jwealleans

I know we all like this kind of thing, so here are some shots of rolling stock I wasn't sure about at Beamish yesterday. This looks to me like a G1 NER van with the outside framing boarded over? No makers plate in sight. This looks like a G2 with detail differences and in an unusual livery. On the other hand I have no idea whatsoever what these might be.

Down towards the end of the yard there was another example with conventional brakes and some interior differences as well as one with three side doors (loco coal?).

I thought there was a discussion on these, but I can't locate it. We were at Beamish yesterday and I photographed a few of these. I have some of the end brake etches to add to mine so I concentrated on that one, but I though they all might be useful. I took a few shots of other stock as well which I'll post as I get time. These had been handily parked just under the footbridge you cross to access the station area. ]

Well, almost a month without an update. I'd like to say I'd been really productive and wow you with a new project, but life just isn't like that. I have had a good month with trips to Doncaster and Glasgow shows and the pleasure of meeting a few friends from here. What modelling I have done is mainly confined to ferry vans and a bit of half-hearted tinkering with things on the odd day I've been at home. Some photos anyway; recent WB items in action at Glasgow. Toad unglazed and still without running lamps. It's back on the bench as we speak. It did run OK once I replaced the Dapol wheelset. I have been doing some weathering since I came home - I was slightly shocked to find on Monday that the Ormesby layouts open again this weekend and I still had a bunch of wagons to finish off. Here are a selection: These are all Cambrian, as it happens; the Midland van, the SECR open (I was slightly disappointed with that one) and one of the round-end opens. I treated myself at Glasgow (well it was my birthday and it was the cheapest I'd seen one): As yet untouched but will be a future project. I have plans for this open which will involve the improvements Paul (Worsdell Forever) has made and then probably a BD container. For comparison a Genesis version from several years ago - I'm not even sure it's still available. It holds up surprisingly well although it was hard work at the time.

Deserved recognition for that lovely loco, Paul. It's always nice to see some scratchbuilding on here as well. It's a brave man who tackles hoppers, though.

I can't find the picture I wanted of one, but is it a North Eastern D 25 CCT?

No, there isn't anything obvious. I assume they'll put something on the website; at the moment they're asking (via the Yahoo group) which kits people want produced next. If you want either of the two they've done, Mick (if there are any left) PM me and I'll send you the details. Edit: that goes for anyone else who's interested, of course.

The Great Central Society has taken over the production and marketing of the following kits from D & S: DS 60 - GCR Long Open Wagon (Cast) DS 69 - GCR 15t Brake Van DS 68 - GCR 15t Long Wheelbase Van DS 73 - GCR GCR Louvered Milk Van DS 74 - GCR Clerestory Meat Van DS 75 - LD&ECR Horse Box DS 77 - GCR 4 wheel CCT DS 58 - GCR Parker 3rd 45ft Carriage DS 59 - GCR Parker 3rd Brake 45ft Carriage. Kits are available to anyone, but members of the society receive 10% discount and preference if a production run is oversubscribed. DS 69 and 77 have already been produced. http://www.gcrsociety.co.uk/

I wouldn't even presume to try to fool you, Ian, it's not worth wasting the effort. Yes, I did put it back. Graeme and I both decided to stick with the Lima underframe, with varying approaches. His starts down the page here. Mine is still catching his up. I've added quite a bit more detail tonight. Here you can see that I've had to fill in the hole at the bottom of the end, have reattached the inner ends and made the roof detail. I've also filled in the gaping holes left by the old handrails. Stepboards are shortened and the upper ones added. I've also replaced my usual Hornby wheels with what I think are Kean-Maygib which are visibly smaller and help the ride height problem. Here's the underneath view. I dispensed with the brake shoes when cutting the stepboard and replaced with some Parkside leftovers. Brake cylinder and V hangers are also from the spares box. The brass upper stepboard is secured with some soldered tabs at right angles to the board which are then superglued to the floor. The Dapol Toad is about ready for weathering; I applied white to the handrails in a 'heavy drybrushing' manner and once that's had a coat of varnish and a few handrails are straightened it'll be on with the filth. The Archer rivet transfers have worked well on the ends; the backing film shows up on the model which actually enhances the effect. It's the first time I've seen them do that in the time I've been using them.

