MacDuff999

Just started work on the DJH Model Loco Ivatt variant of the Stanier 'Coronation', and noticed the instructions mention use of 26mm drivers. Surely the class driving wheel diameter was 6'9"? Or was the kit designed for slightly smaller wheels?  

I can't remember if anyone has mentioned this before within the thread, but has someone converted an Ivatt 'Coronation' to a 'City' or Duchess'? If so, is it a fairly straightforward conversion, or more complex?  

Thanks Pete. 

A query regarding tenders gents. I have started work on a DJH Ivatt version of the 'Coronation' class, and am unsure which way up the tender base plate should go. The narrower ends of the triangular? support plates along the base plate edges are half-etched along the sides of one face of the brass base plate etch. Am I right in assuming that these should be on the under-side of the base plate? Nothing in the usual Loco Profile book drawings makes it clear. Advice please. Thanks.   

I have been looking again at the Duchess photo in your post of 29th. April Terry. It looks as though you have fitted new front buffers. Did you solder them in place or just superglue them? Have you ever tried soldering anything to the H/D bodies? I was thinking you might be able to do that with low-melt solder, as it is white metal. 

A  it difficult to tell if the 'illustrations' for part 5A on the following page represent the correct pattern. I will know when I receive them! 

Quite right, those who suggested Markits for the right safety valves. I could not spot them in their catalogue, but they do make them, and a set are on their way to me as I type this note. I am a little surprised though, that they are not in the catalogue list. 

Thanks everybody. Just let me know when they arrive please then Mike. I am sure you have my e-mail address from when I bought the 'Brit' smoke deflectors from you. 

Ian Ogden.

Don't know if you have had any more 'Princess' etches in yet Mike. You did say they might be May/June. Also, where have the builders whose models have illustrated this thread obtained their safety valves from? The only place I have seen the type, are as part of the 'Royal Scot' kit that Comet produce. Any information on known sources gratefully received.

Just a couple of very early shots of the set-up set-up so far.

Still finding out how this works with photos. An expected addition to the motive power, an ex-Caley class 812 will not now arrive until September, say Rails of Sheffield!

In 1966 (I think) a work colleague and I went to Glasgow one Sunday (we lived in Edinburgh), to see what we could see at one or two of the steam sheds. We did Polmadie - still a bit of steam, but not much. We also went to at least one other shed which I remember (not sure which) and we were shocked to see two NB diesels (class 22  now I think), standing dead, windows smashed. I am sure we did Corkerhill too, but again saw hardly anything of steam. 

Sorry, meant to say, Steve Banks has on his website, a section dealing with milk trains, containing some very useful information - as well as a few interesting photos of same. 

Ian. 

Like D3489, just found this thread - albeit 18 months later. I have been researching and putting together the basics of a similar layout, over the last year or so. In answer to Leopard's question of September, 2018, 3-axle milk tanks were developed because, needing to travel at XP speeds, the 2-axle tanks became unstable. The extra axle largely eliminated that problem. My layout (Merchiston Dairy) is on a fairly new thread I started last month, and represents an actual rail-connected dairy bottling plant on the west side of Edinburgh, less than half a mile from the steam loco shed at Dalry Road (64C). The time frame is c. 1955-60. It is in its very early stages, and the first post on the thread just 'sets the scene' so to speak. I need to find out how to attach photos, so I can put one or two images there as well, to make the thread a bit more interesting. Nice work there though Graeme; like the buildings. Any further developments since 2019? My bottling plant is a mock-up, assembled from an old Bilteezi thin card kit of a small factory, laminated on to picture mounting card, but the plan is to make a much better one from Plastikard. I chose that, because the structure depicted bears a resemblance to the old Rossmore Road bottling plant adjacent to London Marylebone station. 

Re a couple of Blandford 1969's posts, I would declare an interest in a 'Clan. kit/etches. On reading Mike Edge's last post though regarding the practicality of etch production/availability, it seems that any hope of such an item being available is to say least minimal. I would ask Dave John though how he did his pretty reasonable tenement backscene, in the photos of the 'Pugs' he built. It there a sheet or something similar one can buy?     

I had certainly thought along those lines Terry, especially for the front end fixing. With the Comet frames fitting so well into the body, a suitably placed, slotted spacer firmly soldered will hopefully make it not too difficult to secure things just aft of the front buffer beam. The below-cab fixing will, I think, need more careful thought, although your two suggestions sound quite do-able. I take it you were able to fit the correct diameter drivers when you did these H/D conversions? Another issue to be aware of, I think, is to make sure you get ride height of the body right.         

