Golden Fleece 30

When I did the 0 gauge ones believe it or not it was the easiest loco to do followed by the A4 (over 250 made). I made the patterns to be all hand cut, no etching in those days, and made my own jigs for hand forming all pieces, no machines. I did over 70 different bespoke kits, people sent me a drawing and I cut the parts out in brass for a bodyshell. They did have to source/make their own fittings and chassis etc. Garry

Thanks Nigel the Coronation looks nice as does the green Western but I cannot see me joining just for those. If they had good stocks of DMU motor bogies and a few spoked wheels, especially Britannia centre ones that might be different. Only today I was thinking of some brass Coronation locos. 20 odd years ago I did over 60 in 0 gauge. Garry

Here is my class 33. The original had quite a poor body and paint job. The body sides went in about 3mm at the join. Because I had a spare A1A body I decided to make a new one but still use the roof. The roof has had some different panels added by me and the two "vents" added over the cabs. I did buy the origional mainly as it had two DMU motor bogies used which I thought was cheap, these bogies still had full couplings too. It is a speedy little beast and I know not quite right, especially as the cab fronts should be curved along with the windows but for £32 in total it is perfectly acceptable to me. I am led to believe these were mainly SR based but I have a photo showing D6570 in York in 1962. Garry

Here is Flying Scotsman as it is now awaiting some handrails. The slidebars are a little too high holding the front up a couple of mm's so I will get some new ones etched later keeping these as test ones. They maybe okay for the V2 later. The J50 only needs couplings now then it is finished, I may make attachments to use the standard chassis fixing. Garry

The local paint shop is under a little pressure here. Along with about 8 locos to build there is also a couple more waiting for a Caustic Soda bath before painting then a few need lining with even more waiting for a supply of varnish to appear. Slowly getting along with finishing off a lot of started ones but have taken delivery today of a converted A1A-A1A to a class 33 with 2 DMU bogies which needs a visit to the paint shop one day. Garry

A cheap A1/3 started being made. I say cheap as this is the Atlas model that cost me £3.99, I know there are a lot of short comings with the model but it is a compromise and better than nothing. The footplate took some cutting out as the diecast footplate/frames are the width of Tri-ang wheels, thankfully the plastic body comes of easily. This has been made to fit the Britannia/M-Navy chassis. I know the wheels are under size and not quite the correct spacing etc but it is a quick way of getting an A1/3 cheaply. The smokebox door did not look like an A series class loco but the V2 did so I just used a spare V2 one. The plastic buffer beam was poor and did split while removing it so a nickel one with Tri-ang buffers has been made and fitted. The chassis fits nicely but I am looking at making a little bit better valve gear, I did get a test set of slide bars etc etched a while ago for this project. Hopefully it will be primed tonight and maybe have its green on. Garry

Here are some of the unrebuilt Royal Scots. The green one has the nameplate holder as original like grey one on the right. That was a soldered body so will get a new front splasher as the grey one on the left. This one had its new one soldered in position. None of the tenders were stripped and two need their wheels painting black. They will all have their smoke deflectors fitted when varnished. Garry

Hi David, the nameplate holders I am referring to are the ones that all models have to fix the nameplates to. I know WR locos A3's etc all used brackets but in model terms, especially this small, that is impracticable and without a decent sized piece of metal it is difficult to fasten the plates on. I have no idea why the person filed these down as a King plate is quite large. The GEM unrebuilt Scot has a very small lug which not only is too small to glue a plate too it is set too far back on the splasher to take a nameplate with regiment badge vertical. The plate leans forward from pressing on the boiler. What I have done is make one that fits on the front of cast splasher as I have found that the Scots at least had their nameplate proud of the splasher unlike most locos where it sits on top. I know what you mean about the Tri-ang tender base, it looks low and probably more so now the body is taller. Garry

It is actually the standard Tri-ang top that has had the bottom lip removed and a new base giving the bottom lip glued to the base. This gives the top a slight increase in height allowing a better depth of lining. As it is the Tri-ang tops, which are supposed to be 4000 gal, look too low with a narrow depth on the lining. Mine is only about one and half mm but makes a lot of difference. The extra body height might have made you think the base was low. Garry

Not that Nigel, wheels are standard Tri-ang ones. I think I know what made you say that though. Garry

Getting back to TT proper here is the King as it is now. The chassis is going to give a little concern to fit as Mr Know It All, when assembling the parts after striping, managed to put the main casting for the rear fitting the wrong way around. As this item is screwed in and the roof is above the screws I cannot remove it, the body is all soldered up now. I may be able to grind a little off but most likely will do a chassis mod as well. The loco will hopefully get a satin smoke box and roof later when I get some nameplates. There are three or four options for names from the Kings Cross range. A previous owner had for some reason filed most of the nameplate holder off the casting so I have made some nickel ones and soldered them to the splasher. Does anyone notice something about the Tri-ang tender? Garry

I thought some GER locos were blue, J69, B12?. The blue used from what I heard for the BR steam locos (not the purple shade) was as David said Ultramarine and the best version is RAL 5002 which is what I have used on two Dublo locos and two TT ones. The Merchant Navy earlier in this thread used that shade. I had mine mixed at Halfords before they contracted out paint mixing. To me I prefer BR green on any express loco apart from a Duchess which is better in red, but, I do like the blue on a King, Duchess, M/N and the A1's. I don't think it suits the A3 and 4's. When in Blue then better still with Blood and Custard stock behind. Garry

