coachmann

This is turning out to be a far more interesting location and project than I imagined. It is years since I was there but I can see you have clearly captured the essence of the location. Unfortunately for railway photographers, the side showing the 31 passing a signal was shrouded out of view with trees. I note you have eliminated two track to the single bores under Standedge. It keeps things nice and simple. I too did this when modelling the other end of the tunnels at Diggle. Looking forward to seeing this develop.

Your dedication to small detail is amazing. I'm sure I saw similar architecture on the Liverpool & Manchester from the window on an ambulance when I was being brought home the long way around from Liverpool to N.Wales.

My negs are in the attic and so I am working from memory here. A weedkilling train I photographed near Chester, on the Wrexham-Bidston branch and at Llong (Mold) circa 1978 had ex GWR coaches and an ex DMU coach in its formation. The train was chocolate & cream (under a coating of white spray!), and the loco was a Class 25. My next memory jumps beyond the 1980s to 1992 with two Hunslet-Barclay 20's hauling a weedkilling train in the Conwy Valley. The coaches were mid green with a white stripe. By the late 90's the coaches were light green, an au-de-nil shade. Photographed on the Trawsfynedd branch, it was top & tailed by EWS maroon and Mainline blue 37's. PS : I was told by local station staff the spraying was more hand controlled in steam days to avoid killing carefully tilled flower beds at stations!

Truly inspirational Ruston...

I think that Parkside LNER Horsebox looks really nice, so much so I have just telephoned a mate and ordered one. Not being well up on LNER matters, were these boxes painted plain 'teak' or were they grained?

My customers for painting & lining and coaches came from all over the globe from civvies to royalty. Interest in UK railways is worldwide it seems. Since taking semi-retirement I only despatch to UK addresses. I wish! Preservation probably came too late for many fine carriages.

Embarrassing moment time........... I should spend more time reading RMweb properly. Don't ask me why (apart from dyslexia) but I completely missed the word 'clerestory' and went down the path of Ratio Bain arc roof coaches! You are completely right, the clerestories pre-date the 1906 livery changes. coach

The LMS adopted the former Midland livery with a few provisos which don't apply to non-corridor coaches. Sorry I cannot divulge the name of the purchaser of that model coach.

What I said about serif MIDLAND on a black panel still stands. Forget about liveries that existed before the coaches were built!

To answer some of your questions..... If you opt for Midland livery, the word MIDLAND is serif style on a black background. Crimson lake colour is the same on Midland and LMS. It is possible some ran unlined in LMS days after repairs during the war and in the postwar period. Lining out any coach with raised panelling is more difficult that simple lining on a flush side. I built one but didn't photograph it. I did however etch a short-run in brass in 2003-4 and made masters to cast 8ft and 10ft w.b. bogies. Most went to Switzerland but I heard some appeared on ebay recently.

With a beatiful Indian girl on my arm @ 13, I didnt need pocket money! However, I did not realize the lads age....I thought it was a leg-pull. So good luck with your modelling K☼☼l-Dude . Tap up your uncles, as they're generally good to have around if they know you have a hobby interest..

They did.

Aren't blogs interesting.

Regarding loco weathering, young people can only go off photos and so we get back to the old chestbut that information is not knowledge. Colour photography plus colour printing exagerates and saturates certain hues and colours. The further we step back from a real loco, the less distinct is detail, therefore an impression of weathering works better on models. Capturing in-service weathering can soon turn to an out-of-service rusting hulk if one isn't careful.

It seems weard having filmed and photographed the very first Class 60's to visit North Wales and be seen in Penmaenmawr quarry yard, only to read on here they are going. Twenty years isn't a good innings for expensive locos.

Come to think of it, I noticed the Kichen Cars were actually unmarked but I wasn't aware they carried Restaurant Car. We live and learn.

Mickler, I thought it should carry Kitchen Car and not Restaurant Car.

Just when everything looked like it was wheeltappers stuff, I only just come across this thread while looking for some modelling to read. It's so refreshing to see a layout that has coaches to suit instead of being dominated by Mk.I's., and what a layout. Shame on me, I baulked at liddle 'ol Diggle and here you building Peterborough! Looking smashing. Your sceninc section trackwork looks great.

Anyone have any idea of relative costs of each type. The 'tools' I use are stone-age like a honed dart slapped it with a pair of Xuron cutters!

You must have the patience of a saint man. All that cross-bracing would drive me nuts thats for sure. I hope you don't have cats pouncing all over the shop chasing flies... Oh, I forgot....you have to paint that lot yet......Aaggghhh!

Chis Nevards soap works?

If the boiler could be morphed into a smaller one suitable for a 'Star', I for one could put up with the moulding line....B)

A glossy 'Western', one of my all-time favourite designs. I'd certainly like to see a picture of the glossy Heljan model......

Just washed up and so it was a neat suprise to find thise pictures on this thread. Many thanks Tony for taking the trouble and putting them here. Everything about this model looks looks very upmarket. Maybe it's because it is a remnant of the older 'Star' that I prefer the original cylinder cover as pictured here. I think the only improvement left would be for Hornby to slim down its orange boiler band lining.

The men at Llandudno Junction thought very highly of the Class 24's Bob......They could be thrashed unlike the 25's, or so they told me. As such they were more likely to be chosen to work Adex's and specials up the hilly Conway Valley branch. I wonder if anyone remembers what it was like in those days with no 'Beano' to tell keep linesiders up to date. We just never knew what would come along. An instance of this was when 24073 turned up one teatime on a stone train. It had been withdrawn in Scotland, everyone on the grapvine knew this, yet here it was in North Wales, reinstated!