BlueLightning

8 hours ago, Nick C said:

Might it be a bit stronger if you used brass for the arm and spectacle as well? I can imagine those being a bit fragile in resin?

The spectacle is stronger than I expected, It'll hopefully be even better when I don't mess up the resin settings (I had the slicer set to the wrong type of resin for that particular print 😛)

That is certainly one option I have considered, one of the older versions before it started to get edited for mass production.

Gary

7 hours ago, JSpencer said:

beat them to the market with a small run

This is the issue, from where I am now I can swallow the current investment with no issues, it is annoying as there is stuff I wouldn't have spent money on if not for this, and may now not get used, however to entre production I would be looking at somewhere between £4000 and £5000, which while it isn't the largest sum ever, I wouldn't expect to pay it off with a small run, and I'd need to recoup most of the cost in this project to justify it before moving onto other things.

7 hours ago, JSpencer said:

if the alternative is very close

I don't know any timescales, or how far developed the alternative is, which makes decision making much harder.

Gary

Well getting back to regular updates was a nice idea, but this might stop me for a few weeks......

Nothing serious, but doing anything with that arm is currently very painful, so reading rather than modelling for a couple of weeks, still, I suppose I'll be able to pose some nice new Kernow wagons at some point (I'm glad I had heard in advance so could have money aside for them)

Gary

14 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

I assume these comments come straight from Hornby's protoype research team, assuming it has one.

You must have slightly more faith than me, I read them and assumed they came straight from ChatGPT.

Gary

On 13/05/2024 at 20:41, Nick C said:

Well, distant would probably be fixed at a branch line terminus, and I'd suggest you don't need the shunt ahead from the platform either- so dropping 3, 9, 10, 14 and 18. To be really Brighton you could also have 6 and 7 selected on points 4 (I.e. one lever works either signal depending on the lie of the points)

Thanks,

As Stephen said, I do believe on a Brighton line even a terminus like this would have a worked distant, and the shunt ahead signal existing was based on a photo from the correct period, so those 2 I would like to keep, plus the shunt ahead despite being a ground signal was mounted on the signal arm, so gives something a bit different looking that you don't see modelled often, so that's a plus.

6 and 7 being combined into 1 lever is interesting though, I will look into seeing if I can work out wiring that up, my A level electronics should manage it, but I'll need to be more awake than I am now.

Gary

You're right I probably could, and I may well do so, however rather than removing levers I'll be adding spares, as the kit comes in blocks of 5, so knock out a few more and you can save me some money 🤣 I suppose I could knock out lever 3, since that signal won't actually exist on the layout, but I like the idea of operating it as part of the sequence regardless.

I've only got the frame built up to 15 levers so far, and only actually got the first 5 levers in it, and currently it's no where near the layout, so there is still time for revisions

8 & 9 do share a rod in the cosmetic rodding, so it at least shows the box on the layout is correct.

Gary

Hi Chris,

Yes, still selling the 3D prints, there are currently no plans to end that, in fact I have quite a bit waiting to launch.

There were a few different reasons that the shop had to be sold, it is a shame as I did once see it as my forever job, but I'm much happier now than I was this time last year.

Gary

Thanks Mikkel,

The goods shed idea was very much inspired by your depot, I just hope it looks half as effective as yours once it's finished!

The trackwork is Peco Bullhead, except the 3 way turnout which is built from C&L parts to Peco geometry, painted with Railmatch Sleeper Grime and Dark Rust, I'm very happy that the 3 way seems to fit in nicely with the Peco as it was my first ever attempt at building track!

Gary

39 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

... allegedly.

There's no allegedly, the Hornby 4 wheel carriages are based on LBSC Stroudley couaches, and 6 wheelers are based on LBSC Billingtons, odd choices for generic coaches, but that's only if you think they were always planned to be generic

Gary

1 hour ago, Roy Langridge said:

Tried using the search function, but it never seems to work well for me on my mobile, so apologies if this has been covered. 
 

Is there an option to buy a DCC sound decoder for a DC Titfield Thunderbolt train set? Looking at the Rapido website, I can only find a Lion option, which I assume is not the same. 
 

I was bought a DC version and would like to upgrade it. 
 

Thanks,

 

Roy 

You have a DM

Gary

I have a few things, including the cattle van to test print, a rather large custom order slowed down my ability to do test prints, but that is done, and I now have an extra printer just for test prints, so as long as it goes well I am hoping to have them out in less than a week.

So might be worth holing off on the order.

Absolutely loving the look of your horsebox so far though! Thanks for sharing!

Gary

1 hour ago, Nick C said:

Probably the only item of Stroudley rolling stock to gain BR livery, S3370, the Isle of Wight horsebox, rarely moved from a siding at Yarmouth for the last few years.

 

Does anyone know of any photos of the other side to confirm whether the lettering was in the same place?

