Wright writes.....

[Tony Wright]

Regarding the modelling of actual prototypes, I was once issued with the equivalent of a Fatwah because I didn't include Pendon in any list I made of the 'best'. Why? Because, strictly-speaking it isn't a model of an actual place. Granted, everything about it is modelled from real things but the lot never existed together as a whole.  Without doubt, the modelling is peerless and inspirational (some might say even daunting to contemplate or even intimidating) but Pendon is more of a model museum. 

 

One thing I would say in 'comparing' Pendon with Retford is that I've only ever seen one derailment on the latter, even after dozens of visits. There were a few more when I made a DVD of Pendon.

 

Other critics of my stance on prototype modelling seemed to suggest that it must take a fair-sized fat bank account to do a (main line) prototype justice. I'm not denying that there are cost-implications in the building of Little Bytham. What I would say, though, is that most of the work undertaken on it has been paid for in kind, rather just the writing of high-value cheques. On a 'limited' budget, it can be done, especially if things like the stock are built up over a period of time; in my case over 40 years. Others might have the fiscal resources to commission exactly what they want. Not me I'm afraid. 

 

Though it's probably been done already, any thoughts on a list of your favourite layouts?  

Edited November 8, 2016 by Tony Wright

[PMP]

 

 

Though it's probably been done already, any thoughts on a list of your favourite layouts?  

 

Lochside in P4/Ian Futers, Woolverstone/Iain Rice, Retford/Roy Jackson, Hursley/Martin Welch, Pempoul/The Gravetts, and there are many many more.

[Michael Delamar]

One of my favourites was Bradwell by the Manchester MRS.

[thegreenhowards]

 

Though it's probably been done already, any thoughts on a list of your favourite layouts?

 

I'm surprised that Leicester South GC doesn't make the list. The combination of stock, scenery, prototype research and the wonderful representation of the goods shed make it a favourite for me.

[t-b-g]

As nobody else has done it, I will mention that the thread has got to 500 pages and never a dull moment or any sign of it flagging.

 

Great stuff and although Tony W will probably say that it is down to the contributions made by others, I reckon that he deserves a great deal of credit for taking the plunge and setting it all going and for continuing to show us the lovely model making that he and the other contributors to Little Bytham have done.

 

Here's to the next 500!

 

Tony Gee 

[Tony Wright]

I'm surprised that Leicester South GC doesn't make the list. The combination of stock, scenery, prototype research and the wonderful representation of the goods shed make it a favourite for me.

Andy,

 

Leicester South would have made my list. I was at the Southwold Show in August where it was present. I'd have loved to have taken a picture; I had my camera, tripod, lights, the lot. Except, I'd forgotten to put the card in the camera. It's like the time I was taking pictures of Deltics at Retford well over 40 years ago, only I had no film in my camera! Old fools never learn!

[micklner]

500 excellent pages well done Tony !!!!

[Tony Wright]

As nobody else has done it, I will mention that the thread has got to 500 pages and never a dull moment or any sign of it flagging.

 

Great stuff and although Tony W will probably say that it is down to the contributions made by others, I reckon that he deserves a great deal of credit for taking the plunge and setting it all going and for continuing to show us the lovely model making that he and the other contributors to Little Bytham have done.

 

Here's to the next 500!

 

Tony Gee 

Thanks Tony, and even more thanks for your valued contributions over the last four years.

 

In fairness, like a lot of the modelling you see on LB, it wasn't my work in setting it up. Can you imagine my starting something on a computer? I can't. The setting up was Andy York's work, and I'll be forever thankful to him for doing it, at a time when I was very low indeed. 

 

It is principally down to the contributions and posts of others that Wright Writes has reached 500 pages in (just) less than four years. I suppose if I posted day after day, picture after picture the number of pages would go up dramatically. But that's not the point; the thread is not my property and it's a lot, lot more than just about LB. 

[robertcwp]

I have seen lots of good layouts over the years and some that were very good in most respects but let down in a key aspect.

