wainwright1

Hi TeakDB. Just had another look at the beginning of your blog. You said that you are on three months leave. Does that mean you will be off again at the end of the month leaving Brading in abeyance ? All the best Ray

That horse box looks like fun. I have one of those put by to build. Not sure what the best way is to solder on the fine bits. I have tried solder paste, but cannot seem to get that to work. I have built two Chatham Kits , the CCT and the Guards Break. The CCT is probably one of the easiest etched brass kits you could build including compensation. The Guards Break was a right b*gger with double overlays that had to be sweated on. There were also some short comings in the etching including horizontal mouldings on the ends which were missing, no etched separation of the goods compartment doors on each side and running boards, but no brackets for them. I made mine out of Bambi staples ! There was however a full set of brake gear fittings and it is possible to build up the full rigging, soldering and adjusting until you get everything in the right place, and it looks nice with the wooden break shoes.

Mikes Models, (Available from Holt Model Railways I think), used to do a range of buffer stops in whitemetal. Not sure if they still do them or if they do a type which would suit your purpose. Ray

Not sure if Foamboard is made of card or plastic. If it is plastic it should not cause any problems. If it is card, I would do a trial piece to see how it reacts. I have ballasted track on three layouts and have not used anything under the track. I believe that the idea of putting cork under track is to help reduce noise from the trains running on the rails, but if you then ballast the track using granite chips and PVA, the glue solidifies the cork and negates its purpose. If you ballast just with the chips, your can form quite an effective shoulder using a strip of thin card or plasticard to shape it, then whet it using a garden spray with a couple of drops of washing up liquid (yellow not green), then apply a semi dilute PVA glue solution, also with a couple of drops of washing up liquid. Make sure it spreads throughout the whetted ballast. Do be careful when ballasting around points and do it in stages leaving the bits where the working parts are to last, applying just the right amount of ballast where you need it and a limited amount of glue with a dropper, so you do not have too much glue running around the works. Ray

That looks very good. Can't determine how deep the coat is yet though. Is it possible to add wave detail using that material, or perhaps you would use another type of product. On St Mellion I coloured the sea bed using various acrylic paints until I got what I thought was a good mixture of colours and then used about four coats of polyurethane yacht varnish. I found that with this I could use a 1 inch wide flatty brush to make the wave pattern as the varnish started to go off, also added a little white to make the areas of foam where it hit the quay. Your material looks very clear, possibly clearer that the varnish, although ours does not look bad and gives very good reflections especially of our Clyde Puffer. All the best Ray

Thanks that's very informative. From memory, I think that I have a little paperback copy of that book in my collection. Wil have to dig it out. My blue model arrived at 17.30 tonight courtesy of Fed Ex. Had a quick peek and it looks beautiful. All the best Ray

Got my Midland model and very nice it is. I have noted that the payment for the S D J R model has been taken from my account, but no email to advise that it is coming. Just a thought: The Somerset and Dorset was jointly owned by the Midland Railway and London and South Western Railway. There have been quite a lot of books about it during the big four and BR period, but what was the traffic like in the pre-1923 period ? I do not have any books covering that time span on the line, so presuming that the company had only a limited number of its own locos and coaching stock, would a lot of the traffic have been Midland coaches and locos working through and down from Bath to Bournemouth and back and some L S W R locos and stock working up and back from Bournemouth and what would they have been ? Obviously with goods stock as well. Combined with the local blue stock, it would certainly make for an interesting and attractive layout theme. Ray

Thanks Kernow, sounds good to me. I would imagine that would give Kernow's the potential for another issue, as the LMR has quite a good following. Invicta models have commissioned a BR type brake van (green army livery LMR lettered) and a coach from Bachman in LMR livery and all sold well and I think have sold out. There is still scope for a BR type brake van in LMR blue livery as well, as I believe two of them were painted in that livery, one of which ended up on the Bluebell Railway. All the best Ray

Judging by what the Isle of Wight Steam Railway have already recovered, a fair bit already restored and put back into service and knowing that quite a lot of other stuff still exists, they should be able to recreate quite a lot of the former railways on the island. More strength to their elbow. All the best Ray

This looks very nice. Anyone know if any of the NCB ones managed to visit the Kent coalfield or anywhere in the South ? All the best Ray

Any chance they do a new one in early LNER livery with lining and full cow catcher and valences. Surprised they did not do one in the original batch instead of two with lining, but no valences. Ray

