Wright writes.....

[Barry Ten]

25 minutes ago, Atso said:

 

I wonder if masking and shading using an airbrush might be a method to try and replicate imperfections on the casings/plate work. Not a locomotive as an example of this but my 30cm long model of the Enterprise from Star Trek. The saucer panels have been shaded over the main colour before misting another layer of the original colour to blend things a little. To me, this gives a more pleasing effect on the 1/1000 scale model than scribing in the lines, maybe it could suggest ripples and imperfections as well.

 

 

Splendid job!

 

Here's my model of the refitted Enterprise; in this case the panels and variations are done with decals. Your model captures the smoother look of the original Enterprise very nicely.

 

 

and lit up:

 

[Tom F]

8 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

 

 

Splendid job!

 

Here's my model of the refitted Enterprise; in this case the panels and variations are done with decals. Your model captures the smoother look of the original Enterprise very nicely.

 

 

and lit up:

 

That's beautiful @Barry Ten, the refit has always been my favourite Enterprise! That last photo could almost be a still from The Motion Picture.

 

 

[Woodcock29]

53 minutes ago, 65179 said:

 

They didn't have the gear, but Tony is right that they were built with provision for it with the 'boxes' at the rear etc.  There's a GA in E.M. Johnson's Locomotives of the Great Central Railway Vol.2. Tony commented on this GA on here back in 2012 without complete certainty. I've not seen any photos that fully verify the presence of all the boxes at the rear, but a photo of 62676 near the end of its life certainly shows the characteristic D shaped filler rather than a ROD round one.

 

Simon

My understanding also was that the D11/2s although not fitted with water pick-up they had the boxes on the back of the tenders. I'll see if I can find a photo somewhere.

[TheSignalEngineer]

It seems a long while ago now since getting some tips from Tony on layout coaches built up from etched sides on RTR donors.

Lockdown has given me a few hours to finish off two more for my excursion set of LMS Vestibules.

 

Firstly a D1746 BTO, based on the batch built by Leeds Forge in 1925/6. These were an all-steel coach identical in layout to the Period 1 wooden bodied coaches built in-house. The underframe is qiute different being  trussless and the roof has raised overlaps where the steel panels were rivetted together. The model has Comet sides on an Airfix BTK body, Airfix chassis modified with Comet bits and a spare Dapol Period 2 suburban roof.

 

The second is a D1807 Period 2 single-window TO. Again it is Comet sides this time on an assortment of bits from the oddments box starting with a Dapol suburban body and roof plus Airfix chassis. Gangway connections and additional underframe bits were Comet.

 

Interiors were cobbled up from Replica Mk1 SO parts I had lying around.

The Stones Ventilators are based on a sketch I sent to Guy Rixon who converted them to a 3D Cad for printing by Shapeways. I will add a bit to the appropriate thread for these when I get round to it.

 

Eric

Edited August 14, 2020 by TheSignalEngineer

[LNER4479]

Re ripples ...

 

This is Tornado's tender brand new. You might tempted to say that's just lousy manufacture but the truth is that any welded joint is prone to distortion due to the localised heat build up in the immediate area of the weld. Some welded assemblies actually take this into account by having the individual pieces slightly bent such that the welding effect brings them back in to line, however, not so easy to do on a large assembly like this.

 

Edited August 15, 2020 by LNER4479

[Woodcock29]

10 hours ago, t-b-g said:

Much of what I am saying is based on a gut feeling but I remain pretty much convinced that the D11 was fitted with a taller chimney from new. There is a decent broadside photo of Butler Henderson when new in Johnson. Laying a ruler along the top line shows that the chimney is ever so slightly taller than the dome. Now if they had to cut the dome down to fit the loading gauge and the chimney was already taller than the original dome, that is a good indication to me that the original chimney may have been taller than 1' 3", which was the confirmed height of the later chimneys.

