Woodcock29

Tony those cottages are terrific. Andrew

Probably through Locomotion I would imagine given its in the National Collection. Woodcock29

Frank the whole buffer housing including baseplate was painted black. Your painter is not the only one to get the colour of the lettering wrong. Over the years I've seen many models with the incorrect colour lettering. In fact back in the 80s when I built a J6 I had to use gold numbers on the cabside because the 7in numbers were not available to me in yellow. As Simon says above(pun not intended)its not that difficult to over paint the gold with yellow and certainly worth a try first. Presumably the number on the front buffer beam is also the wrong colour but that is of course far less noticeable and can be hidden under grime. One of the major RTR manufacturers always seemed to put gold lettering on its black LNER locos until I pointed this out to Simon K and starting with the J15 they got the colour correct but I've since noticed some of their other later issues of other classes of locos appear to still have gold lettering (eg the latest N2) - its a real pity. Regards Andrew

Congratulations Graham - more time to work on the Howlden artics? Personally I took an early retirement just over 6 years ago. They gave me a package to leave as they were undergoing a reorganisation and I made a strong case for why they didn't need me anymore based on what they intended - they were going to stick me a corner as an internal consultant. Although my pension level was reduced, the package more than made up for it plus of course the extra modelling time, although as St Enodoc observed recently on another site that I still haven't achieved much with my scenery endeavours! But then there are so many locos and coaches I have to build! Currently I'm working with two other guys sorting and disposing of the model railway part of a deceased estate of a friend of ours - its amazing how much time that is taking. Then I must spend some time scanning slides I took of a particular class of South Australian diesel back in the 70s and 80s which will be used in a presentation by others and published in notes from our annual Modelling the Railways of South Australia Convention. I also have to provide more info on a number of our SA British layouts for our newish British Railway Modellers of Australia website and webmaster. Then of course like Gilbert Barnatt I play golf and am still involved with my hockey club. I make these points to illustrate that retirement time soon disappears! All the best with prioritising and achieving your modelling goals. Andrew

Couldn't agree more - must stop getting distracted every time I start to do some more scenic work! That should have been my New Year's resolution darn! Andrew

Interesting question you've posed Tony as I've had an ongoing debate with myself as to whether or not I should be trying to incorporate backscenes into my layout. Currently I have plain bluish grey backboards - which are mainly the gyp-rock walls of my shed. I'll be interested in your comments when you visit in September. Annan Rd, Kingstorre and Totnes for me. Andrew

Hi Frank Happy New Year. Its now starting to seem like a long time ago that I visited Shipley - even though its only 7 months or so. The J3 looks good but should definitely have yellow lettering. It does appear that gold has been used, although its difficult to be absolutely sure due to the weathering. LNER black locos always had yellow lettering - shaded up until the 1946 renumbering when plain yellow Gill Sans was introduced. However old shaded transfers were used up after this date so if one was modelling a loco post 1946 one would need a photo to be sure of what lettering the loco had, even if it had been shopped during this time. Given that Clayton is pre-war then virtually all your locos would have shaded yellow lettering as they are likely to all be black. Gold lettering was only used on green locos and I don't imagine there are going to be many, if any LNER green locos trundling through Clayton (I suppose a C1 might be possible?). The other issue is size of numbers. Most ex GN locos had 7in numbers rather than the standard 12in because of their short cab sides. 7in have been used correctly on the J3. You would need to actually measure the height of the 'gold' part of the numbers to be sure that the font is smaller on the centre two numbers. There is an aberration with the number 7 on LNER locos, which can appear taller - this occurred with Hornby's J15 model but when measured it was actually the same height. Having now had a close look at the numbers blown up on the screen I think they are the same size. The other visual difficulty is caused by the shading of the foot of the 4 which has the white line in it whereas the 0 doesn't have this and therefore the shading doesn't catch the eye. Lastly its difficult to understand where your painter/letterer would have got a different size font number from. The other issue not noted above is that the buffer housings should be black not red - this was standard LNER practice, other than on black locos shopped at Darlington, where the former NE practice of red buffer housings was continued. So Doncaster practice was black buffer housings. I hope this advice helps. Regards Andrew Emmett

