JamieR4489

Don’t you just love coincidences? I was just browsing the RailAdvent site when I saw that 35018 was going to King’s Lynn, then I realised that it was going through Ely. Great, I thought - when’s it coming through? Oh, in about ten minutes. I rushed off to the station with my dad and we could see the train sitting in a siding. Then the engine ran round, giving us all a nice view of the engine. After a long wait, the engine finally crawled out tender first and came through the station at walking pace.

Despite being distracted by 35018 British India Line unexpectedly coming through my local station today, I’ve made good progress on the brake 3rd. It was primed at the same time as the sleeper wagon and the handrail holes have been drilled. A chassis has been started; a piece of 2mm plastic makes up the floor pan and some step boards and axleboxes have been glued on which are Mike Trice 3D prints for the diag.303 but I thought it would be easier to try and fill in the gaps than try to make stepboards fro scratch. Brass will brace the joins to try to make them stronger. The w-irons have been made and one has had the bearing carriers fitted the other I’ll do tomorrow. The middle axle has temporarily been fitted to check that the chassis will go round my layout’s tightest curves. Hopefully I’ll get some more done tomorrow. Jamie

I've also been building some signals for the Ely club's layout Wickham Market. They're MSE kits and are all upper quadrant. I've done 6 with another two under construction and there will be a further two but I haven't ordered those yet and probably won't start on them until around June. Here are a few of them One of the signals currently under construction is the signal for trains coming off the Framlingham branch. To make sighting easier, the lower arm (the arms are co-acting) was mounted at an angle to the post so that when trains came around the bend the top arm could be seen from further away and then the lower arm could be seen as the train approached the main line. This probably sounds very confusing but hopefully this photo will speak a 1000 words. I've marked the arms in blue to make it a bit clearer. Here's a picture of the real thing to compare with The sleeper wagon is currently in the airing cupboard to dry before priming it (hopefully) this afternoon. I also washed the body for the GNR 6 wheel coach so I'll start scraping off the ridges from the layering process soon. Jamie

Just as a heads up, my workbench thread can now be found in a more appropriate place here: This thread has also been renamed accordingly Jamie

Although I started a thread on what goes through my workbench, it was in the modifying and detailing rtr section and as I'm building more kits now rather than modifying rtr, I thought it would be more appropriate to make a new thread here. First up, a David Green NER C8 sleeper wagon. I've built the wagon (it just needs the floor to be glued in) so I'm hoping I can get it cleaned up and painted this weekend. Couplings also need to be added. I also have a GNR 6-wheel brake third to do. It's a 3D printed body with brass w-irons. This will be started soon. As a taster, here are some other models I've made: A Graeme King resin K2 (photography by Tony Wright) A Mike Trice 6 wheel Dia.303 full brake (again the photo is by Tony) My original workbench thread included the building of the K2: Jamie

Hi Tony, Today I started on the white metal wagon you gave me. I've made good progress with just handrails, the rest of the brake gear and couplings to do. I can see from the photos that a few bits need cleaning up or re positioning so I'll get those sorted before I go any further. I don't see why this won't get finished before the Ely show so I'll bring it and show it to you then along with another GNR 6 wheel coach (hopefully). Jamie

I've seen a scratchbuilt one over on the LNER forum but I'm not sure if that was the same person.

I'm looking forward to seeing the R1; it's something you don't often see modelled which is a shame because I think its a very nice looking class. Jamie

That loco has a non streamlined corridor tender so it wouldn't be much use as 4491 anyway.

I can’t find another garter blue A4 with a streamlined corridor tender so I think you’ll have to use 4491.

Yes.

I think he’s the owner of RDEB models who make etched brass kits.

Sorry, I couldn't remember if anyone had mentioned it so I thought I would let you know. Edit - It was me who said that Mallard needed silver handrails a few posts ago - D'oh! Shows how good my memory is...

Sally Simpson - The Who

It should be noted, however, that Mallard is the only preserved A4 with silver handrails. No problem

The vacuum pipe will be pre fitted on the front of the loco but you'll need to add an air brake pipe. On the back of the tender, you'll need to add both a vacuum (included with all Hornby A4s in the detail pack) and an air brake pipe but I'm not sure you'd be able to fit either of them, let alone both, because of the coupling.

Yes. Hornby provide a vacuum pipe for the tender but, as with the front, you'd need to add an air brake pipe for Bittern, SNG and UoSA. I'm not sure you'd be able to fit those pipes if you keep the coupling on the back of the tender, though.

Detail packs for diesel locos could be a good source - these can be bought separately from eBay or Peter's Spares. One pack will often include several pipes; enough to do two ends of a diesel loco so that should do 2 A4s. I imagine that a piece of wire bent to shape, painted and glued to the front bufferbeam could also do justice.

Sorry, I didn't make it clear. As Sir Nigel, Bittern and UoSA run on the modern mainline, they have air brakes fitted because modern stock uses air brakes. A4s were originally fitted with vacuum brakes so they never had air brakes in service days. Because of this, the models that you're going to use to make SNG and UoSA (Mallard and Woodcock) need to have an air brake hose fitted to the front along with the vacuum pipe which is pre-fitted by Hornby. In this picture you can see that Bittern has two brake pipes on the front (one with a red connector and one with a yellow connector) The model of Bittern that Hornby are going to make is in preserved condition (as you know) so it should have both pipes on the front but Hornby will probably not bother to fit both pipes on as they haven't on other models of A4s in preserved condition. Here you can see that there is only one pipe fitted so this is what the models will look like straight out of the box. Sorry for the confusion, Jamie

I have a feeling that picture is taken somewhere around the West Riding. I’ll check later because I know I’ve seen that photo with a caption before.

You would need to add brake pipes for Union of South Africa and Sir Nigel Gresley as you are making them from models of locos not in preserved condition (R3737 and R2535) but as Bittern will be made from a model of it as it is preserved (R3771) they might be already added although Hornby might be lazy and leave them off. Dwight, Mallard and Dominion Of Canada don’t need the air brake pipes as they don’t run on the mainline so they have retained their original vacuum brakes (mainline stock is air braked rather than vacuum braked so that’s why Bittern, UoSA and Sir Nigel Gresley need air brakes). For renumbering, a fibre glass pencil lightly rubbed across the transfers will remove them or a cotton bud with a bit of T-cut on the end of it rubbed over the transfer will eventually remove them. There are lots of topics on here about renumbering and quite a few videos on YouTube as well.

That’s what reading the RCTS volumes and various internet sources does to you!

Yes the great gathering/ goodbye UoSA is wrong but black paint will sort that out in no time. The model of Guillemot that Hornby have done (R2494) is single chimney. Luckily I model 1938 so I don’t have to worry about warning flashes or chimneys! For UoSA there is also the commonwealth collection model (R2909) that Hornby made a few years ago although that shows the loco in its BR condition so the name plates would need to be red instead of black and the springbok plaque would need to be fitted as well as warning flashes and the tender top would need to be painted black above the beading. If you want to be really accurate, you’d also need to add the air brake hose on the front of the loco and that also applies for Bittern and Sir Nigel Gresley if you are making them from models of engines not in preserved condition (i.e. R2535 and R3737). I hope all of this is useful! Jamie

Sparrow Hawk would probably be better for Dwight as it doesn't have the electric warning flashes like Sir Ronald Matthews does. I'm not sure how I missed those two but they are far better than my suggestions. Those all sound like good donors.