Martin S-C

It says the loco is "tender powered" and I agree!

Dapol made an N gauge one a while ago that had a white roof, though I am not happy about following RTR manufacturer's liveries all the time. I'll go with white though and suitably dirty it down. Thank you for the remark about the end vents. I shall carve them off. Their shape isn't solid, but a hollow deformation in the injection-moulded end so I will have to insert a blanking piece into the resulting hole.

Does anyone know what colour the roofs of GN iron gunpowder vans were when new? I'm building the Ratio kit and have no info on GN wagons. Obviously after a few months they'd be "grot" colour but prior to that...?

Phil - the Shapeways overhead isn't a problem in this case as James Train Parts group postage arrangement fixes that. The products that Corbs linked to are so far the only one I'd be sourcing via Shapeways. But yes, generally speaking I used to buy a fair number of things from Shapeways but have stopped due to the outrageous increases in postage. These days I am usually able to go to the maker direct for a far cheaper price - some of them on RMWeb. David - those do look good, though the swing system behind the headstock appears to require a fair bit of room. Of course if the NEM pocket is on the coach bogie it's no problem. With 4-wheel coaches they are obviously shorter anyway so swing less and the wagon style base of the NEM pocket has a flexible arm on it. Thanks to everyone for the input, its appreciated. I've ordered a test pack from James Train Parts and will also send off for a pack of the plain bar couplings from Yves. I've just noticed that the company Corbs linked to - James Train Parts - makes a very simple straight link: https://jamestrainparts.com/shop/couplings/oo-gauge-nem-drawbar-coach-couplings/

They look good as well. Is the attachment point the standard Y-shaped push-to-fit connection into an NEM pocket? His side-on only photo doesn't make that clear. I am more interested in functionality than appearance to be honest. These ones do look a little slender but yes, please enquire when you next get in touch with him. James Train Parts that Corbs linked to who makes the dummy functional 3-links and Instanters, are printed by Shapeways and their postal charges from EU to UK have gone crazy since Brexit but the manufacturer will do a group order where he will add your order to a block order of other customers (and for his own needs) so that deals with the higher postage costs in return for a wait of a maximum of 5 weeks. I've ordered a test set. I went through my whole stock list last night and have the potential to need up to 50 of these between coaches with tension locks on the outer ends of rakes so given that volume then 3D prints has to be the way to go in terms of cost, regardless of any other factors. Or home-made... but I'll try a few 3D printed ones first.

I would have thought that both would be fully fit for purpose. If they were not the manufacturer would find themselves having to deal with unhappy customers and modifying their design. However I think brass might be more likely to bend under a heavy load, perhaps if a heavy vehicle, such as a white metal coach derailed. We can end the discussion there. The brass components - while good looking - are well out of my price range for two dozen or more vehicles, and they require a good deal more skilled assembly (e.g. soldering) than I'm comfortable with.

Now lets not go too far the other way. I don't see that having no interest in the auctions should bar someone from poking fun at scammers, outrageous dealers and gougers. I consider this thread to be not only a very good laugh but very useful in that there are now several e-Bay sellers I won't buy from because of their dodgy reputations (all well-earned by being exposed on here). This thread serves a good purpose - it's like a Which? survey of people you should not deal with.

There is always resistance to new things. Look how many people don't like DCC! (ducks for cover)

£8 a pair (or is it £8 each?) - and there is a lot more user assembly required - a LOT more - vs under a tenner for several 3D printed items. To me there's no need to even hesitate at which choice. If I had more money I might consider the brass product but even then the 3D items are clearly better value per unit although I agree there's the fitting of NEM pocket holders under stock which doesn't have them and the fact the mock-up screw link would look a little nicer, but even so I'd have to be 1) a lot more financially better off and 2) possess possibly better modelling skills in brass to buy those. You obviously have your opinions, preferences and modelling aims and I appreciate that, but each modeller has a different set of variables at play. Given the financial constraints the batch manufacturer is working under one might ask why haven't they moved to 3D printed items as well as that is now the medium of choice for small manufacturers and brass, in some applications (not all) is outdated technology that has had its day. I need to bear in mind also that the coaches cost me £10 each, so at either £8 each or even £8 a pair those couplings are over-priced, in relative terms to me.

Very nice, in fact pretty much perfect - except as has been pointed out - for the price.

