jwealleans

Yes, I'd have said the numbering is too large (cabside) and wrongly positioned (bufferbeam). I wondered whether the dome and chimney should have been reduced by the 1930s as well. Was that an M + L or Premier kit?

As usual, Tony starts a few hares although I can't argue with his common sense. Lamps - a bit of blutak in the hole stops them rotating/falling off. I do find that I have to replace the lamp irons on almost every loco we run including the kit build ones. For discs (the GE used them) I solder a bit of 1mm tube to the back of the disc then fill that with blutak. The biggest problem is them getting lost - I have no idea how we can lose so many lamps or discs per show. Smoke - Mick's not wrong. We did have a kit built B1 on Thurston which had a smoke unit in it. After three or four shows Graham took it out as he found that unburnt oil was spitting out through the chimney and stripping paint off the boiler. The smell was a nuisance after a few hours as well. A better means of doing this would be good. Couplings - I have always been grateful to Tony for putting a rocket up the Ely guys (in the nicest possible way) for having tension lock couplings on the front of their locos. It's a problem on a club layout where not all members model to the same standard or within the same constraints but for exhibitions I think you need to set minimum standards. Incidentally, Graham Varley came up with a very neat bent wire bracket which he hung over the buffers of his screw-link locos to allow them to pull tension lock stock. Unobtrusive and easily removed.

There is some information about LNER milk tanks and a drawing in Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 3. There is a photo of one in United Dairies livery but no indication as to colour. I did try to contact Glenn Woods, who I was told was working on a book on the subject, but never received a reply. I converted 3 to an LNER diagram using the Hornby model as a basis and in what is almost certainly an incorrect livery: I'd be interested in doing more when you're producing these bits for sale.

Thanks, Mark. Personally I like the ease with which you can cut and shut these kits and for all their age, with some effort and a decent paint job they don't look out of place with the new Hornbys or etched vehicles. I'm sure they'd be worth your effort.

Fitted my standard BB coupling and tested with the accompanying RF, along with a Hornby Gresley I remembered I had to check clearances on curves. I'm pleased with that panelling. I've used the Kirk corridor connector here so we don't risk fouling the RTR coaches this will run with. They aren't mine, so I can't test them until the next show, which is a bit late really. I also made a start on the interior. I don't have any suitable seats so an order will be off to Southern Pride tomorrow. I'll use the Kirk tables although some will have to be shortened (these were 2 + 1 rather than 2 + 2). Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent painting passengers, a job I hate doing.

Painting and decorating goes on, but none of us likes watching paint dry... so we're into another project. This is a dining car to go with the Restaurant First I built for Thurston. It usually ran with an ex-GE RTO, but the etches I have for that are prior to its rebuild so I thought we'd try for a substitute, a GE section D27B. It's a while since I did a Kirk kit so here are some of the steps I go through with them. Not much of the original kit gets used, in point of fact. This coach will run at the head of a set of Bachmann Mk1s, so proprietary bogies seemed the way to go to avoid coupling problems. The centres are packed up to allow them to pivot against similar flat packing on the coach floor. The body, at least, is assembled as you might expect. This is kit 8853, D 186 TTO. I throw away the floor and use Paxolin. This is cut to be a snug fit inside the body. The old floor can be used to mark the bogie fixing positions, here with some packing added to get the ride height correct. Solebars are Evergreen channel or - as here - I-beam, 1/8" deep. The coach will separate at the solebar. To fix them together I stick a piece of 40 thou plastikard in the end vestibules. This is spaced up the thickness of the Paxolin. Then I solder 10BA nuts to some scrap etch and use that as a guide to drill out holes in the plastic. The holes are then continued into the floor and the nuts and plate secured with superglue. The floor assembly can then be bolted to the body up from underneath. Now at this point last night my brain burst into life and I remembered that a D186 is not quite like a D27B and needed altering. This is much easier to do on flat sides before you stick them together. The beading needs changing so as to have 3 side panels not 5. Additionally on one side the toilet is blanked out and there's a 5 panel section behind which were luggage shelves. I managed to do this without wrecking the thing last night: I should have pointed out that the Paxolin goes copper side down so you can solder all the undergubbins to it. Most of these came from Comet as they're what I had in stock. This is this evening's progress - I've also added the beading to the side panelling. The slight stain on the roof is filler - Kirk roofs are always too long and rather than file the ends and make them even more bulbous (some think they start too bulbous) I cut a couple of mil out just by the end of the roof board holders and then stick the two halves back together. I also had a bit of a fiddle with this, which was an Ebay spot this week. I think it's Jidenco, and it's an LNWR Chemical Pan wagon, or more likely LMS general trolley wagon by my period. It was sagging slightly at the ends of the floor (I assume there's a half etched line there) so I've soldered some brass angle behind the wheels at each end to brace it a bit. Quite a characterful little model and with a bit more detail and a repaint should look the part.

Dunno about the rest, but that sounds like a good day at home in Peterborough to me...

FANACKAPAN XMAS THEODOLITE?

But that platform trolley has been perfectly positioned so as not to upset Mr. Rush.

Excellent. Can we see some more of the grain wagon as well, please? (Another thread if you prefer).

Can I suggest http://www.urbandictionary.com'>this? Seems to cover the ones I didn't know.

I quite like 'REDE'. Someone with a knowledge of Angle-Saxon there, perhaps?

and people say we in IT speak a different language. Are you going to translate, Andy?

Dare I ask what sort of "popular Internet based service catering mainly for the discerning gentleman" she thinks you run?

Not on the corridor side, I suspect. (Is that the 'less convenient' side?)