Hi Graham Happy New Year to you and all contributors. I would certainly agree that it is one of the finest, I've not been on many Swiss mountain railways but we did travel over the Bernina Pass in May 2013 and with views like that below who could argue? Andrew

I have to confess that I have some slab sided Hornby Gresley gangwayed coaches in use on my layout. However they are intermediate versions in that they are models (except for one) that have the corrected beading but the earlier teak livery not that awful Gauge 1 or 7mm livery on the current range. But they are a stop gap until I can get around to building a number of brass kits I have to make a train of mostly ex GN gangwayed stock - a mixture of Danny's D&S, RDEB, Bill Bedford plus a couple of LNER MJT BCKs. The MJT sides might go on a couple of the Hornby coaches in due course? However, prior to that I have locos to build, a heap more GN Howlden stock, mostly D&S - some of which will be articulated, plus a couple of Frank Davies luggage lav comps into an articulated twin, a David Eastern Louth quad and some GN elliptical roof stock - D&S and one of the late John Fozard's body kits. Then there is the layout to finish. Golly I need more time and I'm already retired! Happy New Year to everyone. Andrew

Mark It looks like the coach is coming on well. I haven't completed any Kirk's since the 80s but have a couple part built that I was using for 'teaking' demos. I built about 20 odd back in the 80s,mostly gangwayed stock including a restaurant triplet. It looks like you have squared up the windows from what I can see in the photo - by this I mean made the apertures perpendicular to the side - this makes the windows look less deep. The Kirk bogies are rather flimsy but can be used and I would recommend using Jackson/Romford wheels rather than the Maygib they may have been supplied with if the kit is quite old. I made the vacuum reservoirs out of pieces of wooden dowel. I have attached a photo of my 5 compt BTK - built about 1987 before I started to square up the window apertures with a file. The old Hornby tension locks that I was fitting at the time look awful - I really must replace them! Andrew

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Tony and Mo and all contributors. Reading this thread is the start of most days for me here in Adelaide, usually whilst eating breakfast! What a great way to start the day, being inspired by others' modelling feats. Andrew

Tony It wasn't rude at all - I thought it was the case but wasn't quite sure. In regard to the D9, the photo in RCTS is quite interesting in the extent to which the tender has weathered compared to the engine, which is why the dull LNER doesn't stand out all that well, although I'm sure it is the standard 12in lettering. I assume that parts of the engine in reach got cleaned/polished whereas the tender didn't. The Whittaker apparatus is clearly visible on the tender in this view. As to your last comment - in my view you fit in very well with the standard of modellers who have been invited down under for our conventions. I would definitely have invited you for 2014 in Adelaide apart from the fact you were unwell in the year or two prior to that. Sydney has just got in first. I'm already starting to think about who we might invite for the next convention in Adelaide which will be 2020. By the way I gave a presentation on 'Model Railway Photography - what works for me' at the 2017 Convention in Melbourne a couple of months ago, which allowed me to show a range of photos from the UK trip including Kingstorre, Clarendon, Leamington Spa, Retford, Buckingham and of course LB as well as layouts seen at the Crawley Exhibition and at Railex at Aylesbury (including Pempoul). At the end of the presentation I included 4 of the photos you gave me on the CD to compare my amateur efforts with a real professional. Directly after my presentation was the intro to the Convention in Sydney in 2018 so I thought that was the perfect lead in knowing who was to be announced as the invited UK speaker for Sydney! Andrew

