Jack P

Ooooh, I don't have 43 - I've just discovered Crecy's website.. a dangerous time. I've got the History of Southern Wagons, and just recently got my hands on 'Southern Coaches Survey', I think, after your recommendation! The Bradley Series are on my list! Thanks for the suggestions guys - keep 'em coming!

Very useful Bryan, I'm a huge fan of books of that nature too! I'll keep my eye out. I know it was me who asked for recommendations, but my own suggestions in the same vein (if you haven't read them) but 'Footplate days on the Southern' By H. Norman, and 'On the Footplate' by John Drayton are both fantastic!

Bryan, Sorry to hear about the loss of enthusiasm, It happens to all of us i'm sure! The shunting layout looks fantastic, as does your new set up. Looking forward to seeing more progress!

A couple of photos of the N15x at the model club. The lighting there isn't great, coupled with low winter sun and lots of shadow, means these have all come out a little dark. I've adjusted the brightness with the flickr editor, but i'm still not convinced. Thanks almost entirely to DLT, she runs perfectly and the whitemetal body means there is absolutely no risk of traction issues. However, the clubs layout's track poses an issue, with all that weight on the drivers every bump and rough join make her bounce and jump around. I even broke a screw coupling on one of my coaches - very prototypical. The DCC layout has slightly better tracklaying so once she's chipped i'll see if that goes any smoother. I've also upgraded the bookshelf and it's looking very empty. Does anyone have any Southern book recommendations? (i'm making my way through the southern way series at the moment)

The Southern, in all it's green glory, had a few very oddly proportioned locos, the LCDR R1 jumps out as another one that for some reason, to me, doesn't quite look right. Thanks to a kind member on here, I have an SECR J in the pile to build.

The whole thing is expertly built and looks fantastic, but that front end captures the look of the prototype perfectly!

Following with interest.

I'm looking forward to having a little bean of a loco equipped with sound! DCC is still a relatively new thing for me, so the sound element is still very new and exciting!

A mate of mine actually sprung for one of these stations in order to build a mechanical keyboard, I was a bit put off by the bright yellow and blue, but after seeing it in action I decided to put aesthetic to the side. I agree about the tips too, they're cheap enough that you could slowly build up a range of different ones for different applications!

I took the plunge and ordered one! A 1.4L tank, dimensions pretty similar to Dave's one. If anyone is interested - it's this one specifically Appreciate the insight!

Will do my best to update you as I go! So far it's just been lots of filing down to get the right height! Good to hear from you Pete! I was browsing your R1 build thread today. I thought for the money it was pretty good, I managed to get it for approx £100 inc 4 tips, cheapest one I could find!

Hi Bryan Did you manage to make any more progress with either the R1 or the L?

Now that's done, what's next? Well During the 2 years since I'd started on the N15x I also made a start on a few other loco kits. An 0395, K class, I3, and most recently the W. I also have a Wainwright E, ex-SECR J and SR R1 lurking unstarted in the wings. My aim, among the other projects is to get these locos finished off in order of most built to least. Top of the pile is the I3, a project i'd abandoned as I was unhappy with a few proportions of the smokebox door. I nabbed the 3D printed door from the 3D printed I3 that I've got - it's almost too far the other way, and the door is a fraction too big, but I think it looks better than being too small. The plan is for this loco to be either 2078 or 2027 - as from what I can tell, neither of these locos had the pumps on the fronts of the tanks This is her current condition. I've got a replacement chassis on the way from SEF. this will be modified to make the whole loco sit a little bit lower. I'm thinking about trying to add some compensation to the rear pony truck, but not quite sure how yet. My new Hakko iron arrived recently, I've only had a small play around with it, but going from a 35W iron to a 65W iron is a real night and day difference. The quality of this iron is also much higher than the previous one. Happy, happy! I'm looking forward to really breaking it in. Finally, I did some weathering for a friend, A 700 from the Dunkirk train pack. That's all for now, I hope to have more kit adventures to update soon!

