Ravenser

I can't agree with his comment: A quick check thorough Forsythe's History of Loco Kits shows that 23 of the Ks range (out of 68) remain unduplicated and out of production - the "Milestones" went elsewhere, and since I'm not that well up on what's availble in etched brass there may be quite a few of those 23 that have been done in etched brass . For NuCast the score seems to be 37 unduplicated out of 78 , though I suspect that Dave Alexander and others have in fact covered most of the NER subjects with better kits. A reasonable estimate would be that out of about 140 prototypes modelled, less than 40 are currently without an alternative model On the other hand this could be as much an opportunity as a setback. The demise of Lima removed a lot of modern image models from the market , and created some lucrative opportunities for Bachmann, Hornby and Heljan to launch much better models. The same might be the case here - other kit manufacturers may no longer feel inhibited by the theoretical availablity of an old kit I did on a couple of occasions toy with the idea of acquiring a NuCast Sentinel railcar , but a quick look at the price lists and the discovery that the project would cost well over £150 soon killed the impulse As LNWRModeller says , Autocom never in recent years seemed to project themselves - in fact it was quite difficult to find out if they were still in existance, and some years ago I had to do some digging to find out where I could obtain the Y1/Y3 kit .In fact when thinking about Autocom I can't help hearing a line from the old song playing in my head "Fade away and gradually die... Fade away and gradually die.." It's sobering to think that in 1990 they and SE Finecast were very much neck and neck. SE Finecast did new stuff and kept promoting themselves - they were at All Pally 2 weeks ago and I bought some Flushglaze off them. Autocom didn't

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

This post is partly to link back to the card Met Bo-Bo, which has certainly been on my workbench and bookcase even if it got a seperate thread of its own: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/63781-elementary-my-dear-watson/&do=findComment&comment=832586 It is now even more finished than before - the shoebeams are on, and a good deal of time was expended on the DOGA test track at Ally Pally trying to make the thing run. With very indifferent results until the wire detached from the back bogie and I bent the pickups away from the wheels. Then it ran fine. I'm still not sure why the MJT bogie etch was shorting out, but shorting it evidently was.... So much for my extra pickups to improve running. This fixed, it proved capable of shifting one of my Ratio LNW coaches and one of L49's featherweight Ashburys (front and back, like certain push pull trains) . I ended up buying a pack of card Ashburys , and although they won't be tackled in the forseeable future I will at least be able to build some suitable stock at some point. The pack also includes some detination boards , which should be a good deal neater for the Bo-Bo than any effort of mine . Thanks to all for kind comments on the model. Ally Pally proved a rather expensive show, despite my continuing intentions to economise . Despite the push to provide stock for a steam period on Blacklade it has become apparent that I'm rather short of locos that can actually run on a DCC layout for this period. Assuming I don't intend to operate a suburban service with a Frodingham O4 , I currently have just one serviceable loco - my L1. I was therefore looking for something cheap and vaguely appropriate , but the Bachmann stand seemed to be devoid of tank engines , and I ended up acquiring an early BR Fowler 2-6-4T from someone - this appears to be "secondhand new stock" and cost all of £56. It's also more authentic than some alternatives - a quick look at photos seems to show E Midlands LMR locals in the hands of 2Ps , 4Fs, 2-6-4Ts , 2MT 2-6-2Ts, and more rarely 3MT 2-6-2Ts, 1P 0-4-4Ts and Tilbury tanks. Admittedly the 2-6-4Ts seem to be on heavier trains such as 6 coach Nottingham/Lincoln St Marks services, but the Fowler tanks , as the oldest 2-6-4Ts, do feature. The model is not DCC Ready - but as I have a small stash of TCS MC2 decoders and Digitrains couldn't supply any 8 pin harnesses for them this should not be a problem... Another £50 went with Digitrains - two decoders (UK direct plug and a TCS Z2 to get the Standard 4MT up and running - having read Bromsgrove Models' installation guide I am not looking forward to this...) plus an NMRA plug harness for a T1 £30 more went with a trader who had some Kirk/Mailcoach coach kits - a 51' LNER non-gangwayed full brake , and a Tourist Brake Third . I need some Parcels stock , and for preference something short, and this fitted the bill (as well as Platform 2) - it looks a straightforward kit, so long as I can attach Kadees, and being a parcels van I don't have to worry about getting matt varnish on the windows. The Tourist BTO will be a bit more interesting , as the sides are moulded in clear plastic - the rationale is that I need something with Pullman gangways to run with the BSL Gresley steel CK on the day when actually pluck up courage to build it , and this is something you can't get RTR , is not too grand and new, and delivers lots of third class seats. Both were modestly priced plastic kits Add in two packs of Modelmaster coach transfers - rumour had it that the HMRS can't get carrier film for their transfers , so I got what was available at the show - a replacement spray can of etch primer, flushglaze for the Dapol LMS noncorridor brake, nose door etches for an Airfix 31, bits for a possible NBL diesel electric Type2 and £25 in petrol and you get to quite a bit of money.... At least I have pretty well everything I want/need for the early period now. As for the show in general - well, perhaps I'm biassed but it seemed a good one, though something about the atmosphere , remarked on by many can perhaps be explained by the weather. Instead of the joys of spring , Jack Frost had Ally Pally in his icy grasp - and I think the cold did chill the atmosphere. One factor in the perennial debate about prices is easy to miss and bears comment. Car parking at Ally Pally is free (and easy) and getting from the car park to the venue is a 5 minute walk through wooded parkland in daylight. Compare and contrast the NEC where the price of the car park is almost as much as admission, and getting from car park to show means 5 -10 minutes wait for a bus on what is often a cold wet night

For my next trick, as they say, I have a pair of Ratio MR suburbans. These are intended to form the second set of steam age coaches on Blacklade The reason for selecting these is simple. In my early teens, before discovering modern image modelling , I perpetrated several Ratio MR coach kits . The best of them, replacing my first attempt at a kit , was this gruesome object . It's also pretty well the only one to have survived . I remember I was quite pleased with this at the time The worst of this is the dire paint job, and since money is a little tight at present , the idea was to strip it, patch it up as best I could and pair it with a newly built brake. A Ratio MR suburban 6 compartment brake 3rd kit has duly been sourced So now the weather is a bit warmer , and hile I still had a bit of time available it was subjected to Modelstrip overnight and cleaned up with a toothbrush under the tap. The roof had already come off , but as I cleaned it up most of the rest started to come away as well. I think I painted parts before assembly with this one , and I suspect elderly cement bonds may be affected by Modelstrip, especially if they were patchy to start with. With a bit of judicious encouragement , I was soon left with this: This is no longer an attempted patch up but a complete rebuild, though in terms of the final result that's all to the good . It also gets me round one potential difficulty , which was repainting with spray can paint - now the sides are seperate , or more or less so, and the glazing removed, they can be sprayed normally, along with the sides for the brake. Like Ratio's other LMS coaches, these vehicles are covered by Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 2 - LMS. The Midland built a number of batches of arc roofed bogie non-corridor suburban coaches during the Edwardian period for suburban services around Manchester (1903) , Birmingham (1907-9), London (1910) Nottingham (1911-13) and Sheffield (1912) . The last three batches featured 8' bogies, not the 10' versions depicted by Ratio, and those for London and Nottingham were 9' wide not 8'6" These coaches are, for a miracle, more or less authentic for a steam era period for Blacklade set in 1958. The Nottingham area coaches survived until 1957-8; the Birmingham area coaches until 1956-7: Blacklade Artamon Square would have LMR local services to both. It is extremely unlikely any of the ex MR suburbans ever recieved maroon, so these will be painted BR crimson Since a total reconstruction of the all first is now in hand, I can take advantage of the fact that the composites for Manchester and Birmingham sets used the same body as the all firsts , with three compartments reduced in size by internal partitions for third class . I have a Cunning Plan for using this fact to improve the weight , which is a major problem with these kits. Before dismantling , the all first weighed only 50g , which is about half what it should . No wonder my teenage Ratio coaches were not reliable runners A reasonable start was made on these kits while I had time available , and progress shots are shown here: The reconstructed all first - to become a composite and the new 6 compartment brake third Sides were prepainted with an aerosol can of Railmatch Crimson, 3 thin coats, and the improvement in quality of finish compared with the brushpainted LNW coaches is substantial The instructions urge you to start with the underframe . The all first has a very slight twist in the floor pan , probably caused by it's previous incarnation: I didn't quite manage to eliminate this in reconstruction, though it's possible that adding the roof will finally do so, and since there is inherently a bit of slop and rock between bogies and body, absolute squareness is less critical than with a wagon , where if it isn't square it won't run . The brake 3rd seems to be dead square I now have two bogies, one suitably cleaned up from the all first, and the second reconstructed from the heap of bits into which it had disintegrated. I'#m sure the bit of the sprue with the brake blocks was knocking around in my box of spare sprues for ages , but I have an awkward suspicion I eventually threw it out....

