wainwright1

Hi All. Having returned my Class 31 to Hornby, I received a reply last week confirming the fault and advising that they are currently unable to source spare parts. They have therefore issued me with a code for £100 to use on their web shop. They did not indicate if there was a possibility of a new run of the 'skinhead' in original green livery, but in view of the number which appear to have been defective, lets hope that they might do another one in the not too distant future. RB

Arch Records is starting to look good, I look forward to seeing the shop window display. The one for Walden Books is particularly effective in your picture. With regard to modelling with card, I have used 2mm mounting card available from art and crafts shops for a number of buildings and this is very good for attaching brick papers to. It is not overly expensive and you can usually get several buildings out of one sheet. This good quality card cuts very cleanly with a nice sharp modelling knife and steel rule, ideal for window and door openings. I used to be able to get one type that was a sandwich of white slightly shiny card outside layers with a grey middle layer. This card could be be cut away in thin layers to produce stepped features in wall structures, unfortunately it does not seem to be available any more. I also use Evostic impact adhesive to glue my buildings together and to attach brick paper. I apply it as if it was wallpaper, i.e. I spead a thin coat on each surface and this allows you to align the paper before the glue goes off. If any glue gets on the surface do not worry, leave it a for a few seconds until it starts to go rubbery and you can then rub it off leaving no trace. Use the Evostick in the tube not the tin, because as soon as the seal has been broken the glue will start to thicken and become less durable. I hope that this might help for future projects. RB

Oops, jumped the gun there. I have logged a complaint on Hornby's website today. Will see what their response is. All the best RB

Hi All, I saw this yesterday and checked my two 31s today. The green headcode box one looks o.k., but the skinhead one has the same problems.

Have Bachmann given any suggestion of the price for the Baldwin ? I wonder how it will compare with the Heljan L & B Manning Wardle which looks rather expensive at £190 when compared with their standard gauge 4mm locos. They might also have the ROD 2-8-0 in ROD livery up their sleave for later this year, perhaps as a Collectors Club model ? RB

Graham's comments are quite correct and there is in fact a fourth variation of SE&CR livery which Bachmann could apply to the model. This is unlined green with SE 271 CR on the tender side and the rectangular SE&CR plate on the cabside and tender rear as per the grey version. Please bear in mind that the simplified green and unlined green liveries would have only been carried for a fairly short time during the WW1 period before the grey livery was adopted. Also only a limited number of locos would have been painted so if they required a re-paint. I also have one of the Dapol wagons in SE&CR livery which was commissioned by Ballards of Tunbridge Wells. This carries a authentic livery for an open wagon with a large poster advertising the hop factor and which is illustrated in the wagon book. The prototype vehicle in question was however a much older type.

I noticed that a few people were asking about suitable stock to run with the C classes. I have attached a few pictures of some of the wagons which operate on my Hawkhurst layout for interest. All have been weathered using diluted acrylic paints and matt varnish tinted with various shades of brown paint. There are four of the Cambrian ones and I have more of these and some five planks and single bolsters to do, plus some chassis parts to make up a carriage truck. They build up well, but the end stanchions on the brake van are quite weak and fiddly until attached to the roof. Also a few Chatham Kits (now Roxey) which are still available and an old K's van, a bit crude. The LC&DR Brake Van is in etched brass with double overlays and was a to build. Definitely not a beginners kit. The Carriage van in contrast, also in brass, was very easy to build. The three plank drop-side is also very nice. I bought two sets of the Bachmann limited edition wagons, one of which went wrong at the weathering stage due to a dodgy can of Humbrol matt varnish. Fortunately I was able to pull this back with some careful re-touching with dilute acrylics etc. One that you may not have thought of, the Parkside Dundas SE&CR Luggage Van based on the one on the Bluebell Railway. A nice kit, but I built this before I had access to full lettering details so some of it is wrong or missing and I am not sure about the body colour. I am waiting to see if Bachmann do a limited edition version of this to see what colour they paint theirs and match that colour for some of my future kit-built coaching stock. Finally there are three D & S Cattle Wagons which I have just finished. these are modelled loaded with cattle, two with Herefords and one with Highland Cattle. They have also been fully weathered including the obligatory lime was as used prior to 1930. Unfortunately these excellent kits are no longer available. I hope that this is of interest and that the pictures come out o.k. as it is the first time I have tried posting pictures on the blog.

