coachmann

'Hornby's Best Ever Models'? Throwing Airfix aircraft into the pot because Hornby is the parent company is a bit slim. What next? Hornby's Seven inch Flower Fairies with little petal outfits and wings.

Bakewells last years wasn't on my mind when I said I may not bother with the other platform canopy. I know well the environment in my shed and a dark brooding station hid by canopies does not work. I saw this first hand with my model of Greenfield. The model was more depressing than the real thing on a wet day! Chatting on line has helped me decide not to model Bakewell. A work of fiction seems the best course.

Not on your leef, as Eamon Andrews would say. I'm just reading at the moment and kicking ideas aside when they look too depressing.

A bit of fun from 1957 that might be enlightening to those who think loco green is pale and 1949-56 carmine red resembles maroon....

Thanks very much for the link to this thread. Very interesting and it gives me something to read.

T'was a big 'un.... Telephoto pulls Trawsfynedd Power Station into the background.

As far as I know, the wagons were taken up to Maentwrog Road from Llandudno Junction sidings as required. If things were running late at the 'top', then anything could happen. There was a change of routine from 6th July 1987 when economies were effected in order to save a loco and crew. The gunpowder working was combined with the morning Speedlink from Valley and on arrival at Llandudno Junction, the loco would leave its wagons in the yard before working the Conway Valley Trip to Maentwrog Road during the afternoon. It suited me as I no longer had to make a very early morning drive to Blaenau for photos!

The info on Stanley Jenkins scale drawings is useful although 'based on' is more likely with me rather than a true copy of Bakewell. The false wall of the other platform would be omitted otherwise it would put the station in darkness due to the lighting. Even Carrog suffers from shadow despite the very small waiting room on the Down. The best lit place for a station is always at the shed door end, and I may go for this if I can manage to keep the baseboard width sensible near the doorway. It was possible with Greenfield. Two layouts would be best; one Midland and 'tother GWR, but mixing the two ain't easy unless I move the location into Worcester.

I seem to remember I removed the metal splasher front which is also the nameplate and filed the nameplate back so that the metal plate was flush all over. Then the outer ends were clipped off so that they would not show behind the new etched brass nameplates. Re the etched plates, I removed the backing plate and glued the nameplates to the Hornby metal pressing. The metal below the nameplate had to be painted green and lined out in orange as did the cabside number plates. The lot was then glued onto the splasher. I think lining can be obtained from Modelmaster along wit the plates....

Followers of this thread may have noticed a lack of anything happening on the layout of late now that it isn't far off completion. Signals to build (plastic ones are useless), but I am confused when faced with a mile-long list of parts for building metal signals. Fake point rodding to add. Also passengers and gardens to add to platforms. Two problems arise. First, Carrog is not satisfying to operate any longer. I have known this for some time and this frame of mind has prevented me from building any GWR coaches. Second is the real culprit!!! Friend PGH told me ages ago that I am a builder first and foremost so, when a layout nears completion, I rip it up and build again. Sadly, I fear he is right. However, everything is running smoothly since the code 100 relay and I have had no excuse to bring in the headache ball. So my mind is busy but the days are empty because there is nothing to get stuck into. Some people call it a lack of mojo, but I know exactly what it is with me. I need to be 'doing' all the time. I can almost hear one of my customers shouting "Well in that case, built my bloody coaches!". Carrog is really an inverted version of my Greenfield layout with a station on a curve and a decent 'run-in'. I didn't have DCC sound when Greenfield was built, but I have long felt it would be ideal for mainline trains slogging upgrade and others clanking downgrade. The downside is the LNWR location in the damp Pennines which I swore I would never re-visit. Bakewell in the Peak District again offers a double track mainline through a curving station served by mostly ex.MR engines of which I am very fond. Far more scenic and just the ticket, as I would start building LMS coaches again! The third and final scenario is a fictional Ruabon type of station astride the GWR Chester-Shrewsbury mainline but of GWR & LMS Joint property. Ah well, back to the deckchair....

The DCC-fitted and renumbered GWR 47XX has been sprayed over with more diluted slightly brownish-grey cellulose since my previous post. It looked too clean in photos! I have also re designated the remaining buttons on the Lenz LH90 handset to more loco whistles. I dont know why I didn't do this before, as the various whistles come in handy when moving off and shunting.... It is a matt finish but it doesn't look it in photos. Only a chalk-matt finish conveys workaday dirt, but the loco would be difficult to keep free of dust and handling marks. I must say I am well pleased with this Heljan loco. It conveys the massive proportions and sense of weight perfectly. The idea of a solid metal 'boiler' with a detailed plastic outer sleeve is a great idea for putting weight where it is needed most while allowing the motor to be hidden. It is a bit over complicated though and the motor could easily have been put in the firebox instead of hidden within the weight. This way the boiler could have been withdrawn forward without having to remove the cab when adding lubrication. The set-up would suit the GWR 2251 and Dean Goods, in fact any loco that demands fresh air below the boiler, and is preferable to splitting the boiler as on the aforementioned 0-6-0's.

F*ckin' hell.

Hi Nick, The limit I have is only being able to scan existing prints, as I have not printed any negatives for years. In addition, if there is no caption on the back, I am stumped for details without matching them with a negative (they are in the attic) and then looking up the neg in a diary for full caption info. More transparencies than monochrome negatives may have been expended on the Trawsfynedd traffic, but again they are in the attic....A place I rarely venture to except for Xmas decorations! I also have movie on Video8, Hi8 and S-VHS, but technology has left me behind and I have no way of playing them back today. Some material was transferred to DVD and I tried uploading some to YouTube recently, but it failed for some reason. I think movie would be the most interesting to you with you using DCC. Maybe I have missed in on this thread, but if you run other trains past Meantwrog Road, I have photos of flask traffic, ballast, DMU's, Spinters, Engineering Saloons etc.

