trouble for myself. There's nothing like

a serious set-back just when things are going well! I then ran into a secondary problem, which was that the main gear wheel had

seized tight on the axle. Nothing would shift it, despite throwing heat and WD40 and brute force at it for a night. In the end I

saw no option but to saw out the gear wheel by severing the axle with cutting disk, which was (mercifully) achieved very

easily, with no damage to the rest of the chassis. In the end I saw sacrificing one Romford axle as a fairly good result.

 

The next job was to make provision for a new motor/gearbox, and in this instance I went for the trusty DJH AM10, which

needed only a little modification to the frames to fit. I was very pleased with the performance. More usefully, being quite

low and compact, the AM10 provides plenty of space for weight where it's needed, above the driving wheels. Here's

the Schools under test, easily coping with 7 coaches and with plenty of haulage left over. It'll easily shift anything I

ask of it, unless I get a bigger layout. The front steps are a proof of concept, by the way - it'll get around my outer curves

but there are a couple of tighter points on the inner circuit which defeat it, for now. The steps don't have the characteristic

step-in of a Schools but I reckon generic steps look better than none at all.

 

 

And I've also started work on this Britannia chassis, which is the Comet version slightly modified to sit under an original

early 70s body. It might seem a bit pointless tarting up such an old model - I'm sure there are glaring inaccuracies to

that original product - but the Brit has a lot of personal significance to me, and I'd love to get it running again, with a

decent-looking chassis. This one will use an AM9 motor/gearbox driving on the middle axle, by the way.

 

 

Al

Edited August 9, 2018 by Barry Ten

[petrovich]

Some northbound freights from 80 years ago feature this evening. 

 

Trains running 47 K3 and O4.jpg

 

Trains running 48 K3 and O4.jpg

 

As usual, my camera 'takes no prisoners'. Before we run these past the camcorder, that K3 tender will need looking at, and that leany bogie fish van. 

 

Trains running 49 O4.jpg

 

Some beautifully-distressed private-owner minerals to delight the eye. 

 

Trains running 50 O4.jpg

 

Because of the operating imperatives and parameters of Grantham (where most of the LNER stock usually runs), it's impossible to have trains of this length, and still operate the fiddle yard successfully. No such restrictions apply on LB - we could (and will) add more to this empty mineral rake for the running weekend. 

 

Trains running 51 K2.jpg

 

A bit of Mr King's resin wizardry heads this Down freight. 

 

Trains running 51 J11.jpg

 

Those with keen eyesight might observe that I've 'chopped down' one of the usual background trees in this shot. It was 'growing' right out of the J11's chimney. 

 

What am I finding out as I take pictures of this wonderful stock? 

 

I'm finding new photographic viewpoints (which I'll exploit for the usual time period). 

 

Both tension-locks and Kaydees just look awful on British-outline steam stock! I'm speaking here as a photographer, not as an operator. 

 

The 'list' I insist upon with my own stock is (was?) not universal in 1938. This includes weathering on all stock (even ex-works), full glazing in loco cabs (particularly spectacle plates), crews added, real coal in tenders, a uniform ride-height in train sets and rear lamps on all trains (this is to be attended to). 

 

What a privilege it is to have such a mouth-watering selection of items to point my camera at (and my camcorder). 

 

What a privilege it is to be part of such a team which has put this whole event together, and how committed everyone is to make it a success.  

 

Because we're all free from the tyrannies of DCC, everything and anything can run. 

 

Speaking of running, how well it all does perform (on a strange trainset, where precious little of it has run before).

 

How much of what's on display has been made, showing true model-making, self-reliance and real craftsmanship - no great RTR-dependence and farming jobs out to others. 

 

How much support I've been given by the team, and, particularly, Mo. I can't imagine too many wives being entirely happy with their homes being taken over on two weekends and during the weeks by a bunch of 'trainspotters'. 

 

That it really has been worthwhile so far, and will be this weekend.

 

That the event has generated a great response on RMWeb. 

 

Finally, I hope, from the visual point of view, I can do it justice.

 

Keep the images coming Tony it really is a joy to look at the craftsmanship of you and your friends.

 

Regards

 

Peter

[gr.king]

Need for attention to tender of K3 No 4005 noted on my list. I'm shocked to see how severely nose up, tail down it is riding. Almost in danger of going into a stall if speed falls....

[Tony Wright]

Thanks for these continuing updates on the exciting build-up. It really does look terrific with the LNER stock.

 

If it's all right, I'll just mention a couple of loco-related modelling projects which may be of interest?

