Corbs

Nice, we had a similar issue with the Cathedral on 3rd radius curves which is why I changed the front bogie to the more modern type so instead of swivelling from a fixed point, it has a bit of lateral movement. Also removed the little buffers in between the loco and tender so that it can stay moderately close coupled but with more room to move in relation to each other. Over on the Saint I have done some more things. Finally found the 4000g tender from a GBL Castle, scraped off the moulded handrails and added some wire ones. Sprayed the whole lot in primer and then the same cheap satin black paint as the loco. Wheels are from a Triang B12 tender which was a freebie from years ago, just mounted in slots made by the dremel. I think a more permanent solution will need to be found but will try this first. Clevedon Court had a larger tender for the last few years, Ashton Court retained its smaller one but along with its life extension it's got an upgrade. Coal is real (smashed up and glued in over the moulded stuff with Roket Card Glue) and the decals are from Fox Transfers. Bufferbeam was brush painted with acrylic (I think). Reverser rod was pinched off a GBL King and bent to shape.

Hi mate, I was going to point you in the direction of the cobblin' thread as it was one of the first projects on there, but all the images got wiped out in The Great Crash and I haven't fixed it yet. Basically mixed a Hornby King and Princess Princess: Chassis, boiler, running board etc King: Cab, chimney, front bogie (unlikely it would have used it as the King bogie was found to be unnecessary so would likely have been a Castle one, but I liked the look of it), cylinders/motion, smokebox door. I used a Hawksworth tender from a Castle (I think). The buffers are Hornby Class 92 ones. Sawed off the Princess cab and rear footplate and grafted the King one on (as low down as you can get it otherwise it looks weird) - used the footplate section which needed blending but gives the GWR look. My donor King was a tender drive version but that was a false economy as I replaced all the motion and the front bogie with more modern parts in the end. But this was back in 2014 and I didn't have much disposable income (Sabina and I were in our first flat together which we could just about afford so it was a case of finding what I could make work!). Some pics:

I do feel like you need to change your location to 'Atlas Works'

Been doing a bit of admin and the OKI laser printer I use for decal printing has just broken even (including the postage and the replacement drum I got for it). I got it in October 2020 so pretty much bang-on 2 years. Obviously that doesn't include my time I've spent designing etc., it's just outgoing costs, but on the other hand I've not spent more than a few quid on my own decals in 2 years. Still need to pay off the ALPS printers but they still aren't set up due to lack of space so imagine that will be a while.

It is a bit of a cheat by extending 2932's lifespan ever so slightly. I am hoping to do another one in earlier condition as 'Saint Agatha' (my sister's name) in which case the 2932 identity may get swapped onto one side of that. The personal connection is I am from Clevedon and I now live almost opposite (and regularly walk around) Ashton Court :) One improvement I would like to make on the second one (apart from lowering the boiler pitch) is to remove the tunnel (fire irons?) on the LHS of the loco - I had not spotted this disparity until I had stuck the main components together!

Before topcoat, some riveting took place. This is where the Hall had been somewhat damaged with glue that I'd sanded off. I also added some along the footplate drop-down and the bufferbeam. I was going to do the cab but checking photos again, it looked like the loco may have had flush rivets later in its career (or they were quite small/indistinct) so it stayed smooth. First coat of top coat, cheap satin black from ebay. This morning before work I made a start on the transfers (Fox again, using up the remaining bits in the set from the County). Masked off the chimney and brushed on some copper, painted and refitted the safety valves and whistle. The loco now has both its identities! 2932 'Ashton Court' on one side, and 2937 'Clevedon Court' on the other. The buffers are Markits Collett ones. A few bits left to do but the body is nearly there. The chassis does require quite a bit of work to get it functioning again (and with the Hall motion instead of the Castle gear).

Rob it was super to see you at the Portishead WC&P show - unfortunately I didn't get the chance to say hi to Ewe as didn't want to butt in mid conversation ;)

Love this view

Maybe no-one told him he wasn't going to get paid every time he did it?

Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0, since they've already done the Riddles 2MT they likely share chassis/mechanism etc. Probably with one done as 'Blossom'.

NEW PRODUCT https://www.railwaymania.net/shop/king-charles-iii-namenumberplates £9.50 Etched Great Western Railway-style name and numberplates to commemorate the ascendance of King Charles III to the throne. These are designed to glue directly over the Hornby name/numberplates and as such are quite thin, requiring careful handling. Some trimming of the original plates may be required. Choose from 2 number options: 6027 follows on from the GWR’s tradition of renaming the next highest number King Class locomotive (6029 King Stephen became King Edward VIII, 6028 King Henry II became King George VI), in this case King Richard I would be renamed King Charles III. 6030 is an additional locomotive, adding one onto the existing 6000-6029 series. 2 nameplates are supplied, along with 2 cabside numberplates. For those modelling British Railways era, a smokebox numberplate is also included. The price includes UK postage. All the profits from the sale of these plate sets will go to the Jessie May Childrens Hospice at Home. https://jessiemay.org.uk/

Thanks Mikkel, yes it was a lush day. I am quite surprised that the Saint has not been done yet, maybe a manufacturer has it in the works? I think proportionally mine is nearly there, I kind of wish I had bitten the bullet and sanded off a few mm under the boiler to get it to sit lower, but I don't really want to take it apart to re-do now. Here's how I've mounted the body. Styrene box section glued under the cab with a screw going into it (goes through an existing chassis hole). The front screw goes under the bogie and is really just pushing up against the running board, seems secure for now though. Also shows the thin brass strip for the bogie. A few weeks ago I designed some etched name and number plates and yesterday they arrived, amazing service from PPD up in Scotland. 0.3mm Brass, possibly a bit on the thin side but they were designed to be glued on top of existing plastic ones. I did it by putting some Hornby 'King' plates in the flatbed scanner and then tracing them in Adobe Illustrator to get the size and curves, and redoing the letters and numbers as appropriate. The 'bitsa' Castle (now with a Hornby rather than a Bachmann tender.... yes you guessed it, I found one in a drawer that was a direct fit) was the first to be identified. It's now the new highest-numbered class member, 7038 'Budleigh Castle' (Budleigh is the fictitious location of the megalayout). I did the infill by slapping on some black acrylic last night and sanding off the lettering this morning. The green is done with a brush, I think it needs a final coat and some matt lacquer to blend properly. Very happy though!

