Penrhos1920

83831 was from one of the earlier N27 lots so I doubt it was built with Morton brakes.  If it was from the last lot I’d say it was possible.  But I can’t understand why it would have been converted unless the breakgear had been severely damaged.

Are there any 4mm South Wales pregrouping plates in what you’ve got?

P19s were condemned between 1956 & 1960.  Only 5 appeared get converted to departmental service.

P14s were condemned between 1953 & 1959.  Again only 5 made it into departmental usage, no’s.DW 315, 150016-8/88.

On 21/05/2021 at 11:20, Miss Prism said:

Looks like the County tanks had the same convoluted plumbing.

 

Whats that roof made of?  It’s rippled.

More goodies in the post this morning.  Looks like I’m going to be busy.  I’m putting the coal wagons on one side and starting on these etches.

Later Collett gangway stock was blanket withdrawn in 1964 / 65.  Hawksworth stock only last 3 or 4 years longer.

On 10/05/2021 at 06:05, chrisf said:

 

I would be surprised if any Collett non-gangwayed stock lasted quite that long.  Hawksworth, yes.  Then again, in those happy days anything that could turn a wheel was liable to be sent to Barry Island.

 

Chris

Yes the last Collett non gangway stock was taken out of service in 1963.   Most going in the previous 3 years.  Even the Hawksworth non gangway stock also disappeared in 1963.

22 hours ago, Rhb Simon said:

...  A friend of mine gave me a perseverance chassis kit for a n2 & some sharman wheels so I had everything needed ..... ( my mate give me that too ) 

. 

I think I’ve got the wrong mates!

The lead in about 1.8mm.  So the floor is about 2.4mm total thickness.  The biggest problem with this is that the bottom 10 thou styrene allows the solebars to flex more than usual and some extra rigidity is required.  Best done by adding a couple of crossmembers.

There’s more action on the work bench. The loco coal wagons are starting to take shape.  I don’t use the Coopercraft floors.  Instead I put a piece of 10 thou flush with the bottom of the sides.  I use some 15 thou as spacers under the location pegs on the ends. Then a piece of lead covered by another piece of 10 thou.  This method gives a solid body that weighs just right.

As I said earlier these kits are too narrow so I splice a piece of 30 thou into each corner.  The N13s & 19s have rounded corners.  The N20s & 21s have square corners with rivets.

What I don’t know is if the body was the same for the 13” and 18” heads?

Look what has arrived today.

Printed parts for the C11 and C4.  There are bogie springs, axles boxes and rectangular and round 18" long wagon buffers.

A little while ago I order some etches from PPD:

There are 2 crocodiles here; the lower half is for a C11 which inculdes an etched bogie as it had a unique 4'6" design.  The upper half is for a C4 design of which there were 2 varients, so it inculdes parts for both types of end platform.  The C4 used a standard 5'6" bogie so the etch is designed to use the Cambrian C73 bogie kit.  I can't wait for the etches to arrive!!

Look what the postman has brought !!  Presents.  Well not proper presents as I've had to buy they, but it is a nice box from Shapeways.  And for the first time ever I think I can say that I'm more than 95% happy with what has arrived.

First up I have some GWR Self Contained Buffers for wagon by @Guy Rixon.  These are for a future GWR vans project where I will be fitting 13" steel buffer heads.  But I'm wondering whether they can be fitted with 16” or 18” heads for bogie wagons?  For some of my Crocodiles and 40t loco coal wagons?

Next up also for some GWR vans are OK Axlesboxes and wagon buffers by @billbedford.  These are also for the GWR vans project, there are a lot of Coopercraft van kits awaiting the knife!

Next up are some GWR Dean 10' bogies by Stafford Rd Models for the coaches that were started only a year ago at the beginning of Lockdown.  I've only bought 2 pairs as I already have another whitemetal pair for the third coach.  I like these, but I'm going to have to fit stepboards and I'm worried about making strong joints to this plastic.

And now the next item out of the box are some detailing parts for my range of etched GWR Crocodiles that should be appearing soon.  There are the bogie springs and I've just noticed that there are only 2 instead of the 4 required.  Then there are 8 axleboxes, 4 rectangular buffer housings, 4 circular buffer housings, and lastly buffer heads/shanks.  I'm still waiting for the etches to arrive but as soon as they do I'll be pushing everything else to one side to get on with them.  I've got sufficent etches ordered and printed bits here to build 2 off C11 crocodile and 2 off C4 (one of each varient) but I must check that I have the correct Cambrian bogies to hand.  The C11 was the second most common design of crocodile (10 built in 1906) after the C12 (12 built in 1909) which I've built a pair from the old Mainline RTR and the C4 was third in the popularity stakes ( 6 built in 1909 during the transition phaes from type V to type VI).

And last up is the roof and chassis for the ANDR coaches I've been taking an equally  long time over.  The roof has been modified to fit around an etched body.  4 corner screws will allow it to separate from the body.  Half of the holes are for ventillators and the other are for lamps, all are whitemetal castings.  Inside the roof will be 8 tiny leds for the lights including 1 over each veranda.  The chassis is in 2 parts as it will be built 'inside' the bottom of the body.  I don't know what this has been printed in.  I thought I'd ordered white strong flexible, but it's something shaded grey and you can just about see the layers have been made diagonal in the first photo.

I'm surprised that NE or GNR coaches haven't been mentioned.  I remeber reading somewhere that the GNR was keen to keep people in their own coaches; I half expected to see that there were through coaches from Bradford via Leeds, Doncaster Grantham, Nottingham and Derby.

