Mark C

5 hours ago, hmrspaul said:

All a housing estate now. There was a very low embankment that divided the ECML from the yard and the break to permit the rail access which is approximately central to the site can still be seen. 

 

Very friendly, possilby because my wife was always with me when we visited and sometimes in a skimpy vest top. 

 

Paul

...I used to spend long summer Sunday afternoons on Benslow Bridge/Lane in my teens in the blue heyday of the mid-70s...

Mark

6 hours ago, hmrspaul said:

Thanks but I looked hard at those yesterday and I don't think that helps. But, I was sure I did have a suitable photo so I dug deep into my ageing memory and thought LMS and here it is https://PaulBartlett.zenfolio.com/lmsmineral/e2bba568e

 

Paul

Like so many other locations, Hitchin was a great place for rolling stock (the engineers' yard especially) - now, sadly, a vegetation-rich shadow of its' former self...

Mark

2 hours ago, jwealleans said:

Stripe's better on the first one.

...and a nightmare...the whole wagon needs more distressing...

Nearly sixty years separate these two models: the first is the oldest model I possess that was made by me - wrong colour paint, an attempt at weathering, kit-supplied couplings, wheels and transfers, and just look at those bufferheads...

...the second is from a couple of years or so ago, but there is a connection: whilst the body is a Parkside diag.109 rivetted 16 ton mineral, the brakegear by ABS, steel bufferheads and with Alan Gibson wheels, the underframe is from the Airfix kit; 60 years later and their axleboxes and underpinnings are still hard to beat...

Regards

Mark

3 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Convert to EM!

Just sayin'

 

Mike.

Ha!  Blindingly obvious to me now, but I learned the hard way when building my dozen or so Parkside kits, that not only did the (00 gauge Alan Gibson) wheels need the correct back-to-back, but they also needed to be central on the axle and any moulding pips on the wheels' rear faces required careful removal too.  The clearances between the rear of the wheels and the hopper structure is 1mm maximum - any wonky wheels or imprecise construction are soon found out...

...or convert to EM!

Mark

54 minutes ago, 31A said:

 

Quite a late use of them was on the sand traffic from Fen Drayton (near St. Ives, Cambs) to various places on the GN.  Eventually they were replaced by some bogie hoppers, but it must have been well into the 1980s by the time that happened.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/8534810032/in/album-72157632935569242/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/8534903148/in/album-72157632932040983/

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/52087249@N07/14273206894/in/album-72157632932040983/

 

...and with complementary motive power from Accurascale too (Class 47 excepted (I usually saw either 31s or 37s on this traffic))...

Mark

Mark

2 hours ago, Downendian said:

Just terrific news- I’ll be adding a few sets of wagons to my Parkside builds. Plenty of 5-rib hoppers were vacuum braked too - I guess an option for future releases.

Neil

Me too!!  To be fair though, these have all been in this unfinished state for far too long...some more varieties for the future too perhaps...

Mark

Just now, Roy Langridge said:

Definitely not a new tooling 47 as the cab front footsteps are in the right place. 
 

Roy

..yes, and there are no holes in the cab front for the later-style/more common ETH jumper...

Mark

18 hours ago, MikeParkin65 said:

Interesting review in this months RM where the 47 shares a page with the same manufacturers rereleased 57 with photos from the same angle.  Certainly the 47 sits lower on the bogies than the 57 and I think raising the new model a little would improve its look. Hornby mag meanwhile has commented on the ‘face’ being wrong - an interesting stance from they have their own Ltd ed from the tooling. 

By contrast, doesn't the face of the 47 on the front cover of the same Hornby Magazine simply look just right (I suspect it is a pre-2021 tooling Bachmann version)...

With or without (you) (apologies to U2): -

Ditto today (152/250) - their light weathering really lifts what is already an impressive model...

Mark

3 hours ago, Davidjsmith said:

I ordered mine day of launch paid up along time ago!Hope they are not sending out by surname in alphabetic order!As my surname starts with S!

Me too...and mine starts with a C!!

On 02/02/2024 at 02:32, P.C.M said:

I was a shunter at Eastleigh east yard for a while in the early 90s.

We used to loose shunt although management didn't like us doing it they used to let it go on.

We did get a bollocking for loose shunting car flats and TTAs one time. 😁

We also did Fly shunting a few times which is different to loose shunting in that the shunt loco pulls the wagon towards the points. The shunt loco backs off just enough to loosen the coupler then speeds up past the point which is then changed before the wagon comes past. Hopefully the wagon has enough speed to go in clear to be pinned down.😁

 

Cheers Peter.

