thegreenhowards

Gilbert, That’s the same as the SLS listed in the Aberdonian. I.e. a D.95 or 109 as per the Kirk kit and I think Isinglass may now do it. The 56 capacity represents 28 per coach. These coaches were like continental couchettes with four berths per compartment (two each side) and were pretty basic with no mattress or bed linen. You may also see reference to D.148 SLSs which were on 65ftunderframes and had 8 compartments so 32 berths and weighed 38 tons. They rode on heavy duty bodies whereas the shorter ones used ordinary bogies. They were slightly better equipped with a proper mattress - luxury! Hope that helps Andy

I’ve been working on the other buildings for Glenfinnan. I think these will need to be scratch built as I can’t find anything suitable off the shelf. I’ve rarely scratchbuilt buildings before, so this will be a learning curve for me. First up is the lamp hut as shown here. Here’s my attempt at it. The window frames rather beat me and the close up is cruel, but I think it will look fine on the layout. Next up, I want to have a go at the platelayers (or similar) hut on the western approach as shown here. Does anyone have any better pictures of it, or a similar WHL extension version? I’m not even sure whether it’s made of timber or concrete - any thoughts welcome. Andy

Well let's take your favourite Summer 1958 WTT and taking the Aberdonian as an example, it lists the following sleeper vehicles: SLS, 28 berths, 35 tons; 3x SLSTP, 22,43; twin SLF, 19&20 berths, 62 tons; and 2xSLF (SO), 10,43. Looking at Harris, I take these to be (in order): A D95 or 109. Basically the same but I think D.109 had a wider body. This is the Kirk kit. 3xD.368 (from the 22 berths) but could also be D.369 which had no attendant's cpt but an extra berth. I suspect they were listed as the lower number of berths to be on the safe side. D18/19 or the earlier GNR equivalent. Probably a Gresley D.157 or D.227 - the only difference was window spacing on the berth side. I suppose these could have been interchangeable with Thompson SLFs, but these had 11 berths. Does that make sense? Andy

I’m not sure I qualify as expert, but I’ve built models of most of them over the years. What’s the question?

I say good luck to Hornby. They seem to have produced a perfect model for their target audience of oooh, doesn’t it look pretty and doesn’t it go well at 200mph! However, anything smaller than 4mm is a compete irrelevance as far as I’m concerned because I can’t see it! I wish they’d turn their attention to the senior scale - we could do with a bit more competition. Andy

Do you mean that the AB wagons had through vac pipes? Otherwise I don’t understand how it would have helped.

I agree with that point. And for anoraks like me the mix of vac and air brakes wagons in the same train didn’t ring true. Would this ever of happened? Presumably only with the vac braked stuff at the rear and unbraked? But these are minor points. The scale and finesse are mind blowing.

I enjoyed my trip to Harringay’s yesterday. Here is a short video I took in case anyone is interested. The two 56s running parallel on diverging routes was truly a magnificent spectacle! One question. Nothing seemed to be using the Halifax lines while I was there. Was there a problem or are they just much less used than the others? Andy

If we were talking about Tony’s type of specialist model shop then there would be more reason to lament them. But I think the only places one will find loco kits, buffers, wheels etc. is at a specialist show or mail order. As for more generic model building supplies such as plastic section, I prefer to but unbranded items on eBay or Amazon at less than half the price. I agree about the annoying tactic of forced selling of Prime. I also succumbed on one occasion but I did remember to cancel. I did occasionally take out a free trial deliberately when I need something in a hurry! But now we have a family membership which I find rather good value for money when shared between several people. I do love free delivery. Finally, I managed to spend absolutely nothing at Harrogate today. That’s not a criticism of the traders on offer, but more that I was so hooked on Grantham and Heaton Lodge that I ran out of time! I managed to watch the whole sequence through on Grantham for the first time which must have taken a good three hours. Andy

I’m going to stick my neck out here and voice a controversial view. In my opinion high street model shops are the walking dead and won’t exist for much longer. Indeed high street retail in general is in decline - the future is Amazon and retail parks. Specialist retail such as a model shop which appeal to a far flung sparse clientele are the most vulnerable. So the future is direct retail or box shifters. There will still be a place for retail through exhibitions (our equivalent of the retail park) but this will be more focussed on direct selling, box shifters and cottage industries. So I think Hornby are embracing the future and if that means cutting out the middle man and passing some of the cost savings onto us, the customers, then I’m all for it. I now expect some robust counter arguments! I write this on the train on my way to Harrogate Model Rail show for some retail therapy and to see Grantham and Heaton Lodge. Far better than a local High Street model shop! Andy

That looks really effective Rob.

