Bassettblowke

I am indeed a member of the HRCA and I have contacted David via email, he isn’t sure whether any are available at the moment as he is away from home and unable to check. I will be contacting him again towards the end of March once he returns to his home address.

A quick update on the decal hunt, Fox transfers do a 7mm set, not specifically Hornby reproductions but they would do the job as I am not about producing a 100% authentic replica. What’s holding me back is the price £11.80 which is only £4.20 shy of the purchase price of the tank wagon. I also tracked down the guy in Australia who has taken over the late Rob Hortons Wessex Transfers business, he is away from home and unavailable due to personal circumstances until mid March so it’s wait and see for a while yet.

I’ve never seen anything like that before maybe I need to get out more, my only oddball one is a French JEP with an illuminated H on a post, another of my impulse buys. I wonder just how many varieties of O gauge buffer stops are out there to be had. At this rate I can see myself being carted off to the home for wayward train addicts in a furniture van full of scrap train stuff. You are dead right about the platform fencing especially when you factor in the repro stuff that’s available also Merkur sell a dead ringer for the old Hornby fence. Paying more than a tenner is nonsensical and even £10 is probably to much for a piece of tat that needs work. while I am on the subject of tat here’s my own example fresh from the caustic, rinsed and awaiting a scrub with a scotchbrite pad.

My other suggestion when bending tabs is where possible use snipe nosed pliers, push the jaws onto the tab hopefully beyond the point where the original bend was made so that any fresh fold or twist occurs at a fresh point on the tab. on the subject of tabs I’ve noticed that Hornby liked to fold whereas Lionel and Marx at least judging by my US tinplate items used both twist and fold in equal measure.

I would be interested in how that pans out, one of the problems I encountered when positioning the tabs to slide through the slots was the amount of fettling required. This was probably more of an issue on the Milk Tanker than it would be on other wagons, the milk tanker has numerous slots and tabs, ten on each cradle for example and the tabs and slots both needed to be clear of paint before they would sit properly and engage. The solder may well do the job of reinforcing the tab but you may well have to either enlarge the slot or file off much of the solder to get the tab through the slot.

Three of my recent purchases, as I have mentioned before I tend to scrub around with the bottom feeders when it comes to collecting however on occasion, well actually quite frequently I come across a mint and boxed item that is to good to ignore. First up is the good,I don’t know whether this item was unpopular, overproduced or seldom used because there seems to a load of them knocking about. That said over on eBay some chancer is asking a £100 for one and will rip you off on the postage to boot. You really shouldn’t pay more than £10 for a mint and boxed example and £4 is not uncommon, this particular example was £6. It also came with the Connecting plate in its envelope, my inability to walk past these means I’ve now got at least a dozen a good excuse to add some sidings. second up is the bad, well in my book it isn’t that bad, purportedly a Bassett Lowke signal now I don’t know zilch about signalling but I do like signals so I snapped this one up as a job for another day. Finally the plug ugly a length of Hornby platform fencing with a Picasso paint job, a quick plunge into the caustic and a coat of appliance white should put this one to rights

The cradle was painted blue and refitted and the end caps to the tank, bending tabs over is always a nervy time, I normally leave the model on a radiator for an hour before I have a dabble. Normally I try to avoid bending a tab over as that is when most of my disasters strike so instead I give them a gentle twist with a pair of snipe nosed pliers and this does the same job. This isn’t always possible in confined spaces and sometimes you don’t really have an alternative to bending the tab. Anyway here’s a picture of work to date. The ladder and filler cap haven’t been secured yet pending the decals .

Funny that this should pop up I’ve only just dispatched my Hornby clockwork 101 LMS tank to the very same man. Ring him up and have a natter he’s a very nice guy with loads of hands on experience. His turnaround time is approx 6 weeks due to demand which speaks for itself.

Something else to consider would be using a hot glue gun I used one today to attach a break away buffer and so far it seems to have done the job, a little bit of give in the join so it will be flexible to a small degree, Time will tell if it’s durable or even permanent.