So, quite rightly in some ways, you hit the loco sheds/station and not the Market! Decisions, decisions! as I may have mentioned, I used to live in Edinburgh, so then haggis was the thing. 

Apart from seeing one or two of the last A2's from Dundee. 

Not sure when you might get round to reading this, but was just wondering where you are located. Your strapline statement re the quality of the black pudding caught my eye a while ago, and I wondered if you were anywhere near Bury, Lancs? They do really good stuff at the market there. 

Well, there is just a little progress on the 'Duchess' 46232, in the form of a Comet chassis kit, a set of Markits bogie wheels, and a pair of Mike Edge etched smoke deflectors. I am waiting for delivery of a copy of the LMS Loco Profiles on 'Coronations', from Titfield Thunderbolt Bookshop in Bath. I feel I need to at least have a browse through that, to see if there are any glaring areas for attention, before I commence the ritual reaming out of axle holes for bearings, and assembly of the coupling rods to test initial accuracy of the chassis wheelbase on my Avonside jig. I have assembled the Comet mainframes onto a pair of Comet axle jigs (the threaded ones with barrel-shaped metal spacers), and they fit under the H/D body fairly well, although a little work will be necessary to ensure any below-running plate gaps are filled. How do you secure your chassis to the H/D bodies Terry? There is a screw hole between the forward part of the frames on the body, which could be used to join to the chassis front end; it looks like another screw hole will need to be drilled in the cab floor to secure the chassis rear.    

I know Terry sent me some information as to how he did the conversion, and I will be referring back to that as things progress. I now have a Comet chassis kit, and have assembled the mainframes on to a pair of their chassis jigs, for a trial fit. It looks not too bad, slotted into the under-side of the H/D body, so I am hoping that fixing the chassis itself when properly assembled, won't be too challenging a task. But then comes the valve gear! I do recall someone suggesting the use of Markits crossheads instead of Comet, due to their smoother operation. 

Not to worry. It was worth a try, considering the number you have built so far. 

Ian. 

If I might raise another related topic, Iain. I have read through your thread with great interest. Among the number of Coronation pacific builds you have done, I cannot remember if you have built one with a Comet chassis and a Hornby Dublo metal body, as opposed to the more recently produced Hornby plastic bodied version. If so, how did you find it?        

I just thought a more positive approach to their customers might win (or help them to retain) a few more. I still maintain their kits are expensive for what - certainly some of them - are. I did not buy the kit I latterly referred to by the way, and it was not second hand.   

Having read through the thread in more detail - all the various pluses and minuses based around the variable quality of individual models - my first impression of the new Hornby offering was that the chimney is not quite right. A minor matter, some might say, but that very feature helps depict the true appearance of the engine. In my view, it is too flat above the lip, which would put me off making a purchase, costing in some cases close to £200. Apropos that particular point though, I recall - much earlier in the thread - a comment by Clive Mark I think, along the lines of 'poor DJH, I wonder if they will be able to sell any more' (of their Coronation kits I assume). Well, at over £200 for the loco plus tender kit alone (let alone the cost of  wheels, motor, gearbox etc,), it could be that the price may be the reason for any possible/future reduction in sales. Personally, I have had experience of 2 DJH kits, bought from them as new. The first was a ex-LNER J35, which I found to be a bit pricey, but not at all a bad kit. The second, an ex-Caley 'Jumbo', I thought was decidedly over-priced - being based on quite dated kit design - in comparison to the J35. I have a ex-Caley class 439 tank, nicely built, which cost me a little more than the price of the DJH kit as new! After a polite request to DJH for chassis parts missing from one of their kits I was given (not realising the box contained an incomplete kit), they declined to sell the relevant parts to me as I had not bought the kit from them as new. Needless to say, I am less than impressed; I don't think I will be buying any more DJH kits. 

Thanks for that gents. I will give it a try. 

A real 'tour de force' David, your budding GQS layout. Super trackwork over the station throat, and that work on the fanlight station screen is fantastic, as is the building from Brian. I have one brief memory of GQS from summer 1963, when I was sent to Glasgow with a senior colleague, to do a week of sales presentation work on a new range. We were staying at the NB Hotel, and I remember my colleague 'let me off' late one afternoon, to get the train to Edinburgh so I could spend most of the evening with my girlfriend there. My rail journey by that date was by DMU, sad to say. Best wishes for your further - and hopefully steady - progress. I have very recently created a thread on my own layout, a rail-connected dairy bottling plant on he west side of Edinburgh, and less than half a mile from the old steam shed at Dalry Raod (64C). 'Merchiston Dairy' is the title, but it's just an introductory description so far. I am trying to find out how to post one or two photos to make it a bit more interesting, although the layout is in its quite early stages.