5&9Models

7 hours ago, Ravenser said:

Just a thought , but was the bright idea behind the raised ends to provide a form of wind protection when running, the shelter preventing the passengers' hats being blown off? (That the feature did not become common suggests it was an idea that didn't work.)

 

The original 3rd class coaches would have given a view forward . Those with raised ends wouldn't. We take it for granted that you can only see out of the side of a railway coach. Early passengers may have had a different expectation - are we seeing some daring passengers kneeling on the seat to get a view of the approaching tunnel over the top of the end , such as passengers in the other open coaches would get anyway?

It’s possible. Of course it’s only a short step to putting a roof on and being able to justify the second class fare a bit more comfortably and there were plenty of carriages converted in that way. This one seems to be that odd ‘missing link’ in between.

the attached pics show the second and an unconverted third.

19 minutes ago, number6 said:

I’m prepared to accept that early depictions of the railway might have been subject to some unfamiliarity by the artist! Like being aware of handed running? So in an image like that it may not have seemed important to have flipped it. See early images of giraffes or rhinos - until you’ve seen one for real hard to argue it’s incorrect! 

 

 

Love the Pinguyn… with rabies?!! 😂

On 11/08/2023 at 13:45, Camperdown said:

Fantastic work.  Maybe you could post a picture of it next to a more modern vehicle (16T mineral, say) for a size comparison?

Thank you. I would do such a comparison but my collection of wagons doesn’t include anything past  the 1870s! 

On 11/08/2023 at 15:46, number6 said:

Lovely job! I assume that because the original inspiring image is an engraving that would explain the wrong line running? The plate is reversed in the print process.

Good point, it could be that.

21 hours ago, whart57 said:

The engraver is not much cop if he makes a basic mistake like that.

 

The engine up front looks to be a 0-2-2 like Rocket, not a 2-2-0 like the L&B Bury passenger engines, or indeed the L&M's Planet which replaced Rocket and it's class.

Stephenson’s engines were not welcomed on the London & Birmingham. It was exclusively run with Edward Bury 2-2-0 and 0-4-0 locomotives. Any resemblance to Rocket or anything other than a Bury would be a lack of accuracy on the part of the artist. They did sometimes run the goods 0-4-0 engines on passenger services with the coupling rods removed so it could be intended to be one of those.

14 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

Wonderful. I suppose the standing lady in Bury's painting means it cannot be urinals then? 🙂

 

Lovely figures too in very natural poses. Not Modelu I think?

 

 

 

Thanks Mikkel, not urinals but what a thought....! The gent is ModelU but the two ladies I carved from dental plaster and cast in white metal. Ok as long as you don't look too closely, they resemble Morph!

8 hours ago, Dave John said:

A nice model, it is an unusual vehicle.

 

Looking at the engraving I see that each of the four end  coaches has a brakesman.  I wonder whether that would be the reason for running such coaches at the rear of the train ? 

Thanks Dave,

You're probably correct about the position of the braked carriages although not all carriages with roof seats were fitted with brakes. First class carriages had roof seats at both ends and if they were fitted with brakes only one seat had a brake handle. Apparently in the early days you could buy a roof seat ticket much as you might do on a stage coach journey. I doubt that was particularly popular!

23 minutes ago, Schooner said:

What an exciting update! Useful too - tungsten putty is a new one to me and looks very handy indeed.

 

FWIW, https://coventry1839.org/ might save readers a moment's confusion :)

Thanks Schooner, and I'm immensely grateful to you for pointing out my blunder regarding the website address! I'd love to say I did it on purpose just to test you all but sadly that's quite untrue! I've amended the entry with the correct address. Tungsten putty is available easily online from fishing suppliers. It's not cheap but I find a little goes a long way.

Cheers.

1 hour ago, magmouse said:

Good to have you back posting on RMweb, with your beautiful and characterful work. Please don’t leave it so long before the next post!

 

Nick.

Thanks Nick, Much appreciated. I'll set aside time to summarise some of the other models I've been making and post more soon.

On 29/12/2022 at 18:26, Ruston said:

This is superb! I don't see any pickups though and I can see that it's going to be very difficult to fit them to such open bar frames. Or are they going on the tender only?

Sorry bit slow to reply. Thank you. No pick-ups in those pics but I’ve since fitted very discreet ones. Tender will have pick-ups on the rear wheels.

That’s a fantastic bit of kit and beautifully modelled. Interesting to see how knarly the tops of the buffer beams are, presumably from end loading very heavy loads?

This will make a very interesting model indeed. 

Excellent shots, I just love that backdrop. A summary of superb modelling and attention to detail. Thanks for sharing these.

Best wishes for Christmas and the new year!

Chris

Thanks Dave John and Mikkel. I hope you have a great Christmas with at least a bit of time for modelling in between all the festivities!

Even my little four wheelers take me ages so hats off to you for completing that one, it’s very long…!

Superb modelling though, it really does look the part.

Some really clever work going on here. I love seeing your solutions to the various challenges, great stuff!

13 minutes ago, 45587 said:

King Kong strikes again! Fabulous modelling. You need to invent an aristocratic title for that monogram now.

 

George

Is ‘King Kong’ not aristocratic enough? 😆

20 minutes ago, Mikkel said:

 Is the" monogram" your own transfer design?

Thanks Mikkel.

The monogram on the door was from my bag of spare transfers. They were actually produced for a LB&SCR saloon by a friend but out of context they work quite well.

4 minutes ago, figworthy said:

I must say, they do look rather splendid.

 

Should the wagon carrying the 4 wheeled carriage have the carriage shafts lashed down as well ?

 

Adrian

Thank you. The shaft of the four wheel carriage isn’t there, it’s already been detached. The splinter bar could be lashed down I suppose, not sure whether it’s necessary. I’ll look into it.

1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

Lovely work on the loco. Out of curiosity, although it is metal it cannot weigh much given the size. Does it need added weight?

Thanks Mikkel, yes, weight (or lack of it) is an issue. I milled out as little as possible from the copper firebox so that still has a reasonable weight to it but needs balancing at the smokebox end. Might be using up my little pot of tungsten putty!

2 hours ago, wenlock said:

What a splendid looking loco! Excellent work👍

Thanks Wenlock, still much to do but it’s taking shape.

5 hours ago, Dave John said:

That is looking excellent. 

 

A tough build, but I am impressed by the delicacy of touch for all soldered construction. 

Thank you. My soldering iron is actually really old and clunky. It badly needs a new tip so it’s luck more than judgement!

Wonderful! Super painting and excellent story telling to go with it. I firmly believe that a model railway is always a great opportunity for a little theatre and you do it so well. A masterclass! 

1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

….saw this rivet roller with interchangeable blades from Green Stuff World. 

Thanks Mikkel. That’s a really smart bit of kit, I didn’t know you could get one of those. It’s a good price so I’m tempted to try one. The different spacing options could be very handy.

33 minutes ago, Northroader said:

Some real craftsmanship involved in doing this model. There’s an intriguing thread running on the the WT site. So far a L & B carriage has featured, but there’s a Bury goods lurking in the background, all done for 2 1/2” gauge!

https://www.westernthunder.co.uk/threads/london-and-birmingham-rly-in-g3.10824/

Thanks Northroader, I will check that out, sounds intriguing.

Here’s a photo of some hi-tech Corsican track taken on holiday in 2019. Bear in mind this was a fully operational line and it was all like this. Perfectly effective but I was grateful high speed expresses are not ‘a thing’ on Corsica!