Castle

Hi Mikkel, That is really excellent and with all that scratchbuild ing using paintbrushes, you seem to have put pay to any more coach painting.... All the best, Castle

Hi All, Thanks for the likes everyone and the kind words from Miss P. and Kev! Miss P. - too true about the springing, there is a reason the same level of adjustability is built into the real thing... Lined up against a Ratio kit, my ones seem to be good enough (not totally lined up but pretty good) so we need to ascertain where the one that 57XX Ric has built differs from my ones. Any ideas? I think the sole bar is a little thin but about acceptable to my slightly fuzzy eyes! The only other way to get the buffers down will be to trim the sides off again and remove the locating strips to get the sole bar further up but as it is too small as it is, that is a bit of a non starter! Alan Gibson (and doubtless others too) do an 8 spoke 10.5mm Dia. wheelset which will drop the buffers down. Kev - how does this strike you for a P-Way train? Loco (No. 6697 perhaps?) No. 290 U4 Dean 4 wheel composite in Departmental black No. 100682 T12 Chaired sleeper wagon with load. No. 19818 O11 4W open wagon with tool load. No. 70335 J28 MACAW B with rail load. No. 80659 P15 Ballast Wagon No. 80668 P15 Ballast Wagon No. 80789 P17 Ballast Wagon No. 205 12 ton hand crane and runner wagon No. 56400 AA3 TOAD brake van. Should look good but are there any authenticity complaints about this anyone? Is it vaguely prototypical? I know the crane is probably a bit of a stretch but it will look sooooo great in the train... I have a thing for railway cranes in model form! I am of a mind to do the breakdown train next. A series of quotes from the Little Didcot Dictionary: Instructions = the manufacturers opinion on how things should go together. OR Instructions = paper supplied for mopping up spillages incurred while constructing your kit. OR Instructions = a handy coaster type arrangement to stop those nasty tea mug rings on your nice clean (!) workbench. OR Instructions = the thing you fold up to wedge under your workbench leg to stop it wobbling. OR Instructions = the last resort, when all else fails. OR Instructions = what to read if your P15 ballast wagon starts to look more like a very distressed Hawksworth full brake. Here ends the lesson for today... All the best, Castle

Hi All, A dose of gritty (or ballasty) reality! The unsung heroes of the railway are the permanent way crews and the equipment they used to keep the lines not only open and safe but in tip top condition. There had always been ballast wagons of one description or another on the GWR and remarkably, the GWR was the first railway in Britain to use hopper ballast wagons and plough brake vans to speed up the process of real ballasting track which was known as the Rodger's New Zealand Patent Method. By the time the mid 1930s comes around Swindon needed to start replacing the ageing fleet and built a series of wagons to 10, 14 & 20 tons capacity. This particular design is to Dia. P15. This is a 10 ton non hopper version that has two large doors each side with small centre stanchions to aid loading and unloading of the vehicles. These were built from 1936 to lot 1215 and there were a total of 380 constructed as ballast wagons and a further 11 as sand wagons. In BR service they were allocated the telegraphic code name STARFISH but it is unknown if this was ever actually carried by any of the vehicles. Didcot is home to two of these wagons. The first is long term resident No. 80668 (which is still used for its original purpose on site) and there is a relative newcomer in the form of No. 80659 which is on long term loan from the National Railway Museum. The Little Didcot versions of Nos. 80668 & 80659 are just straight builds of the Cambrian kits. These I found a little bit fiddle in as much as the first one I did, I got the arrangement of floor, sole bar and sides a bit off. A subtle mix of not reading the instructions properly and a brain in neutral I fear.... The paint was finest Halfords all round and transfers are courtesy of CCT. I weathered it as per the usual method and that was pretty much that! The weighting for the vehicles comes courtesy of the ballast load. Well, there we are - a rocky road travelled. I'll get my coat... All the best, Castle