Love it, wouldn’t life get tedious if everything was the same, it always makes me scratch the old bonce when I see a rake of identical vans or coaches go past with identical roofs. I am on occasion very tempted to suggest painting at least one a different shade of grey or white to break up the monotony. I don’t think such a suggestion would go down well in the circles that value uniformity. On the flip side I could imagine people casting a caustic eye over my pile of tat and suggesting I smarten it up. it’s a great hobby and there is room for all, even a misfit like me at least I hope so.

I hope to see some of your tinkering’s it’s always good to see other people’s endeavours and often they form the basis for my new projects. I used to concentrate on modern tinplate but since retirement I have a lot more time to pursue the renovation side of the hobby and this is increasingly becoming the norm for me. I haven’t bought anything bright and shiny for some time now the last item bought second hand from Paul Lumsdon was a Corgi/ green Bassett Lowke liveried 7plk open which I had long hankered after to complete a set already having the Peckett, the Tank and the flat . Most old tinplate items in less than perfect condition are affordable, post war Hornby and some B/Lowke particularly so. Pre war tinplate in less than collectible condition can also be had quite cheaply if and only if it’s bought in the right place. The three tankers I recently purchased at what I thought was a fair price bearing in mind there condition, I am sure they would based on the high price of a pristine example have been touted for considerably more by other dealers. I don’t consider them a bargain just a purchase at a fair price.

I too found the description off putting and the drastic price reduction even more so. Operating in the world of tat as I do this particular trader wouldn’t be my first port of call. I would suggest that anyone requiring a handle on prices register with the various auctioneers who specialise in toy sales and look through their back catalogue of sale prices bearing in mind any additional fees. Vectis is one that springs to mind but there are others. I suspect much of the vintage stock sold by online retailers is trawled in from auction houses and promptly sold on, by dealing direct with the auctioneers you are effectively cutting out a layer of middleman. Looking at the example for sale I wouldn’t be prepared to pay more than £45 -50 and even then at that price I would be agonising over it, yes I could be tempted but on past performances would more likely walk on by as in all probability another one would be sure to crop up in better condition.

When I look at prices like that I always think of the great pile of junk I could buy for the same amount. Horses for courses but not for me.

Agreed that vintage Bassett Lowke tank is the bee’s knees dread to think how much they go for nevertheless I will be keeping my eyes peeled.

A breather now from the nuts and bolts jobs whilst I try to source the parts required to finish the task, everyone is probably aware that there are other Tinplate United Dairies tank wagons to be had here’s some pictures for comparison. The early Ace version has the brake gear fitted and is only slightly smaller than the original Hornby version, The ETS/B/Lowke version is noticeable smaller but a personal favourite the finish is top drawer. Also noticeable is the Ace version is White whilst the ETS model is Cream other differences as well in colour and fittings and transfer positioning but I like them all.

Well the final coat is on, I should make clear that it was the final coat for no other reason than the can ran dry which wasn’t altogether unexpected, one of the drawbacks to the penny pinching approach I’ve taken with this project. The finish in places has a slight orange peel effect caused at the end by the paint running dry and excess propellant entering the paint stream.One of the conclusions I’ve drawn from this is a hobby type air brush would more than likely have done a better job. The gloss paint finish not unexpectedly flagged up every minor dent and imperfection again a draw back of my penny pinching, a better prep and application of an appropriate filler like Milliput would have produced a better job. Still all said and done so far so good, I never set out to create a perfect restoration just a usable runner. the following pictures show it loosely assembled, the other major issue was how would the colour choice pan out, to be frank at the moment I am undecided. As always it depends a lot on the light, at night time under artificial light it jars my eye in day light I think it looks fine. Time will tell, I am yet to decide whether or not to give it a finishing coat of varnish and of course that may well alter the colour perception again. Next step is to acquire the decals/transfers and the missing parts sadly cart before the horse as usual. Any comments more than welcome I'm not an experienced restorer and I am more than happy to take on board criticism. Eagle eyed Hornby fans will spot the white tank supports/cradle which should be blue, these will eventually be painted blue they were left on whilst spraying the tank to make the job more stable as it tended to spin when being sprayed.

