The Fatadder

Given that I certainly fall into this category, in that I had planned to buy a star and as a result of the moulded handrails in particular certainly wont be buying one. My loco buying falls into 2 catagories, stock needed for the layout (a star isn't), and stock needed for the next layout (a star might be). Coupled with a desire to have models of the major GW classes post ww2. My buying decision is simple, it has moulded handrails (something I couldn't stand on diesel models in the late 90s let alone a brand new release costing over £100.) Couple to this the risk of a dodgy footplate, and a finish which doesn't look quite to the high standard of the Castle and 2800s that Hornby have previously released leaves me thinking its not worth the money. (In particular that the price differential between it and a top spec kit is not that high (I am ignoring wheels which would be replaced anyway). Plus the kit gives the extra enjoyment value of the build. This is then compounded by the fact that I was expecting a model to the same standard as the Castle, and what has been delivered isn't. Hornby haven't lived up to the expectation which naturally leaves a sour taste. At the end of the day, as with the large GW tanks before it, I can see myself buying a Hornby Star at some point. but as with the 42xx currently sat on my workbench, it is going to come via ebay in damaged condition for a much more sensible amount. For the time being I would rather spend my £130 on a decent model worthy of that price tag, so another Castle it will be I think....

Fantastic I hadn't realised that the small section seen at shows was part of a larger layout, very good idea as a concept

The thought had crossed my head, Perfect for a funny hour at the end of a show...

Funny you mention that, I do have a Bachmann model luring around , for which I am thinking about putting the chassis under another 59 with the intention of selling it on Using the radiator from the body makes sense...

A few weeks back at Scaleforum, I got into a conversation about Mendip operations, causing a bit of a spike in my interest in getting on with finishing a couple of my stone projects 59004 uses a lima 59/0 body on a Bachmann Class 66 chassis. The chassis has been modified with the lima sideframes (suitably modified to add the missing corner), modified Bachmann fuel tanks and scratch built air tanks / battery boxes. The chassis is now finished and painted (and converted to P4), which just leaves the body. The A1 grill (which has been placed over the hole cut many years ago) looks so dated, Going to have to get on and use something else (so this wont get finished until I get round to drawing something up I suspect...)

Loving all these photos of the absorbed South Wales locos, Thanks for sharing

Love the 1957 photo of CoT Wish it had happened 10 years earlier!

One thing I would be interested to know is if the upgrade is a limited time offer or will be ongoing I will definitely be looking to upgrade mine, but won't have the funds available until 2015 when my wife returns to work post maternity...

I did wonder if he has a deal with Hornby to clear our their damaged returns

Yea, awful at describing the condition and taking photos (both times there have been other bits of minor damage not visible in the photos), but does seem to have a few bargains. Have a 2800 from him as well, tender is missing side frames and paint but other than that not bad condition.

My big project for this winter (other than the forthcoming arrival of our baby girl) is to convert our garage to railway room. Phase 1 is to insulate the walls, seal the floor, insulate + improve the seal on the door and board in the ceiling, the second phase is adding a side door (and possibly a window as well.) fortunately have a couple of friends with the required expertise to work it all out... Anyway what does that have to do with the old layout... My original plan for the garage was going to be the continuous run which I have wanted for years. However most annoyingly the garage is only 8ft wide (and once insulated that's another few inches gone). So that's no room for 4ft radius curves... Plan B it is then, Kites Croft is going to be fitted along one wall. And along the other wall, my thinking is to include Blackcombe. As it stands the layout is 9ft long, with two 4ft fiddleyards and part of the yards track running over onto the fiddleyard. The below were taken at Scaleforum a couple of years back I have been thinking along the lines of two concepts for revitalising it (along with a load of trackwork repairs). The first option is to keep the left hand fiddleyard, adding a new scenic break to the left of the loading point. the right hand side will have the missing runaround loop completed. In both cases the modern signalling TPWS bits, along with the CWR concrete sleeper track will be removed (the latter being covered by an expanded embankment.) The second option is to work on the left hand side of the layout, using the extra 4ft to add enough of a head shunt that a rake can be baked straight into the works. In both options part of the question is what to do with the buildings, I am giving serious thought to removing the two 1980s metal sheds and replacing with more traditional structures. The intention being that I can extend running further back, whilst still running my 1980s stock (ala Wheel Elizabeth). I must say the thought of having a 42xx on a rake of GW clay wagons is very tempting..... This is more of a long term project, with Kites Croft remaining the priority. However over the next year the modelling budget will be rather tight, limiting the potential for new spend (hence getting the projects in now.) This rebuilding will give something to work on once Kites Croft is 'complete' The final option is a bit more of a radical change, I am half tempted to see if the basic track plan as built could be converted into something more mendip. The idea of having both layouts using the same stock has a certain appeal, particularly given the future possibility of connecting them together..... As ever I would welcome input

