2019 - Part 1

Every December I like to take a look back at all that we've achieved between us in the last year. (Mostly Himself, if we're being honest...)

In January of this year our 4th NGG16, 143, was on the test track still in brass.

There were more carriages on the workbench, with brass roofs being made for the second of the superbarn Observation Cars and another of the saloons.

Himself had also started assembling a Worsley Works bowsider 17, to give us a model in the current colours.

February

A few weeks later and the superbarn saloon was almost ready for varnishing.

We'd also begun putting together a Worsley Works NWNGR Gladstone Carriage as the first stage in a WHHR rake.

By this stage the Garratt was well through the painting process.

March

By the begining of the next month it was finished and taking a test run with sister 138

17 had also been varnished and is pictured on Ddaullt.

And we ended the first quarter of the year with Himself starting on the 5th Garratt, destined to be 130.

17 In Service

Our new Garraway-era 17 is finished and has been taken for a test run on Dduallt.

Comparison with the twins 11 and 12, show that the shade of green on this latest carriage is different despite using nominally the same paint.

I can only assume it’s something to do with it being a new tin and there being a discrepancy in the product.

I also wanted to draw your attention to one of the significant little details that Himself adds to these carriages.

He makes up tiny little heritage door handles which look for at the world like minute split pins.

It must be terribly fiddly.

Scores On The Doors

Bowsider 17 has reached the stage where Himself is adding the transfers, the most obvious of which are the big numerals on the doors.

For this he’s always used the HMRS presfix decals, but this carriage has required him to start on a new sheet, and his is not impressed.

Can you tell the difference?

The first two ‘3’ on the left hand side are from the old sheet, and all the rest are from the new one.

Himself thinks they are a little ‘blobby’.

I’m not sure I would have noticed if he hadn’t pointed it out.

He tells me he’s seen a few similar comments online recently about a perceived drop in the quality.

What I do know is that the Precision Decals FR crests we use are superb.

Cocktail Carr

Sometimes modelling is about finding pragmatic solutions to tricky tasks, and so it is with painting a panelled bowsider.

Himself has started adding in the ivory inserts on 18 and tells me that he’s been using a cocktail stick as a more precise way of getting the paint where he wants it rather than a brush.

Who knew?

Blue Green

The colour curse has struck again!

We really should learn to do our research properly first...

Himself has been getting on with painting bowsider 17, inside and out.

The outside has had a first wash of green.

(Don't worry, the ivory panels will be filled in later on.)

No, the problem is with the interior.

Himself asked me what colour the seat squabs in the first class compartment were?

Blue, I replied with absolute certainty, because that's the way it works on the FR, right?

Red moquette for third class, blue for first.

Except that over the weekend he came across a picture he'd taken, lost deep somewhere within the thousands of pictures on the laptop, which show that it's neither of those - it's actually green.

Because it turns out the restoration to 1950's 'Garraway' condition includes putting back the same style of green cloth that came with the ex-Mersey Rail seats which were installed when the carriage was first put back into service in the revival years.

Fortunately it's not too late for us to fix that.

Sole Man

Himself has got bowsider 17 almost ready to be painted.

It’s had the ventilator hoods above the doors added in styrene and the grab handles fitted.

The other major addition is to fill in the the solebar with a long piece of styrene to properly represent 17 in its current state.

He’s not planning to add a couple of resin transfer bolt heads to really finish it off before he gets the primer out.

Just 17

Making up an interior for bowsider 17 has been satisfyingly swift and straightforward.

It's helped by this carriage only having the one first class compartment and for the third class sections either side not being separated from each other as some of the other carriages have.

As you may be able to see in the picture above, it has been made in three sections to account for the raised platform above the bodies at either end.

I can hand this one back to Himself for the roof to be soldered on and it can join the queue for painting in its current 'Garraway' green and ivory livery.

Fitting Out

Projects are piling up on my desk now.

I already have the Gladstone Car to make an interior for and now Himself has handed over the body of the new bowsider 17 to fill.

This needs to be made in at least three parts on account of the stepped floor at each end above the bogies.

Unlike some of the other carriages of this type, 17 only has the two interior divisions on either side of its single first class compartment - the third class ones either side are open, at least in the sense that there are no walls.

Being mostly bench seats it shouldn’t take too long to make.

Seventeen Times Two

Himself has soldered together yet another new carriage - this one is going to be our second version of bowsider 17.

The first was made around 30 years ago from a Langley etched brass kit and was finished - inaccurately - in the simple two tone 'Mountain Prince' livery.

(Inaccurate in that at this period the carriage had most of its distinctive panelling removed in favour of flush plywood sides, but the Langley kit has all that detail on.)

This version is from a Wosley Works scratch aid kit and will show the carriage running as it does currently in the green and ivory 'Garraway' livery and will go very nicely with our 11 and 12 pairing.

It's not been completely straightforward, though, because we discovered that the ends which come with the kit have too many vertical strips to show the carriage as it currently is.

As luck would have it we've been able to arrange a transplant from the body which was supposed to be turned into carriage 20.

So what's happened to carriage 20?

Well, it turned out that there's bit a of a cock up.

Since the last time Himself assembled a model of the 19/20 kind of bowsider it turns out the Worsley etches have been redrawn, with the result that when he put it together he discovered the frame was much longer than 19, by a couple of scale feet.

While we wait for a replacement set of etches - with the previous proportions - at least we can made some use of part of the otherwise redundant body.

Deep Purple

Himself has been seized by a mania for vintage carriages.

This is not a problem - indeed it is something I am doing all I can to encourage.

19 is making rapid progress having been primed and given a couple of coats of glorious deep purple livery since I last posted about it.

The tricky bit with this carriage will be attempting to replicate all the ornate gold leaf lining around the panelling.

Given the size of a 4mm scale model and the limits of how fine the transfers available are it will probably have to be some kind of lining-lite compromise.

The mania I mention is that he has also dug out a Worsley body for 15 in its current high-Victorian state in order to finish it off.

(It was purchased and soldered together a couple of years ago when we were making a new model of 16 and to our shame didn't initially notice that the one we had had windows in the ends and the one we needed, didn't. Opps!)

He's also talking about repainting, or replicating, our models of 17 and 18 which currently are Langley ones painted in the basic, two tone Mountain Prince livery as per their condition in 1988.

This is not entirely satisfactory because the etch for the bodies shows the full panelling but back in the 1980's this pair were running around with most of it stripped off. (Such different times!)

So option A is to dunk them in a bath of paint stripper and repaint them in their current livery BUT only if it is possible to replace the existing Grandt Line bogies with Dundas FR ones.

That will depend on whether there is enough room beneath for them to swing.

If not then he is talking about purchasing another pair of frets from Worsley Works and making complete new carriages.

As I said previously, I'm not about to stop him.