As you can see, Britannia boiler, Jubilee chassis, V2 trailing bogie.
Before I can round off the boiler I need to solder a wire so that the electrical pickup on the loco works. Once I've done that, I can use filler to round it off.
It's fairly close coupled with the tender at least
Well, I've finally got some modelling done. Not much admittedly, but I've nearly finished a row of 8 small terraced houses. Which is nice.
The depressing thing is that I'd got the bits printed and cut out a while back, and I lost some bits.
But yes... Something is happening again.
Also, I've extended the running boards on the pacific Jubilee and filled in the rear splashers. I need to solder the wire the connects the wheels - or one side of the wheels anyway as it's come off. And then, when
Well, just a brief update to say... nothings' really happened for the last three weeks
I've got pretty much tied up with my writing, although I've bought some styrene strips to finish the running boards on the pacific Jubilee... I haven't had much chance to do anything with them yet. And I still haven't ordered the handrail knobs... Hopefully I won't have to wait till I've got one of my writing projects finished, if only because that's going to be about another five or six months.
Well, there is good news to report. I ordered two - well it's always good to have a spare - V2 trailing bogies from BRLines. The nice thing is that they have a drawbar attached, and the even nicer thing is that it reaches the original hitch. The nicest thing of all is that it carries electricity. Yes, folks, the Jubilee pacific lives! And the tender is closer coupled as well. So close coupled, in fact that I had to trim the fall plate down a bit. Which was good because it was possibly a bit too
Not much has happened recently. I've made the new drawbar hitch for the Jubilee, and, at least in principle, it works. The only problem is, it looks as if I'm going to have to solder the wires to the old hitch - and that either means removing the wheels, or else trying not to hit them with the iron. (Both fill me with dread.) and then onto the new hitch, which either means removing the brass bits and then reattaching them, or else... actually, that's exactly what it involves, since you shouldn't
Oh well, as things have been getting somewhat... tricky what with one thing and another. I figured it was a good time to get back to talking about the real point of the exercise. After all, every loco needs somewhere to run (to).
Here's a picture of the down end of Cricklestone Station. I haven't decided whether the lines are fast-slow-slow-fast, or slow-fast-fast-slow yet. I also made the mistake of putting the short inset platform at the same end as the entrance to the goods yard. So when I
Well, it's been... a tricky few days.
Partially, it's been a case of trying to get the bottom of the boiler round. I've tried it with, and without the... is it a weight? I don't know. Well, whatever it is, it sits on top of the chassis and is screwed down. The problem is that whether it's there or not, there's stuff on the chassis that sticks up into the bottom of the boiler. The fact that the Brit boiler isn't quite as rounded at the bottom as I thought...
(Argh)
I've tried about five or s
Well, I'm torn.
On the one hand, I've got a nice little N gauge layout. I'm quite happily modifying locos. Whether we're talking streamlined B17s, Granges, pacific Jubilees...
On the other hand... I get frustrated. I'd love to be able to build (say) one, or both, of the two 2-8-4T locos that never got off the LMS drawing board. Or the 2-10-2T that the GWR didn't make... (I suppose I could use a Dapol 9F chassis for that one, so maybe that's a bad example) or maybe a 72xx or 42xx. Or maybe the
Well... Here I go again...
The various bits have arrived. And it has to be said that things could be simpler.
As you can see, the boiler and firebox are part of the footplate - the cab, which, alas is not correct for the rebuilt loco, detaches. Removing them is not going to be as straight forward as it was on the Manor. On the other hand, the body is just made of plastic - the weight is part of the chassis. On the gripping hand, nothing's impossible, and while it's not going to be a case of
Well, I've got to a point with both the Grange - I need to get a bow pen to line it, send it off to be chipped, and then order some handrail knobs, and then it's done. And the streamlined B17 - I need to get some liquid lead (ordered) to get some weight over the rear drivers so it's not front heavy, paint it, line it, fit handrails. Apply transfer. Order transfers first, obviously... That I can start planning what to do next...
No 1. 4-6-2 Jubilee from 'Living with London Midland Locomotives
Well, I know the body needs sticking together - it's still in two... no three parts. Front, back and cab. But... they're on the chassis.
And they don't look too bad, all things considered. Still need a fair amount of work, but all the major sawing is now done. All the surgery on the chassis is done too. A few little bits still needed removing, nothing major just a couple of little bits that stuck out between the wheels.
And I've had it going round too. Forwards and backwards.
The one potent
There wasn't really much to say about any one thing, so I thought I'd just put them all in a sort of hash. (No rude comments, please )
I've not quite attached the front end. I had to trim a lot less off the body than I thought I'd have to, indeed I didn't have to slice it in half as I'd feared. [fast show]Which was nice. [/fast show]. I think I've got the height about right too. The one potential problem is that it's too narrow, but it could be worse.
The next job will be (ok, after strippin
Those of you of a nervous disposition should look away now.
This was the most nerve wracking thing I've done... maybe not ever, but certainly for a long time. Actually no... but yes, it was more nerve wracking than cutting the boiler on the Ixion Manor. You see, to get the A4 body to fit, I had to cut the footplate away from the chassis.
