Woodcock29

Here in Adelaide, South Australia railway modelling is definitely all year round. In summer when its hot the air conditioned shed is a great haven and in winter when its cool (as distinct from cold) and can occasionally be wet the reverse cycle air conditioner makes the shed very comfortable on the odd occasion it needs to be turned on. I'm currently building an old NuCast D2. I think I've had this in stock for well over 20 years. The castings had quite a few pits that needed filling and some parts needed a lot of 'fitting' to get it right. The saturated smokebox was 1mm short by my reckoning so I've glued a 1mm layer of plasticard to the front of that and will use a Graeme King J6 smokebox door, LRM chimney and safety valves from their C12. Will post photos when its finished. Andrew

Graham Love the photos of Switzerland. When we were there nearly 6 years ago it was a whiteout on the Gonnergrat so the Matterhorn may as well as have not existed! How is the quint coming along? Delayed by the need for a trial build of the B7 I expect. Andrew

Steve that CAD looks terrific, good luck with getting a good print. I built the Bill Bedford 4mm version a couple of years ago and it came out really well. Andrew

Hi Clem Sorry I have no idea about the future of ABS castings. Some years ago I was in email communication with Adrian Swain, (the owner) in an endeavour to purchase some of the LNER fitted van buffers but when I gave him my address in Australia suddenly I heard no more. I don't actually know why I heard no more. I did hear later on that he had been ill. He is however quite active on a number of forums as many of us would have noted. I was lucky as I was able to purchase a few packs of the ABS buffers along with LMS and LYR cattle wagon kits from the estate of the late John Hayes, via an advert in MRJ a couple of years ago. Andrew

Hello Clem One suggestion if I may. You've gone to a lot of effort to do a really good job on the 10ft cattle van I would also fit replacement correct length buffers. In days gone I would have simply fitted ABS but they're very hard to get now . I'm sure Lanarkshire Models do something suitable. Regards Andrew Emmett

Model Shops where does one begin? Having emigrated to Australia as an 8 year old in 1964 I don't have much if any personal recollection of model shops in the UK in my early years. Although I do recall before we left that Dad and I went down to Devon to visit his father's grave in Torquay - our outward journey to Exeter was on the ACE behind Clan Line! What I remember is that we went to visit someone selling secondhand stuff in Brixham. On offer was a sratchbuilt LNER C1 and as Sentinel Railcar both at £25 but we came away with a Triang L1 as both the others were way beyond our budget. On arrival in Adelaide mostly we had to make do with the two local model shops in Adelaide who strangely enough were directly opposite each other in a small side street. From one of these, Bridgelands we bought my Triang Rocket set which I still have - but its no good to a collector as I modified it by painting the chimney white and replacing the tender wheels with metal ones so I could add additional pickup. I can't run it now as I haven't had any old Code 100 track or points with wide clearances! However, to get a lot of what we wanted we had to deal with UK shops from afar. I recall also in the early 70s I think there was a shop in Liverpool (?) - Vanguard Models who had an agent in Sydney with whom you could place your order, pay in Aussie $ and eventually a parcel would arrive direct from the UK. I think we got a BEC J11 and D11 in this way. My first experience of ordering direct in 1976 was purchasing a NuCast Q6. It eventually arrived via South Africa because I had only put SA in the address not South Australia or even Australia - lesson learnt! Once I had it I noted there was no chassis so they had to then send that but of course it was a lump of W/M and only had 3 axles parallel, the front axle was at an obscure angle to the others. I ended up building it in the early 80s using Ks O4 brass frames which were available separately from Ks and close enough at the time in wheelbase - I had already purchased a set for an old secondhand O4 which had the original key slot chassis and all metal Ks wheels to which I wished to fit Romfords. Another early experience in the late 70s was with Bristol Models from whom I purchased a V2 and chassis as well as a chassis for a Wills K3. Another shop that Dad dealt with in the UK was Bob Denny, in Nottingham I think, who supplied lots of HD spares. From the late 70s I started to deal with Peter Bramley at Holt Model Railways , who at that time stocked a wide range of kits and components, although I was mainly buying points for my layout initially. I recall one parcel in 1985 comprised a Millholme B5 and a Proscale V2. The B5 was built in 1987 and the V2 still sits a long way down in the unbuilt kit pile - but I know its shortcomings so maybe one day? On my first visit back to the UK in 1981, on my second day up in London I just happened upon Hamblings - pure coincidence as I had no idea where they were. I came away with the new Hornby B17 which was on my list. That week I managed to get to Chris Crawley at Tottenham and bought 4 volumes of LNER Greenies, terrific. I also started my love affair with D&S kits that day buying a couple. Another quick visit to Chris before we came home and I purchased a Craftsman A5 and a range of D&S wagons including GC, NE and GE cattle wagons, GC double bolster and 5 LNER fish vans, which started my fish train which now comprises about 30 vans with another 8 to build. I was sorely tempted to buy a DJH A1 but it didn't fit my period although I could have got it for Dad. Before flying home I made a quick visit to Rails of Watford (name?) where I got another B17 - this time for Dad as well as A4 Seagull and because they were so cheap there I also bought a Fowler 2-6-4T - wow 3 locos in one hit. I dealt with Chris Crawley a few more times in the early 80s but from afar - I think he moved to Lincolnshire, to an old station building - was it Spilsby? Thereafter for many years I dealt with Holt and also Dave Cleal at Mainly Trains who was a godsend to us overseas with his extensive catalogue of 4mm kits and parts. Dad visited Dave with my extensive lists at both Chandlers Ford and Watchet on two of his visits back! But I never got to meet Dave as much as I would have liked to. Another shop I did deal with in the early to mid 1980s was A Bodel, up north somewhere, maybe at Hartlepool who had a very extensive range of wagon kits - so more D&S kits for me. From the 90s onwards I dealt directly with Danny Pinnock when purchasing his D&S kits - I still do. Anyway enough of my twoddle I've taken up way too much of your reading time. Andrew

