Progress with the frames.
The 2 sub assemblies shown last time mated together and fitted with some of the 3d printed parts.
On a simple set of loco frames such as an 0-6-0 loco where the sides are mirrors of each other you can easily check everything is square by popping them on a bit of glass and see if they rock. If they don’t you are all good. On a larger set of frames thats made up of sub assemblies, not all of which are the same height you need another way and the easiest Ive found is to use a few chunky bits of evergreen strip and see if everything looks parallel when viewed end on. Things can then be tweaked and when reasonably happy the heights of the ends measured from the surface to check each side matches. The above image shows my start point.
Moving on the bogie is basically 3 sub frames. The finished bogie is shown on the right. 
The motion bracket and cylinders. 
And assembled onto the frames. 
Once in place the motion bracket and cylinders become one unit that is held to the frames by 8 small bolts.
Back to square one.
It was decided that so many changes had been made to the test etches for the Duchess that it would be best to abandon the build and start again with what we believe will be the production etches. It’s important to check that all the changes David has done are fine and it all goes together as intended. Also it’s an interesting exercise for myself to see how far I have come since I started this project way back in October 2019.
The main frames. Some small changes on this bit. Unlike the previous build I will be painting bits as I go along this time when it reaches appropriate points of the build
The front frames. Although it wasn’t apparent on the first build the frame spacers on this but where all a bit messed up resulting in a front frame that wasn’t exactly square. This has been rectified.
Variations on a theme – More vans
My somewhat hopeless addiction to building kits continues, I passed the point of having enough a long long time ago but there you go. This time all variations on types I’ve built before. Starting with the classic Airfix meat van. Or in this case just the ends of one and even then only part of the ends! Some meat vans lost their side vents and all but the top end vent. The Airfix ends are kinda chunky and can easily take having sections of them cut out and replaced with bits of plasticard. The rest of the van is all Parkside. Behind it is a standard Parkside plywood sided kit built as a fruit version.
The Ratio Banana van kit. These are the second and third times I’ve built one of these and I’ve still yet to build one as the kit intended. On the left is the standard body and on the right modifications to convert it into the diagram 1/224 version.
The first body was mated with a 9ft wheelbase chassis (stretched at the ends to fit) to produce a ex-LMS D1672 insulated meat van. By the time these were in BR service they lost the modifications that made them interresting. Those being roof mounted ice boxes and end ladders. Note the different wheels as per the prototype image in LMS wagons volume 1.
And the Diagram 1/224 version. Mounted on a detailed Red Panda chassis. Im just waiting for my friend to supply me some flexible steam heat hoses.
Some meat van variations – Left to right – the modified one shown at the start of the post. A similar one by the same method but with unmodified ends. A bog standard Parkside insulated one. The good old air-fix original (with Parkside doors and underframe) and the D1672 version.
And similar for Banana vans – Left to right D2111 LMS van from the Ratio kit on a shortened Parkside chassis. The Diagram 1/224 van. The ex GWR Y7 i featured last time and 2 Diagram 1/246 from the old Hornby Dublo bodies mounted on detailed Red Panda Chassis.
A few old kit builds
Been filling the odd moment here and there with some kit builds of fairly old vintage. The above is an LMS 22t tube from the old Ian Kirk kit. I replaced the bearings with MJT roller bearings based on a photo of a very similar wagon in Don Rowlands Twilight Of The Goods book. The hand brakes (which are too long in the kit as provided and are only one type) are spares from the Parkside 12ft chassis kit. 
Digram 1/120 LNER open from the Parkside kit. Whilst this kit is still readily available it is one of their older toolings. I enjoyed doing the weathering on my china clay rake and have seen photos with similarly weathered opens in normal freight trains so I returned to that for this one. The cattle van is a diagram w5 from the Coopercraft kit. Both have had extra detail with the GWR brakes coming from Mainly Trains and Morgan Designs etched parts
Next up another Ian Kirk kit, this time for the GWR mink C. I used the ends from the Ratio GWR 12t van kit, the ones in the kit had end vents and looked too narrow to me. I’ve added extra details to the body and underframe. Being on a 12ft wb underframe it’s something a little different.
Finally the left over sides from the above model were mated with Airfix cattle van ends to produce a Fruit B Diagram y7 banana van (I’m not sure that this designation is correct but it what the Didcot Railway Centre website refers to them as). The end vents were scratch-built and the underframe is a Parkside 9ft one with the ends stretched a bit.
Another Oyster
A few years ago I did a model of an ex LMS Oyster ballast plough for Brettell Road (see here). I originally finished it in red which i really liked but as that livery was unlikely at best for Brettell Road I ended up repainting it into black. Hover the red oyster proved to be an itch I couldn;t scratch and at Scalefoum last year i picked up another Cambrian Shark kit with the intention of doing another. This time for New Street.
There are differences between this one and my earlier one other than the livery. Some Oysters ended up a kind of halfway house between the original design and the later shark. They retained the none – heavy duty W irons and didn’t get any vacuum brakes but as seen here some were through piped. They also ended up with bodies and steps the same as a shark although still lacking the doors. So a super subtle variation then, I wonder if anyone will notice?
A bit of Deja-vu
Ive been wagon building again but but its all stuff I’ve done before (well sort of)
Starting with this little selection of fairly mundane vans (with a cheeky Airfix mineral tacked on the end). The nearest van is a Southern diagram 1452 plywood van from the Ratio kit. I used a parkside underframe and reprofiled the roof as the moulding flared out too much at the bottom. The repair patches are a neat little etch from RT models. The next one along is a bog standard Br 12 tonner from the Parkside kit and the cattle van is Airfix. You can see what i did to an earlier one by clicking here.