 

What I really like are BR 1948 to early 1980s (before Sectorisation) main line layouts, preferably ones depicting real places that have lots of passenger trains. Stoke Summit, Gamston Bank and Leicester South GC (and several others) are or were all exhibition layouts past or present that fit into that category.

 

Retford and Little Bytham are different in the sense that they are layouts that live at home but both also tick the key boxes.

 

A non-prototype location layout that I particularly liked was the now-retired Wibdenshaw. Westford was another.

 

Being a coaching stock enthusiast, it will not come as a surprise that the train formations are critically important. I can think of several layouts based on real locations that look stunning until you look at the trains, and they just don't look like ones you would have seen at that location. It can be as simple a thing as having the wrong sort of catering car in a principal named train but is often more fundamental.

 

Another key thing for exhibition layouts is that they have to work. Things will go wrong from time to time but I have seen layouts that ought to be really good where every time I see them things are going wrong or nothing is moving.

 

Some layouts are also a bit too 'real time' in their operation for a show where one may not have time to stand and watch one layout for more than an hour. Things need to be moving most or all of the time. I recall Tony commenting many years ago at an exhibition about how the trains on Stoke Summit ran too close together given the length of the block sections on the real thing and the timetable. So what? Sometimes things can be too prototypical.

 

I must also mention Harton Gill as a favourite, even if I am to be found on the other side of the barriers. What Graham achieved there in a small space was a layout full of interest, modelled to a high standard where (most of the time) things are moving or about to move. In its current form, Harton Gill has now been retired and is undergoing a rebuild at one end.

 

A layout I saw for the first time at Scaleforum this year was 'Shelvington'. Not a real location but worth watching, not least for the excellent units including what was effectively a scratch-built 3D. The working 'Solari' indicator is also brilliant.

 

Apologies to those who model in other scales, but the layouts most likely to attract my attention are those in 4mm scale. Having said that, Chiltern Green was very impressive in its day.

 

Adavoyle was a layout depicting the GNR(I) which was also top-class. It was inspired by a real location but expanded upon.

 

What I have never seen but would really like to see is a 4mm scale main line layout depicting the WR in the diesel hydraulic era with scale-length trains in correct formations. Or an SR layout depicting the Bournemouth line in the Spring of 1967.

Edited November 8, 2016 by robertcwp

[Focalplane]

Having lived outside of the UK most of my working career I have to say that I have seen very few of the wonderful layouts others describe. My ideas of a good layout comes from books I have, magazines I have bought and RMWeb itself. In my 23 years in the USA i saw lots of hilarious Lionel layouts and a few enterprising Canadian layouts as well. But simply put I think many of the British based layouts must take the prizes for shear splendour in terms of detail, prototype, character, etc. Little Bytham must be among the best, at least from my distance!

 

The club scene, or in its place the group of friends, is obviously a contributor to the makings of a good large layout. As a nomad this has never been possible for me and, to be honest it never will. One does get set on one's ways after all.

 

The message I receive loud and clear from this and the threads of Coachmann (two "n"s) is enough and as a result I really don't regularly visit many others. Be creative, be constructive and build unique models to be pleased with. That's a good mantra.

 

Congrats on 500 pages, Tony!

[Tony Wright]

Having lived outside of the UK most of my working career I have to say that I have seen very few of the wonderful layouts others describe. My ideas of a good layout comes from books I have, magazines I have bought and RMWeb itself. In my 23 years in the USA i saw lots of hilarious Lionel layouts and a few enterprising Canadian layouts as well. But simply put I think many of the British based layouts must take the prizes for shear splendour in terms of detail, prototype, character, etc. Little Bytham must be among the best, at least from my distance!

 

The club scene, or in its place the group of friends, is obviously a contributor to the makings of a good large layout. As a nomad this has never been possible for me and, to be honest it never will. One does get set on one's ways after all.

 

The message I receive loud and clear from this and the threads of Coachmann (two "n"s) is enough and as a result I really don't regularly visit many others. Be creative, be constructive and build unique models to be pleased with. That's a good mantra.

 

Congrats on 500 pages, Tony!

