Wright writes.....

[APOLLO]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

This is April '67, when SIR NIGEL GRESELEY first ran in preservation, leaving Crewe, and breaking records climbing Shap! 

 

Dad's photo of Sir Nigel on an early morning southbound running in turn at Wigan North Western 1967 (ish).

A local stopper, Preston to Crewe if I remember rightly.

 

 

And "that" famous loco on a special at Wigan NW northbound. Not quite sure if Dad took this photo.

 

 

We did not get many "sixers" at Wigan.

 

Brit15

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, robertcwp said:

I take the same view with my units. No tail lamps or drivers as they go back and forth and can be seen stabled in sidings, where drivers and passengers would look very odd.

My diesels (and gas-turbines) all have a crew in one end, which is always the "forward" end on DCC.

 

None of my stock has passengers, which is both inauthentic and unrealistic for Cornwall on a summer Saturday...

Edited August 30 by St Enodoc

[Izzy]

I have a Heljan W&M railbus which I carried out mods on including adding a few passengers. This has now left me stuck when using it because I can’t park it in a siding etc. between duties since this would look totally wrong. Sometimes there are no easy answers are there?

 

Bob

[Tony Wright]

11 hours ago, richard i said:

Quiz question

As your k class is about to get chimney and dome, so the Atlantic I brought earlier in the month has reached that stage. 
I am having a doubting moment. Do you fit them with evostik or two part epoxy? 
many thanks

richard 

Good morning Richard,

 

It depends on the metal the chimney is made from, and the material to which it's to be fixed. If it's brass-to-brass/nickel silver then it's solder - low melt after both components have been pre-tinned. White metal-to-brass/nickel silver, then it's also solder (also low melt, after first tinning the hard metal). If it's white metal-to-white metal, and the chimney has a spigot fitting into a hole, then it's solder from the inside. If, as in the case of the all-white metal K, the chimney is completely hollow, I make sure it's on straight (secured by a tiny blob of Black Tack on the outside), then dribble runny superglue on the end of a piece of thin wire around the inside.  Or, just use quick-setting epoxy, removing any excess oozing out when it goes 'rubbery', before it sets hard. I never use Evo-Stik to fix boiler fittings, only using it in impact mode to fix brass coach sides to plastic donors.

 

Evo-Stik used to be a brilliant glue; but that was when it caused injury to those daft enough to put some into a plastic bag and sniff it. Now, it's almost 'safe' to do so, but it's not so good as a glue.

 

As a rule of thumb, always use solder if a chimney (particularly double ones) is 'blind' and needs to be drilled through (DJH provides such 'blocked' chimneys). Glues, however strong, usually fail during this procedure.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Dunsignalling]

15 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good evening John,

 

I think the 'problem' here is that some folk will not tolerate any kind of weathering/distressing on their models, particularly locos/stock. They prefer to live in a miniature 'perfect world' (which they can do, if they wish) where nothing is besmirched, but it's wholly unrealistic in my view. 

 

Another reason might be a perception that weathering things immediately devalues them in the event of their having to be resold. 

 

As is well known, all my loco stud is weathered (lightly if it's been professionally-painted; more so if it's my painting), as is all my rolling stock - particularly freight stock.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.

Agreed, Tony.

 

I think the P7 Dewsbury Midland extended the distinction between "Model of a Railway" and "Model Railway" to include "Working presentation of exquisite railway models".

 

Individually authentic (everything was new once), but unrealistically idealised collectively (it wasn't all new at the same time), might be the fairest summary.

 

By contrast, the OO exhibition layout of the same name could be described as "collectively realistic" despite being an assemblage of features drawn from multiple real locations. The skill exercised in choosing and combining them is what sets such layouts apart from the herd, as much as the quality of execution. 

 

Regards

 

John 

Edited August 31 by Dunsignalling

[Tony Wright]

 

Both the double chimneys on these DJH Pacifics were soldered in place with low melt (from the inside), then hand-drilled in stages, finally cleared with broaches. Glue (even epoxy) fails under such pressure - I know!

 

The domes, being subject to no such treatment, were fixed with Araldite Rapid.

Edited August 31 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Atso]

Regarding weathering, I submit my own humble effort which was an early lockdown project.

