airnimal

I managed a 40 mile round trip today with my older brother. We went to a pub for lunch that I had not been in for 60 years. I don't remember if I was allowed in side at that time or we had to eat in the garden but our dad took us all over Cheshire and Derbyshire as children. So we had dinner at the Smoker at Plumley a few miles from Knutsford. The weather was kind to us without any wind which was unusual. 40 miles 10 years ago was a doddle but it's getting harder every time I go out now. Not sure how long it will be before I look at a E-bikes but I will put it off as long as I can.

We had a good ride today on the Middlewood way to Bollington. It was only a round trip of about 25 miles but it was good to get out. We had dinner at the Poaches Inn in Bollington which serves excellent food and good beer. At this time of the year I struggle to get out because I suffer badly from the cold so any miles is a bonus.

Cycling has been part of my life more or less from birth. Dad never drove or owned a car. That's me in the chair on the back of the tandem when I was about 18 months old. You are never to old to ride a bike. When I retired at 65 my brother and myself went with a friend to Romania for a fortnight and we climbed the Transfargarasan road which reaches 7.700' in height. We have been to Cuba, Cambodia, Sri Lanka as well as many other places My friend and brother were both 68 at the time and we all still ride today. My bikes are a Bromton that I used when I was still working, a Spa steel frame tourer to used in this country and a Airnimal folder for taking overseas. When overseas travel resumes we hope to continue as long as we can and at the age of 70 I hope I have many more years left even though I can't climb the very steepest hills or go quite as far as I use to.

I went for a pint at one of my locals with a friend last night and had a couple of pints of stout. First was Milk Stout by Bristol beer factory at 4.5% and very pleasant followed by Voodoo stout at 5% from Ossett brewery. I preferred the milk stout more to my taste but my friend was the other way round. But on the bar was Sarah Hughes dark ruby at 6%. This used to be labelled as dark ruby mild but they have dropped the mild from the pump clip. Unfortunately this wasn't going on until one of the others has run out. So I am hoping that there will be still be some available on Friday when my next visit is planned.

Not a lot happening here at present. I am not a winter person at all preferring the heat and light of summer as much as possible. I have painted the lamps and fixed the brackets to the uprights. I will have to find out about the tail lamps on brake vans on the LNWR and how many would be used. With the hole on the middle of each end for a lamp, but only the veranda end has other lamp brackets. So does this mean the the vans always ran with the veranda facing outwards ? But you would still be able to see the side lamps which ever way the vans would be facing. There is still a lot of work to do on this pair so I don't expect to finish them anytime soon.

I have managed to make the bracket that swings out to hold the lamp from a small off cut of etch. The lamps are loco lamps but I have modified the base by turning the square part that goes in the lamp socket. They are quite tricky to make as moving parts because there isn't a great amount of metal to solder the pivot bar. I may end up with soldering them up solid.

The good lady has gone to lunch with the girls so rather than take it up on myself to start the painting of the kitchen ( didn't dare choose the colour dear ) I had a look to see if I could do a small job on one of the brake vans. The first ones I have made for myself have the original lamp iron brackets but for a change I thought I would model one with the second type which swing out from behind the door pillars. So I cut a couple of strips of waste etch and drilled a couple of holes before soldering a pair of turned down lace pins in. Taking a piece of 40thou OD brass tube I filed a flat edge on one side before cutting a small part off. I then soldered this to the flat strip while holding it in a pair of tweezers. It is slightly over scale and I will probably trim it down before painting. I drilled a pair of holes in the end pillar and cut the lace pins to size. When I finally fit these brackets I will fill in the fixing holes an touch up the paintwork. I now have to make the swinging brackets to hold the lamps.

This the kit that I found in my goodies box. With my history of kit making surly even I can't make a mess of something so simple to assemble. The whole body has only 4 parts to glue together and the fit looks as though the join will be invisible. I don't think I will start this just yet ( we never start a new project before we finish all the others do we ! ) because I hear grumbling that now you have finished the paintwork in the bedroom no 1 there is the kitchen and the other 2 bedrooms to dec................. Oh well !

I have just discovered in my box of tricks my prototype early pale grey casting of a brake van. I will make this up and paint it in two tone livery. Also discovered is a LNWR meat van that I took in part payment for building one of the brake vans for a friend. I wonder what other goodies I can find in my Aladdin's cave, I know I have disposed of lots of parts that I will probably never use.