You've done a few of these, haven't you, Brian? They do make a nice looking coach. Are they resin sides?

Really nice job, Paul. Look forward to seeing it. When is Greyscroft Mine out and about again?

Morning Jamie, Always glad to hear of a reader and if you make yourself known at Glasgow you'll be very welcome to have a poke round the fiddle yard, I'm sure. The transfers are Modelmaster; I don't make that much use of them because I don't like the carrier film and find it often leaves a very conspicuous halo around the transfer. In this case they were all I had. They do a pack for ex-LNER Lowfits. John Isherwood (Cambridge Custom Transfers) does a sheet for the BR built ones as well as the ex-LNER type and based on the others in his range which I've used they're probably a better bet.

Well, it has been a while. I'd love to have more to show for it as well, but that's just the way things are going at the moment. I do need to get my finger out and get some things finished for Glasgow show and I seem to be running out of weekends. Not any more, it isn't. I have a bit of a glut of these in that case as I found three or four in a box of model railways which was to be thrown away. This one has had the correct chassis and (hopefully) will be ready for Glasgow along with the BR one. I may have replaced that rib... or this is the other side.. either way it's there again now. To go back to an earlier theme, here are the two brake vans I've been working on. The Dapol one now had transfers and is ready for finishing. It ought to have a 'WB 16'-0"' bottom left but I don't have any, there isn't one on the HMRS sheet and I'd rather no transfer than an incorrect one.I may try to pick up a Modelmaster pack at Glasgow and add it after the show. The Lima van I started after conversation with Graeme King, who had concluded that it was a pretty accurate basis for detailing. As I had my brake van head on and all the information to hand, I followed his lead and started to make more or less the same changes as to the Dapol one. When I replaced the horrible wheels with something a little more palatable I noticed that the buffer height was about a mil too high. They were also far too close together and not very accurate, so this has now had the buffers removed and some of my dwindling stock of ABS 20" ones substituted. I placed them a low as I dared on the buffer beam, given the discussion with Graeme about heights,. I see they point slightly down as well but they're not too far out. The difference in ride height can be seen comparing the end platforms. I haven't yet shortened the footboards or repaired the axlebox I drilled through. One thing I did find were some spare sprues from a Parkside kit (may have been the cattle van I bashed to a GN one last year) with axlebox covers on it. I shall try just sticking those over the end of the Lima ones and see whether I get away with that. French van has wheels attached and is in primer...seems like weeks since I touchd it. Lastly the LNER opens. I was in Hereford for work the week before last and happened to arrive in time to walk down to the Model Centre and have a browse. In one of the second hand cabinets (great shop, if you're in the area, less than 10 minutes from the station) I saw a 3H kit for the LNER 6 plank open. I thought that would be an interesting comparison with the Cambrian, so I took it. I had all week in a hotel, so I built it within a couple of days as well. Here the 3H is bottom left. There's very little to choose in terms of appearance although the 3H was not as easy to build as the other two. The corners especially were a swine and I'm still not completely happy. The plastic is also very hard. I may yet scrap the brake gear and use one of the spares from the Cambrian build; although commendably fine it's very fragile and I've already broken one part of it. Just to show it was my week, when I opened the 3H box I found almost all of a Slaters Midland 3 planker in there as well. Expect to see that appearing here in a future update.

I have this sheet... very useful (with a bit of tweaking) for lots of similar vehicles as well.

It was started last year.... if you really want to be pedantic, the year of the Hunt Special will be 1952.

Looks as if 2010 could be the year of the Hunt Special, finally.

I replied in here this morning but it seems to have gone astray... there, for my half-guessed, ill-founded assumption I have the equivalent of several hours research on a plate. I love this forum. Putting an LNER chassis under that body will not be a problem and a fitted UF is probably a better idea. I see Barry Cambrian does the D1986 we were talking about. Red Panda - cracking kits, not come across them before these lowfits. Yes, I did start to remove the side ribs according to the kit notes and got distracted. I shall get back to those presently. Thanks to you both.

