Ruston

Well I never... If you like this and the stuff I post here then, apparently, you can vote for it and me in this here poll. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVprB4ALfO-BPO2zBXLSPI5UiSDDmfxfHLtR8rqfbj7DokOg/formResponse

See above. To be honest, I've only known about the Rapido one since about this time last year, so I can't blame the lack of progress on that entirely, but as soon as I was told about it I gave up any idea of scratchbuilding one. Apart from measuring up the ones at Preston and Shildon, I didn't get any further than preparing a drawing to make a pattern for milling the frames. I think it's great that there will be a RTR fireless in OO, and I'll buy a couple, but it does mean that everyone and his dog will have one and so it won't be the stand out model that a scratchbuilt one would have been. It would be nice to see a load of proper industrial layouts where a fireless would have been used being built for them to run on but then I thought that might happen in 2017, when Hornby announced the Peckett W4 and the layouts never materialised. A lot of people bought the models but most seem to be more into having a cute little engine, rather than modelling proper industrial railways for them to run on and I fully expect the same to happen with these.

Was this kit only ever designed to be powered on one axle?

I tried to remove the front of the tipper house to alter it for the loading chute but it wouldn't come away in once piece and the house would have needed to come out to fix the resulting mess. Having to remove it from the baseboard in any case gave me the opportunity to try the British Oak-inspired staithe again. I will finish it this time and install it for a couple of reasons. Firstly that it is more correct to the British Oak theme and secondly that it makes removing the fixed wagon loads easier. An enclosed tipper house was fine for the plan of actually tipping loose coal loads but with fixed loads that need to be removed by THOG it meant propelling a wagon in, stopping, pulling it out and then removing the load. I suppose it sounds silly either way you look at it but it just seems more natural to lift the load out when the wagon is in its unloading place and not after it has supposedly been unloaded. It's back to 21-ton hoppers for the staithe run and the 1923 RCH minerals will now be joined by some Rapido/BRM 1907 RCH internal users for a landsales run.

I'm trying to click on this again to give it another like. Can I have some more clicks please?

The Class 11 is my favourite loco. At least until the next new loco comes along... I had a bit of a running and photo session, today, so no progress made on the barge.

Ex-BR Class 11, 12099, at Blacker Lane Disposal Point.

12099 at Blacker Lane.

12099 scruffs up well.

Excellent! I've known about this for some time now and not being able to tell anyone was killing me. 😶 I do hope there will be a DCC sound-fitted version, using actual recordings of the sole working fireless left in the UK, because there is no suitable sound file that can be used. A fireless is very different to any other steam loco in how it sounds, especially as it is completely silent when stationary. I already have a chemical works micro layout in the pipeline especially for this model and the Hornby Ruston 88DS. The only question is which livery to choose...

Thanks for the photo and info, Ian. It's all very helpful. Flickr photos, by The KDH Archive. Not British Oak, and probably larger boats than the West Country types. On the Aire & Calder at Primrose Hill colliery. My tipper house isn't actually based on any prototype but it's the same idea.

I have painted the hull of the barge but have since repainted the deck orange after doilum's comment about the decks being orange. It does look orange in one of the pictures but I wasn't sure.

Thanks. That does work to an extent but every time I go to another page I have to do that, back and forth from German to English but when you go as far as clicking the 'more info' on a particular tree it loses all of the flags and the simple text of English, German and Polish aren't clickable, so I still can't get more info and still can't buy anything. Weeks ago I managed to find a 'contact us' thing and tried to let them know that their site was broken but I never received any reply and they have clearly not fixed the site.

I don't understand. I haven't shown a photo of how far I've got with the painting, never mind weathering it.

Does anyone know hat is the thing on the cover plate of the fuel tank is? I don't know if they all had it but 12099 should have one, but it isn't on the model. 12099 in orange should have a ladder on the front at the right hand side only but mine hasn't and there isn't a ladder in the bag of parts to be fitted by the purchaser. Can someone please tell me if the others have ladders already fitted, or if the ladders come in the bag.

I managed to get the airbrush to work enough to spray some orange over the orange and have left that to dry whilst I made a start on the wheelhouse for the barge.

For whatever reason, the running plate was orange on the model so I've put that right. The frames, springs etc. have been gone over with matt black, just to get rid of the plastic shine. Weathering proper will come later. I've also painted the engine compartment handrails . I will attempt to fix my airbrush and give it a blow over with a less drastic shade of orange before adding electrification flashes and number. It has run up and down the layout a few times but hasn't pulled a train yet. The provided screw couplings are cosmetic only, which is a retrograde step as previous Heljan offerings came with very nice functional steel screw couplings.

