Castle

Hi M.I.B., I am sure that I speak for us all here when I say that I am glad to hear that you are back in Blighty and in one piece! I am going brass with my 72XX so I will get into that one sometime next year. I have a Toad roof to weather and a guard figure to paint (again - made a mess of it the first place!) to finish of No. 17447. Might get to see to that in the next few days. I too have a Comet full brake to build next - one of my Xmas presents I am told - but mine will be a K42 that will get converted to a K41 (new gutters mainly!). I hope you will post your build of the K40 for us to enjoy and learn from as I have one to build to represent No. 111. No Dukedog for me - the Bluebell, not Didcot got that one... Looks like a great little model though! Many thanks for the kind comments about the thread! All the best, Castle

Hi All, No picture of this one but it makes me smile when I think about it. We parked up next to (of all things) a sludge gulper drain cleaner ceptic tank emptying type truck when we pulled up to go into our local DIY store. It looked quite shiny and it had a number of special badges fixed to it. The manufacturer of said machine was obviously celebrating a quarter century in business and to do this in style, each of these badges had the following proudly displayed upon them: Taking your cr*p for 25 years... All the best, Castle

Hi Andy, Quite right too - the locomotives used in preservation at 81E are the little ones but, as I said earlier, the locomotive in use was the shed pilot. This could have been almost anything that was in steam and in the right place at the right time to be conscripted for duty so the use of a Hall in place of nothing more suitable is quite reasonable I suppose! I love the picture of 4900 by the way - in many ways the most interesting of the Halls as the prototype and ex Saint. It is interesting that the Stars were converted to Castles quite a lot but only this one Saint became a Hall... That is a discussion for another place however! All the best, Castle

Hi Matt, That looks like another quality job good sir - I look forward to seeing some paint on it! All the best, Castle

Hi Keith, Yes - most certainly, the 10 cwt tubs have been extensively refurbished and are still in use today. There are two types - one with a front that opens right up for tender locos and one with a narrow door that is used on tank engines. There are quite a few so they are usually charged by one of the volunteers before show time. In steam days there were 15 of them on shed. The smaller locos at Didcot do go up the slope (especially as there are only have 2 coal wagons!) but it is only the smaller steam (Panniers at most) and the diesel shunters. There is a picture in the book Laira Fireman that shows No. 1363 on the ramp at the afore mentioned shed. The loaded loco coal wagons were in a coupled rake of five and pushed right to the buffers at the top of the bank. Therefore, here was no room for a locomotive in the 'shed' section. They went up the bank, propelled by the shed pilot loco, as far as was needed to unload them so there was no need to put a loco inside. I think there is a plate to tell you not to let locos in on the wall but I am not sure... They were then let down on the handbrake individually under gravity as they were emptied. A warning that the loaded tub of coal was due was given by the coal crew by either tapping the metal floor or the water tank feed pipe. There were instances of runaways from the stage - fairly frequently according to Bernard Barlow in his book Didcot Engineman (darn good read!) and to prevent these causing anything other than the requisite mischief, a trap point is fitted near the bottom of the bank. We don't want coal wagons ending up at Paddington now do we?! The thing to remember is that ALL the coal on the Western was hand shovelled from its humble beginnings to the demise of steam in the mid 1960s. 15 to 20 tons per day per man. That is a lot of lives spent shovelling coal... All the best, Castle

Hi Neil, Thanks for the kind words - much appreciated! It may be a GWR thread but as you can see from reading through it, visitors from all regions and eras are most welcome. The same can be said of the real 81E too! All the best, Castle

