CKPR

I know the advice is 'never model a model', but might be worth having look at Ian Rice's articles in Model Railways on his 'East Suffolk Light Railway' as this was clearly a homage to the MSLR (and included the MSLR's conversation of an MR open wagon to a covered van).

The prototype of the old Prototype Models kit IRRC.

I'm sitting in our caravan near Beadnell Bay so I'm doing this from memory, but I recall an article in Model Railways c. 1976-77 called something like "Link up with Lincup" that was a highly technical exposition of the Lincs Coupling.

Not specifically modelling but currently in Seahouses for the week and engaging in some psychogeographical exploration along the remarkably intact route of the North Sunderland Rly. Oh, and photographing the surviving features, principally North Sunderland platform and Fleetham Bridge. The latter would make a really nice piece of cameo modelling along the lines of the North American finescale 1:48 modellers.

Re. the flooding technique, I have had mixed results using this and would add a third factor to Mikkel's, namely the porosity and opacity of the base coat. Using Halfords British Racing Green the technique worked well for M&CR coaches with both etched zinc (Trevor Charlton) and plastic (Ratio) sides but was less successful using a Halford blue (for Furness coaches) on the same types of coach side. I put this down to the thicker base coats due to the opacity of the blue paint compared to the green. If doing this again, and I've got a pile of LNWR coach kits (Ratio & MicroRail/Gibson) in stock, I'd be inclined to master my airbrush to have more control over the base coat.

Same here - I think I got my first copy in a s/h bookshop in Bath in the early 1980s and have reading it ever since as it's essentially about what to model rather than what to buy with the advantage that Rev. Beal actually had first hand experience of the pre-grouping railways.

Goods trains to Kendal remained steam hauled until April - May 1968 with occasional steam hauled passenger services through to Windermere as late as July (all worked by Carnforth engines).

Seeing as how we are discussing current affairs of 2022 on a forum that has a cut off of 1922, perhaps a return of the old pre-1914 Liberal Party is something we would agree was a good thing. Well, until the inevitable split occurred...

Some recent holiday purchases, all three 1st editions with dust jackets and just under £10 in total.

There's still The Keswick Reminder - the last copy I bought a few weeks had a headline story about ornamental plants being stolen from an ice cream kiosk on Lake Road.

I am harking back to the formative days of John Ahern, Don Boreham, Peter Denny, Roye England & Guy Williams. Reading old copies of MRN from the 1960s & 1970s shows a hobby often more orientated towards model making (not forgetting Kitmaster kit-bashing in the MRC !), even model engineering, than purchasing r-t-r. Each to their own - I'm not knocking the current emphasis on r-t-r and r-t-p, just wondering how sustainable it is in the long run.

As a maker of railway models with a somewhat old-fashioned approach to the hobby, I have a somewhat oblique relationship to contemporary railway modelling with with its emphasis and increasing dependence on expensive r-t-r & r-t-p and digital technology. And no, I'm not an engineer or professional craftsman and I'm at the younger end (I still work !) of what is essentially a hobby for the retired. Therefore, I think the question is what effect the unfolding economic crisis will have on the current incarnation of the hobby and whether this is unsustainable - perhaps we will see a shift back to a hobby based on making rather than purchasing?

The C&WJR coke wagons are now pretty much completed, with just the coupling chains and monkey tails to add. There is probably some more lettering I should add to them but I'll need to find my other C&WJR wagons to work out the details of the numbering and tares. Not as quick to build as I initially thought earlier this year and definitely no more 4mm scratch-building of wagons for me! The wagons in the background are the first of the O gauge stock for 'Seahouses'. I am trying to go for an old-fashioned O gauge feel here and I'm quite pleased with the results so far. I'll report on these on my other thread when I've finished hand-painting the lettering - I've no 7mm methfix lettering and waterslide /press fix transfers didn't seem to be effective in the larger scale. Update - old pressfix transfers can, of course, be used as per methfix ones.

Precisely - our current government reminds me of nothing less than a politburo or junta supported by a tiny elite party of the mad, bad and sad.

To those of us of a certain age (i.e most of us here), the whole Tory leadership 'election' is probably erriely familiar, as it seems akin to the old Soviet internal elections in which only members of The Party had a say with the majority of the population of the USSR watching on with little interest.

My take on it is that 'Modern image' was essentially mid-1960s Tri-ang and Trix supplemented with Kitmaster coach conversions.

As luck would have it, I succombed a few weeks ago and bought the very same kit - another project for Autumn!

Continuing the discussion of the North Sunderland's motive power that was started over on @Edwardian's 'Richmond' thread, the penultimate North Sunderland engine (as in engines that were used on the North Sunderland) arrived today in the form of a half-assembled Sevenscale L&Y pug kit. My first thoughts on examining it was that this was the UK equivalent of the legendary Roundhouse Shay kit, which also dates from the late 1970s - both were a major step forward in locomotive kits but goodness me, there's quite some work involved on the part of the builder ! I think this is going to be a major project, not least because the white-metal outside motion will need to be remade in brass and nickel silver. And yes, I still have one of those Roundhouse Shay kits hidden away in the attic.

Combining about three topics here, my Seahouses project has taken over from Brampton Town as my first O gauge model and I now have a kit for an H2 to build and use as the 1920s hired motive power to supplement my H / Y7. Talking of the North Sunderland's motive power, one advantage of modelling Seahouses is the interesting variety of engines, along with some eclectic rolling stock that was used on what was very modest little railway - one can easily build everything that was owned or hired by the North Sunderland.

The Barton-Wright 0-6-0s as built by Beyer-Peacock also have a family resemblance to engines supplied by B-P to the M&CR - I'm still playing around with L&Y and M&CR plans to see if a Geo. Norton 'ironclad' can be (re)built as an M&CR engine.

I have literally just come back from the old station yard at Wooferton as we use the firewood and salvage businesses based there! The signal box and (G)WR signals are still in use and the old goods shed is now a commercial property.

This I like - 0-4-4Ts, pre-grouping , scratch-building, reference to the M&CR and the fact the L&H is probably in the vicinity of our house in Richards Castle. All of this and the trials & tribulations of teenage railway modelling in the 1970s! I think the article in RM that started you off was 'Jinty at the Junction' by Brian Huxley in 1977 or 1978 IIRC.

Thank you, that's really appreciated. The end brakes and levers are adapted from the set of NER brake parts sold by Wizard Models/51L. The brakes themselves had to be shortened at each end and the levers had the pivot holes filed with solder as they were in the wrong place. The brake racks were carefully melted into place - there is a slot on the end of the 51L NER hopper kit but I had overlooked this on my wagons, hence the rather drastic approach!

⁹The movement of these wagons to and from west Cumberland to West Wylam, which is to the west of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, involved travelling over three lines, maybe four depending on route (NER, M&CR, LNWR and the C&WJR itself) and potentially four companies' motive power (the FR worked much of the C&WJR's traffic and also goods traffic between Carlisle and Whitehaven). To accompany the wagons, here's my FR 'Cleator Tank' that I built from the old McGowan Models kit. I bought it from Kings Cross Model Railways back in the mid-1980s when I was a postgraduate at the LSE and it was my first pre-grouping EM locomotive.

The C&WJR coke wagons are now complete after a couple of evenings spent detailing the coke boards. When the weather warms up again, I'll get them undercoated and then painted up. More by luck than planning ahead, I've found sufficient HMRS methfix lettering to complete them.