doilum

My point is NOT bauxite. I agree there are a variety of red primers. Having been born and raised in Area 8 ,red mineral wagons were the exception. The shades varied greatly. Wooden wagons seemed to appear almost crimson where as the steel wagons were much lighter, very similar to the now unavailable red lead undercoat paint. Whatever shade they started out with it didn't stay clean very long . The key to authentic NCB wagons is the weathering and application of correct lettering and numbers for your chosen area. My approach to painting the locomotives was to have a rattle can custom mixed. The result is very close to the shade chosen for the RTR models now available.

I used a BR red from the 1980/90s from Precision Paint as the base colour for my dirt cans. From memory, the red varied a lot by region and weathering. If you cannot find a rattle can off the shelf in your local store,.an automotive paint supplier canake one up for you. Just take a good colour photograph to give them a clue. Cost should be around 15 pounds. Definitely not red primer. That is good for bauxite,.not the NCB.

I wouldn't argue with this statement but have a look on YouTube for the discovery, recovery and sale of the David Brown collection.

Funeral arrangements have been made for 31 August. PM me if you need details.

Known to many as an exhibitor and show manager for Normanton & Pontefract RMS and the Gauge O Guild lost a brave battle with cancer this morning. A talented modeller in several scales and gauges, Tony excelled in almost every aspect of the hobby. He proved to be a patient teacher and there are a good number of us who have been helped on our modelling journey by his willingness to share knowledge and skills. Condolences to Margaret and his family. RIP Tony you are already missed.

There were always a handful at Selby working the coal trains out of Gascoyne wood sidings. I suspect that the 40 mph was aspirational.

Finally got it running sweetly. Despite lots of careful testing and crankpin adjustment, that freely rolling chassis became a notchy challenge as soon as Loctite and a motor were introduced. Eventually the problem was identified and a little filing of the coupling rod hole on the rearmost nearside rod did the trick. Connected to the tender chassis it runs under it's own steam. I am not convinced by the gearing and might need something with a lower ratio as the prototype rarely exceeded 25,mph. Anyway it is back in it's box whilst I concentrate on the footbridge for Selby. I forgot to mention the balance weights. Perfectly formed in brass they short out the split spoke insulation. Repeat in plastikard.

Chassis is now rolling. Tomorrow I will be testing it's minimum radius limits before final tweaking and thread locking the crank pins. The motor has been borrowed from another project. I think it is about 35:1. I would have preferred 50:1 but.this will do for now. Not sure how much time I will have for the Q6 on the next few weeks as I need to get stuck into the station building for Selby. A.quick update. Passed the minimum radius test with ease. Probably not much more than 60".

No, I was hoping that someone might have recognised it. There are no designer initials or other clues on the etch. Perhaps they were lost with the missing boiler.

There were a good number scattered around Area 8. Wheldale and Newmarket to name but two. I have taken part of this discussion into the prototype question section.

Thinking inside the box. Has anyone tried gluing sound absorbing material to the inside of the baseboard? This way you retain the solid track foundation but hopefully kill unwanted noise.

Perhaps the " need to know" got in the way of synoptic thinking and medium term planning. A special movement of big guns to a shipyard might need a clear slot of several hours as the exact timing was a closely gaurded secret. Pooling should have greatly reduced the time taken for the return of empty wagons but would have required a new level of organisation to ensure that collieries received sufficient empty stock. Perhaps the London problem was that the city had almost always operated on a "just in time"basis with it's coal and food supply. It doesn't take too many sudden changes to cause serious interuption.

Fully contoured baseboards. There is still hope for the future of finescale modelling. I feel Ian.Rice.beaming down on you!

Even the Jesuits followed government advice about questioning the war effort. " Loose lips sink ships". " Had to wait for a govvy train." End of discussion.

What priority did empty coal trains get? Late father recounted how on several occasions he missed a day at school because his train was held in a layby siding for several hours. Eventually a train carrying military equipment would roll by finally allowing his train to complete the last mile or so into Leeds. As it was by now well after lunch time they crossed the platform and caught the next train home.

