TangoOscarMike

How time flies when you're procrastinating! I haven't actually made anything yet, or even designed anything. But I did buy a Peco coach in order to get a better idea of sizes. I wasn't especially surprised to find that the Parkside/Dundas coach really is a bit on the small side (but not so much that it looks out-of-scale). The N-gauge chassis is barely longer than the Peco coach, so perhaps it will be fine to put two compartments on it, instead of two-and-a-half.

I hit a procrastination snag, as follows: I decided to make a roof. To match the original roof, I chose to use 1.5mm plasticard. You can't bend this thick stuff round a form and apply heat - it's too stiff. I had to: Put it in the oven, resting flat on the curved form. Put a piece of thin card over it, weighed down so that when the heat softened the plastic it would be forced down over the form. The form was a bottle (I poured out the dregs of the nasty plum liquor that came in it) with a few layers of thin card on top, to increase the diameter. This caper required several iterations, adding layers of card to the bottle until I was happy with the diameter (heating and cooling every time). But in the end I wasn't happy with the diameter - it's a little too big. After all the effort I was loath to start again, and unsure of how to proceed. So I did nothing. Last week I picked it up again and decided to attach the roof. It'll do for now, and if it starts to annoy me I can always make another. So here it is: Those end pieces are a snug fit, and they keep it in place pretty well. I might add a magnet, as per some of Nile's coaches. If I shelve the lighting part of the plan, then I have only to add the rainstrips, ventilators and lamps. It might be done by Christmas!

This picture interests me. I've been using my Parkside coach kits as a size reference for my tentative plans, but with a strong suspicion that they're a bit on the small side. I've just acquired one of these Peco brake coaches (a green one with buffers), and indeed it makes the Parkside coach look rather titchy. Not necessarily out-of-scale, but definitely a bit cramped for the poor passengers.

Good! I haven't tried Fox transfers, but I expect that they will give a better result than my convoluted home-printed approach!

To me It looks exactly like messing about, but since you're a learned cove I shall accept your assurance!

Since I'm not at work, I shall!

Thank you! I'd be delighted if Hornby did that. I'd also be happy to contribute to their design - this isn't my livelihood.

Thank you for posting pictures! I'm glad to see a superior coupling type in use - did it just plug into the tender with no fuss? If you choose to go down the waterslide transfer route (for lining etc.), I'd be happy to help you get a printed colour match for the Indian red. Cheers Tom

I like what you've done. Have you considered adding steps / running-boards (I'm not too sure about the correct terminology)?

Thanks Gibbo Yes. I'm still tinkering with the design of the bogie. I can't help myself, for some reason. The latest version has slightly thicker (stronger) arms for the NEM pocket support. It also has sockets for top hat wheel bearings instead of built in bearings (although the plastic is very hard, so I'm not sure if this will make much difference). @hayfield- on the strength of this topic I'll get this moving again. Let me know if you're interested and I'll make it a priority. Cheers Tom

With those dimensions, maybe it doesn't need to swivel. Consider the 0-6-0s, that have much longer wheel bases without any side-play. I suggest you put the original 0-4-0 on a curved piece of track, and turn it left and right about a vertical axis. The amount of movement you get should give you a clue as to how much swivel you need - maybe none.

I've mentioned it in my own thread, but let me give a quick description of my painting technique, for those who wish to reproduce Hornby's GWR style, but with a different livery. By "Hornby's style", I mean: Contrasting colours in the panels. The beading picked out in gold. So this doesn't apply to single-colour or contrasting-colour-from-the-waist-up liveries, like the two pictures above. With the roof/glazing and chassis removed (obviously) I do the following: Prime the whole body with a grey spray can. Paint the main body colour with many coats of very thin paint. Paint the panels with many coats of very thin paint. Apply masking tape inside the panels and on the large flat area below the windows. Dry-brush the lining (repeatedly) with gold. Remove the masking tape and paint over any stray gold paint with (again) a very thin coat of the orignal colour. I use hobby acrylics, thinning as I go (on a palette) with tap water. I have a little pot of water with a drop of washing-up liquid and an ice cube in it (keeping it cold seems to slow the drying). The point is that my hands aren't steady enough to paint up to the edge of the beading, but if the paint is runny enough then it will flow naturally to where it's wanted. So you don't need much skill for this, just patience! Next time I will try dry-brushing the beading with ochre before the gold, since the gold paint is rather translucent.

