AVS1998

This post is going to focus on the coaching stock for Blackstone, and a rationalisation of sets. I'll leave things like push-pull sets and loose coaches alone for now, that's something I can either whittle down over time, or I can model ad-hoc. The way some of these sets are organised may seem a little odd; I'd tried to arrange them initially in the document by period and numerical order but for simplicity I'm grouping roughly by pre-grouping company (LBSC and SECR) and then anything that was formed post-1923 under the Southern. Hopefully it makes sense. SECR Firstly, I don't know what I need that many boat trains for the SECR. I would definitely like the Tidal, and B.T.6 gives me the opportunity to actually operate some of the Pullmans I've got planned. I've now just noticed I've got the same spare boat set listed twice - that's an easy one to fix. B.T.4 would be nice, an opportunity to use 12W Pullmans outside of a corridor set (which did occur, apparently, just not terribly often). The spare/loose sets are neither here nor there - I can live without them. They were more just an exercise in forming trains out of what I had listed in loose stock. The two mainline sets can stay. Again, I'm quite happy with these. Easy enough to make up from kits over time as they emerge. The LSWR set will be a little trickier (and is a Southern-period reallocation) as, as far as I'm aware, there are no kits available. Might be a Triang clerestory bash. LBSCR LBSCR stock I'm reasonably happy with. That can be built up over time. When looking at carriage working volumes, what struck me was the amount of sets which maybe ran very few services a day; an Up, a Down, an Up again, and maybe another Down, sometimes in a triangle between London, Hastings and somewhere out West like Littlehampton (not unlike Southern today, I suppose). Post-1923 These are, for the most part, relatively simple to form. I'll have the corridor birdcage brakes and Thanet kits are, I believe, available from Worsley Works. Where it will get tricky is the Eagle saloons and the Gilbert-Pullman Hastings cars. Now this is where things get interesting. I did have a fair part of set 467 constituted from Kirk kits, but they were falling apart and looked really, really scrappy. So, I've salvaged parts like bogies, Kadees and some underfloor detailing, and they've been scrapped. I'm unsure whether I should still try to build them - the Hastings or the Kent Coast/Eastbourne sets. They're very narrowly into my modelling period, and it seems daft to try to shoehorn anything in. The only thing I could do would be to possibly blag the R0 set as being an earlier build, but that's a bit much, I think. The K.C. and E'bourne routes were still largely non-corridor operated even by this time, so perhaps I need to just stick with that? The four SECR sets at the bottom, again, should be manageable to be built over time. I'm open to hearing thoughts on the matter.

Addressing a few projects: Rosalind looks salvageable. The chassis wasn't as bad as I imagined, and so the trussing has been reglued (it's always been a weak point on Hornby's Pullmans), and I'm thinking I'm going to cut off the buffer beams and replace them with Keen products, just to make them look tidier. They look very straggly at present. The chassis has also bowed slightly - I think by fitting brass strip in the vestibules with a nut on them, I can fix the body to the chassis through the Kadee boxes. New footsteps have been needed for a while, but my old-fashioned brass ladder trick seems to work just fine. Drill into the chassis and glue them in place. As for the body, it's going to have its (third?) repaint, stripped down and done from scratch. The transfer job I tried wasn't very tidy, and the varnish bloomed and matted poorly. New vestibules are easy to fit, too. I'm unsure if I'll populate the car. The SECR parlours (8-wheel) will need Dublo/Wrenn donors. They'll be bought over time. I was working on some but again, they look a bit scrappy and I'm not convinced I can rescue them effectively. We'll wait and see. Roundhouse LBSCR clerestories (unnamed yet, but likely to be Majestic and Princess Patricia) are going well. I've sanded the first car down and its body is currently curing together. It'll see filler and a blow-over with primer before I look at handling the vestibule windows and how to seal with the sides. I've got half an idea of what to do there. GER/LNER brakes 94 and 95 are going okay. The paintwork needs a tweak, then it's onto transfers, a little more detailing, and hopefully I can send those off to their owner in time. They've taken a lot longer than I'd have liked, but the commissioner doesn't seem too fussed and has said they've enjoyed watching the progress. SER/SECR car - this car I'm unsure I'll actually run in service. It was a fun little exercise, but I'd rather have something more representative and realistic in due course. All in good time, naturally.

