TurboSnail

Digressions welcome - this thread is enough of a backwater that it's not going to annoy anyone too much! The EKR got away with using smaller, older coaches as it was mainly a coal traffic railway. They started with basic ex-KESR carriages (which in turn were ex-CLC) with the only bogie coaches being the ex-KESR Pickering ones. Then they "upgraded" to ex-LCDR 4 and 6 wheelers - by 1945, the most modern coach on the line (excluding the 1905 built Pickerings) was of 1893 vintage! Then finally in 1946 a couple of ex-LSWR bogie coaches were used until passenger workings stopped in 1948. Which all gives the impression of passenger traffic not being the highest priority! Most through traffic would have been quicker going via the main lines to Dover and Ramsgate, so not many visitors either from what I can work out.

Thanks - it's fun modelling for not much outlay! It might not just be passenger traffic these could be used for... Does your line have an industry that runs workman's trains? Or engineers trains might consist of a couple of ballast wagons and an old coach converted to a workshop/shelter. I'm sure there are other excuses to run them too!

From this... To this! It's not the most dramatic conversion ever, but this sort of simple, easy modelling is pretty fun. It's had one compartment changed to a Guard's, seats repainted, no smoking signs removed, compartment dividers added, electric lighting gear removed, a repaint and new lettering. It will at some point (I'm out of 3D printer resin at the moment) get gas lighting vents, replacement buffers, possibly lower footboards and alarm gear on the ends. But I'm happy with it for now looking a bit less 'Hornby' - the RTR 6-wheel brakes are only available with duckets as a 3-compartment, so just a bit different and closer to the prototype's Midland origin to have a 4-comp without duckets. (As an FYI, the main reason I've been doing these coaches is that they're cheap - Jadlam can't seem to get rid of them at the moment so they've been £15 to £20 on there for ages. https://www.jadlamracingmodels.com/railways/clearance/?search_query=&page=1&limit=80&sort=priceasc&category=674&is_category_page=1)

Quite possibly. On the SER ballast wagons the strapping wasn't flush, but was set back. It's not like @Skinnylinnyto miss details, so maybe they have a pic of the prototype or drawing?

@Skinnylinny has drawn up a couple of nice Gloucester(ish) wagons, so I'm building a couple to add a bit more variety to the Guilford Colliery stock. Will be experimenting with transfers too... This one's a stone/quarry wagon, possibly providing some building materials for bits of the colliery that haven't quite been finished yet. I've also acquired another couple of Hornby Generic coaches to make up a couple more East Kent Railway coaches. A GWR liveried 4comp First to make into ex-KESR no.12, still in its KESR brown and ivory livery (suspiciously similar to GWR brown!). This just needs new lettering and numbers, but has had a roof repaint to blend in with the repainted coaches a little better. And I picked up a BR 6 wheeler to convert into the ex-MR 6w 4comp brake composite no.4. Shown here with the rearmost compartment windows blanked out to make it into a guard's compartment. Neither is going to be the most accurate representation, but since prototype photos are scarce I can probably get away with these relatively low-effort modifications. Both will get new buffers, some underframe detail changes and compartment dividers just to make them look a bit less box-fresh.

Linny's designs are turning out rather well! And for comparison, a Gloucester wagon. A few little differences, but close enough for me!

I've built up a few small trains now, but they're sat gathering dust in a cupboard - so I made a little display case for some of them. Some cheap stripwood and a bit of perspex... and they're still in the cupboard. Will be moved to a better location once I've made some shelves for it to sit on!

Some modifications in the works! This Peckett body will be swapped out for one with the correct dome and longer chimney, and I need to do a bit more fettling to make it fit properly. But a promising start! The B1, from what I can tell, had: - slightly smaller tank (can't replicate this easily) - longer cab with bunker inside and rounded window - older style dome and valves - wooden rather than metal bufferbeams - no smokebox wingplate - different toolboxes - different smokebox handrail And maybe a couple of other details!

Sigh... Why can I never leave nice things alone?

Is there the possibility of making it a bit modular? Have maybe a board for each station, and a bunch of small straight, curved and y-split boards to connect it all together. That way you don't have to have enough space to put the whole lot up at once, and you also have an operable layout as soon as two stations are built - the rest can be built separately as and when the motivation is available and swapped in and out depending on what routes you want to operate that day.

Recovering from whatever possessed me to make a 1980s VW, I've been putting together another Manning Wardle. The Class O 353 is almost finished, but I'm waiting on High Level to get back into business so I can swap the gears in it for one of theirs, so in the meantime I've drawn up the Class K, as per SECR 752 post 1904 rebuild with the large cab. Also planned to have a HL gearbox, so might have to wait a while before I can start building it!

Something I've been working on for a while - not exactly pre-grouping and not a 3D printer in sight, but I can assure you I haven't lost it completely... normal service will be resumed shortly! *note that "cheap" and "easy" are very relative terms...

Easily confused in the same livery, even down to the same missing "Goods Brake" text!

Not loads currently. I'm trying not to give myself too many new projects until I've got some of the old ones ticked off. Recently had a big re-organise of the workbench and trying to get some layout work done too so CAD work is taking a back seat.

A little summary video of how I made the EKR Saloon coach

Persuading the EKR to construct a saloon they didn't really need, then using it to benefit his other concerns wouldn't be out of character for Mr. Burr!

I've also recently completed the Channel Steel train, but naturally the layout for it has not been started... Needs some weathering when I can pluck up the courage to do it, especially turning the coal loads into something that looks a bit more like iron ore.

A while back I posted a picture of a Hornby Generic being hacked up - it's looking a bit different now! Based loosely on something the EKLR might have had, if they had a saloon or directors car - possibly influenced by the Earl of Guilford or the directors of the various collieries along the line. The only info on livery I could find was 'indian red', and this is the closest I had to hand.

Brake progress - just needs glazing and weathering now! It's numbered as one of the Ashford 1893 batch, which I think would have become dilapidated enough to have been put to light branch line duties by the time Guilford Colliery is set. I didn't have the right transfers but have got as close as I can with what I had. Waiting for the correct ones to arrive would probably have been enough for me to put the model back in the cupboard and forget about it for another few months!

And if anyone's interested, I'm selling off a couple of locos to fund new acquisitions - the Barclay Fireless and AEC Diesel are on eBay now: AEC: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294202695961 Fireless: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/294202673231 Though on the bright side, I'm building a mk2 Fireless so hopefully I won't be without one for too long!

I've been putting this project off for so long, finally decided that it's never going to be perfect, so I'm just going to get it done. That involved chopping off the top sections of the solebars entirely, as the axleboxes were too close together, and superglueing the whole thing together with the solebars further apart. Hopefully it holds! I've got a new roof on print at the moment as I can't find the old one, and I'm just going to live with the dodgy printing (lot of lines and warp on this one). Maybe some heavy weathering will disguise it. Note also the broken footboard - I'll have to try and disguise that with some kind of "in-service repair".

Some bodging finally, to justify this thread's title! A Hornby full brake getting hacked up...

Some of you may have seen these buildings already over on the layout thread, but here's an overview of how they were constructed.

Buildings now done! Weathered (a bit) and in place, I'm quite happy with how these turned out in the end. There are a few things I'd change if doing it again, but not enough to bother me for now.

I agree on the colour - unfortunately, I can't remember what it was, hence the variation! I think it's either Humbrol 32, or a VW Grey from Halfords, but I've run out of the latter and my tin of the former has solidified... Fortunately, a bit of variation is prototypical, I hope!