grob1234

Dave, I've said it before but this is epic! I thought the river was real!

Hello Andy, Thank you for your observations. I've had another go at it, and its running reasonably smoothly. I think part of the problem may be my failure to get a truly square chassis. First attempt, so I know looking back I made a few mistakes. I've had to open up the bearings a little too much to compensate for the non square chassis, which is resulting in the center wheels not rotating perpendicular to the frame. When the body is on, the effect is not to bad, and it runs very slowly if required. I think what I'll do is continue with it for now, and at the very worst case I can purchase a new chassis, and use a jig to aid construction, tail firmly between my legs for not taking care in the 1st place!

Hello, I wonder if somebody more knowledgeable than me is able to help? I'm finishing off the chassis for my LRM J69. The wheels spin freely independently. The connecting rods and wheels are bind free when no drive is attached. The gearbox is free running when not connected to the drive gear (runs better backwards than forwards, but I guess this is always the case!) The gearbox and drive wheel are free running when connected. So, basically, everything is free running on its own, however when the motor, gearbox and drive gear are connected and the connecting rods are added, the whole thing is far less free running. So, I suspect an issue with the con rods. I'm loathe to open up the holes in the con rods further, the problem I have is not really knowing how much 'slop' is acceptable. I don't want to open up the holes too much, though my gut instinct is that this might solve the problem... any top tips would be greatly appreciated! EDIT: Heres a little video to show you what I mean: https://youtu.be/p8OhbOD4vrs

Looks superb to me Tony. I think it's very easy to the overly harsh on ones self when the model bares all in brass. I can't see any issue with the smoke box or the boiler for that matter. It'll look fantastic once it's painted, and I'm sure it runs smoothly too. Edit: PS are they Gibson wheels?

It's being repatriated in March, so I would be delighted to bring it along. I'm in the process of sorting out a suitable carrying medium for them that will enable them to endure a 12 hour flight. Luckily they should fit in hand luggage, here's hoping for a smooth flight! I better sort out the bogie on coach A it's causing derailments at the moment!

Those Poppy jigs look super. I will have to invest. Picking up on your point about the satisfaction of having made the kit yourself, I would also add that having the flexibility to choose a motor/gearbox and wheel combination that is superior to those offered in RTR forms is another reason to build from kits. To me, model locomotives are for running on layouts, therefore if the drive train is smoother, and the wheels of a more prototypical look, that puts a kit built loco above an RTR equivalent. That said, I have also recently received one of the new Hornby A4's, Silver King. A superb loco, but once I opened the box, I didn't really feel too much attraction to it. I had a small amount of pleasure from seeing what is a beautiful model, but its not my creation, so the pride I have from owning it is far less than something I have made. RTR has its place for sure, and I will continue to purchase RTR, but kit building is where its at for me. So much so that I'm looking at building A1's and A3's rather than renumbering RTR stock, purely for the above reasons, even though side by side my efforts compared to those of Hornby will be visually less appealing.

LNER Passenger Trains & Formations 1923-67 by Banks and Carter Named trains on LNER lines vol 1 and 2 by W.B. Yeadon Both available on Amazon or eBay or other good book shops. Lots of pictures and descriptions, highly recommended.

Looks like I may be able to attend Nottingham on Sunday all being well, thanks for posting the link. If I'm there I will be sure to come and say hello. Unusual for me to be in the uk and for the exhibition to be only 1.5 hours up the road. For me this layout will be the star attraction. I'm sorry to hear about the gremlins last time out, I know very little about watts and ohms and so on, but the fact you're able to transport your layout and set it up and make stuff work is a huge credit to you and the team. I have enough difficulty setting up my 6ft by 2ft 6 layout let alone something like Grantham.

That V2 is absolutely gorgeous Tony. I'll be attempting something with valve gear soon, and a SE Finecast C12. I've surprised myself just how quickly these kits go together.

Yes, its really model aircraft tech, used to make canopies. The key is to heat the plastic (only certain types work) til its really hot under the grill, then it will work well.

