Another Croes Newydd stalwart finished – 5742

As some of you may remember, I finished the detailing on 5742 some weeks ago, however I had been awaiting the etched plates from Narrow Planet. Now the 74XX is detailed, and the 57 plates have arrived…I decided it was worth cracking on with her. Here are the finished results.

I didn’t want this one to be as grotty as 4645. There are only a couple of photos of 5742, one in Pannier papers in a rather dire state on shed at Croes Newydd (84J). A long distance view of her in the Foxline (Bala-Blaenau) book at Bala shows her rather clean, so I went somewhere in between. 5742 was an early casualty, and was withdrawn in late summer of 1958, this probably explains the lack of photos of her, compared to other class mates.

Front number plates are once again from Ian Wilson of Pacific Models. I do like these, and as Ian does the whole class of Panniers, it means no cutting and shutting.

Tried something a little different with the rear racks. It can become a bit of a cliche having all the tools/bucket on the back. Some photos of Panniers have the whole lot, others have none. For this reason I decided to hold off on the bucket on 5742….lets say the fireman has just had swill around in the cab! 😉

5742 will be on display this weekend along with some of my other models (LNER included) as I demonstrate weathering at:

Scalefour North 2015

Saturday 18th April 2015 – 10:00 – 17:00
Sunday 19th April 2015 – 10:00 – 16:00

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School
154 Northgate
Wakefield
WF1 3QX

Admission £7.00
Scalefour Society members £6.00

Sunday evening pic!

All tooled up!

Rochdale Model Railway Exhibition 2015

Today, I crossed over to that dark forbidden county….LANCASHIRE! (I say this in jest of course, I was born and raised in Lancashire for 19 years) and spent an enjoyable day in the company of good friends, at the Rochdale 2015 Model Railway Exhibition.

It was probably one of the best Shows I have been to in recent years….not a box shifter in sight! Several layouts of superb modelling and excellent trade in the form of Todmorden Model Supplies ( I picked up a couple of drill bits….0.4 and 0.5 have a tendency to break on me!).

Below you will find a selection of photos of several of the layouts present.

Culm – Dai Davies (EM) – GWR/Western Region (Transition)

I had an enjoyable chat with Dai regarding Railways in North Wales, and told him of my own North Wales plans regarding Cwm Prysor and Trawsfynydd.

 

Angelbank – Liverpool MRS EM) – Clee Hill Incline 1950s

Polbrook Gurney – Chris Nevard (OO) – Somerset C.1960

It was a pleasure to see Chris once again. Chris manages to make his layouts really draw you in, they are almost like a small theatre, drawing the audience into the past.

Glaisden – Ian Worthington (EM) – BR(NE) 1960s

Great job Rochdale Group, for creating a thoroughly enjoyable show….and the ice buns were rather nice!

…..finally…..

STOP PRESS, Andy Cooper spotted holding GWR loco!

74XX in the making (Part 2)

The 74XX (I think I can call it that now) is pretty much finished, minus plates. I do need to add the tools to the rear hangers, and the top bunker lamp iron. I’m really pleased how this project has gone, I had originally thought such ‘surgery’ was beyond me, but a gentle push from modelling friends, have certainly made it worthwhile.

Plates will be picked up next weekend for Scale Four North, before weathering to complete.

Another 84J loco nearing completion! 🙂

74XX in the making

Without sounding like a GWR expert (which I am really not!), the 64XX has been a welcome model for GWR modellers, and with Bachmann’s forthcoming Hawksworth Autocoach, is going to look rather nice trundling up many GWR branch layouts. Of course, as I’ve said before, the Bala-Blaenau line wasn’t your typical GWR Branch. There are no records of 64s being used as the line wasn’t served by auto coaches. However the very similar 74XX class were utilised heavily on the branch.

The main visual difference (as can be seen in the two links below) between the 64XX and the 74XX, other than auto gear fitting, is the cab and bunker arrangement. The straight edged join between bunker and cab (plus no cab lip at the front or rear) was introduced to the last 10 64s built, and the whole of the 74XX class.

64XX drawing

74XX drawing

I was left with two options. I could wait and see if Bachmann produce a 74XX. The likely hood is high as a 74XX is basically a subclass of the 64XX. The other option is to do some modelling and make a 74XX from a 64. I have gone with the later! 🙂
The way I see it, Bachmann’s new 64XX has only just come to market, so it’s going to be at least a year (more like two) before any more are announced. Even if a late 64XX design, or 74XX is announced, with what appears to be supply issues from Kader, it could be three or maybe four years before said loco arrives on the shelves. Of course this is all guess work on my part, Bachmann might not even bother to do the later cab!

So last night I made a start with the scalpel. As can be seen below, we now have a nice right angle join between cab and bunker, and the cab overhang has gone.

In removing the curved join, I was now missing the lip that runs around the bunker top where it joins the cab rear, so I filled this with some microstrip and filed to a correct profile.

I’ve removed one of the battery boxes on the chassis (74XX only had the one) plus the Auto conduit cable that runs behind the rear buffer beam has also been removed.

 

Auto gear from the front and rear has been removed, the holes will require filling and patch painting. Although the smokebox dart is a full separate fitting and is finer than the offering on the 57XX, I decided to replace with the finer Markit’s dart, which I think looks that bit better.

I would suspect I have the difficult stuff out of the way now. The rest of the detailing is pretty much what i have done previously on my 57XX (running plate hand rails, masokit lamp irons and screw links). I was rather apprehensive regarding the cab mods, but they have turned out better than expected.

