Kempenfelt

Gordon, On the basis that you're not entirely happy with the bridge at this stage and therefore I'm not creating additional work, what about adding the function of a swing or retractable bridge, bit like the one on the Bristol Docks next to the Ostrich? Could add a further (if a little precarious) headache to the shunting puzzle! :-)

Killian, Gary and James have already provided some sound advice and I can echo their comments. I've spent all my life growing up with model engineering and its a fantastic and rewarding hobby, well worth getting into. I think I've seen a completed George albeit some time ago, but they are indeed rare. I seen a few more part built, including the 2 you've already referred too. I currently own 5 Don Young models and have driven a lot more. They are certainly IMHO appear to be better designed than a lot of the Martin Evans designs and do generally steam very well. I think a model of on of the FR George England loco's would be lovely, although I'd probably prefer one in the more modern guise as per Palmerston. With regards to a first model, I would strongly suggest building something which interests you even if it is the slightly more complicated option, however for obvious reasons don't go setting your heart on a 4 cylinder compound! I was encouraged to go down the small stationary route, but unfortunately they've never done anything for me and I really struggled to progress the project. This is in no way dismissing James's comment, just emphasising the need to find something that you're going to want to build. Instead of continuing the uninspiring stationary engine, I found myself really drawn to 5" gauge ground level running and started building scale wagons. I found they are a good project to make noticeable progress in a short space of time, don't require a great deal of prerequisite skill or ability (as long as you're methodical and take your time) and something I'm really proud of. I too would suggest steering you away from building a Tich, they're are actually still pretty complicated to build yet too small to actually run. I am now pretty involved with helping out a friends business www.steamworkshop.co.uk and another suggestion I would make is to seriously consider a part-build or a restoration project. You need to make sure that the work to date is generally good, but they do provide extremely good value for money when compared to buying the castings and raw materials, or a finished running locomotive. Simon or myself would be quite happy to advise on projects there are in stock, after all we're working really hard on building a reputation of a trustworthy, knowledgeable and enthusiastic business, rather than just a shop window. For example there are currently 4 Butch models of various stages of completion that would be worth considering. There's also a 3 1/2" gauge Lion as an almost air running, finished chassis, however this may be a bit too small. If you do indeed want to go down the Lion route, then getting in touch with the OLCO group would be well worth doing. Link already provided by Gary above. Good luck with whatever path you choose. Best Wishes Paul

Cracking work as always John, that piccy of the 9F crossing the canal is superb! Now wasn't there a STD 5 that would be right at home on Barrow Road shed that was on the cards............

Yaaaaay, so you have given in to peer pressure Robin and decided to model Barton Hill wagon works too! Perhaps you might consider putting Temple Meads overall roof over the fiddleyard??? :-P Looks great, fantastic achievement all round! Looking forward to the January meeting already! Paul

Hi Dave, interesting thread! As a fellow GL5 member and owner of both a Don Young Class 2 and Aspinall, I can whole heartedly confirm that I agree with your choice! I own the Aspinall that was built by Norman Lowe who designed all the backhead fittings and made most of Don's pattern's, he was afterall head of Horwich works pattern school when he retired. The engine is a joy to drive and run, and you may well have seen it at the Bristol Model Engineering show over the past few years, Doncaster last weekend or operating at Gilling if you've made it that far. Just in case you haven't, here's a few pic's for interest. Very best wishes with your project! You've made a great start on the driving truck and I like the look of the CAD drawings! I'll be at Railex this coming weekend on Clutton should you wish to come and have a chat. Paul

Ivan, I don't believe there is anything to suggest that Morgan's efforts wont succeed so i'm struggling to see the relevance of the resin wheel suggestion on this thread. Despite all the careful planning for such an experiment there's always the chance of coming across a small hiccup such as the characteristics of the glue in this circumstance. The role of any good engineer is to identify these problems and to provide a solution. I think Morgan's done a stella job of this having already explained the solution he's identified and to have provided the full story from trial to solution, I for one have found this extremely useful. I always feel the tutor has done their job well when their explanation makes the process sound theoretically simple! With the steps provided above I feel could perform a similar operation, not sure I could've done it if I was just provided a set of 00 wheels and a set of tyres! With regards to resin centres for wheels, perhaps its better that the question is asked in a dedicated thread? I wouldn't find it useful to interupt the current tutorial. Kind Regards, and keep up the good work Morgan! Paul

Afternoon Morgan, Hopefully not a silly question, but how do you ensure you get an even thickness of Araldite around the inside of the tire? I assume its down to careful placement of the rubber mould and tire, and to hope that neither slip when you're putting the whole assembly in the oven to cure? Not quite clubbing this time Porcy, but I do find that generally the last few hours of the evening/early hours of the morning are the only real free time i get to write emails or responses! (This response is bucking the trend somewhat! ) Cheers Paul

