Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

I've just started photographing more of the Peter Lawson collection.

 

 

This is the first; a delightful DJH 84XXX.

 

Portescap-powered and a really sweet runner, I'm asking £140.00 (I'll straighten the step!).

 

Anyone interested, please PM me. 

 

 

[geoff west]

Thanks Tony, for another most enjoyable day.

[lezz01]

2 hours ago, 46444 said:

 

Not the one and only Chesney..🙉

Sadly yes.......like I said we don't talk about Chesney........mind you he can still fill a venue even if it's just Butlins or Pontins...we have no idea why but he can.  Justin had the talent Chesney rode the coat tails.

Regards Lez.

[MJI]

Wheel prices.

 

Due to code 100 streamline i can use slightly deeper wheels, 3 hole disc Hornby were good value,  now about 2.40 an axle.

 

So will be buying more from Gibson.

 

34 wagons, was expecting to cost about 100, now quite a bit more.

 

6.50 of bits, 40p of resin. Roughly 200 now.

 

I found spotting notes of a mineral wagon train.

 

10 clasp

20 Morton

4 10ft

 

All running numbers and tares

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Northmoor said:

I saw Jeff Healey play live in 1993 and claim my £10.

I'll see your ten quid and raise you Jimmy Page (Alexandra Palace 1972 and Earl's Court 1975)

[lezz01]

6 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I'll see your ten quid and raise you Jimmy Page (Alexandra Palace 1972 and Earl's Court 1975)

I'll have to call you then with Live Aid right in front of the stage around 15-20' back from the barrier although Jimmy Page was a good shout. I also have a backup of Queen 4 times, Hammersmith, Wembley twice (including Live Aid) and Knebworth.

Regards Lez. 

 

[Hollar]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I'll see your ten quid and raise you Jimmy Page (Alexandra Palace 1972 and Earl's Court 1975)

I saw Davy Graham as a teenager, and for me this is a Mozart and Shakespeare discussion - who's the second best. 

 

Tony

[grahame]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I'll see your ten quid and raise you Jimmy Page (Alexandra Palace 1972 and Earl's Court 1975)

 

Can I claim anything for seeing Lemmy when in Hawkwind and Richie Blackmore in Rainbow. I can also claim seeing Ray Dorset in Mungo Jerry at Greenwich 😄 and the Temperance Seven on the Isle of Dogs.

 

 

[Tony Wright]

I've been to Roger Daltrey's home.

 

And photographed Pete Waterman's model collection. 

 

That's all, with regard to music. It's not really my 'thing'.

[gr.king]

1 hour ago, grahame said:

 

Can I claim anything for seeing Lemmy when in Hawkwind 

 

Very much so.  Was Stacia on stage too?

[Tony Wright]

My goodness me!

 

I could have sold five made-up DJH 84XXXs, but there was only one.

[Barry Ten]

3 hours ago, grahame said:

 

Can I claim anything for seeing Lemmy when in Hawkwind and Richie Blackmore in Rainbow. I can also claim seeing Ray Dorset in Mungo Jerry at Greenwich 😄 and the Temperance Seven on the Isle of Dogs.

 

 

 

I've been on the same plane as Mungo Jerry (aircraft, not astral).

[MJI]

Transfers

 

Got a bit of a problem,  want to make up loads on TOPS panels, but cannot find the base transfers.

 

Over 50 wagons to be done.

 

Also one job i can't get railtec to do.

 

TOPS wagon panels pool version, letters for the codes, pool numbers.

 

Used to be SMS.

 

Anything like this anywhere?

 

[ecgtheow]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

My goodness me!

 

I could have sold five made-up DJH 84XXXs, but there was only one.

I come from the Wirral originally (Bebington) & trainspotted on wasteland by the bridge over Bromborough Road opposite the Lever Brothers sidings. 84003 was a regular on the Birkenhead to Chester line as were at least 2 others in the same class. However, one of them was painted green & if I remember correctly it was 84003. I might be wrong & as the first in the class it might well have been 84000? I have no idea why one of them was painted green.

I am delighted there were so many interested in buying the model as I could have been sorely tempted, though it would be out of place on my railway.

 

William

[ecgtheow]

1 hour ago, Barry Ten said:

 

I've been on the same plane as Mungo Jerry (aircraft, not astral).

