"No.4480 Enterprise"

A quick recap needed on the building of my Gresley Pacific fleet, given I've actually finished one of them now!

So we start with one of Hornby's newest Railroad Flying Scotsman models.

Then some modelling happens...!

Essentially the cabs, washout plugs, cylinder blocks, smokebox doors and chimneys are replaced, and smokebox superheater headers and sometimes domes are added. The domes and superheater headers can be bought from Graeme King on the LNER Encyclopaedia Forum, whereas the chimneys are spares bought from Hornby many years ago. The smokebox doors are my own resin casts of the super detail Hornby A3 smokebox door. The cylinder blocks were cheap lined out spares from eBay.

The cab replacement method can be seen best here. The front loco has the replacement cab with the shorter cut out fitted, and the one behind has the original cab with the side sheets extended. Fitting the replacement cab requires cutting the original one off, filing down the top of the boiler backhead a little bit, and several rubber bands and slow drying super glue.

Truth be told, replacing the cab altogether gives a much better, more accurate finish, as the addition to the cab side sheets doesn't hide the fact the sides don't curve in as they should do. Plus, the replacement cabs (from the cheap Great British Locomotives magazine models) have full cab glazing - very useful!

The reason for replacing the cab is simple: this gives the cab type accurate for 1946-9 era Gresley A3s, as well as the right hand drive detail that I need for all of my A3s (except for Humorist, which as you can see above was actually converted from right to left hand drive in addition to all of the detail differences added including the stovepipe double chimney.).

The modifications also include adding lamp irons, handrails, couplings, vacuum pipes, smokebox door darts and white metal buffers, and cylinder drain pipes too. The white metal buffers

The chassis gets either a repaint of the wheels, or replacement with lined Hornby alternatives and a new front bogie in many cases.

Well, I finally managed to finish one - no.4480 Enterprise. The paint is just a standard Plasticote gloss black paint, bought from B&Q.

She looks very glossy here compared to the unmodified Railroad model behind.

Very, very glossy in fact! Note that although a lot of the detail is moulded on, it does look superior to older Hornby Gresley A3 models if not quite as refined as the super detail model.

The comparison between the two models - as bought and as modified - couldn't be more marked.

Enterprise received some light weathering and some lamp irons and lamps, in addition to some real coal in the tender. The weathering was mostly brushed on with some powders, and a light touch with a fine brush on the smokebox and around the front and on the tender. Games workshops' Purity Seal spray was used to seal everything in.

Toning down the shiny paint has still left something of a metallic look to the boiler, which I like.

Although annoyingly NONE of my transfers appear to be on straight. They looked it when I put them one, and they look it in real life. New glasses needed...?

Aside from the transfers problem (which I'll deal with in due course), I've really enjoyed turning a budget model into something more accurate. It was great fun, cost me a lot less to do than buying the top detail model from Hornby, and I've another seven to do to complete my fleet. The chassis of the Railroad model is a lovely smooth runner, and the flywheel drive is excellent. The diecast cartazzi and extra weight really add to the haulage stakes too, making it better in my view than the super detail alternative if you feel like putting some effort into your modelling.

Picking the wartime livery for 4480 wasn't entirely a cop out though, as I intend for four of my fleet to be apple green, and four of them to be wartime black. 

This way I have a variety of tender and boiler types and combinations and liveries ranging from NE Black to LNER apple green and British Railways on the tender. Lots of interest for the impending model railway!

Until next time.

"BRWS Update #5: #day252..."

 

The count down begins...

...for a return to a simpler time...

...to old friends...

...old locations...

...in a new format.

The British Railway Stories returns: coming soon to YouTube!

#day252

"BRWS Ltd Update #3 - Of J15s, cabbages and Kings…"

Goodbye March! It's been a tough old month. I started my new job on the 23rd and I am loving the change in work stream. I have to work very hard over the next few months and really concentrate, so the change to monthly blogs is an advantage for sure!

So I started the month with a simple enough task. I had to change my Hornby J15 into something more personal to me, and one which no one else had done yet. One with a stovepipe, suitable for my layout set in 1946-49. I scoured books, magazines and online to find one...

So the most obvious change was to the chimney, which was a straight swap for an Alan Gibson turned brass stovepipe chimney. I simply removed the plastic Hornby one with pliers - surprisingly not damaging it (it can be re-used for something else I suspect - an industrial steam engine?) and glued it down onto the boiler.

The cab and tender sides were then shorn of emblem and numerals, using a glass fibre pen worked carefully with a little water.

This image is a composite of two pictures showing the difference between my J15 as bought, and modified. The stovepipe chimney is more obvious as a result. A further change to the model was the removal of the smokebox numberplate from the smokebox door, which was removed using a scalpel and a thin, edged file to finish.

The body shell and tender body were removed, and gloss black sprayed over the top. I have been using standard plasticote paints for some time with plain black models, and the reason for this may become more clear later on. I used press fix HMRS transfers for the number and lettering.

No.5398 was a Stratford based example that retained its stovepipe due to wartime austerity. I managed to find a number of pictures of this locomotive and it was clear to me it would be the only one suitable for my needs at this time.