Thanks Paul,

 

I couldn't agree more about your comments on creating unique models to be pleased with; building things oneself is, in my opinion, the most important thing, even if they might not be as good as the best. They are yours and yours alone. 

[Tony Teague]

Congratulations on the 500 pages Tony! It may be that the bulk of contributions are from others, but I don't think any of us is under any illusion about who is driving - so a great achievement.

 

Thinking about favourite layouts, I tried to consider what put them on my list, and I have to say that there is no theme whatsoever; perhaps it is like art - you just have to be "grabbed" by what you see - the "eye of the beholder"; this also means that I could not rank them within the list.

 

Of course, I won't have seen as many layouts as you, Tony, but my short list of favourites would be (in no particular order & for multiple different reasons):

Little Bytham (well obviously!)

The Gresley Beat

Rowlands Castle

Bath Green Park

Liverpool Lime Street

Penmaenpool (Geoff Taylor)

Fisherton Sarum (had to have a Southern one in there!)

Leicester South GC

 

I'm sure I'll think of a few more as soon as I hit "Post"!

 

Tony

[CME and Bottlewasher]

Hi everyone  ,

 

Just popping my head above the parapet once more  .

 

Tony very kindly helped me, using the written word, with a little philosophical thinking in regard to some LMS Period III Stanier Steel stock and modifications I was pondering in terms of an Open 3rd - for which I am very grateful as it was most useful.

 

I am also fettling some ancient Lima BR MK1s. Why some may ask? Well I had 1-3 coaches basically FOC and purchased some other pre-loved, garden railway coaches at a bargain price (modelling is always on a budget) and I have had most of them ripped in half with a band-saw ready for widening and lengthening (slightly). This will then get me several three coach sets, as well as some BGs etc. In hindsight a few Easy Build or JLTRT coaches (a lesser amount in numbers of coaches) may have been preferable in terms of time and effort etc. And yet I have learnt an awful lot about my model-making, BR MK1s and my model-making philosophy has developed too, with these Lima coaches - at times the project has been frustrating but by and large its been fun and a pleasure, therapeutic even, not to mention relatively speaking, cost effective.

 

These coaches are not perfect (Easy Build and JLTRT 'MK1s' are more accurate and I shall stick my neck out and say that if one has the time and skill a museum quality model can be had from the MMP MK1 kit) and I have to state that they are layout models, that will operate on Down Ampney, which is 'U' shaped, with a circuit being added in the garden. So, although I want to model the most noticeable details, they have to be, relatively speaking, robust and relatively easy to build time wise etc etc. To coin a phrase from Mr Wright, there are some 'fudges', but to be honest, I suspect that all but the most informed onlooker would not notice any shortfalls when these are running in a train, within a credible - layout -background.

 

ATVB, with thanks to one and all,

 

CME

 

BSKs being fettled using various weapons of mass destruction, including the biggest files and saws I can get away with, so as to 'rough-out' the coaches as quickly as possible, then as the work and detail becomes finer so do the tools, smaller and more delicate too (apologies about the quality of the photo - taken in haste);

• 

CSK nearing completion;

 

 

•  
• 
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  

Edited November 8, 2016 by CME and Bottlewasher

[Tony Wright]

Good to see folk posting images of carriages and discussing the correct make-up of trains. 

 

When Wolverhampton MRC first started building Stoke Summit over 20 years ago, building the correct trains was paramount to the layout's 'success'. So, among us, we did it. 

 

 

Trains like the Northumbrian, which included one of the prototype Cravens Mk. 1s built by Dave Lewis from one of his own Southern Pride kits. It had a Gresley catering triplet set in it, which, strictly speaking, wasn't the right one. Apart from the catering cars, it was all Mk. 1s, though we substituted one Thompson (based on a photograph). 

 

 

The catering triplet was this one, built and finished by me from a Comet kit. I think this represents a 1924-built example, which was still in front-line service in 1958 on Newcastle expresses, but not in the Northumbrian. 

