88C

There hasn’t been much time for modelling recently, last weekend we were down in Bristol to celebrate my aunt’s 100th birthday. A nice family gathering including my 102 year old uncle. I have just been applying transfers to the recent wagon builds, I will post photos later but pedants be warned, the numbers are almost certainly incorrect. Brian

Wishing you all the best in your new venture. Brian.

The problem with the brake gear has been resolved. I borrowed a book, LNER Wagons by Peter Tatlow, from the club library and it includes a diagram and photo showing brakes on one side. Incidentally the photo is of 144895, the same number used on the box seen on the eBay link. Brian.

I must admit that if I have a job to do in the garage, not necessarily railway related, I also like to run a train round, that’s why we build layouts. Brian.

Thanks Rob. The eBay site was very useful, especially the instruction sheet and it does seem to be brakes on one side only, I’ll have a better look on the desktop later. As for transfers, I bought sets of wagon transfers for all four companies from Modelmaster some years ago, they have been very useful even if I don’t use an authentic number. Reading posts on here they are probably unavailable now. There might not have been any brake gear but I do have an extra side and end. Brian

The next wagons from the Bedford stash are a couple of 3H LNER 6 plankers, at least that's what it says on the paper inside a poly bag. I have no idea what came with the kit but after assembling the body I had to make a floor before fitting the solebars, the photo shows how far I have got. Also in the bag were buffers, and brake levers. I know nothing about what these wagons are based on so my next question is did they have brakes on just one side or both? Anyway there were no brakes with the kits so I have raided my box of spares and found some and the bits and pieces that I kept from Chris's stuff has yielded some V hangers. Another question, are these the same type of wagon as the Oxford Rail one? If so that has brakes both sides. I have probably mentioned before that I am not obsessed with details, as long as something looks OK I'm happy but that does not mean that I don't try to do my best. When it comes to wagons running round a layout in a train the minor details can't be seen. If I was building a small cameo layout that might be different. Any help will be appreciated. Brian

Have you done the continuity test with the loco plugged to the tender, I believe that’s how many models are wired these days? Brian

Not a lot of progress on anything really. Still tinkering with the 2021 so hopefully it will look reasonable, it’s the bunker that I’m not happy with at the moment. My wife and I went to the Pontefract show yesterday and really enjoyed it, some very nice layouts to look at, Carol appreciates the scenic details so plenty to admire. We also had a good chat with @Barry O reminiscing about Chris Foren and even spoke a bit about weathering. I had a cheap day and only bought the Plastic Weld which I need and some more couplings for wagon projects. Brian

Looking back it is 4 years since I started building a 2021 kit. It has been a frustrating build and certainly not one of my better efforts and it is still far from finished. Anyway, I'm currently having another look at it, the reason it was put to one side is that I was not happy with the way I had fixed the body to the footplate, it just didn't line up properly. The only solution was to take it apart and try again so that's what I have done. It is not perfect and there will be quite a lot of filler needed. This is how it looks now with the cab, bunker and boiler fittings resting in place. Hopefully I can move on from here and end up with a reasonable model as long as the 3' rule is extended a bit. No criticism of the kit, I'm just making a hash of it. I usually have some wagon builds on the go, the LMS wagon is the latest to be finished, I am now trying to put a load in straight away. The coal wagon is waiting until I can get some solvent for the ABS parts, the local war gaming shop only has Humbrol. That's it for now, I must get an Accurascale pannier ordered, it will probably arrive before I finish the 2021. Brian

I hope things go well for you Graham and that you will be able to salvage much of CR. Don’t forget to keep posting on here, it’s a very friendly and helpful community. Brian

Another couple of photos taken on the same day, possibly in 1965. I've been busy with the scanner.

Here is a photo that I took at Woodham's, Barry. I wasn't good at recording dates and number details. Brian.

Looking at the handrail it seems that on the left hand side the angle between the curved front and side are not at right angles. Easy enough to change if you have enough length on the straight bit. Generally it’s looking good. Brian, not wishing to criticise but sometimes another pair of eyes can help.

I have just sent an order off to Modelu for some more figures, including a pair in HO which I’m hoping will be more suitable for the small E class. A bit more successful this afternoon, the purpose made crew for the Manor went in easily and a couple of the whitemetal ones have gone into the ex M&SWR 2-4-0 without any problems. That loco has been waiting a long time for a crew! Brian

A rather frustrating couple of sessions trying to fit whitemetal figures into some of my Barry locos. Even models where I have made the cab roof removable I have struggled to get the figures to stay put while the glue sets, I’m sure heavy bodies and small feet don’t help. I will have to try some 3D printed ones. Putting off trying anything with a fixed roof. It is a bit of a dilemma really as most of the time the engines will be seen on shed so no crew really needed, you can’t win. Brian.