Thanks, yes, I looked at those Bachmann hoses a while ago but they hold the stock too far apart. The 4-wheelers I'm starting out on now will have been upgraded since they were built; so gas lighting and vac brakes. Although they are Oldburys and would have been used on what became the Southern (air brakes) my fantasy world doesn't take that into account - I especially wanted a 4-wheel rake that wasn't Ratio or the new Hattons or Hornbys; something that was unusual. I'll be using the fixed couplers between other coaches as well if I can find one that works and doesn't hold the vehicles too far apart. Some are kits and some don't have NEM mounts so that's another consideration. Something simple that doesn't need NEM mounts adding first would be a bonus in many cases.

Thanks Corbs, those look good and the seller makes various height adjusted ones as well. What spacing between vehicles do they give - have you a photos of them in use please? The spacers I'm in search of are for coach rakes. I always have all my goods stock as singles. A dummy screw link with an inclusive pair of dummy brake hoses would be fantastic but I don't know of any like that. My other option is to attach a simple L shaped hook on one vehicle with the end rising vertically and just drill a loose hole or short slot in the underside of the adjacent vehicle (or it's bogie). This allows the vehicles to turn relative to each other and keeps a fixed distance.

It is, yes. I think you are probably right - as are several others here. The passing station gives me the ability to pass two trains on the circuit or in and out of the terminus - but then so does the fiddle yard so I do not operationally gain very much - a little more visual action but not much more. The scissors junction appeals but again it doesn't actually gain anything and it all does stuff more track into a small space. On a very different subject does anyone know what these are? They are clearly meant to push into NEM coupler pockets but there's no where to attach a hook for the hook and loop tension lock system. I am bumbling about (again) searching for a close or permanent coupling system for set rakes of coaches that will need to allow rakes to be propelled around 24" curves and through PECO medium radius points. I am not sure where I picked these up, probably in a box of bits n pieces in a job lot of goodies on e-Bay.

Those are truly stunning. You should be rightfully proud of that work. Serious question - do you do commissions?

Ford?

I have a massive collection of Hornby (metal screw-on and plastic push-in types), Mainline (both push-in and twin spigot screw on), Airfix (super narrow) and the wider/older style Dapol couplings. A biggish pile of plastic wagon wheel sets since I pop these out at once and slip Bachman metal ones in. A good selection of the rubbish BR Mk.1 style bogies off Hornby clerestories that I replaced with 3D printed ones and a fair bundle of other things. To be honest I just can't be ar$ed to make the effort to put them up on e-Bay! If anyone is interested, drop me a PM!

Part of me wishes you'd kept that information to yourself! I do enjoy the small twiddly bits but these hinge rings (is that what they are?) were very nearly a pair of Twiddly Bits Too Far. They took two attempts; after bending the first pair to shape I clipped off the ends too short and they didn't reach the holes I'd drilled. Then I enjoyed a few minutes on my hands and knees on the carpet under the workbench looking for one of them, then there was a fair application of Anglo-Saxon language before I was done. They look okay from a couple of feet away but the close up lens is not at all forgiving.

My 'history' of the line is that the higher level line was a horse drawn tramway (which covered the Forest like spider's webs in pre-steam railway days) which served lime kilns and a stone cutting works as well as this colliery. At that time the coal was accessed by a less professional arrangement and at a higher level in the hillside. The WELR bought the tramway, or the tramway operators chose to upgrade their line to a steam hauled railway, upgraded it to a railway (though still operating under steam tram regulations) set out a passenger station as well as two halts and operated passenger trains. The main line was built a little later and did not interconnect. The connection of tramway and main line (which would have been broad gauge initially) was made later. The Forest is also pock-marked with hundreds of tiny coal mines many of which were no bigger than single shafts, wells or even open pits and worked by either one man and his family or very small assemblies of local miners. The bigger mining concerns arrived later but were prevalent by the early 1800s. With the building of the main line in about the 1850s or 60s or works associated with the change of gauge in the 1870s or 80s, the coal mine gained rail access at a lower level and became a bigger concern. However the geology of the Forest (and carboniferous geology generally) became understood a little earlier than the steam hauled railways so it was probably known there was likely to be a workable deeper coal seam under that valley slope at around, or before the 1840s/50s. Usually in the Forest the sequence went like this: 1) Small mines of local nature worked, 1400s to early/mid 1700s. 2) These, if profitable, attracted investors. Often horse tramways built at this time to carry coal west to Lydney Docks or east out of the Forest to the Wye Valley, early 1700s to mid 1800s. 3) Coming of the (broad gauge) railways, which in many cases laid lines on top of existing horse tramways and so would have been well-placed to serve existing mines, about 1850-60. 4) Railways were narrowed to standard gauge c.1870-80. This was the boom time of the biggest Forest mines and industries (coal, iron, limestone, dressed stone, tin, timber, etc). 5) Mines were worked out and slowly closed - 1910 to 1930s period. Serious flooding impacted other mines as nearby pumps of neighbouring shafts were shut down, etc. This doesn't move the discussion forwards much about where I lay my model railway track but it helps me to relate to what is in the model, where it is and why.

