[Speedbird]

G'Day,

My name is Hamish, I live in New Zealand. I'm wishing after many years of dreaming to start a model railway. Will join a club, to start off rather than investing in Track/Scenery, Just buying LNER Steam Engines, LNER Coaches and LNER trucks, and running them on the Clubs Track. My Interest in Railway is often due the stories my Grandfather told me about is time working on LNER, before the War and he had to leave his beloved job and join the Army in 1939. After he was demobed in Burma in 1946 he was trained a brick layer to repair cities bombed by the blitz, he then returned the railways but found it a shadow of its former self, join the Merchant Navy, sailed with the New Zealand Line..............and well then the rest is history.

Some of the stories are about the signalmen at Colchester, the railways workers at Norwich, etc.. So I grew up with this love of Trains, particularly Steam, he take me on steam trains excursion, talk about wheel formations, signals, all this other railway information. LNER Is important to my Family my Grandfather, Great Grandfather (Well couldn't actually drive trains anymore after he returned from the Battle of the Somme), Great Uncle, Great Great Grandfather after he returned from the Boer War after serving with the Guards Regiment.

So that's where my passion for LNER Lies, admittedly Steam trains aren't top of my list,

1) Commercial aviation (1940-Present day) Favourite airlines BA ( BOAC, BEA, BCal), Air New Zealand, Qantas, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.
2) Military Aviation, Well speaks for itself!
3)= Steam Trains
3)= Naval Warships, Hood, Prince of Wales, Ark Royal, Warspite etc

Well that's about it,

Regards
Hamish

 

[neil_s_wood]

Hi Hamish,

welcome to the forum. Interesting story. I have similar interests although I'm not that bothered by commercial aviation. I like military aviation, ships etc.

Good to have you onboard.

cheers

Neil

 

[Chinahand]

Hi Hamish and welcome to the MRF from sunny Dubai.

That's certainly a fascinating story and some family heritage you have there. I wish you well in your endeavours.

You'll find everyone here very friendly and, if you hit a snag, just put up a post and someone who can help will usually come back to you very quickly.

Enjoy your modelling.

 

[dwb]

Welcome to the Forum Hamish. My family connections have led me to focus my railway modelling on Leeds with a bias towards the LNER.

David

 

[Brian Considine]

Welcome to MRF Hamish.

 

[Speedbird]

Thank you all for the Kind words.

Quick question is their a LNER A4 'Dominion of New Zealand' in OO Scale?

 

[pedromorgan]

hello there

welcome to the forum.

i am a bit of a closet BOAC fan myself (but dont tell anyone ok!!) i think the livery was stunning. particularly on the comet. it dissapeared before i was born but from the things i read i get the impression that it still had a bit of the empire feel to it. befre the accountants got hold of it!

Peter

P.S. i am gutted that i didnt think of the forum name "speedbird" !!

 

[zmil]

Hello and welcome to the Forum Hamish

You have an interesting family history

Enjoy the hobby and the Forum

Regards

Zmil

 

[Speedbird]

QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 17 Jan 2009, 12:59) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>hello there

welcome to the forum.

i am a bit of a closet BOAC fan myself (but dont tell anyone ok!!) i think the livery was stunning. particularly on the comet. it dissapeared before i was born but from the things i read i get the impression that it still had a bit of the empire feel to it. befre the accountants got hold of it!

Peter

P.S. i am gutted that i didnt think of the forum name "speedbird" !!

Perhaps I shouldn't tell you what I got for Christmas, The History of the Comet!! Mmmmmm....

Back to Trains.... Had lunch with my Grandfather today and he was telling about the time when a new B17 'The Suffolk Regiment' was welcomed into is hometown, Burry St Edmunds, Suffolk (Funny that) and the Regiment were out on parade and such, he was about 13. Which led me to think is there a OO LNER B17 'Suffolk Regiment' would love for it to be my first model, not only for that reason but also as my Granddad and his Dad both served in the Regiment through their respective wars.

Hope I'm not asking to many question but is there a website were I could find information on Freight Rolling stock and than private coal companies in the East Anglia (even all over the LNER network) area? Reading through a RM mag I found a Bachmann set of 3 coal wagons H.FULCHER (Norwich) - MELLONIE & GOUDER LTD. (Ipswich) - WRIGHTS (Colchester) which would be perfect for my desired location, are their any others or would one have to resort to research and scratch builds!

 

[dwb]

>Comet
I always associate the Comet with the discovery of how sharp corners create very high stresses in metals.

>Dominion of New Zealand
Yes it is a OO model. There will only be 1000 produced by Hornby, so if you really want one, I would suggest placing an order as soon as you can. If not locally then Hattons. As it has an early crest, I may buy one if I see it but not otherwise. The Hornby A4 is a very nice model.

David

 

[7113]

Hi Hamish and welcome to MRF

I would have guessed that you had a "thing" about BOAC without your saying.

Enjoy the forum and any questions just fire away.

Regards

 

[10001]

Hi Hamish and a special welcome( all be it a little belated) from the Goon Valley Railway situated in Whangarei in the "Winterless North " . Where do you live ? If I may ask.
You asked a couple of questions and I'm surprised no one has answered the one re the Suffolk Regiment.
I presume you are going to model OO gauge. If so the nearest you can get at the moment is the Hornby B17 Footballer. This was class B17/3 , introduced in 1936, and which were coupled to the standard LNER 4200 gallon tender.Loco no 61645 The Suffolk Regiment was a class B17/1, introduced in 1928 and was coupled to a much shorter Great Eastern Railway type tender especially for working on the G.E section. To get the Hornby model right you would need to swap the tender ( which is tender drive) with the short one from the Hornby B12 . To make things more difficult the B12 is loco driven , But the tender body will fit the short wheelbased tender drive from a Hornby Patriot ( with some easy modifications). This Mix and match is easily done if you can obtain the parts . A more difficult modification would be to get a Comet Chassis or similar, Scale wheels , gears and gearbox and couple that to a China made B12 complete tender.
All very daunting ???? Any way to ease the pain a little I have attached a photo of the Regimental cap badge and I hope that will give you a little inspiration to get something started !

Best wishes Tony Overton ( CME Goon Valley Railway)

 

[FUNGUS]

Hi Hamish,
Welcome to the forum!
Steve

 

[madon37s]

Hi Hamish and welcome to the MRF

You will find us a friendly bunch and always happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Nice story by the way I got into railways because of my grandfather worked on the LMS (Although he died before I was born by 2 weeks).
He worked at Shrewsbury Station all his working life for about 55 years except for fighting in the First worl war.

Anyway nice o have you onboard

Kind regards
Paul

 

[MEGair]

Hi Hamish, And welcome to MRF.

Interesting story. My late Father was born just outside Newcastle upon Tyne, and had travelled on the Flying Scotsman in the LNER period before coming to OZ. The line out of Newcastle was going to be an alternative route to Edinburgh, thats what was planned way back in 1860's, but it was to hilly. Thats why I model LNER mid 1930's. Have built a set of Silver Jubilee Coaches.

Hornby are releasing this year a Limited edition Dominion of New Zealand in British Railways Green as stated. They are also doing a A4 Commonwealth of Australia in BR Green. If you would like original condition Garter Blue with valances I would suggest going to The Model Centre website and they would custom finish one in Dom. of NZ. Failing this you could have a go at it youself by buying a new A4 Mallard in Blue and buying HMRS LNER transfer sheets and Nameplates from 247 developments. All these are in the UK and have websites.

Good luck with it all.

Mark