Ian Smith

Over the last couple of weeks I've been constructing a GWR delivery dray. The dray itself is a P&D Marsh kit, purporting to be a GWR version (they also do another LMS version with a raised seat for the drayman). I assembled the kit with superglue, but replaced the horse with one from Langley Models and replaced the drayman with a seated Andrew Stadden one. The barrels are more P&D Marsh offerings and the crates are plasticard - a couple of laminations of 0.040" with some 0.010" strapping (sanded back a little). The reins are narrow strips of thin paper (from a post-it note) glued in place and painted the same colour as the moulded on harness. I'm afraid that I shied away from trying to replicate the "Great Western Railway" wording that should run along the side rail of the dray - I'm sure it will bug me though. A couple of photos now of the finished model posed around Modbury : On the flat area of the yard beyond the cattle dock Climbing up the slope from the goods yard to the station forecourt Finally, drawing into the station environs from what will one day be the A379 The final image shows one of the other things I've been doing recently - adding a few more trees. Most have been added to the wood at the Newton Abbot end of the layout, but I did make the one at the station entrance specifically to site in the hedgerow to overhang the road. Thanks for looking, Ian

Tim, Could you use a bristle from a plastic brush for the sand pipes? We used plastic bristles for the point levers in the yard on St Ruth. They happily bend out of the way when you catch them while track cleaning. Ian

This isn't going to be terribly useful to anybody - I'm a smiff and I haven't got my copy yet

I can't see the photos Andy. Ian

For what it's worth, my own view of the photos shown above is that all of the wagons would be red. My understanding is that the grey livery came in with the large 25" lettering in 1904 (or perhaps with the cast plates in the mid-late 1890's). The wagons all show the smaller G.W.R lettering which apart from brake vans (which are reported to have been grey for a period prior to the switch over) I've assumed would be red. Ian PS luckily I've adopted an all over colour for both my red and grey wagons.

On my 2mm scale Toad, I used a small magnet to retain the roof with bits of plastic sheet in the corners to ensure it remained square (plastic and magnet attached to roof and 0.5mm thin steel glued inside the cabin for the magnet to act on) Ian

Never tried it myself, but would a mirror help to ensure the side set at bottom dead centre are still there when checking the other side? I've always done my wheels as 4 coupled, only rotating one wheel until I'm happy that the quartering of the wheel I'm moving matches the adjoining pair (whatever angle that may be), before moving to the next axle (ensuring that I have a rolling 4 coupled engine before tackling the next axle if you see what I mean). Ian

Just found your thread. Lovely layout. Really nice to see 7mm in a bit of landscape (seeing railway in landscape is one reason why on my return to railway modelling I chose 2mm finescale). Love the City and Brake Van, but then Great Western turn of century is my cup of tea Ian

On Modbury for Devon soil I simply mixed burnt sienna with white emulsion, and painted the whole scenic section before applying static grass. Probably not quite as dark as that shown in your photo but seems to get positive comments at exhibitions. Ian

I'm glad that you found Modbury (top photo) inspirational Ian

Steve, I tend to apply a little weathering to my wagons - generally overpainting the transfers in a wash of body colour as a minimum. I do want to try weathering the wagons and coach undetframe especially at some point. Coach bodies and locos haven't really been weathered although again I have washed the loco lining with body colour to knock the lining back a bit. Buildings have been mildly weathered with white,brown,black, and yellow ochre pastels (stiff brush used to pick up pigment from sticks of colour and dry brushed on). Again I want to tone things down a bit now I've finished all the buildings - wanted to apply similar weathering consistently across everything rather than weathering each as it was built. Trackwork has again been weathered with pastels, dark areas added where locos would stand and where switches would be greased. Ian

Steve, The low down shot is a favourite of mine too. No one ever comments but I think that in that particular shot especially it is difficult to discern what scale the model is. Ian