 

The model started life as a Dapol Garter Blue A4 in the guise of Sea Eagle which I then repainted. At the time, I was unaware of the straight handrails at the firebox end of Silver Link, that the front access hatches weren't there and deemed modifying the tender to have the bow end as beyond me (not creating the bow shape, rather being able to reinstate the lost details from doing so). Therefore, my version of Silver Link is far from an accurate model but I did attempt to weather it to look like it was at the end of a hard slog from Newcastle (it really should have much less coal in the tender but that's got the motor in it!).

 

 

 

For all its faults, I'm quite pleased with it and the lack of lining made the repaint very quick with an airbrush and acrylic paints. The paints were mixed to roughly the right shades and the main painting was done in about a day and a half from memory. I really should finish building the coaches to go with them. Those are from Worsley Works and are assembled but needing all the bits not supplied with the etches making and attaching.

Edited August 31 by Atso

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

17 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

I found the magenta cast in K64 seemed to vary with processing, sometimes it seemed more noticeable than others.

For this reason, specifically arising from the 'somewhat complex' processing required for all Kodachromes, I felt that when photographing in locations that were difficult or expensive to reach it was best to expose at least two rolls at the same time, and then send them to different process labs. Over the 30 years I used it, only one roll was ever unacceptable for colour balance, and there was an apology for the fault, (breakdown of the process plant) and a replacement ten pack of K25;  0.1% failure, not too shabby for a very demanding  non-safety critical process.

 

The resulting slides remain a continuing delight - very few of railways before anyone asks - mostly of the ancient and natural world.

 

Another factor that I had not suspected, based on my own experience solely using Canon, was the colour balance of the optics. When I obtained employment in a business also concerned with accurate colour reproduction, and thus having the test gear available, with other enthusiasts in the photographic club we were able to put quite an array of optics to the test. Some were far from 'neutral' shall we say, and not consistent within the brand's range; very disappointed owners in consequence...

[John Tomlinson]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

For this reason, specifically arising from the 'somewhat complex' processing required for all Kodachromes, I felt that when photographing in locations that were difficult or expensive to reach it was best to expose at least two rolls at the same time, and then send them to different process labs. Over the 30 years I used it, only one roll was ever unacceptable for colour balance, and there was an apology for the fault, (breakdown of the process plant) and a replacement ten pack of K25;  0.1% failure, not too shabby for a very demanding  non-safety critical process.

 

The resulting slides remain a continuing delight - very few of railways before anyone asks - mostly of the ancient and natural world.

 

Another factor that I had not suspected, based on my own experience solely using Canon, was the colour balance of the optics. When I obtained employment in a business also concerned with accurate colour reproduction, and thus having the test gear available, with other enthusiasts in the photographic club we were able to put quite an array of optics to the test. Some were far from 'neutral' shall we say, and not consistent within the brand's range; very disappointed owners in consequence...

 

Thanks for that, the last para is especially interesting with you having access to the kit to do the testing.

 

Coincidentally, I reached the same conclusion as you for slide film. Use two cameras, and keep mixing them on an overseas trip especially, so at least if one film is damaged you will still have something to show for the experience. Finding two labs was a bit beyond me, I found the processing at Kodak in the UK became so hit and miss that I started to use Stuttgart instead. This wasn't too difficult as a number of my trips were in central Europe, although I did make the odd day trip to Aachen from the UK to post larger batches of film on occasion!

 

John.

[Mark Laidlay]

On 30/08/2024 at 00:18, Compound2632 said:

 

How long before this olfactory dimension enters our hobby?

There were smells available some years back in the US.  Cattle yard smells would not be too bad but slaughterhouse smell would not sell well.  They don't seem to be available now.

Mark in Melbourne

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

On 29/08/2024 at 15:18, Compound2632 said:

How long before this olfactory dimension enters our hobby?

Long established. I have a lump of coal in the window, and chip it a bit when the robust emanation drops off a little. Once the chips are unscented, off to the barby.

 

 

3 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

I found the processing at Kodak in the UK became so hit and miss that I started to use Stuttgart instead.

My approach was to post half mine via a cousin in Berne, and likewise post half his in the UK.

[richard i]

Thanks for the chimney and dome advice Tony. It was the araldite I was miss remembering. 
many thanks

richard 

[Tony Wright]

17 minutes ago, richard i said:

Thanks for the chimney and dome advice Tony. It was the araldite I was miss remembering. 
many thanks

richard 

Glad to help Richard...............

