John Isherwood

True, but if I had come from ICI - and probably still had something of a financial interest in it - it wouldn't have been a silly idea to specify an ICI exclusive colour for the national railway's stock. Just sayin', CJI.

Look at the PALVAN nearer to the camera - and specifically the RH end where the wheelbase lettering has been added / repainted. What colour is the repainted patch upon which the lettering has been painted? It looks to be orangey bauxite - with a couple of weeks weathering - to me! John Isherwood.

They all came out in orangey bauxite in the 1950s / 60s. My nearest spotting location was on the Midland Mainline at Wigston Magna, near Leicester. Wigston had a BR-operated wagon repair shop in the former Midland Railway locoshed; and our view of passing locos was frequently - and frustratingly - blocked by a Fowler 3F 0-6-0 shunting incoming and outgoing wagon rakes. I can assure you that any paint that was applied - either to odd replaced planks or to wholly repainted wagons - was either a shade of grey / green / blue, (that was a remarkable match for Royal Navy ships); an orangey bauxite, as seen in the recently posted photo; or a shiny black. New or refurbished wagons really did catch the eye - though a few weeks in traffic rendered them all shades of muddy red / brown / black. I know that it is difficult to accept the degree of weathering that occurred in those pre-smokeless zone days - but it certainly did! John Isherwood.

My first experience of a Kemilway etched chassis in 4mm. scale was with their first kit - designed to fit the Kitmaster / Airfix / Dapol Bulleid Light Pacific in original form; my model had been running on a Tri-ang Princess chassis fitted with Tri-ang Bulleid wheels. The kit was excellent - everything fitted as intended; the etches were sensibly robust but equally authentic; and the finished model ran like a Swiss watch. I seem to recall posting a report of this project here. Being suitably impressed, I set about acquiring examples of Kemilway's second chassis kit, which was intended for the Kitmaster / Airfix / Dapol BR 4MT 2-6-0 kit. I believe that this chassis kit was derived from Kemilway's full kit for the BR 3MT 2-6-2T. I had several projects in mind for these chassis kits : - a] an Airfix kit of the BR 4MT 2-6-0 kit, which ran as a free-running loco on an adapted Tri-ang 2-6-2T chassis, and with a Tri-ang Hornby tender drive unit fitted with a cast kit body for a BR1B tender. Whilst the loco body was perfectly acceptable, having been detailed, the rest of the model needed replacing. The first chassis kit obtained was therefore allocated to this model, along with Markits wheels, a Highlevel Hiflier+ gearbox, a Mitsumi motor, a GMR BR1B tender body and a Bachman BR1 tender chassis. The blue outline denotes the Kemilway frame; the green line is the very substantial L-shaped frame spacer that slots into a half-etched groove on the inside of the frames. As you will see, when designing loco drive-trains, I like to try and keep the motor centre-line coincident with the boiler centre-line; this makes inserting the motor into the boiler - where required - much easier; and sometimes allows extra weight in the form of sheet lead to be added alongside the motor. The motor and drive train will be wholly concealed - though the motor shaft beyond the worm may need trimming to fit behind the backhead. It can be seen that the original version of this Kemilway chassis was inteded to have the actual motor in the tender, with a cardan shaft drive to the loco. For whatever reason, this was later revised and a loco motor / gear mount was provided - as seen in this version of the kit. The chassis etch is incredible; virtually no etch cusp; cleanly etched holes; clear coding of components; and logical layout. All appearances suggest that the result should be as good, if not better, than the West Country chassis. Once this first project is completed, I have a couple more BR 4MT 2-6-0s to build using these chassis - one from an Airfix kit using the smaller kit tender, and one from a GMR body using a spare Airfix tender. Finally, I have a complete Kemilway kit for the BR 3MT 2-6-2T to build, plus a modified / detailed Tri-ang BR 3MT 2-6-2T to be rechassised with yet another Kemilway 2-6-0 chassis kit. I will report progress and impressions of the Kemilway chassis kits as the projects progress. John Isherwood.

I can confirm that Jonathan's designs can be, and are, printed consistently complete with tie rods and brake levers. It must be a question of the optimum printer / material combination, as the results are remarkably robust and free from surface flaws. John Isherwood.

Thinking about it, the Heljan D9500 had a terrible waddle, due to excessive axle side play. I cured mine by inserting C-clips over the axles, between the wheels and the frames, to reduce the side play. John Isherwood.

It's called weathering - all of these would have been painted in much the same shade of red bauxite - as per the BR spec., - when first released to traffic. In my experience, finishing models in a selection of shades of red / orange / brown / mud does not produce the same, authentic appearance as finishing in the correct colour; subsequently weathered to a variety of extent. John Isherwood.

Graham, Jonathan is extremely helpful - but I hesitate to direct a flood of enquiries in his direction. I would suggest to interested members that they seek out MRJ 290. John Isherwood.

