Brinkly

Lovely stuff, John. All the best, Nick

Really lovely to see you, Rob. Sheep Dip is a lovely little layout. A most enjoyable couple of hours at Exeter. All the best, Nick.

Very nice photos, John. All the best, Nick.

Thanks for your responses, gents.

Greetings all, On 22nd May I orders a couple of PO wagon transfers from POW Sides and as of today I still haven’t received my order. I’ve emailed a couple of times and tried calling leaving a message. Has anyone dealt with them recently? This certainly isn’t a hounding procedure, just simply seeing how long the usual wait was. Cheers, Nick.

Well they don’t look too bad even if I do say so myself. Very glad you are pleased with them. All the best, Nick.

Another structure Andy asked me to build and paint was the Ratio signal box. This comes in BR SR colours. I primed the model in grey and the brush painted the stones in the same shades as the cattle dock. The cream is Humbrol 71 and brown Humbrol 160. Individual roof slates were picked out and then the rest of the roof airbrushed in a suitable shade. The chimney stack was brush painted and still needs a bit of weathering to tone it down and bring it all together. The windows are painted and just await installation. Handrails for the steps and gutters are the final job to fit. I airbrushed the whole structure in a dirty black, to represent soot and grim - Andy’s period reflects the end of steam and transition into the diesel era and I hope I’ve created a representation of a signal box in its twilight years. A small amount of drying brushing has also been completed to create mortar runs on the roof. Regards, Nick

Andy commissioned (I suppose that’s the right word!) to build a few structures for him. Over the past couple of days I’ve been painting various buildings up. I thought I would share the Ratio cattle dock first. This is pretty much done, or as far as I’m going to take it. The basic structure has had a significant amount of bracing added underneath in the form of plastic rod to ensure the surface didn’t drop. Each stone was painted individually using a range of Humbrol grey enamels and a mortar wash applied. The surface was painted in Humbrol 70 with various bricks picked out in Humbrol 82 and 100. A mortar wash was then applied. The fence posts were given a goat of Games Workshop white primer and then installed along with the wire. A dirty grey/black sprayed over the posts and wire using my Neo by Iwata airbrush. A small amount of dry brushing was then applied to the gates and the hinges painted back. I might do a small amount of ‘rust’ drying brushing over the coming days. Bit more to follow, Nick

Sensational work, Mikkel. It looks stunning. All the best, Nick.

I went with red/terracotta in the end. I’ll take some proper photos later as it is now completely finished. Thanks for your advice, everyone. All the best, Nick

The roof looks great! Well done as that really was one hell of a job to do. All the best, Nick

Greetings, I’m about to start painting a cattle dock for Andy’s new layout. I really don’t know what colour to paint the tiles. What was ‘typical’ on the GWR in the South West? Grey or terracotta? All the best, Nick

Greetings gents, Several questions about coal traffic to the South West (particulary South Devon) if I may. I'm quite interested in moving the timeframe for my modelling back to the 1930s, rather than the early 1950s. Did the majority of the domestic and locomotive coal for the South West come from Welsh mines? (I'm curious about this as I know Kingswear docks was an unloading point for coal destined for Torquay gas works.) Where would it be routed? (Severn Tunnel Junction and then onwards down the Bristol to Exeter mainline and onwards to Plymouth and then Cornwall?) What was the frequency of such traffic? (1930s) Where there any big merchants in Devon and Cornwall or any 'typical' colliery wagons which would appear down here? Would gas works have their own supply of coal too? Any good books with PO wagon liveries to refer to? Thanks in advance. Any information will be gratefully received. All the best, Nick.

That is looking very good. Excellent work. Regards, Nick.

I thought I would share my first go at weathering on here. I used Precision paints, thinned and then applied through an airbrush. I then dipped a flat brush in thinners and created rain streaks. Bachmann Toad re-numbered to a Bristol allocation. Hornby BR Standard Brake van. This had some powder weathering too on the concrete weight, footboards and on the roof. It has been modified to represent a 'through-piped' van and has a removable ModelU Tail Lamp. Bachmann SR Brake Van - similar treatment to the one above. Trio of steel mineral wagons which have had various chipping techinques applied with Ammo by Mig products. The lines were painted on rather than using a transfer. They have subsequently had wheels and transfers fitted - these are in P4. Selection of modified open wagons - all airbrushed with streaking effects, replacement pipes and couplings too. As I said, these were the first wagons (or indeed items) I've ever weathered. I was quite pleased with my first go. All the best, Nick.

https://fb.watch/cBmNzEsrWT/ One link.

It looked like you all had a great day. I feel thoroughly cheated by Covid for missing it. Well done organising team and thank you for the live stream Phil (and the shout out CK!). I look forward to catching up with everyone again soon. Best wishes, Nick.

To quote the late, great BGMan, A pannier never offends. Lovely stuff, Andy. Best wishes, Nick.

Will a link be posted on here, Phil? All the best, Nick.

Clutton is a really good example of what can be achieved with tight curves in P4. One thing to say though is that all the locomotives have a fair amount of sideplay on the middle axles to enable this. Please excuse the grainy footage (taken a very long time ago on my phone) but it shows an ex GWR mogul (etched chassis I believe) running on said 3ft curve. Some more footage here showing the 3ft curves. I do like Clutton and seeing it in back in BRM circa 2007 made me go back into modelling again. Best wishes, Nick.

Please keep the photos coming. I'm still gutted I can't make it. I am now testing negative, but its 48hrs too late 🤬 Have a great day! Nick.

… we have someone in our midst with a very cunning plan….

It was due to the gradient from Bodmin General to Boscarne Junction. It is a pretty steep climb so 8 loaded clay wagons, plus a brake van and possibly a box van, was the limit for the 57xx and 45xx locomotives. The curve out of Bodmin General down to Boscarne is pretty tight too, which wouldn't have helped either. So you could add a shunt move to your own station, halving the train in from the mainline and then only take half the wagons down to Boscarne. Nice little shunting move. 🙂

Hi John, Thank you, I meant Weymouth! Apologies for the error. Nick.

He is a photograph of 1369 at Boscarne Junction between 1962-1964. It is standing on the SR line to Bodmin North, with Number 1 siding between the WR Bodmin General and SR lines. There was a further siding, running alongside the SR line to the right of the locomotive. You can see 1369 has a cut of empty wagons and has most likely shunted the full into the exchange siding ready for a WR working to collect.