thegreenhowards

I know you'd 3D print the wheels if you could get away with it, but surely the chains holding the boiler down would be better modelled in brass!

Just catching up on this thread after a few days away - a lot of reading!

I chose the transition era not because I remember it as a kid (too young), but because Deltics and 40s were my first loves and I wanted to include steam. I also hate 47s, so my period finishes in 1962 just before the first 47 arrived at Finsbury Park!

In O gauge, where I spend the majority of my time now, I’m modelling Glenfinnan station in the 1970s/ 80s (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/173956-glenfinnan-station-in-o-gauge/). That gets round the 47 problem (they weren’t allowed) and allows me to run steam on the Jacobite. I will probably also run it in 1950/60s and possibly even 1930s guise as the infrastructure didn’t really change.

Andy

On 24/03/2023 at 08:37, MJI said:

Only knew one football fan when young  all i can remember was a change in bag colour as he changed team from one random northern to another.

He clearly wasn’t a proper football fan then, as proper fans don't change teams!

I say this as my own childhood choice sinks towards the third tier, but I will still be there at every home game next season.

I got sidetracked from building my Glenfinnan layout this afternoon as I was going through a set of locos which our club has obtained from an estate loft clearance.  One of these was a Hornby Terrier, Rolvedon. This reminded me that I had an old Wills(?)  J69 body lurking in one of my projects drawers. I built this in my teenage years but I don’t think it ever had a chassis - if it did, I have no idea what happened to it! Now I have produced a J69 in O gauge using a 3D printed body resting on a Dapol Terrier chassis, so I thought , why not do the same in 00?  

It fitted remarkably easily, with just a little white metal to remove.  I’ve attached it using a couple of plasticard pads on the bottom of the white metal and self tapping screws. So, after two hours work, we have a working J69.

It’s looking a bit rough as befits a body which has been knocking around for 40+ years. I will have to source some steps,  buffers and some detailing parts and find a crew to hide the fact that there is no cab detail. I then need to think about either tidying the paint or redoing it - probably the former. As for an identity, I think a few of these acted as pilots at GN stations, so i will chose open of those.

It’s nowhere near the standard that Accurascale’s will be, but their’s provided me with a kick up the backside so that, after a 40 year wait, I have a working J69.

Andy

PS Anyone want a Hornby Rolvedon body?!

Better forget that new job Rob…you’re not going to have time for it!

The Gauge O Guild shows are excellent for specialist retailers - there aren’t so many boxes to shift in O Gauge. Even that rarity the lessor spotted D&S were present at Kettering recently. Danny is still selling his O gauge kits but has no online presence so suspect that these shows represent most of his sales.

Dapol had good sized stand, but the biggest (as far as I can remember) were Ellis Clark and Ray Heard offering mainly second hand kit built stuff.

I spent too much!

Andy

Those who have been paying attention will have noticed that the last (westernmost) board shown yesterday isn't on the original plan I produced. I've extended the layout to six boards with a small 4'x1'1.5" extension to give the reverse curve. This is the pink board shown in the new plan below.

I thought this was important as this curve gives some character to the station area and houses the home signal which is necessary from an ops point of view. It also gives me space to provide a scenic break which I will do by bringing one of the concrete road overbridges a few hundred metres closer to the station.

I did have a busy weekend planned but I’ve got Covid so I’m consigned to ‘barracks’ instead. I’m not feeling too bad, so got on with track laying on the West of the station yesterday and this morning. This has extended from the end of the platforms to two more boards which contain the gentle reverse curve as the track heads West from Glenfinnan as shown here and in the post above.

My take on it looks like this.

At that point I’d just applied the glue. It’s now under a lot of weight as shown below. Hopefully it will dry over night in the garage and I can do some wiring tomorrow.

I’ve now finished the scenic track laying and I’ve just got to think about fiddle yards. Initially it will fit into my garden circuit, but I want to take it to exhibitions as well so will need some portable fiddle yards.

Andy

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Andy

 

Ah, Looking at your models, it must be a pair of D157s then, being made from Hornby shortie sleepers. 🥴

 

Thinking about things I could alter one side to make a D227. 🤔

 

Over to the man himself. 👉

 

That is if he is talking to me. Well last night I suggested I could solve all his running problems by converting his layout to DC and loan him some Lima diesels. 🥊🥊

D.157s are easier. I did attempt to build scratchbuild  a D.227 from plasticard, but it looked a mess. The corridor side is the same for both.

Andy

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hi Andy

 

There are two D227s under construction for Gilbert.......I just need to be in the mood to finish them.

Clive,

Mine is nearing completion. It’s based on laser cut plastic sides from Roy Mears. The rest is cobbled together from MJT and 247 bits and pieces.

Note the different window arrangement compared to the D.157 (I made this by cutting and shutting Kirk kits). 
 

Andy

50 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Ha ha!

He may well finish the build, but then he has to paint them in a variety of liveries!

2 hours ago, great northern said:

It does thanks Andy, but could you turn your attention to the 7.45 Aberdeen, which on Fridays had " 2 SLS 56 70." Was that poor second class passengers who had to sleep in their seats? This is the train I'm hoping to be able to run.

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

6 hours ago, great northern said:

I've been trying to cross reference the WTT details, number of berths and weight, with the information in Longworth Harris and Parkin, but I'm not getting very far.

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

10 hours ago, great northern said:

Have we any experts on LNER/BR sleeping cars on here please? I'm getting a bit confused.

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

3 hours ago, hmrspaul said:

or simply all mixed together as the AB wagons had through air pipes, it is why many had a TOPS code with B as the third letter. And this did lead to a few very nasty accidents as staff miscalculated the brake capacity. 

 

Paul

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

28 minutes ago, richardw1970 said:

A magnificent layout, despite following it on here I really wasn't prepared for the size! Really does look like the real thing even though I only drive over it with the modern rationalised layout.

 

One very minor bit of constructive criticism was that loco's pulling a train do not have the tail lights on but a few did yesterday, there should never be any red lights apart from at the very rear of the train. With the fantastic attention to detail on everything else this minor change would complete the picture.

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.

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

9 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

I think you (and I for that matter) live back in the world where new products are pushed through multi page adverts in all of the railway magazines. 

 

Today I am told, you do the marketing through TV reality programs, UTube box opener videos, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram messages.  Much of which costs zilch.

 

I am afraid that "not burdening the trade with extra stock costs" actually means "we are looking to go 100% e-commerce with this brand and are cutting out all of the middle man operations."  That way Hornby maximise their margins although I would expect some impact on their own stock holding costs.   If they are successful, expect that retailers will be more and more squeezed out of the Hornby market.

 

Welcome to the new future.  ☹️

 

 

Edit to add: the other way to market the product/concept is to send samples to reviewers for articles in the model railway magazines - instead of paid for advertisements.  Cost = 1 model of the range versus a full page ad.

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