 

 

This is the right type; a 1938 ex-Scotsman set, fitted (in 1956?) with a standing bar by the simple expedient of removing a First Class seating bay (you can see the blanked off area through the first bay window to the left). As a result of some horse-trading, John Houlden did the basic building after I'd supplied him with Rupert Brown components and MJT bogies/fittings. The roofs were modified Kirk's. I built the bogies and got it running and I've yet to add the door furniture, paint, glaze, line and letter it. 

 

 

Golden Age does the '38 Scotsman, including the catering twin. In teak it looks rather splendid and I enquired about one some time ago in BR maroon. At the time (before my retirement) I had some spare cash and tentatively ordered one. I was disappointed. The standing bar was not included (despite being told it would be), the ends were painted maroon (instead of black) and the internal signage was LNER, not BR. Not only that, the trussing came right out of the base of the solebar, not from behind it. Despite some 'mutterings' from the proprietor, I said 'No thank you' - hence my obtaining the bits for the type. For an item costing as much as these 'showcase' models do, I'd have expected it to be as near perfect as was possible. Whether the maroon triplets have been altered and corrected I cannot say, though the overall paint finish was exquisite, if 'incorrect'. 

 

 

Another catering triplet type was the set built for the Silver Jubilee in 1935, as shown here in original condition. It was built by Geoff Haynes from a Marc Models kit for John Brown of Spalding who, sadly, died earlier this year. If John's collection eventually comes on to the market, I'll keep all posted. There are some splendid items. 

 

 

John Houlden also built a Marc Models SJ triplet, but modified it to run in BR condition - removing the streamlined sections between the bogies, etc. It's seen here on his Gamston Bank, before the conflagration! I found a delighted new owner for this triplet set. 

 

 

I built my SJ trplet set for service on LB from a Mailcoach kit, scratch-building much of the underframes and fitting MJT HD bogies. It's not for the faint-hearted. 

 

I illustrate all the above because they form some little part of the Crowood book which is now complete (for publication in the middle of next year). Did any other main line have such an interesting selection of articulated catering stock? Or ordinary catering stock? 

 

I thinks it's the necessity of having to make sets like these which appeals to me the most. I'm glad I didn't buy the GA cars (not just because they weren't right) but because they'd just have been a 'possession', not my creation. For those who like to display their models and have the cash to buy them, the GA vehicles look stupendous, especially in teak (as illustrated). 

 

Though 'never say never', I cannot believe that triplet sets like these (or any articulated sets?) will ever be available RTR from the mainstream boys. In the past, manufacturers have just used 'ordinary' carriages and sold them as part of train packs. Hornby did the Northumbrian (for which no carriage was right), as, too, they did the Silver Jubilee (with LMS cars?) and did they do the Coronation Scot? Bachmann did the Elizabethan which included no catering cars and not one PV type. Best leave this sort of stuff to the collectors. 

Edited November 9, 2016 by Tony Wright

[gwrrob]

Very nice Tony.You never did continue the excellent BRM series on named trains.It inspired me to make up the correct formation for the down Royal Duchy.A few more in depth articles would have been very informative.

[LNER4479]

Congrats on reaching 500 (not out), Tony.

 

Re favourite layouts. I've always been attracted by layouts that attempt to replicate prototype, mainline locations. The writings of David Jenkinson were always (and remain) a great inspiration to me so first of all a mention for Garsdale Road (Dent, to all intent and purposes) and the Little Long Drag. What a layout that would have been had the larger scale not come a-calling.

 

I also gaze in wonder at pictures of the Norris railway and the utterly convincing broad sweeping curves and track formations. A real milestone layout in our hobby. An equally honourable mention for Peter Denny's Buckingham and Frank Dyer's Borchester (happily both still with us), both supreme examples of how to depict prototypical operation without actually building a prototype location per se.

 

I made a special trip to Ally-Pally to see Ambergate on it's last public outing - and was not disappointed. An inspirational piece of period railway modelling.

 

Many others have already been mentioned - but if I could also cast a vote for Tebay, another masterpiece from the Shipley crew.

 

Layouts such as these will always float my particular boat!

[MJI]

I find coaching stock fascinating, and when spotting I always noted down full rakes.