 

I wish I had firm proof one way or the other and I do not but the chimney in the "as built" photos just looks a tiny bit taller to me. I am fully prepared to be wrong. I often am.

 

I think the only way I would be convinced 100% is a GCR period GA drawing. Drawings by modellers and books written many years later can always perpetuate myths.

 

I have a 7mm drawing that shows the chimney on a D11 as new at 10mm high. I don't take that as gospel either!

Tony G

Reading Johnson Vol 2 p121 he states that when designing the D11/2s under Gresley to suit the NB load gauge that 3" was lopped off the chimney (my actual words). The D11/2 chimneys were 12 inches so this further supports the view that the original Robinson chimney on the D11/1s was 1' 3". However, I agree it would be good to see a Works drawing of some form to corroborate this. I was going to email John Quick to ask the question but I don't seem to have his email anymore - I've been to his place a couple of times for GCRS modelling open days in 2008 and 2013.

 

I do enjoy these discussions on aspects like this. I can't have them with any of my local model railway chums as there aren't many LNER modellers in  Adelaide and I'm one of the few who gets right into the detail like this here in Adelaide.

 

Andrew 

[Woodcock29]

On the subject of dents in casings, one of my most vivid early memories is of seeing an original BoB or WC at Exeter St Davids (on 23 March 1964) which had a huge dent in its side but I don't have a photo. I would have been 8 at the time and it wasn't long before we emigrated to Australia.

 

Further, here are two photos of City of Wells at the ELR taken on on 6 May 2017 which show the unevenness of the casing on both engine and tender.

Andrew

Edited August 15, 2020 by Woodcock29
Added photos

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

It seems a long while ago now since getting some tips from Tony on layout coaches built up from etched sides on RTR donors.

Lockdown has given me a few hours to finish off two more for my excursion set of LMS Vestibules.

 

Firstly a D1746 BTO, based on the batch built by Leeds Forge in 1925/6. These were an all-steel coach identical in layout to the Period 1 wooden bodied coaches built in-house. The underframe is qiute different being  trussless and the roof has raised overlaps where the steel panels were rivetted together. The model has Comet sides on an Airfix BTK body, Airfix chassis modified with Comet bits and a spare Dapol Period 2 suburban roof.

 

The second is a D1807 Period 2 single-window TO. Again it is Comet sides this time on an assortment of bits from the oddments box starting with a Dapol suburban body and roof plus Airfix chassis. Gangway connections and additional underframe bits were Comet.

 

Interiors were cobbled up from Replica Mk1 SO parts I had lying around.

The Stones Ventilators are based on a sketch I sent to Guy Rixon who converted them to a 3D Cad for printing by Shapeways. I will add a bit to the appropriate thread for these when I get round to it.

 

Eric

These are splendid carriages, Eric,

 

Thanks for showing us.

 

One of the conversions I undertook was a Di. 1791 CK, but you've taken the ones you've produced to a much higher standard than mine.

 

 

 

Note the total lack of Stones ventilators on this. Are the like of those on your coaches available for sale?

 

I've also yet to alter the roof on my model - a future job.......................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Re ripples ...

 

This is Tornado's tender brand new. You might tempted to say that's just lousy manufacture but the truth is that any welded joint is prone to distortion due to the localised heat build up in the immediate area of the weld. Some welded assemblies actually take this into account by having the individual pieces slightly bent such that the welding affect brings them back in to line, however, not so easy to do on a large assembly like this.

 

Thanks Graham,

 

Presumably many of the areas on TORNADO's tender filled filled before priming/painting. When I first saw her completed on the GC, in grey, the pictures I took of her didn't reveal so many ripples.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Michael Edge]

The specification for the Eurotunnel shuttle loco bodies, built at Qualter Hall in Barnsley, was that the sides had to be completely flat. This was done by hydraulically stretching the sides before welding them up, it was certainly a new technique to Qualts at the time.

[Atso]

9 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

 

Splendid job!