Next up an ex GWR Y8 fruit van. This uses Bachmann RTR sides and Parkside ends as the RTR body is too wide. Steve Carter has already written about this conversion on Kier Hardy’s site so there’s no real point in repeating whats already put there. Heres a link scroll to about halfway down. Just a quick note of thanks to Richard Oldfield for assisting with locating some buffers. On the 3 10ft wheelbase vans I’ve deviated from my normal approach of building them rigid by using the Dave Bradwell spring plates. Just as a bit of an experiment. See here – about halfway down
Ive been here before too – LMS D1994 milk tank from mostly Rumney models etches with a Lima Tank. My original one is the one on the right. As a slight variation the one I’ve just done uses the earlier style of underframe. (see here for the original build)
And D2173. These had sloping tanks and discharge at only one end. Justin kindly supplied me a test etch for the platform.
My little milk train in its entirety.
Project 2f part 2
Concluding my 2F project by starting with the tender The coal rails were from the kit as was the tool box.
Lamp irons from Stenson Models – Vac pipe from Lanarkshire Models. 
On the inside I made a representation of the coal space from thin plasticard – I wasn’t too fussed about blending this into the existing space as it will be covered in coal.
On to the loco then, with details fitted.
The washout plugs are kind of loco specific so as always – check your prototype. Also check the date. I found another picture of 58185 at Harbourne, so the same loco, at the same place, even under the same bridge, but as it was a little later the smokebox door was different. Alan Gibson do some nice lost wax washout plugs (I used them on my flatiron) but he hadn’t got any so i knocked some up from bits of brass.
The kit includes a casting for the injectors but its the later combined type. I previously made the version I needed for my 2441 tank from bits of wire and tube so I just copied what i did last time.
Some rudimentary cab details – I tend not to go too mad on this stuff as there will be a crew in the way. The floor is a bit of lead as any weight helps. The inside of the firebox is also lined with lead.
Inside motion modified from the Brassmasters etch. (This is the fifth time I’ve done this now – does it count as an addiction at this point I wonder?) I soldered some small tubes of brass on the chassis side face of the CSB springing plates to give me as much room as i could otherwise the tabs would have been in the way.
Next stage – – couple of light coats of etching primer. Check for any gaps or rough bits and add any needed rivets -Luckily theres not a lot of them on this class of loco. 
The end result.
These locos really are diminutive – pictured here alongside a 3f
A comparison of the 2 tender sizes.
Not by any kind of deliberate design I have ended up with quite a little family of Johnson designs now.
Project 2F
Those who kindly stopped by for a chat at Scalefour Crewe will have seen me fiddling with a set of loco frames. Above is the progress I made over 2 days which to be honest isn’t a lot but that’s a good thing. I always feel that if you get a decent amount of stuff done demoing at a show you’ve kind of missed the point of why you were there!
The Johnson 2f minefield.
The frames are an old Alan Gibson kit for the Johnson 2f or 1142 class, sometimes referred to as ‘mineral engines’. These and the similar 1357 class are often lumped together as 2Fs but there are a whole ton of differences between locos regardless of the actual class. I recommend a couple of books if you want to go into a lot of detail These being Stephen Summerson’s ‘Midland Railway Locomotives’ Volume 4 and Bob Essery and David Jenkinson’s ‘An Illustrated History of LMS locomotives’ volume 4.
The 1142 class 2fs were built by 4 builders over a 2 year period. Those being Kitson, Dubs, Beyer Peacock and finally Neilson. Initially they were very handsome locos and had a family resemblance with the 700 class Kirtley goods, if you put the laters outside frames to one side. As with all things Midland they were modified over their lives with Belpaire fireboxes and 2 different types of Deeley cab. The lower roof one being the better proportioned of the 2. The class had so many modifications that it’s definitely a case of pick a prototype and model what you see. Some had sandboxes at the outer end of the frames. Some either side of the middle driving wheels. Chimneys were all sorts of different heights too. The main oft’ quoted difference between the 1142 and 1357 classes is the wheel size. the former having 4ft 10in drivers and the latter 5ft 3in. An easy way to tell them apart is the 1142’s had brake linkages outside of the wheels while the 1357’s had them inside. Well most of them did anyway but there are some exceptions to that as well.
So my intended victim. Pictured here at Harbourne station in 1957. Ive long like the first image due to its run down nature. The station having been closed to passengers in 1934. At the time the picture was taken it was beign used as a wood store for the nearby Chad Valley toy factory. Note also the LMS open stil with its LMS lettering. Both images © 2015 – 53A Models of Hull Collection and used with kind permission.
58185 was one of the Neilson builds being constructed in 1876 and lasting until 1962 (86 years!). It was originally numbered 1245, then 3013 followed by 23014 before receiving the BR number in 1948.
The Kit
It would be fair to say the Alan Gibson kit is of its time and was probably towards the higher end of kit design when it was released. It doesn’t have any of the slot and tab style niceties we are accustomed to these days though. You can see from the top picture that I used some Alan Gibson frame spacers and drilled the frames for CSB suspension using the info on the CLAG site as a guide (see here) 
Progress so far handrails and details next. I found using a High Level Kits road runner plus gearbox with their D1 drive stretcher and a smallish motor I can get the gearbox into the boiler without having to cut into the boiler itself (which was just a bit of brass tube). It’s worth noting that if you want to do the original version London Road models do a kit for it.
