f#m

Preserved railways are interesting as prototypes but not as model railways....

Whilst this sounds like a massive generalisation/stereotyping of them Ill explain; preserved railways have large numbers and huge variety of locos all in different liveries

/conditions etc. However, from a running point of view there is often little to inspire the modeller in terms of real traction moving on the typical preserved railway (ie Austerity and 2 mk1s!) and most importantly no freight, although the major railways do of course present different opportunities. From efforts I've seen before I'd also say a major problem that preserved railways have, and share with scrapyards and many other similar scenes, is it is very hard to portray the character of them through model form!

 

My tuppence worth

 

m0rris

No frieght? most have a P-way train of some kind since the track and such doesn't magically take care of/replace itself when work needs doing, many run freight trains for the benefit of photographers, many also have stock awaiting restoration stored at a different location from the main base of work where restoration takes place so you get stock in various states of decay/rebuilding being taken back and forth as funds/staff becomes avalable to restore it...

A lot more going on than some model railways would have, particularly these modern image ones you get with a shed that a light loco or two potters about at getting refueled while a sprinter comes and goes from the platform next to it. (that's not saying that kind of layout has anything wrong with it I quite like them actually)

Why would you do it? For the shear fun and of it I guess, would have about as much point in this day and age as that 5AT is ever going to have (none that I can see beyond being an exersize in engineering theory and a massive waste of money that could otherwise be spent on restoring an old engine or building more lost engines like Tornado) and possibly slightly more point as it would be more interesting to see and more of a challege to make work than just building a loco pretty much the way they have been built for decades.

Seems a little to me like the car industry, very little actual progress or new idea's just a case of "here's our latest model, it's got the same body and chassis as the last model but with a few more BHP and a satnav so we can change a few letters about in the name or ad GTR or something to the end and bingo, new model." It's still the same basic format as most cars that came before it.

No disrespect intended to the 5AT group incase anyone involved is reading just stating an opinion.

More on the topic of imaginary locomotives, this what you get if you glue two class 04 shunters together.

Still deciding the best way to go about motorising this creation.

Also what are they going to do once all the oil is gone? It'll be in the same boat as the coal fired machines now and fuel costs will go through the roof.

A truely imaginative idea would be to have a body shape like the Leader and stick a pantograph on top and heat the water through an enlarged version of a kettle element. As long as the goverment gets off their ass about making sure we have enough clean ways of making power there'd be no issue with fueling it only with the route avalability but that would probably grow as oil powered trains disapeared with their fuel gone.

Why does it have to stay looking like a regular steam loco if the whole point of the project is to design the loco from scratch and for it to be new and modern why stick with an old idea about where the cab should go? surely something along the lines on the Leader/turf burner would be more modern than a rehashed standard 5 and have greater visability for the driver and not require a turntable/triangular junction to turn round in order to run the "right" way round.

Red Dwarf books being read on radio4.

Need to get this on cd or something.

recent bunch:

manic street preachers - yes

biffy clyro - bodies in flight

catatonia - gold fish and paracetamol

radiohead -airbag

radiohead- paranoid android

Playing along on my guitar to the lot for practice.

Hi folks,

 

Here's one from Waverley West.

 

150 285 prepares to leave Waverley on a service to Dundee...

 

 

Cheers,

Dave

Waverley West

superb!

Could you tell me what times the next fife circle service departing?

There can be a lot of interesting shunts on these layouts if you make the timetable as it were for operating the layout such that it starts when the railway is in its beginings with old battered stock and out of sevice locos and shunt them in and out of sheds and into trains to be put away into a siding to be waiting in the que for work and if you have multiple examples of most items of stock representing them at various stages of being restored or overhauled you can have a fantastic amount of interesting options for trains to run, shunts to do with the ever changing stock. I think operating it in this way would make it a pretty interesting exhibition layout.

Why is it preserved lines don't have models of their own line as it's intended to be once all the major work restoring buildings/Pway/stock and so on has been done? Good way to show people what they are helping to pay for and maybe get a little more cash flowing in if they stuck a donation box next to it.

I'm currently building a standard gauge terminus of a preserved line because being tied down to one era or railway company isn't any fun to me, it's like going into a sweet shop and only tasting the one kind of sweet no matter how much you may like that sherburt lemon at first after a few months eating only them it gets boring.

Based on an image released by Hippoattack to the public domain. Modified image copyright Paul Burkitt-Gray.

Concluding the TfL theme, here's a look at what the DLR might be like if it was amalgamated with the Underground and operated as distinct lines. Paul

Looks really good on the DLR stock.

Why wasn't it ever put under TfL control?

Jeremy Hardy speaking to the nation on radio4.

