Elmham Market in EM

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Well, the one man chain gang has reached a milestone of a sort. All of the bricks on the balloon loop that were spalling have been removed and I have laid in engineers blue bricks. More by luck than judgement the bricks fitted into the gap OK and the gradient was imperceptible. It all worked out surprisingly well as the last bag of mortar just completed the job with only a minimal amount left over.

The next job is to finish the track laying, then I can carry out some intensive testing…

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Tracklaying is progressing, albeit slower than I would like, with the batteries on the hammer drill being the limiting factor. Nonetheless, I have managed to lay about seven yards of track today. Need to finish early as I am barman at the cricket club pavilion this evening…

Nigel


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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
A final hard slog in the garden today has resulted in the track all being laid and a trial diesel hauled train being successfully run around the whole line. I rather got ahead of myself and tried to run one of my radio controlled steam locos but, in my haste, had omitted to ensure all the relevant batteries were charged up so will have to save that pleasure for another day. Attached is a video of the trial run. The family has already commented on the squeaky bearings; just imagine it is flange squeal and I will oil the axleboxes before running them again…

Nigel

 
Dave Holt

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Good to see the track completed, Nigel.
The girder bridge looks suspiciously like those on the WHR!
Dave.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Dave Holt said:
Good to see the track completed, Nigel.
The girder bridge looks suspiciously like those on the WHR!
Dave.
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Thanks Dave. Yes, I originally built the bridge as a part of a family project to extend my Dad’s garden railway for his 80th birthday. Via Mike Hart I asked John Sreeves, the designer of the three WHR girder bridges, for the drawings, scaled them down and built it out of brass. Roger Sawyer, then of Eileen’s Emporium, sourced milled brass strip from somewhere in Lichtenstein, which I then soldered together to make the H beams, then soldered the assembled beams together to create the bridge. Dad would have been 99 this year so the bridge has survived quite well!

Nigel
 
robertm

robertm

Western Thunderer
Apologies Nigel for butting in again but I snapped this today and iI like the totally unintentional result.
Depicted is the normal branch pick up goods, dragged by J19 64646 passing an extra sugar beet train with J15 65445 in charge. To me it looks like typical autumnal mist but I’m wearing my rose tinted goggles.
I won’t do it again, I promise.
Bob
 

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
robertm said:
Apologies Nigel for butting in again but I snapped this today and iI like the totally unintentional result.
Depicted is the normal branch pick up goods, dragged by J19 64646 passing an extra sugar beet train with J15 65445 in charge. To me it looks like typical autumnal mist but I’m wearing my rose tinted goggles.
I won’t do it again, I promise.
Bob
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Not a problem Bob and it looks good. I think you should set up a Felsted thread to show more of your photos.

Nigel
 
D

David B

Western Thunderer
That’s a seriously impressive restart of steam services Nigel - firstly for the quality of the PW right from the start (I have to spend an eternity adjusting the top and line whenever I add a new section - endless packing and checking with miniature spirit levels on an Accucraft 4 wheel wagon) and secondly for the steady running of your Taliesin. Those large driving wheels on such a free-running loco (mine’s a well run-in Mark 1 version) can make for a challenging drive at the best of times. I love the video with such smooth and steady progress round the track - it’s much harder to achieve in practice for some of us! What a cracking start for the rebuilt line.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
David B said:
That’s a seriously impressive restart of steam services Nigel - firstly for the quality of the PW right from the start (I have to spend an eternity adjusting the top and line whenever I add a new section - endless packing and checking with miniature spirit levels on an Accucraft 4 wheel wagon) and secondly for the steady running of your Taliesin. Those large driving wheels on such a free-running loco (mine’s a well run-in Mark 1 version) can make for a challenging drive at the best of times. I love the video with such smooth and steady progress round the track - it’s much harder to achieve in practice for some of us! What a cracking start for the rebuilt line.
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Many thanks David; much appreciated! A lot of it was being careful with the bricklaying. A long spirit level used to check the longitudinal and latitudinal levels helped. I managed to get some cant and transition angles into the bricks as well, which did help when I got to the tracklaying stage.

