Wickham Green

Do you mean Brake Composite ( i.e. on topic ) or Corridor Brake Composite ( earlier Hornby production ) ..... in either case they're going to be loose stock : apart from the Sets W Gilwell Park refers to the only ( Corridor ) Brake Composite + ( Corridor ) Third pairings I'm aware of were the Ashford-Hastings sets of S.E.C.R. & Thanet stock ! ( soldering iron job for those ) .......... anyway, Kent Garden Railways is probably closer than Invicta - but not in walking distance like Hobbytimes used to be !

I'd really, really love to support my local model shop ..... but Hobbytimes has been closed for donkey's years, I'm afraid !

....... and quite reasonable panelling too ........... apart from the obvious B.R. origins of everything else it's surprising that nobody (?) seems to have used the sides as a basis for anything else : the clerestories ended up as all sorts of things !

I don't think modern day wheels actually use any shrink-fitting as I understand they're pressed onto the axles ( I stand to be corrected on that ) .... as for tyres, they're a rarity nowadays as current thinking is to use 'monobloc' wheels : once they're turned down to scrapping size the whole wheel's scrapped ( not sure if they even bother ultrasonic testing the axles for re-use or just chuck the whole lot in the furnace !!?! ). The old 'split' or 'open' spoke wheels were assembled from a number of forgings - hence the form of them - sometimes you can see how they're assembled with a ring of rivets round the rim.

Were Triang's allegedly Caledonian bogies properly panelled ? - can't say I've ever seen one up close ..... and they probably pre-dated the clerestories anyway !

I've already mentioned the shiny buffer heads ....... what more do you - NOT - want ?

Just received packing notification from Hattons .......... waiting IMpatiently !

Any thoughts on what we muddlers tend to call 'plain' spoke wheels ( no idea what the correct terminology was - nor for 'split' spoke for that matter ) ......... tended to be very much a Western speciality and I get the feeling they might have remained in production a little longer - but how WERE they made ? ; a single casting or a separate casting for each spoke and rim segment or ......... ?

At that time there were huge numbers of old wagons being broken up after years of neglect during / after the war - so I'd guess the wheels would have been the one FULLY STANDARDISED component that could be recycled into new construction. There's no way it would have made economic sense to make complicated spoked wheels once pressing ( metal spinning ? ) technology was developed for disc wheels !

Looking good but I'll have to wait a bit longer for mine - Hattons advised "hopefully within the next few days" about an hour ago ! ............ only one quibble about the models - would have been nice with blackened buffers : these coaches would NEVER have graced the Royal Train !

Nice work and I hesitate to detract but a couple of points - which, of course, may or may not be relevant in your own particular ( almost ) parallel model railway universe - firstly, model manufacturers seem to like painting wheel tyres white but this was far from universal and would have been the first part of any real wagon to get obliterated by a layer of crud. Secondly - and probably pointed out somewhere above here ( But necessitating a lot more 'desecrating' of the factory finish ! ) - the 10' wagons wouldn't have carried large 'NE' insignia etc.as they were built / rebuilt too late ! Never mind the colour variation : in those days paint was hand mixed by the dustbin-load and would have changed from day to day - or even hour to hour as the ingredients settled if it wasn't stirred too frequently.

........... and a significant number of the Dia.31 Composites found their way into 'Long' sets on the Eastern Section too - mixed with S.E.C.R. 'birdcage' era coaches ( Unfortunately not the 60' ones allegedly forthcoming from Bachmann - they 'always' ran as indivisible trio-sets ! ),

Thank Chris ............ I'm sure nobody will be inundating Kernow with 'phone calls now we have a firm arrival date ....... hopefully there will be no unforeseen issues to prove me wrong.

A wee bit of clarification : Tatlow lists 1147 fitted 'standard' cattle wagons at 31/12/47 and this seems to include the survivors of the 'new-build' 10' wheelbase wagons plus 592 unfitted 'standard' cattle wagons in addition to the 10' rebuilds and the G.N.R. style wagons. The latter comprise two types - the 'genuine' G.N.R. Medium size built in L.N.E.R. days and the earliest 19' Large vans with G.N.R. style drop doors. Then there were penny numbers of 10' rebuilds from the various Large variants. So if 700 or so of the 1147 were 10' wheelbase there must still have been in the region of four hundred and fifty 9' 'standard' L.N.E.R. vac-fit cattle wagons in existence at Nationalisation ( + 592 unfitted ). What intrigues me is the small numbers of wagons rebuilt to 10' and given new Diagram numbers : the 'standard' 9' vac-fit wagons are understandable and the G.N.R. door equivalent, too .. but the TWO unfitted examples are a bit of a mystery ................ I can only conclude that an edict went out to say that "Henceforth ALL Large cattle wagons that have become too banana shaped will be reconstructed on 10' wheelbase." - but then Hitler intervened, after a few of each had been done, and the wagon works were used for other purposes.

That's the one that's sold out ........ lots of people shouldn't be holding their breath perhaps !!?! ............................................ hopefully they've got the right shade of black on mine.

Is it a safe bet that that's the first six liveries announced ? ............. life's not always that straightforward !

Rumour has it that the Dock Tanks will be docking next week ! ..................................... not the B4s, though, but USA class.

What's happened to the Trades Descriptions Act ? ........ that'll be "On or BEFORE the 29th" ! .... not complainin' of course ...........................................

For a VERY early B.R. livery the only difference would, indeed only be the addition of 'S' prefix to the Southern numbers and removal of 'SOUTHERN' from the waist - but from, perhaps, 1949 the ( single ) number would be moved to the waist and changed to unshaded Gill Sans rather than 'Sunshine' style ............ similarly the number '1' on any first class doors would be in a different script and subtly changed position .......... and the window labels differ considerably ! : I've converted a number of Hornby CORRIDOR Maunsells to S.R. livery from B.R. type and it's probably easier changing that way that vice-versa : at least you don't have to paint the droplight frames green ( Silly mistake, Hornby ! ).

if - and it's a fairly big IF - the bulk of production was, indeed, in a container when the samples were airfreighted they might be steaming up the Med by now ............. shame we don't know what name to look for in Shipfinder !

Without Peter Tatlow's volume 4b in front of me I can't quote numbers I'm afraid - but the G.N.R. door cattle wagon I mentioned was photographed at Tetbury with an E prefix number. I don't recall whether the photo was dated but I don't think so .......... certainly looked to be still in cattle traffic judging by the 'muck' squeezed through the slats !

Checking on the cattle wagons yesterday - yes, I know it's the wrong thread - Peter Tatlow advises that something over 1,700 'standard' L.N.E.R. wagons survived in 1947 and the majority would have made it to Nationalisation ........ clearly his source data is more than a little ambiguous but, while that number SEEMS to include 700 BUILT with 10' wheelbase, a significant number of 9' cattle wagons WERE still extant into B.R. days - and some for a good while longer : including at least one early vehicle with G.N.R. style doors !

On Tuesday Hattons told me "Our latest information from the supplier suggests this item will arrive with us on or after Friday 29th July 2016" .............. so your guess is as good as mine where they'll have actually got to in a week's time - delivery to customers might be the week after, though !!?!

Maybe the Arrow of Indecision WAS correctly drawn reversed on the other tank - as it should be, Sealink style ? ( We're talking about a loco that spent much of its time in the docks after all.) .................. though I'm not too sure I'd use the term 'correct' anyway : it looks a little impressionistic to me - with a touch of the naive !

Eeee - ah thought that's what tha meant in truth ....................... an' just chose to ignore the gauge discrepancy for dramatic effect !