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.

Robin Brasher Robin - there will be people who buy 4 x2BIL, though probably not at once. If you add up the number of locos on the typical Traction Maintenance depot style layout, and multiply by say £75 , the result may make you draw breath. I've seem people admit to collections of twenty examples or more of certain classes (eg Class 47) As far as current is concerned - this is not a problem if you're running on DCC, as full spec systems normally deliver 4amps to 5 amps per power district, and with modern motors you would not be drawing more than perhaps 0.3 amp per unit . And if you intend lashing 4 units together in a train on a regular basis then DCC is definitely the way to go: this is called "consisting" within DCC and is something which is available as a normal facility in most DCC systems - certainly all the fully featured ones

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

I've made further progress with the bodies, though it hasn't been without problems and blemishes , and I'm afraid the all third is definitely going to be the inferior model of the two. However the brake composite is thus far (fingers crossed) going pretty well All the sides have been fitted,without any further damage to paintwork. I then moved onto fitting seats, and here I made a blunder from sheer ignorance.I dug out what turned out to be almost all of a packet of Ratio coach seating strip which has been lurking in a scrap box for very many years. This wan't enough to cover all requirements for these coaches and the second set of MR suburbans , so some undignified expedients and a Comet interiors pack had to be resorted to... But I sawed up the Ratio seating strip in the mitre box, painted it a golden brown with hastily mixed acrylics and duly installed the seats in most of the compartments of the all third. I had a problem in one place where solvent leaked onto the glazing and marked the compartment window, taking a little of the paint with it. This was bad enough but it was shortly afterwards that I checked a few photos, and then photos of other coaches and realised that even in third class compartments you shouldn't really be able to see the edge of the seat protruding beyond the window frame. And you could..... With narrow panels between windows on the compartment side , thick plastic compartment dividers and narrow compartments, the Ratio seating strips were too thick. I had made the classic blunder of blithely assuming that Ratio's seats must fit all Ratio's coaches properly. I managed to extract the worst offenders (those where for one reason or another the seating strip wasn't entirely seated against the compartment divider) and filed these down from the back by rubbing up and down on a big coarse file on the workbench. I did the same with the seating strip for the compartments I hadn't yet fitted out, and for the third class compartments in the brake composite . Thus treated the Ratio strip was just about thin enough to just about sit behind the windows. But there was nothing I could do about those seats I had already installed which were firmly stuck in place. They are still visible behind the edges of the compartment windows . A damage limitation exercise , but not, sadly, a full cure . The brake composite is fine - the all third is compromised on one side. I have a feeling this set is going to spend most of it's life with the corridor side facing the viewer . For the first class compartments I used Comet seating strip , painted blue . I have no idea what colours the LMS - or even the LNW - used : post 1934, the LNER used brown moquette in third , and I had had quite enough of painting the coach in slightly different shades of mid brown, so I'm afraid I opted for an attempt to approximate the pre 1934 fawn moquette in third and blue pattern moquette in first. It was at this point that it dawned on me that I don't possess a single book on carriage modelling , and have in fact being flying more or less blind, guided solely by some very hazy memories of misbuilt Ratio kits perpetrated in my early teens and a section of a DVD by Tony Wright on detailing and improving RTR - though that involves some heavy duty reworks, it doesn't, obviously, say a work about building kits. I must have at least half a dozen books and DVDs by various people on wagon modelling, a similar number on reworking locos and building loco kits, books on scenery, buildings , painting ... But when it comes to coaches, I suddenly realise that the cupboard is almost entirely bare. Some Slaters figures were painted with acrylic and the tiny stump of an old paint brush . I took the chance to off load all the figures which are really not suitable for a modern image layout, so passenger traffic from Blacklade in the 1950s appears to consist very largely of nuns and National Servicemen I've also touched up the paintwork where required: it's adequete rather than a top class finish. It seems necessary to paint the leading edge of the tops of the sides, else slight bits of grey may show when the roof is fitted I've also made up the roofs - the two part lamp tops are a bit of a nuisence , and as I managed to damage two , I'd have been introuble if just building the all third. As it was, I had some spares on the other sprue. A point to watch for: although the understide of the roof marks different positions for lamps and torpedo vents for the brake third and brake composite, they've got the kit numbers the wrong way round. I drilled out the first two lamps in the position marked, fortunately checked them against the body before going further, and found they didn't line up with the first class compartments. They had to be hastily filled, and the holes marked for the other kit drilled out instead.... Some thoughts on the kits as a whole, from what I've seen so far. These kits are significantly more sophisticated and elaborate than the very straightforward MR kits . There are the first signs of the unnecessary over elaboration of seperate parts which makes the Ratio Maunsell Van B kit such a laborious chore to build - two part lamp tops, two part floor pan, seperate duckets, corridor handrail and so on. The need to build up the interior and assemble the sides round this makes for more work and parts, but it also results in a strong structure , and makes the kit rather heavier , which is a useful bonus. The fit of parts is good. By modern standards things like metal buffers and metal wheels are desireable features. The kits are still pretty straightforward to build: there is nothing I can see technically difficult for someone familiar with plastic kits , and provided you work with care a neat result ought to follow I'm intending to build these kits as they come, but in one area I've had to deviate. Somehow I seem to have lost the sprue with the corridor connectors from one of the kits. A hasty rummage in the parts box turned up an MJT LMS gangway ,which I bought for some reason and have no other obvious use for. Since I'm building these coaches as a 2 car set, I'm going to fit the working MJT gangways in the centre of the set, with the fixed plastic mouldings at each end. I've therefore fitted a plate of 20 thou plasticard across the end of one corridor on each coach supported by a cross piece of 40 thou styrene across the inside of the gangway extension. This then will then form the baseplate for the MJT gangway - the other end gets Ratio's plastic moulding with endplate I've also weighted the coaches to get them over the magic 100g mark (4 axles at 25g/axle) . This is easy enough in the brake composite - two slabs of lead flashing on the floor of the guard's compartment , stuck down with araldite. For the all third it was more difficult , but I glued pieces of lead to the inside of the walls of the toilet compartments , and to the floor next to the toilet compartment , to balance that in the toilets. I intend to build both coaches with battery boxes not gas tanks , and if I need any additional weight there should be room to superglue lead sheet inside the battery box mouldings

