Nig H

Here are a few more pics of my LNWR 19" Goods. Almost all soldering done now, just a front coupling to do. Then smokebox, chimney and dome to attach. At the moment the running is far from satisfactory so that is the next thing to sort out. Nig H

Probably no use to you but I have produced etched kits for the Princess Royal and Princess Coronation in 2mm finescale. Here are a couple of pics. Nigel Hunt

Hi Mike, For the Jubilee you need 6.5mm bogie wheels, not 6mm. If you got that dimension from instructions for the PECO Jubilee chassis, then I think they must have been written before we had 6.5mm bogie wheels. The Farish instructions give the correct diameter. I don't include Association part numbers with my parts list as they can change now and then and confusion can occur if my list includes superseded numbers. Nigel Hunt

I agree with Simon about using brass tube. It's much easier to solder handrail knobs into holes in brass tube than a solid brass boiler as the latter acts as a big heat-sink. Nig H

Hello John, Yes, from the run Chris Higgs organised. Nigel Hunt

Here are some pics showing progress with my LNWR 19" Goods, but first a pic of my magnifier/ lamp. Trying to keep the lamp in the desired position proved increasingly difficult and eventually the thread on the screw nearest the magnifier sheared, so I used string(!) to keep it in place. This worked for a while until one of the arms sheared completely as I straightened or bent the two arms during set-up. As I can't work without some help from a magnifier, and haven't been able to for many years, I had to rig something up so the Heath Robinson set up shown is what I now use. It looks rubbish but at least I can see what I am doing. The pics below show the initial stages in fixing the handrail along the ejector pipes. I've had to do this before on several other LNWR locos, but for some reason this time I really struggled to get the shape just right. The third attempt seemed finally to fit correctly round the front of the smokebox and along the sides of the ejector pipes. One of the difficulties is keeping the bent-up wire (10 thou spring steel, annealed) in place at one point while offering it up on the other side of the boiler, but bits of blu-tac helped. This shows the right-hand side with the wire soldered in place. The left side with the wire just about tack soldered near the front of the ejector pipe. The front of the handrail (just about visible) following the circumference of the smokebox. Once the wire had been tacked in place i could squeeze it here and there to improve the fit. Strictly speaking the ejector and handrail should be held in place with a series of knobs along the length of the boiler, but life is too short for me to do that, and on prototype pics those knobs are hardly visible. Nigel Hunt

Hi Simon, looks good so far. May be you know but just in case, its worth opening out the steam pipe holes before you fix the smokebox etc to the footplate as it makes fitting the steam pipe at the correct angle a lot easier. I found I had to file the hole at quite a sharp angle to get the pipe to fit inside the smokebox. Nigel Hunt

Hi John, Have a look at my Princess instructions - basically one length of tube with a short length of the next size up tube at the firebox end so you get the cone shape for the boiler wrapper. You may need to add some shim round the short tube to get the right diameter at the firebox end. Its also worth trying to tapper the short tube towards the smokebox end so that the wrapper is in contact along all of the short tube, not just the front edge. Nigel Hunt

Hi, There is a very useful article on BR van variations in 'Your model Railway' April 1987. It gives the various combinations of sides, doors, ends, corrugations, rainstrips, couplings, brake gear and axleboxes. The chassis to use would be 2-354 or 2-357, as Andy pointed out. The four -shoe Morton fitted (2-254) was the most common chassis with the eight-shoe version used on later lots. Buffers of various ribbed types were fitted to most vans until later lots of D 208. Nigel Hunt

Me. I have a lot of 0.25mm and some other similar thicknesses, free of charge. If you are interested send me a PM specifying what you want. Nigel Hunt

I have produced an etch for a Johnson 3,250 gal tender, designed specifically for the Midland Railway 483 class. I can't remember exactly what the differences would be for one attached to the 4F but I think it mainly relates to the height of the step at the front of the tender. Here's a pic of one under construction. Nigel Hunt

Hello Adam, The instructions say, 'To prepare the base for use a stop strip which is supplied in the pack has to be attached to the side closest to the row of tapped holes. This is to form an end stop for the sleepers along the straight side of plain turnouts. It can be glued on with Araldite taking great care not to allow the glue to squeeze out into the ends of the slots. Alternatively it can be screwed on by drilling and tapping three or four holes along the edge of the block. When we come to make other types of pointwork it may be useful to be able to temporally remove the strip again. The instructions supplied clearly illustrate the assembly.' So the strip needs to be attached along the edge of the base plate, at right angles to it. Hope this helps. Nigel Hunt

About to leave the workbench, just some minor adjustments and weathering still to do, ex-LMS articulated BSO/SO. The articulation joint seems to work OK though I haven't tested it through any pointwork yet. Nigel Hunt

Hi Nick, Brilliant work as usual and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished results in the flesh. The improvements to the combination lever and union link are well worthwhile. I'm pleased the etched crosshead seems to work and I'm glad I left it on the etch. Thanks for showing how you did all this . Nigel Hunt