You can see here that the lack of a stovepipe and removal of the smokebox numberplate really transforms the look of the model. But it is in weathering and adding a crew that I find Hornby's J15 really comes alive...

I used Tamiya weathering palettes to get the overall finish I wanted on the tender frames and locomotive chassis, before dry brushing a variety of Humbrol enamel paints over the top, and sealing the whole model with a few coats of Gamesworkshop's Purity Seal varnish finisher.

The result is a model which has a nice, unkempt look and will fit in nicely amongst the other models I am working on at present.

The crew is from Bachmann and have been weathered to match the locomotive. I do like the pose on this fella, watching the road ahead.

Adding a lamp indicating a K class goods train rounds things off.

I am slowly getting there with this vision of having set trains and train engines for my layout. I hope to have a lot more updates next month (I've been saying this for a while).

- - -

On an entirely different note, I notice a lot of hullabaloo on a few infamous websites regarding a certain product announced last year (which I also felt was controversial at the time). Here's a little hypothetical for you all to mull on, and bear with me whilst I explain further later on...

If a bank said to a consumer...

"That product you ordered? We're cancelling it, you won't be able to buy it from us now".
"But you can have it from an appointed representative of us, in a nice new box".

"Oh, and it'll cost £30 extra for the trouble of reordering".

 ...we would hear no end of complaints about the bank's behaviour, clamours for heads to roll, who thought that up, and a general agreement that this is not good business practice nor is it fair on the consumer.

So why do I bring up this example? Hattons announced practically the same scenario this week, via email, for their model of King George V to be manufactured by DJ Models, and for all orders they had taken to be cancelled, directing their previously potential customers to STEAM instead to buy a now more expensive product.

As a loyal Hattons customer, and looking at both sides of the story, I feel it is only right to say that I have only ever received excellent customer service from them. Delivieries, returns, and pre-orders, they have never put a foot wrong with me.

However I feel, looking from the outside in, that this could have all been handled very differently. Good customer service is looking at what might potentially inconvenience your existing customers, and being pro active in not looking to appease them but to genuinely help them in a positive and constructive manner: and where things have gone wrong, putting them back on track.

It is very interesting to note how customers, who have in some respects been let down and now have to consider their order and its new cost, are being pilloried for their disappointment in various locations. Are we no longer allowed to question the quality of customer service, just because it happens to take place in the model railway world?

I can't help but feel disappointed on two fronts here. Firstly that such a situation still happens: and asking myself would it really have broken the bank to simply ask the customers of that model at Hattons if they wished to have their order transferred to STEAM, and if they still wished to proceed at that new advertised price? It would have only taken an e-mail or an update on the Hattons website.

In my view that would have been the right and fair thing to do, rather than cancelling all the orders as they have done.

On a different (but somewhat related!) note, I can see that Hornby have put a few sound files out for their TTS fitted King, due later this year, in addition to photographs of the model rapidly taking shape.
It looks excellent, and for my money, is going to eclipse the recent Heavy Tanks and Star by some way. As well it might, being designed post "design-clever" and on the back of the recent excellent Peppercorn K1 and J15.

- - -

Oh, and one update for fans of The British Railway Stories. Book Two - Great Western Glory - is getting close to entering the artwork stage. The book is now finished and being readying for printing before being sent to Dean Walker, our artist, for illustrating.

Exciting times! I have also promised a new set of films featuring a few familiar faces…but more on that another day.

Until next time.

"BRWS Ltd Update #2 - Silver Jubilee"

Happy Februrary, one and all! As this month draws to a close, I've been reflecting on a lot of things both railway and non railway related. All things considered, 2015 is going exceptionally well. 

At the end of January, I found out that I had been promoted at work, and I start my new role next month - can't wait! 

I've also been doing a lot of writing by taking part in 28 Plays Later - it's been great fun but also thoroughly exhausting at times!

The last couple of months have also seen seen a bumper round of modelling. You'll remember the Hornby Railroad Silver Fox train pack I picked up cheaply from a previous blog post I hope. Well, now the set is articulated and on its way towards completion. 

It is a very simply system. Two screws fitted into the Gresley bogie, and two pivot points in the bottom of the Railroad coaches. Nothing more, nothing less.

The pivot points are actually made from the retaining lugs which come from the Great British Locomotives magazine packs - I have hundreds of these now and they are proving to be extremely useful!

As you can see, just two screws (again, both sourced from the aforementioned magazine!) fitted into a standard Hornby bogie.

The coaches fit together by the screws being inserted into the pivot point. The only change that needs to be made is drilling out the pivot points to be just a little wider than the screws to allow for maximum flexibility around curves.

And that, as they say, is that.

The valances are being made out of plastic, and at this stage I have no intention to do more than make the basic shape - I tried a number of ideas for bending them to the correct shape, but to be frank these are cheap Railroad coaches and the idea of the project was to make them more passable rather than a rivet counter's dream (which they could never be).

The use of some Humbrol acrylic paint - Tank Grey - applied to the sides makes the whole presentation a bit better.

