CEINEWYDD

I have found glueing to aluminium alloy is always a bit hit and miss - even using quality araldite to stick sides to roof. I always sand the area being glued with a very (VERY) fine sand paper/carborundem paper (even if I can not spell it) as this cleans off any surface oxidation or pollution. I realise that araldite would not be suitable for roof ribs, so going for a quality super glue should work. I use the method above , of gluing the centre , letting this set and then do the remainder. I use a piece of fine brass rod to apply a small amount of glue from a small blob on a disposable piece of scrap (polly bag??) as per Johnsters method with a cocktail stick.

Would the buffer springs sold by (among others ??) Wizard models suit?? Might need shortening.

I am sure that there are a few BSL / Phoenix centenary kits on the 'bay at present. Looks like they are asking £30 a pop, plus bogies I think.

Just for info, I completed one of these last year (year before???), as an ex Taff Vale loco(class 03) in GWR pondweed green. I used the milled solid brass chassis, as I have ten thumbs. It certainly seems to run smoothly, so try that at first. The original L & Y locos were I believe built by Kitson, who also built 062 locos for Hull & Barnsley, TVR and Cardiff railway. GEM also did the TVR U/U1 kit, and all of these had the Kitson's signature round topped side tanks. Yes I know the wheelbase(s) will not be correct, but no more so than the ex Hornby Chassis sitting under my TV U1. At some point I will sort new chassis for these latter two, and now I know S E Finecast do an etched replacement I shall go down that route.

There are two books out there by Rob Johnson, published by Book Law, with loads of detail on coal mines. They are called "Modelling Aspects of the Coal Industry" and something like "Modelling Further aspects etc". I have only the first one, and can thoroughly recommend it. I would support the earlier comments that the scale of the coal mine varied considerably. My late dad, in his days as a Vet for the N.C.B. used to call at a private (i.e. non NCB but licenced by them) mine known locally as 'Dan's muck hole', which was so shallow, the winding gear was signalled by whistles up and down rather than bells. I seem to recall that this was somewhere near Pontypridd. I suspect that there were no exchange sidings. Just looked on ebay. Prices range from £17 per vol. to about £35.

Deffo the Rhymney, A/R/AR class. I picked up one of these on the dreaded ebay some time ago as a non runner. New etched chassis from Branchlines fixed that. Incidentally, it looks like the other excrescences on the fire box are the tank breathers that have been placed where the whistles should be. My local chemist supplied me with acetone to dissolve araldite type two part epoxy on a TVR A class, so try that on the Rumbly loco. For lots of info about loco kit manufacturers no longer available, there is a book by Robert Forsythe called "A History of Locomotive Kits". Don't overpay for this!! All I need to do now, is track down a post I saw this week about a "Cotswold" L & Y kit for an 062 loco.

Another author to look for is David Maidment, who was a colleague of John Hodge. Lots of tales of working in S. Wales during the days of coal mining and steam locos. Also Robin Simmonds who has written 2 books on the Port Talbot Railway (including the South Wales Mineral Railway I seem to recall). And do not miss the Lightmoor book on the Swansea Vale railway. (care - there are two versions of this book the second one is far more comprehensive, but both are fascinating.) All I need now is a similar approach to the R & SB railway and the Taff vale!

My dad used to travel from home in Treorchy, to boarding school in Towyn in the 1930's. From memory he said the route was Pontypridd, Merthyr, Brecon, Three Cocks, Llandidlydoes, Moat Lane, Dovey junction, Aberdovey. He claimed that because of the number of passengers for this service (and the return at term end) they had a coach attached to normal service trains. Anyone any idea if my memories of his tales are plausible ? (In the late 1950's my elder sister was inflicted with the same school, but those journeys definitely did NOT have special coaches attached, so had to change trains at various places.)

Trying (mostly succeeding) to not listen to Eurovision....... Read the stuff about Western Welsh etc. I lived in Talbot Green from 1951 to about 1970. I well remember Rhondda buses, as we had a bus depot for them in T.G. under the control of Mr Richard Thomas a.k.a. Dicky Ticket. We travelled on them daily to Cowbridge (from 1962 in my case). Two double deckers for us at the grammar school, and two for the Ladies at Cowbridge High school and any 'civilian' travellers. Probably wise as I remember fondly the older boys (i.e. one year older and great friends and role models) being so bored at waiting for a driver to finish his tea and fag that they started chanting 'We want Ivor - Ivor the driver'. This was accompanied by rocking the bus from side to side - quite easy as we were upstairs. It is really surprising how far a double decker will sway. I am not sure what caught the conductor's attention - the swaying bus, or our screams of terror and laughter. Whatever, he shot out of the office and by the time he got upstairs he was bright red, visibly frothing at the mouth, and screaming "I'll give you Ivor the bloody driver, get off my bloody bus". We did, still laughing hysterically. Calm was eventually restored by Dicky Ticket, and we all trooped back on the bus so that we could get to school, including Dicky's son who was one of the prime culprits. Aaaah happy days. The double deckers also were used on the Pontypridd run via Llantrisant up the zig zag in the middle of Llantrisant. Turning up into the middle of Llantrisant at Southgate the bus used both sides of both roads - very scary if on the top deck which was the preferred position. I do not remember any W.W. buses in TG and I am sure that the route from Cardiff to the Rhondda valleys (Bach & Fawr) via TG only ran Rhondda buses. I thought I read somewhere that WW and Rhondda were both owned by the same holding company. Anybody know??

Wish I had known about this Johnster, as I would have walked down to the end of our street and joined in!!

How about Llantrisant station and Llantrisant castle?? Not that there is much of the latter left and the former is now Pontyclun!

Not strictly about this thread, but can you see if my uploads on Clayton have worked??