Sound and Stay Alive fitted. Running plate painted black, as it ought to be. Engine compartment handrails painted orange, as they ought to be for British Oak D.P. 12099 number and BR electrification flashes to be added before weathering. There are radiator overflow pipes provided to be fitted by the purchaser but there are no locating holes for them. Presumably we're expected to just glue them on. The screw couplings that come with it are a let down. Heljan's Class 05, 07 and 14 all came with good quality screw couplings with steel end links that moved freely and could be used with a magnetic shunting pole but these are cosmetic only so this has yet to pull a train.

The pic is clickable for details on the site where the link goes to. Going back to the previous page, the links to DOCP one at Backworth is no longer functioning. Does anyone know where a photo of it may be found?

You mean just general weathering and appearance, don't you? I was imagining all sorts of horrors; that you had seen a review sample or something and it was awful. You just don't know what you're going to get when you order a loco that you haven't seen any real photos of. I'm no expert on these things but it all seems to be OK. They are the right way up anyway. 😁 When it comes to weathering, everything below running plate level appeared to be slathered in that typical greasy oily crud so I'll try to do that and perhaps some dry brushing to highlight the spring leaves. As the model comes, it seems to be in Bowers Row condition - repainted and minus BR electrification flashes and 12099 cabside number. I guess it would have been just as bright when originally painted orange but photos of it at British Oak show it with the orange faded and with rust patches, but still with flashes and number. British Oak, 1981. Another in this Flickr series shows it from the cab end where the BR number is more visible. Bowers Row, 1985. Brighter orange, obviously repainted as the flashes are gone the green patch where the works plate used to be has gone, and with no trace of the BR number. Making it as faded as in the first photo will take some doing. A complete repaint I expect, which isn't difficult for the orange but I don't want to try to repaint the stripes on the ends and I'm not sure how to go about fading the existing ones. It does need something doing with it as it is a bit in yer face. This photo really doesn't do it justice. It's a lot more orange than this. If it looked like it does here, I'd be happy but it's like it's been Tango'd! I'll probably fade it slightly, paint the small bodyside handrails orange and add numbers and flashes before a general dirtification. I got it apart but whoever wrote the instructions for that needs a good hard kicking. They say to pull off the battery boxes to reveal two screws and to remove these. I took off the battery boxes and removed the screws. Nothing seemed to feel any different; the body wasn't loose in any way. The instructions then say to "carefully slide the body away from the chassis". Nope, nothing's moving but does it mean slide forward or backward? Is this perhaps to release a catch-type thing, where the body locks under some part in the chassis? Whatever it means it still wasn't moving or even loose, so I suspected something was accidentally glued or jammed. I held the chassis between thumb and forefinger of one hand and pulled on the body with the other. The cab snapped off! Catches - that the instructions don't mention, did hold the cab down but broke in pulling the body off, meanwhile the body still remained on the chassis and had to be levered off. Now I will have to glue the cab on and glue the cab end down when it comes to reassembly. The front end does indeed have catches, as on the Bachmann 08, that tuck under something in the chassis. Slide the body off, my a&$e! It runs so I can now do something about weathering it.

Oh dear. Sounds ominous. They haven't modelled them upside down, have they? 🙃 I guess I'll find out tomorrow...

Oh er... I don't know. Is there something wrong with the springs?

I can't see any use for it, so it'll probably go in the bin. Another thing that became apparent is that the coal hole, hold, whatever it's called, wasn't wide enough. It wasn't wide enough on the new one either until this afternoon. I think it looks better now, even if it may not be correct. It's never easy to build something like this when the only dimensions you have are the length and width. There are still things not quite right about this one and it's all learning, so I could probably make a better one still but I can't keep on building barges until I manage to get one perfect, so this one will have to do. The Class 11 arrives tomorrow and I've already got a sound decoder waiting for it. I'm excited. All that orangey English Electric goodness.

It's looking better than the old one already. I should be able to get all of the strips on the hull, tomorrow and may even get the coal space enclosure on. Another thing that is wrong with the old one is that the ends of the coal space ought to be curved, or peaked, rising toward the centre and not flat. Perhaps I may even slap some paint on it, tomorrow. The Class 11 is in the post, so when that arrives I may have to stop work on the barge and play with the new toy instead.

I have abandoned that barge. If it was just the bow being wrong then I would probably have kept it but a couple of things weren't right. I would have had to model it as empty, due to how much of it was out of the water and so the bottom of it would look look weird, being slightly higher on the inside and simply being flat along the bottom. I've noticed that they seemed to sit down at the stern when empty, so the stance didn't look right either. The new one sits lower in the water and will have the rear part of the coal space almost full, with the front partly so. I think it will look more realistic.