Skinnylinny

The house move is now complete, although the layout has yet to be set up again - it's currently rather ignominiously stood on the ends of the baseboards in a cupboard. As far as I can tell though, no damage has occurred in transit. I also managed to put my hands on several bits I had managed to misplace, including a half-finished Branchlines "Ilfracombe Goods" (which runs, so now it's just the detailing to go!). The first of the HOn30 "passenger cars" has also materialised, with huge thanks to @J-Mo Arts. Despite coming out looking rather like a strawberry-flavoured boiled sweet at first, a mist of primer shows a rather nice model with plenty of detail. I can't really take credit for this, having just cut-and-shut it from someone else's design (see earlier post). I've also acquired an HO scale building kit for my first planned module for this HOn30 project - a warehouse kit by Walthers. It's been coming together whenever I make it down to the club, and it's getting close to being ready for weathering: The slightly awkward shape is is what led to choosing this building kit - it fills a gap between tracks rather nicely: I still have to build the platform above and to the left of the warehouse (the wedge-shaped building on the left), and the building on the right I was planning to use the Walthers "Union Crane and Shovel" building, but I am still keeping an eye out for something that might look look a little less oversized compared to the size of rolling stock it will receive! Work on Linton Town will resume shortly, although I'm popping into the office this week so it'll be a bit far to travel back for modelling purposes.

Not so much at one of the railways, but I've found Train Times in Eastbourne to be well worth a visit (I usually pop in when I'm down south visiting), and if the weather's nice there's always a wee stroll along the beach and an ice cream too - they're only a couple of minutes' walk from the coast.

I'm not going to lie, I'd be tempted by one... Go nicely with the G. Fawkes gunpowder van, with the explosion of froth that happens occasionally around here!

Thanks all for the kind words and reactions. Packing has begun in earnest, and I'm already surprised at how much stock I own, and even more surprised at how little of it is finished/layout-ready! I must do something about that... I've been bemoaning how little scenic work I had done on the layout for the last few years, but that is now feeling like something of a blessing, as it will make transporting the boards much easier. Indeed, one board is still completely bare, and thus can have another stacked atop it for transport purposes, meaning everything should fit in the back of a car with the back seats folded down. Finally, I know the loco should really be in wartime grey for this train, but I couldn't resist - apart from the loco, I've had a part in producing every piece of rolling stock in this train, and it is a wonderful picture with which to cheer myself up!

It's a tricky one - if we want to provide "NEM" pockets as most people think of them (Actually, strictly, the "NEM 362" standard - the boxy one) the standard specified the position of the box relative to the buffer faces and rail height. Unfortunately, in order to match that specification (specifically how far back the coupling box would have to be) we found it would clash with the outer axle, as the coupling box also has to have a mechanism for some sideways movement (usually the NEM 363 "fishtail" on the NEM 362 "box" in the UK). While it is possible to have a rigidly-mounted box for Kadee users (as the heads of the knuckles have some swivel built in) this would then stop those who prefer to use other close-couplers (bar couplings or Roco type - basically any type that forms a rigid bar when coupled) from using it. We do our best to have coupling mounts that match NEM 362 when we can, but sometimes we're just too pressed for space, and we have to use the NEM 363 (for use "under restrictive installation conditions"), so at least people can know what mount there is, as it matches the standard.

Thank you! And you know the old ditty... The guard is the [plastic] man, The man in the [plastic] van, The van at the rear of the train... Pop the roof off, stick a guard inside, and if you really want to overdo it, pop some real coal in the coal bunker (under the desk in the twin veranda type, under the side bench at the non veranda end in the single veranda version!)

