Les1952

The only problem, as the owner of several 0-4-0 tanks in OO, is that on "standard" track (as opposed to finescale) short wheelbase tanks have a habit of turning sideways when reaching a point frog. My bete noir is a Doxford cranetank which even on finescale track needs to be coupled to a very heavy whitemetal plate wagon to keep it on finescale track. In N the problem is even worse. There were quite a few small 0-6-0 tanks which would sell well, however- not just the Hudswell range. Les

NCB No.36 was Davenport 2595 of 1944, ex USATC WD6006 May 1947 to Seaton Deleval workshops Northumberland (No.8 area).- one of a pair, the other being No.35 (Dav 2509/43 ex- USATC WD1944) Transferred the following month to Killingworth Colliery with No.35 Returned to Seaton Deleval shed Dec 50 - no.35 having returned in 7/50 Back to Killingworth early 1953. scrapped December 53. No.35 was scrapped at Seaton Deleval in 5/53. A third loco was USATC WD4372, Davenport 2521 of 1943, allocated to Rising Sun Colliery, Wallsend from June 1947 as no.4. Later renumbered 31. Transferred to Backworth in June 1951. Returned to Rising Sun April 1954 for scrapping and cut up two months later. There were three USATC locos at Ashington for a few months in 1944 with two more at Killingworth, two at East Cramlington and another at Broomhill. One of the Killingworth pair was a transfer from Ashington. All of these returned to the USATC by the end of 1944. This seems to be all of the type in Northumberland. However one could stretch reality by running NCB 36 with Hornby's WD no.49 and DJModels/Hattons NCB No.4 as all would have run over the same tracks- Deleval locos worked past Backworth colliery on their way to the staithes. However, you would need to ignore the facts that 49 was numbered 75062 until1959 and 4 didn't arrive from Scotland until 1961....... All the very best Les

I'm one of the heretics that think A3s look better with double chimneys and blinkers- mostly because that is how I remember them. The last one with a naked smokebox had gone before my spotting days. Nice to know I'm not alone. Manna has a lighter weathering than normal as it was a Heaton rather than a Gateshead loco. All the best Les

A couple more pics. Our two intrepid spotters get a good view of 60085 MANNA, which after a little shuffling has found its way onto the parcels- the V2 is now running Northwards on parcels. A view of the South end of the fiddle yard showing a procession of Northbound trains waiting to go. Still some lamps to add. I failed to find any at Doncaster so I've ordered some online from Peters Spares. Left to right 90014 on oil with 60124 on express behind, 61321 tender-first on coal empties, Tyne Dock O1 2-8-0 on steel plate, V2 60884 on parcels and 46477 with inspection saloon with J39 on goods behind it. I'm setting tomorrow aside to try to fit a decoder to a Hornby J94. All the very best Les

It looks as if those spotters have been seen.... ""I'm sure that wasn't there yesterday" The fence runs right up to the bridge - trespassers will have to climb up the other end where there is a fence gap at the baseboard join...... "I told you the parcels would have a namer on it" A low-stress visit to the Warner show at Doncaster yesterday gave me enough enthusiasm to put in the last length of boundary fence today. The second pic shows I need to do a little touching up of the wire here and there, but apart from a bit of grass and a few small bushes it is done. I used brass rod for the uprights for two reasons- firstly the plastic rod uprights at the board edge further along are too fragile, and secondly it was all I could find! Our intrepid spotters may have missed the spaceship running round- I'm not happy with it going clockwise as it doesn't like the entrance to the fiddle yard. I'll give it a go anticlockwise before putting it out as a "spare to be used when desperate". Tea time. Les

Its only a tiddly little model if your starting from something the size of a house brick. From the point of view of an N-gauge modeller it is Orribly Oversized.... Les

They'll be behind the fence when I get round to doing it - that is the only bit I haven't fenced off yet....... Sorry! Les

I'm going to add a mundane wish list- That plenty of people put their hands into their wallets early for Beatties, O2s and J94s to help get the Q6/N-gauge J94/Clayton/both Hudswells out quicker.... That way we all get nearer to achieving our wishlists. Les (with 8 locos now on preorder- 6 assorted N and a OO J94 at Sherwood Models and a Hattons special)

