Dan Randall

In the early 1970’s, when I was around 12 or 13 years old, I read a short article - with photo - about a plinth-mounted smokebox (freshly painted!), in an issue of Railway Magazine. I seem to recall it was a 28xx or 38xx and Andy’s find certainly looks like a 28/38xx smokebox to me. I’m pretty sure it had a numberplate too, but I guess a souvenir hunter had that away at some point, along with the original chimney! If anyone has a bunch of Railway Magazines from the early 70s, perhaps they’d care to flick through them and see if they can find the article and confirm whether or not, it’s the above smokebox? Regards Dan

I’ve often thought it would be nice to do a Western Region version of Gordon Gravett’s fantastic “Arun Quay”. Same scale, same overall size (give or take), but different buildings and of course, different (WR), motive power. It could even be done the other way round, i.e., from the water looking inland. I actually mentioned this to Gordon at an exhibition last year, where he and his wife, Maggie, were exhibiting “Arun Quay” and gentleman that he is, he gave it his blessing. I doubt I’ll ever do it, but if anyone else fancies having a go, be sure to post pictures, as things progress. 😄 Regards Dan

Agreed, though it looks like it’s fitted with a vacuum pipe, rather than an air pipe? (The “A” in TTA stands for air brake). Air pipes are much thinner than vacuum pipes and have a red painted open/closed valve on the buffer beam (and a red painted connector at the free end). Edit: Like the ones in your Mullet build, above! It’s possible, I suppose, that these wagons were vacuum fitted when built and converted to air brake later (but perhaps leaving the vacuum pipe in place?). I would also expect the air pipe to be on the RHS of the buffer beam - that certainly seems to be the case on current wagons. Nonetheless, your weathering on this and your previous wagons is pretty impressive - keep up the good work please! Regards Dan

Sad news indeed. R.I.P. Laurie.

Agreed. Some info on Pullman adaptors here…. https://lmsca.org.uk/lms-coaches/components/pullman-compatible-suspended-gangways/ Regards Dan

Also interesting, in that there appear to be no less than eleven people watching the train go by (above the rear of the loco and first carriage). I wonder if they were waiting to see something else, that particular day? Regards Dan

Great find - Taplow station, before Network Rail came along and ruined it…😐 Regards Dan

We’re certainly due Compendium No. 4….😉 Regards Dan

I’ve not seen an end loading dock with those hinged plates to bridge the gap between the dock and the wagons before - that’s an interesting variation. Regards Dan

Been meaning to try oils myself, having seen the results that Neil gets from them. The colours I heard him list on the video were:- Titanium White, Ivory Black, Raw Umber, Brown Ochre and Indian Red, but I imagine any rusty kind of colours will give the results we’re after. 😄 Regards Dan

Try 4Dmodelshop https://modelshop.co.uk/Static/WorkShop/Photo-Etching Regards Dan

Thanks for the additional suggestions guys - I shall experiment in due course. Regards Dan

Thanks Steve - I’ll give that a try at some point and report back, but it probably won’t be for a little while. 🙂 Regards Dan

I recently had a go at printing some BR Mk1 coach ends in 7mm scale as an experiment, but they could have been better…. I printed the ends vertically on my Elegoo Mars2 Pro, using Elegoo’s ABS-Like Photopolymer Resin and they had printed as well as I’d hoped for, until the very top of the gangway opening was reached, at which point, they took on the appearance of having shifted outboard by about a millimeter! I was wondering if it was a support (or lack of), issue as the slicer (Chitubox), only placed 6 supports in the gangway opening, so I tried it using Lychee slicer instead. This only put in one support and produced much the same result, but with some additional distortions on the way up…. I was only trialling it on the Elegoo, with a view to farming the job out to a professional 3D print outfit if I need any more ends. The question is, will any of the prints they produce in say SLA, or SLS, suffer from the same distortions? Any thoughts please? Regards Dan

The instructions are a bit vague to be honest Paul, so it’s probably best to go by whatever photographs are out there (I dare say, you’ll be OK?…🤣). I thought there might have been a few holes dotted around the underframe for the battery boxes, but there aren’t any. Also, the shutters are all moulded in the closed position, as to have them open, with exposed louvres, would have meant lots more expensive tooling, or perhaps, a whole new bodyshell? Looking forward to doing a bit of enhancement work on mine, when it gets to the top of the “To do”, pile. Regards Dan

I forgot to say, there are three sizes of battery box included too (two of each), for the buyer to fit and yes, the door mistake, came as a bit of a surprise to me! Regards Dan

Hi Paul I believe the base model represents a Diagram O.33, but shell vents and the shutters are included as buyer-fit accessories, to enable Diagrams O.59 and O.62 respectively, to be represented. Regards Dan

Yes, it’s a bit of a shame and not something I noticed when I handled the pre-production sample at Guildford, last November - I would have mentioned it to Chris Basten at the time, had I done so! However, having to do a couple of small tweaks, will certainly be a lot quicker than building one from a kit (if such a kit even existed). Regards Dan

Yes they did. I picked my BR blue version up, on Saturday. 😄 Curiously, all or some of the door latching mechanism on two pairs of double doors, is missing on each side, as well as the representation of the hand holes (I appreciate the ones they have included, can’t be moulded as actual holes)…. Should be easy enough to rectify though and as modellers, we have to have something to do to this RTR stuff, for fear of losing all the skills we’ve developed over the years!🤣 Regards Dan

Picked up the latest issue yesterday, at the Gauge O Guild’s Stafford exhibition, so had something decent to read in the hotel, last night…. A good issue in my opinion and with a mix of scales, hopefully, something to please everyone? Regards Dan

They’re hoping it’ll be available in time for the 80th anniversary of D Day (6th June). Regards Dan

My parents bought me several issues - I must have been about 12 or 13 at the time. I remember, in particular, a photo of a GWR small prairie and the caption said something like “A K’s kit, constructed by N K T Stanton”. I don’t know if it would pass muster today, but to my young eyes, it looked like the dog’s danglies! Regards Dan

Agreed - being born and raised in Slough, I knew it wasn't my local station. Here's a dodgy crop of a photo of Newbury (on eBay), which confirms the shape of the background building. I do believe that's a Mogo at the end loading dock too. Might even be the same one?! Regards Dan

Excellent video - thanks for posting. The “appreciation” at the end, was a lovely touch as well. 😄 Regards Dan

Cuneo’s tunnel mouth looks a bit snug, like it’s a just single bore. Great painting though! 😄 Regards Dan