Wright writes.....

[sjp23480]

1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

 

Well, here are some 'photos of photos' of some of the loco kits that I built for The Model Shop in Guildford, over a period of about 10 years from 1979 to the late 1980s.

 

My apologies for the poor quality of the images, I am no expert in photography and was even less so 45 years or so ago...

 

After buying the two panniers and the 'Dukedog' from me, in early 1979 Mike Day asked me to build a couple of Wills kits, namely a GW Castle and a Southern '02' 0-4-4T. All liveries are as requested by him at the time. I do remember that these were the first ones I did for him, the order of all the others is not necessarily the same as the order in which I shall post their respective photos:

 

 

This was a Sutherland kit, I think, of a Highland 'Small Ben', but Mike wanted me to paint it as a Southern (ex-LSWR) 4-4-0. I am sure there are differences between the classes, but both are Drummond locos, I believe. This was built around 1980:

 

This Wills 'H' class, built in 1981 was always a favourite of mine:

 

I believe this 4-4-0 was also a Wills kit:

 

This 0-6-2T was a Steyning kit:

 

In 1981, I was asked to respray a Lima Class 117 DMU into West Somerset Railway colours for a fellow volunteer on that heritage railway, here it is, posing on the roof of a friend's car(!):

 

Also in 1981, I had my first introduction to the excellent Kemilway whitemetal kit for the BR Standard 2-6-2T. I would eventually build one or two more of these for the shop and (a few years later), one for myself as well, but this was the first, posing on the windowsill of my university student accommodation:

 

In 1984, I built this Cotswold 47XX 2-8-0 for the Guildford shop. By then I was living near Taunton and was able to use my free B.R. staff travel to deliver the finished item!

 

Also around 1983 or 1984, I built a number of these whitemetal Lynton & Barnstaple 2-6-2T kits (was that also a Steyning kit??), which fitted on a brass chassis, designed and built by my old schoolfriend Brian Clarke, who ran Saltford Models at the time. This loco was for a customer of his and I also remember batch building another six of these bodies, while he built his own kits for the chassis, all for customers of his. I was staying with him at the time, working and sleeping in his parent's old caravan in his garden!! Simon @Not Jeremy Castens will well remember this period of time...

 

By the early 1980s, Mike Day got me building DJH kits and I have to say that, in the main, these were generally superior kits to put together. I particularly liked the way they came to mix etched brass components with the whitemetal ones, where the former were a better choice for the part of the loco concerned.

 

Around this time, Mike Day had reached an agreement with Brian Badger for him to do most of the painting of kit-built models, so I generally handed them over to Mike in primer only, although I often painted the wheels and chassis, if I thought this would make things easier. This was a DJH Caprotti Standard 5:

 

BR Standard 4 2-6-4T (I liked this as well and a few years later came to build my own version):

 

Around this time (I was living in Lancashire at the time), I built a K's Black 5 for a friend:

 

Back to the DJH kits, still around the mid-1980s, a Standard 3 2-6-0:

 

A BR Standard 3 2-6-2T. I really liked this kit, (although I still think that the representation of Walschearts valve gear is superior on the Kemilway kit):

 

A Southern 'N' class mogul (posing in front of my bread bin!):

 

An LMS 'Crab' 2-6-0 (if the colour scheme was fairly simple and didn't involve lining, Mike Day was happy for me to supply the loco fully painted):

 

I also built these two L&YR kits, although I can't recall the make of the kits concerned:

 

 

That's all the photos that I have (or certainly all the ones I can find at the moment). There were more locos, but perhaps I didn't take photos at the time of making them. I certainly didn't document the builds like some of us do now with digital photography being so easy.

 

None of the above loco kits were available as RTR back in those days, although many of them now are and of a standard much superior to anything I could achieve. But there was a lot of fun involved in the building of a kit and there still is. I certainly derive far more satisfaction running something that I've built (or at least had a hand in finishing, such as weathering) as compared with something purely RTR, no matter how lovely and authentic the RTR product may be.

 

The building of kits for the model shop eventually finished at around the same time that I got married. There then followed a break in modelling activities but when they resumed, it was to build an exhibition layout in a short space of time. With 6 months notice, I agreed to build a layout to be exhibited alongside @Not Jeremy and his embryonic 'Titfield Thunderbolt' bookshop stand at the Bath model railway show. The layout got finished ('Engine Wood'), but I realised that I had hardly any locos or stock to run on it, due to having spent most of the 1980s building kits for the Guildford shop!

