Jack P

All these lovely images of the Q's really put me in a bind; I know PDK does an excellent kit for the Q, but for the past few years I've been holding out hope that one of the RTR guys will announce one - so I can focus my kitbuilding elsewhere. Dave, 531 is truely one of the nicest 00 Q's i've ever seen. Tony is lucky to have such an engine in his collection!

Ah, that's something I hadn't mentioned. I cut off all of the tender drawbar connection stuff and then bent a V into the middle to shorten it, It could do with some tweaking, as it is very close, and could be further apart. The tender pickups are connected via a plug to the loco.

Apologies for posting 3 concurrent times, but I thought each response deserved it's own post. All has not been on hold, I have been working on a few things recently. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. T9 Repainted and renumbered, tender swapped with another T9, to represent a wide splasher 8w tender variant. M7 The cab was pulled out and repainted/weathered, you can see it broke slightly in the lower left corner, but this was hidden when it was re-assembled. A relatively straight forward repaint and renumber. Many pages back (page 5?) I did another loco the same as this one, that was sold when I purged much of my LSWR stock. S15 Repainted/Weathered etc, backdated from the BR condition one. While I had this apart I cleaned all of the oil and grease out of it and re-gauged all of the wheels to OO-FS standards. Much like my other S15 this ones motor is showing signs of giving up. I'd like to replace it with a large mashima or something similar, when I can figure out how to remove and re-attach the flywheel, which drives the loco mechanism. P.O Wagons Two of 6 oxford rail P.O wagons i'm working on, trying to weather them relatively heavily to represent 1947 condition. Both have been renumbered. Lord Nelson Finally got around to weathering this loco, and fitting headcode discs. N15x Nothing crazy - replaced the whitemetal smokebox door with a spare door from my donor H1, looks much better. A1x In the throes of being backdated to 1947 condition. Wheel rims painted and the sides of the pickup keeper plate painted also. I haven't been able to find any transfers, or anyone that's willing to custom make them for me. TMC have advised they will be able to do it, so I'll get it out to them quick smart. Warwell + Sherman This is a Sherman from the 4th NZ Armoured, that saw service in Italy. No idea if this one ever made it home, but it's supposed to represent a post war tank, being moved in 1947 - possibly on it's return from europe. I have weathered the tank, and added the crate on the rear. Chained down to the Warwell, which has also been weathered. I've included some gratuitous photos of the rust effect. H1 Finally, just a bog standard H1, one of the new malachite releases from Bachmann. Gloss varnished with some of the black parts painted a dirty matte colour. Re-gauged to 00-FS and the cab front painted black. Further work still to do.

Recently my family lost my Nana at the grand old age of 91. I credit her almost entirely with my passion and interest in model railways of which she was always supportive. From a young age she allowed me to play with my late grandfathers Marklin locomotives. As I got older, I was allowed to play with Scalextric, various hand tools, firearms, liquor advertising paraphernalia and other exciting things. I believe this kick-started a lifetime of tinkering. Joycelene, you will always be missed. Thank you for everything. I plan to create something railway related to remember her by, but that's for another time.

It took me far too long to figure out what 'Stips' were too, for a different reason though Your suggestion of still images interspersed with the video footage is a good one, and is something that has been suggested a few times already. Watch this space for the next one!

That looks excellent Arun. Looking forward to seeing further progress!

Dave, that 0395 is turning into a real work of art. The more I look at the one i've got, the more I want to scratchbuild replacement parts for it. Brassmasters have a nice Finney tender that could go behind it - one day maybe!

One of my favourite little bits about the Oxford wagons is that you can position the brake lever to set the brakes 'on'. I recently picked up a bunch of the Oxford P.O wagons, spurred on by this I ordered some of the Tank wagons too. Also looking forward to the NER van.

Fantastic Pete, I really want to re-do mine with Gibson wheels, and after seeing your coupling rods - possibly re-do those! Along with the J, Chivers is also set to re-release the D3, which makes for an exciting prospect!

Jeez - definitely doesn't feel like it's been a month since I last posted. I haven't been idle though. A quick side project i've been working on is improving the Youtube videos that I upload and providing some commentary over the video. My first video is below - I'd love some feedback!

