Wright writes.....

[Barry Ten]

15 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Further to my latest EM B17, may I make a request, please? 

 

Does anyone have an early Hornby B17 - tender-drive, made in England - loco and tender body (Group Standard) in lined BR green, please? I'll gladly pay a reasonable price. I'm not bothered with the loco chassis or tender-drive. 

 

I recall at some shows there's a trader selling all sorts of loco/tender bodies (I think he used to go to the Woking Show), but I don't know if he stocked the B17s. 

 

Please PM me if you can help. Thanks in anticipation. 

 

That trader is normally at the Cardiff show which is in a few weeks, Tony. If you haven't had any luck by then, I'll certainly have a look at his stand, assuming him to be there.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Barry Ten
formatting

[great central]

7 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

 

That trader is normally at the Cardiff show which is in a few weeks, Tony. If you haven't had any luck by then, I'll certainly have a look at

his stand, assuming him to be there.

 

He does, or did, Stafford as well IIRC

[Jesse Sim]

Excuse the photos of a model locomotive in this Harry Potter/ 3D printing thread but I can’t help myself. 
 

Finished this Craftsman C12 today, very happy with the outcome. Bring on the next build - a B16!

Edited August 4, 2022 by Jesse Sim

[Tony Wright]

Three friends visited today, bringing with them............

 

 

A nicely-weathered Bachmann O4.

 

 

And a new Bachmann V2. I remain ambivalent about these; the BR green is excellent, and the cabside and tender side treatments are beautifully-applied, though the boiler band lining is a bit bright. I don't like the funny smokebox front and, though I accept that the real V2 motion was heavy, this is too chunky for my tastes. I'll stick with my kit-built V2s. This did run well, in fairness. 

 

How's this for a bargain?

 

 

Bought at a Doncaster swapmeet for £110.00, this PDK A2/1 was well-built and well-painted. It didn't run that well to begin with, but ten minutes of Wright's fiddling soon sorted it out. 

 

Phil and Tim, thanks for buying those models; all proceeds to CRUK. £200.00 made in no time! 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

More progress on the EM B17.............

 

 

The tender frames were chunkily cast in tough mazak to support the (ugh!) tender-drive. 

 

 

Shifting some of it (a lot of it) to accommodate a new etched sub-frame meant broken piercing saw blades, many dark threats and much in the way of profanity!

 

 

I made the sub-frame from a SE Finecast product. 

 

 

Amazingly, it fitted with not too much in the way of modifications.

 

 

Giving an entirely compatible ride-height with the loco. 

 

Just the valve gear to make now.

 

A friend is dropping round a better B17 body over the weekend.

 

Thanks Lee. 

 

 

[DougN]

22 hours ago, Jesse Sim said:

 

 Bring on the next build - a B16!

 

Jesse, have you managed to secure a Yeadons register for the B16's they are extremely useful for the detail. Oh and whos the manufacturer of the kit? 

 

Sing out if you need me to scan a page for you if you need! 

 

 

[Jesse Sim]

2 hours ago, DougN said:

Jesse, have you managed to secure a Yeadons register for the B16's they are extremely useful for the detail. Oh and whos the manufacturer of the kit? 

 

Sing out if you need me to scan a page for you if you need! 

 

 

I don’t have Yeadons book of the B16s but I do have the set at @jwealleans house 🤣

[robertcwp]

Returning briefly to Barnums, I stumbled across this image on Flickr whilst looking for something else:

 

Wortley North. by Keith Long, on Flickr

[robertcwp]

11 hours ago, robertcwp said:

Returning briefly to Barnums, I stumbled across this image on Flickr whilst looking for something else:

 

Wortley North. by Keith Long, on Flickr

And this one: 

Wortley North. by Keith Long, on Flickr

[t-b-g]

3 hours ago, robertcwp said:

And this one: 

Wortley North. by Keith Long, on Flickr

 

A very nice find Robert!

 

I think those rather lovely photos illustrate why I mentioned the handrails initially. Even at that stage of the life of the vehicles, they are such a major feature that they are worth getting right on a model.

 

How they stayed so bright and shiny, even in departmental use, is something to ponder. There is no way that the whole length of the handrail would be polished that evenly through day to day use, so somebody must have been taking the trouble to keep them clean.

 

I would presume that the photos are the two sides of the same vehicle, unless they had two there at that time.

[St Enodoc]

1 minute ago, t-b-g said:

How they stayed so bright and shiny, even in departmental use, is something to ponder. There is no way that the whole length of the handrail would be polished that evenly through day to day use, so somebody must have been taking the trouble to keep them clean.

Tony, I suspect that they were painted white in departmental use.

[t-b-g]

4 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Tony, I suspect that they were painted white in departmental use.

 

I did wonder about that. The first photo posted they looked on my screen to be possibly still brass but then the second one appeared and I wasn't so sure and you could well be correct.  I think my point still holds. They are spotlessly clean and very obvious.

