Phil Traxson

Don't know what your intentions are Neil, but I binned the green piece with the curtains altogether, even if the curtains are cut off it completely covers the toplights in the coach. It didn't affect reassembly at all. Phil T.

Pity it's not a wooden derrick you need. But you may be able to make use of the castings I have for the pivots, pulleys and ground fittings at considerably less cost. If you have nothing before you visit Porthmadog next time give me a shout and you can see them in the flesh. Phil Traxson

That was probably my original intention many moons ago, it is very Colonel Stephens railbus shaped and the body parts from the chassis easily, the chassis is plastic too so would be carveable to provide the wings etc. I wonder if the Airfix Railbus motorizing kit that used to be available ( Branchlines? ) would do for the railway bits?

Yes it is the Rio model, bright yellow out of the box, with grey wings and green luggage rack. I gave the metal, yellow, body parts a swim in neat Dettol for 24 hours and the factory paint just wrinkled up and washed off. What does show is the difference the underlying paint colour layer makes to the top coat. The Lucam and the top half of the bus are from the same can but the bus is on the blue, the Lucam is on white primer but looks more cream than it does on the bus. As BGman says it strips down really easily, you only have to remove the front axle by easing one end cap and wheel off and then undo 3 screws and it all slides apart. I did have to remove the head of the heat riveted pillars, by touching it lightly with a drill in my fingers, inside the roof to part the roof and the glazing but that meant that I could do away with the plastic frame which obscured the top lights above the windows on re-assembly. I also added some wear strips of micro strip to the area of the luggage rack on the roof, which I am pretty sure it would have had in real life. Then it was little things like touching in the bulb on the horn with matte black and replacing the ladder which I'd managed to lose in the ten years and a house move since I stripped it down. The colours are Ford "Galaxy blue" and Ford "Ivory" from Halfords. Incidentally the blue is a good match for Railmatch S & DJR blue, I know because I cheated and brush painted the luggage rack sides from a jar I had, having for gotten to spray it.

A little more lockdown work in progress. As a change from wagon building I've started to build a Lucam to add to the front of Salmon & Ellis's bakery using some photo's of the Midland grain warehouses in Burton on Trent for inspiration. I think that this wooden addition will help break up the mass of brickwork across the back of the scene. Still a work in progress but opinions will be appreciated although they may not be acted upon. At the moment it is held in place with a couple of dabs of Blu-tac The plan is to paint the vertical corner cover timbers in the same green as the window frames and put slates on the roof, the present roof is just the solid former to form the base for these. I've used scraps of embossed plastic for these to give me guide lines to work from when laying the slates. I have also cut out the barge board for the end which I intend to attach once I have the slates on, this too will be green. I have some gutter castings which I intend to connect to the down pipes which are already there. I think the "enamel" Salmon & Ellis sign visible on previous photo's is going on the front of the Lucam too. Now I have an excuse to build a couple of roof door vans for flour delivery, maybe one LNWR and one LMS(ex L & Y) although might have to scratch build those unless some one does a kit for them. A couple more photo's on Flickr plus some of a ,finally, finished bus I stripped apart for a repaint from bright yellow years ago, well one of my layouts has a bridge on it!! Phil T.

Coming in 4+ years late on this thread and living in Burton for most of the first 25 years of my life, up until 1973, I suspect that the uncovered load in the two wagons is actually spent hops, spent grain would not "pyramid" as much, levelling out to almost flat when bounced around during wagon shunting. I base this on experience working in a provender factory on the outskirts of Burton for a few years where spent hops was dried and mixed with molasses and other additives to produce a soft feedstuff for cattle, the spent hops had the same appearance as the stuff in those two wagons. Phil T.

Do bear in mind that there now seem to be an equal number of female idiot drivers too!!

Out of interest "locomad2" which bit of North Wales are you in, nearest town will do? I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but over the last few months there are quite a few of us who have realised that we all live in this general area and are beginning to wonder if we might have a bit of a meet some where in the area when it is allowed again. Phil T.

Some years ago I re-wheeled 2 or 3 of these old chassis with Romford wheels and Romford axles simply by using the then standard 1/8 th axle bushes, the outside diameter of which fits the Triang chassis axle holes. Being a cheapskate I re-used the Triang gear by fitting the same type of axlebush to the axle with Loctite bearing fit (it was in my toolbox 'cause I used it in my job as a maintenance fitter!) and once everything was lined up gear-wise I locked that to the axle with the same Loctite. For belt and braces I filed a small flat on the outside of the bush and a small notch in the gear hole, and likewise, a flat on the axle and a notch on the inside of the bearing, forming keys with the Loctite. Thinking back this was around 1990 and the "Jinty" chassis is still running under my 0-16.5 Stephen Poole Glyn Valley Tram loco and the "Polly" chassis is under a motorized version of the Airfix City of Truro, again still working. The Jinty chassis has the nylon gear too, which I expected to give up the ghost years ago but it's still not done after 30 years! I think, without checking, that the Triang coupling rods were used too by bushing them with a 12 BA nut pressed in with the vice jaws and soldered as well for safety to fit the Romford crank pins. These were all methods taken from articles in the modelling mags of the time.

