The painfully slow progress of the 45xx build continues. The loco had a test run at AbRail where it showed a tendency to derail. After readjustment of the pony truck springs it had another run at Macclesfield and was much better behaved. Over the past few months I've been gradually making progress with putting the cylinders together and tonight the second one was finally fitted to the loco.
I've got to say that they weren't the easiest of things to put together - annoying issues like th
Progress continues on the class 22, albeit rather more slowly now that the days are longer and I'm often out and about enjoying the nice weather for more of the evening.
This posting is rather an interim update to say that "I'm still here" rather than a blow by blow account of particular bits of the model, mainly because I don't think that I've done much that is really 'finished' since last time. No photos either, because the appearance really hasn't changed noticeably.
Attention has now
A little puzzle for you...
On the left is a new tank which has just escaped from the paint shop. ICI supplied chlorine to Hayle in the early years before Ethyl/Octel had their own chlorine works at Ellesmere Port and there was a period during which both Octel and ICI tanks were seen together.
The tanks were made by different companies for different customers but both to the same RCH design, so they look similar but there are plenty of detail variations. No credit will be given for saying
Modelling chez moi has been on temporary hold for the past week or so due to a trip to see MinerChris in his new abode in Sudbury (not Suffolk!).
We did manage to get out and about on several occasions and caught a few of the local activities. I'm no expert on these matters so I'm sure that others will know more than me.
This is the view from Chris's local model shop - George's Trains - a mere 237 miles away in Toronto. Nice shop though.
A freight on the CP mainline near Chelmsfo
The story so far... as regular readers may remember, we are at a point where we just about have enough locos to run the schedule at St Ruth. Recent additions from my direction prior to the Nottingham show earlier this year were a Farish Warship and a much modified Western, both in maroon.
A long time ago I promised myself that I would not be building a class 41 Warship - these were the very first WR hydraulics and were rather outside the WR's hydraulic concept, being the result of a politic
Fresh off the workbench (as usual, that means almost but not quite finished!) in time for ExpoFest.
These two probably don't quite sit well together... geographically they both carried loads to or from the Hayle Wharf branch but the Esso tanks appear in late 1950s photos and the Bromine tanks around 1970.
The 14T class A tank is a 2mm Association kit with Alclad paint (thanks to Mark 46444 for the tip) and Cambridge Custom Transfers.
The Bromine tank is my own 3d print sat on a Parkw
Owners of Farish class 47s circa 2008-2010 will probably have read lots of words on RMWeb about the shortcomings of some batches of this loco. I am the proud (ahem) owner of one of those models - D1764 in two tone green with full yellow ends. This loco has been on the St Ruth roster since the 2010 Expo in Oxford and has, shall we say, never been a favourite with the operators, it being fiendishly difficult to get all 6 axles reliably on the track and seemingly having a remarkable ability to skip
Unusually we managed to find some real snow on our post Christmas steamy day trip to the GCR at Loughborough today. It's surprising how different conditions can be just 40 miles from home.
The GCR also provides a welcoming refreshment room with a real fire. The all day breakfast went down very well too.
We go to the GCR quite regularly. Somehow we always seem to get this loco
The last train of the day and the gas lamps are lit at Rothley
The loco ready to reti
By popular request (well, one person anyway), I will occasionally post an article describing one of my earlier projects. This one is about my bubble car and its trailer.
If you think that this is to fill in when I don't have much to say about active projects, then I couldn't possibly comment…
The bubble car is the mainstay of the passenger service to South Yard (there isn't room on the layout for anything more). The model is 'based on' a BH Enterprises kit and a Kato chassis that I pic
Some considerable time ago I invested in a couple of Chris Higgs' Maunsell coach kits. It was a bit of an impulse buy - I've always fancied having a north Cornwall 'P' set even though it doesn't fit with my usual core themes. Having languished in the gloat box ever since, I decided that South Yard's appearance at the upcoming (err... tomorrow) Supermeet at Tutbury was a good prompt to actually get them built.
As with all things, time ran short so they are not exactly 'finished'. They still l
The Tutbury Supermeet has come and gone. I'd like to thank John Aldrick and his helpers for organising a very enjoyable day.
I spent most of it operating South Yard but had plenty of interest all day and by mid-afternoon I started to lose my voice because I'm not used to nattering quite so much. An unsuspecting Anthony Yeates asked if I'd mind him taking some photos and was promptly saddled with minding the layout for a few minutes while I nipped off to the Association shop and had chance to
A little break from the 2mm stuff indoors... The weather has been pretty decent this weekend so a certain amount of effort in the garden was felt to be in order. Naturally apart from pulling out the many weeds, I took the opportunity to make sure that the railway was clear of obstructions.
This afternoon the odd train or two had to be run just to make sure things were working properly. Today's main performer was my little IP Engineering 'Jane' - a meths fired pot boiler - similar in principl
Progress continues on the class 22, but at a rather slower pace now that I'm working on the detailing of the nose ends. There's a lot to do here (and it still isn't finished) and it's definitely a place at which the Worsley Works scratch-aid kit becomes more scratch than aid.
The Prototype
The nose is another place on the class 22 where a lot of detail variations appear. I won't attempt to cover all of them here. The most obvious is the presence or absence of headcode boxes. These were n
I've been making bits for the shunting tractor for a while now (the one in the video in the previous post is just for testing). For the most part it will be scratchbuilt and it's a bit of a case of making up the plan as I go along... never having built a model of a wheel loader before.
The cab sides and engine cover sides have been cut out from two bits of 5 thou brass soldered together... actually they are not yet fully cut out. Somehow I hope to assemble these into a three dimensional thin
I promised myself that I would spend some time turning the various bits I've cut out for the shunting tractor into something more tractor shaped.
In the previous installment I'd cut out the main chassis frames on the milling machine. In fact the chassis has been together for some time but lacking any sort of superstructure.
The body parts are cut from 5 thou K&S brass sheet using good old fashioned scratchbuilding techniques like a coping saw and Swiss files - the only concession to
I've volunteered to take the tractor test bed to the Tutbury gathering next month so I've been doing some more work on it ahead of that. All of the work so far is 'below stairs' so visitors may not see much visible difference from it's state last year at Chelford but in fact quite a lot has changed.
The first big change is that the curtain track has now been relaid to run dead straight instead of following the line of the Esso siding. This makes manual steering more predictable - pre
Another quick update on the progress with this build.
As you might have seen in my holiday post, a second tank wagon seems to have sprung into being, the idea being that it's not much more effort to paint two of these than it is to paint one... well, that's the theory anyway.
Rather than yet another progress photo of a wagon slightly less incomplete than last time, I thought I'd look at another little conundrum.
Having finally got two wagons ready for painting (somehow there always s
A little 'photo op' that I'd been planning since I found out that St Ruth and St Blazey would both be appearing at last weekend's Swindon show.
The inspiration was a John Chalcraft photo that I bought when I was building D6309. It shows the real D6309 at St Blazey in 1969 in front of what appears to be a duff Duff. The same photo is also the inspiration for the weathering job on my model.
http://railphotoprints.uk/p737470212/h3AAF2938#h3aaf2938
My attempt at something similar. Gettin