I think I may have sketched the background for Blacklade a very long time ago , probably when it started as part of an RMWeb Challenge some yearsago. If so , the original posting was probably on a version of RMWeb which disappeared into a vortex in cyberspace/a hosting company's servers, and it was probably buried in other comments anyway. So it's probably worth giving an outline of the assumed history as a seperate posting - if only to provide a baseline from which it's obvious which bits of the potential steam fleet are actually reasonably plausible and which bits are outrageous strays extracted from the depths of the cupboard "Because It's There". Blacklade is the moderate sized county town of Hallamshire, a small Midland shire hitherto unknown to cartographers and the Local Government Association. Hallamshire is probably a North Midland shire, as West Yorks PTE units turn up there, and I suspect Blacklade has a passing resemblance to what Derby might have been, if the Midland mainline had never gone near it. It has a population of about 130-145,000: a bit more than Lincoln, about the same as Cambridge , and considerably less than Nottingham or Leicester In the late 1840s, George Hudson gave it a railway at the expense of the Midland shareholders. This originated from a junction about 10 miles from Toton - the exact railway geography is lost in a maze of connections, but you can certainly get to Birmingham and Nottingham - and ended up at a modest terminus just outside the town centre, where a new square was being laid out in a fit of mid Victorian expansiveness. Somewhat later, the MS&LR arrived in the town from the general direction of Chesterfield . At this point it became necessary to distinguish between the two stations, and the Midland premises took the name of the adjacent Artamon Square By 1900, the newly renamed and extended Great Central was very much cock of the walk at Blacklade. Its line had been extended southward to meet the GN Nottingham - Derby line and so rejoin the London Extension at Bagthorpe Jnc just north of Nottingham, turning it into a loop of the GC's new main line - effectively a rather longer and grander version of the Chesterfield loop. The new line strood across the town , with a fine new station pointedly called Blacklade Central , because unlike the Midland's Artamon Square, it was. Being significantly longer than the direct route via Annesley and not really suitable for fast running either , just three London -Sheffield day services ran via Blacklade with a night mail and parcels train thrown in , but if you wanted to go to London, Nottingham , or Sheffield from Blacklade , you made a beeline to the Central station. No doubt the GN got running powers into Blacklade too. For the next fifty odd years the Midland lines very much played second fiddle to their GC Section neighbours and Artamon Square was rather overshadowed by Central . At this period it was rather like the Midland's Lincoln St Marks - two side platforms capable of holding 4 or 5 Midland non-corridor coaches and a Johnson 2-4-0 , with two centre roads used as carriage sidings, all under an overall roof. However for some reason Blacklade's buildings date from the 1860s rather than the late 1840s like Lincoln (perhaps Hudson fell before the line was complete and there was no money left in the till for proper buildings). There was a proper if modest trainshed like Buxton, and a rather ecclesiastical frontage to Artamon Square with faux "towers" a little like Lowestoft. In the late Victorian age , the Midland must have offered London services, but these seem always to have been portions and through coaches. Perhaps the "mainline" was direct to Birmingham and passengers were expected to continue via the LNWR (at the time of opening Midland trains to London ran via Rugby), and prior to the opening of the Manton route a reversal would have been needed at Nottingham. Perhaps by the time the issue arose the site was too cramped for expansion. And once the GC extension was open it was all too late.. In the meantime Blacklade acquired an electric tramway , to 4' gauge like Bradford and Derby , one of whose main hubs was a terminus at Artamon Square on the edge of the town centre. This because quite extensive, was modernised in the 1920s and 30s under a determined and pro tram manager , and remained open until the immediate post war years [When I discovered the existance of 4' gauge it was immediately adopted by my teenage tramway . Broad enough to permit fully enclosed 4 wheelers, narrow enough to stop any awkward questions about the track gauge....] Around 1960 , everything changed radically . Blacklade was one of the notable casualties of the Beeching era. The LMR having taken control of the GC main line began rapidly to run it down - express trains between London and Sheffield ceased in 1960 , and in 1963 local services on most of the route were withdrawn too. We may guess that the line through Blacklade Central closed amid a storm of opposition in 1963-4, leaving Blacklade (much like Lincoln) with no real service to London The LMR had been hatching its plot for some time and had begun its campaign by getting the LMR Architects Dept to vandalise Blacklade Artamon Square in the name of progress. The trainshed was taken down in the late 50s , the side walls cut down to around 10'high, and to provide sufficient capacity to concentrate all remaining local services on the station one of the centre roads was taken out and a short additional platform shoe-horned in beside the remaining one. One of the side platforms recieved a short extension for slightly longer trains. Around 1960, when the expresses were withdrawn, a connection was put in to allow one remaining GC route access to Artamon Square - rather like the connections at Carlton which gave the ex GN Nottingham/Grantham route access to Nottingham Midland when Victoria was closed. A small fuelling point / signing on point was established a little down the line and now sits in the midst of derelict and abandoned freight infrastructure [i now have a way of justifying my brick retaining wall behind the fuelling point which screens the fiddle yard against t-b-g's strictures about modern image layouts. It is, of course, a stump of part of the viaduct line that carried the GC route across the town - here seen very close to the point where the Sheffield line was diverted into Artamon Square - and abandoned since the early 60s . Or possibly it led into the GC goods station. It has been truncated by the bridge for the new inner ring road opened with a flourish by Ernest Marples in 1962.....] Around 1970 resignalling transferred control of the area to a major new powerbox and the Midland boxes were demolished . This essentially brings us to the station we see modelled . Nothing much has changed in 15 years , though some things have got tattier . Blacklade is a prime example of the sort of place Sir Peter Parker had in mind when he talked about "the crumbling edge of quality" . By the mid to late 80s the infrastructure is still run down , but the station is now seeing the first influx of brightly coloured new Sprinters and an increase in frequency. By 2000 , the paintwork is fresh , the crumbling brickwork has largely been repointed , there are pot plants in hanging baskets and the signage shows the latest branding: perhaps there is even a 3 car Sprinter to London once a day via Nottingham, or was till they bought Meridians which won't fit Blacklade's platforms - but like Lowestoft the place is still in dire need of improvement This gives a base line against which to judge the correctness of stock and services and to judge how big a liberty is being taken. The layout has always been intended to have 2 periods : 1985-90 (I am a BR Blue modeller at heart) and 2000-6 (to accomodate all the brightly coloured DMUs I acquired while involved with the abortive club project , which was (then) contemporary). The terminus ante quem for the latter period is the end of the Central Trains franchise, which from memory was autumn 2006: I have several units in that livery and it's pleasing on the eye. Also I used CT a certain amount in that era - which is particularly relevant to the 153s. The early period allows me to run various things which were typical for Lincolnshire and the East Midlands in the 1980s , and to juxtapose the old guard of Modernisation Plan stock with the new order of Sprinters and Pacers. The limits are reasonably broad , as I want both a Cravens class 105 (common in the area, and because they carried plain blue to the end, much easier for a novice to paint) and one or two 153s , so I can play about with joining and splitting units , which was supposed to be a key component of the operational interest. 153s have been the mainstay of local services in Lincolnshire for nearly 20 years, and Central Trains frequently used them as strengtheners to 158s to produce a 3 car train. 105s were withdrawn from passenger service in 1985 , though a few units lingered another couple of years with the Parcels Sector; the 153s were converted from 155s in 1990. Strictly speaking they shouldn't be seen side by side, but they do belong to the same period and area of my railway experience. It is odd how when we are dealing with a period where we have no experience at all everything is cut and dried, in crisp, exact and precise detail - but when it's something you lived through, it seems to blur into a continuum . How did I discover HEAs were no longer part of the railway scene? - someone mentioned them as a vanished type , and I suddenly realised I hadn't seen any at Bow Goods for at least 6 months...... The intention has always been to have 3 x 153 - two in Regional Railways , and one in Central Trains, allowing me to run two in both early and late period. At the moment I have one of each, and an out of period unit (in terms of paintwork) has to be used in the early period. The W Yorkshire 158 is strictly speaking out of era in the early period (being in the later version of the livery) but doesn't seem to jar , because the main colour is the same as for the earlier W Yorks PTE red/white The early period also allows me to run a parcels train , and much of my recent stock building has gone into parcels vehicles of which I already have rather more than the handful of vehicles I strictly need, with more to come. This also gets the blue 31s into play, as does the use of some Mk1s and Mk2As as loco hauled substitutes - I now have a decent weathered 2 car set, with another set to sort out (and donor coaches to rebuild for potentially another two sets as well). In practice the layout has generally been run in 80s mode, so I can play with my new built toys, rather than 21st century mode, where there are still gaps in stock. In theory there should also be an engineers train, playing the same trick with engineers brakes as with 153s - however the green Shark is still unfinished , and in early period mode the fiddle yard and layout are already full of stock..... The notional target date for a steam period seems likely to be 1958: however the anachronisms will be much more marked. Pregrouping carriages are a bit too early (especially the ex LNW set) , Type 2s a shade too late . Ex MR suburban stock just about made it to this point though, the Derby Lightweight single car units were in traffic, the Railbuses came only slightly later (even if the LMR didn't get them till the mid 60s) , C12s were still being used on local trains that year and the L1 and Standard 4MT are bang in period. 1958 is the "least worst fit" of any date. It's just plausible that the LMR have just rebuilt the station and that the connection to the ex GC route has opened - it can't be pushed any earlier. In theory the three roads of the fiddle yard represent a single track "branch" and a double track "main line" reached via a ladder junction, which splits after a few miles . In practice the roads are used quite indescriminately , but a single track ex GC route towards Chesterfield /Sheffield (the chord/connection being single , at least) and a double track ex Midland route, with lines to Nottingham and Birmingham diverging some miles from Blacklade, fits the scenario nicely