That is very interesting. Is it on a Peckett chassis ? Ray

I have also received my Fishbourne and everything appears o.k. I have tested it briefly on a straight section of track and appears to run satisfactorily. Unfortunately no access to a layout at the moment to test it more thoroughly. Lets hope that there will be a new batch of 02's next year to swell the Isle of Wight ranks. Ray

Have Hornby officially said that this is a limited edition, or is it just a limited run at this time ? This is after all new tooling (including the 1st class coach) and they will want to recover their investment on what is going to be a very inexpensive model if the original stated price is upheld. The actual model looks like an alternative body on the 1st class coach chassis, so some saving there. I would have imagined that they would have expected to get a lot more production out of this tooling with an extra run as soon as a slot is available and especially in the long term with the Rainhill and Liverpool and Manchester 200th anniversaries in 2029/30. Ray

Hi Neil. I would be interested in one too and a Joyce if you go ahead with it. All the best Ray

Forgot to say that I have tended to shy away from using weathering powders on wagons as I thought that on an exhibition layout these would get rubbed off fairly quickly. I have used dilute acrylic paint on most of mine to pick out the high-lights, then seal it all with a coat of matt varnish which has been adulterated with a few drops of brown paint, varied according to the type of wagon involved. Mind you, I did use the powder on the rooves of my cattle wagons, which I had painted twice, once lengthways and the second time cross ways which gave them a bit of canvas like texture and allowed the powder to grip. Spot the deliberate mistake, a cow the other side of the partition ! All the best Ray

Perhaps you could make up a simple tabulated list of the wagons that you have produced and what kits etc. were used as a simple check list for other members future possible construction. That would save having to trawl through loads of posts. Many thanks, all the best. Ray

Good taste. I bought that one as well, as it was used as a contractors loco for the construction of two military railways and later by Blue Circle cement, both of which are of interest to me. All the best Ray

Hi Bernard. The moulding for the rear splasher actually extends right across the width of the cab with no gap for the fire hole area. So there is only a small amount of flat floor space is available to fit a couple of crew figures towards the rear of the cab. Ray

II got my new lined Southern BWT last week. No major problems with it with regard to bits missing or stuck on crookedly and the livery is applied very nicely. A little bit of painting around the buffers will help them to blend in with rest of the loco and hide their plastic-ness, plus some weathering of the brake gear and other below footplate fittings. I agree with Sam's comment about the rear splasher going right across the cab. I wonder if any of the figure makers have produced a crew that will take that into account and help to hide the problem ? I do not remember noticing that on my original Kernow one. I got around to testing it yesterday and it works ok and the only issue is I think that it runs very fast on the minimum power, albeit using a fairly basic controller which I use to test everything. I would say that tested in the same way I have found that Hattons Andrew Barclay and Hornby's Pecketts also run faster than I would expect. One of the best locos for slow running and shunting is in my opinion, is the original Dapol tooled Terrier, 50.5 to 1 gearing if I recall. Far better than the new Rails or Hornby ones, so one saving grace. Ray

I am a non DCC user at the moment having only one early DDC fitted Hornby King Arthur, a DCC sound fitted J36 and the first DCC sound van put by for possible future development. The Rails Terrier definitely has the bark, the YouChoos one has more of a wheeze. Is it possible to deepen the sound on the YouChoos chip to match the bark ? All the best Ray

Has anyone had a problem with their subscription copy of Model Rail. My November issue, publication date 28th October has never arrived. I did contact them and a replacement copy was being sent. (Postman has just been, neither received yet). The October copy also arrived 10 days after publication date, and I had reported its non arrival and ended up with two copies. I have now received the email advising that the December copy is on its way, publication date Thursday next week. When will that arrive ? Another DOGA member has had the same trouble and when he spoke to Model Rail in the last two days, they said that they had had so many many people complaining of non delivery particularly in the London and South East area, that they had now run out of spare copies and that they would extend his subscription by one month. I believe that some of the hold up is due to a massive backlog at the central distribution depot in Croydon. Does anybody have any further info. Many thanks Ray

I would like them to do Wainwright from Ashford Works. Ray

I would imagine that as there has been such a good interest in this and that they are making only a relatively small quantity, another run is almost a certainty. And thinking ahead, these will almost certainly be produced again for the anniversaries in 2029/30, probably in quite large quantities.. All the best Ray

You have done the joints well. I recall the overlaps represented on the Wills sheets being a bit more irregular. You must have trimmed the pieces very carefully. Ray