Morgan, Thanks for the very useful insight to the problem of the live crank pins. Ultimately attempt one hasn't worked quite to plan and this has got me thinking too! How about a combination of the AGH and TR methods? I like the idea of the Tufnol insulation between axle and wheel centre to prevent the axle from becoming live, but as you say the problem of insulating the live crank pins is a lot harder in 4mm compared to 7mm due to the sizes involved. Likewise Araldite has proven its bonding capabilities but has made life rather difficult when it comes the extracting the job from the jig. How about you Araldite the Tufnol insulation between the tire and a slightly modified, smaller diameter jig? I'd make the inside diameter of the Tufnol smaller than the required, but then bore out I/D afterwards as you were planning to do with the Araldite anyway. (The reduced I/D approach is what I've done when soldering bushes to 5" brakegear, then drilling and reaming out to size to finish) Hopefully this would result in a secure insulated ring to the inside of the tire and restrict the Araldite from coming into contact with the jig. There are a few issues that spring to mind with this approach. Firstly this solution involves an additional stage in the sense of turning 10 Tufnol bushes. Secondly, could the I/D of the insulated tire be bored out sufficiently to maintain a scale thickness? Thirdly, would the Tufnol/Araldite combo withstand being bored out? (Although judging by your efforts I don't actually envisage this being a problem) On the subject of you being "madder" than Ivan, I'm not sure I could ever bring myself to agree with that! :-p However you have certainly proved that you're up for a challenge and very proactive when it comes to putting ideas in to practice! Good luck with attempt number 2! Best Wishes Paul

Excellent work as always John! Out of all the mod's you've been making though, what a difference thinning those boiler bands make! I didn't expect that mod alone to make such a big difference! This has got all the makings of a very fine model, will be very interested to see how Morgan gets on with the wheels. Best Wishes Paul

Looks fantastic Dave! Have you done anything to the body yet? Some of Bachmann's lining can look a bit heavy at times but this looks spot on. Best Wishes Paul

Tim, Following up Combe Martin's response I can confirm that it is possible to portray set 244 using the Hornby coaches, but unfortunately to be completely correct you can only use 2 out of the 3 coaches you have purchased. The suitable coaches that you have obtained are R4304B and R4305B. R4304D is slightly different to your other coaches in that it represents a diagram with only 1 lav vent, whereas the 2 suitable coaches mentioned above have 2 lav vents. It's a minor difference so you may be able to live with it, alternatively you want to pick up another R4305A or R4305B to complete the set. It is noted that set 244 was originally a 4 coach set, I believe that this was reduced to a 3 coach set however I can't recall the date off the top of my head. Hope this helps Kind Regards Paul

I'm afraid not Adam, in fact it's taken a few steps backwards and looks more like its undergoing a heavy general overhaul than resembling a working locomotive! You are correct in that it has actually run, however I wasn't entirely happy with the way it performed with an intermittent tight spot making an unwanted apperance every so often. I also always wished I'd built it as a CSB rather than compensated chassis whic left me slightly dissatisfied. Having traced the intermittent fault to the front left hornblock that had a small amount of fore and aft movement, this ultimately gave me the impetus to strip the chassis back to its component parts, upgrade the chassis with new(ish) HL hornblocks and do away with the compensation beam and modify it for CSB. Mark Humphies has also very kindly milled the axles for me to accommodate pinning. Ultimately I'll end up with a chassis I'm much happier with, however there's the small matter of reassembly that needs to take place first! Apologies for the thread drift Simon, back to 4f's now I promise!

Thanks for posting Morgan, that's a really useful addition to the thread! Although I've had the privilege of seeing your 4f up close, albeit at an earlier stage, I hadn't quite realised the extent of the modifications you'd made to get this far! It's great to have some feedback from someone who's actually had some experience of this kit! Apart from the EM model described in MRJ, John Sheratt's P4 model, Pinkmouse's build to date and now Simon's model, I'm unaware of any other that have actually made it out of the box! (I don't feel my own attempt at starting the the inside valve gear quite merits joining this list just yet! ;-) ) John certainly had to do a lot of additional work to his model before he was happy with it, although I hadn't got as far as asking him for a list of his modifications. Having read the above I like the idea of all the modification's that you've undertaken on your model and would certainly like to adopt all of your suggestions into my pair which are hibernating in their boxes, although I've got no grand delusions of either of them making any kind of appearance anytime soon! As you well know I've got a Jinty that needs to make a reappearance first!! ;-) Talking of which, one area of the kit which stands out to me is the slight tubby'ness of the BM rods in the kit. Having built a pair of the BM and High Level rods I was particularly impressed by the latter. I'm sure this is nothing that a good file and a careful hand can't correct, but well worth the effort IMHO. Alternatively the new rods from Dave Franks may be worth considering, although I've got no experience of these so wouldn't be able to provide any practical advice on these! Keep up the good work Simon, following this with interest! Best Wishes Paul

