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About this blog

Me & my workshop

Entries in this blog

HONLEY TANK -- In the garden

In April of last year I said not to expect frequent posts here and there has only been one post since that date.   My 4mm finescale modelling has not completely stopped but I've done little worth writing about with any of my EM or S4 layouts and stock. There has however been big progress on building baseboards, mounting them without soil connection and then track laying, through most of last summer and autumn. No electrical wiring required because this is all live steam with remote radial cont

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

Still doing a bit of modelling

Just to prove that I'm still doing a bit, albeit mainly at this much larger scale - SM32 - I thought I'd upload a picture of Lady Margaret as she now is with lining, brass boiler bands, brass dome and brass safety valve shroud, to embellish Roundhouse's finish. Yesterday was her namesakes birthday!     Four coaches for her to haul as the Diamond Jubilee Train are more or less completed, and here's a view into the interior of one of them:   Its roof and one of its compatriots are in the

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK: Why have I been missing

Hello again everybody who is interested, sorry I've not been posting and I think I should explain.   Over the last few years of this blog, since about spring 2012, I have many times referred to poor health of both myself and Margaret, my wife. Around that time Margaret was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers' disease, which early on caused us little trouble beyond silly, even laughable forgetfulness.   I was declared her full time carer and initially we had, and needed, little help, but

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- A THREE-DAY WEEK?

I do hope you've missed me! Sorry I've not been here.   Some of you know that family commitments over the last year have been much higher than is desirable, and why. If that does not include you then don't worry about it. The fact is that I have been released from much of the commitment and slowly, very slowly, I'm re-organising my life.   One result of this up-heavle is that I have started to dabble with 16mm scale, 32mm gauge; or SM32 as it is known. Radio controlled live steam and a very

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- That Da**** Class 101 Again!

The other day I got the now rare chance of a quiet running session and started with the newest unit to traffic, the Met Cam lightweight or Class 101.   After a few runs and stops at Birch Vale station, the unit slipped as it started out of the platform; the ability of the traction unit to haul its train was non-existent. Inspection while still on the track and powered up, showed that only one axle was spinning.. A need to strip body from under-frame and have a closer look at Lima's pancake mot

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

Honley Tank:- Bowton's Yard signal cabin

A careless picture; I seem to have left detritus below the foundations! This gives an impression of how it's going to look.   The basis is the Scalescenes digital model with the finer detail of the Brassmasters kit that was designed to enhance the self- printed card   The locking room window (in the brickwork) is the card version and allows the picture to show the much finer detail using etched brass window frames as in the cabin itself. May go back and change that; there's some scruffy an

HONLEY TANK:- That CLASS 101/2 dmu Again!

I said I'd tell you about a signal cabin but I've experienced a strange fault with the Class101 when working on 'Birch Vale'. It's so strange that I think it's worth re-telling on here in the hope that the knowledge may help others with future faults.   Both my S4 layouts have been DCC operated for a long time but with the ability to quickly switch at will to analogue dc. Accordingly the 101 was wired with a decoder and sent to Birch Rail, for which it was always intended, - Bowton's Yard is

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- CLASS 101/2 dmu

Will any of you who enjoy reading my ramblings under the "Honley Tank" heading please accept my apologies for such a delay since my last input.   Quite drastically changed family commitments mean that I now have very much reduced time to allow for my hobbies.   As the Honley Tank verbiage has always been based on my activities in the workshop (i.e. Honley Tank), this means that not only have I less to say but I'm more reluctant to use what little time I have available in whittering away on

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- CLASS 101/2 dmu; - Slow Continuation.

Happy New Year everybody, and may our modelling in 2017 be even more enjoyable and successful than last year.   "Slow continuation" means that the trailing vehicle of this DMU now has correct (I think!) destination blinds. I have made negligible progress in two areas of research; namely, the actual wording on the blinds and an accurate set of vehicle numbers (cab numbers in steam terminology), for the Metro DMUs that worked on the Hayfield branch. Any input would be appreciated!   I have ass

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- CLASS 101/2 dmu; Pick-up problems, - SOLVED?

Hello Again, Previously I said:- "I now set off on a 'good-dose-of looking-at ........', and finished with: "That's all for now but more, with pics in a few days time."; - Well, here they are:   The "good-dose-of-looking-at" led to an idea for scraper pick-up soldered to a cantilever plate, such that the phosphor-bronze wire scraper could be fixed away from the under-frame and have contact with nought but its fixing and the back of the wheel flanges - no fiddly bending and no need for very

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK :- CLASS 101/2 dmu; Pick-up problems!

Hello All,   The under-frames of both cars were assembled ready for test running with the electrical pick-up system unchanged from Lima's original. Rubbish running resulted because pick-up was, not to be too rude to Lima, - intermittent!   I gave a lot of thought as to why this could be and decided that the system included far too many sliding contacts; rail to wheel - wheel to axle springy-phosphor-bronze scraper - spring scraper to bogie pivot pin, the latter joint being pushed together by

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- CLASS 101/2 dmu

Hello All, Last time I said that some of the pictures taken while I progressed through modifying the Lima wheels still needed uploading to my hard disc; well here's some of 'em:   Sometime ago I painted the interior section in an attempt to get upholstery and walls etc approaching the colours as originally introduced. Also there's no point in a passenger service without passengers so a few Prieser people have been randomly accommodated. Luckily, being able to see inside the coach when on th

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- The Machine Tools Still Work!

