Mikemeg's Workbench - Building locos of the North Eastern & LNER

[Emery Hill Station]

@mikemegIf you don't mind me asking, what wheels did you use on the B16/1? I'm building the older Stephen Barnfield kit, which the London Road kits one is based off, and the 29 year old instructions aren't much help as it lists a Sharman wheel that isn't exactly right and is out of stock.

[mikemeg]

1 hour ago, Emery Hill Station said:

@mikemegIf you don't mind me asking, what wheels did you use on the B16/1? I'm building the older Stephen Barnfield kit, which the London Road kits one is based off, and the 29 year old instructions aren't much help as it lists a Sharman wheel that isn't exactly right and is out of stock.

 

The B16's were fitted with 5' 8" 20 spoke driving wheels with a 13" crankpin throw. As far as I was able to ascertain, no manufacturer of 4mm model wheels makes a driving wheel of this configuration. I used an Alan Gibson 5' 8" 18 spoke wheel (LNER K3) with13" crankpin throw, which was the nearest I could find but is clearly not entirely accurate. Alan Gibson do produce a 20 spoke 5' 8" driving wheel but with a 10" crankpin throw.

 

So the final choice is a compromise between the right no of spokes but wrong throw or the wrong number of spokes but the correct throw.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Edited June 26 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

It's a couple of months since last I posted to this thread, the reason being that I have done very little modelling in those two months.

 

Some years ago someone bought me  a calendar which featured twelve of the many thousands of railway posters in the NRM collection. One of the pictures really caught my attention and I enquired where could I obtain a much larger copy of this picture. Anyway, the size I wanted (A2) seemed not to be available so I resolved to paint the picture again on a piece of A2 paper. I almost completed this picture but was then diverted by doing the test builds of etched kits and the part completed picture was consigned to a cupboard.

 

A couple of months ago I came across the picture and resolved to complete it, which I have now almost done. Normally, this wouldn't qualify for inclusion on a railway related website but it is a copy of a railway poster and so might just qualify.

 

So the highest of high summer's days in Penzance, in the early 1950's; with everyone out in their Sunday best. A snapshot of a world now much changed! And this is painted from scratch!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

Edited August 27 by mikemeg

[John Tomlinson]

1 hour ago, mikemeg said:

It's a couple of months since last I posted to this thread, the reason being that I have done very little modelling in those two months.

 

Some years ago someone bought me  a calendar which featured twelve of the many thousands of railway posters in the NRM collection. One of the pictures really caught my attention and I enquired where could I obtain a much larger copy of this picture. Anyway, the size I wanted (A2) seemed not to be available so I resolved to paint the picture again on a piece of A2 paper. I almost completed this picture but was then diverted by doing the test builds of etched kits and the part completed picture was consigned to a cupboard.

 

A couple of months ago I came across the picture and resolved to complete it, which I have now almost done. Normally, this wouldn't qualify for inclusion on a Railway related website but it is a copy of a railway poster and so might just qualify.

 

So the highest of high summer's days in Penzance, in the early 1950's; with everyone out in their Sunday best. And this is painted from scratch!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

 

 

In fact this scene is in most aspects true today. There's some compression in the picture, in respect of St.Michael's Mount with the castle. There are still palm trees in various places. The bathing pool is still there, and the boat is the Scillonian, which still goes to and from the Isles of Scilly (might be a newer version now). The beach is a bit of a myth, as it's stones not sand, but understandable as the original artist was trying to sell the place for holidays! The style and quality of dress, as you note, is sadly long passed.

 

You should be pleased with your painting. The whole area, not surprisingly, was used for various GW and BR(WR) posters.

 

John.

Edited August 23 by John Tomlinson

[Suffolk Dave]

Goodness me! Is there no end to your talents? 🤩

[mikemeg]

On 26/08/2024 at 11:08, Suffolk Dave said:

Goodness me! Is there no end to your talents? 🤩

 

Thank you.

 

I feel I must pursue these activities as much as possible while I can, for perhaps all too soon, age will overtake the steadiness of hand and the eye for detail and precision and doing these things will then become more difficult and, eventually, only a memory!

 

Regards

 

Mike

 

 

[mikemeg]

Also, during this two month 'rest' from building the models, I did get around to producing another 4mm drawing of one of the signal bridges which once stood in Scarborough. This one, which stood at Londesborough Road station in Scarborough, was unusual in that the main lattice girder was curved.

 

They were just functional pieces of equipment, these signal bridges, yet they were incredibly elegant things and, like much that the Victorians and Edwardians produced, had an aesthetic balance which we seem now to have abandoned and lost!

 

Oh and this drawing, like the painting in a posting above, were produced on my workbench hence their inclusion on this thread. Now I can put back all the modelling kit which I had to move to make the space for other activities. 

 

So back to the modelling!!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Edited August 27 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

On 23/08/2024 at 12:16, John Tomlinson said:

 

In fact this scene is in most aspects true today. There's some compression in the picture, in respect of St.Michael's Mount with the castle. There are still palm trees in various places. The bathing pool is still there, and the boat is the Scillonian, which still goes to and from the Isles of Scilly (might be a newer version now). The beach is a bit of a myth, as it's stones not sand, but understandable as the original artist was trying to sell the place for holidays! The style and quality of dress, as you note, is sadly long passed.

 

You should be pleased with your painting. The whole area, not surprisingly, was used for various GW and BR(WR) posters.

 

John.

 

Thanks John,

 

I have to say that the original of this, which was one of the twelve pictures contained in the calendar, did persuade me to visit Penzance a few years ago when on holiday in another part of Cornwall. And the day, the light and the place were just simply memorable. So, very belatedly, that early BR (WR) advert 'caught' another traveller!

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Edited August 27 by mikemeg

[mikemeg]

Having returned to the models, starting with fully completing the 'batch' of LNER  guards vans, then now as a background job, I'll complete another painting. Again, this one has a railway connection in that it restarted the ferry crossing between Southampton and St Malo, for the Southern Railway, in 1947.

 

So a picture of a time when ships were beautiful, as the TS Falaise 'bats across the channel on a mad March day'.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

 

Edited Thursday at 15:04 by mikemeg

[Chas Levin]

A man of many talents, Mike!