pbkloss

It will look much better when I've added cab window glazing and I'll replace the buffers with sprung ones ...

This was a 'quickie' project to get a running P4 locomotive for my 'Weston Super Mare' layout. Converted according to the EM Gauge Society Manual Sheet and not too difficult to do and runs reasonably well with my Compspeed / Gaugemaster walkabout controllers. I had a spare Bachmann 57XX body and decided to make it an 8750 as someone had given me a K's 8750 kit. For the identity I settled on 3650, the preserved 8750 with the GWS in Didcot as this was shedded at Bristol around 1960. So I took the cab sides and bunker back from the kit, the cab roof and coal from a spare Airfix auto tank body and here is the result ... this is the source parts laid out before construction began ... here are the chassis bits during the chassis conversion, making false frames to stick to the side of the Bachmann chassis block to reduce the number of washers on the axles. I used Gibson wheels (Conversion pack with 3mm axles). Balance weights were cut from plasticard. this is the body part way through - first coat of paint and as you can see a big gap between cab and tanks ... and now attached to the chassis but before transfers and number plates and finally in service with crests (late BR) and number plates.

A small project thats been sitting unfinished for years is my retro mod to the Lima Inside framed Siphon G. Of a kind built from 1930, modelled with wrong bogies (just their version of the BR Mk.1) I thought I'd try to see how it looked with Airfix 7' bogies and a repaint. So here it is with the handrails carved off and painted brown. Waiting replacement handrails ... Question to viewers ... does anyone 'do' pre-blackened brass or steel wire? just that the handrails should be black, and black paint doesn't stick very well to the shiny 0.45mm brass wire sold for handrails. Grateful for suggestions And transfers - big 'G' 'W' and numbers / weight markings to apply! the last shows that its roof is much lower than other stock making me wonder about the scale of the model ....

Turning the clock back (or forward) This explains what I'm trying to do and why ... OK you can accuse me of being a pedant. But I would like a loco, coach or back scene look like it really did at the time period claimed. I can't claim perfection but there is now a lot of information out there in dated photographs to allow a fairly accurate depiction of a time frame. Of course there are catches due to inaccurate dating of photographs, failing memories etc. But at least I will try, and enjoy the process of creating a scene or tell a story with the scene I'm modelling. So I will accept that this is modelling pedantry in moderation, but it gives me pleasure and satisfaction to do it, so it is OK by me! My aim is to see how far back, or forward it is easily possible to take a proprietary model in the life of its prototype. The modifications should be simple and without too much risk of damage to the model by someone with a modicum of skill. If you dare not touch a model for fear of damaging it, this is not for you, (or me!). This particularly applies to the latest offerings from Bachmann and Hornby, I feel that taking a knife to these may not be appropriate, but older models from Airfix or Lima, say, are fair game as mistakes won't cost that much! The end result will not be Pendon quality, looking right from a distance will be fine for me with the really obvious things looking right. With models bought 'off the shelf' you are very restricted to the period you can accurately model. This may not be a problem, but if you want to, say, go back to the late 20's or early 30's, many models can be simply modified by changing a chimney or dome, so allowing you to create an more accurate scene from that era. Obviously the more recent creations from Hornby and Bachmann allow a higher quality depiction of a particular era, but none the less the time span is restricted as minor features of most prototypes were changed over the 30 to 40 years that they were in service. Good examples are the introduction of top feed in the late 30s and 40s to most small GWR engines. In the case of the LMS, most ex MR types, of which there are several high quality models available now, had their domes and chimneys changed during the Stanier years, looking quite different in the final years compared to their introduction to service. Also, many of the older models from Airfix or Hornby had generally the correct dimensions, but the boiler fittings look really weak or are wrong and cry out for replacement - the auto tank being a good example. So as a demonstration, here is my layout, under construction, with a collection of unmodified 'ready to run' models from Hornby / Airfix and Bachmann to illustrate the point. The 'period' is restricted 1935 to 1939. Location: S&DJR and GWR lines. What restricts the period? Detail fittings and liveries of the locos and coaches, plus the introduction dates of the stock. So why 1935 at the earliest? the 2P is ex Airfix No. 635 in LMS lined black. 635 is ex S&D 2P No. 46 supplied in 1928 in S&DJR blue livery. Renumbered to 635 in 1930 but not repainted, and likely ran in blue with LMS markings until major overhaul sometime in 1932. The 2P is hauling a rake of Stanier Corridor coaches introduced in 1933, but painted in 'Simplified livery' from 1934, with a Hornby 1932 built 12 wheel restaurant composite. (This last, at least can be found in lined livery, but there are no other coaches to keep it company!). The ex Airfix and Mainline LMS coaches, a pair of 1930 built non corridor lavatory brake seconds and a 1925 built corridor compositein the bay behind are also in 'Simplified' livery. Further in the background is a Bachmann LMS 3F No. 3205 in LMS black with yellow letters shaded restricts this to the mid 30s since earlier the letters and numbers would have been plain yellow or gold. It is hauling a three set of Hornby Mansell coaches built in 1925 (four compartment low window brakes), with beautiful yellow / black lining, but the window frames are green! I believe that originally they were varnished wood or painted brown like the examples running today on the Bluebell Railway. I can't be sure about this but in the later 30s I believe the frames were painted green, so anyway I feel they are 'limited' to this period. At some stage I'll get the paint brush out, but putting them 'back' in to the 20s or early 30s is a lot simpler than painting fully lined LMS livery on the early period LMS coaches. Finally on the left - a Bachmann GWR 4575 class 2-6-2T, the only proprietary modelled GWR small tank class that could be from the early 30s, since the panniers and auto tanks are all currently produced with top feed (apart from the very recent auto-tank announcement where a top feed less version may appear!). The 4575 dates from 1928, but would need to have the bunker top lamp shield and the sliding shutters removed to be in as built condition! Well, I've made a rod for my own back trying to roll the clock back, but I'll try!

