Great British Locomotives Magazine

[SAD Burdett]

Saw the 28xx version today, very poor quality and doesnt bode well for the rest of the series.

Has anybody seen the next offering yet??
It was due out this Thursday,, I asked at our local newsagents and the response was,, "they didn't arrive"

SAD

[2002EarlMarischal]

The magazines round here have been coming out every second Wednesday, so the Schools should be in the shops this coming Wednesday the 16th.

[Bad Wolf]

Issue 6 will be Evening Star

[52D]

Issue 6 will be Evening Star

Hmmmm I predict great wailings from a wallet in Wolverhampton when BB notices this.

[2002EarlMarischal]

No doubt you have all proceeded well beyond this with your GBL Mallard tenders, but I actually did a little modelling yesterday afternoon!

Following a helpful lead from Saint Johnstoun, I purchased some lead sheet to make weights for the tenders. Cutting it to size with wallpapers scissors, (the best use for them as I hate wallpapering or any form of decorating for that matter), was easy, but two thicknesses were needed, and some means of fixing them.

As you can see, the Hornby tender chassis has two conveniently located screw fixings through the chassis bottom, and the posts these screws go into, have sufficient unused (but threaded) height, to down screw into, through the lead sheet, from the top. Washers were needed to support the screw heads.

Screws between 1st and 2nd and 3rd and 4th axles.

Holes drilled through lead sheet must be wide enough for the post to stick through, necessitating the washer mentioned above.

To secure the body to the chassis, I found that one of the plastic mounting blocks that came with the GBL model (as suggested elsewhere) did indeed work well as a post to screw up into.

Flat base of mounting block glued to underside of water filler area. Initially I tried super-gluing a nut to the top of the post, but found that the glue joint broke when the screw was tightened. It turned out that a nut was superfluous as a long screw made its own thread in the plastic.

Hope this is of use to someone!

[Saint Johnstoun]

Good work Jim - these GBLC tenders are a very useful item - I'm building up a a converted stock of all types for future use! Incidentally, I just mount my lead weights on top of the two projections.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Silver Fox

I think, now with black panels, lining out, nameplates and red wheel sets, the blue shade starts to make some sense at last.

Have at it anyway and see what you think. It's been a great bit of fun doing some modelling as opposed talking about it for a change.

[Saint Johnstoun]

Looking good Steven! Mine have yet to hit the paint shop!

[Atlantic 3279]

Nice shape to the parabolic curve of the lining "Steven". Which (if any) brand of transfer is it, and was it naturally that shape or did it have to be persuaded?

[S.A.C. Martin]

Hi Graeme, they are the fox transfers parabolic curves. Easily shaped though very delicate. In retrospect I wish I'd put them on first before doing the black edging.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Better views of the front end and the colour of the model.

[2002EarlMarischal]

Sorry Simon, but you have invited comment, I just can't see that blue being correct in any light.

The "LNER Garter Blue Discussion" thread was pretty conclusive, at least to me, regarding the background to the Garter Blue colour. Did you read it?

I am sure that the Bugatti connection was restricted to the aerodynamics.

Hornby and Bachmann may not have got it right either but I feel they are closer in certain lights.

Of course, that is only my opinion for what it's worth! Probably not a lot!

Thanks for sharing your ideas with us though, and it's still a nice looking A4, built from an interesting combination of parts. Well done

[S.A.C. Martin]

Yes, I read it and found it difficult to comprehend that an entire body of evidence - photography - in many forms including several rare pre-war photographs of A4s in colour were readily dismissed as wrong in favour of comparison of the colour of some sections of ribbons which happened to share the same name. Particularly when the photography body of evidence shows a significantly lighter shade of blue than any of the current RTR shades.

Once weathered and with Johnsons klear on it, the method in my madness may yet be seen. If you put the RTR blue against my blue there's a significant contrast but that was always going to be the case.

It's interesting to note that this trend for using what I would call a dark blue is a very recent phenomenon, only in the last ten to fifteen years have A4s in all scales emerged in this colour and prior to this both Bachmann and Hornby released their models in much, much lighter shades. In fact I look at some past A4 models across the scales in old magazines I've collected and I wonder why we believe different and past interpretations are so wildly "wrong?"

It was that colour shot of Herring Gull at kings cross that really did it for me though. Even taking into account a discrepancy in the film used, there's no way in service the blue on the A4s didn't go lighter with use. Add weathering gunk, cleaning using brasso and similar into account and it looks fairly conclusive to me that the original colour applied didn't hold up in service. So a weathered A4 shouldn't be the same colour blue as that ex-works.

We're then supposed to ignore the dozens of pieces of artwork, contemporary and later, in which dozens of different railway artists interpret the blue shade as significantly lighter than that on the Hornby A4s of today?

For me the discussion on garter blue wasn't convincing enough and showed a lot of conjecture based on some assumptions which ignored photography more or less outright.

One man's - emphasis on the one I think - opinion but I always accepted it was going to court controversy.

[Saint Johnstoun]

I remember seeing Garter Blue A4s as a toddler going through Falkirk High Station and the shade was definitely darker to my eyes than that on the Silver Fox model!

I would add that blue is a very difficult colour to mix! Remember what happened on a certain Scottish Railway when they found very dark blue difficult to apply and added white!

[mick b]

Sorry not my cup of tea as the saying goes. Perhaps with muck it will look different but then it will be darker anyway

I have never seen a Tender with a Blue top , no logic due to dirt and the lines as the colour no longer flows between Cab Roof and Tender.