The cylinders came loose, and one of the rods came out. And the valve gear came away from the bit where it slots in further back as well.
I thought I'd abs
Well, first, just in case the change hasn't been flagged, I've added an updated picture of the Grange in the Part 4 entry, and added a comment too.
With regard to the streamlined B17... Things have been slightly awkward.
First of all, with the Dapol B17 chassis, the bit on the loco that the tender drawbar is attached to... isn't attached to anything, so it drops out. On my old B17, it was attached to the cab, but on the chassis it isn't. Secondly, the boiler is just the plastic moulding, th
I know, I know, I should, perhaps have folded this into the Derwent Grange entry earlier, but it didn't seem to fit too well.
I've not done much in the way of fettling to be honest, but since the last time I mentioned them, they were unpainted, and they've been painted - although I haven't got round to applying transfers yet... Come to think of it, I've not got round to ordering the transfers for the Mink C.
Apologies for the out of focus-ness of this picture. I might have another go a
Well, here's the current state of construction.
I'm a tad worried that I've got the boiler sitting too high. And yes, I know the smokebox door needs adjusting, there's a gap, and I'll be sorting it out.
But enough of my whittling. I finally got some milliput and filled out the bottom of the boiler. It's still lighter than the old Manor one, but hopefully that won't matter...
You know, the more I look at the picture, the less happy I am. I have a feeling that I'll be having to remove the...
Well, I've had a few sleepless nights recently. At least, I think they were sleepless.
A little background...
In 1914, the Baldwin Locomotive Works designed a... rather large loco for the Great Central. It was unusual not just in terms of size, but for its cylinders which were arranged in pairs. That is, it had four external 18" x 30" cylinders.
Oh yes, and the S200 2-8-2 was another American loco made to fit to the British loading gauge.
Now, one of my favourite locos - that isn't Britis
Well, here's the latest update photo.
The metal that Farish used for their A4 bodies... is really tricky to cut. Fortunately, I managed to get it to the right length. (Sorry that the picture doesn't show that... ) At the moment, it's held together with blu-tack just while I wait for my B17 chassis to be chipped.
There's a small amount of metal at the cab end that needs to be removed so that it clears the last set of wheels and pickups.
Also, I need to adjust the body just behind the cut so
I've finally bitten the bullet, and started sawin' (as the saying goes). I've managed to separate the boiler. I had to cut all round, and then pull, twist, etc to get the metal block out of the firebox. I don't know what the metal is, but I couldn't cut it with my razor saw.
I've just blu-tacked the boiler in place to take this photo. As you can see... well, it's a shade too long. About 1.5mm too long. I'm going to cut it just after the first boiler band, as that should get the front of the b
So, I've managed to get my camera going. And... well, I apologise in advance for the crummy nature of the pictures.
This one is a quick snap of the A4 body - with paint partially stripped. (In case you were wondering, the cab's made of plastic) next to a B17 so you can see how much needs to be removed (length ways) The B17 is my old one, which is, alas, dead.
This one is the removed Manor body, with the boiler from the Grange underneath. As you can see, the boiler for the Grange is a fr
Well, today has been a bad day. Nothing to do with modelling, just been really paralysingly down. The sort of day, in fact when anything you try will probably go wrong.
So... I decided that (since my old B17 is deader than... something that's very dead indeed) I'd perform a dissection on that, rather than on my nice shiny B17 chassis.
It was instructive.
1. The cylinders and valve gear are not attached to the footplate/runningboard. However, the footplate/running board is attached to the chas
Well, I now have the parts. I have the body, and the chassis... And at first sight, the boiler is a tad too long. Maybe a mm or two, as the back of the smokebox should line up with the back of the cylinders. That probably means moving the chimney back a little also. But all in all, nothing like as bad as I'd worried. I guess the next thing to do is to check a reliable website to get the proper length to help decide.
Oh yes, photos. So far, I have 1 halfway acceptable picture of the Mink C.
Well, my B17 chassis arrived this morning from Dapol.
[unfortunately my second B17 has got to go back to (well known model shop) because it doesn't recognise when there's a chip in it. My first B17... had, in the words of a 16th century list of deaths, 'several ailments'] I can't help wondering if I'll ever have any LNER locos running... Maybe I've been cursed. ]
Task number one is to take...
Task number one is to make sure that it works. That I can put a chip in it and have it running round.
Well, just a quick update, and then I'll move on to the Mk1 Horsebox.
One slight d'oh moment. You remember I had to drill out a couple of the buffer holes slightly? Well, guess who forgot to glue the buffers in? That's right. Now guess who didn't notice when they initially fell out? And now guess who's going to have to get a bag of buffers? (I keep mistyping that word. For some reason (possibly because the keys are next to each other) I keep typing g's instead of f's...)
So, why have I mov
I got a slightly unexpected parcel today. That might seem unkind, but it was the last thing I ordered, so it really isn't meant that way.
So, today, I have been mostly building... The N gauge society Mink C.
I thought I'd start with something simple, and this was. A big thumbs up for that, A small thumbs down for the documentation, I know times are hard, but surely it would be worth reprinting the instructions rather than include an 'oh, by the way, half the instructions are now out of date. I