I have since fitted NEM pockets to all of the bogies, and I will be using long shank kadees with them - these worked better than the standard Hornby/Roco coach couplers.

The last alteration I have managed thus far is to the locomotive, replacing the tender and cartazzi frames with two spares I had to make the locomotive look closer to the real thing - spot the difference!

The overall effect is quite good I think and lifts the Railroad model a tad. I intend to fit lamp irons and lamps, and some glazing to the cab to finish the model off.

Where would a railway based on the East Coast main line be without the Gresley A3 Pacific? I have been doing a lot of work on mine! As you can see from the above photograph, they are all based on the Hornby Railroad A1 Flying Scotsman model.

The above model is intended to be St. Simon (a little self serving!) and has had a new cab fitted, a new dome, resin smokebox superheater headers, whitemetal buffers, a resin smokebox door, a new smokebox door dart and a Hornby A3 chimney. The original body shell can be seen above.

The cabs come from the Great British Locomotives issue 3, and I think you can tell what the subject of that model is! The white templates in the top right of the picture are for fitting Alan Gibson brass washout plugs - this allows me to drill the holes in the correct place for an 94HP boiler.

I've replaced all of the driving wheels and the bogie wheels on all of my Railroad A1 chassis now.

Now paired up with their chassis and tenders, the whole fleet is coming together nicely. There are going to be three with GNR tenders (St. Simon, Robert the Devil and Humorist, at the front), one with an A4 tender (who else but Flying Scotsman herself?) and two with the non corridor beaded tenders (one will be Trigo, the other I haven't decided yet).

Humorist is the furthest along and I will hopefully have finished her, weathering and all, by the summer. She's had the most amount of modifications as she formed the prototype from which I have developed my modelling further. She's by no means perfect but she is all my own work which is satisfying.

In January, two significant models landed for review. The Hornby Peppercorn K1 and from the same stable, the 21 ton hopper wagon. Both are absolutely superb and complement each other well. Here is my K1 - soon to be one of the Stratford based examples - pulling a rake of these wagons.

There are two Dapol interlopers in the set which will be modified heavily to match as best they can.

The Hornby K1 is more of the same level of excellence in the locomotive department that we come to expect (particularly the B1/O1/L1/B17 models for example) but the hopper wagons are on another level for rolling stock entirely.

I cannot believe how little discussion has been generated by these wagons online, but I am told by my usual retailers, Invicta Model Rail in Sidcup, that they are flying off the shelves. All for the greater good I suspect!

You'll recall, if you have been keeping up with my Twitter or Facebook feeds, that I have been working on a model of a Thompson A2/3 Pacific. This one came to me in pretty bad shape. Well, after a lot of work, the model is nearing completion.

I'm quite proud of how much I turned it around on this model. Graeme King came to the rescue with a set of front frames and a new running plate, and after that the fitting of Hornby sprung group standard buffers, Bachmann V2 valve gear, and new cylinders have transformed the model.

Add to that the painting stage is now almost complete, and the transfers and nameplates can go on. She'll be finished in LNER plain gill sans numerals and lettering as Sun Castle. This was a Copley Hill based A2/3 for a couple of years in the forties and is one I always wanted to make for myself.

I've also been having some fun outside of work and railways! On Valentines day, I took the girlfriend out to see The Railway Children at King's Cross - it is a truly immersive experience and everyone should go, even those who don't like railways, purely because it is such a brilliant performance piece.

Our evening was spent in a lot of railway related locations, including the delightful Plum & Spilt Milk restaurant - the set course there was excellent! The service was also top notch, and I can attest from my hangover the next day that their cocktail bar is brilliant…!

I thoroughly recommend the restaurant but I do not recommend my hair do for the evening!

And of course, there was some time to go round King's Cross afterwards and take in the sights. It was a wonderful evening. I was thinking I over did it on the railway theme a tad though…! Don't worry, it's not all going to be railway related in the future…!

Finally, touching down this week from Invicta Model Rail again was the stunning Hornby J15.

I really don't know how I could describe this model as being anything other than the perfect LNER branch line engine. No really - it is the smoothest running model Hornby - or any OO manufacturer - has ever produced.

Big claim, but with a five pole motor and two flywheels, a metal boiler and running plate, I think it's a fair one. Yes there's a few niggles - the handrails should be inclined, not horizontal, and I'm not 100% sure about the way Hornby have made it possible to do the two versions of the cab sides and roof, but on the whole it's an exquisite model and everyone should buy one!

Mine went straight into the works for renumbering and and some modifications, the big change is of course the chimney.

Colin at Alan Gibson very kindly sent over in the post this excellent turned brass stovepipe chimney. The intention was to put the J15 in early 1948 livery with the lettering and plain Gill Sans numerals, but I can't find a photograph of a J15 like that as yet…!

Some black paint was applied for the camera to compare with the second J15 purchase. The shininess will be toned down at the weathering stage.

So that was my month of February. If you have any questions about the modelling, please do get in touch via the email address on the contacts page. Next month's update will hopefully include some layout modelling too.

Until next time!