Mad McCann

It looks like a very cautious approach this year on account of the increasingly dire economic situation tbh. 

Probably realistic in that light.

5 hours ago, Rich Uncle Skeleton said:

Looks like there won’t be a second run after all. 

I suspect something akin to what happened with the 66 may transpire.

Early days.

I very much like Hornby's A2 with a couple of reservations; the green and the boiler lining which let's be honest looks a bit sh***e. 😉

That said, I've managed to lift the  rather lacklustre green with some effects and tonight I have used Fox Transfers lining on the boiler.

Shown here halfway through the job.

Phone cameras rarely do full justice but having finished the job since I took this, I can say categorically that this single act has reduced any hint of "meh" that had been hanging around this model and has truly lifted it from my personal perspective.

Davy.

From my own perspective, we still have a complete absence of Scottish four coupled types, although the D11/2 fits nicely in an 'honourary' sort of way.

At least we have a pair of 0-6-0s now although the big NBR 'S' Class/J37 would be nice along with the 'other' CR smaller 0-6-0 which I no longer name since it appears to be cursed every time I do... 😉

Davy.

1 hour ago, BVMR21 said:

These are looking fantastic, really looking forward to seeing them in person.

Just need to get yourselves a decent industrial loco out for these and you've got a full set...

Shhh. People aren't supposed to know about the Barclay six wheeler yet! 😉

4 hours ago, No Decorum said:

 

I do. I have a Midland loco and brake van and I hope someone will produce Midland wagons to form the filling in the sandwich.* I have renewed hope that some will appear a some stage. I have a couple of Chiltern 68s to top and tail a train of coaches which don’t exist yet RTR; hope is fading. Looked at the other way around, I bought two sets of SECR birdcages and was eventually rewarded with a superb loco to haul them. Joined up thinking from manufacturers would be very welcome but, until it happens, I would rather have a loco with nothing appropriate to pull than see rolling stock appear and think, “I wish I’d bought that loco (whichever it might be) whilst it was available.”

 

As for generic coaches from Hatton’s and Hornby, no thanks. I don’t think they are “correct rolling stock”. I made an exception for Hornby LBSC coaches because they are at least a poor representation of the correct coaches for my long-idle E4 to pull, that is, except for the overly long specimen. What worried me is that these generic coaches will deter a manufacturer from making accurate models. Would Dapol have produced the 0 gauge LBSC coaches in 00 were it not for these cluttering the market?

 

* I know trains were formed from a variety of wagons from all over the place but there should be at least some Midland in the mix.

As previously stated, there are plenty of simple wagon kits that would suit your needs. Well worth your dipping in to that world; I built my first one iny early mid teens in 1978; it something you can pick up quite quickly and learn to do well.

Also, bear in mind that in those days, there were few, if any corporate block trains of wagons so your Midland loco will be just as happy pullin a train containing SECR, GW or NB wagons for example, to say nothing of private owner vehicles.

Don't be afraid to mix and match as goods moved from one end of the island to another.

Davy.

Mike never forgets a pre-order either, as I found out expensively this year! 😂

I think that's all of them now! 😉

Top man!

Meantime, other routes still exist to create your optimum Black Five. I have a tranche of three Perth girls on the go at the moment. Here you see 44797 (front) and 44997 taking shape.

'997 has just had the tender axleboxes chewed off along with the odd coaming under the tender base.

A Comet part welded tender to awaits.

44998 is hiding behind the pile of crap because she is a bit shy for now.

I wanted to do Ferryhill's 44703 too but I need the long wheelbase chassis for that!

Cut to the chase; if you don't mind the journey, the old Hornby version still rewards the work.

Davy.

Yes. Yes and Yes. 

This is a "Biggie" for me being a huge postwar era ScR staple.

A bold choice for E&C but a really solid one. South of the Solway, it's bound to be popular because of the Longmoor and preservation connections too so I definitely wish well for this product.

Well worth the money for the spec although I did originally read part of it as 'manganese cylinder liners'! 🤣

Bravo, Ellis and Clark. Anybody with a likeable wee dug as part of their corporate image deserves success. 😉

17 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Of course there is only one slogan that really matters; "Midland - The Best Route".

Thank you.

Only if it takes you to "The True Line". 😉

Davy

On 13/11/2023 at 20:47, Clive Mortimore said:

The average modeller

"Wow look at the detail, isn't it wonderful, best thing since the last one a bought"

"It won't go round my radius 2 curves, just like the last one I bought"

"I think I will have a blue engine this month as I had a red one last month"

 

We must remember that many who enjoy railway modelling are not members of a scale/gauge society who limit their modelling to July 1910 at Newport Pangnell station and all of it must be scratch or kit built, but people who just like seeing model trains run, they enjoy the finer detail and the gimmicks.

