Les1952

I think there are about seventy WD saddletanks still in existence out of the 484 or 485 built (must count them and work out which of the two quoted numbers is right). One version not covered and left for the aftermarket is this one- I have a Hornby loco in bits waiting for me to pluck up the courage to anneal the cab kit so I can bend the roof. The kit is a single part that bends to mahe the cab roof, sides and bunker with other bits to solder onto it. It is in the shed at the moment and I can't remember who the kit is by. At least if I bog it up I don't lose the engine- you only fit the cab AFTER you've made it. Les

Thinking of the wooden cab floor pic- and that you are doing a Backworth loco, here's number 48 in 1974. and number 9 on the same day. When not in use the shutters were carried on the cab roof. Les

Well into June... Plenty going on- the drains are almost laid on the building site, with the manholes in and ready for painting. the grassy bank at the back of the centre board is getting its trees now the backscene is in place and the basic grass done. I've been doing Thursday evenings as well as Tuesday mornings to plant trees while nobody else is working in front. We have a shopping list for the Great Central Show (Jim and I are there all three days with Furtwangen Ost- come and say hello). Starting at the left hand end the trees are of necessity smaller as the bank gets a bit close to the backscene here. There is a bit of hedgy stuff to put along the back to hide a horizontal backscene line. Plenty more to go in yet.... Starting to hide the fact that the lane is a road to nowhere. The line of trees and bushes here need to turn towards the houses on the backscene behind it to make it look as if the road actually goes that way. Not the easiest of illusions to pull off and maybe easier if the road had actually been there to hide.... Looking back through/over the footbridge it is easier to see- the trees on the uphill side haven't yet gone in. When they do the road will disappear into a leafy tunnel- or at least that is the hope... Lastly the subterfuge to hide the end of the backscene near Hodkin's works. This and the last two also show the houses on the backscene. Although this area is going to be woodland the idea is to retain glimpses of the houses that are there alreay- a little too posh for the real Top valley but the idea is to show a green belt between Top Valley Market Place at one end and the new Rise park development at the other. Still plenty to go in- next pics might just show progress on some of the other areas. Les

Thumbnail pic of Hawthorn Dene on p618 of the new Railway Modeller. Confirms the article is in the August issue. Describes it as "main line action and colliery branch", close enough. Loco news. A1 Kenilworth still away for repair. A1 Hal O'the Wynd partly stripped yesterday to look at why it wasn't going. I couldn't find anything so as it still wasn't running I did what I should have done first and took the decoder out and put a blanking plate in. Tried on Furtwangen ost- runs perfectly. Back goes decoder, onto programming track. "Can't read CV". Replace decoder with a spare (the one from Kenilworth as it happens). Runs perfectly. Try decoder in another chassis then bin it. Another cheapo Bachmann decoder bites the dust....... On the A3 front the two with valve gear problems have become one good engine. As a result ex-NQP Colorado is now permanently in the spares bin and Book Law is back in service. One dodgy J27 and the O1 still on the works line but no hurry to do them- next show isn't till November. All the very best Les

If we are looking nearer the year end I might be able to afford a third one, and maybe even sound-fit 71515 when it arrives. Just a case of deciding which....... Any news on how well/easily (and where) a Zimo sound chip and speaker will go inside? Les

Not happy with the shed roof so far.. It is very streaky- hopefully a thin touch-in coat will improve it. The back is better as I thinned the acrylic with a lot more water. I'll also bring the brown flock back from the club before putting a final coat of thin paint on. Also done is the second version of the wagon filler- this one works well enough but spills a lot of coal to the sides. However as the basic flow is OK I can now work on Mark III and get on with the screening house knowing it doesn't need to be taller. No Place has lost its place! Furtwangen is now on the trestles again and No Place is on the workshop bench. Note that under the bench we still have one half of Gresby stored- the other half is in the conservatory. Time to feed the cat-again. Les

Back again! Furtwangen Ost is now back on its trestles ready for testing over the next week or so in advance of the Great Central show. The board on the front is to protect the scenery- it is held on by three screws and is removed when the layout is in use. There is also a board to slide on underneath the layout- that is going to have to come off temporarily tomorrow so I can tighten the carrying handles again. A couple of shots taken at Lincoln during the last outing. More to bore you with shortly..... Les

