checkrail

'The first cut is the deepest' .... Heart in mouth I loaded the razor saw with a new blade and got to work. The conversion joins the compartment ends of two Tri-ang brake thirds, cutting after the 11th window for one and the 13th for t'other. Joining these two together makes a coach a bit longer than a C10 should be, the extra length being at the outer ends. This is addressed by sawing off these ends, reducing the last narrow panel with files and sanding sticks, and then joining it all back together. This leaves some fiddly bits of filling to do, as you can see. I'm not sure whether it was worth it, as there's very little internal clearance between the inside of the end tumblehome and the first window, and the coach is still a little overlength - 47' 6" instead of 46' 6". I'll live with it. The two roofs have the brake ends cut off about 3 mm short of half way and the two compartment ends filed, sanded and joined against a straightedge. The roof retaining clips are sliced off and the corresponding slots in the ends filled with Plastikard blanks prior to a bit of filling. The lamp tops on the roof still line up nicely with the compartments. So far this has been a bit of fun, like a bit of modelling archaeology, resurrecting a model first released in 1961. John C.

I was going to order a couple of Shapeways bogies for the C10, which would have cost several times the cost of all the other bits put together. Then I remembered that I had a pair of Dean 8' 6" bogies from an old K's Dean 40' PBV I'd made years ago but fitted with American bogies. The K's castings are ancient and a bit deformed but with a bit of twisting and some drilling of the axleboxes for pinpoint bearings they went together reasonably satisfactorily on a sheet of glass using cyano. These bogies don't have the earlier full footboards, which is fine for my era. Instead I added MJT fold-up brass end footsteps I had in stock (intended for American bogies). The second pic shows some distortion to the white metal sideframe casting. No amount of gentle twisting would get rid of this while keeping all four wheels on the glass plate at the same time. Answer? Simples! Make sure that in service that side faces the back of the layout. Things always look slightly better after a lick of paint. John C.

By lining I just mean the black/gold line at the waist, not the earlier full panel lining. At some point I'll have to consider whether to slice off all the door and grab handles and replace with brass door furniture, or just touch up the moulded ones with gold paint. The former method would probably make it easier to put the waist lining on in one strip before adding the brassware. And of course there was a brief period in the mid-late 20s after the full lining was discontinued during which there was no lining at all, just brown and cream. (I think the GWR then thought they'd gone a bit too far, and brought the waist lining back.). Unlikely though, that this austere lining-free livery would have lasted until the late 30s?

Thanks Robin @gwrrob for very useful C10 pics. Though my layout is pre-war I might be tempted by the all-over brown livery, otherwise painting and lining this coach is going to be a bit of a swine!

I didn't come home empty handed from the MMRS show, having snaffled a copy of Brian Stephenson's 'Great Western steam at its zenith' for £2.50 from Nick Tozer. So there was at least one pre-war GWR photo album I didn't have (and I'd only seen a handful of the pics before). I also bagged these. With luck they'll form the basis for a C10, following the conversion described by @Mikkel of this parish on the gwr.org site (and by the Swansea Railway Modellers group as described online. This coach will become an occasional high season strengthener for the branch B set. But however well it turns out I don't think I'll be standing it next to any of the forthcoming Dapol items! John C.

I'd forgotten about these. Last two shots of the departing Grange from track level. Wasn't sure which I liked the best so I'm posting both! I note that the front handrail on the tender has gone a bit wonky. Must sort out. John C.

A couple more of Aylburton Grange and train. And one that got away, taken earlier on the way in. John C.

Here's an aerial view as 6801 pulls in. Longtime followers of this thread probably know that the footbridge is from an ancient 'Pola for Hornby' plastic kit that's undergone brutal surgery to remove the lower two panels of the staircase and bring it closer to earth. (Rather than a stairway to heaven that could have accommodated 0 gauge trains.). I think it's now part of Gaugemaster's 'Fordhampton' range. And here's the parting of the ways as the Grange continues on its way west leaving the through coach for retrieval by the branch train engine. The upright handle of the luggage trolley marks the spot where the magnet is buried under the track, allowing trains to detach tail traffic by a couple of momentary speed step moves backwards to ease the coupling tension. (And if the dropped vehicle itself moves back I consider it a black mark!) Now Aylburton Grange can head off to Plymouth, its load a little lighter. John C.

Nice bridge.

