JamieR4489

I’m very tempted by the garter blue version but it’s a shame that Hornby have done it in immediately post rebuilding guise, with the larger fairings over the tender. I imagine more LNER modellers would choose to model 1938 rather than 1937 as there would be more A4s around. The fairings were cut back or removed in early 1938. I suppose one could alter the fairings themselves or buy an A4 tender.

I think the standard running-in route was Doncaster to Grantham or possibly Peterborough and back. There's a photo of Mallard in 1938 at Askham Tunnel hauling a train with a 6 wheel D.303 full brake at the front. The 1:40 King's Cross to York, Scarborough, Ripon and Bridlington had a 6 wheel full brake at the front to carry linen for York. It's very possible that this would've been hauled by an A4, if not it would have been an A1/A3 or a C1. In the '30s the 3:30 Peterborough to Grantham was always hauled by a Grantham pacific as a balancing turn to get the engine home. This would sometimes have at least one 6 wheeler.

I think the cab and boiler fittings are slightly lower on Tornado to fit the national loading gauge. No doubt LNER4479 will be able to give us chapter and verse on how Tornado differs to the original A1s.

Hornby R1072 Flying Scotsman set for my 5th birthday. The carriages still form the backbone of my expresses, however the loco has seen less and less use since I got a super detail A1 and realised just how poor the old tooling looks, especially the tender. That said, I did replace the gears earlier in the year after they'd split so that I can continue to use it. A Hornby 0-4-0 in Highland Railway livery and some wagons were bought with birthday money at the same time. My first 'proper' (super detail) loco was a Hornby R2339 Mallard for Christmas of (I think) the same year.

... and that 61338 is a B1, not a Southern mogul...

Thanks for the tip-off about the plans. I need to try and get some of Coster’s books at some point. Regards, Jamie

Hi Sam, It was actually your thread that introduced me to Tuxford North. I’d never heard of it before but when I started looking at photos I thought ‘yeah that’s do-able’. Photos would be great, thanks. I’m struggling to find decent ones from the right era. Regards, Jamie

I feel like I ought to go for Tuxford as I’m modelling it but I’ll vote for Newark. There would be much more to see there and if I had the space, I’d model it.

A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles

Welwyn North for me

Yes to the first and last of those but the one that really irritates me is when ‘the’ is put in front of the locomotive’s name. The most common one is ‘the Flying Scotsman’ when referring to 4472. I think the trend of using ‘the’ for locomotives probably originates from confusion between Flying Scotsman and The Flying Scotsman.

T-Cut removed the factory weathering on my Black 5 and gave it a very pleasing shine, although compared to that 14XX, the weathering was quite light. I think microsol was suggested to me by someone as well.

The first of my Trice V2s is finished. It's the Bachmann version on the updated chassis. My phone makes the engine and tender look completely different colours but it isn't nearly so noticeable to the eye (the tender still has the original Bachmann paint). Jamie

I've been working on the V2 this weekend and it's finished for now. I say 'for now' because it still needs the wheels lining but I need to get some enamel black and white to do that. The colour is completely home-brewed and I don't think I'll be using this approach again. In future I'll go for railmatch or precision. The engine and tender initially looked completely different colours but a coat of satin varnish and a very thin light grey wash on the tender brought it to near as dammit the same colour as the engine. It's as good as it'll get without a full repaint so I'm happy with it. This is my first attempt at painting and lining a green engine and I'm rather pleased with how the lining has turned out. It's HMRS pressfix, as per usual, with the washout plugs brush painted. My phone makes the loco and tender look different colours but it's much less noticeable to the eye. I'm not sure if the mudhole doors should be black or green so I've left them green for now. I'll consult colour photos later. Overall, I'm very impressed with the V2 body. Like all 3D prints, it needs some work to smooth off the ridges (although I found a few places in this print where it looked like it had sagged and needed some filler to smooth it). The other body I've got will likely become 4792 so I'll need to source a high fronted tender body. Jamie

This week I ‘ave mostly been...

I was on that tour, a lovely day out. Yes R2535 would be the best match. Although 60009’s tender is from the W1 I think when it was partially streamlined in 1937 it was modified so that it’s identical to an A4’s tender. The only difference AFAIK was that the tender had holes drilled in the buffer beam so that the instruments in the dynamometer car could be connected to the cab. I think the springbok was always just on one side.

What era are you going for? For the BR era, 60009 had a streamlined corridor tender until 1963 when it got a non streamlined corridor type. In 1966, it got another non streamlined corridor and this is what it tows now. The double chimney was fitted in 1958. So your options are: 1949-52: I can't find a BR blue model with the right tender 1952-58: R2825 Commonwealth of Australia 1958-63: R2340 Golden Plover (would need OHLE flashes removing for pre 1961) 1963-present: R2535 Woodcock

Weybourne for me as well.

I think if you panned the camera to the left a bit so that the sign is a bit more central it would work nicely.