I think so, cameras do funny things, yet they say they don't lie. Hmm.... I think this: http://lowres-picturecabinet.com.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/43/main/48/127362.jpg Compares pretty favorably to this (wheel size wise):

1000 0.55mm brass lace pins winging their way to me courtesy of Ebay, and five of my GBP. Helpful bunch on here

Thank you very much Jonathan. In post 124 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/100704-oo-lner-coronation-brass-kit-build-sydnope-scale-models/?p=2144768 I made a vacuum forming machine and used that along with a wooden former to make the rear window. Quite a bit of effort, but it worked really well! As for the couplers, I came up with this rather ingenious method... Just hook and goal post... not sure where the inspiration for that came from really... Between the twins, I just used the MJT system you recommended, does a very nice job. Hi Mick, thanks for the observation. I got out the Isinglass drawings and measured the wheels at 14mm, so thats 3' 6" in real life, could you confirm this is correct? I checked the kit and they're 14mm too. So, if all is well, they should be to scale, hopefully its just the bright white seemingly enlarging the apparent size of the wheels. Thank you very much for these comments, your work on Grantham was the inspiration for all this so I would love to run them on your layout. We hope to move back to Blighty in the next 18 months or so, I'm sure Grantham will still be in existence then? You're right some of Tony's images are passable, as long as he asks my permission first, I'd hate him to just snap away 'willy nilly'... Thanks Teaky, they are just the most impressive sight, and ahead of their time, reminiscent of the Eurostar twins in many ways. Yes, I believe Harris mentions this in his book. A rexine covering whatever that is. At least I have the excuse to not weather them too much

Thank you. Stupid question - are they all the same diameter?

Thank you Tony, it's nice when kits fly together, but I get quite a bit of enjoyment out of using my noggin to get something made too!

Thank you very much Peter. It is a kit with some history, and I wanted to retain as much of it as possible, I even used the 30+ year old plasticard for the interior. The only bits I didn't use were the supplied seats and the white metal bogie spacers. Everything else is either from the kit or scratch built. When I next build a set like this (Jubilee when I strike up the courage), then of course I will do things differently, using what I have learnt on this build. With hindsight, it was a tall order as a first OO kit, but if we don't stretch ourselves we can't improve, and I have to admit, I'm rather proud of them. Thanks for looking in.

Hello. With regard to photography at shows, I feel there are several issues at play. First of all, as another contributor mentions, I do not feel that anyone could stop one taking pictures at a public event where people have paid money to enter the show. I do, however, feel it is simply a case of politeness to strike up a conversation with the owner or operator, ending up with something like: 'the layout looks fantastic, do you mind if I take a few snaps?'. I would say this is perfectly acceptable, and I cannot imagine any reasonable person declining this request. As for the issue of flashes going off all day, then I accept this would be annoying (not to mention other risks like headache etc). Sadly, I think many people would not know how to disable the flash on their camera or phone, or how to set it up correctly for low light hand held photography. As to what to do with the photos, well I would say if I had taken them, then reasonably I could do what I wanted with them. However, to publish them and not give credit or ask permission of the layouts owners is a little naughty, IMO, and again, common sense would dictate that one asks the layouts owners permission before publishing (I am referring to a magazine here). I think posting them on a forum in terms of a 'look what I saw as this exhibition today' format is eminently acceptable, as the picture taker was obviously impressed enough with the layout to want to post the pictures - a credit to the builders surely? Anyway, enough of that and back to modelling. Before Christmas, I asked Tony "what would be a good model kit to begin the hobby of locomotive building?". He kindly suggested the London Road Models J69. Its an Iain Rice kit, its mainly of brass construction with white metal and lost wax detail and I have to say it went together very nicely indeed. Essentially, all the major construction is complete, I just need to fix on the roof (after painting), the smoke box door, and the buffer beam detail. Once some washers have arrived I will finish off the chassis, and wire it all up. Fortunately the large 1428 Mashima fits in just nicely (very snug) accompanied by the High Level Kits gearbox. It has taken me only 3 weeks, considering at least half of that has been lost to work days, and I haven't worked solidly on the kit, then I feel its come together very quickly, testament to a nice kit and also the rapid nature of using solder. Purists may balk at my use of filler (the green stuff), and also epoxy to glue the dome and chimney on (and also the weird box on top with the prongs!), but as I am nowhere near pure, it bothers me not! Tony, (or anyone else) I do have a question: in Right Track, you mention you use lace pins for valve gear from Eileens Emporium. I can't seem to find any on their website. Do you know of a supplier of these, as I will need some for my next project? Here are a couple of pictures of the J69 sitting sat plonked (!) on her chassis. It may not be perfect and the techniques I used dubious, but it fairly resembles the prototype I feel. Also, if I may be so self indulgent, I finished the Coronation set as well, there are more pictures on my build thread for anyone interested.