 

 

These remind me of the pictures that were in the W&H catalogues of old! 

[St Enodoc]

45 minutes ago, RodneyS said:

There is a town not far from me called Steyning so it's a natural mistake most people make.

Pronounced the same way, of course. Not far from where I lived at one time, in Portslade.

[Tony Wright]

2 hours ago, Obadiah said:

Tony, thank you for the pictures you took yesterday. Here is some background to the models. I though that a theme of the older model might be the subject of the day!.

The Bullied Tavern Car set was made 20 odd years ago, using the basic body carcass, chassis and bogies from the Bachmann's first iteration of Bullied stock, with Comet sides, Keen corridors, and detailing from Comet and the parts bin, and the intermediate buffers removed. The ride height is raised as is the roof line so that they match Mk1's and other Maunsell stock. The brickwork is Superquick, stuck on and varnished with satin varnish with a drop of thinned Carmine to tone down the brickwork a little, and no, I NEVER contemplated painting the brickwork on by hand! 

The Siphon F is an ancient K's kit, that I first built when they came out in the early 1970's, it even had Hornby Dublo couplings fitted at the time. It had lain in the bottom of the junk box for many years, but when Cambridge Custom bought out the transfers a few years ago I though "why not" and duly resurrected it, and gave it a complete overhaul.

The Thompson Q1 is one of the 'crash victims' bought from Tony a couple of years ago. It had been built in 1983 according to the hieroglyphs inside the cab, with pre-war LNER shaded lettering and an odd number that did not correspond to any number carried by Q1's. As I wanted an engine that still carried the LNER lozenge, and with the assortment of details carried by the kit, 69927 was the only possibility, so shunters steps and handrails, plus the correct cab handrails were added, plus the odd white edged BR numberplate so beloved of ScR sheds.

The A2  was built in the late 1980's after the kit was re-issued with the etched chassis. The Romford wheel flanges had to be turned down so the they did no overlap! The gearbox is a Branchlines Multibox with a Mashima motor. The tender drawbar is connected to the rear of the main frame by the rear axle, rather than via the rear truck, makes for better running and the cab waggles nicely passing through points and crossings. The BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender needs replacing as Fox hadn't done the correct style of transfer at the time, though they had just done the numbers. The livery makes for a challenge, but a worthwhile one I think you;ll admit. I have since completed a DJH 0 gauge version in the same livery as 60539 Bronzino, not that much easier in 0 gauge either.

Thanks for the info, Ian,

 

And, thanks for bringing such interesting models.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Barry Ten]

Apologies if the following is old-hat, but I thought it might possibly be of interest. One of the things that had slightly niggled me about the Bird class model, illustrated earlier, is that it ran faster in reverse than forward. In fact, forward running was, I'd say,  a bit on the slow side for the desired traffic.

 

I resolved to fix this. My first thought was that the torque might be causing the motor/gearbox to tilt in a way that was causing some friction between the body/chassis and one or other of the motor spindles. I thought it would be a simple job to restrain the motor and that would fix the problem. But not so - as test-running without the body showed, the motor tilting wasn't the root of the issue! 

 

After further examination, I realised that, when running forward, the motor spindle and armature of the open-frame motor was shifting back under load, just enough to bring the worm into contact with the front face of the motor. This was obviously causing enough friction to slow the motor down somewhat relative to reverse running. The solution, incredibly simple in hindsight (but aren't they always?) was just to slacken the grub screw on the worm, shift the worm forward a mm or two, and then there was no further difference between forward and reverse running. And, as hoped, forward running now had a much better top speed. As I say, possibly old-hat, but a new one on me.

[Obadiah]

As I mentioned earlier I built a big brother to 60528 in 0 gauge, and by way of general interest I enclose a snap of her.

[Keith Turbutt]

Continuing the Obscure Kits theme has anyone mentioned impetus Kits yet.

They did a Y10 double ended Sentinel in both 4 and 7mm and a number of industrials I believe.

Robin Arkinsal (not sure of spelling) started the range but it became part of Karlgarin models.

[Captain Kernow]

I don't think Roxey has been mentioned yet on here, in terms of 'obscure kits' either.

 

This is their little Planet diesel (whitemetal kit) that I built for my outrageously improbable light railway a few years ago:

 

 

Edited July 17 by Captain Kernow
Better photo.