 

Here's my model of the refitted Enterprise; in this case the panels and variations are done with decals. Your model captures the smoother look of the original Enterprise very nicely.

 

 

and lit up:

 

 

Thank you. Your refit looks incredible and, like Tom, it is my favourite incarnation of the 'Big E'. Is it the Polar Lights kit?

 

Your comments make me feel as though I've achieved the aim trying out shading techniques for the first time. I wanted to retain the smoother finish of the original filming miniature (if 11 feet can be considered miniature!), while suggesting more detail/texture than is really there. 

[grahame]

38 minutes ago, Atso said:

 

Thank you. Your refit looks incredible and, like Tom, it is my favourite incarnation of the 'Big E'. Is it the Polar Lights kit?

 

Your comments make me feel as though I've achieved the aim trying out shading techniques for the first time. I wanted to retain the smoother finish of the original filming miniature (if 11 feet can be considered miniature!), while suggesting more detail/texture than is really there. 

 

For the Trekkies on this thread, this, that popped up in my email inbox this morning, might be of interest:

 

 

 

 

[MikeTrice]

A few more imperfect prototypes. I accept that preserved items are not 100% reliable but have long held the view that as modellers were are sometimes too perfect in our models.

 

 

 

 

(Even I did not try and replicate the sagging of the body)

 

 

Quick, solder that seam and fill with putty:

 

[FarrMan]

15 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

What a chump I am!

 

Quite-rightly pointed out.

 

Many thanks, John. 

 

What can I have been thinking of?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Burying your cat?

 

Lloyd

[Tony Wright]

With Little Bytham now complete, I've been delving back through the progress pictures I've taken down the years. Though many step-by-step shots were taken from 2008 onward (when the layout was started), I really only started organising pictures in date order six year ago. Thus, just to see how much has been done, to start with some shots from 2014, '15 and '16. 2014 was the year of my recovery from depression (for over two years prior to that nothing was done). How time flies!

 

 

My part-scratch-built K5 takes an empty stock working northwards. Apart from the goods shed, all of the buildings are just mock-ups at this stage. The Down slow splitting starter is yet to be built, but all the other signals are in situ, if not fully-operational. 

 

 

One of the greatest of delights for me is when friends visit LB, bringing with them things they've made. Made to run. On one such occasion six years ago, Morgan Gilbert brought along this beautiful A4. It has a detailed/repainted Hornby body on a mechanism built by Morgan. It's dead right for 1958, since '12 was one of the designated 64B A4s for working the 'Lizzie' that summer. 

 

 

A view looking north in 2015, as A2 60533 HAPPY KNIGHT (Crownline/DJH/Kinsey/Wright/Rathbone) heads an Up fast freight. 

 

Experiments with point rodding are beginning, the surface on the Down platforms has been laid (nothing, as yet, on the Up apart from the base), still no Down slow splitting starter and much on the MR/M&GNR still to do. At least the three huts on the Down side are complete, though the 'box is still just a mock-up. 

 

 

2015 was the year that the Heljan O2s arrived. My PDK O2/4 stands alongside a Heljan O2/4 for comparison. 

 

 

A visitor in 2016 was Andy Sparkes, who brought along this jolly N1 and Quad-Art set he'd built. 

 

Though the footbridge, the island platform buildings and booking office are still just mock-ups, the signal box is now the proper one and one can just make out the Down starter. All the signals were fully-working by this time.

 

 

An overall view from 2016. I've installed and painted the backscene, and the stationmaster's house, booking office, island platform buildings and The Willoughby are now in place. However, the railway cottages in the goods yard and the cottages south of the pub aren't even mock-ups, and the footbridge is still just that.  

 

The J50 on the headshunt has an interesting 'history'. I acquired it from the estate of a deceased modeller. It was OK, ran well but the painting was tar-like. No problem; to make it more sale-able, and it being an etched kit, why not dunk it in Nitromors overnight and repaint it? Big mistake! Who superglues an etched kit together? A lesson learned - check first! It's now soldered together and painted, and sold....................

