John Isherwood

Two K3s and a BoB at Asda, Bodmin - if anyone's looking for them. Regards, John Isherwood.

Bs? On coaches? Sure you don't mean wagons? Regards, John Isherwood.

Larry, I strongly suspect that the darkening of carmine over grey undercoat, as opposed to the lighter shade when applied over cream, mimics the prototype; (though not perhaps for precisely the same reasons). Non-corridor and NPCCS stock would not, I am sure, have received the same standard of substrate preparation and paint application as the prestige corridor stock - especially at repaints. Furthermore, the overall carmine livery would have endured an altogether more rigorous existence that the carmine and cream stock. Close examination of colour photos over the years - including a few with both liveries in the same photo - plus my rapidly fading personal recollections, suggest that the 'muddier' aspect of the non-corridor / NPCCS stock was widespread. That said, I have at least one photo of ex-works stock in overall carmine, and carmine and cream, in the same image - it has to be said that there is little, if any, difference in the ex-works colour. I model early 1960s, so my carmine and carmine / cream stock is limited, and represents well-used vehicles. For what it's worth I apply Halfords grey primer to non-corridor / NPCCS stock, and clear primer followed by overall Phoenix BR Coach Cream to corridor stock. I use Cherry Paints (available from Phoenix) BR Faded Crimson for carmine on all stock. The results exactly match Metr0land's photos above and are, to my eye, what is illustrated in colour photos and in my limited memory of the prototype. Regards, John Isherwood.

Chris, Try partially countersinking the face of the cranks and re-soldering. Filing flush pretty much removes all of the solder that you have applied; countersinking will allow some solder to remain to lock the crank to the axle when you file flush. Make sure that the quartering and running clearances are spot on before soldering - if there is any binding the crank / axle joint will be under considerable strain. Regards, John Isherwood.

Simon, See https://www.ultrascale.com/eshop/products/CAT015#RTRRG Scroll down to "Worm and Wheel gear sets (0.4 MOD)" Scroll down to :- 40:1 0.425" 0.653" 0.375" 0.125" (1) THSL 10.80mm 16.59mm 9.53mm 3.18mm If you are keeping the original wheels / axles, you'll need a wormwheel to suit a 9/64" axle; most replacement wheels will need a wormwheel to suit an 1/8" axle. X04 and direct replacement motors have a 3/32" driveshaft, so order your worm accordingly. Wormwheels are available with or without a boss / grub-screw. Most Tri-ang Hornby chassis will require a plain wormwheel (no boss / grub-screw) to be fixed with Loctite; a few *may* have a wide enough chassis slot to take a wormwheel with a boss / grub-screw. I hope that this helps. Regards, John.

Why bother? Most gearboxes will require large chunks of the mazak chassis block to be cut away. I'm in the process of fitting several old Tri-ang Hornby locos with Ultrascale direct replacement 40:1 gears and 5-pole X04 / Airfix 1001 / Romford Bulldog motors (commonly on offer on Ebay). The transformation in running is amazing; especially slow running. Regards, John Isherwood.

I believe that the 'valance' of the Hornby tender underframe is a complete fiction; the tender may benefit from its removal. Regards, John Isherwood.

PS - there are four Airfix 1001 / five pole X04s ending on Ebay today ...................(not mine)! Go for it! Regards, John Isherwood.

Don't forget that the loco chassis of the tender-drive Black Five has a cut-out to take an X04 motor - or a five-pole equivalent. As supplied, the front chassis / weight casting locates in this cut-out, but a hacksaw will soon make room for a motor! Ultrascale also do 40:1 gearsets that will marry the motor to the loco rear axle. I predict strong sales of tender-drive Black Fives, Ultrascale gears and five-pole X04-style motors. Regards, John Isherwood.

No, it was only a short, horse-drawn affair serving a small opencast operation. Regards, John. PS. Superb swimming pool below the waterfall next to the quarry - it was baking hot when we were there! The beer kept cool in the water, too.

David, Thanks for that - very interesting! Weardale is one of my favourites; Eastgate, Westgate, St. John's Chapel (good pub), etc. We stayed in St. John's for a week on a surveying course when I was at college, and I discovered the trackbed of the former mining tramway just above the village. Regards, John Isherwood.

OK - so I'm ignorant of advanced photo manipulation - but what has been done to this image? Everything appears excessively 'sharp' - the running / ducking chap seems to be wearing a 'rug'; (perhaps he is). Regards, John Isherwood.

.... the point being made above is that, to most of us, it's very much a Brush Type 2. At the head of a train running on a layout, (as opposed to standing on a test track and viewed from a couple of feet or less with the eye at bufferbeam height), it is indubitably a Brush Type 2. Regards, John Isherwood.

Spot on - and I've a 82XXX kit, a West Country chassis, and two 76XXX chassis to build. If I can't make a decent job of these using my new resistance soldering kit I'll have to think about packing in railway modelling altogether!! Incidently, I recently ordered from Mainly Trains two LMS eight coupled loco brakegear etches, http://www.mainlytrains.co.uk/acatalog/by-kemilway.html, and was amazed to see that these are Kemilway products! Regards, John Isherwood.