The Johnson tender
Yes another minefield. These come in a multitude of different sizes. those being 2,350 gallons, 2750, 2950, 3250 and 3500 gallons. Some of the early ones came with springs above or below the footplate and there were were different inner face designs too. My kit came with the 2,350 gallon version but my prototype has the 2,950 gallon version. As the kit as clearly too small a Bachman spare body for the 3,250 gallon one was brought from their spares site. Im far from put off by a bit of plastic bashing.
The Bachmann model is pretty accurate for what it represents. A comparison of the key tank dimensions are (Bachmann/3,250) length – 77mm, width – 28.3mm, height – 16mm. The 2,950 gallon tank is length – 76.3mm, width – 26.1mm, height – 15.6mm. So that differences of 0.7mm, 2.2mm and 0.4mm respectively. I often think it’s a good exercise to think of these number in 2 ways – percentages and relationships. Dealing with percentages first the differences are 0.9%in the length, 8% in the width and 2 and a half% in the height. Its fair to say that the difference in length is all but impossible to see. The height probably not but the width is probably pretty noticeable. That brings me on to relationships. The tender and cab width are the same. If the tender was over a mm wider each side that would definitely look odd. The height as a number is harder to tell but the bottom of the beading lines up with the top of the cabside beading and this relationship is kinda obvious. Some of the class had the larger 3,250 gallon tender and this height is pretty obvious once you are aware of it.
Modellers licence
Some quick measurements showed that dropping the height of the tender by half a mm wouldn’t give the relationship to the cab I was after so I reduced the heigh by 1mm. Yes it means the tender is now a bit too low but the relationship to the cab is better.
The Bachmann tender cut into manageable chunks. The new lower beading is 10×60 though evergreen strip.
A rough mock up. The inner chassis is Brassmasters from their 3f easychas and the outer frames, brakes and springs are from the Gibson kit. The bufferbeams are also Brassmasters and the buffers are from Lanarkshire models.
Progress so far.
Pre-show tweaks.
Been doing some final pre show tweaks before Brettell Road heads off to York in a little over a week. 
After the last show (nearly a year ago now) there was a little bit of damage picked up. Nothing too major and the kind of job that I intend to get around to at some point but then don’t. Case in point this but of fence which got squished. 
While working on this area I took the opportunity to add some rudimentary steps to the signal box. Something I meant to do at the start but didn’t. I had put the gate in but the poor signaller would break his leg falling off the edge of the platform! There was also a platform light that got bent and thats been repaired and replanted.
Something else that got bashed but didn’t actually break is the chimney on the platform shelter. This has very little clearance to the other board when packed up so rather than wait for it to get smushed I decided to make it removable. A few magnets popped into holes and a bit of steel on the roof and hopefully thats a problem averted. I also decided that the roof was a bit too vanilla for a building due to be closed in a week so I’ve had a look at this area too. 
You may remember i talked about distress paint before when I was building the signal box and I’ve used it again here. For some reason it didn’t really crinkle up this time so a wash of Tamiya extra thin cement was painted on to add some more wear and tear. The mossy deposits are AK Interactive dark and light slime with some of their moss deposits.
Next is track cleaning and hoovering before packing the boards away, then the joy that is cleaning wheels!
In an uncharacteristic fit of tidiness I’ve made a proper box for the road vehicles, removable chimneys and coupling poles. When I say ‘made’ I mean got a box off ebay for around a tenner and stuck some foam in it!
The saddle mounted tank I featured last time is done and tested. 
Finally Railcar W14 waits for the road. The cats are undisturbed by its presence.
Info on the York show. Please say hi if you are going.
A trio of tanks.
A trio of tanks this time starting with…
… the LMS milk tank I featured last time. Now ready for service.
The Bachmann 14t cradle mounted tank wagon. Very much of its time with a very generic (and pretty rubbish if I’m honest) chassis. 
Luckily Justin does something a little more refined and very nice to build it is too.
Ready for the brass bits to be painted. The ladder is only loosely in place. The walkway is from my box of useful stuff (I think Stenson models) and the buffers are from Lanarkshire Models.
Still sticking with the theme of tanks but is a slightly dubious way, work in progress on a 96xx tank. I originally picked this up quite cheaply with and idea to include it in my scrap train. Round Oak scrapped quite a few locos, but it didn’t take me long to decide to do it as a working loco instead. Especially as a picture of this very loco heading a freight train through Brettell Lane cropped up in my facebook feed.
As far as I can tell this model by Bachmann is an evolution of the Mainline model I’ve already used to do my 57xx tank, with a later cab and other refinements. All of the handrails are separately fitted but I felt the handrail knobs were way too big so I replaced them with Alan Gibson ones. I reused the long handrail but as its not so wide i had to cut it in half to lose a little from the middle. The sandbox fillers are too far forward as they were repositioned with RT Models linkages but not before the front splasher was cut down in height. A compromise for the over sized flanges on the RTR wheels and something that has entered my ‘now I’ve seen it, i cant unsee it’ mindset when looking at model steam locos. Smoke box dart is also Gibson and the lamp irons are from Masokits. I also replaced the pipes on the footplate. Some 96xx had a bracket half way along with i quite liked but unfortunately 9614 was one that didn’t.
Rear view. The lamp irons were too high up on the bunker. This is correct for a 57xx but on the 96xx tanks they were lower. I was replacing them anyway. Buffers are Lanarkshire models. I prefer a better detailed solid buffer over a less detailed sprung one.