Blimey Andrew, I wasn't expecting to see that much progress (not quite glacial in my book!). Looking good though with the broad gauge origins plain to see, even at this stage. Looking forward to seeing it (as Tim says) in the flesh. Paul

This webpage is useful for information of 2P's on the Highbridge Branch. http://www.newman-family-tree.net/s&d/index.html#anchor25750 It includes a picture of 3 2P's at Highbridge works in circa 1956 (you will need to scroll almost to the bottom, or click on the 4-4-0's link) and states that he recalled seeing 40601 more regularly than the others.

Crikey Pix, we leave you alone for a year without tempting you with a corrupting beer tour and you do wonders in the modelling department!! The not so blue any longer Pullman looks fantastic, really like those cov hops too! Best wishes fella, happy 2015!

My word John, Worseter's coming on a treat!! Happy New Year to you and the family! Best Wishes Paul

Cracking set of pictures Andrew, I particularly like the first and last pics! Happy New Year to you too!

I do like the LLSR rolling stock, lovely looking looking loco's! From the photo's I assume this is one you originally built John? Looks very much like your handy work! Paul

Fantastic work John! Visiting RMWeb for the first time for quite a while and hadn't realised that you'd been beavering away on Worseter! With regards to the wall I'd be tempted to avoid painting it black as its part of the view and could look like a black silhouette in an otherwise very believable scene. With regards to colour i'd assume whitewashed (or similar light colour) brick would be a good bet, grubby as you suggest (but predominantly white) perhaps with some of the brick colour showing through in places. I assume the gasworks is still operable in the scene? Otherwise you could model it as derelict without the roof with perhaps a bit of vegatation growing up the inside of the wall? Here's a couple of my pics from Swindon in recent years, before and after use as a railway restoration workshop which may help to picture what I'm suggesting. Best Wishes Paul

Very nice work as always Dave! Good to see this one making progress and a nice solution to cylinder join line. Paul

Good work Bryn! Looking good and you're still probably more productive than I've been recently!! :-) Paul

All the best with the grand plan Chris! I've got a soft spot for the IOW and have always liked the idea of modelling a branchline as appose to a station, what you've drawn up has a lot of promise! Cheers, Paul

Brave man tackling 4 Jinties all at the same time, I'm still struggling to complete just the one!! (Don't ask how long it's been work in progress! ) I'll be interested to see what you do with the bodies! I've not started modification of my Bachmann body yet, however these are the area's i've currently identified for improvement. From the Brassmasters detailing etch Replacement etched steps Replacement etched coal rails Etched buffer steps Etched tank top details Etched frame extensions All other etches are made surplus due to the High Level chassis Replacement chimney (although I'm not convinced on the shape of the BM casting, I'd consider a turned brass one if there is a suitable turning out there) Cast steam injectors Cast vac pipes Other modifications Probably the biggest issue to my eyes is the gap between the boiler and dome, this in my eyes could do with filling. However you need to be careful not to lose the flange of the dome. Ideally I'll replace the handrails too! The handrails along the boiler sit too far away from the cladding as do those on the front tanks. The moulded lubricator detail looks too small to me, where as the vacuum ejector looks too big. These will have to be replaced with scratchbuilt items. Representation of a slacker pipe and tablet catcher (these are dependent on your chosen prototype of course) I'm not quite convinced yet on this final item, but I'd quite like to remove the moulded glazing bars and replace these with wire. This would of course mean that the glazing would need to be replaced too. If you can think of anything else then please let me know, wouldn't want to miss something glaringly obvious once I've actually finished it (although this could be some time yet!!! ) Good luck with the build's Tim, look forward to the rest of the build, if only to try and motivate me to do a bit more on mine!! By the way, don't overlook the Wild Swan book, this is invaluable to anyone modelling a Jinty/3f no matter what scale! Cheers Paul

I'll put the date in the diary Tim!! I wasn't there at the start but it'll be an honor to be there at the end! Think I'll have to look away if the threat of the skip materializes! Got a few more years to enjoy it first though! :-) Ah York! Not sure if it was the same chap but there was someone quietly watching me operate the leverframe for at least 20 minutes, it then transpired that he was the chap who gave the signalling demonstrations at the NRM! Almost expected a score sheet at the end of the session with a bit of constructive criticism and feedback. :-) I dunno Jerry, I've heard that there's these trains in Spain (or was it Portugal) that slow down and change gauge whilst moving. Could be an interesting challenge for Tim!! ......Gauging over the viaduct could be interesting! :-D