Maybe it's fun to play this game? It's a bit like mine is bigger than yours (no tittering at the back, please). I travelled on the same plane (Concorde) as Steven Spielberg & had a long & interesting conversation with him & his secretary in the lounge after he had handed in my overcoat to reception while I was looking for something to read. Why was I travelling on Concorde? Firstly I wasn't paying, but the company I worked for then was. I had about 300 staff in the UK & USA who travelled frequently from London to North Carolina & vice versa & had negotiated a deal with BA for one way Concorde or 1st Class for 2/3 of the business class fare so long as a minimum of 300 round trips were annually. Apart from the saving even on the business class fare, the idea was to get people to travel back to the UK 1st class overnight so they would OK to work the next day. It didn't happen that way. I was naive. They all wanted to travel to New York on Concorde.

Turning to popular music. I saw & heard the Beatles at the Cavern in the early 1960s & while at University hung out for some time with Mick Jagger's younger brother & attended May Balls where The Kinks  & The Who played.

William

 

 

[grahame]

3 hours ago, gr.king said:

 

Very much so.  Was Stacia on stage too?

 

Yep. Doing her usual strip and dance moves.

 

 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, ecgtheow said:

I come from the Wirral originally (Bebington) & trainspotted on wasteland by the bridge over Bromborough Road opposite the Lever Brothers sidings. 84003 was a regular on the Birkenhead to Chester line as were at least 2 others in the same class. However, one of them was painted green & if I remember correctly it was 84003. I might be wrong & as the first in the class it might well have been 84000? I have no idea why one of them was painted green.

I am delighted there were so many interested in buying the model as I could have been sorely tempted, though it would be out of place on my railway.

 

William

Good afternoon William,

 

I saw half the class, but I cannot remember any ever being painted green. A few of the 82XXXs which worked the Chester-Birkenhead road were, however. 

 

As I've mentioned, Peter Lawson's layout was representative of the Chest-Wirral district, and every loco I've handled so far, I saw the prototype of!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[it's-er]

On 04/04/2024 at 11:31, Tony Wright said:

The next one was rather more-promising - until I investigated more-fully after some 'twiddling' at York.............

 

 

This is what it looks like now after almost half a day's work on it..............

 

It had no front numberplate nor a vacuum standpipe. It has now. 

 

The pick-ups were hopeless (it's a dead chassis), appearing to be made from 1mm wire, none of which was making good contact. It has a new set of pick-ups now.

 

There was no clearance for the pony because the whole thing was nose-heavy, with the front frames resting on the pony wheels. It's now been sorted. 

 

The tender's brake gear was bent and loose. It's 'sort of' sorted now. 

 

It's beam-compensated, but a fair bit of tweaking was necessary to obtain smooth-running; it's very smooth now, with a chunky Mashima driving through a Comet two-stage 'box which the builder fitted. It has no brakes (because of the compensation?).

 

It's very well-painted, but it was chipped/scuffed in places, which I've now tidied up. 

 

After yesterday's efforts, I put it back together.......................

 

 

And away she went, hauling this full-length express fish train with absolute ease. 

It strikes me that’s a pretty good essay on why many of us aren’t into kit building.  So much can go wrong!  And unless you know at exactly any point just what the right thing to do is, you are lost ….

 

John S

[it's-er]

18 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

 

 

 

 

 

What ho!  NER hoppers on Little Bytham - wonderful, as I’m rather partial to them.  I don’t think we’ve seen them before - presumably they arrived with one of your visitors?  Unless, of course, Accurascale have forwarded early samples of their forthcoming NER hopper wagons?  
 

I am delighted to see them, even if in real life they are unlikely to have reached as far south as Little Bytham.

 

John S 

[ecgtheow]

55 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon William,

 

I saw half the class, but I cannot remember any ever being painted green. A few of the 82XXXs which worked the Chester-Birkenhead road were, however. 

 

As I've mentioned, Peter Lawson's layout was representative of the Chest-Wirral district, and every loco I've handled so far, I saw the prototype of!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Tony,

 

Mea Culpa! Having checked it was the BR Standard Class 3 2-6-2 tanks in the 82000 numbers series that were painted initially lined & later unlined green by the Western Region not the Class 2 2-6-2 tanks in the 84000 numbers series. As the Birkenhead to Chester line was originally a joint GWR/ LNWR line it now makes sense that there was at least one 2-6-2 tank painted green.

