Gibbo675

Hi Alfa, To which model do you refer ? Most of what is on the thread has real life provenance although there is the odd flight of fancy which I do make sure are noted as such. Gibbo.

Hi Folks, I have been fitting pantographs and roof detail to E3013 and 84 009. The pantographs are Sommerfeldt items that I bought years ago and although not quite right, with a bit of attention to the base frame work they don't look too bad. The insulators and bus bars are Jouef spare parts that I got as a joblot from eBay that I adapt to fit as the job dictates with air tanks made from Plastruct tube with the ends filled with Milliput. Both locomotives need to have a slight more work done before finish painting. AL1 E 3013. 84 009. Gibbo.

Ha ! You beat me to it. All I can add is the seats are just the best also. Gibbo.

CSA/CSV Fly ash Presflo Hoppers Hi Folks, As regulars to this thread will know I'm quite good a being distracted, I have to say this is usually because of waiting for paint to dry. My excuse, &c., &c. As I have nearly finished the ICI Presflos, (see above excuse) I decided to buy a couple more and cut and shut them into the lengthened version that were used to carry power station fly ash. There were two types, vacuum braked and air braked, they seem to be almost indistinguishable from each other and unlike the original type of Presflo the vacuum braked ones do not carry their vacuum cylinders on top of the foot plating at the ends of the chassis and are tucked away underneath. The brake gear arrangement is similar to the HAA hoppers in that two wheels are tread braked and two are disc braked except that this is a side to side arrangement and not diagonally opposite as with the HAA hoppers. An overly busy work bench. This particular wagon is almost certainly going to be a one off for it takes two kits to build the body shell and would be both an expensive and wasteful way to build wagons. The other problem being it actually ends up 3mm too long for the ribs of the Dapol are spaced too far apart by .5mm on six of the panels. The oversized panels are, should you number then across the top 1-12, panels 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 & 10. Vacuum Braked CSV shewing discharge side and tread brakes: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brflyashpresflocsv Air Braked CSA shewing disc brakes: https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brflyashcsa Gibbo.

H Folks, I have found this after looking through various books, it is from page 9 of Fowler Locomotives by Brian Haresnape: An interesting detail also on the same page is that in January 1923 the LMS inherited 10316 steam locomotives of 393 different types. Gibbo.

Hi There, I save Railmatch jar lids in case of serious sticking problems for last time I used a small pair of Stillson pipe grips to remove a stuck lid rather surprisingly it cracked. Do remember to re-label the replacement lids though ! I find that gentle tapping with the plastic coated handles of my small pliers along with the hot water and tea towel trick usually works better than Stillson grips all the same. Better still that I clean the lid and the top of the jar as also noted above. Gibbo.

Hi Michael, The boilers for the proposed Fowler 4-6-2 and 2-8-2 were to have been developed from the proposed L&Y 2-10-0 which is known to have had a round top fire box design. If you look at the weight diagram you will see that the fire box top is almost the same height as the cab roof and the dome with the step up from the diameter of the boiler barrel, therefore if you square off the top of the firebox then the shoulders of the firebox would be out of gauge if it was given a square Derby style. It would seem to me that the boiler would have looked like a Gresley boiler with a step in section between the boiler barrel and the firebox. If there were shoulders to the top of the fire box then I would suggest that they would be rounded off in a similar way to the fire box of 6399 Fury, also should you look at diagrams of the original Royal Scots, the top of the fire box is much lower in comparison for a locomotive designed to the same loading gauge and maximum height, the shoulders of the fireboxes of these locomotives was only just within the loading gauge at the front end. The shape of the later Stanier Pacifics had very much more curved profile to their side sheets following the design practice of Swindon rather than the rectilinear shapes produced by either Derby or Horwich at that time. An end elevation would be useful all the same, but then we would have nothing to talk about ! Gibbo.

Hi Bernard, The class 58 is painted as I remember seeing an image in Modern Railways from way back in either the late 1970's or early 1980's. The exprot version looks like a big class 20. Gibbo.

Hi Richard, What is not obvious from the side elevation is that the locomotive was to have had a round topped fire box, as the L&Y 2-10-0 and the LMS 2-8-2 were to have had also. The tenders, should new ones have been built, may well have been of the style that the first two Stanier Pacifics received those being full cab width and mounted on the longer Stanier type chassis but with the Fowler side profile to them. Show us the photos when you've finished ! Gibbo.

Hi Clive, There is also the Paxman engined contraption converted a Derby from a pair of LMS Period II open brake third coaches. There will be a photo of it somewhere on The Ministry of Trruth's search engine. Gibbo.

Hi There, Thanks for the above post, an informative piece and a most interesting read. What I find astounding is that the paper would have been written in Cox's own time as he would likely have been too busy when at the works. Gibbo.

