rowanj

The T1 has had the glazing done, and coal added. It is numbered only on one side, I used HMRS Pressfix but, as my locos are " No 6 intensive", I ran out of 6's and 9's. I assumed getting another sheet would be simple, but there seems to be a world shortage. I prefer HMRS sheets when applying to very flat matt, black as it avoids the "halo" effect from carrier film on waterslide transfers. So a search for a 6 and 2 x 9's goes on. The current project will hopefully produce some ex-NER coaches rather than rely on Gresley or Thompson suburbans. They will be made from D&S etched kits, and I am impressed by the quality, and, no doubt, once you have build one you can build them all. First time around, however, I'm struggling to understand the instructions on how to fit the bogies and underframe together, and am looking for information on the interior colours for the compartment walls and upholstery. I assumed there would be a description of a build of a typical D&S bogie coach around to help, but haven't found one yet. Any pointers gratefully received.

Railway Memories Volume on Tyneside has some useful information on freight traffic, including details on the Aberdeen-London fish and meat traffic - The Scotch beef. these trains had priority over everything but passenger trains, It gave timings, etc ,but also gave details of a relief service, from Tweedmouth to Newcastle, which I knew nothing about. It looks as though this train had both fish and meat vans in the consist. So here, the train has been put into the sidings to allow passage of the Talisman, and begins the last few miles to Heaton Yard, The K3 is a GBL body on a modified Bachmann V1 chassis, and the wagons are all Parkside kits. I have a couple more to build to flesh out the rake. John

I'm struggling to light these pictures as I would wish, but they give an idea of the almost completed Little Engines T1. I assumed I had plenty of room to fit a 1220 motor, along with a Highlevel Compact+, but actually had to fit it to the leading driving axle. Otherwise, it tended to foul the firebox backplate, and was too tall to fit upright in its' original position on the second axle. I think I could have "reversed" it and used the 3rd axle, but it goes fine where it is, though it wouldn't have been my first choice. The cab roof needs fitting - I wish I could devise a way to fit it "removable", and I'll think about it- Judicious Blutack? Otherwise coal, glazing front spectacle windows and numbering, then it will join the stock for Little Benton. actually, although a Tyne Dock loco, 10 miles or so away from the prototype, you had as much chance of seeing a King or Castle as a T1. Oh.. and I need a driver to keep the fireman company.

My attempt at the cab of the T1. The majority is just plasticard, together with a few castings I had in the spares box. I used Mike's photo, together with previous builds of NER tank locos, as a template, and at least it looks as though there is something going on in the cab. How much will be visible when the roof goes on is another matter...

Many thanks for the quick response. These are the kits in question, and they fit the bill nicely as they were still being used around Tyneside in the early 50's. I did look at Precision Teak, Mick, but wondered if it was too light?. It's tempting, though, as I don't have an airbrush, so prefer rattle cans where possible. I need to see whether Track Dirt comes in a can.

Thanks to those who posted advice here about how to get hold of ex-NER coaches. I now have 4 and just need to work out how to build them.... As they will be depicted running in their twilight years in the early 50's, I believe they should be brown, ( as opposed to teak} . I confess to have failed in my research to identify an appropriate paint, after an afternoon spent Googling. Any ideas? Thanks in anticipation. John

The K4 looks very nice indeed, Eric. The loss of Dave's kits is a real shame,,especially as he was about to produce a North Tyneside Emu Artic set before he became ill. I think most of his kits had replacement etched boilers, produced for him by 52F Models. I found this a bit strange, as the DJH and SEF arrangement made more sense, giving an etched cab with thinner sides but retaining a heavy whitemetal boiler just where you need the weight. Either way ,his kits are a pleasure to build, though I understand there is the odd inaccuracy. He updated his K4 chassis a few years ago, and was selling the older main etch for £1 at local shows. I took 5 off his hands..

Here is another picture I found of 69921, which may as well be the loco I'm building. It is a useful shot, as it confirms the buffer type, and also shows the "box" on the front spectacle plate behind the whistle.

Fantastic, Mike. Many, many thanks.

D249 was among the first Class 40's to be allocated to Gateshead, and was often seen at Little Benton. It seems to be on a Kings X- Edinburgh relief, I smile when I read that folk "need" a particular class of loco, but an early 40 without headcode boxes does fill a gap in my roster. Passing it is a Heaton V3 runs bunker-first on an ECS back to Heaton Sidings, having finished its' runs on Manors North -Newbiggin turns. I confess that, though I love building kits, many of those I have built disappeared during the mid to late 50's, and these photos much more accurately reflect what I saw when I began serious spotting in 1960/1 or so.