Drivers side. The pipework just in front of the cab is the same on both sides of the model. Again OK for a 57xx but on the 96xx they were different with a somewhat more barren look on this side. The footplate pipework is also routed differently around the cab footsteps. Chassis will be a high level one with my working inside motion bodge as described here. https://p4newstreet.com/an-unremarkable-little-tank-engine-part-1/
Finally something that you will never see – Brettell road in the sun! It was coming in the shed door and caught my attention.
return to milk tanks
My history with milk tanks has been, to an extent unnecessarily convoluted. Originally I planned to build a David Geen kit for a midland one and I got the Rumney Models underframe for it in preparation. However when I came to get the kit from David he only had one left and that was for a GWR one. Justin kindly swapped the chassis kit for me and, as I’ve mentioned before, doing battle with my collection of bits I ended up with my model of a milk tank.
However the desire for at least one LMS one never went away and for more years than it really should have been I would discuss the idea of doing one using Rumney bits with a Lima tank when I saw Justin at a show. Apparently I wasn’t the only one
Well finally, heres what I’ve come up with, The only bits of the Lima one left are the tank – end supports and filler hatch. The rest is pretty much all Justin with buffers from Lanarkshire models and the tank supports kindly cut for me by Tim Horn.
The diagonal bracing is obviously over-length at the moment. The strapping isn’t tight and the ladder is just rested in position until after painting. This seemed much less of a fight than my other one, so much so that I’ve ordered bits to do another 2.
Duchess progress March 2025
Some progress to report on the Duchess test build.
The original design that Geoff did for the cylinders was the same as the 7mm scale Finney kit. That uses cast slide bars soldered to the rear edge of the cylinder frame. In 4mm scale that wasn’t going to work so David has redesigned this area to use a layered etch that goes through the rear face and solders to the front. This will be much stronger.
The cylinders viewed from above with the wrappers in place. Just behind the cylinders are the Valve rocking arms which as they need to be removable are held in place with a small screw.
Theres a lot of piping on the footplate of a Duchess! 
The footplate is pretty much complete now.
Made a start on the valve gear
Progress so far.
A batch of good old Airfix kits
I recently picked up a batch of good old Airfix wagon kits. There were 4 brake vans, a 35t tank, a 16t mineral wagon and a cattle van. Of those one of the brake vans was finished and another one along with the 16t mineral were semi completed. I really wanted the brake vans as I had identified a need for more BR ones and more that were fitted as up until now I didn’t have any at all, just a couple of piped ones.
Note to self – if you’re going to batch build some wagons don’t pick ones that have loads of different sized handrails!
The first 2. A piped one and a fitted one, both built with Bill Bedford W irons, Rumney models springs and axleboxes and additional details. 
This one is a BR build of the LNER design note the shorter steps, no end handrails and different lamp irons. Build was the same as the first 2. 
This was the last one and the one that was already built. I replaced the handrails and roof and added the same details as the other 3. This one is unsprung.
On to the tank wagon. Not one this done before. This is sprung with Bill Bedford W irons. As supplied the solebars are too shallow so I carefully cut the top rib off flush with the face and added a new top rib from microstrip. Buffers are from my draw of buffers and I think they may be from A1 models. RT models do a nice little etch for these and while the ladder supplied is really nicely done it is a flat etch so I replaced them with ones from Rumney models. I replaced the brake gear with bits from the spares box.
The finished wagon. Transfers are from Cambridge Custom Transfers.
Flights of Fancy – Part 2
I ended the first part of this project by mentioning I needed some bits from Scaleforum. One of these was the injector which I modified a little from an Alan Gibson one. 
I also needed some firebox wash out plugs. Again Alan Gibson did the honours. It’s worth noting that they are not on the same places either side. The cab roof was just a bit of nickel silver rolled to the right radius and a few bits of strip for the rainstrips. The vent was filed up from Evergreen section. While on the subject of the cab the kit includes some bits and an etched floor. I found the handbrake column, if mounted to the cab floor as the kit was designed, gets in the way when trying to mate the body and chassis together so I cut it from the floor and mounted it to the body instead. The kit specifies that the reversing screw is mounted on the left side of the cab but, while hard to see in photos, it seems to be mounted to the right side so thats what I did.
With everything in place and being happy wit the fit of things the body was given another light undercoat before the missing rivets were added from my dwindling supply of Archers along with some from Railtec. Thankfully the flatirons dot have a lot of visible rivets.
I don’t normally take a painted but pre-weathered picture but this time I made an exception. I mentioned in the last post that because of the carzatti front axle the coupling rods seemed backwards to the norm with the joint ahead of the middle axle not behind it. When No.2000 was modified this remained the case. The kit has the coupling rods the normal way round with the joint behind the middle axle and I’ve never seen a model flatiron (in either 4mm scale of 7mm scale) that addresses this. I found 52f models do a set that have the right wheelbase with the joint in the right place so I used those instead. One little tip that seems really obvious but I’ve never seen anyone mention (perhaps its because it is obvious to everyone else?) is that I line up the coupling rod on this side with the orientation of the grub screw on the final drive gear. It makes accessing the grub screw simple should you need to in the future as you know where to stop the wheels rotation.
Below some pictures of the finished loco with my usual caveat of still needing coal and a crew. 
With her baby sister! 
Flights of Fancy – Part 1
Long time readers may remember this illustration I did a fair few years ago. At the time I was toying with the idea of BR Flatiron for Brettell Road. People who know anything about these locos will know that they only made it as far as 1938 before the lastof them went for scrap but my theory was what if they didn’t and made it another 2o years or so? After all we are all happy to bend the historical truth when it comes to places but why not locos too?
