Wright writes.....

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

I had wondered about placing a mirror on the layout. Then you could use the big camera, which could be set up nearby using any sort of long or short lens. Then it should be possible to reverse the image on the computer.

That's a half-way house version of the periscope mentioned earlier, I suppose.

[NZRedBaron]

Hello there, Tony and company.

I was wandering around the internet earlier (yes, a dangerous past time, I know), when I came across a picture I've seen a few times over the years; it was of the four Peppercorn A1's that were named for constituent companies of the LNER- 60147 North Eastern, 60156 Great Central, 60157 Great Eastern, and 60161 North British- painted up in the express passenger liveries of the aforementioned companies; apparently as part of an official proposal by a manager in BR's Eastern Region.

Have you ever seen it? And if you have, what do you think of the proposed liveries?

Edited yesterday at 04:48 by NZRedBaron

[Woodcock29]

16 hours ago, 65179 said:

 

The Q4s all switched to a visible waisted firebox at some point in LNER days. All had the clothing following the waisted firebox shape by BR days. Here's 63240 apparently near Little Bytham in 1950 close to withdrawal:

 

https://archive.rcts.org.uk/product/phw1244/

 

Edit: I had thought the switch to visibly waisted was early, but there are a number of views of both the long and short splasher types in the Rail Online collection with some with dates into the 1930s:

 

Here's short splasher 6075 in 1933: 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p22837719/h67e20ceb

 

and one with a waisted firebox in GC days:

 

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p22837719/h61ec3479

 

 

It's not clear from Yeadon, and I'm open to correction, but it appears the last 35 appeared with visibly waisted fireboxes from new (15 short splashers and the last 20 with the long splashers).

 

Simon 

Interesting last comment Simon. I'm not at home this week so can't check my references to see if that's a conclusion I can agree with or not? Sometimes, maybe quite often, we're never going to know the full story in this hobby of ours.

 

Andrew

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, NZRedBaron said:

Hello there, Tony and company.

I was wandering around the internet earlier (yes, a dangerous past time, I know), when I came across a picture I've seen a few times over the years; it was of the four Peppercorn A1's that were named for constituent companies of the LNER- 60147 North Eastern, 60156 Great Central, 60157 Great Eastern, and 60161 North British- painted up in the express passenger liveries of the aforementioned companies; apparently as part of an official proposal by a manager in BR's Eastern Region.

Have you ever seen it? And if you have, what do you think of the proposed liveries?

Good morning,

 

I haven't seen the picture you mention.

 

I believe Ian Rathbone once painted up a model of an A1 (GREAT CENTRAL?) in full pre-Grouping regalia.

 

The only one of the company-named A1s I don't have a model of is NORTH BRITISH, because I never saw it. The other three, of course, are in Brunswick green.  

 

I think it would have been splendid had the proposal been carried out (GREAT NORTHERN, too).

 

Odd that an A1 was not called GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND (too small a constituent company, and too long a nameplate I suppose?). 

 

Regards,

 

Tony

Edited yesterday at 06:07 by Tony Wright
to add something

[gingerangles]

21 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

This is the Q4 from my etches.

It has been weathered since but I don't have a better photo of it just now, runs on Wentworth Junction mostly on the colliery trip.

 

Looking forward to getting mine @Michael Edge 👏

[NZRedBaron]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning,

 

I haven't seen the picture you mention.

 

I believe Ian Rathbone once painted up a model of an A1 (GREAT CENTRAL?) in full pre-Grouping regalia.

 

The only one of the company-named A1s I don't have a model of is NORTH BRITISH, because I never saw it. The other three, of course, are in Brunswick green.  

 

I think it would have been splendid had the proposal been carried out (GREAT NORTHERN, too).

 

Odd that an A1 was not called GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND (too small a constituent company, and too long a nameplate I suppose?). 

 

Regards,

 

Tony

I did some digging, and found it again; hopefully the file type is compatible.

Personally, I find them all quite smart- and if I had to choose, my favourite is probably North British in it's NBR inspired umber livery.