The original NER B16 is an obvious choice because it had a long lifespan. The D20 lasted longer but was scrapped earlier. Personally, my choice would run with the sixty D20 4-4-0's because of their beautiful lines. By the time of withdrawal in November 1957, they were I think the last of the classic 4-4-0's with straight running plate and large splashers. They just glided along on those large drivers and to have seen one of these Victorian classics in the flesh must have been really something. Full NER livery would look swell and yet their typical NER straightforward lines did not depend on colour to make these locos look attractive.

Here are a few that worked down the branch on the gunpowder, starting with 47147 with only the barrier wagons, seen crossing Troderavon viaduct near Betws-Y-Coed... 47281 snaking downgrade towards Dolwydellan with a loaded train... 25912 Tamworth Castle approaching Tal-Y-Cafn at 13.25hrs on 23rd July 1986 ... 47324 is in the dip below Meantwrog Road on one of the numerous check-railed curves on 24th September 1987. It was particularity wet down there and it showed..... 47144 making its way to Maentwrog Road Road along the oldest portion of the Trawsfynedd-Ffestiniog section of the old GWR. It was originally 1ft 11½" narrow gauge track and the camber is particularly noticeable here.... 47324 curving away from Maentwrog Road with a loaded train on 24th September 1987.... Gunpowder from Cooks Explosives Works at Penryndeadraeth being transferred from road to rail on 16th June 1987. The loco is 47192. Two years later, the location became te temporary teminus for the 'Sunday Shuttles' DMU service from Llandudno. It was extended to Trawsfynedd in 1990....

Nope.....We need another machine introduced in 1870 like the Stirling Single.....and its in the NRM too! Midland Kirtley 2-4-0. If we're gonna have a North Eastern locos, pray it's a damn sight more useful than 'Aerolite'.

Fred was a character. Do you remember when we and our families went to the comparatively new K&WVR and Fred and I were in dispute over the colour of LNER buffer shanks. Darlington Works and Doncaster Works had different ideas so some B1's had black shanks and some red. We were diesel hauled in a distinctly dusty SE&CR saloon.

I wonder how many historical railway modellers stick with a single project throughout thier lifetime? David Jenks did with his version of the Settle & Carlisle and my pal PGH has with his 'Moving coal' colliery complex based in Lancashire. Another friend who has done this is of course is you Derek, as you were busy on the layout when we first met in the very early 1970's. Nigh on half a Century! You were one of several very talented builders to become life-long friends and who I was privileged to paint for. Looking back at some of my late 1960's advertising in the model magazines, I rather grandly projected myself as 'The Midland Specialist'. The Midland/LMS had been 'my line' since I was a child so I enjoyed painting other modellers MR locos, which is the best way of earning a crust! But your locos were rather special because it was the first time I had seen Kirtley's beautiful creations in model form. This came to mind when I was looking at the NRM's Stirling Single thread on this forum. Another 1870 loco was Kirtleys 2-4-0 & Tender, and that too is in the Museum. One can only hope the NRM gets around to that one next! LG

Goodness knows why I wrote that silly sentence when I know better. Senior moment time!

The loco did run round its stock in Blaenau Ffestiniog before propelling the train the 6½ miles to Trawsfynedd. I got up very early one morning and drove over to Blaenau to film the whole process and as much as I could along the route. It took some nifty driving, nipping across fields and a certain amount of cooperation from the train crew.

Polls are fun, but lets not get carried away. A large proportion of locos, coaches and wagons come as a complete surprise to hobbyists when they are announced. Remarks like "Wow......Wasn't expecting that....My poor wallet......" show that people do not know what they want until they are told.

Hi Rob. No, so I drilled an old NEM socket out and mounted it with an 8BA bolt that tapped itself into a slightly too-small hole.

The photo above brought to life.....

One of the Heljan 47's has now been prepared for service on the layout. The top picture shows a DC loco with blanking plate and a DCC loco with speaker and two stay-alives... Great care had ot be taken while removing the moulded-on cabside number plate. Don't Heljan know that some folk prefer to fit engraved plates, or even renumber their locos? I had placed the route restriction red dot in the correct place above the number plate (for BR days).... I gave up on the plastic injector drain pipes and bent up new ones from brass rod... Resprayed, weathered and fitted with etched plates.... I had considered doing it in BR lined green. It would have entailed removing all the gubbins in front of the splashers, but then I asked myself if I really wanted a shiny green 2-8-0 and the answer was....No! The 47XX's looks better grotty.... Looking more at home on the layout.... Entering Carrog with a return excursion. The loco had turned on the triangle at Barmouth Junction whle its trains was taken forward over the bridge to Barmouth by a loco off Penmaenpool Shed...

The toy train manufacturers are doing what they do best and I think the cork is out of the bottle now and that we can expect further delights for 'hornbyfans' and collectors rather than "modellers" locos. News that there could be news about GNR coaches also fits into this market. What price a GNoSR D40, LNWR Hardwick, NER D20 4-4-0, GWR Armstrong 4-4-0 etc etc. I shouldn't be surprised if Hornby and Bachmann are busy revising their futures in the light of this Stirling Single.