SRman

The gentleman I referred to earlier with the running problems actually removed the centre axles completely at one stage, as an experiment. The running was perfect as 4-wheelers! Anyway, I have now test run my seven milk tanks at high speed (i.e. flat out for the Heljan 33/2!), and there were absolutely no problems apart from my not putting one of them on the track properly, to start with. I did a quick video with some high speed run pasts for the camera, with a few extra vans added, as well as more normal running speeds. All tests were entirely successful and showed no problems at all. Note: that is a typo of mine in the title page - it is a 33/2, not a 33/1 hauling the train.

I have only shunted them back and forth a few times. No derailments yet, but I am aware of some others having problems with them. I bought them quite prepared to do a little hacking! From another BRMA member's set of these models, I know they are a tad light in weight - easlily fixed. I also know from our old exhibition layout that the same tankers tended to pivot slightly on their centre axles. I propose to do what I did for the Bachmann N's tender centre axle; that is, to drill the axle holes vertically upwards slightly to form an oval that allows the axle a little bit of vertical movement. I haven't had too many problems with Dapol's wheels to date but I do have plenty of spare Hornby wheels too. The wheels they supplied with the Esso class B tank wagon kit had very sharp flange edges and they tended to split some facing points - that was fixed by using Hornby or Bachmann wheels.

A few rather diverse arrivals have been seen at Newton Broadway. For the 1950s to '70s, I bought some Dapol 6-wheel Unigate Creameries milk tankers. While these are probably not as good as the Hornby models, they are at least obtainable, and also a bit cheaper. A couple of them are seen here with a Bachmann N class 2-6-0, 31860, which I have heavily weathered. For the more current scene (1990s, possibly 2000s), Bachmann's EWS inspection saloon lobbed in today. I have posed it with EWS 33 030. This locomotive came from Heljan's earlier class 33/0 mouldings with the somewhat flattened roof profile and slight "shoulders" to the edges of the cab roofs. I have filed the cab roof profile down a bit towards the sides, then repainted them.

Thanks - I wasn't too sure about that, but that's another reason i have to put the numbering off for a bit longer, now!

The Parkside GWR 10T Open has now had its 'G W' transfers replaced with correct scale 25" lettering, and the load and tare markings put on. It joins the Mink in awaiting only its 5-digit number on each side. The first two photos show the Mink van, with the "before" for the Open, while the last photo shows the "after" for the Open. The Mink D, as far as I can tell, should retain the smaller 'G W' lettering, but awaits its turn to get the load and tare weight markings, plus its suitable vehicle number.

I know it did happen that they got dirty, but all my memories of green ones are that they were quite clean and shiny.

So, did yours arrive today, Doug? I received a package from Hattons today, with more still to come.

Thanks, Mikkel. I wanted something fairly colourful to go with the pre-grouping locos I have, so bought quite a few Private Owner wagons. I had no suitable brake van for the train with the Bachmann SECR C class locos hauling it, though, hence locating the Roxey kit, and building it, with the help of DougN and his resistance soldering unit. I already had a 1980s Hornby LBSC/SR brake van to go with the Bachmann LBSC E4 and the Dapol and Hornby terriers in Stroudley's improved engine green (I know they were really passenger engines, but ...). I have also been building some LSWR brake vans (also in the blog, somewhere) from Smallbrook Studio - one is complete, two more nearly so. I then decided that the train should also have some railway owned wagons, starting with some more "local" ones from the SECR, LBSCR and LSWR from Cambrian Kits. These were followed by the GWR ones from Parkside recently described. Once I have the lettering on these and the SECR brake van completed, I'll post a picture or two of the train in my layout topic.

Yeah ... wot 'e sed! I think this thread is a showcase for our work, and it's not limited to one model per person (just because I lack the imagination to do more than one such model myself, doesn't mean everyone else can't do a bit of showing off!!).

