Michael Edge

Separate rods were just following LNW practice, jointed rods on the 0-8-0s came later, the originals were overlapped on the crankpins. This is much more common than is generally realised, if the model din't work it was for some other reason, not the separate rods.

Just making the etches (preferably with a drawing but not essential) available would be good enough - we do very well out of this sort of offering although we do supply detailed drawings with them.

It's difficult enough doing two sets of Stephenson gear between the frames in 00 (I did it with a Finney kit despite hearing Martin telling another customer that it was impossible...) but three sets and a crankshaft - I wouldn't even think about it!

My 94xx used the Lima cab/boiler/tanks with the rest scratchbuilt. Seen here on a visit to Liverpool for its photo.

This was seriously suggested in Sheffield when the new tram system was being planned - dig up West Street and use the existing buried track. The trams do run there now but this suggestion was not taken up....

I did a pattern for a resin moulded 37 for Maurice Pilsworth about 30 years ago - no idea what happened to this but I still have the cab pattern here. I used to make one cab, mould it and add then to the body. Others included LMS 10000, class 56 and Deltic.

Looks fine to me, glad you didn't have too much difficulty building it.

Is that one of our pantographs? Looks good anyway.

Its not really practical to include wheels in 4mm kits because of different preferences and gauge/wheel standards. We do supply wheels in a few kits but these are only wagon/coach wheels for chain drive locos - even these have to be for 00/EM or P4. 7mm is different, Slater’s wheels are all but universal now - although again there would have be an S7 option.

There's another sad stage after that - the buyer passes the kit on to a professional builder (me) who then has the frustration of finding that it's not complete. Happens all the time.

Fulgurex produced Castles and Kings, they were reasonably accurate although from memory the firebox shape wasn't quite right. They ran reasonably well by the standards of the time but might not seem so now. The small Prairies were by a Korean firm, they also produced 57xx Panniers. These did run very well they had very nice cast brass wheels and can motors, I still have three of these and another Prairie which I intended to convert to a 44xx. Seen here on Heculaneum Dock, I painted 5517 and it was expertly weathered by the late Paul Fletcher. One of the Panniers, also seen posing in Liverpool.

Nice to see my drawing on there - pity we only sold one of the kits to Italy, after they asked us to produce it in HO scale. We have sold a few in other places but it hasn't been a big seller - it's still in production though.

There were etched sides from Perseverance which I used for one of mine - but they didn't quite match the Hornby body, being a little too short...

I was tempted (and gave in!) by this last month. It's a Grünberg S20, very nice road/gravel electric bike, still needed mudguards when this photo was taken. It rides really well without power on levellish routes and flies up the steepest hills - and there are plenty of those around Barnsley. Riding it like this the battery is good for about 70 miles from a full charge, the biggest snag with it (being a European bike) was that I found the brakes are the wrong way round - front brake on the left. I'll just get used to it for now, I don't want to disturb the handlebar tape yet. After spending most of my life with only one bike I now have three, this one, my Orbit tourer which has done about 28000 miles now and the venerable Claud Butler which I've been riding since 1963.

Of course they are but they will wait until there are more of them on the roads.

The side window cab version uses our (Judith Edge) kit to modify the Hornby model, there is one running on Shap which is probably the one you remember. We also do aa etch overlay just for the rivets on the tank sides. The original Hornby model was quite accurate.

And the buffers…..

Not really, the signals will tell you if you have set the right road and links - the layout still operates in the same way.

All the signals are now working and interlocked with points and link switches. S1 69901 runs from the down main to the loop, when points are set this way the ground signal comes off, if the points (and points 17 further on) are set to the running line the main arm will come off. Moving on 69901 is heading for the ashpit siding so the lower of the two miniature arms comes off, the top one is for the pit branch. The much criticised Eckon signal turned out not to have a working yellow aspect so it was junked and replaced with this Berko one which looks much more correct. This distant signal is worked by a microswitch on the servo of the up home, when that is cleared the signal goes green. Home and starter signals can only be cleared when the links to the fiddle yard are on so the driver there will know whether to drive through or not. After much deliberation and argument Strafford crossing is going to be built more or less identical to Kendall Green with a small cabin and single gates.

Round tube doesn't solder very reliably on to flat sleepers, that's why I used square tube. Location and electrical connection are both completely reliable with this.

I used square brass tube for mine but they have actual track on them, not the aluminium angle. Two sizes of telescopic tube soldered to the sleeper ends (that's why I used square tube), big one at one side of the track, small one at the other side. We used these for years on Herculaneum Dock before i built the current fiddle yard for it, I still have e few in store somewhere for Cwmafon if it ever comes out of hibernation.

When I designed Cwmafon’s marshalling yard I didn’t go into any of this theory, I just set up some track on a slope and let wagons roll down it. I then had to mark all the free rolling ones with a white brake lever handle - in those days not all my stock had pin point bearings. The slope is relatively steep at first, then flattens out to level at the bottom and can work remarkably well if the shunter lets go at the right speed. Another snag appeared at this point - since the layout has very little level track anywhere I had to give the brake vans deliberately stiff running wheels to prevent everything running away.

I was referring to layouts where the shunting is done at well below walking pace, "flat out" for a 350 is only 20mph and it won't get there immediately. When diesels took over from steam for shunting the universal complaint was that they were too slow.

I did exhibit Cwmafon at a great many exhibitions with a working gravity yard between 1983 and 2007. The layout is in store now but it really did work even if a little fast at times. This isn’t a hump yard but a continuous (variable) gradient, the well known “gridiron” yard at Edge Hill was the inspiration for this.

Another way of doing this is to mask the lower part and spray primer fairly thickly on the upper part, followed by black. When the masking tape is removed there will be a clearly visible step there. I used this technique years ago with some scratchbuilt SR 6 Pan and 6 Pul units which had a marked step out around the windows. I did warn the customer never to have the paint stripped off them. I think these sets have probably been sold on now but I don’t know where to.