Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[nzpaul]

B4'n'after pictures Paul.

Aha, of course..
Nothing like a stupid question to brighten your day.

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

No such thing as a stupid question Paul, or so I was once told, and in many situations it is true that the more stupid thing may be to not ask and simply try to carry on based a potentially false assumption...
Anyway, by way of evidence that we do indeed have brake gear both sides, and showing the cut-down front of the tender (with GN-typical arbitrary choice of type and position of toolbox) awaiting a new covering of coal:

Just as the front coal plate was too high for any version of this breed of Stirling tender, so the rear coal plate was too low for my version with added coal rails. I therefore added a bit, as well as a proper cap for the water filler, in the closest style I could manage to the one portrayed in Paul Craig's drawings in the late Malcolm Crawley's work on GN tenders. The long slender guard irons on the outside face of the buffer beam are each from two strips nickel silver solder to an L-shape, with one limb of the L passing through the buffer beam, bent over and glue over a decent area to the inside face of the beam. That might give them an outside chance of surviving.
No lamp irons on the rear of the tender yet. I've done no more than drill the holes in readiness because they'll get in the way of any attempt at lining.

I suppose that brings us to the next step, to be taken only when I've thoroughly recovered from the fitting of all of those mostly removable details; Fully lined GNR two-tone livery with brown frames. How hard can it be?

Actually, an existing model of an LNER loco I acquired a while ago, nicely built but in most unsuitable BR mixed traffic livery, is scheduled for some minor alterations first so that I can deal with the application of mostly Doncaster green livery with the relevant lining to two locos side by side.

[Chas Levin]

Fully lined GNR two-tone livery with brown frames. How hard can it be?

Speaking midway through my first attempt I'd have to say it is actually quite hard but more importantly, very time-consuming: prepare for the long haul...
Very pretty though, and well worth the effort I think

I believe you're currently researching a certain colour:

Purest Green (1).jpg (8.32 KiB) Viewed 1711 times

Seriously though, it will look really superb in GNR colours and I'm sure I won't be the only one who'd like to build one too: would you consider producing a kit off the back of it?

[Atlantic 3279]

Thanks Chas,

After hours of ceaseless searching, purest green. Maybe purest brown would have been easier, but presumably too tasteless even for 1980s alternative comedy?
Thanks for the thoughts elsewhere regarding the colour. Expediency in my case dictates use of Humbrol No10 "Service Brown" for the frames (but with the gloss killed off) which looks miles more like chocolate than Humbrol's alleged "chocolate". Rightly or wrongly, the main body green will be the very same PPP shade that I've used on my LNER locos. The darker green for the borders on the tender and the interior of the cab will be any shade I have that looks similar to the equivalent areas on the NRM Stirling Single model.
It won't be practical to produce a reasonably complete set of resin parts from the model I'm building. Although it is still capable of being separated into lots of pieces for convenience of painting and for subsequent maintenance needs, I did not plan the component parts in such a way that they could serve as masters for moulds. I didn't actually expect that anybody would want one anyway. What I can do however, if required, is to produce another set of the raw parts for a "generic" Stirling cab, the smokebox with chimney, the rear loco steps, the safety valve cover, and the outer shell of a tender. The cab would need to be narrowed by the user (taking a slice out of the middle) to truly suit a 174 series, and (if you are particular about such things) the tender should be re-styled with lower sides and altered frame profiles as I have done. You would still need to home-brew a chassis, plus a running plate with splashers etc. That may not be an attractive option, but the way I built the chassis and running plate for my own model might not suit other modellers either, and while my method worked for OO it certainly wouldn't be very suitable for the wider 4mm gauges

[Chas Levin]

Hm, still a very interesting prospect though, even with the limitations you describe - there are so few earlier GNR kits around, as far as I can see. If I understand correctly you're describing something between a kit and an assisted scratchbuild...

[Atlantic 3279]

I think that's about right.

[kimballthurlow]

Hello Jonathon,
I am very interested in how you acquired the cover for the safety valves on the 174.
I have attempted to turn this cover on a small lathe with varying degrees of success.

At this juncture I must ask too if anyone knows why these covers were used?
Was it to hide the ugliness of the actual valves?
Or did it have some muffling effect so as not to frighten horses, and small children.
Being a bell shaped object I imagine that it might actually amplify the sound of an ejected rush of steam.

Kimball

[Hatfield Shed]

Fully lined GNR two-tone livery with brown frames. How hard can it be?

... it will look really superb in GNR colours ...

Slight segue from the thread subject, it is a very happy chance that between the GNR and NER's practises, early livery styles from the dawn of the railway survived in simplified form on the LNER, both for locomotives and carriage stock, to the end of its existence.

... there are so few earlier GNR kits around...

This is generally true of all C19th designs; not only because they are outwith living memory, save for the rare preserved item, but also I feel because until fairly recently very difficult to make into competent running models. I was so grateful that the NRM/Rapido solved the difficulties of an operable Stirling single.

Apart from the ubiquitous 0-6-0, another group that tempts me it is the front coupled suburban service tank locos, there's such a clear development lineage from the 'little Sharps' rebuilds into 0-2-2T and 0-4-2T form, progressively enlarged into 0-4-4T, then 0-6-2T which saw out steam traction. I have a Hornby M7 stashed as the mechanism basis for one of Stirling's charmers.

Thus it is doubly a joy to see an ordinary goods loco worked up in model form, all its austere Stirling elegance on show.

[jwealleans]

Hello Jonathon,

I think you're confusing me with someone else here......

[Atlantic 3279]

Hello Kimball,
The shape of the safety valve cover on the 174 is derived via a rubber mould from no other than the long discontinued and very imperfect Kitmaster item, the imperfect resin casting from that mould tidied-up, de-seamed, then made symmetrical/upright by careful filing and addition of slivers of plastic to its curved base.
Had some Kitmaster parts not come my way, I'd have been looking at what I could do with Millholme Stirling Single fittings.

[Hatfield Shed]

...At this juncture I must ask too if anyone knows why these (safety valve) covers were used?...

Little influence on the sound, it's noisy whatever is done. I suspect the intention was to initially direct the escaping steam - and thus the condensate - upwards, to avoid 'power showering' passengers while the loco was standing at a platform.

[kimballthurlow]

Hello Jonathon,

I think you're confusing me with someone else here......

Yes very much confused..... and confusing so my wife tells me.
However I managed to get the answers for which I was looking.

Kimball

[kimballthurlow]

Thank you Hatfieldshed and Atlantic3279.

Kimball

[Atlantic 3279]

Actually, an existing model of an LNER loco I acquired a while ago, nicely built but in most unsuitable BR mixed traffic livery, is scheduled for some minor alterations first so that I can deal with the application of mostly Doncaster green livery with the relevant lining to two locos side by side.

As it turned out, when I had a proper look at that other loco I realized that I had "mis-remembered" things and that there really wasn't much at all to modify in readiness for its repaint. The logic may seem strange, but that told me that I could afford to leave that one alone just for now, and that as I was really starting to want to see existing projects finished rather than yet more of them "on the go" I could therefore safely change my mind and start painting the 174 series. Hence, although this image is far from sharp, I now have, in pieces, a part painted loco and tender, with most of the twiddly bits put safe elsewhere for later re-fitting:

[Chas Levin]

Looking lovely - and may I return the question and ask you, which green did you use?

(Green coal looks odder than I expected...)

Makes you realise the length of the boiler in proportion to the rest of the loco, seeing it like that, doesn't it?