I certainly think I’ll be doing another 74XX with this method! 🙂

Goodies from York

I had an enjoyable day yesterday at the 2015 York Model Railway Show. I often find it’s the social side that I enjoy most at shows, chatting amongst like minded friends and discussing current projects. York always has excellent trade in the form of the cottage industries. I will admit I didn’t utilise that yesterday, as most of the said traders will be at Scale Four North in two weeks, so I will pick up my bits and pieces there (as I’m demoing I’ll have more time over the two days).

What I did pick up was a Hornby BR Brake Van in Bauxite (£13.50 is excellent value, when the competitors Brake Van is around £24). I was intending to hold off on a 64XX, but temptation got the better of me.

This will not be staying as a 64XX for long. I’ll be doing the cab alterations in the coming months (plus removal of the auto gear) to represent the larger class of 74XX, which were utilised heavily on the Bala-Blaenau Branch.

I was asked at the weekend about the visual difference between the 57XX/8750 and 64/74XX. If I’m correct the 57XX owes it’s heritage to the Swindon design of 0-6-0 Pannier tank, while the 54/64/74 goes back to the Wolverhampton design of tank engines. To show the visual difference, below is the new Pannier alongside 5742.

exLNER Open Wagon

I’ve been working on this wagon for the last month or so. Picking it up, doing some work on it, and then leaving it while I worked on the latest Pannier.

This wagon was built by David Scott, and was finished in Pre 1936 LNER unfitted dark Grey.

I began by removing the presfix transfers, via my usual method of microsol and a cotton bud. The sticky residue was a touch stubborn to remove, so I used some wet and dry to smooth things off. Once I was happy with the finish, I sprayed the whole wagon with revell 75 (as recommended by Ian Fleming) which I think gives a great representation of a faded BR unfitted grey. Once dry, I began repainting a number of planks to represent bare wood using a mix of Tamiya XF55 and XF20. Once dry I weathered the wood panels (before weathering the entire wagon). My reason for this, was my general weathering of the wagon would very much in a vertical fashion, I wanted the wooden panels to be weathered following the grain which would be horizontal. Once the planking was weathered, and the transfers were added, I gave it a couple of coats of Klear, and a spray of purity seal satin varnish.

Here are the results now it is finished.

I’m pleased with the results. I think the key with this one is I’ve taken my time, working on it between other projects. To give a comparison, here is the wagon alongside the other two unfitted wagons I have weathered. It’s worth noting that both this wagon, and the SR Van have both been painted with Revell 75, however due to different colour undercoats, they do not look the same.

On a different note, I’m very much looking forward to York Show this weekend as it’s the first Show I have been to this year. I’m helping out stewarding, so will be on the door selling tickets from 10. I’ll be looking out for a 64XX, for a 74XX conversion too, plus other bits and bobs.

Second Pannier for Cwm Prysor (ex works!)

Evening all!

Over the past week or so, I’ve been working away on the second 57XX for Cwm Prysor. It’s interesting with this being my second Pannier, how things have progressed far quicker, but I suppose that was naturally going to happen.

It is a rather satisfying feeling when one gets to this stage in the project, when you can see the detail (granted one can go further, and I really applaud those that have done). If I had to pick out one area that for me was essential on the detailing side visually, it would be the markets smokebox dart. In my eyes it captures the look of these familiar Western tanks perfectly.

The Masokit lamp irons really are superb little things, producing scale irons that can be used with interchangeable lamps. The lamps shown are standard Springside offering, but have been modified with replacement handles made from 0.3 wire. I can’t claim credit for these, Adam Chapman kindly altered a batch of lamps for me and I have to say, they really do look excellent. With scale handles, I don’t think the lamps themselves are much overscale. The jewel lenses have been replaced with PVA glue. I’m currently awaiting custom cab side plates from Narrow Planet.

Regarding the layout, I am in the process of ordering the Baseboards for Cwm Prysor which are being designed and produced by Tim Horn. This should keep me busy over the summer months!

Pannier off the beaten track!

Saturday saw another enjoyable visit to Tony Wright’s and his layout Little Bytham. Part of the visit involved returning a V2 to Tony which I had weathered. She romped around the layout with 11 behind the tender…not bad for an RTR loco with no weight added. Some of the coaches were kit built too!

I also brought along my Pannier 4645 for a run on the M&GN. She was certainly a long way from North Wales, but I had asked Tony if he would be so kind as to take a couple of photos, to give me an idea how she would look in a layout setting. She ran perfectly with the three wagons I had been working on. I really need to start the next 57XX!

I’m in the process of designing my track plan and baseboard for ‘Cwm Prysor’ with special thanks to Andy Jones for all his help! Tm Horn will be producing the boards with his superb laser cutting equipment.

Exciting time!

Something a bit different…… An ECML mighty V2

Something a bit different indeed….a refreshing break from working on wagons. This V2 is part of Tony Wright’s Little Bytham fleet and belongs to Ian Wilson of Pacific Model. This is a standard Bachmann V2 (of the last release with new chassis). Tony has added a single chimney, and separate fitting dome. Tony had also removed the moulded oversize boiler bands, and replaced with transfers, which are more to scale before brush painting the boiler with a matt green.

I worked from this 1962 photo on flickr of sister loco 60935 at York.

The challenge was not just the weathering, but to make the matt green brush painted boiler, match the sheen of the bachmann factory finish (recent bachmann BR green is a rather nice satin colour). So after several coats of Klear, I think it has matched rather well. 60862 will be returning to Little Bytham this weekend for a good running in.