The Johnster

I've just provided a screed about bogies over on the E116 K's B set kit topic, and the upshot is that I will be using the K's cast whitemetal bogies from this kit under W 207 W, with added tiebars whatever I said before. Currently resting my eyes as I'm putting the numbers on, a job that I find very fiddly and tense, but once finished the coach will have a proper identity and I'll be able to spray a topcoat of rattlecan matt varnish on, and she'll be ready for glazing! Does anyone know anyone who makes transfers for the 'TRAILER' lettering that is just above the solebar at the left hand end of the coach on each side; it's way too small for me to do in individual letters!

I think I've got myself in a bit of a muddle with the bogies, and am writing this down to sort myself out as much as anything else, so bear with a confused elderly gentleman and his senior moments, please, and indulge his foibles... The bogies on E116s, according to the Pendon Gandertons and photos from Ms P of real ones, are fishbellies with tie bars and footboards, as far as I can see identical to the Stafford Works/Shapeways prints. The fishbellies on W 207 W (see the other topic) are also fishbellies with tiebars but no footboards. They are also apparently shorter than the E116 type fishbellies, but I've decided not to worry about that for now. So, the best way for me to proceed now is to use the K's cast whitemetal fishbellies from the E116 kit for W 207 W, and add tiebars, which should be a fairly straightforward job. The Stafford printed bogies are perfect for the E116, better than the cast K's ones that came with the kit, and have the correct type of footboards (there were several variations of footboards as well), so these will find a home underneath this coach. I've managed a little progress this afternoon in between work on the A31, as the weather is perfect for spraying on the patio (I know it's a patio and not a yard because it's got patio doors...). The bodyshell has been done inside and out, along with the roof, and is now ready for painting inside and out.

I'd have been happy with the yellow glow for carriage lights. The real thing was so low level that reading lights were provided in compartment stock, very low wattage bulbs feebly casting light through frosted bulbs, at 24v IIRC. Modern carriage lighting is much brighter, and colder in cast, even through tinted windows, and one of the most common errors on exhibition layouts IMHO, even modern image ones, is lighting that is much too bright.

I have a reluctance to part with money before I have seen the thing I'm parting with it for in it's physical manifestation, having been burned before! This is not an approach compatible with modern modelling where so many items have to be sourced online; they were always available mail order of course, but back in the day could be got hold of more readily in model shops or at shows. My worries have been completely unfounded when it comes to online sourcing new items from the trade, though there is a very considerable disparity in delivery times and I don't 'get' why one firm can happily deliver this week and another might take 28 days; that's life, I guess. But I also buy some stuff on 'Bay, the only place to get it if I have to have it or a saving of money if you want a loco for a donor chassis. I don't think I've ever had what I'd call a 'bargain', where I have paid a lot less than the thing was worth on the 2nd hand market, but a donor Bachmann 57xx chassis, for example, runs at about £40-£50, not far off half full price for a brand new 57xx. This seems not unreasonable but the idea that cheap good stuff is available on 'Bay is, to my view, a delusion. It looks seductively tempting, of course, especially with very low prices being quoted for auction items; you never pay anything like them and risk getting burned in a bidding war in practice, during which tracking the item has sucked time better spent modelling. I only bother with auctions for items I particularly want now, and restrict myself to 'buy it now' for everything else. And I've been, not perhaps burned, but singeded, twice, with items not as described and slightly damaged or badly resprayed. On both occasions it is the more irritating because I'd probably have been willing to pay the asked price for the items had the seller correctly described them. In both cases, they were faults that are within my ability to rectify easily, but might have caught out a more inexperienced modeller or anyone not comfortable with repairing or repainting. Nothing can be done beyond noting the sellers and avoiding them in future! I would not be bothered with the amount of faff involved in selling anything, though I have given stuff away to friends who stated an interest. I've in my turn been given coaches and locos to work up as well.

Nowt wrong with a bit of positive reinforcement.

