Denbridge

4 hours ago, Sjcm said:

I could be reading far too much into this but the stuff they don't own like the Kirk  and mailcoach products have been totally deleted from the website but the blacksmith products are still on there so y'know...

Nope. The tabs are there, but the content has all been removed.

Does anyone know of any developments regarding the Blacksmith range currently owned by Dunn?

1 minute ago, Tony Wright said:

Sorry Jeff, I should have remembered.

 

I have so many visitors bringing so many models, it's difficult to remember. 

 

Your Castle is not alone with regard to the 'Bytham haulage stakes'. Many a visiting loco has proved incapable of shifting LB's heavier rakes (which are in the majority).

 

I hope your health improves. Remember, there are lots of models here for you to collect. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony. 

Thanks Tony. It is a visit I'm looking forward to immensely. Sorting out Windsor Castles propensity to lift her feet when presented with a load is about the only modelling I've completed since my first visit.

16 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Thanks Staffordshire,

 

You've made a very fine job of building a complex kit.

 

If I might make one observation, please? The bogie wheels (I have a thing about bogie/pony wheels!). They look to be Markits LNER ten-spoked type. GWR bogie wheel spokes were much more 'spindly' in appearance, with a smaller centre boss, as I hope the two following pictures show.........

 

 

I can't recall who brought this Mitchell Castle along to run (beautifully) on Little Bytham.

 

 

Geoff Haynes built/painted this Mitchell Castle in P4.

 

I hope the bogie wheel types are evident.

 

Keep up the excellent modelling.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

The Castle in Great Western livery is my own build. You may recall that although it ran very well, it disgraced itself in the haulage stakes. Little Bytham was its first outing away from my short test track. I've since given it a good talking to & hope that once my health improves I can take up your very kind invitation to return and hopefully uphold Swindons honour.

On 20/10/2022 at 17:16, Neal Ball said:

The House!

 

We have had our post from the UK arrive today.... which included issue 110 of the Pendon Paper....

 

Contents include a piece about the MSWJR by Stephen Williams; Madder valley; electrics for the Vale scene and Dartmoor.... and a couple of very nice photos of the Stationmasters house. This is due to installed near tendon Parva station in the near future.

 

When we were at Pendon, it was shewn as a "Ready to be planted" - in an area towards the exit of the upstairs area as you move away from Pendon village.

 

There is going to be a full article about the house in the next issue "Spring 2023".

 

The reason for saying this is of course, it is the same house as the Henley-on-Thames Stationmasters house, the only difference is that the Henley building is Blue Engineering brick.

 

I have shewn this photo before, but its worth shewing again....

 

I remember visiting during their 50th anniversary weekend. We were told then that the Stationmasters house was almost finished and it would be in place later in the year. That was in 2004! 

1 minute ago, robertcwp said:

The works plates might be original but probably nothing else much is, but that would be true of many steam locos at the end of their service lives.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't 60103 preserved with an A4 boiler, a type which it did not carry in service (unlike some other A3s), or has it reverted to an A3 boiler? I believe a spare boiler was preserved. I believe the tender was also swapped on entering preservation although as 4472 it would have had a similar corridor tender in the late 1920s and up to the late 1930s. 60103 had an A4 non-corridor tender in its later years. 

It did run for quite a while with an A4 boiler It now has an A3 boiler,  the former spare. It's former boiler was sold to Jeremy Hosking as a spare for Bittern.

22 hours ago, LaGrange said:

Hornby seems to have set a tangent for stock that doesnt run well, whereas Heljan stuff does. Wheres the odd bit? 

I've had plenty of duff Heljan models.

On 10/10/2022 at 12:17, woodenhead said:

Can't compete in OO, you can only retool big locos so many times, N too small for a big entry, this is prime for Hornby and for once I agree there is heritage for the company.

Can't compete in OO? So why do Hornby remain the market leaders? I think you're letting personal prejudice cloud your reasoning.

On 28/09/2022 at 14:15, corneliuslundie said:

Or you might find a Mike's Models one on e-bay or similar.

