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Earlier you were talking about Fairburn tanks Tony. The DJH O gauge Fairburn is a nice kit, but riddled with errors I'm afraid. Principally, the cyclinder in the kit are too small and the slide bar bracket is too far back making the slidebars ridiculously long. I built mine with modified 80000 tank cylinders and valve gear and added extra castings ( principally for the Ivatt ) from the Laurie Griffin range to improve it, including a cast rear bogie to replace the 'tea tray' as well as a cast front pony truck.

Yes - thats the one! It was a Proscale model built by Allen for Stephen Gradidge in late LNER livery. I acquired it from Stephen's estate after he passed away. I met Stephen a few times - he was an out and out GC enthusiast, a very nice chap. If I recall, he passed away on the day of his retirement. So that would have been 35 years ago or more? In those days of course there wasn't the proliferation of information on line that we have now. So it was reworked with the information we had at the time. I think it's important to remember a model's history and the memories that it carries. I do like to see previously owned models going on to have another life, thats always gratifying. Best Regards Tony

I'm reworking a second hand J39 to become 64747, and did the usual search on the number and shed allocations etc. The one thing missing from my doner engine was the vacuum tank on the tender, so I set about getting one. Having posted my work on WT, I was contacted by another WT member also building 64747 in 4mm scale, to tell me that engine did not have a vac tank - or a pick up dome for that matter. https://www.flickr.com/photos/190924022@N03/51401740566 Now, I thought that all J39s had a vac tank.... apparently not so! An edict was issued in 1946 that various freight classes including J39s, should have the water pick up gear removed at works visits. On examining Yeadons, 64747 had several General's in the early 1950's, so it's not unreasonable to assume that the gear was removed during that period. With my layout period of '59 - '62, I needed to do something. So I set to with a hot iron from the inside and dropped out the existing filler and dome. Then made up a new blanking plate for the dome space and I had in stock an ROD tender type filler that looked more like the one in the Flickr photo. It does look rather empty on that rear platform now... although I have added th elifting links since. As loco builders, we enjoy our engine picking... Even the tools boxes were wrong, they didn't look anything like the group standard ones. I only mention it, as when I did a Google image search on 64747, a picture of one on Little Bytham came up..... and I'm sure it had a vac tank... probably a loco I built years ago! Regards Tony

That fat pipe is for the exhaust steam injector that a number of 4Fs were fitted with. It should also have the chunky grease trap just below the firebox... as well as the injector itself under the cab. This is my resin boilered JLTRT 7mm loco.

If I remember it correctly, the early Proscale B1's had the brass boiler. Later ones had a cast whitemetal one, which as I recall was slightly too long... I unfortunately had one of the later ones... Great to see you and Mo at the York show Tony. There were plenty of excellent layouts, and I spent a lot of time watching my absolute favourite: South Pelaw... Regards Tony

Having had years of lugging big layouts to shows - Leighford, Stoke Summit, Charwelton.. I decided I'd rather had enough of that - then came Heyside, we lugged that to a few shows... then came the pandemic... so that was enough. Then along came Nafferton, I'm now lugging that to shows. I decided my own layout would be staying put, and a great deal of pleasure is to be had from holding running sessions. Add in a sequence based on the working timetable and it becomes all together most entertaining. Lunch is provided for the visitors and the social aspect is most enjoyable. This is not going anywhere! As I've said before, contributions from the late David LO Smith, Geoff Taylor, Peter Leyland and Alisdair Macdonald. Railway modelling can be quite a solitary hobby, I've had modelling days - going over to a friend to spend the day working on similar projects, that was aways good. When the guys come over to work on Basford North we have a pleasant day of chat and banter, and we get a lot done. Regards Tony

Local residences 'set the scene' and it was my original intention to place two council semi's in the corner of the Basford North. In the event, it would have looked to cramped, so I moved the first two houses in Saxondale drive to replace the somewhat larger four dwelling building in Vernon Road. A compromise with the actual location, but I think it works. The houses are beautifully modelled by Peter Leyland. That whole triangle with the houses lifts out, so that I can get to the window behind! More work has taken place in the area since... That pavement needs a sweep. Much of the scenic work is by Geoff Taylor and Alisdair Macdonald. The view from the other side in 1964 Regards Tony

I found that as I've got older, I've become more sensitive to the fumes from the various substances we use, particularly Humbrol paint and Mekpak. I'm on a project to build 28 4mm scale turnouts for Bala Junction, Bala and Trevor, oddly Butanone doesn't seem as bad to me as Mekpak. But something had to be done to get rid of the fumes and enable mass production, so I rigged up an extractor system - the hose plugs in to an exhaust vent mounted in a piece of ply that 'clips' in to the fan light of the window. Excuse the chaotic workbench... Regards Tony

I remember the BEC J11's, didn't they go on a Triang Jinty chassis? I 'm sure I had two and the adventurous modellers would replace the Triang wheels with Romfords, but the axles needed bushes. Later on I sold those and built two Little Engines J11's and built them compensated, as was the trend at the time. Tony didn't like those! On reflection, the compensation was not much of an advantage. I can't remember who I sold them to.. I have an unfinished 7mm scale J11 - a Gladiator kit. I have a whole load of stock I must finish and weather when the climate improves and I can use the spray shop again.. GC tenders are quite a minefield, this one ahs the pick up gear removed , but with the tools boxes still in place - low rear division plate.. Regards Tony

I remember the Proscale K3 kit had the undulations in the running plate formed in the wrong places. Built as supplied, the model had a nose heavy look as the boiler and cab were too far forward by a couple of millimeters. Fortunately I spotted that and reformed it. It then looked much more balanced. I'm thinking the early B1kits had a brass boiler, which was later replaced by a cast white metal one, which was too large! Yes, I remember Allen moaning about those V2's, he built three at once, for me, Roy Palmer and Pete Lund.. I remember the excitement of opening the Proscale box, nice drawing on the box, plenty of tissue paper and lots of shiny brass etchings within.... Regards Tony

For some reason I kept all my old BRM articles - yes I still have the J11 one:-

Finney V2's - only in 7mm:- I t was an enjoyable kit to build. Kits in the cupboard - 4 loco kits, 8 coach kits and about 20 wagons... No room on the layout for any of them! Regards Tony

I'm no scenic expert - but I put in a variety of base forms, from carved Kingspan, card on ply formers and strips of newspaper. Geoff Taylor and Alisdair Macdonald worked their magic on the 'soft' work - basket liner, flock and static grass. We've got through a lot of that basket liner... But don't scenic modellers make a mess! My job is to clear up after them.... Still very much work in progress.. It is great to see the layout come to life.. Tha ambition is to replicate the appearance of Bytham, a natural late summer faded look.. Like Tony, the layout is a collaboration of effort: Buildings: Peter Leyland, Scenic: Geoff Taylor and Alisdair Macdonald, Backscene: Alisdair MacDonald, turnout components and baseboard prep: The late David Smith ( DLOS ) .

Geoff and I have started on the last area of bare baseboard for the engineers and private sidings.. It looks so much better. The pavements are now finished on Park Lane and Brooklyn Road...

Yes, I had trouble with rear handrail space on an O4, it was a scale 3 inches to short beyond the end of the cab side sheet and the rear handrail just looked cramped. Theer was nothing for it, but to fabricate up an extension. I'd hve done it completely differently had I noticed in the first place... This was the first version... It just didn't look right!

Talking of patches - I added this large patch just below the coal rails on the back of this Adams radial 30583 when I built it for a customer a few years ago. Patches add to the character of the model, all part of engine picking, but dents and bashes are a little more difficult to make convincing... It shows up a little better with the paint on:- Regards Tony

Beautiful coaches Iain... I did get the concrete signals installed, they are a bit droopy as I've not connected the servoes yet. I've not seen many modelled in 7mm scale, but they do add that 'LNER' heritage atmosphere.

Work in progress to install the concrete signals, they need connecting up to the servos now. A 4F in the bay platform at Baford north would be pretty unusual!

The somersault mechanism will be connected up once it's all painted. Just a few final details to add. Almost ready for painting.

Apologies for posting again, but the splitting signal is nearly complete now. Its a hefty old thing with all that solid brass!

I always enjoy Bytham pictures. A 7mm scale echo of the concrete signals on Bytham.. there are no posts of this type available commercially as far as I'm aware, so I've milled these up from brass rod. Components are from Wizard. It's a good learning curve, the last time I use a miller was a school! Work in progess... Regards Tony

Stephen - I did look in to etching them, and then filling the core with something. In the event, I enjoyed the 'old school' method of machining them! Regards Tony

More signal progress, the up and down posts for the West end of Basford North. The capabilities of the Ersa soldering iron are well demonstarted by it's abilty to solder the brass bar. Just awaiting the lamps and finishing off. The tall splitting signal for the down line from Bagthorp Junction is now taking shape.

An interesting chat about B1s, 61206 was a regular GC engine and the the photo of it would be south of Rickmansworth on the Metroplitan line. 61000 looks like it is at Colwick - it was resident there for a while. I completed this DJH/Piercy model a while back ( and still have not got to weathering it ) and have probably posted this before, 1264 was another Nottingham area engine as well as the celebrity of being preserved. Painted by Paule Moore:- I was going to recreate 61000 with a RTR Finescale Brass B1, but someone in our O gauge group beat me to it, so 61008 Kudu was the next choice. The type of tender with the model limited to one of the first 10 or 20? It doesn't have reverse sanders among other detail differences... The joys of engine picking! Regards Tony

After another successful running session, my thoughts have turned back to the concrete signals - as work is well on with the electronic controls for them. There are two single posts and one bracket to make. This is my first shot at milling out the bell shaped slots in the signal post. The protoypes do vary in the shape of the slots. All I have to do now, is taper the whole post... So with some heavy filing and then finishing up with the milling machine has got me this far.