Michael Edge

It will, if you can't dismember the fret as you go try using a cutting disc at an angle from the back - if the tags are on this side as they usually are. Don't forget that you only want the parts, the rest of the fret is just scrap and can be chopped up as you go - most methods seem to be bent on preserving the fret as a piece of "brass lace" when the job is finished.

Yes, I've got those photos now but didn't have much when I started on this design.

I didn't know whether these were covered or not when I built the first one but since then it has become apparent that the part immediately in front of the cab is (at least in most of them) actually the trailing sandbox with a filler and operating rod on the top - no parts provided for these. The tanks are wider than the cab side sheets in the kit.

Different chimney on 46 as well, the more we look at these locos the more differences come to light! Thanks for finding the photos.

I wondered what that hole was for!

I've been using this steel sheet for 44 years now, never had any magnetic problems.

That cab side looks as if it has been gas axed off - and not very neatly either.

Phosphoric acid flux and keep the steel clean. The acid tends to produce a crusty layer on it which is why I mentioned that repeated cleaning up is required. The steel shim is very nice material to work with though, stays flat even ta these thicknesses and presses out into neat rivets.

41 looks as if it's been altered at some time - 45 was the same shape as the kit, also at least some built by Kitsons and Hudswell Clarke. There are lots of differences between all these locos and they were more or less continually altered over their lives, I doubt whether any two remained the same for very long.

Back to 7mm for work last week, this is progress on the Midland 2F Not much etched for this one, mostly sawn out of sheet in the old fashioned way. The only etched parts here are the cab front and window rims, the rest is steel shim, mostly .012", .010" for the footplate and .025" for the frames. The boiler is mostly .010" brass, much easier to roll. The space in front of the cab is a bit of a mystery to me - how far does it go down? I've put the bottom of it at the height of the splasher boxes inside the cab but I can't find any photos looking down into here. The beading on

It does show in the drawing if you look closely.

I thought when I wrote the instructions that it was obvious that the cab floor locates the back but maybe not... This kit is a bit unusual in not being a modular design but it originated in a commission to build one model and as such was designed with more of a view to my own construction.

I drill a big round hole and then cover it with paper before laying the track, easy to leave a slot in the paper and it's all covered by ballast later. You can get drills which are designed to cut sideways though.

Everything is there on the drawing somewhere and it's printed the same size as the parts - that's because it was created from the CAD drawing used to make the etch. Possibly but I would like to see some photographic evidence one way or the other.

The single ended ones I've got have very little end float, I can just get a worm on the shaft but the hardest job was getting the pinion off.