I've been away this week and so took the SNCF van with me. The major body details are almost complete and I made up some springing units to sit it on last night. It always feels like a huge step forward when a vehicle is on its wheels. The Toad came with me as well for handrail fitting. I added the last couple which needed soldering last night and finished off with lamp irons and vac pipes today. A light spray of red oxide and it's now in the airing cupboard. Lows and tractors have also had details added and a coat of primer (for the wagons at least). The unfitted low is a Bachmann one which I discover is a pretty good match for an LMS diagram (1896, possibly?).

Formerly from Bill Bedford: I'm not sure whether that is one of the products which has gone to Eileen's Emporium or not. I'd try Eileen's first.

Well, hurrah. Christmas holidays over and back to work. At least I did get some time on the WB yesterday and I wasn't totally idle while away. To continue on the Toad theme I took on board what Mike said above and scrapped the old chimney. Looking again at the Skinley drawing I suspect what he was showing was the position of the stove. New square plate was no problem and I've turned up a replacement chimney from some 2mm Evergreen rod and stuck it on. Not the best picture but it looks more like Mike's above. While on holiday in France it seemed appropriate to start work on my next ferry van project, which was always intended to be a French Fasu van, which is the type preserved in the NRM. Studying pictures from the HMRS it became apparent that there were in fact two types of French ferry van seen in the UK, the other much shorter. The second one turned out to be very similar, if not identical, to this preserved one I photographed at Langeais, very close to the inlaws, in 2009: and the barely started model The vent grilles on the FASU took ages to do but I'm quite pleased with how they turned out once I'd developed a technique to space them consistently. Inbetween vent grilles (well you need something to stop you cracking up) I also had a go at these, the new (ish) open from Cambrian. I haven't seen anyone else on here build any yet (apologies if I've missed a thread from someone) but they're the sort of thing pretty much every LNER layout ought to have. They went together pretty well - more care needed than a Parkside and one or two corners to tidy up. I gather they were to/based on a GNR diagram so there may be scope for another variant when I have time to read it up. Last job was this BR Lowfit. The kids liked my tractor on a Lowfit for Thurston so much they each gave me another tractor for Christmas, so I'm looking round for a third Lowfit to make the set. This is a Red Panda kit; I hadn't made one before the first Lowfit I built but they're pretty good.

Nice job, Brian. A happy new year to you and the family.

A happy Christmas to all our readers and here's to a productive New Year.

I knew I's seen someone doing this brake van conversion on here somewhere and typically now I find it after I've started mine. If you haven't painted them, see my workbench thread for some far too anorakish discussion on rainstrips and the chimney assembly. I can only think the search didn't bring it up because I had it in my mind it was 4mm and searched for Dapol instead of Slaters. Nice work, though. I do think it's a conversion worth doing as the sum of a lot of small changes makes a vehicle which ends up looking very different from the original.

Not at all, Mike, it's certainly not a monologue and if I didn't want comment I wouldn't post on here. You've brought new information and sensible suggestions and ultimately I'll end up with a better model. Feel free to carry on. I roll roofs in a similar way to you but my method for avoiding that crinkle cut edge look has been to swaddle in masking tape. I'll have to give that a go. I use lolly sticks to stick roofs on; I expect that would work in the same way.

Hello Ian. I knew if I said 'brake van' often enough, you'd be drawn in... This is turning into a very useful discussion indeed. Looking very hard at the photos in Tatlow I can see what Mike means about the rainstrips being slightly curved, but I have more chance of getting them regular if they're in a straight line. I can see the chimney coming off in January, though; a square plate will be easier to make and I can turn up a new chimney easily enough. I've decided that the turnup effect on the ends is actually only at one corner, so I may try to find a way to brace that and try to bend it back into shape over Christmas. There'll be no more work on this now until January.