After taking the plunge and going for a random blue colour I saw little point in forking out for one of the recommended whites unless I had to. Rooting about in the old spray cans turned up a large can of appliance white and a very small can of Tamiya TS-7 Racing White. The Tamiya was my favoured choice but the can only contained a miserly 100 ml when new, what was in it now was guess work, nevertheless I took the plunge. To make the situation even more dicey I botched the first coat leaving a series of runs, these were flatted out using 1200 wet and dry paper and the next coat went on, this coat flagged up how bad white was at obliterating the grey primer (should have used a white primer) I was now at the stage where the can would only spray when held perfectly level so the level was obviously low. Next coat is the last chance saloon stay tuned for a right old mess and start again or something acceptable hopefully.

Well after that quick soirée into my dim and dismal past it was time to have a rustle in my box of rattle cans this turned up a can of blue paint that looked like it might fit the bill for the chassis and ladder and end bars. This might not be the pro restorers approach to a restoration project but it has one big redeeming virtue it doesn’t incur any cost over and above the money spent on the previous project which was an Austin Somerset Dinky toy. Initially the rusty can didn’t look that promising but it still proved up to the task. See results below.

The idea that the plant paid for by central government grants would be flogged of in an asset stripping exercise and their jobs effectively moved to Franco’s fascist Spain didn’t sit well with the work force it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say it infuriated them. Nevertheless the press rapidly came to label them as Bolshie militants out for their own ends. A substantial portion of the workforce were WWII veterans who had lived through the thirties and forties and for want of a better word could see the writing on the wall with a return to the bad old days, although I think even they would have been surprised by the catastrophe that would hit Liverpool In the eighties.

Sorry got my memories jumbled up it was in the mid 70’s to early 80’s when I worked for Fisher Bendix, Thorn and then Thorn EMI and time has taken its toll on the old grey matter. It was the Tub that was vitreous enamelled and the stainless steel drum with all the holes in it rotated inside the Tub. Fisher and Ludlow a constituent company of the old BMC made washing machines and various other domestic items such as sink units. Eventually the domestic appliance wing became Fisher Bendix, they made top quality machines introducing automatic front loaders in the fifties these needed to be bolted to the floor. We were still supplying spares for these in the late 70’s until Thorn in their wisdom elected to junk all the old spares to make room for the crap from Spain. Needless to say the great British public bought these new machines like hot cakes after all they came with a Bendix name it didn’t take long for grim reality to rear it ugly head as the Philco Ford product with a Bendix badge rapidly self destructed before there eyes. The plant at Kirkby also made Moulton Cycles a highly successful product which was flogged to Raleigh for a song and promptly discontinued in favour of their own model. Needless to say Raleighs days were also numbered along with great swathes of British Manufacturing Industry which politics aside is hardly surprising when some of the Senior management decisions are taken into account.

The stainless part is the cylinder that rotates inside the watertight drum, the drum was a heavyweight item finished in vitreous enamel. Even the weights in those days were cast iron and the drum was suspended on quality springs with automotive style shock absorbers. Once UK production ceased and they decided to stick the Bendix name on some piece of crap from Franco’s Spain the spares department was booming with truckloads of spares being trucked in every Thursday. The upside for me was continued employment in the spares dept for a further five years until the whole shebang shut up shop and was sold to Electrolux.

Your right of course strangely enough I once worked in a washing machine plant that had its own vitreous enamel plant for the tubs, nowadays they are all plastic of course and definitely not made in Kirkby, Liverpool.

The “Glass Lined” aspect has always puzzled me can anyone explain how you line the inside of a tank with glass unless of course it was a case of sealing a large glass vessel inside the tank and then sealing it up. Cleaning I would guess might involve high pressure steam I wouldn’t like to imagine some poor soul scrubbing it out by hand. I have also wondered how they fared when shunted heavily after all there isn’t much give in glass.

I will be compiling a list of wants shortly and will post the details of anything I manage to source, here’s a couple of snaps of the milk tanker after a degrease and respray with Halfords etch primer. I find this goes on quite thickly so a light dusting was the order of the day.

That would make sense the inside of the tank cylinder still had its paint firmly attached, the Colas although heavily pitted with rust is also still firmly attached in fact it survived being burnished with the Dremel with a brass wire brush attachment. Pictures to follow.