checkrail

Wonderful stuff!

Just realised - that's WWS static grass, not Noch (that's in the fields). When a layout's been in existence for a while you forget where stuff came from, and how you made things!

Plenty of pics in the various 1930s albums showing clerestories in trains hauled by Castles - and, indeed, Kings.

Unless it's heading for the monthly cattle market at Chuffnell Regis.

A local train to Newton Abbot provides a passenger turn for 6305. There have been quite a few varying interpretations of GWR coach brown knocking about over the years haven't there? I'm sure that grass has grown in the last few years. How do Noch do that? John C

So while I was at it I did the same with the most recent Castle photo. Here's 5041 again, but from a bit closer. Lamp lenses here seem to be present and correct. John C.

Had a smartphone moment today. When looking up a newly received grandchild pic I accidentally zoomed in on one of my recent King pics. It looked quite good and led me to go back to the original and do a bit of cropping. (And there are Herr und Frau Preiser again!) One thing this enlargement did reveal was that the Modelu lamps on 6019 no longer had their brilliant lenses. I've since replaced them but am running low on spares. Stock up at Warley maybe. (I find that I use up about 3 or 4 just trying to get one on!). Am now checking the other locos. John C.

No chance! The only Preiser figures on Stoke C. are crossing the footbridge. Given the period I expect they're about to be repatriated. Or perhaps arrested as spies?

The 1940s 'G <crest> W' lettering looks rather good on the small tender. How many Manor (or, for that matter, other) 3,500 gall. tenders carried that style, and how long did it last?

Top class weathering on those wagons.

Thanks Chris. It was a feature I wanted from the outset, with the station approach road following the track while dropping below it to meet the road running under the railway bridge. So it had to be planned in at the beginning. The L-girders supporting the layout were dropped to a lower level in this area and the trackbed supported by risers. The approach road itself was formed from a very long piece of hardboard cut from a 6 foot sheet in the shape of a sort of curved hockey stick, so that the lower join would be out of sight under the bridge. As Eric Morecambe said, "You can't see the join'. Not from the front of the layout anyway. The upper join, where the road meets the station forecourt (3 mm plywood) was well disguised with filler, glue and paint, but after 9 or 10 years a little crack has begun to appear. I'm currently loth to try to fix it as I want to avoid having to paint the whole road again! John C.

Is there any other kind of Manchester?* Well, we say that if you're at Old Trafford and you can see the Pennines it means it's going to rain in the next twenty minutes. If you can't see them it's because it's p***ing down.

A tripod up a tree? That must have been a balancing act worth seeing!

Not sure when your spotting days were Colin, but there's a great 1946 Maurice Earley pic of a full set of centenaries on a fast down Weston-super-Mare express, hauled by 1000 'County of Middlesex', in his album, 'The Great Western Scene'. I think it's the only post-war pic of a full set of these coaches I've seen - and immediate pre-war ones are pretty rare. My hunch has always been that the new window vents were installed in batches, with treated coaches being released back into service immediately and thus mixed with other stock. Then the war came along. Don't know whether it was a GW first (others might?) but the first time my son saw my mixed train of centenaries and Collett sunshine coaches he asked if they were the forerunners of the BR Mark 1s. Can't remember why the original 'Beclawat' (?) windows were deemed a failure. Were they too draughty so that you either roasted in the sun or had your perm blown to bits?

A busy morning at Stoke Courtenay with three passenger trains in view, with the usual motley mix of coach types typical of the GWR. John C.

I mentioned recently that the Airstream ventilators on my Centenary coaches, which I'd fashioned from cream coloured self adhesive labels, had faded - to white in fact. (With hindsight I could just have fabricated them from Plasikard Microstrip and painted them.). So out came the Railmatch coach cream and a fine brush, results as seen below. In the longer term I intend to renew these coaches with Comet sides, but this latest bodge will do for now. The thing that keeps me putting off the Comet conversion is the necessity of applying the double lining. I'm afraid I'm pretty hopeless at applying lining transfers. The coach behind the King and in front of the D121 in this Penzance - Paddington train is a returning through coach from Newquay, providing an occasional use for a Bachmann E159, relegated from its former role as the Earlsbridge through coach by an E95 toplight. Longer term I hope to apply Comet sides to this and my other Bachmann Colletts too. John C.

Of course! Sorry Graham - I somehow read the word 'brake' in front of 'third' - a word that wasn't there!

Great pic. That's a real motley mix - so Great Western.

From memory I think they'd be a D45 and an E88? Worsley Works list a pair of D45 sides, and other toplights, as 'under development'. Frogmore/Dart Castings also do some toplight sides - or used to. The PC/Wheeltapper kits are not too difficult to build, though I had trouble with one in that I didn't get the cast whitemetal ends properly vertical at first, making the resulting coach a bit skew-whiff until corrected. Re adding door and grab handles to the PC sides, as Neal @Neal Ball says, it might work if you could hide the printed ones. I did consider this, thinking that I could perhaps touch them up with brown paint before adding the brass door furniture. If all one's coaches were made this way it might work, but even so, when I realised what the PC models would look like next to, say, a Hornby Collett bow-ender or a Slater's toplight I decided that I needed to go the whole hog with brass sides. But I have to say that the crimson lake one @Mikkel showed us looks nice!

Wheeltapper coaches were repackaged versions of the old PC toplight range with printed acetate sides. They can be picked up quite cheaply and make a good basis for conversion with brass sides (Worsley Works etc.). The bogies, ends, roof, u/frame details are all pretty much ok. And even the printed sides can be useful - I've been known to cut them up and use them for the glazing, toplight hammered glass and even the droplights.

Would rather have a Bulldog - they've made most of it already.

It's happened to me in the past when I've suddenly thought, "Not see anything from X for ages", and then found loads of posts I'd not seen, even though they were on threads I was following. I just put it down to IT gremlins. Anyway, glad you've found the thread again.

What is it an express fright then? No, that's tonight.

The green finish looking good in that pic. (No, don't need another Castle!)

Yep, continuous running plate as seen in photos 265 and 339 from the 400+ of 43xx class on Smugmug railway photography site - the only two 83xx pics I can find with a front end view from above. Given the weight casting below the front part would any rivets be involved or would that area be smooth? Not sure how it was all fixed and held together.