wilks

Is the reversing lever missing on 68971? It is there on the other models.

A very useful reference book for cross London workings via the Widened Lines is Geoff Goslin's Steam on the Widened Lines vol 1 The GN and MRailways (Connor and Butler). Vol 2 covers the GWR and Southern Companies. The aforemention vol1 has the 1933 headcodes used on workings for LNER trains over the widened lines - destinations include: Victoria Ludgate Hill Clapham Junction Elephant & Castle Battersea Clapham Road High Holborn Brockley Lane Hither Green Bricklayers Arms Cannon Street Herne Hill These "local" codes produce some interesting/confusing arrangements e.g. goods trains to Bricklayers Arms used what was the same for an express passenger train - a lamp above each buffer, Hither Green used 3 lamps across the bottom. In 1946 there were just under 70 freight trains from Ferme Park going south of Farringdon to access the various depots in South London - ref London and its Railways, Davies and Grant, David and Charles. At the end of steam (1959) there were only 23 daily workings. Feltham in the south west was served via Farringdon and via Kew Bridge. The Great Northern did own a goods and coal depot at Elephant and Castle and at Brockley Lane. Plenty of opportunities for London modellers of the BR Southern era to buy a J50.

These new Hornby models look excellent with lots of research gone into bunker styles, cab shape, buffers, fluted or plain rods etc.. Looking through the relevant Yeadon's Register Vol46 part B: 635 was obviously liked by Eastfield shed as it stayed there all of its life from 1926 to 1960. 68971 roamed a bit more. After a year at Peterborough New England (34E) in 1961 it went to Doncaster in 1962 and then went back into the works as a works shunter No15. Prior to being at Peterborough it was at Hornsey (34B) from 1952 - just need to change the Hornby shed plate. 68987 was from October 1952 a Hornsey (34B) engine until it went to Doncaster in July 1961. The Hornby model carries the 34D shed plate - which is Hitchin. Unfortunately none were shedded at Hitchin. Still a lovely model worth buying

It looks a great model. Note that the lower rear lamp irons look like part of the body moulding - the top lamp iron is a separate fitting. But what is the correct number of lamp irons - 4, 5 or 6!! Will the injector and pipe work be added under the footplate - some had them infront of the cab steps others under the bunker. What a nightmare it is for model making company to get it right - take a look at the relevant Green book and Yeadons for the subtle variations. The cab roof profile varied between batches!! It will be the best ready to run J50 on the market and I will be buying at least one.

Hornby have posted on their Engine Shed page a "kit" of first shot parts for the J50. It is towards the bottom of the Class71 page. http://www.Hornby.com/uk-en/news/the-engine-shed/class-71/ A quick scan reveals that the wheel balance weights are correct. The body and footplate looks plastic with metal tank inserts for extra weight. Difficult to tell if Hornby have got the angle of the tanks and those big round cab windows correct. When you see it laid out like this why aren't they sold as kits??

These GNR coaches look good. I am interested in the construction of the gangwayed passenger brake in picture p1010193. I have Issinglass drawings as I am constructing the Kings Cross brake down crane train of the 1950's which used a the full brake painted black. I intend to use a forthcoming Bill Bedford kit for the chassis and roof, GRKing clerestory and ends but seek more advice on how you went about building the body, the panelling and the sliding doors. Cheers Paul

I have just bought the Railway to Riccarton LP - it is brilliant and I am only on band 4 - B1 61341 plodding slowly upgrade with rods ringing at Steele Road. I can now add sound to the excellent pictures in Roger Siviter's book Waverley, Portrait of a Famous Route. Got to go now and concentrate on listening to V2 being banked by a standard 2 disturbing the crows. DCC sound has a long way to go!!

Thanks for the response. It good to see Hornby have paid attention to the plate work which joined the top of the tanks to the boiler cladding. Something I found very difficult to ascertain was whether on a left hand drive engine the blower valve rod passed below a cover plate at the rear half of the tank. It did on right hand drive engines and can clearly be seen in the superb picture on page 38 of Great Northern Engine Sheds vol 3 of Bradford Hammerton Street Shed. On some J50/4s the blower valve rod was higher up the boiler and supported on brackets. There are other minor variations in this area but probably key is to capture the cab shape and windows, the slope of the tank and relationship with the smokebox/boiler. The front foot steps look vulnerable! I hope it is as good as the J15 and K1, without having a prototype to refer to.

The wheels still look wrong - balance weights, crank pin between spokes and filled in.

According to the RCTS Green Book 6A (page 161) K1s were not uncommon at the southern end of the GN mainline upto about 1959. In 1953 three March engines appeared at Kings Cross 62013, 62053, 62070 working an outer suburban to Royston. In 1958 62019 of March worked the Cambridge Buffet Express. Most of the sightings were of K1s shedded north of London - not Stratford engines working across from the GE. The Green Book does not list 62054 as appearing but that is not to say it didn't, even the preserved 62005 was seen in the London area in September 1950 - it was shedded at Heaton at the time!!