It is the one that happened to be out the front getting lamped at the time- I had considered running a black one out but was more worried that I'd lose the plot and end up with something unlamped or unweathered as a result.... 60884 was borrowed when new by Fred Hempsall for photography - I can't remember whether it appeared in the Journal at that time or not. It was a black early crest loco at that time. Fred replaced the coal in the tender with a soft matting of real coal. It took me a long time from starting to paint it green to actually finishing the job, largely down to the difficulty of getting the lining to stick to the boiler. Even now there is a small gap at the top of two of the boiler bands, which can't be seen now under the weathering. There were still "green" engines going round the coast as late as 1964-5 as Gateshead still had some passenger diagrams, and there would be substitutions for EE Type 4s on heavier passenger and parcels- these weren't exactly known for their reliability. At Darlington you often only knew a loco on the shed dead line was supposed to be green from its number. I only really remember cleaner green engines- everything dirty seemed to be a shade of grey. All the very best Les

Looking at that last pic of 90344 I might try to hang the top lamp on the smokebox door front. Maybe do that tomorrow after I've been back to the dentist to get the stitches out. Not a pleasant trip I'm thinking- 25 miles each way and the weather forecast is lousy.... I've changed the V2 off the parcels temporarily for a 9F (though what a Newton Heath 9F is doing going South round the coast will remain a mystery) but I'll probably swap that back and use a 9F on fitted goods (assuming I can get the York one to co-operate with the fiddle yard.... But all that is for tomorrow- as is trying to find a pair of lamps for an A4.... Les

Train Spotters They've arrived and are now standing on the bank by the signal. Barry and friend looking out for numbers. Can you read that one or should we have given the driver a yell? The V2 is the only one running at the moment. Les

Quite a few in Grantham Operatic reckon that road works in the town have been going on longer than the Operatic Society- which can trace its ancestry back to the eighteen nineties...... All the very best Les

Another silly-o-clock post. Insomnia caused by a jaw still recovering from last week's tooth extracton...... Unfortunately the anti- bacterial stuff I'm taking has a 2-hour bar immediately after it when I'm not supposed to take painkillers. The "bomb" having been taken at about 11pm I've got half an hour before the painkiller tablet then another half-hour before it kicks in. The rest of today's photos- like it or not I've time to post all of them. If I've got to suffer so must the readers of this lot. Newly weathered 64840 approaches the new signal with a Northbound fitted freight, possibly a York to Newcastle dropping and picking up at West Hartlepool and Sunderland. I had real fun finding a J39 that had a raved-out 4200 gallon tender and survived to late crest. Only four reached BR (the others lost their tenders to V2s in the thirties) and two definitely went to scrap with early crests (the two numbers Farish have done with late crests). The third one has no definite scrapyard report and its last works visit wasn't a major repair, meaning it could have finished with either. However 64840 did get a General and a late tender crest- and that was even late enough for the lion to be pointing left on both sides. Having renumbered it I've almost weathered the number into hiding. A close-up of the new signal. Standing and secure, but probably wanting a little weathering. The sight line for enginemen isn't that brilliant, but there were worse ones. One of the levers has dropped off- a much more difficult repair than the original fix, but that is about normal Just to show the back of the arms and prove I remembered they shouldn't be yellow. . Meanwhile 90344 now has a new top lamp- those Springside ones are too big. It will no doubt go the way of its predecessor and disappear at some stage. As 61018 was on the front of the Southbound fast goods I took the opportunity to weather it a little as well. A good Darlington and Teesside engine having had spells at Haverton Hill, Stockton and Thornaby as well as Darlington, Nevile Hill, Wakefield and York. With the shortest name of any BR engine 61018 was a no-brainer for a named B1. Oddly enough my other B1 namer is a Great Eastern favourite , 61005 Bongo (the real class leader- Thompson may have THOUGHT they were Antelopes or Springboks but enginemen knew them as Bleeding Old Bongoes) Probably another shed day tomorrow- time to vacuum the front of the layout again and to start soak testing ready for Sileby- only 18 days left. I'll probably have to raid one or two of my analogue locos for lamps, there are only a couple of headlamps left, though sod's law states there are three packs of tail lamps. Then there are about 20 enginemen left in the box to add to cabs. All the very best Les