A (SORT OF) Hornby 'SAINT' Built from scraps As a Clevedon boy who now lives with a view of Ashton Court from his window, I've wanted to have a model of 'Clevedon Court' and/or 'Ashton Court', the former being one of the last 3 'Saints' withdrawn by BR. What are the options? 1. The SEFinecast/Wills Whitemetal kit - a good option if can get one for a decent price but quite a bit of work 2. The Triang/Hornby one - barely looks like a Saint as it was poorly adapted from the Hall tooling 3. Rebuild a 'Star' - didn't have £95+ to spend on a model that I was going to tear into 4. Build one out of spare parts I confess this is not going to be 100% accurate and is a typical cobblin' project but hopefully it results in something Saintly (Saint-ish?). Key ingredients - an eBay find of a 'Hall' that some unfortunate soul had tried to fix/improve by slathering it in superglue. This will donate the No.1 boiler. A Churchward-style cab sawn off a GBL 28xx. (yes I know the 28xx has the correct boiler but I thought the Hall would be a better starting point in terms of mounting positions, detail etc. Obviously all of the rubbish plastic handrail knobs snapped off when I removed the handrail. The chassis is a later-style Hornby Castle one that I found in a drawer from an abandoned project. This should give the correct wheel diameter of the long-legged 'Saint'. At first I considered using the Hall running board and trying to modify it by increasing the height of the front and rear drop-downs. The Castle already has a significant drop-down in its running board, so I considered this GBL 'Castle' body a better donor, which would be cut and shut to the correct length. The razor saw took care of that No.8 boiler and those superfluous inside cylinders.... ... While the hacksaw and files were employed to reduce the length of the chassis. The 28xx cab was glued on (with height extenders underneath) after the rear was shortened, and lots of experimenting with length and fitment took place. I reduced the overall length of the running board by cutting it just behind the cylinders, which mount in the filed-out bit. The front running board area was shortened and reinforced with some styrene. The Saints had a similar drop-down height to the Castles but with smaller splashers, so they had deeper bufferbeams. Thus is being achieved with some styrene extensions (have ordered some Markits Collet buffers) Running board joined back together with a reinforcing strip - this was not strong on its own but the boiler will act as a strong top brace. The dragbox is from 'Cadbury Castle' which was missing a set of steps (salvaged from the GBL loco). Cutting off the splashers was, in hindsight, probably a mistake as I likely could have reused the originals, so here they are being glued and blended back in - some very thin plastic was used to help flatten the bases and to get them sitting properly on the running board. A lot of filling and sanding is going on with the cab height extensions but I am hoping this will be aided by the addition of rivets and lining. The handrail is from 'Cadbury Castle' with the addition of some more handrail knobs from the spare parts drawer (think they came from an ancient Hornby Kind or something). The bogie is from Cadbury Castle with the front sawn off (wheel spacing is correct but actual bogie is over length for the Saint). Currently attached with a piece of brass strip bent over the bogie axle and screwing into the keeper plate mount. Will likely require refinement. Current state of play - sitting a bit tall at the front so the area the cylinders sit on requires further filing down (the body is sat on the cylinders) Cab handrails are .45mm wire melted into holes drilled with the pin vice. The 4000g tender is borrowed from a donor 'King'. Next job is to work out the permanent way of mounting the body to the chassis, tender coupling, then get the chassis working properly. I suspect the conrod will need changing for a longer one than the Hornby 'Hall' I have as the distance is slightly greater due to the larger wheels.

In a similar way to how 'Allo 'Allo is an accurate portrayal of the 1980s view of the 1940s, Lion is an accurate portrayal of the 1920s view of the 1830s.... 😉

AFAIK the chimney has been consistent throughout its preserved career.

I stand corrected, it's the rear wheels that are powered - photo from Sam Hill on facebook:

Just buy this for less than £20 shipped, it's almost a plug and play swap. Takes less than half an hour to do with a minimum of soldering. I know some love ringfields but when CD motors run so well, I see trying to service a ringfield as a waste of time. https://www.strathpefferjunction.com/product/lima-ringfield-replacement-cd-motor-adaptor-kit-la5-9mm-co-co/

Yes sadly not, it's slimmer than both the available conversion kit motors as I found to my dismay the other day. Might be worth having a look through some motor websites to try and find one of the appropriate dimensions. Strathpeffer Junction also do the conversion kits for the diesels: https://www.strathpefferjunction.com/Hornby-lima-ringfield-motor-upgrade-conversion-kits/

I was wondering about that in terms of the ability to convert it to 'as built' condition (or a rough approximation of 'as first rebuilt').

I'm sure the rods cannot be printed on the final version as it almost certainly looks like this is rod-drive to the rear axle, with the gearbox behind the cylinders and driving onto the front one?

That's brilliant! I'd love it if I'd had one of those as a kid.

More on the Castle, after the improvement to the front end that the lamp irons gave on the County, I've fitted some here. After a couple of experiments, the firebox was repainted using a brush in Railmatch 601 GWR green, which is a close enough match for me and obscures the lining on the firebox (GWR had lining, BR did not). After a coat of matt lacquer it's blended a lot better - in this case I think the fact that the boiler, cab, firebox and tender are all slightly different shades actually helps. In the background of the previous pics is a ringfield drive (and a very dark BR green) 'Cadbury Castle' which a previous owner had dropped and smashed the running board and steps on. It is becoming a handy parts donor for a few projects, including the reach rod and nameplate backing (hopefully my etched plates will just glue over the top of this). I've also used the Railmatch paint and a small brush to paint the running board valance green.

Excellent! I would love to see more pics, especially the little colliery loco.

A few pics from the Hornby Website