Invicta

On 31/08/2021 at 11:20, wainwright1 said:

It could either be a defect in the paint itself or a reaction between the paint and the printer resin.

 

I recall that Corgie had a problem like this with some of their buses. The one in particular I remember was a Brighton trolleybus which got crazed cream paint of the roof, but I know that there were at least a couple of others. I think in that particular case it was definitely defective paint, or where a second coat of paint was sprayed over the first. That should not be the case with these models as I think that they have only one coat of paint. Does anyone know if these wagons are primed in any way before painting, another possible reaction ?

 

 

Just checked mine (SR brown from the second run) and so far no sign of cracking.

I remember the similar problem that Corgi had. As I recall, it was more widespread than just buses- I was a fairly serious diecast car collector from the early 90's to the early 2000's, and have several Corgis from that period with cracked white paint on the roof.

On 13/08/2021 at 23:14, Steamport Southport said:

Like most manufacturers at the time they probably had the FJ Roche book of drawings.

 

That was the reason Ratio did the one off CR 50 ton bogie wagon. The drawings were readily available.

 

Jason

Given the total obscurity of the prototype, Ratio must have sold a fair few over the years, bearing in mind how long it's been in their catalogue.  I built my first one in my teens, nearly 40 years ago, and I'm sure I'm not the only modeller to end up with multiples of them- I think I've got either 6 or 8, in states ranging from 'unbuilt kit still in the box', through 'unfinished project' to 'running', including a particularly implausible 1936-style LMS bauxite-liveried version 

I had a brief flirtation with N gauge in the early 80's, after my younger brother got a Farish N gauge set as a birthday present, and remember having one of the Sulphate wagons, but don't think we ever had the NER van. 

Certainly a quirky couple of choices by RTR standards of the time - even in the present-day world, with the trade releasing things the 80's modeller would never have dreamed of seeing in RTR,  an announcement of the NER bogie van might be seen as a bit left-field.  

I'm tempted to wonder if someone in the GF design team of the period was a bit of an LNER wagon enthusiast!

On 22/07/2021 at 21:56, Bucoops said:

Canterbury West c1995

 

 

Now tarted up to be a cafe bar type of thing apparently.

Yes, it was converted to be a restaurant and farmers' market , Ithink in the early 2000's

There certainly doesn't seem to be much in that lineup that dates much after the mid-60's- BMC 1100/1300, Mk1 & Mk2 Cortinas (Mk2 introduced late '66), BMC 1100/1300 estate?, Renault Dauphine, couple of Ford Anglias...

3 hours ago, Nick Holliday said:

Would the ROD 2-8-0 locos sent to Australia count?

The Mersey Railway also had 2-6-2 tanks, rather prettier than the 0-6-4's, and a couple of them went to collieries too.

I was just thinking of those as well- about a dozen ROD 2-8-0s sold to Australian mining company J&A Brown in the 1920's?

I can't think of anything bigger sold from UK main line* to industrial use

(*Is one an actual ex-GCR example?, and were any of them amongst the batches leased to various UK main line railways immediately post-WW1?)

On 14/06/2021 at 22:08, Nick C said:

I believe there were a few rakes of 4/6 wheelers on the SR (mainland) that just scraped into the thirties on hop-pickers duties, excursions etc. The Bluebell have a couple of 6 wheelers with 1935 withdrawal dates.

 

The LCDR 4-wheelers sent over to the IOW mostly lasted until 36/37, with a couple of exceptions that lasted through the war in parcels use. 

One location where 4/6 wheelers just scraped into the 30's on the mainland was the Canterbury & Whitstable line, owing to the tight confines of Tyler Hill tunnel.

According to Brian Hart's book on the line "Shortly before the grouping, the SE&CR had managed to find sixteen LC&DR-pattern four-wheelers, most of which had been built at Longhedge around 1901...On entering service they were finished in SR green with yellow lining and company lettering. However the livery didn't stay bright for very long since the filthy environs of Tyler Hill tunnel soon dulled and dirtied the smart exteriors" and these would have remained on the line until the end of passenger services on 1st January 1931

Apparently they were modified with smaller wheels, reduced roof overhangs and removal of duckets on brake coaches to cope with the tunnel, and replaced a number of ex-SER coaches, described as being "of a type which had generally disappeared around 1907" 

On 03/03/2021 at 10:30, Nearholmer said:

A tarred-stone plant would allow some interesting tank wagons. South Eastern Tar Distillers had horrible stinky plants at Tonbridge, Canterbury, Rye Harbour, and maybe a couple of other places, and years (decades!) ago there was a drawing of one of their tank wagons in one of the modelling magazines, liveried under their previous name of Forbes, Abbott, and Leonard (these three guys practically invented the tar distilling industry, and had huge plants in London too). [It looks as if Dapol make a rectangular tank wagon in S-E TD livery, although whether the model is accurate, I don't know.]

