Colin parks

Right, back on-message. Here is a photo that I thought was lost, but a print has turned up in some old papers. The date is sometime in the 2000s, but I cannot remember exactly when. 377 114 departing from Newhaven Town station. Signal box to the extreme right. Colin

Hi, Looking at the Tatlow MRC drawing for unfitted Grampus wagons, it states that the buffers are 1' 6" long and indicates a 13" buffer head and four ribs on the cast housing. The closest Lanarkshire Model & Supplies' product is 'Wagon Buffer B003'. The spindle is not clear in their photo. Perhaps give them a ring to make sure it is the right type of buffer for your intended use. Colin

Hi Phil, On reflection, surely the painted name on that sign cannot have lasted all these years without someone having retouched it? Seeing as some philistine has painted it out, it falls to you as the closest RMweb member to uphold the Bong Ville tradition: get down there to Bishopstone Beach with a two inch brush and a tin of white paint and... Colin

Hi Siberian Snooper, Only just seen your comment. Just to be clear, the stretcher bar brackets will be soldered to the switch blades, with the Loctite 435 being used only for the GEL laminate and brass bracket joints. Colin

That looks so much better Mick. To be frank, I think that 3' 4" would be the specified height of the buffer centres as new, but worn springs could reduce the measurement and certainly prototype photos would bear this out. (Come to think of it, worn out wheels would also be a factor in the ride height of a wagon, so 3' 3" would also be acceptable as a minimum - unless someone else knows better of course!) Enjoying watching your kit building progress, Colin

It might be worth checking the buffer height before major surgery on wagon Mick. The scale height should be 3'4" or 13.3 mm in 4 mm scale. It would be interesting to hear the results. As 31A suggests, it might be that the vans positioned either side in the picture that are too high, though I based my comments on examining the relative positions of the wheel centres to axle box centres of the cattle wagon as shown in your photo. All the best, Colin

OK ,OK, it was on the down platform Phil! Age is playing tricks with my memory. There used to be a lot of parties down on the eastern beach on summer evenings back in the 70s. The name must refer to those 'goings on' further down the lane from the erstwhile Bishoptone Beach station. Colin

Nice work Mick. Re. the cattle wagon, it looks as if the wheels are set too high in the axle boxes when compared to the Mink van you are building. That could be the reason for the discrepancy in the buffer height between that wagon and the vans. All the best, Colin

Hi Phil, In the 70s, someone wittily painted 'Bongville' on one of the up platform running in boards here (they appear not to be there any longer). Colin

Hi Hendie, I have been following this build with great admiration - shame about the snags with the coach sides. You mention that you are now contemplating making the coach sides from brass sheet, but styrene can be used successfully for such applications, given a few basic rules: always laminate the sides fully, using Humbrol Liquid Poly (butyl acetate) or Limonene solvents; never, ever use glue, cement, MEK or any other plastic solvent for construction; drill 0.5mm holes pitched at 10mm in the intermediate lamination to allow solvent vapours to vent off. For 1/32 scale, your sides* should be approx 2.4mm thick, or around 90 thou., so your 20 thou. sheet sides should be laminated to an intermediate layer of 40 thou. sheet and an inner skin of 30 or 40 thou. sheet. (* Depending on the scale thickness of a Pullman coach side. I am assuming they are somewhere between 2 1/2" - 3" thick.) Further to the comment by spitfire2865 on the painting process and the need to wait for the paint to cure between coats, it is always best to wash plastic components in warm water/ detergent, rinse, and carefully dry prior to painting. Colin

Is that an LSWR lattice post signal? It seems to be very old.

Just how old is it John!?Colin

That is livery beyond me unless desktop Tampo printers become available!

Hi Phil, These last few posts just go to show the diversity of units and liveries extant on the contemporary rail scene. There are not many of those liveries that I would fancy attempting when painting a model (though the Southern livery on a 313 looks do-able). Out of interest, could someone tell me roughly how many different types of EMU are currently operational on the old Southern Region network? Colin

Shame. I have pictures somewhere which I took at Pulborough in the mid-2000s. There was a rather spectacular floral display on the signal box maintained by the signalwoman there for few summers running. Colin

One more possibility for you Andy is Pulborough. Though if that area around the station still has its semaphores, I do not know. Colin

Hi Andy, Re. Semaphore signals on the South Coast: Perhaps it is too late, as it seems that modernisation has sought out and eradicated many of these structures, but there were still some semaphore signals around Newhaven Town/Harbour and one at the Marine station. It was 2013 when I last went down to the area. At that time both the signal boxes were in operation. Colin Edit: Having looked at Claude's Southern semaphore signalling topic, it seems all those signals I mention could be long gone.

Hi Bingley Hall, That VEP in img124 jpg looks like it is suffering from the effects of too much carriage washing fluid residue, which has caused the stripey paint effect on the sides. A paint condition you do not see modelled very often. How come contemporary units always look so clean?!

That is amazing! They left Victoria on the Brighton Belle and arrived in Brighton on a 6 PUL/CIT.

Burnt out Toad brake van body at Upper Bryn Amman, South Wales. Visible on Street View and still there in 2016 (when I drove past it). (There is a grounded GWR coach body at Llangrannog, West Wales. Hope to take a photo of that later this week.)

..and the 377's gangway is considerably shorter than the 4 VEP's one.

I am using 0.4mm glass epoxy laminate (GEL) for my stretcher bars on the recommendation of Howard Bolton. The home-made stretcher bar brackets are going to be fixed to the bars with Loctite 435 (think that is the right number). I am going to make a jig to hold the brackets in position for soldering to the switches. Using GEL stretcher bars and the etched components will be something of an experiment, because Howard's method* has only been used (to my knowledge) on bullhead rail which is more flexible than flat bottom rail, though being P4, the switches do not have to move very far! * Will try to add the numbers of the Scalefour News journals in which this is discussed by Howard. (He uses Ambis stretcher bar brackets by the way.)

Hi Siberian Snooper, Howard's etches are featured on his website, but it would be best to use the contact details there to get an idea of availability. These etches are not cheap, but unlike many other pointwork/rodding etches, they are etched in nickel silver, making them quite a lot stronger than brass parts of the same size. I have enough parts for the above-board scale rodding and also the etched cranks and guides of larger size for mechanical operation from underneath the board. (That is still a long way off!) Colin

Switch drive rods have been on the agenda lately. Below is a picture of an adjusting crank, drive rod and stretcher bar bracket (which attaches to the side of the switch blade). This is a prototype for the eight assemblies which will actually drive the switches. The yokes on each end of the drive rod and the adjusting crank are etched components from Howard Bolton, whose method of assembly has been copied for the parts seen here. The (slightly wonky) brass tube on the drive rod represents the adjusting turnbuckle. The part also provides an insulated join to electrically insulate the switch blade from the rest of the mechanical drive. The drive rod is in two parts. Pictured here upside down for illustration, is one of Howard's etched escapement units which will operate the switches sub-baseboard driving the crank seen in the previous picture via a 1 mm o/d brass tube, pivoting with the movement of the escapement. Howard explains all this far more eloquently than me in his Scalefour News articles. Now with the escapement unit the right way up, this shows the the whole lot held together for the camera. Hope it makes sense. (Must clean away the flux residue.) Having enough of Howard's components, the point rodding can be added and could be made to work right back to the signal box, driven by the switch drive (but there lies madness!). I shall be content just to have the pictured parts operational. (Oops! I realise now that the crucial link on the escapement unit which connects to the pivot is missing in the second photo. Will try harder tomorrow and post a shot of the complete unit.)

Ah, I see! It is a really good spot for photos by the looks of it. Colin