Since they were released I have rather fancied getting one of the large GW tanks from Hornby, however given the low specification of the model I was rather put off by the £100 price tag. However having found a damaged (and non painted) model on ebay for a sensible price, I couldn't resist... First up the problems: It needs a new chimney, 3 new steps, a superheater cover, tank vents and of course a set of sprung buffers fitting. There are also a couple of bit of damage to the side which need to be filled. it will also be getting an Easichas kit from Brassmasters later in the year when they release it. As for an identity, I am a little undecided for now. It is of course far to heavy for the Strawberry Line, though I think the line through to Kites Croft must have been upgraded during the war to allow heavier trains..... Thinking about it, a St Blazey based 42xx would be rather nice going into Blackcombe with a rake of GW china clay wagons.......

This morning I have been working on a few wagon projects, using up the last of my Bill Bedford units (still have another 7 wagons in the to build box so best get on and order some more....) First up the second Coopercraft V5 for which I built the body last month. The chassis has now been assembled (thinning the solebars before gluing in position.) At least on these vans the higher than prototype floor is hidden inside the van (so no need to spend ages correcting it). It is now ready for fitting the break gear, must really get on and order some of the linkages from mainly trains to finish it off. Next a much newer kit, a Parkside gunpowder van. While I haven't exactly got any photos to prove it, I am assuming that there will have been a fair bit of explosives traffic given the large amount of quarrying along the Strawberry Line (and the East Somerset). In particular given my Kite's Croft layout has a spur going off to a quarry. This model uses the recently released Parkside kit, again the solebars had to be significantly thinned (loosing the location spaces for the breakgear). I also flipped the floor over so that I didn't have to remove the ribs. As ever for a Parkside kit the body fell together very nicely, having picked it up at Scaleforum it was nice to be able to buy with P4 wheels! Again this now needs the break gear, although the instructions are rather lacking with respect to the break gear. I am a little unsure as to the design of the linkages between the bar linked to the leavers and the actual breaks. (The photo in Akitins et al hasn't really helped) The final wagon is a Kirk P17 ballast wagon, (a bargain from the bring & buy stall at Scaleforum). The body went together very nicely, solebar again needed a little thinning. One thing I only noticed after gluing in place is that the break shoes only have detail on one side, meaning that the other side of the wagon has no detail. At the moment I only finish wagons on one side anyway so its not a big issue. Again this now needs DC break gear adding, on which I am a little unclear as to the arrangement. Having checked my books I have yet to find a good photo of a P17 (or the later version with Morton breaks) I have also fitted the wagon with the moulded plastic load which was included, intending to use it as a former to cover with ballast to get a nice profile. Will keep an eye out for a couple more of these, along with the Cambrian ballast wagon. I'm sure I remember reading that there was a railway owned ballast quarry on the line..... Finally, the Lima siphon. Another Scaleforum purchase. From conversations with Chris F I have been told that among the many siphons marked with "Return to Yatton" for the strawberry traffic, was one of the inside frame siphon G's which has door planking which matches the Lima model. It still needs a lot of work, in particular detailing the underframe, but for the time bring it has been fitted with some Mallard bogies.

Thanks for that Saved me asking a similar question.

And on testing this morning one wheel on the drive axle is loose, and the gear seems to be slipping again Why didn't I just buy the ultrascales... The thought of another of these to convert is not fun...

3863 - Hornby conversion As previously mentioned at the weekend, I have been working on converting 3863 to P4. The initial conversion at the weekend showed that the crank pin nuts on the lead axel fouled the crosshead, and that the drive gear was loose on the axle. I initially attempted to cure the latter with an application of loctight, however it still persisted. I have now stripped it down and attempted to resolve through the application of additional knurling to the axle (attacking with a xuron cutter) which appears to have done the trick. The lead crank pin nuts were filed down, and the crank pin sleeve reduced to match the rod. Upon refitting it still fouled the plastic mounting bracket that supports the crosshead, so some careful material removal was required (it still needs even more to get a reliable joint!) Upon reassembly I noticed that the 2nd axle on the right hand side has a the wrong sleeve fitted to the crank pin (which means it now fouls), so another dismantle and reassemble is needed before fitting that part. Hopefully this will be the final work to get the loco working... Moving onto 3215, I finally made it to the Yate modelshop on the way home from work today and picked up a pack of HMRS GW loco transfers. So finally 3215's tender has been branded up. Given the loco was delivered right at the point of nationalisation I have decided to put the early British Railways logo in GW typeface on one side of the tender (for something a little different) while sticking with the post war G W R on the other. While I was at it the buffer beam numbers were added. So now I just need to get some plates ordered...