 

I told you I was sad!

 

There's a piece on S-E Tar Distillers in the John Arkell "Private Owner Wagons of the South-East" book, which is illustrated with pics of two rectangular tanks, and one of a cylindrical tank, photographed at Tonbeidge and Tunbridge Wells West in the 1950's. The  livery on Dapol's wagon appears to be a fair match for one of the photos, other than a slight lettering variation (the use of  'Ltd' and 'Ld' as an abbreviation for 'Limited'), which is similar to another wagon partially shown in the same pic.

On 27/04/2021 at 14:27, Cor-onGRT4 said:

It seems Hattons have some stock left of these, R4964, R4965, R 4965a and R4965b all more than 10 in stock, i am amazed the RFO to, expected 

this was all sold out in pre order as far i know.

Maybe left overs from cancelled pre orders.

Yesterday Hattons proceed my pre order of these.

Mine are partially on the way to me, the others still in my basket for the next shipping. 

That's handy- I'd not planned this one very well and hadn't pre-ordered, but managed to pick up 6 (I'm probably not going to be able to make sensible use of a full 9-car set on the layout I'm currently building, so was aiming at one of each coach type) from Signal Box in Anstey last week, but was still short of an RFO- now have one winging it's way to me from Hattons.

Initial impression of the ones I have is very positive- Haven't run them yet on my test track, but seem to have similar experience to others that one or two axles aren't very free-running, but we'll see when I get to actually run them.

On 22/04/2021 at 08:00, Nick Gough said:

Is it still there following Snibston's closure?

On 22/04/2021 at 08:31, Johann Marsbar said:

Looks like it is still there from Google Earth, which claims to be a 2021 dated Image.  Also visible on street view from 2019.

There are still a number of former rail exhibits from the Museum stored on-site as well.

Yes, the site has now been reopened after the museum building site was demolished and cleared, as a combination of country park and playground, with a heritage trail around the colliery buildings, plus the Century Theatre and a new cafe- the signal box is still there (you can see it in the background of the photo in the article linked below), although I did notice in recent photos I've seen, that the locking room windows have been boarded over, presumably as a precaution now that access to the site is much more open.

Snibston Colliery Park opens following £3m regeneration scheme - News - North West Leicestershire District Council (nwleics.gov.uk)

When I get a chance, I plan to wander over and take some new photos- I also should have, buried somewhere in a box of old photo albums in the loft, a set of photos showing the box being removed from Coalville Crossing to Snibston in the late 80's, which I'll post if I ever find them.

Coalville Crossing, preserved on a relocated site at Snibston Discovery Park, 12/09/2009. The height allowed sightline over the adjacent station footbridge  on it's original site.

On 14/04/2021 at 21:35, Spotlc said:

 

Here's The Peacock and Olivers, posed next to what I think is another long deleted Superquick, the Estate agents shop. I bought this at auction and restored it, but I can find no trace of it in any older catalogues - perhaps it's not Superquick?  

 

I'm pretty sure "Cockburn & Foster" is Superquick- I think mine is long gone (unless it's lurking in a box in the loft) but I'm sure I remember having it as part of the street scene on one of my early teenage layouts-  (this would have been early 80's). Is it an earlier incarnation of the " Country Town Shops" kit in the current range? as I recall, it came as a pair.- the rest of my street consisted of another shop, the Elizabethan cottages (looking at the Superquick website, another kit that's changed over the years?), "Swan Inn", and an Airfix detached bungalow. 

On 10/04/2021 at 21:16, Nick Holliday said:

There's a similar sort of photo on the HMRS website, but noted as being the Miller brake. https://hmrs.org.uk/photographs/either-side-brake-co-ec-8t-5-plank-open-no-4-osp-miller-brake-either-side-brake-compositenents-highlighted-mr-miller-on-left.html Although the principles appear the same, this one looks slightly different, and it is possible to make out the name Roberts on the door on No. 2, which suggests another patentee was involved.

