Southern Railways Schools Class***FINISHED***

[PeterB]

Thanks Pete

 As I mentioned earlier, after my wife decided I needed a train set (my third since I was about 10 years old) and bought me a Black Five back in around 1980, most of my steam locos I got were LNER/LMS/BR and I built up the appropriate rolling stock. Then I picked up some GWR coaches dirt cheap so I added some of their locos. Finally, my son expressed an interest in SR so when passing Sheffield I dropped into "Rails" and picked up a second hand old Hornby King Arthur and a rake of SR Maunsell coaches. The King got repainted and ran a few times but then in around 1991 I had to scrap my layout due to family pressure, the room being needed for other purposes so everything got boxed up and put in the roof, except for some selected locos in a couple of display cases. I got as far as stripping the Maunsell coaches and spraying them green, but never did get the markings on. So, although it might have been nice to pose this kit with some rolling stock, I can't, and even if I had finished the coaches it would have been Maunsell olive though I guess that during the change over it would have been normal to see a mix of the two colours in the same train. The other 3 of the "Big Four" did at least keep their paint schemes pretty much the same throughout their existence, but Bullied the " moderniser" made life difficult for modellers with his introduction of Malachite just before WWII. Of course wartime liveries were generally plain black as and when the locos were re-painted. So if I do manage to build the Olive Schools I may have to finish at least one coach - the joys of a KUTA!

 

Oh, and by the way, as you can see I answered my own question.

I have no idea what the disc code meant but looking at Nock's book on Great Locos of the SR this seems to be the code used on Schools pulling the London to Portsmouth train - might have been different on the return journey! The etched discs are from a chap trading as 247 Developments, who was living near my birthplace in Yorkshire when he made them but more recently moved down to South Wales as I did rather earlier, and is based 40 miles away in Neath - he has some good stuff!

 

Incidentally, I mentioned Aspergers earlier, and like the King Arthur, a lot of the locos I bought were either second hand or new but very old stock (average price £10, now they are £100-£200 new - no longer a kid's hobby!), basically ex Triang with the old X03/X04 motors in the loco. They were both jerky runners and very noisy, and one of the problems my son had and still has is noise. Even worse was my motorised turntable whch was not only very noisy but to him seemed to suddenly move for no apparent reason - it freaked him out! I got round that by buying a batch of replacement motors from an ad in Railway Modeller which had more poles so were smoother and quieter, but I had run out by the time the King Arthur arrived - fortunately he was older and could cope with it by then - this build has brought back a lot of memories!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited January 30, 2022 by PeterB

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Good looking Loco, I think these were one of my favorite schemes on British Steam railways. 

[PeterB]

I sprayed it today but given how sensitive the Malachite is to lighting I will wait for some decent weather and try and take some pics outdoors. As a taster I think I said I chose the colour having seen Lord Nelson at Steamtown. Unfortunately, the pics I "took" never came out as I had forgotten to put a film in my camera! However I can date it fairly closely as I remember the one and only BR Type 89 electric loco was their in the Inter-City livery whilst it was on test, so it must have been sometime between 1986 and 1989 when it was first withdrawn after a failure. In the absence of my own photo I found this on Wiki,

 

 

I think I am fairly close. If you removed a slice from in front of the cab taking out the flat topped Belpaire firebox and the rear driving wheels then you would have something looking very much like a Schools, though of course you would have to shorten the 8 wheel tender as well - quite a family resemblance, though there were elements of the King Arthur in the Schools as well! Incidentally, I am not entirely convinced by the number/lettering on the above pic. Although it is in Malachite with the Bullied sunshine yellow font, at some point it has switched from the number being painted on the cab side as 850 to on the tender as E (for Eastleigh until the renumbering in 1931) 850, with the small cast red numberplate on the cab - this is the same layout as it would have been in Maunsell Olive with his type of lettering, and not as it was in an earlier Malachite restoration and how I have done my Schools, but then as I said I am no expert on the Southern Railway.

 

Pete

Edited January 31, 2022 by PeterB

[PeterB]

Got it sprayed and this is how it looks in weak winter sunshine.

As I mentioned earlier the paint changes colour with the light and this is probably a bit "washed out". It has been a bit of a struggle but not too bad for a slightly crude 60 year old kit. I will put some pics in the gallery shortly.

