Uries15

Have had a bit more time to add to this forum concerning 'great bolbous lumps' (GBL for short), Have now possibly found the origin of the gold stripe on the Earl Bathursts cab?? Whilst up in my loft have dug out an old copy of Ian Allans British Railways Locomotives circa winter 1962. Thumbing through, I noticed a painting of a King Class 6026 King John by V Welch. There in this picture are the gold lines on front of cab the King!! Is this where GBL got their idea from?? Only a guess, just thought I would add this one in the mix!!?? On subject of the GBL saga, I am glad I never took out the subscription to this magazine. There are indeed horror stories coming back via this forum. About their Customer Services!! Having been there myself with their so called customer services, and this was just to chase missing and broken parts to the Duchess/Coronation/Princess thingy at the very beginning of their publication I was slightly miffed by it all. After the rather odd emails recieved from the Polish HQ(Amer Com) . I was passed on to Ringwood!!There was no answer and no solution to the mess at Ringwood, just very bizarre phone calls back to me. No real apology, but for me to take the Locomotive (or what was left of it )back to WHSmiths in Alton in Hampshire!! Yep I was going to do that!!!!!! (just imagine look on sales staff there after months of selling me magazine!!!) No, the 'Coronation' is stripped down and lingering at this moment sitting in a vat of Chloroxylenol (Dettol for short). This is an excellent plastic stripper and in the next few days will be heavily washed to remove the lingering paint and lovely clinical smell!! I have a spray can of Auto ace primer(99p Shop) to mask any lingering smell if its still there of Dettol complete job of strip down. This spray does the job, but beware do it outside or in very well vented room!! The finished job on the Coronation will now be 46243 City Of Lancaster, in Black. I believe this was the last one to run in streamline shape?? Have two very old photos showing her in really bad condition. So any bad things on body work could be covered up by weathering. Name plates will of course be the most expensive things, possilbly from my normal suppliers . All other parts missing will be scratch built. Transfers and other markings will be SMS or Pressfix. As mentioned the awful 28XX went the same way, had bad problems with trying to clean up castings as I think these were dropped before fitting.! Must have been their excellent Quality Service they told me about on the phone!!! This model looks the part now.The K3 is a mess but can be solved,started by placing plasticard between boiler and cab because of the big gap there!!!! I have tried here to upload the image found in book , if it comes out you will see what I mean by the Gold Stripe!! Will be back no doubt with some bits and pieces with Compound thats out next week. Oh yes and then the Standard 4 with interesting valve gear and 'skipping rope' speedo cable, looking at early release photos.

Incredibly sad news on the passing of Dave, my condolences to his wife and family. Kevin(uries15)

Hello Everybody. Just been on GBL website and noticed the next model after the Compound!! It's a Standard 4 Tank model. Very interesting valve gear and what appears to be 'skipping' rope Speedo Cable.!! Will look forward the 'Weatheringmans' write up on this one!! His details have been an excellent guide , infact invaluable for this Magazine Publication. Way back in the 'mists ' of time I put an article on this forum about these models the Princess being the one, having now caught up with this forum I have had a very good read of all articles placed about these products. I did say in my closing comments of my article I said I would not be getting anymore of these. Well how wrong I could have been! I do in fact have them all now and some duplicates. Many were passed on to me as the models were indeed awful.!! However the 28xx came from Oxford and the K3 Weybridge in Surrey. I do travel around a bit. These models I feel were the worst out of the batch so far,both now completely stripped down and the 28xx looks like the real thing. K3 I am afraid will need very fine tuning. I too have had serious issues with customer services at Ringwood, also a wild goose chase to and from Poland!! Gbl customer services were awful, and it was always the case of passing the 'buck' or they have never heard of problems with these products!! "Wait a while I will speak to my supervisor and we will get back to you", cannot remember how many times I had that, also people phoning me back 'with no answers' at god knows what time of the night.!! Anyway I will be continuing to try and see this publication out? Bit worried about some of the choices though, why the 28xx baffles me!!!!???. No doubt the will be some comments here? Has the National Railway Museum seen any of these products to compare to the real ones they have in York etc??(seeing their name on packaging) Will try and load up in the future photos of my refurbed 28XX and K3 and explain how I have transformed these models. Looking forward to reading the next parts of this forum.