Good luck with the handrail, I have done quite a few over the years and it is tricky to get them right and sometimes it’s necessary to start again with a fresh piece of wire. I also find a pair of small round nosed pliers useful. Basically I it the same as @Darwinian.

I built a couple of these coaches ages ago, I must admit they don’t come out of their box very often. The way that you have added the grab rails and handles makes a big improvement over the printed ones. Well done. Brian

Well, I think that's all I can do on the C66 coaches until it is warm enough to start painting, so a few pictures to show where I've got to. All the separate parts ready for assembly. A brief test, an excuse to try different coupling options. First T/L Then 3link/screw. A bit of tweaking needed with a couple of bogies, I think that if I get round to building any more coaches I will try to use RTR bogies. Ideally they need a proper test, I might take them up to the club one day and see how they perform on a roundy roundy with hand built pointwork. I will need a brake coach to go with these and I was lucky enough to get a Hornby version from the sad demise of Hattons. A bit of tidying up to do before I decide on my next project. Brian

Not a lot done over the festive season but I have made a start today. The C66 coaches needed full length footboards but the recommended method in the instructions made them look too wide in my opinion so I searched through the stash of brass strips and came up with some suitable L shaped pieces. I drilled some 0.45 holes at the bottom of the solebars and soldered lengths of wire into the holes, these wires support the footboards. Before they can be fitted the boards needed to be marked for the position of the supports and a notch filed to clear the wire. One thing I didn't notice at the time was that one of the L pieces was slightly deeper than the others so one coach has one footboard higher than the other. Not to worry, you can only see one side at a time. Next jobs to do will be fitting the buffers, detailing and fixing the roofs, then I think it will be put to one side until it is suitable weather for painting. After that I will probably do more on the 2021, it's been a long time since I built a whitemetal kit and I am afraid to admit that I don't seem to be doing it very well, hopefully it won't look too bad when it's done. Finally can I wish you all the best for 2024. Brian

My daughter in law has some shares in Brewdog and every so often we get a delivery of beer, it comes to us because they live in Hong Kong. Anyway, I’m not a big drinker but I often have a bottle with Sunday dinner. A few weeks ago I took a bottle from the cupboard at random and drank it with the meal, when I got up from the table I was extremely wobbly, not a usual reaction, looking at the label, 14%! Brian

May I take this opportunity to say Happy Christmas to everyone. I would like to thank once again the members of RMweb who have been so supportive of me in dealing with Chris Foren's passing and now dealing with his estate, it is about twenty weeks since the form applying for probate/letters of administration and we are still waiting. On a brighter note it has been a a pretty good year for modelling, several projects completed and the arrival so some very impressive motive power. Next year will see the arrival of a steam railmotor so something to look forward to. I have the C66 coaches to complete, no particular rush because it is not going to be warm enough for some time to get out into the garage to spray them. In fact, for a change I built another wagon kit earlier this week. I have far more than I need but it's fun building them, although they are useful when a club layout is on show. Enjoy the festivities and happy modelling. Best wishes, Brian

Steady progress on the two C66 coaches. The sides and ends are assembled and I am now working on the interiors before I start on the underframes, this gives a firmer base to work on. Like the toplight I am using a false floor. Holes have been made to clear the bogie bolts and I have put a pin at one end to help with getting the correct location. It's slow work building coaches. Brian.

Hello Clive, in John Hodge’s book Barry it’s railway and port there are several photos of Castles on diversions and also one of 70025 Morning Star in the cutting, my grandparents house is just out of shot to the left. An annual two week holiday has certainly left it’s mark. Best wishes, Brian

Interesting to read about your Llantwit Major layout. My ideal model would be a Vale of Glamorgan station, sadly I don’t have space but I could justify running all of my Barry Railway and Great Western stock except Kings and 47xx unless Rule 1 was invoked. My railway interest stems from holidays with my Grandparents who lived above the VoG cutting just out of Barry station. Well done on all of your layouts. Brian

A long time since I posted for various reasons which I don't need to bore you with but it has meant that modelling time has been in short supply. Back to the C66. First of all the underframe. The information in the instructions says the bogie centres are 39'9" ,159mm in 4mm. The inner most marked centres are 41'6", 166mm which means new holes have to be drilled 3.5mm in from these. The underframe is also too long and there is no cutting guide so using the coach body as a guide I worked out that I needed to cut 12mm off each end. Needless to say, all of this is best done before folding any part of the etch. A while back @Graham T was asking about fixing couplings to bogies and I suggested the MJT etches. It takes a bit of working out the best way to fit them to Comet bogies but I just used 6 layers of scrap etch soldered to the underside to get the correct height. Part of the Comet etch does include a part for screw on Bachmann type couplers but I wanted the versatility of a NEM pocket. My method was a bit tedious but I couldn't think of a better way. MJT bogies are a lot easier in this respect. Latest step has been to cut the roofs to length and then to mark out and drill for the vents. Hopefully I will be able to make steady progress, however I have never been a quick modeller. Brian