A friend of mine has also had 2, and both have gone back. Fingers crossed my BR one doesn't need to go back! @Edwardian What a fantastic collection of LBSC liveried locos!

Oh boy! Dave that really looks the business! Tony will be hugely pleased i'm sure. I appreciate the insight on the ultrasonic cleaner - i've been meaning to get my hands on one for a while now, do you find the 1.4L tank to be too big/small or about right?

A real wealth of information - the man in malachite if you will! Indeed! I thought it was an interesting variation. Now that I've done the numbers, it makes me wish they'd put SOUTHERN on the tender too!

Yep! The first that i've built (mainly) myself - Hopefully definitely the first of many! Thanks for the kind words! It's taken a very long time though, how long did your first loco take?

You're speaking to one of the largest pedants - I found this photo (when looking for those photos of the Departmental stock I sent you) https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=96956&search=Southern+railway+breakdown+crane&page=2 I then created a thread looking for info, and embarrassingly, was referred back to a thread I had started earlier about the same thing! From what I gather, yeah, it was a thing, but I haven't found many photos to prove it!

Plus a crew, coal, tools, weathering, Ray - much like half my fleet! I use the term 'Finished' loosely

Ah, thanks so much guys. It feels a bit like a team effort, I got a lot of support, help, advice from you all (especially Dave!), I don't think the end result would've been the same without it. I also managed to squeeze in another quick project over the weekend, and changed the numbers on my WD to sunshine style ones. She still needs the fire iron holder on the other side of the tender, after which she will be heavily weathered! Here's another cheeky photo of 'Beattie' - Just cause! JP

A couple of pages back Tony asked about lockdown projects. This isn't so much a lockdown project specifically, but thanks to the flexible working afforded to me because of the lockdown, I was able to 'finish' my 2 year + project. I recognised early on that the butchered parts for the motion bracket (they came this way when I purchased the kit from ebay) and associated complexity to build the motion was a bit beyond my abilities at the time, being my first kitbuilt loco. Instead of rendering this a static model, or resigning it to a box for decades it went off to @DLT who (not without some head scratching) built the motion and associated parts, along with adding pickups and getting the loco running under its own power (he also kindly included some drain-cocks which I ended up using). My immense thanks to Dave for all his help. I'm certainly a bit more confident now, and while I maybe wouldn't be able to achieve that same result (yet), i'll certainly be building the motion for my future projects! She's a bit of a mixed-media kit, using a Hornby tender, and bits from the spares box from various RTR models (chimney, sanding gear, cab details among others), possibly not the typical way to build a kit, but it's the way I built it. Here she is, Southern N15x 2331 'Beattie' in 1947 condition. Since taking these photos the fire iron bracket in the tender, and vac pipe on the rear have been attached. She's not perfect by any means, and there are things I would change if I was to build this again - BUT, I had an absolute blast researching, building and finishing her, I'm unashamedly proud of the finished product. Plus i've learnt so much, and it's cemented kit-building as a staple for me.

Bump

It's only taken 748 days.. I spent some unreasonably long hours over the last few days getting her 'finished', but now that i've taken a video and some photos I can see a few things that need doing. I'm happy that finally, FINALLY, she's ready for the road. I'd really like to thank @DLT for helping with the motion and chassis, she runs like a Swiss watch. I can't wait to get out to the model club and give her a good run. She'll be chipped eventually. A brief post today, but thanks for reading!

I suppose the irony there is that I started that thread too! It clearly pays to always check, and then check again! Thank you both for your input!

Hi again, I came across this interesting image of 77296 at Ashford shed. It's undated, but I wonder if anyone can help me narrow down the timeframe that 77296 was allocated to the southern and when it was most recently shopped. https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=96956&search=Southern+railway+breakdown+crane&page=2 I'm trying to figure out when the sunshine numerals (which is what they look like to me) were applied to the cab, and if there is any record of this being done to other SR allocated WD's. Specifically interested in 1947 info Thanks in advance!