Hi Ric, I seem to remember having light issues with putting the floor into the sides and then into the chassis afterwards. The arrangement of these is not immediately obvious. The ones I have built seem to be about right so I don't know what I have done differently! There are a number of different ways to sort the high riding of the sole bar: I seem to remember that the sole bars are added to the outside of a bit with W irons on. There doesn't seem much room to raise this higher in the frames though. If you remove the bearings and use a Dremell to make the holes more slot shaped so they can sit higher in the boxes. This might be difficult to get accurate so there is a reamer tool that I have seen somewhere (cue help from others please!) that can be used to realign and change the position of bearing holes. Are the wheels the right size? They look it to me but if you have a vernier gauge or similar it may pay to measure it. At a pinch, if there is a slightly smaller version available then get those so it can sit lower. Not exactly prototypical but it won't notice as it trundles past. I will dig mine out later in the week and do a Little Didcot article on them too. There isn't a lot of sole bar showing on these beasties so it looks about right. See here: http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/wagons/80659/80659pic_01.html Any other suggestions people? All the best, Castle

Hi Mozzer, Likewise myself - to get the buffers to line up, I do the same except that I use a thin washer soldered in place. Thanks for the tip! All the best, Castle

Hi All, Get it together man! So, last time we got the major components sorted out and ready for assembly and now we have to link it all together into something vaguely coach shaped I suppose! The trick I used here was a combination of a couple of engineer's squares and a chunk of sticky tape. The tape fixes the coach side to the wood and then the squares can push up against it and it won't slide off down the bench - at least, that's the theory! This does take a bit of setting up to do but dividends are paid in the end I feel with a square coach. I tack soldered top and bottom and then finish soldered from the middle out which seemed to work just fine. I did this so that each end had one side connected to it. I know you are supposed to use the chassis as a jig but on this coach this was going to be how I did it. A further set up and tack solder like this... ...gets us here. For the final set up I did resort to screwing it to the chassis before doing the finish soldering. Then it was bogie time. The first thing I do is to drill out all the various holes and then added the bearings. I then added the bogie pivots and this I do with a mini torch after adding flux and then laying down some solder roughly with the iron. Seems to work very well and gets it all hot very fast and the solder flows into all the right pieces. I brake (pun intended and coat on...) out the low melt solder and construct the cosmetic sides. Afterwards, I then add the end pieces - with pins soldered into each end but only fixed at one corner and pressed in at the other end so the wheels can be removed for painting - and then the brake shoes go on. To finish up this time round I added the V hangers for the brakes and decided to call it a night. Well, that's goodnight from me and its goodnight from little No. 111... All the best, Castle

Hi MIB & Mozzer, What is this BR Mk. 1 thing you speak of?* Mozzer - I was aware that you guys build professionally and many of us here are grateful of the fact that the likes of your good self will share your skills with us! It means we make far less mistakes... All the best, Castle *Just kidding Mallard - it is a REALLY nice model!

Hi Mikkel, Thanks for the kind words! That's the way to do it - no mucking about, jump in with both feet! As a wise man once said - those that never make mistakes, never did anything! I will no doubt make a few as I build a full brake and 3 (!) super saloons but mistakes have to be pretty massive to mean that there is no fixing them. It does take a bit of nerve to slice into your brand new RTR offering or kit the first time but you soon get over that. I'll carve any miniature up for my own purposes now. I do have a really nice Mum and Dad don't I? Our family has a great approach to gifts in my opinion - this way people get what they actually need or really want. Myself and the other half did it for my parents too. It still gets wrapped up and then we all have a go at faking the surprise noises when we get them on the day... I haven't stuffed this build up yet so we will keep going with the K41 - I will update again in the next we days but I do have to go and play at 12" : 1' scale this weekend too... It seems we have gone from only the likes of Coach, Mozzer and Mallard regularly doing passenger stock to a whole legion of folks doing it now - no bad thing, especially if it encourages yet more to have a go! All the best, Castle