Hi RA. I know from locomotive diagram books that the minimum curve for most steam locomotives is around 6 chains, some are noted as down to 4.5 chains with gauge widening although suspect 6 chain curves are not usually found on main lines. For reference a chain scales at 10.39" or 264mm in 4mm scale so a 6 chain curve should be have a radius of 62.36" or 1584mm. The curve at the centre of this map running on the south side of the triangle junction is between Meols Cop and saint Luke's in Southport and is a check railed curve with a 15 mph speed limit. You could perhaps scale the curve from the map or find a similarly check railed curve that you know of: https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=53.6479&lon=-2.9799&layers=168&right=BingHyb Railways are very straight, more so that modeling allows !!! Gibbo.

Hi Andrew, To be fair to Clive the "liveries" of his cut and shut coaches are considerably easier on the eye than what is carried by some of the contemporary Train Operating Companies. Gibbo.

Hi Mr Goldfish, Just for you here is 58 001 in a proper livery, you may note that the HAA's are in freight stock red also. Gibbo.

Hi David, About ten years ago I got to the point that the radio stations were driving me crackers with music I didn't like, repetitive adverts and inane DJ's talking twaddle, so I just turned it off. The television went to the tip five years before that and I now have peace and tranquility in my life along with the fact that it is much easier to concentrate. Should I play any music it is now of my choice and on my terms with no adverts and no idiot DJ's talking twaddle. Its not called programming for nothing !!!! Gibbo.

Hi Clive, Here is this evening's cut and shut; Among other reasons it is why my MK1's are not yet painted ! Gibbo.

Imaginary Prototype MGR Wagon Hi Folks, After buying enough HAA wagons to create a full formation of them I ended up with a couple of scrap bodies that were part of separate job-lots. One was a body and cradle with out a chassis and the other had smashed up W irons so with the bits I had I thought I might see what a bogie Variant might look like. The bogies are left overs from my initial Cartic-4 musings before I was assisted in the production of printed bogie of the correct type and the chassis is scratch built from .020" plasticard loosely based on the BAA steel carriers. I estimate that it would carry 62 tons of coal and have a tare weight of 20 tons giving an axle load of 20.5 tons. Gibbo.

Imaginary Prototype MGR Wagon Hi Folks, After buying enough HAA wagons to create a full formation of them I ended up with a couple of scrap bodies that were part of separate job-lots. One was a body and cradle with out a chassis and the other had smashed up W irons so with the bits I had I thought I might see what a bogie Variant might look like. The bogies are left overs from my initial Cartic-4 musings before I was assisted in the production of printed bogie of the correct type and the chassis is scratch built from .020" plasticard loosely based on the BAA steel carriers. I estimate that it would carry 62 tons of coal and have a tare weight of 20 tons giving an axle load of 20.5 tons. Gibbo.

Hi Folks, I decided that a quick eBay purchase might be helpful in the shape of an ICI tank wagon that carries this elusive livery. I decided to have a little paint mixing experiment and I found that BR Blue with a tiny amount of BR Std Loco Green turned out to be not too far off. I used the small amount mixed to paint the bright metal tie bars to match the tank body of the new wagon. With the remainder I painted one half of a Presflo roof and the panels between the top set of ribs to see how would look. I feel that it needs a slight more green when I come to mix a batch up. Although not too obvious in the photograph, the ICI shade seems to be how I imagined it, both darker and more green than the BR Blue which looks quite bright when placed next to it. The Presflo with the test mix of paint is on the right Gibbo.

Hi Clive, Plenty of Trix sides here: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Job-lot-of-16-x-Trix-carriage-sides-for-BR-W-mk1-coaches-OO-gauge-spares/273690208291?hash=item3fb9352823:g:SyEAAOSwmVdbmoja Here are some of my cut and shut Hornby Traing MK1's, I really ought to get them painted.......and glazed.......and fit the bogies....... BFK, BSO, BSK, BG. FO, FK, SK, CK. SO (!!!), RMB, SLEP.

Hi TS, Would coarse scale N gauge be suitable for adaption ? Gibbo.

Hi Mr Goldfish, Pictures or otherwise I note that it is all still photography. I ask, how then do we know whether or not all this 'running action' is or isn't posed, photographed and then rearranged manually and then re-photographed in a its new position ? Perhaps we need video evidence of actual running. This post could seriously effect Clive's dopamine levels ! Gibbo.

Hi Folks, All of the above is indeed accurately described. All I may add is that any photos of trains with two of the early AC Electrics at its head would either be a double headed working with a driver in each locomotive or that one locomotive is failed and that the other is assisting. The clue when looking at photographs is whether or not both pantographs are in the up position. Gibbo.

Hi Clive, It matters a lot if you like a release of easy dopamine to brighten your life along with the unfortunate side effect that you may become addicted to social media sites such as RMWeb with out realising the reason why. I deliberately did not press the agree button as I would not wish to cause you to have any sort of chemical imbalance affecting your brains's functioning capacity or for you to suffer any sort of neurosis should you not get any sort of response depriving you of your dopamine hit. Tricky one. Gibbo. PS, I need to get out more !!!!

Hi Kieth, Tungsten carbide cutting tips used for machine tools make excellent weights for models especially if you are on friendly terms with a machine shop that will let you have their worn tips for free. Similar density to gold but rather cheaper by weight ! Gibbo.