This morning I had the pleasure of taking delivery of two locos I've recently built, painted by Geoff Haynes. They're part of our 'horse-trading'. This is the old McGowan D9 kit generously donated by Sandra Orpen; thanks again, Sandra. I built it less than three days, and, it is what it is. I think, with Geoff's painting, it's quite presentable. It's all part of the back-dating of LB next summer. Hello Tony Silurian is I think the A1 you got during our visit in May? Looks lovely. The D9 'it is what it is'. Its a pity the McGowan kits weren't better, the splashers have flat slopes front and rear what a pity. As to the livery I'm curious as to why the tender has small LNER in post 1928 livery? This was a trait of Scottish locos at times I understand. I have looked through Yeadon 29 and can find no photos of D9s with small LNER on their tenders. There are actually two photos of 6040 in 1937 and 1938. Between the two photos it must have had a boiler change as in 1938 it had the lower dome. Yeadon mentions that several including 6040 were transferred to run on the M&GN between Feb and June 1937 and had the Whittaker tablet exchange apparatus fitted, so its ideal for LB - obviously why you choose this number! It might be an easy task to simply fit larger LNER straight over the top of the small letters on the tender? I only wish I could be there to witness the backdating of LB to my favourite LNER period - I'll be there in spirit as I won't be all that far away at the time - most likely on a boat on the Rhine as we're in Europe for a month during August. Anyway I look forward to seeing the photos and catching up 'Down Under' in September. Regards Andrew

Gilbert - I love that view from the bridge - its sensational - please keep your railway photographers busy - they do such a good job! Mark - we must catch up some time - I hope you can find your way over to Adelaide in the next year or so. I was sorry you were unable to make the recent Convention in Melbourne. I have a lot of Kirk Gresleys running on my layout, not to mention a wide selection of kit built/kit bashed locos, including some LMS types (hope I'm forgiven for that!). I also have a Mailcoach Coronation to build but I'm not sure I'll ever build it as I'm far more interested in building brass Howlden GN stock, which I have quite a number of at present. Andrew Emmett

Graham I love the photos above of progress on the Howlden articulated stock - please keep it coming. I must get back onto some of these next year. Oh that's not far away now - but I have some locos to build first! Andrew Emmett

Tony I finally got around to purchasing your Crowood book on LB - its terrific. Well done. Andrew

Although I emigrated with my parents in 1964 I'll be barracking for England when I attend the first day of the Adelaide day/night Test this afternoon. Its far better to support England here despite likely outcome of matches - it leads to far more interesting conversations! I'm planning on purchasing a nice new cap with a crown and three lions on its as well! This is the match where the conditions should suit us best - its currently cool and overcast and we had a sprinkle of rain overnight and there is some chance of the odd shower today so should suit Jimmy A and is colleagues. Andrew

Thanks for these comments Ron. Interestingly what appears to be the later kit is still in brass in my case - I got this one in a job lot out of the collection of deceased Melbourne BRMA member Arthur Leeder, whom you may remember? I bought that lot for the N1 parts rather than the A5. I first met Arthur when I visited him in 1987 when I was on a quick railway focussed trip to Melbourne as he was an LNER modeller. I subsequently saw him several times at conventions. Look forward to catching up at the Convention in Sydney next year. Andrew

Back to the subject of the Craftsman A5/1 - I did raise this after all. I originally built one back in the early 1980s - probably my second brass kit after the Craftsman C12. I still have this model and as Tony W did I built it according to the instructions so it must have a bunker that is a bit too narrow. I have measured it as 30.50mm in width. Now interestingly the one I'm rebuilding has a bunker width of 31.58mm so its about 1.2mm wider so one question - is this the correct width? I don't have a drawing that specifies bunker width. The only drawing I have is Nick Campling's from the Feb 1973 RM and although this has a rear view it appears to me to be too narrow according the comments from contributors above. Interestingly the kit I'm rebuilding has a rivets on the smokebox wrapper whereas my original one didn't have this feature. This kit also included the boiler support bracket at the front of the tanks, this wasn't included in my original kit The footplate is a bit different as well as the wide section beneath the tanks is actually shorter than on my original kit. So I'm wondering if Craftsman actually revamped the kit at some stage and if so did they actually widen the rear of the bunker? Of course the person that built the kit - which I think would have been quite some time ago - probably in the 80s may have made the modifications. Andrew Emmett

