Strictly LNER pre-1942, including pre-group. "Atlantic 3279" in exile.

[Graeme King]

Thanks to other non-modelling matters deserving attention, I haven't done any "serious" railway modelling since Lincoln show, and the 4-8-2 has had no further attention so far. Something did however possess me to have a go at fitting a finer, more modern Hornby valve gear set (and making one or two other changes) to a 1980s Hornby Margate B17. The loco had previously (about 25 years ago?) been subject to my then lesser-skilled "detailing" attentions, to the extent of some additional lining, Cylinders re-painted in Darlington style, an ID change, added front steps, guard irons and slightly nicer couplings, but I wasn't brave enough at that time to attempt to build and fit new valve gear. I also decided this time around to use some home-cut overlays to mask/improve the apprearance of the original squre-ended, bolthead festooned Hornby wheel balance weights, as well as adding at last a cab fallplate to save the fireman's life and to finally be rid entirely of a redundant front tension lock coupling.
The ugly chunky original Margate valve gear, even though toned-down by a coat of paint to kill its toy-like glint, strarted out like this of course:

Possibly without the best example of decent availability research and clear thinking I chose to try to fit one of Hornby's more recent Gresley Pacific valve gear sets, altered to fit. Only about £10 including postage. I ended up doing quite a lot of alteration to arrive at the result below, with it all working freely and not shorting out the live-one-side chassis. I can't help thinking that I'd have had less to do had I obtained the new-type Sandringham motion set instead...

The result clearly isn't the equal of the Hornby Sandringham I also bought in 2012, below, but it's an improvement on what it was, and I know which one is least susceptible to damage by handling. Apart from that, I know that some of the Margate loco is my own work, and while neither version is perfect I prefer the dome shape on the Margate product.

And while I'm here, please let me just remind people within reasonable travelling distance that Immingham model railway exhibition takes place on 9th & 10th May. It's a decent selection of layouts, some handy trade, friendly people and doesn't cost a fortune to enter. Fuller details are listed in the exhibitions section on here.

 

[Graeme King]

After a busy time with non-modelling things over the last three months I meant to add these images on here last night, but time ran out. The long delayed decoration of the "nearly was" Gresley 4-8-2, last seen on here in February, is now almost completed. Coupled wheels have been swapped, taking advantage of Hornby's lined green items, eliminating a minor quartering error in one set of the original plain wheels and improving the slow running of the loco significantly. I still have to glaze the cab and add one or two features to its interior, and probably alter the steps at the rear of the tender frames as the only "handy" underframe I had was for a streamlined tender with its "streamlined" step shapes. Subject to checks on clearances on the tightest curves, the loco may get some main frame guard irons and front steps too - if I can be bothered.
I had the idea of using the very thin, pre-painted and pre-lined plastic overlays on the splasher faces, which seems to have worked well enough. I did not want to use a solvent adhesive of any sort on those in case it spoiled them in any way, and I wasn't sure it would bond well the already-painted original faces of the splashers. I equally did not want to try cyano-acrylate as I wanted time to adjust the positions of the overlays to best effect. Not trusting PVA to permanently hold the plastic overlays either, I suppose I could have used epoxy instead, but what I actually chose to use as "glue" was some gloss varnish.