jwealleans

Last time I saw Mike was just by a model of Shap, so it could be.

Neither of us has seen what the Jobmeister will do with his yet. He'll probably end up with working label clips.

After pontificating on how do make your own transfers and how easy it is, I had something of a disaster today with the first ones on white paper I tried. They had been varnished with the Keen lacquer shown upthread which hadn't sealed them at all, so on exposure to water the red ink gleefully fled the paper and spread itself over everything. A second batch was printed and sealed with Halfords lacquer and they have been absolutely fine. I wonder if the Keen stuff is reaching the end of its useful life? That minor matter aside, I'm really chuffed that almost 10 years after I started it, I have fitted the very distinctive roofboards to the Leeds Quint. My grateful thanks to Phil Mullins who made and supplied the artwork. The roofs can now be painted a suitable shade of black and the thing is finally done. Other than that I've been chaining things up. I had a delivery from Ambis Engineering last week and found out a number of single bolsters which hadn't been festooned with chains. Even an empty wagon can take some detailing. These have been built a while and I struggled to remember exactly what some of them are: Early LNER design, scratchbuilt. I only repaired and patch painted these. They'll need a bit of weight adding but they're a nice job by someone. These are by ABS; I have a feeling they're Midland. They used to come as a pair in the pack as I recall. The left hand one is also whitemetal and has the look of an ABS moulding to me; is it LMS? It's a touch longer than the ones above. The LNER one is brass and I thought scratchbuilt at first, but it's too neat and regular. There are no identifying marks on it but I think it's the Dave Bradwell kit. This little bit of whimsy is finished as well. The flat wagons are both awaiting parts; I decided the bogies on the Warwell were too awful and have sourced some replacements which I may have before Christmas. The Flat T needs some of the characteristic lashing rings which I thought I had another pack of; they're on Wizard Models etch ABW (Wagon Stanchions & Shackles).

Goes round Grantham (3' radius) and also through the short radius points in the fiddle yard. Bogie just has a central pivot and soft spring which I think is the kit standard arrangement.

Tony Wright built this B16/1 from the PDK kit for Tom Foster and I bought it from him when his interests moved away. I don't think Tony made many (if any) changes to the kit as supplied. (Photo Tony Wright)

That vacuum is utterly indestructible. It's the Tardigrade of domestic appliances.

This came up on Facebook over the weekend while I was away. For anyone who wasn't already clear what a good job Steve's done on that J15: Not the same one, but the same modification: (Uncredited photo on Facebook: happy to credit if the owner contacts me)

Hell, no. You can never have too many. To paraphrase, there are never too many wagons, just fiddle yards which are too small. It means I can use favourite items of stock on multiple layouts and furnish more than one train with the same wagons. These LMS horseboxes (Hornby, when Hattons were clearing shelves): ... can also run in the 1950s Hunt Special on Wickham Market. Having the black ends is an essential part of the subterfuge here, much like Stephen's GN wagon having no end number.

I have a small number of schizophrenic wagons, which can thereby run on both pre- and post war layouts. There aren't many where viewers can see both sides.

I was going to donate my spare body to the future proprietor of the extra set you sent me in the summer, but if you haven't found a use for them by the time you're next over, bring them along. It doesn't take long to knock up a wagon to sit on top of them. Do you know what else they might have been used for?

Chas, was it you asking me about GN wagon lettering? I had forgotten at the time but Old Time Workshop do a sheet. i found one on H & A Models' stand on the Sunday.

Well, Warley has been and gone again. I have to say that I did enjoy this year; thank you to everyone who came and chatted, very nice to put a few faces to names - Nick above, Chas Levin and others as well as see some regulars . Something of a surprise to see Bill Bedford there, but no less a pleasure for the unexpected context. I also had a long chat with Mr Cambrian kits, which was interesting. I did manage to achieve some modelling in between visits - I know it's not the main reason for being there, but it's nice to come away with something made. A pair of Flat-T bodies. The bogies were a gift from Jesse Sim and are 3D printed by Al at NIU models. He doesn't seem to list them but I'm sure an enquiry would procure some. These were a joint LMS/LNER project as part of war preparations in the late 1930s, so they appear in both Tatlow and Essery. Buffers are from LMS. This was very straightforward to make and I had both of these done by the end of Saturday. I always start two of anything I'm scratchbuilding in case I foul one up, it means you don't have to start again from the beginning. If you complete both, it's a bonus. Sunday's project was this 3D printed Warwell B (or Flatroll ELL if you prefer). An unusual wagon and a bit of a last minute choice to do. They were built for a very large Sherman tank variant and had to have out of gauge side pieces bolted on to carry them. After the war they went into traffic with the side pieces removed, hence all the bolt holes. This is a very poor 3D print, to be fair from about 10 years ago by a chap called Wild Boar Fell who was very active on here at one time but seems to have dropped out of sight since. It's taken a lot of preparation to get to the state you see. I have found some good drawings, though, so I'm optimistic that with a fair bit of added detail it'll end up a half decent wagon. It'll be out of the ordinary in any case. I do need to find some better bogie axleboxes, if anyone has any ideas?

How could I not credit the man who pinched all my ideas taught me everything I know? Have you finished your Flat-T yet? I made two on Saturday in between proselytising your accomplishments to the masses.

Sorry if it's been discussed and I missed it, but there is a more recent B16/1 kit from PDK. How does that measure up? I have one, but I didn't build it so I don't know how much of the kit is still in the completed model.

