Brassey

Hey my allegiance is nailed firmly to the railway room wall: Note the authentic GW orange chrome wall

My SDX will probably end up looking more like this:

LNWR five compartment 6 wheel third to D297; 827 built. Versus L&YR eight compartment third to Diagram 34; 808 built. Source: Philip Millard London & North Western 30ft 1in Six-Wheeled Carriages.

I think the LNWR holds the record for carriage construction too

Superbly beautiful. Gives me the motivation to finish off mine before the RTR version comes out!

There is a study on here that has been reported on "Wright writes...." which currently shows that less than 10% model pre-grouping and slightly more would prefer to. Food for thought?

Mine does not look quite as clean as Lee Marsh's but then mine cost me next to nothing! My longer wheel base full cab version is one of those that was finished in brown. Rather than 848 as stated previously it will now be number 1425 which was shedded at Leominster in 1912. Just got the plates from Coast Line along with 1445 which was a Shrewsbury based Metro Tank that spent the summer of 1912 at Ludlow sub-shed

London Road Models do a 4mm Special Tank and Alan Gibson the H spoke wheels.

Now that I have a chassis ready for painting (re LNWR Coal Engine blog) I really need to bite the bullett and get on with the paint jobs in the queue. So I have finished GWR 517 class no. 835 ready for painting. This is a real Frankenstein of a model with whitemetal, brass, nickel silver bits both kit sourced and scratch built. A bit more tidying up particularly the chimney which I am sure is on straight but the camera has distorted: It doesn't look too bad given its ancient ancestry

According to An Illustrated History of LNWR Engines (Talbot) both were turned out in January 1876. In 1895 they were vacuum fitted and assigned to work boat specials to Riverside and were painted in passenger livery. During WW1 they lost their condensing apparatus and were transferred away from Liverpool. In LMS days they could well have worked Euston; there is a photo of 3186 Euston at Camden. 3186 scrapped 7/28. 3021 scrapped 3/39

Regarding the "Chopper" 2-4-0 Tanks, according to Baxter, only 10 lasted into the 1900's all 10 of which were at Buxton shed in 1912. Presumably by then the condensing gear had been removed. Five 2-4-2T's were cutdown to 2-4-0T in 1905 and were motor fitted not condensed. Baxter speculates that this is where the term "Chopper" is derived from. Edit re cutdowns

Your memory is not totally playing tricks: two special condensing tanks No.3021 LIVERPOOL and No.3186 EUSTON were built for Wapping tunnel traffic in Liverpool. This was a goods line from the docks

I can't find any allocations for numbers 721 and 761 so presumably they were at Crewe works at the time. So all 4' 6" 2-4-2T condensing engines were indeed at Willesden.

Hi Guy, These are the allocations for Willesden in 1912: ‘4ft 6in Tank’ 430, 663, 681, 712, 729, 730, 756, 760, 781, 785, 786, 788, 791, 816, 820, 825, 907, 908, 975, 1176, 1178, 2501, 2509, 2516 According to Baxter 20 locos were condenser fitted originally in 1889/90. These include: 430, 663, 712, 729, 730, 756, 760, 781, 785, 786. 788, 791, 816, 820, 825, 907, 908, 975 So 18 of the 20 were at Willesden and probably there from there start. The other 2 were 721 and 761 Hope this helps. Edit re: Baxter

The builder of the LBSC layout is on here but rarely visits. He has helped me enormously with valuable research into the buildings and bridges on my layout for which I am extremely grateful

Guy, I have a London Road Models version in my kit pile. Will yours be built as a condensing engine?

I like to build the running plate along with the chassis to help check for clearance. It might not be so obvious from this shot but it shows how the guard irons hold the front buffer beam in place. There is not much else to hold it. The instructions say leave 1/2 mm over on the valance at the front to fit into the slots in the buffer beam. But there are not such slots! My objective was to try to build something straight from the box. The valances are over scale. At the moment they are holding the running plate flat so I will live with them for the time being. I think they would have benefited from being curved about 1/2mm further back from where I bent them which would look more prototypical but this is nit-picking At this stage I'd fitted the spacers to the chassis and the front stretchers for the brake hangers. The shot shows how the brakes would foul if I had not cut the guard irons down. The LRM kit gives EM spacers but not 18.83 ones. I wanted to use the extra width rather have to resort to lots of washers so replaced these with Comet P4 spacers. The chassis has half-etched guides for the spacers fore and aft so it took a bit of fettling to get these to fit and all square. I made up a motor mount centre spacer from some scrap nickel silver and also fitted the pivot for the compensation beam. Next I reset the jig with the coupling rods again: Once locked into position, the jig rods are removed and reversed. At one end they are turned down to 1.5mm to fit the couple rods. The other end they are 1/8 inch for the axle boxes. The camera has distorted this but the jig is square : The High Level horn guides had previously been bent up and the bearings fettled so that they just about fall out under there own weight. They are colour coded so I don't mix them up: The chassis is offered up to the jig with the jig rods through the fixed axle. At this stage I had already fitted the centre set: Here's the same from the other side. I used an old spring from the Perseverance system to hold the horn guides in place and tight up against the frames prior to soldering: The latest P4 dodge is to use Romford/Markits wheels to check a chassis using P4 axles. My Romford wheels are so old that they have not been drilled for crank pins! I also don't have a screwdriver to tighten them so I could not set the quartering but the chassis did run freely. Reverting to the London Road Model's jigs for setting hornguides as one last check, this shows how the rods fit the axle spacing ok. It also shows how far out the rods and frames are out. The hornguides should be centred in the cutouts but they are hard up one edge. I did fettle a little off the the front cutouts just to ensure they do not bind which they don't: Next I have to fit the remaining pieces for the brake hangers and then paint the chassis prior to fitting the wheels. This will take some time as I have a backlog of painting and also the Alan Gibson H spoke P4 wheels are not drilled for crankpins so I have that to do too (not the first time)!

