thegreenhowards

Wait for the Accurascale Deltic. I have high hopes!

Tony, The Buffet is looking good apart from the ‘buffet’ transfers. Is this the one you started when you came to visit me? You seem to have got rid of all the imperfections on the body side. It looks rather matt. Are you going to varnish after the transfers have all been applied? Andy

That was also my experience. I was running my whole layout on an NCE Powercab, and I had some problems with the autofrogs not firing properly. When I upgraded to a 5 amp system, they worked fine.

I’m blaming that on iPad spell checker! Since corrected.

Clive, They used to be expensive. Gaugemaster do something called a DCC Autofrog (DCC80) which can be picked up for less than £5 each. I believe that this does the same thing as a frog juicer, although someone will probably tell me that it's less sophisticated. I think this is a very quick, easy and inexpensive way of changing the frog polarity. On my layout, they don't stop DC engines running. The Autofrogs work by sensing a short circuit and changing the polarity before the short can shut down the system. Provided the points are set up on DCC before running a DC loco, then the DC loco will run perfectly happily through the point as the polarity has already been switched. I do this regularly for running in or for visiting friend's locos. Andy

Another coach finished from the pile of half completed kits. This is a Thompson BSK(3) made from a Comet kit on a Bachmann donor. Rather like the BG above these sides suffered from a lack of door hinges and, having done the basic door furniture, it had been sitting in the too difficult/ can’t be bothered pile for quite some time (c. 18 months!). Anyway, I finally bit the bullet and drilled out all the hinges which is IMHO worth the effort. The roof on the donor had all the ventilators removed and replaced with white metal versions. This is necessary on these conversions, both because the Bachmann ventilators are rather puny, and because they’re in the wrong place. They should be offset from the centre line over the compartments as in the picture below. I think it’s turned out quite well although the lining could be straighter - there’s always something! It it will probably form part of ‘The Norseman’, but I have some other coaches to build for that, so no action videos as this stage. I’m now down to five coaches, one loco and some Presflo wagons in the queue of stuff started before Christmas and not yet finished which is quite good by my standards. Andy

David, Sorry for the the slow response. I used to get notified when someone responded, but that seems to have stopped. Anyway, yes, it’s on a Hornby 61’6” BG under-frame. I used the BG because it has the correct steps under the guard’s door. Regards Andy

Tony, I like your BG, in particular, the glazing looks far better than the Hornby example in such a close up.. The Hornby bogies on the sleeping car are their attempt at HD bogies as they have the extra set of rivets above the axle boxes. But I agree that they look rather puny compared with the HD pair which certainly look the part. I’ve had a rummage in my kit pile since this morning and found one 8’0” HD bogie - goodness knows what happened to its partner! But then I had to go and build 1:1 scale locos (928 at the Bluebell), so more searching is required this evening. One comment on your BG if I may - I think it would look better with brass and/or black door furniture as appropriate. Regards Andy

Thanks Andrew, That sounds like a definitive answer - off to MJT I go! The ducket came from a Kirk Gresley BG Kit. How do I know that it’s LMS rather than LNER? Andy

Thanks Jonathon, You posted while I was typing! I’ve built the MJT 8’0 bogies for the BG on my Elizabethan rake, and it looks like I need to build a second! Andy

Thanks Mick, According to the Campling carriage diagrams book, “Up to about 1931, 8ft 0in Fox pattern bogies were fitted to vehicles, but from 1931 8ft 0in Gresley bogies were introduced to be superseded by 8ft 6in bogies from 1936”. This would make the Fox bogies correct for the all steel D.45 tat you mention, but not for the later D.198 which was built in 1934-7. The pictures I’ve seen all show heavy duty Gresley bogies but I can’t tell whether they’re 8’6” or 8’0”. Also I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that standard 8’6” bogies were used later, but I can’t find that reference, so that may just be wishful thinking! Andy

Thanks Richard, I like to get things right right if I can, but if I can convince myself that the current bogies are correct then even better! Hornby’s bogies are pretty good if what you want is the standard 8’6” version. Andy

I attach a photo of my latest (almost) finished coach build. This is a D.198 steel panelled BG made from Comet sides on a Hornby donor. I have one one question for the experts on here, which is whether I need to replace the bogies. It currently rides on Hornby (I.e. 8’6”) bogies. I believe that these coaches were built with 8 foot heavy duty bogies, but that some changed bogies later in life to 8’6” bogies (not sure whether heavy or standard). Can anyone confirm this as I’d prefer to stick with the Hornby bogies if possible. Apologies to those who’ve already seen this build (in slightly more detail) on my workbench thread. Regards Andy