It is possible to 3D print 4mm. scale models which require zero preparation apart from removing the support structure - which I do with a pair of side cutters in a most cavalier fashion! These CONFLAT Bs and AFP containers were 3D printed by a generous acquaintance, and had their support structures hacked-off as above, with no loss of detail. A burst of Halfords white primer on the containers; the Humbrol grey hand painted; and my transfers sealed with Klear. The CONFLATs were sprayed with Halfords grey primer; followed by Alfa Romeo Bruno DE37, (which can be obtained from car factors); with the chassis hand painted Precision Paints Satin Black. I repeat - NO PREPARATION of the printed parts prior to painting - not even washing. These are Jonathan Duffett's designs - available for free download on Thingiverse; he published an excellent article concerning his methods in MRJ 290. John Isherwood.

Less of a wobble, more of a waddle! I'm pretty sure that this is a function of the short wheelbase, and would have been evident, to some extent, on the prototype. I built one from an Impetus kit and it, too, waddles. You could try opening-out the back-to-backs - but not to the extent that causes problems at turnouts. Also - a few wagons attached to the loco should reduce the waddling tendency. John Isherwood.

Cosmetic; cost. CJI.

A parking-place for shunters' poles? CJI.

The Bath Green Park breakdown train project is now completed - bar weathering. The train comprises, from left to right, a riding van, a packing van and a tool van. The riding van is something of an 'interpretation', as all I could find to work from were background crops of photos - though I think that the essential features are captured; the vehicle number is an educated guess! A Ratio suburban coach kit forms the basis of the model. The packing van is even more of a guess - it appears very rarely as an acute, compressed three-quarter view in a couple of photos. It is clearly a van of Midland or early LMS origin - I had a suitable candidate on my roster, so the breakdown gang have applied white paint and minimal effort to re-identifiy their secondhand acquistion! DM198715 has much more claim to being authentic - see above. The roof and chassis are spliced from a couple of Ratio clerestory coach kits, and the sides and ends are scratchbuilt from plastic card. It is, however, a grossly atypical rendition of the prototype - which always appeared in latter days to be on the point of collapse. Presumably, it was in better condition earlier in its existence! An interesting, if protracted, project; which fulfils my requirement for a 'conversation piece'. John Isherwood.

A subject of which I am very well aware! However, whilst I do supply scale lining transfers for BR coaching stock, and a couple of other vehicles, I have avoided producing the standard BR orange / black / orange and red / grey / cream lining. There are two principle reasons :- a) the registration of such fine lining, when produced at scale widths, is extremely difficult to achieve consistently - even when digitally printed. Wastage is, I'm afraid, unacceptably high - though I can and do produce occasional sheets for my own use. b) generic lining is, IMHO, useless. Anyone who has struggled (and sworn profusely) whilst trying to get generic curves to conform to splasher and running-plate radii will know that what is needed are dedicated lining sheets for each subject. The problem, of course, is that a comprehensive range of such sheets would be huge - and the design time / sales ratio would be wholly impracticable. I know that some dedicated sheets are available for popular subjects, but I do not see a major expansion of that area of the hobby being forthcoming. Sorry, John Isherwood, Cambridge Custom Transfers.

.... and my appropriately rostered RTR locos are quite happy on 12 + coaches on well-sub 1m. radius curves. John Isherwood.

That last picture of Looe is a candidate for " Abandoned rails in the road"; I remember them still being there when I was a kid - and Small Prairies as the motive power. John Isherwood.

Come, come, Tony - let's not compare apples to oranges. You are one of a very select band who can aspire to "an Ian Rathbone paint job" - and that via an even rarer 'barter' arrangement, I believe. The comparison that you make would be more valid if :- a) the Bachmann model was also the subject of Ian's attentions; or b) the DJH model was subjected to a Bachmann factory paint job. Let's leave specialist artisan work out of a comparison of RTR with kitbuilt locos, which latter are - to the vast majority of modellers - self built / finished models. I do think that, sometimes, you loose sight of what a privileged position you occupy in the model railway world. John Isherwood.

Now you've gone and done it! 😱 After being back in the UK for three weeks, the memories of the universal Aussie menu items 'schnitzel' and 'parmo' were just beginning to fade! The only establishments where they were absent - thank the Lord - were Greek and Chinese restaurants. John Isherwood.

A sale is money in the bank - are they to refuse to sell CKs unless you buy two BSKs as well?!? CJI.

The colour hasn't changed, just the finish. Whatever finish you have applied to the panels should be applied overall to the body. CJI.

Look at it from the company's perspective - if the 'don't know, don't care' sector choose to buy lots of CKs to form long trains, that's great! If they package them as prototypical sets, those extra sales are lost - in fact, the buyer may instead decide to purchase from someone who DOES sell individual coaches. CJI.

Are you certain that this is not preservation era - before Ashburton wat cut off by the A38 bypass? CJI. PS. It is - 30/05/71.

Their loss - small traders' products are rarely duplicated by others. CJI.

I don't follow your point, sorry! Is Spain within the EEC (or whatever acronym now applies) or not? CJI.

The previous poster, to whom I was replying, is in Spain - which, when I last checked, is IN the EEC. CJI.