Hello RM Web community - I'm new to blogging so here is a brief intro to my interests and what I plan to do Now in my early 60s I've had a life long interest in railways - it started when my parents lifted me out of the pram to look over the parapet of the bridge at the end of our street at the Exmouth branch trains chugging beneath, near to Polsloe bridge halt. The fascination of trains, full size and model has not diminished since then. However, over the years I've left a trail of unfinished models as I've got to a stage with each one of some difficulty or have been taken away from the project for such a long time I've forgotten where to go next! Sometimes it's because of the dreaded 'project scope creep' - ie I've changed my mind or something I've tried plain doesn't work! Sometimes the 'unfinishing' is down to numbers or other markings - so now I'm embarking on a programme of finishing some projects to get something completed to run! In there somewhere is a layout, based on a 'what might have been' scenario if the Somerset and Dorset had accepted the Bristol & Exeter's offer of running powers North of Highbridge to Bristol and the S&D got to build the B&E planned line from Wells via Cheddar to Bleadon instead of Yatton ... and they need a terminus at Weston super Mare! A nice mix of S&DJR and GWR in there with the S&D through trains running via Bristol and the GWR having a faster route to Weymouth from Bristol via a North to West connection at Bruton / Cole ... The layout does have track (most of it) in P4 and platforms with some scenic decoration to platform level and the odd building .. Why 'turning the clock back?' - well that's something that almost all of us are doing by modelling something that existed in some point in the past. But my particular interest is in taking a proprietary model which is reasonably close dimensionally to the prototype, hopefully not too expensive, and transforming it to how it really was (with the information available) at a particular point in time different to the bought model. Things like taking the Airfix 'B -Set' coach and correcting its errors so it looks like a B-Set coach of GW diagram E140 should. Or taking an Airfix 4F and transforming it into an S&DJR 1922 built 'Armstrong'. Or the heading photo, of an Airfix 14XX changed into a '517' towing an Airfix Autocoach 'modded' to look like the 1928 build - Just examples. Then putting these together to create a scene that one could say is '1930 - 32' with ex proprietary models and maybe the odd appropriate kit. For me those periods are 1925 - 32, (and considering the major changes to the S&D in 1930 I would need to split that around 1930); 1959 - 61 and the 1970s. The last is because it represents the time in my late teens and early 20s that I was free to explore the rail system for myself. Because of the great range of times, the models will mostly be of prototypes of particular interest to me, such as Class 122 'bubble car' B133 which I rode on many times on the Severn Beach line, or Gresley buffet W9135E which I remembered being in the formation of the second 'return to steam' excursion in 1972 from Didcot to Tyesley behind 7029 Clun Castle - and at Tyesley seeing 92220 'Evening Star' waiting full restoration. There are a few deviations into German HO and Swiss HOm due to my family connections and holiday visits to the centre of Europe ... Anyway, some photos and descriptions of my projects will follow ..