 

I also find RobertCWPs site very usefull.

 

No I am not mad for making sure I have the right vents on a Mark 1, nor making sure the right brake gear is fitted.

 

I was very pleased with a Triang Hornby RMB detail I did this year.

[Tony Wright]

Very nice Tony.You never did continue the excellent BRM series on named trains.It inspired me to make up the correct formation for the down Royal Duchy.A few more in depth articles would have been very informative.

Many thanks,

 

I had in the pipeline a whole series of articles on how to make up prototype trains. I was looking through the files the other day enjoying pictures of The Caledonian, Cornish Riviera and the Royal Wessex, among many others. The problem was I became depressed, had to retire and I couldn't face putting them together. Now recovered, I'll see what the new editor of BRM thinks of them. The point is, when I was assistant editor of the mag I had a decent say as to what went in and when. In fairness to Ben Jones, I think he's turned the mag right round and it's far better than in 'my day'. Whether there'd be an interest in further prototype train articles, I don't know, but the emphasis was obviously how to create these 'proper' trains in miniature, either through modifying RTR or building kits. 

 

One still sees trains on layouts in the model press or at exhibitions where not the slightest thought has been given as to whether they're right or wrong. Not long ago I saw, on a very nicely-modelled layout, a two-car passenger train consisting of just two ex-Palitoy LMS Composites. No brake at all. 

[Flood]

Being a coaching stock enthusiast, it will not come as a surprise that the train formations are critically important. I can think of several layouts based on real locations that look stunning until you look at the trains, and they just don't look like ones you would have seen at that location. It can be as simple a thing as having the wrong sort of catering car in a principal named train but is often more fundamental.

 

Another key thing for exhibition layouts is that they have to work. Things will go wrong from time to time but I have seen layouts that ought to be really good where every time I see them things are going wrong or nothing is moving.

 

Some layouts are also a bit too 'real time' in their operation for a show where one may not have time to stand and watch one layout for more than an hour. Things need to be moving most or all of the time. I recall Tony commenting many years ago at an exhibition about how the trains on Stoke Summit ran too close together given the length of the block sections on the real thing and the timetable. So what? Sometimes things can be too prototypical.

 

Robert

 

When we exhibited Aberdeen Kirkhill at Alexandra Palace in March 2013 I was introduced to Brian Kirby and he did say that you had also seen the layout at that exhibition.

 

With regard to the stock formations, the running of the layout and the amount of train movement it would be very interesting to hear your thoughts. Please be brutally honest as I am very thick skinned and I would far prefer to know if there are improvements we can make.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Flood

[Tony Wright]

Congrats on reaching 500 (not out), Tony.

 

Re favourite layouts. I've always been attracted by layouts that attempt to replicate prototype, mainline locations. The writings of David Jenkinson were always (and remain) a great inspiration to me so first of all a mention for Garsdale Road (Dent, to all intent and purposes) and the Little Long Drag. What a layout that would have been had the larger scale not come a-calling.

 

I also gaze in wonder at pictures of the Norris railway and the utterly convincing broad sweeping curves and track formations. A real milestone layout in our hobby. An equally honourable mention for Peter Denny's Buckingham and Frank Dyer's Borchester (happily both still with us), both supreme examples of how to depict prototypical operation without actually building a prototype location per se.

 

I made a special trip to Ally-Pally to see Ambergate on it's last public outing - and was not disappointed. An inspirational piece of period railway modelling.

 

Many others have already been mentioned - but if I could also cast a vote for Tebay, another masterpiece from the Shipley crew.

 

Layouts such as these will always float my particular boat!

My favourite layouts down the years? 

 

Off the top of my head my top ten might be (in no particular order). Yatton Junction, High Dyke, Retford, Bredon, Hitchin (Bert Collins), Copenhagen Fields, Borchester, Buckingham, Dewsbury (S7) and Garsdale Road. 

 

I could list another ten of equal merit, including Tebay (though I wish the signals had worked). 

