Neal Ball

Thats looking very good Graham. I have a PC kits Toplight hidden in a box somewhere - maybe I will have to dig it out and see if it can be salvaged.

I have started the blog for the construction of the County tank loco:

Thank you for the comments… If you hadn’t said, I wouldn’t have known. Thanks Mike. Indeed yes That looks to be a straightforward solution, thanks for this Mike.

Merry Christmas Robin, thanks for all the banter & humour, together with the sound advice. Thats a decent size train for the SDR - hopefully their Santa specials are doing well.

Sympathies

Thanks Lez, I will do that tomorrow and post accordingly.

It's been a day of two halves! This morning I fixed the Dean vacuum cylinder onto the C23 all third Clerestory, together with the stretchers for the bogies. (it was fiddly) - photos to follow. (Incidentally, I looked again on the Dart website and although I know they are making a Dean bogie, its still not listed.) I digress! This afternoon I started work on my County loco project as a break from carriages for the moment. (I will set up a blog to record the build in further detail.) The chosen loco is 4-4-2T no 2237 seen here at Reading shed in the 1920's: The photo above is from the Russell book vol 1 - this loco was based at Reading and was recorded working the Henley-on-Thames branch. I have started on the chassis and given I only spent the afternoon working on it, I am pleased with the progress: There is a lot more to do on the chassis, but I couldn't resist popping the wheels on for a quick photo - they need fettling, but I am pleased with progress so far. However, I have an issue with the body - the easy option is to cut off the square buffer beam and fit a replacement curved one - which I have a replacement resin one, or a white metal one in the spares box. 1. I would rather keep the square frame as thats the loco seen at Reading. 2. Adding a new curved frame (white metal) will add vital extra weight. This is the issue: The instructions state that if the (resin) body needs adjusting, put it into the oven for 6 minutes and you can bend it into shape. My concern is that if I do this and apply pressure, will I leave an indentation on the running plate? To be continued.....

Welcome back to the UK Mike - that must be good - opening a bedroom door and finding a 70ft carriage inside, ready to be run. The Whitewash coach will be an interesting model - but I don't think I could justify one at Henley-on-Thames.

Terrific work @Mikkel, I'm looking forward to seeing it progress.

Is that more or less conflict in the world? If that what it comes down to…. Maybe we can’t afford to manufacture outside our own territory…. The cost of arming ships, vs EU manufacturing….. I know there’s a long way to go, but it does beg the question.

A lot were scrapped around that sort of time…. If you have diagram numbers to hand of the ordinary stock, have a look here: http://www.gwrcoaches.org.uk/index.html For instance the D56 brake 3rds were withdrawn in the period 1956 to 1964 Hope that helps Neal.

To make a December date, I would have thought it would be as far as Rotterdam or Tilbury.... jan/Feb though could easily be caught up in that "conflict". 😠 Does that put out 2024 delivery dates?

Good luck with the job front and the model railway mojo Graham.

This might help: http://www.gwr.org.uk/liveriesloco1906.html

Thats interesting Mike, I wonder if that was the same time when at the Bachmann members day at the Mid-Hants I asked them about a non-top feed loco and was told "I hope so - its one of our founding locos and it would be a shame to loose it" or words to that effect. Snooze, you loose.

Morning Brian, I’m just catching up with your progress and I must say it’s all looking very good. I have recently tried MJT bogies for the first time and was also swayed by the NEM pocket device. Instead of packing the coupler pocket to get the right height, I simply turned it upside down! Then it’s the right height for my Kadee couplers. It certainly was a lot easier than drilling through the metal on the comet bogie to get the Kadee gearbox into place, then being unhappy that it the gap between the carriages 2mm too wide! Next step will be to see if I can retrofit to some existing bogies. That is very neat and tidy Brian well done. Oh yes! It’s a slow process making carriages. It is, but I still spray them in situ….. as a separate interior, they are not easy to keep hold of!

Yes they still look good. Clearly they are “stuck” somewhere…. The first batch was due Nov / Dec, with the second batch due in Jan / Feb. A rake of six is going to be terrific arriving into Henley-on-Thames. Lets hope they arrive soon and they are a success for Dapol.

Possibly because these carriages have a squat appearance, due to the need of going over the Metropolitan lines. Maybe the RM reviewer didn’t know this!

That’s strange as the review in the November Model rail says it’s perfect… they summarise with a “cons” Nothing. indeed, within the review it says…. “The overall appearance is fabulous”…. Adding “Dimensionally everything appears correct…..”

That’s looking really good - personally I would go for wiper pick-ups. FYI - I soldered my gearbox - quick in and out, allowing it to cool down before going onto the next one.

The final part of the C23 story see's the carriage at the tail of a train of two Comet 70ft carriages.... The carriage was hauled and propelled at speed across different sets of points and performed without any issues. Todays loco of choice was my Grange 4-6-0 no 6860 The C23 will have its Dean vacuum cylinder fitted, a little more work done on the bogie. Then this carriage, together with the 2 x 70ft's will be heading to the spray booth.... Currently the weather here is very warm, which is certainly still ok to spray.... Hopefully I can get them all sprayed before Christmas.

The second bogie has now been built for the C23 all Third Clerestory carriage. The MJT bogies are different to make up when compared to the previous ones I have made from Comet models. This is the bogie: The bogie is laid flat here before folding and soldering. At the end of each frame is a small etch that gets folded at right angles and you then solder the frame stretcher in place. For the Comet bogie, that end section has a small hole to feed a wire through to hold it all in place. Comet definitely score here over MJT. However! The etch at the top of the photo is for the NEM pocket and this is a huge benefit of the MJT bogies - I wonder if Andrew @Major Clanger at Wizard models would consider adding an NEM pocket device onto the Comet Bogies. The instructions show the dimensions needed to fit the NEM pocket - however, I was going to slot in my Kadee coupler and ended up fixing it upside down!

A 9F at the head of a mineral train is certainly a thing of beauty.

Thanks for the details and photo. I am waiting for a Clerestory kit to arrive from Worsley Works, which will be my first foray into their kits. Until now all my carriage kits have been from Comnet. Its also interesting that MJT have now introduced a 10ft Dean bogie. Thanks again, Neal.

A change today, see’s the first bogie made for the Clerestory all Third. This is an MJT 9ft fishbelly… it should be a 10ft Dean, which hopefully we can get soon from the new Blacksmith models. This is my first bogie from MJT… it is surprising what you get used to when making Comet bogies. On the plus side the holes for the bearings did not need reaming; plus the castings for the bogies were not mis-shapen as sometimes the Comet ones are. Huge bonus though as I also bought the NEM pocket and that makes a big difference. However, Comet are better where you fix the end stretcher onto the bogie - there’s a hole you feed wire through and it solders together very easily…. You don’t get that with MJT. Further details in a day or so, but here it is next to the 70ft carriages: