A Nod To Brent - a friendly thread, filled with frivolity, cream teas and pasties. Longing for the happy days in the South Hams 1947.

[Limpley Stoker]

Well I had planned on shewing you my Parkside PC84 Mink V12 build but I've had problems with my chassis. Added whitemetal buffers,vacuum cylinder and pipes are from Dave Franks.

 

DSCN9860.jpg

 

DSCN9861.jpg

 

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Someone once said these kits literally build themselves.Utter b*****ks.

Spare a thought for all those Chinese ladies doing this every day for us - to keep us happy and have lots to discuss- though they would have a jig for the really difficult bits, or is that what those metal clips are?

[Mallard60022]

Well I had planned on shewing you my Parkside PC84 Mink V12 build but I've had problems with my chassis. Added whitemetal buffers,vacuum cylinder and pipes are from Dave Franks.

 

DSCN9860.jpg

 

DSCN9861.jpg

 

DSCN9862.jpg

 

Someone once said these kits literally build themselves.Utter b*****ks.

These kits literally boll0cks themselves is what was said Rob. The kits that literally build themselves are yet to be invented by 2manySpams, however I can recommend the Slimrails (ex Chivers) range. Although a small range they really are dead easy to put together. 

Just be thankful you have not been trying to build a Walrus.

A.D. Hesive

[NHY 581]

Just be thankful you have not been trying to build a Walrus.

 

A.D. Hesive

Which one? They all look a bit tricky...

[gwrrob]

I think that was Mr Parkside who made that statement?

 

I'd have thought your chassis problems will go away though, Robin, once those metal peg like thingeys are removed. 

 

Needs finishing off,don't look too closely....

 

 

[2ManySpams]

I know what you mean, Hawksworth wasn't exactly capible when it came to aesthetics...

I just like to repeat the point about the Hawksworth thirds and break thirds being in regular GWR service given how often the myth that they were only used post nationalisation gets peddled...

It's a bit like the oft quoted example of Bulleid Pacifics being misused on one coach trains down at Padstow. There was a late evening service but this was simply making use of a loco that went from Wadebridge to Padstow to be turned on the 70' table ready for the early morning service next day.

 

Problem is that as time goes on these oft repeated inaccurate 'facts' become accepted truth.

[2ManySpams]

Which one? They all look a bit tricky...

Great spot the difference competition, thank you.

[2ManySpams]

These kits literally boll0cks themselves is what was said Rob. The kits that literally build themselves are yet to be invented by 2manySpams, however I can recommend the Slimrails (ex Chivers) range. Although a small range they really are dead easy to put together. 

Just be thankful you have not been trying to build a Walrus.

A.D. Hesive

Any Cambrian hopper kit is a challenge. Walrus, dogfish, catfish etc. I can't recommend the ex Chivers kits highly enough.

[gwrrob]

I was talking to the proprietor of H & A models recently and he sells more Cambrian kits than Parkside et al on the whole.

[St Enodoc]

Any Cambrian hopper kit is a challenge. Walrus, dogfish, catfish etc. I can't recommend the ex Chivers kits highly enough.

I think I found the Mermaid hardest to build.

 

[phil_sutters]

 

Post content deleted - repeated info already in thread.

Edited December 30, 2016 by phil_sutters

[2ManySpams]

I think I found the Mermaid hardest to build.

 

20040223 005 BR dia 1-575 Mermaid DB989239.jpg

Turned out alright though.

[The Fatadder]

I think I found the Mermaid hardest to build.

 

20040223 005 BR dia 1-575 Mermaid DB989239.jpg

it gets even worse when you try to convert it into one of the great western variant...

At some point i need to build another 5 to go with the one ive already finished, not exactly looking forward to it...

[brianusa]

It's a bit like the oft quoted example of Bulleid Pacifics being misused on one coach trains down at Padstow. There was a late evening service but this was simply making use of a loco that went from Wadebridge to Padstow to be turned on the 70' table ready for the early morning service next day.

 

Problem is that as time goes on these oft repeated inaccurate 'facts' become accepted truth.

Fairly common, I once thought from trainspotting days, as a Bulleid with a couple of carriages on the Tavistock local from Plymouth was quite a common sight.

 

Brian

[St Enodoc]

it gets even worse when you try to convert it into one of the great western variant...

At some point i need to build another 5 to go with the one ive already finished, not exactly looking forward to it...

Don't worry Rich. As soon as you've finished them someone will bring out an RTR version.

[2ManySpams]

Fairly common, I once thought from trainspotting days, as a Bulleid with a couple of carriages on the Tavistock local from Plymouth was quite a common sight.

 

Brian

 

Would have continued on to Okehampton where it would have been lengthened with coaches from Padstow and Bude. That's how many of the services worked on the southern. Long trains left Waterloo and dropped coaches off on the way to Exeter. Engine swap at Exeter and then further coaches dropped off on the way west. Great for the passenger (as long as you got in the right coach)  but I imagine a nightmare to organise and choreograph all the coach and loco movements. Hard to understand how busy backwaters like Halwill and Okehampton were on a summer Saturday. Not uncommon for a Bulleid to arrive at its final destination with 3h 5 coaches, having left Exeter with 8-12.

