Wolseley

Maybe someone could buy both and make one good one out of the two of them. With the original motor in it it wouldn't be anything other than a museum piece though.

I fixed my L1's steps using bits from a "Great British Locomotives" MR compound I had in my spares box. A couple of other bits from it were used elsewhere.

Another repaint, although this one is still a work in progress, not all the lining having been finished yet. The Duchess of Sutherland was wearing pre-war LMS crimson lake when it was fitted with smoke deflectors and appeared in traffic afterwards still wearing pre-war colours. It is believed to be the only member of the class to have worn pre-war livery when fitted with smoke deflectors and there is a photograph of it showing this unique combination of characteristics in Profile of the Duchesses. So here is my version - a repainted Duchess of Montrose with Fox nameplates and lettering. On shed you may also notice a Dublo A4 (Commonwealth of Australia) in BR express blue and, on a neighbouring siding, a BR black diesel shunter.

The tender is a streamlined Coronation tender from a Tri-ang -Hornby model, mounted on a Dublo (Montrose or Atholl - I can't remember which) tender chassis. The City of Leicester was one of a group that were authorised to be built as streamliners with the tenders being built first and then the locomotives. By the time work started on the locomotives, wartime shortages were beginning to bite and the decision to streamline them was reversed and they were built non-streamlined instead. However, by then, the streamlined tenders had been finished, so they ran as non-streamlined engines with streamlined tenders for a few years, until the tenders were modified. There is a photograph of City of Leicester and one other engine running in this guise in David Jenkinson's Profile of the Duchesses.

A few of my repaints:

I had a very original and perfectly good Atholl body and tender that I ended up fitting to it. However I will end up repainting the body and tender that it was fitted with when I bought it. I just haven't decided what livery to use. Probably in BR blue, but time will tell.

It's a shame that those conversion kits have disappeared from the market. They included the cowcatcher, headlight and transfers. I converted a Montrose (I didn't have a spare Atholl at the time) using one of them.

Yes, it was. When I saw a horseshoe motored example at a reasonable price I thought it was worth a go to try to add one to my collection of Duchesses. I now have 9 examples with the curved front to the footplate though, and as this is the same number that the LMS had, I won't be bidding on any more that might appear on eBay. Jim

Well, I cleaned up the wheels and, although it looks a lot better, it didn't make much difference. I fitted it with the body and tender from my other Atholl, coupled it to two Trix "scale-length" LMS coaches (fitted with Dublo metal wheels), and it took off just as well as it did when I ran the chassis only, but now it was consuming 0.65 amps, give or take a bit. Another difference I noticed is that the trailing truck on the early Atholl is hollow at the back, whereas all my other Duchesses have it filled in, presumably to give extra weight to prevent derailing in reverse. And, on the subject of LMS maroon Duchesses, the Duchess of Sutherland ran in pre-war maroon when first fitted with double chimney and smoke deflectors, the only Duchess to do so (due to war time shortages of paint maybe?). There is a photograph of it in this form in David Jenkinson's Profile of the Duchesses. I have repainted a Duchess of Montrose in maroon to represent this, but I haven't finished all the lining yet.

I just got myself a Duchess of Atholl (yes, another one) which was supposedly only suitable for parts or restoration. The paintwork (what was left of it) was in a sorry state on the tender but slightly better, although very much the worse for wear with one front step broken, on the locomotive. I knew it was an early example but, when I took the body off, I could see that it was older than I was expecting. Open spokes on the tender wheels and, on the locomotive chassis, a horseshoe motor with no interference suppressor and a front bogie with a vertical hooked bar like a Dublo A4. It didn't run too well at first but, with a bit of adjustment to the top bearing and all moving parts lubricated, it took off and ran pretty well, consuming only 0.5 amps. The wheels and pickup need a really good clean, so hopefully it will run even better afterwards. I am thinking I might swap the body and tender with that on my existing Atholl (the paintwork on the loco is very good and the tender is near mint) and repaint this one in some other livery. Somehow it seems more appropriate for a horseshoe chassis to be used under an original LMS Atholl than under a repaint.