Currently failing to build a 'Valley's' based layout, so I am hugely impressed by this layout. (And how dare anyone say it drizzled in Rhondda - a liquid heat haze would be more accurate. That or tipping it down like it did on my first day at Cowbridge.)

Hopefully I have attached scans of front page and page 76 of a RCH book with details of Clayton. I have no idea of the date of publication, other than it is between 1932 and 1947 - probably. I have been promising Frank D to do this for some considerable time. My incompetence with I.T. will have him in stitches. IMG_20210110_0002.pdf IMG_20210110_0001.pdf

If the earlier replies have helped then ignore this message!!! Is the damage to the glazing merely on the surface or is it deeper than that?? Many years ago (at least 6 decades!) I used wet and dry to key the varnish on a wooden dinghy prior to revarnishing. I nearly had a trouser accident, but dad explained that the new varnish would return the shiny surface - and it did. Some years ago I used matt varnish on a too shiny coach. To my dismay the widows all went semi opaque. A thin layer of gloss varnish on the windows returned the windows to their previous condition. Any help??

You don't seem to have had any response here. Why strip old paint?? Have you thought about using car aerosol light grey as an undercoat and than go with the new colour??

I've used Wizard in the past too and have always had first class service. Is a really nice bloke. Hope all this Covid stuff does not stuff him/his business.

Oh yes! My father was a rookie vet (1st job just like J Herriot in All Creatures Great & Small) but in very rural west Wales; Boncath area early in ww2. Contraband pigs, local bobby off to Cardigan for the day at slaughter time, pork joint on door step of police station (unlikely that bit) and all the other tales of yore. Such as driving around in my Auntie Gwladys' Austin 7 (or was it Morris 8?) for at least 6 months before passing his driving test. I'm not sure how many bad driving habits he acquired in that period, but the driving examiner (retired but recalled for war service) was the father of two contemporaries in school with him in Towyn and recognised him. Not sure that the test was particularly rigorous. Remarks along lines of "Clearly had plenty of practise Mr. Thomas!" Allegedly the Cardigan town Police sergeant who had seen dad driving on a daily basis was on the steps of the test centre and was a little surprised to see dad, plus accompanying driver, plus brand new 'L' plates on Auntie G's car. Oh and for the benefit of those who did not know Auntie G , she was a highly respected junior school Head teacher in the Rhondda. There's an even better story about his next job down in very rural Hampshire, which I will relate to Ian when i speak to him next.

Must say I enjoyed both of the volumes by John Hodge. Only error I could see is that he misidentified the single line apparatus at the Blaenrhondda end of the tunnel as postal apparatus. As indeed, I enjoyed the wedding all those years ago. Happy innocent days.

Many years ago I used a dimmer switch, and associated gubbins (three pin socket and a light bulb in a socket to provide an appropriate load) to build a resistance unit to reduce the temp of my Antex iron to solder white metal kits - rolling stock and locos - with what appears to be success. Low melt solder (70degree) and Carrs flux. I have used this for at least 20 years and apart from 1 bulb blowing in that time have had no problems. I suggest you get hold of a local electrician to build you the same. I believe I saw it described in a magazine, but health and safety will probably prevent a repeat. Certainly a commercial prod will be safer and will work.

LTS and its varied surrounds is exactly why it interests me. That and being brought up in Talbot Green! I have found the books by Colin Chapman utterly fascinating, and a source of extreme regret that I did not pay much (or any) attention to the railways then. The Ely Valley line passed the end of our street, and my father took a couple of pictures of the dismantling of the railway bridge on Lanelay Road. One is of the first crane having fallen backwards, and then another of the second crane lifting the first. Pity is it was on 110 film and I don't know where on earth they went. Back to modelling..... Like you I need to mark, or score the door openings on Westdale kits. I bought a length of aluminium carpet door strip (don't know correct term) to go under the side to support it when drilling holes and marking doors. I have only had time to use it on BSL kits so simply rested that on the desk. My next kits will be Westdale so I will take a long lump of flooring grade chipboard raised at either end on blocks of wood so I slide the complete body onto the support and keep the other side of off the desk. As far as marking out door gaps is concerned, I found that I could not get my 'second' mark exactly in the 'first' . I tried using a Olfa cutter, so maybe that was the problem, as I have read that using a Stanley knife is the way to go. Let me know how it goes.

I too have a Westdale kit (or two) to build and am contemplating carving up and bodging parts from a comet coach side to create a jig. This will have to wait until i have finished building my GW 2021 pannier for the potential layout of the not very mean streets of Cowbridge and Penygraig. More importantly and hopefully helpful, have you thought about soldering the solebars on top of the chassis and then building the interior with either slots cut into partitions and seats, or cutting rebates into the bottom of them so the fit in the gap? Am I making any sense ? Adding the solebars should add loads of rigidity. Incidentally I have made a number of coach underframes from brass sheet & profiled section rod for the floor and truss rods and solebars. Not difficult but much more effort than a Comet underframe and much slower, so I totally agree with your approach.

I think this is brilliant. Having lived in Yorkshire since 1983, I have assimilated the local attitude to expenditure. Yesterday Mrs CN (actually Mrs Morfa Nefyn) purchased from Tesco, a large pot of Quality Street "purely Purple Ones" . You know the ones shaped like a Pasty but full of chocolate/caramel/hazlenut. The individual wrapper has two parts, alu foil and purple tinted outer. The foil bit is just big enough to make one 'sheet' . Have only just breached the packaging and tried a wagon/alu combination so have not tried painting, lettering etc. The only down side is that you only get about 38 sweets for £4. And the impact on Mr CN's weight.

I've got 30+ existing BSL/westdale kits so that another £300 . Also it only seems to be a jig for end detail and possibly door hinge positions.