Hi All, Yet more maintenance tips from Little Didcot... So, you want to remove the body from your Bachmann Pannier? As a Christmas treat for you all, this is how you do it in real life... The front is attached via a series of bolts that connect it to both the frames and the cylinder block. These all have to come out. One or two might be stubborn! The firebox rests on a pair of slides - one either side - and has a clamping strip (the bit resting on the running plate) called the holding down bracket. The tanks are already off as this has to be done outside and therefore we are going to start the process by removing the cab roof. A few bolts need loosening first... ...and then chain up and lift it off with a 50 ton hoist. The cab roof is swung out of the way using the hoists 6 ton auxiliary hand driven crane. It will make your pannier look a bit like the early cabless version or ever so slightly Dean Goods, so Stephan may well be tempted to start modifying at this point but we must resist! You then give your boiler a little tug with the main hoist at the front end to loosen its grip on the front of the frames. A block of wood is placed in to prevent it all going back together again. Then you set up the strops so that you lift around the boilers centre of gravity is taken into account and the greater weight of the firebox is taken into account. Then lift away, ensuring that you have a pair of ropes on the smokebox end to control any swinging that may happen. You then need to push the locos frames out of the way. Make sure they are completely out of the way before attempting the next step. Then, carefully lower your boiler into position onto an awaiting boiler trolley. Maintenance and repairs can then ensue! The reason for the boiler lift is to perform some repairs to stays in the lower firebox throat plate. Unfortunately, the stays that need attention are exactly in line with a frame stretcher in the locomotive that means there is literally no access unless you take the boiler right out like this. Of all the places we could have needed to work on in the pannier firebox, this is one of the worst from the point of view of access! It took a gang of about ten people around 3 1/2 days to reduce No. 3738 to the point whereby the pannier tanks could be lifted off. It took an afternoon, 4 people and one of the small mobile 5 ton shunting cranes operating outside to lift the tanks off and there was a further day spent today with about ten of us to get the boiler out safely and on the trolley. The repairs and reassembly is hoped to be completed in a few months time. No. 3738 will return to active duty very soon. Well, back to the 4mm scale world tomorrow hopefully! All the best, Castle

Hi Polly and Mike, Yes, that is a Hawksworth tender on No. 6967 Polly. The flat sides and frame cut outs are the give away so well spotted! The other two common types you are likely to see on the GWR 4-6-0s are 3,500 gallon Churchward style (these have shorter sides, short flares around the top of the sides and have a couple of different flavours of frame designs). The other is the Collett 4,000 gallon as being pulled by No. 7015 in your first picture. These have the flares around the top as per the Churchward ones but they are higher up on when measured against the cab sides when compared to the 3,500s and the flare goes further along the top edge of the tender front to back. There are, of course, many exceptions to these basic rules (the Hawksworth tenders on the 10XX Counties were special ones being 6" wider than the stock version for example) but this will get you started on that most geeky of pursuits - GWR tender spotting! On No. 7015 (double chimney and mod cons fitted 28/5/59) the mechanical lubricator was fitted aft of the steam pipes on the driver's side running plate. In a shot of No. 7029 that is probably from when she had the mod cons fitted in 1959, the lubricator is in the forward position. Not a big deal to fix at all though and the rest of the loco will be a match. It is probably worth looking to see if there is a double chimney, Collett tender Castle with the lubricator in the rearward position in the Hornby releases before buying just to save a bit of work though and as the release of No. 7029 you quote is sound fitted it is therefore more expensive. I don't know if you want sound at all but if not then there is a saving to be had. If it helps at all Polly, the 'easy' way to tell the difference between Halls and Modified Halls (other than the number - No. 4900 to 6958 = Hall, No. 6959 onwards = Modified Hall) is that the bogie on the older Halls is the De Glen open or bar frame style and the Modified Halls & Counties have solid plate frame bogies. Again, lots of other subtleties besides but this will get you started! I hope this helps! All the best, Castle

Hi Rich, Not to be forgotten is the immortal: "The computer says no!" I must admit that my local Halfords is pretty good too and keeps the modelling essentials in stock almost without fail. I wonder how much of Halfords paint ever goes near a car? I think that us modellers must make up a goodly slice of the market and what with the hoodies, louts and other assorted graffiti 'artists' (and I use that term in absence of one that means disgusting oik that draws on other people's stuff and makes the place look untidy) it must be one, maybe two cans in ten! All the best, Castle

Hi All, Thanks for all the likes people - much appreciated! Kev: you should have worked out by now that the severity of the personal need for any given commodity in a large chain store scales exactly as to how little will be on the shelf when you get to the chosen emporium and / or how difficult it is for them to get hold of if there is no more on said shelf. This will usually be accompanied by said vendor's employee sucking air over their teeth and saying "well, you might have a problem there"... Its all down to a guy called Murphy I think! All the best, Castle