[St Enodoc]

3 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

I did wonder about that. The first photo posted they looked on my screen to be possibly still brass but then the second one appeared and I wasn't so sure and you could well be correct.  I think my point still holds. They are spotlessly clean and very obvious.

Either way, the shape is a nice half-way house between the ornate curly ones and the short straight ones we saw earlier in the topic.

[t-b-g]

1 minute ago, St Enodoc said:

Either way, the shape is a nice half-way house between the ornate curly ones and the short straight ones we saw earlier in the topic.

 

I would fancy my chances at that type with some brass wire and either a couple of brass split pins or even turned handrail pillars.

[richard i]

1 hour ago, t-b-g said:

 

I would fancy my chances at that type with some brass wire and either a couple of brass split pins or even turned handrail pillars.

That is exactly how I did the ones for my 4 Barnums. Built using a little jig I made. Well I needed 32 of them. I chickened out of doing an ornate set. 
richard 

[Tony Wright]

The EM B17 is now complete........

 

 

Good friend, Lee Clarke gave me a much-better B17 loco and tender body. Thanks ever so much Lee.

 

 

The new chassis is certainly different! 

 

Can you believe the one in the front was once the RTR standard?

 

 

And ready for delivery to run on Retford. It works fine on my yard of EM test track, but running on Retford will be rather different. 

[lee74clarke]

5 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

The EM B17 is now complete........

 

 

Good friend, Lee Clarke gave me a much-better B17 loco and tender body. Thanks ever so much Lee.

 

 

The new chassis is certainly different! 

 

Can you believe the one in the front was once the RTR standard?

 

 

And ready for delivery to run on Retford. It works fine on my yard of EM test track, but running on Retford will be rather different. 

No problem Tony, pleased to help. Apologies for the lightning visit, hope to catch up properly soon.

Just looking at the chassis, obviously yours will be naturally heavier, due to the materials and motor, but how will you increase overall weight to give the required haulage power? I can’t recall much of a void in the body to add weight into?

Best Wishes 

Lee

[Tony Wright]

8 minutes ago, lee74clarke said:

No problem Tony, pleased to help. Apologies for the lightning visit, hope to catch up properly soon.

Just looking at the chassis, obviously yours will be naturally heavier, due to the materials and motor, but how will you increase overall weight to give the required haulage power? I can’t recall much of a void in the body to add weight into?

Best Wishes 

Lee

Thanks again Lee,

 

There's a slug of weight in the front half of the boiler. I supplemented this with 'Liquid Gravity', poured all around it, secured with epoxy. The frames are stuffed with lead as well, as is the front of the tender. I've arranged the drawbar so that half the weight of the tender rests on the back of the frames. 

 

There should be enough pulling power.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

And now for something rather different. 

 

 

 

Some readers might recall that (a few years ago now) I wrote a paperback A4 book for Irwell Press on building 4mm locos. It wasn't all my work which was described - several WMRC members also contributed, building kits from Crownline, SEF, DJH and Alan Gibson. 

 

The DJH Hall above should have gone into the book (a shot might have sneaked in), but Mick Peabody didn't meet the deadline for the build. In fact, apart from starting on the frames, that was all he did. 

 

So, the book was published, I made some money and it sold out (I no longer have a copy). But, what to do with the Hall? Mick handed it over, I then completed the chassis and built the bodywork, passing it over to Ian Rathbone to paint (his usual, impeccable job). It then ran on Charwelton (along with another DJH Hall, built/painted/weathered by Tony Geary - which I subsequently sold-on on here). 

 

It then became the property of another friend (Ron Smallshire). Ron and his wife popped in today, and he handed it over saying 'Please sell this, all proceeds to CRUK'. What an altruistic gesture.

 

So, here it is for sale. I'm asking a minimum of £350.00 for it (it has a recognised provenance!), so, anyone interested, please PM me. 

 

It runs very well - smooth and powerful, but its D13 motor means it's not DCC-compatible.

 

Thanks in anticipation. 

 

 

[robertcwp]

19 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

And now for something rather different. 

 

 

 

Some readers might recall that (a few years ago now) I wrote a paperback A4 book for Irwell Press on building 4mm locos. It wasn't all my work which was described - several WMRC members also contributed, building kits from Crownline, SEF, DJH and Alan Gibson. 

 

The DJH Hall above should have gone into the book (a shot might have sneaked in), but Mick Peabody didn't meet the deadline for the build. In fact, apart from starting on the frames, that was all he did. 

 

So, the book was published, I made some money and it sold out (I no longer have a copy). But, what to do with the Hall? Mick handed it over, I then completed the chassis and built the bodywork, passing it over to Ian Rathbone to paint (his usual, impeccable job). It then ran on Charwelton (along with another DJH Hall, built/painted/weathered by Tony Geary - which I subsequently sold-on on here). 

 

It then became the property of another friend (Ron Smallshire). Ron and his wife popped in today, and he handed it over saying 'Please sell this, all proceeds to CRUK'. What an altruistic gesture.