Despite being brought (dragged) up and ejumacated, allegedly to 'O' level standard, in the imperial 'old money' era, I never really mastered it as a mental exercise in terms of weight, or some of the odder area/length units, despite repeating it by rote in primary school until you had it pat. You didn't have to, as we all had 'Silvine' school note books with times tables and all the imperial units on the back cover as a ready reckoner, and jobs such as wagon checking that used the units regularly had their own versions. When curmudgeonly old so and so's like me moan about millennials and their dependence on calculators or digital time, this should, I think, be taken into consideration. But I knew a bloke on the railway, a shed labourer, years ago, who claimed he could not do arithmetic, it was too hard for him. Well, perhaps, but he could tell you what you'd get for any sum of money in pounds, shillings, and pence, for any horse at any odds for any bet, with the tax correctly deducted, in his head and in a few seconds, assuming the nag came in of course. I'd have trouble doing that with a calculator, a device by which I can get any sum accurately wrong to 16 decimal places.

Well, it'll work fine. My criticism is that it looks a bit trainsetty, and if if were me I'd improve with a bit of pruning. Unless you insist on having two trains running at the same time, in which case you won't be able to shunt the sidings without fouling the inner circuit, I'd dispense with the inner circuit's R605 curves at the left hand end of the plan. This gives a feasible single track with a goods yard/private sidings/factory off it. You can use the money you've saved on the R605s towards another crossover so that you can run around a train to change direction. At the top right of the inner circuit, replace the R605 with R604 and R641, to connect to the right handed version of R641 (R640? R642?) coming off the top straight on the outer circuit, where you replace the R601 with R600 and the right hand turnout. Now you have a layout on which you can operate 2 trains, though not simultaneously, prototypically holding one in the passing/run around loop you've just created while the other runs around the circuit, or alternatively leaving one running continuously while shunting out the yard. There is scope, if you are building this on a rectangular board, for short sidings off the outside of the circuit into the corners; if you have one in each direction this means more running round to access them, and more operations to perform; it's potentially an interesting little layout to work. It's possible to replace the 'upper' crossover with curved points on the right hand curve, but I'm reluctant to recommend this as they can lead to problems because of the long dead insulated frogs, especially with the smaller locos you'll likely by using. The layout can be expanded by the outside sidings already suggested, and there is room for a short siding off the inner circuit/loop at the bottom straight R600, but this might make things look a bit crowded in there. Turnouts off the outer curcuit//'main line' to the edge of the board can connect to further baseboards if room ever becomes available, to be used as fiddle yards or extensions to the layout. My proposed run around loop at the right hand curve can be incorporated in to the double track plan if you wish; it's worth doing IMHO as it's make for more realistic running round instead of uncoupling the loco from the train and then running it around the circuit to couple to the other end... Welcome to the madness, I mean website, Berryman, and good luck!

It is vital that the centres of the crankpin holes in the coupling rod are identical to those of the axle holes in the frames. If your High Level kit included coupling rods they should be identical as supplied, though there is a little scope for inducing 'slop' by opening out the coupling rod crankpin holes slightly. These centres are critical and liable to inaccuracy as they do not sctually exist once the respective holes have been drilled out (!) and the drilling may have induced a bit of error especially if it was done by hand and not with a machine tool where everything is held very solidly in position. There may also be a little error if you are using coupling rods from the original RTR model; I am not wholly conversant with what is supplied with a High Level kit. The answer, as you seem to have found, is to ensure everything is square and as close as possible to it's intended position, and allow sufficient play or slop for free running. As David says, if you do 'ease' the coupling rod holes keep them circular, and check every so often for wear if the loco is used for heavy high mileage work, though this doesn't sound like an 0-4-2T's job in general... Slop on RTR locos is often considerable but they have to be capable of running round much sharper curvature than you will usually be using on an EM layout, not to mention being designed for convenient volume production and assembly, and you can probably get your loco running perfectly well with a lot less slop than this!