Hello Tony A week or so ago I purchased the newly arrived (at least in newsagents in Oz) December RM with your J6 article in it. The construction photos certainly come out very well. I note that the accompanying drawing of the J6 shows crankpins in line with the spokes. All the ex GN 0-6-0s had crankpins in between the spokes, although its often very difficult to tell from photos. I guess this comes from one of the very few errors in John Edgson's drawings - probably one of his early ones as his drawings for J1 to J5, which I have, all show the crankpins in between the spokes. Regards Andrew

Tony Yesterday I saw that the 1938 DVD is actually stuck on the cover of the Nov BRM which has now arrived in newsagents here in Oz. So not just for subscribers here. Andrew

I've actually got an old Airfix Castle ( must wash my mouth out after admitting that) which was my father's and to which I fitted a Portescap in the loco. I haven't run it for quite some time. It used run quite well with that. I never liked the Airfix tender drives. I've still got a 2P and a 4F still with tender drives but they're not on the LMS part of the layout at the moment as I have far more interesting locos for that part now so might sell them? Andrew

Hello TonyAs joint author of the article on the BRMA Convention please accept my apologies for that slip up. I didn't actually write that part but of course I did proof read it so I should have picked it up! However, I don't think I did actually operate any of the signals during my visit to LB as I was too engrossed in spotting the origin of your substantial collection of East Coast locos that you kept sending around for me to critique which was great fun I must say. Clearly I must visit again to ensure I do operate some of the signals! In regards to modelling demonstrations when we have our annual major exhibition in Adelaide in June I'm usually to be found building plastic wagon kits in order to show what can be achieved with, for example, Parkside, Slaters or Cambrian kits. Others will be demonstrating making trees, scratchbuilt buildings or turnouts at various stages - we usually have two members demonstrating at the same time, plus we have a layout being operated. We even occasionally have a demonstration of a live steam Gauge 1 Castle on rollers which is something entirely different. Regards to you and Mo. Andrew

Realistically I like the fact there is nothing new to purchase as I can focus on building the very large stockpile of loco and coach kits I have without having to upgrade RTR locos to my satisfaction! Although having said that I'll probably get an LNER green V2 when that finally arrives in 20?? However, I do believe that Bachmann continue to miss a trick by not producing an LNER post 1928 black D11/1 with red lining, there must be a good market for such a model. Andrew

Hi Gilbert I don't think you would have wanted to play golf here today - 40C. Fortunately only really being a social golfer I only played 9 holes this morning. Love the photos please keep them coming. Andrew Emmett Adelaide

Tony When I say forward gear I mean somewhere between almost mid gear and half way to full forward gear. In your case you could get away with almost in mid gear. Your locos with outside Walschaerts don't come on and off shed so not being in reverse generally wouldn't be a problem unless for example, an O1 or O2 came through tender first on a goods. Also any locos you use for shunting would generally have inside valve gear. On my LNER Garratt I built the front unit in forward but almost mid gear and the bunker unit slightly in reverse. I would still reshape the vacuum standpipe which of course is not so easy for a lost-wax item (I have broken such items doing this - but you can always solder them together!) or use a w/m one, which of course is far more at risk of breakage. Appearance to me is more important than robustness in this instance. Regards Andrew

