hayfield

Whilst you are probably right, you will have more chance if you do than do nothing There is another review underway about increasing numbers by 50%, and with less and less space needed for administration I am certain the required space can be found even if it means relocating or loosing some retail space. Just needs someone with a bit of vision and being deaf to the neigh-sayers. Before someone gets off with the time taken to turn the trains around, they should get advice from F1 teams. Simply where there is a will a way will be found. And yes I do use Eurostar and believe its a great asset which should and I think will be used more

Re the low cost airfares, I believe its down to subsidies given by the local governments to promote tourism. lobby your local politicians to equally support rail travel

The faint hearted may have said a disaster occurred, the plastic worm decided to have a melt down. As it happens not as much of an issue as perhaps feared. I need to phone Graham at Springside as I need a set of steps for this loco and a couple of parts for the 45xx. I told graham of the issue and he said the kit comes with a metal worm not a plastic one !!! Clearly the previous builder had issues building the chassis and one being the meshing of the gears, and replaced the metal gears with this plastic one. Still if nothing else its pushed me into ordering the parts I required I enjoy building models and especially rescuing something that doesn't work. I think this kit has probably cost me less than £40 for the instructions and missing/broken parts, I brought this kit so well its not an issue having to pay a few £'s more especially when you are improving the model I do hope these builds encourage others to have a go, the loco kit second hand market is very popular but do be careful. Unless the listing or seller states the kit is complete do think carefully about its value. This is the third or fourth incomplete Springside kit I have brought, so have a clear idea of the possible costs. Most importantly if the company is still trading and the owner is happy to supply instructions and parts, the kit is much more valuable than one which is discontinued. Southeastern Finecast is another good supplier of parts and instructions. And only base your bid on what you can see. I tend to base my bid on "if its not worth building, how much can I get for the parts " Have an exit strategy. Don't get carried away On a positive note Jazz of this parish has been extremely helpful in giving me advice on both fitting Slaters crankpins and the fitting of their wheels. its a great hobby we enjoy being in with many very willing to help others. Thanks again Jazz most kind of you

Jazz Thank you very much and you have confirmed my own thoughts, that not to the bearings flush, but also not too sloppy. I am rebuilding a model that someone started but then found some issues which they could not overcome. I am starting to understand that the Springside instructions are not a part by part set of actions but a visual guild with some written notes Another issue is one wheel has a bit of a wobble, I had sanded the backs of the wheels at the start, I may either swap axles or turn it round to see if its the wheel or axle to resolve the issue, having said this the loco runs well on the track. Thanks again for sharing both your time and knowledge

Jazz I am newish to building in 7mm scale and would like to ask you a question about fitting Slaters crankpins I am rebuilding a Springside GWR 45xx. In the instructions it states I should file the crankpin top hat bushes of the leading drivers (which are behind the motion) flush with the coupling rods (I am using the coupling and connecting rods supplied in the kit which are 0.94mm thick) for clearance with the crosshead. Looking at the other 2 drivers, the top hat bearings are much longer than the thickness of the coupling rods, allowing up to 1.5mm side play. The question is should I also reduce the length of the top hat bearings by a mm or so for the remaining 2 pairs of drivers ? As the coupling rods also use the same top hat bearings I assume I should do the same with them ?

If you go to the Branchlines blog https://branchlines.blogspot.com/ On the blog page (seems to be no longer updated) there is a link to their email which when clicked on seems to work, access I think access to their email is via this blog page

Rolling roads in use, I have found that probably as the center wheel is slightly higher than the outer two, the chassis runs better with two trucks. Using an independent motor mount/gearbox seems to make for better running/easier meshing, but the motor must be held in place/stopped rotating. Thankfully there is a strong wire across the chassis under the motor. I might try some garden plastic coated wire next

Moxey As Graham has said you can email Dave Ellis, the other half of the partnership is Branchlines sales@branchlines.com

I not only have the shrink wrap* but the de-solder (hot air) station to shrink them * Lidl center isle

doilum Thanks for the advice I am going to Alley Pally at the weekend and its on the shopping list, the black wire is much thinner than the red and more flexible As it is the wires are all too long as I have not decided how to join them, they will be much shorter and neater

Pleased so far with the progress, the plunger pickups were cleaned and fitted to the chassis, then wires attached and as per advice in another thread each one was tested for current connectivity. I must ask Graham what make they are. Wheels were fitted with the motor placed on the center driver as per instructions, again I tested the motor turns the middle wheel I have temporally fitted the coupling rods to do a motor test, all is fine. I am now going to read the chassis instructions mainly to see where to join all the wires together, but check all has been done I must admit all seems fine I could not resist to wire up one pair of plunger pickups and see it running

Manic few days of modelling, Saturday I narrowly avoided disaster when soldering up the front lower footplate to the main footplate. I put on a larger tip but forgot to reduce the temperature to 300c, as soon as the iron touched the solder on the joint it melted too quickly, I took the iron off as soon as I realized. once the iron cooled to 300c I filled the dip and now have a much stronger joint, took a little while to smooth the slight bump and only casualties were 3 rivets under the front boiler. I also ordered 3 rolling road trucks https://www.flair-rail.co.uk/shop/ This morning was little better as I plan to fit the plunger pickups and motor and gears I got off to a good start in taking the chassis apart But it took me over an hour to find the brass plungers and springs, over the past week I have been tidying up the workbench little by little. This morning I started to look for them, opening every box I could remember opening, as a couple of trays with spares from the job lot I brought. Been out over midday and carried on looking on my return. In a light bulb moment I looked in the 12ba draw and there they were. I have no box for this loco, lesson learned get one. In the meantime use a tray Next job is to fit them and the motor,

