Peterborough North

[bigwordsmith]

@ George, but as the '26s spent all their lives at either Kings X, FInsbury Park, Haymarket, Aberdeen and Thurso, surely they would qualify as 'East Coast' locos, ad therefore generate no animosity for being inappropriate.

 

Late to the party yes, but not inappropriate!

[great northern]

Let us return to less contentious matters. New tripod having arrived, here are a few shots showing rather more of the layout than usual.

These two would I think give the view from the top of the Cenotaph coaling plant at Spital Bridge shed.

This one was taken from Crescent Bridge, and gives a view of almost all of Peter Leyland's wonderful work in one photo.

 

Having looked in  sheer amazement at the vantage points Andy Y has found on Sandside's brilliant Bacup - if you haven't seen it yet, have a look, you won't be disappointed -  I shall try to find some more and different views for you, but first I must get soaked on the golf course tomorrow.

[Welly]

Ah! Brilliant! Looking forward to seeing new vantage points with the tripod!

[great northern]

@ George, but as the '26s spent all their lives at either Kings X, FInsbury Park, Haymarket, Aberdeen and Thurso, surely they would qualify as 'East Coast' locos, ad therefore generate no animosity for being inappropriate.

 

Late to the party yes, but not inappropriate!

Yes indeed. I remember a couple of visits to Kings Cross in 1959 when there were many of them to be seen. By 1960 though it was all Brush type 2's. I always thought they were quite an attractive design, but fortunately there was no model of the original D5300-19. Now there is........and I bet they occasionally got to Peterborough. Why is temptation constantly put in my path?

[chrisf]

If it's any help, the D53xxs passed through Peterborough in pairs during April and May 1960 in the process of being transferred from Hornsey to Scotland.  More on this will appear in Mallard60022's snippets thread in due course if it ever restarts!

 

Chris

[The Great Bear]

I really like those aerial shots, they show to good effect the scale of the project, your and your contributors outstanding efforts.

[New Haven Neil]

Sorry about that Gilbert - I did say I didn't want that to happen!

[great northern]

Another Bank Holiday, so another couple of days at home, and a sudden spurt of modelling . The  arrival of Bachmann's fish vans allowed me to start work on the second fish train, this one to represent the Hull and Grimsby workings. I actually managed to find a few of Hornby's non blue spot wagons too, so already quite a fair size train is taking shape. Keith Pirt took quite a few images of the evening Up Hull fish, no doubt because it always had a nice shiny Top Shed B1 up front, and close study has revealed that there were always a few "ordinary" vans in the formation, so I am putting some of those in too. So far, basic weathering of bodies and underframes has been done.

 

In order that you can see that I have done that, here are a coupe of shots with one "out of the box" van included. I must warn you that should anyone allege that they can't spot which one it is, I may find the urge to send the boys round overwhelming.

 

Next then, a train. This would be a Down Class D empties, and as it has a K3 at the head, New Clee would almost certainly be the destination.

As a shot of the fish train, uninspiring, but it also shows one of those Southern vans on the left. I weathered this one a while ago, but didn't much like the result - too grey- so took the opportunity to start again. This is the great benefit of using Humbrol's method of adding Decalfix to the weathering mixture, all I had to do was add water to the old weathering to be able to start again. I much prefer this result.

Ah well, even though it is cloudy and wet here, there is still enough light coming in to completely remove the "subtle" weathering of those white vans.

And to make the weathering one the rear one on this shot look completely overdone.

A view taken by someone hovering above Crescent Bridge. It shows that quite a long train has already been built up. I took this partly to see if I was happy to leave all the roofs as they are. I'm not. Far too alike. For those who may be interested in such things, it also shows the intensity of light coming in, even on a dull and rainy day. That piece of card at top left, just past the far window is in fact all blue!

One more shot, and at last we have a white van which actually looks rather like the real thing.

Another of those Southern vans that I have redone, mainly included to impress on you how busy I've been. I now see that the end needs more work.

 

Last up is a Hornby Gresley, again a job I have revisited, as the last attempt was too grey based. I'm happier with this, and it does I think go some way towards disguising the deficiencies of the thing. Does it go far enough though? I'd like it to, as it would save me time and money, but for that reason I may be biased in favour, for which reasons your views would be most welcome. It needs more work on the roof, but the sides are as finished as I can get them.

[CUTLER2579]

Gilbert,

intended to be constructive, the wheels on the Gresley coach need blackening/ rusting, they stick out like a sore thumb in the photographs although I appreciate they may not be so pronounced in real life.

Regards,Derek.

[Theakerr]

I would say that your Gresleys look pretty good.  When looking from anything more that a foot away I would suggest that your weathering and the general Gresley shape will hide the lack of tumblehome.   