Hi All, Putting the warts on the toad. The build of little No. 17447 continues! Now, I have pottered here and there over the week end and being a dozy twit, I shot a coat of white primer over the model without taking photos of the rest of the progress. Oh well - stupid is as stupid does... The first bit was to finish off the detail on the verandah. The brake setter and gauge came from a spare whitemetal 14XX back head that came with the detail kit I used to make little No. 5572 auto fitted. It has slowly had little bits chopped of to do various jobs and is looking pretty hacked about now! The pipe is a strand of copper wire from some cooker grade cable an the handle is a bit of fret from some etched detail kit or other. If you are anything like me, you will have a bag of these squirrelled away for just such a purpose! The sanding lever comes from the Frogmore etch but is actually the fret from the outside as the etch only provides the lever for the rear boxes. A little trim and a bit of work to shape the handle end and away we go! The etched running boards are also Frogmore items and I tried fitting them as is and it was a pain - I kept knocking them off! Then I realised that the way I was trying to fit them was wrong and that the middle two hangers are different on the AA21 Toad... Again, using old fret gave me the material to make the new straight hangers in the middle and the two outer ones were fitted into rather than under the sole bars. They are fixed in place and much more difficult to knock off now! The roof also needed the end frame adding to it as the moulded one met its maker (or rather the floor) in a rather frustrating accident. I was hoping to have at least the coloured layer of paint on by the end of today but the matt black cans I had in the cupboard were BOTH empty - Grrrrrr! Never mind, we will have another go at painting tomorrow once I have been to Halfords! All the best, Castle

Hi All, Hi to Nigel - thanks for looking in! That is a blast (or an answer) from the past! Still, good to get an answer none the less - cheers! On to modelling matters. This is the end... ...well of my fitted freight train anyway. The Toad is a symbol of the GWR in the same way that panniers and copper capped chimneys are. The single ended verandah design dates back to the 1880s. The AA21 Toads are of the fitted variety and were built during the Second World War as part of a government contract. After the conflict, they settled down to normal service use until union pressures eventually forced these and several other older designs on brake van out of use. No. 17447 was built in 1940 to Diagram AA.21, as part of Lot 1370. This particular Toad was saved by David Rawlinson as part of a small cache of ex GWR / BR(W) vehicles that were initially based at Steamport, Southport and later at Preston Dock. On his death they were bequeathed to the Great Western Society and found their way to the Railway Age at Crewe in March 2004 where restoration was started by the GWS North West Group. No. 17447 came to 81E in October 2008 where it is high on the list of priorities of the wagon group not least because it will enable visitors to partake in both brake van rides and widen the scope of the visitor participation events to include guard experiences too with the added comfort and safety of the use of a fully fitted freight vehicle. To build No. 17447 I started with the good old and most ubiquitous Ratio kit and go from there. It is vaguely (!) to one of the AA20 something diagrams. So things that need doing include: 1 A Dart Castings vacuum cylinder needs putting in the end of the verandah. 2 The clasp brake gear needs detailing and converting to vacuum operation. 3 Frogmore etched hand rails and running boards. 4 train pipe and vacuum setter on the veranda. 5 Frogmore etched sanding levers. 6 a general refinement of the detail. I have put an interior on a 4mm scale Toad before but the windows are so small, it really isn't visible. A dose of matt black on the inside will soon take care of any requirement for that sort of thing! The bits look like this. The first order of business is to get the chassis running so floor, sole bars, bearings, brakes and wheels were united. Due to the way the kit is designed, the usual large lump of Castle related laziness that is building the thing in 3 bits to be sprayed three different colours just won't work. It is the only non etched kit that has defeated me this way. Oh well, out with the masking tape I suppose... The next job is to get rid of the moulded handrails on the body sections. It took quite a while gently trimming, scraping and avoiding fingers (!) so I won't bore any more than I do normally and I will just show you a before and after shot. I then built the wagon up. Verandah end first... ...and then the main body. I then added the etched lamp irons, trying to avoid doing the handrails. I then did the little door handles on the verandah, still trying to avoid doing the big square handrails. Then it struck me - the etched Frogmore handrails come in a size large enough to do the tricky end bits of the main handrails - all I had to do was fill in the long sections. To tell you the truth, I will only know if this looks good after I have painted it but nothing ventured, nothing gained! A set of Mr Franks' finest whitemetal buffers were also fitted to the ends and the holes made for the scale couplings. The inside of the verandah then gots the various bits and pieces fitted to it. This includes the sandboxes, the etched sandbox levers & linkages, a whitemetal vacuum cylinder (funny positioning on this one isn't it?), handbrake and a nice planked effect styrene floor. Still to do is the sanding lever and the brake setter on the cabin end of the verandah, the etched running boards, the roof and its uprights and a whole pile of little odds, ends and paint... Once more unto the workbench my friends, once more... All the best, Castle