Hear, hear !!! As some members may be aware, for some forty years and more I have been acquiring an extensive stud of locos, (not to mention rolling stock), for that fateful day when I venture into the loft to build Evercreech Junction in 4mm. scale. A recent review of the stud suggested that my early efforts, mostly detailed Hornby Dublo and Tri-ang Hornby products, were not up to the standard of the later acquisitions. In particular, X04 and tender-powered locos ran like scalded cats and / or drunken donkeys! Sale via Ebay beckoned. However, the locos in question are very much part of my modelling learning curve and therefore have more than a little sentimental value. The detailed bodies are not bad at all, so if the running can be sorted out the locos could be retained. I have invested in Ultrascale gear sets and, (via Ebay) Romford wheels, five-pole X04, Airfix 1001 and Romford Bulldog motors, plus Kemilway chassis kits where these are available. The tender drive Tri-ang Hornby Black Five and the kit-bashed Standard Five, (Tri-ang Hornby Black Five chassis and boiler, plus modified Airfix Standard Mogul kit parts), will have five pole Airfix 1001 motors fitted in the X04 chassis cut-out that Hornby designed into their original Black Five chassis, and didn't use! The original Tri-ang Hornby tender drive 9F will have the loco chassis block milled out to take a High Level Slimliner gearbox and a Mashima motor, plus Romford wheels. I have already rebuilt a Tri-ang L1 that, back in the mists of time, I had converted into a 2P, plus a Tri-ang Hornby 57XX pannier tank. Both of these locos were fitted when originally built with the early Tri-ang brass plate frames with cast mazak spacing blocks. This made it very easy to correct the wheelbase of the 57XX, by moving the front axle back 2mm. and fitting Rod Neep connecting rods, and fitting a Romford Bulldog motor with Ultrascale gears. It already had a five pole XT60 motor that I fitted years ago to remove most of the motor intrusion into the cab. Both locos now run as well as any of the latest Hornby / Bachmann / Heljan releases, if slightly more noisily. Now I know that all of this will seem to be a waste of effort for 'stone-age' models, and that quieter running could be achived by using High Level gearboxes and Mashima motors on all of the rebuilds. However, the aim is to retain the essential origins of the locos, whilst replacing or upgrading certain components with more sophisticated versions of the originals. Most significantly, I have to say that I have derived more pleasure and satisfaction from rebuilding these two locos that I have in years. Buying the latest exquisite RTR offerings and tweaking them cannot in any way compare with taking what is essentially a toy and converting it into a model that can, in most respects, come close to current standards. Anyway - way off-topic, but very relevant to the recent musings concerning the on-going change in the perception of what constitutes railway modelling. I will create a separate thread in due course, and post some photos of the models that I am rebuilding. Regards, John Isherwood.

Shock, horror !!! Surely that's Byker?!? (Not a denizen of the Northeast, obviously). Regards, John Isherwood.

I had exactly the same problem yesterday with a Hornby West Country. I tried everything, and ended up cutting the wires - and still the problem persisted! Eventually the problem was traced to a bent contact on the coupling bar - the simple act of placing a coupling pin in the coupling bar hole was providing a short circuit path between the positive and negative contacts. All is now well, and I'm tempted to leave the tender pick-up wires disconnected - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Regards, John Isherwood.

Close inspection of the yard area adjacent to the fish sheds, (immediately to the north of Philps' bakery), should reveal in-situ rails from this period. At least it did when I last visited a couple of years ago! Regards, John Isherwood.

Well - I can confirm that the tender drive Black 5 loco chassis will take an X04 as a direct fit in the chassis weight cut-out - it just needs a hole drilling and tapping for the motor fixing screw. Also, Ultrascale produce 40:1 direct replacement gears for the Tri-ang Hornby X04 powered chassis, with either 9/64" or 1/8" bore for Tr-ang Hornby or Romford axles. So - I will convert my 1st generation Triang Hornby Black 5, (and a Standard 5 that I built from a Hornby Black 5 boiler and / Airfix Mogul kit parts), from tender drive to X04 loco drive with Ultrascale 40:1 gearing. I will report back in due course. Sorry for highjacking Tony's thread! Regards, John Isherwood.

"....I'm quite a fan of the old X04, though usually regear them to be slower........" Stewart Now that's what I'm very interested in !! Can you suggest a source of gears of a higher ratio that have the same shaft separation as the standard X04 set? Regards, John Isherwood.

Indeed - Ringfield tender drive and 'miniskirts' under the boller. It represents one of my earliest renumbering / weathering projects and, as such, it deserves a place on my future Evercreech Junction layout. I don't know whether I'll go as far as removing the 'skirts', but some decent wheels, a loco-mounted motor, and a decent tender chassis should make a passable job of it. When one gets to my age, links with one's youth are not lightly cast aside!! Regards, John Isherwood.

I am embarking on exactly the same project - a tender drive Hornby Black 5 that I can't bring myself to get rid of. My loco drive strategy will be to fit Markits wheels, and a High Level gearbox / Mashima motor onto the rear driving axle. There is an access space onto this axle that will only need a little widening, as Highlevel do a SlimLiner gearbox intended for 3mm. scale chassis. Another option could utilise the fact that the free-running Hornby Black 5 chassis shows evidence of having been designed to take a backwards-facing X04 motor. The distinctive cut-out is there, filled with a ballast weight. If alternative arrangements for weighting could be made, fitting an X04 should be relatively easy. Regards, John Isherwood.

No diesels let alone DMUs, except the occasional DMU excursion. The WR, having inherited the S&DJR, didn't want it and transferred as much traffic as possible to its own lines. Regards, John Isherwood.

Very helpful - thank you. Regards, John Isherwood.

Many thanks - much appreciated. Regards, John Isherwood.