t.s.meese

In the days of Mainly Trains, I used to be able to buy black metal buffer heads with a collar and a shaft that would slide into the buffer housing. They were very similar (perhaps the same product) as those that come with the Ratio LNWR/LMS coal and open wagon kit. (I think that kit, perhaps other Ratio kits too, though many use plastic buffers instead.) My question is whether anyone knows a supplier of this or a similar product - or has a hotline to Ratio/Parkside to encourage them to make these as spare parts (in boxes of 20 and 100, I would suggest). The closest product I know is the one from H&A Models. But (i) these are steel colour, not black and (ii) they do not have the collars. As you might of guessed (and I can't be alone) - I really dislike having to cut out those tiny plastic collars from the sprues: for every two or three success, one splits, and one pings to infinity and beyond...

These are really nice/useful images. Thanks. The buffer beam looks to carry a style very similar to the LNER - shaded with highlights. But I'm struggling with the tender. The letters/numbers do look plain. Gold, or yellow? But on the S class, I can persuade myself there is some shading on the E, though I wouldn't put money on it. And why so different across buffer beam and tender?

Okay - thanks, Andy - I now know why Hornby didn't do the NER livery. But the livery question remains. thanks tim.

Just for the record on this thread, the David Larkin Acquired wagons... series V3, promises to look at this topic in V4.

I'm wanting to purchase a Hornby Raven 0-8-0 and re-livery it for NER days. (Given the shift into pre-grouping in RTR, I wonder why Hornby did not include this livery in the first place.) But I can find no sources. Can anyone point me to the lettering, numbering and positioning for NER goods locos? Thanks Tim.

Jason - yes - the 4mm wheel drought; also the return of the Bachmann short coupling drought! I have no solution for the couplings (and my own supply is drying up), but here is my goto site for wheels when Eileen's etc are out of stock: https://cm3models.co.uk/ [but don't tell anybody ;-) ] I've just ordered a dozen split spoke axles for my new powside kits! Tim.

When I first looked at the Powsides site several years ago I got unlucky and under 'PO Liveries' I selected examples that were not available as 4mm kits (perhaps Twinning, Ward, and [the first] Stevenson Clarke) - the pull down options gave me no hope for 4mm kits. Given the organisation of the pulldown menu for 'products' (it's headed with 7mm; 4mm mentioned lower down), I assumed the whole section to be for 7mm kits with a few 4mm transfers; this, coupled with the absence of anything under the 4mm undecorated kits section, no images in the 4mm photo gallery and the emphasis on 7mm on the home page, led me to think they had pretty much given up on 4mm. Doh! I now know better. (But Powsides might like to revisit the details of their layout...) cheers tim.

Okay - thanks for that nudge, guys. There are several sections there at Powsides that I thought were purely 7mm, but I now find include 4mm pre-printed kits. This is exactly what I was after... (It is a slightly odd interface...)

I didn't know Slaters did that one, Steamport - I've never seen it come up on ebay... And I think I must be missing something with Powsides, Compound ... must look more thoroughly... tim.

Thanks for all that. This is where I got the notion of pastel shades for L&Y from: https://www.lyrs.org.uk/Wagons I would love to be able to get more of the Black and white Welsh anthracite wagons. (You need those to emphasise the coloured ones!) Mike's Models used to do these (including the lovely welsh names that begin with Y), but sadly no more. Seems like a gap in the market to me; even Peco didn't do those. (Peco are still my favourite wagons - you can't beat that matt paper finish for scale realism in my view, and it weathers/fades nicely too...) There's Robbie's Rolling Stock, of course, but those are on a Dapol stretched 17-6 body with 10" wheelbase. Hmm...

Ah - does that mean that vans were used more frequently by private owners during this period than during grouping where they are few and far between?

I have info on the wagon colours of various pre-grouping railways including the L&Y which had a brief flirt with pastel colours for butter (blue), meat (pink) and fish (green) vans. My question is, did Edwardian (or thereabouts) private owner wagons ever use these softer/pastel shades (rather than the usual: black, grey, brown, red, oxide)? I don't recall ever reading this anywhere but, for some reason, I have this as a possibility at the back of my mind (perhaps seen at a show sometime; I'm not sure). Thanks Tim.