WM183, thanks you for comments regarding the castings. All the casting for this brake van were made from masters by myself. The body is a one piece resin casting and all the others are in brass. This model was produced to satisfy 3 friends who wanted me to build them a couple of vans each. Instead of scratch build the same van many times ( I wanted a couple for myself ) it was easier to make a limited run and sell the surplus on privately. I didn't intend to make any money from kits as long as I broke even. There are a few castings spare if anybody wants the few remaining parts. PM if you are interested but there are only a few left.

Added the first footboard with pillars cut from .7mm nickel wire. I filed the ends before bending at right angle taking care not to cause a break at the fold. It was fairly easy to tack solder the first leg and get the hight right before soldering the other pillars.

I have finished the paintwork in the first bedroom so I hopefully have earned enough brownie points to get the afternoon in the workshop. I can't start the other rooms just yet because our eldest daughter and husband / grandchildren are coming tomorrow. So I have started to add the brakegear before I fit the footboards. I have cleaned up the castings and soldered a length of angle to the bottom so they can be screwed to the floor. This makes painting so easier.

Moving on with these brake vans I now have glued the doors in the one which has them slightly open. One side is open quite a way and the other side just a small amount. There is still plenty to do but I am not in any hurry to finish them. I still have plenty of dec............ to do. Afraid not. I am proud of her for she has led a fascinating life leaving home at 16 to follow a passion for horses and show jumping which she did for about 12 years. Then she took up gliding and then sail boarding and wind surfing before scuba diving. She became an instructor in scuba diving and opened her own diving school in Fiji where she lived for a few years before doing the same in the Seychelles. There she met a archaeologist who was finding exhibits for a private museum in Houston in Texas. She then lived in Houston for many years from where she crewed ocean going yachts around the world. In her late 40's she returned home and went to university to study computer engineering. She obtained a first class degree and then met Mike her partner through sailing. They then spent several years sailing all over Europe in Mike's boat before Mike got cancer. They now live on a farm in Cornwall where Mike restores classic cars, vans and lorries and she does photography. They both take part in car rallies in there 1930's MG.

Compound 2632, the lady with the hair grip is my sister and she is sitting in the best seats because she paid for the whole trip for everyone, bless her. The other lady is my better half and neither are on RM web. Rather than start a new build I am revisiting some of the half finished projects from the past. First will be a couple of brake vans from my own kits. These are left over bits at the end of the run because I had a couple of sub standard parts that needed using up. I have run out of certain etch parts so I am trying to find alternatives to use instead . One body has the doors cut out so that they can be glued in the open position. I have several photographs of these vans with the doors open so it will make a change from the others. This one is going to be a proper mongrel made up from lots of bits from the spares box including wheels with different axles and the wrong W-irons but they hopefully won't be noticed behind the axleboxes and footboards. I need to find some brake wheels for the veranda. I think they are 2' OD with 6 spokes.

Before you spend any money on training I would ask as many HGV drivers as you can what is the job is like and the problems involved. I did it for a short period of time in the 1980's and the hassle was unbelievable. Perhaps I was unlucky but I got out of it as soon as I could. I did try again in 2004 but there was new issues to contend with with more problems so I went back to engineering.

Lidl's had a beer collection from last Thursday, so i bought a few different cans. This one is from Love Lane brewery in Liverpool and comes in at 10%. A very pleasant imperial stout. Also good news is one of my locals for 30 years which closed just before Christmas last is being refurbish complete with new paint. The worrying part about this is the sign outside showing Sky sports. Now when I wish to have a drink out I dont want Sky television in every room. The pub has 5 rooms which are all open and my fear is any television will dominate the old atmosphere of talking and live music. If this is going to be the case, I will not be returning.

Sadly the Joel Carrington wagon has gone to the breakers yard. I was not happy with the build or the progress and with the mojo being absent I decided that this one wasn't going to make it. But I have had a very good weekend away with my better half travelling on the Welsh Highland Railway. My sister and her partner who treated us to a trip recently on the Great Central Railway, treated us again to join them in the Pullman coach for a round trip from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. We were pulled by one of the Beyer Garratts which failed a couple of miles before Porthmadog. After about a hour we were rescued by one of the small diesels which dragged into Porthmadog. So the return trip was made by one of the double Fairlie's and the another diesel to Rhyd Ddu where we changed again to another of the Beyer Garratt's for the run into Caernarfon. So the round trip was by 3 steam engines and 2 diesels which was brilliant. The Welsh HIghland did a very good job what could have been a disaster under the circumstances. When the mojo returns I hope to get back in the workshop again as well as finishing the dec.............