 

Tony very kindly gave me the chance to build this Schools, from a Craftsman kit married to the Airfix body. I built and reported

on it an earlier stage a year or two ago, and all was going well, until I damaged the supplied motor. I have to say it ran really

well as it was, very smoothly and powerfully, so I was a bit disheartened to have made trouble for myself. There's nothing like

a serious set-back just when things are going well! I then ran into a secondary problem, which was that main gear wheel had

seized tight on the axle. Nothing would shift it, despite throwing heat and WD40 and brute force at it for a night. In the end I

saw no option but to saw out the gear wheel by severing the axle with cutting disk, which was (mercifully) achieved very

easily, with no damage to the rest of the chassis. In the end I saw sacrificing one Romford axle as a fairly good result.

 

The next job was to make provision for a new motor/gearbox, and in this instance I went for the trust DJH AM10, which

needed only a little modification to the frames to fit. I was very pleased with the performance. More usefully, being quite

low and compact, the AM10 provides plenty of space for weight where it's needed, above the driving wheels. Here's

the Schools under test, easily coping with 7 coaches and with plenty of haulage left over. It'll easily shift anything I

ask of it, unless I get a bigger layout. The front steps are a proof of concept, by the way - it'll get around my outer curves

but there are a couple of tighter points on the inner circuit which defeat it, for now. The steps don't have the characteristic

step-in of a Schools but I reckon generic steps look better than none at all.

 

schools.jpg

 

And I've also started work on this Britannia chassis, which is the Comet version slightly modified to sit under an original

early 70s body. It might seem a bit pointless tarting up such an old model - I'm sure there are glaring inaccuracies to

that original product - but the Brit has a lot of personal significance to me, and I'd love to get it running again, with a

decent-looking chassis. This one will use an AM9 motor/gearbox driving on the middle axle, by the way.

 

brit.jpg

 

Al

Thanks for posting those images, Al,

 

You're making excellent progress and I'm really pleased that the Schools (which belonged to a dear, late friend of mine) has found a great home (Les would have been delighted). 

 

You speak of setbacks. A friend calls it the 'domino effect', where one problem leads to another......

 

You are not alone in your setbacks. 

 

Yesterday morning I decided to do some filming (single-handed) on the MR/M&GNR bit of the railway. As you know, it requires ducking in and out and under (more difficult on nearing 72-year old knees!). I set the trains up, started filming, and one immediately derailed. I should say in the train's defence, that the MR/M&GNR curves are a minimum of 2' radius. Where did it derail? In, of course, the least-accessible place. I'd started the camera rolling, so my profane mutterings were recorded! On righting the train, the tension-lock coupling attaching the train to the loco fell out, finding the tiniest gap between the end wall and the baseboard, and fell on to the floor - this is still with the camera recording; recording even more abusive language! Scramble on the floor, finding dead spiders, to recover the coupling and emerge in a welter of anger, cobwebs and dust. Finally capture the train in movement, only for it to stutter on leaving the scene. 

 

The next train............ Loco stutters right in front of camera. This is not a visiting one, it's my own Hornby D16 (one of the most visually-stunning locos I've seen, especially in lined LNER green liver). Investigate. What bl**dy-useless pick-ups. They're the flimsiest I've ever seen. Adjust, and they behave as if they're made of string! Even more profanity, because (because of the 'arrogance' of those who use DCC - requiring a decoder in the tender), the 'effing thing is semi-permanently attached to its tender by a plug-and-socket. Twisting to adjust it, one of the wires breaks! (I'm told this arrangement is too flimsy, anyway). Just to compound matters, one of the crew members I'd installed (obviously not too well with superglue), drops out - lands on the floor right in front of me, and promptly disappears. Where? More scrambling in the spiders' resting place to finally find him. Blow off cobwebs. Then notice that the single lamp has dropped off, too, taking the hopeless top lamp bracket with it. This is lost forever. Make new lamp bracket, attach new lamp, then make new pick-ups for the D16 (not, fortunately, with the camcorder still running) and resolve never, ever, ever, ever again to buy an RTR loco! D16 finally passes camera without stuttering.

 

Another train, this time hauled by my kit-built D9. Excellent running in front of camera, though one of the signals 'twitches' as it passes. Change points for another train (there are only three on the MR/M&GNR scenic section) and the omega loop operating the blades from the micro switch just breaks. Make new one and consult my dictionary of profanity because I'd used up all the bad words I already know. Get out iron to solder new loop in place. Iron doesn't work (yet it did just days before). Check fuse, and battery in meter is dead. Replace battery; fuse fine, iron dead. Chuck iron away and travel upstairs for another. Finally replace omega loop - point fine; situation good. Not for long, though. Because my replacement iron was temperature-controlled (by a big fat box), on moving it away, I knocked down a telegraph pole! Fix 'pole and find even more blasphemous words. 

 

Finally got the shots I wanted. What'll go wrong next? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.

Edited August 9, 2018 by Tony Wright

[Tony Wright]

Keep the images coming Tony it really is a joy to look at the craftsmanship of you and your friends.

 

Regards

 

Peter

It's my friends' craftsmanship, Peter,

 

I'm just the 'happy snapper' here.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[jwealleans]

 

I see they still haven't fitted the name plates to 6229.....

 

Mr. King and I examined that leany bogie fish van (GCR, ex-R & E Models and now available from Brassmasters if anyone's interested) when we were both there and it may need serious alteration to the bogie mount to sort it out. Withdrawal may be the best option. I'll have another look on Friday evening if you remind me.

 

It needs a rebuild anyway, tbh - I rolled the roof by hand and it shows, quite apart from the solder joints which have failed over the 18 (ish) years since I built it.

 

Edit - the van behind it looks as if the springs are very soft as well.

Edited August 9, 2018 by jwealleans

[Tony Wright]

Some not-much-happening shots from this morning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Points to self to note.............

 

Anything not weathered stands out as being entirely unnatural.

 

Always check couplings dangle properly before taking a picture.

 

If something has a missing wheel, it'll probably show in a picture. 

 

Simple scenes like these show how realistic the LNER stock is. 

Edited August 9, 2018 by Tony Wright

[LNER4479]

Some not-much-happening shots from this morning. 

 

 

Points to self to note.............

 

 

If something has a missing wheel, it'll probably show in a picture. 

 

Ah - you noticed that then. I think that coal cart suffered some collateral damage during Ally-Pally pack up. Not so noticeable in the last picture.

(altogether now: I got three wheels on my wagon ... but I'm still rolling along ... )

 

Ref the 'too clean' mechanical horse. Interesting (?) historical note here is that Grantham was one of the locations chosen in an LNER pilot project to replace traditional horse-drawn drays for local goods deliveries. So, on Day 1 at least, such things would indeed have been very clean. It's appearance at sleepy Little Bytham would however be on the 'incredible' side of  'improbable'.

 

Thanks for earlier comments on coal wagons incidentally - for once, they are my own work (the numbering / weathering of the loco is all Jonathan) for which a little explanation is called for. I had a need for a large number of ex-PO wagons on my previous 1950's LMR layout so can call on approx. 40 such wagons from that project. These were all RTR, some of which use the incorrect 10ft wheel spacing chassis of messers Mainline & Airfix. However, my knowledge level did improve over the years, thanks to the acquisition of 'Detailing and Improving Ready to Run Wagons' [iain Rice, Irwell Press, 1993] and 'The 4mm Coal Wagon - a step-by-step guide' [John Hayes, Wild Swan, 1999].

 

When it came to Grantham, I simply selected those existing wagons that seemed / were most appropriate to ECML (ie collieries whose wagons could have been seen heading to London - I will freely admit however that some of these have turned out to be incorrect in that regard). To these have been added more targeted vehicles. Notable in that selection therefore are two wagons bearing the legend 'S C'. Stephenson Clarke, one of the largest (the largest?) coal factors* of the era (*agents for coal distribution). When you start looking closely at pictures of the era, S C coal wagons are everywhere. Jonathan has recently undertaken a batch build.

 

Incidentally, and rather poignantly, Stephenson Clarke Shipping Limited went into liquidation in July 2012, during the life of the Grantham project. It was Great Britain's oldest shipping company, founded in the Hanoverian era (1730) when mass transport by rail was still 100 years away and the 'shipping' in its title solely referred to ships. Some of that might well have been coastal shipping from the coal staithes of the north east (supplied by the early waggon ways of the day) to London. Isn't it interesting where model railway research takes you?

Edited August 9, 2018 by LNER4479

[Denbridge]

Absolutely loving the pictures of a back dated LB. Just a thought; before the BR stock returns to your layout, has any consideration been given to doing Grantham the BR years?

[richard i]

Tony

I feel your pain, trying to sort out the running of the little tank engine you helped build the frames for, I broke one of the rods, so am now making a replacement. Aaaaaaaagh.

I will not be defeated by a little 2-4-0.

Richard

[gr.king]

TW_down_freights.jpg

 

I see they still haven't fitted the name plates to 6229.....

 

May be they were thrown in the scrap bin along with the tin bath tub arrangement, or perhaps respect is being shown for the fervently republican ideas of the similarly named former member for West Fife and Fife Central?