My understanding is that the MR painted coach roofs grey but with black on the south/out side of the rain strips. I also understand that this was perpetuated in early LMS days. (I'm not sure when it was phased out, but I would guess by/before period II coaches.) My question is whether in LMS days this was done only with former MR stock or whether former LNWR (and other) stock received the same treatment on repaints during that early period. Thanks, Tim.

My question is really whether anybody was building 16'6" over headstocks before the 1923 spec? It seems possible, but my guess is that before this date, few (if any) would be of that length, yes? Thanks Tim.

To avoid any confusion across posts - the pins I was referring to are the four pins that connect loco to tender. The pins fatadder is referring to (I think) are the socket pins for the blanking plate/DCC chip. Note also, for clarity, in my post it doesn't matter whether you are working left to right or right to left.

Okay - I've figured it out; the son of Beelzibub has been at play here. Here is the problem and the solution (for swapping (some) tenders on (some) Castles). Using a multimeter on the tender pins and with blanking plates in place I found continuity between pins 1&3 and 2&4 on the Hawksworth and 1&2 and 3&4 on the other one (Dean or Collett? - I don't know enough about GWR). So - the wiring diagram is different for different Castles! My solution was to rewire the other tender (the one that didn't work) as follows. First, I noticed that the use of black and red wires was not the same in the two tenders. I traced that through and found the correction is to cut the outer two wires (to pins 1 and 4). One is red. The other is black. Now cross wire them - red to black and vice versa. Solder, insulate. Job done. Both tenders now work. Quite an easy fix. But why or why!

I've got a similar problem - so would be interested to know if anyone found the solution. I have Wellington (Castle) with Hawksworth tender. Works fine. I bought an earlier pattern tender (different body and different chassis, but same method of connection) but it won't run with that tender. Neither will it run without a tender. Works fine when original tender reconnected. Inspection reveals that both tenders have a blanking plate in place (I'm DC) and that connections look good throughout. What I don't know is whether there is a hidden fault in the replacement tender, or whether the wiring diagram changed between Wellington and whichever loco the donor tender came from (bought off ebay). Hmm...

Did these ever become available? cheers tim.

This is two questions, really. 1. Does anyone know a supplier for a brass etch of 4mm scale matchboard? I'm wanting this to clad the side of a coach converted for a breakdown train. I'd wondered whether Scale Link might do one, but can find no supplier. (I have a plastic version but it's a bit thick) 2. I'm also looking for brass (or white metal or even plastic) lower steps for rolling stock to be accessed from track level. Something like a brass strip half the length of a destination board attached to a couple of supports bent to vertical to fasten beneath/behind the step at sole bar height. Seems simple (and desirable) enough, but I can't find anything at Dart Castings, Wizard Models, Eileen's Emporium... Thanks for any help. Tim.

For the record - I bodged it using an etched brake lever (positioned from the V-hanger then behind the W-iron, as for the swan-neck), half a brake wheel and a bit of brass linkage, all cut and bent to length. I did this without looking at photo sources (which I have) so as not to upset myself too much. The end result looks passable, in the sense that the little people now have a way of apply the brake.

Thanks for contributions - but looks like no banana... Perhaps I can craft one from thin plastic sheet. But it's not just the swan-neck but that cog-work by the DC lever as well. Hmm.

Thanks for the update - I wondered if that might be so! And I'm guessing that nobody but Bedford did one, yes?

I'm looking for an etch for 4mm DCI brake gear, including the swan neck lever. I see that Bill Bedford used to do one, but I've only been able to locate the DCIII version (at Eileen's Emporium). No sign of DCI components on the web. Am I missing something? Thanks, Tim.

Right - sorry; I was on my iphone and didn't see the little 'more' tab down at the bottom of the page. Yes - this looks good. Thanks again.

Thanks for that link, Jason. New to me, and valuable for my more numerous lms and lner projects (plus br and rch/pow). But - as far as I could see, no gwr or sr (or constituents). And yes - my memory from photos is that GWR sc buffers look similar enough to SR photos for me to use those...