drmditch

You might also find my version and notes and links helpful........ See here..... (Although I missed the rainstrips as well!)

Thank you. I will look forward to it!

I may have missed something earlier, but do you have news of the V ? Will it be the original V or the V/09 ?

Another 'catch-up' post. My first kit build was a Wills J39 on a Triang chassis. The picture on the box was in green livery and this was 50 years ago, so I painted mine green. In later years, when I knew a little better, I built an SEF J39 which is now one of the stalwarts of my fleet. While I was finishing that Bachmann produced their split-chassis version. The Wills version was de-constructed and used as the basis for an attempt at a J27. This would have been about 35 years ago, and still not knowing as much as I have been able to learn since, the only drawing I had was a dimensioned diagram in one of the NELPG publications. I think the only bit of the Wills product remaining is the basic boiler barrel (with all detail stripped off and replaced. The wheelbase was adjusted, and everything else om the locomotive scratchbuilt. The tender is from Dave Alexander. I don't know (at this distance in time) why I didn't replace it entirely with a Dave Alexander version. Cost would have been an issue for me then, and I would also have been nervous about building a chassis. Such fears have since been overcome, although I have still to attempt a big engine with external valve gear of the sort which so many people on this thread seem able to produce in little time and with high levels of accuracy! Anyway, this engine is mine and I built it! Sorry for the old poor-quality picture. The locomotive is still stored away at the moment, awaiting the moment when the new railway is sufficiently advanced for the 'great unpacking' to occur. It may have several errors, but it was a good learning tool. Yes, I know the livery the NELPG used back then was inappropriate for a 1923 built locomotive, but my railway is my railway! So:- Converted Triang chassis block. Big ugly Airfix 5 pole motor protruding into the cab. Romford wheels. Live chassis with the tender live to the other side and an insulated drawbar. (This is still my preferred method.) Coupling rods filed from NS rail. I can't remember the source of the dome, but I think the chimney was for a Q6 and had to be shortened. Sorry also for the front coupling, I think I may remove that now. I did experiment with three-link couplings back then, but when this locomotive and a train of Slaters NER Dia 7 coal hoppers filled with loose coal buffer-locked in the most inaccessible storage sidings I decided that function took priority over form. I do really like the big-boilered NER engines. Most of my stock is weathered and dirty. But there have to be some smart ones for special events. Then what could look better!

Somewhere above, there was a post concerning the post of a Hornby K1 to the K1/1. (There is also a separate thread .....here.....) Last year I acquired a K1 at what seemed a reasonable price. I do really like K1s, possible influenced by subliminal childhood memories. Together with B1s they seem to me to be everything a 'proper' steam engine should be! My ideas were either to convert the very nice Hornby K1 to the K1/1, or to paint it green as No.2005. (In which livery the surviving engine ran for a number of years.) These are assembled from the usual RCTS and Yeadon sources. I do have some additional pictures of the K1 (now in black BR livery) and the K4 likewise. When I can find them I will add them to this post. I was/am planning to use a spare Replica B1 body for the smokebox and front footplate. (the K1/1 boiler is of course a shortened Dia 100 boiler) The cylinder and part of the motion could come from the same source. I have some old Jameson components for the motion bracket. I see this as the most difficult part of the conversion. I do have a 'small' standard tender, but it is in use on another locomotive. I think that the illustrious Mr King did discuss adapting a 'large' standard LNER tender somewhere on his LNER Forum thread, and I was considering doing that. This project has got rather 'log-jammed' behind my appallingly slow rate of progress this summer.