 

I remember being entranced by the Norris layout as I boy. It was in a book in the school library and one of the captions stated 'it's the apotheosis of things which had gone before'. After that, I made a dictionary my bedtime reading!

 

The reason I don't class the likes of the Norris layout now among my top ten is (although it was outstanding) because it was the product mainly of commissioning things - Norris employed Bernard Miller full-time for a time and also had his locos built by Beeson. One should expect professionally-built layouts/stock to be good, and there must be some merit in being a 'project manager', but the hobby is much more to me about folk making things for themselves, not just getting others to make things for them. That's why I'm so taken with Grantham, and count it a privilege to be a (small) part of your team.

 

In my list, all the layouts were built by individuals or small groups. They all built things by themselves and/or with others for themselves. I just think there's much greater merit in that, even though the end result might be inferior to what the very best professionals might achieve. A personal view. 

Edited November 9, 2016 by Tony Wright

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

A non-prototype location layout that I particularly liked was the now-retired Wibdenshaw.

 

Who told you that then Robert?

 

Mike.

[Headstock]

Good to see folk posting images of carriages and discussing the correct make-up of trains. 

 

When Wolverhampton MRC first started building Stoke Summit over 20 years ago, building the correct trains was paramount to the layout's 'success'. So, among us, we did it. 

 

Trains 21 Northumbrian on Stoke.jpg

 

Trains like the Northumbrian, which included one of the prototype Cravens Mk. 1s built by Dave Lewis from one of his own Southern Pride kits. It had a Gresley catering triplet set in it, which, strictly speaking, wasn't the right one. Apart from the catering cars, it was all Mk. 1s, though we substituted one Thompson (based on a photograph). 

 

Trains 19 Comet catering triplet.jpg

 

The catering triplet was this one, built and finished by me from a Comet kit. I think this represents a 1924-built example, which was still in front-line service in 1958 on Newcastle expresses, but not in the Northumbrian. 

 

Trains 22 1938 Scotsman triplet.jpg

 

This is the right type; a 1938 ex-Scotsman set, fitted (in 1956?) with a standing bar by the simple expedient of removing a First Class seating bay (you can see the blanked off area through the first bay window to the left). As a result of some horse-trading, John Houlden did the basic building after I'd supplied him with Rupert Brown components and MJT bogies/fittings. The roofs were modified Kirk's. I built the bogies and got it running and I've yet to add the door furniture, paint, glaze, line and letter it. 

 

Trains 23 Golden Age Triplet set 02.jpg

 

Golden Age does the '38 Scotsman, including the catering twin. In teak it looks rather splendid and I enquired about one some time ago in BR maroon. At the time (before my retirement) I had some spare cash and tentatively ordered one. I was disappointed. The standing bar was not included (despite being told it would be), the ends were painted maroon (instead of black) and the internal signage was LNER, not BR. Not only that, the trussing came right out of the base of the solebar, not from behind it. Despite some 'mutterings' from the proprietor, I said 'No thank you' - hence my obtaining the bits for the type. For an item costing as much as these 'showcase' models do, I'd have expected it to be as near perfect as was possible. Whether the maroon triplets have been altered and corrected I cannot say, though the overall paint finish was exquisite, if 'incorrect'. 

 

Trains 24 Marc Models Silver Jubilee catering triplet.jpg

 

Another catering triplet type was the set built for the Silver Jubilee in 1935, as shown here in original condition. It was built by Geoff Haynes from a Marc Models kit for John Brown of Spalding who, sadly, died earlier this year. If John's collection eventually comes on to the market, I'll keep all posted. There are some splendid items. 

 

Trains 25 Marc Models Silver Jubilee triplet diner 02.jpg

 

John Houlden also built a Marc Models SJ triplet, but modified it to run in BR condition - removing the streamlined sections between the bogies, etc. It's seen here on his Gamston Bank, before the conflagration! I found a delighted new owner for this triplet set. 

 

Trains 26 Silver Jubilee catering triplet.jpg

 

I built my SJ trplet set for service on LB from a Mailcoach kit, scratch-building much of the underframes and fitting MJT HD bogies. It's not for the faint-hearted. 