Sorry for going quiet, it's been a hectic month! The A12 was finished in time for the model-building competition on Tuesday 23rd. The next day, I was woken from an afternoon nap by hammering at the front door. When I opened it, bleary-eyed, I was presented with two firefighters in full gear and breathing apparatus, hoses running up the communal stairwell, and a large amount of smoke. The image below is linked to but not posted directly into this post to allow those who would prefer not to see pictures of my building having taken up smoking (a habit I've always found unpleasant, but fairly appropriate to the pre-grouping period) to avoid them. Photograph There have then followed nearly two weeks where I've been effectively homeless. I managed to get supervised access to the property briefly to grab essentials (medication, clothing, and things needed for a few days out of the house) the day after the fire, but after that the police declared the whole building a crime scene, so the CID and forensics were to be seen, as well as a rather sturdy new steel front door to the stairwell! I finally got a key to the property (the locks having been changed after the fire brigade kicked the door in to ensure the flat was empty) yesterday, to find there's (mercifully) no damage at all in my flat. I have managed to get some more bits and pieces out, but I've just signed the lease on a new flat, this time in Glasgow. I've only been in the current place for three and a half years, but two fires requiring evacuations, and one flood, in that time is more than enough excitement for me! So, will it be all change for the Great Southern Railway? Hopefully not. The new place has enough space for the layout, and a lot of natural light for modelling, to say nothing of a garden for spraying paint. There may be a period of inactivity while I pack and unpack my life into boxes though... In the meantime, I have received two long-awaited parcels, containing, from Rapido, a 6-wheel SECR brake, and from Rails of Sheffield, two single-ended ones (one in SER livery and one in SE&CR Wainwright livery). To say I'm pleased with how they've come out would be an understatement, and they seem to have been very well received. I'm especially proud of managing to get two different interior layouts in the single- and twin-veranda versions, as per the prototype! There's plenty more exciting stuff in the works, but sadly that'll have to wait for another time... They're keeping me busy!

It's often quite difficult to be precise about liveries and time periods for private-owner wagons, as it's fairly common for there to only be one known photograph of any particular wagon. However, there are some hints one can glean from the livery which can rule out certain time periods. For example, the Commuted Charge symbol (two black letters C on a yellow background) was introduced in (I believe) 1926, so any wagon featuring this would not suit your pre-1923 setting. Obviously any wagon which features a "Big Four" company as part of the "Empty to" or home station is in a post-grouping livery, so would also not suit you. Taking a quick look at the list of wagons in the main range, specifically looking for wagons that might have been seen on the SE&CR in the early ‘20s, I would suggest: Colliery-owned wagons which could appear anywhere in the country: https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/griff/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/wadsworths/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/south-leicester/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/bullcroft-main-colliery/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/edinburgh-collieries/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/annesley-colliery/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/bwlch-7-plank/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/glass-houghton-collieries/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/ormiston-coal-company/ There are accounts of Scottish colliery wagons being found in the south of England, because when local coal was used for hop-drying in Kent, the brewers found the coal had high levels of arsenic. Coal from certain collieries in Scotland had much lower arsenic quantities, so was highly prized for brewing use in Kent! Then you might have any coal merchants’ wagons from outside the area you’re modelling, which have been loaded with coal somewhere on the SE&CR (although these would likely not appear at a branch line terminus, as they’d go fairly directly from colliery to merchant): https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/alfred-pratt/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/john-allbutt/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/albert-usher/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/john-j-tims/ https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/ernest-thomas-jenkins/ I would check exact build dates for these wagons if I could, but I'm currently away from my reference books, so this is my best guess! Hope this helps!

I'm afraid I'm not sure whether I've made it near Traeth Mawr, although it's lovely to see the card coaches built! The reason I ask about the NEM pockets is that the default version of the horsebox will have them fitted, but I'll provide a file without them for those who specifically want to not have them - I've tended to find that trying to carve large parts like that off a resin print inevitably ends up in tears (usually with the model cracking or snapping into multiple parts). Not much to report on my own modelling - I've been slowly applying more and more transfers to the A12, and it's nearly there - just needs some footstep lining on one side, and one boiler band adding, and it should be complete in plenty of time for the club's model building competition in a little over a week. It has now gained crew, temporary backhead (just held in with PVA glue, but enough to cover the hole at the end of the boiler through which you can see the motor!), and real coal in the tender, along with a headcode. I'm rather pleased with these photographs I took at club last night, though, showing the Adams Radial and the A12!

