1466

1 hour ago, BMacdermott said:

And ditto that question from me, please.

 

Thanks

 

Brian

I hope I’m not muddying the waters but have you seen the respected CJL’s review in Model Rail 327 . He rates it as Super and says the 6 shell ventilators were added in  1924 or thereabouts.

im not an expert.

40 minutes ago, Adrock said:

Has anyone got the Modelu head lamps fitted over the Manor’s brackets? The slot appears to be too narrow at first glance, so may need drilling out - has anyone successfully done this?

 

Thanks

Yes , it’s possible without drilling . Mine may not be seated right down but it works .

Thanks for the heads up and I wish you a happy , fulfilling and successful day .

Regrettably , living near Epsom and with the M25 closure , I can’t attend .

However , please pass on my very best to all exhibitors . stand holders, demonstrators and the organisers . 
I’ll miss my annual trip to Bracknell but I can’t face sitting in a jam all day .

I tried to go to Abingdon on a similar occasion and turned back after 2 hours with an eta showing the closing time  of the show .

Like Arnie “ I’ll be back” next year .

EMGS 7368

Just now, 1466 said:

 

Beautiful work , Jack and you are so prolific.. 

2 hours ago, Jack P said:

Another update:

 

There's a bit to post from the last 10 months, so lets start with some stuff that i've done for other people:

 

Sonic Models A5, repainted and renumbered into plain black. Weathered also

 

 

 

 

Hornby LNER W1. I did some modifications to the trailing truck, in order to have the wheels sit on the track, and then weathered it.

 

 

 

A very glossy little Hornbny Peckett. She had all of the light grey bits painted black, glossed and then weathered - but I can't seem to find any photos of the weathering!

 

 

I also made some big strides on the other side of the workshop. The flooring and carpet is down, and the ply sheeting is up. It'll need to come off again for me to pack the insulation in, address some issues on the exterior wall, and to run cable for the remaining power points. 

 

I still have lighting to do. But we're on the home stretch!

 

 

More 7 1/4 stuff. The first night we went up, nothing was in steam, but we did get to drive the diesel around. The sunset was stunning that night.

 

 

Just over a week later, we were back, this time to drive K-36 482.

I'm not super familiar with American engines, but it sounded nice!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've also been working on a bit of kit-built GWR stock. The plan is to have a rake of GWR coaches in EM that can masquerade as some form of through train, from somewhere to somewhere else. This got a bit out of hand and somehow i've ended up with a few Corridor Colletts and 5 Hawksworth coaches.. Oops!

 

First up was a slaters Celerestory coach.

 

 

I enjoyed building the undeframe detail.

 

 

Sprung bogie. This thing is small.

 

 

I've also been working on the Shirescenes kit for the Siphon C. It's meant to fit the ratio Chassis for one of the brake coaches, but the chassis leaves a lot to be desired. I've got replacements W irons and springs, so i'll see where I get to with that. At this rate it probably would've been better to start from scratch! Is there another Siphon C kit out there? 

 

 

There is also the aforemnetioned Tunnel mouth and Wing walls. The wing walls were made out of Wills sheet, and the tunnel mouth is Bachmann scenecraft. I've painted them to match. This image really highlights the issue of the brick sizing being different. I'd tossed up the idea of making the tunnel mouth of of the wills sheets also, but decided to be lazy and just ditch the wing walls. I'm not too upset about this as the capping stones aren't right and there aren't any end abutments. A good learn though!

 

 

I'm lucky that Uncle Frank (Chuffer Davies of this parish) has come to the rescue of the Z. 

The chassis was re-built in EM, and I opted to use CSB. I hadn't realised quite how much of an issue this would pose with getting the motor and gearbox to sit and run nicely. 

Frank offered to take a look (as I was close to having the chassis running). He's since done a lot of work, and finished off the chassis for the most part. This is certainly something i'm really excited to have back on deck. The added pedigree from Frank will make this the star of my collection. 

 

 

Finally, there's another kit build i've been working on, it's not on it's proper chassis, but can anyone guess what this is?

 

 

More anon!

 I got home  late from a long flight on Sunday and  was only able to skim MRJ 303 with Gerry Beale’s article . I’ve had more time this morning to take it in . I’m reassured by the actual conversion to EM and equally inspired and daunted by the other works carried out by Gerry . The quality of the design , the product and Gerry’s further work shine though ! Just got to wait for Ultrascale to deliver their beautiful wheels now .

Thanks to all concerned .

Ken 

2 hours ago, Tony Teague said:

 

Interestingly, I too have heard nothing following an enquiry at the beginning of March - in my case for my breakdown train.

For my part , I’ve had excellent quality on 2 bespoke and stock orders recently. Quick turnaround and great communications . Usual disclaimer.

8 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

5524 sweeps in with an auto from Bridgend, passing the box and 5633 on the goods loop, just run around the van, which as soon as the auto clears into the platform it will move over to the exchange loop ready to place it on the rear of the loaded coal wagons; it will then run around the train ready for the 6 miles to Ogmore Jc yard, which will take the best part of an hour.  It is 13.10. 
 

