JamieR4489

What ‘e said

I agree the livery and decoration is nice but the flanges are far too big to fit through even my generous code 100 track and it irks me to see them jumping over the frogs and checkrails. The 4P, Schools and B17 will probably stay untouched and will only be run very occasionally. The Terrier, interestingly, is fine despite the flanges looking quite large. The 4P and N2 have the worst wheels and I'm hoping Hornby ones will be drop-in replacements on the latter.

+1 for Finsbury Park. I’d have loved to see Gresley pacifics and Deltics getting into their stride.

Thanks Tony, I’d noticed most of those faults, only the ejector pipe’s position had passed me by. I hope to rebuild the engine one day although as it’s not suitable for my main time period (summer 1938), it’s not anywhere near the top of the roundtuit pile. Regards, Jamie

Thanks Jesse but I think you’ll surpass me in terms of quality, even if I overtake in quantity Great work as always. I’m looking forward to seeing your P1 finished. Jamie

Well I hope this post shows that at least one young modeller is prepared to actually make something. This is one of Mike Trice's new V2 bodies and it'll go on an updated Bachmann chassis. Inspired by Graeme King's cut'n'shuts of Margate teaks a few years ago, I've started a pair of my own. This will be a D25 TK... ...and this will be a D149 BFK. Neither of these will be perfect models of the real carriages, but it's a quicker and cheaper way of getting more coaches than building full metal kits (I do have some to build in the future). On a different note, this may be of interest to Tony: It's a DJH kit and it's been glued together (not by me!). The paint finish is quite nice so I'm tempted to leave the bodies alone but I'd like to rebuild the chassis as it's got a tight spot and the valve gear sometimes catches (plus the Portescap whines). I've tweaked the motion with pliers and a soldering iron but it really needs a full rebuild to sort it out. I know the model isn't entirely accurate (60147 was named after GWR green had been applied and the chimney should be plain for this livery) so I may try to make the necessary modifications. Regards, Jamie

I'd like to say I've actually finished something but I keep getting distracted by new projects. I've flattened the underframe of the RF and I'll scratchbuild the necessary details. When Mike Trice contacted my to say that my 3D printed V2 body from his new kit would be on it's way, I lost motivation with coaches and set to building the V2. The body wasn't designed to fit the updated Bachmann chassis (which I have) and Mike asked me if I was OK with modifying a body designed for the split-chassis. I gave him my feedback and he very generously sent me a second, revised body FOC. I've detailed the second body and sprayed it black. The next step will be the apple green. The camera has made the finish look a lot worse than it appears to the eye. This will be 4774 of New England because I wanted a Doncaster built one; the green cylinders look horrible. The other will be a Darlington built engine but I'll have to find one with a low fronted tender as I've got one spare. I was given my late great uncle's model railway collection last weekend so I've also been fixing some of those items and making good use of them. AFAIK, my great uncle never ran the models so most were in pretty good condition. This stood out the most to me. It's a DJH A1 and while nicely built and painted it's been glued together and suffers from Portescape whine. I've no idea who built it as my great uncle bought it in this condition. I've tinkered with it as the tender was very draggy. The axles were running in holes drilled in the whitemetal frames and the frames weren't quite lined up so the chassis was a parallelogram. I broke one of the frames off, fitted bearings and filed the casting so that the frame now has 90 degree angles in each corner. At some stage I'd like to at least rebuild the chassis, soldering it together. This Hornby Railroad Flying Scotsman will be detailed and converted in to a RHD A3, most likely Harvester. I'll repaint and rewheel this Airfix N2 so that I can use it as 1744 as preserved on my model of Weybourne station. We were quite surprised to see that this B17 had been left as Manchester United as my great uncle came from Tottenham and was a lifelong Spurs fan. I may renumber/rename it but I'll have to do it as the original Tottenham Hotspur (which became a B17/5) as the second one had a GER tender. I've no idea what I'll do with this terrier, although as 662 is preserved at Bressingham, it wouldn't be unrealistic to run it on Weybourne. My great uncle was fond of schools classes and had a gauge 1 live steam version so I won't touch this. Saying that, I did have to fix the tender drive. The gear attached to the armature was slipping so I degreased it and superglued it on. Again, no idea what I'll do with this, although I've always fancied a Metropolitan G class 97 Brill in Met livery and the chassis is pretty close so I may find a use for it. Those wheels will have to go, however. Along with the locos there was a Hornby van that was based on a H&B type and I've got several others so hopefully one day I'll be able to make a fish train with them. There was also a pair of shorty teaks and I've already put one to good use, inspired by the cut'n'shuts that Graeme King did a few years ago. This is a 52'6" TK to diagram 25, made from a composite and a brake composite (which I'd given a brown wash years ago to try to improve the teak finish). From the other half of each carriage and a little bit of plasticard I've made a 61'6" D149 (IIRC) BFK for use in my Scarborough Flier set. I've made an attempt to inset the brake portion. I've done it to scale which means moving the brake portion in by 1mm on each side. I don't know how noticeable this will be so it may be a case of having to model it overscale to make it worthwhile. At least I know it's there. And yes I did muck up the roof dimensions. Filler is my friend here. I'm hoping these will be a quick project (although I said that about a Parkside grain wagon which I still haven't finished nearly two months later- I've got the bits to finish it, but not the motivation) as all of this has taken 24 hours to achieve. Next I'll shorten/lengthen the underframes and then it'll be the fun job of modify the beading to fill gaps or make gaps for doors. Jamie

