The LNER Encyclopedia

Evening everybody,
I am delighted to announce that the greenhouse purchased in Feb 2012 and taking up important modelling space in the garage has now been erected and I am back in the positive with the brownie points!!!!

So much so that I have spent a couple of evenings and most of today in the shed.

I am slowly cranking my activities up for the impending Barrow Hill show in September,,, the D9 is currently taking a back seat whilst I attempt to finish off several loco's which I am hoping to have complete by the show to improve the required level of "Gortonaura"

I offer a couple of photo's of the current the "W I P" line,, which includes,
D9
F1
C13
Recab of an old Bec J11
+
D2
J52

I also apologise for including a Fowler 2-6-4 tank with limo cab
and an LYR Highflyer Atlantic.

It would be easy to say I do things in batches but to be honest I am very bad at finishing things off until the pressure is on and this time it's the Barrow Hill do which is celebrating the 160th anniversary of Doncaster.
If anybody has an urge to bring along anything appropriate to run then be my guest,, if you normally run on 00 finescale with code 75 rail it should run on mine.

Lets all join in the fun of the celebration,, for me some things really are worth celebrating.

SAD

Oh, it HURTS.

Truth to tell, I am delighted with your post. It provides an aspirational target. So please keep up the practice.

Personally, I feel rather too like an old git passed-by by the present fashion for brass and N/S kits of salivatory prototypes. But I might get somewhere near in styrene, so by all means persist in the encouragement... I was almost relieved to see a whitemetal representative in the midst -- and it too looks pretty damned good....


auldreekie

Many thanks for the positive comments AuldReekie,

Actually most of them are white metal,, D2, F1, C13, Highflyer I think were Nucast & purchased & started longer ago than I care to admit to,, I really am the worlds worst when it comes to getting things finished off.
The J11 & J52 are old Bec kit's built around 1972 whilst in the RAF,, in their own way they are my own heritage models, the J52 has been with me since my first exhibition layout and it's a member of the family,, I was tempted to replace the original Triang chassis with a state of the art scale chassis but decided against it as it runs really well and it reminds me of how far I have come,,, I know it hasn't got any brakes and I don't care and it's my bloomin railway anyway,,, it also winds the RCTS lads up really well!!!!
The Fowler Limo cab is a Hornby plastic body on a Comet chassis with a Crownline conversion kit thrown in,, the D9 is brass and covered on it's own thread.

I know white metal is messy and prone to cast marks and weird shapes but I enjoy working with it,,, at least it's easy to solder although in the early days it was a bit too easy to solder,,,, oops,, more ventilation than required in the cab sides on a couple of occasions,,, but filling the holes in and repairing my own mistakes was worth while and it taught me to be much more careful when wielding a soldering iron!!

The real challenge is the paint shop,,,, I am to painting what King Herod was to babysitting!!!!

But it's still the best hobby in the world.
Again many thanks.

SAD

And thank you for that response. I have several drawers full of whitemetal kits made probably when Herod was doing his bit... And others awaiting attention. It may well be that even the made-up ones are worth revisiting using skills (only slightly) honed by several years of scratch-building in 009, especially since most were glued, and so can fairly easily be dis-assembled.

Another decade of retirement activity mapped-out already....


auldreekie

I admit I find whitemetal easier to work with than plastic on occasions, especially when it comes to trams (depending on whose kit it was and how old the moulds are). Does save on having to find extra ballast for hauling capacity, or staying on the track if the layout gets knocked.

auldreekie, manxman,
How the memories come flooding back,, the first white metal kit I ever got involved with was a Wills J39 in the early 60's, and I was just a teenager,,,
Mr Wills recommended UHU glue in those days and so father bought a tube,,, I "bashed" it together in a couple of afternoon sessions and for a couple of months it was fine until it accidentally hit either a set of buffers or another loco and it basically turned itself back into a kit again,,, I remember the boiler separating from the footplate and cab took on a very jaunty angle in relationship to the footplate,,,mmm,,, I was not impressed and father was not amused.

About that time we had joined the local Sheffield club and there were all sorts of clever people there who were more than happy to spend time showing "kids" the basics of modelling.
One guy called Des Welsh deserved a knighthood,,, he had about 8 or 10 teenagers sat round his big dining room table on Tuesday evenings and we were all round there every Saturday running his massive 3 rail layout which had over 100 loco's on it in 1962,,, eventually the railway took over his batchelor pad and he had Kings Cross in his living room running down the corridor from the main bedroom which was the main railway!!!!
I didn't realise it at the time but I was VERY lucky,, the modelling apprenticeship offered by clubs in those days was second to none,, and here we are 50 odd years later and I'm still enjoying the hobby as much now as I did then.