[jwealleans]

 

one "out of the box" van

You can't fool me - it's the nearest one. 

[The Stationmaster]

The Gresley looks very much how I remember them although possibly a little too 'black' but definitely grubby in all the right places.  The thing you perhaps need to think about is the way cleaning affected the position of the dirt as generally, especially with hand cleaning, it would tended to 'clean' the larger flat areas but not get the dirt out of crevices and corners.  Another cleaning trick, especially if labour or time were in short supply, was to do a good job on the windows as they were what the passengers noticed most of all of course (and they were relatively easy to clean).  

[Grafarman]

Just have to say I'm really liking the aerial shots; nothing quite like seeing it all laid out with the trains snaking in and out of the station...wonderful!

 

 

David

[great northern]

Gilbert,

intended to be constructive, the wheels on the Gresley coach need blackening/ rusting, they stick out like a sore thumb in the photographs although I appreciate they may not be so pronounced in real life.

Regards,Derek.

Thanks Derek, taken as intended, and you are of course absolutely correct. It is that strong light flooding in that does it, but I agree it detracts from the effect of photos, so it goes on my "to do" list. The alternative name for that though is the "don't hold your breath" list, so it may not happen at once.

[great northern]

The Gresley looks very much how I remember them although possibly a little too 'black' but definitely grubby in all the right places.  The thing you perhaps need to think about is the way cleaning affected the position of the dirt as generally, especially with hand cleaning, it would tended to 'clean' the larger flat areas but not get the dirt out of crevices and corners.  Another cleaning trick, especially if labour or time were in short supply, was to do a good job on the windows as they were what the passengers noticed most of all of course (and they were relatively easy to clean).  

Thanks Mike. Having seen a photo showing some poor devil trying to clean a Gresley brake with a common or garden brush and what looked like soapy water,  it is no wonder that the job didn't get done properly, and I suppose carriage cleaners wouldn't get into those crevices either. I have done some experiments, and discovered that in order to disguise the lack of tumblehome, and in particular the wrong position of the waist line, rather more dirt needs to be left in the flat areas than perhaps there would be in real life. Compromise yet again.

[coachmann]

A grey translucent film of muck in the corners of panels that allows the colour to show through is far more convincing I feel. 

[New Haven Neil]

NHN happy, N5 spotted behind southern CCT!

[great northern]

NHN happy, N5 spotted behind southern CCT!

I thought you might.......

[BMacdermott]

Hello NHN and Gilbert

 

I know this thread likes to 'get things right', so I hope the following will help.

 

The van ahead of the N5 is not a CCT; it is a Van BY (or Van C in Southern Railway days). It has a guard's compartment in the middle, hence the 'B' in the description. The 'Y' represents the four wheels. The 8-wheel van is a Van B (also with guard's compartment in the middle). 

 

For those interested in what are generically known as 'SR utility vans', Mike King has written a three part series of articles in The Southern Way. The first two were in Issues 25 and 26. The final part will be in Issue 26 in July.

 

All the best and thanks for the lovely fish train photos!

 

Brian

[New Haven Neil]

Hi Brian

 

Yes, I did 'know' that, I just didn't look close enough!  I have a growing collection of parcels stock and a BY & CCT or two (cough) recently arrived courtesy of Barry O, for a future layout involving (shhh) 3rd rail EMU's and a lot of parcels stock for the loco fleet to fuss with!

[Tony Wright]

Gilbert and I have just spent a most fruitful day altering a Hornby Gresley - the start of a programme of such mods and builds. Since he did a fair amount of the work himself, I'll leave him to tell the tale............................ Probably on Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[davidw]

Go for it Gilbert

[coachmann]

The trusty D155 corridor third, one of the first I built using a Hornby as a donor and which subsequently had to be rebuilt because I used the wrong sort of glue...   Good on yer Gilbert (and Tony) for getting stuck in. At least the most boring part (to me) of soldering in door & grab handles has been minimised with end-door stock. I was able to buy in lots of Buffet Cars for the conversions at a time when they were going for a song. What will be the livery?

Edited May 29, 2014 by coachmann

[great northern]

Rather belatedly I shall follow on from TW's post above as requested. My views on the inadequacy of Hornby Gresleys are well known, so for some time I have been trying to find a cost effective, for which read cheap, way of improving them. When they first appeared Tony did some conversions which looked pretty good to me, so that seemed a good way to go. I did not though fancy my chances of success if I tried it myself, so I consulted experts, who told me the process was almost as time consuming as building a full kit, but gave a result which was still compromised.