Hello folks, I'm calling this project finished for now. At the moment, the set is calibrated for radius 3 setrack running, which means they are too far apart. When on a layout, I can refine the distance between coaches and I may shorten the buffers to achieve this. Corridor connectors added today (non prototypical), but I feel they are a nice compromise between real life and nothing at all. Overall, its been a great build, and has taken me about 8 months in total. They are layout coaches, and as such are not intended to pass close scrutiny in the way a showcase model might, however, whizzing around behind an A4, I think they will look satisfactory. Hopefully, I have achieved a decent likeness of this iconic train. Thank you to all those who helped out along the way, through this thread, it has been most appreciated. Apologies for the poor, back lit shots, the set is so long there is nowhere in my tiny little flat to picture it properly. Also, the set looks a bit wonky, I can assure you in real life it looks much straighter! Anyway enough excuses, enjoy!

This is absolutely fantastic. Inspirational is a term used too often these days, but in this case, it's true. Seeing a coronation running on these pages inspired me to build my own. The jubilee looks great too. All the hard work that you've put in, is clear to see, and I really hope one day to see Grantham in the flesh. In the mean time, please keep the pictures coming!

Good Afternoon (here) Tony, Yes, I suppose that is the essence of this forum, the sharing of ideas and how we do 'stuff'. Also, if I am able to have a go at kit building then anyone else here should be able to as well! So far thoroughly enjoying the process, and if it works, then I'll be the happiest man this side of Macau!

Dear fellow Wright writes readers, I do hope the following is appropriate; my reasons for posting this are twofold. Firstly this is a kit recommended to my by Mr Wright, and secondly, it would be great to have all the expert opinion and suggestions of the contributors of this thread as I build my first loco. So rather than start a WIP thread, I thought it might be nice to show what I'm up to on here. The kit is the LRM J69. I have built the chassis, the High Level gearbox (went together superbly) and added the brake gear. There is paint in the bearings currently but I'll simply ream out the excess. Everything seems to go along smoothly and I've tested the chassis under power. The center wheels look like they are very high, but actually they are very close to the rails; I was keen to avoid the see saw effect! Here are a few pictures of my efforts so far, please remove if deemed too 'off topic'. Many thanks, Tom.

Hello folks, Thank you for sticking with it, this is the penultimate update before the completion of this build. Coaches A-H are one their wheels, and just need the bogies securing to their chassis. All the glazing is fitted, but no pictures of this, as you can't see it! I've also added all the door handles and grab rails out of 0.45mm nickel silver wire to A and H. Here are a few shots of third class (brown and green) and first class (red and green). I have tried to be as faithful as I can in reproducing the colours quoted in Harris. I've used a bit of artistic license too. Also the observation car interior is shown. To be honest these shots just highlight the messiness of my work, fortunately not too much of the interiors can be seen once they are inside the coaches. As they are layout coaches, I am not too worried about adding detail; I merely wanted to add the impression that there is something busying up the insides. The observation car is now painted too. It turned out pretty well. I do need to add some lamp irons, and a few bits and bobs at the end. Also noticed a little over-spray in the black, so I will correct that. Interestingly, I thought that these coaches would be heavy with their hand built interiors and whitemetal and brass construction, so I made a comparison. A Hornby K-Type Pullman is about 160g, but one of my standard coaches is only 140g, so I hope that if the bogies are free running enough, then an RTR loco should, in theory be able to pull the rake. We shall see when I test them. The observation car is much heavier, I'll have to weigh that too. Again, cruel close ups, but at 'viewing distance' racing along behind an A4, they shouldn't look too shabby! OK, thats it, next time we should have some shots of the rake in its finished state, although I'm not sure how to photograph it best as its long.

Cannot wait! Stunning teak finish! I shall be buying that issue for sure!

Very nice indeed. I presume it was either brush painted or airbrushed on? I've recently got the hang of spraying klear (not sure why it took me so long). Seeing those results, I will definitely be including a few glossy locos in the fleet for added character. They don't look toy like at all, I think mixing areas of matt (cab roof for example) helps to break up the cleanliness of the gloss.

Hello Tony, A belated happy new year to you. Something I notice is that all those locos have a 'gloss' or near abouts finish. We tend to finish our locos in matt. I presume this has somethings to do with gloss not scaling so well, and I have also heard that some people feel that glossing model trains makes them look toy like. Has anyone successfully recreated a gloss finish on a model loco?