Neal Ball

Ah! Good luck with the duty stuff Bill. I’ve yet to receive my email and then the notification from DHL with how much I will be charged ripped off with! We shall no doubt compare invoices 🙁. Of course I’m looking forward to receiving the SRM.

It's a rural service 🤣

Looking good in black….. although it will need another coat before I move onto Brunswick Green. To kill an hour, I moved onto passengers and crew for the Steam Railmotor…. Whenever it arrives!

Spraying continues with the loco about to go black:

Its a lovely sunny day here in Spain - so what better than spraying! One of my 70ft carriages has had another coat of white primer as the previous coats looked a bit patchy. Then it was onto my first coat of black: Inside in the County tank; loco chassis; all carriage bogies; 70ft under frames x2; Clerestory carriage underframe and ends.

Shipping to the UK from China is now going round the Cape of Good Hope, which is adding months to deliveries. Presumably at the start of the recent crises, some ships were heading towards the Suez Canal and had to be rerouted at a late stage, which is also adding to delays. I suspect as a manufacturer they simply might not know which ship it’s on. I’m sure they will be here soon.

Thanks for this. In digging out the Autocoach, inside the box I’ve got instructions from Rob and Keith, including what page numbers to start from on their respective pages. The model shop in Murcia didn’t have any black, but they did have a dark red and a dark green. Perhaps I should try some.

Thanks Graham, hadn't done it before. Lovely City and run.

Welcome back - it's been a busy week - I ran the Murcia half marathon last Sunday and managed a respectable 1:56-:05 which is 30 seconds off my personal best! Must try harder! The rest of the week has been taken up with community work. Today saw more primer being sprayed: County Tank (inside and the chassis); plus 3 carriages and associated bogies etc. the carriages need spraying with primer inside - again a couple of coats. Then its onto the topcoats and then we start to see some real progress and get them all closer to being finished. There has been talk on ANTB about the new Dapol mogul 2-6-0 - I am resisting! During 1936 there were 15 43xx locos shedded at Reading and with one available at Henley-on-Thames, I don't think I need another. But that didnt stop my Dapol module from the initial batch making an appearance this afternoon. 43xx 4341 2-6-0 seen departing Henley-on-Thames in 1936 this was a Reading loco. There has also been talk recently about the Hattons / DJH 48xx. Now that Accurascale have taken over a lot of the Hattons loco tooling, maybe we will get another stab at the 48xx loco.... 4807 is another Reading loco from 1936: Every time I get the Autocoach out I keep thinking about upgrading it with the Dart castings kit. A nice respray would work well.

Is that the David Maidment book about Moguls and Prairies? I was flicking through it this afternoon as well.

Was weight a factor in their demise? I would have thought the death knell was as described further up the thread - the fact that if the loco needed servicing, it took the carriage out of commission as well. In any event, its a charismatic loco / carriage combo and I am waiting (patiently) for mine to be despatched from Cornwall to its sunny destination on the Costa Blanca.

There are several photos in Lewis shewing spare power units - at Swindon. Meaning that the SRM had to get there in the first place. In the meantime the carriage section was out of action….

Hopefully @Accurascale Fran is keeping an eye on our suggestions 😎 Obviously, he can not confirm or deny at this stage.... its just food for thought for when they do look at the 48xx (and Autocoach). 😎

I would add, for the inter-war (and later) periods, rather than Bachman's approach of the post-war version only. The Bulldog project is looking very interesting.

Back to the 48xx for a second…. When Accurascale release it, could they also get rid of the inset for the numberplate please! I never did understand the logic for it! (As well as the missing ash pan and running capability’s) Thanks. 😎

Lovely looking carriage, I wonder if Slaters are any closer to releasing the GWR range again.

Which is why a lot of UK companies don't like shipping to Spain at the moment.

I've never managed to avoid duty when something being repaired is returned to me in Spain. The Spanish customs depot don't understand it at all.

This is going to be an interesting build Rich. I can see what you mean about that inside valve gear…. Good luck!

Tip for removing track - wet the ballast and generally the PVA will give and you can free the track from the baseboard. Some track might only be suitable for the fiddle yard, other sections you will be able to use again.

I might try a black one as well then, I wonder what the effect would be on a GWR carriage… deeper tones perhaps?

Yes indeed, I have the SRM and the Toplights on order from Kernow. Customs will have a field day if they ship together🙁

The Great Central railway has long been used as a test bed for mainline operators and also Brush etc. To me it makes sense, even more so if they can make some money from it. Driver training etc. when the line is ordinarily closed, or between steam paths, might be a nice little earner. The only thing will be the life expectancy of the units…. Good luck to the GCR.

My guess is they were pre production photos….. Looking down the list of photos that Kernow have for each loco, they still include the CAD images for available stock. As Robin has said, hopefully Chris Nevard will be photographing everything.

Morning Graham, greetings from the sunny Costa Blanca. How about this as a possibility……. Would you believe that at one point, Henley-on-Thames also looked as bleak as CR? If you look back in my thread, you will see in about February 2019 in preparation for the move to Spain, the layout was cut in half and then folded into itself. Wood was braced between the two sections and the thing was wrapped into an old duvet in case it should rain when it’s going into or out of the removal truck! Just a thought. Good luck with the move, Neal.