Hi Michael, That really is an impressive beastie, beautifully engineered too. I would love to see if you or anyone see out there has ventured into the realm of locomotives that never were. I have seen the 'Hawksworth Pacific' and the 2-10-2 GWR heavy (seems a little bit of an understatement!) freight tank with the King(?) boiler. There is the fantastical notion I saw or read in a book once of a 28XX Garrett! Now, where's my razor saw? All the best, Castle

You are not the only one... Nothing wrong with the Lima body moulds at all really - especially considering the age of them! All the best, Castle

No worries Rich - I have made far worse mistakes that just one letter! I should have said a Collett SIPHON G so wrong on both sides technically! I know what you mean though. The outside framed MONSTERS are the same too. I took an outside framed ex Kirk kit and scraped all the complex stuff off to make an inside framed one! Something of a backward step in some ways... All the best, Castle

Hi Rich, I though the SIPHON G was internally framed? http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/coaches/2796/2796.html All the best, Castle

Hi Peter, There's always time for pictures of lovely engines! Hi Oli, Thanks for the kind words - must be a bit of a druge reading through all my waffle in one go! Hi MIB, Sides only or the full monty - modelling is still modelling! The main thing is to enjoy it... Hi Mallard, What's this - a kit for window phobics anonymous? Start your coaching stock modelling with a SIPHON G, then perhaps a PYTHON, then one of these and then a full brake. You will soon be doing third class non corridor compartment stock like the rest of us.... It's a nice job that you have made of that kit there Mallard! All the best, Castle

Hi Grasslands, What about all over black as a livery? There is a photo in one of Kevin Robertson's books showing the Leader in this colour in the workshop. Could be fun at shows, the derision and then whipping out the picture to say "told you so!" I rather like the grey too I have to say - gives it that prototype / experimental look! All the best, Castle

Hi Polly, I'll see if I can bring a few along if you like! They won't want them in the museum though - nowhere near old enough! All the best, Castle

Hi Ric, Thanks for the compliment! I will try and get some pictures of the two P15s up in the next few days for you. Is there anything in particular that I can help you with? Post a picture here if needed and I and the other good folk will try and sort you out! Hi Brian, I have just had areas through your thread on the K42 and it looks great - it is a brilliant kit as are all of those from Geoff. He has a great design philosophy that has been used to produce such a wide range of coaches. As you can see above, he will be getting more of my business! All the best, Castle

As long as it is fully posted on your thread so we can all enjoy! I had Saturday on a model and it wasn't relaxing at all - a nothing goes right at all type day... Never mind - we shall overcome in the end! All the best, Castle

Hi Brian, That is a first class bit of work - especially as it is the first one you have ever done. you have the right to be very pleased with it. Nice one! All the best, Castle

Hi Rob and Mallard, The end steps are only on one end and I have taken that into account - thanks for checking though! I have made silly errors like this in the past... I have always made sure I get the sole bar and step really hot, really quick with a mini blow torch and feed in a goodly amount of solder. I haven't lost one yet... Hi Kev, I didn't do all of the bottom list in the same year as the top list - I would say that about half had been done before I started on RMWEB over about 6 - 8 months so I'm not quite that quick. I do a little (perhaps an hour or two at most) every day with the odd weekend day splurge when I can! It is a chill out thing with me so I can unwind. Thanks for the compliments anyway! All the best, Castle

Thanks Mozzer! Stefan, You may lack the metalwork skills but at least you don't have burnt fingertips! You do know that you are going to have to have a go sometime with the etched brass and nickel don't you?! Imagine all the exotic turn of the century GWR machinery you could build.... All the best, Castle

Hi Mozzer, Thanks for the compliment! from someone with the kind of output you have that means a lot. Those pictures of your Princess Elizabeth look the business - top job! How do you represent the various types of opaque glass if you don't mind me asking? Particularly the hammered finish stuff? Cheers! Hi Stefan, Yes, that is quite a lot isn't it? Although the big difference here is that you are turning out beautiful Edwardian GWR Locos on the fly without a kit and I have bashed together a few vans and done a bit of RTR light detailing... In terms of actual hours work done and difficulty I think we are about even! All the best, Castle