 

As Joe Strummer sang

" Oh, please mister
Just leave me alone
I'm only
Lookin' for fun
Lookin' for fun
F, U, N"

 

On a personal level regarding detail on today's models, some of it is welcomed by me and some of it I feel is a waste of development and manufacturing time. But my view of an individual model can be different to someone else's.

Clive absolutely nails it here.

This hobby is a broad church and people's interests are by definition of Human nature going to be entirely subjective.

Myself for example. My core interest is ScR in the 1960s with excursions back to the mid '50s and forward to the blue era.

That has not prevented me from gathering such models as the P2, CR828 and a NER-liveried 'G5'* this year.

There are others too, chosen purely because I like the look or as in the case of a pair of DRS 37s and FNA-Ds, a memento of my days in the Border City.

On the subject of the high levels of detailing, I welcome it with open arms as it sets the bar for my own efforts and pushes me to match it. A current manifestation of this is a trio of 1966 era Perth / Ferryhill Black Fives I'm working on using the 2002 Hornby model as a base with Brassmasters/Comet upgraded parts. I see no point in throwing myself into the fray to purchase that latest incarnation when I can still get a decent base model at a relatively cheap price and bring it up to the required standards myself, albeit the material costs probably balance out in the end if I include my own labour.

That said, I have thoroughly enjoyed tweaking up the new 2MT in terms of finish. All the infrastructure and stock on the layout is also being done to a common standard but it is early days and my skills in some aspects are still in the formative stage. 

I'm enjoying the journey though. 🙂

Davy.

It's just such a shame that de-industrialisation struck just as BR was getting it's act together with freight services too. The 1980s really did see the new railway get into its stride and into making money again where IC was concerned.

Sub-sectors were probably an ideologically-driven mistake but in hindsight it's obvious to see what was going on under the surface there.

Back to 'blue' though and it's interesting to note that Rail Blue reached it's zenith in application and paint technology at that point with the development of the utter fine Large Logo version. I have long felt that it was that little splash of red on a nameplate that provided the final touch that finally gave the blue livery the soul and life that it needed. Fair to say that rail blue went out at the top of its game and is now fondly remembered as a result.

Like a sort of Jimi Hendrix of liveries!

Davy.

11 hours ago, The Johnster said:

 

Possibly, but what it was very much intended to be was a break from the past, and in 1964 when the livery was trialled and 1966 when it was introduced that had a very clear meaning; steam and anything associated with it.  BR had decided on a policy of modernisation (and come up with a plan to implement it) a decade earlier, and against a background of heamorraghing traffic and closures considered that the general perception of the railway (slow, inefficient, dirty, old-fashioned, no longer needed) needed to be changed, or said railway would have little left of itself by the next decade...

 

And one of the ways in which these percieved shortcomings expressed themselves was in the pre-1966 liveries, which were a mess by any standards.  Diesel locos especially were all over the place, and electrics were not much better.  One could identify at least seven different liveries for diesels; loco green with a white stripe at cantrail level (as in class 40, 44/5/6) loco green with a white stripe at waist level (as in Warships), loco green with two white stripes (26/7, 31, 33), two-tone green broad stripe (47, later 25s), two-tone green narrow stripe at bottom of bodyside (Deltic, Hymek), two-tone green lighter green on cab fronts (15, 16, 17), maroon (some Warship, Westerns), and plain green (37s).  Then there were one-off flirtations with Desert Sand or Golden Ochre.  DMUs came in light or dark green, with or without whiskers but increasingly with syp, EMUs did what they liked according to what electrified network they ran on, and electric locomotives were anything from NER fully lined out to red/white striped malachite, passing through electric blue on the LMR.

 

The new, exciting (you need to get out more, mate), modern, refreshing, attractive idea was 'corporate indentity', a range of colours and the new typeface to represent British Rail (the new name, railways were a thing of the past).  Everything was to come under it's umbrella, with new branding like Inter-City (yes, I know), Sealink, or Traveller's Fare to separate it from previous practice and emphaise that we are not doing it that way any more now because we are, above all, modern, and have a place in the modern world (if it sounds a bit desperate there's a reason for that), and to promote the new identity on everything from locomotives to stationery and teacups.

 

As an enthusiast, and a steam devotee, of course I thought it was throwing away the baby with the bathwater, and that we should have been more proud of our heritage, though to be fair corporate BR could do it's bit in that respect when it had the chance.  There were some lean years to come, though, and I worked on the railway through some of them.  At the time, I'd have said that the corporate identity experiment had failed; new motorways were being built, the railway was still losing traffic and money, and Serpell, which marked the low point of the railway's performance and the regard in which it was held in general, had just been published...  The turning point was undoubtedly the HST, a fantastic achievement, the world's fastest diesel train, the world's fastest train that did not charge a supplementary fare or pre-booking, the only service train in the world charging normal fares that had airconditioning, pneumatic suspension, double glazing, tinted windows, and 3-pin 240v plug sockets in every coach.  We were very proud of it.  It was a product of the corporate image railway in every sense.

