Busy when it Rains

Another rainy Sunday meant putting up new light fittings, hanging new things on the walls that my wife bought, etc, etc.

But I did manage to do some graphics work. A Great Northern A1 "Sir Frederick Banbury" is slowing taking shape in the 3D Room while in the 2D Room yet another LNER A4 is coming together nicely. This will be 4487 Sea Eagle in the short lived apple green livery with the black front end taken right back to the first boiler band. Yes, it was quite horrible and, thank goodness,didn't last long when all the apple green A4's were repainted with the familiar black sweeping smoke box curves. Still they existed in the former livery and so will be illustrated. After all, that is what www.elegantsteam.com is all about.

The sharp eyed will have noted the latest upload - a Furness Railway Baltic tank (4-6-4T) engine. I had a lot of trouble with the body colour. A brick red colour NOT to be confused with MR or LMS red.

Thanks to John Fitton who noted my errors on 6228 Duchess of Rutland. He pointed out that the tender should not be fitted with rear frame mounted steps on the tender. He's absolutely right, of course. 6228 was originally a streamlined locomotive in red and gold and, upon destreamlining, the tender was cut down but the curved rear mounted tender ladder was retained. It was a 10ton tender as well with higher sides. A new tender is currently under construction in the 2D Room and will attached to 6228 upon completion. Thanks John.

Onward and upward

In the Workshop in February

And the rain pours down in Southern Spain. Anyway it lets me get into the Workshop (actually my PC) to get on with a variety of projects. There is a Great North of Scotland Railway Corridor Composite of 1898. This is a brick red colour, perhaps slightly darker with creamy white upper panels and yellow lining. Very striking. Then there is a Dunalastair II of the Caledonian, though I'm waiting for a copy of Jim Mackintosh's new livery register so a slight delay there
And finally. I've tackled the longish process of the complete LNER Coronation train. Coach A is complete and Coach B is nearly there. These will replace the twin sets of the West Riding Ltd already published. There isn't enough detail to be seen in the twin set views for them to interesting so they'll be replaced by the Coronation train as single coaches. The two trains were identical anyway (apart from the Coronation observation coach already published) so anyone thinking of a LNER Coronation set for their layout will get a good idea of what their completed model might look like.

I applaud anyone who has made a model of the Coronation observation coach. Lot of sweat and tears on that one, I think.

Already being redrawn is a Cardean Class 4-6-0 of the Caledonian, and I'm thinking of a couple of locomotives from Southern Companies. Perhaps from the LSWR and LBSCR.

Tata

Streamlined Trains

Every week or so I like to check the statistics on my site, partly to see where where my visitors are coming from and partly to check which pages are the most popular. It never ceases to amaze me at the popularity of the LNER and LMS streamlined trains sections. They are, by a wide margin, areas where visitors linger. I suppose it's because the trains are colourful and still give an aura of modernity. Both the silver of the Silver Jubilee and the blue and silver of the Coronation Scot stand out against the corporate liveries of their railways but with style.

Having said all that I look at the liveries of the present day railways and find them rather garish and consequently cheap looking. I was watching Portillo's railway series currently on TV and was not really surprised at the livery of the Northern Rail (is that right?) vehicles that were shown. Purple and Blue ?? What idiot thought of that combination? Less of a livery more of an advertisement. The idea of style seems to have gone completely out of the window and the responsibility for the livery handed over to those who successfully completed a one week course on public relations or media studies or some such.

Other railways fare no better with the use of garish colours that clash and go faster stripes. It was ironic last week when I read that stranded passengers had to rely on a steam hauled train to get them away - hauled by Tornado, no less. And all because an environmentally polluting tin can couldn't handle adverse conditions.

No commercial manufacturer, to my knowledge has attempted to produce a complete streamlined train. Hornby did an abbreviated version of Silver Jubilee, a locomotive and two coaches, that were just quick repaint jobs. The coaches didn't have the characteristic deep valences and, in my view, were just playthings although an enthusiastic modeller could have upgraded them to something decent.

So the modeller who would like a complete streamlined train on his/her layout has to rely on brass etched kits (not for the faint hearted), bespoke models (very expensive)or do what I had to do - scratch build. I would have thought that the introduction of a basic set to be augmented by further coach addons might be the way to go. Rather like Meccano did years ago when you could start out quite small and, as your enthusiasm grew, then add the "a" series kits thus building up to, if you wished, to the mighty Set 10. I actually wrote to Hornby about this but, as is usual in such cases, never had a reply.

Enough !!

And the rain pours down

Yes, it's the rainy season in Southern Spain and another good day to stay inside and carry on with new illustrations. Mind you, by the middle of February the rain will stop and we won't get any more until at least October. We rely on deep wells for our water supply and there has to be a good flow at the 150-200 foot level plus several rain water tanks to be filled, so I'm not complaining.

New illustrations to be added very soon will be a GWR full brake (side and end views) from around 1903 and two more additions to the Coronation Scot American train.

Incidentally, if any visitors to my site (elegantsteam.com) from the USA have any knowledge of photographs taken at the time (1939) of the Coronation Scot during its time in the USA could they please get in touch. I would be delighted to have news. I know that the train created quite a stir during its visit and someone, somewhere must have taken photographs. Including the newspapers as well, of course. I can be reached via the Comment page on the site.