Looks like Kernow also have them at RRP, interestingly enough, when I checked my pre-order with Rails, it said the normal DCC ready one was sold out on pre-order, maybe they have some extra allocation and for whatever reason, these ones are in high demand, and are being sold for more? I'm really interested to hear more from people who ordered the Sound fitted one, what's the sound like?

EXCITING! Really looking forward to this.

Oooh, thinking of going EM/P4? I can check the axle dia. later on for you.

Me too!

I use Birchwood Casey (because it's easier to get in NZ than Carrs). I have Brass specific, and something called 'Super Blue' which also darkens the solder. Truffy is close I used to use Roxey couplings exclusively, On the terrier I used the Roxey hooks laminated together, and use Masokits Links. Which will be my standard going forward.

Thank you! The screw coupling was chemically blackened after that, it was just in place as a test fit. The only glaring fault I can find with the Hornby terrier is the join line where the body shell meets the lower half of the boiler, it's not the end of the world, but it certainly does stick out. I really would've liked sprung buffers, but given the odd location, I can understand why they weren't. I'm really smitten with this little loco, and looking forward to getting it finished off and into the fleet. I can see why people end up with multiple iterations of these!

Hey Truffy, I did originally try to use the Bachmann links, but I found they were just stiff enough to uncouple the train. I reverted back to my standard Roxey screw couplings, You could definitely use sprung smiths couplings. You might need to butcher the area behind the coupling pocket to get it to fit, but if you don't plan to use the cammed NEM pocket extensions again - it's moot. You've done a good job fitting the buffers - I often find it's handy to chemically blacken the buffer housings before fitting them, as it provides a good key for the paint. I then paint the whole bufferbeam again in situ.

Thanks for this Tony, my Terrier actually arrived yesterday. Now waiting for the chip, we shall see if it fits! I took the opportunity to take the chassis apart to see how things all went together. While the wheels were out and the coupling rods off, I painted the sides of the pickup plate (not a perfect colour match, but close. I also painted the wheel rims green. She is a gorgeous little engine, and when finished will really break up the monotony of black and green.

Hi David, Those images are really amazing, trawling through them all now. I've also managed to find (in your wonderful thread) an image of a tank on a warflat - just after the cutoff of 1947, which is immensely handy.

Hi guys, I've tried googling, but I haven't been able to find anything overly conclusive. I'm looking for some information on the condition of Private owner wagons in the years immediately after the war, but before BR took over - specifically 1947 What condition were most of them in? What markings/livery did they have? I can't seem to find any photos of them in standard goods trains around this time (although that might be user error). Looking to diversify, so any information is useful! Thanks in advance

@Brocp, have you seen this mate - right up your alley!

OH! I'd forgotten about these ones. My copy is still out on lend. Generally it looks like the shading on the numbers is the same as the letters. I'm still undecided on font style, I think it looks like the numbers on the far right: https://www.fox-transfers.co.uk/sr-maunsell-loco-lettering-numbering-62091 But in gold, with green shading - I would assume that it also has the white upper and black lower shading too? I'm pretty confident there aren't any transfers readily available, so I will explore other options.

Following with interest! I'm sure cost could be brought down if you could bypass the need to purchase a proprietary mechanism to power the units (as good as Hornby's are). How's the SUB coming along?

Has anyone fit a 6 pin Gaugemaster Ruby Chip to one of these terriers, or know if one will fit? It measures 11 x 10 x 3 (mm).

Hi guys, I've got my hands on one of Hornby's 'Brighton Works' terriers, however it's going to need backdating to SR condition, with the running number 377S. None of the available LBSC transfers seem appropriate, in-fact the closest I've got are numbers from the HMRS Maunsell Coach sheet, the only issue is i'm not sure if they're supposed to be gold or yellow. If they're yellow, I can modify an 8 to look pretty close to an S, if they're gold, there's already one provided. I've enquired about having my own transfers made up, but the people i've spoken to so far don't believe it's possible with the photos that are available. Does anyone else have other suggestions? Thanks in advance