Well I missed that news as the thread was deleted I would be interested in some D&S LNWR wagon kits but these moved to ABS and are unlikely to see the light of day again; unless anyone knows otherwise?

Hi Mikkel Thanks for the comment. No the chassis jig is from Hobby Holidays. Geoff Holt used one in his books on Locomotive Modelling which is where I got the idea. The problem with this kit, as I alluded to, is that having got the rods set up on the jig, when I put the frames on the jig the holes for the axles did not line up. I think the wheelbase on the frames is slightly out though I might have altered it when pre-cutting through the cutouts. It's not a problem for me because in P4 I am replacing the leading two holes with High Level horn guides but on a fixed chassis in OO it might cause problems. Anyway, I have now soldered the spacers in (using the jig having realigned it) added a motor mount spacer and next step is to fit the horn guides using the jig. Will post that next

Would any of you reading this thread like to see just where this layout is intended to live and the building works that will need to be done to get there? I haven't any photos yet as no works have commenced but that can be easily arranged. The timberwork has arrived though and is currently drying out in the barn. It's likely to be a long process - but I'm happy to give you all a blow by blow account. So the next question is: Do I do that here or have I to start a new thread elsewhere? I've never done a blog and I'm not sure I should wish too . Cheers, Philip Philip Please put it on this thread as far as I am concerned it's all part of the same plan. From my viewpoint I would find the idea of a large turntable quite frightening particularly the prospect of the whole thing falling on the floor stock and all. FWIW, I know I am biased but, my suggestion is to go ahead with Pontrilas with a conventional roundy fiddle yard and see how far you get. That is a main line station with around 100 train movements a day excluding the Golden Valley branch; that would give you enough to do. I have been building stock and building my layout for 6 years now which is much more modest (and on the same line) and so far a complete train has not run.

Agree totally. Falcon Brassworks withdrew recently due to adverse comments on this forum. Thus we lost some valuable etches.

There is a fairly famous 7mm layout based on Pontrilas called Bucks Hill. It's been in MRJ a couple of times and has its own website. Well worth a look. https://www.buckshillmodelrailwayin7mm.com

Last year I made the resolution that I would build stock according to the demands of the timetable of the layout and made a start with the first train. And thus I would no longer get side tracked into building the latest kit I'd acquired or something someone else was doing on a forum that looked interesting or I'd read about in a magazine etc. I'm sure we've all been there. This year, in order to speed up progress, I have decided to build things straight from the box rather than kit mingling of which I am very fond but does take a lot longer. Also if there is a pause in the process (such as Xmas) it's easy to forget which bit you're going to pinch from which kit putting the whole thing on hold whilst you try to remember. So that's this year's resolution. Whilst I build up the will power to paint the 517's, next up is an LNWR Coal Engine from an LRM kit. This build has been started on a blog rather add too many boring details to this thread before there is anything to show. The Coal Engine fits the plan because the next train on the list is an LNWR fast goods. Bearing in mind that the line featured Express Goods and Special Express Goods, the only thing I can tell defines a "fast goods" is that it did not stop at every station unlike a local making it faster. So the LNWR Coal Engine will fit the job.

For those who may have been missing a shot of my coupling rods, here's another set, this time for a Coal Engine from the LRM kit that's underway: Both sets are shown mounted on my chassis jig. They matched and fitted first time. Result, or so I thought? The guard irons on some LRM kits are designed to attach to the bodywork rather than the chassis. I guess this helps get them the correct width for OO modellers but as I model in P4, less of a problem for me. The problem I found on my DX build was that the front brakes fouled against them and I could not refit the chassis once they were on. I tried various fettling and bending to remedy this but eventually they snapped off on the DX. They do help position and strengthen the front buffer beam so, rather than attach them to the frames, I cut them in half. One half is attached to the running plate as per instructions but the remainder I have attached to the frames. I may live to regret this but, as I use the old style wooden brake blocks, this should leave room to fit them. You can just see the join here. As can be seen, I cut through to make the cutouts for the horn guides but left them in temporarily with a top hat bush to help align the frames on my jig to aid getting things all square. More about this later.

Hi Jol What mods did you have to do to the diner please? Peter