James Harrison

My vote is for a J10.

I hate lining out, I really really do.

Happy New Year everybody! I'm not going to do a list of projects I want to have a crack at this year, the last few years that hasn't turned out particularly well. So I'll keep my cards close to my chest and we'll see what transpires. Work on the first of my Class 3 tanks over the Christmas and New Years weeks, well... I built and fitted the cab, then three or four coats of Humbrol matt Brunswick Green acrylic to get it into the right basic colour. Hat-tip to @HonestTom and @Corbs for their mentioning of Trimits (little round metal jewellery trimming things) as a way of achieving the spectacle plate beading. I bought a pack of 200 5mm gold ones and they just slip neatly into the cab front and back, secured in place with a few spots of Glue'n'Glaze. Next step will be to form the boiler handrail and look at detailing the smokebox door.

I think I had the same VHS, it also had "The Rail Way" and "Journey of a Nation"

Another modelling session today. The tank filler caps were very carefully scrubbed out with a file, and new ones fabricated in plastic sheet. New cabsheets were traced off the drawing. The handrails on the tank fronts were removed and replaced with footsteps.

That's on the to-do list.

I've finally bitten the bullet with converting one of my LYR tanks to GCR #589. Took the donor model apart to the degree required (simply separating the cab and the bunker from each other and the rest of the model). Cut the coal rails off the bunker, and then smoothed down its back face. Added an additional 2mm to the bunker length through building up in layers of 0.5mm plastic sheet (I made this slightly oversize and then filed and cut flush with the bunker sides and top later). Carefully removed the boiler handrails, and then a bit of ticklish work with file and sandpaper on the smokebox to remove rivets, door clips and the numberplate. Next steps will be to fit a smokebox door wheel, replace the handrails to the tanks with 'L' section strip, and look about rearranging the detail on the tank tops. The temptation to do another of these with just a weatherboard, and then finished in a ficitious green or red livery, is quite strong.

Too easy...

Pages 113 to 117 of Bob Yates' South Staffordshire Railway, Volume 1: "Relations with the NSR had always been cordial, and the LNWR (New Works & Additional Powers) Act passed on 15 July 1866 included under Section 60 running powers for two daily goods trains to be run from Wolverhampton and Birmingham via Cannock and Colwich to Stoke. A reciprocal arrangement was later made for passenger trains and from early 1882 the NSR was permitted to make through workings from Stoke to Walsall." Page 190 of the same source: "William Jackson, Stoke-upon-Trent, engine driver in the employment of the North Staffordshire Railway Company, deposed that he was driving the train from Walsall to Birmingham on Tuesday morning. He saw nothing of the men on the line until Yates suddenly arose, about a foot in front of the engine, and just got clear of the buffer beam." Page 150 of Bob Yates' South Staffordshire Railway, Volume 2: "The reciprocal arrangement was that the NSR would have running powers to Cannock, Wolverhampton and Birmingham including the SSR lines....The NSR does not seem to have taken up this opportunity until early in 1882 when NSR passenger trains began operating from Stoke via Walsall to Birmingham. By November 1885 this comprised an up service from Stoke at 2.35PM to Birmingham New Street, which arrived at Walsall at 3.57PM. The return working left Walsall at 5.52, reaching Stoke at 7.55PM. Between Walsall and Birmingham, the train ran non-stop as the LNWR did notpermit passengers to be collected or set down... The southbound train ran via Aston, and the return via Monument Lane and Soho East Junction, thus obviating the need for the locomotive to run round its train in New Street station. However by July 1898 this service had been cut back to Walsall... The right to run goods trains over the SSR to Birmingham mentioned in the 1867 Act was never taken up by the NSR."

If you can find copies, Volumes 2 and 3 of George Dow's Great Central Trilogy, plus his Great Central Album and Great Central Recalled. John M C Healy's Echoes of the Great Central is also a good read. Probably far too may picture books around to single any particular one or two out, and none that I'm aware of that are exclusively pre-grouping (the two by Dow I've mentioned above probably come closest in that regard).

