New Railway Modellers Forums

...My observations ... are based on experience as a guard... One slow speed ride in a goods brake van on a preservation line had me wondering how on earth the railway persuaded rational chaps to ride about in them to earn a living. How easily could older bogie coaches have been repurposed into brak...

Actually, scratch the hook, I think that was ex GWR Toads. The BR one just relied on the slot when 'closed'.

The "safety rails" across the end openings were definitely different to the handrails on the brake vans I remember from the 1950s. My mother's uncle was a goods guard who'd started his career just before the grouping with the Midland Railway, served with the LMS for the whole of its exist...

So after much prodding, poking, trialing and so on the BR van is now on it's wheels. Having a handrail bending jig was a distinct advantage here. Now they are all on, bar the 'platform' ones, I can remove the unused 'mounting points' provided for alternative handrail arrangements, LNER early BR etc....

It turns out that brake blocks decide the method of fixing - being a brake van there are double shoes, which curve around the wheels such that if they fit snugly 'against' the wheels there is no room for vertical movement. The aesthetics win for me, so all axle boxes are now fixed (having made very ...

...I've not gone for the 'compensation' option, the rod provided is that rigid it's difficult to bend with pliers let alone any movement in an axle box... The compemsation rod should act as a pivotted beam, so that as one axlebox moves the other should go in the opposite direction, such that all wh...

The exGWR milk tank finally got it's paint. Intended to show the wagon in it's final days in departmental use, waste oil. Working from a picture on Paul Bartlett's excellent site, this livery has the advantage that bar some elctro-flashes no transfers are required, not even a running number - just s...

Thanks for the relies, I shall investigate further.

And re-ballasted. The USB airbrush is going to make re-decorating a lot simpler.

Can anyone recommend a small vacuum cleaner, suitable for clearing up ballast as well as dust? The ones I've found, aimed at cleaning keyboards, don't have enough oomph for ballast or are way to big to maneuver round scenery.

Tis very nearly done. Quite a lot of sleeper shoving, but all good. The sleepers are a bit squished just by the tie bar, but there's no way to alter the two sleepers either side without major surgery. Next, when the sleepers have stuck down, the chairs will get moved about and rails fixed in their f...

With Postman Pat doing her stuff, the P-Way have been dragged out of the pub and told to get on with it. The first thing was removing the two approach sleepers, using an upside down sleeper hold to hold the stock rails - there's nothing to stop them flapping about in the breeze when the sleepers are...

And it's done - bar transfers (TOPS panel and electro-flashes). One of the reasons I post is because I take photos anyway of what I've made so I can spot the mistakes. So often I've thought "Yep, got it" and the immediately spot something in a photo. Slipped rivet strip, dammit. Ah well, t...

It looks like a model with a matt finish, which, is what they aim for in the plastic finish. Get some weathering on and put it in a railway like setting it will look a lot better. All finishes have problems, matt as you've discovered can seem plastic, gloss or satin can spoil the illusion of the sc...

Railtec my be worth a (virtual) visit. Very nice transfers, and offer variations applied over time in many cases. Not relevant here, but custom TOPS panels are a bonus https://www.railtec-models.com/

May/may not help