Sunday Latest addition to the motive power is a Bachmann Ivatt 4MT - another loco from the Darlington area, though like the Stanier 2-6-4T it will need to be renumbered. Assuming Bachmann got most of the details for 43096 right on the model the nearest Darlington one is 43099, which is what it will ecentually become. It doesn't like shunting the screens with the tender on closest notch, so will bask in the shed or bring wagons in from the fiddle yard when it is on the roster of the day. Rails had taken in a batch of DCC fitted engines including a few 4MTs and this one seemed the most appropriate of the selection. I'm now looking out for a Hornby Fowler to rebuild into Limousine Cab 42405, which ended up as a Darlington engine. It looks as if "Layout 4" will be a OO-gauge BLT based on the Darlington area. Now thinking back to Seldomseen, there was never a railway to Staindrop- which was/is a bigger settlement than Piercebridge or Gainford. I wonder if the S&DR were forced to build the Barnard Castle line out of sight of Raby Castle? I also mentioned the resin barn I'd bought last Sunday at the war Games fair. This is it. Just needs painting appropriately and planting somewhere near the front. In the meantime the loco shed has had its roof painted, but needs more work to remove a few streaks. Next shed day is Wednesday- the car is in for MOT (collected and delivered) so I should have most of the day. Weds will also have to involve some bench clearing so No Place can be lifted off the trestles for a while- Furtwangen needs checking over before Quorn. All the best Les

A day in the shed at last. Marking finished with two weeks to go before the deadline, so some modelling done. A trip to Sherwood Models had resulted in my finding some Wills stone wall sections, so the first bit of customisation of the screening house is beginning. I've got a week before I need to set No Place aside so I can work on Furtwangen Ost for the GCR event, so I'll try a few more experiments on the loader to see if I can gravity feed hoppers. Plan B is to leave a hole in the backscene that I can put a temporary length of track through and cheat by pushing empties through then feeding fulls back by hand, rather the same as on Hawthorn Dene. A bit more progress on the shed. Roof on and the flashing and barge boards added. The resin pieces on the side are from a War Games show last weekend. More later. In the shed is the latest unsuitable acquistion - another engine for the preservation group, eventually for the BLT that will be layout four. Rehearsal for Yeomen of the Guard tomorrow so the next modelling session is likely to be Monday. Cat now sitting on table tapping paw on wrist saying "What time do you call this because I call it feeding time" Les

I see what you mean about heavyweight construction. However I've had one of these shelf tracks pull its screws out of the wall through overloading shorter brackets than these (very expensive), so would suggest at least one leg at the front if they're not there already.... All the very best Les

Very many thanks for that info. I'm up to my neck in exam marking at the moment but I'll have a look when I get some time. Little to report on the railway, except that the loco shed has needed bargeboards AND flashing making to lengthen the roof, and I've bought an Ivatt 4MT for the preservation group collection and some building bits at a war games fair over the weekend. The latter was an eye opener as I'd not realised how much scenic stuff was the right scale. All the best Les

J50 uglier than the J69? Which version of the J69? Sure the two Liverpool Street pilots WERE pretty, but when you look at the pictures in the Yeadon guide there are some very poorly proportioned variants, some of which WERE downright ugly. Gresley needed a more powerful loco than the J52 saddletanks. The long tanks were a direct result of needing to run a while between cluttering up water cranes, and the downwards slope at the front was so the driver had a decent view ahead. Similarly the hopper variants were to give the driver a decent view running bunker first- which the average shunting tank spent half of its running time doing- turntables were for more important engines. Some J50s did get into the North Eastern Region, lasting longer than the Jinties transferred into the real North East. The ones at Darlington didn't stay long, although powerful enough the shorter wheelbase of the J94 was more suitable for local work. All the very best Les

Interesting- David Haarhaus states in the May BRM (P38 just past halfway down the right-hand column) "Furthermore Bachmann Europe will suspend sponsoring any more external tooling commissions which can consume a great deal of management time, and we'll steer clear of any head-to-head duplication of products". That was in the May issue. Presumably this was already in the pipeline, together with.the duplication of product in announcing an N-gauge J72. My wallet is very happy with this set. It leaves it breathing space to buy other things. However I'm very happy for those who are excited by LUL and looking forward to buying one. It will be good. Enjoy it. Les

Still quiet. No new bookings to report, but I've had an email from Steve Flint to say Hawthorn Dene is still on track to be featured in August's Railway Modeller. All the very best Les

