The Bigbee Line

This is the painting and lettering drawing as built with the colour references shown.

Today Matthew I've been fettling hooks... Work has been busy, partly due to the time of year, leaf fall effects wheels quite badly. I can't get enough wheelsets. I am waiting for some springs to arrive with J hangers to do an LMS style fitted underframe. In the mean time I have been assembling some coupling hooks. To get the thickness they are two layers soldered together. I then tin the outside surfaces with enough solder to give the fatness of the prototype. This one just needs some rounding off on the edges with some fine emery boards. Having found my digital calipers I can select the correct thickness wire to make some scale couplings. I am painting 2 Parkside Mineral wagons that I purchased assembled. They came with Instanters. The centre links appear to be plastic. Nice shape but not weighty enough to hand and fall right.

I think the coaches are different, the view from the platform side shows a 2comp+toilet+2comp+toilet+2comp, the view towards the platform shows 1comp+toilet+2comp+toilet+3comp. A quick look through my OPC LSWR book shows no matches....

I'm conscious that this thread is morphing into other subjects, but maybe not a bad thing. On Ebay is a picture if a three coach train at the Dyke.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dyke-Railway-Station-Photo-Brighton-Line-London-Brighton-South-Coast-11/251974513704?hash=item3aaad9f428:g:sRgAAOSwKrhVZcRY What are the front two coaches? LSWR or SECR, I can look it up, but I expect someone else has already looked. The one on the back is an LBSC Ballon.. Of interest is the huge hay rick you can see behind the signalbox... Another elliptical roofed coach from the platform side...http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dyke-Railway-Station-Photo-Brighton-Line-London-Brighton-South-Coast-2/262693656088?hash=item3d29c31618:g:o8sAAOSwHsRYEgoq

An interesting topic, hmm when do things start... I actually looked up the Modernisation Plan from 1955 and had a quick read.. http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsummary.php?docID=23 Not as dry a document as I imagined... Especially the bit that mentions that steam loco's have a 40 year life and these is no mention of their elimination, indeed a considerable sum was earmarked / suggested to improve depots.

Well spotted, when you know the location the possible confusion is overlooked. Newmarket, between Falmer and Lewes. Not much of a village, just a few houses and a pub, or it was last time I looked...

Thanks for the links. Ebay is often a great source for pictures etc Not birdcage related http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Larger-Negative-BR-British-Railways-Steam-Loco-32338-1954-Cliftonville-Class-K/372123276321?hash=item56a4469421:g:VrsAAOSwNchZ-dZU the shot of a K class shows that the coal rail backing sheet misses a section at the rear. Never realised that. Back on topic, the corridor birdcage coach has always attracted me. Thanks

These are the blocks on a flatbottom turnout. Note the fixed block that stops the switch from moving longitudinally. Bull head have a Z bar to do the same job.

The 'clamp/stopper' is a block to support the switch rail from moving out of gauge. They are bolted to the closure rail and most slide chairs are fitted. So easy to add where not moulded in. Better to be able to add the missing piece that to have to chop out bits. Thanks for the useful pictures..

I used to spend Saturdays at Brighton station in the mid 60's. Wish I'd been able to afford colour film. People don't realise how lucky they are today with phones that can snap hundreds of pictures in an afternoon. At the time it was BIL, LAV, HAL, BEL units with the modern units just appearing. I don't remember PUL and PAN units, but that's not to say they weren't running. A couple of memories are: Looking in the cab of a modern unit, the AWS sunflower had not been installed, just a piece of cardboard filling the hole. Someone had put on an arrow and the comment ' meter' Another drivers comment was that the acceleration of a LAV improved over 60mph as that's the speed that the woodworm jumped out...

1557, 1938, Southern Black, Kingston Wharf, Middleton Press Brighton to Worthing, comment that it is the first steam shunt onto the revised track work to allow direct access rather than via wagon turntables and an incline.