Not just night shots, either. I have a long term intention to provide some lighting on Cwmdimbath, inspired by a very wet and dreary afternoon waiting for the bus connection at Cwmmer Afan in 1969. Low cloud made the scene something like a large grey gloomy room, and the lights were on in the buffet (still in operation under the name 'The Refresh', which it was always known as, signal box, and some rooms in the station buildings. This enhanced the general gloominess, at the same time providing evidence of warm, dry, lit place where one could get tea and biscuits out of the rain. Even the sheep looked fed up as opposed to just bored; this was Valleys atmosphere on steroids, and one could almost here the male voice choir over the gurglesucking of the drains and gutters. I want this for Cwmdimbath. My lighting can be switched between 'warm', 'cold', and mixed and there are 3 levels, so low level cold would be good for this. Interior details would need to be provided in the lit station rooms and signal box. And the Abergwynfi branch on which my WTT is based had a late night auto from Bridgend that got in at 23.55, connecting from the last down Paddington-Swansea of the day (try getting up there by public transport at that time of night nowadays!) and presumably picking up any revellers from the Bridgend or Maesteg fleshpots. I imagine the platform lights were left on but not much else, and the train departed at 00.01 (probably sooner in reality) ecs for Tondu. In terms of trains, I can probably get away with a dedicated battery lit auto set, with head and tail lamps. The trick will be to keep lighting levels low and subtle, as Kevin has done with these railcar shots. But there are plenty of other projects to do first!

O dear. Well, I'm sticking to my decision and using the Staffords on the auto trailer and the K's, without footboards but with a tie bar added, on the E116 kit they are designed for, despite the length not being correct for W 207 W; any attempt to shorten the Staffords or the K's by a modeller of my ability is asking for trouble! Some A31s had Collett 7' bogies as Mike says, and I was at one time considering doing this using spare bogies from a withdrawn from service Airfix B set, but was seduced by the idea of having a different type of bogie on the layout and 207's plated toplights, a very 'BR 1950s' appearance that suits the already heavy appearance of these coaches. I could have gone for 204 with American bogies but it was an early withdrawal and had a 'Swindon' door that I bottled at cutting out. Another point against the Collett 7 footers is that they are pale shadows compared to the lovely ones on the new Hornby 57' Suburbans which will show up their shortcomings on the layout.

i'd forgotten them, because they were pretty forgettable, but yes they did. At Canton some idiot though 25s were suitable Hymek replacements, and the 31s, which were a little better than these pointless things at least, took a few more years to appear. 52s occasionally worked this job as well, especially in the Hymeks' latter days when reliability was not what it should have been.

I think Romford axles are a little longer and may be what you are looking for. It is worth upgrading to metal wheels if you can, as they run better and plastic spreads crud all over your layout. An alternative might be to superglue top hat brass bearings into the Dapol bogies which will then be the right 'gauge' for the Hornby wheelsets; you might have to drill some plastic out for them to fit. This will further improve the running.

One of the A40 tunnels is the original railway tunnel; the road is built on a widened alignment of the railway between Usk and Monmouth. The Wye Valley and Ross trackbeds can be walked, though.

Floyd charted with 'See Emily Play' in '67, and were billed as support band for Hendrix in Cardiff's Sophia Gardens Pavilion, now long gone; I was in the melee outside, 15 years old. Carnaby Street was about '64 or 5 I think.

No. The exposure is probably affected by the snow, but 6431 is in fully lined out BR passenger green which looks very dark. The coach is not an auto trailer, but a BR mk1 BSK, and LMR allocated at that! The train is signalled for the Ross road, via Mayhill and Symonds Yat. You up can just make out the difference between the green on the tank and the black of the footplate and splashers. There is a noticeable prevalence of brown overcoats, and it looks like a chilly day despite the bright sunlight!

Google Images has a few apparently showing a railtour with 6431 in the snow at the closure. Don’t get confused with colour images of the station as rebuilt on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

But where can you get one at this time of night...

Never heard it referred to as anything other than Aylestone Hill Sidings in the 70s. There was nurses' accommodation behind it, which was nice when they were topping up their tans on the grass in hot weather. The loco for the morning London stabled coupled to the stock overnight, a Hymek in those days followed by the 50s.

