Ravenser

Fine for track droppers - a loco is unlikely to draw more than 1A, even if fitted with sound. Most locos these days are around 0.2-0.4A draw. And if you are fitting droppers to each bit of rail , then the current draw should be through several droppers

Too light for the DCC traction  buses, or for supplying solenoid point motors - the resistance generated will seriously reduce power at high current flows , and over 1.4A continuous flow you'll get potential overheating. Fine for stall motor point motors though as they are low current

Regional was the BR Provincial Services sector giving itself a smarter name - so BR. That said, the livery itself survived for almost a decade after privatisation

I've finally found someone who's taken even longer than me to finish a brake van! Looking good

Thanks for the kind remarks. I'm rather pleased with the results , and as there's an important diagram and need on the layout for this loco , at least it should see plenty of service , unlike my previous efforts at loco reworking , which sit in boxes. I agree about the lights - I remember the dim yellow glow of a low wattage bulb - which is why I won't be fitting any of Express Models' products in 31 415. Mind you on a DCC layout , lights are an operational convenience - they show the current direction  set

Thanks for the comments. I thought about microstrip for the "wings" , but I chickened out because I thought 10 thou or 20 thou strip glued on edge would be so fragile it would be impractical . Also I was afraid it would be extremely difficult to get them identical , and a mismatch would stick out like a sore thumb

I believe the Hornby Railroad GW coaches can be upgraded into a reasonable representation of a Collett coach , so this could provide the start of a through portion from Paddington, possibly hauled by the 43xx

I know a rather larger 1865 station quite well and have a few "in the background " glimpses in photos.I think the main brickwork is probably close but a bit pink - something a bit more brown-orange and a little lighter would be very close  . However the quions are definitely too creamy - and would have gone a lightish grey . The photo of Clare is pretty reliable here, but I think the main brickwork at Clare is probably a bit mossy and has been dulled and shifted slightly in colour. Looking very good though - the laser cut has worked very well

If they do locally (it's not a huge branch), and I can find a decent match for Brunswick Green, I could be back in business. Thanks for the tip 

There's a local car bits shop that does. But I know from looking in the past that he has Humbrol enamels and Revell enamels and acrylicsa and that's your lots - unless I were to go down the cellulose route - which I can't

My guess - and it is simply a guess - is that the loco was still in GC livery until repainted, though it might have recieved its LNER number, simply for practical operating reasons  

Looking very good indeed

Quite apart from copyright, scan/copy may well result in slight variations in size, so the panel overlay may not match the underlying layer , never mind the variation in colour tone and density/finish . You may be better off just buying a second kit - I reckon there's enough extra parts in the kit to overlay one brake vehicle but that's as far as you'd get without extra material.

I've got a StreetLevel Ashburys kit myself as my Streetlevel cardboard Met Bo-Bo can't cope with 2 Ratio coach kits at 100g each (should have added more lead inside the loco). Bogies on the Ashburys seem to be drawn as 7' wheelbase - 247 do a cast whitemetal GW 7' bogie which looks close and would supply useful weight as well as getting it very low down . But this is a very long way down my very long "to do" list....

a very old Hornby 20t (from my first trainset) which I understand is vaguely like a GW owned private owner wagon

 

 

It's in fact a reasonably accurate N32 Felix Pole 20T mineral , built for hire to private owners to "encourage" them to modernise their fleets,  though it's a less refined version than the ex Airfix model. All it needs is a Parkside 12' wb RCH underframe and maybe a bit of thinning of the top edge , plus suitable painting/weathering. Hornby's  S C (Stephenson Clarke) livery may well be authentic, though others (eg Norstand Grimsby) weren't  

The card Ashburys are produced by Street Level Models, aka L49 of this parish

Thanks for the comment SRman , and sorry for the delay in picking it up. I'm afraid the seats are hard up against the glazing - which is what has led to solvent being drawn onto the glazing - so this wouldn't work . Also I've now fitted the roofs.....

Having taken another look at my Van B yesterday (to check arrangements for Kadees) I'm pleased with the way it's come up - and would probably be even more pleased with it if Hornby hadn't delivered a crisper moulding with a still higher level of finish.

I'm relying on a coat of matt varnish to sort out the paintwork finally , but I am definitely not looking forward to masking all the windows with Maskol. On parcels vans a coat of matt varnish over the glazing isn't a problem , it's a weathering effect.  On passenger coaches it's very different. It might be possible to remove the varnish - if I acted quickly - using a cotton bud dipped in whgite spirit , but I'm not sure I dare commit myself to this working and omit to mask.

Believe older motors drew very large amounts of current, and this is quite possibly just a feature of the motor . If it's any help the TCS T1 can handle 1.2A continuous  

Bill - thanks for this. It's a pity the brake composites seem to have gone by 1952, though they have very short van sections which can't have made them ideal for holiday trains - however suitable it makes them for branchline and suburban traffic.

Specimen numbers for survivors would be very much appreciated, though presumably this won't be possible for the brake composite, just the all third.

I'd picked up that numbering was likely to be a trackless waste : Harris states that the M&GN stock was given numbers in a new 8xxxx block after the LNER take over (though he doesn't say whether M&GN numbers were simply prefixed with an 8 or whether there was a renumbering) They missed out on the 1943 renumbering , and he adds "In BR days the carriages were renumbered within the GE pre-Grouping range". Since that block seems to have started off pretty random, then been further scrambled by vehicles being scrapped /transferred to other Sections , and replacement vehicles being stuffed into the lowest gaps, without some actual specimen numbers, I'd simply be playing "think of a number" and topping and tailing it with Es...