Doesn't Mark Allat have all the A1/3s as they were on 3.7.1938 (just to pick a date at random)? For this poll I'll go for North Woolwich as well, purely for the motive power.

King’s Cross for me as well. Purely because of the memories I have of going to London by train when I was younger and the history of the station.

This was a hard one. There isn’t anywhere that really stands out for me but I’ll go for Cromer High. It looks like it could make an interesting model and the motive power would be quite appealing.

Stamford East for me as well

Framlingham but only because the club I belong to is going to model it.

I’ll go for Alnwick as well

Windermere gets my vote

Banff for me as well

Keighley. Even if I can only vote for the KWVR platforms.

Yarmouth Vauxhall.

Scarborough for me as well

King’s Lynn

King’s Cross for me purely because of childhood memories of the excitement of going to London for the day. Emerging from gasworks tunnel into the station was always a special moment.

I’ve tried to mark the changes on the following photos to show exactly where I’m talking about. From the middle splasher to the front of the firebox, I had to widen the slot by only a little bit (I would guess about 1mm). The front corners of the firebox needed a little but of filing and you can see the scuff marks on the bit of the chassis that was rubbing. I had to thin the draw beam so that it’s now around 1.1mm thick. I cut a slot for the coupling as I’ll retain the Bachmann one but this isn’t strictly necessary. The back head at source was too tall and slightly too wide. The width would probably just about be OK but I didn’t want to force it as I know the resin is fragile. I think the height needs to come off of the bottom because otherwise you lose the gauges. I filed material off the top simply because it would be quicker and it won’t show. As mentioned previously, I had to trim the bottom of the back head to clear the pony truck screw (you can see the screw in the next photo) I also took a bit of material off the chassis as I was worried I would weaken the drawbeam fatally. The front frames had to be trimmed so that it’s 19mm from the front of the buffer beam to the back of the frames. I can see on the body that the frames were longer on the body when used with the split chassis. Ignore the triangular notches at the top. I was a bit heavy handed with the file. Anything else, just ask and I’ll try and provide measurements. HTH, Jamie

My body arrived this morning and was assembled in about 10 minutes. It couldn’t be simpler. The main point of this post was because Mike had asked me to be a guinea pig for using the body on the later Bachmann chassis. In short, it requires a lot of work to fit properly. The main modification was to make the gap under the boiler considerably wider, especially from the middle splasher forward. The front frames on the body had to be trimmed to allow the hook on the chassis to engage with the slot in the body and the drag beam had to be thinned considerably. There was a bar running below the footplate parallel to the drag beam that had to be snipped and filed off. The cab back head required a lot of filing to get it to fit in the cab and required the bottom to be trimmed to clear the screw for the rear pony truck. The front of the firebox required a little bit of thinning and in some cases I pared away some of the plastic from the chassis above and in front of the motor. This may sound very damning but the body shape is excellent and most of these issues only apply if the later Bachmann chassis (which Mike hadn’t planned for) is used. It’s a huge improvement on the Bachmann one and I’d highly recommend these but be warned that they could require quite a bit of filing. Although the body is much better than other 3D prints that I’ve seen, there are still a few ridges but I’m sure they can be cleaned off fairly easily with a fibre glass pencil. The body is quite hard to photograph at the moment so I’ll try and get some better pictures once it’s been painted or with a black background. Hopefully in the last two photos you can see the (minimal) ridging Jamie

In my opinion, a K3 should have been preserved. I think of them as the LNER’s Black 5s and seeing as there are 18 5s in preservation, a K3 would be a useful addition.

Don’t be silly! He obviously regauged clockwork models! (clockwork P4 - how’s that for juxtaposition?!)

Thanks Al, I’ve got a minimum radius of 2’ but on the scenic section it’s a little bit wider than that and there’s certainly no dead straight track. To me, straight track with tight curves at each end shouts ‘train set’. Jamie