Oh wow, those buildings are looking fantastic. Truly inspirational!

I'll have to try to get on with it then! Would you be looking for one with or without NEM pockets? I'll be providing Gary with a file without them, and with enough space to fit sprung screw links, as he uses them on his own models. I've been a bit distracted by work lately, and... adjusting some files from Thingiverse (I think "remixing" is the preferred term?) to quickly and easily create some 3D printable files for rolling stock in HOn30 to go with the Eureka 4-4-0. Nothing fancy, mostly lengthening or shortening existing freely-available models. A sort of virtual cut-and-shut, if you will. I've ended up with what looks to be a decent selection of stock, none of which I can claim as my own work beyond butchering someone else's designs! The carriages (*cough* I mean "passenger cars") started out as a pair of "shorty" vehicles, with only 6 window bays in the plain "coach", and three in the "combine" (brake end on this side of the pond), like so: By the simple expedient of taking out a slice from the middle, duplicating it, and sticking the bits back together, I have ended up with a 9-window coach and 6-window combine. The "stock car" (cattle wagon) is pretty much as downloaded, while the gondola (open) and flatcar have been shortened to match the stock car, and the boxcar (van) has been lengthened. Thus I've ended up with a rake where the passenger vehicles are the same length, and the freight vehicles are similar enough in size to be (I hope!) believable. Linny

I may have a spare cab roof from a modern Hornby M7 with the front spectacle glazing attached, but I won't be able to check until Wednesday evening. If I find it, you're welcome to it!

The dining saloon looks to be coming along very nicely! Depending on the width, have you considered cutting a strip out of white masking tape, then cutting your tape antimacassars to length before applying them to the seats? Alternatively, white electrician's tape could also be used.

Thank you! Sadly I doubt that there's enough of a market for the Stroudley horsebox ready-to-run. However, I may be persuaded to offer it to Oak Hill Works to sell as a 3D-printed kit - he's already done the same for my SECR pull-push set (https://www.oakhillworks.co.uk/product/se-and-cr-6-wheel-pull-push-rake-3-coaches) and Honeyball 5-plank dumb-buffered private owner wagon (https://www.oakhillworks.co.uk/product/honeyball-5-plank-private-owner-wagon)!

Well, I'm back on the CAD again, this time poking at an LB&SCR Stroudley horsebox I started a while back. It's nearly there now, needing just the visible brake gear (fairly minimal, as this is Westinghouse-fitted), brake pipes, lamp irons and a few more grab irons on the corners. This is a very short piece of coaching stock - two feet shorter than the LSWR 16-footer I last produced! They do make for an interesting pre-grouping pairing together though... Oh, and I suppose I ought to figure out some NEM coupling mounts too...

There is certainly photographic evidence of pre-'23 private owner wagons lasting into BR service, both in worn PO livery with a P number, and in unpainted wood (also with a P number). Add to that the possibility of them ending up in industrial internal use, and I reckon there's probably quite a number that lasted that late!

Perhaps so, although I will (again) point out that the two photographs there show an unlit carriage, with external lighting provided by a traditionally-Scottish overcast day. Also, having researched said lighting myself as part of a personal project, I am very much familiar with the progression of carriage lighting from 2-candlepower oil lamps, through flat-flame and gas lighting. And yes, I know how bright a candle is, and a paraffin lamp. I've had to work by them from time to time (during power cuts!). That being said, with the B-set, we are well into electric lighting, and while it ought not to be as bright as some models out there (some of which glow *through* the plastic bodyshell!), any additional amount of light in the carriage interior will make it easier to see what's inside.

I suspect the working lighting might make the passenger population a little more obvious... That being said, I have found it worthwhile using some of the higher-end figures in my Hattons Genesis carriages (which will, for my needs, be getting a repaint!) as even without lights, the passengers are definitely visible.

I acknowledge that these are both underground, one in London and one in Glasgow, but...

