jjnewitt

No doggy as in dodgy spilling. I'm blaming the daughter for waking me up at 4 this morning... Justin

Just caught up with your thread Adam. Love the covering on the fruit van roof. Hides the doggy roof profile brilliantly! Justin

I think if you getto the stage where you need to employ other people you are doing very, very well! I'd say that the majority of small businesses within the model railway world are subsidised in some way, though mostly through someone giving their time for nothing and we are blessed that so many people are willing to do so. I think most of the products and ranges that are outside of the RTR world would simply not exist if they were produced on a purely comercial basis. My range of products would not exist if I expected a return on my time to draw up the artwork as I've never paid me a penny for that and nor did I ever expect to. Given that I'm hardly likely to produce things that I don't want personally. That would be more like philanthropy than business. Being able to work partly within the field of their hooby is wonderful but I it is harder at times to deal with some of the b**l s**t that you have to cope with, especially when it comes to people whinging about prices when things are subsidised in some way already... In terms of how all this relates to Coopercraft I think the only really viable future for the injection moulded items in the range is for someone to approach Coppercraft and take them on, assuming the moulds are good. Recreating the moulds from scratch is a non starter unless someone is prepared to invest an decent amount of money which they are unlikely to ever see a return on. 3D printing is fine except that it is still very much a prototyping technology not a production one which is why Bill Bedford gets his cast in resin. They're expensive to begin with and if you expect a return on your time to produce the artwork for it then things are going to start to get pretty pricy which obviously limits the market... Justin

On the contrary I'd suggest that getting something that you want is about the only good reason for setting up a small business, from scratch, in the model railway world. In my experience there's very little money to be made trying to produce things like kits or bits unless it's a spin off from what you already do, I'm thinking of the likes of Parkside and Ultrascale. Anyone considering doing it on a comercial basis needs there head examining. If somone has an idea something that a lot of modellers want and would buy go and talk to a factory in China and get it produced RTR because that's the majority of modellers would consider buying. Justin

That makes sense. It's definately a lot of money spread over 200000 odd wagons... Justin

I'd kinda forgotten about that document Iain, it might prove useful here. There were a number of diagrams that had both Morton and independent or either side brakegear. Specifically diagrams 1/106, 1/108, 1/109 & 1/111. Changing the type of brakegear used on these wagons would not have effected the diagram numbers and I wonder if having bottom doors or not made any difference to it either? Perhaps someone can enlighten me in that regard? It would be intersting to know whether BR decided to get rid of the bottom doors on 16T minerals because they weren't very useful which then gave them the opportunity to use 2 shoe brakes or if they decided that costs needed cutting and therefore ditched the bottom door deliberately so they could use 2 shoe brakes. It's also interesting how long it took for the 'standard' welded Morton 2 shoe 16T mineral to gain the assendancy in numbers on the other types. Justin

Just an opinion... Sorry for troubling you all.

Neither thanks. Sorry I think it's really poor to critises your competitors in public and you don't see the other RTR manfacturers doing it. I'm certain there's lots and lots that that get's said behind closed doors but that sort of stuff shouldn't venture out into 'press releases'. SLW should be proud of what they've done but they could act with a bit more professionalism at times. Sorry but not everyone thinks that the SLW class 24 is the best thing since sliced bread. It's very, very good but not it's not perfect. Which is a shame because it could have been.

More sniping at others from SLW. It is just me that thinks that's really poor form from an RTR manufacturer? Perhaps if they concerned themselves more with what they're doing rather than what others are doing they might have done a bit better with certain aspects of their near miss class 24.

Brilliant! That weathering job is cracking. I shall be making notes :-)

I didn't find it very easy at all. It took us a couple of hours to get one of mine apart mainly due to the large amount of glue which was holding everything together and trying to work out where all the clips were. Porcy did a much better job with his (see above) but a lot of mine was unsalvageable by the time we'd finished. I must add that we didn't set out with the intention of keeping all the plastic bits, if we had it would have taken us longer. Justin

Looking great John! Nice to see Morgan's superb wheels fitted to the loco. Justin

That'll be fun! Contamination of the zinc with lead. There are a couple of useful answers in this thread. I've heard of diecast cars from the 60s simply turning to dust. Just because isomething's made of Mazac doesn't mean it's going to rot. Most Mazac is fine but contamination does occur from time to time and if does then the metal will eventually fail. Justin

