In my quest to get as many shelf queens moved on to the finish line as possible I have started digging things out of drawers and boxes. Since Mossy is showing us his trials and tribulations with the NER Days kits I thought I would dig out this one. It's a Medley Models (the name that Steve Hoyle used to trade under before he changed it to NER Days) North Eastern Railway Diagram C1 Open Fish Truck. This has been an even longer inhabitant of the workbench than the brake vans. I last did anything with it in 2014 The instructions are a little vague and at the time I didn't have all of my collection of LNER Wagons by Peter Tatlow. And so, I made start and managed to work out that you needed to use a couple of pieces of scrap etch to make up for some infill parts that wouldn't fit on the etched sheet. This bit is mentioned in the instructions it's just a little vague as to where. Oddly there were no brake yokes included so I plan to use some Laurie Griffin cast ones I onlt found out this morning what an enormous gaff I had made when assembling the sides. Can you see what I have done wrong? I thought this might be an easy one to get over the finish line but perhaps not. I may take a while for me to work out the best way to tackle it.... You will also note that my soldering wasn't as neat back in 2014. Practice may not make you perfect but it does help you improve.
Rob, I will be following this one with interest, but welcome to the Medley/NER Days frustration society. One of these sold on Ebay a few months ago for I think just over £60. I don't think there are brake yokes on any of the etches, there certainly wasn't on the V2/V3 brake etch I bought last year. The instructions suggested fabricating them from wire. Equally I am not expecting any on the B1 open wagon etch I have just ordered. Having just re-read Steves reply on the B1's, they come without floors and I quote "there wasn't room on the etch". Brake yokes by their shape take up a lot of room on an etch and yet are hardly visible on a finished wagon, more than enough reason not to include them either. Interestingly Furness RWC also do a C1 in their usual mixed Resin and Brass, although it is being retooled at the moment
I think that we would have to 'agree to disagree' on that one Mossy. Purely my view but, not including floors is being very tight in trying to get an extra vehicle on an etch. He would have been far better to only have three vehicles on the etch, but include the basics like a floor and if fitted with 8 shoe brakes, the yokes as well. If that puts the price up a little so be it. You end up paying for it one way or the other, at least with the floor. I do accept that you may chose to represent the out ends of the brake yokes with a bit of rod
Rob, I am in total agreement on the subject of the missing floors. Its very similar to the missing tender tank sides on the G1 loco etch and the extra cost would be minimal. I accept I'm more ambivalent about brake yokes than you. I think it the difference between your high fidelity models, which fantastic extra details and my skill set and a simple need to get working models. Perhaps as my skill levels increase then these kind of things will become more important to me, but even now if a kit comes with yokes I fit them, if they don't then I most likely wouldn't source the parts from elsewhere.
Hi Mossy, One of the things that I love about railway modelling is that we can all get what we want from it because there are so many different disciplines within the hobby. Your goal is to get simple working models to go on your layout eventually. Whereas I get my buzz from making things and the more detail I can add the greater the buzz. I have tried a couple of layouts but I realise that at the moment they are not for me. I have quite a bit of track making materials that I plan to keep just in case that changes but for now I am going to enjoy building models and hopefully making each one better than the last. No one seems to have picked up o my faux pas with the fish truck so I will put you out of your misery. The solebars and folded outwards instead of in. Having checked photos they should be folded back under the body. I am sure that the fold lines on the etches are on the wrong side and back then I didn't check, I just folded them with the folds on the inside and here we are. Having thought about it, the 'simplest' and I put that in inverted commas because it's quite a bit of work but less so than cutting them off. Is to drill out all the rivets from the back and replace them with pieces or rod or fake rivets, cut out a couple of oval builders plates. And finally take the outer frame layers off and solder them on the other side. Simple if you say it fast....
Rob, I fell foul of that with V2/V3 w irons, they are all etched to fold the wrong way and what instructions you get makes no mention of the fact. I simply cut them off and resoldered them on the correct side.
I had considered that, but I think it will be easier if I just reverse them. It is something I will be wary of when I tackle the rest of my stash of Steve's kits. - I have a couple of his loco kits too.
Rob, I don't know how far you have got with this build, but there's an interesting article in NE Express 171 on the C1 fish. It mainly deals with the complex arrangement under its skirts of dual Westinghouse and vacuum brake systems. Given your love of extra detail it might help with the build if you can get hold of a copy. Mossy
Rob, I have just re-joined after an almost 20 year absence which is why I know about the article, all 241 Expresses can be viewed online, but you can print or copy pages. Tom has enquired about this with the webmaster and according to him it was a decision of the trustees, Tom copied them on his original email, but hasn't heard from them. I believe if you contact the archivist you can get copies of pages print but obviously that costs.
Thanks Mossy, I think that I am going to take up the digital subscription. Chris is going to join the LNER society so we get the best of both worlds. We currently have a subscription to Heritage Railway but it's been a bit lacking in content so we plan to cancel it and use the money for Society subscriptions.