[Jesse Sim]

On 17/09/2024 at 16:46, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Tony,

 

I cannot get the camera into exactly the same relative position for several reasons. One, it looks like the photographer of the prototype was standing on Marsh Bridge, and my camera is just too big to be able to do that. There's also the backscene 'sky' behind the bridge which also prevents my sitting the camera in 'the same place'. Which means, as you suggest, the full-sized photograph was taken from further back, though probably with a standard lens. And, also the 'opposite' physics rears its head - huge prototype, little camera/little model, huge camera. Those who use smaller cameras (not a half-brick-sized digital SLR) might do better, but I cannot get on with them.

 

When Jesse Sim is over next year, I'll ask him to bring his tiny Nikon (about the size of two OXO cubes) and see what we can get with that, though it's very wide-angle.

 

As I say, those who don't model an actual prototype have it 'easier' in some ways, but not in all. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

You know I was thinking of that little GoPro when you posted your attempts. I’ll bring it next year, I don’t even know where it is! 
 

I wonder if we could crop the photo so the fisheye lense isn’t that bad? 

[Willie Whizz]

The bottom two look super. The top two less  so - in particular, not enough areas in dark red on ‘Great Central’ to make it look like a real GC engine. IMHO of course; other views are possible, just wrong 😑!!

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, NZRedBaron said:

I did some digging, and found it again; hopefully the file type is compatible.

Personally, I find them all quite smart- and if I had to choose, my favourite is probably North British in it's NBR inspired umber livery.

 

Anything but British Railways blue for me.  What is the recent fascination with that scheme on full-size locomotives?

 

13 minutes ago, Jesse Sim said:

You know I was thinking of that little GoPro when you posted your attempts. I’ll bring it next year, I don’t even know where it is! 
 

I wonder if we could crop the photo so the fisheye lense isn’t that bad? 

 

You'll get some good imagery from a  GoPro but you won't match the perspective seen in the full-size photograph earlier for the reason mentioned.   It's the relationship of the position of objects in the scene as a function of the lens focal length (with respect to focal plane image size) that determines the perspective.   So to match the perspective (and hence the image) you need to a) match the relative focal lengths of the cameras used and b) use identical relative camera positions.

 

We need to find some nice wide angle shots of Woolmer Green so you can give it a try with the GoPro! 😀

 

Alan

 

 

[t-b-g]

56 minutes ago, Willie Whizz said:

The bottom two look super. The top two less  so - in particular, not enough areas in dark red on ‘Great Central’ to make it look like a real GC engine. IMHO of course; other views are possible, just wrong 😑!!

 

The GCR one looked considerably better when Ian Rathbone painted one up in that livery. Ian made the tender frames and the frames under the cab red, which as you have commented, improved things considerably.

 

There is a photo on his website but as I know Ian looks in on here, he may well post a photo himself.

 

 https://www.ianrathbonemodelpainting.co.uk/resources/BR60156w.jpg

 

There is also a NB version on his site.

Edited yesterday at 09:38 by t-b-g
add content

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

 

Anything but British Railways blue for me.  What is the recent fascination with that scheme on full-size locomotives?

 

 

You'll get some good imagery from a  GoPro but you won't match the perspective seen in the full-size photograph earlier for the reason mentioned.   It's the relationship of the position of objects in the scene as a function of the lens focal length (with respect to focal plane image size) that determines the perspective.   So to match the perspective (and hence the image) you need to a) match the relative focal lengths of the cameras used and b) use identical relative camera positions.

 

We need to find some nice wide angle shots of Woolmer Green so you can give it a try with the GoPro! 😀

 

Alan

 

 

Good morning Alan,

 

It's all fascinating stuff, but (citing your comments on perspective/focal length of lenses) I don't believe it'll be possible to exactly match prototype/model pictures. 

 

In a way, it doesn't matter, as long as the model scene is recognisable. As, I hope, it is on Little Bytham.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

2 hours ago, Willie Whizz said:

The bottom two look super. The top two less  so - in particular, not enough areas in dark red on ‘Great Central’ to make it look like a real GC engine. IMHO of course; other views are possible, just wrong 😑!!

Good morning,

 

Just for the saddos (me). 60156 and 60157 in the images shown should only have one lubricator, their being roller bearing-fitted. They should also have round covers on the Cartazzi keeps and tender axleboxes, which, though it's difficult to tell, the artist might have included. 

 

Bachmann never got this right when they produced a roller bearing A1 (I assume it's a Bachmann A1 which Ian Rathbone has painted so superbly).

