Tortuga

Is that from the red box stable or the blue box stable Graham? Just thinking that you can’t tell unless you see one from each manufacturer standing side by side - I’m sure someone will tell me all the differences between them now! Looks just fine for a freight engine at the end of its journey, before going on shed for disposal by the way; good work!

Is all this skylight work being done using a silhouette cutter? I’m thinking scratch building the signal box on my layout is the way forward, but I’m not looking forward to cutting out all those small window frames!

Must’ve come the other way then! 😜

Or you could truly come to the dark side and model 1960’s BR: that way you could legitimately get a 9F and have green and black locos…

Classico of course?

LNER Diagram D195 all-steel high.

I learnt this the other day! Although to confuse the issue, Highways people would refer to a bridge carrying a road over a railway as an underbridge and a bridge carrying a railway over a road as an overbridge!

Alternatively it might only be possible for the private siding for the tanker to be shunted by trains running from CR. Same effect on the model, but it might be worth thinking what the private siding is - might it generate other traffic that needs working to CR before reaching its final destination?

It’s not fully naked, it’s still wearing its skirts!

Very nice. I was out and about around Biggin, Alstonfield and Alsop myself yesterday. The final leg of our walk was along the Tissington Trail north of Alsop to Biggin in the rain.

I didn’t know Northern and Transpennine issued their own tickets for their own services. I thought a ticket issued by the machine was valid for the journey you wished to make via any permitted route, regardless of which train operator’s service you travel on? EDIT: I should make it clear that I was thinking of local stopping services rather than long distance ones when I wrote this. I used to use both Northern and Transpennine services to travel into and out of Leeds: arrive at station, buy ticket and get on whichever service arrived first. Obviously, if I was going to travel between, say Leeds and London, I would book a ticket that allowed me to travel on a single service run by one operator (like using a plane)

Nice little collection there Jay! I had thought about getting an example of the Hillhead Quarries wagon, but I wasn’t sure if that livery would’ve disappeared before WW2? How accurate to scale are Dapol’s wagons by the way? Yours look to be scale 9’ wheelbase rather than 10’ wheelbase stretched to fit. I’m after a Saxa Salt liveried salt van and while Dapol seem to be the only manufacturer who does one, it looks as if it might be a livery applied to a manufacturer’s “standard” wagon rather than a “true” scale model.

I don’t know that the weathering is too heavy, it looks to match the first wagon pretty much spot on: wouldn’t they have run about together anyway?

I might’ve been buying stuff from a certain online auction business again… While I enjoy building and detailing wagon kits, it takes time and I don’t want it to become a chore (“Now I’ve got the track down, it’ll only be eighteen more years before I can run some trains), so I’ve decided to take inspiration from the likes of @NHY 581 and @Tom F (among others) and up the wagon fleet with some r-t-r offerings - ex-PO stock in particular: While these are in pre-war livery, part of ICI’s fleet of 5-plank lime wagons (specifically those without tilt bars) was pooled at the start of the war, so these will be heavily weathered and given appropriate “P” numbers to reflect that - handily removing the fact that they are the same wagon! ‘Rails to Ashbourne’ (H Sprengler) has a wonderful photo of the sidings at Ryan & Somerville’s Works in the snow of February 1954 with a rather worn P63496 at the left of shot. Although mainly (apparently) bare wood, the very faded “Marcroft Wagons Ltd” can just be made out: quite simply, I had to model this one! The brake gear will have to be firttled with though, as the levers are stuck to the solebar rather than fitted into their mounting holes, and the axleboxes need replacing as the prototype has oil ones… Suggestions for how to change a pitch black livery to worn wood will be gratefully received by the way!

Further progress on the Shock High tonight: capping strip retainers along the top of the sides; representation of the mountings for the shock absorbing gear; cover plates and the vacuum cylinder and actuating linkage. As it turns out, my local model shop doesn’t stock 5thou plasticard (needed for the capping strip retainers), but from a quick internet search, neither does anyone else. Instead I settled for using 10thou and filing that back to about half its thickness once those tiny bits (0.5x1.0mm!) were stuck in place and the glue had dried. I’ve gone with four per side and none on the door - although the prototype photo only appears to have two, both on the right hand end of the Morton clutch side - reasoning it originally had more during my time period. I’m really pleased with the vacuum cylinder actuator: hand filed from 20thou plasticard, it’s my first recognisable part made from scratch! Obviously I should’ve made it before finishing the rest of the brake gear, but, hey ho, it’s on there now. Tarpaulin bar and chalk boards for the ends next. Oh, and the lever guard retaining strap and couplings - but then, I’ve still got those to fit to the five steel mineral wagons I did previously, so maybe I’ll do those in one go!

T’missus is exam marking so I’ve mainly been on Daddy Duty. Did manage to get some more brake gear completed on the Shock High: …and added door springs from scrap brass etch. Had to stop there as I need some 5thou plasticard for the remaining detail work, so I moved on to removing mould lines from parts to build up an LMS vacuum braked Medfit. I’m using an ancient Ratio kit for the body combined with spare chassis parts from a Parkside kit, plus some brass brake gear from Mainly Trains, so a bit of a kit-bash in the works!

Shots fired!

Super slow progress (so what else is new?) on B722295, the BR Diag. 1/040 Shock High: Buffers (by Lanarkshire Models, no connection, just satisfied customer, etc.) added and currently working on the brake gear (brass bits by 51L, again, no connection, just satisfied customer…) Brake shoe mouldings lengthened as described in Part One of Geoff Kent’s “The 4mm Wagon”, but guess who didn’t read the bit about saving and refitting the tumbler? Replacements made from 1.5mm long scraps of 10 thou - best leave them to set before drilling the hole for the cross-shaft!

You can’t even see the join!

From that photo it looks like the sharpest part of the curve is at the end of the lifting flap and therefore fully supported without the need for an extra leg as previously suggested.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Buxton: (Well, Buxton traverser fiddle yard anyway)

The thanks should be really be directed to @St Enodoc as I found out about them via his Mid-Cornwall Lines thread. They do look rather good. I’ll have to acquire some for Alsop!

Happy birthday Jay! Those hoppers look the business - are they from Bygone Wagons per chance?

Not much. I’ve been concentrating my limited modelling time on Alsop, so Whaley is sat waiting on me getting time to deal with the mangled tandem point.

For what it’s worth: No to the wall: looks too country manor to my mind Not sure on the log store: structure looks ideal, but maybe too well stocked? Something about the logs looks ‘off’ to me Yes to the chain and post fence, but only behind the shed parallel to the ramp and along the end of the basin (as Jay said) - alongside the basin and on the trackside edge of the ramp looks too modern day health and safety.