Dale

So when all is said and done, with a huge thanks to all who have posted on the thread, my three renumbered Hong Kong engines will be: 45662 Kempenfelt on an 82E Bristol Barrow Road Shed plate, black background for the name plate 45608 Gibraltar on a 55A Holbeck shed plate, ?red? background for the name plate 45654 Hood on a 19B Millhouses shed plate, black background for the name plate Last orders, my round. D.

Right, i give up, throw in the towel, abandon ship. The last light is turned off, the dor sign now reads 'Closed'. pH, would you be a huge help and just give me a Jubilee which would have been regular around the Leeds/Wakefield area from 60-61 which I can renumber my 'Hong Kong too. I have gone for engines whose names I like (especially the Class 50 warship names), and which to the best of my knowledge, were holbeck regular's. As Crewe built engines, I thought they would be the same as Hong Kong but this is a more involved subject so please, please, for the sake of my sanity, give me some options for the other Jubilee. To date we have Gibraltar and Kempenfelt but who will be the lucky third? D.

So Kempenfelt it is then. My list for renaming now reads Raleigh, Gibralta and Kempenfelt. Of course we still have to sort out the colour of the name boards. From pictures i think raleigh was on black... D.

Were the barrow road lot not long firebox engines or am i dreaming? D.

So 45654 Hood may be an option to replace Achillies with then? Short firebox, Crewe engine and given my layout is loosely based around Holbeck, a Millhouses engine would be a frequent visitor... D.

Pox, thats not the news I wanted to start my day thanks for the heads up though. I will have to find another suitable ship then, perhaps Renown? 45713 was at Kingmoor until 62, as was 45724 Warspite or perhaps 45654 Hood, she was at 19B Millhouses from 50-62 but would she have been changed? All of them would be suitable renaming options as they were Crewe engines too but was there any naughty firebox changes on these beasties?

I plan to renumber the Bachmann model of Hong Kong to 3 alternative guises but before I can order the name plates from Modelmaster I have to be sure on the colour of background. 45639 Raleigh on a 55A Holbeck Shed plate 45608 Gibraltar also on a 55A Holbeck shed plate 45697 Achillies on a 68A Carlise Kingmoor shed plate It’s the very early 60’s All of which were Crewe made engines with the short fire boxes and single piece boiler saddle so Hong Kong should be a suitable donor model. i will have to sort out the tenders though... Once I can get my hands on more Jubilee donor’s I will have Repulse, Hood, Warspite… Where do you stop?

Thanks for the replies folks. I have just ordered the book Mike. A nice addition to my library. D.

Could anyone advise me on the background colour of the name plates carried by the Jubilee class under BR? Bachmann's model of Hong Kong has the back ground red but was this a standard for the class? I have looked through all 3 of my books on the class but can't find any reference in the text and all of the pictures are B&W. Many thanks

More cider so my last comment for the evening... I love my Hall's, I love my Black Fives and I even 'quite like my B1's but I have these engines because I could afford them. Of all my engines, should you now ask me which was my favourite I would say without hesitation it's my little Churchward Mogul. Why? Because I was party to building it. It's all too easy to go shopping but watching the 43xxx drift gently around LB actually made me proud. 'A bit of that pretty old girl is mine' and that's priceless. Hmmm, SE Finecast do a Saint....

Forgive any poor syntax or grammar but I am Sat in the Hilton a cross the road from Hall 5 on my tablet after several ciders, trying to 'one finger' type. A wise man once told me that 90% of loco kits never see completion. Given that this little @+##@% fought most of the way, I can honestly see why. If it were not for the old man over my shoulder muttering 'ahh, I have a dodge for that' it's more than likely my little beauty would have had a sub sonic but none the less speedy collision with a wall. Just as it takes a certain size'd pair to take an airbrush to a ton+ worth of model, you need just a big a packet to start hacking, sniping, chopping and mangling an etched kit. When the xurons came out to address the steam chest issue my jaw dropped but that was just the beginning... In the end though I have been party to a steep learning curve, made a valued friend, and shared a Thatchers or two. We shall have to see what I find at Warley tomorrow.

Hey guys,was great meeting at ExpoEM North and seeing the progress on the layout. Dale.