[Mike 84C]

How about Centre Models? they did some narrow gauge models and very nice industrials. I built a Kerr Stuart Victory, could it be 40 yrs ago!! Sold it on, I wonder where it  is now?  Was a nice shade of maroon.

[Tony Wright]

More progress on the new SEF A4 today..........

 

 

Basic DJH tender frames put together. 

 

This tender is from an A3 and the sub-frame assembly is far superior to the previous A1 and A2 tender frames (where at least one more hand is needed for success).

 

And, so to further test-running...........

 

 

 

Passing with flying colours!

 

I've done more on the loco body, too; not least changing the front buffers. Though A1 sold the turned brass ones as 'A4 buffers', the heads were too big - by a scale four inches! So, un-solder them, clean up the blobs supplied and re-fit. 

 

 

[Northmoor]

10 hours ago, Captain Kernow said:

Also around 1983 or 1984, I built a number of these whitemetal Lynton & Barnstaple 2-6-2T kits (was that also a Steyning kit??), which fitted on a brass chassis, designed and built by my old schoolfriend Brian Clarke, who ran Saltford Models at the time. 

I've always wondered what happened to Saltford Models; they used to make a nice little kit of a Motor Rail Simplex diesel in 009.  Despite being tiny could be motorised, but I fancied a static one at the time.

[sjp23480]

On obscure lines, what about Britannia Pacific models to the list. They are still trading https://www.britanniapacific.co.uk/index.htm

They specialise in EMU and DMU variants. I have one of their snowploughs which are no longer available. 

 

Redcraft was mentioned a few weeks back, I had never heard of them but this Barry Railway H class is on ebay right now: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145892125229?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=I6pwM29NSyC&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=saSnTyIOQLy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Steve

 

Edited July 17 by sjp23480

[Tony Wright]

10 hours ago, sjp23480 said:

On obscure lines, what about Britannia Pacific models to the list. They are still trading https://www.britanniapacific.co.uk/index.htm

They specialise in EMU and DMU variants. I have one of their snowploughs which are no longer available. 

 

Redcraft was mentioned a few weeks back, I had never heard of them but this Barry Railway H class is on ebay right now: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145892125229?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=I6pwM29NSyC&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=saSnTyIOQLy&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Steve

 

Good morning Steve,

 

Thanks for pointing out the Redcraft loco.

 

Interestingly, and different from the B&M 0-6-0ST I made, the frames appear to have actual holes to take the bearings, rather than just dimples.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Barclay]

Impetus - much missed and quite revolutionary at the time. I built two Bagnalls from these kits and, very recently, a Ruston 48DS. I also have a Centre Models Kerr, Stuart Victory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

I built an Agenoria 'Victory' recently............

 

 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

Out of possible interest, with Redcraft having been mentioned again - my complete build sequence of the Brecon & Merthyr 0-6-0ST.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Kinsey painted it himself.

 

It'll be running on his Merthyr Riverside at Expo EM North next month in Shipley. 

 

 

For some reason one picture has appeared twice (one out of sequence) and another was n't included to start with.

 

I hope it makes sense, however...........

Edited July 18 by Tony Wright
muddled picture selection

[Tony Wright]

Another sequence of possible interest...............

 

How I built a D&S Dia 86 LNER General Purpose Van...............

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In company with the same model, built by John Houlden.

 

 

And, after Geoff Haynes had painted it. Which means, because of my lack of checking, I have two vans with the same number!

 

I also built an Isinglass equivalent at the same time. And........

 

 

A D&S Pigeon Van.

 

 

Edited July 18 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Tony Wright]

The Isinglass Dia. 86 build sequence..............

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of these sequences have formed the basis for articles. 

 

Do others take pictures of their builds at strategic stages? If not, it's well worth it.

[Barclay]

32 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Out of possible interest, with Redcraft having been mentioned again - my complete build sequence of the Brecon & Merthyr 0-6-0ST.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Kinsey painted it himself.

 

It'll be running on his Merthyr Riverside at Expo EM North next month in Shipley. 

 

 

For some reason one picture has appeared twice (one out of sequence) and another was n't included to start with.

 

I hope it makes sense, however...........

Tidy !

Are they the new kind of Markits cranks? Are they self-quartering or do you have to secure them at the right place on the thread?

