thegreenhowards

Larry, The article on steel mineral wagons, along with one on Pullmans, first attracted me to the mag when I saw it at the Bluebell Railway bookshop. I can let you have a copy if you like (assuming that's allowed under Copyright- moderator please correct me if not). Just PM me. Regards Andy

Tony, I agree absolutely. The article just amused me given the current debate! Imagine what we might be debating in another 25 years; perhaps lamenting the skill of opening red and blue boxes being replaced by ready to plonk layouts. Andy

I've just discovered a great magazine called Modellers' Back Track dating from the early 1990s (when I was out of the hobby chasing women and large scale trains). I'm sure most of the people on this forum will know it, but for those that don't I'd recommend it for a great insight into the prototype, particularly operations. Anyway, the reason for this post is that I've just read an article titled 'Can we Live With Kits' in Vol 2 No 5. Which really reminded me of the recent debates on this forum. It basically is lamenting the death of scratch building caused by the increasing quality of kits! I'll give you a quick snippet as a taster: "I get the strong feeling that there is a sort of 'sameness' creeping into much of our modelling and I suggest that kits may be having something to do with it. If this be even a partly true state of affairs then paradoxically, it is because kits, these days, are generally so good that for many people they have taken over completely from the hand-built model. Let's face it, how many folk, unless they are dedicated sado-masochists, are going laboriously to build a collection of fully-detailed goods wagons when firms like Salters, Ratio and many others can turn them out by the bucketful, complete with every bolt head and piece of strapping, at prices which, even in 7mm scale, would only buy about two or three hours on bench time from a skilled craftsman?" Plus ca change...! I recommend a read to put our current debate into perspective! Andy

It was my first time at Warley and I was really impressed by the number of quality big layouts. Grantham was the pick - I spent an hour hooked and then had to drag myself away to see the rest of the show! But Billingham, The Summit, Calvercar town, Bleach Green were also stunning. Now being controversial, I agree Copenhagen Fields looks magnificent, but I find the operating exceedingly dull as they only seem to run a couple of trains round such that it repeats every five mins or so. It may work for the short attention span of the general public, but it soon got boring for me! The number of traders was also impressive and I spent far too much money! Andy

Thanks Tony, In the spirit of this forum I'll have a go myself, but will take you up on your offer of another visit in the new year. You can't blame yourself for the failure - I'd just like to understand whether this is a common occurrence when running DCC locos on DC, as it could become expensive and time consuming! Andy

Thanks Ray, why didn't I think of that! Andy

Tony, I finally got round to checking out the dead A2/1 over the weekend. I started by removing the chip and trying it on DC. Unfortunately the motor is completely dead - there's just a short circuit and a burning smell when I apply power. I thought the chip was also dead as when I fitted it into the DJH WD 2-8-0 that you tweaked for me, it only moved at snail's pace. However it seems that the CV values had been scrambled, and on reading the manual and doing a reset, it is purring round with 40 wagons in tow! I think this illustrates some of your concerns about DCC, and in particular, mixing the two systems, however, I'm sticking with the dreaded digital for the time being - I'm too hooked on my Deltic (amongst others) with sound to change! And that's apart from all the wiring. The good news is that I have an old (quiet) Portescap to replace the one in the A2/1, however, given my chassis inexperience, I'm anxious about swapping them over. Is it possible to do so, without dismantling the valve gear? Thanks Andy

Tony, With regard to operation of LB (post 12572), I can say that I thoughourly enjoyed operating your sequence. The best bits were watching the procession of wonderful models of scale length trains, and in complete contrast, shunting the pick up goods across your wonderful set of slips. I think I got the hang of remembering to signal the trains by the end of the sequence! One omission that occurred to me on the way home, was that we didn't operate any trains on the M&GN section. Could you weave a couple of moves on that part of the layout into the sequence?

That makes sense. There may be an excuse for my Dogfish after all!

There certainly don't seem to be any hopper wagons of any type which is interesting.

That's very useful. It sounds like I could get away with my Dogfish wagons lettered up for Nuneaton with mainline ballast or fitted with greedy boards filled with slag and lettered up for Scunthorpe.

Sorry, I should have engaged my brain first on the greedy boards. I've found some photos on Paul Bartlett's excellent site. They look like they could be modelled as an addition to the Heljan wagon. However, the questions are: a) did they get as far south as London as it seems a long way to haul slag! b) when we're the greedy boards added? There is a picture of a Scunthorpe wagon brand new without greedy boards on Paul's website.

