bruce palmer

just picked this thread up ! Yes I do virtually everthing to make up repros of the Leeds Model co wooden rolling stock and overlays . My friend David Peacock of the Leeds Stedman trust does plenty of bits too . Re tinplate ...built moderatly carefully and varnished ditto , they look just like and certainly have fooled other coarse scale people ! The bogie tanker is actually a Mills and includes cast Mills bogies . Also a carriage truck and gas and tar wagons .... Ive just built a 5 car Leeds Brighton Belle which looks fantastic . Runs on various BL bogies acquired out of junk boxes over the years . It will probably get a Merkur motor bogie .As a guide the bodies , ready made , are £30..Ive got one in stock .overlays a couple of quid for laser copies . Must get on building those Highfield kits stashed away .... Bruce

Yes , Ive got one of these although it was got at ...converted to british coarse scale wheels. It ended up being repowered with an X04 as there is so little space in the boiler , I guess the original was a pancake type . Its quite small ..1/48 Id guess but runs fine albeit slowly . Nice to have as I managed a footplate run on the real preserved loco , between Venice and Triest ..1981. Bruce

Yes Id reccomend David Peacock ...BUT I do some things David dosnt , like replica wooden bodyshells , older type bogies ,some castings ,truss rods and repro overlays .Its very much a joint effort ! David will also fix locos ....I dont . But my catalogues are available via email ..Im afraid I dont have a website . bpalmer498@btinternet.com Bruce

Having seen the beast ,Marks E1 is a great little loco ..looks *right * . Would be we got Merkur to make one instead of thier abortive home grown , and awful ,Terrier ..which was actually much the same size . As always a wondeful collection , and knowing Mark , everything runs ! Bruce

Nowt wrong with a Ford Popular ..I spent my later youth being bounced around in ours ...Still got it after taking it to meets for 30 years ..but off the road at the moment . Re yard cranes , ive created a nevawazza version from the Hornby Dublo version fitted to the underframe of a later French Hornby 0 Boxvan . Looks the business and it appears in one of Richards NARROG newsletters . I bought the crane by itself out of the junk box at the TRIX collectors meet in Sussex for a song ...Hornby being *off topic * of course . Currently considering the Trix crane on a scrap chassis ....maybe old Bing......Bruce

A late reply to the bogie tanker thread ...we do a repro of the Mills version ...the lot ....and very impressive it looks too .Ive only built the ..rarer ..short version as the other is too big for my layout .One still in the stock box I think ! Bruce

Fascinating stuff ....I ought to know the answers to it ,as I worked in the MMB Movements dept 1972 to 1994 and was the person who sold the last Milk Tankers for scrap . Im researching a dairy layout for my coarse scale 0 gauge layout . The trouble is that it was a long time ago and memories are fuzzy ! Bruce

....thats basic modelling ! A nice Leeds wooden coach is the next stage ...in my case down a very slippery slope to a house full of the things ! With all the lockdown in the UK its nice to be able to forget it all and run trains . At the moment a 20 wagon one of Leeds goods wagons,althogh the 1920s/30s ethos of tinplate prewar Hornby rails as well is rather spolit by it being hauled by a brand new WJV/ETS J94 0 6 0T.......... Bruce

Horrified by that block of wood ...just been building my own repro leeds coaches on the dining table .Then someone comes along and orders some ! Some of the old stuff can get twisted ..Hornby metal you can unbend but the wooden rolling stock is a reminder why I use Hornby plastic wheels with deep flanges as standard to compensate .Restored two 4 wheel coaches like that ..based on very old bodies and new lithos . Bruce

Re the prewar BL wagons ...great as far as Im concerned . Nearholmer, I think I have a bag of those autocouplers some where if you need some . Bruce

Re Hornby tender wheels ...of course they are available ..one Chris Ford of Rugby UK does them in white metal , turned . They work very well ...how can the rest of us forget him ? Hes listed in the UIK HRCA spares Directory but do you want his contact details ? Bruce

Not sure how to take that ! But the thread has thrown up even more interesting topics . latest lockdown project on Tuesday was sandblasting rusty tinplate track out of the junk box . Even then is a dirty tedious job .However once cleaned up and varnished the result can be quite encouraging. As well as grotty pre war Hornby there were Munro pieces ..Australia 1950s ..which are flat sleepered copies . How these appeared in a junk box at a 16mm group meet I cant think ....the rest of the stuff was Marklin etc so I suspect they came over to the UK 60 years ago at least . Anyway they are going to form the Dairy siding . Bruce

Getting up to date on this thread ..and this time Milk by Rail ...well I spent my career in what you would call *logistics planning * with the Milk Marketing Board ....I was the person who sold the last milk trains for scrap ! So its an interest of mine ..I'm just laying sidings on my layout to accommodate the Dairy from the *Sherwood Section * I was given . Buckingham Dairy was Nestles I think ..and was still marked on our maps although manufacture must have ceased a long time ago . it was used as a bulking up depot for the remaining churn supplies , that finished in 1979..that was one of my projects too ! The condensed milk side of Nestles moved to Ashbourne in an equally old factory ...it borehole is where *Ashbourne Water * comes from . Bruce