Lovely work, Mike. can you remember, or better still have a photo, of what you did to the cab interior? John

It's just the latest Modelmaster sheet MM4082. John

I'm keeping one eye out for an A7 - one was sent to Tyne Dock in 1957 or so to replace a withdrawn T1. It wasn't a success, apparently, but I have a picture to prove it happened. I don't know what happened to the Little Engines moulds, but it would be good if someone could rescue them in the way SEF are doing with NUCast. Though whether the economics stack up is another matter. John

My latest model is this LRM N8, a pleasure to build. I'm posting it here, largely in the context of Tony's build of the Isinglass Pigeon Van, and because of the extensive knowledge base of the thread's followers. If I understand correctly, Isinglass will produce a 3D model from drawings on their list, which includes a fair selection of ex-NER non-corridor coaches. I need to know which, if any, diagrams survived into the 1950's, so my locos wont be forever towing Hornby Gresley and Thompson stock- or at least not exclusively. Any help gratefully received - by PM if Tony would rather not clog up the thread on this issue, John

Hi Mark and Brian - good to hear from you both. The T1 was built for heavy shunting, and seem to have spent their lives in marshalling yards, or the early equivalent. The Tyne Dock locos also were used as bankers on the iron ore trains. Other than the pleasure of building one, I wouldn't have bothered if a kit hadn't turned up on Ebay at a reasonable price, seeing it run through Little Benton will be a bit of a stretch. I'm far from unhappy with the kit - it's a product of its' time, and it is a real shame to have lost Little Engines - I understand their A8 was superior to the still-available DJH version. And you are right, Mark- adding detail is part of the fun. On another issue, I noticed Tony Wright's build of an Isinglass Pigeon van. I an trying to source appropriate ex-NER stock for local passenger turns in the 1950's and see Isinglass have some drawings of NER coaches and seem to be able to 3D print from them. I dont suppose anyone can point me to appropriate Diagrams? John

After the nice little LRM N8/9, the Little Engines T1 is "from the sublime to the ridiculous", both in terms of the kits themselves, and also the looks of the prototypes. The locos were, of course, designed for completely different roles. I was in "modelling hiatus" when Little Engines kits were around, and so this is my first experience. They seem to turn up occasionally on eBay and the like, but otherwise are like hens teeth, The T1 has a reasonable etched chassis but otherwise is substantial whitemetal, with a few etched parts. It is very light on detail, as illustrated by the cab photo. Other than the roof, this is literally all you get. I'll have a go at filling in some detail, but it will be "generic" based on what I have built from more modern kits - sandboxes, backhead, reverse lever and brake, etc, Unless, of course, anyone has a photo of a T1 cab.... NER outside cylinder models don't like going round corners, and a 4-8-0 is the worst of all worlds. I 've cheated by fitting 16mm drivers to the inner 2 pairs and extended the cylinders by 2mm to give the bogie a bit more "swing". Even then, the front cast cylinder covers foul the leading bogie wheels, so I'll replace them with thin plasticard. I've never built crossheads like these, so feared the worst, but actually the one side I completed worked fine. How they think there is room for brakes beats me, so I'll cheat with Slaters plastic ones.

The completed N8 takes a short ECS rake to Central, The London Road Models kit built up nicely, I needed to fit a small Mashima motor to a Roadrunner Highlevel gearbox, so a bit of thought was needed to get it inside the tanks, The kit builds up to either an N8 or N9, and is designed to have either high or low(er) side tanks. This particular loco only had steam brakes, some of them were genuine mixed traffic with a vacuum brake in BR days. So, along with the Westinghouse versions, there are lots of options. I will, in due course, build another kit as an N8 with longer footplate and lower tanks, as a couple of these lasted until the mid 1950's. I recommend the kits as suitable for average modellers which still lend themselves to added detailing if desired.

N8 takes a short ECS from Killingworth Racecourse station to Central, ready to be added to another 3-coach rake for a race-day meeting. The loco needs a crew, but otherwise is complete. The LRM kit is a nice build, and I will get another in due course to build an N9 with smaller tanks, as a few of this class managed to carry on until the mid 50's too.

