wainwright1

Jolly good. My Hawkhurst is currently awaiting three replacement points as each has a blade detached from the tie bar, temporarily repaired. (The layout is over thirty years old). I will then be replacing four of the main buildings and refreshing the scenery. I have a fair selection of stock, but will be building a number of etched brass coaches to get it right for the SE & CR period circa 1911 (flexible). I have some of the Bachmann 60ft birdcages, right colours, but not really appropriate for my rural branch. However, I have not ordered any of the Hattons 4/6 wheeled coaches as they appear to be sticking with an inappropriate livery. Maybe they will run some in the dark crimson livery later on. My current modelling time is committed to Crystal Palace High Level, due to be shown at the Beckenham and West Wickham Show in October. (Hopefully). All the best Ray P.S No sign of my LSWR Road Vans yet. Now back on thread.

We always knew that they were a forward looking company. By the way Graham, are you still modelling Hawkhurst ? All the best Ray

Post copied from More Stroudley's on the Hornby blog. On 16/07/2021 at 19:43, Jack Benson said: What happened to the E1 model? GreenGiraffe22 replied: I'd heard through the grape vine a CAD was being put together and then I heard recently it's been put on hold indefinitely which is a great shame if true. Is there any update on this model ? Maybe Chris Leigh might reply. All the best Ray

Thanks very much. At least its not ParcelFarce. All the best Ray

Could you advise which delivery company they are using ? Many thanks Ray

That looks equally good. I better not show this to Gary, otherwise he will want to take up the arches on Crystal Palace and do them again. The arches on Crystal Palace are actually each a single resin cast component. These are stuck together and then pieces of Slaters plasticard embossed brick card stuck over the vertical pillars and in the vee sections (Y Fronts) to complete the picture. The Slaters Plasticard was also used in the master to produce the insides and back of the arches, so the detail is quite fine. The main buildings have a skeleton of Perspex which is also overlaid with Plasticard and architectural features such as the big window mouldings and pilasters, again with brick detail, are cast in resin. Being so fine and having so much brickwork involved, it is virtually impossible to achieve the amount of painted detail variation that you have got on your samples. One problem we have had is that different parts of the layout have been painted at different times and although using the same Humbrol paint numbers we have ended up with slightly different shades of the same colour. I am looking to finish the weathering off using matt varnish with different strengths of a small quantity of brown paint added, perhaps Track Colour, to balance it all up. I will need to do some test sampling first though. All the best Ray

That looks very good to me. Almost like a section of the retaining wall on Crystal Palace. All the best Ray

Hi Chris. The Chatham van is interesting. I have acquired a couple of the Wizard Hull and Barnsley van kits which I am planning to amend to LC & DR. Not looked at them for a while, but I think that the body is virtually identical and it just needs the brake gear and possibly the buffers changed to suit the Chatham version. I have an etched kit for the Chatham Kits version, but having built their brake van with its double overlays, have not built up the strength to do the van. All the best Ray

Looking at that picture I think that my earlier comment that the numbers on the tender of the model looked compressed may be confirmed. All the best Ray

Annoyingly it is the same weekend as the Bluebell Railway show at which we are exhibiting, so we will not be able to attend. Wish you all the best. Ray

Hi Chris. Very nice and atmospheric. Are you using genuine horse poo ? If you were, you would have to find some scale bluebottles or even horse flies ! Does this represent part of the large two tier stables which once existed on the north end of the Dunton Road bridge (nee Upper Grange Road) ? Being a local lad, I can just remember the top storey features of this which were visible from the road. The view of the lower storey was limited to what you could see off the bridge. Not to be confused with the remains of the 'Sick Horse' stables off St James's Road/Rolls Road, which are still extant, but have been under threat from developers in the recent past. All the best Ray

I wonder if there are a new batch of 02's in the pipeline and if so, will one of them be a Southern one with pull/push gear to go with the recent Southern gate stock set I bought ? All the best Ray

Hi Rob. A couple of notes. The Deluxe Perfect Putty is water soluble which can be an aid to cleaning up afterwards. If the louvres will not print straight, is the material manipulatable with say some hot water to help straighten them out ? All the best Ray

Hi Rob. These are looking really good. I have given the pictures the cruel test, copied them into word where I can blow them up to study the fine details. I can see the lines in question and hope that your cleaning up will reduce them. I use Deluxe Perfect Plastic Putty which works as a good surface filler and would be good for finishing the process. The cattle wagon looks excellent and you have got all the partition slots in the right places, unlike the Oxford one. Do you think that you can straighten the louvres on the prize cattle van ? I hope that i might be able to order some of these soon. Trying to justify getting one of those distinctive incline break vans. All the best Ray