 

I looked into the timetables, carriage working noticed and loco allocations in some depth a few years ago when I helped rewrite and expand the late David Wroe's North Cornwall Railway book. I was in awe at what they managed to organise without the benefit of computers or transport modelling. Some very clever use of locos to maximise their use on various duties. Having enough coaching stock for the handful of summer Saturdays was a great public service but for the rest of the year very wasteful. Coaches sat in sidings unused for  50 weeks of the year. Very different to today's approach.

[gwrrob]

I'm sure I've seen the Atlantic Coast Express diverted through Brent at one time....

[Oldddudders]

Would have continued on to Okehampton where it would have been lengthened with coaches from Padstow and Bude. That's how many of the services worked on the southern. Long trains left Waterloo and dropped coaches off on the way to Exeter. Engine swap at Exeter and then further coaches dropped off on the way west. Great for the passenger (as long as you got in the right coach)  but I imagine a nightmare to organise and choreograph all the coach and loco movements. Hard to understand how busy backwaters like Halwill and Okehampton were on a summer Saturday. Not uncommon for a Bulleid to arrive at its final destination with 3h 5 coaches, having left Exeter with 8-12.

 

I looked into the timetables, carriage working noticed and loco allocations in some depth a few years ago when I helped rewrite and expand the late David Wroe's North Cornwall Railway book. I was in awe at what they managed to organise without the benefit of computers or transport modelling. Some very clever use of locos to maximise their use on various duties. Having enough coaching stock for the handful of summer Saturdays was a great public service but for the rest of the year very wasteful. Coaches sat in sidings unused for  50 weeks of the year. Very different to today's approach.

What a wise post. It is exactly that implausibly complex operation that, inspired by 'your' edition of the Wroe book, has led me to be modelling a quasi-Halwill. Sadly lunch in the Junction Inn there was not an appetising prospect on Wednesday, despite a few good pics on the wall, due to other clientele.

[Mallard60022]

Don't worry Rich. As soon as you've finished them someone will bring out an RTR version.

Someone already has........................................however they may be 'later, modified' versions?

Philth.

[Neal Ball]

Robin, the van looks very good. Is it the start of a new van train?

[gwrrob]

I'm sure I've seen the Atlantic Coast Express diverted through Brent at one time....

Found it !

 

[gwrrob]

Robin, the van looks very good. Is it the start of a new van train?

 

I plan to run it with my other mixed regions vans,hopefully it won't stand out.Photos anon.

[St Enodoc]

Someone already has........................................however they may be 'later, modified' versions?

Philth.

Phil, the Flangeway model (if that is the one you mean) is of the BR version, as is the Cambrian kit. Rich was talking about the earlier GWR version I think.

[The Fatadder]

Phil, the Flangeway model (if that is the one you mean) is of the BR version, as is the Cambrian kit. Rich was talking about the earlier GWR version I think.

Indeed, 

And if I am going to hack something about to get the prototype I want, I may as well start from the kit.  (as an aside I am fairly sure I remember rightly that the chassis area of the kit was a lot better looking (if built well) than the RTR one.)

[The Stationmaster]

Would have continued on to Okehampton where it would have been lengthened with coaches from Padstow and Bude. That's how many of the services worked on the southern. Long trains left Waterloo and dropped coaches off on the way to Exeter. Engine swap at Exeter and then further coaches dropped off on the way west. Great for the passenger (as long as you got in the right coach)  but I imagine a nightmare to organise and choreograph all the coach and loco movements. Hard to understand how busy backwaters like Halwill and Okehampton were on a summer Saturday. Not uncommon for a Bulleid to arrive at its final destination with 3h 5 coaches, having left Exeter with 8-12.

 

I looked into the timetables, carriage working noticed and loco allocations in some depth a few years ago when I helped rewrite and expand the late David Wroe's North Cornwall Railway book. I was in awe at what they managed to organise without the benefit of computers or transport modelling. Some very clever use of locos to maximise their use on various duties. Having enough coaching stock for the handful of summer Saturdays was a great public service but for the rest of the year very wasteful. Coaches sat in sidings unused for  50 weeks of the year. Very different to today's approach.

 

Quite what use computers would have been I don't really know to be honest as the workings back then would probably have been far too complex for them to cope with.  Computerised train planning and computerisation of the diagramming process is a fairly recent thing and even in the 1990s when I was looking at various systems (mainly with a view to saving work process time rather than saving posts) what was on offer from even the very best was fairly unsophisticated and nowhere near as good as decent human train planner.  I know various software is in used nowadays but I wouldn't mind betting serious money that it would have difficulty coping with the sort of services, diagrams and coach working etc that was going on in the late 1950s/early '60s and I bet it wouldn't have the first idea about how to actually shunt portions even at places like Halwill Jcn.

 

The blokes (because almost all were male) who did this sort of work in the past were masters of the art and really, in my view, far cleverer than any machine yet invented.

[colin penfold]

Indeed Mike and it wasn't just the railways. The complex diagramming of buses and drivers across the Western National network was in the hands of one such bloke, Jim Pellow. His diagrams were a work of art.

 

I agree that software would struggle even today. Something as complex as MS Project can help to juggle resources and time but the spatial element is completely missing, as is all the complexity and nuances of the various regulations.