James' workbench- ex-GC locos and stock in OO

[jwealleans]

If it’s whitemetal it’ll be Millholme.

[Woodcock29]

It looks like the Millholme kit. I have one part built at the moment, but admit its been like that for a while!

The tender is the give away as the body is a bit too long as it doesn't have sufficient length of footplate at the rear. Also it has the round plastic wheel as the water pickup wheel instead of a ship's wheels. Also it has etched coal rails as supplied in the kit.

Andrew

[James Harrison]

A W1 has arrived...



It's a resin kit running on a Hornby tender-driven chassis. This is a loco I've wanted for a very, very long time and when one came up on Ebay for a reasonable price it was a no-brainer.

You can also see, behind the tender, one of my pair of Barnum brakes. I've built these using some silhouette cutter files for a Barnum saloon, with a degree of more traditional scratchbuilding for the brake end. They're very nearly finished now.

[Atlantic 3279]

You were lucky to get that W1 James.

I nearly bought one, probably 15+ years ago, from the second-hand items at a local model shop, but I went away to think about it overnight and when I returned it had not sold, but the owner had withdrawn it from sale.

[James Harrison]

That sounds like one of those 'what might have been' tales. I know I have a few of those myself.

[James Harrison]

I've been working on a pair of Barnum brake carriages for the last month or so to accompany my earlier Barnum saloons. I used the same silhouette cutter files for the saloon ends and built the brake ends by hand, from scratch, out of embossed plastic sheet.

[James Harrison]

I've been busy this last month....





A Graham Farish carriage went through the works and came out the other side with improved matchboarding and teak.



A pair of whitemetal bolster wagons were built.



And a 21' 10-ton open was begun.

[James Harrison]

Overdue update time!


The bolsters are finished- as is the long wheelbase open wagon....





It's actually quite a nice model, my regard for whitemetal notwithstanding. Unfortunately I don't think it is currently available from the GCRS, otherwise I might have bought one or two more.


And the next project...





This loco has a bit of an interesting history, in that I bought it several years ago via Ebay. When it arrived it was sporting 4'6" driving wheels and LNER black livery. I fitted some Hornby M7 driving wheels to it and left it at that (actually, no, that's not right. I destroyed the frames fore and aft trying to get it to go round 1st radius curves). Then when I decided to move my modelling date back to pregrouping, it joined a long long list of locos in need of attention (which I do look at, now and again, and occasionally pick one at random and do some work on it).


So, in this go through the works, I have replaced the LNER flowerpot chimney with a Robinson type and reinstated the frames. The paintwork is very much a work in progress right now.

[kimballthurlow]

Hi James,
That is clever work on the motor/drive/chassis modification.

What type is it, my guess is a Pollitt 9G.

Kimball

[James Harrison]

The 9Gs and the earlier Parker 3 and 3 Altered classes were externally practically identical- so she could be either! As I've got a pair of these to look at (the other is a Cotswold whitemetal kit) I might do one as a 9G and the other as a 3.

[James Harrison]

The 2-4-2 is now in the right shade of green at least, however when it is finished things may well go quiet for a while as a house may be happening. Which means hopefully, soon, there will be somewhere I can start work on my fold in the map of the Derbyshire Lines circa 1920.

[kimballthurlow]

... start work on my fold in the map of the Derbyshire Lines circa 1920.

I often thought the western extension of the LD&ECR would be a good modelling scenario.
My thought was that it might run into Macclesfield, but have no sources to say if correct or not.

Kimball

[James Harrison]

I'm not sure of the route it would have taken west of Chesterfield (I know it's been covered in at least one book, but I don't have it at the moment).

My idea is more of supposing a part of the Derbyshire Lines, and the LDECR Sheffield branch, and a part of the Mansfield Railway were all built earlier- and supposing a town that was abandoned in the 13th Century survived and became somewhere worth building a railway to, what would that look like?

You could probably think of it as a Nottinghamshire version of Denny's Buckingham Branch (and that sort of harmonious everything-to-the-same-standard appearance is what I am aiming for), save for being set between the end of WWI and the Grouping, more northern/ urban/ industrial and, at the moment, not intended to be quite so complete and massive.

[kimballthurlow]

Yes, the inclusion of 'Lancashire' in the naming became a misnomer.
What might have been.
As to profitability, that was just another question.

Kimball

[James Harrison]

Some modelling happened; building a Sutherland Models GCR class 3 / LNER F1 kit around the Bachmann 2-4-2 chassis.



After some careful measuring and cutting, the running plate could be mated up to the chassis.



Then the tanks, cab and bunker were erected. Parts needed a bit of fettling to get them to fit around the motor, but nothing too onerous.



Pretty soon I had the basic shape of the engine sorted out.



Oh? The scratchbuilt version I've got? Turns out the chassis is slightly twisted (which explains why the driving wheels and connecting rods never quite seemed happy). I bought a Bachmann Lanky tank intending a chassis swap but the work proved too much for the body, which started to break apart. So the plan now is- the whitemetal kit uses the Bachmann chassis intended for the scratchbuild, whilst the chassis intended for the whitemetal kit keeps it's body and gets converted to another class 3 (this time #589, which kept its round-top boiler until 1929).