Stuart's Workbench

[GNR 205]

Hullo!

 

I've been lurking on this site for what surely must be over five years now so I've finally decided that enough time has passed for me to have a go at one of these thread things.

 

I'm one of those awful people who models a bit of everything: O gauge Colonel Stephens' light railways, OO gauge 50s Edinburgh steam, OO9, O-16.5... I asked my GP if I had an addictive personality but he just said that I had an annoying one so that's alright. But yes, as well as modeling a lot of British railway things I also have developed an interest in various Irish companies - especially the GNR. It was seeing a review of the OO Works U class in one of those railway modeling magazines that started it all off for me. I very quickly started reading up on the railway and it's fair to say that it really was love at first sight.

 

My name's Stuart, by the way - just in case you missed the thread title. Hi.

Here's a recent photo of my U class on one of the sets I've built for an unrelated project. As well as the dodgy weathering job, I've added a crew, a pair of lamps, homemade 3-link couplings, and a pipe or two.

 

 

At one point I'd built a couple of Ratio Midland suburban coaches and modified them to look a little more Great Northern. They have since been retired...

 

As time has passed I've also developed an interest in CIÉ - once again, OO works are to blame! It was at this point I found out about Provincial Wagons and so I bought some kits to go with my J15 back in 2018 (I think). These were the first resin kits I'd ever built but I must say that they've been by far some of my favourite kits to build.

 

Here are some photos from when I was building them apologies for the O-16.5 layout as a backdrop!

 

 

Et voila!

 

 

And here's the J15 from roughly the same time, again, on a set for an unrelated project.

 

 

I wasn't satisfied with my original attempt at weathering of my J15 so last year I remedied that. This time the photos were taken on a set designed for narrow gauge track and engines!

 

 

Then in November last year, I went on a wee trip to Ireland and that led to another naughty purchase...

 

 

I'm not a big diesel fan - I'd certainly never spend much on a British one... but actually, this may just be my favourite model in 4mm. Oh dear.

 

Last month a friend of mine acquired a UTA brown van kit for me and got me a GNR brake as a birthday present. That was nice, wasn't it? I also got around to finishing my GNR PG bodge (or rather I got to a stage where I'm happy to leave it for a while). It's a little, erm, rough, shall we say? The running board and below is from a Hornby J15 and the top is from a GBL C Class (a brilliant Idea I stole from this very forum). The chimney comes from a Palitoy J72 (with a bit of modification) and the buffers etc. are either from Lanarkshire Model Supplies, Markits or Caley Coaches. The tender chassis is from the J15, bodged to look a little more like the real thing, and the body is cut and shut from the GBL model. I may have to redo a lot of this (especially the tender body that hasn't wanted to sit flush with the chassis since the heatwave!) at some point but it'll do for now.

 

 

That's all I've got at the moment (bar a few repainted carriages and wagons) but I intend to get to work on more things at some point so who knows? Maybe there will be more to this thread at some point. We'll just have to wait and see...

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

Nice work Stuart and welcome. 

[Galteemore]

Very nice Stuart. You have managed to capture some of the signature aspects of the PG including splashers and cab profile. 

[Flying Snail]

Welcome Stuart - love the weathering, especially on the U class!

[LARNE CABIN]

Welcome to the forum, Stuart. Some terrific, high quality work there.

[Patrick Davey]

Welcome Stuart - great to hear of your journey and am with you there on the OO Works 'catalyst' factor, same thing happened to me (look at my profile picture for example......)

Looking forward to seeing more - don't be a stranger!

[leslie10646]

An amazing first post, Stuart and very nice renditions of my wagons.

I look forward to seeing more!

[DoctorPan]

Aay, I was wondering when you'd show up here Stuart.

 

As I've said on twitter, some lovely modelling.

[Mike 84C]

Welcome Stuart, its a very good group to be part of,  I'm sure you will enjoy the journey.  And as others have also said "lovely modelling".

[GNR 205]

Thank you all so much for the warm welcome! It's very much encouraged me to get stuck into some projects (potentially more on that later) and reminded me that I forgot to post a few pictures yesterday.

First up is a basic repaint and relivery of a cheap O gauge Jinty into something more interesting...

The victim:

Respray + transfers applied...

And just a wee bit of weathering...

I have seen a photo of either this engine or its sister on a passenger train (or perhaps it was acting as pilot) in Belfast presumably not long after arrival. I have an Ian Kirk LMS suburban coach kit that needs a bit of work but I wonder if that would suit?

 

That is sadly my best effort at anything Irish in O! The next specimen started life as a surprisingly cheap Bassett-Lowke N Class...

Big, isn't it?

Too big to run at home without taking chunks out of the platform, in fact! After some modifications (including regauging), it rattled its way around the club layout with a rake of lovely Exley Staniers. I'm not sure if this 'model' is awful or passable yet...

