Denbridge

I've just done a search of the site and come up with a blank.   the actual plan that was scanned is labelled MR Saxby & Bourn Line and was signed off by the EOSD which was the Engineers Office Thanks

 

Jamie

the website only has a selection of the total plan index. It would be worth dropping them a line.

Hi Jamie

 

On page 46 of Nigel Digby's book "A Guide to the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway" there is a photo of bridge 43 of a similar view to the one Apollo gave the link to and the text states the bridge had a span of 97ft 6 ins. The bridge was the property of the Midland Railway so any search at the NRM might be more fruitful if done under the MR Bridge 43 on the Saxby Junction to Bourne line not the M&GNJR.

 

unless things have changed dramatically in the last few years, the NRM holds relatively few civil engineering drawings. These have historically remained in the ownership of the railways. BR/Tiltrack and now Network Rail. Until around 2005 these were kept at regional plan stores. Since then they have been all located to a 'state of the art' centre just outside of York. In my professional life, ive had many dealings with them.

Perhaps readers of this thread can help me.   A couple of weeks ago Tony appealed for help in making what he calls a 'decent' model of the M & G N bridge at the north end of LB.   I'm obviously loosing it as I volunteered to try and do some artwork for a decent etched kit of the bridge for Tony to build.   We took some measurements and I took a couple of photos.  Tony has supplied me with copies of some scans of the original drawings.   However the original scans were not of a very high resolution and a lot of the smaller printing, such as dimensions and instructions to the builders are unreadable.   I can get a lot of it my measurement and with study the way the structure goes together is gradually becoming clearer.   

 

I took a couple of photos of the existing structure for reference and can make a start on the artwork.   However does anyone have copies of photos of the actual bridge that they could post.  Of particular interest would be a close up of a train coming under the bridge that showed the lower girders in detail.   Another helpful part would be a photo taken of the interior of the bridge from track level showing the details of the girders.  

 

Any help would be appreciated as I would like to try and ensure that the etches make up into a model worthy of going onto LB.

These show the bridge that I'm attempting to produce as it is at present.

P5023284.JPG

P5023285.JPG

 

Jamie

Have you tried the Network Rail plan office in York regarding copies of the original bridge? Nowadays they tend to be a lot more helpful than in previous years. BUT never turn up in person. You are unlikely to get in and will be unwelcome.

Denbridge

No, it isn’t just about writing, it’s about influence, by whatever means.

And, influence is impossible without communication.

The greatest artist, musician, arc-welder, poet, chef, milliner, or whatever would wield no influence whatsoever if they practiced their craft in hermetic isolation.

Roye England sure as eggs is eggs knew how to communicate, both to enlist helpers and to make known the collective endeavour that he orchestrated.

And the “most notable modellers” that you refer to either had influence, because they communicated effectively, or they had little or no influence, because they didn’t.

Kevin

okay. Whatever. But i disagree whole heartedly. You terms of reference disqualify many of the most influential and talented modellers. Therefore under these rules this hall of fame is geared more towards writers rather than the cream of model MAKERS.

The buildings are replicas of Shipley-on-Stour, so I decided to copy it as far as possible hence the sharply curving siding.  Personally I think it is full of character, possibly because no modeller would design such a track plan.

Personally i think youve created a station full of character. Those who dont compromise are those who plan the ultimute layout without building anything. If you are happy, enjoy what you are creating

In short, a wonderful depiction of a welsh secondary route.

Roye England never wrote articles. Nor did many of our most notable modellers

So as i said this isnt really a modellers jall of fame it is about modelling authors.

I’m not at all seeking to discount actual modellers.

Some people have had huge influence by their modelling, possibly Ahern top among them. There were other scenicists in Britain, but he practically single-handedly showed everyone else how to do it.

Iain Rice has, again practically single-handedly, established a whole new “school” in approach to layouts in small spaces, and he’s done it by doing it himself, and, like Ahern, elequontly showing the rest of us.

The Rev Beal was another ace practitioner who had great influence, and previous nominations include several more.