Almost another month gone... The big news is that we've bitten the bullet and decided that no way are we going to be ready to exhibit at Grantham show. We might make Sileby but more likely Cotgrave next year. That will mean recruiting a pair of operators as for my sins I'm now show manager for Bingham MRC. Geoff will take charge of the layout over the weekend and I'll have a short play if I get the chance, or more likely not. This month as well as modelling Geoff has been on holiday, I've been to Manchester for 5 days and Alf has been playing with his racing cars. These are 12 inches to the foot scale by the way- 80 and still running his team. Should we start calling him Bernie? What a difference a bit of colour makes. Trevor has made the footbridge over the side road exit, This looks a little more plausible now the grass is in behind it. A few overhanging branches and bushes and it will look good. Rocky outcrop coloured by Jim with the first layer of grass added by me - before I vacuum most of it off again next week..... There will be assorted clumpy bits and about 100 trees on the grassy banks at the back of the layout. Note cloudy backscene paper to the right but not yet to the left... Also grassed is the bit behind the railway at the Top Valley Market end of the layout. Trevor's Works Street buildings in place. Again the base sky colour makes a real difference even though the cloudy paper hasn't yet been applied. Plenty still to do, starting with some vacuuming next session. Les

Asking the rest of the workshop to shut up so they could get a decent video clip might have been a good idea. Given just how good my K1 and L1 are I want one...... Les

You know, the more I hear folks bellyaching about this or that being wrong with a forthcoming model the more I become inclined to order another loco I don't need just to say "s-d you"..... Les

Oh I do hope they aren't too long, or to put it another way- Oh, my wallet does hope they aren't too long as it knows if the wait is all that much longer I'll be tempted to buy yet another loco I don't need....... Les

Many thanks for the maps. Looking at this map I wish I'd had a look at the bottom of the hill at Co-operative Villas. It shows the Beamish Railway running between the road in and the houses, whereas I'd reckoned the road (which is narrow) laid over the course of the line. However the school is shown at the bottom of the hill and it isn't a good idea to hang round a school with a camera. The yard at East Stanley Colliery is a bit more sloped than the model can be, but the tip being shown to the South-East of the site still can give me a rising contour to the front of the layout. Both maps also shows the buildings to be comparatively small by colliery standards- only one track shown on the earlier map. The Ministry of Fuel & Power if they even looked at the site would have rejected it as too cramped and too remote, so my fantasy future history is exactly that- fantasy. In a scenic length of five feet in OO I can't give more than an impression. Following six days out to go to Manchester and the Exam Board I'm home again and have got the roof on the shed. It is a little short so I'm going to have to add modern barge boards. The sides have bowed a bit and straightening them comes first. Pics when I've got it looking more respectable. All the best Les

I can't give a pic of 10001 but here is similar S10075 with S10041 awaiting scrap at Lackenby in the seventies (my slide records claim 1974). DL used the digits of the works number following the zeros as running numbers. Hope this helps. Les

One could be- but I'm still waiting to hear back from them. I'm hoping the article in Railway Modeller in the next few months will jog a memory or two.... All the very best Les

Bachmann Industries is a Bermuda-registered Chinese-owned company with headquarters in Hong-Kong, having been bought from American owners based in Philadelphia in 1984. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kader Industrial Company Limited, founded 1948 in Hong-Kong. Bachmann Europe is a subsidiary, based in the UK but still Chinese-owned. Headquarters decides what is made where- Barwell has little or no control over that. Les

Hmm- many people have commented, and not just on this forum or even about model railways, that the shipping costs for a container from a port in China to a port in the UK are LESS than the cost of getting the same container from the quayside to a town ten miles away..... DJMODELS have now proved that a container can be tracked from China to Southampton (where it seems to get lost). Bachmann are a Chinese firm. No chance whatever of UK manufacture. Les

Many thanks for this map, which I couldn't see earlier as a non-subscriber to the site. We walked down the track from the Beamish Mary inn, and the tub-like thing is at the upper of the two BS letters. The pics were taken from just above the letter A of Actonden Wood or possibly a little further along. No Place was closer to the track than I'd thought- the contour line shows it at the top of the sharp dip to the left of the track. Closure and reopening would account for the discrepancy in dates. Interestingly none of the books mention it, though they DO mention two periods of closure for Twizell Burn Drift. All the very best Les