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Edited yesterday at 10:51 by Tony Wright
to add something

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

7 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Odd that an A1 was not called GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND (too small a constituent company, and too long a nameplate I suppose?). 

Unable to run on any of the GNoSR's route? Same probably applies to M&GNJ

 

Once ER had acquired it, might the London Tilbury and Southend's livery have been considered eligible? That would be truly striking.

 

Adding these would pretty much take us round the colour wheel...

[1471SirFrederickBanbury]

5 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

Anything but British Railways blue for me.  What is the recent fascination with that scheme on full-size locomotives?

 

 

You'll get some good imagery from a  GoPro but you won't match the perspective seen in the full-size photograph earlier for the reason mentioned.   It's the relationship of the position of objects in the scene as a function of the lens focal length (with respect to focal plane image size) that determines the perspective.   So to match the perspective (and hence the image) you need to a) match the relative focal lengths of the cameras used and b) use identical relative camera positions.

 

We need to find some nice wide angle shots of Woolmer Green so you can give it a try with the GoPro! 😀

 

Alan

 

 

Maybe the fascination with BR Blue comes from photos like this:  

Accurate and natural looking?  I don't know, but IMHO this is a beautiful work of art with such a vibrant blue, and while I do understand the appeal for a good GWR green, I'd take this any day. 

 

As for A4 SIR NIGEL GRESLEY however, I thought Garter Blue is slightly better than the deeper BR blue, and I much prefer Apple Green on a Gresley A1 or A3, so it really depends on the locomotive I guess.

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

Unable to run on any of the GNoSR's route? Same probably applies to M&GNJ

 

Once ER had acquired it, might the London Tilbury and Southend's livery have been considered eligible? That would be truly striking.

 

Adding these would pretty much take us round the colour wheel...

Good afternoon,

 

Possibly, though GREAT EASTERN could never have run over the lines of that company (other than the GN/GE Joint).

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Captain Kernow]

1 hour ago, 1471SirFrederickBanbury said:

Maybe the fascination with BR Blue comes from photos like this:  

Accurate and natural looking?  I don't know, but IMHO this is a beautiful work of art with such a vibrant blue, and while I do understand the appeal for a good GWR green, I'd take this any day. 

Yes, it really looks good, doesn't it?

 

[Barry Ten]

It was seeing big blue locos in the Wrenn catalogue that made me like BR Express Passenger blue. At least at the time I owned any, there were no big blue ones in the contemporaneous Triang-Hornby catalogues (there may have been a Nellie or a Polly, though, I suppose).

[Bernard Lamb]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon,

 

Possibly, though GREAT EASTERN could never have run over the lines of that company (other than the GN/GE Joint).

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

A B1 got some way down the branch to Maldon one day.

An A1 would have been a sight when it got to the wooden viaducts.😃

Bernard

[Tony Wright]

13 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

A B1 got some way down the branch to Maldon one day.

An A1 would have been a sight when it got to the wooden viaducts.😃

Bernard

Good evening Bernard,

 

During the last few months of the M&GNR's existence, a B1 appeared on 'The Leicester' (something unprecedented before, the train being worked by B12s or Ivatt 4 2-6-0s).

 

 

 

It was this one (Bachmann/Comet/DJH/Markits/Wright). 

 

It was probably overweight, but who cared by then?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Edited 13 hours ago by Tony Wright
replacing 4 with 2

[Tony Wright]

Intrigued by recent comments regarding model/prototype photography, I've done a few more 'experiments' - none really with 'success', as I'll explain............

 

 

Taken in the summer of 1958 (of precious memory further north), the photographer must have been crouching right down. 

 

As such, it's a position impossible to replicate in model form. Thus.............

 

 

Taken with a 22mm lens on the Nikon's nose.

 

 

And with a 35mm lens. 

 

The loco is SE Finecast/Wright/Haynes.

 

A bit of fun really. Is my model 'Elizabethan really that 'wobbly'? 

 

Another view difficult to recreate was this one..............

 

 

Taken prior to 1955, probably with the photographer standing on a buffer stop.

 

Since my camera would crush such a flimsy structure, this is what I've got.........

 

 

Taken with the 22mm lens.

 

 

And with the 35mm.

 

The loco is DJH/Wright/Rathbone.

 

My positioning of St. Medard's church spire on the backscene is a long way off because the model MR embankment doesn't carry on in a straight line. 

 

At least the locomotives are the same. 