 

Latest on the Nu-Cast K..................

 

 

Safety valves soldered on from the inside, dome soldered on from the inside, chimney held on with superglue and the smokebox door fixed with Araldite Rapid. Everything else soldered.

 

As mentioned, the tender was mostly already-built.

 

Just the chassis to finish...........

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[bbishop]

Tony, the K clas was outside the loading gauge of the SECR and the SECR, so after grouping they were fitted with Ashford style cabs and cut down chimney and dome.  The alterations took a number of years and my reading of Bradley is that the changes always happened at the same works visit.  Your loco has the revised cab but my impression is that the chimney and dome are unmodified.  However I am not an LBSC expert and I could have got this very wrong.

[Iain.d]

I do find the discussions on the realism of our modelling quite interesting, if a bit repetitive! Each to their own, if it makes you happy.

 

Earlier in the year I completed a couple of mcgeordies GW Siphon Kits: an O.11

 

 

and an O.62

 

 

This caused me to dig out the three old RTR Siphons that I have had for a fair number of years, always having the intention to improve their look.

 

 

I began by carefully carving off the unwanted mouldings on the bodies, mainly handrails, handles and lamp irons. I removed the buffers on the two Siphon Gs, but have left the moulded ones on the Siphon H; these were oval and I don’t have any GW oval buffers but I do have a set of round ones and if I can file them to a reasonable oval shape, I’ll change them over.

 

 

I discarded the incorrect bogies and also cut away a reasonable amount of the underframes. I left one truss rod on the Siphon H to use as a temporary gauge/template for the rebuilt underframes which I did in plastic card and Evergreen angle.

 

 

I would like to have made them in brass angle, but I didn’t have any of the correct size in stock. I bought most of the underframe bits from Wizard Models but I forgot to add battery boxes to the order, so fabricated some from plastic card. Brake handles and the like will come from previous project leftovers.

 

 

The bogies are old whitemetal ones, again bought long ago with this project in mind. The 7ft American type are PC Kits and the 9ft pressed steel are BSL. I added steps, from the Frogmore Confederacy range, and basic brake parts from leftover Comet Model brake shoes and yokes from Mainly Trains etches. I’m not sure where the third set of bogies have got to…

 

 

The Siphons were an eclectic mix over their lives. I’m not sure when these are done if they’ll be realistic, representative, similar to, have a vague likeness to or be crude forgeries! I don’t mind and I don’t mind what others might think.

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

Edited September 1 by Iain.d
Typo

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Iain.d said:

I don’t have any GW oval buffers

Iain, I'll see what I can find once our room renos are complete and all my kits and bits are back their proper place.

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, bbishop said:

Tony, the K clas was outside the loading gauge of the SECR and the SECR, so after grouping they were fitted with Ashford style cabs and cut down chimney and dome.  The alterations took a number of years and my reading of Bradley is that the changes always happened at the same works visit.  Your loco has the revised cab but my impression is that the chimney and dome are unmodified.  However I am not an LBSC expert and I could have got this very wrong.

Good morning Bill,

 

A glance at Profile of the Southern Moguls, by Les Elsey, OPC, 1986, reveals several Ks in BR days with tall boiler fittings. I had to check several times! The kit does supply lower fittings, but they're far too squat, not matching any pictures I've access to. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony

[Iain.d]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Iain, I'll see what I can find once our room renos are complete and all my kits and bits are back their proper place.

Thanks John, most kind, that would be great.

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

Edited September 1 by Iain.d

[Ian Rathbone]

Sir Vincent Raven is Tony’s latest A1 -

 

 

Ian R

[bbishop]

7 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Bill,

 

A glance at Profile of the Southern Moguls, by Les Elsey, OPC, 1986, reveals several Ks in BR days with tall boiler fittings. I had to check several times! The kit does supply lower fittings, but they're far too squat, not matching any pictures I've access to. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony

Tony, back from two church services with one to come, and a uniform to clean on the off chance I'm required at Lord's tomorrow.

 

Wikipedia states that all Ks had reduced boiler fittings.  We know, of course, to take such a statement with a pinch of salt. 

