AJCT

Great... many thanks ! Alasdair

What diameter of brass tube did you use and where did you obtain it ? I have several old Airfix vans to complete.... Alasdair

Following this with much interest as I have a Mk.1 dia.17 RF under construction, using Comet sides on an old Mainline RB bodyshell. I suspect the Mainline RB roof profile isn't quite right but I got the body years ago as a spare for just such a project.... Alasdair

The Black 5 is also in reverse gear, so that would clinch it. Alasdair

Wouldn't disagree with any of that. But I'm unlikely to build much more than a dozen loco chasses at most... if I get that far... and early results with the Poppy jig have been encouraging. Alasdair

Further to my post of July 16th... I have under construction an LNER J38 in P4 from a SE Finecast kit. Some-one was asking about hornblocks, and this is what I've done. The first pic shows the chassis in the Poppy jig with brass bearings in the frame axleholes provided, secured with drops of superglue, to get the frames assembled square before adding complications like springing. Next 2 pics show the chassis before and after cutting out the hornblock spaces (Dremel/disc-cutter, piercing saw), and finally the chassis re-inserted in the jig to enable the Kean-Maygib units to be added. The

This is my preferred MO - pickups on the tender only. I have four 0-6-0s which work this way: LNER (ex-NBR) J35, J36 and 2 J37s, with an LNER J38 under construction. Ideally there should be pickups on all wheels, but at least my method reduces the amount of clutter under the loco when you allow for brake- and sanding gear. This is the J38 tender: the pickups are just cobbled together with bits of PCB strip, copper and brass wire, with scraps of plasticard for insulation. Connection to the loco is by 2-pin plug and socket - I've used the Comet Models ones, but others are available - see the

Don't forget the extra steps and handrails provided to enable access to the tender top for taking water and redistributing coal - seen here on 65345 on 27 Aug 1966 at Smeaton with the Railway Society of Scotland "J36 Railtour". HTH. Alasdair

Nice work. Can you provide a link to the Amazon connectors you mention ? The Comet ones are £2.50 each ! Regards - Alasdair

You're welcome... building up the cab roofs as I did means they end up level rather than sloped down towards the front windows as they should be, but it's not very noticeable. The air horns (Craftsman castings, I think) then sit on the original roof level in the slots cut in the roof buildup... if you follow me. This pic may help - https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/57/108/ As I said, it was a bit rough-and-ready and trial-and-error but I think it catches the character of the class anyway, and it was all done long before the availability of the Bachmann version. Cheers -

Here's mine: a 2nd-hand Triang-Hornby body on a rather battered 2nd-hand Lima 37 chassis, tarted up and rewheeled to P4 circa 1988. I used the Lima chassis for the better bogie frames as I disliked the use of the T-H Brush Type 2 ones. I always felt that both the T-H and Lima bodies weren't deep enough, which was presumably to allow clearance for bogie swing on train-set curves: I suspect the Lima one was "compressed" upwards while the T-H one was merely a bit "sawn-off" at the bottom edge. So this loco was a bit of an experiment to see what improvements I could make: I added a strip of pla

Meanwhile, back with the Prestwins... here are my 4 at the head of an Up Millerhill-Kingmoor freight descending the 1 in 75 towards Newton Duns. There are 2 Dapol and 2 original Airfix, one of which was rescued in damaged condition and rebuilt with spare parts supplied by Dapol. I've got some MSE brass signal ladder to replace the plastic ones - another "lockdown" job I've not quite got round to.... Prestwins (and Presflos - I've got 2 to build) seemed to feature in Waverley Route feights in the 1960s but, despite asking the question on a couple of fora, I haven't so far elicited

I have a suspicion that with the advent of the first LM Region 25kv electrification scheme (was that Liverpool - Manchester?), there came an edict that all LMR-alllocated locomotives were to have flashes applied. That included the 4 Carlisle (Canal) A3 Pacifics, which seemed to acquire them C.1961/62 - a long time before the WCML electrification reached Carlisle. But perhaps some-one more knowledgeable than me can confirm ? Alasdair

Hi Martyn - You're welcome. It's quite a long time ago now and I can't recall my MO with D20's noses - probably just my usual "bodgit and fudgit" approach - but I've just had a look inside the noses and it looks like the packing to increase the height was 40thou. I can't see any packing under the windscreen (ie to take up the width of the saw-cut) so maybe I just used a lot of plastic cement like Britfix and filed it all smooth when it had set hard ! Sorry if that's not very helpful.... Cheers - Alasdair

Here's a pic of my two: D20 on the right (Mainline body) has the modified nose and the bogie-mounted buffer-beams (temporarily borrowed from a Lima Class 40... don't ask...), compared with unmodified D167. D20 also has split headcode boxes - a set of etched ones I got many years ago so can't recall who made them. HTH - Alasdair