Yes the wheels are wrong on the 3d printed sample - not sure what they are off. The CAD images suggest the correct wheels. Wilks

Really pleased that Hornby are to produce a J50, sorry for AJ247 who has spent time developing a 3D printed version. I already have two J50's - one DJH and one heavily modified Lima body on a scratch built chassis. See below for more information that I posted some time back on AJ247's page. The J50s were the mainstay of GN cross London freights through Farringdon to such places as Hither Green and Bricklayers Arms. I think the J50/4s were not supposed to use the widened lines as they were slightly heavier with their larger coal bunkers, but there is photographic evidence that they did traverse the widened lines.

Roy Most of them did have vacuum brakes. The J50/1, J50/2, and the J50/4 sub classes had vacuum brakes. The 38 engines of the J50/3 sub class were not vacuum fitted. Even though vacuum fitted most (except the J50/4s) were only fitted with a 3 link coupling which was not supposed to be used on passenger trains. The J50/4s had a screw link coupling. There are exceptions to this - see the RCTS Green Book and Yeadons

Nothing original in my request, all LNER/BR(E): For simplicity J6 - used on most parts of the GN system from London to east and west Yorkshire, and also used on the M&GN and across to Stafford in the west J50 - like the J6 widely used including in Scotland with 4 different sub classes N7 - used across the GE system and the London end of the GN For something larger and more complex C1 - large atlantic - one of the best looking edwardian steam engines and highly regarded by their crews V2 - a decent model - the current "blue box" model is still too wrong!! P1 - probably Gresley's best looking engine (without the booster) and for something not LNER a BR standard 84000 2-6-2tank

Will Heljan produce an O2/4 with the Great Northern tender?

AJ Your models of the N1 and J50 are excellent.The photo of Bradford Hammerton Street shed often appears in shed books and is very useful for the modeller - on shed are nearly all GN designs J50s, J6s, and N1. There is a J39? lurking at the end of the left hand road and possibly a J52 in the same road. I have modelled a couple of J50s (see attached) and found that the blower control rod didn't always pass under the plating between the boiler and the tank - you need to find a photo of the loco you want at the correct time. My J50s are Hornsey shedded engines which complement a N1, J6, J52 and two N2s The near one is 68950 J50/3 a DJH kit more a less as per the kit - with the tank boiler plating added. The head code is a freight from Ferme Park to Hither Green via the widened lines. J50/4 68989 is a more interesting pedigree - a heavily detailed Lima body, a Jackson Evans detailing kit, Gibson sprung buffers, home made injectors. The chasiss is plastic - 1.5mm poly carbonate machined to the correct depth, glued and screwed to plastic frame spacers. The chassis is compensated using MJT hornblocks. It runs on Gibson wheels but one has slipped and it needs to go into the workshop!! Can't remember what the motor and gearbox combo is but the plastic body is stuffed with lead sheet and shot!! Good luck with the J50 project.

This is very exciting news especially if Bachmann do go on to produce an LNER C1 Atlantic - I have an old Ks kit - BR Black 62822 but needs attention. What are the physical differences between an H2 and a C1 (besides the obvious ones of the cab and tender) - some have been alluded to in this thread. The H2 cylinders are bigger but what about over the cylinder wrapper? The smaller C1 cylinders would help with bogie wheel clearance!! Photos of C1 suggest that there is slightly larger clearance over the pony truck leaf spring than on the H2. It may only be 4 to 6 inches different but they do look subtlely different in this area at the bottom of the firebox/cab/footplate/pony truck spring. Can anyone confirm this.

Am I correct this the first time Tottenham Hotspur has appeared? Is it a new Hornby model renumbered. Last year I finished making a Hornby/Comet chassis'd Tottenham Hotspur with a modified Hornby B12 GE tender. The more I look at it the better the B17 looks with the GE tender. Great layout.

Following my post of the 14th December I have taken some photos of the simple modification I have made which works :

On my Hornby L1 I have fitted a small soft spring to the front pony truck to stop it from derailing. In tests carried out sofar the fiiting of the spring keeps the pony truck straight and has stopped derailments. Note I had previously tried tightening the retaining srcews and adding a small lead weight to no avail. The spring is 6mm diameter by 11mm long. I bought mine from my local model railway shop, the lady said it was from a Hornby Castle bogie spring. The spring fits between the inside faces of the pony truck. To hold the spring in place super glued a piece of plasticard (approx 1mm thick) between the sides. The bottom of the spring is then wound over the front edge of the piece of plasticard. The spring grips the plasticard, with most of it approx 7mm above the plasticard. To centralise the pony truck a small piece (1mm thick) of plasticard is glued on the underside of the footplate behind the front buffer beam, leaving a small gap behind the beam. The top of the spring locates over the piece of plasticard. This is very simple fix, requires no cutting or drilling of the body or pony truck. It is fairly unobtrusive, it may interfere with the scale coupling hook but it appears to work by applying downward pressure and centralising the pony truck. Wilks

I received my 67772 BR black L1 (early emblem) on Tuesday. Hornby have released it with 34e shed plate Neasden rather than 34a Kings' Cross as provisionally announced. 67772 went to Kings's Cross on the 30/9/1956 after having general overhaul at Darlington. Can 67772 run with the early emblem and have a 34a shed plate? I too have had problems with the front pony truck derailing through Peco code 75 curved points. I have replaced the transit bracket screws, perhaps they are not tight enough. Otherwise it is a very good model.