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.)

Having rashly flung down the gauntlet and declared I'm thinking of running a third , not terribly authentic, period on Blacklade to give an airing to the bits of steam era /green diesel stock I seem to have acquired, I've actually made a start in the form of a pair of Ratio kits: two of the LNWR kits to be precise. The twist is that these will actually constitute the ER's contribution on the coaching side, until I lay my hand on some Kirk kits. I've rather fancied the Ratio LNWR coaches since they first came out . They were new products, they looked really rather stylish with those big windows, and I suppose they were a bit cool. As I went modern image in my early mid teens, there was never any scrap of justification for buying one - until I got involved with a small informal group locally. Amongst other things we were talking about building a small branch terminus, and because of others' interests it was bound to be steam. The LNWR seems to have embraced the concept of corridor coaches and gangwayed connections very quickly and with some enthusiasm. By 1893 they had commissioned a full train set for the 2pm Euston - Glasgow express - thereafter, for a generation "the 'Corridor'"(until the LMS formally named it "The Mid Day Scot") - and by the late 1890s they were building corridor coaches in volume for their own main line services, not just the WCJS. Ratio's range of 4 kits represent these , built from 1898-1903, and not extinct until after World War 2. I've always been surprised these kits never took off - there was a time when their MR coach kits seemed virtually ubiquitous and if you wanted a pre-grouping coach it was a Ratio MR kit or a Triang clerestory, but somehow I've hardly ever seen the LNWR kits crop up in layout articles. The prototypes feature in Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 2 - LMS , edited by David Jenkinson, as do the MR suburbans and the MR non-gangwayed express clerestories : and no doubt that's how Ratio came to choose all three types. The twist in the story comes in 1936 , when the LMS offloaded some of them on the M&GNJR, apparently along with some ex MR gangwayed clerestories which I think are available as kits from 51L Models/Wizard , and which are far too grand, sophisticated and expensive for me to consider... A few months later (October 1936), the LMS offloaded its interest in the M&GN on the LNER. Given that the LNER promptly scrapped most of the M&GN loco fleet -, and the LNER wasn't rich enough to indulge in extravagences like "scrap and build" - I think we can take it that the M&GN was in dire need of re-equipment by that point and the LMS wasn't prepared to stump up hard cash. It's pretty clear why the choice fell on these coaches for transfer. The M&GN was a lengthy cross country main line and its big passenger traffic was holiday expresses from the Midlands. A lot of those passengers were families making 3-4 hour journeys, and by the mid 1930s subjecting them to non-gangwayed stock without access to toilets was unacceptable. The LMS duly off-loaded some of the oldest corridor stock it had in order to "modernise" the M&GN, and since the MR came to corridor coaches much later and more tentatively than the LNWR , inevitably old LNWR stock was going to feature in the transfer. So some elderly ex LNWR and MR coaches ended up as LNER stock in E Anglia . Beyond this point we find ourselves peering into the mists of history - which are pretty thick and misty hereabouts. As a modern image modeller of Eastern leanings , my references for this are pretty scanty : 3 volumes of Historic Carriage Drawings, Harris' LNER coaches and the notes to the Ratio kits , prepared by a Mr P Millard. According to the latter "several" vehicles were transferred to the M&GN , but he doesn't say what. I have been shown a photo of an M&GN train from the mid/late 1930s with one of these coaches clearly visible , still in LMS livery . It wasn't a brake, and holiday expresses aren't obviously in need of lots of all firsts, so I think we can assume some all thirds were transferred. Whether any brake coaches were is anybody's guess: Historic Carriage Drawings does not even mention the transfer, and nor does LNER Coaches The Ratio instructions claim extinction dates of 1950 for the brake composites, and 1952 for the brake thirds, but 1947 for the all thirds, even though more of them were built than everything else put together. Historic Carriage Drawings gives an extinction date of 1953 for the all thirds, and says extinction dates for the other types cannot be established but all types reached BR and probably became extinct 1953-5. It's evident from one or two other entries that events in apple green territory are beyond the ken of LMS coach scholars, so these will be for the vehicles which passed from the LMS to the LMR It is quite possible the vehicles which passed to the LNER lasted a little longer. By M&GN standards, in 1936 these were relatively modern coaches. In late 1934, the LNER had set out to eliminate 4 and 6 wheel coaches - of which it still had several thousand - "except for third-rate branch lines, miners' and workmen's trains". What this meant in practice in E Anglia can be established by looking at some branch line monographs. Witham/Bishop Stortford trains were still 6 wheelers until 1940 , when they were replaced by ex GE 50' corridor coaches. The Thaxted branch retained 6 wheelers until 1946-7, when GE 50' corridor coaches were provided - working in 2 car sets. The Mid Suffolk became the last place in Britain served by non -bogie coaches (until the DoT inflicted Pacers on us) - here the 6 wheelers survived until a few months before closure in 1952, again replaced by ex GE corridor coaches working in 2car sets. Given this , it seems unlikely the LNER would have scrapped these ex LMS vehicles before the war. In fact it seems quite plausible that after 1940, when holiday trains would have been few and far between, and the M&GN section probably had surplus coaching stock, they might have been pressed into service to replace 6 wheelers on some very minor branch. Photos show elderly pre Grouping coaches as branch sets on many ex GE and ex GN branches in the early 50s - what probably swept them away was a combination of the first round of ER closures in 1951-2 plus cascading following the arrival of the first Mk1s in 1951-2 So - a pair of ex LNWR coaches from the Ratio kits make a plausible E Anglian branch set on a very minor branch in the early 1950s. By that time they would have been in brown - on the GE, pregrouping stock was not given BR crimson, but was repainted in brown with BR lettering , and examples survived beyond 1955. When my local model shop closed down about 4 years ago I bought a brake composite and an all third , for use on the little group branch terminus project. All the other authentic options would have been difficult to source and much more difficult to build. I think they had been in the shop some time - one kit was the earlier version with plastic wheels - and they were discounted. I gave the sides an undercoat and , since it wasn't an urgent job, they sat in the cupboard , waiting for the branch terminus to happen first...... As these two kits include the only kit for a brake vehicle I have , it seemed the obvious place to start. I have very little coachbuilding experience - a couple of Ratio kits in my early teens - and Ratio kits seemed an easy place to start. (That theory took a serious knock with the very over-complicated Southern Van B kit, which took me 2 years to finish) First stages are shown here. The exact shade of LNER brown seems to be open to question and photographic research. I bought a tin of Precision Pullman umber and another of LNER dull teak. The original idea was to mix up a suitable brown , but then I reflected that Precision paints don't cover half as well as Railmatch or Humbrol and I'd never match the colour for the second coat - or the second vehicle. So I gave the sides an undercoat in umber, in order to darken the teak top coat - and stopped there. On restarting last week it became clear that the undercoat on the brake composite was badly affected by nibs and whiskers . I don't have an airbrush , and neither colour is available as an aerosol can. The all third was ok, if not 100% perfect . So I gave the latter a coat of teak - and the brake composite sides got a coat of Modelstrip. The teak coat wasn't 100% perfect either: Precision paint seems to love to form tiny bubbles as you brush . I did the best I could. The brake was given a fresh undercoat of umber, and then teak over. Despite my careful cleaning/degreasing of the sides and cleaning of the brush on a bit of soap to rid it of any nibs, the finish still wasn't perfect - and all sides visibly needed a further coat. There is no way you can apply three brush coats of paint and get a flawless result. I have learnt my lesson and sourced a spray can of Railmatch crimson for all the other coaches, but with the LNW set , damage limitation is all that's possible These kits are slightly peculiar - at least to me - in that they are built round the interiors. In this they differ from the other Ratio coach kits I built long ago from the other 3 ranges. They also show early signs of the overcomplication which makes the Ratio Maunsell Van B such a laborious pig to do. I can't see that moulding the floor pan as two halves which join together with a kind of mortice joint is any improvement on the single piece floor pans found in the MR kits - unless there was an overriding technical reason in the design of the moulds, and since they produced a lot of earlier kits with single piece floores , I can't see it. Similarly, the all third corridor sides are two pieces with a tenon joint - though in the brakes these have to be two seperate mouldings , as the guard's van is in the centre not the end. However the fit of the parts so far has been excellent - the floor pan needs only routine cleaning of the edges and no packing or filing down has been required. In one or two places a few strokes of the file were necessary along the compartment partitions to get the side even. There are little locating pegs on the floor to locate the interiors (except for the toilets) - the all third has these pegs on the compartment side too, but the brake doesn't In the process of fitting the first side, stage by stage along the side, and holding it tight to the compartment partitions till the solvent set , I managed to get solvent onto the side with some damage to the paintwork . As "cracklature" was definitely not wanted, I have rubbed down the affected panels and they will need touching in - the damage can be seen on the photo . The compartment interiors have been painted with Tamiya Flat Earth acrylic, to avoid anything embarassing being seen through the windows. I am starting to feel that if I have to apply any more coats of brown paint to this kit I'll scream On the corridor side there are recesses for the glazing strip - why the glazing on the corridor side of the all third has to be 4 seperate recessed sections , when the brake manages with just two sections, beats me. The corridor handrail is a piece of styrene micro rod (more brown paint) applied between slots . On the all third, I made the mistake of using solvents at the retaining slots, As a result , I have marks on two windows just above the rail, where it wasn't 100% straight and capilarity drew the solvent where it wasn't wanted. Damn. On the brake third , I learned my lesson , and used the Revell Contacta bottle . In fact I've taken the heretical approach of using Contacta cement very sparingly applied as the first tack bond for the major pieces, with solvent applied to finish the join

For good order's sake it may be worth checking spellings . There was certainly a Michael Longridge , who was a member of Wimbledon MRC between the wars, modelling in HO, and of the MRC in the 1940s, when he was a pioneer of EM. He seems to have known A R Walkley , another early member of Wimbledon MRC who as well as being a pioneer of interwar finescale in the mid 1920s in HO, is known to have experimented with a precursor of 2mm and was reported in a wartime magazine to have built a Johnson 0-6-0, in this scale, described as very controllable. I assumed when I first read the thread that this must be the provenance, but Langridge is not Longridge... However a connection with Wimbledon MRC would certainly explain the choice of prototypes, and the models are of exactly the right period While the paintwork has suffered a little from the passage of time, with modern paintwork both models would grace any layout built today Personally I think the award of a silver medal was a little grudging. The gold medal winner must have been extremely fine to beat these

