thegreenhowards

Indeed. They work in the shed (aka Atlantic House) next to where I’m working on Stowe!

Got to be the H2 although Clive will be telling me that was designed in Doncaster!

I love the rake of coaches Gilbert. It’s difficult to tell which are RTR and which are kits such is the quality of both. I presume the three blood and custard Thompsons are the RTRs...but only because I know Bachmann make these.

I have a foot in both camps. I have built high level gearboxes - most recently for my SEF J6 and they are better value than DJH and it’s possible to get a better fit for a particular engine. However, the DJH approach is so easy allowing more time for other modelling which I enjoy more and find less stressful. Let’s face it, there is plenty to go wrong with a motor gearbox combo! I see it as a bit like using a Portescap rather than ‘rolling your own’ in the olden days At £60 (the old Mashima based price) I was prepared to pay the premium for an easy life, particularly for a pacific. But the current price (over £70) makes me think twice. I’m currently using up a batch of Portescaps stripped from GWR engines (The only good part of the loco! - bought for £25 each and sold on via ebay without their motor). When they’re finished, then I’ll have to think! Andy

I’ll vote for Maunsell’s schools class. I’m particularly fond of these as probably the pinnacle fo 4-4-0 engines in the UK and because I work on restoring one (Stowe) when Covid doesn’t stop me.

As it seemed to be mineral wagon ‘show and tell’ time, I thought I’d post mine. Here is a picture of my newly finished empty mineral train. The first 18 wagons have all been through the weathering shop recently and fitted with ‘Tony’s Trains’ couplings Like this: I find these an excellent compromise between inelegant tension locks and impractical 3 links. And here is a video showing my loaded and empty mineral trains passing. Apologies to those of you who follow my Gresley Jn thread and have already seen these photos. Andy

I didn’t vote for a Derby engine, mainly out of ignorance of what came from there. And I’m now confused is this steam only or all traction? If the former, then Black 5 but if I’m allowed diesels, then it will have to be a Class 52, Western. I’d certainly vote for Southern works and if you go west of London, while the steam is all contemptible, there were some superb diesels!

J15 for me.

Away from D.210s, I’ve been finishing off my D.307 Tourist Twin. This you may remember was the subject of some debate 100(ish) pages ago about whether it should have domed or straight ends to the roofs. The conclusion, sadly, is that it should almost certainly have straight ends, but as the kit came with domed ends and I already have several straight ended plywood twins (which are otherwise identical in model form), I decided to keep this with domed ends as a might/ should have been (as this is consistent with the drawing but not the photographic evidence). Here is the finished twin. The interior was built from Southern Pride tables and Isinglass open seating (which Andrew has just released). The seats look very good to my eyes. They may be slightly over scale as I ended up with an almost non existent corridor down the centre of the coach. Alternatively it may be the thickness of the sides and side fixings which push the interior towards the centre. Either way, it doesn’t show with the body on and I’m pleased with the result.

I agree about CWNs and I have lots of the earlier ECML and GN mainline ones which detail capacity as you state (all from the Robert Carroll website - many thanks Robert). Unfortunately I don't have the suburban equivalents before 1958.

Easy choice - V2.

Hi Clive, I’m guessing as I don't have the relevant CWNs but I suspect that D.210s were mainly used on outer suburban services and that FC was reinstated post war and then removed again after the mark 1s displaced the Gresley and Thompsons on these services. I think inner suburban stuff pre mark 1 was nearly all quad arts. Andy

Thanks Andrew. I agree that they looked best in teak and fantastic on KX outer suburban services with an Ivatt Atlantic. I have now obtained a Masterclass Models version (as recommended by you and JW) which I intend to finish in teak for late ‘40s KX outer suburban services. I don’t have any suburban CWNs prior to 1958 which is why I was asking about the FC declassification but these services had FC, so I will assume that the D.210s would have had FC in this period. Andy

Morning Andrew, The CWN for 1958 shows the Hatfield-Dunstable trains as ‘Twin BS(6)-SL(7)’ which implies a declassified D.210 to me and this is born out by the photos you put on my workbench thread here. Are you saying that these coaches did, in fact, have First Class at this stage? Or maybe that it was reinstated post war, and then declassified again later - maybe when they were cascaded following the introduction of the Mark 1 non corridor stock? Andy

Andrew, You say that the D.210s had their 1st class reinstated after the war, but I’m pretty sure that the ones used on the Hatfield - Dunstable Shuttle in the ‘50s were declassified. Are you talking about the ones in the East Mids or more generally? Andy

As trailed yesterday, I’ll go for the Talisman for the best named train. I like all named trains, so I don’t have a worst.

Ahh, I missed that while speed reading to try and catch up. In that case I’ll go for The Silver Jubilee.

The Talisman for me.

Now there’s an idea. I still think it would need to be done in two stages. But you could ask people to nominate their favourite from the wish list poll (probably the bold headings) to create a shortlist. Then take the resulting shortlist, divide it into categories and ask people to vote on that - possibly on a knock out basis as I described earlier, or possibly just by broad category (LNER, GWR, BR etc.)

I do like those views from Spittal Bridge.

Gilbert, I was struggling because you said non-seaside and most of my favourite routes are coastal or branch lines to coastal resorts. I think I’ll go with the Avon valley route between Westbury and Bath. What happened to the coach poll? Given the huge range of possibly options I’d come up with 16 designs and then have a knock out competition with each round winner going on to play one if the other winners. E.g first round might include Thompson vs Bulleid and Gresley Vs Maunsell with the winners going on to play each other in the quarter final. I’m happy to help develop a list to start it off, but there are others more qualified than me! Andy

As I said this motor is the same as one which came in a Romford Bulldog box. But that is my only experience of them. When I bought it (about two weeks ago) I was assuming that I’d pop in a modern motor/ gearbox. But the chassis is not two brass sides, more like an old Hornby one (which may be the basis of it) as you can probably see here. I don’t know how i could fit a modern motor gearbox in that. Having said all that it’s quieter than a whining Portescap, so not too bad, and it looks good as I hope this video on my layout thread shows, so I’ll live with it. If I need to replace the motor in future, I think it would be a whole new chassis.

Deltic and Hymek version for me Although both are good.

Chris, I love these prototype comparison photos and your’s demonstrate that you’re getting very close to the real Richmond. Great work! I’d just say that the ladder in the background of the second photo looks slightly overscale! Andy

You might need to instigate SingleTransferable Vote to ensure continued Eastern dominance! I’ll go for a two tone green diesel preferably (Think Deltic) preferably with umber and cream Pullmans.