Good Morning. This thread moves so fast that no sooner do I see something to which I could make a contribution then it it has vanished somewhere in the previous decade/century/millennium! (Sometimes I can make search engines work and sometimes not but i prefer to spend the time on proper engines with actual wheels!) So, to catch up a bit I've prepared some material which I will put into separate posts to avoid making one very long one and to make reference easier! (Obviously these can be removed if anyone objects to my prolixity!) There was a discussion about LNER large engine cab/tender doors. Here are some pictures of the V2 arrangement on 4771. (I am sure that at some point Mr Trice has probably taken better pictures.) Then the nice simple pintle hinges! First the 'locomotive side':- Then the 'tender' side:- At the moment Locomotion is open Wednesday to Sunday, from 11:00am to 4:00pm, and visitors can climb steps to look into the cabs, but are not allowed into the cabs themselves. (Footplates were not designed for 'social distancing'!) If you do want to come and visit, then it it is advisable to book a ticket first. These are free of charge, but the ticketing system is sensible not only for traceability, but to allow control of the number of people in the building at one time. Bookings available here I am back to being on-site on Fridays, welcoming people and explaining and discussing where required. If you do visit on a Friday do say hello! (Remember, unlike our 'big sister' at York, car parking is free!) Caroline Middleditch

I am having a problem with my (previously) trustworthy Fleischmann turntable. (This is in no-way part of the 'visible' railway but is part of my 'rest-of-the-world' storage siding system.) I have created a separate thread for this, ..... here..... and if anyone with relevant expertise could advise I would be very grateful.

Well, provided you just refer to it as Kirkby Stephen. At least this station is just at the bottom of the main street, and is part of the town. The later station called Kirkby Stephen 'West' built by those people who painted their engines red, cannot even see or be seen from the town! Actually, shouldn't it count as the junction for the Eden Valley line?

Or, you could just build your own! Please excuse the track and the trees; this was a photograph on the old railway, it is being improved on the new one! The 'standard' 1862 Thomas Prosser design is still extant at Witton Gilbert, Lanchester, and Knitsley (with no railway), and in a modified form at Goathland and elsewhere on the Esk Valley line happily with rails still in place!

I have a very old Fleischmann Turntable, which I purchased in about 1994 or thereabouts. It has always been built into my storage sidings, and I bought it for ease of operation and reliability rather than for any prototypical appearance. (The turntable on the 'visible' part of the railway is scratch built and quite different!) When the old railway was dismantled in 2014 it was packed away, and has only re-emerged into the light of day earlier this year. Its operation was a bit sporadic and noisy, so I thought I had better give it a clean, (including removing fur from my late lamented ginger cat) and a small amount of lubrication. It is now set up again as here..... The control switch (and panel for the spur lines is here..... The problem is that, if I remember correctly, it used to move from one spur to another with a flick of the control. Ie it would automatically index to the next outlet track. (Unless one held the switch over when it would move over more than one track.) It now doesn't seem to do that, and one has to stop it in the correct place by eye. Is it just my memory which is at fault, and perhaps it was always like this? There is an existing thread for this (or similiar) turntable .....here...., but does not seem to discuss this particular problem. A wider web search produced some useful material, but again, doesn't seem to address this problem. (Most of what I found was to do with DCC operation which interests me not at all!) I am now familiar with most of the mechanism, having stripped it down and re-assembled it twice. It is now smooth and quiet in operation. However, I cannot identify any electrical part of the assembly which would provide a 'stepping function', even though the final drive cog with it's plate spring appears to be engineered to provide a mechanical means of 'locking' in the correct place. As one would expect with Fleischmann, it is a precise and ingenious item, and tricky to assemble and re-assemble, and I'm reluctant to strip it down again unless I know what I'm looking for! Is there just something that I haven't seen?

Witton Gilbert, if pronounced properly, or failing that Lanchester please.

Admittedly I am not an admirer of much contemporary culture, but I also do not understand this expenditure on 're-making ' films which were indicative and evocative of the times in which they were originally made. How can anyone claim that 'The Italian Job' or 'Get Carter' could be 'improved' ? Re-interpreted, or revised possibly, but of far less interest. Anyway, on more important subjects for those who live in NE England, may I recommend the current Norman Cornish exhibition at the Bowes Museum. I went yesterday, and will have to visit again before it moves on in January. ( I will also have to find some more wall space for pictures.)

This is certainly the arrangement on 'Green Arrow', as at present preserved. ( I will try to remember to take a picture next Friday.)