(I'm a little stunned to discover from the same page of Harris that the Class 306 EMUs carried 1923 GE section vehicle numbers, - and retained them until scrapping in the early 80s, and presumably to the present day in the case of the surviving unit; and the 506s carried 1923 GC Section coach numbers until scrapped in the mid 80s.)

A very fine rendition in early 80-s condition. I had to look twice at that middle shot to be sure I was looking at a model. The station structure will be a big task , but it's looking very impressive so far. The platforms will take 6 coaches - the old Humber-Lincs Executive used to block both crossings - and as you say it's a remarkably compact large station

Looking at this , it seems the big issue may be the corridor connections on the Thompson stock. The connections on Hornby Gresleys and Bachmann Mk1s seem more or less to line up - the Bachmann Thompsons' connectors  seem to go too high judging by your photo. As the Gresleys and Mk1s are more recent and much more finely detailled models, my money would be on them being correct if they agree. The solebars on the Gresleys are visibly deeper - but the top surfaces seem to align

If the "new" Thompson bogies have NEM pockets - it's not absolutely clear from your photo but it looks like they might - then you could explore replacing the tensionlocks with either Roco closecouplers (in either Hornby or Roco versions) , the Bachmann NEM-plug plastic steampipe, as supplied with Mk1s and Mk2s, or Kadees . I've used the plug in steampipe to link a Bachmann Mk1 and Mk2 and was very pleased by the almost complete lack of a gap between corridor connections - this option also gets around the issue of the NEM pockets on Bachmann Mk1s being at a non-standard height

I think that the black fascia probably comes from theatre and diorama/architectural modelling practice. "Off stage" and areas outside the dramatic illusion are normally painted black in the theatre. Where buildings or other things are cut through at the edge of a model/display case, normal practice seems to be black or dark grey for the flat of the section cut through the earth/model. I suppose the idea is to emphasise that this is an artificial slice through reality - a plain , artificial, neutral colour in contrast with the realistic detail and colouring of the model

I initially painted the front edge of my layout black , but a friend who's an amateur artist argued strongly that it was far too harsh and aggressive and he persuaded me to repaint it in a brown. All I could find cheap in gloss paint was a purple brown, but it is a considerable improvement on the black, because it is muted

Noted that there is no CCT kit in the Bill Bedford range. As is the way of these things, my info was word of mouth - someone said they thought he did an underframe , and I spoke to someone at a small E London show who was selling Bill Bedford products who thought there was a kit or was shortly going to be one, or possibly it might be extended to doing the full vehicle but he didn't have one and didn't give me any comfort that it would come with instructions . This was three or four years ago - whether it has any connection with the Masterclass Models kit I don't know.

The line that Bill Bedford products don't have instructions on the grounds that "if you need instructions you shouldn't be buying them" I've heard a couple of times - while I would have thought instructions essential for a kit, I realise the intended target market for the range is P4 modellers, and the more advanced P4 modellers at that. If a product is aimed at the limited number of people who might design an etched kit themselves, or be given a test etch to build so they could write the instructions for it, then I can see how such an approach might arise. (If there are in fact instructions with some of the range that's a different story, but what I'd heard has put me off even looking at the product range)

As a cheapskate as well as a bodger , the Masterclass kit - which I wasn't aware of - is a bit out of my range at £35 plus bits. Some of my bits came from stock but I had change from £20 after buying the rest - and that's enough for two CCTs

I never could understand the point of moulding the chassis structure underneath . You can't see it and it frequently gets in the way - as here. It seems to have been a 70s idea that turned out not to be so good - Slaters and Airfix did the same with wagon kits , and with old Cambrian wagon kits there was a moulding to glue in place . I left it off the kit I built , after using it as an assembly jig.....

Thanks for the comments. I definitely need to do something about drive mechanisms - I now have 3 Felthams in the cupboard, plus an R1 , and I'm sure sourcing Halling bogies is the only way I'm ever going to motorise the R1 (DCC with 2 powered bogies in seperate underfloor pockets in a heavy whitemetal floor casting is going to be "interesting" - we're talking about 20mm w/b bogies and I don't think the wheel diameter is much above 6mm) . It would be interesting to know what's been used to motorise those Melbourne trams - though I think the diecast W2 that was around a couple of years ago was actually 4mm scale , which would give more room. That Melbourne layout is very nice, wall to wall green and cream as it should be - I was thinking of something of a similar size, but the difference would be it would be an underground tram station, viewed from the side as a boxed diorama , so the trams naturally disappear into the tunnel either side

I didn't get long enough to see Grime St - I only found that room shortly before I had to go - but what I saw was very good. LCC 1 sounds very interesting.....

Somehow it looks slightly too heavy, though I assume it was a black loco. It may be it needs a touch of brown in it , and I think the number would have been kept clean - purely for practical operational reasons .Cab handrails would also presumably have been kept semi bright with use, and similarly the buffer heads wouldn't have been the general grey clag. Coupling rods would presumably be rusty or oiled steel simply because it's a working machine. The vacuum pipes would surely be brake dust brown. The overflowing water mark is a nice touch.

I share your instinct that it isn't quite where you want it to be - but it's difficult to put a finger on why. The only things I can think of are - too cold/blue-grey a shade of grey , and perhaps too uniform

I don't like Pecision Paints either - the covering power always seems poor - and very much prefer Railmatch. Modelstrip will clean it off , and as someone said , even if some of the glue fails as a result , it's simply a matter of gluing the bits back - the laborious fitting and patching has been done. You've not written off your work , you've only written off 20-25% of it in terms of time