 

I illustrate all the above because they form some little part of the Crowood book which is now complete (for publication in the middle of next year). Did any other main line have such an interesting selection of articulated catering stock? Or ordinary catering stock? 

 

I thinks it's the necessity of having to make sets like these which appeals to me the most. I'm glad I didn't buy the GA cars (not just because they weren't right) but because they'd just have been a 'possession', not my creation. For those who like to display their models and have the cash to buy them, the GA vehicles look stupendous, especially in teak (as illustrated). 

 

Though 'never say never', I cannot believe that triplet sets like these (or any articulated sets?) will ever be available RTR from the mainstream boys. In the past, manufacturers have just used 'ordinary' carriages and sold them as part of train packs. Hornby did the Northumbrian (for which no carriage was right), as, too, they did the Silver Jubilee (with LMS cars?) and did they do the Coronation Scot? Bachmann did the Elizabethan which included no catering cars and not one PV type. Best leave this sort of stuff to the collectors. 

 

Good Evening Tony.

 

It's nice to get into the warmth on this horrible snowy day. With regards to train formations, when I look at a large slab of exhibition layouts, I get the impression that the majority of railway modelers don't realize how good their trains could look. Your photographs do highlight why people should be bothered about this. Real trains often confound the expectations of the rather dull representations found on a typical model railway. It is an area with almost limited potential for making things for yourself.  It is unlikely that RTR will ever be able to cover the diversity involved.

 

Poor Gresley carriages, they always get the wrong end of the stick in the model world. I could add more to your list of things not right about the triplet set above. The good news is that the best way to produce an accurate representation of a Gresley carriage is to make one for yourself. There is plenty of potential for modeling beyond the glam stock. I was looking at a lovely shot of an ordinary passenger train running on the London extension in 1952. Behind the tender of the B1 locomotive was an ex-NER non- gangway third, an ex-LNER gangway third, and an ex-GNR gangway brake composite. Not one of the carriages had received a BR repaint, what a lovely little set of carriages with plenty of modeling potential.

 

P.S. If you really want a picture of LSGC, I'm sure something could be sorted out.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Headstock

[Fat Controller]

Many thanks,

 

I had in the pipeline a whole series of articles on how to make up prototype trains. I was looking through the files the other day enjoying pictures of The Caledonian, Cornish Riviera and the Royal Wessex, among many others. The problem was I became depressed, had to retire and I couldn't face putting them together. Now recovered, I'll see what the new editor of BRM thinks of them. The point is, when I was assistant editor of the mag I had a decent say as to what went in and when. In fairness to Ben Jones, I think he's turned the mag right round and it's far better than in 'my day'. Whether there'd be an interest in further prototype train articles, I don't know, but the emphasis was obviously how to create these 'proper' trains in miniature, either through modifying RTR or building kits. 

 

One still sees trains on layouts in the model press or at exhibitions where not the slightest thought has been given as to whether they're right or wrong. Not long ago I saw, on a very nicely-modelled layout, a two-car passenger train consisting of just two ex-Palitoy LMS Composites. No brake at all. 

I'd suggest that it's not only the prestigious named trains that need this sort of treatment, but the 'bread and butter' services that ran throughout the UK; perhaps there's scope for a latter-day 'Bazzin' About'? A photo of a train with as much of the formation visible as possible, annotated with the type of each vehicle, and a note saying where there is an R-T-R model or kit to represent it. Such a description might also include notes about how the formation could be reduced, whilst keeping the essence of the train.

[Headstock]

Ohh I forgot, as a compliment to the V2's up the thread, I managed to get a half decent shot of one of mine. Usually, I'm pretty hopeless at shooting anything black against a white background. The loco is a Bradwell, Comet, Crownline hybrid. All packed up now and ready for Newcastle.

[Clearwater]

Hornby magazine carries a regular feature on train formation and how to represent it from purely rtr. They don't always focus on the glamour trains but, disappointingly, they don't usually mention kits. One good aspect of their features is that they tend to show the same train through time and how the stock / motive power changes

 

David