A brief history
Samuel Johnson of the Midland Railway had identified a need for a large passenger tank engine in 1903 and while a 0-6-4 seemed a logical progression of their 0-4-4 tanks several ideas and arrangements were put forward both before and after the design by Deeley was settled on. These ranged from a 4-4-4, a 2-6-2 with odd split side tanks, through several variations of outside cylindered 2-6-4’s and a 4-6-4. All of the class of 40 were built in 1907. As it turned out this was not a wheel arrangement that would become at all common in the UK. The front axle was mounted into a Carzatti slide giving extra play and resulting in a somewhat backwards arrangement of coupling rod with the knuckle joint ahead of the middle axle and not behind it as was the norm.
In early LMS days the class were fitted wit new superheated Belpair boilers resulting in a different firebox and being longer, the boiler now sticking out from the front of the tanks. The cab spectacle plates were also changed at the same time.
In 1928 loco No.2015 derailed at speed near Newark and a passenger on its train was killed. 2 more derailments occurred in early 1935. The first instance was when N0.2023 derailed at Ashton under Hill in February, killing its driver. 3 weeks later number 2011 was observed by railway inspectors operating between Leicester and Burton upon Trent only to itself derail 5 days later at Moira. Fortunately this time no serious injuries occurred. But the reputation had set in, the class were well known as rough riders on anything other than perfect track and were noted to run smoother going backwards.
An idea not completely without precedent.
The case for these locos lasting longer than they did is not without precedent. Class leader N0.2000 underwent some modifications to see if the riding could be improved. These were the replacement of the front axle arrangement with traditional springs (giving a different look) and an improved bogie with side bolsters. No 2000 was tested against an unmodified classmate No.2012 which itself had recent general repairs and not yet clocked up 1000 miles since. Both locos were considered to be in first class running order.
On the first test No.2000 ran between 35 and 50 mph before selling back to 35 and it was reported that the engine rode very steadily with no side movement reported of the trailing bogie. Test 2 saw No.2000 run between 45 and 50mph settling back to 45 with the same results. Test 3 was run at 55 and occasionally 60mph and this test was satisfactory enough to try test 4 where she was run over 60mph, reaching a speed of 67 before selling back to 65. It was reported that a slight amount of side oscillation developed and a slight roll but was still considered satisfactory riding.
No.2012 ran 3 tests. Test 1, 35mph occasionally touching 40 and the riding was reported as good with a slight oscillation and roll being perceptible on the footplate. Test 2 saw 45mph with occasional 47 and the riding was considered fairly good but with more oscillation and tendency to roll. The final test saw running at 55mph with occasional 60 and the riding was reported as rough with the oscillation and roll said to be pronounced and the front end having a tendency to develop an up and down surging motion.
Although the results of the modifications to No.2000 were good Stanier decided that the rest of the class were not worth altering and between 1935 and 1938 they were all scrapped with many of the (standard) parts going on to other locos. It was reported that many of the boilers were used on 4f’s.
But what if Sanier thought the modification were worth doing to the entire class? They were only 30 years old and many midland locos lasted much longer than that. As the boilers went to other locos they were obviously good so it it such a leap to think that a modified flatiron could indeed make it into BR days with only a slight tweak of history is it?
The Model
Luckily for us South Eastern Finecast do a kit for these loco’s and I’ve had one in the stash pretty much since I did the drawing above.
Starting with the bogie as supplied on the left and my modified version on the right. It’s been modified mechanically to provide basic springing on all 4 wheels and a basic form of sprung side control. As supplied the bogie is designed to be attached to a swinging arm much like the RTR guys tend to do. I didn’t really like that idea much if I’m honest.
The main frames modified with some spare Brassmasters inside motion bits. I considered there was no way you would be able to see working inside motion so just modelled the bits I felt you might see if you looked hard enough!
The cab Spectacle plate is a particularity weak point of the kit as it bears only a passing resemblance to the real thing, I made a new one from plasticard as can be seen on the right. If anyone wants the drawing for this (which I admit is a best guess on my part) it can be downloaded from here. The rebuilt cabs also seemed to have slightly longer roofs than the originals and little bits of Nickel strip were soldered to the corners to replicate this. 
Front view. The kit relied on an upper half of the boiler/smokebox merging with the lower half which is cast as part of the tank front and this forming the front of the smokebox. The end result wasn’t all that round so I cut it back and used a 22mm copper ring in its place Buffers are from Lanarkshire Models and lamp irons from Stenson Models
The rear view. The steps are cast into the rear of the bunker and where a little chunky. Also the top one was too low so these were replaced with some of my mk1 coach end steps. The window frames are from a Mainly Trains spectacle plate etch. Note the larger buffers on this end. 
The top of the tanks are vague as supplied with just casting for the water filer caps and 2 air vents that were related to the water pick up gear. In reality only 2015 had this fitted so they should be left off all other models of the class. This is my educated guess of what should be there but i do think there should be more clutter than this. Photos of this area are rare and so far I’ve only found 2
Progress will now need to wait until after Scaleforum where i need some more bits.
Its all gone a bit Eastern Region – Part 2
Earlier in the year I showed progress on a test build of the Brassmasters J17 kit test build. What follows is progress since then.
To be fair there wasn’t a huge amount left to do as I left it. One of the jobs was the business end of the brake gear on both the loco and tender. 
The other little job on the tender was the guard irons which had been missed off the test etch. These were fashioned up from scrap using a scaled image of the production etch as a guide. 
When I showed the side on view before I had managed to get the sanding linkages all wrong. This was subsequently corrected.