Hello Tony The V2 looks nice but I would have modified the valve gear so its in forward gear - but them I'm very pedantic about some things. Not that all my locos are so as I didn't build them like this many years ago. I would also have fitted a better shaped vacuum pipe or reshaped it. I'm building a Nucast D2 at the moment which has a strange arrangement for the front frames under the footplate - which is a solid casting that sits above and moves with the bogie but it seems to work on test running of the chassis. The castings are quite poor in places and require a lot of work, eg the vacuum pipe along the right hand valence had to be removed as the gap between it and the footplate was half filled with flash and that couldn't be removed without damage to both the pipe and the footplate edge, the splasher and tenders sides are pitted in places and the boiler of course needed all the boiler bands removed - I do that anyway regardless now. I'll be fitting a LRM chimney. No 28 hour build time for this - I don't think I could manage any loco kit in that time! Keep up the good work. Andrew

Further to my post above, if I had read the other posts above it I would have noted that you had found Tony Phillip's 'Nottingham Victoria' layout, photographed by BRM's Phil Parker when I took him to visit Tony back in Oct 2014! Anyway here are a couple of my photos taken at the same time. Tony has shortened the part of the station inside the roof and not included the crossovers between the through lines and the relief road in the centre. His period is late 1940s. Most of his locos are RTR so that limits the available LNER locos to him. He does have 2 C12s, one of which I built (Craftsman) and the other, a SE Finecast kit by another friend of ours. He also runs quite a bit of LMS on the layout. Andrew

The answer to this is yes! And by a friend of mine here in Adelaide. We operate it about every 5-6 weeks but preferably not on a very hot day in summer as its the only layout in our Wed Club group that is not in an air conditioned shed. Have to go to golf in a minute, I'll post some photos I have of it later. Andrew

Mike That would be terrific - I'd be after about 12 I reckon. Let us know when they are available as I will purchase some with a GC tender kit as I've now decided my 'Lord Faringdon' warrants getting a N/S kit tender rather than using a Bachmann tender. I have been following the building of your S1 with interest. I also still have one of your B9s to build at some stage when I get through the list of priority builds. Regards Andrew

My first kit was a Wills N7 and it ran on a Triang chassis - it was my 16th birthday present from my parents. Eventually it got fitted with Romfords and I've still got it but some 30 years ago I rebuilt it with a roundtop firebox and even moved the position of the side windows in the cab to make it into an LNER built version and its on my layout at the moment. I think my second kit was the Bec J11 - which like the N7 started off on a pure Triang chassis but eventually got fitted with Romfords - but its unlikely to run again. Not that long ago I started to strip it down with the aim of rebuilding it to improve it and fit a brass chassis albeit to the same wheelbase as the Triang chassis and then along came the Bachmann model! But the two Bachmann models I bought have both had their tenders rebuilt into 3250 gallon versions and one loco got GC chimney and dome - I'm quite attached to them. I think I posted photos of them on here some time ago. Andrew

Tony in your photo of the 9F with 4 cattle wagons immediately behind the loco the 4th van looks to be an LNER cattle wagon and I presume it is a 9ft wb van in which case it would most likely have been well and truly scrapped by 1958 as virtually none survived into BR. However, I understand the later 10ft wb versions did. Based on info from Steve Banks. Andrew

Unlike a number of you I reckon I have spent more time building appropriate wagons for my layout than carriages. Mind you I'm now addressing the carriage situation at least in the short term for the branch passenger services. (I won't mention locos as I need a second large layout to accommodate those!) I have storage loops that can hold 26 trains on my layout -16 LNER and 10 LMS. Amongst the 16 LNER trains are 3 express passenger services comprising Gresley teak stock (mostly Kirk, the Hornby coaches in one of these trains will be replaced with RDEB ex GN stock when I find time to build them) and 1 Pullman service made up of Hornby Steel body K types. Plus I have 3-4 local branch passenger services that don't need to be held in these storage loops. The LNER goods trains comprise 4 coal (2 up loaded and 2 down empties), up fish, up fruit, up general through goods, up pick-up goods, down parcels, down horseboxes, down ballast, down through goods. So out of 16 trains only 4 are passenger! On the LMS I have two express passenger (one up, one down), one cross country passenger comprising GWR stock (definitely not correct for my area - but then Rule One applies), one local passenger, one empty coal (will probably get loaded eventually), 2 through goods, one pick-up goods, one tank train and a perishables train (two parts - milk and meat - also probably not correct - should be one or the other). Whilst on the subject of wagons I have a vast number of kit built wagons in these trains. However, I do also have a large number of Bachmann PO wagons, in liveries appropriate to my area and I know that most of these are probably not the correct type of wagon but once weathered and mixed in with a large number of kit built PO wagons they look fine to me. Mostly I've changed numbers where there are more than one of the same company which actually is quite frequent on my layout - work in progress. There is also the train of tank wagons, mostly Bachmann, which admittedly are a mix of companies (probably not correct) that runs on the LMS section of the layout with appropriate barrier wagons. The balance of the big four companies is not correct as I have way too many LNER wagons and no where near enough LMS types but slowly that's changing. That of course creates another problem - what to do with the LNER wagons I need to remove if I'm to include more from the other Big Four companies. At least I'll need to remove some to be used on an exhibition layout I'll be providing the stock for rather than building the unmade kits I have for that layout as I probably won't have the time for that. Then there is the dilemma that I have very few GWR wagons - something else I need to address. My copy of Tatlow's first LNER wagon book is my most used book! Lastly I'm in the process of writing a review of the new Hornby Toad brake vans for our BRMA Journal - I've not seen any mention of the fact that the Toad B is actually the narrow plank contractor built version so is not the same as the Parkside kit - well done Hornby! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all readers. Andrew