I prefer Radio3 myself.

Crianlarich, with fondly remembered breakfast please. Although the best railway breakfast was southbound from Durham at the end of one term in the early 1970s. The cheerful crew had prepared for a much larger number of passengers than had actually arrived, and the four of us had second, third, and fourth helpings all the way to York. I remember the mushrooms as being excellent. I'm afraid I can't remember the vehicle, but the cutlery and table ware was all marked 'GNR'.

I also am very fond of cats, especially ginger ones. I had to find a new home for my last cat when I last went overseas in 2011. He was, despite being long-furred, a very good railway cat. When he was young he did sometimes jump up and patrol the line. He would also wait at the tunnel entrances for a train to emerge, although he quickly learned that pawing things resulted in disapproval and ejection. He would then sit on my 'visitor's bench' and watch the trains running past. He could always identify something new and pay it (non-tactile) attention. He seemed to like big green engines best. Nothing is nicer, on a winters afternoon, than an interesting project on the workbench; a good programme on Radio3 or 4 (this was all before the corruptive effect of 'brexit'); and a purring cat on the floor at my feet or on his favourite viewing seat. I felt a complete traitor when I had to leave him at a new home. Like Tony, am fascinated by a feline's ability to be a sleeping friend on one's lap at one time, and a few minutes later, to be a dangerous predator patrolling his territory in the moonlight. I'm still planning how to get another cat and minimise the risks of the main road and other felines.

Re: Modelling bent footplates, buffer beams, and other imperfections. Thank you for the 'bent' pictures. I will be back at Locomotion at Shildon today. A quick survey last year (sorry, I lost my notes) revealed that very few of the locomotive exhibits have 'straight' footplates. We also had one visitor who complained that the 'air-smoothed' cladding on the Bulleid Pacific wasn't smooth. How many tenders have you seen where the side plating is actually as flat and smooth as most models depict. When I first saw Graham Nicholas's 'Shap' layout, I couldn't help thinking that the prototypically unlevel name board on the Signal Box just looked wrong. Is there some function of scale here? Does the eye not accept a distortion which may be quite accurate? Has anybody been able to model such things convincingly?

Re: Napoleon and Waterloo. I would remind people that, despite the ABBA song, Bonaparte did not surrender immediately after Waterloo, but some days afterwards to Captain Maitland RN of His Majesty's Ship Bellerophon. Re: Early Steamship Boilers. A major limitation was having to use seawater as boiler feed. It is too easy to criticise in hindsight. Changes in maritime technology have to be proven in the face of a remorseless adversary; the sea itself.

I do like Market Weighton, but will plump for Grosmont. After all, it's still there. Good pre1948 traffic as well, and plenty of studies for modelling.

In relation to your 12 A4s, does that mean you need the same percentage of the A1/A3s? (I would make that about 24)

Caution: This post does not contain any wheels or locomotive valve gear, and only a small amount of (quite tricky) soldering. A long time ago (on this fast moving thread) on June 13th I did post some progress on one of my lockdown projects. .....here.... Left to do are:- Access steps (awaiting supplies) Guttering and downpipes. LEDs for interior lighting. I hope you will forgive the several required small corrections which this mornings pictures have shown up. I'm sorry for the quality of the interior shot - but I quite like the effect!

Thank you for posting. I want one of those. Have you posted anywhere as to how you achieved it?

Re: Junctions Many splendid stations to choose from. Out of the best NER stations I would have to choose Darlington. The architecture and layout shows the height of NE prosperity.

Really? The East Coast trains ran via what we now call the Leamside route from Hoggersgate/Tursdale junction until 1872 (?), Anyway until the YNB (later NER) opened the Bishop Auckland branch (1852 ?) Bishop was an S&D station. Also, despite recent claims by ill-informed politicians, the main NER locomotive works until 1910 was Gateshead. All in favour though of Bishop being an ECML diversionary route. It's what my own railway relies upon for more 'exciting' trains! PS - thank you for the nice picture!

Appleby? (NER link)