thegreenhowards

Today we feature the 1835 KX-Hull which also carried a BZ van for Doncaster, a BG for Leeds and the catering portion on the rear also went to Leeds on Mon- Thu. This is the 1958 formation headed by 60048, Doncaster returning to its namesake town. Here is the full train. The catering portion was formed FO/ RK and I’m pleased to say that the Pacific models coach board stock on with tacky wax worked well for the FO (which is normally part of my 1615 Cleethorpes set and boarded for that). Some of you have been interested in my experiments with Hunt couplings. I’m getting to the tail end of fitting my stock now with generally the more difficult coaches left. The Thompson RK has heavy duty white metal bogies and had hook and goalpost couplings. I’ve managed to fit the swivelling sort of Hunt couplings (which I think are designed for pre NEM pocket wagons) to the end of the floorpan on this. I mounted the coupling on 3mm of plasticard. It worked fairly well but did derail once on the inside of a Peco curved point. I think it will be fine for 36” radius curves (which all of mine are apart from curved points), but I may have to tweak it for certain situations.

Good question, I’m not sure. It was on the sheet and I fancied it so I used it. That was several years ago. The sheet has both arrangements, so I’ll do some checking and use the more common variety when I’ve sorted out some posts. Thanks. That’s a useful guide on how to construct one. Are the posts plasticard? Although if Dylan can copy that design, I’ll have a few! Regards Andy

I’ve finished backdating my Ivatt Atlantic today. This was Bachmann/ Locomotion 62822 in weathered condition. This wasn’t really right for Gresley Jn as it was allocated to Grantham and I doubt it made the London area in BR days except for the farewell railtour. So I needed a Hitchin or KX allocated example. I spent quite a while hunting around for one without the handrails wrapped round the front end as the real 62822 didn’t have this feature and I wanted to make the conversion easier. However I should have looked at my model as Bachmann have modelled the wrap round handrails despite it being incorrect for 62822! Once this fact was established the choice was easy. There is a lovely picture of 2881 in 1948 on a rake of twins in East Coast from KX by Eric Neve (p83). It’s in well weathered LNER livery, so I needed to backdate that. Here is my attempt. Blending the weathering back in to match the factory applied weathering (which was quite good) was quite tricky but I’m happy with the final result. Look out for her debut on Gresley Jn soon.

Hi Dylan, It’s funny you should mention that as it was your birthday email to me yesterday with a special offer which made me examine your website and see that. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be right for many GN stations as they didn’t tend to have raise letters or such fancy framing. What I need is the frame like on the left in this screenshot from the video (sorry about the poor quality) onto which I can stick my printed boards. Do you have anything like that? Andy

It’s time for the one through train if the day from Moorgate to Ivatt (aka Dunstable). This is the 1803 from Moorgate and was hauled by an N7, so it’s yet another outing for my one and only N7, 69637. I’ve been doing some painting of the wall here to give a more realistic sky. The photos show that I need to go back and touch up a couple of bits! I’ve also fitted inserts into the tunnel so you can’t see through from one bore to the next which is definitely an improvement. As you’ve seen lots of pictures of the N7, here is one of the rear of the quad art. And at rest in platform 2. The video shows the train leaving Gresley Jn

I’m sorry Tony, I should have been clearer. I actually have the printed running in boards (from Scalescenes) which I can print as often as I like. It’s the posts and frame that I need to replace my rudimentary matchsticks as shown below. If Ian scratch built them then I guess I’ll have to do the same. I was hoping there was a kit for them! Andy

Well if I’m not allowed to vote for my Alma Mater (Dulwich), I’ll have to have my second choice and go for the one I work on every Wednesday (COVID permitting), Stowe.

Sorry to rake over old ground. I remember many discussions on coach formations but not those. I must be getting old!

Tony, I’ve been tasked by @St Enodocof this parish to improve my running in boards on Gresley Jn. I watched the video of Little Bytham this morning and was taken by the running in boards / station nameboards at the ends of the platform which look just like many of the ones on the southern end on the GN (unsurpringly!). Can I ask how you made them? Andy

Tony, I love all the pictures with the smokebox door weathering. However, my eye was drawn to the interesting formations behind the locos (as you may not be surprised to hear!). The first and fifth photos (60112/56) are clearly of the same train in the same spot and have a lovely ex streamliner twin behind the drawbar. It must be 1959 or 60 because of the wind deflectors on St Simon but I can’t find any train like it in the CWN. Do you have any idea what the train is or where the shots were taken? Andy

An up Cambridge working today with short term KX resident, BR Standard 5, 73157. This is a DJH kit bought off eBay and has been a real nightmare to get working well. It managed to throw its worm gear off within 2 minutes of being put on the track and the valve gear has got mangled on several occasions. Once I got it running OK on DC it was time to try DCC and that identified lots of intermittent short circuits which I’ve had to eliminate one by one with tweaks of pick ups or smears of epoxy. Two burnt out decoders later and I think it’s working OK (touch wood!). Luckily I only use cheap Chinese decoders (LAIS) for non sound applications. I’ve added a few details including these lovely brass tender plaques from Modelmaster - it still needs brakes though! The train is the 1715 from Cambridge which was formed of a standard corridor outer suburban set with a vanfit added at Baldock. I presume vanfit just means a normal bauxite liveried 4 wheel van. But maybe it should be something longer like a CCT or a d.120 BY - any views? Here’s a video to prove that it does now work.

