Welcome to the GVR

Hi again . Continuing with my clean-up I have unearthed some more of my treasures,( well, they are to me !!!) Some more kitbuilt or partly scratch built wagons which may be of interest to you . Firstly on the left are three by Ratio , a hopper and two coke wagons, these were hand brush painted with the lettering also done by hand using a brush with not many bristles. Next is an iron mink similarly finished but this time the body was made of card. Then come a couple of kits . Behind them are two kits by Three Aitch mouldings , these private owner wagons were pre-printed both with their body colour and their lettering. The Lemon LMS 0-4-4T is shunting a scratch -built guards van with shepherds compartment, I am not sure of the original ownership of this van but I finished it in LMS maroon .
Rodney and Charles have raised the flag for the victorious England cricket team . ( Psst... Does any body want to know when I'm going to bowl the next no-ball ???? Rodders says he is honouring the success of Lewis Hamilton too



This is a similar shot showing more of the congested Greenslade Station.



Having been deprived of running trains for some time this next picture is to remind me that things will return to normal soon ( I hope )



Regards

Hello playmates.
After posting pictures of my plasticard Patriot and Royal Scot the continuing tidy-up revealed one more of my scratch building efforts. I had temporarily mislaid and forgotten about this one, an ex Midland Railway 4F 0-6-0. I can't say whether I built it before Will's brought out their whitemetal kit ,or after. It was made on a much modified Tri-ang chassis, details of which are below.
The footplate and all above it is made from plasticard except the smokebox door , chimney ,dome ,safety-valves, whistle , which are whitemetal castings , and sprung buffers.These were made by WH models who also supplied the trade ,so most of these items could be purchased from your local model shop , also of course parts for most of the more popular and commonly home-made engines were stocked. WH produced a comprehensive catalogue so sourcing and ordering bits and pieces was a breeze.
The tender body,toolboxes etc, frames, axle-boxes and springs were all scratch built from plasticard, and included a load of real coal and a full set of fire-irons made from florists wire and pieces of tooth paste tubes( for shovel mouths ) This was a very useful material for making loco to tender fall plates after squeezing in the jaws of a pair of heavy duty pliers, so as to make the "cross-hatching" .



The second picture shows a pretty ordinary Tri-ang ex MR 3F 0-6-0. It has had a new plasticard boiler fitted together with a new chimney and dome ,reversing lever and mechanical lubricators. The tender is built as for the 4F ( ex Midland )above and replaces the Tri-ang Fowler one.
The chassis is original Tri-ang ,and is as noisy as you would expect. Unfortunately the LMS 3F proposed by Bachmann will carry the same number as mine.



This compares the two chassis. The one nearest the camera is the 4F and has Romford wheels fitted and is powered by a 5-Pole MRRC motor. It shows that quite a hunk of metal was removed to to get that "day-light" showing beneath the boiler.


I hope that I haven't bored too many of you with this blast from the past.

I have at last finished labelling ,checking and repacking my wagon fleet and have been able to run a few trains .Now to start on my coaches.

regards

*** Hi Tony - bored - hell no - I am builder of things too and I happily take my hat off to you - some really good stuff with loads of character ... it was a pleasure to see and read about it.

Its all too easy to forget just how much effort and versatility it used to take to create something for the layout - kits are now superb in comparison to yesteryear (I have persevered through some of the older kits for bloody-mindedness sake but I have also just binned about a dozen Jackson Evans kits. literally, because they were just not up to todays standards except for some superb castings)

There used to also be a need for lots of lateral thinking in materials... and research is less too as a good kit comes with loco history, lots of pictures and optional details to die for as well! In reality, while I can build, paint and line a complex kit with no difficulty at all to a good standard, reading your missive makes me feel more like a simple mechanic compared to an artist!

Your hand lettering is pretty darn respectable too by the way - I'd not have picked it as such at all if you had not said... thats a considerable skill in its own right!

So thanks for sharing and please: Keep up the stream of consciousness stuff about your models and their history - its inspiring and interesting... AND yes I (and I am sure others) am also interested to read about your approach to rocks, so get writing .

Kindest regards

Richard

I have to acknowledge a few recent postings and say thank you to,, Tank Engine, and Makemineadouble for your kind comments .
However on querying the (new to me ) expression " stream of consciousness" postings, I consider that all that has been said about my postings is not as truthful as what it appears to be , as the definition as I see it, is that my postings are a load of boring old crap.This being the case it seems to me to be a complete waste of my time to continue posting rubbish.( this could also be due to the "old" thing as far as the juvenile members of this forum are concerned ). For more see elsewhere on another posting on this forum. I apologise if this is the case and to those who may have reaped something from my aimless and boring wanderings I say thank you for reading them .
So it's Goodbye from me and it's Goodbye from him.