The same photo of No.4 appears in the Keith Montague OPC "PO Wagons from the Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co." book (plate 190)

My SR-liveried one arrived a couple of days ago, and I'm impressed, it's a nice piece of work.  Yes, the print lines are visible at close-up distance, but not so much at normal layout viewing distance, it's got a decent weight to it compared to normal RTR wagons, and seems to run pretty freely. I'm looking forward to seeing what else Rails might have in the pipeline

I raided my stock boxes for a couple of other vans as a comparison- it's quite a dinky little thing compared to later period vans (Bachmann LNER, and Dapol LMS as a comparison- both in commissioned liveries that would probably look more prototypical on something like the SECR van!), and definitely adds something different to a goods train

Another abandoned level crossing- Belvoir Road Coalville, on the NCB branch to Snibston Colliery which hasn't seen a train in about 35 years. The line to the left was used as part of the Snibston Discovery museum until that closed about 5 years ago (the rails terminated at a platform built a short distance beyond the crossing) and has recently been lifted to convert that stretch into a footpath. The little lean-to building on the end of the shops on the left was the crossing-keeper's hut. The line to the right has been used as a footpath for years, but has recently been upgraded, with the crossing gates now fixed in an open position.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.7242949,-1.3743912,3a,75y,9.21h,67.01t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sWZ3GMWXGrAtR-YXy8GKuBQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Both level crossings on the branch survive- this is the other one, on the service roads of the public car park- the line to the right (between the hedges) leads to the first crossing.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.7234217,-1.3712533,3a,75y,242.48h,74.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ss1S1-EUh5kW9yXJdmlvVTw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

There's still a remnant of the 3'6" gauge Burton & Ashby Light Railway tram track in the car park of the former Ashby-de-la-Zouch railway station- the tramway closed in 1927

https://goo.gl/maps/EthvxY7B7x7LSFh99

On 23/03/2021 at 20:49, Nearholmer said:

 

They're actually very well documented, and if you ferret around on the web there are some superb phots of them on "naming day". Someone on RMWeb had done a great job of correcting the Hornby toy to make an accurate model.

IIRC there was an article in one of the mags in the early 2000s (Model Rail I think) on detailing the Hornby toy version, although as I recall the work involved in the RMWeb thread, to produce an accurate model, rather than one dimensionally tweaked to fit the Hornby 0-4-0 chassis, was a lot more involved.

On 23/03/2021 at 23:12, RyanN91 said:

Also In 1981 Hornby released The Lord of the Isles train pack featuring a Dean single was uncatalogued. I think the original was a limited edition. However this was reissued and actually catalogued in 2006 to mark the 25th Anniversary of the train pack. 

 

 

I think it was a L/E of 5000, and came out fairly late in the year- I've still got mine, bought as a Christmas present when I was 14, from the model shop in Charles Street, Leicester (Apex Craft or something like that?)  From memory, Hornby did the "Lord of the Isles" pack, a Stephenson's Rocket pack and the (catlalogued) LMS red Caley single as mentioned a few posts back in consecutive years, 1981-83. My teenage powers of persuasion must have been pretty strong, as I somehow managed to persuade my parents (they were always pretty enlightened about railway purchases!) to stump up for all 3 over consecutive Christmases, even though they were fairly pricey at the time- £75 or thereabouts comes to mind for the LOTI pack

On 08/03/2021 at 10:50, Compound2632 said:

 

That's what I did when I built the Geen whitemetal kit, though I ruckled up a piece of paper for the tarpaulin. I believe that the tarpaulin covered or had sewn into it a series of battens, to support it over the opening.

 

 

On 11/03/2021 at 11:40, Compound2632 said:

 

I'm sure that some other industrial user of these vans might well have re-roofed them. But really, the roof hatch isn't that difficult to model.

Just had a delve through my unbuilt kits and if it's helpful for anyone wanting to detail the old Triang van and add the roof doors, the instructions for the David Geen Dia. 3 kit gives the following dimensions for them:

"Roof sweeps at 8' apart, end 6" past centre of roof. Roof door canvas 6' wide, slats under are 5'2" long, fastened by bar through canvas loops and pinned to sides. Bar 2"x1/2" x 5'8" sewn into canvas is trapped down by locking bar"

Both the David Geen kit and the old MAJ Diagram 62 instructions suggest using microstrip for the battens and either tissue paper, fine cotton fabric or thin plasticard for the actual door canvas, similar to the method Stephen outlined a few posts back.