Thanks for the offer, but I have already got a Wellington on order and the 4000gl collet tender along with the renamed Wellington body is needed for Nunney castle. Wish more tenders were available as spares, still need to get tenders for a dean goods and Eynsham Hall...

One project which has sat in the to do pile for a long time has been my castle The intention is to take what was Tintagnal Castle and renumber to 4085 Berkeley Castle which will be partnered with the Hawksworth tender from this yeas GW castle release. The tender from Tintagnal will then be used with the later loco from Wellington to produce Nunny Castle. Both locos have been picked for the names rather than the use (so I hope they will fit prototypically with a future layout with red coded track.) Berkeley Castle given that the real castle is in the next village over (complete with 4085's name plates on the wall), while Nunny Castle is where I proposed. Renaming was a fairly straight forward process, cutting the green splasher off the plate and only fitting the name part (wish they would do just the name!) the buffer beam numbers came off easily and will be replaced with HMRS transfers (although I need to get a new pack after failing to find any at Scaleforum.) Still need to strip the Great Western logo off the tender and re brand with the post war G crest W Will still be a while until I get it converted, need to get a couple of the current in progress locos finished first (which means cracking the outside cylinder problem...) I also picked up the crankpin washers for 3863, although after fitting and assembling the wheels I have found more material needs to be removed from the crank pins to clear the slide bars (I wish someone would make a lower profile crankpin nut) I was having bit of a clumsy evening so decided to stop at that point! I will have another go soon. Scaleforum also resulted in a bunch of other useful bits Including another coopercraft GW Van, Ian Kirk GW 4 plank and ballast open, Parkside GW van and Gunpowder Van, Ultrascales for a tender and a 14xx, along with some books (the Ian Rice book on chassis should prove useful with the current problems!)

Thanks I need to get se more couplings so something else to add to the order. Last night I was also adding weight to a few wagons built last year while I was working away from home, and it was pretty clear that the brake gear was missing the linkages, so will upgrade these at the same time

As previously mentioned this the body has already been built following the coopercraft, all that remained was to build the chassis and detail. I have started off by adding weight, I cant stand the liquid stuff, preferring to work with lead sheet. so a 3 bits of lead were cut to fit the 3 recesses in the floor, this places the majority of the weight directly above the suspension units. (to save time the second build has it fitted inside the van.....) The solebars have been filed down to provide clearance for a pair of Bill Bedford units, and a set of Maygib 3 hole disk wheels have been scavenged from one of my modern wagons to provide cover until I can get some more axles from C&L so that I can replace with Exactoscale wheels. (A second hand purchase of Exactoscale wheels has left me with lots of wheels, but only parallel axles for them. leaving a decision to either get parallel bearings or pin point axles...) Once fitted it was onto the brake gear, I've added some brass rod for some of the linkages. but it is still missing the cam linkage between the brakes and the lever (nothing important then......) Does someone make a good etch for this? I've also repainted part of 3215's tender, (when removing the BR early crests the green paint also came off with it.) Fortunately Phoenix GWR green has proved a very good match. Now need to remember where the G W R transfers are (or more likely pop to Yate on Friday after work and buy a new pack!) Realised after taking the photo that a wheelset in the wagon to the left has popped out making one side higher than the other (now fixed)

With the wedding, honeymoon and the initial work preparing for January's arrival (painting the nursery pink) has all rather got in the way of modelling recently. Now all is sorted I have got the drive to get on with a couple of projects (though I would much rather still be in Manutius. First up yet another wagon kit is now ready for painting, another parkside Lowfit. Will get the paints out and finish it off tomorrow hopefully. Then need to get on with sorting out a couple of appropriate loads. I have also got on with finishing off the brick work on the station building for the layout, not 100% happy still so will be doing a bit more tidying up (and possibly will end up starting from scratch again if I am still not happy.) With scaleforum approaching, I have started looking at the winters project list so that I can try and ensure everything required is picked up on the day. Along with the locos currently in the works, (the 2251, pannier and county), I have now added a Bachmann Hall body which will be mounted to a Comet chassis as 4925 Eynsham Hall. (Chosen after staying there earlier in the summer.) Also need to get some wheels to enable a start on building my Dean goods.