Jonathan

Mike's Models are still available from Holt model railways in Swansea. No website but very helpful on the phone.

On 08/06/2022 at 22:02, checkrail said:

I felt the same.  I eventually got mine via eBay but only after a very long time.  247 Developments/Bettabitz had stopped making them before I returned to the hobby and I'd seen them mentioned now and then.  Once I got them one thing I particularly liked was the door T handles, on a raised pad to represent the lock.  Useful for other coaches too.  The thing I didn't like about them was the lack of bolections - there was a recess instead, and no separate bolections on any accessory fret.

 

The Worsley Works stuff is very good.

The bettabitz range is now owned by Squires tools and will become available again at some point 

15 hours ago, Regularity said:

Steady on, Annie: that’s bordering on sweeping offence.

The term 'train station' has its origins in Victorian Great Britain, not America.

On 06/05/2022 at 06:56, Neal Ball said:

Surely that’s just for their Titfield train…. 
 

Of course, I wouldn’t turn down a nice Collett designed autocoach to modern standards…. How long is it to the next Rapido newsletter @rapidoandy a couple of weeks? 😎 A GWR announcement per chance?

Or, even better. A churchward design. One of those could cover all periods through to BR.

I've only just come across this very interesting thread. I believe the 'Manchester' standards are very similar to those adopted by Pendon which were developed by Guy Williams & The founder of Ultrascale, whos name currently eludes me. At one time Pendons EMF wheels were commercially available from Ultrascale. I bought several sets back in the day, but last time I looked at Ultrascales website, they seem to have been discontinued

On 13/04/2022 at 07:06, Mikkel said:

 

Thanks, yes it's good to have some 8'6 bogies out there. I assume they are very light, I wonder if that has any effect.

 

The whitemetal bogies from the 247 Developments range were also an option, but they seem to be discontinued as new ones cannot be cast. 247 have ventured into 3D printing though I see, an interesting development.

 

 

 

I think it's worth saying that the Slaters bogies are not difficult to construct or solder - and that's coming from someone inexperienced with this sort of thing. The issue as I understand it is not that they are hard to construct, but that some modellers have struggled to get reliable running with the method as designed. As mentioned I didn't have the right parts to test the Slaters method, but did try out the springing just to understand the principle, as seen below.

 

 

 

When the kits are reissued they will come with a different design of bogie. 

44 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

That was before the Mitchell kit of course, which changed the landscape!

Pendons 44xx was scratchbuilt by Paul Morgan in the early 1980's. It is a beautiful model that I've always looked out for when visiting.

On 01/02/2022 at 18:57, Coach bogie said:

Nothing being made now. Family health issues prevent any further productions. There have been some sales of existing stock and just etches only when circumstances allow.

 

Mike Wiltshire

Has David posted any lists of what he has available?

9 minutes ago, Combe Martin said:

All the  photos I've found of 53809 in BR days in the S&D picture books (& I've got loads) where visible, show it with what I call a 'coal hole' Fowler tender, ie ... a tender that has a coal hole in the tender front that the coal falls down to for shovelling out. The alternative is a 'coal door' tender which has a pair of large opening doors on the tender front that are opened for access to the coal.  These stand out quite a bit because they are a 'big wide protruding lump' on the tender front that is almost as tall as the top of the front coal plate, so they are noticeable.

 

Photos of 53810 show it with a 'coal door' tender, but one that has an extra smallish (a foot square maybe) box mounted on top of (what I think is) the normal (left hand side as you look at the tender front) tool box.  I've not seen this extra box in any photos of other 'coal door' Fowler tenders on the S&D, and only once in a non-S&D photo of I think as I recall, a 2P somewhere.

 

So, I believe the tender attached to 53810 was unique on the S&D.

 

However, some photos of 53809 in Barry scrapyard appear to 'half' show it with a box in this position as mentioned in my paragraph above.  Unfortunately I've not found any that show whether it has the 'coal doors'.