The only white metal kits I treat with real caution are McGowan!!!! I have their GC C4 Atlantic sitting on the shelf in the shed and has been doing so since about 1993/4,,, I honestly believe I could make a small tank engine body from the metal I have chiseled out of the thing,,, and it is still the heaviest thing I have despite it having a brass cab & chassis,, one day it will be get finished but it would have been much quicker to scratch build one and probably resulted in a better model.

Millholme come a close second & K's kits were a challenge,,,, but good for your sense of humour,,, I particularly remember a J72 kit which had one tank side nearly 3mm longer than the other,,, the mantra in Sheffield in those days was K's kits don't run,,,, I had to prove them wrong,,, but it had a Triang TT motor,, Romford wheels and my first brass chassis made out of old curtain rails!!!

Those were the days!!!!! for real nostalgia you just cannot beat the aroma & squeals of soldered teenagers fingers!!!

SAD

Superb.

This reminds me of one (but only one -- Atlantic be patient) of my reasons for signing on to this forum (actually, one of them may be the decent size of typeface which it adopts, whence my exhortation to Atlantic).

McGowan kits, and the B4 in particular. Well, it's still on my shelves, and I may make a decent, if weighty, model of it yet. Anyone willing to share experience of the B12?


auldreekie

(This damn computer system makes a mockery of my nom-de-forum. So far it has essayed auldfreekie, auldcreakie, auldfreebie, auldstreakie, auldfeelie, and auldpreachie, amongst others.... Every one might justify a Thompson A2 pacific if I could just implement Atlantic's precepts with adequate speed....)

auldreekie wrote: So far it has essayed auldfreekie, auldcreakie, auldfreebie, auldstreakie, auldfeelie, and auldpreachie, amongst others.... )

Can I add ,,,auld-lang-sign to the mix!!!!
As I've had a good afternoon handrail knobbing,,, I needed a bit of R&R to allow my eyeballs to get back to normal,,, so here it is,,,,, if you listen carefully you can hear the foam creeking,,,

One day sam,,, one day,,,

SAD

G'Day Gents

When I saw your pics at the top of the page I thought I was seeing a view of Doncaster paintshops !

manna

I wish,,,, manna,
I would love to leave them with someone and pick them up when finished,, when it comes to the painting of models I am a long way from my comfort zone.
It is a chore which I do not enjoy in the least.
If the lottery numbers come up I can keep Mr Rathbone entertained for ages,,, but I think we both know that is unlikely to happen!!!
Thanks for the interest.

SAD

auldreekie wrote: auldreekie

(This damn computer system makes a mockery of my nom-de-forum. So far it has essayed auldfreekie, auldcreakie, auldfreebie, auldstreakie, auldfeelie, and auldpreachie, amongst others.)

Is there an "etiquette" I am missing by not having a nom-de-plum,,,
I don't want to upset anybody,,, and I could have great fun deciding on something suitable.
SAD

Great collection of engines there. I really like the C13, D2 and your progress on the C4. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

I wouldn't know about "etiquette", it's not my subject. But the computer's having fun deciding on one for me (actually, I know it's my awful typing, but it's more fun and better for the soul to make the working assumption that the damn machine is to blame.)

And apologies for so hi-jacking this thread, whose splendid models are a much more worthy object of contemplation than is this diversion......


auldreekie

auldreekie wrote: And apologies for so hi-jacking this thread, whose splendid models are a much more worthy object of contemplation than is this diversion......
auldreekie

AR,,, no need to apologise for the diversion,,, I find some of them as interesting as the subject matter in hand,,, like am I alone in finding it very difficult to model without background music,,,, and on occasion when things have gone well I write down what music I had on to create such positivity,,,, for me Fats Waller and Django Rheinhardt work wonders,,,

Just a thought,,,, oh and a picture of the recently rebuilt Bec J52,,,, the Corporal Jones of Salmon Pastures

A propos whitemetal kits - anybody remember Pafra as an adhesive? I built a K's J50 on an H-D chassis with it - never fell to bits and still runs as smoothly as ever. Those were the days...