The one thing that unites the influencers, of course, is their ability to communicate. Beeson might be the rare example of the incommunicado influencer.

But your criteria is therefore about those who influenced the hobby through their prowess of the pen. So it isnt really a 'modellers' hall a fame, but a hobby writers hall of fame.

Tony,

 

I wonder if you would answer a question which is purely hypothetical please? I'd just love to know the answer. Perhaps others here would too.

 

If an exceptionally rich modeller made herself known to you at a show and said "I model in OO gauge 4mm scale and want to buy your layout Little Bytham. Name your price and I will pay it.",  would you be tempted to sell? 

 

I'm not prying into the price you would want you understand, I'm just interested to know if LB has an "offer you couldn't refuse" price. 

 

Archie

an extremely hypothetical question surely? How could one answer that unless it happened? I restored a model beam engine a good few years ago and resisted many offers. Then at a time in my life another offer was made which i accepted. Whilst it made sense at the time and i realised a 5 figure sum, ive regretted that choice ever since.

See post 1.

The sole criterion for inclusion is influence in the field, and there are all sorts of ways of wielding influence,

We do need to whittle down to the totally arbitrary number of ten, though, which won’t be easy. I haven’t counted, but I’d guess we are in the twenties at least.

if you discount actual modellers and only judge by influence you will arrain your top 10. However, when it comes down to modelING the choice will become more difficult and i suspect nigh on impossible. As i said modellers and those said to influence the hobby are 2 distinct areas. CJF could never be classed as a modeller. Nor could many others who had a profound influence.

I wonder if the proposed hall of fame needs a new title? People such as CJF and Greenly regularly crop up. Yet Greenly was not a modeller and CJF as a modeller was of a very low standard. The same applies to some other suggestions. I feel there is a marked difference between a Railway Modelling Hall and a model railway hall.

Is there such a thing as a 'proper' green. Engines should be red. At least the Midland saw the error of their ways in the 19th century.

 

Jamie (Runs for cover)

There were only 2 'proper' greens used post 1923. Middle chrome green and olive (or sage) green.as used by the GW and its near tramway the Southern

I'm genuinely interested - will the model achieve a scale 126mph?

i believe im right in thinking that Mallard wasnt actually running at 126mph on the modelled area, but was still accelerating towards the record books.

I would like to add a name that most people will never have heard of but who was actually responsible for inspiring many tens of thousands of railway modellers.

 

That man was John Anning. He was a Southern O gauge modeller, and for a good many years in the 1950s and 1960s, he was Chairman of the Model Railway Club and the prime mover behind the Club's annual five day Easter shows at the Central Hall, Westminster. He didn't do it all on his own, of course, he had a good, well motivated, team behind him, but he was unquestionably the man who made it all happen - and in his spare time too - his day job involved managing a factory.

 

Half a century plus ago, there were relatively few local shows and Central Hall was an annual national mecca, leading to attendances of well over 40.000 each year (and one year, when the counters were deliberately stopped to "keep within" insurance limits, over 50.000). Many of my generation will remember the Saturday afternoon queue which stretched right round the hall.

 

Many of the youngsters, taken by their parents, who saw the show year after year became active modellers and it is probably no coincidence that that generation continues to be very prominent in British railway modelling today even as age starts to take its toll. (And it is equally interesting that the "bulge" of modellers in continental Europe tends to be younger by perhaps 10 to 15 years.)

Before John Anning there was of course Geoffrey Keen. After John, Ron Parren ran the Easter show for years.

7007GreatWestern, on 29 Apr 2018 - 13:49, said:

 

"No so, what's a Black Hole then! But I guess they weren't known back then."

 

If you'd bothered to read the second sentence of my post before eagerly leaping for your keyboard you would have understood that my teacher was speaking figuratively, not literally. Still, my understanding is enriched with your insights into the emissive properties of Black Holes. How did I cope without you?

 

Regards,

 

Andy (BSc Physics, University of Leicester, 1987)

 

damn. Someone got out of the wrong side of bed this morning with a seriously bad attitude.