The lump of what looks like earwax is a rock face waiting to be painted in an experimental position.  This too shall pass. 

Great to see more progress, as always supported by an accurate explanation.

Ive missed your updates.

Just now, 1466 said:

Yes I saw the freight once when my car broke down and I had to walk to work . It was a C2X if I recall correctly.

This has prompted another memory of Conflats parked outside the Triang factory at the very end of the spur . I may  have misremembered the Triang Pram stickers on them 

35 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

There was still a weekly freight trip to Merton Abbey, via Merton Park, into the very early '70s. I think it was SO. 

 

A friend had lived in the station house at Tooting Junction, where his dad was SM, 1960-ish. After that I think they were at Lenham, but dad (Roy) retired as SM at London Bridge. 

Yes I saw the freight once when my car broke down and I had to walk to work . It was a C2X if I recall correctly.

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, when I was on a weekly commute to Croydon about 30 years ago, I used to go out to Merton Abbey Mill every few months when they had a swapmeet in the evening. A very interesting place. Wasn't it connected to the Surrey Iron Railway at one time?

Yes the river Wandle was the midwife to early industry hereabouts so the Wandle and the Surrey Iron Railway were intertwined. There is  still a path/alley called Tramway Path in Mitcham which lay alongside S.I.C. The line is now the Croydon Tramlink .

There was also a goods only spur ( when I were a lad) from Tooting Junction to Merton Abbey . The erstwhile passenger station became a goods shed depot . Tooting Junction was still called Tooting Junction locally long after the points were lifted .

Finally Lord Nelson had a home close to Merton Abbey Mills . 

16 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Well, would you believe it? Yes, of course you would.

 

I decided to get my temperature-controlled soldering iron down from the shelf, to see if it still works, and guess what?

 

Yep, the pack of Carr's 70 solder is in the box!

 

I knew it would be in a safe place...

 

To give you an idea of how old it is, it's priced at GBP 2.80 and the address on the pack is Merton Abbey Mill.

I’m not sure if you are familiar with Merton Abbey Mill , St Enodoc ?

It used to be sites of industrial activity - leather tanning , cardboard manufacturing , a bus garage and the like . Then a superstore Sainsburys took over and the Mill area is now a centre for small shops , small firms  and a lovely riverside pub . The river Wandle flows past it and was the source of water power in  the early Industrial Revolution era .

I have this vision of the low melt solder being sold from a craft shop rather than being manufactured in a dark , satanic mill .

I believe that Alan Gibson makes plastic brake blocks . From memory, they are on a circular sprue .

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

It is evident that we each have a slightly different definition of authenticity. I would argue that much of the brake gear and underfloor detail now provided is only actually visible if the darned vehicle turns turtle - yet we all commend its presence. 

 

When filming All The President's Men in the 1970s - about Nixon and Watergate - many scenes were filmed in a representation of the Washington Post offices. I believe that the director insisted that the rubbish in the waste bins was printed with relevant copy. No-one saw the contents of the bins in the film - but it added authenticity. 

 

St E expressed surprise at compartment stock having ads and mirrors. It certainly did. I recall one journey where some unspeakable bounder had clearly removed the original ad and replaced it with "There will be a meeting for all qualified railway vandals at Wimbledon on such-and-such a date".

Re the invitation to railway vandals to meet at Wimbledon.

It reminds me of the sixties when Mods and Rockers would shout “ Boxhill” to each other as they passed on Lambrettas and Triumphs . An invite to a rumble at a Surrey beauty spot. 

36 minutes ago, Chuffer Davies said:

This weekend just gone we had a now rare opportunity to play trains on our Hungerford (EM) exhibition layout which had been invited to appear at Abingdon's 50th Anniversary show.   I say rare because the previous time w exhibited was at Gaydon in 2019.  Hungerford has been on the circuit for 22 years and has been to almost all the shows that might want to invite it.  Most of the time it is packed away in a dark attic flat in the top of the building that hosts the Shipley Model Railway Society.  Despite its age the old girl performed well with only a handful of problems coming to light on the Saturday morning.  Fortunately almost all faults were 'round the back' so did not impact the viewing public's pleasure.

This event at last gave me the opportunity to run the GWR model locomotives I have built since Gaydon, these being the modified Heljan 47xx, the Dapol Mogul for which I designed and built a replacement Motor-In-Tender (MIT) chassis, and the MIT converted Mitchell Mogul acquired from the estate of my late friend Tony Stoker.  The Moguls operated faultlessly.  The 47xx ran almost faultlessly but occasionally exhibited a 'shudder'.   I am not convinced the Heljan R-T-R chassis is man enough to haul a heavy train of metal kit built rolling stock.  It was pretty much on its limits and if I had time I would be very tempted to design and build a new chassis similar to that I built for the Dapol Mogul. 

 

I took the opportunity to shoot some videos of the layout which included shots of the 47xx and Dapol Mogul both of which still require weathering (apologies).  I hope that those unable to attend Abingdon, or have never seen Hungerford in the flesh, will enjoy these very amateurish shots of the layout.  I have also included a photo of the well stocked fiddle yard where the 22 trains that run in the layout are stored .   Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting , Frank .