Charlotte Hatherley - Where I'm calling from

Ever thought about the reverse "might have been" a Castle in Crimson lake if the LMS had managed to persuade the GWR to sell them some in the '20s, no doubt with a straight sided Midland derived tender and no bright metal!

 

Keith

Would look pretty good I think, Olton Hall looks very nice in its red livery for the Harry Potter films and the red castles Hornby make for the train sets look pretty also.

That Bulleid that was painted red for a time looked nice aswell.

One of them named River Eden I think is now at the KFRPS's yard in Methill. I used to live down the road from leuchars, not when all these nice loco hauled trains were the norm though, got many photo's of the area in more recent years that will be posted when I get a scanner.

Also, before you turn the machine on, is everything tightened up as it should be, and all loose components, such as CHUCK KEYS, removed ? As many of us have found out, loose chuck keys in a spinning chuck have quite a velocity. Safety doesn't take long, but saves a lot of time in the end.

Put unnecessary bits out of the way, so they don't catch on any clothing or whatever you're working on.

 

(PS. Sitting on a loose chuck key that one forgot was on the seat apparently can induce a very passable imitation of a vuvuzela, so my wife informed me when she heard me this afternoon.)

 

Dennis

I've had a chuck that itself come loose on a pillar drill while such things normally shouldn't happen you should have some spare pants in the workshop incase it does.

Wonderfull photos, particularly like the one of Leuchars. Have you any of trains going to the RAF base and the shunters there?

the loco is a knightwing kit as it comes out the packet and Bachmann mk1, the black and white makes it look a lot better than the reality

portishead - all mine

Just spent 6 hours looking at a spot on the ceiling trying not to think and to get to sleep with no luck, welcome to hour 68ish of the manic side of things.

With the SRPS 'Class 27 Farewell' excursion, 27 055 and 27 063 head away from Wormit

 

Bruce

i used to live in one of the houses in that picture , just not in the 80's when there was sights like that to see, boring 90's nothing but sprinters and hst's and the aircraft fuel tank train every week thanks for posting that

Could anyone shed any light on how soon the chassis that it's mentioned high level models will be making to go with the austerity 0-6-0 body kit that NB models do will be avalable?

http://www.nbmodels.com/locokits.asp can find the body kit there if anyone wanted to see it.

Have one kicking about somewhere that I repainted with pretty much the same idea of modelling a preserved railway as you. gave it an all over coat of crimson on the body frames and wheels with black running plates, handrails, chimney ect. painting the frames and wheels really helps them look the part. name plates are good to, theres a few that have been named after entering preservation. most of them have been vacume fitted and some steam heat fitted since which they dont have normaly if they are purely industrial ones.

We have had 4 at the Strathspey over the years:

 

9: Well used during the 90s. Much like 828, withdrawn with a number of plugged tubes.

 

48 & 60: Never really saw them in service though were popular through the 80s.

 

Swiftsure: Was fired up for the second time and the firebox crown collapsed.

 

68030: Been with us for a while now and is likely to leave once 828 is finally complete.

 

I'm sure there was one numbered 2996 years back (its on a magnet on my fridge) and it looks kind of "Swindonised". They are kind of assocciated with smaller concerns and ones who didn't get to Barry quick enough.

 

Once/ if Grantown is reached, the tank engines will be hanging on a thread as WPR No. 17 struggles to complete the day with a full bunker.

coal capacity is a downfall of industrial locos . I used to help out at the Caledonian railway in Brechin back when there was only the barclay 0-4-0 running we would have to fill up a couple of dust bins with coal in the time between trips and refuel after each outing, doesn't help sore backs to have to lift up 8 or so dustbins of coal and tip them into the bunkers inside the cab.

more on subject they are another smallish line that used and still does make heavy use of industrial locos last i knew there was 3 austerity 0-6-0s, 2 peckett 0-6-0s and an 0-4-0 a barclay 0-6-0 and 0-4-0. wonderfull railway and well worth a visit.

Thought as much but was not 100% certain. would this not be something interesting to portray on preserved railways?

provided the right pushpull set is preserved

I love these locos. they are a big part of memories of steam in my case cause i'm not old enough to have seen steam in regular mainline service most of my early memories of it are of the common sight of an austerity 0-6-0 pulling a few mk1's they would also have been some of the last steam loco's working in the UK I imagine though not on the mainline. in many ways i prefer the industrial/shunting loco to the mainline without them there would have been no coal trains for bigger fancier engines to pull. no coal to keep them engines fired either. no coal shunted around to make the power in coal fired power stations to power overhead electric lines. its fair to say that without them and their predecesors shunting away we wouldn't have any of the big loco's everyone laveshes so much attention on.

long live the austerity 0-6-0