P4NewStreet

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Not me

Appearing at Scaleforum was this Hurst Nelson 14T chlorine tank, incredibly generously donated by Colin Craig. He was building a batch for Mostyn and added an earlier version for me. These would not have ventured to the Black Country but years ago I helped Dave Clarke, Along with Simon Stephens, take out his layout Amlwch to various shows around the country. Amlwch (pronounced Amlook) was the location of the Associated Octel plant and while the exchange sidings for it never featured on the layout and we never had the chemical tank trains its a nice little nod to a bit of my personal modelling history.

None of this wagon is any of my work. I did tweak the weathering a little from how Colin supplied it as the top of a white tank in the steam era wouldn’t be a clean as in Mostyn’s diesel era. I added the required wet look for Brettell road.

For more on Associated Octel click here.

Next up another tank that I’ve not had a lot to do with really. The recently introduced demountable tank wagon RTR from Clarke Railworks. I rarely buy anything new RTR and this is the first brand new rail vehicle I’ve brought from any of the new generation manufacturers. In fact it’s the first new RTR thing I’ve brought since 2017 and the time before that was 2012 I think. I seriously doubt I’m paying any bonuses in RTR land at the moment.

So the wagon then, nice box and instruction booklet (looking at youtube reviewers these things seem important). The box will still look nice in my bin too! To be fair the instruction booklet is nicely laid out with clear illustrations of how to swap the wheels for em/P4. Which is dead easy, P4 wheels just drop in once the brake rigging has been unclipped and brass bearings are already installed. The brake shoes are kind of wide for 00 and a bit narrow for p4 but not enough to make you want to faff about moving them. The wagon weighs 30 grams out of the box which is lighter than my aimed for standard of 50g but some test shuffling around on Brettell Road didn’t show up any problems with this.

The couplings were replaced for Smiths and the (strangely) missing brake gear safety loops added. There a bit of a trench down the side of the tank and this was filled with Mr Surfacer 1000 liquid filler and gently sanded back. The colour was matched from a mix of blue and black. You don’t want to completely eradicate the line as it is visible on the real wagon. I think the branding should be parallel to the wagon and not the tank (which itself slopes at one end) but I might be wrong. Either way I left it as it was. The lamp irons were painted black (white lamp irons weren’t a thing yet) and that was about it, with the obligatory weathering of course.

Scaleforum 2025 ticked off

Well Scaleforum 2025 is ticked off as is my exhibition diary for this year. I’m happy to report that everything went very well and all that effort put into amending the cassettes post York was well and truly worth it. Theres a small list of things to fiddle with, there always is, and less than an handful of errant wagons are waiting to be spoken to. We all enjoyed ourselves and I’d like to extend my thanks to the Scalefour society and everyone who took the time to stop by. Many kind words were humbly received.

It’s changed a bit since the first Scaleforum we did back in 2017. Next up is Macclesfield in April 2026.

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?

In a little under a month Brettell Road will be returning to Scaleforum. Its changed a bit since its first showing there back in 2017. For more info on the show click here

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.

Post York show Part 2

Continuing from the last post. I mentioned a revision to the lead in from the cassettes to the layout. Below is a quick video of a bit of a drastic test.

In reality no trains will inter the layout at this speed and aside from the industrial entrance behind the warehouse none of them will be pushed.

The cassettes are finally done. This is the long ones in their storage position in the station end fiddleyard.

And the DMU and loco ones in the Dudley end fiddleyard. Im not usually one for counting parts but including the 5 connectors on the layout thats a total of 86 ends, 172 springs and just over 6 meters of copper strip. Ive had better projects to do before now!

On to the tweaks on the layout itself. Just a few of these. Those at the show may have seen the odd derailment of stuff coming into the Stourbridge platform. The Derby lightweight seeming particularly susceptible to this. Turns out the barrow crossing on the left hand rail has become loose and was higher than the rail head. The crossing on the Dudley line was also a tad high but not loose so I’ve removed both to get a better fit. The Derby lightweight will be checked too to see if theres any problems on the stock side.