My Taliesin is indeed a lovely loco (as is the real thing; definitely a ‘gentleman’s light sporting engine’!) and does run very well. No outdoor railway activity today though as it started cold and then turned wet in our neck of the woods…

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
As I mentioned in my post just now, the weather prevented any more live steam operations so I felt like doing something a little less energetic and challenging. Rummaging through my stash of unmade kits my eyes alighted on a Chivers Finelines LNER pigeon van kit, which would make a good brake for my parcels/milk train. Construction is largely complete, with just the holes in the roof to be drilled to fit the torpedo vents. Quite enjoyable and satisfying! Photo attached

Nigel

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Flaxfield

Flaxfield

Western Thunderer
James Spooner said:
As I mentioned in my post just now, the weather prevented any more live steam operations so I felt like doing something a little less energetic and challenging. Rummaging through my stash of unmade kits my eyes alighted on a Chivers Finelines LNER pigeon van kit, which would make a good brake for my parcels/milk train. Construction is largely complete, with just the holes in the roof to be drilled to fit the torpedo vents. Quite enjoyable and satisfying! Photo attached

Nigel

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Morning, Nigel.

Can I ask, what colour will this chap end up ?

If LNER brown, can you confirm what paint you'll be using.

Thanks,

Rob
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
NHY 581 said:
Morning, Nigel.

Can I ask, what colour will this chap end up ?

If LNER brown, can you confirm what paint you'll be using.

Thanks,

Rob
Click to expand...
Morning Rob,

I was thinking of painting it in BR crimson, rather than brown. I think there is evidence they carried both, but just had a desire to try out the crimson.

All of my ex GER carriages are in variations of Stratford brown. Dan Pinnock, in his instructions for the D&S ex GER etched carriage kits says: ‘By the BR period the colour became known as ‘Stratford Brown’ normally a reddish brown somewhat akin to NPCS brown, which by that time were mainly serviced at Stratford. I usually use Humbrol LNER brown to which is added a little Red Oxide and a smaller amount of Black to tone down.’

I have used the same principle, more often using Precision paints and starting with their LNER dull teak, then tweaking with bits of red oxide (or bauxite) and black until I get something that looks like one of the colour photos of one of those carriages in the 1950s. One can never get it perfect and I suspect the colour wasn’t to a consistent mix in the first place, then weathered to a different shade and finally was seen through the eyes of the variable colour photography technology available at that time. So, provided it looks about right, I’m happy! Hope that helps.

Nigel
 
robertm

robertm

Western Thunderer
James Spooner said:
Morning Rob,

I was thinking of painting it in BR crimson, rather than brown. I think there is evidence they carried both, but just had a desire to try out the crimson.

All of my ex GER carriages are in variations of Stratford brown. Dan Pinnock, in his instructions for the D&S ex GER etched carriage kits says: ‘By the BR period the colour became known as ‘Stratford Brown’ normally a reddish brown somewhat akin to NPCS brown, which by that time were mainly serviced at Stratford. I usually use Humbrol LNER brown to which is added a little Red Oxide and a smaller amount of Black to tone down.’

I have used the same principle, more often using Precision paints and starting with their LNER dull teak, then tweaking with bits of red oxide (or bauxite) and black until I get something that looks like one of the colour photos of one of those carriages in the 1950s. One can never get it perfect and I suspect the colour wasn’t to a consistent mix in the first place, then weathered to a different shade and finally was seen through the eyes of the variable colour photography technology available at that time. So, provided it looks about right, I’m happy! Hope that helps.

Nigel
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I don‘t think I’ve ever seen a Dia 120 in brown. All the images ive seen show varnished teak or later BR crimson.
I don’t claim to be an authority on this but these and the laterThompson BZs are two of my favourites.
I might have to get one of Danny’s exNER vans as well but I do have rather more than a few luggage vans.
This will of course trigger an avalanche of images of pigeon vans in brown.
Cheers
 
timbowales

timbowales

Western Thunderer
James Spooner said:
As I mentioned in my post just now, the weather prevented any more live steam operations so I felt like doing something a little less energetic and challenging. Rummaging through my stash of unmade kits my eyes alighted on a Chivers Finelines LNER pigeon van kit, which would make a good brake for my parcels/milk train. Construction is largely complete, with just the holes in the roof to be drilled to fit the torpedo vents. Quite enjoyable and satisfying! Photo attached

Nigel

View attachment 239737
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Here's mine, BR Crimson, awaiting transfers and couplings

image.jpg
 
76043

76043

Western Thunderer
I used Modelmasters Nigel, although having lost £35 to them am not prepared to endorse them. I made up the number from individual numbers.
Cheers
Tony
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
76043 said:
I used Modelmasters Nigel, although having lost £35 to them am not prepared to endorse them. I made up the number from individual numbers.
Cheers
Tony
Click to expand...
Thanks Tony. I do have individual numbers on a Pressfix sheet (which does work!), so might do it that way…

Nigel
 
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