Hi All. Picked up the SE&CR and Southern C classes last week. Both are very good runners. Found the the wire sand pipes were not very well aligned with the wheels again. They are only glued on so can be removed if necessary and glued back with superglue. Had a funny with the Southern one, wondered why the tender would not couple up to the loco. Found that this was due to the draw bar having been fitted in the wrong place - at the bottom of the loco chassis instead in the slot between the bottom of the footplate and top of the chassis. I unclipped DCC lead to the tender, and took the two screws out to release the loco body, it was then straight forward to reposition the draw bar and put back together. One disappointment, Bachmann have not fitted extra pick-ups to the tender on this second batch as I think they have done to other recent 0-6-0 tender locos. We have found when running the C's on our exhibition layouts that the pick-ups on the locos are not brilliant, particularly the ones on the last axle and that locos can stop short when running onto a dead section. Anyone else noticed this problem ?

Thanks Adams 442 and TT Pete. White Spirit will thin paint, but it does it by breaking it down and effectively destroying it. So next time you want to use it it will probably not mix up properly. I will try the Xtracolour as an alternative. All the best

Hi All. Not sure if anyone has raised this issue before, but I will do it now and see who might know the answer. Humbrol changed the formular for its paint some years ago and the type of thinners used for the new type is not compatible with the old paint, and vice versa. Having built up a fairly good stock over the years, most of which is still quite usable, but sometimes getting a little thick, can anyone advise if the thinner for the old paint was a a proprietory spirit which could be bought under another name or something which was specially blended for the paint. Or perhaps there is another substance which work as well as the original ? It would be a shame to have to through away a lot of otherwise good paint.

Further to yesterdays post. Just bought a copy of S.C. Townroe's Journey in Steam from Noodle Books. Page 114 has a nice colour view including Ironside at Eastleigh awaiting scrapping. Good front offside three quarter showing footplate, chassis and buffer-beam details, plus inclined cylinders and a pipe running along the top of the tank. Potential for some improvement work. I also saw the Bachmann HO Bill/Ben loco last week. This has a shorter wheelbase chassis with smaller wheels and might suit Ironside better than Percy. However, the coupling rods are gross, and the connecting rods cranked to avoid the cross-heads. Food for thought.

I just re-visited this blog and think that there has a lot of unnecessary debate over the technicalities of these kits. For those not familiar with this type of kit and hesitating to take the plunge, basically they are cast in silicone rubber moulds using polyurethane resin which is a versatile material that has been used by many manufacturers of kits and components for some years now. This type of resin medium does not contain a filler and is reasonably rigid, but quite soft and very easy to work with basic tools such as swiss files and fine grade wet and dry paper and can be assembled satisfactorily with super glue. Therefore no hardened tipped tools or similar are required to clean up or prepare the parts. I have obtained three of the kits and am quite pleased with the quality. There are a few blemishes, but these can be easily remedied with a fine filler such as Perfect Plastic Putty by Deluxe Materials. Ironside and Bonny Prince Charlie are basic kits with a relatively small number of parts and details such as handrails are moulded on, but these can be filed off by those who would like greater detail and replaced by handrail knobs and wire. The Barclay's are slightly more developed with more separate parts and have indents for drilling holes for handrail knobs, the smoke box dart, etc. For those wanting detailing parts there are quite a number available from 'Mainly Trains.' I have just obtained two of the Bachmann HO Percy locos, and have been pulling them apart. The basic body kits are designed to go on this chassis and from what I can see the proportions look right. These chassis are a bit chunky and obviously not designed to be a super-detailed model, but provide a robust working base for the body. Once again there is scope for improvement such as after giving the solid footplate moulding a good clean up to remove all unnecessary mouldings, a good coat of matt black paint on the underside would make a simple and immediate improvement. The wheels are very nice with quite a fine flange profile and are chemically blackened, but the coupling rods, slide bars and motion brackets are rather heavy and the tapered connecting rods definitely wrong. Unfortunately the cranks pins used are rather massive and not easy to replace. I am now therefore looking at stripping the motion down and filing the rods to a more acceptable thickness and profile which should improve the appearance. The Barclay's go on the L & Y Pug chassis which is a nice ready to run unit. If you are happy with this good enough, but if you want a little improvement, the disc type wheels appear to be specific to this particular loco and after removing the covers over the slide bars there are small tabs visible which are there to hold the covers on. The latter could be filed off and it may be possible to replace the wheels with proper Barclay ones which are available in several sizes from 'Markits.' However, I believe that this ex-Dapol loco, (and the Terrier and J94), have a non-standard axle size of 2.5 ml, so some adaptation may be required to accommodate the axles and gears. These are just a few observations, but I hope that they might help to answer a few queries and inspire a few more potential purchasers to take the plunge, invest in some interesting kits and do a little upgrading. I have no interest in any of the afore-mentioned manufacturers other than as a satisfied customer. By the way, Bonny Prince Charlie is preserved at Didcot and there are a number of photographs on the internet which would prove useful.

Regarding the RSH 0-6-0. I have looked for a suitable prototype from the South East to justify one of these, so far without success. Can anyone suggest one, gas works, power station docks or similar. Were any used by the military ?