Here is my latest (almost) completed project, a D.198 Gresley steel BG. This is built from Comet sides on a Hornby donor and was started a good year ago. It has been held up because Comet didn’t etch any holes for the door hinges and I’ve been trying to decide whether to bother drilling them all out. In the end I decided that I’d better do the job properly, so I drilled them out with a .5mm drill and then filled in the excess hole with solder as I fixed the hinges. While a bit of a fag, this seems to have worked OK. Normally with Gresley sides on Hornby donor vehicles, I end up cutting out the whole side, but that creates problems fixing the body onto the chassis, so this time I managed to preserve the fixing hooks on the coach sides which are part of the glazing strips. I think this was only possible because the full brake only has small high windows which meant I could leave much if the glazing glued in place on the donor. This picture shows the first side being glued in place while the second side shows the cutting I did on the donor. I saw almost finished because it is still riding on Hornby bogies. These represent 8’6” standard bogies as fitted to most Gresley coaches. However, I believe that these BG’s started with 8 foot heavy duty bogies, but that some were changed later in life to 8’6” bogies (I’m not sure whether heavy or standard). If anyone is able to confirm that would be great, as I’d rather not change the Hornby bogies, if I don’t have to. regards Andy

Darius, Superb quality build. I love the work you’ve done on the underframe. I usually replace the Kirk stuff with MJT, partly for the weight and partly for the better castings - especially the battery boxes and trussing. But what you have done certainly stands comparison with the MJT stuff. How did you get the roof to fit so well? I normally have to to do lots of filing and then still end up with a gap to be filled after glueing on. But yours must be resting on as you got it off for the glazing, so the fit is exceptionally good. Back to modelling now, Andy

Thanks for your kind comments John, I don’t always paint first. It depends on the coach and the weather. I don’t think it really matters, painting first saves masking and allows for easier painting on the flat, but it risks mucking the paint up when attaching the side. I use evostick to attach the sides. Applied to the donor only and adding the sides immediately to allow some time for fine adjustment. I sometimes need to use a bit of cyano to stick a loose section later. I would say that Southern Pride sides on Bachmann donors are one of the easiest of these conversions to do. Let me know if you have any other questions. Andy

Despite my best intentions to complete lots of projects I was away in a B&B last week, and that’s a good opportunity to get the soldering iron out and start some new coaches. So I did the sides for four Thompson coaches. From the top we have RF, SO, RK and FO. The SO is from Mousa and the rest are Southern Pride. Firstly in brass and then resplendent in BR maroon (aka Ford Burbundy Red). The only problem is that I’m down to two donor vehicles, so I’ll have hope there are some going cheap at the Bluebell Railway swap meet next week. I promise some more completed projects soon! All the best Andy

I have just completed another couple of coaches. These are the buffet lounge and SK with Ladies' Retiring Room from the Elizabethan. More details of the build are on my workbench thread at https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/135510-coulsdon-works/&do=findComment&comment=3534067 This completes my version of the 1957 Elizabethan, which was the last year in which both of these coaches ran in the train. The rake consists of 10 PV Thompsons and just a solitary Mark 1. By 1958, it was down to 8 Thompsons and the Mark 1 'pollution' had doubled. Here is a video of the complete train. I have slowed it down compared with my Talisman video to avoid any more 'lines' from Sir! Regards Andy

The corridor connectors for the Elizabethan coaches finally arrived yesterday and have been fitted. I can't recommend these strongly enough. They are from Fair Price Models (https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/fairpricemodels), you get 12 connectors for £3.99 and they're dead easy to fit. (No connection to the company etc....) So now we can see the whole train running past behind 60013 Dominion of New Zealand. The loco is standard Hornby with a light weathering. The train is based on the 1957 Elizabethan formation which was formed of 10 special Pressure Ventilated Thompson coaches and one Mark 1 on the back. The rear two coaches were from Aberdeen, with the rest from Edinburgh. This was the last year in which the buffet lounge and SK with Ladies Waiting Room ran in the train (although the FK with Ladies Waiting Room lasted a few more years). The formation is: BG, FW(LRR), RF,RSO,SK,SK,SK(LRR),Buffet Lounge, SK, SK,BCK(Mark 1)