Hi All, What a difference a year makes... Well, this is it - one whole year on RMWEB -Woo Hoo! So what have I accomplished in that modelling year? Well, I have shared with you all of my builds from this year that look like this: Gas Turbine Prototype 18000 14XX Class 0-4-2 No. 1466 S10 BLOATER Fish Van X8 MICA B No. 112843 X7 TEVAN No. 79953 DD6 Drinking Water Tanker No. 101 G26 ASMO No. 116954 56XX Class 0-6-2 No. 6697 O29 5 plank open wagon No. 117993 5101 Class 2-6-2 Large Prairie Tank No. 4144 (the only build I have started on here and not finished - not bad going!) 43XX Class 2-6-0 Churchward Mogul No. 5322 Shunters truck No. 100377 4575 Class 2-6-2 Small Prairie Tank No. 5572 V34 Goods Van No. 145428 V14 MINK A No. 101720 V14 MINK A No. 101836 V38 Plywood Van No. 146366 1361 Class 0-6-0 Saddle Tank No. 1363 D2039 LMS 12 ton Ventilated Vans No. 517791 D2039 LMS 12 ton Ventilated Vans No. 516673 P.O. Tank Wagon No. 745 AA21 TOAD A No. 17447 A total of 22 vehicles modifed, built or reviewed. Together we have also serviced the bogie from a Britannia, played host to an A4 and taken the boiler off a pannier tank. The rest of the little Didcot fleet that is ready for action but hasn't yet been featured looks like this: Y11 FRUIT D No. 2913 O11 5 plank open No. 19818 AA3 TOAD No. 56400 J28 Macaw B No. 70335 P15 10ton Ballast wagon No. 80659 P15 10ton Ballast wagon No. 80668 T12 Chaired Sleeper Wagon No. 100682 G31 MOGO No. 105742 V22 MINK G No. 112843 P18 MONSTER CCT No. 484 P19 PYTHON CCT No. 565 O33 SIPHON G CCT No. 2796 10XX Class 4-6-0 No. 1014 'County of Glamorgan' 8750 Class 0-6-0 Pannier TankNo. 3738 49XX Class 4-6-0 No. 5900 'Hinderton Hall' 6959 Class 4-6-0 No. 6998 'Burton Agness Hall' 78XX Class 4-6-0 No. 7808 'Cookham Manor' If there are any requests to see any of these projects then let me know - I will feature them sooner rather than later! I have worked out that there are 131 vehicles at Didcot at fall into the time period that I work in so the 39 vehicles above mean that I only have another 92 to hack, slash, weather and reconstitute! At least another 4 years work at current rates. And then I need to build a layout to run it all on... You will note from the list above that there is something of a dearth of passenger coaching stock. I have a slow burning project to build the 4 auto trailers from Didcot and No. 231 is nearly done but I thought that if I was going to start really doing coaches then I ought to go big or go home! This is why I am going to announce my next train project as 'The Boat Train'. This I have based on a post war formation of: Castle / Full Brake / MONSTER / Super Saloon with Kitchen / Super Saloon / Super Saloon / SIPHON G As I am limited to the stock that is preserved at 81E and the fact that I wish to have a parcels train (with a MONSTER in it) at some point I have changed it slightly, but I don't think unbelievably to: Castle / Collett Full Brake / SIPHON G / Super Saloon with Kitchen / Super Saloon / Super Saloon / Hawksworth Full Brake The coaching stock to be used will all be in early 1950s Blood & Custard as a top link set would demand (except for the SIPHON G of course!) and will be numbered as follows: Dia. K41 Collett Full Brake No. 111 Dia. O33 Siphon G No. 2796 Dia. H46 Collett Super Saloon No. 9118 (formerly Princess Elizabeth) Dia. G60 Collett Super Saloon No. 9112 (formerly Queen Mary) Dia. G61 Collett Super Saloon No. 9113 (fomerly Prince of Wales) Dia. K45 Hawksworth Full Brake No. 316 ...and what about the locomotive I hear you cry? Well, I have to do it sooner or later so when all the above brass, whitemetal, solder, and Lima / Hornby plastic has settled into vague resemblances of the prototypes I will be doing No. 4079 Pendennis Castle. I have a Hornby Castle of nearly the correct type in stock and some parts from South Eastern Finecast to help me back date her. So, without further ado, here we go with book one of this seven book epic... Have a brake - have a K41 kit (kat). Collett full brake No. 111 is an example of that most maligned piece of coaching stock - the passenger full brake. It was built in 1934 to diagram K41 in lot 1512 and spent a long if not glamorous life carting goods and luggage on the Great Western and Western Region. It was in service until purchased by the GWS in 1972 so if looked at in purely investment terms alone, she represented excellent value for money as a business asset! She awaits her turn in the long list of vehicles to be restored but she has a great deal going for her. Although not particularly rare, she has an almost complete original interior, with the corridors still intact and she is similarly appointed on the outside too. When her time comes, this will make the C&W volunteers job a lot easier... There is no 'official' kit for the K41 but Comet do a kit for the very closely related K42. The main differences between the two diagrams being the fact that they are slightly different widths (by so little in 4mm scale, this was dealt with by bravely ignoring it!) and that the K41 has the longer, 'Collett style' roof gutters and the K42 has the 'Hawksworth style'. Two strips of brass purchased from a certain Eileen's fine emporium later and a complete kit for a K41 was born. This kit was a very kind Christmas gift from my Mum and Dad on the basis of, you buy what you want and we will refund you because we will get it wrong if we buy it... Awww, bless! So we start out by getting the floor and sides out and having a darn good nosey around to get the lay of the land. I figured that I would start with the frames. I drilled the bogie pivot holes, cut the ends to length and then bent the sides up... and then the truss rods down. Then with a liberal application of heat, away we went ! I then added the sole bars. I like to leave these over length and then trim off with a slitting disc afterwards. There is far less likelihood of making them too short that way! Finishing up with the frames for this session, I ended up with this to look at. I then took a look at the sides, preparing them for fixing to the body by soldering in the drop lights and drilling all the holes for the hinges and door bangs with the help of the excellent jigs in the super detail coach etch. As this is a flat ended coach, there are no complications there either. The etch is straight forward enough... ...and the ends were perforated further so that the corridor suspension arms can be fitted. I also soldered up the mounts for the coach ends. End of play for this session sees the coach ready for the erecting shop. And thus ends today's bumper first birthday edition of Little Didcot! Thanks for you continued interest, support and friendship and hopefully we will have a few more vehicles ready for the road by this time next year. Was it really a year ago? All the best, Castle

