Prometheus

Well, he's started the New Year with a bang! This is ludicrous, even by his standards.... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AIRFIX-MODEL-No-R201-B-R-RAILBUS-CONSTRUCTION-KIT-BUILT/401457948951?epid=1407994125&hash=item5d78c22917:g:YjYAAOxyZw5RZnWy However, the lucky purchaser will no doubt be delighted to know that it is at least 'a hard to find Airfix plastic built construction kit model'. Tony

Thanks for that Garry - they are beauties, especially the Stove. I couldn't see any sign of the Exley labels underneath that eBay lot either. So, they remain a riddle. Tony

They left me confused Garry I was interested initially but was sufficiently uncertain of the provenance not to rebid. Still, someone got a nice vintage trio of six wheelers for £42odd. Tony

I followed this trio of 6-wheelers through to auction recently. I thought, initially, that they were Exley coaches, but the underpinnings seemed wrong. Can anyone identify them? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OO-GAUGE-3-x-KIT-BUILT-METAL-PLASTIC-GWR-6-WHEEL-COACHES/132897383976?_trksid=p2485497.m4902.l9144 Tony

....and finished, just awaiting a couple of sprays of matt black. The gas lamp tops are scavenged and cut-down Ratio LNWR ones and the ventilators are slightly cut-down from the same source [an old roof saved in the bits box]. This has been a satisfying job, not something which I'd care to repeat too often [as I've said] but one which provides an achievable solution to the problem of finding a neatly fitting roof which will hold its own shape without under-bracing. I'd recommend it too, taking my usual view that if I can do it, anyone can! But that said, had Dana not lit the fuse, I'd probably not have bothered. Tony

Dave - is the profile of the brass roof anything like that of my post of the 22Nov above? Tony

Here's the roofwork...... Starting point: Reinforced from below [before clerestory section razor-sawed out]: Clerestory removed and gap packed out from above with 2mm card: .010 plastic sheet overlayed and endlessly scraped/sanded back with primer sprayed in between to check progress: Near final finished state with one or two very small areas of dressing still to attend to: It's near to impossible to completely remove all signs of the overlay and I wouldn't want to do too many of these but the finished product has a nice profile and fits perfectly. Once sprayed matt black it'll be fine. Tony

I have just completed one and will post photos in due course. I braced the bottom with 4 squares of 2mm plastic card, packed out the centre with a long strip of the same, overlaid .010 plastic card and then commenced the long, painstaking and quite tedious process of scraping, sanding, priming, sanding, priming and sanding until I got what I wanted. And do you know what? It worked! Tony

'...might manage at 3...': that's good enough for me! You could be right about those coaches although when i saw them [twice], they were stabled on the north side of the station in a siding just to the west of that splendid water tower, the same siding that seemed to hold some bogie Siphons for ages and ages. This would have been around '58, '59 or '60 though, so it could have been too late. Tony

Thanks for that post Dana - I had wondered about trying that but decided that it would probably just fall apart. I'll try it now. I also bought some Roxey Mouldings vac formed roofs to try those in the next build. Tony

Quite so! Tony

Thank you Steve - that's pretty much where I decided to use the saw. Good to have it confirmed however. Tony

I have a model of a Fowler ploughing Engine which I wish to mount on some sort of well wagon. As it is however, it would be somewhat out of gauge. Does anyone know whether the chimney on the Fowler BB1 was a folding one? I cannot find any photos on line of one with its chimney down [or being rail transported either for that matter]. Many thanks. Tony

Thank you Lofty. Be sure to post! One thing that has surprised me though is the gradual rise in price for these coaches: they used to be two-a-penny, they ‘aint no more. I’ll not pay more than a tenner (inc postage) for one although many have starting prices in the 20’s and even 30’s. Tony

Brilliant - thanks all for all this stuff. What an interesting history, too. Tony

Thanks for that - I thought that the stanchions looked somewhat incomplete. All possibly better replaced with wire? Tony

For £2 at a stock sale, I couldn't resist this tiny brake van. White-metal body with a card roof and plastic wheels, it'll be upgraded in due course. But what is it? It is really a Gwendraeth van? I could not find any images on line to support that branding. Anyway, over to the Oracle..... Thanks Tony