 

I mentioned all this to TW in passing. His response was to go straight off to find a suitable carriage and some etched sides and see how long it took. When I visited next day, there was a part completed carriage, and an offer to "supervise" me if I wanted to try to have a go myself. I'd be mad to turn down such an offer, wouldn't I? There and then Tony started on another conversion, using one of my Gresleys and some Comet sides I picked up at York, and we arranged that I would go over and do the rest, with help. Wednesday was the big day, and as you saw, considerable progress was made. Tony is a most considerate tutor, gently putting right my ham fisted efforts, and doing himself the more difficult bits, and those I didn't feel confident about, so the result is more his work than mine, but at least I had some input, and now know how to hold a soldering iron correctly.

 

So, what conclusions can be drawn from all of this? Well, firstly that how long it takes depends on the complexity of the sides which are to be grafted on. The Dia 155 above got to that state in about four hours I reckon, but Tony's own conversion using Kemilway sides to a similar diagram took much longer, owing to the complexity of the kit. All door stock would take much longer, and brake coaches we doubt could be done at all. We shall finish this one, and I'll have a go at one or two more in the hope that familiarity with tools and experience will make my efforts a bit better, but I shan't I'm afraid get to the stage where I can do the whole thing myself. Tony has the jig to form the tumblehome, so he did that, and my efforts with the minidrill to remove the Hornby sides were so poor as to leave rather a lot to be removed by hand, so he had to do much tidying up. A new interior proved to be necessary. which was done by cutting and shutting a Bachmann Thompson interior that Tony had in his workshop. All in all even I can see that it really isn't much quicker than building a complete kit. I have an offer to build one or more of those under supervision, so I'd be mad to turn that down too, wouldn't I? Particularly as Tony nobly offers to do the nasty bits of soldering that result in burnt fingers. Mind you, his are already damaged beyond repair anyway.

 

This one will be in maroon, though I'd like to try some crimson and cream ones in due course. I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to sit with and be guided by someone with Tony's vast experience, and to have the use of his workshop and tools. and I will persevere and try to do as much as I can myself. Watch this space for further developments.

[Tony Wright]

Rather belatedly I shall follow on from TW's post above as requested. My views on the inadequacy of Hornby Gresleys are well known, so for some time I have been trying to find a cost effective, for which read cheap, way of improving them. When they first appeared Tony did some conversions which looked pretty good to me, so that seemed a good way to go. I did not though fancy my chances of success if I tried it myself, so I consulted experts, who told me the process was almost as time consuming as building a full kit, but gave a result which was still compromised.

 

I mentioned all this to TW in passing. His response was to go straight off to find a suitable carriage and some etched sides and see how long it took. When I visited next day, there was a part completed carriage, and an offer to "supervise" me if I wanted to try to have a go myself. I'd be mad to turn down such an offer, wouldn't I? There and then Tony started on another conversion, using one of my Gresleys and some Comet sides I picked up at York, and we arranged that I would go over and do the rest, with help. Wednesday was the big day, and as you saw, considerable progress was made. Tony is a most considerate tutor, gently putting right my ham fisted efforts, and doing himself the more difficult bits, and those I didn't feel confident about, so the result is more his work than mine, but at least I had some input, and now know how to hold a soldering iron correctly.

 

So, what conclusions can be drawn from all of this? Well, firstly that how long it takes depends on the complexity of the sides which are to be grafted on. The Dia 155 above got to that state in about four hours I reckon, but Tony's own conversion using Kemilway sides to a similar diagram took much longer, owing to the complexity of the kit. All door stock would take much longer, and brake coaches we doubt could be done at all. We shall finish this one, and I'll have a go at one or two more in the hope that familiarity with tools and experience will make my efforts a bit better, but I shan't I'm afraid get to the stage where I can do the whole thing myself. Tony has the jig to form the tumblehome, so he did that, and my efforts with the minidrill to remove the Hornby sides were so poor as to leave rather a lot to be removed by hand, so he had to do much tidying up. A new interior proved to be necessary. which was done by cutting and shutting a Bachmann Thompson interior that Tony had in his workshop. All in all even I can see that it really isn't much quicker than building a complete kit. I have an offer to build one or more of those under supervision, so I'd be mad to turn that down too, wouldn't I? Particularly as Tony nobly offers to do the nasty bits of soldering that result in burnt fingers. Mind you, his are already damaged beyond repair anyway.

 

This one will be in maroon, though I'd like to try some crimson and cream ones in due course. I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to sit with and be guided by someone with Tony's vast experience, and to have the use of his workshop and tools. and I will persevere and try to do as much as I can myself. Watch this space for further developments.

Gilbert,

            I think you'll be amazed at how much you'll be able to personally achieve in the coming weeks.Though I might have done more of the work (at least to begin with), don't forget you soldered one pair of sides together, soldered in two droplights, glued one side on, fitted a new cantrail and modified the interior, so don't entirely belittle your achievements.  Anyway, if friends can't help each other, then the World would be a pretty grim place. 

 

And, you never know, if I go too fast in the rag-top................