Modbury was at the Warley exhibition at the NEC last weekend. I didn't manage to take any photos whilst there except a couple of quite dark ones just after setting up on Friday afternoon which really aren't suitable for sharing. Therefore this afternoon I posed a few shots to capture the look of the layout in it's current state (i.e. the state it was in at the NEC). "Buffalo" no. 1601 drawing a passenger train of 6 wheeled coaches and a low siphon slows to exchange tokens with the signalman at Modbury Signal Box. "Buffalo" no. 1601 heads a down 6 wheeled coach passenger train (with low siphon) into the platform at Modbury. As above looking back along the train. A view across the platform ends to the Cattle Dock. One of the recently added platform oil lamps can be seen at the top of the ramp. One of my new 3 plank wagons can be seen on the mileage siding behind the dock. It also appears that one of the cattle has become loose and is playing silly devils in the wagon! A general view of the Goods Shed (now complete with sliding doors) and Cattle Dock. The recently added platform oil lamps provide a little more interest to the sparse platforms I think. "Buffalo" no. 1601 draws into the down platform, while Metro Tank no. 615 waits for the road to Newton Abbot with a train of 4 wheeled coaches. A view across the station as the train of 6 wheeled coaches departs for Plymouth. Thanks for looking. Ian

Modbury was at the Warley exhibition at the NEC at the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't take many photos, but I did capture a bit of video while I was manning the Newton Abbot end fiddle yard and Chairman Jim Allwood was operating. The video captures an out-of-period BR liveried 2251 class (courtesy of John Russell) shunting a pair of cattle wagons from an up (Newton Abbot bound) pick-up goods into the cattle dock. I clearly took the video from the upper branches of a nearby tree in gusty weather as it's a little shaky at times

Rather than peep, the scanners had red or green lights. My fellow operator was called over for a stop-search on Sunday morning as we went through.

Modbury is safely back at base. A thoroughly enjoyable weekend, didn't see too much of the show but what I saw was excellent. Modbury behaved quite well, a couple of gremlins crept in over the weekend, but the layout received a great many positive comments - thank you to all who took the time to share those (it's always nice to see enjoyment on those we are providing entertainment for). Ian

Richard, I turned the ones that I needed, the buffer head and shank from 3mm or 1/8" silver steel (I think I made the shank either .8 or .9 mm diameter). The body of the buffer is turned from brass (with a hole bored through for the buffer shank), and soldered to a piece of 4 thou nickel silver. The base being cut and filed to size and the .8/.9mm hole drilled through it before soldering to the buffer beam. I didn't bother trying to put a step on top of the buffer housing or bolts on the fixing plate. Ian

Jerry, when I looked at the transfer letters I had to make "FOXCOTE" I thought that the largest I had seemed too small to fill the wagon side, so I elected to add the word "Colliery" afterwards. Looking at your wagons I think I could have got away with the wider spacing (especially if I'd added shading to the letters). Oh well, next time :-) Obviously my number 14 wagon is carrying an earlier version of the livery Ian

Over the last couple of weeks I've been trying to put together a few more wagons in readiness for Modbury's outing to the Warley MRC exhibition at the NEC in November. The photos below show the progress - I do have another Cattle Wagon almost finished but I don't seem to have any wheels left to put under it! The 6 wagons pretty well complete : Outside Framed Van in 1904 livery, a Foxcote Colliery wagon (in homage to Jerry who (re-)introduced me to 2FS about 7 years ago), a 3 Plank Open in 1904 livery (25" GW don't fit so largest possible used), a 4 Plank Open in 1904 livery (again 25" GW don't fit so largest possible used), Outside Framed Van in pre 1904 red livery, and finally a Large Cattle Wagon also in 1904 livery. Outside Framed Van is one of my 3D printed ones in FUD from Shapeways, finished with Association parts for the underframe. The Foxcote Colliery wagon is an Association kit on an 8'6" underframe. The lettering is some very old Woodhead transfers for the little lettering, and some waterslide transfers of unknown manufacture for the FOXCOTE. I hope that Jerry doesn't mind too much that his colliery is delivering its wares down in South Devon. The two open wagons are from the Association O3 (5 plank) and O5 (4 plank) wagon kits sitting on Association 9' wheelbase underframes. The 3 Plank wagon is a much butchered O3 kit - top 2 planks removed along with diagonal strapping, ends narrowed, etc. Both these wagons are from 3D printed bodies (from my own artwork) in FUD by Shapeways. Both still need the lettering completed (LARGE being applied to the ends of the Cattle wagon and L M & S applied to denote the size of the wagon with the partition in place. All of the wagons need a little weight adding and DG couplings fitted, and all will receive further weathering too. Ian

I used them on my GWR Buffalo, unfortunately I can't remember how long the extension is, but I do remember that it is stepped, so that the fly crank has something to butt up against. They can probably be used on the diesel shunter thing too (no idea what class - it's a boxy thing without pretty polished ornamentation) Ian

Your first wife was married to Chiltern Green???