This morning's job has seen the completion of the SE Finec0ast A3.

 

A3 07.jpg

 

It'll be very much a layout loco, and has already whirled 14 kit-built bogies round LB with no fuss. 

 

I haven't done any washing/cleaning as yet (best left to the painter, Geoff Haynes), but yet again, it looks like I've made a relief model of the Moon! My naked eye tells me that my soldered joints are neat and tidy, that the number of blobs have been kept to a minimum, and the surfaces are super-smooth. Then, I take a picture, like this, and my eye tells lies! Who was it who said 'a coat of paint hides a multitude of sins'? I hope he/she was right. 

 

A3 60111 Hornby.jpg

 

I must admit, I was unaware of Andrew's (Headstock) observation that the Hornby A3 tender rides too high. Then, I looked again at this picture. It is, by at least 2mm. Look how the lining at the base of the tender is so much higher than that at the base of the cab. When I modified/altered/renumbered/renamed/weathered this example, I was blissfully unaware (and lacking in perception) of the discrepancy. Not only that, it does tower over the cab roof and the adjacent carriage. Yes, the big Gresley tenders were tall, but not this tall. I hope the chap I sold it to is still happy. 

 

Its replacement, in the form of another SE Finecast A3, awaits.

 

 

A friend of mine lowers his tenders by throwing away the chassis and building a brass one. It transforms the overall look of the Hornby Gresley pacifics. He has also recently started binning the loco chassis as well having had too many fail.

Roye England

Guy Williams

James Beeson

Alex Jackson

Sid Stubbs

David Jenkinson

Peter Denny

John ahern

Iain Rice

Bernard Miller

Yes, indeed, Graham, but I think that points up the fact that the West Coast had insufficient class 8 power and they relied heavily on the class 7 4-6-0s to shoulder much of the work. The transfer of 4 A1s to Polmadie in the early 50s suggests that there was some "joined up thinking" going on in the newly unified BR, but this didn't last that long and I can't help feeling that there should have been more of these sensible transfers taking place throughout the system.

the LMS was plagued throughout with insufficient top end motive power. The Scots were magnificent but at times were thrashed doing jobs that in reality only suited to the class 8 pacifics.

Tony, In the various pictures posted on LB, I notice that the ballast has not been weathered. Is that a deliberate decision, or something that is pending?

The reason I ask is that looking at my own trackwork, it appears to be unrealistically pristine and I’m becoming increasingly aware of the subtleties of weathering the ballast if I am to do this properly. As I’m modelling a station where the majority of trains will stop, different degrees of weathering will need to be applied at different locations, with particular attention being paid to where the locomotives stand towards the end of the platforms. I have spent some time gazing at the trackwork on recent station visits, though the nature of the ‘grot’ will be different for steam era layouts compared to current diesels or electric.

I will draw the line though regarding scale toilet paper... between the tracks at some stations is quite unpleasant!

I remember an old chap i regularly saw at exhibitions back in the late 70s. He had been a senior ganger on the GWR and BR (W). He always used to comment on how aesthetically clean most model track was portrayed. He always said it was tidier in steam days, but much, much dirtier than most models depict. And colouring was also far more patchier and less uniform since much spot reballasting would regularly take place.

Good evening Tom,

 

As I mentioned to you, I bought the gapped PCB board from C&L, some little time ago. 

 

A3 05.jpg

 

Dave Ellis of SE Finecast supplies pieces of it in his kits. A full-sized piece is in the foreground. 

 

I find it easier to use than big strips of copper-clad. For a live chassis (as above), I arrange it so that the gaps are across the main axis. It makes soldering the pick-ups easier, because there's less of a risk of disturbing them when attaching the motor wire. For a dead chassis, the pads are just turned through 90 degrees. I think I told you that the holes make it more secure, the adhesive creeping into them. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.

 

I buy mine from ebay. Its the cheapest place ive found. Search for veroboard.

