MikeOxon

Great stuff! I love 'working' models and remember those old Tri-ang models, with opening doors and drop-down wagon sides - so mush more fun than today's super-accurate models I think you've done a superb job. Mike

I have built several of these 'Brassmasters' chassis and can vouch for their ability to go round corners! They handle the 15" curves corners on my old Hornby-Dublo track with ease I have written some notes on building these chassis at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1405/entry-13324-six-wheelers-wip/ Mike

The pics look splendid. I do like the way the leaves look as though they should flutter in the breeze

Your coal rails look splendid. I have always been wary of fabricating these because of the difficulties I perceive in aligning the rails and fixing them to supports. Perhaps you could share some more information on how you constructed yours? I'd forgotten the rather basic tank construction, with that dreadful seam running along the length. I seem to have concealed mine rather well (too long ago to remember how I did it), so hope you have similar success. The backhead looks good and you seem to have accommodated the chassis gears very effectively. The Bachmann chassis does seem to be fitting very well. i hope your ankle recovers soon although, if it enables you to spend more time modelling, it's not so bad a thing Mike

It's good to see your efforts being rewarded in this way. i found the development of this model, as described through your blog, to be a stimulating and inspiring read Mike

Hi Don - I agree with you about Charles. I think, after the heady days of the 'Races to the North',, railways were seeming a little dull in the early 20th century. Designers were becoming more pre-occupied with economy than with speed. Motor-cars and the news from America about the Wright brothers were far more exciting. The railways tried to re-create a little more glamour in the 1930s but, sadly, the characters in my tale vanished into the morass of the first world war. Mike

Thank you for commenting, Chris. I once travelled in the rear coach of a DMU, which seemed to have no damping, and I had to move because of the swaying, so I have sympathy with your point! I think the consensus was that the horse box and carriage truck should be at one end or the other, so that they could be detached and unloaded easily. I think it looks 'sensible' with the horse box at the front and the PBV at the back. Unfortunately, I've never seen an illustration of a 'real' private train like this one. Mike

Thank you for the link, Mikkel. Those photographs on the Malvern Hills are amazing! I think Charles was more a contemporary of Ellis' daughter, Mary, and I feel sure that he would have admired her "adventurous taste for motorcycle racing". Charles would also have been a contemporary of Laurence Pomeroy who, after an apprenticeship with the North London Railway at Bow, joined Vauxhall Motors in 1905, where he re-designed the engine to provide double the power! This engine was later used in the famous 'Prince Henry' Vauxhall of 1911 - one of the first true 'sports' cars. Charles would have liked to get behind the wheel of one of those! Mike

Thank you, Mikkel. I see what you mean about the 'steam' look. The photo was a bit underexposed in the foreground, so I used the 'burn' tool in Photoshop and inadvertently produced that effect The scene is a little later than my usual timeframe - I guess, about 1905, since the vans have the large GW marking but the engine still has red frames. Time has moved on and Blanche has become a pillar of society, married to an Earl, whereas the seemingly staid Amy eloped to Italy with an artist!!! Another 10 years and their sunlit Edwardian world will vanish for ever. The old carriage on its truck is well past its "best before" date and Charles is an enthusiastic 'motorist'. I like to encourage non-native English speakers to expand their vocabulary! Mike

For the last couple of weeks, I have been dealing with various track issues and tidying up bits of scenery, none of which makes for very interesting blog writing! I noticed, however, in Mikkel's workshop thread some comments about Witney blanket trains, which reminded me of a photo that I had seen of a GWR 'Queen' class 2-2-2 heading such a train. This seems a rather unlikely combination but I eventually tracked the photo down to Colin Maggs' book "The Branch Lines of Oxfordshire" (Amberley, 2010). Spurred on by this revelation, I have been searching through the North Leigh archives and found the following photo of No. 1124 heading just such a train out of Witney. The stock is a typical mix of wooden 'Mink' vans in varying heights, which gives 'character' to the train. It is possible that this train might be heading towards Farthing, carrying a load of blankets for the military garrison there. (I'm not sure if Mikkel has ever mentioned that feature but it could be an interesting source of traffic and personnel). If not Farthing, it might have been Devizes, or one of the other Army towns clustered around Salisbury Plain. In a previous post, I showed a 'mock-up' of my then-proposed model of GWR No.184, next to a Dean 'Stella' class 2-4-0. I'm now able to show a photograph of the actual models, although No.184 still needs a lot of work to turn it into a fully-working model. At the moment, it can be pushed along by a motorised Dean 2,500 gal. tender. I'm also not satisfied with the paint finish. I have not been able to tone down the excessively glossy finish - matt varnish made it look 'blotchy' and the current, supposedly 'satin' finish is still too glossy for my taste. I think the comparison makes the Dean design look very 'pugnacious' against the older (1853) low-slung and lightly-built E.B.Wilson engine. For me, there is so much character in these old engines, and they have the advantage for modellers that they are (usually) of quite simple design. Mike

I think you have judged the depth of field very well. i especially like the way the two figures are well-defined and 'make' the composition. Interesting that Matthew Bagnet wrote about Farthing - i thought his line was musical instruments! Mike ps the photo of a 'Queen' heading a blanket train appears in "The Branch Lines of Oxfordshire" by Colin Maggs (Amberley, 2010)

Splendid early photo, Mikkel. The shunter must have held his pose for ages as it's rare to see figures so sharp As usual, you have captured lots of atmosphere. I do worry a little, though, that if the kit was so warped to start with, will it not creep back to the curve again? Mike

Hey! - they're on my patch I've even seen a photo of a blanket train with a 'Queen' 2-2-2 in charge - bet it slipped a bit! Mike

I guess if you want to 'be' right, then you have to go P4. In OO, it's a case of trying to 'look' right, as far as is possible. Having done some scratchbuilding, I have come to appreciate the compromises that the commercial manufacturers have to make. The gap between OO wheels and outside frames is a particularly difficult problem to manage visually.