Hello Tony I'm in the process of rebuilding a Kingdom Kits ex GC LNER L1. The kit was glued together, mostly with epoxy but superglue in some places, even the chassis was glued with epoxy, other than where the pickups were fitted and the wires joined to the chassis and motor. Amazingly it actually did run but the body looks awful and the chassis was not particularly good looking either. The chassis just pulled apart once I had removed the wheels, gearbox and motor. I cleaned it up mostly with a knife blade as a scraper which removed most of the paint - it had no primer of any kind under it and gave the parts a final clean with a fibre glass pencil. The body will need to be stripped with paint stripper to help get into the epoxy. Why am I doing this - well when finished it will be another large powerful GC brute of a loco and it was given to me. Eventually it will be all soldered back together and despite the extra time taken in stripping it down its worth it in the end as it was free - but I will put a better motor in it. I've also got a Craftsman A5 to rebuild but that is soldered together and really only needs what looks like minor rebuilding to straighten a couple of areas - this one was acquired in a job lot along with most of the the parts for an N1 for not very much. Happy days now I've got myself back into working on locos! Andrew

Thanks for your response Andrew I've generally been building Danny's kits as recommended in his rather scant instructions. I do however like to fit all the detail to the sides before they are assembled into a box, including soldering on the grab handles and door handles which I then file as flush as posible on the rear side - that way they should never fall off. The grab handles being ultimately painted the same colour as what I use for door and window edges before 'teaking'. The roofs I have been making up as a sub assembly with a flat ceiling inside (as suggested by Danny). I leave two small slots in strategic places in the floor close to the ends (that will sit over a solid part of the undeframe) through which I place the screws into holes into brass strips previously soldered across the tops of the sides and thence into the underside of the ceiling. It seems to work well for me. That way the I can spray the roofs without any need for masking. I'll aim to post some photos when I build the two I got from Frank on the Clayton site. Hopefully next year. Andrew

You are correct. Tony has a Nikon Df which is full frame (I actually bought a magazine about Nikon DSLRs yesterday and it mentions the Df), my Nikon D7000 is not, so it does have an advantage in depth of field in theory, but Tony has a much better lens than I do as he uses a primary 55mm lens, mine is a 18-105mm zoom. I stayed with Tony for a few days earlier this year but was so taken with his Little Bytham that I never really talked to him about photography - must make up for this as I'm hoping he'll stay with me for a few days when he visits us downunder next year. As I think coachman said above the clear advantage with the Canon G12s is size as we can get them down to track level much easier. Gilbert's station setting is so much better than what I have for photography on my layout but I have photographed a lot of my friends layouts but most of those were before I got the G12 so I should go and do some more photo shoots of their layouts using the G12! Andrew

Gilbert Thanks for your comments above in response to my question. As others have said the f8 of the G12 is at least equivalent to f22 and in my opinion maybe more on larger format DSLRs. I recently did some comparisons between the G12 and my Nikon D7000 with Nikkor 18-105 mm lens and possibly the G12 is nearly the same at f8 as the Nikon at f29? Andrew

Hello Andrew I would like to have met you earlier this year when I visited the Shipley MRS but I was told you were not there that night. I have continually been impressed by your coaches. I've been building teak coaches since the early 80s and mostly Kirk. More recently I've been building D&S Howlden stock and have a heap of coaches still to build, including a couple of the 6 wheel luggage lav comps I got from Frank early this year. I presume this 6 compt BTK is mostly MJT but whose are the sides? Andrew Emmett

Hello Gilbert I don't know whether you remember me? I visited you in June 2013 when I had a few weeks in the UK on my own. I haven't been a particularly regular reader of your RMweb thread in recent times but have had a few days with time to occupy whilst we've been assisting our daughter after the birth of her second child, so I've been catching up on sites like yours. I do like your photos and now I note that you are also using the Canon G12. Whilst I used to take all my model railway photos on my Nikon DSLR (which I would have used at your place) it was recommended that I try a Canon G12 by BRM's Phil Parker when he stayed with me in Adelaide in late in 2014. I purchased a second hand one a year or so later and after a trialling it I have been using it solely for that purpose. In many ways I'm very much a novice with photo manipulation using Photoshop but so far have been able to get by. I do like the way you add in real sky - do you use Photoshop and if so which tools do you use for that? Andrew Emmett