Quite some time ago I started building a London, Chatham & Dover Railway (LCDR) brake van from the etched brass Roxey Mouldings kit. It was 95% complete when the build stalled due to my problem in effectively attaching the footboards. I have now done so using wire hangers bent to support the boards. The upper ends of the hangers are hooked and superglued into holes drilled into the brass solebars, while the step boards are soldered to the lower supports. The smaller steps under the guard's doors are also soldered, although one of them took me several attempts before it stayed solidly put. The whole lot is painted South Eastern & Chatham Railway (SE&CR) wagon dark grey with black below the solebars. Lettering has commenced with HMRS pressfix transfers, but is not yet complete. I have glazed the various window openings but I'm not sure that all of them should have "glass" in them - it's not at all clear from the drawings I have or any of the limited number of photos I have seen.

An ex-LCDR brake van in SE&CR livery tails a short mixed goods train, a little after the turn of the century (1900s).

It's such a trial, being under the thumb!

Well, thanks to St Enodoc of this parish, who very kindly sent me some spare PC/HMRS pressfix transfers he had, I now have Great Western transfers of the correct size and style to not only do the "G W" lettering but also the numbers and weights. I have made a start on the Mink wagon, removing the prevous smaller "G W" letters, and replacing with the scale 25" letters. I have also added the weight and tare inscriptions on both sides, but not the actual wagon number, yet. The close-up photo also highlights a couple of very minor paint touch-ups required.

Adding to the last post, I did add 'G W' transfers to the sides of each wagon (pics posted on my main layout thread), but I didn't have the correct large (25") size for two of the wagons (the Mink D seems to have used the smaller 16" lettering that I did have). John (St Enodoc) has come to the rescue with some spare Great Western wagon transfers he didn't need, and very kindly posted them to me.Further, and more correct decoration of the wagons will follow soon. Many thanks John.

I had a phone call from Hattons yesterday, because I had a large, fairly high-value order with them that required extra postal costs; they required authorisation to charge the extra, or other instructions if that's what I wanted. I rate that as excellent service on their part, considering that I am in Australia.

Lots an' lots! How about the whole class?

Those were based on older style SUB units. The Triang units would certainly capture some of the character of those. Then again, the Triang ones were a bit fictional, so a fictional de-icing or stores unit could be just as appropriate.

If Simon doesn't mind us hijacking his thread to a degree, I'd love to see some pics of the unit, David. Simon: you could consider converting two driving coaches into a stores or de-icing unit.

I know of someone many years ago modifying a pair of driving cars into a passable 2 BIL. The front end is almost pure BIL (the drivers windscreen needs filing out a bit), but the length is too short (this guy used sections from a centre coach to extend the length), and the side profile is almost pure BR standard. The gentleman who did the conversion left the profile as is but opened out various windows for the corridor sides and filled and filed the surplus doors. The compartment side window shapes remained pure BR, Another possibility, one I attempted (again many years ago) is to make a 4 EPB, using new front ends (scratchbuilt in plasticard in my case), joining offset 'halves' of coaches to make more accurate lengths for the coaches. The whole lot was powered by a Lima HO scale class 33 motor bogie. The compartment spacing of the Triang units is really too wide, so one ends up with one less compartment per coach, but is passable.

The driver was a bit camera shy and ducked out of sight!

Ha ha, yes! I was hoping no one would notice. Seeing as the hut is not fixed down, I could have removed it for the photos, but only realised afterwards when I was reviewing them.

Just for fun: an 'aged' monochrome version of one of the previous pics. I know I should have taken that concrete hut off before posing the pics ... I forgot!

An LSWR M7 0-4-4T with a short train for trip working of some Great Western wagons. Or slightly toned down for effect: And to fit in with the real period intended, in aged monochrome:

If you have been following my blogs, you will have seen my rapid building of three pre-grouping period Great Western Wagons from Parkside Dundas. The first lettering has now been added. As I said earlier in the blog, the pre-grouping period GWR wagons really should have 25" lettering for the "G W", but I only have 16" lettering available. This is probably correct for the Mink D, but not for the other two, but it will have to do until I can get hold of something better. I haven't any of the small weight and number transfers in the script typeface they used, so they too will have to wait. This, then, is how they currently look, posed with my Hornby LSWR M7 0-4-4T and a Smallbrook Studios LSWR 18 ton road van.

Now just awaiting transfers and maybe a little weathering.