On 10/03/2021 at 09:04, Caley 439 said:

I've found similar with recent production Dapol wagons, which is a pity as all the older ones I have (from around 2000 to 2010ish) run well and have no issues. I think adding additional weight might help somewhat, and I hope so as I like the various liveries that Dapol offer

I was just thinking the same thing- I've probably not bought more than a handful of Dapol wagons in the last 10 years, and most of my stock has been boxed up for several years following a house move and sorting out the garage ready to build a new layout, but I've got quite a lot of older Dapol wagons from the same 2000-2010 period you mention,  and back when they were being run fairly regularly, I don't recall them being unusually prone to derailment- Sounds like there's been a decline in quality, so what's changed?

23 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

If you make a model of something in the NRM you have to license it and the boxes have to have the branding. I would expect this to be the same.

 

23 hours ago, MattA said:

Hornby's many re-runs of Mallard and Flying Scotsman, not to mention their streamlined Duchess of Hamilton and - a few years ago now - Bachmann's 13000 and 49395 would beg to differ?

I don't know about the Hornby releases as I've never owned them, but Bachmann's 49395 (and presumably the Crab?) was certainly described as a 'National Collection' model and had a small 'NRM Heritage Range' logo on the box end- I'm trying to recall the timescale of the release, did it pre-date the NRM prototype Deltic and subsequent NRM exclusives?

21 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

The thing with licensing is it’s very difficult to license a model of the vehicle but easy to license the branding. So you can make a sports car that looks remarkably like a F40 or GT40 but as soon as you use a Ferrari or Ford logo on the model it needs a license for the branding.

From vague memory back in the 90's or thereabouts, one of the European diecast manufacturers released what was advertised as a generic 'Modern F1 car',- the model in the box was very obviously an actual car from a recent season, either McLaren or Ferrari IIRC, right down to the livery . They'd had to describe it as a 'generic' model because for wahtever reason they'd not been able to get a licence for the branding and name. 

9 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Possibly from the later big L&Y vans but I doubt any modification to the Diagram 3 vans, which were elderly and of low capacity, would have been seen as worthwhile. 

I've got the David Geen Diagram 3 kit in my box of unbuilt kits, and thought I recalled mention in the instructions of the roof doors being removed in later life- I could well be thinking of the larger vans though, as I've also got one of the old MAJ kits for the bigger (Diagram 62 or something like that?) vans in the same box

On 08/03/2021 at 10:21, Poor Old Bruce said:

 

Thanks Stephen, them's them. I would ask if the roof door was compulsary but it looks like not much more than two or three bits of microstrip and some tarpaulin coloured paint.

IIRC, depending on the period you're modelling, you might be able to get away without the roof door- I think they were often removed in later LMS ownership?

When I'm not working from home, I work from an office backing onto the line in Coalville- we usually get a train of stone hoppers, bound for Bardon quarry, come through from the Ashby direction a couple of times a week. I think it usually passes through Coalville between 1-2pm?

On 15/02/2021 at 22:09, PrestburyJack said:

By the 1920s the Jubilees where seen mainly on branch line work, pick-up goods and shunting duties.

At the 1923 grouping, all ninety Jubilees where still in service and remained until 1928 when the first six being withdrawn and broken up which continued through the following years and became the last serving 0-4-2s on Britain’s railways.

 

618, 627, 629 & 636 entered into British Railways stock in 1948 but where not renumbered and kept their Southern lettering with 629 being the last one in general service, ending its days shunting at Eastleigh and was withdrawn in November 1948.

 

Oddly enough, I'm just browsing through my latest book purchase, "The Melbourne Military Railway and the Derby to Ashby branch. Part 2" (Mike Christensen) and a pair of Jubilees, Nos. 614 and the aforementioned 618, spent part of the Second World War in Derbyshire, having been amongst four hired by the WD in April/May 1942- the others being 625 and 638.

618 was apparently first sent to Longmoor, then transferred to Melbourne at the end of '42. They appear to have left Melbourne by the autumn of 1943, as they're not included in a list of locos noted  on the line by a visitor in October '43.