Jason T think the loriot is a Keyser kit as the GEM "machine wagon" is much smaller

The past 9 days have been excellent resulting in the net cost of power to me for the last 4 days all being under £1 a day, the last 7 days net was just over £1 a day Today was a wash out but it still generated 600 watts and we never saw the sun all day The corner has turned and production is increasing week by week, and its now in the land of paying for itself again

DCB Your missing the point in general though your point on making money is accurate. Rarely by buying anything for £20 will make you rich reselling it For me its putting back into circulation and more importantly use items which are clearly useful to others. In fact quite a few times I have brought the odd cheap item that is been out of production for some time but just right for either what I want at that moment of time or replacing a missing part of a kit A recent example is I have a NuCast GWR steam railcar missing its etch, the other day I saw and won said etch. The kit is no longer incomplete, either I can build it or sell it for far more than a kit without that part.

I have found that both me and others like it when others share their unwanted items, especially parts. I have collected so many I will never use the bulk of them and perhaps like you I should sort out those I will and those I will not use and like big Jim sell them in lots which reduces the effects of postage

Certainly looks a bargain at £20 Rule 1 Is there anything there you want ? Virtually all of my lot purchases have item(s) I want and this is the biggest personal cash benefit Rule 2 separate into either individual lots or groups of similar items, the latter divides postage between several items Rule 3 don't be greedy In my view reselling in a single lot will not realize the full value of the items, even if you only split it into 4 or 5 related lots, but either way will result in more work Well done and good luck and keep looking a great find

I thought I would do a quick test to check the body is not affecting the chassis free rolling, not a problem. But I did notice that the front lower footplate was not level The small center solder joint has failed and the outer glue joints are flexing. Easy fix in making a larger solder joint in-between the frames, then remove the outer glued joints and replace with soldered joints. I now need to check all other joints and repair or replace as necessary.

A bit of time fettling the coupling rods and fettling the crankpins resulted in a free running chassis Motor also tested and bearings soldered up

Yesterday I stripped the chassis down taking off the wheels and sprung pickups The wheels were given a clean and where necessary screw threads oiled Initially the wheels were not running smoothly so the bearings had the paint removed from them a quick ream then fettled until the wheels ran smoothly The first crankpin / coupling rod fit, OK ish but I think I can make it much better. The crankpin top hat bearings need filing to size, the coupling rods need finishing off properly and a couple of new crankpin bolts are required as too short Still very happy to date as in the Manning Wardle rebuild I think I have found where the builder had issues and abandoned/got stuck with the build. I think as I am using sprung pickups the running must be spot on before I fit them

You have clearly entered into a contract with this person and paid money for it to happen. If the kit was incomplete, unless it was a s/h purchase request the missing parts from the manufacturer. Long before the last message the builder should have reported both parts were missing and secondly the kit was beyond their ability I would have requested the return of both the goods and your money in full Agree At least I would have requested my deposit back, but also recompense for lost/wrong parts and extra costs for partial rebuilding Really long ago in my opinion the item should have been returned long ago along with your deposit. I know there are two sides to a story, but at least the builder has been guilty on not communication all the issues much sooner compounding your problems

Jef Thanks for the information about driving the center axle, something either I have forgotten or never come across before. As for building the body first, I like to have a rolling chassis first, then build the footplate. This allows me to check clearances especially what motor and gearbox combination is best and where they will go.

Doilum Thanks for the heads up, at the moment keeping with the Springside parts

The next project is another eBay buy, part built but incomplete and no motor and gears. However as they are now £447 new, I had a big enough leeway to cover most eventualities I brought this loco about 2 years ago, I had a spare motor and gears, and it looked well built. I got it well within my maximum bid and it was from a very reputable seller who I have used quite a few times I had what I thought were the expensive parts and after the previous experience buying bits from Grahame at Springside I had a good idea of what it might cost me to obtain what I needed One thing I like is the Springside cabs, is they are well detailed, the especially the very detailed backheads, just needs a Modelu driver & fireman These were the parts with the loco I knew how many parts came which came with the 48xx and whilst not knowing how many I needed until the instructions came, I brought a set of instructions, made a list of what was missing and ordered them Missing parts required and supplied by Springside On the face of it the chassis looked OK View of the underside But its not until you get the model and strip it down you get an idea of any issues, still the Springside Manning Wardle was the test bench for my building skills and I will just do the same in stripping it down, clean and service the parts as I rebuild it. I may well order a set coupling and connecting rods from Premier, but I want to see how free rolling the chassis is first, plus look at how much clearance between the crankpins and the back of the crosshead

This morning O fitted buffers to the loco, prior to painting I have now painted the chassis whilst priming the body Not too certain about the finish of the cylinder front and backs and I thing the LNER blue is a bight lighter than I imagined so will revert to plan A using Prussian blue Body primed Very tempted to paint the backhead, but as the firebox top and sides will be blue I must wait I might even be tempted to paint the wheels blue, glad I chose to use buffers. Now a wait until the shed warms up so I can airbrush the body