 

I don't think it's worth pursuing the experiments because I'll never get the lens/distance/perspective the same.

 

As I say, a bit of fun really. 

 

Anyone else tried to do the same, though an actual prototype scene is required?

 

 

[t-b-g]

41 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Intrigued by recent comments regarding model/prototype photography, I've done a few more 'experiments' - none really with 'success', as I'll explain............

 

 

Taken in the summer of 1958 (of precious memory further north), the photographer must have been crouching right down. 

 

As such, it's a position impossible to replicate in model form. Thus.............

 

 

Taken with a 22mm lens on the Nikon's nose.

 

 

And with a 35mm lens. 

 

The loco is SE Finecast/Wright/Haynes.

 

A bit of fun really. Is my model 'Elizabethan really that 'wobbly'? 

 

Another view difficult to recreate was this one..............

 

 

Taken prior to 1955, probably with the photographer standing on a buffer stop.

 

Since my camera would crush such a flimsy structure, this is what I've got.........

 

 

Taken with the 22mm lens.

 

 

And with the 35mm.

 

The loco is DJH/Wright/Rathbone.

 

My positioning of St. Medard's church spire on the backscene is a long way off because the model MR embankment doesn't carry on in a straight line. 

 

At least the locomotives are the same. 

 

I don't think it's worth pursuing the experiments because I'll never get the lens/distance/perspective the same.

 

As I say, a bit of fun really. 

 

Anyone else tried to do the same, though an actual prototype scene is required?

 

 

 

Normon Solomon may be a very top name in track building but it seems that even he is human. That three way has a missing check rail. Of course it may have been displaced during track cleaning or as a result of other damage.

 

Edit to correct spelling of Solomon

Edited 23 hours ago by t-b-g
Spelling

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, Bernard Lamb said:

A B1 got some way down the branch to Maldon one day.

An A1 would have been a sight when it got to the wooden viaducts.😃

Bernard

A B1 to Maldon, fully feasible via Wickford and Woodham but not from Witham.

 

The wooden bridges at Wickham Bishops. The ones the drivers would give a blast on the whistle so the woodworm could link arms and stabilize the bridge, so the rumour had it.

 

It was the imminent demise of the bridges which was given as the reason to close the Witham to Maldon line. The blighters are still standing.

 

Another fable about the branch was on a cold frosty morning the passengers would get down on to the track and help bump start the Waggon- und Maschinenbau railbus.

Having a fluid flywheel the motion from the wheels will not turn the engine.

[Tony Wright]

17 minutes ago, t-b-g said:

 

Normon Soloman may be a very top name in track building but it seems that even he is human. That three way has a missing check rail. Of course it may have been displaced during track cleaning or as a result of other damage.

 

 

I noticed that Tony,

 

The thing is it works. Whether it was there originally, I don't know, but it's unlikely to have come loose. 

 

One point, Norman gets cross when folk fail to spell his name correctly - it's Solomon, without an 'a'.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[t-b-g]

3 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

I noticed that Tony,

 

The thing is it works. Whether it was there originally, I don't know, but it's unlikely to have come loose. 

 

One point, Norman gets cross when folk fail to spell his name correctly - it's Solomon, without an 'a'.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

I knew that. I just can't type very well. I will edit and correct the post.

[45568]

A return to lovely WestOz Spring weather, (temperature mid-20sC, gentle breezes, sunshine), has enabled me to finish more projects started over winter. The following pix show the results.

 

45505, a Bachmann Patriot equipped with the high-sided 3500gal tender. This is built from etchings provided by innocentman of this parish attached to a Bachmann 3500gal tender body and chassis. The BR green is brush-painted Humbrol 104 from a new 30-year-old tin! Lining/crests/plates by Fox. Note: If you use the Fox Stanier Jubilee tender lining you need two packs for this tender to achieve the upper curves!

 

Classmate 45502 is a simple rename/number to one of the less well-known class members.

 

As is 45520. The early crest tender is appropriate for this locomotive as according to the RCTS book on the class, it never received a late crest.

 

Cab doors on this loco have gone walkabout, if anyone has any spare please let me know if you wish to be rid of them!

Finally, a simple renumber of a Hornby Stanier tank to a Kirkby-in-Ashfield regular.

 

Same lovely weather for the next few days, where is that worklist??!!

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.