I was “treating” my wife to Abingdon and we left in sufficient time but roadworks delayed us so much , we had to abandon .

So your posts are some solace to our disappointment.

I was particularly interested to see the Mogul and 47xx running . 
BTW Hungerford  was a  big factor in going to Abingdon. 
PS I know how to treat the Sheilas!

I see merit in  all the contributions above and it set me to thinking .

I appreciate Hornby’s recent carriages but I bought a couple of Hatton’s generic 6 wheel brakes . Why ?

Well ,  recent accurate coaches from Hornby , Bachman , Dapol etc  have been superb . What’s more as someone born in 1944 , I can recall them in service  . They chime with my memory and ( importantly)are superbly finished . Much better than I could achieve .

Why buy the Hatton’s generic coaches . Well , several reasons.
First , I like Full brakes and had a hankering for a vintage parcels train .

Moreover , they are beyond my memory so I could not pull down a mental file to compare model and prototype. I had a vague idea of what a 6 wheel full brake should look like and they compared favourably with that image . In a word they were PLAUSiBLE . The USP for me was the finish . The GWR coach has opaque , dense colour with defined demarcation and fine lining .The GNR example has a fine representation of teak . So that clinched it for me .

Hope this wander down my thought and decision making process helps .

1 hour ago, Adrock said:

I’m quite happy with the body and livery of my mogul from the first batch (number 7310), but I’d prefer the running / gearing characteristics of the second batch. Has anyone done a chassis swap or just generally removed and then reassembled the loco body? Anything to watch out for? Thanks. 

Or is it possible to buy the motor and or gearing  as spares and swop ? Another thought is the motor / gearing from the Manor compatible?

I used to know a mechanic who could take 4 Mini  and 1100 engines and gearboxes and build 3 combinations and still have bits spare .

7 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

I did have to laugh at some of the comments from armchair experts and conspiracy theorists.

 

They've obviously never been anywhere near an explosion, probably never even chucked an aerosol can in a bonfire, let alone seen a blast from Hexogen (RDX).

 

The pictures online don't really show what a huge device a German 500kg is. There's one on the left in this picture:

 

 

Picture: bombs away ltd.

My late father was in the RAFVR during the war - 72 operations and DFM .

He taught  me to run away from explosions as a second one might follow . 

Aged 7  , I had run towards a calor gas explosion in a wooden hut .

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Where are your Buccaneers?

And Shackleton ?

Bur didn’t the RAF use rocket firing Hunters ?

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Nevertheless, QA and QC are (or, perhaps, were) not well understood, in the way that "western" nations understand them, in China. Around 10-15 years ago the company I worked for was involved in a major (multi-billion dollar) procurement project where the hardware was being built in China to an Australian company's design. Both we, as the client's technical adviser, and the designers had full-time teams on site throughout the seven-year manufacturing phase to ensure that any shortcomings were identified and addressed at as early a stage as possible.

 

The manufacturers, on the whole, had no problem with this arrangement. I suspect that, quietly, their directors and managers welcomed it as it was much easier for them than to train their workforce to adopt an entirely different culture from what they were accustomed to.

 

"If the sampling is (say) one in forty and inspection occurs at four stages, only one in ten get checked at all" - of course, statistically, that could mean that it's still only one in forty that are checked, because the same ten could get checked randomly at each stage (but usually aren't).

In the 1970s I worked in tv rental , an industry founded on the unreliability of tv sets and their (relatively) high price .

British made tv sets would be assembled and tested once completed . Japanese sets had every component tested and passed before each was assembled into the tv . The result was that Japanese tv sets were reliable… which eventually finished off tv rental . 

20 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

That's even more incredible, looking at it from different angles.

 

To think that you can simply press a button and reproduce more of these, unbelievable.

 

And all the preparatory work done on a computer.

 

It's literally like sorcery!

 

 

 

 

 

 

What about that 2021, then?!

 

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice …?

48 minutes ago, checkrail said:

Thanks Bill @heraldcoupe - and thanks for your reply to my earlier eBay message.  I also note that there's been a flurry of RMwebbers signing up to the Facebook GWR Modellers group in recent days - I wonder why!  As I said, there's quite a bit of interest building up. Certainly, I for one would love to have a 'Bird' series Bulldog to play with. 

 

Best wishes and keep us posted. Cheers,

John C.

I have placed an order for a curved frame Bulldog and will report on quality when received . Sadly it will have to its place in a  long 2do queue so I  won’t be able to comment on  build progress for a while .

3 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

As the appearance of such coaches at Cwmdimbath would be Rule 1-dependent anyway, I am thinking about going for the wartime brown livery with a backstory of a set being broken up after it's compo and one of the BTs were destroyed by blast damage from a V2 near-miss , and the survivors transferred to South Wales.

That’s credible, Johnster. I would be inclined to a V1 Doodlebug as the miscreant , myself . But then I was born at the height of Doodlebugs falling on London .

Ken 

7 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I am not looking forward to getting old...

Provided your health is good , the secret to enjoying old age is … Fizz!

That is :

Physical activity 

Intellectual stimulation 

Some form of Spirituality