railroadbill

Having seen the Railway Roundabout clips linked by Il Grifone http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69535-great-british-locomotives/page-156&do=findComment&comment=1714267 just had to get a caly single. Fortunately the Asda train angel had still got some (3) and the one I picked is absolutely perfect, in fact best finish of the GBL ones I've bought with no finger marks on paint, ok lettering, no bent fittings etc. Looks good just sitting on a shelf but I think running on the layout would be even better on a near the end of steam railtour. Was going to let this one go by as project T9 etc is going to soak up enough time in 2015 but glad I got it. It's kind of a replica of a model, rather than a basis for modelling by repainting/detailing/modifying/converting etc. Terrific!

thanks for heads up on transfer sheet, the image on the HMRS web page seems to show that the sheet only contains 1 pair of large LSWR letters for tenders (although a good selection of coach insignia etc). - does the actual sheet have more?

Nice pic Rob, the light along the boiler and tank very atmospheric and weathering looks very realistic. A snip at 132 quid! The Heljan tango approaches... Best wishes for 2015 to all. Bill

Hi and hope everyone had a good Christmas. Re the Caly colours, I noted some details from an article about using Halfords car paints for railway colours, (think it was a friend's gauge O guild mag quite a few years ago). The suggestion was: CR light loco blue Peugeot royal blue CR dark blue Rover midnight blue Don't know how exact the match might be but could be worth a look if you like halfords finish from their spray cans? They do suggest that Rover midnight blue (hey, I've got that one!) is also ok for SDJR blue, at the risk of moving the greens discussion into blues.... Bill

Not in local Asda yet, which is hopeful as I'll have to look after Christmas now. I'll just have to look at the ones I've already got! Merry Christmas and happy modelling for 2015 to you all cheers, Bill

Other than that it looks very realistic, which probably makes any flaws stand out more.

Think in Rob's K1 pic the front running plate does look like it's pointing up a bit but also the running plate in front of the rear sand box filler looks as if it has an upward wave in it.

Well, started on T9 to make one in original non-superheated condition. Front of smokebox cut off, moulded handrails and piping removed. The wing plates are from a plan and printed onto card, then I used that as a template for a plasticard part, but used .5 mm plasticard, which might be too thin. Need to use perhaps 1mm? Loco will need sandboxes on front splashers plus water tube boiler bits, or not since I think some didn't have that. (I know the water tubes were removed later). I've got a Drummond chimney somewhere, just got to find that now.... All good fun.

Hi Shane, Excellent! A2/3 from parts looks nice, that SE finecast valve gear looks good. I've got the GBL A3, just put it to one side for later, but I do have a spare A3 loco and tender body as well, h'mm. You've also encouraged me to get on with the nucast kit now. The tube train in a couple of the pics looks interesting, can I ask what it is? (Piccadilly or Northern line stock?) cheers Bill

8750 please. As soon as possible!

If the peak is from the Bachmann one then that would be really good. Just been comparing my Bachie peak (the earlier type missing the horizontal nose groove) with an old Hornby co-co bogie drive and the Hornby wheel spacing is just a bit shorter than the peak, but could still be a means of motorising a GBL one. Shall see when they arrive in Asdas.

Couldn't see the number on the model shown on the issue 24 cover pic, it does have marker lights like the main picture loco (which can't be identified from that angle) but what looks like a nameplate as well. Time and the Weatheringman's review will tell! Could be worth a go I think.