 

 

[Tony Wright]

11 minutes ago, FarrMan said:

Burying your cat?

 

Lloyd

Good morning Lloyd,

 

'Burying your cat?'

 

I've done enough of that in the past to never want to do it again, especially after they've been killed on the road or, worst of all, by a train. 

 

I rarely get sentimental about things, but for most of my life I've had cats. Those who've never been 'owned' by a feline will never fully-understand these enigmatic creatures - one minute purring on a lap, the next a lethal killer. Some hate them, and I can understand that, but, particularly on a winter's evening, with a cat stretched out in front of a roaring fire, it somehow feels like 'home'. 

 

 

Anyway, this is the latest, now spayed (how could I have been so careless as to not spell this correctly?)

 

Apologies for being off-topic on a model railway thread, but she's a rescue cat in need of a new home. We'll have to see what Jilly makes of the railway when she's let out next month...........

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[t-b-g]

6 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

Tony G

Reading Johnson Vol 2 p121 he states that when designing the D11/2s under Gresley to suit the NB load gauge that 3" was lopped off the chimney (my actual words). The D11/2 chimneys were 12 inches so this further supports the view that the original Robinson chimney on the D11/1s was 1' 3". However, I agree it would be good to see a Works drawing of some form to corroborate this. I was going to email John Quick to ask the question but I don't seem to have his email anymore - I've been to his place a couple of times for GCRS modelling open days in 2008 and 2013.

 

I do enjoy these discussions on aspects like this. I can't have them with any of my local model railway chums as there aren't many LNER modellers in  Adelaide and I'm one of the few who gets right into the detail like this here in Adelaide.

 

Andrew 

 

I enjoy these discussions too. I often think that of all the many millions of people in the world, there are probably no more than a handful who have even the slightest interest in how tall a D11 chimney is, or even what a D11 is. It is one of the big plusses for RMWeb that it can put like minded people from opposite ends of the planet in touch over such things.

 

I am friends with John Q and often ring to pick his brains on matters GCR. I may give him a call later.

[FarrMan]

2 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Lloyd,

 

'Burying your cat?'

 

I've done enough of that in the past to never want to do it again, especially after they've been killed on the road or, worst of all, by a train. 

 

I rarely get sentimental about things, but for most of my life I've had cats. Those who've never been 'owned' by a feline will never fully-understand these enigmatic creatures - one minute purring on a lap, the next a lethal killer. Some hate them, and I can understand that, but, particularly on a winter's evening, with a cat stretched out in front of a roaring fire, it somehow feels like 'home'. 

 

 

Anyway, this is the latest, now spayed (how could I have been so careless as to not spell this correctly?)

 

Apologies for being off-topic on a model railway thread, but she's a rescue cat in need of a new home. We'll have to see what Jilly makes of the railway when she's let out next month...........

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Tony

 

Apologies for any upset caused. We used to be possessed by two very rural cats, though I did not particularly take to them, neither did they particularly take to me. When the surviving one died at 23 years old, I had to pretend to be upset. They were very intelligent cats, and quite good hunters, especially for rabbits. They were not much use for keeping the stags out, though - one year the cabbage count was - Stags 52, us 1.

 

Lloyd

[Porcy Mane]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

the pictures I took of her didn't reveal so many ripples.

 

 

From the thread four years ago. The photograph was taken in  02/05/2010.

 

 

 

P

[Tony Wright]

46 minutes ago, FarrMan said:

Tony

 

Apologies for any upset caused. We used to be possessed by two very rural cats, though I did not particularly take to them, neither did they particularly take to me. When the surviving one died at 23 years old, I had to pretend to be upset. They were very intelligent cats, and quite good hunters, especially for rabbits. They were not much use for keeping the stags out, though - one year the cabbage count was - Stags 52, us 1.