Can't imagine there would be less of a market for a more generally useful crane than for a great big railgun.

That, considering it's a niche item to say the least in railway terms, seems to have been popular seller.

Davy.

I note that (given her designer and his legacy at the G&SWR) that, tender frames and suspension aside, she bears a fair resemblance to a Manson 361 class of Sou'West origin.

Davy.

Did anything come of this project, gents?

It's something I would certainly be interested in.

Davy.

It is a very nice model but I think this is the point where we have reached the limits of what the UK market can stand pricewise, especially with the economy in freefall.

I'd love a Mexican Bean but it's a real non-essential and £500 could provide a host of more essential models for my mainstream project.

Whilst I hope it succeeds, I'm sitting this one out for now.

Davy.

I was never aware of the Dalston Nestle plant ever being rail served and not did I see any evidence of a rail connection during my time there. 

However there was a plant in the city that produced something like Nesquik, over in the vicinity of the former Bog Yard, so perhaps this is the source of the 'Nestle siding' description.

Davy.

Sorry if this has already been covered; I only have a phone and it's a cumbersome process to try and read back on a lengthy thread with it, but is there an aftermarket supplier of the later flatter dome? I'd quite like to replace that provided on the model as it's by far the most common arrangement for the later survivors. 

Thanks.

Davy.

22 hours ago, mikemeg said:

LNER J72 Chassis

 

Lastly, comes the assembly of the brake linkage. The single etched sheet of nickel silver, containing all of the etched parts in the kit, is organised such that the etching of the brake linkage components also contains a jig for assembling the brake linkage. This jig, is designed to allow the assembly of the brake linkage in any of the three gauges for which the kit is designed - 'OO', EM or P4, with triplicated parts for all gauge dependant sections of the linkage.

 

Thus, the main brake linkage stretchers are left in place on the etched sheet and are therefore automatically spaced to fit the wheelbase of the loco. The long piece of brass rod (0.5 mm) is, again, positioned using the jig and allows the correct positioning and orientation of the brake adjuster, after which the brass rod can be withdrawn. A very clever piece of kit design which does make the assembly of this section of the kit very much easier.

 

However, adding the tiny pieces of 0.5 mm rod, to represent the bolts in the linkage shackles, is still going to try the patience just a tad! 

 

I'm still just inside my week off from the B4 build, but only just!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Mike. I hadn't realised that Chris had arranged the etch so that the stretchers were already set at the correct wheelbase spacing.

The man is an utter genius! 🙂

I have a spare Bachmann body and I'm now inclined to build one of these chassis just to get some use from it. Must be seven or eight years since I built a chassis!

Nice work.

Davy 

After receiving a couple of very nice 37/0s from Mike at C&M in Carlisle, I received another message from him a couple of months later advising me that 37606 had arrived. I had ordered this, like the /0s in 2020 when I still lived in Carlisle so I ltook it as it's now a reminder of my days, living across from DRS.

Now, I'm pretty immune from marketing and ad men, but I happened to look at the REx review  of the new FNA-Ds and ended up ordering toa pair.

And then...  I recalled from my observations that it was standard protocol to operate two locos on flasks. 

So this nostalgia piece has grown arms and legs with 609 joining her sister up here in The Mearns!

Completely out of area and period for most of my collection but what the hell, it's a nice combo, even if it's currently limited to occasional posing in front of the stereo. 

Davy.

All you need to do is mention to Southern Modellers that one finished it's days there.

Job done... 😉

Davy.

44 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I know it is a long time since this topic last had a post but to answer the original question  "Standard 3 2-6-0 using standard 4 chassis? Is it feasible?"

 

Yes

 

 

I have done a bit more on her since taking these photos.

I think you've proved the hypothesis quite ably, Clive.

Davy.

7 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Being nosey on the site,

 

Looks like ROG 37 just sold out on Accurascales site… there was 25 a few days ago.

37609 seems to be the next one flashing up on the “someone from somewhere just bought something” popup.

 

 

Yep. I ordered one on Monday.

The first locomotive and probably the first ever actual thing I have ordered online from a moving bus.

As passenger, I stress, for those who know me well... 🤣

Davy.

I did some fine adjustment to the finish on '970 and I'm much happier with it. Having just laid the track on the new layout, I decided to have a play with potential vantage points the other night.

She's certainly looking the part in a (semi-scenic) setting.