John Isherwood

Why do you think that they had canvas sides? You'd be glad of them in a bad weather !! Regards, John Isherwood.

No, I think you are. It's a good suggestion, IF the prototype unpowered personnel carriers ran in the UK. What he's suggesting is that the Bachmann motorised materials trailer could be rebuilt as a personnel carrier with it's canvas sides down. Regards, John isherwood.

I think that you are mixing up your metaphors - to pour oil on troubled waters is to calm down the situation, not to make it worse. Sailors poured oil on stormy waters because it was heavier than water and floated, thus reducing the turbulence. I suspect that you mean 'to pour oil on the flames' - which would have been appropriate. Regards, John Isherwood.

Surely we all realise by now that NONE of the model railway manufacturers have control of when they are able to supply models? The Chinese dictate that. We get 'em shortly after Hornby / Bachmann etc. get 'em - it's as simple as that. Just because there's a Christian anniversary thousands of miles across the sea won't cut much ice with the Chinese. That is the way of the world nowadays - get over it !! Regards, John Isherwood.

Probably because you can't mould plastic numberplates that thin? Regards, John Isherwood/

No - the chassis is scale length; to be honest, that's what alerted me to the under-length body moulding. I suspect that this error may have been introduced in order to fit the body onto the proprietary chassis for which it was originally designed. I omitted to mention that the cab moulding is secured to the main loco body by a brass peg through the front of the roof and two 12BA screws, which pass up through the floor into the thickness of the cab back moulding. ..... and rubber British Standard corridor connections have been substituted for the moulded ones, in the interests of accuracy and close-coupling. Regards, John.

Sorry - it's been quite a while since the last update; too many other (non-railway) things to attend to !! Anyway, as a result of several shortish modelling sessions, GT3 now looks like this :- Very noticeable is the two-tone loco body, the result of splicing parts of two mouldings together to make good the 4mm. short length of the moulding as provided. I think that the result is well worthwhile, giving the long, sleek look of the prototype as opposed to the slightly 'dumpy' appearance of the standard moulding. I was fortunate enough to be able to barter for the second moulding, but in the absence of a spare body I would cut the moulding in two; trace the outline of the body section onto 2mm. thick plastic card; and cut out two U-shaped packing pieces. If the packing pieces were slightly undersized on the outside and oversized on the inside one could be superglued to each body section, and the two extended body sections could be fixed together with solvent, in true alignment. The external shallow gap would be filled with Milliput, sanded back flush; and the interior ridge would be cut back flush with a burr mounted in a mini-drill. This view from below shows several recent additions. The tender has had a NEM pocket fitted together with a loco / tender drawbar. The latter is soldered to a length of 2.0mm. ID tube and is secured with a 10BA screw tapped into the frame spacer. I have also used a micro plug and socket to electrically connect the loco to the tender, which latter has had tread-scratcher pick-ups fitted. The front bogie has been fitted with its outside frames, which carry a NEM pocket. The outside frames are fixed to the lower plate of the bogie via 12BA countersunk screws. The bogie mounting / springing arrangements comprise a 10BA screw soldered to a frame spacer, onto which fits a spring attached to 2mm. ID top-hat bearings top and bottom. The lower bearing is actually two top-hats fixed flange-to-flange so as to slide in the slot in the lower bogie plate, and the bogie is retained by a 10BA washer and nut. Body to chassis fixing is via 10BA screws tapped into the body via plastic card / section packing at the rear, and above the rear axle of the bogie. The mechanically complete loco runs very smoothly indeed - most gratifying !! Next - assembling and fitting the body detail etches, I think. Regards, John Isherwood.

I file a narrow V into the vertical flange before bending; a touch of solder restores the integrity of the L section. That said, the majority of my 'layout' carriages - most of which are modified / detailed Tri-ang Hornby and Lima Mk.1s - have square plastic strip truss rods. Regards, John Isherwood.

Ronnie, I don't do any 'general' sheets, my experience of those is that they try and cover everything and are accurate for nothing ! My transfer sheets are all accurate to prototype, which is what most of my customers seem to want. Regards, John.

My thinking on reducing the impact of the trailer load - when the maroon version is released - is to cut away the load; lay clingfilm tightly over the mechanism and trailer inner faces; and spread a thin layer of ballast mixed with diluted PVA over the clingfilm. Once set, the clingfilm could be trimmed back down to the ballast and some tools, etc. glued on top of the ballast. This should be a less obvious disguise for the mechanism than a full-to-overflowing load of moulded ballast. Regards, John Isherwood.

So there is !!! ...... and a photo of the Evercreech Junction trolley B8W !!! I was wondering how to find out the correct number for the one that worked from EJ. The drawing of the trailer will mean that I can check what liberties Bachmann have (necessarily) taken to get the motor in. As I have the unpowered etched trolley and a different syle of trailer, I rather fancy a double-header with two trailers. Thanks, John.

That would explain it !! Regards, John.

For my take on the difficulties of powering the Wickham trolley without using traction tyres - let alone trying to incorporate sound - see #2182099 Regards, John Isherwood.

You are quite correct, sorry. On my screen, the side reflectors looked red - but the sheet doesn't contain red ones! I assume that you have correctly applied the amber ones, as the only other ones are the silver with a white surround, which are intended for the front two. I'll plead that it's many years since I designed that sheet !! The rear transfers are the twin amber / red rectangles - indicators and brakelights. Regards, John. PS. The side reflectors look red on mine, too.