Ahh, but I'm aiming for a 1:1 scale model of the model railway that I wanted when I was ten, way back in the twentieth century. So for my purposes they are completely historically accurate! But maybe this counts as preservation, rather than modelling. Since they are so good for beginners to chop up and experiment with, it's a pity that the overall dimensions are so off. Although of course, improving the dimensions can be one of the results of the chopping and experimenting. Several helpful people have posted guidelines for this. The beading, hugeous though it is (something like a scale inch square in cross section) is a positive asset for people (like me) who are trying to get to grips with painting. My first attempt at painting a Ratio 4-wheeler was...... inauspicious, let's say. But still and all, perhaps the world would be a much much better place if Hornby had attended closely to the Triang clerestories when they designed their imaginary 4-wheelers.

It's the only way to achieve the necessary precision!

When I was little I thought it would be marvellous to see steam engines running on those rails. And actually I still do. Paul, do you know anything about the working of this railway? I have a book (the book?) about the castle, but I can't put my hand on it, and I don't recall that it goes into much detail on this particular point. I have always supposed that supplies and munitions were pulled by muscle power - beasts or men. Steam (I imagine) would be neither inappropriate nor anachronistic, but maybe more trouble than it was worth. And diesel perhaps would be anachronistic, belonging to an era in which the castle's military significance was waning.

There is only one answer to this sort of question: Absolutely - go ahead, make it and post pictures! Cheers Tom

I'm aiming for "Freelance Edwardian", which means "brightly coloured toy trains". If I'm modelling an imaginary pre-grouping railway in the West Country, then I can also put GWR bits and pieces (such as my Hornby 4-4-0 County) on the rails. And that locomotive will be suitable for pulling this 6-wheeled coach. Obviously (it's obvious to me, anyway!) a railway like this will need a cylindrical signal box, like a truncated lighthouse. I'm also nursing the giddy idea of imagining that the GWR Broad Gauge had survived into the 20th century. I could have some dual-gauge track, and imaginary locomotives which (unlike the real broad gauge) would have kept up with advances in technology. But right now I'm just pottering away with a paintbrush on the living room table!

Dear all With help and advice from LNWR18901910, I've added an inside cylinder version of this tender engine to my shop. And I've updated the first post of this thread accordingly. I hope you like it!

It already looks good to me - I know what you're up against when you work with "White Strong and Flexible". Did you simply make conical recesses for the ends of the axles, or are there sockets for metal bearings?

Alas, no layout yet. I sometimes clip the track together on the living room floor, as I did nearly 40 years ago. Plenty of ideas for a layout, though.... Sooner or later I'll probably make a testbed that doubles as a minimalist layout.

Exactly. The moving parts are from the Brassmasters kit. The rest of the chassis is soldered together from pieces of brass (now that I'm a grown-up, I can go to the model shop and buy brass whenever I want (except during lockdown)). This project is just over a year old now. Dear me.

I think we need to see the after-prosecco lining pictures for comparison. How are you doing it? You mentioned a marker pen in an earlier post. This looks to me as though you might have used carefully applied masking tape.....

I've used one of the Dapol figures in this way, as shown here. He's the one on the far left in this picture. With a bit more effort I could have had him leaning out a bit more. Some of the other poses in this set have a bit of a lean to them, and might be suitable. I love the model (the previous owner's work and yours). Freehand lettering of that standard is not commonplace.

Towards the right hand side there are creases in the backscene. There's no denying it. But over on the left, with the hills, I'm finding the backscene weirdly compelling. I know it's not real, but part of my brain is insisting that the foreground is blended seamlessly with the background. Well done!

Aye, that's because the Hornby 4 wheel coach sits far too high compared to everything else! I still organise half my modelling around those coaches though, because I like them!