cctransuk

Again, from the diagrams :- Diagram 4 : 50 built at York 1936 [Nos. 2227 to 2276 incl.] 59 built at York 1937 [Nos. 2277 to 2335 incl.] 2233 demolished in mishap at Bow 11-7-45 14'WB., 22'OH., weight 10-17-0 5'-1.5" luggage compt., 9'-9" horse compt., 6'-2" groom's compt. Diagram 5 : 30 built at York 1938 [Nos. 2336 to 2365 incl.] 14'WB., 22'OH., weight 11-12-2 3'-8.5" luggage compt., 9'-9" horse compt., 4'-6" groom's compt., 3'-0" toilet. Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

From the LNER diagram :- DIAGRAM No. 5 CODE No. 8005 No.OF VEHICLE /SPECIAL LETTERING 2336 RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2337 RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2338 RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2339 REG DAY RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2340 B.JARVIS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2341 G.B.BARKING RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2342 J.L.JARVIS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2343 J.L.JARVIS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2344 FRANK BUTTERS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2345 J.L.JARVIS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2346 FRANK BUTTERS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2347 FRANK BUTTERS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2348 CAPT.G.BOYD ROCHFORT RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2349 FRANK BUTTERS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2350 HON.G.LAMBTON RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2351 C.P.KIRK RETURN TO KENNETT 2352 CAPT.G.BOYD ROCHFORT RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2353 GEORGE R.DIGBY RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2354 LORD GEORGE DUNDAS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2355 LORD GEORGE DUNDAS RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2356 RETURN TO LEYBURN 2357 J.G.THOMPSON RETURN TO ACKLINGTON 2358 RETURN TO MALTON 2359 'EGERTON HOUSE' RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2360 RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2361 CAPT.P.WHITAKER RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2362 THE EARL OF DERBY RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2363 THE EARL OF DERBY RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2364 R.J.COLLING RETURN TO NEWMARKET 2365 MAJOR W.V.BEATTY RETURN TO NEWMARKET Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers. http://www.cctrans.freeserve.co.uk/

I will very shortly be adding this to my Parkside-dedicated transfer Sheet S1, and transfers for this horsebox are also on my transfer Sheet C64 - see http://www.cctrans.freeserve.co.uk/products.htm . Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers

Unless I'm missing something here, the OP is referring to PO timber wagons, similar to salt wagons, that were used for grain traffic in the Leith area. These lasted surprisingly late - at least into the 1970's I believe. Parkside have produced a 4mm. scale kit for many years. Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers. http://www.cctrans.freeserve.co.uk/

.... taking a vehicle without the owner's consent? Being involved with highway works, I know that only the police may legally move an obstructive vehicle on the public highway. Regards, John Isherwood, Engineering Projects Manager, Cambridge City Council.

Those of us who are interested in the Hawksworths that were used to strengthen DMUs, there is a nice photo of one in the November issue of Traction magazine. Regards, John Isherwood.

Well - as I've just discovered, you can polish them away with isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud; (lighter fuel works too - but not as quickly). The glazing is unaffected by this treatment and the reassembled coach is immensely improved. I have even been able to fit Peco / HD couplers into the NEM pockets. Regards, John Isherwood.

Well - in the days when Airfix Pug kits were two bob (10p in today's money) I think I must have done pretty much all possible variants - but as un-powered models for 12mm. gauge. The Fairlie looked great, as did the 0-4-2ST and 2-4-2ST. There were several other variants that I can no longer remember precisely. Suffice to say they all went into the scrap box years ago. The Airfix Drewry 0-6-0DM kit was the same price and so was similarly butchered - a chunky 0-6-6-0 inspired by the Claytons is one I remember. Good modelling practice for a then-teenager. Regards, John Isherwood.