Progress is very slow on this wagon but have done a small amount this morning with the end stanchions and the coupling plates. And lady luck has shined on me because on the photograph I am working from show a large oval builders plate unde the centre of the doors. Looking through my bits box I found a pair of W.H. Davies works plates from 1880. They are the same size as my photograph so with a bit of modellers license i am going to use them. No 1 rules ! I have also done a very small amount of dec.............. to keep in the good books if that's possible.

My good lady has gone out for coffee and cake with one of her friends, so I took advantage of the situation and decided that the workbench was more attractive than the dec.................... So I have started to put the ironwork on including the interior diagonals which come out the bottom on the solebars. I will put square nuts mostly on this wagon rather than hexagonal ones because I believe it was probably built by a local builder and not one of the big wagon makers. It was also probably built in the 1880's when most private owners used square nuts.

After a good night sleep I woke up feeling better and without any pain which is a blessing. We have the grandsons on a Wednesday and with the weather being bright and sunny we went to the park picking conkers. So when the little one was having his afternoon sleep, I had an hour in the workshop and replaced the broken side. The spacing on the door looks a lot better after I drew with a pencil how the letters would sit on the sides. With a renewed pair of sides I think I will continue with the build unless I find anything else wrong with it.

There is not a lot of progress on this Joel Carrington lime wagon and what there is, is more disappointment. My mind has not really been in the right place over the past week or so. I had another biopsy last week and the procedure was slightly different than last time. I had it in another part of the Hospital because where I had it done last time had been flooded since then. They also changed the anaesthetic from tablet form to injections which was quite painful considering where they were. I have been very tender for the past week which doesn't leave one in a great mood for modelling. Never mind it's done now so just waiting to find out what they have found. We also had the grandsons for the weekend which was fun but hard work. When I looked at the wagon I was not happy that I had got the door opening the right size. I dont have a proper drawing to scale of this wagon so I am using the ones of similar wagons with a bit of guess work thrown in. I decided to sketch the letters on the side to see about the spacing when I realised that the door opening was to wide. I had used the drawing with a 4' 2" door instead of one that was 3' 6" so that the letters were never going to fit the space. So I removed the side by cutting the old ones away and making new one of the correct size. This was the day after Hospital which may have accounted for my not being in the right frame of mind because I glued one side of the new parts on upside down. Trying to remove the faulty side was met with a broken side. As yet I haven't found the will to make a replacement. I did think I might go to the Scaleseven event in Somerset this weekend but with the fuel situation as is I have decided that this could be problematic. So I will stay at home and finish the dreaded dec..............

The Getty photograph of Bradwell Wood wagon was featured in a book on the NLR published jointly by the National Railway and Science Museums in 1979. It doesn't mention who took the photograph only that they were official NLR ones. Close up of the wagon brings many features including both square nuts as well as hexagonal ones on the solebars together. The corner plates and other ironwork have a variety of coach bolts some with washers behind but the majority without. I know this would be difficult to achieve in 4mm scale but I model in 7mm and try to include them when ever possible.

I have marked out the body from 60 thou plasticard and scribed all the planks with my usual Olfa cutter. I had to modify the ends because I got the height wrong being to tall. The Exactoscale W-irons I am using are for 12" solebars but this wagon has only 11" ones. I am going to ignore this fault and invoke rule 1. I don't think you will see the small amount of extra W-irons behind the springs.

Many years ago I was told that Ken Werrett,s father had a wagon repair yard where Ken would measure up wagons and jot down the dimensions in a note book. He then did his drawings years later. I was told that he lived in a caravan that was crammed full of drawings piled high. I tell this without any evidence or proof and if I have blackened his name then I can only apologise to his memory. Without his drawings in MRN / RM / MRC I would not have made as many models that I did in the 60s and 70s.

I agree that when folded over the W-irons I usually reinforce with solder but the gap must be clear for the carrier to slide. I did reinforce the ones on the GWR van but then spent time cleaning out the slot for the carrier to slide. So my solution to the folded tags was a lot easier to achieve with less cleaning up. So I have started on another dumb buffer lime wagon. This one is a 8 ton one for Joel Carrington lettered for Buxton Lime Works. But he was a resident of Oldham where he had a depot but I am not sure if he owned a quarry in Buxton or just obtained his lime there. This might not get very much further because of the dreaded dec................. and another social event and then hospital for my biopsy on Wednesday. I have made the basic frame and and screwed the wheels sets in place.