I have a Bachmann self trimming tender set aside for my B7. I was going to kit-bash a Ks B2 into a B7 using a GW Hall chassis but I won't need to now! Andrew

My new B3 kit is probably also some way down the list as I have another C12, D2, D3, Sentinel Railcar and a J1 (from a Graeme King J6) to build first plus some more Howlden stock. And of course some more scenery on my layout otherwise I'll probably get sacked by my friends in the BRMA! It would be higher on the list of course if I hadn't already got my kit bashed Valour. Mind you I might try to slip the B7 in higher up the list! As to potential new LNER RTR releases, I would think either a J21 or J27, J69 and possibly C2 eventually after all they all have preserved examples and although the C2 might be someway down the NRMs list they have Henry Oakley in the National Collection. Also the first 3 of these all lasted well into BR days. Andrew

Thanks Mike, I realised lying in bed last night that I had written the wrong type of rivets in my post. Now edited to correct my error. Andrew

C12s one of my favourite locos! Below are photos of one I'm building at the moment which will become 4525, based at Louth in the late 30s for our new exhibition layout to be based on Spilsby. A Craftsman kit, obtained secondhand and part built (about 10%). I had to remove the w/m bunker top parts to fit them on square and in fact to remove the front part of the RHS piece and add a new piece to extend it as it was shorter than the LHS. The key issue I think with the Craftsman kit is that the cab top doesn't have a flat enough roof and that the sides of the cab top are therefore not quite high enough. However, I wasn't sufficiently minded to try to make a new one and get it all nice and square with the cutouts. I have added quite a bit of extra detail. It has replacement smokebox door, short chimney and dome, safety valves and whistle - all from LRM. I have added the plate wind shields to the sides of the cab cuts as well as the rain strip over the beading on the top of the cutouts. I have left off the rear steps on the bunker as a lot of photos show these not to have been fitted. I have fitted the step on the LHS side of the bunker and the small angled handrail to the rear of the cab cutout. It has sprung tapered buffers from my spares box for the front and Gibson GN parallel buffers on the rear. I have also fitted the vacuum pipe along the RHS valance and the steam heat pipe along the LHS valence. It also has injectors made from modified Mainly Trains J52 injectors (now available from Andrew H at Wizard) below the rear of the cab. My next challenge is to teach myself to use a bow pen and a Bob Moore lining pen so I can line it in red - I have used a bow pen before some years ago but need to refine my skills. When its finished it I have another to build which first of all means stripping down a model I was given by a mate that has been glued together! That one will have tall chimney and dome and be No 4537, based at Boston. That will be the fourth Craftsman C12 I've built as I built my first one back about 1979 (4507) - my first brass kit and another (4513) about 2002 for a mate who has modelled Nottingham Victoria. Also posted below is my Millholme N5 No 5945. This model is based on one of the last 6 built which were the only ones to have snap head rivetted tanks and bunker. If I may point out Tony - the two you have shown should have the rivetted tanks and bunkers which are quite distinctive (the SEF one appears not to have rivets in the photo?). The Millholme kit is only suited to one of the last 6 with the countersunk rivets but I understand that SE Finecast actually make brass overlays with rivets for its N5 but I think these need to be purchased separately? The comparison between the two is quite interesting - the boiler is pitched a lot higher on the SEF model. Perusing photos and a drawing by Reddy in Sept 1970 RM indicate the pitch of the Millholme boiler is close to the mark. However, it does appear to be a few mm short at the front end ahead of the smokebox. Andrew

Hello Tony Attached are photos of 3 of my Kirks built back in the 80s so they're all > 30 years old. Two and half trains of these still make up the bulk of my LNER gangwayed stock. Please ignore the couplings (!) a sign of the times and in fact still in use in the rakes, after all you can't really see them between the carriages. The Rest 1st and the Compo are slightly later builds of mine and have had the window edges squared up as suggested above. The comp is meant to represent a coach that has not been to works for quite some time and has considerably darkened with the weather getting into the teak. One trick I used to do on these was to round off the domed roof ends a bit more to reduce the visuals of the extra height of the roof shown by the steepness of the curves. Andrew