Michael Edge

No worse than LNER three bar arrangement where the con. rod goes between the two lower bars. Very few designers of either kits or rtr locos pay much attention to where the various rods have to move.

Looks like shunting empties on to the North Gawber branch, they would be picked up by an NCB loco from here.

The whole bridge now checked for fit on the layout. From the inside of the layout, looking up Moorend Lane towards Silkstone Common, From the outside, needs packing up more here to get the girders on to the concrete pads. It's not easy to see how it fits here without dismantling the layout. From outside the shed - no more jokes about the window bars please. I'll paint and weather it all next, then take the board out to fit it in place.

You've done well rolling the boiler from .015" n/s, I use .010" brass for boilers, I find n/s doesn't roll nearly as well.

I can't remember, my notes just say K's kit supplied and RG4c motor/Markits wheels - I did take a fair bit of care with it though, partly to prove that a good model can be made from a K's kit. That wasn't always true though, I did see more than a few kits which had been produced with obviously worn out moulds.

Because too many potential customers are terrified of soldering - but we always tell them our kits can't really be glued together.

The Mauritius loco was mostly etched. I've built quite a few of the Backwoods NG Garratts, the NGG16 goes together well but the K1 has a few problems.

It's all K's above the frames so yes it is their riveted tender.

At the risk of making you feel any worse..... My customer is something of a Garratt enthusiast, this is the first one I built for him, also painted by Dave Studley - Mauritius Railways 2-8-8-2 in EM. He's got a couple of narrow gauge ones as well that I built from Backwoods kits. I will confess to being a Garratt enthusiast myself.

Some years ago I built this model of the Vivian's Garratt in EM from the Backwoods kit. Superbly painted by Dave Studley.

The roller bearing fitted 5MTs had to have the wheelbase lengthened to make room for the axleboxes, the longer wheelbase then became standard for all later ones.

The LNER built 8F tenders had disc wheels but they probably got swapped around quite a bit later.

I built up the test for the 7mm Stone-Faiveley pantograph yesterday. Here it is on the wooden block it's built on, with the 4mm version for comparison. It all went together with no real problems, just one part needs a small modification. The additional rod from the head is there, just obscured by the upper arm on this side - it doesn't actually work to keep the head level but it does have to be there. We are still waiting for the 4mm production etches to arrive, the 7mm version should be out early next year.

For the benefit of those outside South Yorkshire this is what real Barnsley chops look like. Last night's dinner - these are not small plates either. Chops from McQuillan's butchers, High Street, Royston.

That's a Hunslet 0-4-0DH, have you put the wrong photo in?