 

Thanks for watching.

 

Pete

[FortyEighter]

On 1/30/2022 at 8:59 PM, PeterB said:

I have no idea what the disc code meant but looking at Nock's book on Great Locos of the SR this seems to be the code used on Schools pulling the London to Portsmouth train - might have been different on the return journey! The etched discs are from a chap trading as 247 Developments

Hi Pete,

 

You've given a lot of background info during your loco builds and this one looks great.  As someone who spent many years modelling the Southern Region (but not Southern Railways) I appreciate the nuances in livery shade that can be seen on rolling stock; trying to match the colour of kit built coaches to either Hornby or Bachmann models is a nightmare - I still have a couple of dining car sets in primer for this reason.

 

On the subject of SR headcodes, they always showed the route rather than the type of train and of course your Waterloo to Portsmouth code would also apply to trains running in the opposite direction.  Your choice could also apply to trains from Victoria to Ramsgate or Newhaven and also light engines to either Feltham or Eastleigh (from west of Basingstoke).

 

Regards

 

Mike (who grew up on the LSWR main line near Hinton Admiral)

[Troy Smith]

On 26/01/2022 at 12:14, PeterB said:

I am not sure what exactly they are doing now and whether they are still making these kits.

They certainly do

https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/model-accessories/self-assembly-oo-kits

they do 4 boxings, so I presume they just have different decals.

 

Co-incidentally I picked one of these up from @wimbledon99 this week.   I've  never built a train kit, and this has been an informative thread,  if a bit of an information overload, but in a good way.    

 

I did find out that one of the survivors is at the Bluebell Railway, 'Stowe' 

 

cheers

T 

[PeterB]

15 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

They certainly do

https://www.dapol.co.uk/shop/model-accessories/self-assembly-oo-kits

they do 4 boxings, so I presume they just have different decals.

 

Co-incidentally I picked one of these up from @wimbledon99 this week.   I've  never built a train kit, and this has been an informative thread,  if a bit of an information overload, but in a good way.    

 

I did find out that one of the survivors is at the Bluebell Railway, 'Stowe' 

 

cheers

T 

Hi Troy,

 

Yes the decs are different and maybe they also changed the moulded name plate as it originally had Harrow in raised letters! Yes - I did go on a bit but my excuse is that I was enjoying myself and I did think there would be a few people watching who, like yourself, had never built a train kit.

 

If and when you build it here are a couple of tips. The various coupling rods etc are of course way over scale and there is not much you can do about that, but reducing the thickness, at least at the ends where the holes are, makes it easier to fit the pins if you want everything to turn/move. Also, if you were doing something different to Harrow it might be worth making sure that it had both the Bullied chimney (only half of them did) and also the high sided tender as in the original kit. I believe Dapol release it as Harrow (30)919, Rugby 920, Shrewsbury 921 and Kings Wimbledon 931 which they presumably chose to match the kit detail, but if you fancy something totally different, this link may be useful if you want to check which had what mods etc.

https://railuk.info/steam/getsteamclass.php?item=V

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited February 12, 2022 by PeterB

[rob Lyttle]

Hi there @PeterB. This is a fascinating read through. Great to see see you in action with the Schools Class loco.

You may recall offering some advice as I tackled my Dapol "Cheltenham" a while ago. I'm pleased to report that my running gear still runs 😀 I loaded the boiler and the tender with 3mm solder wire for weight and installed brass tube bearings and axles. 

It was the challenge of getting the mechanism to work that was the big draw for me - I know nothing about the subject. 

But I do see the industrial wasteland at Eastleigh quite often, where these were once built, adjacent to where Supermarine built their first tranche of Spitfires. (Don't mention the Ford Transit assembly plant.... 😦) 

At least there is a good model shop still in the town - big on railway stuff too 👍

Anyway, great to catch up with you and your Schools Class building. Nice to see how it should be done 

[Bandsaw Steve]

Nice! 👍
 

We need more rail subjects here on BM if you ask me. 

[Mjwomack]

7 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Nice! 👍
 

We need more rail subjects here on BM if you ask me. 

yes! Yes we do! There was a proposal for a railway themed GB

Alas, it failed to get up the necessary head of steam and became the little engine that couldn't😒