Corbs

Dave I've been a fan of your models for years, evers ince I saw 'Charmouth' in the Railway Modeller. Have spent a very enjoyable time catching up on this thread. Please do keep up the amazing work.

Looks great! Is it mostly done in plasticard?

Many many years ago, I was taken to the local model shop for my birthday (my poor parents...). The 00 'Queen Mary' brake van had recently been released, and I fell in love with the way it looked. Naturally, I chose the most colourful one. My parents recently asked me to clean out some of my old railway items from their attic, so I took this one home with me. The rather gaudy colour scheme doesn't really fit in with my steam era layout, so I thought it could become part of the NWR's departmental stock. The NWR house colour is blue (Vauxhall Regatta Blue to be precise). Bit o'primer I was originally going to try and keep a splash of yellow, but realised I'd inadvertently made the Mainline Freight livery of the 1990s, so the yellow ends were to go black. I kept some of the markings on the side, and cut out some unused transfers from one of my big Fox sheets. D12 denotes Departmental Vehicle number 12. Any relations to hip-hop groups are purely incidental. Nice smokey weathering wash... I'm pretty happy with how it looks, I wanted it quite grubby. Some of the matt lacquer bloomed in some of the crevices so I went over again with a bit of blackness to hide it.

Thanks for the info (and apologies to Castle for straying off subject). Did anyone take photographs of the Kings on the goods?

More google finds....

True, but a mix of both kinds would allow more flexibility in operation.

I wonder if they could be put to use to remotely operate couplers on locomotives, negating the need for uncouplers in the track? In a similar way to this http://precimodels.com/en/

Do the trains lean into the wind in the same way the locals do?

Thanks for the info, yes it does seem like a well put together organisation. It looks like the local authority is quite supportive, too.

Indeed, it's a shame the builder hasn't been on the forum in a few years, it would have been nice to see how their railway progressed.

Shameless double post from the 'Freelance Layouts' thread.... A rather pleasant freelance loco cooked up by an RMWebber many moons ago.... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/454/entry-2313-my-freelance-loco-river-class-2-6-0/ and another they were working on... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/454/entry-2849-freelance-scottish-heavy-freight-0-6-4t/

Here is a link to the archive of the auction: http://www.vectis.co.uk/Page/ViewAuctionLots.aspx?AuctionId=558&DayNo=1&Section=8803&Sub=0

A rather pleasant freelance loco cooked up by an RMWebber many moons ago.... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/454/entry-2313-my-freelance-loco-river-class-2-6-0/ and another they were working on... http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/454/entry-2849-freelance-scottish-heavy-freight-0-6-4t/

Topical!

Aha, one thing at a time my friend (In typing this I realised I am taking on 3-4 things at the present time, thus proving I can't follow my own advice)

I recently stumbled across these GWR 'neverwazzas' on an online auction site... Brutish looking 2-10-2T 28xx-like 2-10-0 A 4-8-0 Cathedral akin to a stretched 'King' rather than the 'Swindon Princess' style 4-6-2 A 4-6-2 version of the Cathedral! I don't know what this is but it looks nice

Something like this but shorter?

There are a few shining examples in recent years. If I may point out the Aln Valley Railway, which has gone from an undeveloped site into a working steam centre in a very short space of time (approx. 6 years). I have absolutely no connection with them and do not know how they did it, but my impression from reading about them was that they are backed by a local engineering firm which supplied skills and resources many other lines can either only dream of or pay a lot of money for. They also seemed to concentrate on infrastructure before anything else. One of the first things on their site was an enormous shed. They could keep stock, equipment and plant indoors and work under cover in all weathers. I believe they had stock stored on other sites before this, but it did not give the impression of rushing into buying a large, broken shunting engine with nowhere to keep it or work on it. I do really want the Trawsfynydd guys to do well, but I would advise them to make a serious plan and set of objectives, and work out the best way to do them. For example, if they had not been fundraising to buy a loco, but had instead been looking to get planning permission to build a shed on one of the sidings at the end of the railway. Maybe a shunter loco owner whose engine was mouldering away outdoors on another railway would be amenable to moving it to under cover storage on the new line? Then you have not only a valuable resource, but also a useable asset. I do commend the volunteers for tackling the mess and overgrown track with gusto, but you need a business plan for how you are going to make this work, or all the effort will be in vain. I do still think a velorail project may be worth looking in to....

It's alright, no one died I think photobucket was undergoing maintenance yesterday, seems like it's back online now though. Not much to report at the moment as I managed to wreck the running gear of my freelance Avonside 'Perseus' which was a frustrating ordeal. Might get back on the mainline locos tonight.

Looks really good already. The channeled stream and railway together puts me in mind of the bridge by the Whistle Inn on the Pontypool and Blaenavon.

Yes I think it might struggle with the loading gauge currently! Gotcha, it's only black-tacked in for now and will need to be glued, filled, sanded etc but definitely worth bearing in mind.

That's quite a difference in height! It's funny how the high pitched boilers do give a modern look to 0-6-0 tender locos.

It's a spot-on fit as far as I can see! The chassis is not far off the P2 one as well at the front, although I need to remove some more material from the underside to get it snug around the chassis block. This is the model after a hole has been cut for the body screw mount, and the 9F cylinder mocked up in position.

Graeme's resin parts have arrived and allowed me to mock up the model and get an idea of length. There's a few different ways I could proceed with this. I guess the easiest would be to cut off the resin steam pipe, extend the original one down to running plate level, and mount the cylinders a bit lower than originally planned. I'll need to notch the back of the running plate to clear the driving wheels but this method is tempting. The other option is to cut the resin extension up, move the 'upper' section forward so the step down is just under the smokebox chin, and let in a new section. The downside of this is having the make up the remaining section, and having multiple breaks in the running plate to mask. For an easy life I'm swinging towards option 1 at the moment.

On ebay you can get all the items he mentions (aside from the cotton buds) for about £12-13 total