 

Lloyd

No upset caused at all Lloyd,

 

In time, grief passes.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited August 15, 2020 by Tony Wright
to add something

[MJI]

I had a cat growing up died when he was 18.

 

I currently have a smallish dog cuddled up against me.

[polybear]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Lloyd,

 

'Burying your cat?'

 

I've done enough of that in the past to never want to do it again, especially after they've been killed on the road or, worst of all, by a train. 

 

I rarely get sentimental about things, but for most of my life I've had cats. Those who've never been 'owned' by a feline will never fully-understand these enigmatic creatures - one minute purring on a lap, the next a lethal killer. Some hate them, and I can understand that, but, particularly on a winter's evening, with a cat stretched out in front of a roaring fire, it somehow feels like 'home'. 

 

 

I'd love a cat, but the worry regarding traffic stops me from getting one.  Keeping a cat locked in a house all it's life doesn't feel right, so no kitty for me

 

[TheSignalEngineer]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

One of the conversions I undertook was a Di. 1791 CK, but you've taken the ones you've produced to a much higher standard than mine.

 

 

 

Note the total lack of Stones ventilators on this. Are the like of those on your coaches available for sale?

 

I've also yet to alter the roof on my model - a future job.......................

The Stones Ventilators are available from Guy Rixon's Shapeways shop. I sketched them up based on a drawing in a Jenkinson book and some photos I took at York.

The main problem is that the Comet etches all seem to have different size holes so it was a case of filing them out to slot the vents in. They have to be printed with some depth as they are too brittle otherwise.

I will write up a workbench series on the LMS Vestibule set when I have posted my last Replica / Bachmann Period 1 cut'n'shut, the D1755 BCK which is sitting waiting for the photos to be added. 

The late 1950s excursion set came about from pictures found when looking at a book by Roger Shenton called Changing Tracks. I noticed the make-up of the specials to Dudley Zoo which I use as an excuse for running a few Rule 1 locos. It now consists of a P1 two-window brake, P1 two-window open, P2 large window open and P3 brake from Comet sides on RTR donors  along with a repainted Replica P3 open. There's one more Replica coach in stock but it's future use has yet to be decided.

 

Eric

[Bucoops]

We had quite a few cats when I lived at my parents' home. Alas I am allergic to pet dander so whilst I did love them they made me sneeze a lot! One was given to us by a relative who felt the flat they were moving to was not fair for him. His name was Smith, named after the cure lead singer. However many years later it was confessed to us that his name was really Spliff, named after something completely different!

[Tony Wright]

LB pictures this time from 2017 and 2018...............

 

 

By 2017, the bridge carrying the private drive to Grimsthorpe Castle had been completed (made by Bob Dawson) and I'd installed the trap point. However, there are no signals as yet.

 

Geoff West's little signalmen chat away. 

 

The plastic point rodding I made at this location is rubbish! 

 

 

Seen from the M&GNR embankment, the small wooden dwellings I made have been installed, though the ex-GNR semis are still no more than a patch of 'earth'.

 

Yet another DJH A1 I've built approaches in the distance. 

 

 

An overall view from 2017. No point rodding as yet, though the footbridge is now complete. No cottages to the right as yet, either.

 

That girder bridge is far too tall!  

 

A year later, with a fair bit more done......................

 

 

The half-relief cottages to the south of the Willoughby are now in place. I built them from Wills plastic sheeting. They're not quite convincing in perspective, though I'm generally pleased with them. 

 

 

The ex-GN semis are now in place (built by Bob Dawson), and the D9 I built for Bytham's LNER weekend passes overhead. Still no MR signals as yet.

 

 

Ellen Sparkes made the gardens to go with the cottages. 

 

The beginnings of the point rodding are just visible to the extreme right.

 

 

And finally.............. Later in 2018, Tony Gee made and installed the beautiful MR lower-quadrant signals.

 

Next it'll be last year and this year......................