Hi Rob, I’m loving the scenic work - very convincing. And I enjoyed the photos of 37264 - one of my favourites. I had a good run with her in Summer 1983 when she was still NB and then several runs on the Far North. A question though, do you have photographic evidence of her in all over blue with a Scottie dog? l looked at putting one on my model, but came to the conclusion that she was ‘dogless’ until she went to Crewe in late ‘83 to have boiler reinstated and emerge in large logo. Regards Andy

As you will have seen above, I’m trying to model the SRPS Railtour train of the 1970s which included an eclectic mix of big four and pre grouping coaches including a pair of Caledonian coaches, a BCK to diagram 111A and a TK to diagram 124 as illustrated on the SRPS museum website. As far as I am aware no 7mm kit exists for these coaches. But I have spoken to the proprietor of Caley Coaches (https://caley.com/index.php) who produces 4mm kits for these coaches and 7mm kits for some Caledonian coaches. He would be prepared to produce etched brass kits for these coaches if there was enough demand to warrant the cost of c.£200 per coach in preparing the artwork etc. The cost of the kit itself once the design is done would be c.£100 per coach. So, I feel that if I could find four interested people prepared to pay £50 per coach each to underwrite the cost of the design, we would have a workable proposition with kits at c.£150 per coach. So far, I have one other interested person. If anyone is interested, please respond to this thread or PM me. If we get to four people, I’ll go back to Caley Coaches and thrash out exactly how this would work. I imagine a deposit upfront with full payment when the kits are ready. Andy

I too noticed this at Glasgow. Great news for 00 modellers of the WHL. I’m doing Glenfinnan in O gauge and I’ve already got the station building and signal box commissioned from Dawson Hall. I could do with the waiting shelter but, while Peco sounded like they might consider 0 gauge, I suspect it will be a long wait. Andy

I had a full day on the layout today and got the wiring done on two boards. The first one was the most difficult as it contains 4 of the 5 points on the scenic section. The rest should be straightforward. I’m using Cobalt iPdigital for the mainline points and wire in tube with GM autofrogs for the goods yard. This allowed me to try my first loco under its own power. Not a great vid, but it records a big milestone.

I’m looking forward to seeing it again - making a trip up from London. Andy

I also picked up a couple of MTH LMS opens at the Kettering show. What do you want them for you may well ask! Well, @David Bell shared some photos of the SRPS Railtour set from the 1970s which rather inspired me. Particular one at Loch Treig in Anderson’s ‘Diesels in Scotland’ which I can’t show here for copyright reasons but if you’ve got the book look it up. Here is a link to another photo of the train(scroll down). https://www.derbysulzers.com/25035a.html It contained a delightful mix of big four and pre grouping coaches with a few BR mk1 or 2s thrown in as required. So I’ve set myself the challenge of recreating some of it. While these are in BR livery, I think I just need to renumber and add the ‘LMS’, or am I missing something in my ignorance of the LMS? Andy

Sadly, things are not quite so simple with the quads and quints. A quad consists of 8 coaches of two different lengths. Each 4 car set contains two 38’ and two 43’ coaches. The two brakes were practically identical, as were the two 43’ thirds in the all third set and the two 1st/3rd composites in the composite set. But you then have a 38’ third and a 38’ second to add (yes the GN suburban still had second class in the ‘20s). So that makes five coaches to tool. I’ve built 1.75 of these (two coaches to finish on my 0 gauge one), and they are lovely rakes and definitely a must for a GN suburban layout, but hard work to build. I’m not such an expert on the quints, but I think they were all 43’. The all third looks similar to the GN quad one, so some commonality, but not much. Andy

I’d have thought commercially it would need to be a diesel that nobody has done. The 24 and 22/21/29 or an HST power car are probably the most obvious here. Or in steam terms, the standard 4 tank or a standard 4/5 tender engine. Of those the 29 would be my hope.

I’m plodding on with track laying. I now have four Boards fully laid and I’m starting on the wiring. I can only set up thee at once while I’m working inside, so here are the three which form the Fort William end of the layout, firstly looking East …and then West. I picked up a point kit at Kettering GOG show yesterday to form the turnout at the Mallaig end of the station. So can start laying that board soon - just got to build the point first which I’ve never tried before! Andy

I agree that they’re a must have, particularly for any layout set between KX and PBO. Given that post war they mainly ran with a mk1, Thompson or standard Gresley CK instead of the original CK, they could be produced with tooling for just two coaches, so quite achievable. And the twins sometimes ran on their own so people would only have to buy one twin. Andy

….and for many, they won’t be able to wait for the second run!

If you’re going flangeless , you could probably 3D print them marginally too small, so that they don’t actually do anything. But I think your plan A is best and failing that the internal bogie. Skinnylinney’s suggestion is what I was trying to explain to you on Monday night. Andy

They looked good on the club layout this evening Rob.

Their blurb says it works on Powercab and other similar DCC systems. I’d give them a ring and ask.