Hi Missy, On a more supportive rather than technical note as supplied by the fine people above, I too have had a pig of a day! One of those occasions where I set aside me and my model time and almost nothing went right. The most successful thing about today was the high quality of my soldering burns to my fingers in fact... I am sure it happens to us all at or point or another but there must have been an anti modelling miasma in the air today! Really little CoT looks the absolute business by the way. All the best, Castle

Hi All, I think that there is or at least was a grounded ASMO body on a farm somewhere, I seem to remember seeing a photo. I agree with Paul that the big one is likely to be a DAMO or ASMO although at the acute angle, it may be very difficult the pin it down exactly. I would say ASMO if I was pressed but i will defer to Paul as the expert here. The one at Didcot was preserved in 1970 so at least No. 116954 survived that long. The vans in front also smell very MOGO too as T.S.E. says above. I am very familiar with 81E's version... The good news is that DAMOs and ASMOs are easily built from the Parkside Dundas PYTHON kit - see the link to Little Didcot below! All the best, Castle

Hi Matt, You have been busy haven't you? There is me fiddling with a coach kit and you knock out a whole freight train! It is nice to see some of the non GWR stuff from the Cambrian range. I had a slowing of modellers mojo a little while back and I found that doing the wagons was a simple, quick and easy way to get back into the hobby. They are the model railway equivalent of a quick snack! Keep up the good work - the results are looking really great! All the best, Castle