Agree totally, I really have got two "t" shirts with that on. At 71 I went out and bought the 'bike I'd always lusted after since it was introduced, a Yamaha XV535 (30 years after being ordered to give up 'bikes by family). Two years on I've done 10,000 miles on it, despite obeying all the Covid stay at home rules. As soon as we're let out again I'm going to scratch another old itch and buy a bike based trike, have my eye on Harley, Honda Goldwing or a rather neat trad' flat twin 1100 BMW conversion I've seen (hope it's not sold before I can get to it). Trouble is they are too far away to test drive at the moment under current restrictions.

Incorrect, a fire pump.

Correct, but the Bug was a Reliant in pretty clothes and a rigid back axle, Reliants were far better on cross plies. There were no "rules" for the tyres on 3 wheelers, just what worked best. The Bond used the whole Imp back end underpinnings, not just the engine, and with IRS and a different style of front suspension, leading link fork rather than hub centre, worked better on radials.

The version in the Sunbeam was detuned by using a different cam, the 930 cc Sunbeam block with an Imp cam was quite quick. The trouble was when they brought out the Imp most mechanics were used to cast iron engines and didn't have a torque wrench, a definite requirement to fit the Imp head or disaster followed.

They were the ones with the Imp engine in the back. Didn't find mine dangerous though, they were our family car for over 10 years and logged 12-15k miles per year. The second one I had was delivered on cross ply tyres (fitted by the previous owner ) and was awful handling until I changed them for the radials that Bond recommended. Bond did a recall on the few early ones that they originally sold fitted with cross plies because of poor handling. They were very quick though, didn't like cross winds without a full passenger load though with no weight in the front end

They were the ones with the Imp engine in the back. Didn't find mine dangerous though, they were our family car for over 10 years and logged 12-15k miles per year. The second one I had was delivered on cross ply tyres (fitted by the previous owner ) and was awful handling until I changed them for the radials that Bond recommended. Bond did a recall on the few early ones that they originally sold fitted with cross plies because of poor handling.

Just seen a well restored ES750 one on Facebook market place that the seller is asking 10k for! Looking at the rest of the "Trikes" on that page it doesn't seem a particularly high price in reality. Wish I still had one of my Bond 875's (built just before the Reliant takeover),just for fun.

Andy try "Lincs" for those couplings.

May well be that there are photographs of wagons in those liveries that they worked from with that particular fleet number. Also remember that local coal merchants often only had a few wagons, some times only one or two, but often added 10 or a 100 to the actual fleet number to appear to be a larger business, as per Arthur Wharton perhaps. I don't know the history of the firm, but did they really have over 3,000 wagons? Phil T.

Love photo's like this showing how imperfect the real thing was, bent, broken and misplaced securing pin and it's strap on the door, packers and reinforcing plates behind the buffer housing, sloppy fit of buffer spindle in housing. All good stuff, but if you modelled like that the rivet counters (who have usually built nothing!) would be down on you like a ton of bricks.

During the lockdowns I am living-in at my daughters place near to Caernarfon rather than on my own, with visits back to the workshop in Porthmadog when needed. This has meant that I have time to build and reduce my stash of flat pack "0" gauge wagon kits, some of which have been lying around for best part of 20 years! Clicking on this picture will take you to a Flickr account and under Albums, The Lockdown Collection, you can see how I've been filling my time. Only 4 more to go and its down to detailing and weathering them. I even managed to start paving Black Drake Forge yard on some of my "workshop" visits whilst waiting for resin to cure for customers kits. The captions give some history and age of some of the kits. Just have to resist buying more or maybe even build some of my own products!

Looks like "Uproar" with a wider chassis!

Wouldn't there be bits of gearbox around it if it had?!

I always recommend using "CIF" and a tooth brush for cleaning in my resin kit instructions, but then again I don't use any extra mould release agent above that contained in the silicone rubber I use for the moulds. Some use washing up liquid, but a lot of those contain lanolin (to keep hands soft), unfortunately this replaces one unpaintable chemical with another of the same. Phil Traxson Port Wynnstay Models

Exactly the same system as I used on my Quayside layout in 0-16.5. I cast 3 bay sections, you can see where the joins are by the gap in the top timbers which would have been visible any way in real life, I figured 30 feet would be just about a handleable length for timber baulks and a sensible length to get out of a tree trunk. The dressed capping stones are actually separate from the quay wall and are lengths of unequal leg "L" shaped plastic overlapping the edge of the casting, with the stones scribed in, no two are exactly the same length or width as the ones next to it. These are copied from the ones on Port Dinorwic quayside in North Wales, inspired by an article on it's build in in an issue of Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review some years back, and several subsequent visits to it during my days off from volunteering on the Festiniog Railway. The bollards are copied from there too. I still have the moulds and patterns in 7mm scale for the walls and bollards so castings are available to order for any one by request to Port Wynnstay Models.

Even the GWR had some, outside framed "322" class, one of which much rebuilt,lasted until around 1930. "Keyser" did a kit which claimed to be one. The Cambrian Railway had a few inside frame ones too.