Accurascale talk at the MRC

[Ben WeinerParticipant]

Originally posted at https://social.themodelrailwayclub.org.uk/topic/8-orchard-wharf/#comment-53 [note that, at the time of posting, tumbleweed is blowing across that website, but I’m adding stuff to it for various reasons, including the fact that I like the ease of posting – BW]

Tonight’s Model Railway Club talk by Paul Isles from Accurascale was naturally of much interest. At LFoRM in March the company announced they would be producing an 00 scale model of a Great Eastern tank loco usually known by its nickname, ‘buckjumper’, or its LNER designations J67, J68 and J69. This would fit perfectly into Orchard Wharf’s stocklist. Paul talked about what it’s like to take a model loco development project through from viability studies to ‘engineering sample’, which is basically the stage that this model has reached. He brought the first engineering sample along, which gave a chance to take a look at the underside and speculate about converting it to EM.

The experience of Paul’s talk was a bit special. It was great to learn how much care he, and by implication colleagues at Accurascale and other model railway manufacturers, put into their work. It was also really interesting to get insights into the necessary tradeoffs between complete fidelity to the prototype and the practicalities of manufacturing something that is robust and also a convincing reproduction.

In conversation afterwards Paul explained that he and colleagues at Accurascale are kit-building modellers themselves, and when working out the difficult details and marginal parts their knowledge of building and detailing plastic kits can be channelled into the design. On his engineering sample in unpainted pale grey plastic and bare metal the details stood out razor sharp and some of the plastic seemed daringly fine, but he’d already told us about running these models around on a track on the carpet and handling them to see what would actually stand up to real world usage.

When I mentoned Orchard Wharf, Paul pointed out the rebate in the underside of the running board to allow for a bit of side play in the 00 front wheelset. P4 he felt was not going to fit, but there might just be room for EM. It was great to think that this possibility had been considered by the product manager! Of course for the remaining 98% of customers it’ll never be of interest.

All in all an entertaining and enjoyable talk and a shot in the arm for our project. It’s great to have someone from the trade come and invest some of their time out of hours to tell us about what they do and why. Especially if they are working on a model of such a nice locomotive.

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[Paul TomlinsonParticipant]

I agree with you, Ben – a charming prototype. IMO they do strive to produce a high quality product. They do offer “drop-in” EM & P4 wheelsets for their diesel models – I would find this a much more tempting proposition if they would offer the same here, saving a lot of work? Their product announcement : https://www.accurascale.com/blogs/news/jump-for-joy-as-first-j67-8-9-samples-arrive

Their Siphon G is reviewed in MRJ 298, now on sale, and they’ve just announced a BR 16T mineral, which should be v.popular.

[Ben WeinerParticipant]

Thanks Paul! For the avoidance of doubt I haven’t placed an order and my Riceworks/London Road Models kit is not progressing at the moment, but there we go. A confession: I think I like the locos best with low cab roofs and circular cab windows, and that’s not right for East London in the 1950s…

[Paul TomlinsonParticipant]

And I prefer the narrow-cabs!… I’ve a couple of old 7mm Connoisseur kits for the J67 and J69 and in my quest to find out a bit more about them, I found the following helpful.. I got a slightly damaged Yeadon’s from Book Law for a few quid, and found the very useful article by the late John Gardner in the HMRS Journal as a back-number. John’s drawings are available from the G.E.R.S. You may have seen Barry Norman’s rebuild of John’s scratchbuilt J69 in MRJ, which was a low cab J69 with stovepipe chimney and shunters step, returned from it’s sojourn in Scotland. I live in N.E.Wales, and we had J69’s here towards the end of steam…

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[Nigel BurbidgeParticipant]

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they are convertible to EM as I have placed a pre order for a couple… I have made a Riceworks one, but the Accurascale models just looked too enticing!!

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