I noticed when cleaning the track that one of the smaller sections of track on the threeway was a little low. I don’t recall anything coming off on this particular bit but I’ve fixed it anyway. There were a few tight spots that have been amended too. My mint block would go through but with a bit more resistance than I liked. One of the tight spots was between the running rail and the check rail. Just need to put new half chairs in place and cosmetic fishplates. Then paint the rail and blend it all back in.

Finally the check rail coming in to the yard was originally an after thought on normal flexi-track. It wasn’t as neat as it could have been and being normal track there was no gauge widening on what it the tightest curve on the layout. The far rail was removed with the moulded chairs smoothed away and the rail replaced with proper check rail chairs.

21st May 2025

In a couple of weeks i will be heading back to Crewe for Scalefour Crewe 2025. This time I will be there demonstrating my approach to building steam locos. Who would have thought id be getting up to something like that a decade ago?

York show post-mortem

Over the Easter weekend Brettel Road headed north 3 hours to the York MRC exhibition.

Despite a minor cardiac event at 5pm on the Thursday evening when it looked like the van may not be available due to a medical emergency set up went smoothly. Little did I know what was to come over the next 3 days.

We had problems! The biggie was that the cassettes were still not reliable, to the point where they were the worst they have ever been. Despite this the guys battled on against the layout that was absolutely determined to fight us ever step of the way (thanks again chaps). There was a problem with the main point into the yard behind the station which I did manage to patch up on the Saturday afternoon and the track in the yard under the bridge (of course it was!) had become damaged. Something we didn’t notice until a member of the public kindly let us know. The whole show was a mixture of frustration and some degree of embarrassment really that the layout was performing as smoothly as the proverbial bag of nails. Despite all this we did still attract a lot of interest throughout the 3 days and many kind compliments were received along with 4 or possibly 5 requests to take it out to more shows so I guess from the public side of the barrier it didn’t seem quite as disastrous as it did to me. Thanks to the guys at York MRC for having us and looking after us so well. The elements of the weekend that didn’t involve the layout were great!

Diagnosing the problem

The problem with the cassettes was two fold and wasn’t something we could really address at the show. Brettell Road actually has 45 cassettes in total in 3 different sizes.

When I built and tested them originally, I tested them for resistance using the buzzer in my volt meter. What I didn’t test was if there was any voltage drop or not. On the left are 3 loco cassettes of the design we had at York showing a voltage drop of over 5 and a half volts or as good as 40%! Little wonder it caused us grief. On the right a revised design tested on 3 cassettes with no loss of volts at all. A little diagram of my cassette evolution. The top design is what I used on the short version of the layout and that seemed to work fine. As these cassettes were single ended I also fitted a light to them so that we could see that they were electrically connected.

With version 2 I wanted them to be double ended and introduced the idea of smaller loco cassettes. This had 2 effects. While on version 1 the rails were squeezed tightly by the guide rails on the revised version the fit was less positive. The second effect is a loco cassette doubles the number of connections. If everything is really clean they work just fine however in the real word things don’t stay really clean for long. Because of the design, the bits I needed to keep clean were hard to get to and the sort of area what would naturally collect dirt and crud. The loose stock rails were also still prone to go the wrong side of the guide wire and I found many had failed at the soldered joint on the third sleeper in exaggerating the problem. I guess my absolute minimal solder approach I use when building kits isn’t such a good idea in this application.

The solution is to add contact strips from 0.2mm thick, 5mm wide copper that fold down the front giving a much bigger contact area that, just as importantly is easier to get to to keep clean. I also reduced the length of the rails that stick out and soldered the loose rail to an extra sleeper so it doesn’t move as much. The cassettes are kept in compression when on the layout by a simple peg (actually cheap, small screwdrivers) fitted into holes drilled into the baseboards.

Now this is a bit belt and braces but on an exhibition layout thats never a bad thing. Rather than just rely on the springiness of the copper strips I drilled holes behind them and fitted a couple of spring (actually springs from smiths coupling hooks that id been saving for some unknown reason).

Before and after. The little side parts that hole the cassette ‘buffer stops’ were still causing problems so I’ve decided to remove them completely and redesign the stops.

I also took the opportunity to move the cassettes back a little and extend the lead in roads as we were having derailments coming onto the layout at both ends. This may have been the cassettes or it may have been something else. Originally I had check rails here but tests of the new sections without them is making me think they were unnecessary.