 

I'm going in reverse order for some reason so we'll end this post with the first Irish loco I acquired in 7mm.

Once again, acquired very cheaply second-hand. All I did was repaint it grey (yes, I know the nameplate should be grey too but I wasn't sure then) and gave it a quick service. Sadly that was some years ago and the springs in the dreaded plunger pickups have gone. One day I'll get around to sorting it out.

 

Anyway, that's all for now. Thank you all so very much for making me feel welcome here. I hope to post some updates again before too long!

[David Holman]

They look pretty good to me. Presume the last picture is of an Alphagraphix-Tyconnel 'Argadeen' 2-6-0T - really pretty little engine.

 If you don't fancy tinkering with the plunger pick up, it might be worth replacing them with wire. 0.5mm works fine.

[GNR 205]

10 hours ago, David Holman said:

They look pretty good to me. Presume the last picture is of an Alphagraphix-Tyconnel 'Argadeen' 2-6-0T - really pretty little engine.

 If you don't fancy tinkering with the plunger pick up, it might be worth replacing them with wire. 0.5mm works fine.

Thanks, David!

It is indeed the ALphagraphix kit - though not as nicely finished as your excellent locomotives. I plan to replace the plungers with some phosphor bronze strips... unfortunately, I have an O gauge Royal Scot to finish before I'm allowed to proceed further(!)

[GNR 205]

Now, I had been hoping to update this thread a little earlier and under happier circumstances but oh well...

Before I get into the sad stuff, I managed to nab an O Gauge UTA Jinty for £125. Well worth the money in my opinion! These new Jinties are much weightier than the initial batch which hopefully means I won't have to fill this one up with shrapnel. I've not done much to the model other than fill in the gap in the chimney, fit a crew, lamp and weather it using a technique new to me - washes! These are from MIG and I'm quite impressed by the effect. I think I'll be using a mixture of washes and powders from now on.

is the colour of the lining correct? I was led to believe that UTA lining was straw and red but it looks quite yellow to me!

(Note Jon Pertwee's smile, signifying approval)

 

And now for the sad news. Two days after this model arrived, my club was broken into and set on fire. 30 years of hard work undone. So many unique models destroyed. It was a sobering sight.

Chances are you might have heard of this tragic event as it's been in goodness knows how many articles from the Times to World of Railways! The public response to our plight has been overwhelming. We initially hoped to raise £500 to help us get back on our feet but have now raised almost £20,000! There is a long, difficult and incredibly expensive road to recovery ahead of us but suffice to say that it has been made significantly easier thanks to the generosity of so many people.

 

If you want to know more or help us out here are some helpful links:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/bonessgaugeogroup-modelrailway?utm_term=JappPqEMQ

https://www.facebook.com/BonessGaugeOGroup

https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/news/boness-model-railway-suffers-arson-attack/

 

Edited May 25 by GNR 205

[DJ Dangerous]

Wonderful to see such a positive response from people on the Bo'ness fire disaster!

There's a lot of good out there in people.

[Westcorkrailway]

You got that model for cheap!!!! Ahh. I’d have paid foood money for a 7mm T&C loco pre built!

[DJ Dangerous]

19 hours ago, Westcorkrailway said:

You got that model for cheap!!!! Ahh. I’d have paid foood money for a 7mm T&C loco pre built!

 

Mmmmmmh, foood money...

 

[GNR 205]

Hello all! On a lighter note from last time, I managed to nab an O gauge kit for a GNR six-wheeler. Exciting stuff!

 

 

There's one problem, however... the instructions are missing.

 

I'm going to fire off an email to Alphagraphix even though the kit is no longer in production. Anyway, I figured that there was no harm in asking here as well just in case the response I get is disappointing. The kit looks largely untouched and I reckon that scratch-building a roof and floor shouldn't be too hard. If push comes to shove I reckon I could assemble the coach using purely guesswork but I'd rather do things properly.

Edited July 2 by GNR 205

[Gabhal Luimnigh]

7 hours ago, GNR 205 said:

Hello all! On a lighter note from last time, I managed to nab an O gauge kit for a GNR six-wheeler. Exciting stuff!

 

 

There's one problem, however... the instructions are missing.

 

I'm going to fire off an email to Alphagraphix even though the kit is no longer in production. Anyway, I figured that there was no harm in asking here as well just in case the response I get is disappointing. The kit looks largely untouched and I reckon that scratch-building a roof and floor shouldn't be too hard. If push comes to shove I reckon I could assemble the coach using purely guesswork but I'd rather do things properly.

Nice find.

[David Holman]

 Good kit, with a clever six wheel compensation system. Should you want to build it in 5'3, the axles on Slater's wheels are plenty long enough to move them out to 34mm back to backs.