Elmham Market in EM

[James Spooner]

Back home for a few days so the restaurant car underframe has received some more attention. Gas tanks, buffers (excluding heads, which are sprung and will be fitted after painting), vacuum cylinders, truss rods and dynamo all now present and correct. I’m now just about to go off in search of some photos of these carriages in BR days to see where the step boards were located… (could be a bit of a rabbit hole I think). A photo of the current state of play is attached.

Nigel

 

[James Spooner]

An appeal to the GERS modellers WhatsApp group for 1950s photos of ex GE restaurant cars has come up trumps. I now have an abundance of riches so can finish the underframe (and also add footboards to one of the bogies). The photographs do also show that, for a lot of the time (but not all), they were still coupled to ex GER restaurant thirds (the actual restaurant car with a kitchen having only first class accommodation). The thirds had two saloons, but no one seems to have created etches for them. I’m pondering whether to (a) ask Worsley Works to create some suitable etches or (b) cheat and couple the restaurant car to a Gresley 52’6” open third I have already made (and which makes a guest appearance in post #39)…

Nigel

 

[40057]

An appeal to the GERS modellers WhatsApp group for 1950s photos of ex GE restaurant cars has come up trumps. I now have an abundance of riches so can finish the underframe (and also add footboards to one of the bogies). The photographs do also show that, for a lot of the time (but not all), they were still coupled to ex GER restaurant thirds (the actual restaurant car with a kitchen having only first class accommodation). The thirds had two saloons, but no one seems to have created etches for them. I’m pondering whether to (a) ask Worsley Works to create some suitable etches or (b) cheat and couple the restaurant car to a Gresley 52’6” open third I have already made (and which makes a guest appearance in post #39)…

Nigel

Not knowing anything about GER restaurant cars, does it have buckeyes + Pullman gangways or British standard gangways + screw couplings + side buffers?

 

[James Spooner]

Not knowing anything about GER restaurant cars, does it have buckeyes + Pullman gangways or British standard gangways + screw couplings + side buffers?

One of the very clear photos shows the end of E667E with BS gangways, screw couplings and side buffers.

 

[Dave Holt]

Nigel, that's a suitably impressive looking underframe. It looks quite long, judging by the bogie spacing - 70 foot?
Dave.

 

[James Spooner]

Nigel, that's a suitably impressive looking underframe. It looks quite long, judging by the bogie spacing - 70 foot?
Dave.

Dave,

I think this is a case where an optical illusion created by the photo can be misleading. It is only a 50’ long carriage and the bogies are in the right position; the GER carriages had their bogies as close to the carriage ends as they could put them!

Nigel

 

[James Spooner]

With the great support from the GERS modellers group I have resumed work on the underframe. First thing was to remove the dynamo (and the belt representation I had glued in) and turn them both around. Next was to form and attach lower footboards in the places they seem to be in all relevant photos. I have managed to complete both of the central footboards; my next task is to form and attach those which went under the kitchen end bogie (no doors on the other end so no footboards on the dining end bogie). A photo is attached of current progress.

There’ll be another hiatus as I go up to Wales tomorrow (again!) for the 70 years of restarting services on the FfR and 200 wheels on the cob. Strangely no other members of the family seem interested in coming…

Nigel

 

[simond]

It’ll be glorious in Portmadoc in this weather! Enjoy!

 

[James Spooner]

It’ll be glorious in Portmadoc in this weather! Enjoy!

Thanks Simon, although, being Wales, rain is forecast for Sunday when we have the cavalcade…

 

[James Spooner]

Cavalcade over and the rain mercifully held off. I drove a trip to Blaenau yesterday on Prince, double heading with Upnor Castle, as a hark back to the 1970s and found Harbour Station very crowded today so watched the cavalcade from the comfort of my front garden! A few photos attached.

Nigel

 

[Dave Holt]

Glad for everyone that the weather held off and very pleased to hear the event was well attended. I had a brief look on the new Boston Lodge web-cam earlier and just caught the last few locos arriving off the Cob. Whilst you've been playing at Cavalcades, I've been getting on with the B1 slidebars.
Dave.

 

[simond]

I remember Sourh Snowdon wharf well, family holidays in the 70’s whilst I sailed in Traeth Mawr and fired Linda and Blanche.

they‘ve aged well, it’s fifty years…

happy, happy days!

 

[Chris Veitch]

Cavalcade over and the rain mercifully held off. I drove a trip to Blaenau yesterday on Prince, double heading with Upnor Castle, as a hark back to the 1970s and found Harbour Station very crowded today so watched the cavalcade from the comfort of my front garden! A few photos attached.