There's a fascinating sequence in the East Anglian By-Ways (sic) DVD filmed in the late-60s of a Brush Type 4/Class 47 fly shunting 16 ton mineral wagons in Cromer yard (fortunately it is D1565 - which has saved me having to renumber the Bachmann model).  The skill of the shunter uncoupling wagons on the move is readily apparent.

Mark

4 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

 

Understood - I live south of London. However, John Dutfield is half an hour by train out of Liverpool Street station and I fancied an afternoon out. It was just a personal choice, but also based on the store itself being an Aladdin's Cave of stock with no internet listings so well worth an enjoyable rummage...

I second that: I had a happy 12 months contracting for Essex County Council in County Hall...just a few minutes' walk from John Dutfield (as long as you remember they're closed on Wednesdays!)...

15 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I hope it's ok to reproduce here for illustrative purposes.

A Wills' N7 (Not N2 as I thought) posed over a shed inspection pit, used on a mid 1960s edition of MRC.

 

 

Taken from Model Railway Constructor Annual 1983, published Ian Allan 1982*

 

 

*I was eleven!!

See "Backscene" (page 130) from the current edition of Model Rail - there is a connection between them!

Regards

Mark

On 21/01/2024 at 11:17, MJI said:

Does anyone know a good source of turned buffer heads 13 inch?

 

Wsnt to get a few to detail moulded buffer body kits.

 

MJT out of stock.

 

Need 8 at moment

A bit late perhaps, but try H&A Models' own product - https://www.hamodels.net/4mm-steel-wagon-buffer-heads-pack-12.html

...they are also a good source of so many things and with an excellent mail order service too (and good to chat with too at exhibitions).

Regards

Mark

On 24/11/2023 at 18:28, OnTheBranchline said:

Not going to lie, I was kind of holding my breath that the loco would go around the curves and not derail and fall to its demise... 

There is one doing just that (going round the curves bit, not falling to its' demise...) at Holkham Hall's Christmas by candlelight event, where there is a Christmas tree ringed by four circuits of track - one of which has a 15xx merrily towing three Gresley coaches...

Mark

5 hours ago, StuartMc said:

After the discussions on communications above, it's worth me letting you know that Tim replied promptly to an email request  (timhornlasercut@gmail.com) this week and I've put in an order for delivery just after Christmas. He also very kindly offered to assemble and deliver them, at no extra cost, as I'm fairly close to Fakenham.

 

I won't include the prices as they are volitile due to changing wood costs, but to give you an idea of the current range; his standard options are:

 

Scenic/Photoplank  (with backscene/pelmet and "frame" ) - each end is either either "open" (to join to other boards) or closed (at the end of the layout)

 

The standard sizes for this are either 12", 18" or 24" wide by 2, 3 or 4 foot long.

 

Standard baseboards same sizes

 

Turntables/sector plates start at 3ft x 1ft

 

Traverser example 4ft x 2ft

 

Other sizes are also available

 

Stuart

You will not be disappointed...

Mark

3 hours ago, andyman7 said:

Here's an original early 70s built MTK Peak with the original supplied twin K's motor bogies - and it works! Prior to the availability of the Mainline model this would have been a seriously exotic presence on a model railway

I've got one of these in long-term storage (pretty much since the 70's, consequent to the arrival of the Mainline model, along with a Class 47!) - but I utilised MTK's own power bogies.  They had a novel design utilising a layshaft that enabled 3-axle drive (or, by omitting the layshaft, unpowered) and pickups incorporated with the brass axle bearings.  I'm sure that with a bit more work they would have performed well, but they never quite did for me - the frames, layshaft and gears were moulded in a greasy sort of plastic, which was probably not ideal.

The Class 47 was powered by twin K's motor bogies which generally spun on the spot without much movement on the track.

On Wright Writes there is a photograph of my MTK Class 03, which was much more successful (until the Mainline version, again).

Like many others, I learned a lot from building MTK kits...

Anyway, back to the original topic...

Mark

I went from the panic of: oh no, have I ordered more of the same without realising, through to the hopeful: maybe my two Class 37s are en route and the wrong orders have been quoted, only to be told it's PayPal re-issuing old emails.  No associated payment activity on my PayPal account...

3 minutes ago, Bucoops said:

Curious - just got dispatch notification for Loch Lomond. I've had that over a month 😂

...a PayPal problem we think...

1 hour ago, timbo2857 said:

Thanks, I will give them a try, though its a pity they dont have a proper web site to buy online.

Indeed, but a quick call and chat with the very helpful proprietor, and a by-return service will sort you out.

Here's a quick photo...

Try 247 Developments (no connection other than a satisfied customer) - I recently bought 1504 cabside plates and a smokebox numberplate.  Very friendly and quick service...

I can't disagree...!!  😆