Hello Kevin. Its now done, model of WD 2-8-0 is working well. I will be adding this locomotive to my layout some time later this year. I have numbered her as 90072. Loco is in full weathered condition and would have been in this condition toward the end of its working life. Was quite please with end result for model. It has been a struggle to get it fully working. Its been superdetailed with extra parts. These include lamp irons from Se finecast . Full set of fire irons from Springside models range is fitted in rack on firemans tender side. The fire irons storage rack was a 247 Developments model. For the record, all remaining parts and spares are now up for sale on the glorious ebay!!! This includes a 80-90% McGowens kit with Kings Cross name plates and number for 'Vulcan' plus 2x Bristol models brass frames. A set of Alan Gibson wheels that can be used as a guide for the Bristol Frames, plus loads of extra bits. There is near on, two sets of spares for this model in box, different design parts for tender if Jouef parts are used again. What is left of Jouef Mikado tender is also up for gabs. It has a brand new motor, but no driving wheels or weights.Up for a quick sale as spares only. Cannot upload my photos at present because of glitch with my computer. I will however send them via Windows Messenger to your email address. If they come out your end you maybe able to up load them to this site.?? Many thanks. Kevin (Uries15)

I have managed to get hold of second copy of Great British Locomotives. Purchased in Alton on way back cross country to Portsmouth from Middlesex!. I was seen off as the quality of the second model was awful compared with Mallard model in first issue. Beware, as the bad parts were not visable through the front of the clear plastic box on this second issue. Coronation name plate not seen through front of box appeared to be covered in glue and was therefore not usable.Also on side not visable through clear plastic box was a missing injector assembly under right side of cab. The whole locomotive did not look right on getting out of box. I therefore attempted to strip model to repair right from wrongs! Very crude fittings,with many tiny screws that seemed to serve no use. The tender has no way of being fitted to locomotive, the connection just swings in mid air! This all held down with long screws. Locomotive doesn't even sit well on plinth. On closer inspection there are glue marks all over this item. I couldn't solve some of the major issues and ended up going and getting another model to use for donor parts. Amazingly the second one I purchased just round corner from here was 80% better including the colour scheme and lining. I've used the main body and second wheel set which much is more improved casting and moulding to see how this looks. Hundred per cent improvement.The second tender has been replaced with the first one and all is now well. My intentions for spare parts of these two items are to strip further and remove parts that may be useful on other projects and possibly sell on the streamline body parts. Tender is quite a good model on its own. Wheelsets are fit for bin and main body could be salvaged for spare running chassis. Its all looking ok now, don't think I will be buying any more of these as I have said the quality isn't very good even at £5.99!!!

Hello Kevin. Sorry for delay in my reply to you on above subject. Purchased secondhand Jouef Mikado tender from the famous 'ebay' First thing I noticed was traction tyres on this newer model. Completely different to original model bought for this project. Tried moving motor as well but this did work that well!! Jouef parts are very fiddly.!!!! Put all motor parts from original in new rebuilt frame. Replaced all four sets of wheels and hey presto it worked! Chassis under locomotive still a bit sticky bit will eventually get worn in. Will try and upload photos for you and show what a 'beast' this model is!!! Many thanks. Kevin (uries15)

Kevin, Hi, just dropping you a quick email as I have just completed of my McGowens / Bristol model of the WD 2-8-0. Your item on this subject really did inspire me to get on and basically finish off mine.Only teething problems I had with this model apart from lack of parts and bad casting was the tender drive!!!. I too, had a jouef model completely stripped down for the chassis and weights.Everything else the could be salvaged from the jouef model was. All spare parts I could not use were boxed and sold on Ebay. Some very kind person in Brazil was so desperate he treble bidded for the boiler and tender parts. All the outstanding bills on this project came out of his money! As my notes here say, there was a major issue with the tender drive. Basically I could not get the loco to move at all. When both tender and locomotive model were split , tender took off like a race horse !!! The tender has had fishing weights and loose lead placed in under the false coal fitting. Model will just about move but under being pushed slightly.Either by me or another loco!!! Do you know having built one of these items, can anything be done apart from a light oiling make this item run? I have just got hold of another jouef tender to obtain the shaped lead, the tender now weighs twice as much as engine model. Chassis under loco is free running and nothing sticks.So I am baffled why it wont run.?? Just got to finish weathering and some minor filling round cab roof of this old beast Getting it to move will now be a bonus. Can you shed anything on why item does not want to move as a complete unit? At present cannot load photos to show near finished item. Hope to get some in my Gallery. Many thanks. Kevin(uries 15).