Nah!    Bulleid didn't really get 'permission' and they were all mixed traffic designs as you know  ;)yeah. Of course they were sorely needed to spend much of their lives shuttling about on 3 coach trains

Phil

That raises a question in my mind; how did the cash strapped LNER obtain capital sanction to build 64 class 8 pacifics (peppercorn A1s & A2s) when they already had 34 A4s and 25 A2 variants? Not to mention the 77 A3s and 184 V2s.

 

I know this getting off topic; perhaps I'll start a new thread elsewhere.

far more plausible than the permission to build so many Bulleid pacifics on the Southern.

I thought I try getting something printed using the 3D Hubs network. Rather than a single manufacturer like Shapeways it is a collection of small printing companies or individuals all over the world, prices vary depending on the supplier, you pick whichever one takes your fancy. I went for a resin print and took a punt on a chap in China(!)...

 

Here's the bare model as received:

 

Under the corners of the door grab handles you can see a small bit of surplus material, what I assume is the support material, remaining.

 

Here it is following removal of these with a knife (as usual with me perhaps a bit more finesse and thoroughness wouldn't go amiss!) and a spray of grey primer:

 

 

 

 

Some of the handles still need a little bit of tidying up it can be seen in this view

 

Overall I am pleasantly surprised with it - it was a punt. There is good detail and defnition to edges, again may have overdone the primer a bit, and generally no signs of stepping on the sides of the model unlike the Shapeways FUD.Even with shipping from China (DHL took 3 or so days), it came to $60, so £42, hence about 1/2 the price of Shapeways FUD. This may just be lucky this one and I am not sure how 3d Hubs works if the print isn't up to expectations, they do seem to offer some protection.

 

The best so far, I think, so I will try another print of something else from this supplier, including maybe the interiors.

 

All the best

 

Jon

leaving off the handles and grabrails would improve things no end. The finished coach would also look much better with these as seperate fittings.

Tony, 

 

Far too much 'Olive Drab' for my liking 

 

That SECR D is gorgeous! (as is the real thing in lined SECR livery), I too am a big fan of the Brighton tanks, Chris P is a very talented builder. My next comment may be of unpopular opinion, but I think I like the PDK D15 more than the OO works version, which seems to have, a moulded smokebox dart, and no rivets, lining missing from the cab front, tender recess, and none from the footplate sides down. The wheels also appear to be black, although maybe that's just me not looking hard enough. 

 

That being said, it is by no means 'Bad', and no one else has produced a D15, so I must comment them for doing that (along with the L1). 

 

Looking forward to the E's!

i must admit, i tend to agree regarding oo works models. They often appear pretty basic. Especially if one regards how much they cost.

Andrew,

 

I was intending to bulk up the bolts on the front frame extensions by adding a drop of glue over the rivets, I'm now having a rethink and will probably drill them out and insert brass rod of a better size.

 

With regard to the Bachmann O4, I have successfully altered the the platform arrangement in the past, it was not actually as difficult a job as I first thought it would be. Just a matter of filing away part of the valance under the running board and then re shaping the platform to suit. A replacement  bit of valance, with new curve conforming to the new platform arrangement, was then added and blended in. The little engines kit for the O4/8 was correct in this respect but required an extension piece in the running board forwards of the cylinders as it was slightly short, the cab side sheets required an extension forwards and about 2mm had to come off the length of the firebox. In contrast, when fiddling with the Bachmann O4 I seem to recall that the pony truck was set further forwards and the cylinders set slightly further back than they should have been to accommodate tight radius curves. I also had to decide if it would be an O4/1 or an O4/3, as it had features of both! .

Archer also do bolt head sheets as well as rivets.

People have been barred for less so yes, good riddance.

Even constructive criticism and advice was thrown back in people's faces with aggression so why should we put up with such a person on here.

The 'don't you know who I am' attitude is unbelievable especially when he says he doesn't know who some of the most respected modellers on here are.

A big project indeed but from what I've seen so far the standard of the work is no better than what most of us were doing in the 80/90s.

 

Dave.

 

since this is in effect a commercial undertaking, i wonder how far it would proceed if his spanish boss were to learn of his low opinion of the country, its people, their education system etc.