This blog hasn't been too active recently. Not a lot has happened on the layout in the last 18 months , though it's been up and run a few time. I had some time for modelling in the early part of last year , but that was almost completely absorbed by a bout of stock building. Only some of that was written up in my workbench blog , and I must add the other items. Basically the idea was to try to sort out the outstanding/stalled projects , plus the easy bits and pieces then get stuck into some of the major projects I've been meaning to do for so long. Needless to say, what actually happened was that I made limited progress with a couple of stalled projects, finished off a few bits and pieces , started several new wagon kits and didn't finish them , weathered a couple of items and only really managed one modest new project.... Somewhere well down the blog , I mentioned the very long list of started or possible layout projects I have : http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/343/entry-5665-the-donkey-and-the-bales-of-straw/ Since then there has been a development - a simplification in one sense, a complication in another. The GE branch terminus project which was mooted by a group I'm involved with seems to have drifted into limbo. We haven't seen one key player , who was to build the boards, for about a year because of domestic circumstances , and there's no imminent prospect of anything happening. Having acquired a discount Hornby L1 during the year because it might be suitable for the GE BLT , as well as to "support the cause" in terms of manufacturers producing LNER locos, I find myself with a modest amount of steam era stuff that has no obvious use. The thought occured to me that I might be able to muster enough to run a steam era period on Blacklade. This would not be very authentic - the station will have corporate image nameplates and so forth - but at least the steam stuff would get used occasionally rather than spending the rest of its existance in its boxes. What I actually have is a Bachmann 4MT 2-6-0, and O4, a Hornby L1 , a secondhand whitemetal N5 (all in BR black) and a detailed Hornby Dublo 20 in green. I'm likely to get a Bachmann J11: in the mid 1950s 40C (Louth) had C12s, J11s, and N5s , so I need to have one , and the recent future of kitbuilding thread seemed to suggest that the Craftsman C12 was an excellent easy to build kit . Perhaps I should try it... Diesels could be added, and DMUs - and at this point a problem became apparent. Coaches - Blacklade being a passenger layout. At the moment I don't actually have any serviceable and complete steam era coaches for any of these locos to pull. What I do have is a very motley assortment of basically unbuilt kits: - 2 Ratio ex LNWR corridor kits. These were to provide the branch set on the GE terminus . If this seems bizarre, the LMS off-loaded some of these vehicles on the M&GNJR in 1936, shortly before walking away from the joint venture leaving the LNER holding the baby . These coaches might well have been found eking out their final days in LNER brown on some minor branch in the late 1940s /early 1950s . If you consider what kits might be available for other pregrouping coaches more typical of the early 50s GE Section , how difficult they would be to source and build for a novice, and what they might cost, you will see the thinking here. - a second hand BSL kit for a Gresley steel composite - a battered Ratio MR suburban first, built in my early teens and not well finished - a Ratio GW 4 wheeler ditto, whose chassis isn't square, and which can be discounted - a secondhand BSL kit for a Gresley Buffet. This can also be discounted - Various Mk1 and Mk2 project coaches, some in blue/grey and none really suitable for local services to a minor urban terminus in the 1950s - An unbuilt Dapol/Branchlines railbus kit, meant for the GE BLT - DC Kits' Test Car Iris, which isn't really fundamental to Blacklade, and is therefore nowhere on the work list. I was already inclining towards doing it in late 90s overall green , as this would be much easier than the blue/salmon RTC livery , even if the latter might look more attractive and be appropriate for Blacklade's "early" period (1985-90). Of course this,was originally built in 1956 for minor branchline service on the LMR, and wore green . So it wouldn't look immediately out of place in a mid /late 1950s LMR local service - a Triang Maunsell Passenger Luggage Van , passed to me third -hand after someone had gone most of the way upgrading it with the Roxey kit The problem is obvious - not only is nothing actually built, only one kit is a brake coach so forming sets is very difficult. I had been hoping to pair the Gresley composite with one of Hornby's Gresley or Thompson non-gangwayed brakes. But they were very pricy , it wasn't urgent, I was waiting for them to be discounted - and when I looked around late last year I found the brakes had all disappeared from the shelves. No matter - what about a Kirk kit? Much cheaper. I phoned the model shop near where I was then working , only to learn he had none left and wasn't expecting any more until some time in 2013. Chivers Pigeon van and another short coach? (we're getting desperate). Chivers kits are out of stock... This left me searching for ideas, especially as money is relatively tight at present , and I'm not prepared to spend large sums on a sideline like this. The most suitable, cheapest and easiest to build brake coaches I could come up with were a kit-form Dapol LMS ungangwayed brake third, and a Ratio MR suburban brake . I duly went to St Albans last weekend ,and acquired a Dapol Crimson ungangwayed brake third for under a tenner. I also spotted a Silver Fox Baby Deltic body kit for £15 - which after a moment's thought, I went for. I have toyed with the idea of doing a Baby Deltic in the past, and I even sourced some mechanical bits: with a bit of modeller's licence D5901 in her RTC days might just be faintly credible in one of the proper periods (Perhaps she was preserved......) It had also dawned on me that I don't actually have any useable green diesels at the moment either. The Hornby Dublo 20 is one of those models which are nearly impossible to DCC: one brush holder is integral with the chassis block, which is electrically live. Certainly it's far beyond my capacity to convert. I have a detailed blue 29 , with one slightly damaged grill, which is not DCC . I have a spare Hornby 29 body, acquired with faint ideas of producing an early NBL Type 2 for someone else's London area layout , but they went EM.. And I have a second spare Airfix 31 body, and a spare Athearn PA1 chassis and some very faint aspirations towards a green 31 for the GE BLT. Maybe something can be done with an old Lima 20. I've now driven over to a model shop about 15 miles away and acquired a Ratio MR suburban brake, and a few relevant bits , and for about £50 total outlay , we look to be in business . Three 2 car rakes and a green Type 2 should now be possible with modest effort. I need to fit decoders to the L1 and 4MT . The N5 is parked in the "too hard" basket for the moment, since the chassis is live to the rail on one side. Most of the stock can come from the pile of unbuilt projects, which should be suitably reduced. I even have very wild ideas about a possible project involving two Dapol non-gangwayed brakes, a Black Beetle and a 1956 Derby experiment with a DMU conversion All a bit of a diversion from my main interests, and it's definitely not going to be a strictly prototypical mix of stock - but if it gets stuff out of the cupboard, built and into use, so much the better

h The Thompson vans ran into the late 70s , and possibly the early 80s. Gresley BGs certainly lasted until the late 70s , and both ran in blue for some years

For many years there was a Manchester-Cleethorpes newspaper train , which conveyed passengers as well as papers - I remember returning from a scout camp in the late 70s and catching it at Retford at an ungodly hour (4:30 am?) hauled by a 37. That was a connection off a night train leaving Kings Cross about 1:15am, which also consisted mostly of parcels stock (I think the usual BGs and GUVs) with some mark 1s at the back, and a Deltic on the front. Newspaper trains ran from London and Manchester , up to about 1986 , when News International reneged on the national contract , and the other newspaper groups decided it wasn't viable to carry on with the rail network without them. Parcels traffic lasted another decade TPOs/Postals would be a completely different nightly network, and as far as I'm aware never conveyed passengers . The WTT would however show everything that ran - Parcels, night passenger, newspaper , sleepers, TPOs - the lot , including freight (eg Freightliners) I'm not sure there were really home sites for dedicated fleets in those days. My impression is that it was more a case of stock being where it was - rather like wagons The better informed will be along shortly no doubt

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

Keswick was one of the major "avoidable losses" of the early 1970s - the benefits of having good rail /public transport access to the northern part of the Lake District national park must be substantial . Hope they are successful - the big thing this scheme has against it is that it's in England . I'm open to correction but I believe no new stations or lines have opened to passengers in England (other than HS1 and DLR extensions) since at least 2000 whereas plenty have opened or are under construction in Wales and Scotland (Or is Corby the single exception?) I've often wondered if it might make sense to add a connection from Penrith to the Settle & Carlisle - perhaps it would be possible to reinstate the ex NER line with a connection just north of Appleby for Keswick trains to terminate in Appleby station. However when opening anything in England is so rare, the first priority is Keswick itself, rather than bolt-ons

