jjnewitt

This is now my normal method of working - all the parts which will benefit from etching, either for detail or for accurate fitting are etched, other simple parts are not. This saves space on the etch, which means that each sheet has parts for several locos but this makes production runs much more difficult. I now have a fairly large number of these etches in 3mm, 4mm and 7mm scales but I won't publish a list just yet.

Tease.

I'll look forward to it when you do publish that list.

Justin... I've already signed up for an Ian Penberth kit... so the slippery slope beckons.

sorry about that!

Nothing to be sorry about! They look as if they'll be pretty straightforward to put together and set up. I'll look forward to your blog entries on how you you get on with them. If there anything like mine you wont be disapointed.

Don't encourage him... he'll have it fully sprung by Christmas

 

I'm only jealous Justin... trying to follow where you've led.

You really should try it sometime. The results are great and it's not as hard as it might look. Dive in at the deep end. You'll swim!

Convertible to P4?

It will be by the time I've finished with it!

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the crests were only applied to those coaches that were to be used in named express trains. Coaches destined for other formations didn't have them. Of course coaches got swaped about between rakes so those with crests could end up anywhere.

Edit: According to Keith Parkin's Book on the Mk 1 the crests were in fact applied completely at random though the WR did try and assemble sets either with or without. It seems then that there was no rhyme or reason as to which coaches got the crest and some didn't get it at all.

Ah well 70007 joined in the theme today and cremated itself at Bramley, we thought Olympic Torch would be a good name

Perhaps they should be called Swamp Dragons. I've always thought that they looked a little like them but didn't think that they'd share the same propensity to self combust when over excited. Seems I might have been wrong! I think Freightliner should pack them all up and send them off into the care of Lady Sybil Vimes at the Sunshine Sanctury before the rest of them go up in smoke!

Note: For anyone who hasn't read the discworld novels that wont make any sense but still it must be a worry for Freightliner that there new toys keep combusting. Hope they can get the problems sorted before any more get "over excited".

I've noticed that they've been mentioned a few times so I thought I'd shed some light on the B4 bogies. The prototype bogies appeared as early as 1956 but the first short production batch went under 'The Bristolian' and 'Red Dragon' trainsets. Parkin's tome on the MK1 coach doesn't state exactly when this was but there are photos in the book of them in service in 1962 (under a chocolate and cream liveried BCK behind a very clean Collett 4000 gallon tender and under an FO again in chocolate and cream) so it would obviously be by then. The only newbuild MK1 coaches to have B4 bogies were those in the XP64 set but others were rebogied with priority given to sleeping and catering cars. Steam and B4 bogies were no strangers.

Personally I find the end of steam on BR fasinating and to me there is a certain morbid attraction to all the 'grot' of the period which exudes 'atmosphere'. My modelling exploits are centred on South Wales circa 1964/5 so very much end of steam on the Western Region but a bit too early for the corperate image.

P4 shouldn't be an issue for wheels as Ultrascale will have no issues with disc wheels unlike the spoked wheels needing live stub axles on the cl22.

 

I'll be prepared to move bogie detail around if needed on these after getting an accurate bodyshell.

 

A bigger issue may be if its a completely rigid C-C arrangement but if the gear train is in line then hopefully it could be sprung (or fit Heljan bogies!).

I agree with you Craig the most important thing is getting an accurate bodyshell. It's looking good so far.

I think Heljan bogies could be a good idea for a basic P4 convesion with their A1A-A1A arrangement. It'll be interesting to see what the drivetrains on the Western will be like. Don't think it will take too long for mine to be in bits! I have some Heljan drivetrains waiting in the wings if the Dapol examples prove top be too much trouble for use in a set of sprung bogies. The split frame arrangement might be an issue.

Looks lovely Dave. I'm very, very impressed with Dapol's comittment to getting this model right. It should set a very good example to other manufacturers! Given what's been achieved with the Class 22 this is looking like it could just be the best RTR diesel yet. I like the idea regarding the name/numberplates which should make renaming them very easy. That was my only real area of concern as you seem to have chosen just about the longest names going for the green and maroon small yellow panel examples! Shouldn't be a worry now. I'm off to preorder a couple. If your delivery schedule is accurate then I should be able to give them some sprung P4 bogies by the time Scaleforum comes around!

Having just had a quick rumage it would apear that both the Swindon and NBL locos worked through to Crewe. On page 68 of The book of the Warships there's a picture of D804 at Crewe. There's a picture of D809 on a North and West express at Hereford in the June 2008 edition of Steam Days. That was taken in March 1962 and would have been on the Castle diagram mentioned earlier so it may not have made it to Crewe on that trip.

Having said what I did about the Chester line on page 69 of the aformentioned book there's a picture of D833 at Shrewsbury on a Birkenhead express. I'd forgotten that Warships were used for a short time during the Autumn of 1962 on the Paddington, Birmingham, Chester axis while the Westerns were having problems with their bogies sorted. So they did work to Chester abiet very briefly.

The Warships began to work over the North and West in the spring of 1962. For the first few months they worked the double home Castle turn from Newton Abott to Shrewsbury with trips to Crewe on driver training. I think it was with the commencement of the summer timetable in 1962 that they began to work regularly to Crewe on express duties. Indeed I'm pretty sure they were diagramed to work all the principal expresses from the North West to Bristol and the West Country after this point. This continued until the summer of 1964 when the duties were taken over by class 47s. I've never heard of them on the Chester line, the only diesel hydraulics I've heard of working that line were Westerns.

Runaway Train - Soul Asylum