Thanks for your comments nickwood - much appreciated. You are quite right: there are too many panels in this compromise build. I didn't bother posting the link to my build blog for this coach as it pretty much - in essence anyway - follows that of Rosie's Boss back in 2016. In it, I acknowledged the fact that the coach was a little over-length as a consequence but even though I had quite a fine razor saw, it was not fine enough to remove the errant panels without creating a cosmetic disaster, one which no amount of careful filling could subsequently address. So, I aimed for what someone else on here aptly once coined, a 'train set' result, not a show-case model. The glazing: SouthEast Finecast Triang Clerestory flush-glazing. Cheap and cheerful and, once fitted, all the better for a coat of Johnson's Klear on both sides [to improve the clarity / transparency]. The roof: this was my greatest concern at the outset. In my blog I said that I intended using stiff card [somewhat reluctantly] as bending plastic card to the correct profile along the entire length of the body seemed a bridge too far. However, half-way through the project I purchased [for a fiver] a poorly constructed D&S Models Dean Passenger Luggage Van, a 40 footer. The roof from this was perfect, almost an exact fit [so close you could not tell] and to the correct profile. It needed some attention, repairs and rain strips, but it has worked well. I wish that I could find a proprietary roof with this profile for other coaches. The D&S kit also provided the bogies, although they needed considerable attention for them to be usable. They were also assembled to P4 standards and so the wheelsets required re-gauging and some desoldering was necessary to allow this to happen. The coach runs beautifully smoothly however on its compensated underpinnings. I am kicking myself for not removing the moulded end handrails. They are simple enough to construct out of wire and look so much better. The twin gas tanks are 5 amp fuses. They actually look the part[ish] once painted. Tony

A box of Triang Clerestories had been nagging me for surgery for quite some time and I'd been looking around for an interesting early GWR coach to bash from them. I didn't want another Clerestory and was looking for a short, low-roofed bogie coach, similar to those which once ran on the Burry Port and Gwendraeth Valley Railway and which, as a schoolboy, I sometimes saw stabled outside Cardiff General. Googling around, I found an interesting RMWeb blog from early 2016, written by Rosie's Boss, showing a conversion of a standard Triang Clerestory Brake Third into quite a reasonable approximation of a GWR Brake Third to Dia. D15. So, whilst I can't take credit for an original bash [and am grateful for the inspiration], it suited my needs and I rather like it, too. Brake pull rods have yet to be fashioned [i've just noticed!]. Triang could have never imagined what a resource their Clerestories were to become: has any other r-t-r provided such scope for surgery? Tony

What mouldings did you use to fill your brick wagons Darius? Thanks Tony

....and for Southern Railway fans: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-HO-gauge-Lima-model-Southern-4572-loco-train-Set-Green-3-Coaches/273490469821?hash=item3fad4d63bd:g:3OwAAOSwK65bs5CS Like me, you'll be hugely reassured to hear that '...One of the free rolling passenger coaches has lost one set of wheels. This should not affect running...', and with '...very light scuffing and some surface corrosion on the wheel links...', surely a bargain. Tony

Now sold - to a collector in Dublin. Thank you for allowing the post. Tony

I've been able to post this here with Andy York's kind permission [but without any intention of setting a precedent]. It was approved on the basis it of being a niche interest area and perhaps an unusual request for help. John Rogers, the oldest and near-longest member of our club [srmg.org.uk], sadly died recently. His sister has asked me to try to help dispose of his extremely eclectic collection of rolling stock and his kit-built and r-t-r adapted Irish railways wagons and locos form part of that group. The stars of this sub-collection, once run on a small diorama , must be the three locomotives: a brass 5'3" Jinty, a brass Worsley Works 5'3" diesel shunter and a 5'3" sentinel with a Tenshodo mechanism [a rear buffer beam is present although detached]. All 3 locos work. The Jinty needs buffers fitting. The vans and trucks are a mixture of white metal and plastic, all with the correct wider gauge wheels [except for a few which are broken]. The vans and trucks are also varied in quality: some are a little battered but substantially complete. There is also an amount of hand-built track. I am very keen to sell this collection for John's sister as a single lot [if possible]. I cannot easily value it although the brass locos in particular are unlikely to be 'bargain-basement'. I am more than prepared to be realistic in terms of pricing however. The club is not charging a commission for the sale either. I have provided some photographs below and should any RMWeb member be interested in talking further about this lot, or even - hopefully! - feeling able to make an offer for it, please just send me a PM Many thanks - and thanks again Andy for allowing me to post this. Tony

Yes, so do we!!!! However, we will be running over two days, can provide free parking for both and even if the Swans are at home the roads aren’t actually chokker all day. Tony

Go on, knock it up 5050! At last weekend's Swansea Model Railway Show I saw a box full of bagged and unmade K's coach and wagon kits, including the three ex-LBSC coaches and the 3 ex-LNWR coaches, all at quite reasonable prices. I have never seen so many K's kits in one place before. I have a big backlog of projects and so did not buy any at first..... I weakened, returning to buy one of the LBSC 4-wheelers. If anyone is interested in the trader who stocked them, it was WM Collectibles. He has a website. Tony