Thanks for your comments gents I have been scrolling through my list of engines to see what I have for Penstemon and think I have certainly got enough to begin with. I have two of the rather questionable Hornby class 2721 pannier tanks as well as the more recent Bachmann 57xx and 8750 so that’s 4 pannier tanks. I also have 3 Bachmann 45XX’s which are ideal for a layout set in Cornwall. I have a 4575 from Bachmann too but I don’t think this modified 45XX was as common. I would like to add a 455 Metro Tank at some point to pair with an autocoach and that should just about cover it. All of these engines were sheded at either Truro or St Blazey in 1934 so are plausible on the line. I suspect my 43XX is a bit on the big side for humble branch work although there were many sheded in Cornwall and my Hall’s, well…. South East Finecast do a brass kit of the 455 but I need to do some more research/ask the fine folk of RMweb if the kit is suitable to represent the Cornish engines. It’s all a question of cab’s – half or full? http://www.sefinecast.co.uk/Locomotives/New%20and%20Revised%20Loco%20Kits%20Page%205.htm So engines I seem to be good for. I think I will be good for wagons too, but its coaching stock that offers the most challenges. I plan to use the Hornby B set coaches (Diagram 140?) initially until I can successfully build a bow end set (Diagram E129) from Comet and have a go at the ratio 4 wheeler kits. I have thought about getting one of the old Hornby Clerestory brake 3rds and seeing if it can be tarted up too. Following the tradition of older stock working their way down from mainline to branch line and then to workmen’s trains, is it plausible to see this venerable coach on a Cornish branch line in the 30’s? So no real RTR coaching fix, at least not to modern standards but room for some ‘skill improvement’ both in modifying RTR, plastic kit building and when I am brave enough – brass etch. D.

Make no mistake, if you’re reading this seeking hidden lore or the dark arts of modelling then your in the wrong place. I am a rookie to this wonderful hobby and blundering my way along. I have in the last three years, made a lot of costly mistakes and changed tack more times than a yacht in a fickle wind. Why a blog? Primarily it’s to serve as a diary as I build my layout. A documented history of the pitfalls, triumphs and inevitable frustrations I am about to experience. If it entertains or even helps others then that’s the icing on the cake. It will also serve to keep those friends who I see infrequently, to keep abreast of progress. So what are you modelling? I could spin off an extended answer to that, and I will shortly but the briefest answer is Bodmin. Penstemon is to be a fiddleyard to terminus layout, measuring 20’ by 3’ with 15’ scenic and the final 5’ being a traverser. Modelled in 4mm OO gauge, I plan to use the layout to learn my craft. I have looked though a lot of reference material for a prototype which ticked all of my boxes and whilst it has been modelled beautifully by the guys from the North London Group of the Scale Four Society, the track plan of Bodmin answers all of my ‘Givens’ and all my ‘Druthers’ too. I am going to twist it, mix it up a little and try to create something that, when viewed casually looks original but when viewed again the penny drops "ahh, it's Bodmin". One of my bugbears in this hobby is scouring through Ebay for some obscure limited run, rare as hen's teeth white metal casting of the piece you need to be accurate to your region, line or railway and then paying three times its original cost when you eventually find it. Where possible I want to use readily available suitable RTR stock and currently available kits but I also want to try my hand at white metal, brass etch, scratch building, das scribing, static grass, making trees… the list goes on. Ebay - i want a divorce! The jury is out on track at this time – one argument is to use peco large radius points and the large radius Y point and then switch to exactoscale sleeper sections and hi nickel bull head rail for the rest. Certainly the cheapest option. The next option is to splash that former with a little custom pointwork from Norman at ‘Just Tracks’. The final and most expensive is to have Norman build all the pointwork in bullhead with the right sleeper spacing. I am leaning toward the latter but need to sell a leg and maybe an arm to medical science first. Quality comes at a price but making track is the one thing I really don’t want to have a go at and Norman does it really really well. So there we have it. That’s where I am going – 45XX and pannier tanks, B sets and cattle wagons, set in idyllic rural countryside.

Hmmmm, cracking jugs ;-)

The Larkin book has arrived and is immensely helpful, even tells me the numbers assigned to M'boro, Darlo or Lackenby. I am going to mod a couple of Dogfish with the extra rail around the top for slag... busy busy busy...

Another question would be 'which sturgeon' as Cambrian kits do 2, one with and one without sides? Another question would be bogies on salmon (no its not a Friday night delicacy) but which type of bogies on the salmon bogie rail wagons; short or long for my north east setting?

Any advise on that NE engineer's brake van - kit, RTR, scratch build etc? Alternatively what kind of coach should i include - gresley suburban? Mr Larkin's book is now on its way thanks to Amazon D.

Thanks for the response, food for thought. I envisaged the train being a permanent way train so re-ballasting, track replacement etc So two cranes then... dont suppose these come RTR?

Can any learned folks advise me on the typical composition of an engineering/departmental train that would have been seen in and around the north east at the ed of the 50's and into the early 60's? So far from looking on the Cambrian Kits website it seems like Shark Plough Brakes, trout and Dogfish hopper's, Sturgeon and maybe Mermaid wagons too? How many and in what proportion of these wagons would make up a small engineering train? Are these even the right wagons? What about a crane? Finally what livery would they be in - black? Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you have any good links/recommended books, that would be very useful too as i suspect i will be repainting some existing RTR stock (Hornby Trout/Shark and Heljan Dogfish)... D.

Doncaster was excellent. Most importantly i managed to get back to the Boro without a hole in my credit card. Easy enough if you just avoid the box shifters completely although I still managed a few quid on bit and bobs.

Fingers crossed she is young, well maintained and blessed with a cracking set of buffers

Morning all. A dark and grim start to the morning out in the Irish Sea where I am waiting for my chopper to take me off to one of our remote unmanned platforms for a day's track planning, ... sorry... work