Meanwhile, back at Stoke Courtenay, here's 8709 with a pick-up goods. Once it's set its train back into the yard the line is clear for 6801 Aylburton Grange to bring in a Plymouth-bound stopper. As the E-set glides into the platform we see that it's also conveying the daily Earlsbridge through coach, which had been detached from an express at Newton Abbot. (I've observed over the years that after a while those first Dapol signals start failing to return to the fully horizontal. And some of them need a couple of prods of the push-button to make them work at all at the beginning of a running session. The later bracket signals are superior in every way - appearance, relability, 'bounce' etc. But at the time Dapol made it plain they weren't going to revisit the single-post ones. A shame - I'd certainly have replaced all mine.) John C.

A pleasant few hours at the Manchester exhibition yesterday. Some nice layouts including the 21st century China one I'd seen at Warley a couple of weeks or so ago, and the MMRS's own 18.83 mm gauge Slattocks Junction. But the standout for me was the wonderful 2 mm scale model of York station, viewed at eye level through a sort of 5 foot long letterbox. As it happens I think it was also the only layout in the show to feature a GW train, seen here with some nice coaches hauled by a Gresley pacific. John C.

Great work as ever Mike. Look really good.

That's not wrong. Let's just say that Stoke C. and the (offstage) Earlsbridge are a sort of 'alternative reality' Brent and Kingsbridge. I could say it was 'inspired by Brent' but of course Rich @The Fatadder has copyright on that phrase! Great pic. Thanks Miss P!

As you say, you've answered your own question, but Stoke Courtenay is actually (or at least supposedly) east of Plymouth - in my imagination perhaps vaguely somewhere between Brent and Ivybridge. 4117 was a long-time resident of NA and was much photographed - mainly, I must admit, on the line to Kingswear. But I guess it could have appeared west of NA on freight turns.

Inspired by 5164, looking rather splendid as the centrepiece at Warley last weekend, I thought it time to give 4117 something to do. Here she is with a westbound freight. And here passing 6305. John C.

Looks great Kevin.

Yep, was quite easy to resist the burial party or wedding cameo, or the vicar standing in the lychgate with the bible tucked under his arm (like that Monty's Models figure where the book looks nearly as big and heavy as him).

Indeed. And it was a stiff climb to get up here for these aerial views. John C.

A fairly hectic weekend at Warley with nightmare trains (the real ones, not the ones in the exhibition) and a meet-up there on Saturday with my son and grandsons. My son asked his 4 year old to look out for Grandad in the hall - he came back and said, "They all look like Grandad". Says something about the demographic I suppose. And now back to the bucolic peace of Stoke Courtenay. John C.

Yep, shouldn't look gift horses in the mouth I suppose. But I've already got small prairies, 57xx/8750 panniers, and a B set (and a 28xx). But I ain't got a Bulldog - or a Saint for that matter.

As for the Rapido 44xx whichever variant I choose will probably involve a bit of 'let's pretend'. It's either 4408, on the fairly unlikely assumption that it still hadn't received cabside shutters at the end of the 30s (and I've no idea where that loco hung out at that time), or 4402, altering history a bit so it didn't have the flange lubricating apparatus for its Princetown branch duties. But perhaps sometimes we can worry too much about stuff like this - I'm not building a museum exhibit, I'm just trying to create the impression or atmosphere of a particular railway area and era. And of course there's alreay one big 'let's pretend' element - Stoke Courtenay doesn't exist! Do any of you remember a 1964 David Jenkinson article in RM, 'Is your mutton dressed as lamb?', in which, while promoting the idea of fidelity to period, he also suggested that one might adopt a slightly elastic timeframe - say, 1936-9 (my example)? I suppose I already do this - I have one loco which wasn't built until 1939 but have probably got a greater proportion of coaching stock still in pre-1934 livery than I should for that date. A bit of Rule 1 creeping in, like my Accurascale Manor. John C.

So there's me still trying to decide which version of Rapido's 44xx to order when we're suddenly blessed with the promise of a plethora of pannier variations. What a great job Accurascale are doing. My somewhat customised Bachmann 57xx and 8750 still look pretty alright to me (and one at least is a superb runner and slow shunter) so I'm unlikely to get rid of them. But has often been said one can't have too many panniers, so I rather suspect two Accurascale sisters will join them. So I need to do more research into which variants to go for. Nearest suitable from first releases or wait to see what other combinations come along. I rather suspect it'll be the first option. John C.

Thanks for all the likes from fellow members of the small prairie appreciation society. Last three of yesterday's snaps below. John C.

Here are three more from the same sequence. 4574. Don't know how that handrail got bent, but it did happen on the real railway! In the next pics we see that the branch train includes the daily through coach from Paddington. John C.

Little Prairies working hard today. 5557 pulls away with the Earlsbridge branch train while sister engine 4574 shunts the yard. John C.