In reality there was, and still is, a stark choice between an empty trackbed populated in our imagination by ghosts of the past, or a modern railway that has attractions for the masses. You can't run a railway, let alone restore one from scratch, on the revenue generated by a hard-core bunch of misty-eyed romantics. To do what it has achieved the FR / WHR has taken the pragmatic view that it will exist for the most part on the single visit market. There is, to all intents and purposes, a steady flow of non-enthusiast holidaymakers who, given the variability of Welsh weather, are only to glad to take a weatherproof excursion by car / coach and railway. I am willing to bet that, whether we the enthusiasts make one or more visits, is largely immaterial to the FR / WHR. I have walked the derelict trackbed of the WHR, (as did my father before me immediately prior to going off to fight in WW2), and we both prefer the restored railway - even with historically inaccurate stock and the vast majority of passengers decidedly non-enthusiasts. Let's face it, there was no pretence on the part of the FR / WHR to preserve what went before - to do so is an unrealistic aspiration no matter which railway is the subject. Railways closed because they were not financially viable in their original form - you can't preserve insolvency! Regards, John Isherwood.

Very bucolic - but then bucolic had a habit, especially at the old WHR and its predecessors, of fading into insolvency. I too would like to be able to go back in time - but not if it meant history repeating itself yet again. A successful (aka long lasting) railway evolves with the times. Regards, John Isherwood.

Gap now filled with plasticard - 5.3 x 5.0 mm. seems about right. Painted matt black the model looks much better. I also took the opportunity to limit the sideplay of the outer driving wheel axles and the fly-crank axle. I cut slices from some biro ink tube with an ID of around 2 mm. The slices were around 1 mm. thick, but you can adjust this to suit your track radii. I cut a small sector out of each ring - just enough to allow me to spring them over the axle between the wheel / fly-crank and the frame. The result is most gratifying - 'hunting' or 'waddle' is virtually eliminated and the tendency to 'knock' or hesitate slightly on each wheel revolution has also pretty much gone. As I suspected, there is just too much 'slop' in the mechanism as supplied. I can think of no further running improvements, short of sleeving the crankpins to eliminate excess clearance. All in all, an easy, cheap and successful bit of work. Regards, John Isherwood.

You're right - and I've been studying no end of photos and not noticed that !! That explains why it is so evident that the back of the bufferbeams are painted yellow. Ah well - out with the plasticard! Regards, John Isherwood.

Well, the cosmetics are completed - apart from weathering. I found that Humbrol matt yellow is an exact match for the bufferbeams, and my matching of the cab grey / green appears correct to my eyes. New markings all round make a huge difference, as does black paint over all of the headcode glazing except the front and back of the actual code. (According to my copy of the ABC "British Railways Headcodes", 3B87 is a Class 3 train from Evercreech Junction to Highbridge and Burnham-on-Sea)! I looked at swapping the red and white marker lights, as well as shifting the bufferbeam back, but came to the conclusion that these were 'no go' areas, for me anyway! Hope you like the photos. Regards, John Isherwood.

I have recently completed a Dave Alexander 4mm. scale kit of 10800. The kit is designed to take two Tenshedo SPUDS which have a slightly inaccurate wheelbase. I elected to fit two powered Black Beetles with the correct wheelbase and wheeel diameter, though this required considerable modifications to the designed bogie mounts. You will see that one BB is pivoted in a fabricated brass cab floor, which is only very slightly above scale level. The other BB pivots in a brass strip cantilevered forward from the central crossbar in the footplate casting. I added a driving desk in plastic card with some nice lost wax controllers, and an etched hand brake wheel on the cab back, both kindly supplied by Dave Alexander. I produced transfers for both of the works plates - North British and BTH / GE - together with the BR symbol, loco number, power classification and fuel and radiator gauges. Just a bit of weathering needed now when I can use the airbrush outdoors again. Regards, John Isherwood.

Much earlier in this thread I cast doubt upon another poster's suggestion that there is far too much of a footplate overhang in front of the bonnets. I take it all back !! Having seen the large broadside photo in the feature on the D9500s in the March issue of the Hornby Magazine, it is clear that the front of the bonnets, the marker lights, and the bufferbeam should all line up. What proves the point is that the 'box' below the footplate behind the long bonnet end bufferbeam is very noticeably too wide on the model. Some surgery required, methinks! I've a feeling that the operating marker lights will have to be sacrificed as they are backed by the PCB. Regards, John Isherwood.