Pedantic, I know - but my interpretation of the various prototype photos, and memories of when plastic reflectors were commonplace, suggests that the round reflectors on the front of the trailers were clear / silver; the side ones were amber / orange; and the rear ones were red. All three types are provided on my transfer sheet for Roadrailers. Regards, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

Only guessing - but perhaps the detailing bag is required to detail a model of the Blue Pullman from an earlier era? Come to that - I don't recall any of the BP reviews referring to details to be fitted by the purchaser - perhaps there wasn't a detail bag? Regards, John Isherwood. Regards, John Isherwood.

Because I - at least - have been there, done that. An etched brass Wickham trolley, with a solid brass section motorised chassis / gearbox, with a solid lead roof and several cast whitemetal permanent way workers, did not have enough traction to do anything but spin its wheels. Plenty of torque; not enough mass. On that basis, I cannot see how a low-sided trailer with power to one axle can possibly propel itself and the trolley, with pick-ups on the unpowered wheels, without traction tyres. In fact, why would Bachmann go to the additional lengths of having grooved wheels produced, and fitted with tiny traction tyres, if the model was perfectly capable of propelling itself without them? By all means dismiss my experiments - but do let us know how you get on with yours, won't you? Regards, John Isherwood. PS. I suspect that you do not appreciate just how tiny this trolley is - just the metal wheels of a Tenshedo SPUD or BLACK BEETLE probably weigh more that the trolley trailer; and SPUDS / BLACK BEETLES are used in models that can accommodate plenty of ballast weight.

You may wish that you hadn't ! Suffice to say that - from personal, and specific, experience in powering a PW trolley in 4mm. scale - you will struggle to avoid wheel-spin WITHOUT traction tyres. (If you doubt me - try reading from post #200 in this thread). ..... and if you succeed - do let me know so that I can copy your methods. Regards, John Isherwood.

Try going back to my post #200 in this thread, and reading on from there. Regards, John Isherwood.

Nothing originating in the UK, I'm sure. It's not one of the Finnish (?) batch of imports which are of a wider gauge than standard, is it ? Regards, John Isherwood.

Well, I take it all back - it doesn't look at all bad !! I've a funny feeling that I shall be reinstating my pre-order. Regards, John Isherwood.

Ten days ago, we left the tender looking substantially complete - but, to my eye it didn't look quite right. Study of the photos in my archive; especially the movie stills posted recently, indicated a number of detail errors. Most obviously, the tender body was too tall by 1.5 - 2.0mm. This was easily dealt with by removing the excess depth from the bottom edges of the tender body moulding, and reprofiling the lower edges. I find that emery boards, as used by the ladies to reprofile their talons, are excellent for use with resin and polystyrene, and they can be bought in bulk at pound stores etc. The trim mouldings on the tender body - the ridges that carry the lining - had noticeable curves along their length, so I scraped them off; straightened the top of the body sides with an Olfa 'scrawker'; reprofiled the tender top edges; and replaced the ridges with 1.0 x 0.375mm. Evergreen strip. The centre transverse rib that runs across the roof was in the wrong place, and I could not find evidence for the front one; all were too heavy, so off they came. Replacements for the centre and rear ones were fitted using the smallest Evergreen rectangular section. The train heating boiler top moulding was filed flush with the roof, and the etched replacement was glued in place. The footsteps / handrails moulded into the body sides were in the wrong place, and were the wrong size. I decided that the easiest way to deal with this was to cut out a 14 x 22mm. section of each bodyside, centred on the correct location for the steps. Two 14 x 22mm. sections of 1.0mm. plastic card were marked out, within which I also marked the step locations. The rectangular step recesses were cut out of the plastic card and tidied up with miniature files, after which the replacement panels were cut out and slightly curved to match the profile of the tender body mouldings. The prepared panels were bonded to 14 x 22mm. backing pieces of 1.5mm. plastic card, also curved to profile. When the laminated panels had dried, the centre grab rails were added to the step recesses using 1.0 x 0.375mm. Evergreen strip, and the top recesses had the vertical grabs added from the same material. Above the step recesses, filler panels of 0.125mm. plastic card were attached. When all was completely dried, the replacement panels were glued into the cut-outs in the moulded tender sides, leaving them a tiny bit proud. All joints etc. were filled with Milliput and left to harden overnight. Next day, the tender side panels were rubbed down so that the replacement sections were completely flush with the rest of the sides. The etched brass window surrounds were glued in place, and the moulded openings filed out to match the etchings. A thinned cast whitemetal British standard gangway was glued to the tender rear and the etched cover fitted; a moulded Pullman gangway was fitted to the front of the tender. Finally, the Gibson tender axleboxes / springs, together with vacuum and steam pipes, were glued in place. That, I thought, was the tender complete apart from fitting a functional coupling, but I've just noticed that I need to add what I take to be the two circular gauges on each lower side. These will be made from brass tube, with Evergreen plastic rod inserted inside. Regards, John Isherwood.

Thanks for going to so much trouble - they do look to have possibilities. Regards, John Isherwood.

You are correct - a little googling confirms that it was the Fowler that I recall. The Vickers Vigor was certainly an imposing beast for its time, though! Regards, John Isherwood.

Not speaking German, could you possibly post a link to these, please? Regards, John Isherwood.