 

So, here it is for sale. I'm asking a minimum of £350.00 for it (it has a recognised provenance!), so, anyone interested, please PM me. 

 

It runs very well - smooth and powerful, but its D13 motor means it's not DCC-compatible.

 

Thanks in anticipation. 

 

 

Looks good. Here is the full-size version turning someone's head:

 

6911_NottVic by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

I have a Bachmann Hall which I changed to Holker Hall, partly influenced by this photo.

[sandra]

10 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

The EM B17 is now complete........

 

 

Good friend, Lee Clarke gave me a much-better B17 loco and tender body. Thanks ever so much Lee.

 

 

The new chassis is certainly different! 

 

Can you believe the one in the front was once the RTR standard?

 

 

And ready for delivery to run on Retford. It works fine on my yard of EM test track, but running on Retford will be rather different. 

Hello Tony,

 

Thanks so much for the B17, it looks marvellous, I can’t wait to try it on the Boat Train. Can you also thank Lee for providing a much better body. I will of course have to repaint it in BR green. It is to become 61657 Doncaster Rovers. In 1957 that was the only B17 with a 4,200 gallon tender allocated to March and I do have a couple of photos of it on the Boat Train. 
 

On an entirely different subject, as I know the readers of this thread are extremely knowledgeable, I wonder if I could ask for some advice.

This is an 05 shunted which whilst shedded at Darnall has found itself at Retford. I intend to number it as 11164 and the intention was to paint it black with an early crest. However Andrew Hartshorne has let me have colour photos of two of its sisters 11165 and 11167. Both photos show the locos painted green but with the early crest and according to the captions both photos were taken in 1957 which is of course the year in which Retford is set.

 

So the question is what colour do I paint it? I had assumed that all shunters with the early crest and before they were renumbered with a ‘D’ prefix were black. Obviously they were not but would 11164 have been green or black in the summer of 1957?

 

I must emphasise that I did not build this loco but perhaps Tony would like to describe its provenance. I can say that it’s a superb runner.

Sandra

 

[Leander]

Sandra, Tony Sheffield's Rail On-line photo site has a couple of B&W photos of 11164 in 1957, taken at Darnall. Early crest but I'd wager they show a green loco.

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p580086503/h16069339#h16069339

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p580086503/h16069339#h901caa5

 

[great central]

5 hours ago, robertcwp said:

Looks good. Here is the full-size version turning someone's head:

 

6911_NottVic by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

 

I have a Bachmann Hall which I changed to Holker Hall, partly influenced by this photo.

 

A couple of minutes into this Youtube video taken from original film shows Holker Hall involved in a minor mishap. 

It also shows how quickly things were sorted back in the day!

 

 

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, sandra said:

Hello Tony,

 

Thanks so much for the B17, it looks marvellous, I can’t wait to try it on the Boat Train. Can you also thank Lee for providing a much better body. I will of course have to repaint it in BR green. It is to become 61657 Doncaster Rovers. In 1957 that was the only B17 with a 4,200 gallon tender allocated to March and I do have a couple of photos of it on the Boat Train. 
 

On an entirely different subject, as I know the readers of this thread are extremely knowledgeable, I wonder if I could ask for some advice.

This is an 05 shunted which whilst shedded at Darnall has found itself at Retford. I intend to number it as 11164 and the intention was to paint it black with an early crest. However Andrew Hartshorne has let me have colour photos of two of its sisters 11165 and 11167. Both photos show the locos painted green but with the early crest and according to the captions both photos were taken in 1957 which is of course the year in which Retford is set.

 

So the question is what colour do I paint it? I had assumed that all shunters with the early crest and before they were renumbered with a ‘D’ prefix were black. Obviously they were not but would 11164 have been green or black in the summer of 1957?

 

I must emphasise that I did not build this loco but perhaps Tony would like to describe its provenance. I can say that it’s a superb runner.

Sandra

 

Good morning Sandra,

 

It might look rather nice in green. Either way, please paint it whatever colour you like.

 

Its provenance is interesting. It was built by our elder son, Tom, from a Judith Edge kit. I can't recall the exact date (other than it's got to be 20 years ago; possibly more), but he was demonstrating loco-building at one show (to prove that this hobby is not just for old gits like me) and (if I recall correctly) Mike Edge asked if he'd like to build one of Judith's kits - the O5. There'd been some contemporary correspondence about how the perception was that etched brass kits were difficult to build (probably by those who've never built anything!). Tom's 41 now (so he might still have been a teenager; just), and built it with ease; in EM (such is the excellence of the kit). The irony was that, on having it completed on his stand at another show, someone opined that 'Your dad must have helped you with that'. Nothing was further from the truth!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[MJI]

I have an A1 05 and it is not as drop together as a JE kit. I am having to make most of the detail bits. Luckily got a few piccies sent from the current team looking after it.

 

Only problem is it can only run with a couple of wagon when complete or near a 1920s underground unit in blue.

 

Will most likely end up on a very small diorama with its two wagons.