Castle

Hi Rob, Fair enough - I remember it being uttered by someone, somewhere at 81E so I thought I had better throw it in! As for No. 7202 - a fun fact for those that don't know. The restoration group are aiming for it to be the first boiler overhaul fuelled entirely by real ale... The group run what is known as The Black Python - the on site bar coach in NNX No. 30573 and all proceeds from that go to the engine. They are doing really well out of it too! All the best, Castle

Hi Rob, You do realise that No. 7200 has a non standard bunker don't you? I don't know what difference it makes from one to the other but it might be worth checking out first. In any case, what's wrong with No. 7202? Darn good engine with some charming owners so I hear... All the best, Castle

Hi Peter, That certainly looks like the one in the shed at Didcot - great job. Well done good sir! All the best, Castle

Hi (again!) Rob, Where did you get the HYDRA in post 943 please? I have a HYDRA shaped hole in the Little Didcot fleet... All the best, Castle

No - but then I might be just a tiny bit biased... All the best, Castle

Pot, kettle and so on... Glass house time? All the best, Castle PS: There is nothing wrong with visiting Planet Geek - you just don't want to live there...

PS: the carrier bag behind the engine in the 7th photo up from the bottom makes it look like the safety valves are feathering nicely! Must be nearly good to go... All the best, Castle

Come on now Peter, you bough another kit and started again didn't you?! Looking at it now it is hard to believe that it was ever as bad as it was - a remarkable transformation and I think she looks great in that BR lined black too. All the best, Castle

Hi Rob, Very nice it is too - its a bit different to the standard model and that makes it interesting which is always good in my book. And, well, what's a decade or three between fellow GWR geeks?! All the best, Castle

Hi Rob, Now that IS nice - not that the multitude of other photographs aren't (!) - but there is something about those mixed trains that really looks the part. Is that a Parkside BLOATER behind the loco? Keep the pictures coming! All the best, Castle

Hi All, Local B&Q employee finally flips... Enjoy! All the best, Castle

Hi Rob, After that LNER intrusion you are going to have to have No. 4074 to go with it! Makes sure that Caldicot Castle turns up 15 minutes early though... Mmmmmmm - 1925 all over again! All the best, Castle PS: does this mean that I will have to lend my model I am going to do of No. 4079 to Gilbert?

Hi All, I hve just realised that I haven't posted a picture of the results of all my chat here so thanks to everyone who helped and here it is: The full build is written up here for those interested that haven't seen it yet. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/51212-little-didcot/page-19&do=findComment&comment=1075064 Thanks again and all the best, Castle

Hi All, No, I haven't forgotten... I made a bit of an effort to get Super Saloon No. 9118 a bit closer to finished and made up and painted the interior. The kitchen area and the windows around it on the corridor side are all obscured so I won't detail that bit. Likewise with the loo! The seats are not quite the right pattern but these are available in a bag from Souther Pride so they got a sale out of me! The tables are adapted out of the Comet set that came in the kit and the table lamps are of the correct Trollope & Co. pattern from Dart Castings. In order to get some bums on seats I have ordered a few figure sets from Gaugemaster but I bet I can't resist repainting them... The tables I painted white in the thought that they would probably have table cloths on them while dining was in progress. I still have to add the coach photo prints, the windows, the curtains , the passengers, the door handles, the grab handles, the weathering, etc, etc. I thought I was getting close to done here and I have got two more to do that are still just etched brass components! Oh well... All the best, Castle

Cheers Jaz, I appreciate the compliments a great deal. All the best, Castle

Hi London Cambrian, You wouldn't have to make the inner frames if you draped a tarpaulin over the load... In one of the pictures Paul showed me it had the BR version of the CORAL with a tarpaulin marked BR covering the crates. If you had a big enough load in it so that the tarpaulin went right over the outer frames you wouldn't see the lack of the inner ones. It might obscure he markings on the crate though! All the best, Castle