 

So I'm wondering, did 53809 acquire 53810's tender before it was withdrawn.  My understanding is that there were very few tender swaps among the S&D's 7F's as per an article in the S&D trusts magazine 'Pines Express' of a few years ago.  Unfortunately mine is locked away inaccessible in storage at the moment pending a house move.

 

Also, my understanding is that tender swops at sheds/depots were generally avoided if possible because of difficulties in getting the draw pin out to separate loco from tender.  It was easier to get the welding gear out to fix a leak ! 

 

Peter.

It may be that 53809 has received a new tender tank in preservation.  Many preserved locomotives (particularly those from Barry) have had to have the tenders replaced due to corrosion.

I don't have my books to hand, but pretty certain there are drawings in the Russell book of GWR Locomotives.

1 hour ago, JZ said:

I agree. And I have built tens of CooperCraft kits and thought they were better than Parkside, though the range was limited to GWR stuff. Still got a few unbuilt ones for if I ever model UK outline standard gauge again.

I fortunately built up quite a large stash of CC kits with many still to be built. Sure, there are issues with them but they were streets ahead when released and still make very nice models. It is a crying shame what has happened to this lovely range, but it's history now. I'm personally as concerned about the future of the Blacksmith range of kits which have also been very poorly treated by the current owner.

1 hour ago, RJS1977 said:

 

I think there are two different questions here:

 

1) Are plastic kits in general dead?

 

I agree with you - no, probably not (although there is of course a difference between selling kits from an existing range and creating tooling for a new range).

 

2) Are Coopercraft dead?

 

If the moulds are as badly damaged as has been suggested, then quite possibly.

Plastic kits are far from dead. Had Coopercraft been in the hands of someone capable, they would certainly be selling in quantities like Parkside/ratio and Cambrian. As it stands Coppercraft is dead unless a buyer would be prepared to invest a LOT of money. That investment would probably make the range financially non-viable.

15 minutes ago, Trog said:

 

So are you saying that the moulds are Dunn for?

I'm saying nothing. But those who know about these things are saying just that.

30 minutes ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

 

I would say the second sentence is pure nonsense. If Phoenix can make the SR coaches and PECO can make Parkside then I can't see anything stopping a manufacturer who knows what they are doing from resurrecting the range. 

 

People keep saying plastic kits are finished and the future is 3D prints. I take it they haven't any experience of 3D printed models. They are rubbish.

 

 

Jason

It is far from nonsense. Dunn attempted to modify the moulds to use on a different machine. Those who are knowledgeable of these matters have declared them beyond repair. Additionally, they have been stored extremely poorly and many are deeply pitted with rust.

1 minute ago, Steamport Southport said:

I think there is a bit of confusion there.

 

Phoenix acquired the Southern stuff from Colin Ashby. I think Colin might still have some of the wagons.

 

The Coopercraft and Slaters kits were acquired from C&L (who made track). But it's debateable whether he actually had the Slaters kits and just had some old stock.

 

 

 

Jason

Mr Dunn 'purchased' the Slaters range & tooling direct from Slaters, only he never paid for it, which is why Slaters reclaimed their property.

7 minutes ago, John Tomlinson said:

 

Something in the back of my mind says that Slaters bought the Coopercraft wagon range, and it didn't go to the chap in Taunton. I might be wrong.

 

The Kirk Southern Railway coach kits (Maunsell and Bulleid) are now separate as well, being available via Phoenix Precision in their "Ex Kirk" range.

 

As you say, it's the ex LNER Kirk and Mailcoach stuff that has become scarce, however some care on ebay - not paying daft asking prices - can yield value.

 

I think the metal etched Coopercraft products are still available from the guy in Taunton, though probably as indicated, caveat emptor.

 

John.

Mr Dunn 'bought' the Slaters range. Except he never paid for it. Slaters therefore took back their property. The wagons are back in production & an email from David White has recently confirmed the carriage kits are very imminent.

Cooper craft as a company and a product is currently dead. It is also debatable whether a new owner could bring it back to life.