Leaderboard

Hi Bennybob, I put considerable effort into developing a method which would allow me to work on the coach sides on the flat then simply fit them in place. Then take them on and off again as many times as I want without any difficulty. Clean the insides, move the passengers about, that sort of thing. The simple answer is magnets, have a read of the blog two back ; If you have look through the blog as a whole you will see that it is a continuing theme for me. Causes a wry smile and I do tend to waffle on a bit but there is method in my madness. I try to make models which are easily maintained, probably as a result of spending lifetime trying to sort out things which are a nightmare to maintain due to bad design. So I have buildings and stock with the roofs held on by magnets. Electrical sub assemblies which slot into place. Signals which plug in and couple to the servos magnetically. Compensation beams with screw adjustment for ride height. Baseboards that lift up like a car bonnet so I can get at the gubbins underneath easily. The whole layout on castors. All for ease of maintenance. If I needed to decorate or do serious work to the room I could remove all the delicate stuff and wheel the whole layout into a different room in a few hours. As I said I waffle on a bit, but there some useful ideas in there.

Ok, a very harsh closeup. Not perfect, but better than I could do by hand.

The National Wales museum photo of 118 shows the bar frames much better than most photos and just how much light you can see where traditional British frames would normally be. Have you looked at PTR 21 or other American locos to help make sense of it all? Is this drawing with the original boiler or the Barry boiler? I’m away from home so I can’t tell you the difference. I don’t think it was much. I’m surprised that the GWR bothered to reboiler these locos. The Barry boilers weren’t that old. The real problem with these locos was somewhere in the cylinders and valve gear. In later Barry days above the footplate they were identical to the B1 class. B1s could make it to Trehafod without topping up the tanks yet the Ks couldn’t.

It’ll be nice to see a Dean Goods with nameplates. Very good reclamation in any case.

Aha! That's an interesting technique, Dave, looks very good to me. You can't see that it's double-layered either, which is a little surprising. I also have some old Crafty paper, but it looks like I shouldn't be counting on that. It's a shame they closed, they had some interesting products. Thanks for the tip about Mister decal paper. In the midst of all the excitement about the panels, I think your interior deserve a mention too (the coach interior, not yours!). Looks excellent. Will there be passengers? Always a dilemma, I think.

An excellent solution to the lining problem. I’ll try it on my pre 1900 GWR coaches if I can get cream transfer paper! Duncan