Hello again,   Some juggling of domestic duties has led to my being able to find a regular weekly time spot for the workshop. Its a three hour break but, for useful modelling time it works out at perhaps 21/2 hours - remembering where you were when you finished last week, and tidying the bench at closure pinches valuable time.   However, recently both the Boley lathe and the Myford have had their bearings warmed up! I have been in wheel-turning mode in the last few sessions,   The Lima whe

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- Not much happening!

Hello everybody.   Sorry I've not visited here for a few weeks but family commitments are very much limiting my modelling time and that's likely to continue for the foreseeable future.   Its difficult to find time for the workshop and I'm probably averaging less than two hours a week, compared to more like twenty hours in past times.   The current project is S4ing a Dapol Class 101/2 - (any one got suitable numbers for a Manchester based set, suitable for the Hayfield line?).   It's caus

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

A BIG CLANGER AT HONLEY TANK!

It would appear that my understanding of PM system on RMweb was, until the last few days, very much out of date; I'm sure I have in the past been informed by rmweb, using my private e-mail address, that I had a PM to read. I must be wrong because I have just by accident found about a dozen PMs, of which I was totally unaware, and these date back to December 2014.   My sincere apologies to the writers for this lapse, I have not meant to be rude, I've simply been badly informed. Over the next

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- DCC Systems - Progress

The two NCE DCC systems are now up and running, with 'Birch Vale' unchanged except that now there is the chance to plug in a hand-held controller at Newmills hidden sidings; - the main controls are at Hayfield end where the operator can easily reach the two, hand-operated point levers. From the first days of adding DCC, I built in the ability to switch to either DCC or analogue and this is retained.   'Bowton's Yard' has a new control panel which allows for either DCC or analogue control and w

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- DCC Systems and some thoughts

I got in to dcc round about early summer 2003. I did so by buying a toy train set for about £60; it was OO, continental, diesel loco plus three wagons, but with a Roco dcc system, including a transformer!   As I was able to sell the loco and wagons for about £20, my first dcc system cost me well below the going rate. (It's also left me with an oval of OO track on which I can test run repaired stuff for local kiddies etc). However the Roco hand-held cab had a centre-,off knob with forward speed

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK:- Progress on Bowton's Yard

A few posts ago I reported starting work on modifying the hidden sidings on Bowton's Yard. This virtual rebuild of both hidden sidings is now complete.   One end represents Guidebridge and now has a system of train plus locomotive cassettes, along with loco storage behind the goods shed. This is much more flexible than the original single line and later-added short siding. The result though was to show up the poor storage at the Stalybridge hidden sidings and this led to my building a cross-ov

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

Philosophising at Honley Tank

Sorry to the two people who look forward to my posting on here ; I've not done much worth writing about, even less worth posting pics for. With both myself and wife Margaret now well into our eighties, age deterioration is beginning to take more control of our activities than we would like.   In recent times I've been looking at modifying my hobby operations in the hope of continuing modelling for longer than my aged body looks as though it will allow. Indeed this blog was started as an attemp

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK's BASIS FOR LOCO CHASSIS DESIGN

My last posting, about continuous springy beam chassis raised my friendly disagreement with Will, and simply shows that we each have, and should have, our own approach to all things, but it caused me to think back on my own development which has led to the way I do things.   My industrial apprenticeship years had a great influence on the person, or at least the engineer, that I have become. I served as an apprentice electrician in a large, electrical maintenance team, but unusually for that ty

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

Honley Tank asks - CSB or Not CSB? That is the Question!

My excursion into construction of a continuous springy beam chassis (see previous posts about my J10) was useful but has resulted in quite definitely negative feelings about them.   It seems to me to be an excessively complicated system that demands a skill level that the majority of modellers are unlikely to have developed. At least that is so if the published technology is to be believed.   I have to admit that my predilection for split-axle current collection and models that can be handle

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK's 'N' Gauge Trainset

I promised: "more next week" but the general day-to-day life of old wrinklies took over and work on the layout lost all importance.   However some progress on the proscenium box has taken place, the track is wired and hand-operated point control is complete. The bridges and retaining walls are fixed but road surfaces are still needed; as of course is very much more.   Here's a few recent pics:-   Two shots; left and right views; of the proscenium box. The box, which will be finished in tea

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK's 'N' gauge trainset

HONLEY tANK's 'N' gauge trainset   Progress has not been too bad; the baseboard, with its removable back-scene boards is more or less completed, We chose to use Metcalf kits for bridges and retaining walls and those are all built. The high street shops are also to be Metcalf, half-relief in this case, and many of those are now built too. The track is down and ballasted, and this week the point operation and wiring has been completed. Here's a few progress pics:- The baseboard built and w

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

HONLEY TANK STAFF HAVE HAD SERIOUS THOUGHTS!

MMRS's exhibition looks to have been a glowing success. However for Margaret and me, and our ability to help the cause, it did raise problems.   Both octogenarians, abilities and availability have a tendency to vary and the tea room, normally supplied and run by our ladies, was not allowed by the hall's management; therefore no job for Margaret! The space allocated for the demonstration stand was about half that of normal so it was not easy for her to sit with me and join in the demo.   This

Dave at Honley Tank

Dave at Honley Tank

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