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

BR CCT upgrade http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-9843-a-small-parcel-arrives/ Ratio Southern Van B - now superceded by Hornby http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/296/entry-9587-the-end-is-nigh/ I've also flushglazed and weathered a Mainline ex LMS BG - though I think it probably should be all blue with plated ends not blue/grey with gangways Someone gave me a Triang ex SR Passenger Luggage Van, which they had acquired partly upgraded . It's out of period: still worse according to Historic Carriage Drawings Vol 3 , the originals came in 2 lengths - 51'3" and 53'3" - and Triang's model doesn't match either Fat Controller Interesting: I have a DMU fuelling point , and the layout is set in the Midlands. I'd assumed these vans were out of period for me but perhaps I could justify one , to be shunted onto the fuelling point as an alternative to a TTA... I am also toying with the idea of recycling the Blue Spot fish van off the boxfile (where it is really a bit large) and repainting in rail blue as an SPV for DMU tail traffic

Nope... I've built a Parkside PMV, and trying to get a reasonable weathered effect has been a pig . It's been fiddled with and given an additional light spray or wash twice since I thought I'd done, and I'm still not quite happy. Judging by that photo , it could do with being slightly lighter and greyer and more ochre. Any trace of the blue I painted it has long disappeared And after weathering my blue Van B , it has acquired a green tinge....

buckjumper asmay I'm not a GWR expert , but I know a bit about the NSWGR and I would be very cautious about easily equating NSWGR Indian red or "Tuscan" with GWR Indian Red, especially given the date of the photos linked to. From direct personal observation , "red" on the NSWGR could vary substantially : Exhibit 1: taken at Hornsby , late 1979. Film: Orwochrome transparency: Here I have to add a quick bit of NSWGR livery/corporate history . In 1972, the Railways Dept (NSWGR) and the Dept of Govt Transport (the Government buses) were merged, along with the recently nationalised Sydney Ferries Ltd , to form the NSW Passenger Transport Commission. That promptly adopted a pale blue/white livery for all modes of transport, replacing the various traditional liveries of various forms of transport: note the carriage nearest the camera. From late 1976, the railways reverted to red, and from I think 1980 the Railways were again separate as the State Rail Authority of NSW. The later red , from 1977 onward - certainly as newly applied in the early 1980s - I remember as very much a dark maroon , perhaps quite close to LMS red On the same day I clearly remember a long rate of similar suburban electric coaches further north alongside the car sheds - they were rather faded , carried the old 1960s livery state crest of arms on the side (faded largely to white) and I remember them being faded to an orangy shade , a bit like that of the self coloured plastic Triang used for their "Sydney Suburban" models in the early 60s (See Pat Hammond's Triang Railways p182 for reference - even that was issued in two shades of plastic, which may be close to new/faded pre 1972 red) Even in the rake shown, there are two shades of red visible (and it will be very obvious that the NSWGR didn't believe in the concept of a multiple unit: trains were made up with a suitable number of compatible coaches, with an appropriate number of driving trailers, motors and intermediate trailers...) Exhibit 2: taken on the ZigZag railway, 1980, again colour transparency, showing Zig Zag box and the Main Western line of the NSWGR below. The coach below belongs to the Zig Zag preservationists , and was presumably painted before 1972, rather than after 1976 A book I have , "Under the Wires" , Train Hobby Publications Sudfield (Vic) 2004, shows clearly in many shots two shades of NSWGR red: an early lighter shade , and a later dark maroon. In some shots the early red seems almost as light as signal red but a lot duller Given all this, I would be extremely cautious about hazarding any guess as to the shade of GW Indian Red in the Edwardian period based on presumed analogies with NSWGR Indian Red or Tuscan red. To my eye 1980s Tuscan on diesels could have a distinct brownish tinge , though that may have been desert muck....