Hi Polly, No problem! The full page on No. 1466 is here: http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/locos/1466/1466.html Each of the locos, coaches and wagons in the GWS collection has its own page like this one, some of them - like No. 1466s - is quite detailed, others not so but it is a great source of information that will develop over time and as the website itself develops. Go to the Didcot Railway Centre website and click on the link to Centre Guide and you will end up here: http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/guide/map.html Then click on either Locomotives, Coaches or Wagons in the menu on the left for a full list of the collection. Then click on the number of the vehicle you are interested in for more information and photos. It's a great resource and free for everyone to use. I hope this helps! All the best, Castle

Hi All, While the date for the end of producing red bodied lamps has been quoted, with a system as large as the GWR you can be sure that it would have been a while before the red lamps were completely purged from it. Hence 14XX No. 1466 (or 4866 as she was then - the 14XX number sequence wasn't used until after 1946) could well have carried red lamps for a brief time. We as modellers forget - as do we preservationists - that while there are hard and fast dates for things no longer being produced or painted that colour, it was only after the various things / vehicles / whatever were used up / sent for overhaul / scrapped / whatever that the particular thing or livery ended. Some locos went longer than others without repairs or were deemed as less important so were not repainted. Despite an outbreak of late lined BR passenger green in preservation, No. 1466 never made it out of unlined BR black with ferret and dartboard in service... http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/locos/1466/1466pic_02.html At the end of the day they were running a business and / or a transport network - all of our beloved heritage age machines were nothing more than tools for doing a job. All the best, Castle

Hi Les, You have a engendered a great sense of time and place in your layout and there are dozens of little cameos there to be enjoyed without being contrived - a very hard balance to meet. It all feels quite 'natural'. I particularly like the scenes around the loco shed - as a volunteer at Didcot, I can relate to a great deal of it so you must be doing it right! Brilliant stuff - keep posting! All the best, Castle

Hi Neil, I guess it falls to me to say that OIL be back with another one soon. Coat on and heading out of door... All the best, Castle

Hi Ray, The windows are just a bit of blister packaging - mine came off some 9v batteries! The advantage here is that as it has been vacuum formed to make the blister, if you pick you area within the forming it is nicely thin! Deluxe Materials Glue 'n' Glaze is the adhesive of choice - nowt better in my humble opinion! I look forward to seeing little No. 1466 (Mk. 2) in all its glazed and weathered finery soon! All the best, Castle

Hi All, Tanks a lot! I will apologise about the post sub heading immediately... The one type of wagon that was not very prevalent in the GWR stock book was that of tankers. These tended to be very much private owner vehicles and while the GWR did build some of its own, they were not in huge numbers. These private owner vehicles were built by a number of independent manufacturers and this is represented at Didcot by tanker No. 745. No. 745 was built in 1912 by Hurst Nelson and company in their huge works at Motherwell, Scotland. They had various claims to fame as rolling stock manufacturers including vehicles for both the Glasgow Subway and the London Underground. They also made tram cars as well as a vast range of other railway vehicles. No. 745 is a fairly standard 4 wheel 10 ton capacity class B oil products carrier. It was used by the Anglo American Oil Company to transport its brand of Royal Daylight Lamp Oil. This later became rebranded as ESSO. No. 745 is restored to its Royal Daylight Livery and is an important reminder of where this still important rail based traffic originated all those years ago. Little No. 745 is based on a Bachmann RTR wagon that I bought very reasonably from my local train fair. Some care was taken to get the one with the correct arrangement of tank strapping. Some simple research on this great site: http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/index.htm#bash (See the line side industries pages for the oil company stuff) revealed that there were a couple of option for post war class B ESSO 4 wheel tankers. Given that the likelihood of me finding a picture of No. 745 in the correct time period was at best minimal and really very unlikely indeed, I did what any good railway preservationist does and picked the livery that I liked the best! I am not saying it did carry the livery, just that it could have done... The model got a cross bar in the brake gear and had a pair of scale three link couplings My favourite out of the black post war liveries on the above site was the ESSO large logo one and as Modelmaster did these in 4mm scale I re sprayed my tanker satin black and ordered a set. The large transfers were great but required a lot of setting solution to get them to conform to the tanks curves and rivets. To get an idea of where the logos and grime goes i took a look at Paul Bartlett's (HMRSPaul of this parish) excellent wagon photo site (I probably don't need to post this link but still, for the benefit of any newbies reading this, go and have a look): http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/ A dose of matt varnish, weathering and a final coat of matt varnish to seal in all that grimy goodness resulted in the filthy wagon model shown in the photographs! Well, as I have another 3 (4 if you count the ROTANK) tank wagons still to do, I am going to think up some more tank related puns... All the best, Castle