Hi Noel, I would like to register some interest for a full set as preserved please! Anyone else? Great opportunity to have some really unusual wagons being offered here and I would have thought that the abillities to run all of the later versions in BR livery would sell well. All the best, Castle

Hi MJI, I fitted the Mainly Trains detail kit too - looks quite realistic now... That replacement whitemetal smokebox door was a bit heavy though. All the best, Castle

Hi SS, The difference between the handles and the dart. The dart is the bit that locates in the bar that goes across the front of the smokebox aperture. The dart is on the end of the shaft and has a spade shape on the inside that fits through a slot in the bar. You push the door shut with the rear handle (the bit on the outside) at either 3:00 or 9:00 and it is turned so the handle is hanging down at 6:00. The second outer handle is then screwed tight thus pulling the dart tight against the bar and therefore the door tight against the front smokebox ring and making it as airtight as possible. This is important of course as the low pressure caused by the exhaust steam going up the chimney in the smokebox is used to both draw air through the fire to make it burn brighter and the hot gasses throughout the various tubes in the boiler to heat the water. Loco engineering lesson over! I hope this helps! All the best, Castle

Hi Oliver, That looks like a good job - well done! I have just put some transfers on a 14XX myself. Have a look at my Little Didcot thread to see my version. What with No. 1401, all you need now is a grey TOAD and a Wisbeach and Upwell Tramway passenger coach. And a Ks Milestones kit of Lion and a Loriot with a 4 wheel coach body load in it. I'll get my coat... All the best, Castle

Hi All, Now posted on Little Didcot: For the build story go here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/51212-little-didcot/page-19&do=findComment&comment=1064401 I have the Ks GWR Loco Coal wagon to do too... All the best, Castle