I like Tintagel having spent a couple of happy days exploring the place.

That would be it. Thanks.

Another one for Graham to correct!

Tonight we’re back to suburban trains. It’s the turn of the 1820 KX- Baldock headed by L1, 67785. It was formed of a standard non corridor outer suburban six set with a Mk 1 SLO strengthener on the front. I don’t have a spare SLO so I’ve used a Thompson CL but I hope it gives the right impression. To see the whole set you’ll have to watch the video. I’m afraid it’s a bit poorly focussed in the distance but the loco comes into focus as it approaches the camera.

Tonight it’s another cop for the Gresley Jn trainspotters as D206 makes her entrance. This is a Bachmann D211, renumbered to D206 and with a few mods to reflect the pilot batch of EE Type 4s (thanks to Clive for the help on this). I’ve shown her on Coulsdon Works but not in action on Gresley Jn. She is on the 1830 KX-Leeds/ Halifax/ Hull which was a similar rake to the White Rose but this time the dining pair are the correct way round. Here is the video. I’ve replaced the Bachmann sound chip which never worked well (hence it sat in its box for several years!) with a Youchoos Zimo version and now it works well.

Wrong company and era for me, but thanks for the offer. I often wonder about that when I’m fitting corridor connectors to my Kirk coaches. I wonder whether we, as modellers, have got conditioned to seeing a bit of plastic sticking out and therefore it looks strange when it’s not there. Surely the bit of plastic is just representing a folded up corridor connector? I now stick my ‘Fair Price Models’ (1/5 the price of modellers Mecca) corridor connectors straight into the end and I think it looks OK. Certainly when they’re coupled up its hard to notice. Someone please shout if I’m making a schoolboy error! Andy

Tony, 30mins per coach is very impressive. Does that include painting or do they come ready painted? As for pulling power, my Atlantic tender locos will just about pull 9 RTR coaches so it should be possible. Is it possible that the bogies are stiff in turning thus causing increased friction in the reverse curves. Why not try an I3 with 9 Hornby coaches and see if it can manage that? That would identify whether it’s the loco or coaches at fault. Andy

I think that what’s called over engineering - you should have worked with Network Rail!

Good idea. The majority are Pacific Models. They come printed on thick photo quality paper and I’ve mounted them on double sided tape. They are removable but wouldn’t take regular handling. I will try mounting a couple on thin card or plasticard and then using tacky wax.

I did wake up in Selhurst depot one night having had one too many at the pub and fallen asleep on the train. I think the driver was marginally more embarrassed than I was - I didn’t tell him I was staff!

It would be a huge fag for all my Mark 1s, but could well be worth trying on the catering cores. I’ll see what I can do. Anyone got any tips?

I did think of that! Seriously a blood and custard pair would be nice. I could use them on a 1956 all Thompson version of the Norseman and keep the maroon ones for Leeds trains. But they’re well down to do list and I was thinking that Hunt couplings would let me cut back on some of my coaching fleet by making it all more adaptable. Andy

Jonathan, Yes it was deliberate....but probably wrong! I dithered long and hard over it. The reason they’re like they are is that they have ‘King’s Cross- Leeds’ roof boards on this side and ‘The Norseman’ roof boards on the other side. The CWN showed the RF leading with the RSP behind. So I had three choices: 1. Put them in the right order with the kitchen and pantry separated (as a one) but the correct roof boards; 2. Put them in the wrong order (RSP leading) with the kitchen and pantry together and the correct roof boards; or 3. Turn them round, so that they are in the right order with the pantry and kitchen together but with the wrong coach roof boards. I suspected that what I did was wrong but wasn’t 100% sure, so I thought I’d stick it on like that and see if anyone commented. I figured that it would be Gilbert, Andrew (Headstock) or you who pulled me up if I was wrong. Often the CWN states ‘Kitchen North end’ or similar but it didn’t in this case which made me think that I may not be wrong. Looking at the photos the roof boards are almost illegible, so I would have probably got away with option 3. But I would have known! Thanks for bringing it up. Now I need to find another way of modelling this train - I may need detachable roof boards! Andy

OK, I'll rise to the bait! Of course it can. DCC sound is just recorded off the loco. So it could make exactly that sound. The problem might be fitting a big enough speaker into a 4mm loco to do it justice, but in an A1 it should be possible. It would certainly be possible in 7mm.