coachmann

The loco is looking well. Pretty obvious are the casting feeds......right on the edge of the running plate on this loco! Why some manufacturers do that is beyond me as they are difficult to remove is such areas.

I wonder how some lines continue to exist to be honest let alone big locomotives. There are fewer trains on the North Wales manline than ran down the Vale of Clwyd line in the 1950s, and that lost its passenger services before and during the Beeching era. Same with many other lines I expect.

The sound effect is pretty basic innit. Locos puffing to a halt interests me. How would one do it? Keep regulator open while applying the brakes at the same time..... Mmmmm. You need to key in coasting and light steam etc. At least the sound gave 4 beats per wheel revolution as it accelerated but then things went pear shaped as it got really fast. Interesting for all that. A pal of mine has sound in his locos but the puffs are deeper and have a lot more base than I've ever heard on youTube. The old and new Castle comparisons were interesting.

Tonight I fancied a bit of Fanny.

It is 53 years ago that a 'Castle' was produced by Hornby (Dublo), and it wasn't half a decent model too. It is weard to think back on this model (Bristol Castle) and the 8F 2-8-0, that the hobby was so close to having scale models even then but went backwards after the Triang-Hornby takeover.

In the bad 'ol days, Triang and Hornby used to print boiler band lining on either side of a raised moulded line, in other words, the lining was actually on the boiler cladding sheets, not the bands. Despite advances in other areas over the past decade, Hornby has continued the legacy of moulding boiler bands too narrow. In fact without removing them completely, it is impossible to line out boiler bands correctly. See images below... Note the boiler band lining is about the same width as that on the cabsides and tender.

Driving towards Bedgellert today, I saw smoke in distance. Wipped into laybye and told Mrs G. we should stretch our legs down by the river but didn't mention train. Then I spied something cruddy behind loco so changed my position to get head-on shot! The loco is Tasmanian K class, the first Garratt locomotive, which I've not seen since the 1960s when it was at Porthmadog. This to me is what the new WHR is all about....scenery, history and pleasant suprises....

I presume the Thompsons had standard LNER buffing gear and clipped round head buffers.

Lovely model there of a lovely machine. Far better looking than the Georges and their overwide toy-like 'Basset-Lowke' splashers. The Precursor was well named, the first of as new breed for the LNWR. Its the one that should have been preserved in 1949 in my view.

Which roughly translated means, get caught short on platform, there's nothing like a good headshunt.......

New toilet block? If you get caught short, there's nothing like a good headshunt.......

The blind leading the blind isn't all that amusing.....

Talking of bankers, what's the betting Bullied wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes on the LMS.....

A red A1 ? He would have had to get rid of Anderson and the rest of the old Midland chumps otherwise his Pacific would have been a compound with a 3,500 gallon tender and the axleboxes off a 4F.

There was no need of Robinson 'Pacifics'. The hoped for traffic on the new mainline never materialized, and in anycase, the large engines he did build were mostly a flop. Pity, as they were beautiful designs. It would be interesting to start with an LMS 'Jubilee', Caprotti valvegear, and build a cosmetic GCR 9P Lord Faringdon so that it would have properly proportioned boiler/firebox and ashpan and modern front end.

Even when the same paint was used on steam and diesel locos, the freshly applied paint simply looked darker on diesels because of the expance of unlined area. Red Warships always looked drab compared with a lined out Duchess for instance. Class 40s looked as if they had been painted in a green bought in by English Electric! The black splashers tops have to be painted green on every Hornby and Bachmann BR green loco. I used Railmatch 300 BR Loco Green with a smidgen of black added on the Bachmann 'Jubilee' and 'Patriot', but the paint had to be lightened to match Hornbys green. It is simply too light.

You have to START with the correct colour. What you do with it afterwards comes under the heading of 'weathering'. Don't forget the GWR green that was applied with far too much thinners to make the paint go further looked fine on the day the paint was applied. It went khaki or blackened while in traffic. A modeller replicating this would not pour black or khaki into his tin of GWR green ..... would he? At this distance in time, we have to start somewhere. It seems to me the best starting point is either to obtain paint from the manufacturers who supplied the Big Four (Williamson or Masons), assuming they still have the recipe, but easier still for modellers is the range of Precision Paints GLOSS colours.

If it was one of those, I've got a scoop!

I opened a business account with Kings X circa 1971-2 and found the staff a delight to work with. I'm afraid the old wooden coach kits were regarded as old-hat even then though. I remember reading of Bob Essery using wooden kits to built a 4mm push pull set in the early to mid 1960s. I had a go at one bought from Tyldsley & Holbrook in Manchester but it required an awful lot of filling and paint. Plastikard appeared on the modelling scene in the early 60s, followed by some pressed aluminium shells from I forget who and later on the much more sensible BSL aluminium coach kits. The wooden coach kits are a neat reminder of how difficult it was for scale modellers in the those days, but only the brave would tackle on these days.

After my recent operation I was given Ferrous Sulphate Tablets. "What are they doctor" "Iron tablets" "I don't like them" "Have they made your stools black?" "Worse than that.....When I wake up in a morning I'm facing north!"

There was nowhere for him to jump clear so it must have been a case of hanging on and hoping for the best. The lower stepboard on his van was demolished so he must have felt something of the impact as the van scraped along the displaced platform edging slabs. It was unfamilarity that took me by suprise. Walking onto the platform around the corner of the building, I was confronted with a wagon propped up against the front of the building. My reaction was total bewilderment....It was all so unreal. I then screwed my Mamiya 645 onto the monopod and casually proceded to take pictures while chatting to some of the railwaymen who were beginnig to appear at the scene. Looking down into a waist-level viewfinder is what wedding photograhers used to do, and I suspect it gave the impression I was officlal or at least knew what I was doing!

This is the very last photo I took on the final day of Woodhead, 76022 ambling through Newton Station in pouring rain en route to Guide Bridge to be switched off for the last time, 17th July 1981. I chose this location because Newton was my birthplace, in fact I was born not far away in the Aspland during the war. My nearest station was actually Hyde North, but I saw much of Newton as a small child...... the C13 4-4-2Ts and J11's on local passengers trains, plus the heavy stuff. I even photographed an electric hauled freight at Newton in the mid 1950s....can't think why!

No one has any excuse for getting railway colours wrong.....Paints matched to the real colours have been available since goodness knows when courtesy Mr. Sheppard ex-Precision Paints. Only on RMweb do I see heresy and confusion! There is no confusion in the world outside. Hornby may have compromised their colours with a chalky matt finish. I'll tackle one of my locos in due course to see if it can be darkenned or given more depth by applying a clear cellulose spray over. Larry G.

They say Britain is full of character. The Welsh tourist industry wants tourists, the local councils delight in coning off roads to make life as difficult as possible for tourists, shop-keepers and pub-owners love tourists because they can rip them off, the Welsh dislike the English for something that happened 800 years ago, the English dislike the Welsh for speaking in their native tongue in their own country, wind turbines are erected at all major beauty spots, and so it goes.....

I agree. If only these guys would get their act together and adopt the best finish, which as far as I can see is a combination of Bachmann's BR green and Hornby's fine lining out. Thanks for the background to the Swindon model livery.