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

A very long time ago, in my teens, I tried to build a layout. It was my first diesel layout and it was definitely modern image : not only was it BR Blue , it was contemporary. For some reason I decided I wanted some parcels vans and I duly bought a pair of Lima BGs and a pair of Lima CCTs. These things have been lurking in boxes ever since the half built layout was abandoned and dismantled (Several years in Australia, followed by university , didn't exactly help progress) Several decades later, there is still no alternative model in 4mm for the BR CCT. So far as I'm aware there has never even been a kit. Blacklade is small so small vehicles are attractive, and the idea of a CCT as a "swinger" - DMU tail traffic - seemed worth pursuing. When the layout was started I bought one of the Hornby re-releases, but although the body finish and the wheel profile is much better nothing else has changed since the Lima model first appeared 35 years ago. I had a little time for modelling a couple of months back, and I finally managed to tackle the long intended rework of one of the CCTs - bits had been in stock for a couple of years Firstly , some shots of the real thing, rather folorn, at the Lincolnshire Wolds Railway this Easter: And here is a shot of an unmodified Lima vehicle: (To be strictly accurate, this has an unmodified Lima body with a Hornby underframe swapped under it. I have 3 CCTs, and I decided in the latter stages of upgrading the first one that as I had castings and etched brake gear for only two, and as repainting the body and transfers was a major job, I was only ever going to do 2 CCTs, the Hornby body would save me a job, and the spare components could be assembled into a complete vehicle and sold on second hand) There are a number of problems with the original Lima models. The self-coloured plastic bodies do not look good . The windows are not flush , and the recessed effect with slab sides is bad.The internal window bars are just scratches on the glazing The wheels are badly wrong - something which should be obvious from the prototype shots. They should be 3'6" wheels (14mm) but Lima fitted 12mm pizza-cutters. The underframe is fairly approximate: the buffers are too small and wrong , the brake lever's not much good, the axleboxes and springs are pretty representational, and the brake shoes are an extension of what passes for J hangers The roof vents are hopelessly inadequete. The massive tension locks are a problem if like me you are using Kadees. No NEM pockets here. I've probably overlooked several second-order problems in that list , but there's quite enough to be getting on with. The first step was to tackle the body. The roof was removed - it is a one piece clear moulding, with the glazing on both sides as an integral part, so you have to push in the windows to release it. Then the body was released from the chassis (push in the 4 lugs from the chassis and try not to break them) , and the body sprayed with 2 coats of Railmatch blue . At which point the can expired, but the Lima lettering was virtually invisible by then. Once dry I used a packet of SE Finecast flushglazing which has been in stock for years for this job, stuck in place with UHU - the improvement is huge. Glazing bars were concocted from the spare elements in the Roxey Van B/CCT etch, cut down to fit The side glazing was cut away from the roof moulding with a razor saw, leaving a small strip about 2mm deep below the guttering to locate the roof . (I had to file this down in places to clear the flushglaze inserts). The very perfunctory roof vents were removed with a file, and I just about managed to avoid damaging the roof ribs in the process. I fitted whitemetal torpedo vents, as a man at Warley sold me some as he believed they were correct for a CCT . Neither the photos in Parkin's book, or on Paul Barlett's site are conclusive, but I've a nagging feeling the real vehicles may have shell vents. The big problems lie with the underframe. The undersized wheels cannot be readily replaced because not only are them on Lima's 24.5mm European axles, but the bearing holes in the plastic axle guards were set too low, to compensate and adjust the ride height. Not that Lima's representations of axleboxes, springs and W irons are much good anyway There are 3 possible approaches at this point. - I know Captain Kernow devised a tool to bore out new bearing holes in the Lima axle guards , and set them at the correct height, and this was written up in an article in an early Hornby Magazine. I couldn't identify the issue in question, and it's probably out of print so this route was closed. I think he left most of the underframe largely "as is" - I believe Bill Bedford has produced an etched brass kit for a CCT underframe. However I also understand that he doesn't provide any instructions with his products on the grounds that anyone who needs instructions is unfit to build them. My etched kit experience is strictly limited - while I might well be able to build a well designed kit with good instructions , I stand no chance with a naked etch to a complex design which may or may not cater for OO and which may require unspecified modifications in unspecified areas to do so . So that route was not an option, and 15 quid stayed in my bank account - The third route is to cut away the Lima W irons and springs , and replace the lot with whitemetal castings from ABS. As I didn't fancy my chances of assembling whitemetal axleguards dead square, especially on such a long wheelbase 4 wheeler, this also meant etched brass W irons - which automatically results in a compensated underframe: highly desirable here. This was the route I took. This shot of the underframe as modified should show the work involved: The whole of the central spine of the underframe has to come out, and so does the floor of the underframe in order to recess the W irons suffiently - I glued a large piece of 40 thou across the area to provide a new false floor. This means you have to discard the long iron plate that Lima use as a ballast weight, since it will no longer fit. I aradited lead sheet into the centre section of the underframe , sufficent to bring the total weight of the CCT up to 75g . All the components and subassemblies were put into the pan of a set of kitchen scales and lead added to make up the weight (Health and Safety note - this is all my scales are ever used for , so there is no risk of heavy metal contamination of food) Chopping the whitemetal W irons and locating areas away from the axlebox/spring was a very awkward job - every single J hanger broke from the casting in the process and all had to be stuck back with cyano at least 3 times. In retrospect this was unnecessary trouble on the fixed axle - they should just have been stuck in place on the solebar - a scrap of microstrip needs to be slipped underneath as packing . This should be omitted on the rocking axle else it won't rock - and there you really do have to stick the darn things back on the whitemetal spikes at the ends of the spring I chickened out on thinning down the whitemetal castings