Phil, are you saying this proposal would work? Given the majority of the advice on here I had laid the idea aside, though I still like that junction arrangement.

Nothing to report on the next stage of the baseboards for the layout yet but in the meanwhile some more wagon modelling. Three recently kit built wagons. I realised the other day that I've got a shed load (well, a double garage load to be honest) of private owner wagons and vans and a fair few company covered vans but not many company opens. And that needs correcting since as you all know most railway wagons were opens. I painted up two ex-GW 4-plank opens for the WELR a couple of years back as well as some for other fictional railways like the Craig & Mertonford, the Aire Valley and the Madder Valley but I don't think I've got a single open wagon ready yet for the NMR, GSR or NMGS. So here's three. A 3-plank dropside Midland 8-ton; a Wheeler & Gregory 4-plank and a rather out of place North British 8-plank coal wagon. The 8-plank has a very low profile and it uses typically early narrow sheets (or planks) which makes it - to me anyway - quite characterful. All three are merchandise wagons and will carry various 'clean' loadsso will probably spend much of their time with innocuous sheets over them; or empty. The Midland 3-plank was a K's white metal kit from the Cretaceous period of railway kits and really horrible! It was a total headache to get the chassis square and running true. There's horrible lumps of metal at the internal corners and it came with no floor so I scribed up a sheet of plastic card. Even so, it has a very dodgy interior! Its only redeeming factors are its a model of an early wagon (so falls into the small and cute category) and its nice and heavy. The Wheeler & Gregory 4-plank is a nice common wagon. Its a Cambrian kit and glued together beautifully. I like the curved ends which speak to me of it being an early vehicle. The North British coal wagon was a D&S kit and much more pleasant to put together with good design and true-fitting corners. It's got an end door of typically Scottish design (see the Greenhill 4-plank open I put up a picture of a week or two back) so feels a little odd to me in Gloucestershire but I keep reassuring myself that my inspiration is John Ahern and his Madder Valley empire and since he had American box cars and Cabooses and even broad gauge engines on his model railway, I think my 'fantasy' elements are by that standard not too outrageous. I've painted them all in the basic NM&GS mid grey livery (which is close to the Midland Railway freight grey) with decals from the HMRS range as well as some rub-down lettering from POWSides (which is a massive pain in the rear end to use but is cheap and effective once it's on). They then got a light weathering after some problems with the decals were fixed and have been given a dusty dry brush to suggest light wear from non-grimy loads. I had an attempt at picking out with a very light rust effect the internal knees and door strapping on the 4-plank and at the door end of the 8-plank. 810 prior to weathering 810 weathered 833 prior to weathering 833 weathered 826 prior to weathering 826 weathered 826 weathered internal view.

The inverse of e-Bay madness is e-Bay Good Value and I thought bringing this seller to the attention of those persons here assembled was worth doing. I have been looking at some Hornby clerestories recently for chopping up and general abusing into freelance 4-wheel and 6-wheel things and have seen the early ones going for up to £25 and the later ones with asking prices of over £40. Yet here we have a pair of very nicely made (but tired and needing TLC) EM gauge kit built ones. At very good price. Of course three things scare off the "shut up and take my money" masses - needing TLC, not having Hornby couplings and being THE WRONG GAUGE! ARGH! Converting these to 00 and putting tension locks on (if that's your thing) is a less than one hour job for anyone with basic modelling skills but there's seemingly little interest in them. I like the full brake and will have a punt on that. If it stays under about £25 I think that's good value. The seller has a good few unmade coach kits on offer at good prices too. In fact his starting prices are so good its a sort of e-Bay madness of another kind. Jump in! https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/scrapbox69/m.html

In the cold weather we are having in Britain right now one would not want a wet pouch. No sir.

I don't think it would since small retaining walls were very common in the Forest due to steep sided narrow valleys. The problem is going to be the crowded nature of the tracks I think

I'm curious why you asked. I imagine its because you have a Cunning Plan that involves visualising the two as separate due to vertical separation and I'm keen to hear all possible views before I commit to a yay or nay on this.

As far as I know he is still producing them. I'll send you Mr Luce's contact details in a PM.