Incidentally how did Peter Lawson model his Chester to Birkenhead/Wirral layout? Is there an article about it published somewhere? The Chester to Birkenhead part was 4 track mainline to about Hooton as far as I remember.

 

William

 

[46444]

5 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

My goodness me!

 

I could have sold five made-up DJH 84XXXs, but there was only one.

 

I was almost tempted as well Tony by the DJH 84xxx.

 

Wellingborough (15A) shed inherited two members of the class (84005/84006) in later years at times.

 

I believe they may have worked the Uppingham branch trains from Seaton, Rutland as well.

 

Like the Standard Class 3MT 77xxx 2-6-0's, the Standard Class 2MT 84xxx are locos I am interested in.

 

Do you have any pictures of the 84xxx running on Little Bytham Tony?

 

Also, has a Standard Class 3MT 77xxx ever run on Little Bytham?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Keith Turbutt]

2 hours ago, ecgtheow said:

I come from the Wirral originally (Bebington) & trainspotted on wasteland by the bridge over Bromborough Road opposite the Lever Brothers sidings. 84003 was a regular on the Birkenhead to Chester line as were at least 2 others in the same class. However, one of them was painted green & if I remember correctly it was 84003. I might be wrong & as the first in the class it might well have been 84000? I have no idea why one of them was painted green.

I am delighted there were so many interested in buying the model as I could have been sorely tempted, though it would be out of place on my railway.

 

William

 

I was sorry to have lost out on the DJH 84xxx that Tony had for sale. It would have been a nice addition to my 'collection' of BR Standards. I only need an 84xxx and 77xxx to have an example of each one - I do however have both DJH kits to build! It's strange that Bachmann did not capitalised on their existing products . For example they produced an Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 but did not take the opportunity to produce the equivalent Standard 78xxx which would have only required new loco and tender bodies. It was left to Hornby to produce it.  Similarly Bachmann's Ivatt 2-6-2T could, with a new body become an 84xxx and their BR Std 4 2-6-0 could, again with a new body, become a Std 3 2-6-0 77xxx.

 

While on the subject of the 84xxx class, I believe in the 60s they were being considered for use on the IOW as replacements for the ageing 02s. I saw this one at Eastleigh in Jan 66 on the occasion of the LCGB S15 farewell railtour, which included an Eastleigh shed and works visit. This never happened however, the IOW Steam Railway in preservation now run the similar Ivatt on their line - I think they may even have two?  

 

[Captain Kernow]

10 minutes ago, Keith Turbutt said:

While on the subject of the 84xxx class, I believe in the 60s they were being considered for use on the IOW as replacements for the ageing 02s. I saw this one at Eastleigh in Jan 66 on the occasion of the LCGB S15 farewell railtour, which included an Eastleigh shed and works visit. This never happened however

That's absolutely right, according to the RCTS book on the Standard tank classes.

 

[Captain Kernow]

37 minutes ago, ecgtheow said:

the BR Standard Class 3 2-6-2 tanks in the 82000 numbers series that were painted initially lined & later unlined green by the Western Region not the Class 2 2-6-2 tanks in the 84000 numbers series

I had thought that the repainting into unlined green came later, but there's a photo in the RCTS book (Volume 3) of 82007 standing outside Swindon Works, newly repainted into unlined green with a large early crest.

 

[Tony Wright]

48 minutes ago, it's-er said:

What ho!  NER hoppers on Little Bytham - wonderful, as I’m rather partial to them.  I don’t think we’ve seen them before - presumably they arrived with one of your visitors?  Unless, of course, Accurascale have forwarded early samples of their forthcoming NER hopper wagons?  
 

I am delighted to see them, even if in real life they are unlikely to have reached as far south as Little Bytham.

 

John S 

Good afternoon John,

 

They were brought along by David Rae. He bought them from the estate of the late John Brown of Spalding MRC. 

 

I believe they were made from kits, but from what source and by whom, I have no idea. 

 

I thought the whole ensemble was rather splendid, too. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.