It does look to be going well! It's nice to see daylight below the tanks and your frames are a lot straighter than mine Perhaps I should add mine to the list for re-building. Mike

With all the filler you're slapping on, I'm thinking 'Fury' ?

I know exactly what you mean about 'grinding to a halt'. I find that it's best not to push these things but just to get on with enjoying something else. My GWR No.182 is stuck, awaiting a few little things, such as a tender, motor, and gearbox but I think it will have to wait until the longer evenings, next Winter. In the meantime, it look pretty sitting in a siding. I think I might recognise your strange 0-6-0 - just add a few more wheels and it'll be fine Mike

It's what it's supposed to be about .... though you will have your moments, such as when you've spent a day correcting fault 'A', only to find that faults 'B' and 'C' have mysteriously appeared while you were doing it. There are lots of suppliers of modelling 'bits' who are worth finding. A bit of Google searching should unearth several and don't forget the 'search' facility on this site, which will help to find loads of useful information.

Your model looks very nice! I agree about using Mekpak (or similar) - it gives a much better and cleaner joint. Isn't it great re-visiting your youth I'm well into second childhood now and do find that the patience that comes with the years is the best asset of all, when model buildling. A nice thing about kit and scratch building is that you can always add more details later. I have loads of models that are missing brake gear and the like, because I tend to get distracted by something else and promise I'll get back to it later. If you are more interested in the overall layout, then a lot of these details are barely noticeable anyway. Now you've got going, I look forward to lots more pics! Mike

Good to catch up with Billy again. I'm not sure what he's on if he's seeing pink tractors, though Hope he gets over the diseasel soon.

The RCTS Locomotives of the GWR, Part Five, is a fount of knowledge on the evolution of all these classes and describes how they gradually merged into a common design. One complication was the re-building of Swindon classes at Wolverhampton and vice versa, which led to all sorts of 'hybrids' until about 1905. The 1854 class (Swindon) started as saddles and conversion to panniers started around 1910, except no.1868, which may have received them as early as 1905. The 1813 class (Swindon) started as side tanks and re-building with saddles started around 1894. Oddly, no.1853 (which is the number plate supplied by Wills) retained its side tanks until 1912, when it was fitted with panniers, never having carried a saddle! The 645/1501 class were the 'equivalents', built at Wolverhampton and most of these were always 'Northern division' engines. The most obvious visual difference from the Swindon engines was their shallow valances below the footplate, when compared with the deep and heavy valances applied at Swindon. That's only a superficial skim over the subject and, for modelling a particular prototype at a specific date, a thorough read of the RCTS booklet is necessary.

It's good to see it coming together. I thought of opening up mine but can't remember how I fixed it. I used a screw at the side, as in the original Hornby pannier, but it's still reluctant to separate. It's interesting that you've found the splashers to be slightly too close together - no wonder the Hornby chassis looks so bad, with its excessive wheel spacing.

I built one of these Wills body kits about 35 years ago, when it cost about £8 I managed to fit it onto an old Hornby 8750 Pannier chassis, which involved cutting away a lot of white metal, as I recall. It didn't seem to suffer from the loss, though I can see that the footplate looks slightly curved in the attached photo (not noticeable in practice) which might be a symptom of weakness. Looking at it now, it really needs a complete re-build! I had been oblivious to the fluted coupling rods issue but the fact that the Hornby chassis has the wrong wheelbase (even for its original application) is glaringly obvious and the motor intrudes into the cab. In addition, the cast number plates, which came with the kit, bear the number 1853, which belonged to the 1813 class. Although very similar to the 1854 class, the frames of the 1813 were shorter at the back and I don't think 1853 ever actually carried a saddle tank, being converted directly from side tanks to panniers! Wills seem to have been rather cavalier with their numbering, as I notice that the box in Mikkel's photo states '1804 class', whereas the real 1804 was a Wolverhampton loco of the 645/1501 class! I'll be interested to see how you get on with matching the body to the Bachmann chassis. Mike

A bit 'posh' to be termed a gadget but these 'Papilio' close-focus binoculars are brilliant for examining track problems in detail, to understand why things are de-raiing! Their special feature is that the lenses move closer together when focused closely, to maintain a fused image. They are good 'ordinary' binoculars as well.

Hi Mikkel. I suspect that track issues are going to continue to surface as it ages further but, for the present, all is running well! The first photo is from a transparency, re-photographed using my macro lens, as described on my website at http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/technic2.htm I find that there is a huge difference between still photography and video and confess to having little knowledge of the latter. I like to take my time studying a photograph, whereas video rushes by and forces one to follow at its own pace. As a dedicated photo-editor, I perhaps rue the fact that video is not so easy to edit, so I cannot crop out where the backscene ends, for example - you can even see my arm on the controller at one point! Similarly, I can place the still camera to hide the bases of the figures but the video reveals my attempts at deception Those old Airfix figures are really quite nicely moulded and I simply 'plonked' them down, to put a bit of 'life' into the photos. When I eventually get around to painting my newer figures (!), I shall take more care and make use of 'Tacky Wax' but I'm pleased you looked closely enough to notice such things. Mike