(Video © Tim Horn and used with permission) Then it was off to Tim’s for a few days work blocking in the basic greenery on North Elmham which was also an ideal opportunity to give the J17 a chance to stretch its legs. It was unweighted at this point except for a few pound coins in the tender. Attention then switched to getting Brettell Road ready for Scalefour Crewe and besides I thought it would be good for the loco to be displayed on the Brassmasters stand in the raw so to speak. However since then it’s now been finished off with the exception of a crew and some coal in the tender.
For part one of this little project click here
Time for an Update
Its been 10 months since I did an update on the Duchess test build so its probably a little overdue.
The first bit of news, for those who don’t follow the Brassmasters blog is that Geoff Hurley, the original kit designer, sadly passed away at the end of November 2023. He had been with Brassmasters for 20 years and in that time he designed their kits for the rebuilt Royal Scot, the LMS 4F and the Princess Royal as well their detailing kits for LMS locomotives. The Duchess was his last project before he became ill in 2022. I had a hope that I would get it finished and he would be able to see it but alas that wasn’t to be.
This had meant that at lot of head scratching and trying to figure out where the project was has gone on since (not much of it by me I must add). So theres actually been an awful lot of work going on but it may not look like it.
Some new bits for the tender. Originally the water tank hatches were white metal castings but these have been changed to 3d prints produced by David. The external part of the coal pusher is another 3d print.
Moving foward the exhauster pipe and the under cab injectors. The latter have been through several versions mainly because of how we were going to mount them to the loco. This latest version seems to have cracked it but has necessitated a slight change to the etched artwork. The cab roof is a loose fit.
While on the subject of the cab heres some of the inner detail.
Some of the footplate details in place.
Moving on to the front, with health problems at Markits at the moment and being unable to supply stocks of their oval buffers we have looked at a 3d printed body with an etched head. This allows the buffer to be much more accurately detailed and while it does lose the springing the prototypes were not particularly know for coupling up to trains at this end.
3F and using a Brassmasters Easychas conventionally.
Ive always quite liked the Midland 3f tender locos. They seem to be quite nicely proportioned, more so than the 4F’s that looked kind of tall and somewhat top heavy. A while ago in quick succession I picked up a Bachmann body followed soon after by a tender body and a Brassmasters Easychas for it. In the last week or so Ive decided to get some sort of progress on it.
So starting with the tender. I never had the Bachmann chassis and if its anything like most RTR tender chassis it will no doubt have all been a bit flat and kinda naff. Brassmasters do a detailing kit to replace the tender chassis completely so I used that. This is just built as per their instructions.
The rear end. Buffers are from Lanarkshire models as is the vac pipe. I think I’ll replace the lamp irons too.
On to the loco. If I had the original chassis then based on the 1F I did I’m confident you could have something up and running in a somewhat leisurely afternoon. If you use the Bachmann coupling rods and brakes you might not even need to fire up the soldering iron! However as I didn’t have the Bachmann chassis I decided to build the chassis up as a more conventional one by adding spacers left over from a High Level Models Jinty chassis kit. As the easychas caters for EM and p4 the EM spacers are perfect. If you don’t have any leftover Jinty bits though Alan Gibson do a neat little etch of spacers.
Before I show you the chassis though some decisions need to be made. The splashers suffer from the usual RTR problem of being too big. Brassmasters do a separate etch for ones that are the right size. The above image shows a comparison so you can decide if it bothers you or not.
As you can probably guess it bothered me so they were all replaced. The original footplate has a solid floor back to the front of the chassis casting so I cut that out. The new reversing lever is part of the chassis kit and the boxes on the side of the cabs have been thinned down by 2mm as per the instructions.
All this means that a little bit of rectification is needed on the body as it had recesses in the boiler for the original splashers that are no longer needed. I believe the Bachmann chassis block comes quite far forward so the base of the boiler was put back in using layers of thin plasticard. Theres not really much else to do to the body other than this.
Back to the chassis then – with the inside motion kit from the 4f – You didn’t expect me to leave a gaping hole did you? The gearbox is a high level loadhauler+
How the loco looks mocked up. I will leave the sandpipes until the very end as they will trap the centre wheels in place.
Going over old ground
Ive recently been doing a few revisions on the layout.
The first was prompted by a failure. It had always irked me a little that the above lamp was a little bit crude and the top wasn’t really the distinctive shape the lights at Round Oak had. Being at the back in a dark corner it wasn’t noticeable enough to invest any time into. However when it recently failed why not kill two birds with one stone? 
So after a bit of tweaking I’m much happier with it now.
Ground Signals. I originally used the MSE kits but I had found a few drawbacks. First thing was A few had took some knocks while cleaning the track. As they use a whitemetal casting for the main body and legs they really didn’t like this at all and were starting to look a bit bent and battered. Secondly as I had fitted lights there wasn’t a lot of room to work and I had just drilled out the lamp housing and shoved a nano LED in there with slightly mixed results.
One consequence of this wass more light bled out of the bottom than through the signal despite various attempts to fill the hole
So step in the Palatine models etched kits as a replacement. These are hopefully stronger and being an etch theres more room to position the LED in a better controlled way. I say more room but in 4mm scale ground signals are tiny but because of that even a slight gain is a big help. I modified the kits a little to make them work and drilled a couple of holes for the lights. Results are below
On the subject of signals Ive been playing around with resistors again to try to get the lamps a bit closer to how the real thing looked and less like a modern colour light. I think I’m there now.
Up on the road Ive added a few telegraph poles meaning I think I can call this area finished now. 
A revisit to my classic (or is that cliché?) scene. This time a wider verson.
