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Wheatley

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Posts posted by Wheatley

  1. 8 hours ago, SouthernBlue80s said:

    Can anyone identify the van body lying within the station please

     

    class 08 LWT 20-2-88

     

     

    I think it's one of these, or something very similar: 

     

    https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/bcontainer/h660800a9

     

    Parkside and Bachmann do the planked version. Incidently, if you search "Lowestoft" on Paul's site there are some general views and some of odd corners of the yard (although usually with a wagon in the way). 

  2. 40 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

    Is it not a possibility that we just need to accept its beyond business reach for them ?

    That's fine, but if that's the case they should stand aside and let an operator who can meet the minimum infrastructure requirements run it.   

     

    I could run a really profitable coach touring business around the West Highlands if I didn't have to fart about with all that tedious red tape around drivers' hours, PSVO licences, MOTs, VAT etc. This is no different. 

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  3. The reviewer doesn't think much if the Jacobite set does he ? Although in fairness he doesn't criticise the piper directly !

     

    "This set contains an impressive 20 poses, but all are clearly depicting Highland dress. However a good many of these do so really badly."

     

    If you're looking for modern(ish) every day Highland dress (ie kilt with jacket and tie) the Airfix/Dapol lineside sets are amenable to being cross-kitted by chopping heads and limbs off and re-arranging. It strikes me that the legs off the 8th Army soldiers with the top half of some Airfix/Dapol commuters and some Milliput kilts might work. I bet the 8th Army are polythene though. 

  4. Having used Smiths and Slaters the Slaters ones are much finer but they're also shorter and you'll need to open the hook out (unless that's changed since I last bought some). Depending on what your minimum curve is you may find you need sprung buffers, or sprung hooks, or both, or that it just doesn't work at all on sharper curves. I can get them to work on R3 (19") curves but only short wheelbase wagons and dead slow. 

     

    These days I can't see the hooks anyway so they're just cosmetic with a Lincs coupler or simplified AJ doing the actual coupling. 

  5. 7 hours ago, eldomtom2 said:

    This is an interesting attitude to take on a railway enthusiast forum.

    I dont think it's particularly controversial to point out that there's a fundamental conflict between conserving surviving historical material so it can be studied in detail, and playing with it.  Let's not kid ourselves, the latter is essentially what the heritage railway industry is about. 

     

    In most cases it does no real harm, if half the Class 37s currently preserved go for scrap then future historians will still have double figures to try to make head or tail of, but where something is truly unique and truly representative  (not just a bit unusual or slightly different to the other 34) then surely it is right that it is conserved 'as is' rather than stripped and half the bits replaced just to get another one running again. For a few years, until it needs major repairs and goes back in the scrap line to re-await its turn for re-restoration. 

  6. If the source is a published photo see if there's a photo credit. If it's one of the photo libraries, HMRS etc you may be able to approach them directly for a higher resolution copy, possibly just of that lettering. 

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  7. Hmm. You've got me wondering now whether I just used MJT compensation units and stuck the Caley sides on ! I don't think so because I wouldn't have thrown the Caley etches away and I don't have any knife edge units sitting in the spares box ! They're 30-odd years old though ...

     

    Edit - no, they're 'as supplied' back in 1992. 

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  8. 58 minutes ago, PhilH said:

    I didn't realise until recently that the NRM workshop contained that most valuable of tools for the maintenance of steam locomotives, a wheel drop. I hope that that at least remains available for use, unfortunately it's not something that can be moved very readily so if it were not to be available for use anymore it would be a crying shame.

    Nope. The hole is still there, glassed over so you can walk over it. The only thing left from Billy's photo on page 1 is the yellow framework for the overhead crane, it's now green and supports what must be the world's biggest marble run (which is actually really good fun !). 

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  9. There will undoubtedly have been military traffic handled at Kirkcudbright but I think James has it as far as the Palvans are concerned. Railway modellers tend to think of creameries in terms of "MILK FOR LONDON" in 3000 gallon glass-lined tanks, but most of Galloway's many creameries produced cheese, powdered milk, baby formula and margarine. 

     

    That's the first photo I've ever seen of the plywood variant,  thank you. I feel another one coming on ...

