Well much excitment at Brightspark Towers today.

My drawings from the NRM have arrived.

It is a shame that the just missed Expo where they could have answered a few questions that were raised. But more of that in a minute.

I was at ExpoEM on the North West Surrey Area group stand. The plan was that we were there to encourage local members of the EMGS (and to encourage non members to join) to get involved with the local area group. Contact details are in the EMGS newsletter that was enclosed with your programme. Non-members are also welcome to attend. It was also nice to meet a few of the RMWeb crowd.

76009 seemed to attract a lot of interest. RMWebbers spotted it becuase they saw the pictures I posted, but others came across and at some point in the conversation said "I've got one of those somewhere". It seems that this humble little Airfix kit is sat in many cupboards awaiting the day of construction...will they ever see the light of day?

A large number also seem to have a Kemilway Chassis waiting to be attached as well.

A few people asked my why I was starting with an Airfix kit and not going with a Bachmann RTR and converting it. The answer I give is that although converting an RTR is fairly easy a new chassis is easier as I get more room to fit motors gearboxes etc.

Anyway while at the show I took the chance to vist Alan Gibson for a few bits and pieces. They do a range of lost wax brass castings for BR Standards (as well as other companies). Their website has a handy chart...unfortunatly this lot cost me £42.00! I then went to Branchlines as he does the Safety Valves. Then came the hunt for working out where the little blobs go. It is here dear reader (if you get this far) that I found out my lack of knowledge on bits of steam engine. However a few passers by where willing to give a hand.

So we are looking at the Steam manifold, that is the big square thing on top of the boiler in front of the cab, and the photos seem to show a whistle fitted around this area. The plastic blob from Airfix has the whistle mounted to one side that can't be correct so a search ensued in trying to find a picture of this area.

First stop is to raid Roger Carpenter who was sat next to me. Sadly he has only one photo of a 76XXX and that was in the distance. I then rembered that I had a magazine picture taken from a bridge showing the engine approaching (Steam World Apr2011). Yes it showed the top of the engine but the Safety Valves were letting off steam obscuring the whistle area. So I asked Colin on the Alan Gibson stand where does the whistle go, remember that he hadn't sold me a seperate whistle in the bits and bobs, and the first assumption was that it was one of the sticky out bits on the casting. He looked through his stock and found that he only has a vertical whistle that fits behind a chimney (there is a little picture in the bag). A quick check of Derry (BR Standards pt1&2) revealed why. Alan Gibson once did a kit of the 73xxx class, that had a whistle behind the chimney, 76xxx had them on top of the boiler and they were horizontal. So all the Alan Gibson components are specifically for the 73xxx. Next a trip to Comet and £2 lighter had me a horizontal whistle. The excited crowd now proffered advice that there was what looked like a boss on top of the casting (a round blob) so is this were the whistle goes? The Comet Whistle (as does the Markits) has a boss at the base and this looks like it fits onto the boiler.

Well as I started this with the news that I have drawings, one of them shows the pipe fittings around the cab and more importantly where the whistle fits.

I also took the model to the test track. I am pleased to report that it went around quite happily in both directions. Although at speed it did jump off. I put this down to a lack of weight, a rigid chassis and a little kink and uneveness in the track.

Oh and the where does the whistle go? It's a BR Standard, it's like pinning a tail on a donkey.