The latest work in progress is a Little Engines T1. It's an "old fashioned" kit, and a much better one is available from 52F Models, but hopefully this will meet my needs. It is seen here while I tested it on my curves, though the real proof of the pudding will come when the cylinders are fitted. I normally find ex-NER locos to be attractive things, but this heavy shunter is an ugly brute, The kit is pretty basic - there is next to no cab detail, for example, and photos are a bit thin on the ground. Once the main superstructure is complete, and the chassis running, I'll see what detail can be fitted just to round things off a touch. The boiler and cab roof are not yet fixed in place.

Heaton's N8 69377 has been sent up to collect a few hoppers, and is seen leaving the sidings for the short run to Heaton Yard. The sidings are busier than usual. York's B16/3 and Alnmouth's D20 have been parked up, as the Heart of Midlothian is due- it must be running late. The fish empties for Aberdeen are passing on the Down line - a mix of Hornby RTR and Parkside kits, the loco is Heaton's "Ocean Swell", which I fitted onto an amended SEF A2 chassis, It runs well, but suffers, amongst other things, from a problem with the GBL plastic which reacted to the rattle-can paint. all 3 GBL A2's did the same, though none of their other loco or tender bodies had this problem. C'est la vie.

This could be North Road Scrapyard, or a site I visited at Choppington ( appropriate name) where I saw a J27 being cut up in 1967. In fact, it is an LRM N8/9 kit being slowly assembled to represent one of the last N8's withdrawn from Tyne Dock in late 1956, and which was on test on the layout. The chassis is complete, and the main superstructure well on the way, but there is still a lot of detail to fit. This loco also got full mixed traffic lining at its' last general in 1953. I did consider just doing one in unlined black, but thought this would make a change. Loco will be 69390

This could be North Road Scrapyard, or a site I visited at Choppington ( appropriate name) where I saw a J27 being cut up in 1967. In fact, it is an LRM N8/9 kit being slowly assembled to represent one of the last N8's withdrawn from Tyne Dock in late 1956, and which was on test on the layout. The chassis is complete, and the main superstructure well on the way, but there is still a lot of detail to fit. This loco also got full mixed traffic lining at its' last general in 1953. I did consider just doing one in unlined black, but thought this would make a change. Loco will be 69390

Nice to see the B16/1. There are plenty of photos of Heaton locos going backwards and forwards between Edinburgh and Tyneside in the 50's, before they all went south to Yorkshire. I had assumed they normally were serviced at 64A rather than Haymarket. I suppose York engines also might also have been pressed into service, particularly in Summer Saturdays, which is my excuse for running my B16/3 on a York Edinburgh SO. No excuses needed for the B16/1. I agree with Gilbert that any A2/2 which got to Edinburgh after the expulsion would be from York. They weren't even very common at Newcastle, and most pictures have them south of York, though not exclusively. I vividly recall 60501 standing light engine behind Gateshead East .having reversed over the High Level, waiting to go on shed..Probably late in their day,1961. John

I managed to get the SEF A2 chassis adapted to take the GBL/ GKing A2/3 "Ocean Swell" I am not a fan of the cylinder block, and if I ever do another one, I'll try to adapt a Comet/Wizard arrangement. The chassis itself, however, is a dream to assemble. I suspect it was designed to replace the Triang Brit chassis which originally went under the Wills A2, and the wheelbase is consequently a bit too short to allow the easy fitment of brakes. Here is the loco on test, running light back to its' home at Heaton. It has an original Thompson boiler Dia 117 with the round dome, which differentiates it from my other pair of A2/3 with the Dia 118. It is typically Tyneside scruffy, though Heaton tended to keep its' Pacifics cleaner than the friends across the Tyne.

My New Year's resolution was to re-visit a couple of locos which had been giving me issues. You know that you have too many locos when you discover there are 2 with the same number. Heaton only needs one of 61869, so the other is now St. Margaret's 61885. How long it would have stayed looking ex-works is a good question, as both photos I have of it on Edinburgh-Tyneside freights show it looking pretty grubby. Anyway, here it is in the headshunt at Little Benton North, either waiting a path back home or waiting to take a freight out of the sidings. Passing it is Haymarket's Hornets Beauty, just back in service after being fitted with an SEF chassis,. The loco is a DJH kit, which I made a mess of several years ago. Regrettably, DJH wont sell their chassis as spares, at least not to the likes of me. Talking of A2's, I am about a third of the way through modifying another SEF chassis to fit under A2/3 Ocean Swell. This is a GBL body with Graeme King resin castings, and was fitted to a modified Hornby Brit chassis. I did 3 of them and all 3 chassis have failed with the motor coming out of mesh. I'll get them running just in time for Hornby's release. John