Thanks for your very prompt response. Ernie Brack's site is great - I hadn't seen that before. Thanks for the tip off. What does a greedy board look like - can you point me to any photos? As for revenue stone wagons, I was thinking of Hornby's 26t stone wagon, but I suspect that was much later. So probably something like a 13t mineral wagon. From what you say, that doesn't seem very likely!

I've just found this interesting topic, and have a similar question. I'm trying to put together an engineers trains for late 1950's for the GN suburban area. The plan is for a track laying train formed of 1* Shark brake van (Cambrian kit); 1*Sturgeon (Cambian kit); 1 * Dolphin (A1 brass kit), both for track; 2 * Grampus (Parkside) for sleepers; and then some ballast wagons. I bought some Dogfish wagons but on re-reading the Larkin book, I see that these were only allocated to Scunthorpe on the Eastern Region. Can anyone tell me which wagons would have been used for ballast at the south end of the ECML? I'd love an excuse to use the Dogfish wagons, but I suspect more Grampus, some Hornby Trout wagons or even some revenue stone wagons would be more realistic - views? Are there any other vehicles I need to finish a realistic train off? Thanks Andy

I'm surprised that Leicester South GC doesn't make the list. The combination of stock, scenery, prototype research and the wonderful representation of the goods shed make it a favourite for me.

Not only do I have to use them to get to Tony's; I also have to commute with them daily - woe is me! Ironically I missed Panorama because I was stuck on a Southern train! However SWMBO recorded it for me, so I had a chance to shout at the TV screen later. What a piece of gutter journalism - how low can the BBC stoop?

Tony, many thanks for another very enjoyable day. It was a real pleasure to run through your sequence, especially shunting the pick up freight across that magnificent run of slips! I had a nightmare journey home courtesy of Southern, so couldn't face DCC investigations this evening, but will report back in a few days. Cheers Andy

Thanks Robert, Another Model Rail back copy to keep an eye out for. The mid noughties were a good period for the mag with lots of interesting prototype articles. Regards Andy

Hello Robert, An article by you on East Coast Pullmans sounds interesting (even 'screwed up'!). Where can I find this? Many thanks Andy

Having thought further, one of the things that I really enjoy is your recreation of prototype photos. I suggest you could illustrate such an article with one or two of these type of pictures and explain how you sourced the vehicles to recreate the train as well as the scenery to frame it.

Gilbert, Where PN really excels is in the research you've put in. Both into the layout and the timetable and associated rolling stock. I think you could create a fascinating and different article on how to model a prototype location going through all of the documents and source material you used, and then how you put together the fleet, and how you compromise with some of the formations using your fiddle yard and cassettes. Andy

I think they would be easy to ruin and I certainly wouldn't let solder anywhere near them! I glued the door furniture on with superglue having drilled out the holes with a 0.5mm bit. It would have been easy to slip with the bit but using a hand chuck and going slowly it wasn't too hard and I'm not the most dexterous person! I got a tiny bit of superglue clouding one window, but there's always some imperfections on my coaches At £7 for a pair of sides you can afford to have a disaster and not worry too much. The biggest issue for me is that the donor coach has fairly crude underframe detail, but as a layout coach I think it's OK. Andy

Gilbert, A few months ago you were asking about building Southern Pride Mark 1 kits. I think I've identified a dodge which enables a quick route to a 'layout' Mark 1 which might interest you. The Southern pride sides have exactly the same method of attachment as the old Triang Hornby Mark 1 coaches. Therefore you can take a pair of sides from Southern Pride and a donor Triang Hornby Mark 1 (which can be picked up for £5-£10 secondhand), and simply replace the sides. If you use the pre-printed Southern Pride sides then all you have to do is add door furniture, sort out the vents on the roof, number it and add an interior. This also works with the etched brass sides in which case you'd need to paint and line as well. I attach some pictures of my BSO done using this method (interior still work in progress). The ends and underframe are a bit 'clunky', but as this only cost me c.£7 for the sides with the rest coming from the spares box, I feel pretty pleased with the result. Any Comments welcome. Andy

Gilbert, I had to do a double take on that black and white photo from Spital Bridge - I thought it was a prototype photo at first. Brilliant! Andy