The other tankers Before weathering, the lighter Weardale, SDSI and DL tanks. Heavy oil tankers after weathering. I think the Newcastle & Gateshead Gas Co tanker probably didn't survive to 1960 but who cares? Must remove the bits of cotton wool bud that have attached themselves to the wagons- they show up in the pic but not on the layout. Three Lobitos tankers from Ellesmere Port, largely because I remember a schoolfriend having a fit of hystrerical laughter when he saw the name..... More pics to follow. Les

90014 and 90344 now have the correct lamps for their trains, as does 64840 on the Northbound fast goods. Signal now installed. The bad news is I'm running out of lamps again. I'm going to Doncaster show next weekend (as a punter) but I WAS hoping not to gave a shopping list with me. A sort of forlorn hope really. Les

Not quite a Gonerby joke but an observation. When travelling to Grantham for rehearsals in winter Gonerby is the place where gritting stops- Notts do most roads and the A1 is done by the highways agency. I think Downtown might pay for the bit of road that passes them but once you get to Gonerby Hill you are on your own. One other thought- when you get to the roads outside the railway fence are you going to follow prototype with roadworks in progress and a bridge bash? All the very best Les

I've enough photos to be fairly confident with top and centre lamps on 90344 with the sulphates. 90014 currently has a single lamp on the left side. That would probably make it wrong for the oil tankers. I may swap the loco onto another train- sadly neither WD is strong enough for the coal trains, which `will have to run with a Union Mills J27 or J25 or the tender-first Dapol B1 for now. I want to keep the Tyne Dock O1 on the steel train and the sheeted five-planks look good behind a Type 2 with brake tender, so that doesn't leave a lot of suitable trains. The WD is a bit big for the pickup goods. I'll take a couple of pics of the North Eastern tankers when I've got them weathered. Only two are done of these so far. Today's progress has been in getting the new distant signal done. Hopefully it will be ready to install tomorrow. I'll photograph it once in place. One pack of Farish trainspotters is now ordered. Two for Hawthorn Dene and the other four for the station platform of Rise Park. Bed time.... Les

My wife has suggested I get a couple of youngsters with notebooks to place by the signal - Barry and a mate asking the number of the engine. That probably also means applying a bit more muck to 90344's cab..... All the very best Les

More weathering and testing Funny sort of day yesterday, it didn't know whether to rain or snow or whether to give us some sunshine. As it was we got all three in random periods. All in all a good day to be snuggled up in the shed with trains and weathering chalks and pastels. Here some results- 90014, just about the finished product, though I might still tone down the cab roof a little more. Just really now got to check firstly it has the right lamps for a short fitted oil train and secondly if not that I actually have some spares. Otherwise it will be a case of try to find some- not always easy as I seem to keep cleaning Rural Railways (amongst others) out of them. By the same token I don't think I'm going to get 90344 much worse than this, though the can number might be a little too readable still. Lamps for unfitted sulphate empies still to go- it did have top and centre lamps, though the top one has gone walkies at some time. The first two sulphate wagons given an initial go with weathering chalks. There already is one weathered one in the rake, so putting varying amounts of grot onto the others will make a more homogenious train- there are also three spare ones for one-day shows when the fiddle yard has fewer but longer trains loaded. Lastly all but one of the short tanker train now given some weathering, though I'd like a couple of really disgusting wagons- but not the Robbies tankers as these are a bit less common than seen on most layouts- how many others have Dorman Long, Pease & Partners and South Durham Steel & Iron Co wagons in the same train? Today spent running and soak testing. More work over the weekend (hopefully) Les

