coachmann

Thanks very much Ceptic for responding to my request for pictures and for posting them. My, don't they look a treat. I saw coach No.45 (Kitchen Third) and so presume this is in a different pack. Some serious financial thinking now going on....

Thanks very much Taz for taking the trouble to locate this model. Larry

Hi Mike T, Thanks very much and for the link to 'Ladas'. Just the ticket if I can hold of one.

Can anyone post pictures of the 12-wheel Pullmans please?

Must say I am impressed with the Silver Jubilee train of coaches. Also the Hornby 'Great Northern' adaption. I always liked these A3's with the round dome, so did Hornby ever produce this variant in BR green? The trouble for me converting a 'GN' is I'd have to lower the cab and respray over the LNER green livery to BR - which is such a shame.

I did a lot of refurbishing of Exley coaches (usually stripping the paint (what a job that was) and respraying and lining out etc. The Exley MR clerestory coach above was done for one Derek Lawrence and this is what gave him the idea to produce 'Exley' type coaches from BSL and Westdale aluminium parts in 1973. As has been stated, Exley were renown for their stove baked gloss finish. I replicated the ultra-gross hard wearing finish using cellulose heat-dried. It was expected in those far off days. Exleys suffered from a particular problem, that of steel touching the aluminium and causing what can only be described as varicose veins on the roof. The cause was simple....... Exley used picture glass and this was held in place by spring steel stretchers with black paper insulators between the steel and the aluminium shell. Either the paper broke down with age of some numpty had pulled the coaches apart and ommited to replace the paper insulation. As far as I am aware there were the 'popular' range and the more expensive coaches. Some were shorties (a lot of non-corridors) while others were scale models. The Exley plastic bogie was rather neat but many modellers fitted Anbrico bogies or Rex-Kennedy bogies. The latter were whitemetal sideframes rivetted to a spring steel stretcher, in otherwords, the bogies were sprung. Larry Goddard

GM rebuilt 'Peak'.......

BR Blue Brit, to suit corporate blue era, if steam had run its course......

Class 67 in the white and gold livery carried by BRC&W 'Lion'....

All this shows is the writer never experienced the 'old order'. One only has to looks at what the LMS was building for the third class passenger in 1935....A corridor coach with comfortable seats, control over heating, a lamp above every seat and the a wall covering of empire veneers. This standard of travel was the norm for LMR travellers on mainline journeys right up to circa 1966. Notthing built since even compares.Then there were the non-corridor coaches that most people probably commuted in to work. The seats were adequate for the short journeys and of course we travelled in virtual silence. The new DMU knocked minutes off journey times, but the trade off was uncomfortable bus type seats plus noise and vibration from the underfloor engines. Sadly for us plebs, there was such a surplus of DMU's by 1966 that these noisy cramped bone shakers were put on longer distance journeys for which they were unsuited. I was living in Wales by this time and the standard of travel being offered to rail travellers by then simply lead me to buying a car. We've experienced a better way of doing things, its as simple as that. Today my wife and I love travelling from Carrog into Llangollen in a Mk.I corridor compartment coach and so we too have accepted dumbing down as an inevitable fact of life. But the cars and roads have gotten better! Apologies for the diversion....I'll have to create a photoshopping now I suppose.

A monotonous sea of blue and standard coaches was a poor substitute for the British railway scene of the 1940s, 50s and early 1960s, and you'de be expecting a lot if you thought older railway enthusiasts would dumb down. I witnessed the changes and the destruction of lines, yards, loco sheds, mass redundancies, and the sheer waste on money in the rush towards 'modernisation'. I didnt see the 'heady days' you referred to. 'New & Modern?....All you saw was a change in traction. Sure the electrics on the WCML speeded up journey times, as did DMUs on branchlines, but thats politics and for the commuters. When I visited Manchester London Road to see someone off on an electric in 1960, enthusiasts were conspicuous by their absense. Two years before, you couldn't move for spotters! It is a long time ago now and I expect the corporate blue era looks exciting. Well it would compared with today.

The old WHR has the trump card with 'Russell' and no doubt those aware of historical matters would love to see this loco working on the new WHR, at least as far as Bedgellert. Trouble is such a venture could be seen to be creaming off revenues, so I cannot see how the two companies can come together until such time as the new railway is confident it can turn a profit. In the current fiancial downturn, it remains to be seen how many people will travel the whole journey from Caernarfon to Porthmadog. Then of course the Festiniog Railway proper has yet to see if their own finances have been hit by revenues going to the new WHR, as has the old WHR. In otherwords, it is early days for everybody.

For me the corporate BR blue & grey era did nothing to lift the spirits when Britian was at an all time low. It should have heralded the white-hot technologial revolution but instead it came to represent everything that had gone badly wrong in the 60s and 70s. Small wonder then that the end of the steam age also represented the end of a way of life for many people. Ah, thats better!

Good god, I've heard everything now!