Where the P class tanks have been recorded I have started a thread ' Where the loco has been seen - P class 0-6-0T'. Posts need to have a strict protocol;- Number, year, livery, location, source, freeform text comment. 31556, 1959, Early BR crest, Kingston Wharf, Middleton Press Brighton to Worthing, comment that it was replaced by an 03 shortly afterwards.

I wish they would tone down the 'black' used. It just soaks up any light.... A veritable black hole..

The definition of upgrade isn't one that I had thought of in this context, but have to agree. Maybe the marketing boys are trying to move the model railway market into one where we clamour for the new release, then wonder why we made the purchase.... As a thread it may act as a reality check for many. As like many others I have purchases that I 'had to have', but in the cold light of reality will I actually use them. One sales tactic is that if you do not pre-order you will miss out. You then pay top whack and then see them after at reduced prices as there is surplus stock.. In my case it was the S15. I have 2 (and do not regret the purchase). My thought is to rationalise the various models into groups that can run together and start the disposal of some items. A last thought is how we see a prospective new purchase and then rationalise the purchase...

Please don't post things that most of us have to look up. Text speak is for the lazy and unimaginative......

Would you like a drawing?

I think we're all guilty. We might try and rationalise. But then models hove into view to create a railway Shangri-La. in my case the latest are the H and P tanks. But after that mmmm. A C2X or K would be essential. Regarding others there can be extreme mental turmoil. Do I need an O class 15?

Last job for today.. Tack glued the solebar / underframe into position, lined up each side, looks OK. Then ran a bead of cement along both sides. Now to leave until Sunday...

Stress Break. Just having a break from work. I cut the rest of the Tri-ang axle guards off last night and also cut out the rest of the Parkside van floor. Here the van body with the floor removed.. With the Tri-and underframe trimmed it is tried for size... When it has been cemented into place I will cut out the middle just to leave the solebars. To locate the underframe I am cementing pieces of scrap plastic to either side of the body. To locate these a piece of steel plate was laid against the underside to act as a locator for the bits of plastic. By cocking the iphone to one side I was able to get this shot inside the body. After the cement is dry the steel plate will 'ping' off.

In the picture from the previous post, both wagons are fitted with UIC Screw Couplings. However the wagon on the left has a more pointed hook, more like the RCH point. It is not a UIC vehicle so may be a bastardised design....

I used to worry about difference in buffer heights, not any more...

Waste Not Want Not. The underframes from my Cut and Shut Minerals had been looked at with a view to re-use. However they are stretched vertically so the buffer heights are too high. Thinking about making an underframe to replace a very badly assembled Slaters van, I decided to remove the existing tri-ang axleboxes, clean up the back of the solebar and mount some whitemetal boxes. Here is the dimensional comparison between the two... Here is the box held in place with a clip Here is the solebar ready for the axlebox... The Tri-ang frame is nice and square and flat. It should do a turn

I decided to Bite the Bullet and use some AK interactive washes on the 3-set. Here it is 'before' and here after, one side was done with the dark brown wash and the other with a dust wash. The roof was done with dark brown The ends with the dust. Any sections that are too thick can be improved with thinners on a cotton bud. I think it takes the edge of the harshness of the new paint. Need to see how it looks when dry

Tonight a spot of weathering. The weathering on the cut and shut mineral wagon was more suited as camouflage for a tank rather than a wagon.... I had some dark brown weathering wash and thought that it might accentuate the angles in the bodywork. So with a fine brush added it to the angles and nooks & crannies, then brushed it out onto the flat surfaces. Finally a piece of kitchen roll was pulled downwards over the surface. Maybe a slight improvement.. I used the same wash on a Parkside SNCF loan Mineral. This time the intention is to represent a more recent repaint. I suspect in reality repainting was very few and far between. There are wagons running today that haven't had a repaint since being built in the 1980's... The pictures show up bits I've missed.... Finally I finished on my Lionheart model. This one and the SNCF loaner will run empty, so the interiors will also get weathered..