David, I thought a few (or all ) Kings were painted blue in early BR days not just preservation? I did not like the MT lining on them though as in this photo. You might not want to see mine when finished lol Just waiting for some nameplates now. Garry

I think there were various changes as some more photos seem to show higher and lower "joins". I did read in preservation that 4" were taken off and I guess some might have had the odd alteration in BR days. Garry

Hi Nigel, I know it is hard to compare on a photograph due to the low angle but these two Kings look to have about a 50/50 difference of black to copper, certainly not noticeably shorter as such. What I did find was the double chimney ones were but not the single ones. Garry

I have just acquired a set of Worsley works Britannia valve gear and wondered if anyone had any instructions? I can work out most of it but the valve gear brackets are taking some thought as the fold lines seem to be the wrong direction. I am guessing the crossheads have a top piece soldered on which the slidebars then fit around before soldering up. Garry

Thanks David, It may help if I do something else but at the moment I will have to leave this chimney as is, it took a lot of doing so I am unlikely to do another in a hurry lol. Chimneys on WR locos seem strange, the drawing you sent might be similar to the height of the whitemetal one but photos always seem to show them taller. It is like the Castle one which on the TT model matches the dia but just looks to narrow. Maybe all this is because I am not a WR fan. You were lucky to see all the Kings even though with double chimneys, I never saw any WR steam loco until in preservation, same with Scots and Duchess's. Garry

While assembling the parts from the WR King loco I had thoughts about the chimney. To me the original whitemetal one looks too small so I decided to have a go at making a proper copper one. I may try to thin down the lip onto the smokebox but it is not easy trying to hold and file it, a thinner washer would have helped but none in stock. So far to me it looks better anyway. It was mainly all guess work and I have another to do but I will probably change my method to see if I can clean it up easier. Garry

Here are my 08 repaints with an original. Garry

A couple of tests using the smokebox numbers. Not quite as I had hoped but better than nothing and at £1 for all them I cannot complain. Just need to try to get around the edges. Garry

After a couple of minutes in the Caustic Soda this is what the two Royal Scots and the King looks like. You can tell which body was of soldered construction. The other two will be soldered soon. Previously I had been trying to put individual 1mm transfers on the smokebox's which was a pain so I thought about getting some printed. Here is a set I had done, which maybe could have been larger but I will see how one or two look. These are on self adhesive paper and should be fine after varnishing. I also tried some Hornby Dublo neverwazza overlays from Ebay. Unlike the Merco ones these do not have any wrap around as they were intended for a corner to corner join. I thought it better to have a wrap around so painted matt black on each end before scanning then getting printed hopefully in TT scale to fit the Tri-ang chassis. Garry

Here are the Kings Cross Royal Scot nameplates which arrived today. After cutting out the M/N's I am hoping these will be easier. There are 5 sets of plates but at the moment I have 3 unrebuilt Gem Scots and 1 unmade Kitmaster to do so a spare set just in case. Apart from 46109 I have not made my mind up about what names to use on which locos, 46109 is already painted and numbered in BR green. Also the start of renaming some Britannias is on the go but I don't think I will be repainting these. The quality of etching for these plates is superb. Garry

Hi David, Your edited post must have gone on the same time as mine as I did not see it before coming out, I am in Tesco having a tea while Jackie is shopping. I miss Tandy but did not know Maplins was going! The belt drive is home made I guess, there is some emery cloth glued to an axle, for grip I imagine, but will only need a very short elastic band for now. The model is something I will keep from its novelty but not what I would have made. I will see if I can get into it tonight. I think the band is what keeps the wheels in as at the moment they just drop out. The chassis is two Tri-ang ones cut up. The owner was probably thinking of the Park Royal type rail bus. Music wise our little 6 year old has grown up with 50's and 60's music so it is normal for her lol Garry

Hi Robert, It was all one win as a job lot collection. A mint boxed signal gantry and a mint green wagon sold on Ebay recently with a combined price for more than I paid for all this lot. No worries about the hob, it was stone cold by the time I got back from picking it all up in Stratford upon Avon. I did take a suitcase to put it all in. Hi David, Correct, it is the SNCF tender but without its top. I did get a mint boxed pair last year for under a tenner the pair with the view to using the chassis for a King Arthur tender but will keep those and use this one instead. As you say the locos are not often seen on Ebay, but, there was the loco in the job lot I missed out on. There were only two lots the other included 2 boxed prairies, two boxed A1A's, the SNCF loco, a dirty 3 car DMU, couple of Jinty's about 10 wagons and few less coaches. I got the best lot as I wanted the one with the kit locos not knowing about some of the other goodies. The Peco wagons will stay as they are but most of the others (not all obviously) will be used for the Litho prints ones I have done with some more variatians hopefully. There are some Dublo ones on Ebay and I have bought 6 to see if they can be scaled down and used on the Tri-ang chassis's. Some of the Bolster wagons are rough but they all have underframes that can be used on my good ones that have theirs missing. Garry