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The internet is a great tool for research for this hobby of ours. Following inquiries on the Scalefour forum I was pointed at some drawings of banner repeater signals. I found few pictures on 'Adrian the Rocks' signalling web page http://www.roscalen....gnals/index.htm and following a quick email Adrian sent me a couple of pictures showing the rear of the banner signal without having to resort to Eileen's extreme products. At just under 11mm in diameter the result isn't big and has caused a fair bit of 'entertainment' in the burnt finger department. The head will be mounted on top of a suitable post and will probably have ladders up both the front and the rear as per the photographs. The fingers will heal up soon! David

I did those extra pics tonight, mainly so they are almost in the same post, but it will be difficult to post them tomorrow. This one shows the running chassis and the transmission. The torque arm that figured in an earlier post is no longer required. Its job is actually done by the relation of the motor casing with the back of the boiler once the body is seated on the chassis. Within the firebox, the motor actually sits more vertically than in this photo. This fuzzy excuse for a photograph shows the smoke box saddle - (fly-cut and milled in tufnol) - and the screw hole in the spectacle plate through which a screw holds the boiler. These two features ensure that the boiler unit sits at the correct height.

Some progress with the J10 has been made but first I’d like to show you a couple of posed shots of the EM gauge Crab. They are same pose but differing angles and the layout is ‘Bowtons Yard’ – so we have an EM loco standing on S4 track! This shot shows the completed coupling rods of the J10, one set on ‘rod-axles’ in the chassis assembly jig, where both sets were assembled, and one on similar axle jigs in the chassis. Here the right hand (colour coded red) rods are shown fluted side out but J10s did not have fluted rods so this set will have the flutes towards the main-frames. They would be the left hand rods if the flutes needed to show. With all axle-mounted gearboxes there is a tendency for the axle box to try to rotate around the axle rather than stay still and rotate the axle. To limit that tendency we need to fit a thing normally called a torque arm. The design of the torque arm is a little more complex if the gearbox axle is also sprung. These two pics show the torque arm arrangement on the J10 chassis. Sorry about the fuzzy one! Today the full chassis has been assembled, less motor, and unusually for me its a free runner first time. Mind you the CSBs have yet to be threaded through the axlebox links but that has the makings of a tedious fiddle, so I'm waiting as long as possible before fitting them. Also today I have fretted out the running plate but having completed that job I found that I had not thought carefully enough and made the plate as though the main-frames were my usual design. Unfortunately they are a set I purchased on the S4 B&B stall many years ago and Alan Gibson approaches main-frames rather differently than I. I think that it is going to be necessary to solder the cab to the running plate much earlier than I would normally, just to add strength to what will become the frail cab-end of the running plate when I have done some further metal fretting to accommodate the frames. More about that next time perhaps.