Hi All, A whitemetal reef? Of all the wagon collection at Didcot, perhaps the most enigmatic and unusual is CORAL A No. 41723. The diagram D vehicles were all built around the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century and under just two diagrams , D1 & D2. There was a third 6 wheel version but this wasn't strictly a GWR design, having been inherited at grouping. It was short lived but I suspect would make a great model... The primary purpose of these wagons was to carry plate glass. This was held in wooden packing cases between the curious looking upper frames and down in the deep well of the vehicle. There were also two other adjustable intermediate frames on the D2 vehicles that were inboard of the two permanently fixed ones to further support and secure the fragile loads. Their service lives have not been well researched but there has been much help given to me by My fellow RMWEB members when I started this thread here: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/71697-gwr-wagon-oddities/ Thanks again to all concerned - it is a gold mine of CORAL related facts now! Although they were designed to carry plate glass in packing crates, some of the CORALs actually ended their days as steel plate carriers at Port Talbot. A few soldiered on in their original task when joined by the 'genetically similar' BR Lot 170 wagons post nationalisation. They all slowly became extinct except for one. This had become a test vehicle for Dowty and as such escaped the cull. No. 41723 was saved by Didcot's fellow preservationist, the 813 Fund and delivered to 81E in 1981. To say that the restoration of No. 41723 represents a considerable challenge is a bit of an understatement and much of the plate work in it is so thin that it can only really be replaced so that will have to wait for the future. It continues to befuddle and interest visitors to 81E who often ask questions about it when they discover the wagon. The Little Didcot version of No. 41723 is based on the long out of production Ks white metal kit. I managed (with the assistance of my other half) to get a pre assembled one from that well known auction site. It looked ok in the pictures and although all the bits were there and as such it was ripe for a bit of deconstruction and reconstruction. Lovers of CORAL As please look away now - Castle SMASH!* A bath in Dettol later produced a shiny pile of parts. The work schedule for the wagon was laid out and looked like this: 1 Rebuild the body so that were no gaps in it - the previous owner hadn't managed anything near this... 2 Replace the wheels and add bearings. This wasn't as simple as it sounds as I wasn't happy with the fit of the bearings in the side panels - they were a little large and the potential for not getting it all lined up was huge. To this end I decided to make a sub chassis to fit later on. 3 The frames in whitemetal might have cut it at the time this kit was produced but I didn't feel that they did the rest of the kit justice. I decided to replace them with brass 'L' section and while I was at it, fabricate the missing moveable racks too. 4 Sort out the brake handles. Not only are they chunky and moulded on but they are also on the wrong end (hands up who hadn't noticed that one before - I certainly hadn't before starting this!). Etched replacements from MRD seemed the way to go. 5 Provide not only the missing ends to the load well but also to detail the ends in such a way as it looked reasonable from the outside too. 6 Put a load in it. I can't remember (but there again I'm not that observant!) seeing one in 4mm scale that had been loaded and making the packing cases looked like a little challenge. 7 Research the correct BR period livery for the wagon. Again, I couldn't remember seeing a 4mm scale one in this livery and with the help of those fine fellows on RMWEB, a most plausible scenario for the scheme was worked out. After reassembling the basic kit as Ks intended, I then began to look at the racks on the top. The plan was to get some 'L' section of the correct dimensions and then bend and cut to size. A series of small cuts was made to allow the bend to occur in the correct plane and this was then soldered up to return the strength and tidy it up. A comparison between the two before the new one was soldered in place is shown here. The triangular gussets that hold the uprights in place were added on then the whole lot was soldered in place. End details began with the adding of the ends of the well and the lower chassis cross member that goes at the bottom. The new sub frame to carry the wheels was made by soldering two pieces of 2mm internal diameter tube to a length of brass stock the correct thickness to from the 'bearings'. The new wheel sets had their pinpoint axle ends removed to allow them to fit between the frames and then a wheel was carefully prised off and then reassembled around the bearing tube. A short session with my brass back to back gauge and I was there! Once fitted I got this: The inner moveable load frames were next and they were made n the same way as the outer one except they lack the gussets. Once it was all soldered together it ended up looking like the picture you see below. It required quite a bit of filling to get everything to line up and sit straight so this meant the loss of quite a bit of rivet detail. This was replaced with rivet transfers after the vehicle had been primed and had a light coat of gloss varnish applied to help them stick. It then got a coat of BR unfitted freight grey. The lashing rings and brake gear were added and then the gloss coat in preparation for the transfers went on. The transfers are the best fit for what was decided upon in the afore mentioned thread and the only issue I have is that the text that reads GLASS WC is a little large but trying to do that in separate letters any smaller would have been a path to madness even if I had any! The packing cases were started at this point and were made from paper thin balsa wood. This was cut into scale plank sizes and then built up exactly as the real thing would have been except using balsa cement instead of nails! A dose of Castle style weathering in Games Workshop inks and Tamiya weathering powders and then a bit of work with some scale chains and some etched nickel silver load shackles suitably blackened gave me this to play with. I know it probably should be rope for this job but I quite liked the look! Well, it is getting to the stage where I can't put off that Super Saloon train much longer. Apart from the fact that The other half has just secured the Kirk kit for P17 ballast wagon No. 80789 AND the Ks whitemetal kit to build the Didcot N34 loco coal wagon No. 63066. She is getting really good at this Ebay lark! Decisions, decisions... All the best, Castle *With apologies to the Hulk - I REALLY don't want to upset him...

[quote name="Neal Ball" post="1064224" timestamp="1370766135"Although I would have liked everything in Brunswick Green.... Hi Neal, I hope you enjoy the photo charter - I will no doubt snap a few iPad shots on my way to the pub for my evening meal... No. 1466 if you want to be in an authentic BR livery, she can only ever be in BR black - it was preserved in this livery. She has only ever carried lined BR green in preservation. All the best, Castle

Hi All, I put some transfers on a 14XX yesterday... It's for an upcoming photo charter that seeks to reproduce as authentically as possible a BR era shed. She will get the front number and shed plate later next week. They were quite old transfers and broke up as they were slid off the backing sheet. One BR lion and wheel puzzle later and it looks good! Enjoy! All the best, Castle

I hope not - that sounds like it might hurt... I'll get my coat. All the best, Castle