Jim Baumann's Cabinet of Wonders

Had exciting contact from a visitor to these pages - Jim Baumann who's fantastic collection is summarized for you below... Jim's mainly a ship modeller (you can view his stuff here) but has acquired numerous lovely examples of locomotives at various scales (Where possible I've made the locomotive names hyperlinks to articles on the prototype):

In H0/00...

This is his LNER W1 built from the South Eastern finecast kit:



His PRR-T1:



Various NYC Hudsons....









DRG BR05



Norfolk and Western J-600



BR 61 Locomotive (prototype built to pull the Henschel-Wegmann-Zug trainset)



SNCF 232



DRG Class 60



DB Class 10



...and lastly a lovely example of the Polish Pm36 in card using a kit from Marcle Models. I'm now planning on scaling down one of these and seeing if I can knock up an acceptable version in N gauge!:



Jim's got a nice display going that we can all envy... now if only they were all available in N gauge!

Weekend spree

After a bit of a blogging break I did a blitz on new locos yesterday - partially inspired by a search for something to build that could get round the incredibly tight Tomix curves that have just arrived for Port Rosea!

So here we go... tonight my pick of engines I'd love to build are:

From www.dself.dsl.pipex.com (a generally fantastic site well worth a look).:

The pleasingly chunky Reid-McLeod Turbine which is relatively square for my preferences and might actually be modelable!

At the same sight is the (not so streamlined but still fantastic) L'Aigle. A french attempt at using big wheels to conquer speed!

Over at trains.manvell.org.uk there's some exceedingly useful lists of trains - my particular favourite is the page on N scale German Steam Locomotives Epochs II-V which includes info on some models I've been trying to find for ages to find info on like the Fleischmann 7172 model:



From Railfaneurope
a lovely image of the Italian (I believe) 232 U 1:



Which has been modelled in Gauge 1 (damnit why wont people pay attention to N gauge...) by the lovely people at Southern Steam Trains it would appear:



And lastly, I had the chance to run some of my trains on my good friend Sean Mayers' layout - he has a blog at Black & Green document N gauge exploration of the early BR days... anyhow here's some of the highlights of our pictorial fun:

The Kato Flying Hamburger:





The MicroAce SL7:



Schniezeppelin:



Dapol Q1 double-heading with Sean's Q1 before picking up carriages:



My new Fleischmann DRG BRO110:






A4 Class "Seagull" (Grafar):




A4 Class "Mallard" (Grafar):




And some nice general shots of Sean's shelf layout I'm sure he won't mind me posting...







(Links permission sought where possible - e-mail if you want a link removed or credited differently)

Coronation Class Making

Well after finally getting hold of a decent Grafar Duchess chassis I've got started on my Langley streamlined Coronation Class body kit!



I'm quite happy with it, but there's a fair amount of work to do to get the Duchess chassis to fit, and to sort out the lower end. At the moment I need to:

• Sort out the front end so it finishes at the right height and we the correct "squareish" side panel that covers the cylinders.*

• Install the weird little square box that goes on the side just above the first driving wheels set.*

• Sort out the back end near the cab!*

• Put in window frames for the cab window (and probably remodel the windows a fair bit).

• File off the hand rails along the boiler and replace them with seperate metal ones.

• Get a new tender to suit the streamlined shell.

• Fill all the moulding inaccuracies, particularly around the front of the cab.

• Resite the buffers lower to suit the new shell bottom.

• Install lamps on the buffers and work out how to light them!

• Investigate if the tender had break lights.

*marked in pink dotted lines on photo

Whew... lots to do... good job my degree's handed in!

K

N Gauge Society AGM

Had a fantastic time yesterday at the N Gauge Society AGM with a fellow modelling friend. As well as a generally fantastic wealth of information and layouts on display there were some fantastic offers from Graham Farish, and even better second hand bits and pieces at the N Gauge Society shop!

As a result my collection has now expanded to include...

A Kato "Flying Hamburger" (VT04.501 DB. Epoche IIIa. Blue/Grey):



A Fleischmann version of the DRG streamliner (Class 01?) I can't seem to find anywhere online:



A kit built Princess Elizabeth on a Grafar Duchess Chassis - this was my only dissapointment of the day. I bought it for a Duchess Chassis to construct my Langley Coronotation Class kit thinking it was a bargain then discovered I could buy a new Duchess (see below) for £30 less from Farish's "Spares and Repairs" section on the stand... ah well, lesson learnt... at least it runs well!



Grafar Duchess - now I've got two of the chassis I was looking for (Admittedly for less than half a new duchess would cost me) I don't know which to use for the Langley kit! I do quite like the idea of having a streamlined and un-streamlined version sitting next to one another though...



And finally a Mallard to add to my A4 Collection:



They're all absolutely gorgeous runners although I need to get them all chipped... perhaps time for me to learn myself and save some cash... Luckily I won a Dapol Q1 in the raffle at the end which (after a little bargaining with my friend who hasn't been able to get hold of one) paid for almost all my purchases! Hurrah!

I entered The Great Bear into the competition but unfortunately was absolutely outclassed by the attention to detail from other competitors (though I'd like to think I might have scored a few points for uniqueness :-D). I've assembled a layout base with integrated controller and circle of Z track...and now for your viewing pleasure I present it on video!:



I'd also like to take this opportunity to praise the N gauge society. All the committee members were fantastic, the society finances seem in great shape, and I was reminded of all the great benefits members can enjoy. What other equivalent society publishes bimonthly, full colour, 90 page journals with a membership fee of just £15 a year?! Join now is my advice!

World of Weird Streamliners

I fancied a walkthrough of some streamline stuff, both railway and otherwise, from my collection, heavily influenced by recent trip to Grey Falcon's Site

Firstly there's the gorgeous Mercedes Benz T80 a few models around at larger scales but nothing at N scale.

Hungarian Streamliners

A couple of lovely examples here that dont appear to be modelled at N gauge...

The Hargita DMU appears to have been modelled for computer uses, and possibly is appearing as an HO model by the Slovakian "Mehano", but I can't find any sign of it being in N gauge catalogues anywhere gorgeous anyway. Image here courtesy of Hamster at hampage.hu



Also thanks to Hamster is this image of the functional looking Class 242. Still really interesting but this must be one of the blockiest streamliner's I've found thus far in my quest!

Nn3 Vee tipper conversion

I've spent the past day or so converting some of the fantastic Nigel Lawton 009 Vee Tipper kits to Nn3 to be pulled behind my shunter. Click on the image below for my "how to" guide...