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About this blog

What's on my workbench and other musings

Entries in this blog

The Duke Ready for Primer

A quick snap before he gets taken apart tomorrow for the start of spraying     Grey primer first, then satin black, over which the green will go on after masking

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The Duke - Final Fiddling

71000 is getting ready for his before primer photo shoot   I've drilled out the chimney and finally sorted the air bubble holes with some gel type cyano (Screwfix Mitre bond - who says doing the kitchen can't help with the modelling )     and I've bit the bullet and fashioned the cab partitions behind the driver and fireman out of plasticard, also a representation of the fireman's seat. The driver as usual comes with a cast in seat     So, just waiting for the buffers from Golden A

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Focus Deflected Back to the Duke

Following a brief interlude with my thoughts on a 77xxx I returned to the Duke yeterday whilst recovering from a nasty bout of Bejing Belly (don't ask)   So deflectors are now modified to the single continuous handrail which involved unsoldering the small lower handrail and the handrail knob from the end of the top handrail. This was re-sited higher up in a new hole, two holes were filled with solder and then a new section of handrail soldered in with the join within the old knob.   Pic belo

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3MT Mogul - a Decision

OK, the decision seems to have been made. The Airfix kit and Bachmann tender appeared yesterday and last night I offered up various bits of kit to the chassis and boiler.   There is a difference in mould quality, I had hoped that by using an original airfix kit the plastic might be crisper than the Dapol kit, oh well.   A few issues to consider: The motor is wider than the outside dimensions of the firebox lower/ashpan The nice painted backhead does not fit the airfix footplate - and t

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Class 3 Mogul - A Viable Project?

The Class 3 tank engine sitting on my shelf gathering dust has been bugging me for some time. A somewhat impulse buy when I happened across Trains4U whilst around Peterborough with work.   I didn't need it to complete the collection, I have my old faithful Triang/Hornby example that was really what got me "into" BR Standards.   So, about that gap in my collection - the Class 3 Mogul 77xxx. Recent eBay bargains brought me an Airfix 76xxx kit and a Bachmann BR2 tender for less than 20 quid. S

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Deflecting Attention

The deflectors might be all soldered up, but they have to come apart again!   looking at some photos last night mainly of the cylinders and cam boxes I glanced upwards and it struck me like being hit over the head with a slice of lemon wrapped around a gold brick ........   The deflector handrail is a single piece, not the two part affair that you get with the Brits   When I can summon up the effort the shorter lower handrails have to be unsoldered and removed, one of the holes filled wit

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The Postman Cometh

So the much hinted at etched valve chest covers from Pete Harvey of PH Designs arrived on Saturday, I've folded one up as a test and rested it on top of the Golden Arrow resin version for comparison.     Looks like Pete got them spot on, there's even a half etched lip at the rear of the lower edge to allow the cover to sit on the top of the cylinder body to give a slight overhang as the prototype   Big thanks to Pete for offering to do these without me asking, a real credit to Pete and t

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Come up and see my etchings

Just a quick update today. The deflectors arrived last week and one is assembled. Mods need to be done as the Duke's footplate is further forward than a Brit. Other issue is that CTMB don't supply the handrail knobs, good job I have some in stock.   Better news today was a text from Pete Harvey, etched goodies on the way that will make my Duke unique, well until he does his too.   More to follow

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The Duke so Far

Well, work on the Duke will be suspended as I've run out of bits!   The ex-JE etched deflectors will be posted out next week, so I'm told. Chris at Golden Arrow is chasing his supplier for the missing buffers - he already has the cylinder drains.   So I thought a few pics of the current state of play might be a good idea.           I still havn't sorted out the cab details yet, although I have found a pair of Hornby crew that will do fine. Big question is how to fabricate the

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Duke Pipework #2

And here's the RHS firebox pipework.     Note the extra bits in copper where I've enhanced the kit whitemetal and where the castings were too short or had missing bits.   The lower casting proved too narrow to fit around the extended firebox/ashpan and was cut and approx 5mm of extra piping soldered into the two pipes leading from the injector that head rearwards. You can still see the join just to the rear of the pip that runs up to the steam manifold.   Handrails next and them I will

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Duke Pipework #1

I know it's me just being picky, but the cast pipework provided in the kit for the LHS of the firebox just was not good enough for me. So I took a mold off the Comet Exhaust Ejector valve from my 2-8-0 build and cast one in resin. Pipework completed from a good photo of a late fifties DoG with remnants of an old Comet detailing pack and some stripped bell wire gave this:     The RHS is not so troublesome, although I'll end up enhancing that too with more bits of wire no doubt

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2-8-2 after a couple of weeks

Those who made it to the Member's Day will have seen the 2-8-2 quietly simmering away on Summat Colliery.   For those who didn't here's a couple of shots showing off Roomey's "2 weeks into service" weathering that sets it off perfectly 🙂       Now, must get that article finished for Model Rail .....