Chris, there is a photo in the GWR Wagons bible of no. 68409 of lot L441 built in 1904 which has DCI brakes. To quote Atkins, when detailing the W1 diagram "from 1894 to 1911, many more wagons were built, at first with a lever brake on one side only, then DCI, but the last 350 with DCIII. ... DCIII conversions included 125 wagons originally built with DCI." According to the listing earlier in the book, L441 was for 50 wagons so at least a further 75 wagons with DCI brakes were presumably built on other lots. Ian

Over the last couple of days I've been picking up some of my unfinished wagons with a view to increasing my stock levels in readiness for Modbury's Warley appearance. Along with 3, 4, and 5 plank wagons and a couple of outside framed vans, I thought it might be a good idea to add a couple more cattle wagons to the roster. The cattle wagons will be of diagram W1/W5, and are the last of my 3D printed bodies. For a change from the normal lever hand brake, I decided that one at least should be fitted with the DCI type of brake that some of the wagons were fitted with in the early 1900's. With this in mind I had purchased one of the Association's 2-363 GWR 11'6" DC Cattle Wagon Underframe etches. The wheelbase is wrong for these early cattle wagons being 11'6" rather than the 11'0" of the prototype but I decided that I could live with that slight discrepancy. The immediate problem I discovered when I looked at the etch is that it doesn't actually cater for the DCI type brake at all! The later DCII and DCIII can probably be from the etch (as it's designed for later versions of cattle wagons), however that isn't much help to me . Because my 3D bodies include the solebars and headstocks, the only parts used from the etch were the central floor and some of the brake gear. The axle box/spring assemblies being made up from the Association's GWR Oil Axlebox/Spring multi-layer etch (2-311). The floor part had various unwanted appendages removed (one of the V hangers, brake lever hangers from one end, etc), and was folded up and the bearings soldered in place. I prefer to glue the axle box/springs in place, so the bearing cups the protrude outside the W irons were filed flush. One half of the brake assembly was used for the single sided brakes that these wagons were originally fitted with, this being soldered in place on the side with the remaining V hanger. Missing from the underframe etch were the parts I required to fashion the DCI brake, namely the swan-neck push rod and the ratchet quadrant with drop link (to the swan-neck push rod). The push rod was simply bent to shape from a narrow piece of waste etch, with a .3mm hole drilled at the V hanger end. The ratchet quadrant and drop link were filed up from a further piece of waste etch, only being separated and given final shaping after the relevant holes had been drilled and filed. The photo below shows the results of my labours, and in reality probably would have been as easy to do without using the Cattle Wagon underframe etch, hey ho! Ian

I remember seeing a "British Oak" or look-alike at one of the 2mm events a few years ago (unfortunately I can't remember which one or where). I think it had a working coal drop. Ian

As others have said, without having the model in your hand it is very difficult to diagnose a problem. However, running it under a strong light with magnification is the best way to identify a tight spot. One thing I would check is that a muff is not rubbing on a bearing - possible if the end of the muff is cut at a slight angle (mine always are!) and the bearing is not quite seated squarely in the chassis (i.e. the bearing is at a slight angle too - allowing the two "high spots" to catch every now and then). Where two gears are running face to face, I always try to file a slight angle (and polish with emery) on both sets of teeth to minimise the chance of the teeth catching, especially as the worm rotation will try to force the gear wheel to one side or the other, which gives the opportunity for the teeth to clash with those of the next stage gear wheel. I think this often causes a slight bind or friction in one direction only (the other direction causes the worm to push the worm wheel away from the next stage gear). As others have said, don't give up. At the end of the day you have a chassis that does run albeit not as smoothly as you want at the minute. Regards, Percy Veerance