17 hours ago, bbishop said:

Extracted from the LSWR October 1922 timetable, there were three trains on a weekday from Portsmouth & Southsea to Cardiff.  One started at Brighton and contained a Restaurant Car; this and one other travelled via Eastleigh.  The third was via Southampton West.  For information, the Bristol stop was Stapleton Road.  Bill

Were they all LSWR coaches or a mix?

24 minutes ago, MR Chuffer said:

I haven't got any sweet wrappers, I don't do sweet stuff, so I laser print to cheap paper, stick paper to aluminium foil, crumple up when dry and give a dilute black wash. I've found expensive paper, good quality 80gsm and other weights are unconvincing, the cheap paper absorbs the laser and black wash more convincingly and I use a black permanent felt tip pen to touch up any white-ish-ness that might show through after the crumpling. I now have a decent colour laser to produce the fancy pre-1910 identity colours on many pre-grouping sheets.

What do you call cheap printer paper?  I had a look for 60gsm and couldn’t find any.

1 hour ago, ChrisN said:

In the National Archives in Rail 938, (hope the link works), are the lists of GWR through coaches each year from 1892 to 1926 for summer workings.  Unfortunately the latest one I have is 1913.

 

I assume that is what you have for 1925.

Yes Summer 1925, via R Carroll and BR coaches email group.

Did many/any through coaches reach South Wales pre 1923?  I’m thinking did the Midland, LB&SCR, LNWR or NE operate a brake compo or brake third and compo to Cardiff or Swansea?

I’ve got a GWR though coaches programme for 1925 that lists just a few:

LMS compo and Van Third from Manchester - up to 4 trains on some days,

LMS Van Third, compo, Van Third from Liverpool

The only LNER coaches were whole trains and then only the Barry - Newcastle on alternate days and Sheffield- Swansea on alternate Sundays.

Compare that to the through coaches to the West Country where the list is enormous!

45 minutes ago, tebee said:

 

If that doesn't cure it, increase the exposure slightly, so that the supports are harder and stiffer   

I’ll tell the wife to do that!!

On 01/05/2021 at 21:52, Miss Prism said:

This is a Lionheart D109. which is similar to a D98

 

Do you also have the E141 drawing please?  I’m still building a D110, E142, C61 set which has got me stumped for the battery boxes, magneto, and brake cylinders.  I know there are some GAs in York but I haven’t managed to get there.

PS D110 = D109 minus a compartment, E141 are E142 are very similar with the compartments in a different order.

On 13/03/2021 at 12:51, NS Peak said:

With time on my hands I was browsing and came across this 

 

 

The comments on the picture don’t shed any light on what on earth is a class 110 doing at Liverpool Street station. It looks like it  might be coupled to a railfreight 31 and  It must be sometime after mid 1986 as the station has NSE branding.  Does anyone know what it was doing there?

 

thanks Stephen

Apparently it’s on its way to half way between Darlington and Doncaster!  Not for the faint hearted!!  It was bad enough when a 104 turned up on a Sunday Chelmsford to Liverpool St service.

On 20/04/2021 at 18:11, Darwinian said:

 

 

Very happy with the way it looks so far. I have a suspicion that the lower panels should not be lined for the 1924 livery but hey ho.

 

 

Transfers and final varnish/weathering to go. (Yes I know one of the curly end handrails has fallen off. Luckily on the bench. And the brake pull rod on the right has been a bit squashed. Masking behind the windows is still in position.

 

 

The lower panels were lined until spring 1927 livery.

On 19/04/2021 at 23:27, Compound2632 said:

Plenty of PO wagons with raised ends still around in the early 20s - not semicircular like those SECR / LBSCR wagons but either continuous arc or flat at the centre curving down at the sides, generally 9" or so above the height of the sides. But you'll be wanting South Walian examples, I presume.

Or PO coal merchant in between Bristol, Oxford, Reading & Salisbury.

On 17/04/2021 at 21:12, 92220 said:

Thanks Keith, yes I have been looking with some excitement at Wayne’s planned new releases.   Plenty of the pointwork in the shed area is simple enough - a lot of B7s as would be expected, I guess.  So if I can save some time it will help a lot because these 2 long crossovers were errr...... somewhat longer than that to build.  I think they sound very cost-effective regardless of the time saved as well.  
 

So, a couple of updates:

 

I will start with the boring bit, but it’s necessary.

 

The gate had to be reliable in terms of running etc but also foolproof that I couldn’t accidentally run a train into the gulf of emptiness above the hard floor.  My first effort at Sir Bill a few years ago already bears the scars of being dropped a few years ago, and I think it’s fair to say it didn’t do him a lot of good.

 

So:

 

The red zone is the gate section that swings open.

 

 

It is always live, but fed by the blue section.  
 

when the gate is closed, the two green sections are fed by making connections:

 

At the storage end, the gate closes and makes these choc blocks connect.

 

 

 

At the scenic end, there are 4 bolts and locks, and each one makes good the circuit to that green section.  So you have to close the gate and make all 4 connections to get trains to run within 18” of the gate.

 

 

Hopefully it makes sense and might even work.  I made it up myself.  There will be cleverer ways, but there are certainly cleverer people.
 

Going to have to split this up I think.

 

Iain

How long are the green zones?  If you only have locos on the front then twice loco length is enough.  But if your banking or emus on the DC lines then they have to be longer.

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

This will be the photo in @MikeOxon's blog post that I linked to above.

 

I would caption it "various wagons in red, at various durations since last repaint." There is a four-plank, a three-plank, and a one-plank wagon that look darker than the rest; my interpretation is that they are the most recently painted.

Sorry Sir, I’m not paying proper attention sat here at the back!