coachmann

Wthout a doubt those vans look good especially with screw couplings. But aren't they a pain to work with.....uncoupling and coupling, not to mention buffer-locking while being propelled?

Having just played catch-up looking through dozens of pages, 31A's Cravens DMU on a murky night does it for me as the most realistic model, or should I say photo. Even allowing for what friend Jim s-w describes as a UFO in the background, I was hard put to find any detail that said it was a model. The driver looks utterly lifelike as does the DMU glazing.

Penrith Beacon : You asked a question and I responded as best I could. Natural teak varies considerably in colour, and darkens with varnishing and other processes. As for "Looking at the evidence in front on ones eyes does have its virtues", what is that all about?

I'm no expert on LNER and so all I can add is the springs on the Chivers Finelines 4-wheel pigeon van are 4ft 6ins.

I'm suprised you are fitting those gawd-awful K's driving wheels. In the 1970s most builders in the model trade routinely chucked them and fitted turned Romford wheels with nicket silver tyres both sides (we would short one side out and just have pick-ups on one side).

PenrithBeacon : I see what you are saying and agree to a point if one is replicating as accurately as possible a particular preserved vehicle. But the thing to bare in mind is these coaches have had layers of BR maroon and carmine & cream removed plus possibly the varnish off the LNER teak finish during restoration. So what you have left after rubbing the panels down, staining the bad ones, and replacing the rotten ones is a different finish than existed even in LNER days. In fact they were changing everytime they went in for shopping and often got darker through revarnishing. Variety is the name of the game if modelling teak.

I seem to remember the frame screws used to have a shallow flat head and were not countersunk. Two LH firebox sides was bad luck. Stephen, Is this a recently produced kit or is an ancient kit you have uncovered?

'OO' (dublo or double-O) is correct when we are using letters from the alphabet. '00' is double-naught, not anything, zilch........ I wouldn't get semanticalophicus correctus about it.....Maybe '00' is a cliche...

Sorry about that Max S. Here they are in true color.......

Plus a few names that didn't.... Viva 40150 Crewe, and wasn't there Dracula...

That is very true when they were officially transferred to another region.

I understand what you are saying armchair modeller, but I think boundary changes only affected fixed assets such as signal boxes etc.. The LNWR Standedge line was transferred to the Eastern Region more or less at the entrance to Diggle tunnels and so signal boxes and lineside huts of LNWR origins east of there became blue and white. But coaching stock was not transferred. It was supplied on some Hull-Manchester and Newcastle-Liverpool trains by the LMR and on others by the ER. Many lines in Cambrian and the Borders territory were of mixed origins and it was not unusual to find ex-GWR, LMS and LNER coaches working the branches. But it was probably for operating convenience when working quite complicated diagrams. The coaches would most likely return to their respective regional works for maintenance.

I think it would be dangerous to assume from what has been written here that borrowings were "commonplace". A lot more research might actually reveal otherwise. The operating area generally provided the stock, but at the end of the day the train MUST run, and if for any reason a coach was deemed unfit (from a broken window to mechanical fault) then an alternative had to be found quick-style. It might be quicker to send a suitable coupled pair from coaches laying over in a siding than uncouple a defective vehicle. There is a picture in a book by David Jenkinson showing the 1.51pm Carlisle-Oxenhope stopper in the Lune Valley, consisting of ex LNER corridor stock........ David goes on to say ..."Setting aside the question of why the London Midland Region was using 'foreign'' carriages......." etc.

I would not have been suprised at one of the 57ft 2-window coaches or the Period II variant, but the 60ft D1795 does seem a little untypical hanging about on a 'foreign' branchline. It was something of a prestige vehicle in its time.

Talking of knackered springs, I havent seen anyone replicate a half-cab Lowbridge bus yet, you know, the ones with long seats up stairs and an off-side passageway. The weight fell on the nearside when loaded and the spings on that side got knacked so that these buses had a definite lean even without road camber to contend with. Quite how one would modify an EFE or Corgi bus is anyones guess but it would look effective. I have photos but cannot upload due to copyright.

Jim SW : I think one can, in fact I felt quite guilty about not having a camber on the road up past Greenfield Station two layouts ago. The thing is, camber is visible on photos and buses etc are often around 4mm scale or smaller on postcards. It was something I had to look out for when driving and was in fact a factor of the PSV driving test.

Road camber is there all right (at least on Welsh roads) and if anyone has ever driven one of the old double decker buses with a full load they'de know it was necessary to counteract for it otherwise the bus would be darned uncomfortable to steer. So yes the buses could lean quite a lot, especially the pre-war built 7' 6" wide buses that had weak springs by postwar years.

The 0-4-2T bowling along the road was a credit to British film makers at a time when other Brit movies were 20 years behind Hollywood with wood & cardboard battleships in bathtubs and cigarette style smoking chimneys.

Thanks for the link 'coach bogie' http://www.6g.nwrail...ffphotopage.htm. The fifth picture from the bottom must surely be an empty stock working out of Llandudno Junction as the train not only consists of LNWR luxury 12-wheel 10pm stock, but there is also an LNWR diagram M11 push pull open saloon trailer 4th coach from the loco. How tidy places looked in those days. What is this current love affair with trees anyway?

The transition era in modelling terms probably looks dead interesting 50 years on. Time is a good leveler. Since moving my time-period from the early 1950s to 1958 I'm looking at things afresh seeing as so much had changed in the intervening years. And yes, there is scope now for a DMU or two!

Sounds deeply flawed doesnt it Phil. BR had a crap reputation for preservation in those days.....The Scottish engines laid aside for preservation for example then cut up.

Viva le GWR BLT ....! I suppose the scandal was the scrapping of those coaches afterwards.

Copying things we see on the prototype? I'm all for it if it leads to more accurate clichés....

Ah yes, and Liverpool Street outer suburban workings with L1's and Gresley non-corridors plus B17 hauled expresses....