The sorry tale of 90344 90344 was a West Hartlepool WD for a lot of years. Most photos show her to be quite mucky. The long-term West Hartlepool allocation was the reason for me choosing it for my second WD- but this seems to be the dodgy/unlucky one..... I ran it in and renumbered it last year when new, then Digitrains fitted the sound decoder and speaker. All fine so far except I'd only varnished one side of the cab and two numbers came off in the process. Not all that much later a pin sheared on the valve gear on the left hand side. BR Lines fixed it but couldn't test it as they have no DCC facility. "Please don't send any more hard wired locos for repair and if the loco has a 6-pin chip please remove it before sending" Yesterday I took the loco down to the club to test the test track I'm building. It turned three revolutions going forwards and jammed solid. Investigation showed the piston out of the cylinder and the drive rod banana shaped. A phone call to Bachmann Service - "Yes we can fix it" then "You'll need to take out the chip" then "If it is a hard wired chip we won't touch it"- the latter following an explanation that the 6-pin interface had had to come out to make room for the larger sound chip and speaker. This is despite the fact that the valve gear is part of the loco and all of the electronics are in the tender! However they are sending me a complete replacement valve gear set. Looking closely at the loco on the workbench the knitting in front of the slide bars has tied itself in a knot following failure of exactly the same pin that had failed on the other side. I've temporarily cut the offending knitting off and bent the drive rod back to almost its original shape and re-inserted the piston rod into the cylinder. The loco now runs as well as it has ever done. As the damaged side is away from the punters at exhibitions I'll leave it until I can find someone who will fit the replacement valve gear...... In the mean time it has had a light weathering- more to do - and 90014 has been darkened about the cab roof. Tomorrow I'll try to get them both a little nearer the photographs, darker and rust just beginning on 90014 and a bit more rusty on 90344. Dentist toady as I expected meant the end of another molar- bits have been coming off this one. A diet of soup and digestive biscuits for the next couple of days, no doubt accompanied by industrial strength painkillers...... All the very best Les

Play Time Jim brought his latest toy for testing so this week we had a bit of fun with it. In the foreground the lifted crossover has had its ballast put in- still room for weeds etc. Off camera (or cameraphone this week) all of the buildings have been tried together so the layout could have some pics taken (with his posh camera) by Bingham MRC's webmaster. All I have to do is to write the blurb..... All the very best Les

Yes, from that I need to darken it and reduce the rust. It certainly looks as if someone has cleaned it in the last couple of weeks. I wonder if someone had a fit of cleaning at 51A before it closed? All the very best. Les Tale of 90344 to follow, probably tomorrow....

Cheers- that might be interesting. It would be a post-51A pic I think. 90014 was a long-term Darlington loco and the shed actually tried for a while after it came back from overhaul to keep it clean. It didn't last of course as it would disappear for days on end and come back scruffy at which point they gave up. 90011 was the other one that stayed clean for a little longer than average after overhaul- same reason, same result..... I suspect they made the effort as the WDs were the biggest goods engines they had, for that matter apart from the two standing pilot Pacifics and usually three V2s they were the biggest engines.... They did manage to keep them in good (ish) mechanical condition. I remember they didn't seem to clank as much as visiting WDs did. For that matter 51A's V2s didn't seem as syncopated as some of the others passing through. All the very best Les

There's another blood and custard BG in the Hawthorn Dene overstock box- I think that one also has your blue mark underneath..... Les

Got a little more weathering done. Dental appointment is now Weds (probably shortish with a callback- a chunk of tooth has come away) so I went to Digitrains this morning and got a 10 foot black Powercab lead made up. That means that I can put the booster on the floor and the cab will have enough lead to reach round the end of the layout so the colliery can be viewed from the front while shunting. I've buried the stiff weathering brush somewhere so I decided to have another go at 90014 with chalks and cotton buds- it had ended up a bit pink in places. I've overdone the rust on the cab roof so that wioll get toned down. The next thing I noticed was this WD in usual WD condition is pulling a train of immaculate oil tankers..... This is the first go at two of them- an attempt at a shiny darker surface with rust on the solebars. They will need doing a bit more heavily. Twelve more to do..... All the best Les