Tell you what Gilbert, all the unlucky policemen who don't end up accompanying the young lady in the truncated trousers to the station could lurk around platform ends looking out for the local pikeys who keep debagging your stock.

Put her on the station approach surrounded by policemen arguing about who's going to arrest her?

I find a hole through the buffer beam and superglue does for the dangly ones. Upright ones I try to use ones with a spigot near the top and make a hole through the body end for that. Superglue again, usually. Edit - and space them further away from the coupling than is prototypical - it makes your shunter's life much easier.

Jon, there's a note somewhere in my ferry archive - possibly Ransome-Wallis - of seeing a line of BR horseboxes at Zeebrugge.

Actually, lining out with a Bob Moore is pretty straightforward although I'm nowhere near Larry's standard yet. On beading it's easier, I find. This will just get lettering, varnishing and then the door and commode handles added. I have the interior to do as well, of course. Putting the handles and handrails onto that Kirk is what really brings them out - you'll see what it's done and you ought to consider it for the ones you were looking at building.

David, please do illustrate what you're doing with your Wickham. (The N Brass one?) Mine has been on the shelf for years while I look for an idea to get it to run.

That's quite possible - I bought it just after it was released (about 2004/5?) and it was sold under the Electrifying Trains name at that time. I know both he and it will be at Nottingham Show in March if anyone is interested in having a look.

Pipes, Gilbert, pipes.

Been a painting and decorating day today. Trains, not domestic. First up the J19, now with boiler bands, handrails, works plates and in Stratford's finest black. As expected, after I'd soldered up the crankpins and test run I had to remove some material from under the splashers where they had been lowered and a 'lip' left under the running plate. No real hardship and she goes well now. Here she is with a J17 I built in 2005 from the same manufacturer: I've also located a smokebox numberplate at the Old Time Workshop. The coach has also been through the paintshop: I'm going to take a leaf from Tom's book and do this one as a refurbished post war example, now due for another works visit and looking a bit tired. There were teak coaches on the gE until at least 1956 so I can get away with thsi on Thurston. I've also been painting this, which is a Kirk I bought second hand at the New Year's Day swapmeet in the Marton Country Club, if anyone remembers those. It's had new underpinnings, MJT bogies and roof vents and the previous paint job was removed with Modelstrip.

Right Mike, because it's you and I like parcels stock... I wouldn't get my NPCCS out for anyone, you know.... This is most of the parcels stock we use on Thurston (that is to say, it's what belongs to me). This is Great Eastern Region, earlier part of the 1950s and not in any real order except how it came out of the boxes. Thompson BZ. This is a kit from Electrifying Trains which I think is still available. Instructions were a bit basic but it went together well. Comet do the sides for this, I believe, but you have to make the rest yourself. Kirk Gresley BG. Not a standard one, though - this is a former ECJS underframe reused. I cut down the sides slightly and scratchbuilt the rest. I ought to do a standard 61'6" one to show the difference. Great Eastern 50' full brake (converted from a ambulance coach IIRC). Bill Bedford etched body, Worsley Works floor and the rest scratchbuilt. D & S Great Eastern Special Cattle Van. Bought at a swapmeet glued together and painted bright blue. John Peck made the transfers for me. LNER Pigeon Brake. Not confined to the Great Eastern. This one is D & S etched brass but the Chivers plastic kit looks as good and is easier to find. Lima LMS 42' full brake. I did this one this summer after seeing Larry's thread. The body is just repainted and has wire handrails; roof vents replaced; Bachmann LMS bogies. Dead easy. Parkside PC40 LMS Motor Car van. Like all Parkside kits, very easy to build, easy to add detail if you need to. Is this the one Hornby are doing? Parkside PC30 LNER long CCT. We run two of these. As above, really; this one benefits from more robust steps, better roof vents and extra brake gear as it's quite visible. Kirk inside framed Monster. Not currently available as far as I know but they do pop up on Ebay. This one is pretty much out of the packet apart from replacement bogies from Blacksmith. LNER CCT. Built by the LNER to an NER design, hence the slightly antiquated appearance. This is a Chivers etched brass kit, until recently available again from Five79 Models and I believe to be made available again soon. This is the model used to illustrate the kit on the Five79 website. ex-Southern BY (?) We used to have one of these from a Parkside kit, but that is no longer available to us so this is a Hornby replacement. Remove couplings, fit screw links, weather. An excellent model. Thompson full brake. This is available from a number of source; Bachmann, Coopercraft, Comet. This is the Blacksmith (ex-Mallard) etched kit. From what I recall it was a really good kit to build. This is the kit Clive refers to above. That's about it. We also used to have a Gresley 51' BG and an ex-LNWR BG, both from Comet. The LNWR one was a lovely looking thing. I also have a number of horseboxes built as we work towards a Hunt Special but most of them generally run in this set as well. We generally make up two trains from the above. One further point; we tend to refer to 'parcels' trains, but forget about 'stock' trains, used to move stock from place to place. For the last few shows I've run a Restaurant Car in the 'stock' train with most of what you've seen above, ostensibly on its' way back from works. In fact, I just haven't built the other one of the pair yet, but it raises comment. Was that the sort of thing you were looking for, Mike? Edit - realised I'd managed to miss one. This started life as a Lima 'Palethorpes' GUV, repainted and with a Blacksmith detailing kit to convert to a BR built example.. IIRC the bogies in the kit were wrong for this vehicle but ended up under the 'Monster'. The then proprietor of Blacksmith was very helpful at the time. I believe the Blacksmith 4mm range is now woth Coopercraft.