I take your point but I think the mixed weather might have been something of a blessing. Prepping the gravity at Minffordd on Thursday was incredibly hot, I worked at the Lodge on Friday and when I got back to my (relatively shaded) car in the sandpit it was registering 38C, and the heat in the main yard was oppressive - I suspect it would have caused real problems for some of the more elderly spectators if Sunday had gone that way. I did the very early gravity on Saturday by which time it had started to become a bit more bearable.

I didn't plan our visit to the cavalcade but we managed to get tucked in by the ice cream stand outside the shop entrance which turned out to be a great vantage point, and once the last loco arrived it became easier to move around. You could have bottled the atmosphere in the station - what a fabulous day.

 

[James Spooner]

Back home now and over the last few days I’ve caught up on the gardening and today rehung a gate, so modelling took a back seat until this evening. I have managed to form and solder in the footboards for the one bogie that seemed to carry them in BR days and have fitted the vacuum pipe under one solebar. I’ll try to get the steam heat pipe fitted to the other solebar tomorrow, then it’s on to the body. A photo attached.

Nigel

 

[Herb Garden]

Back home now and over the last few days I’ve caught up on the gardening and today rehung a gate, so modelling took a back seat until this evening. I have managed to form and solder in the footboards for the one bogie that seemed to carry them in BR days and have fitted the vacuum pipe under one solebar. I’ll try to get the steam heat pipe fitted to the other solebar tomorrow, then it’s on to the body. A photo attached.

Nigel

View attachment 243075

Looks great! Is that the shadow of a pigeon van I see lurking to the left?

 

[James Spooner]

Looks great! Is that the shadow of a pigeon van I see lurking to the left?

Thanks George. Yes, it is and I’m probably going to paint the two together, just to make life a bit easier cleaning out the airbrush!

Nigel

 

[James Spooner]

I must admit to having found the extreme heat hereabouts rather enervating so haven’t ventured into the modelling room for a few days. However, some welcome relief with rain today has dropped the temperature and I have returned to the restaurant car.

Firstly to finish the underframe I bent up and added the second steam heat/vacuum pipe (I’m assuming one side was one and the other, the other…). Looking at where I had soldered the footboards to the bogie, I realised one end of one spring had turned into a blob in the process. I therefore had to carefully saw off the blob with a piercing saw and add a prosthetic spring end fashioned out of plasticard strip. This was then superglued onto the rest of the spring.

Underframe and both bogies were then cleaned and sprayed with grey primer.

I then turned my attention to the body. The ends are made with two layers; the back one being full thickness with half etched lines to bend out the footsteps and the front half etched with slots to receive the said steps. I have managed to form the tumblehomes on all four parts, bend the steps and get the two assemblies matching both the end of the sides and each other. Tomorrow morning’s job is to clean the inner surfaces, add in a quantity of solder paste, ‘borrow’ a couple of wooden clothes pegs and wave my soldering flame gun over them…

Some photos attached.

Nigel

 

[Dave Holt]

Sounds like you managed a good recovery with the spring hanger/foot step issue, Nigel.
I'm glad none of the coaches I'm interested in had tumblehome on the ends.
Recently watched John Wooden's video of the Ff & WHR 200 wheel gala. It looked like the event was very well attended with even the service trains well loaded. No doubt a great success for the Railway.
Dave.
Dave.

 

[James Spooner]

Sounds like you managed a good recovery with the spring hanger/foot step issue, Nigel.
I'm glad none of the coaches I'm interested in had tumblehome on the ends.
Recently watched John Wooden's video of the Ff & WHR 200 wheel gala. It looked like the event was very well attended with even the service trains well loaded. No doubt a great success for the Railway.
Dave.
Dave.

Thanks Dave, and I think the spring hanger issue has been recovered. You can just make out the plasticard bit in the first photo I posted. It is the left hand end of the right hand spring on the left bogie, but I think with paint it shouldn’t be noticeable.

I haven’t watched John’s video yet, but the event certainly went well, was well attended and there was a good vibe around the place over the weekend.

Nigel

 

[David B]

Judging from the sounds on John’s video, the Old Gent was making a very decent effort to push Upnor Castle out of the way on your trip up to Blaenau - beautiful exhaust music…..it reminded me of an occasion more than 20 years ago when I was waiting at TYB for a down train, and Prince could be heard for a good 5 minutes climbing up from Rhiw Goch, making the most extraordinary racket. On arrival, the driver said that something had broken in the regulator linkage and it was jammed wide open, so he was driving on the reverser (just like one of those early Accucraft 16mm radio-control conversions). My young son was very impressed that such a small loco had such a loud voice, and even my wife (whose enthusiasm for trains would be undetectable by most scientific measures) was impressed that the oldest working steam loco in the world was so gutsy. It’s lovely to see (and hear) that Prince is in such good shape in 2025.