Re Kevin's Southern Brake van ....the source is a Leeds Repro we make . You don't see many of them as the original Leeds lithos were lost in the factory fire in 1930 and never reprinted so flat unused sheets to copy arnt available . By chance we found unused bits from 3 different sources so could copy a complete set ...an original was borrowed as a master to make the assembled bodies and all the rest is standard Leeds fittings other than the special roof with an offset chimney . Anyone fancies building one ..and the body comes ready assembled , get in touch bpalmer498@btinternet.com Bruce

The red one is identical to those I have . Bruce

looks good ...but not quite the same as the ones i remember from my childhood ...unlike the Dinkies and the Hornby M1 set these have not survived in my possession until the present day . However they continued to be available in plastic and I picked up a couple at Sandown ..a quick spray of Wilkinsons enamel primer over the awful yellow plastic and they form a nice load for the *Chillwell * wagons . Those of you who get to NAROGG will have seen them . Bruce

Good to see the photos from NAROGG ...the Parley loco is for sale on behalf of Alan Cliff from me . The provisos are that it must go to someone who understands what it is and will cherish it ..not put it on eBay or in the next Auction . The other thing is that the original clockwork ...Marklin ..mech is long gone and it currently has a full length chassis very much in the modern scale style unfortunately , although still 3 rail with a can motor ,Fitting with a contemporary ..1919,Ive been told ..Marklin electric mech might be an interesting project . not sure it has much of a repaint though . Bruce

Found another load yesterday at the Reading G 0 trade show ...we had our *Leeds * repro stall there ....but it cost me a bomb ..... Actually a 7mm scale version of the *tallboy * WW2 bomb in resin ...an ideal wagon load . It was on the Radley Models stall ..a test shot I think as they are still working on the trailer for it . Cost me a fiver ,not sure if its listed on their website yet ......Bruce.

The fit of the Hornby axle guards behind the Leeds solebars was pure serendipty ...as these are spaced to fit the Leeds axle guards on tinplate carrier . The same goes for our Mills wagon repros . That yours fitted without cutting worries me slightly ...must go and check ! As I said we arnt going to do any more of the kits in the foreseeable future and they used what thickness of wood happened to be lying around ...so slight differences perhaps . I can scan some of my efforts for you if you then want to post them on this forum . Drop me an e mail direct . I'm hoping to get the delivery of repro Hornby axles next week sometime if anybody wants some . Bruce

The Bakelite bodies are worth saving until you have found a set of Leeds axle guards on the tinplate carrier as they slot straight in ....cast axle boxes don't work due to the shape of the solebar ...but of course are fine for the wooden stock . That means the body dosnt have to be sliced ..although you will need to fit 3 link couplings .My stash of rusty Hornby has been somewhat depleted by the discovery that a former workmate owned a sandblaster ...so most of it has now been stripped and immediately wire brushed and given a coat of Wilkinson Enamel primer aerosol...far, far easier than the paint stripper method ! Next on the project list are a couple of vans to use the c1954 Douglass litho sides and our own *short *Metropolitan cattle truck artwork .Just finished is a repro Mills *oil* tanker ..again the rare short version , and on repo Mills plate frame bogies . Also 3 or 4 leeds coaches to add bogies, buffers and couplings when I can clear space on the work bench ! All good fun ! Bruce

Just to add that rather than use the complete Hornby under frame ,buffers and couplings I'm talking about just the axleguard pressing ...so you don't have to cut the wooden wagon buffer beams off or solebars , if they are already fixed . Cast buffers can then be added and a slot cut in the beam for a Hornby/Darstead type coupling . My Darstead ones came from Bruce Coleman of Wonersh trains too ..I think John and I cleaned him out eventually ! Bruce

Well done guys ! Re the Hornby chassis , you ought to be able to fit it behind the solebars as shown ..just then cut the ends off with tin snips so its the correct length and you are done . I usually glue cast axleguards in place with contact adhesive rather than screws ...much to John Davies disgust ...but it works fine and theres no need to overdue the glue ..just a thin coat on the flat area of the casting where it meets the sole bar. I then line them up by eye .I would say use Tony Funnels repro axles rather than the progress products sleeves , but Im still waiting for my next delivery from him ..hes working 100% on the Bluebell Railways 12in to the foot repro LBSCR Atlantic at the moment ...like many others I cant wait to see it in steam , so not too worried ! A slight commercial ...if anyones going to the Guildford 0 Gauge groups Reading Trade Show in a weeks time on the 7th we will have a stall with all the Leeds bodies , lithos and castings .

....and another one is *Beattie * ..in black . Bruce

Digging around some more I found more of these wagons ....*Itters Brick Peterborough 151* in red, Penderyn Limestone Quarries 336 * in grey , and L Beard and son Hungerford 7 . In all three cases on made up wagons I built years back . Bruce

Ive also been trying to collect *gun *loads , but despite digging in the Diecast dealers junk boxes at Sandown and elsewhere , haven't been too successful . However I have the Britains AA gun from a swop at Junior school ...a long time ago ..ditto a field gun . A recent find was a slightly older type gun from those bronzed pencil sharpners you sometimes see ..its about 0 scale . Other military type loads are the *rocket pens*available off e Bay ..although I bought mine from the defunct Poundworld chain at a cheaper price . Sprayed grey they fit Hornby opens and resemble the WW2 Tallboy Bombs . Talking of which , Ive still got Hornby wagon overlays for *Chillwell * shell filling factory wagons ..WW1 this time , that Michael badger made after discussions on this group . Michael seems to have vanished by the way ..has anyone up to date contact details for him ? Bruce