A word of warning to those who are proposing to renumber D9500 using the traditional method of rubbing off the old number with isopropyl alcohol and a wooden cocktail stick. It would appear that Heljan's body paint is more suscepible to the alcohol than their lettering paint. I found that the paint around the numbers disappeared before the numbers - much cursing ensued! Suffice to say that the cab sides, front and ends required an overall coat of a concoction based on SR Light Olive, Rail Grey, with a dab of BR Yellow Green and a touch of Humbrol Matt Bright Green. Colour matching consisted of a dab of the mixture onto the cabside, which was quickly assessed for shade and then wiped of immediately. This way you can check, adjust and clean off until you're satisfied. All a real PITA !! Oh - and another word to the wise - the windscreen wipers ping off into oblivion at the touch of an adjacent paintbrush. Not a relaxing session !! Regards, John Isherwood.

Go steady on the humble pie! The model is still not moulded correctly. I can't decide if it's a mis-moulded attempt to incorporate the smaller diameter pipe or just an intentional cop-out. Anyway, I can now correct mine with a couple of bits of brass tube and some Milliput. Regards, John Isherwood.

Just a word for Hattons - after a little initial reluctance, they got the missing parts out to me within two days. Regards, John Isherwood.

Well, I have to say - (and I saw the prototype brand new at Swindon) - Heljan have got it spot-on. This colour is not to be confused with Sherwood Green, as used on the bottom half of Brush Type 4s, amongst other things. It was much more of a grey / green, as is the Heljan rendition. As to the darker BR green on D9500, I'd say it's a bit on the blue side - but not much. I'll see how it responds to a little gloss varnish as I want my model ex-works. Regards, John Isherwood.

Having had a bit of time this afternoon to tinker with my D9500, I've come to the conclusion that any mechanical deficiencies with this model can be summed up in one word - slop !! (AKA excessive clearances). The amount of sideplay on the wheels has been discussed already, but it doesn't stop there. Don't get me wrong; my model is almost silent and runs very smoothly - except ... it has just the hint of hesitation or surge on each wheel revolution. I'm sure that many of us who built our first steam loco chassis found that it had a bit of a tight spot. So we opened up the coupling rod holes - just a bit too much! The more we sought to remedy the problem with increased clearances, the worse it got. That's the problem with the Heljan D9500, I'm sure. The chassis / axle clearances are so large that you can twist the axle in the horizontal plane quite significantly. The crankpin holes in the coupling rods are *much* larger than the pin itself. Try holding one wheel and then rotating the adjacent wheel - there's no end of backlash! Too much slop is worse than not enough - you can always ease a tight spot but, short of bushing the axles and crankpins, there's nothing to be done with D9500. Fortunately, it's only the merest suggestion of hesitation with my model - it amazes me that it can be so smooth with all that excess clearance. Anyway, I can live with it. Oh - and droopy couplings are going to be a problem with this model, too. The NEM pockets on mine flapped about - the pivot hole is way too large for the screw. I bushed the pivot hole with 2.5 mm. OD brass tube, but I still needed to shim between the underside of the pocket and the chassis baseplate to keep the pocket horizontal. Regards, John Isherwood.

Thanks for drawing that to my attention - mine has one missing, too !! I can't see anything on the parts list that resembles the door catch - I think that I shall admit defeat on that one and bend up a bit of fine wire. It has to be said - the quality control on this one is abysmal !! Regards, John Isherwood.

Full marks to Hattons - I've just received an e-mail to say that the Part 49 will be sent out this evening with the three Parts 50 that my model was also missing. Regards, John Isherwood.

Mine's got it on one side - but not the other, (though the fixing hole for it is there)! Another e-mail to Hatton's !! Regards, John Isherwood.

Just had a call from Hattons - the missing brake hangers will be in the post tonight. Common sense has prevailed - thank you Hattons! Regards, John Isherwood.

A useful photo - thanks. I had a quick try at dismantling this morning. The cab came off quite readily and I took care to put the loose horn cowls on one side. Out came the two screws from under the cowls. The short bonnet was now loose at the end but wouldn't slide up at the cab end - is there a trick to this? Do you have to splay the bonnet sides at all? The long bonnet was still firmly attached - are there any other fixings or some technique required to release the long bonnet? Regards, John Isherwood.