Back to wagons – and a correction.
A while ago I did a batch of shock opens including an attempt at an ex-LMS diagram 1983 variant. Justin of Rumney Models noticed that I had used the same ends as the BR version with inset corrugations while the LMS wagon has corrugations that stick out. Something I had completely failed to notice myself. So that wagon had its top lip removed and renumbered back to a BR one. A new kit was brought (well a few actually – saves on postage!) and a second attempt made using cut down spare ends from a Parkside 12t van kit. The BR version is at the back. Theres a few other differences too like the bang plates for the doors, the shape of the panelling on the ends and the braces under the door.
The finished wagon in the company of yet another D2150 13t open.
The BR wagon has had a Rumney models sheet rail added and been mated with a clasp brake chassis to produce a D1/040 variant. Buffers are from Lanarkshire Models.
Moving on to a couple of hoppers. 
First up the Accurascale 24.5t hopper which i picked up cheaply from a private sale on Western Thunder. It came in brown livery and with a certificate saying it was a limited edition number 061 of 500. If this sort of thing matters to you and you have one you will be pleased to know that your model is now even more limited being 1 of 499 (You’re welcome!). It was separated into its component parts (a process that had already started in the box) and the body resprayed. These are not a straight drop in wheels job as the axles used are a little short and theres a boss on the back of the W-iron, much like Lima was doing 40+ years ago. Its not a huge problem though as a few turns of a bearing cutter (I use Ed’s tool) and a little bit of thinning the boss down and off you go. I also cut off the NM pockets.
What is a little bit more of an issue is it doesn’t weigh anything, just 21 grammes out of the box. Obviously if you plan to run your wagons loaded no problem but if you want them empty (as did ) then a little bit of trickery is required.
My solution was to make new lower sides from 1mm lead. This brings the wagon up to 50 grammes. If you would like to follow suit I drew up a little cutting template which you can download from here
Another parkside 21 tonner based on a picture that came up on my facebook feed. (some of the wagons in the post are waiting a delivery of couplings you may notice). Theres often a discussion when these kits crop up that they are difficult to build but they really aren’t. The trick is to assemble a side and end as 2 pairs on a piece of glass with a cutting matt to ensure they are square, let these set fully before assembling the rest of the wagon and theres no problems Any slight gaps between the panels can be filled from the inside using Mr Surfacer 1000 liquid filler.
Now a few oddballs – this is an ex L&Y diagram 81 loco coal wagon from the old MAJ models kit. The kit is supplied with a wooden chassis which is correct for the earlier wagons but i wanted the later one so only used the body. The brake gear on these were a little weird to say the least
The plan is to have a short train of condemned wagons that is delivered to the yard as a trip working from Bescot. These are then to be collected by one of the Round Oak locos to be taken away for scrapping and the metal bits melted down in the furnaces. This is basically what happened and quite a few locos met their fate this way in real life. Unlike some of the more famous railway scrap yards stuff didn’t hand around for long so nothing from my scrap train will have any hope of reprieve sadly. The condemned markings are from Railtec,
Another victim this time a GWR diagram 04 open from the cooper craft kit. Like another Coopercraft kit I’ve built this has the bearing holes mounted too low meaning that the wagon looked like it was on stilts. This one has slightly odd brake gear as well. You can just make out the old GW branding.
The LMS traction truck has finally been mated with its load.
Also based on a picture that cropped upon my facebook feed is this Borail from the Cambrian kit. Making the load was far from the most interesting task I’ve ever done I can tell you and despite it being essentially hollow this wagon still hovered up 5 meters of rail!
Its all gone a bit Eastern Region
Over the last week or so Ive embarked on another test build for Brassmasters. This time a J17 kit thats been designed by David Barham. Its not really any use for Brettell Road but it would fit North Elmham (which I have been know to help out with).
The basic chassis build with a High level Loadhauler gearbox. The loco and tender use CSBs throughout. The kit will be supplied with both printed and etched brake shoes.
The tender subframe – Again with options on the brake shoes.
Chassis and footplate.
Tender with its outer frame.
The cab
Pretty much everything above the footplate and forward of the cab is catered for by a 3D print. Here I’ve made a start on the basic detailing
The tender body, like the loco, is a 3D print.
The detailed up chassis
The finished loco – More pictures below. This has been a pleasure to put together.
Clay and sheets
One working that passed through the real Brettell Lane and kind of fascinated me was the St Blazey to Etruria china clay working. This service ran for years and was somewhat erratic in the paths it took. Usually going via Worcester, Stourbrige then Dudley before heading off to Bescot. Or it could go right at Stourbridge via Old Hill and (I think) Soho Junction. These routes avoided the Lickey but I’ve seen pictures of it going that way too in later years. When I was at University in Stoke it would often turn up at lunch time behind a pair of class 37s although it did switch to a class 60 in the time I was there.
So to have a clay train on Brettell road makes sense as a through service. I like the classic diagram 1/051 clay opens with their sort of cute, baby open wagon look about them. A little bit of rewriting of history is needed though as they tended to stay in Cornwall and not venture out to the Midlands. Brettell Road is set before the introduction of the clayliner service so my justification is that BR was trialing things out to see how they would work and thats good enough for me.
Ratio make a nice little kit for these and I was fortunate to find someone selling a box of 7 on Ebay for what basically worked out as a fiver each. The bodies go together well with a little bit of modification to make the ends fit. The kit features a somewhat crude attempt at a roller bearing and the brake levers are quite poor. It also includes cast buffers that aren’t all that great. So the bearings were replaced with MJT ones although my research showed oil axleboxes to be more common anyway. Brake levers are from the Mainly Trains etch, door bangers from Rumney models and buffers from Lanarkshire models. I did one as a test then built the other 6 as a batch.