Hi Shane, Just seen your post, it's one of those "yes, but" things imho. I've been down the A2/1 path with a Nu-cast kit not yet finished because of a) problems with kit and b. I can't decide what version to finish it as. The nu-cast problem was that I couldn't get the whitemetal smokebox castings anywhere near circular as they were very distorted. I later used a length of brass tubing but had trouble drilling holes for handrail knobs... and so on. So it's been in the box for a long time. However... 4 A2/1s were built when Thompson was cme in place of the last 4 V2s ordered. Longer smokebox because of combustion chamber, 3 sets of walschaerts valve gear, equal length connecting rods therefore longer chassis. Also shorter coupled wheelbase than V2. If you want a later one with 8 wheeled tender then easy, BR standard green and later rimmed chimney. If one with a 6 wheeled tender then; complications because : possibility of 3 different numbers, (earlier/later LNER, then BR), black, or LNER green but not BR with 6 wheeled tender. Firstly, comparison with GBL V2. This is what it should look like complete. The length of the A2/1 boiler compared to the V2. You can see the actual boiler and firebox are the same (the prototypes were both 42 sq ft as against the 50 sq ft of the later A2s and A1s.) However the smokebox is longer. It also needs the plainer chimney without the lip for earlier condition ones. The A2/1 chassis had a shorter coupled wheelbase than the V2 (Nu-cast brass chassis for A2/1). NB the brass chassis doesn't run the full length of the loco. Only the last 3 were named with 6 wheeled tenders, only 2 were in LNER green but with British Railways on tender, (Duke of Rothesay with 6 wheel and Waverley with 8 wheeled tenders) and the last to get an 8 wheeled tender was Robert the Bruce in 9/49. The whole livery/number/tender saga gets more complicated so I could put that in another post as this one is getting rather long!

£393 at the moment Steve, so you could almost have 2 B-Gs instead. Used to get over 11 DK to £ but that was a while ago and that sort of rate hasn't come back since sterling dropped. Litra E is a very nice model but I can't quite justify nearly £400. Sadly.

Going back to Swindon vs the rest for a minute, the rather good issue 22 magazine on the V2s points out that V2 blast pipes were modified after testing at Swindon, resulting in a big increase in steaming capacity, needed after self cleaning smokeboxes were introduced. Think they did something similar with the blast pipes on ex LMS type 2 and 4 2-6-0s. Then Swindon did have the test facilities. Also the V2 was one loco that didn't look good in black, imho, and it was a great improvement when they got painted BR green. Perhaps the original apple green suited them best though.

Just a quick public note of thanks to Uries15 for the GBL T9. Thanks very much, I've pm'd you. cheers, Bill

Interesting how many shades of black there can be (black car paints a case in point). Black locos do look good when clean ihmo. One memory that sticks in my mind is seeing a standard 5 at Waterloo, must have been early 60s, that was absolutely gleaming in black mixed traffic livery (73112 Morgan Le Fay one of the ones with King Arthur names). Must have been ex works. I renumbered a Bachmann std5 to this one but still not too sure how glossy to make it ie satin or gloss varnish. A lot of locos towards the end of steam seemed to be matt black, whether painted green or not, under a thick layer of soot! And very interesting how pre-grouping railways all had their own "look" through livery and engineering practice. Makes the subject fascinating.

Now isn't that LNWR black like the livery used by BR mixed traffic steam locos, which were a good background to bigger locos painted....brunswick green!!!

You beat me to it, Rowanj! Interesting point you made about using a Hornby A3 boiler, have got one in the bits box so could be worth a go. Got stuck into T9s at the moment so V2 is a future project but one I'm keen on. The GBL one does look like it can be the basis of a good model I think. Be interesting to see how it can best be motorised as well.

Yes you do yes you do Well the Asda train angel came up trumps again and there was one left, well none now. Here it is, presumably has the same dimensional problems as the Bachmann one but doesn't look bad. The tender seems ok, worth it for that alone? Here's the other side. And with my existing Green Arrow (Jamieson kit). I rather like V2s. This works plate is a replica and is of the type that was fitted on the front frames. Travelled behind Green Arrow on railtours some years ago when when it's been painted apple green and later brunswick green so perhaps a BR green one will be the way to go. cheers, Bill

Blimey, you're quite right, completely forgotten about Sir Nigel, the original pre-war H-D A4! When I was given my [green] Mallard Flying Scotsman set as a Christmas present, it had the later BR emblem which the full size locos were then getting - rather a long time ago now. Thanks for the heads up on the electric loco, was reading a book, "the Hornby story" recently which covered the end of H-D and the history of the Hornby name but couldn't remember exactly about that loco.