If we're looking for a polished wood livery for carriage stock, may I suggest the wood from the Effing Forest? Source: https://wiki.lspace.org/Effing_Forest I don't currently have the book to hand, but it seems that it is served by the AM&SPHR, and so it would be quite reasonable to use its, uh, products for coachbuilding purposes. The quality of the wood is already well known by Harry King, and so...

As I've been looking into narrower-than-standard motor-gearbox combinations for the HOn30 4-4-0 lately, you have me wondering if any of the sets I've been looking at might help. It appears that the previous photographs of the 3D printed Sharp Stewart locos in this thread have been lost in the Great Picture Disaster. Would there be any chance of some new ones appearing, shewing the chassis, what access there may be to the inside of the boiler, and some measurements of the distance between the frames? One of the ranges that appealed to me was the Northwest Shortline range of gearboxes, which are narrow and screw together (no fold-and-soldering required!) An couple of their gearboxes are shewn here, with H0 wheels on a 3mm axle, although they also offer gearboxes for 1/8" axles.

While tidying up a bit for an upcoming flat inspection (the joys of renting!) I came across two bottles of Vallejo "Model Air" acrylics I had bought a while ago with a view to seeing just how suitable they were for spraying. Well, armed with "Anthracite Grey" and "Rust", I had a go at weathering two open wagons - a Hornby "Princess Royal" private-owner, and one of @TurboSnail's resin-printed SECR wagons. They seem to have turned out alright, albeit with a slightly more "grainy" finish than I would have liked. This is only visible at cruel close-up though, and I suspect I need to fiddle around with the compressor setting to get a better finish. Still, they can be seen here in the front row, amidst various other weathered wagons in the Linton Town fleet, along with an "ex-works" Hornby "Thomas Meakins" wagon - this is the colour the Princess Royal wagon started out! Not content with reliverying his "generic" carriages for Train Simulator, Elias has been at it again, this time creating completely fictitious goods rolling stock for the GSR - a fitted van, a ventilated meat van, and a cattle wagon!

Ah, but the announcement from Rapido on Facebook: This refers to the announcement earlier in the day of "Tthe Ttittfield Tthunderboltt" in TT:120, which is the *actual* April Fool's joke: The wagon set is, however, quite real! https://rapidotrains.co.uk/product/inspired-by-titfield-wagon-pack/

Isn't it just? I mentioned my desire to model it on my layout and Yarran has very kindly sent me side, end and cab views along with measurements, so it may yet see the light of day in physical form. However, first I need to finish the other 4-4-0 on the virtual workbench. I think I've finally figured out motorisation, with a tiny LaisDCC motor in the tender driving a set of Ultrascale 30:1 gears in the loco through a flexible joint (not shown). This should leave lots of space above the driving wheels to add adhesive weight. I'd have liked a higher gear ratio, but am somewhat limited in the size of gear I can use! I did consider multi-stage gearing, but as this model will be using a 3D printed chassis, I only have about 4mm clear between the frames, and I decided not to push my luck too much. Still to do on this are: Adding a representation of the front coupling bar - while the layout is planned to use knuckle couplings, I didn't want to mangle the front end of this too much. I might try to see if I can make up something fairly unobtrusive out of bent wire to allow this loco to run tender-first with stock if absolutely necessary. Finishing the tender detail and adding a coupling mount point to the tender rear somehow Drawing up an etch for the coupling and connecting rods, slidebars, and maybe some static inside motion Designing transfers (yay!) Still, it's definitely coming together!

Well, that has been thoroughly lovely and unexpected! I have been presented with a freelance 4-4-0 and "generic" 6-wheel coaching stock in Great Southern Railway livery in Train Simulator. Huge thanks to Elias and Yarran at Wayside Works, who decided to produce these to thank me for helping out with some of their projects. I have to admit, I rather like this 4-4-0, and it may have to end up being modelled in 4mm scale for the layout... Ah, a proper pre-grouping scene. I already have a fair selection of LSWR locos in Drummond green (A12, M7, T3, Adams Radial) and even in goods holly green (Ilfracombe Goods), and Elias has made a lovely selection of goods wagons to go with them, including an ancient Beattie "birdcage" brake.