Hi Matt. Thai is looking good. Reminds me of our old 'Andy Arches' layout that we built as a commission for British Rail Property Board. That was basically an advert showing the railway viaduct in original condition, much later in 'traditional' use and finally in refurbished and modernised form. The only problem that there was so much brickwork to weather, so we never really did a full job on it. We have a similar situation with Crystal Palace, but that has even more brickwork !!! We sold the layout on a couple of years ago to a family in Bexley to form part of a loft layout. Keep up the good work. Ray

I think that these are/were still available until recently. I seem to recall that EFE had some involvement with them until they went under. Possibly someone else has the rights now ? All the best Ray

I picked up my Battleship Grey one from the Post Office this morning. ParcelFarce tried to deliver it yesterday morning while I was out shopping. The Post Office have the cheek to charge a £1 for collecting it from them. I said to the chap at the counter that I would have stayed in if I had known that it was coming, but I had no notification from Rails that it was coming. Just unpacked it. Nearside tender buffer adrift in box as per Wainwright one. This seems to be mandatory from what I have seen on here. Handbrake standard at front of tender was crooked. Touched it, and it fell off (cleanly). Spot of super glue sorted those two out. Livery applications looks good, not sure if the safety valve bonnet should be polished, as previously queried on here. I have not got my books to hand, but suspect that the numbers on the tender are slightly compressed, same as I thought those on the Southern Railway green one looked. I looked at the sandboxes on the loco. These are both floating around with only the pipes holding them in place, as noted on the Wainwright. Studying the information booklet, it seems that these cannot be attached to the underside of the footplate or you would not be able to remove the body/footplate from the chassis. Looks a bit flimsy, so will have to see if these cause any problems. Also looked the spare parts list. I think that I will order some spare buffers and lamp irons when they are available, as most of the fixtures seem to be fragile and not well attached. Has anyone lost the whistle yet ? Is it plastic or metal ? Might try to get a couple of suitable turned brass ones. Had the same trouble with the whistle on the Bachmann C. I will give the model a basic test run later on. General opinion - Very good. They will look nice running with my Bachmann Trio Sets. All the best Ray

I am waiting for the grey one, hopefully soon. Ray

Hi Andy. Just completed the survey. Our club will be exhibiting two small layouts at the Bluebell Railway show on 31st July/1st August. This exhibition takes place at two venues - Sheffield Park Station and Horsted Keynes Station and in several different locations within those sites, so are quite spaced out and a lot of the buildings are partially open and airy so allow the through flow to ventilate the area. Most of our members have had both their jabs, so are reasonably well covered. Our next show would have been the Medway Model Show in September, but that has now been cancelled. This would have taken place in a school, and the school authorities as well as the organisers are being very cautious. In fact, the school are not taking external bookings for the immediate future. Our next show after that will be in October, as far as we know. All the best Ray

I also have an outstanding order for kit parts and spoke to Stewart yesterday. It seems that they are a little overwhelmed in dealing with the large amount of materials involved. Apparently, the moulds are not marked with what is in them and some of them are composite, including parts for more than one kit. It seems that Dave Ellis kept all the details about them in his head rather than written down on paper. They hoping to get everything checked and marked soon which should get everything onto an even keel in the not too distant future. All the best Ray

Looking at my Wainwright liveried one, where they have painted red over the 'plated' safety valve parts, the paint is a little thin and the metallic surface shows through making it look a bit plasticy. I think that I shall apply a little extra red paint over this just to increase the density. Also, they have painted the dummy coupling hooks with fairly bright silver, which might look ok on the preserved one which gets regularly burnished in the museum, but not on the others. Perhaps a thin coat of aluminium or gun metal to tone this down would be appropriate. All the best Ray

I have been advised that the Medway Model Show at Fort Pitt School, Chatham, scheduled for 4th and 5th September has been cancelled due to various Covid related restrictions. Next show will be 3rd and 4th September 2022. All the best Ray

What about the difference in the font for the numbers ? Ray

I thought that it was hopeless !

Hi Rob. That looks good. Taking a closer look, I see a few diagonal lines in the middle section above the handrail, but they should be fairly easy to remove. More curious, there appears to be a stepping effect on the upper parts of the planks which appears on both sides. Would that be correctable before printing ? All the best Ray