thegreenhowards

Great news - I was wondering when that was coming. Looking forward to it.

Gilbert, I've done a bit more research on the Aberdeen return fish. This is a useful post from Brian Macdermott which claims a 1205 departure from King's Cross for the return. From other posts which prompted this it does seem to be missing from the WTT. Andy

I’m sure I’ve seen a picture of it but I can’t locate it now and I can’t remember which year, so not much use - sorry! They must have gone back north, otherwise there’d have been a big pile of blue spots in King’s Cross!

Wasn’t the return empties of the Aberdeen in the middle of the day? That should give an excuse to use the blue spots.

Thanks - I suppose that was obvious if I'd put my brain in gear!!

And the water fillers (caps off), also on the Dunstable branch train. Andrew, Thanks for sharing those photos which I hadn't seen before. The second looks like Welwyn Garden City (?), do you know where the first is taken? The water fillers with caps off is an interesting shot - I never knew how they opened up! I hope you can see from my photo that I did follow your advice and replace the vents with water fillers in the positions you suggested. Andy

Tony, Do you remember the D.210 twin-art that I showed you in brass at Woking? Well it’s now finished and I’m pleased with the way it’s come out. It is a mix of Mousa sides and parts from 247, Comet and MJT. Here is a picture of the finished twin with my N7 which is quite old but recently weathered ( SE Finecast with Bachmann chassis). More details are on my workbench thread starting here Regards Andy

The d.210 twin-art is finally finished. here are some pictures of the finished beast. It can can now take up its duty on my equivalent of the Hatfield- Dunstable branch service. Andy

When I climbed it we had a crystal clear view of St Kilda which is some 40 miles further out into the Atlantic. A fantastic hill.

That was a good spot! I test run them after the photos and discovered that the wheels were rubbing on the floor. I use the MJT articulation system, so washers aren’t appropriate. It was just a case of bending the brass with one if the pop joiners up a little.

It’s been quiet on here for a while but I haven’t been completely idle. Main focus was on exhibiting our club layout Oakbourne at Croydon. Now that’s over, I’ve made some more progress on the twin art. I think I’ve done the ‘homework’ that Andrew set me (!) and it’s now completed externally. I've just got the interior to do, which I will start tonight in front of the telly. Andy

Clive, I love your layout plan. I think we've had the discussion about King's Cross before, so I hope we're not boring people, but your plan certainly captures the feel of the place, although the pointwork is a lot less interesting/ challenging than the 1950s plan. The ability to use your sidings as turn back locations is a great idea - are they scenic ('inside the fence') or just conventional fiddle yards? I estimate that you have about 15 feet from buffer stops to 'Gasworks Tunnel', whereas the real thing would be 17 feet in 4mm, so you're not far short of the prototype - King's Cross was very cramped lengthways. The issue when modelling it is the required width which is about 10 feet from York Road to the tip of the milk dock, so some serious compromise would be necessary there. I see you've managed by just modelling the mainline part of the station which is a sensible step when you're lifting the track plan for another location but wouldn't really work for modelling King's Cross itself. I'm with you when it comes to modelling 'outside the fence'. I do a bit just to provide a setting for the trains, but track laying, wiring and rolling stock are my main interests, so that's what I'd prefer to spend my time on. That, of course, is the benefit of a club layout as different people can bring different skills/ interests to bear. Andy

I found the best place to view the trains on Lime St was in the station approaches where they run through the magnificent cutting and you can get a good view. In the station itself, I agree that it can be hard to see the trains towards the back, and that’s without an overall roof. I have a (very) long term plan to build a model of King’s Cross but seeing Lime Street has made me wonder how anyone would see the trains with the overall roof. I think I may have to model the northern part for a couple of feet and then leave a long section missing for viewing purposes. If anyone has a better idea then please let me know. Andy

Are we talking about Sidmouth? If so, I agree. On Lime Street, I agree the action is a little slow, but trains do move and there is plenty to admire in between. I watched enthralled for an hour at Warley last year despite all the other temptations on offer. Andy

Jesse, That looks great. I’m really impressed by how smoothly the trains seem to glide over the point work. Andy

Gilbert, I think that that confirms my suggestion - GN originating stock = tourist buffet ; NE originating = teak buffet. As for the D.275, I think we concluded last time that it may have worked the train, but probably only very briefly, so you’re quite entitled to ignore it and I think I’m entitled to put it in as a bit of variety should I ever get ‘ roundtuit’ regards Andy