before sticking them to the W irons with cyano, so the model is probably a little chunky around the axleboxes . However the overall improvement in appearance is so great I can live with this The W irons are MJT BR heavy duty plate , which are probably correct. The etch supplies coupling hooks - which Lima omitted, though I seem to have used ABS whitemetal ones One or two bits of struts were lost in the process of attacking the underframe with a cutting disc - my el-cheapo fixed speed mini drill runs at a nominal 18,000 rpm which may be too slow (t's hardly ever been used - which doesn't encourage me to splash out on a more sophisticated one). These were reinstated with microstrip and damage where I had to thin the solebars from behind to get the compensation units in patched as best I could. I tried to save the brake levers but eventually concluded they had to go anyway. I drew reference lines across the plasticard floor sections with a set square to enable me to locate the compensation units but I'm still not 100% sure they are absolutely square : all you see is through a small hole in the etch , and to compound the uncertainty my lens prescription does interesting fish-eye things to plane surfaces (think Esscher's goldfishbowl-world engraving, only very very slightly) . However the underframe seems to run okay. Wheels are Hornby 14 mm carriage wheels . I didn't have an exact match to the buffers fitted - the nearest I could find were a packet of InterCity Models wagon buffers. The fabricated lower-door stops were represented by gluing a cube of 40 thou plasticard to the casting with cyano. Whatever their imperfections they look the part - and a good deal better than Lima's efforts Brake levers came from a Mainly Trains etched fret drawn by Ian Rice which just happened to have 2 sets of long CCT levers on it (It was at this point I decided I was only ever going to do 2 CCTs). Perhaps they are a bit heavily cranked in order to clear the castings but again they are a big improvement The tension locks were chopped off with Xurons, 40 thou plasticard glued underneith and the hole made good with scraps of plasticard and liberal quantities of solvent (not filler , as it needs to take the fixing screw for the Kadees, which are long centreset , to cope with the buffers - I think they are no 46) Lettering is from the HMRS pressfix sheet for BR coaches. I gather Express Parcels is a rare branding but it appears on a 1980s reference photo so is in period and the CCT looked a bit bare without it. I had some trouble with the data lettering - one panel broke up , one was slightly damaged by weathering washes and that meant I used up all the CCT lettering on the sheet - another reason for using the ready finished Hornby body for the next one and stopping there... I had already cannibalised CCT lettering for the PMV I built some time ago . End electrification flashes are old Woodhead transfers, held on with varnish - the CCT and the Van B have used up my last old style electrification flashes and I must get some more (from Fox? The underframe was painted Railmatch Roof dirt, and weathering featured washes mixed from frame dirt and roof dirt , partly taken off with a cotten bud soaked in whitespirit The roof was a bit of a nightmare with at least 4 coats with various mixes and washes needed before I got something which was roughly the right shade and reasonably even , not streaky. A coat of enamel matt varish over the lot finally killed the sheen and blended it in. The whole thing recieved a final coat of Railmatch matt varish from a can (along with the Van B and some 2mm containers) . At which point the can expired... Here's the finished result: And if anyone knows how to delete the duplicate large version of the underframe phot I'd be grateful . It's not showing up on the posting text

Despite the silence I have in fact been doing some modelling over the last couple of months - I just haven't written it up . However this is to record that I have finally finished construction of the Ratio Van B . It still needs lettering , spot painting and weathering, and there's plenty of scope for things to go wrong in all of that, but the last tiny scrap of etched brass has been stuck in place . At least the last one that I'm sticking on - there are still a small number of tiny bits on the etch whose purpose is a mystery to me. At the death , I decided to use the etched chalk boards , as they are abit neater and more regular than my home made replacements - I've stuck them over the card versions which makes the detail a little chunky , but then the chalk boards are.. It won't be the best coach kit ever built, though I hope it will at least look adequete against the rest of my fleet . This is my first proper attempt at a coach kit, if you discount some cack-handed teenage efforts at Ratio suburbans It's taken two and a half years to get to this point , although there have been some delays , distractions and interruptions along the way. That's surely too long for a plastic coach kit. The trouble is that everything has been made into as many individiual components as possible. I've just finished sticking 4 tiny etched door handles on one side of the coach with cyano. Not to mention 4 very very small grab handles just below them, each of which rfequires it's two tiny legs folding into aright angle to enable it to be stuck to the side. and so on. I can't help feeling all this would have been better moulded onto the side itself - certainly there would have been a little less finesse if the kit was in the hands of a skilled builder, but for 80%+ of purchasers it would have vastly simplified and speeded the build. Why were seperate doors and seperate etched brass hinges necessary? Couldn't the side simply have been moulded as a single piece of plastic? One area I am not sure is entirely satisfactory is the attachment of the bogies. This is by a pair of screws, but I can't get them any further home and the bogies hang very loosely. The coach runs ok , but the body flops and rolls about a bit , and on its one trial outing on the layout it seemed prone to the occasional derailment . Nothing I can do about it (this is afirst kit, and rearranging the running gear is a step too far for me at this stage), and the coach works , but I think there are better arrangements on other kits. Since I started , Hornby have announced a RTR model , and I think the first batch may even have been released. I recall someone expressing the view that Hornby's model was a waste of time and no benefit to modellers because there was already a kit. Well, having built the kit, I beg to differ. Hornby will achieve a better model than I've managed to achieve , a significantly higher standard of paint finish, and it will run better, and have better engineered bogies. It will also come with NEM pockets, making changing couplings a matter of seconds. And it won't take 2.5 years of anyone's life . There's nothing inherently unbuildable about any part of the kit - but I reckon at least 90% of modellers would not manage to finish it. I do have one consolation - Hornby haven't so far annouced a version in BR blue