Morning Local

Special K… Part 1

If there’s one loco that gets the most comments at shows its my ex-LBSCR K class. It’s a old K’s kit was my first attempt at building a loco kit. A lot of work went into it adding extra details that the kit didn’t have and I’m very pleased how it turned out.

The K class was designed by L. B. Billington in 1913 for the LBSCR. The 17 locos were built to eliminate the double-heading of the rebuilt C2x class on heavy freight duties in the London area.
During SR ownership the K classes were modified to conform with composite loading gauge. The cab roof was re-profiled, chimney and dome cut down and whistle re-sited. Some other changes to the class included fitting of Ross “pop” safety-valves instead of Ramsbottom, Maunsell superheaters replacing Robinson pattern, abandoning of the top feed and the tender coal rails having a backing added.

In model form there is the Ace models brass kit available but if you are lucky you might find a old K’s or Blacksmith models kit. Since building my first K’s K class I have modify another one that had the old style cab on it. This involved making a new cab out of brass and added extra detail. This one I sold on a few years ago which I slightly regret now.

The reason for this post though is I’m working on a third K class at the minute and in the next part I’ll go into more detail about what I have done to it.

A Wright Honour

Recently Tom Foster, Chris Matthews and I spent the day with Tony Wright and his layout Little Bytham . I’ve followed Tony’s articles over the years and he has been an inspiration to my modelling, so to be invited to see his work up close and operate his layout was a real privilege! Tony’s Little Bytham is an on going project but already looks like a work of art to me. As Tony explained not everything on the layout is his own work. He likes to do some “horse trading” with friends which is a good way to get things done on such a large project. As you can see from my poor picture it is rather a vast layout!We all arrived with some stock which Tony kindly allowed us to run on his layout. Tom had brought along a few of his Pannier tanks that he has been working on for his Cwm Prysor project. You can read more about it and the Panniers here https://tfmodelling.wordpress.com/ Lucky for Chris, Tony had a ingenious gizmo for him to re-gauge his wagons. These plus the Class 47 are being worked on for his current project which I look forward to seeing and operating. https://otcm.wordpress.com/

It was nice to give some of my locos a good run and it was great to received some lovely comments from Tony about my stock.

Running Little Bytham with its Eastern Region stock and being able to discuss all aspects of it with Tony made it all the more interesting. Finding out one of the BR Mk1 GUV’s was a MTK kit and that some of the other beautiful stock was 40 odd years old was quite a shock. There were a few mishaps from the fiddle yard operator but Chris soon got the hang of it! and I got marked down for not noticing I had not set some signals. This all lead to good banter and contributed to great day with friends, old and new.
I’d like to thank Tom for arranging the visit and of course thank Tony and Mo for their hospitality. I would also like to thank Tony for allowing me to use a few of the pictures he took on my Blog.

Lots of Colour

My copy of the Noodle Books “Southern Vans and Coaches in Colour” by Mike King arrived the other week. This is a brilliant reference book for anyone that models the Southern Region. It covers all the pre-grouping companies, Maunsell, Bulleid, BR Mk 1’s and Pullman coaches plus van from all over the Southern.
The book is full of good clear glossy pictures. Each picture has plenty of information about the coach in question and others like it.
This book follows on from another couple by Noodle books, “Southern Coaches in Colour” by Michael Welch and if coaches aren’t your thing then maybe ” Southern Wagons in Colour” by Mike King will be.  Both are again packed full of good quality pictures and information.
For a little under £20 each they are well worth the money!