 

Thank you

[Obadiah]

On the subject of obscure models and kits, at a Train Collectors Society meet a few years ago, a group had a display of ancient kits from the late 40's early 50's, items included Ratio's first 00 plastic kit, of a GW Toad, in some kind of acetate plastic, that defied most glues from actually sticking it together, then there were parts from the Kirdon Models LMS10000 which defied ALL know glues, and a Stuart Reidpath models LMS 4F, which was  apparently offered in either ready built, or part built forms, and it was sooo unbelievably heavy, one could only conclude that it was made from depleted uranium.

Meanwhile if most LNER locos are challenging to line out fully, well the GER was no better, witness my 0 gauge Connoisseur Models J69 ) all dolled up as the Liverpool St west side pilot, 68619. 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, Barclay said:

Tidy !

Are they the new kind of Markits cranks? Are they self-quartering or do you have to secure them at the right place on the thread?

 

Thank you

Good afternoon,

 

Yes, they are the latest Markits cranks.

 

I soldered them to the extended axles' threads - it will hold, even to steel. It also means the angles are infinitely adjustable - just reintroduce the iron....

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[St Enodoc]

28 minutes ago, Obadiah said:

On the subject of obscure models and kits, at a Train Collectors Society meet a few years ago, a group had a display of ancient kits from the late 40's early 50's, items included Ratio's first 00 plastic kit, of a GW Toad, in some kind of acetate plastic, that defied most glues from actually sticking it together, then there were parts from the Kirdon Models LMS10000 which defied ALL know glues, and a Stuart Reidpath models LMS 4F, which was  apparently offered in either ready built, or part built forms, and it was sooo unbelievably heavy, one could only conclude that it was made from depleted uranium.

Meanwhile if most LNER locos are challenging to line out fully, well the GER was no better, witness my 0 gauge Connoisseur Models J69 ) all dolled up as the Liverpool St west side pilot, 68619. 

I was always led to believe that Durofix, Pafra and Seccotine would stick anything!

[1471SirFrederickBanbury]

2 hours ago, Obadiah said:

On the subject of obscure models and kits, at a Train Collectors Society meet a few years ago, a group had a display of ancient kits from the late 40's early 50's, items included Ratio's first 00 plastic kit, of a GW Toad, in some kind of acetate plastic, that defied most glues from actually sticking it together, then there were parts from the Kirdon Models LMS10000 which defied ALL know glues, and a Stuart Reidpath models LMS 4F, which was  apparently offered in either ready built, or part built forms, and it was sooo unbelievably heavy, one could only conclude that it was made from depleted uranium.

Meanwhile if most LNER locos are challenging to line out fully, well the GER was no better, witness my 0 gauge Connoisseur Models J69 ) all dolled up as the Liverpool St west side pilot, 68619. 

Wow!  Look at that gloss finish! I could stare at that thing for hours!  In fact, I barely was able to stop staring after only 21 minutes.  any footage of the loco running?

[Obadiah]

1 hour ago, 1471SirFrederickBanbury said:

Wow!  Look at that gloss finish! I could stare at that thing for hours!  In fact, I barely was able to stop staring after only 21 minutes.  any footage of the loco running?

Thank you. Sadly no footage of her running, at the present she is merely a 'showcase queen' a small 0 gauge layout is under construction, but other projects keep getting in the way, and I don't 'do' complex mobile phones, a phone is just that, a phone!

However she is now adorned with a GER crest under the number as per prototype!

[1471SirFrederickBanbury]

9 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Out of possible interest, with Redcraft having been mentioned again - my complete build sequence of the Brecon & Merthyr 0-6-0ST.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Kinsey painted it himself.

 

It'll be running on his Merthyr Riverside at Expo EM North next month in Shipley. 

 

 

For some reason one picture has appeared twice (one out of sequence) and another was n't included to start with.

 

I hope it makes sense, however...........

May I suggest the use of broken tungsten anodes (broken using a hammer of course), with the gaps filled with tungsten powder?  Tungsten is almost twice as dense as Lead and Liquid Gravity isn't the most space efficient form of lead anyways.  I think the difference would be significant, and bot forms of Tungsten aren't that expensive when bought off of Ebay.

[jamieb]

On 17/07/2024 at 12:35, St Enodoc said:

Pronounced the same way, of course. Not far from where I lived at one time, in Portslade.

I've lived in both Steyning and Portslade in my time.One is considerably more picturesque than the other!