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  10. 1 hour ago, 21D said:

    They appear to have congregated with the later BR Palvans at Kirkcudbright station loaded with munitions for the nearby military ranges at Dundrennan.

    Do you have a source for Dundrennan please ? This was discussed on a much earlier version of the forum, and we couldn't establish what the traffic was. Dundrennan was certainly discussed as a attractive possibility but it would be odd for wagons to be branded to be returned to their destination rather than their loading point. Also, there are at least two or three in almost every late 50s/early 60s picture of Kirkcudbright and that's a lot of artillery shells !  The other obvious source is the creamery across the bridge from the station. 

     

    I have three, kitbashed from Ratio van ends on the 9' chassis from the Ratio GWR 5 plank open. The 10' chassis from the vans went under the 5 plank bodies to make some O30-somethings, and the left over sides were combined with spare corrugated steel ends  ends and chassis from the Parkside spares box to make three free BR 12ton vans :-)

     

    Edit - beaten to it by 26 !

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  11. 8 minutes ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

     

    Haven't BR and it's inheritants got the patents and copyrights on what we model, shouldn't we all be applying to them?!!

    Especially when you consider the licencing hoops the manufacturers have to jump through to copy a livery.

     

    Mike.

    Good luck working out where BRB Residuary disposed of them all to, the trademarks for the Network SouthEast livery are now owned by a bunch of gricers !  https://www.nsers.org/ 👍

     

    The franchised TOCs did not, in general, inherit design rights, patents etc, but they did have the right to use them and in some cases were required to use them as a condition of either their Operating Licence or a Group Standard. The ROSCOs might have acquired the IP rights for the rolling stock and I think EWS did for the FOCs, but in very general terms anything used by all the TOCs (BR symbol, design of an APTIS ticket, TOPS etc) was either imposed or used under a global licence from somewhere else.  

     

    Post privatisation liveries are another matter - in those cases they are generally either owned by the franchisee (resulting in lots of hurriedly applied white sticky-backed plastic on Mk 4s at the end of GNER for example) or in the case of Scotrail (and possibly Merseyrail), by the franchising authority. 

     

     

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  12. On 16/03/2024 at 12:30, Butler Henderson said:

    There will be those for whom the nominally cheaper price of kit will carry weight over the RTR model ignoring the associated costs in completing the kit to a running fully painted and lettered model,

    In some cases it can be cheaper, especially where you need multiples of 'It'll do' quality rather than showcase models. I still batch built 16 ton minerals from Airfix and Parkside kits, the buffer heads and handbrake levers get replaced with MJT and Ambis bits respectively and I've almost run out of the various sheets of Modelmaster transfers with a couple of dozen on each sheet. When I started it was the only way to get a 16 tonner, then the Bachmann one appeared and they were probably a bit cheaper than the kit + bits version, now the Bachman model is more than twice the price of the Parkside kit, if you can find one.  17 quid per wagon difference buys a lot of paint, transfers, wheels, etched brakegear, buffers, springing, compensation, couplings ...  

     

    Its not necessarily about price though. If the RTR version does the job I'll buy it, especially if it saves me spending hours on something complex or fiddly or easy to do badly like Toad handrails.  If the Bachmann Presflow had been out when I beat my three Airfix ones into shape I would have bought Bachmann ones instead. Nearly all my brakevans and tank wagons are RTR. Conversely I own one whole Bachmann 16 tonner. 

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  13. It all depends where Old Dalby sits within ROGS and what their Safety Management System allows them to do. It's an experimental establishment so I presume it's written in quite broad generic terms with a separate safety validation for each individual project. 

     

    The booking form does say that electricity is extra, on top of the £21k !

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  14. 7 hours ago, Matt37268 said:

    Would a Hymek or other locomotive owner be happy to operate at that sort of speed? 
    Your making a lot of assumptions about several things.

    I’d be rather interested as to what our friends at the ORR might have to say ...

    Operating a 90mph loco at 75mph on a line certified for 125mph ? They wouldn't bat an eyelid, it's a test track after all. 

     

    It's the "carrying fare paying passengers" bit which would pique their interest, I've no idea how that would work! 

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