'Torpedo zwei, los!' Sorry to disappoint Mrs Spikey, but it wasn't quite like that, just as well given that the casualty rate in the U-boat services was higher than that among Kame Kaze squadrons in early 1945... You couldn't raise or rotate the periscopes, a major drawback for Wolf Pack Kapitan emulants, and there was no magnification or rangefinding; it was just a square piece of hollow trunking with a pair of angled mirrors and a piece of glass at the top to stop the rain coming in. The guard's compartment was walled off from the van space and the periscopes were on the inside of the walls. Also in there was a seat, desk, pigeon hole cabinet, and handbrake wheel, and on the wall opposite the seat the vacuum gauge and brake setter and a food warming cabinet. A visit to any 'heritage' railway running mk1s with a brake vehicle will elucidate, and be a nice day out!

And replacing buffers would have had an effect as well.

Men's hair was pretty dull and predictable underneath the hats as well; short back and sides, basin cut for kids, or no.1 for military and that was yer lot! Beards and moustaches came and went with fashion; beards were out in the 30s and moustaches were associated with lounge lizards and spivs in the 50s except for ex-RAF types with handlebars. Hair was mostly Brylcreemed if you could afford it, greased otherwise. Women were allowed to grow their hair but not to show it off; buns, pony tails, and pigtails on the kids. You are right about the Beatles, Simon; they didn't invent colour until Sergeant Pepper, 1967? The much derided mophead haircut was put on stage with smart suits. Brian Epstein would have been horrified at anything less. Even the Stones started off with suits and relatively short hair, and video of Eric Burdon singing Rising Sun looks like a Newcastle lad out on a Saturday night looking for trouble.

Depends on your exact period and it's best to work from photos if you can. Very roughly, locos; GW unlined green with G W R initials post war up to nationalisation 1948. 1948 Jan-May unlined green with 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' in GW 1920s style 'Egyptian Serif' lettering, May '48 unlined black with 'BRITISH RAILWAYS' in Gill Sans, and BR type smokebox number plates and shedcode plates from Jan 1948 until closure. 1949, unlined black with first BR totem, the 'unicycling lion', then 1958 introduction of the second totem, the 'ferret and dartboard'. From 1958, some locos especially 64xx and 14xx in fully lined out green livery. Coaches, equally roughly; GW chocolate and cream until 1948, then early 1948 ditto but with BR type numbers prefixed by W. May '48 crimson and cream for auto trailers, plain crimson for other non-gangwayed coaches such as B sets, then plain crimson for auto trailers as well from 1950. W suffixes to the numbers after 1951, then plain maroon livery from 1956 (darker than crimson). Lined maroon from 1958 until closure. But of course the liveries were ony introduced on those dates and all took years to find their way on to all the stock, and some liveries, especially the 'transition' 1948 liveries, were never carried by many locos or coaches. GW liveries could be seen commonly into the early '50s, and pre 1958 BR liveries lasted on some stock until closure. There are other variations such as red backed number plates in the early BR period and black austerity wartime liveried GW locos or brown liveried coaches. As you've already been inundated with photo suggestions, I'll limit mine to a couple in John Lewis' GW Auto Trailers book showing diagram A31 trailer W 207 W at Troy, with good detail shown for the awning and valance, footbridge, and brick platform facing.

There was still a traincrew signing on point in the 70s, 37s and slow control 47s for the MGR traffic to Aberthaw CEGB. There was also some imported coal from Barry Docks to Didcot CEGB.

Cowbridge (Glamorgan) is a very good general goods example, and pretty bucolic.

I assume they were used on the Southern, but were in practice a complete waste of time anywhere else as they were never cleaned and you couldn’t see owt through them. I was a guard at Canton from 1970-78, and if I wanted to see a signal from a mk1 coach (IIRC no other types except ex SR had them), I stuck my head out of the window. Mk2s and dmus, even those based on mk1 stock, did not have these periscopes but AFAIK all mk1s with guard’s accommodation did.