 

I have undertaken an on-line search and my impression is that all Ks had reduced fittings.  There were at least two domes and maybe two chimneys as well.  The SR took 4" off the chimney.  There is a rim under the lip of a Brighton chimney and I wondering if they were in two parts so could be disassembled, 4" removed and re-assembled.  Some chimneys don't have a lip so may be later replacements.  Bradley states that the domes were reduced by 7.5" and I assume these were a "saucepan" shape with a flat top.  Ugly!  Some photos show this dome but most photos show a lower and slimmer version of the original dome, so in proportion to the original.  My eyes are telling me there is a third version, same diameter as the original but lower; but my eyes may be attempting to deceive me.  There might be correlation between dome shape and type of superheater, but Bradley doesn't make this association and I'm not a Brighton expert.  Bill

[Tony Wright]

6 hours ago, Ian Rathbone said:

Sir Vincent Raven is Tony’s latest A1 -

 

 

Ian R

Thanks Ian,

 

The painting is superb.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Keith Turbutt]

6 hours ago, bbishop said:

I'm not a Brighton expert.  Bill

Talking of Brighton locomotives, I went to the Bluebell yesterday to see and ride behind the new build Brighton Atlantic, Beachy Head .They've made a wonderful job of it and was made possible after the discovery of a GN Atlantic boiler, virtually identical  to the LBSC Atlantic boiler which had been in use as a stationary boiler at a wood yard a few miles from where I live.No exposure problems with my phone camera!

[PupCam]

7 minutes ago, Keith Turbutt said:

Talking of Brighton locomotives, I went to the Bluebell yesterday to see and ride behind the new build Brighton Atlantic, Beachy Head .They've made a wonderful job of it and was made possible after the discovery of a GN Atlantic boiler, virtually identical  to the LBSC Atlantic boiler which had been in use as a stationary boiler at a wood yard a few miles from where I live.

 

Now that's a fascinating fact!

 

7 minutes ago, Keith Turbutt said:

No exposure problems with my phone camera!

 

Depressing isn't it.     The ability of phone cameras these days is astonishing.   Very nice photographs of an excellent new locomotive.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1 by PupCam

[Keith Turbutt]

3 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Depressing isn't it.     The ability of phone cameras these days is astonishing.

 

 

And these were stills taken from videos using the phone camera which is how I managed to position the loco approaching Horsted Keynes.

[coronach]

17 hours ago, Iain.d said:

I do find the discussions on the realism of our modelling quite interesting, if a bit repetitive! Each to their own, if it makes you happy.

 

Earlier in the year I completed a couple of mcgeordies GW Siphon Kits: an O.11

 

 

and an O.62

 

 

This caused me to dig out the three old RTR Siphons that I have had for a fair number of years, always having the intention to improve their look.

 

 

I began by carefully carving off the unwanted mouldings on the bodies, mainly handrails, handles and lamp irons. I removed the buffers on the two Siphon Gs, but have left the moulded ones on the Siphon H; these were oval and I don’t have any GW oval buffers but I do have a set of round ones and if I can file them to a reasonable oval shape, I’ll change them over.

 

 

I discarded the incorrect bogies and also cut away a reasonable amount of the underframes. I left one truss rod on the Siphon H to use as a temporary gauge/template for the rebuilt underframes which I did in plastic card and Evergreen angle.

 

 

I would like to have made them in brass angle, but I didn’t have any of the correct size in stock. I bought most of the underframe bits from Wizard Models but I forgot to add battery boxes to the order, so fabricated some from plastic card. Brake handles and the like will come from previous project leftovers.

 

 

The bogies are old whitemetal ones, again bought long ago with this project in mind. The 7ft American type are PC Kits and the 9ft pressed steel are BSL. I added steps, from the Frogmore Confederacy range, and basic brake parts from leftover Comet Model brake shoes and yokes from Mainly Trains etches. I’m not sure where the third set of bogies have got to…

 

 

The Siphons were an eclectic mix over their lives. I’m not sure when these are done if they’ll be realistic, representative, similar to, have a vague likeness to or be crude forgeries! I don’t mind and I don’t mind what others might think.

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

I picked up this old rtr siphon G second hand for a few pounds. I’ve repainted it and fitted three link couplings creating an excellent layout vehicle. 
 

 

Edited September 1 by coronach