Hi Colin, Thanks for the compliments! The LMS vans were fun to do - it is always nice to step away from your comfort zone and do something a little different. With the help of my RMWEB friends, this little trip 'off region' was easilly accomplished. I don't think that I would have been so confident that I would have got it right otherwise. All the best, Castle

Fair enough MIB! I will put a teaser up later tonight (or tomorrow if I find that I haven't got the prototype pictures that I think I have!) in the shape of little No. 745 and then I will find a bit of rolling stock to build. I am in the mood for a short project this time so it looks a bit like a wagon is on the cards... Thanks for the compliments! All the best, Castle And I WILL do those auto trailers!

Hi All, Thanks again to everyone pushing that little like button - it is appreciated! Chris: Thanks! I am glad to hear little 1361 is coming on well. The handrails are a little bit of a swine aren't they? I hope to see her here and on your workbench thread very soon. As to what's next - well, not sure. I have also just completed a repaint of a Bachmann P/O tank wagon to represent my version of No. 745 which I will post here later in the week but the next big build? Hmmm... Well I do have all the bits to do my avatar locomotive now, the etched kits to build the breakdown train vehicles and a whole host of wagons to do as well. I MUST spend some time painting a few passengers too as I still haven't finished Hawksworth auto trailer No. 231 or painted No. 190 (the Collett version) either. Anyone got a preference as I don't really mind? Rich: There is always one isn't there? Cheers! All the best, Castle

Thanks All! Adrian - I am convinced that there are dark forces in the universe that wish to prevent people undertaking any act of railway modelling - it is the same bunch of pixies or gremlins that rush out and steal any small and vital component that I drop on the floor... Stefan - cheers! I look forward to seeing the results of your Edwardian prairie adventure finished. She looks great thus far! All the best, Castle

Hi All, And finally... Thanks for the compliments and likes along the way on this journey everyone. The epic build of little No. 1363 is at long last done! Held up not only by a busy time elsewhere in life but also by the fact that for some inexplicable reason, when I reassembled the chassis it refused to move! I did the decent thing and carefully stripped it down again, checked everything with the multi meter cleaned it, oiled it up and reassembled her. THREE times. For reasons best known unto itself however, on the final reassembly it went without hesitation. Grrrrrrr! I tried to replicate the look shown here in this brilliant picture taken of her on Laira Depot, Plymouth 27th June 1962 that shows her in a work stained but looked after type condition: http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/locos/1363/1363pic_old.html Oh well, alls well that ends well and it lives again! Here are a few terrible and cruel shots of my latest fumbling efforts. Firstly the cab interior. The windows need to have the larger overlap at the bottom as there is very little space to fix to the top due to the way the roof clips in. Little of this can be seen in any case but I have left the roof removable in case the driver or fireman figure ever gets knocked off their feet and requires glueing in again. The fireman takes a rest from his task to vaguely attempt to clean himself with an oily cotton waste rag. His tools on the bunker rack await the end of the day as does the bucket that he will fill from the pep pipe with hot water to allow himself and his driver to scrub up before heading home for a bath and their suppers. The driver meanwhile glances over at the pressure gauge to ensure that his mate isn't slacking. He is right on the mark and ready for the off - there is a lot of shunting to do today! Here is a shot that sums up the cheeky 'Thomas' like character of these engines. Not a million mile away from Percy (the GWS' No. 1340 Trojan is reckoned to be the good Reverend's influence here) is she?! Well, there we go another locomotive for the Little Didcot roster completed. All the best, Castle PS: Rich B. and Ray will be pleased to know that no shelves were harmed in the production of this locomotive...

Hi Kelly, Good to hear from you again - sorry to hear you have been unwell. My other half has been hospital type unwell over the last few months so I have every sympathy with you and your condition. Keep posting and let us all know how you are getting on! All the best, Castle

Hi Phillip, If you have the latest version of PhotoShop then there is a tool to stitch photographs together. I have used it in the past and it is VERY easy to do. I have of course forgotten how to do it since but I seem to remember using a You Tube tutorial and it being next to impossible to get wrong! You could then get it commercially printed in one sheet. Not my era or scale at all but the quality of the scenic modelling here is top notch - well done! I hope this helps! All the best, Castle