Brassey

A back to back gauge for EM would help as would a wheel press and quartering tool.

Tempting though it is, most of the A Class had been converted to simples by the time of my layout- 1912. in the meantime, Narrow Planet are on with the plates for my C Class and I have an Experiment and Precusor on the go on the workbench.

I don’t think there is a readily available kit in 4mm John.

highly unlikely as the cleaners had to stand on the running plate to do the cleaning and probably couldn’t reach the roof from there

Out of interest, why MR and LNWR? They never had a joint main line and were deadly rivals. Unlikely to have seen trains from both companies unless you are building something like Buxton where they shared a terminus station. In that case the stock and locos would be quite specific. Philip Millards book on 30' 6" carraiges covers the LNWR 6 wheelers and has drawings. This is an LNWR Society publication and they will still have copies. He also did books on non-corridor coaches and the West Coast Joint Stock. Talbot's book on LNWR locomotives also has drawings. If you are looking for LNWR suburban stock then London Road Models is your source for 4mm kits both Carriage and loco

I can't think of anyone with a pre-1900 LNWR layout. I am sure someone could get a few coal rails etched though they would have to measure the model to make sure it fits. I wonder what Bachmann have done with the tender to make sure the 00 flanges don't foul the rear bufferbeam? Have they made the tender top longer or shortened the wheelbase?

Coal rails were from half round bar. I think there is a precise specification on the LNWR Society Forum (not Facebook!). It should be relatively easy to make these up out of half round brass section. Or maybe London Road might release an etch. I'm off to the Warrington show this morning where I am picking up a bogie etch for an LNWR Experiment I have just started. It is possible to get etches of odd bits and pieces. Brassmasters did some LNWR kits so might be persuaded too. What the demand might be is questionable though they could also be used to improve old GEM tenders.

Should this not be the post-1903 three lamp holders. Was the centre bracket not a later addition?

Ok hands up … I’ve got a Midland 1F… Precedent LMS nos in red livery: 5012 JOHN RAMSBOTTOM 5036 NOVELTY 5050 MERRIE CARLISLE 5069 PENRITH BEACON Source: Yeadon, A Compendium of LNWR Locomotives 1912-1949 Part One Passenger Tender Engines I have no shed allocations for the LMS sorry.

“ is it legitimate to have models of actual locomotives etc. in fictional livery? After all, they never actually ran on one's fictional line... How far can history be warped?“ If you’re of the school “every layout should have a Flying Scotsman” then I guess anything goes. On the other hand, if you’re that concerned about the correct size of nameplate then you might want to get other details right too; such as livery. The nameplate on HARDWICKE is 46 1/2 inches. Others from photographs, such as PITT and ALMA, were smaller whereas SIR ALEXANDER COCKBURN nearly took up the whole splasher! MERRIE CARLISLE was one of the 4 locos to receive the red LMS lining. Looking in LNWR Liveries, Talbot et al, I find no mention of the LNWR adding Prussian Blue to drop black as mooted in the above video review. This is another falsehood that needs correcting.

They were probably to a standard though IIRC there were some oddities of semi-circular plates covering the whole splasher on some LNWR locos. If you are buying the plates from a supplier then presumably they would have done the research and consulted photos. As previously stated above for example, only 4 locos ever carried the LMS red livery so putting some different names on this variant would be wrong.

Whilst rtr is not my thing, the video on here shows the original name and number plates to be just printed on. So it should be straightforward to stick new plates over the top. I attach plates with evo stick contact adhesive. I do one side at a time and let it set whilst lying flat on the side. Otherwise gravity can shift the plates before the glue goes off.

But they leach sap which sticks to the piece once hot. I try to build things on flat glass but the iron heat can crack that too.

Brassmasters do some nice torsion spring bogies.

You don't appear to be doing anything wrong. You get a better feel for it with plenty of practice. A jig that holds the angle of sides and ends at 90 degrees would be handy. I have a large, long piece of MDF with a couple of pieces of hardwood attached at right angles. Not only do you have to make sure that the corners align, you also have to get the bottoms/tops at the correct heights too. The good thing with solder is that you can correct it. Therefore tack solder first and check alignment and adjust if necessary. This is most crucial on loco chassis that have to be square and true.

I know the feeling. I put a request into 247 Developments for some Precedent nameplates only to discover that the ones I want are included in the LRM kit I have already. Doh!

LOCO7 with a choice of tender. I’ve got one and a Whitworth (but for the Small Jumbo i already has a suitable George Norton tender) “L.N.W.R./L.M.S. “Precedent” Mr. F W Webb introduced the ‘Improved Precedent’ or 66″ Straight Link class as the same basic design as that of the original Precedents, between 1887 and 1890. The entire class was modernised and re-boilered between 1891 and 1895 to provide a total of 166 engines. It was in this form that these engines won most of their fame, with a capacity for hard work combined with an ability to run at high speed. One of the class, Hardwicke, is preserved in the NRM at York. This locomotive is famous for it role on the 1888 and 1895 railway races to the north.The kit is etched in brass with nickel silver for the chassis. The curved running plate is formed over a jig that incorporates the valance, to accurate and straightforward assembly. The etched boiler is pre-rolled and an 1800-gallon tender is supplied as standard. A selection of etched name/number plates is included. Choice of tender£126.50”

My mistake on the smoke box! Gibson buffers 4905 London & North Western, Webb in my 2018 list. Slaters used to do them too. Sometimes crop up on eBay. you could try a LRM 1500 tender

I was quoting the utuber who referred to it as Midland. Although it might be correct for LMS, IIRC the smoke box number is on the LMWR livery version too.

Interesting perspective. I do not prefer the Midland livery on an LNWR loco; the Blackberry black being far superior. Some issues: The number on the tender plate is the tender's number not an old loco number. In LNWR days the loco number was not carried on the smokebox door so that is wrong. The buffers on the tender are Webb but those on the engine are Bowen-Cooke which dates the engine as post circa 1910

IIRC from posts on the S4 Forum, ABS is also in new hands though it will be a while before anything reappears.

Falcon Brass etches are currently available on eBay and David Geen is still in business according to the latest MRJ

In the absence of anything else, Brassmasters sell an etch of spring hangers under the Martin Finney accessories

I am responding to comments much earlier in this thread about through carriage working. The implication is that through carriages were only on down services and empty stock was worked back on what ever was available. This is not true. In the heyday of through carriage working, the carriage would be used to form the timetabled return working. If you went on holiday from Manchester, for example, to the South West you had to get home again. This was detailed in the "Through Carriage Programme" copies of which are held at Kew, the last being dated 1926. Every carriage was allocated to a train; up and down. Whether this changed in the 1930's I do not know.

Sorry I can't be much help but IIRC the LNWR Society does not hold Working Time Tables back to that date because they have assumed they didn't survive because they did not exist then. I would assume the GWR was the same and used something else at the time. Of course I could be completely wrong.