Before I move onto the sheets a bit about the weathering. I followed my usual approach of a wash of dark grime followed by a spray of AK interactive dark mud. This was then all sealed with Klear before AK interactive white ink was used (in various levels of dilution) to give an overall effect of clay staining. You don’t want a fully weathered wagon at this stage, try to think of it as you are aiming for about half the effect you ultimately want.
Previously when I have done wagon sheets I make the sheet up with the ropes attached to it and then attach it to the wagon. This is a bit of a faff and sometimes the glue holding the rope to the sheet can give an odd effect so I approached this a bit differently. Roping of wagon sheets is a whole topic on its own and I will leave that too someone who has properly studied the subject but I just looked at pictures and coped what I saw. So the first stage is to attach the ropes (cotton) to the wagon – Tying it on at the visible ends and gluing to the wagon top with Loctite
This was then tided up by first sealing the knots with Zap Pink superglue. Theres no huge reason to trim the ropes inside the wagon but it pays to just keep things neat so they don’t get in the way later.
As mentioned before the sheet is made from black latex gloves (actually nitrile) and mine are a brand called Supertouch. They are a bit awkward to cut as the material tends to snag on the scalpel blade even if the blade is brand new. A method I found to work best is to stretch the glove over a bit of cardboard, make a template and to cut it using the handle end of the blade not the pointy end, pushing the scalpel away from you to cut. I don’t know why this makes a difference but it does! As i’ve mentioned in the past the material is black on the outside and a dark grey on the inside. I use the black side as its depicting wet conditions but the grey is good for a nice sunny day layout.
The sheet is then positioned in place, not forgetting to add weight inside the wagon and bulking it up with a bit of tissue first before gluing to the wagon tops in 6 places, about where the ropes are. Use Loctite and start in the middle (it sets very quickly) and remember to pull it taught as you glue the outer sides. This is one of those things were you probably need a bit of variation but you don’t want to force it. I find if I try to be as neat as I can, I’m not all that neat really and I get the variation by default.
Next stage is to glue the sides of the sheet to the ropes, again with loctite and again puling the sheet taught. I found holding it in place for 10 seconds was all you need. It pays to glue the sheet the side of the wagon at the ends at this stage
On to the ends. Another drop of super glue on the top and the sheet can be glued in place. The corners can be folded and secured in place and the last set of ropes glued into the sheet itself. 
The last ropes tied into place and tidied up.
The final weathering, back to the white ink (sprayed this time) with some additional grease stains on the underframe.
To break up the rake a bit I added a few 10ft wheelbase opens too. These are actually way more typical of the actual wagons used in the clayliners. The ex LMS Diagram 2150 I’ve featured before a few posts ago.
Likewise the ex LNE diagram 210 (although not this specific model)
A new wagon type for me is the ex LNE diagram 185. This was constructed from the body of the Cambrian kit C81 for the LNER 12ton 6 plank Open Wagon, With a Parkside 10ft underframe. Theres a few tweaks needed to the body as can be seen and theres an additional top support across the top of the door which is worth adding assuming you aren’t going to cover it over with a sheet that is!
Just need an enterprising transfer manufacturer to produce some sheet markings now.
More shockingly mundane stuff
As a follow on to the last post – more every-day wagons have rolled off the workbench. This time it’s a quartet of shock wagons.
Starting with the basics – Diagram 1/040 shock open from the Parkside kit. Built pretty much as supplied with the addition of a Rumney Models tarpaulin bar and a sheet from my now standard black latex glove.
Next ex LMS diagram 1983 from the same kit as above with the additional top lip on the ends and buffers from Lanarkshire models. You cant see it in the pic but I replaced the floor with scribed lead sheet.
EDIT – More info has come to light on these wagons and this one is wrong – see https://p4newstreet.com/back-to-wagons-and-a-correction/
A smidge more involved is this Diagram 1/038 shock open from the parkside kit for the standard (not shock) wagon. I shortened the sides by cutting sections out next to the middle section and mounted them on a new floor as the prototype wagons had a visible lip around the bottom.
Finally a diagram 1/219 shock palvan. A bit more involved again as I could use spare ends and a roof from Parkside standard 12t vans but the sides needed to be made from scratch. The chassis is the Red Panda kit.
Just some mundane stuff.
Just one of those every day, run of the mill style posts this time but with a few little tweaks to appease the wagon buffs.
Starting with the Parkside kit for the LNER 21t riveted coal hopper. Built pretty much as instructed but I did change the side stanchion plates for 10 thou plasticard as the ones in the kit were a bit chunky.
The spare brakes that came with the above kit were used to correct the brakes on my prototype 24.5t hopper I’ve featured before.
The humble D2150 13t open from the Parkside kit. The only real visual difference between these and the BR build is the small lip on the ends. A bit of 10×20 thou mictrostrip sorted that.
Ex LNER Diagram 210 adapted from the parkside kit for the Dia 1/120 wagon. The side stanchion were slightly reshaped as were the buffer beams while the chassis was replaced with spares from my scrap box.
Another bog standard affair, the D2039 ex LMS 12t van. This one was built from the Ratio kit with the addiction of the Rumney Models LMS van detailing etch (B105). It features the 3 part end for a super subtle bit of variety.
Finally something a little more involved. Before and after of the sides for a D2103 12t van using the parkside fruit van as a start point. The ends were scratchbuilt.