Moving away from the intricacies of interpreting elderly monochrome, I've had a request from the Far Colonies to show how I make and apply my own transfers. Now, I've been doing this for quite some time and it's a very easy process which I'd encourage anyone to have a go at. You don't need any special equipment unless you're printing white (which is possible at home but frankly it's easier just to get a professional to do it). I use John Peck at Precision Decals for that, but there are plenty of other equally good suppliers. What I shan't cover here is generating the artwork; there are plenty of free packages and advice out there but I'll be happy to talk to anyone about that if they call at my stand this weekend. I've taken pictures of two separate sets of transfers in the last few days, but the process is identical for both. Firstly, the printer. i have a bog standard inkjet, a HP Deskjet 3000. You don't need anything special to do this. The paper. I'm still using some clear paper I bought from Crafty Computer Paper about 10 years ago. They are no longer trading. I then needed some white paper, so I went online and found this: There are plenty of different suppliers to choose from. You just need to be sure that it's for your type of printer, inkjet or laser. There's nothing special about printing either. I usually print a test sheet on plain paper as a check, but if you've done your own artwork then you'll have done that anyway to check for sizing and appearance. Print using the 'Photo paper best quality' or equivalent setting. Once the sheet has printed leave it to dry thoroughly (I leave it overnight as a rule). You then need to varnish it. This is what stops the ink spreading everywhere when you wet the paper. This varnish was recommended with the Crafty Computer Paper when I first bought that - check what your paper recommends and go with that. Frankly, I don't know enough about this whole process to know what varnish you should or shouldn't use so I stick with manufacturer's recommendation. Here are my varnished decals in the spray booth. I leave these overnight again to dry thoroughly. One point here; you can't print on the paper when it's been varnished, so I cut off the printed area before spraying and preserve the rest of the sheet for future use. You apply the transfers just like any other waterslide ones. A tiny amount of washing up liquid in the water (some manufacturers say lukewarm water, I'm not sure it makes a great deal of difference). Dip the transfer and then let it soak on a mat - they can float off the paper if you leave them in the water and they they're a swine to get out without wrapping themeselves up terminally. I use cocktail sticks and a paintbrush to position them and a cotton bud to soak up excess water. These transfers are on a transparent backing - they were produced by Sascha Freudenberg to go with his printed containers. Position your transfer, slide out the backing paper and carefully blot out the excess water with a cotton bud to make it adhere to the model. One thing to remember here is that the paper you're using is a bit thicker than what the professionals use and therefore can take a bit more work to make it follow the contours of a model. Sascha's artwork is drawn so you can apply the whole side of a container in one piece. I found that I ended up with air bubbles and raised areas when I did that, so I've applied these in sections with better results. Once the decal has started to dry you can use a softener to make it adhere better to the surface of the model. This only works with waterslide transfers. There are a number of products out there; this is the one I use and I haven't tried any others, but I haven't heard of any to avoid. Secure it with thin coats of your preferred varnish. That's all there is to it. Once you can do this, like soldering, a whole range of new possibilities opens up. All the following use my own transfers, made and applied at home: Here's one to show the limitations of the process; I did the artwork for these containers, but couldn't get the intensity of ink required for the final print, so I had to go to John Peck to produce them.

Fairly sure I've read that it was 7 years under the LNER, so I think reasonable to assume that earlier practice was similar.

Well, we're getting further and further from my comfort zone as this progresses..... do all these sites work the same way or on the basis of the same assumptions? I did, quite deliberately use several different ones when I was looking at this picture. Anyone have anything additional to throw into the mix?

It's just as well you do, Gilbert, since I'm allocating those costs to he who made the suggestion in the first place. What's the Guinea to AUD rate presently?

I'm no lawyer, but an objective test which could be repeated at will by anyone else can't be hearsay, surely?

.... and it's a good job we didn't have Smell-O-Vision in those days. I'm not aware of definitive evidence either way, but for what it's worth I put Jesse's scan of the Tatlow photograph through several of those online colourisers and it came back with a red/brown hue each time. Simply on that basis I'm leaving it alone. Does anyone have a recent issue of the kit and can say whether the instructions have been updated?

No, thank you. I have already filled my display stand and that looks terribly dreary. It would be much nicer in an attractive shade of, say, brown?

They are very distinctive and handy for identifying York built vehicles in photographs. Rupert Brown (RDEB) is supposed to be working on etches for the 52' underframe including these, but he keeps finding new variations.....

I never met her and don't have an axe to grind either way, but a friend who was cabin crew once told me she was by far the worst celeb to have on your flight and showed me a number of forums and chatrooms where others said the same.

Railways built containers in the 1830s. You can keep going back and back. The Big 4 started to really investigate and stimulate the traffic from around 1928 (I am heavily biased towards the LNER in my knowledge of this history). As it grew the RCH became more involved and standards started to evolve, but the 1930s were a period of experimentation and development before it all came under the BR umbrella. Someone has referenced Carlislecitadel above: these are 3D prints I have recently finished which he was kind enough to supply: These are on Diagram 76 conflats of my own construction. I have previously made masters for the D108 conflat, converted from cattle wagons, which were resin cast for me by Graeme King: The container is from UNIT models, reliveried. It is too large. Prior to those, for the Grantham layout, I made masters for the Diagram 15 meat container and matching diagram 60 conflat which were also resin cast by Graeme. All these castings are still available from him along with an early LNER A type container from a master by Caroline Middleditch of this parish. For LNER containers and conflats, Tatlow Volume 4B referenced above has most of what you'd need. There's an excellent article on the development of both traffic and containers by Tony Miller in an LNER Society publication if you want more background, but for strictly technical details Tatlow is your best source.