Today's task was building the cylinders. The brass scrap box yielded a few short lengths of four concentric tubes with which to build the central structure. The wrappers were formed from a bit of half inch tube that shouted "use me" . Altogether happy so far. Without proper drawings a bit of experimentation will be needed to complete the slide bars. Photo evidence will place the hangers within a millimeter or so. There are no hints on the chassis sides. Question is, whether to solder up the connecting rods provided or get on the phone to Premier Components.

A related question. When wagon pooling was introduced, were the owners immediately compensated? A labour government and nationalisation of the coal industry was but a socialist pipe dream in 1941. When it finally happened in 1947, the internal wagons would be included as assets for which the mine owners were well compensated. Identifying who owned what might have been just as important as ensuring a colliery always had sufficient wagons for it's internal operations.

My late father told of how the little used Snydale branch held over half a mile of wagons full of pit props stock piled in 1938-9. I cannot remember the huge sum involved but as early as 1935 the government funded a programme that more than doubled the number of heavy brake down cranes. Anyone who has organised a school trip must be in awe of the plans made for evacuation of children from the large cities.

No instructions. No problemo, how hard can it be? Well they might be handy in deciding exactly what is missing. If any one recognizes the kit or it's manufacturer it would be appreciated. I guess it is at least thirty years unmade. One additional challenge is that on budget kits the designer has to make the best use of each etch and components may be randomly distributed to fit them in without the cost of an extra sheet. The positive progress. The chassis is now fully soldered with home made spacers including perspex ones for the mounting bolts. It has been reassembled, tested and stripped down again. All is well so far. On to the cylinders. These are an excellent fold up, bolt on design, after much thought I think I have them right way round and top side up. I can only find one part that might be a wrapper but that won't be too challenging. There are more cylinder end castings than I need perhaps reflecting the post war changes to their design. The slide bar and piston rod/ crossheads are excellent lost wax castings but seem to be lacking any guides at the cylinders end. Time to scratch build? First spend an hour or two studying Yeadon.

Most of the NCB internal users in Area 8 had the short white dash on the top plank in each corner. Occasionally the full cross was to be seen and others had a corner to corner diagonal to indicate end door wagons for the run down to the basin. I have a particular interst in the preparations made before the outbreak of the war which seem to be mostly ignored or under estimated by the history books. We have made heroes, quite rightly, of RJ Mitchell and Barnes Wallis but ignored the civil servants who had a plan ready to go on day one of hostilities.

Thanks for the image. Interestingly, it has a five digit "pool" type ID number. It is a little blurred but does it say "non pool" under the number? For those of tender years new to the coal trade, note the difference in size of the coal loads.

Clever daughter has managed to locate it in yesterday's viewing history. British Pathe " coal and the war (1941)".

A familiar sight in many coalfields and now made famous by Rapido, I assumed that the livery was decided by the newly formed NCB in 1947. Yesterday the YouTube algorithm sent me a two minute clip of a wartime government information film extolling the importance of coal and the need to be economical ( miners toiling with pick and shovel, housewife recycling last night's cinders). There were lots of railway images and amongst the grubby PO wagons of Cory and Ackton Hall was a newly repainted wagon in black with the large white cross. Was this an individual colliery that needed to clearly identify it's internal use non pool wagons or was it part of the government planning that pooled wagons on the outbreak of war?

A familiar sight in many coalfields and now made famous by Rapido, I assumed that the livery was decided by the newly formed NCB in 1947. Yesterday the YouTube algorithm sent me a two minute clip of a wartime government information film extolling the importance of coal and the need to be economical ( miners toiling with pick and shovel, housewife recycling last night's cinders). There were lots of railway images and amongst the grubby PO wagons of Cory and Ackton Hall was a newly repainted wagon in black with the large white cross. Was this an individual colliery that needed to clearly identify it's internal use non pool wagons or was it part of the government planning that pooled wagons on the outbreak of war?

Spent the day in isolation keeping a cold to myself. Six hours later we have a sweetly running chassis. It really should have taken two but it really fought hard. Fettling the axles and wheels took a good hour but that's the price of using cast wheels. Most time was spent on the jointed Premier coupling rods. I have used them before without any difficulty but today I could not get the rivets to cooperate and ended up making my own from 40 mm panel pins. Not sure where to go next, but might have a go at the cylinders and connecting rods.