Tony, Totally agree with the 20 and POs being unacceptable! In my case that might be a production Deltic on a rake of teak liveried stock which I would never do. I allow a little more slack when it comes to trains passing in opposite directions. So my Deltic on maroon Mark 1s might pass the teaks going in the opposite direction with, say, an apple green A1. But I will have to try to minimise the more extreme such events in my sequence. Regards Andy

Phil, i have considered both approaches if modelling two distinct periods and running through a chronological sequence. I’m a bit stuffed in that the sleepers that I’ve built so far are all from the mid fifties (because I found that period more interesting than post Mark 1, but without the trains being impossibly long as they were in the early fifties. This means I’d have to end in the middle of my time sequence! So I will have to be a bit less strict, but try to avoid anything too obviously clashing (like the C1/ Deltic) simultaneously. i agree that poring through the photographic evidence is enjoyable, as is debating it on here. But I need to get better at making a note of useful reference material as I read. Andy

Tony, I recognise the difficulty of modelling every train - although Gilbert does manage it with his cassette system and loose stock. I would certainly have no qualms about using a set of coaches more than once - who’s going to read the numbers? In some cases, you could justifiably use one set four times, for example the Master Cutler/ Sheffield Pullman . My ultimate intention is to model a shortish window of the timetable in full. Given my interest in sleeper trains, this will cover the late afternoon and evening, probably through to the departure of the Night Scotsman. Given my lack of discipline this will cover a wider window of history than LB. I intend to base it on the 1959 timetable, but use trains from c.1950-1961 to cover the end of the Atlantic’s through to the launch of the Deltics. This also allows me a greater proportion of LNER coaching stock than sticking with a late ‘50s rigid timeframe. With all the suburban traffic at the south end of the ECML this will involve a lot of reuse of sets, sometimes with peak strengtheners added, and I certainly won’t be building, for example, half a dozen quad art sets! With judicious bending of the time period I can make more use of some sets. E.g. by modelling the 1957 Talisman, I can use the same set three times in my time window - the up morning and up and down afternoon Talismans. Your system works very well and the ability to showcase 50 trains in a 2.5 hour window is excellent. I particularly like the fact that (nearly?) every train is modelling a particular service - in general based on photographs. Regards Andy

Hello Tony, I’m afraid that I do normally run pretty fast through that reverse curve, because I rather like the look. I appreciate that it’s too fast to be prototypical but then the curve is too tight for a mainline - one of your pet hates I know, sorry! In my defence the camera is zoomed in and it’s not quite as tight as it looks. It’s 5 foot radius at the tightest point transitioning to straight and back to 5 feet the other way. To my eye it looks OK in the flesh, but perhaps too tight on camera. Thanks for all your prototype formation photos. They are indeed inspiration and some would be lovely to model. But they do suffer from that all too common problem of not knowing what the train is. Books so often state 60xxx on an up/ down Express at xxxxxxxx before going on to give chapter and verse about when 60xxx was withdrawn. They miss the really useful information about what the train is....probably because it’s not recorded by the original photographer. While I could just take such a photo and model the train, I like to run to a timetable/ schedule and know what each train that I run is supposed to be. As for the RK, some of the seasonal extras for Tyne Commission Quay (sort of reliefs to the Norseman) had a Thompson RK in the formation, sometimes with a small portion for Newcastle. Could it be one of those? It doesn’t match anything in the 1958 CWN ( which is the only late ‘50s Summer one on Robert Carroll’s list) exactly but is quite similar to the 1040 (SO) from KX. Regards Andy

Andrew, That sounds like a challenge! I know the CWNs are not perfect, but they are the best source we have and I think they’re pretty accurate for the main trains. I always try to find photos as well, but it can be like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack as how many photos clearly show the whole train? For secondary expresses, I know that Mark 1s were often substituted by Thompsons or Gresleys, and I occasionally try to replicate this as in the video of one of the Kings Cross- Cleethorpes services (I’m away so had to rely on an archive video) which has a Thompson SK and a Gresley BSK substituting for Mark 1s. Do you have any ECML snippets from your CWNs you could share? Particularly any excuse to use LNER stock vice Mark 1s! Or, given that we were talking about it recently and the coach is approaching completion, any use of a Thompson BSK(3) on the Norseman. Regards Andy

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