Michael Edge

First test etch of the Stone Faiveley single arm pantograph built today. Four lengths of .45mm n/s wire inserted into a block of wood first, then insulator etches threaded on and soldered. The frame is built up from two etches to start with - nearer side. An overlay connects these two together - seen on the far side, the triangular bracket connects the two and forms the pivot for the parallel arm. The finished pan removed from the block, quite a few issues here but it does work. The brass tube was cut a bit short, this fits over a T shaped etch to form the lower arm. The upper arms in full size are fitted in a casting, this is fabricated from etched components in the model, the arms themselves are n/s wire. Two springs (half the length of the ones we use for other pans) lift the pan against the wire. There should be another linkage to keep the pan head horizontal but I think this might be too fine and difficult to fit so it will rely on pressure under the wire to keep the head horizontal. For once I have a loco to fit this to, E3005 was built from a Triang AL1 many years ago for our aborted Hartford Junction layout and fitted with modified Sommerfeldt pans. The difference is quite striking. I'll have this with me at Warley at the weekend along with lots of other projects on my demo stand A76. This covers design and building of etched kits, come along to have a look or discuss techniques, feel free to bring along any kit building project of your own (anybody's kit - not just ours). Some more work to do on the 4mm Stanier 3P tomorrow now that the 7mm one is out of the way.

I finished the EF1 yesterday. Pantographs are fun to build on this one, instead of just being assembled on insulators in the roof they are built up on channels which extend out over the cab ends. These are built up on the roof with two side rails, the ends carry insulators and yokes to the pantograph rails. The photo shows how these are built up in the kit, the yoke is a fold up and the insulators are etched layers which look very convincing when painted. Ideally the portion of the rail between the yoke and insulator could be cut out to leave a gap here but I can't find an easy way to do this. The lower pantograph arms pivot on cross wires with a flat etch soldered to the middle. The upward arm of this will carry the spring end, the lower arm hits the roof to restrict upward movement. The pan heads are etched and the upper arms are made from wire. The kit instructions include a paper pattern jig to set up the diagonal bracing. The wire are threaded through the etched parts and flattened at the ends to retain them. View from above with both pans fitted and a representation of the external wiring. These pantographs are really big! The completed loco from underneath, the connecting wires fit neatly through the holes in the drag beams where the connecting link would be fitted - these are Bo+Bo, not Bo-Bo locos. There is very little clearance between the drag beam ends and the cab steps which allows very little bogie swing. As set up here the loco will easily go round 28" radius but for anything tighter the drag beam ends will have to be shortened. i'm not painting this one just yet so in time honoured fashion, here's one I made earlier. Kit development work for the rest of this week before setting off to Warley on Friday afternoon so any updates will be in the Judith Edge kits thread.

The limousine cab looks good, I've still got to do one of these for myself but the etches go out as fast as we get them.

The V4 isn't available at the moment, we are doing some revisions and a new production etch. Michael Edge Judith Edge kits

We did get into Crewe North once or twice but it was difficult and I think we got thrown out part way round anyway.

A 10ft space is needed for signal posts as well.

Don't forget these Jubilees are from the late 1970s, they looked very good at the time. There were also some 5MTs and at least one 8F, all using the same tender.

You will need to supply motor/gearbox, wheels and buffers for this kit (and certainly not paint!) - the parts list tells you what is needed/recommended. You do need to solder the parts together, no special tools are required but please note that this kit requires some components (boiler and tank wrapper) to be rolled. Ideally this is done with rolling bars but can be done by hand. If you are a complete novice this kit is definitely not one of our easiest to build. I do try to make them as easy to build as I can but the design of each locomotive type can and does throw up all sorts of problems.

It depends on several factors, the width over the frames, the thickness of the top hat bush and how much sideplay you need. Top outwards is easiest if that meets the other criteria but I fit them top inwards if they have to be filed down to get enough clearance for the wheels. No technical reason either way, just quicker to file where the bushes are thinner.

Only one set on order at the moment, we might have it next week in which case I'll bring it to Warley. I'll be doing the demo on stand A76, I can bring kits to order but only if they are paid for in advance.

This isn't a kit, it's mostly cut from sheet although some of the parts were etched. Most of the unique tender will be etched. The compounds didn't have the reach rod recessed into the boiler cladding. Is the Jubilee one of the gold plated ones? I have no. 063 somewhere, never could decide what to do with it - it's an accurate and well detailed model but the wheels/motor etc. are rather poor by model standards and I think Larry Goddard said they were pig to paint.

Most trains on Carlisle keep running in the same direction but we have two return loops to turn them round if required. There were supposed to be three, one each for up and down main and one for the Maryport & Carlisle but the up main one was left out when we added Garsdale. The remaining down loop can hold about 5 or 6 trains, the M&C loop is accessed via the goods avoiding lines outside the station. These loops are extremely easy to operate, mostly they hold one train each (sometimes two shorter ones) and are set with one switch changing points at each end. Goods trains use a separate similar arrangement at the side of the main line loops. This is the whole layout diagram, down return loop is in red at the left, the up one would have gone in a similar configuration where Garsdale is now. The goods loops in green at the bottom of the plan, M&C loops top left (these are actually under Upperby). All sorts of additional storage has been added in various places to accommodate more and more stock including separate loops to enable the Hawes branch to operate. One thing I insisted on in the storage sidings was occasional crossovers between up and down to facilitate stock transfers - something we didn't put in Chapel en le Frith's fiddle yard but which would have been very useful.

The tender front would probably be blue, the red painted fittings seem to be proliferating all over preserved locos but I have a suspicion that this is spreading from model painting rather than historical accuracy.

The 7mm version is a one-off at the moment but it has thrown up a large number of errors and corrections for the 4mm version which is a priority for production. The 7mm one is spread across more than one sheet so not really possible to run it again in its present form.

The NER electrics are quite straightforward, no difficult forming needed but the pantographs on this one are a bit more complicated - see next week's instalments.