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Duke Chassis Progress

Not much to show really since the last update - although a lot of thought and planning has been done   here's the Caprotti gear with plasticard slivers epoxied to the backs of the lubricator castings. These will fit into the slots in the cast lubricator mounts on the chassis. The rear mounting points will be bonded to the already fabricated rear bracket.     The seconds shot shows the Hornby cylinders modified with the GA castings. The tops of the cylinders were cut away with razor saw a

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The Duke and it's Motion

Another bit of modelling required to fit the Caprotti gear to the loco drive Brit chassis. The rear motion bracket was really part of the whole weighshaft/reverser assembly so a new bracket was fabricated from plasticard as below     The cast gear is just pushed into place at the moment - final positioning will be done once the cylinders are assembled.   That front mounting bracket will need some mods too - I first thought that it lined up perfectly, but that might not be the case!   Tw

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Coupling Sorted

After a short spell with a hacksaw and 8BA tap we have the following arrangement     I've lost the whole section of chassis from underneath where the body fixing sticks out, so the drawbar pin and it's carrying plate plus the whole lump that supported the flangeless pony wheel has gone to make room for the swinging rear pony.   The exisiting pony fixing hole was drilled out 1.8mm and tapped 8BA to take a triang/Hornby bogie screw. A conventional 8BA cheesehead screwed into the tapped hole

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(Too) Close Coupling

Thought I'd check the tender to loco coupling as the extra 4mm length at the back was concerning me. Glad I did before going any further. For those who do not know, the current spec Brit chassis connects to the tender via a pin under the cab fixed to the chassis not the pony as in earlier variants.   Here's the result on the widest setting of the drawbar     and this one shows how it all connects     Fine if I don't expect the loco to go round curves!   The plan is to lose the c

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The Duke and his Chassis

I'm still doing prep work and planning with this build. Chris' instructions suggest you start with the chassis so I've stripped the brit chassis down to it's drive wheels and coupling rods. Here's a quick snap of the first trial fit of the body on the chassis - it fits!     As I'm not using the recommended chassis there will be a few deviations from the instructions. I will not be using the resin front motion support bracket (part 3) as the cast lubricator supports will do nicely. The Hornb

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The Duke

OK, Golden Arrow Duke of Gloucester build starts now. Opening the box we have:     I've cleaned the loco body of the small amount of flash, needs a final fettle with some fine files to finish. There are a couple of air bubble holes in the chimney and a w/m replacement might be in the offing.   Similarly I might use some ex-JE etched deflctors now I've got the hang of them with the Clan and 2-8-2.   Tender is Chris' new BR1J and a fine moulding it is too - should match up to the Hornby c

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More photos

Thanks to Steve (ramrig) of this parish for these nice shots taken at Derby last weekend               Those of you coming to the Member's Day in July will be able to see it in the flesh so to speak

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Public Outing

Thanks to Diesel Dayz for allowing the 2-8-2 a guest appearance on Duke Street at this weekend's Derby Show     raised a few eyebrows and even attracted the attention of Steve Flint B-)

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More power Igor!

I always knew that the second hand Sagami motor that I had installed in the 2-8-2 was, well, a bit weak. It ran hot even just connected to the gearbox.   Now that I'm in the final assembly stage when it came to running in the assembled chassis following painting it was clear that it was just not up to the job.   Thanks to artisan100 - Geoff at Comet Models a Mashima 1628 together with a new matching steel worm gear was supplied in doble quick time. I took the liberty of also ordering a 14mm

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Cornish Tempation

OK, so I was in Mevagissey last week, so HAD to call at the World of Model Railways with #2 son for an hour or two.   Some Spingside BR Head and tail lamps just jumped off the rack at me     Group 4 for the interested -     Well, it is a mixed traffic engine B) Gives you a good look at the other details added from the Brit detailing pack too

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Nearly There .....

Quick photo of the 2-8-2 before fitting of the brakes and rigging.     Tender needs coal and a coupling, but that's about it really.   Went a bit mad with the Brit detailing pack I got off eBay, fitted the screw link coupling and backing plate (if that's the word?) plus the steam heat pipe as well as the cylinder drains that I bought it for. The rest will go to the Duke of Gloucester that is to come B)   Wonder if it still works?   UPDATE:   Couldn't resist taking this pic of the

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Where's my Train?

These chaps got painted and made all dirty with black pastel tonight, all ready to crew the good ship Mikado     I've deliberately made the driver cleaner than the fireman and he sports a red neckerchief, the dandy   These are whitemetal (probably pewter) copies of the Hornby offerings that I bought off eBay ages ago. Will add a little more weight to aid traction

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