Looks fantastic! I always love seeing the the kits built up and painted out in the wild, unfortunately I don't think I have a photo of that particular one at all, never mind the other side.

Gary

Good to see you back Bob,

I've been suffering from the mojo loss recently, have tried to get back into modelling a couple of times, but it hasn't stuck.

It's nice to see some pictures from Cambrian Street again!

Gary

Glad they have arrived. Hopefully nothing got damaged in the post. Let me know if it did so I can sort out replacements.

Gary

10 minutes ago, Lacathedrale said:

my thought is that my layout could be reasonably backdated to the mid-Stroudley period

Your layout would look great full of IEG and 4 wheelers, never mind any scarcity of umber locos

1 hour ago, Lacathedrale said:

Am I correct in assuming the IEG liveried E1's are fictional? They were introduced post-1874 when Goods Green was introduced, and would have been in umber in post-1920 when lined black was abolished? If not, when would they slot into the timeline?

Some were originally IEG as they were put onto passenger services during the loco shortage, all had been painted into goods green by the early 1890s (I'll have to dig out a book to find the actual date)

 

50 minutes ago, stephennicholson said:

Do we know whether E1s were exclusively repainted into Black from 1905 and Umber, for Goods, was only used at the tail end of LBSC (mid 1921 according to the HRMRS Southern Style).

correct, black from 1905, and umber from 1921

Gary

21 hours ago, stephennicholson said:

At the Rapido stand at Warley, the possibility of these going ahead with another commissioner was mentioned, although the one with tooling changes was deemed as less likely (not sure which one that was).

Both the Train Times ones were to have a base under the whistle that none of the other models had, if a bit of tooling is being dropped I expect it is this.

The base under the whistle can be seen here

If someone else did pick them up, they'd have an order from me for sure.

Gary

3 hours ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

It was the performance of the I3 that opened the LNWR's eyes to the befits of superheating. However it seems odd that the Precursor needed three tender refills  (15 tons) whereas the I3 managed it on one bunker full of coal (3.25 tons). That would have meant that the Precursor was consuming about 125lbs of coal per mile, five times that of the I3 and something even the strongest fireman might  have found difficult to do for 135 or so miles to do.

 

I sense a bit of partisan LBSCR b*llsh*t

I have gone and dug out Bradley to double check, he is apparently referring to both coal and water, and on a round trip, so a total of 264 miles, the I3 managed Brighton - Rugby - Brighton without taking on coal or water, although this was apparently a worry for the LBSC originally and they carried milk churns loaded with water and sacks of coal to refill the loco if needed on the first few runs, and clearly it was close as he states the I3 as using 3 tons 6 cwt of coal in total on the round trip.

He also gives stats for fuel used per mile, with the I3 using 27.4lb of coal per mile, and 22.4 gallons of water, and the Precursor using 41.2lb of coal per mile and 36.6 gallons of water. These figures were apparently noted by Marsh in his report to the directors of both companies at the end of the trials.
 

There is some other anecdotal stuff about how hard the engines were worked during the trips, but nothing to back that up. He states that crews worked the locos as hard as they could with Titan "arriving at Brighton with it's smokebox glowing red" meanwhile the LBSC drivers were told off for speeding and not slowing down for junctions.

Another point to note is that the LBSC took number 23 out of service before the trials and had engineers from Schmidt (manufacturers of the superheater) visit Brighton to fine tune the engine to get the best possible performance out of the superheater. Another I3 did one run to Rugby and back and performed slightly worse that 23, but not by much, 28.1lb of coal per mile and 22.7 gallons of water.

Gary

Assuming it was the same photo I have, a Precursor 4-4-0 number 7 Titan originally published in The Locomotive Magazine in Jan 1910.

From what I have read elsewhere, though I cannot recall the source right now (May also be Bradley as per the next paragraph that I know is), the LNWR were so impressed with the I3 that ran the alternate service during this time that they borrowed it for a few days to study why it was so efficient compared to their engine and the findings they made from this were incorporated into the George the Fifth class engines.

One of the things that impressed the LNWR the most was that the I3 could do the full run from Brighton to Rugby without needed to refuel, while the Precursor had to refuel twice on the journey. (Source: The Locomotives of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway by D L Bradley)

Gary

2 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

it has now been sent off to @BlueLightning for a first test print

It has been added to the to-do list, there are a few test prints to do this week, hopefully some new releases next weekend, we shall see how much time I get!

Gary

23 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Hornby have done various well-known railway buildings such as Settle & Carlisle stations; presumably these are to scale?

No idea about the Hornby ones, but my Bachmann Sheffield Park building is to the correct scale

Although reading this thread over the last couple of days has me looking at my Skaledale houses and thinking they are too small, and quite obviously so, but I'm not going to measure them to find out how much, I'm not 3D printing scale replacements!

Gary

Hi Chris,

I always give them a spray with Halford's Plastic primer before painting. Although I have done it without before, but I do think you get better results with primer.

Gary