Unlike Hornby Dublo (other model railway manufacturers were of course available) where locos were green (apart from black and the occasional red one) Green is, as we know, commercial considerations aside, the correct and proper colour for locomotives. I suppose the first H-D blue loco would have been the bo-bo electric had it come out, but I think that was developed/released by Tri-ang Hornby before it became Hornby again? Not too sure on that.

Managed to fit the GBL tender body over the tender drive mech by taking off the coal moulding - it just popped out. So with a high but not impossible coal load, it will work. It would need the securing lugs cut off the tender underframe for a permanent solution, I've just pushed it over. Room in the narrower tender for the motor. So old Hornby tender drive loco with much better shaped body for £2.99 can't be bad! The R 350 Mallard I had in 1980 or so was never a very good runner, needed the big hand from the sky a lot and was in its box for years. R-T-R had improved a lot by the time current layout started to be built so I was going to put it on e-bay. However, because of GBL, I dug it out and stripped down the mechanism and loco wheels etc and cleaned everything up, re lubricated it with a tad of electro lube on the axles and surprisingly it ran very well. Very satisfying. May be possible to get hold of this age of chassis cheaply enough, and I've got several tender drive mechs as well that could be used. So have to see what can be done next. Somewhere back on this thread someone, think it was sarahagain, used an original Hornby loco drive chassis with x03 motor to power one of these? The latest Hornby chassis would be good if available (been running Golden Plover on layout and it does go very quietly and smoothly). Again, a long way back in this thread it was pointed out that various old Hornby etc, chassis parts could be used as a basis. Good fun.

Strange in a way that the double chimney ones didn't have corridor tenders so they could be used on the non-stop trains pre-war as they had a known improved performance. Suppose there wasn't much time before the second world war got in the way for that to happen. The RCTS book (locos of teh LNER 2A) suggests that problems with double chimneys on the P2s meant that Gresley went for single chimneys on the A4s at first for reliable steaming. But then the double chimney worked on the A4s as we know.

On the right, tender drive Hornby A4 Mallard, R.350, £13.75 from Beatties in about 1981. On left, for comparison later spec A4 Golden Plover, Hornby loco drive. Bought it when they were about £70 I think. So will the GBL body and tender fit on the tender drive chassis? Well tender drive will fit into tender body ok, but the "coal" moulding stops it. Going to cut that out and see if body will then fit low enough. This is the GBL one on the right vs the corridor tender one. Comparison of non corridor (GBL) and corridor tender drive Hornby. The prototype corridor tender was 8' 9" wide and the streamlined non corridor 8' 0 1/2" according to the RCTS book. GBL width 32.7cm proto: 8' 2" Mallard tender drive width 36.1 cm proto: 9' 0 1/4" Golden Plover loco drive tender width 34.6 cm proto: 8' 7 3/4" Given that it was rather late when I was up in the loft measuring all this, it looks as if the GBL tender is slightly too wide, the latest tender slightly too narrow and the old tender drive one, as we know, a bit too wide. (Slightly and bit are of course technical terms used by engineers of yore). So what to do? It then occurred to me that of course the GBL A4 could run with a corridor tender. And here it is. The tender drive loco chassis fits in ok. The original body uses square holes under the cab to locate lugs on the chassis but it's just squeezed in at the moment. Holds ok but really needs a couple of mounting points fitted. However, I was able to run it round the layout like this. My first GBL loco actually running! The £2.99 GBL body could have its valances removed and be painted green, in BR livery. I might get away with the non corridor tender fitting over the mech if I fit a high coal load, I'll try that next. It doesn't look like it's possible to have a double chimney, valanced, garter blue, pre war numbered, corridor tender A4 according to the chart in the RCTS book - a photo of one will no doubt turn up soon!!!!.