I'm trying at the moment to work out exactly how I want to go about modding the Bachmann LYR tank, I've got two of these (because I want two engines) but I've also got a secondhand scratchbuilt body (which is falling apart as a result of my efforts to get it to fit over the Bachmann chassis, and which I'm plannin to cannibalise for bits) and a quarter-built whitemetal kit. I am thinking it would be ideal if I could get the tanks and cab off the scratchbuilt body and simply fit them to the Bachmann boiler and running plates, but that is going to need a bit of careful surgery and before I rush right in I'm having a bit of a think about it. Meantime, things are progressing (of a sorts) in other areas. I've bought a copy of the Sheffield- Worksop-Lincoln 1953 working timetable, but this is for passenger workings only, the freight WTT I don't think is available. But taken in context with my Marylebone- Nottingham- Sheffield and Lincoln District WTT's of the same date it means I can start planning out more thoroughly exactly how Rufford fits into the jigsaw. I've been looking at the OS maps again and I've come to the conclusion that the ground gently rises to the west working away from the A614, this means that if I take the datum level as being the carriageway, and assume that Rufford RLS is level with that, but the time you reach Cremorne for Pittance the station ends up, as best I can tell, in a bit of a cutting, or at least on a slope (ie- cut into a gentle hillside). This is actually something I was rather hoping for as it means I can put the storage sidings under cover and there should be enough room to comfortably get my hand under there as needed. My rough thought is to have the Worksop- Rufford line fall slightly and the Rufford-Mansfield line rise slightly so that the storage sidings end up at a lower level than the layout anyway. A few buildings and trees in the 'V' of the junction between the two lines should assist in disguising the gradients. I'm going to need to properly plan how I propose to phase the building of the layout, I've given up on the idea of being able to clear the room out before I start. There's just too much stuff in there- modelling equipment, bits and pieces, my railway library- nothing that wouldn't be missed if I threw it away or misplaced it... I really think I'm going to have to start by building some low bookcases and cabinets around at least two walls of the room just to provide storage and get some working space. A recent visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town got the creative juices flowing and I've worked out how I want the environs of Cremorne for Pittance to look. Once it has been built into the layout proper there will be a goods siding on the far side of the road bridge, and that will have just a loading platform and a lock-up store. I'm going to arrange the station so that the main range is facing Rufford, so Mansfield-bound trains come into the main platform whilst Rufford-bound trains serve the smaller waiting room. My thinking there is that most passeneger traffic will be in the Mansfield direction, CfP being only 3/4 mile or so from RLS. On the far side of the station, so going up the hill, I'm going to have one or two small cottages or villas, to give the impression of what I've discussed previously about Cremorne and Pittance being a garden suburb. The slight difficulty is with this idea (what do I mean, difficulty?) is I can't find many suitable kits. I don't want to have to scratchbuild every structure, at the same time I don't want a catalogue layout, this is why I've tried to aim for a lot of kitbashing and the like. Thing is, there aren't many house kits around and those that you do find all tend to be very much on the same lines- semis and Victorian terraces. So I've gone leftfield and bought a Superquick Village School kit, my reasons for doing so being that basically I like the overall form and outline of that structure and I think I can see a way that with a bit (or a lot!) of work I can turn it into the sort of house I have in mind.

Did I see right? Medium radius BH points looking close to ready too? Excellent!

Encouraging, but "I'll take 'things we've heard before' for 200, Alex".

After a few months spent repainting and detailing some Hornby clerestories (nine of them, some of them completely rebuilt into 'proper' GC diagrams, the others just repainted), I've decided it's time to look at getting some more locomotives sorted out. First on my list is GCR class 3 / LNER F1 #589, the only one of its class to retain a roundtop boiler beyond GCR days (by 1923 fitted with ross pop safety valves too). I anticipate that this should be a 'simple' case of converting a Bachmann Lanky tank- most of the work being a rebuild of the cab and tanks/ bunker- being one of those of the class with the short bunker I won't even have to lengthen the donor loco. And then I'll look again at that Cotswold whitemetal F1 I've got....

No rush, no hurry. I've got a bit longer to set the money aside for my set at least.

Where did you get the mesh from? (thinking one or two of those might look interesting on a couple of my own wagons).

The order book is open, repeat the order book is open.

I'm curious why 6 or 7 of them were based at Annesley from 1911 onward. Nottingham or Sheffield suburban runs?

In light of Sonic Models announcement earlier today of a Great Central passenger tank, are you (Hattons) considering a later Great Central set? The GC livery in Batch 2 was replaced in 1903, and the only RTR loco that will match is Bachmann's limited edition collector's club 9J from a few years ago (production run 500 if I remember right). IMHO going for the 1903-08(ish) cream and brown, or better yet the post-1908 teak, would be a better match for available GC locos.

Granted it's a different class, but I have seen a photo (it appears in Steve Bank's book on LNER train formations) of a GCR 4-4-0 in pregrouping livery as late as 1926.

The issue with that is that Hatton's GCR carriages are in the early livery (1899- circa 1903). Whereas the Coronation Tanks entered service 1911.

Saw it, ordered it...

Is the original chimney staying? Just curious whether you have a cunning plan to reprofile it or something.

Coming back to the stowage of hay bales, I've dug out my copy of the GCR's July 1920 rulebook. "Guards must not take on wagons loaded with goods liable to be set on fire by sparks or hot cinders, unless the wagons are properly sheeted. Such wagons must be placed as far as possible from the engine."

At least one of them made it to LNER days with a round top firebox.