I used 3g x 1/2 round headed wood screws to fix all the track on my layout (and 2g x 1/2 for fixing down the accessories) and everything has stayed in place nicely. Just make sure the screws don't have wide heads, or you'll run the risk of shorts with the screw heads touching the centre rail. I think it only happened three or four with me and, each time, it was a slightly bent centre rail that was the culprit.

I took the 15/60 down to the mechanic for its annual registration inspection and it passed with flying colours. There were some other interesting vehicles there, so I'll be posting a few more photos once I've downloaded them from my phone.

Well, I did say I didn't know a great deal about trucks...... The bit about the radio van body fits though, given that this is a photo of a group of Wireless Operators. Among the album there aren't that many photos of trucks or cars, but there are a few. Here's one of either Bombay or Calcutta (I'm not sure which, as there's photos of both cities on the same album page). Note the white painted mudguards: Bangalore: Singapore: ..... and Hong Kong:

With all this talk of military trucks, I thought I might add in this photograph. My father served with the RAF as a Wireless Operator during WWII and took a number of rather interesting photographs. This one, taken in what was then called Burma, shows two trucks, one of which looks like a Bedford. Is the other one an AEC? I'm afraid I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to the subject of trucks. Jim

Another view of the work so far (the main station building has been removed fronm the layout temporarily for wiring of the lights):

And here's a few shots of the RM Rileys on display at the 2011 All British Display Day at Parramatta:

With all this talk of RM Rileys, I thought I might share these photos I took a few years ago at a joint club run of the Wolseley and Riley clubs and the Morris Register (from memory I don't think the MG club was officially there, it's just that a few of them turned up because they heard about it). Taken at Nurragingy Reserve at Doonside, in western Sydney.

And on another front, here's something else I'm in the course of doing:

More than similar - that's exactly what mine will be, although mine is going to be painted in HR green....... Jim

I actually quite like my Co-Bo for some reason that I can't quite fathom........

Knock a zero off the end of the price and I'll buy it. A classic case of rarity pushing the price way beyond what it is really worth. Its rarity is to my mind the only thing that makes the track cleaning wagon a desirable item - if it was one of the common items from the Dublo range I would think that the only reason anyone would have for wanting one would be to complete their collection. I can think of a lot of things I would rather spend £200 on.

What with all the restrictions in place, there haven't been any club runs for a few months, so I've taken to using the 15/60 for shopping trips, unless I'm picking up bulky stuff from the hardware shop, in which case a modern station wagon does have a certain advantage.......

Interesting - in the Recent Activity list, this thread was coming up directly above the thread "On Cats".

It depends on whether it really matters to you if the end result is indistinguishable from the original or not. I have used Fox lining on my restored Hornby Dublo locomotives and I'm happy with the result. You do have to replace all the lining rather than just the damaged bits though, or else the difference will be noticeable. I have tried overlays on locomotives but found that the point where the overlay ends and paintwork begins is invariably visible. Overlays are fine for passenger and goods stock, when they cover the entire side, but I prefer to use transfers for locomotives.

I was thinking along the same lines and I am also eying the Hattons coaches, although if Hornby produce a Caledonian version of their generic coaches (and I don't believe announcements until I see the product) theirs might be easier or at least cheaper (although that depends on the importer's and retailer's mark-ups) to obtain in Australia. My preference would be for the six wheel coaches, although my layout does have some very tight curves but, if the worst comes to worst, I could remove the flanges from the centre wheels - the tenders of Hornby Dublo (but not the later Wrenn) locomotives used this dodge and, surprisingly, it's not noticeable from a normal viewing distance although, that said, the coach wheels are a bit more exposed. My Caledonian (and Highland) stock, which is only a small part of my collection, is based around 1922/23, so four wheeled Caley coaches, unless I were to get some of those intended for the Balerno branch, would be a bit out of place. Of course, I could always take a Tri-ang clerestory, stick an arc roof on it and paint it in Caley colours....... Jim