Karhedron

The NGS changed their plans a week after announcing the K45. After checking it was found that none of the Hawksworth BGs carried GWR livery in service, all were introduced in BR days. It was felt that producing a model that could legitimately carry true GWR colours would appeal to a wider range of modellers than one that was exclusively post-nationalisation. I do not know if it had an bearing but a good range of Hawksworth kits are available from Ultima/Etched Pixels. Whereas the K41/42 is not available in any form as far as I know.

I bit of digging has produced the following pictures. The Great Western Railway in the 1930s - Fraser/Geen/Scott Plate 126 show a mixed parcels train containing (among others): 2x K42 in brown K41 in brown The Great Western Railway in the 1930s Volume 2 - Geen/Scott Plate 259 shows a K41 in brown in mid-1937 - caption notes that the brown livery for vans was introduced a couple of years earlier Based on these, all-over brown seems a valid livery for both diagrams. Sadly I cannot determine running numbers but I will have another look and see if I can make out any route branding.

Just to muddy the waters further, I believe that the narrower profile of the K42s gave them a wider route availability.

The K40 is an interesting and long-lived vehicle. However a decent conversion kit is available from TPM for N gauge, I have built a couple myself. Also the K40s were built more with cross-country use in mind whereas the K41/42s were definitely built for top-link duties. Also I am not aware of any K40s surviving into rail blue (I am prepared to be proved wrong on this point). Personally I think the K41 is the best choice as it was the most numerous and had a slightly wider range of liveries. Givent the similarity between the 2, I think that a K41 painted and branded as K42 would still satisfy most modellers if there turn out to be any livery variants that were unique to the K42.

And there is a preserved example for easy laser-scanning. I guess that manufacturers are nervous of going for pre-grouping stock, even if it was long-lived. I have to say that toplight stock is an obvious candidate though.

Dapol have just posted some picks of the conversion packs on their FB page. http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=513649291986157&set=a.219867508031005.63540.214563285228094&type=1&theater

You don't need to buy many. 1 pair of each length will be sufficient and you can use them to test all your stock. At £5 a pair, that will only set you back £15, about the price of a single coach. I think this is not a bad price to ensure all your stock can couple comfortably. Plus as andygif says, you can always sell your spares at the end if you really want to recoup the investment. Personally I would look at it in the same way as money spent on a tool. It is not wasted, it is a small investment to help you get the best results.

This will depend on the radius of curve you use. If you use set-track curves you will need longer couplers than if you use 3' curves throughout. My advice is to get a couple of pairs of each length and use them to test different types of stock on your layout. There are no hard and fast rules.

I have seen some pictures of the tankers pre-WW2 and it looks like they were kept cleaner back then. It seems only after nationalisation that they were allowed to grime over.

Milk from the west-country went to a variety of bottling plants in London. Wood Lane and Mitre Bridge were both regular recipients. IIRC Kensington was not really the final destination. It was just a marshalling point for milk trains from various routes where the tank would be sorted and dispatched to the bottling plants.

I think that there were at least 2 trains a day from Penzance to Kensington in the 1950s. I have an article from 1959 detailing milk trains and including a run on the Up Penzance milk train. I will try to dig it out and see if it says anything about the time it passed through Bristol.

Not bad. I find they are slightly more fragile than ModelMaster ones but no worse than Fox. The transfer film is quite fine and a coat of klear followed by some Testors Dullcote hides it very effectively.

I am currently working on 2 more N gauge GWR K40 full-brakes. Once again these are TPM overlays on Daol B-set coaches. I am quite pleased with the one in GWR livery as this is the first time I have done such a complex livery. Lining is courtesy of ModelMaster and the lettering by Railtec Models.

Yes the milk tanks do look good, particularly the streaked effect. Any chance of a quick tutuorial?

I really like that plan a lot. I have been doodling plans for a 3-4 platform terminus for a while for my next layout but I may just ditch them and use that. Do you think it would be feasible to add a triangular parcels platform above platform 1? I am thinking of the sort found at Penzance.

The downside of that layout is the potentially large number of reverse curves a train could pass through. The neat trick of the original Minories is that the "dog leg" at the station throat actually reduces those reverse curves.

I would not write-off Minories as unrealistic, as mentioned above it was based on a real location. Also the basic layout is very close to Birkenhead Woodside if you lose 2 of the platforms.

Indeed, Minories was a nice job with the tools CJF had available RTR. Today we have slips and 3-way points available RTR and a compact station like this would be a logical place to use them. Iain Rice's "Harestone" (mentioned somewhere above) does a good job of updating Minories using a few slips to compress the station throat further and give a very compact and workable suburban terminus while adding a coal siding and loop for those who want a bit of frieght as well.

More super work there, especially considering that the original was not to shabby either. Ex-LMS brakes were not unheard of on the western region. There are some shots of a class 22 at Instow with a very similar vehicle on a milk train somwehere. I will post a link if I can find it. EDIT - Here we go. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwf2009/5572041140/in/set-72157626256309045 http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwf2009/5572040854/in/set-72157626256309045/

Possibly. Windsor was bigger but I cannot remember if the branch was single or double-track back then.

Wow, that is some more really nice work you have done there. I keep holding off on the Ultima Hawksworths in the hope that Dapol may do some but you work is really tempting me to have a go at some. Unless you are interested in some comission work?

I think that the problem is that specific drawings are copyrighted (although the track plan is not). Putting up a scan from RM, or one of CJFs books would be breaking copyright. Someone drawing a copy of minories themselves and uploading it would be fine (I think). Sadly I am not much good at drawing (one of the reasons I like to build models).

Inspired by rather than based closely on I believe. The basic layout of a terminus with island platform at the bottom of a narrow valley is accurate. Whether the other features resemble the real Caterham of 50+ years ago I do not know. Rice's Caterham-based version of Minories (Harestone) is quite nice as it offers the possibilty of a bit of freight and shunting alongside the intensive passenger service. As Rice himself points out, it is also a nice way to mix early SR EMUs with steam on the freight if you enjoy that combination.

Hello, Yes it is you diagram. I am sorry for reposting it without your permission. I assumed you would be happy with this as you have posted it on RMWeb before. I simply copied it from another thread. I have removed the image from this thread and I apologise for any offence.

Yes, if you are willing to increase the width of board a bit and avoid the narrowing at the station throat, all sorts of possibilities open up. I sketched out on plan in N gauge which had a kickback leading to a milk bottling plant to add some extra freight possibilties. There was also a small MPD accessible, not a full-blown engine shed, just a servicing point for coal, water and turning. I replaced some of the points with slips to enable access to these areas but a compact urban station is just the sort of place where such complex features would be likely to be found.