Nice photo P. You certainly did a better job of getting it to bits than us. This was the kitchen table Saturday morning: I'm pretty sure it's Mazac that they've used in these and I'm also sure that Hornby have done their best to sort out the problem, as have Bachmann and Heljan but, as I understand it, it's down to the people making the metal in the first place. Most of the time it seem to be ok but occasionally not. Mazac rot has been an intermittent issue for decades and there is no guarantee that it has been eliminated. The trouble is we may not find out the answer to that for years to come. I was considering doing something along the lines of what P is planning with mine and producing a replacement axleguard and brakegear unit but given the material the underframe is made out of I am conisdering whether it is worth spending a few extra hours now doing a complete underframe and saving myself the possibility of having to redo the work in a few years time. None of this will be the slightest interest to most and these wagons may well be fine, but it's a consideration for me. Justin

Not necesarily. Though most will never look past RTR, for some there are other ways in arriving at a model of a coke hopper. It may be that the material used in the Hornby underframe influences the decision on what route they take. It has certainly influenced my thinking about what to do with the underframes on mine. I don't want to spend a load of work on my models and then find I have do even more work down the line...

I've wondered about that as well. They're a very good model though and there are some really nice touches on the body moulding. Full credit to Hornby for doing two versions as well and they're really well thought out. The only thing I really don't like is the pronouced bow in the side raves but that's probably inevitable. I might see what I can do about that. :-) Justin

It looks like yours came apart a darn sight easier than mine P! A friend and I spent the best part of 2 hours on Saturday morning trying to get one of the LMS examples in bits, there was glue everywhere. Most of the plastic from the under frame is in the bin now... I hadn't noticed the joggled axleguards. That's a nice touch. I do wonder if the welded end version should have RCH axleguards though? Did any diagram 1/151 wagons have these? I thought they were all built with BR plate. It would be interesting to know if they were. Justin

A selection of bespoke ladders will be included with the underframe. :-) They'll also be available seperately as part of a detailing etch to tart up the Bachmann model. It's a shame, for me at least, that Bachmann decided to do the 14T version rather than the 20T one as I'd really like a few SMBP 20T anchor mounted wagons. The length is relatively easy to overcome and I did think about converting some as Adam and others have done rather well but I can't get past reduced tank diameter and more importantly and noticeably the effect that has on the anchor mountings. The Esso one pictured above wont stay like that. Justin

Hi both, I'm getting there with some proper open underframes for tank wagons! Currently on my workbench is the prototype for what should end up be being several different types of tank wagon underframe. It's going together better than I had anticipated and is robust enough to assemble (which was my main reservation about doing an open underframe). I'll looking at doing a 12' one with a view to using it under the Airfix/Hornby 20T body though of course you could use under other things. Justin

I think they're both French types. The one on the left right seems to have it's doors open as well. Justin Edited: I meant to say right, the one on the left very obviously has it's doors open!

Interestingly the BR 20T brake vans had 9" x 4 1/2" journals in the axleboxes. GWR 20T Toads did have 10" x 5" ones but I'm not entirely sure why. Size of the axlebox is incremental but it is related to total wagon weight when loaded. In terms of a brake van this is effectively the tare weight as there is very little load and 20T is less than a fully loaded 16T mineral weighs when you include the weight of the wagon. 16T minerals had 9" x 4 1/2" journals. Justin

The Portsmouth show was great. It's definately one of the better small shows around and seems to attract a really nice crowd. Infinately more preferable to the rugby scrum that will take place in a hanger near birmingham this coming weekend! They do a great job and it's actually nice that it's a one day show. The clasp brakes on the those 1/166 hoppers were curious with their upside down NER clasp brake arrangement. The only other wagon type I've seen the arrangement on are the Prestwins. I can see why you want to replace the ones in the kit, they look horrid! The shoes themselves look like the type used on the BR clasp brake. I may have enough spares around for a wagon's worth and I've definately got some spare push rods to give you the link part that goes in front of the wheels if you're interested? You'd have to dort out the hangers but it would give you a start. Justin

Hi Adam, Thanks for the vote of confidence. I have thought about trying to do some iron ore hopper kits, indeed I measured up the last remaining 1/167 at the East Anglian Railway Museum a couple of years ago. I have visions of moving the iron ore terminal from Newport to Rumney and having an excuse for the trains to Ebbw Vale (top and tailed by 37s :-) ) and Llanwern. LMS ore hoopers would also be nice along with a decent length Chas Roberts model. None would be likely to appear in the near future as the next couple of years worth of releases are already mapped out. I have occasionally thought that it wouldn't be entirely suprising to see something like a 1/163 apear in RTR form at some point though I imagine the reluctance to do RTR wagons increasing with the current economic direction. Justin