Gilbert, I seem to remember having thus this debate with ‘34A’ on your thread a couple of years ago. I think he said that, while the prototype d.167 was 33 tons, the production ones were 34 tons, and that when 34 tons is shown in the carriage workings then that probably indicates a d.167. I also think that the GN section mainly had tourist buffets (I.e. d.168) while the NE section tended to have standard Teak buffets (d.167 as Hornby). If I’m right then this train should have a d.167 buffet and as the stock starts the day in York, that seems to fit. It’s certainly what I run in my version of the 1605. I may replace it with a d.275 when I get round to building one as I think this is the train that Carter said one worked on in his Backtrack guide to buffet cars (could be wrong on that though as I’m away and don’t have the reference material). I think the d.168s would be more typical on GN section originating trains such as the Cleethorpes services. Regards Andy

I agree that 60 locos is impractical, but I have to say that the zimo system (I think it’s immersive drive rather than active drive) is great fun to use. It makes the controller into a regulator and button 2 is a separate brake. Yes stopping at exactly the right spot is difficult, but if you’ve ever driven a real train you’d know that was realistic! For a small shunting style layout it really makes the operation fascinating and the sound adds an extra dimension as well. Sorry Tony if I’m encouraging another DCC debate, but I really think this is a step forward for small layouts - admittedly it’s completely impractical and of little benefit for LB. Andy

You jest, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Bachby release a Thomas character which talks to the other engines. “You dirty diesel’ etc!

I've made some more progress with the N2 kit I showed earlier this week. As a reminder I bought this with very old fashioned wheels and motor and have replaced them with a DJH GB1 and Romford wheels; the body is mainly brass. It's now run in and working smoothly. I have tested it's haulage capability and it can do everything I hoped for and more! Here is a video showing it on 17 coaches which is more than I will ever need it to do in practice. My Hornby ones just laughed when asked to pull the same train! The paint job is not very smooth and I will want it in British Railways livery anyway, so the next job is a light sanding on the flat surfaces, tough up the paint and line and number up as a KX 1950s loco. Andy

I’ve been working on Stowe at the Bluebell today (as most Wednesdays). Today I painted the new cab roof (the old one had rusted through) and some pipes. It takes a bit longer in 1:1 scale! We hope to be running again before too long! Andy

Yes that's the one! I seem to remember we drove it very fast at a set of points that were set against it and the resultant short circuit fried the Portescap...possibly caused by it being fitted with a DCC decoder, although the decoder was fine after a reset. It was actually quite a fortunate accident as you invited me back to get the loco fixed with a spare motor because at that stage dismantling valve gear was beyond me. I learnt enough from watching you repair 60508 and then you teaching me to build 60506, that valve gear is no longer an issue. Thanks again for your tuition. Andy

Thanks for the suggestion, but I've done some more digging since my first post and there's no white metal to be seen. It's all beautifully engineered from quite thick brass - 1.1mm for most of the body and 1.8mm for the chassis frames. The boiler seems to be a one piece copper tube. The chassis seems to fit together with neatly engineered pins and holes, so I doubt it's scratchbuilt unless the guy who did it was a serious model engineer. I now have the chassis running smoothly on 23 mm Romfords powered by a DJH GB1 motor/ gearbox combo. I'm hoping this will be powerful enough to pull 14 coach ECS's on my layout. I will test tomorrow after some more running in. Cheers Andy

I spent my weekend exhibiting our club layout at the Croydon show. It was an enjoyable show but both exhibits and attendance seemed down on previous years, possibly due to the atrocious weather. I managed to pick up a couple of cheap kits at a bargain price (£55 for the pair). They look like they might make decent models with some TLC. The first is an N2. I’m struggling to work out the provenance of this kit as it seems to be mainly made of brass. The chassis is a couple of strips of thickish brass. Does anyone have any ideas who might have made this? It’s quite well constructed, but will obviously need new wheels, some detailing (brake blocks, lamp irons etc) and repainting. It may need a new motor too as the can motor fitted seems quite noisy. The other kit is a V2. This one is again mainly made of brass. I suspect it might be Jamieson, but would welcome any confirmation of that or alternative suggestions. It runs on an old X04 so will definitely need a new motor as well as wheels, a repaint and detailing. Thanks in advance for any help identifying the kits. Andy PS. Tony, 60508 is still going strong.

Well the exhibition went pretty well. The layout performed faultlessly. The same can’t be said for the operators, but mistakes were relatively few and far between. Here are a few pictures. Firstly the J50 (K’s kit on a Bachmann chassis with Zimo sound project) departing on a goods train. Then the C12 (SE Finecast on Bachmann chassis) on the push pull. And finally the 26 (Heljan with legoman biffo sound chip) shunting in the parcels bay.