coachmann

Funnily enough, I have never worked Carrog as a heritage line before this mornings session. A glimpse of the future with Betton Grange working a train to Carrog and terminating there because of mid-week engineering at Corwen.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ChHbKWUoo

Another loco I have been preparing while it is still DC is a Bachmann 'Crab' that was very kindly given me by fellow-member Paul Ashton (Focalplane). The front end hunted from side to side which, while prototypical, did not look attractive in model form. I put it down to side-play, which is enormous and far beyond the needs of my layout with its minimum 3' radius. So I made spacers from 30thou Plastikard to slip behind the leading and trailing driving wheels.... A shot of them in situ behind the leading drivers prior to painting black. Held in place with a spot of Loctite.... For those folk, young and old, for whom kneeling down is a pain, I sit on a small plastic buffet instead. Dead useful when taking low-level photos or carrying out under-baseboard wiring etc.. The loco now runs as straight as an arrow and it will be renumbered, weathered and converted to DCC sound later in the year....

It is merely an illusion caused by the beading that runs along the base of the Tender sidesheet. The tender footplate is in fact below that of the locomotive on the real 3802. Another view of 3802 entering Carrog in 2015 ...

Two screws out and body off. That was pretty well how it was with the toy manufacturers locos. The Heljan is two screws out (the long ones showing below the wheels) but they release the boiler only. The motor is within a heavy metal imitation boiler, which in turn slides inside the plastic boiler. Two screws under the cab release the cab. Best to remove the cab first. I carried out this disassembly on the black loco to see what was involved before respraying the green loco. The Hattons/DJM 14XX is top of the pile for 'weard chassis design', and this Heljan 47XX comes second. That said, the Bachmann 2251 and the Oxford Dean Goods could be like this to put weight where it is needed and to avoid the poor current poor match of separate halves of a boiler. All the DCC gubbins could be in the Tender of both locos.

We don't know how many people who buy locos because they are appealing and how many historical modellers buy loco becasue they fit their modelling period. On top of that, we don't know how many are only interested in the loco or how many historical modellers would find 6-wheel coaches useful. Overall, it could be a smallish section of the railway modelling world and distinctly chancy for a mass-production company. There is talk of missed opportunities, but while there are undoubtedly some, it is not always in areas that an individual would wish for. If a company is to take a gamble with 6-wheel GNR coaches, probably the best bet is just one coach to test the market and give collectors something to place on the shelf behind their Single. That coach could be a brake third with characteristic guards lookout that could be in GNR lined livery, LNER unlined livery and as a Departmental vehicle for use in the BR era. In short, it is attractive to the widest audience and its sales just might encourage a follow-up all third on the same chassis.

No one seemed to spot the missing reverser lever a couple of posts ago. Posting on here usually spurs me onto sorting things out and so I scoured 'Peters Spares' website and bought an elderly 28XX pressed metal reverser from the days when Hornby built toys to last. 3802 & 3802 are seen below.... When I look at the total simplicity of Churchards original design and its power output, this GWR 2-8-0 was streets ahead of every other railway. Even after the Big four was formed, the LMS didn't catch on until 1935.

A moulding is often a decorative treatment to cover each of the panel joins, which often gave further scope fr embellishment. A bolection is something vital, as it is a picture frame moulding fixed from the outside to hold the fixed window glass in position.

Not intentional I can assure you. I am simply avoiding repeating myself on threads that deal with the same old issues every few months. The colour is B.S. 224 Deep Bronze Green. I get it from a trade supplier.

Only amateurs get hung up on paint colour. Professional model painters don't. Rather than have cellulose paint mixed to pattern, 'Bracks', myself and several other full-timers adopted a standard colour that was constant and readily available in cellulose. It has been used ever since, and I noticed that at least one of the younger full-time model painters has adopted the same green. It is not, as far as I know, available from Halfords. When it comes to model paints, Humbrol's so-called railway colours were a joke.

Small wages dont put bread on't table I'm afraid. My very last painting & lining list is dated 2003 and painting & lining a SR coach in full panelled livery was £95.00 at the time. As built, the diners had the usual wood color window bolections and droplights. It is likely the bolections were painted green by the mid 1930's. Without photographic evidence, it is probably safe to assume the original full lining was carried until at least 1934 and maybe beyond. Assuming any of the cars were repainted around that date, it is likely they were given the same livery again. Some simplification was experimented with on newly built corridor coaches from 1935 but, without photographic evidence, we simply do not know how much of this was carried over onto repainted dining cars.

In the main, Hornby Maunsell fully lined out coaches are suitable for the 1920's and 1930's. Add a completely unlined Dining Car to a train, and the date shoots to the end of the 1930's or even March 1940!

And with these buses came more engine sound and less gearbox whine that had typified of earlier AEC's (going off rally film I took)....

A small but long overdue improvement has been backscene plywood to cover the obvious tongue & groove planking at each end of the layout. The sheets were cut and painted with matt white undercoat in this mornings heat and photographed in this afternoons downpour....

Imagine..."This is our new GWR King suitable for the 1920's and 30's, but the tooling does not allow us to add lining to the product....." After all the complaints about the smallest thing, you "experts" shoot yourselves in the foot by rushing out to buy coaches that should be lined out (Dynamometer Car and this one).

It is such a long time ago that I honestly don't know. I think they were selling at their peak in the mid 1980's, as we tended to do production runs. All the negs are in the attic, a no-go area in the current heatwave. I have no knowledge of Maunsell green diners going over to unlined green.

Threads about GWR/BR green come around more regularly than a good .

I painted a good few of these diners over the years built from BSL kits. Always lined out when in Olive green.

I was thinking in terms of mounting a small camera on platforms and other places that would be impossible to place a conventional movie camcorder. An additional benefit would be the increased depth of focus from very small chips.

The reversing rod was always 'one of those jobs' I intended to sort. Peters Spares to the rescue...!

I wondered if anyone has used a Dashcam for filming their model railway layout. I dunno much about them and it is probable their optimum focus point is not close up. Still, any useful feedback would be welcome even if it's only "Don't bother...".

Interesting (to me at any rate) that Andy's image is larger than life and the dot printing of the grain is not visible. That makes it the best grained finish I have ever seen on a RTR product. What we could do with now are more grained teak coaches, but i suspect the printing alone is rather expensive and would make a Gresley corridor coach more expensive than most folk are prepared to pay.

No. the valve spindle is there although it may not be in line with the vacuum cylinder. It is missing off the current 'Grange'.

Ready-to-run is a compromise because of toy town curves. Traction doesn't have be a compromise if more use is made of cast metal. There is a form of magnet adhesion around the hobby in which one places magnetic sheets under the trackbed, but I know next to now't about it.

Funny you should say that, as I put this forward as Hornby's best from the fine super detail down to the superbly sculptured wheel profiles....plus a spot of what comes naturally.......

False alarm....Not the end of the heatwave......