In my lifetime I've seen the FR resurecting their own line back to Blaenau Ffestiniog, and overseeing the building the Caernarvon-Porthmadog 'WHR' line as well, both mammoth tasks by any standards. It is easy to take the Festiniog Railway Company for granted nowadays but I remember a time when the Snowdonian mountains were silent. Those people down near the Porthmadog station have had their little line for years and so speaking as a mere cynic and member of the travelling public, my suspicion is they fancy cashing-in on the FR's success now the donkey work has been done. If I want to see heritage WHR and a take a little trip up and down a tourist attraction I know which line to visit, but if I want to park my car and get somewhere for real, then the new WHR has it. I have no doubt the latter line will be run run a businesslike manner, indeed it is a necessity if it is to survive and pay a dividend. Amateur dramatics they don't need.

I never had time to write books about my livelyhood, but if you want the advice of one of the 'originals', this is it...... DRESSING PENS : Keep the tips of the pen fine using finest emery then lightly rule a short line about 2 inches long (as you would using paint) on the emery paper. This might sound daft but it brings both nibs level. Check them again under a magnifyer and if both nibs have an equal flat area (not too flat mind you!) then your pen is ready for use. I cannot assist in honing your pen unfortunately as I am left handed so your pen will slope a different way if you're right handed. How long should the prongs be......? Buy the smallest pen you can find is the answer as these have finer tips. As an example, the length of my pens overall from tip to end of handle is 4 1/4 inches. PAINT : Use only Humbrol gloss paint. Let a new tin settle for several days before pouring off the oil into a spare tin. Stir whats left into a thick putty then pour back about a quarter of the oil you poured off. Stir and this should be good consistency for lining. As you get further down the tin it might be necessary to pour in a little more oil. BASE : Lining goes on any surface but as matt has a texture then gloss surface is preferable. You can always matt down afterwards. I went to art school, so does this matter? No not really. A friend opf mine is a draughtsman/sureveyor and I do all his lining for him because for some reason he cannot work on 3-dimentional objects. Practice, practice, practice is best advice. I started in 1962 with a brass handbuilt bow-pen compass belonging to my grandad, so Ive had a good few years head start Mike! COLOUR : Humbrol No.69 yellow always seems to be runny and translucent so I always cheat by mixing it 50-50 with Humbrol No.7 cream. This is used on coaching stock from all the Big Four companies. As you know, the LNER used primrose edged with a fine red line and the LMS corridor stock 1923-34, had a red line beside cream. Little point in attempting the red lines in 4mm (1/16" in real life) and so my 50-50 mix looks about right. When it comes to lining out Gresley coaches, I use cellulose as it dries almost as soon as it leaves the bow pen and remains on top of "knife-edge" etched beading. However, enamel can be used successfully so long as you keep the lining fine and the enamel paint thick. Larry Goddard

Weren't the WHR people down by Porthmadoc station against the new FR/WHR venture?

Looking at this (Burkitts LMS black 'Peak') I could have lived with diesels this colour!

I'm using primer (from Brothers and Simoniz) but have used Halfords metal primer. The "secret" is to lay on a first fine coat (never mind its bald). After 3 minutes or so lay on a second coat wetter this time. Finally a third coat wet all over. Leave to 'cure' for a minimum of 4 hours over a convector heater for the first 15 minutes to prevent fogging. If I take a short-cut, as I do sometimes with my own models, I put a colour on top of the primer after 2-3 hours and paint tends to chip off steps later on....A sure sign the primer wasnt left long enough. For washing models I use Ajax powder, 1/2 inch paintbrush and a toothbrush and wash off with very hot water. I shake it and leave it to dry. Do not use a towel or anything as threads, hairs etc will be left on the model. Before spraying, brish the model off with a 1/2 inch paintbrush used solely for this job. I know it sounds long winded but it's an easy routine to get into and it pays dividends. Larry

As a commercial organisation I have to look for good but innexpensive. Etching primer is not a pre-requisit. I ditched that idea in 1971.

Yes, Halfords primers can be used on brass. Nckel silver, alumimium and steel too. But watch out for plastic primer. This can only be used on plastic and cannot be trusted on metal.

On this day in history my dear wifey was born. But don't ask me to tell you what was happening on the railway on 22 May 1942....

Even if the LMS had been given drawings to build 'Castles, I'll bet they would have incorporated LMS standard parts...... Fowler 3.500 gallon Tender, 3-cylinder Walchearts valvegear and maybe a parallel boiler....... A cock-up in true Anderson/Fowler tradition. The reason why the LMS continued with certain outdated ideas in the late 1920s/early 1930s wasn't just because of certain powerful ex-Midland men. The 1929 - early 30's depression also played its part. But for all that, stupidy reigned when the final Fowler locos came out (even if they do make super models ).

Is it just me or what, but I cannot see the point of showing how smooth DCC locos run on YouTube when the format is inherantly unstable and just makes the locos look as if they are running jerkilly.

The idea is probably as old as railway modelling, building a 'what - if' branch to a place that was never served by a railway. So long as everything is taken into account such as surveying the route to see what would be involved and potential traffic with particular regard to freight. Then a loco might be designed to work that route if has unique characteristics, or locos bought secondhand and adapted. Locos on the M&GN were from the Midland Railway and the Great Northern yet, with reboilering/rebuilding, none ever quite looked like the locos still running on the original companies lines.