I'm going to start with a rationalisation of the motive power for Blackstone. It's been done before, but I'd like to do it again, just for good measure. As part of the justification for some locomotive classes, part of the background for Blackstone is that the re-laying of track in Bo Peep in the 1900s was done in conjunction with the lowering of the track bed and some locomotives being fitted with lowered fittings such as chimneys and domes. Not every locomotive class would be working the Hastings Direct or East Coastway route, either; some would be working Ashford - Blackstone (corresponding to Ashford - Hastings, roughly). Some locomotives are listed for fun, or as part of a fictional history developed from the reality. An example of this would be the ex-Tilsbury Baltics being adopted by the SE&CR for boat and other express trains. In reality, the class were too inflexible in route availability and very heavy, causing concern for stability at speed. LBSCR For starters, I'm unsure if I need this many locomotives for the LB&SCR to begin with. Yes, it serves Blackstone, but the town's main company is the SE&CR. I could whittle it down to maybe two E4s and an E5 on the Radial front? The K I'm indifferent toward. I like them, but I can live without it. The J1 I did begin building but I wasn't happy with my efforts - I may strip it down and start again. The I4 was something different, and apparently they were used on Hastings services, which was my initial justification, but I can do without it if it would be a challenge to build. The G class was an oddball derived from Stephenson's survival on the Sunday Eastbourne Pullman until 1914. I supposed I may have a similar surviving locomotive working a Pullman car or two to Eastbourne for a Blackstone portion of the train, but it's a bit of a stretch. I can happily scrap that. SE&CR I think I'm pretty happy with this selection. Perhaps scrap the K and the T, though. They're a bit redundant - and the K too short-lived. Allegedly, the P 323 never ran in lake after all, it was historical conjecture. I rather like the idea, and there are other companies which ran their push/pull locomotives in passenger livery so, we'll see. LSWR Again, pretty happy with these. I spoke with Linny about the X2. It was just to be something different, perhaps transferred as an experiment alongside the T9s, to see how the class would fare on a hilly, windy route such as the Hastings line as opposed to its usual Salisbury stomping ground. The locomotive is shorter in length than a Schools, around the same width over the cylinders, with the steps a little wider (not necessarily an issue), and all that may be required is a shorter chimney and dome. If anyone finds an obvious flaw with that thinking though, please let me know and I'll amend it. SR I don't know that I'll need or can justify two N15s, but I rather like the class. There aren't many early-Southern period locomotives I can sensibly put on the roster, anyway, so this is my lot. I think that's around 8 locomotives to drop from the list, which helps enormously. There are likely more I can oust, too, but we'll see. I'll do coaches shortly (which will be difficult - I am, after all, a big fan of the carriage).

Good evening everyone, As some of you may have noticed, my account was briefly suspended a few days ago. I'd made a status update and the wording of it wasn't great, and so my account was disabled, and my threads sadly deleted. But, it's not such a bad thing - it gives me an opportunity to rationalise what I'd started with projects while I'm visiting home, and try to make a better plan for future projects and stock I want/need for Blackstone in the long run. I look forward to posting what I come up with and create, and sharing any future findings with you. Alex

Good evening everyone, As some of you will doubtless have seen, my account was temporarily suspended (I'd posted a status update and the wording in it was a little fishy), and as a result, all of my previous threads have been ousted. I'm going to start afresh, with a new Blackstone workbench and this Pullman (and associated luxury vehicle) post, serving (hopefully) as a place of discussion and a more dedicated archive to my findings. It's good to be back, and I look forward to sharing future findings with you. Alex