Hi Adam, I have the Jenkinson book, and the R W Rush one only. The L & Y Society has some coach drawings listed including D. 94 with a note 'from Rush'. If so it won't be dimensioned, I think. The L & Y drawings can be viewed and photographed at Manchester Central Library when it re-opens. Sam Kennion is a L & Y soc member so I'll ask him if he can help with more information. I think the Jenkinson drawing should do for a coach side as long as you make measured bits fit in with known dimensions. When I drew the artwork for my GSWR dining car I used a spreadsheet to help balance the gaps between the vertical lines of the paneling and associated beading. This helped ensure the sum of the total equalled the known length of the coach. I use a spreadsheet to convert feet and inches to millimetres also. This can be used as an audit trail of all the dimensions in a drawing, including source of dimension and whether quoted in the published drawing or measured from it. Nigel Hunt

Hi Simon, The saddle tank chassis is coming along nicely. I think you've got it running pretty smoothly, especially for an 0-6-0T in 2mm scale. Hopefully you've cleaned your track and the driving wheels to ensure the best possible pick-up. It can be hard enough anyway getting 2mm scale locos running sweetly without making life more difficult with dirty track or wheels. I look forward to seeing further progress on this. Nigel Hunt

Hello Adam, This is very interesting, especially the Class 28. One of my reservations about 3D printing is the minimum thicknesses required. I wonder whether it would be possible to mix 3D and etched parts for the Class 28, specifically the cab side sheets, the dummy front frames and the steps. Maybe other parts could be considered including tender side sheets and rear. My idea for the cab side sheets is that etched versions could be used as an overlay though it would mean the cab cutout beading would also need to be etched then soldered in place- not always the easiest of tasks. My approach with beading is to draw it overwide then file it down to correct width one securely soldered to the side sheet. Concerning other bits to be etched, some L & Y suburban coaches would be nice, especially a BT D.94 and the 10 wheeler RBTO. Matching bogies would be good too. Nigel Hunt

Hi Mike, I think its a GWR 2-6-2T so you could get a 61XX chassis kit from the Association, or David Eveleigh does a 45XX chassis, though for the Dapol body. An alternative might be to get a GF chassis already complete with wheels etc - maybe a simpler option. Nigel Hunt

Hello Nick, I'd much prefer it if someone else would do an etch! Full kits take a long time to develop and I'd rather spend my time on other projects. I did look at the Wild Swan book on the Crabs, and it struck me that the footplate might be difficult to design because the valance is so shallow. I suppose some sort of cradle below the valance to retain its shape until the footplate was attached might work - who knows? Nigel Hunt

Hi, The stuff I got is unbranded so maybe its just rubbish. It smells nice though. Nigel Hunt

Here is the latest on my LMS articulated coaches. Progressing slowly but surely (?). A close-up of the articulated joint over the central bogie. And the underside of the underframes. I decided to start on the bodies so I could check them for length against the underframes. It might cause problems if the bodies were to close to the articulation point. Mekpak on the underside of the seats has caused the floor to curve upwards slightly as it dried out. I tried using limonene but I couldn't get it to stick properly. I've no idea what the problem was with it. Next job is to paint the seats, floors and tables. Most is hardly visible but I prefer to do it anyway. Nigel Hunt

If the lamp irons are on the footplate above the buffers, I put a small piece of paper between the bunker and the lamp iron and squeeze the lamp iron in place with the point of an Exacto knife blade. The sharp point limits the heat transfer ( I think), and I use a generous amount of solder on the tip of the soldering iron bit. You can always 'pull' some of the excess solder away from the lamp iron once its soldered in place to help clean away the excess solder. This method applies to 'L' shaped lamp irons. If soldering these sort flat on the bunker rear one way to mark the position is with a pencil 'cross' drawn on the surface of the bunker, or you could consider drilling a small hole and holding the lamp iron over the hole. For either way, then hold the lamp iron with an Exacto blade and solder as before. Another alternative is to tin the area of the bunker first, then sweat the lamp iron on. Sometimes I've found such small parts will fly off as the flux boils, but eventually it should work. You can adjust the position of the lamp irons by nudging with the soldering iron, or holding and adjusting the lamp iron with ceramic tweezers as you melt the solder. One of the difficult aspects of this is holding the loco itself so that the bunker is level. I'd try holding the loco in a vice with blocks of wood either side of the bunker, but obviously you'll need to take care not to crush the sides of the loco. Nigel Hunt

I think these have been around for a few years now. The etches are 5 thou brass and that seems a bit flimsy to me. I wouldn't fancy soldering the various bits to the floor pan as I think they would end up being distorted by the heat. I suspect the Association ones are a better bet, and cheaper, though I've never made any myself as I etched my own Mk1 underframes in 10 thou nickel silver. Nigel Hunt

Hi, The Association sells plastic BR Mk1 roofs. I've used many of them with the Mk1 coaches I've built. I usually thin the ends down to get closer to a prototypical thickness. Nigel Hunt

Yes I did. Thanks Richard. Hi Andy, Yes, those are the ones and yes I'd like them please. Thanks very much. Can you hold onto them until me meet up, and email me how much you want for them? Nigel Hunt