I think 60028 was a very common A4 down south so he's probably more likely to have shouted 'Scrap it!' The loco is carrying a reversed headboard so it's possible that the photo was taken on a Sunday when the Elizabethan stock was used in normal trains and the headboard kept on the loco to save losing it. I don't know if the Elizabethan was still all Thompson stock after 1961 (the OHLE warnings on 60028 date it) but if it was, it could be the Flying Scotsman stock.

Yellow Submarine - The Beatles (Sorry but someone had to!)

Definitely the top one for me.

Thanks 4479, The only track plans I have are the ones on the national maps of Scotland website. Beyond the bridge, the two goods yard roads converge and then cross over a double junction into Dukeries Junction goods yard as shown in the first photo here. Jamie

Blimey! Nearly 2 months since I updated this. All of the wiring is finished (hurrah!) and I've just been enjoying running trains and sorting any niggles out. A few bits of track have needed packing underneath or to be lowered a little bit but I'm pretty happy with it all now. Since about April, I've been researching some of the trains I'll want to run, in particular passenger trains. I wanted to run accurate formations, hauled by a loco from the correct shed, so rather than picking a train and then trying to find out which shed(s) it was allocated to, I've looked at pictures of pacifics and worked out what the formation is. So far, I've picked out about 10 expresses. Completely by chance, I've managed to pick the same set of coaches going both ways about 5 times. So for example, I first picked the 0900 Ripon, Leeds and Bradford to King's Cross (a Doncaster duty) and then picked the 1756 King's Cross to Halifax, Leeds and Harrogate (there was a Bradford portion as well but I don't have space for that) and only after examining the carriage working notes did I realise that it was the same set of coaches going each way. I've tried to get an even mix of West Riding, Newcastle and Scotch expresses. Every train will be made of loose stock because I'd need getting on for 70 coaches if I were to have fixed sets and this has almost halved the number of carriages I'll need and I already have about half of that number. I've reused coaches where it's reasonable to, e.g. I'll use a D10C restaurant first instead of a D144. This also saves on carriages. For some of the goods trains I'll also be cheating. The Scotch Goods and the pickup goods will get combined a few times so that I can make a class B goods and some sets will get used several times as generic class B goods or fish/meat trains. Today I've been looking at signals and the good news is that there aren't that many to build. The bad news is that they will all have to be GNR somersaults . I'll need lessons from that Grantham fellow, methinks. Most of the signals are pretty obvious as they're marked on maps or obvious on photos but there are a few that I think should be there but I can't find any evidence of. Hopefully some of the signalling experts will be able to help. In this photo, I can see a ground signal just in front of the double slip, between the two goods yard roads. Would this control the exit of trains from the yard from the track next to the mainline or the the track to the left of the signal? Presumably there would have to be another ground signal to allow trains to leave from whichever track the aforementioned signal doesn't control? In the 30s there was a track coming out of the goods yard that connected to the up main, which as you can see in the photo was taken up. Would there be a ground signal to allow up trains to access the main? In this photo, which tracks do the two shunt arms control? Is it that top to bottom on the signal equals left to right on the track? I.e., would the top arm mean straight ahead at the double slip, coming from the headshunt in the bottom right of the photo? At the start of August I had a play around with my camera, finally working out how to use it properly on manual mode so here are some of my efforts. The polystyrene is just to give an idea of what the cutting will look like. Jamie

A surge in enthusiasm has seen several projects cleared off the bench. The Parkside private owner grain wagon has been finished. It's unlikely that C.J.Hempsall & Sons had a wagon but it's something a bit different and it gives me another wagon for my pickup goods. The transfers are home made, based off a sign painted on the side of a malthouse in Tuxford. I went on holiday for a week and to keep me busy, I took two more wagon kits. A Parkside fitted van (I forget the diagram but it's kit PC61) and a Cambrian unfitted 6 plank open. This is the first Cambrian kit I've built and I'm impressed by the quality of the mouldings. They've been built on each others' underframes as I wanted an unfitted van for my pickup goods and an open for the Scotch goods. The tarpaulin on the open is from Smiths; another first for me. The TK is also finished now. I'm very pleased with the teak as it fits in well with other stock I've got but it took a few attempts so I'm not sure how easy it will be to replicate the colour on other carriages. This is also my first attempt at using a bow pen I bought off eBay very cheaply. I think the pen needs to be honed a bit more. It looks like the previous owner tried to hone it but it doesn't sit perpendicular to the surface you're lining. I'm left handed but if I try the pen in my right hand it feels a bit better so perhaps the pen was right for the previous owner. I'll consult the videos Mike Trice has made on the subject. I've gone for a recently out-shopped carriage, hence the light grey roof. I've seen a few pictures where it's obvious that the cleaning staff could only reach up to the rainstrip so I've deliberately kept that area a bit cleaner. The V2 is currently being painted apple green but I'm not entirely sure on the colour so I may strip it off again. The joys of trying to match a loco to a Bachmann tender. If necessary, I'll just repaint the tender as well. Jamie