Peppercorn

Well you couldn't accuse me of fast working. The trouble is I have a number of other things I want to do, for example, painting and learning the baritone sax, both of which are time sinks. However, I have made up the cylinders and their spacers together with slide bar - 1mm square section. Next is to make the crossheads, for which I have an idea, but this has to await the end of the forthcoming Christmas break. And speaking of which, Merry Christmas, all!

I was glad to see that others have found lead-free solder useless - I thought, as usual, it was just me!

This is somewhat esoteric, but as we move further away from the steam era, a lot of knowledge fades. I was wondering if anybody knew where the number of spokes in locomotive driving wheels originated: I'm aware that different locomotive designers and the companies for they worked used their own design of wheel latterly based on whatever master they had in their casting shop or in line with company policy. However, was there a ratio of, for example, number of spokes: wheel diameter or number of spokes: wheel circumference? Cliff

Hello, Blandford: have you made further progress on this? CliffH

Corbs: brilliant stuff, and unusual! Thanks for posting!

Some time ago, I recall an article by Bob Alderman in the Gauge 0 Guild Gazette in which the writer 'road tested' two types of cleaner for just this purpose. One was called 'Viakal' but I can't remember the name of the other one. Age... I'll seek it out in my somewhat chaotic filing system and let you know in due course. In the meantime here's a photograph of a scrap of tarnished brass before the application of Viakal and a second that had Viakal applied for five minutes. I hope this is of some use.

Not only do I bow to your superior knowledge, but the back of my photo says: "Fairburn 4MT at Glasgow Central between 20-7-66 and 27-7-66" I don't know why I didn't look first...

Another not very good photo but one which, I think, shows how things were in those now far-off days when there was still steam around. And also in the case of the station - Glasgow Buchanan Street. This is Fairburn 2-6-4T and is a scan from a 10 cm x 15 cm B & W photo that has worn somewhat: if - hopefully when - the negative pops up, I'll re-scan. I took this one in summer of 1966, which was a very fine summer, and unbeknownst to me, the station was closed soon afterwards, in November 1966. Beeching apparently. Again.

V2 at Oxley, October '65. This surprised me as I wasn't expecting to see one of my favourite LNER engines here. I took it with, I think, a Yashica J and the film was Ilford 125 ASA.

Sorry, Blandford and others: I didn't realise that the photo didn't appear - error 404, whatever that is. I'll try again

Not the best photo - mine aren't - but I think this shot that I took in August 1966 shows the steam engine at work quite well. How I wish I'd understood the importance of shutter speed etc. I've felt forced to write on it 'copyright' as two of my photos have been nicked - one from here, the other from a F/B page - without so much as a by-your-leave but accompanied by a good deal of belligerence - as if it's quite OK to steal something and the owner no right to query it. Sorry about the rant.

Rnb Simon mentioned Simon Boulton's book - I, too, have found them useful and interesting. I'd also add "Locomotive Modelling from Scratch and Etched Kits" Volumes 1 & 2 by Geoff Holt. I know that books aren't internet resources, but these books (and a couple of others) will tell you everything you need

Hello, Asterix - no, no further progress on this. I stalled over the crosshead. However, I've just got a price list from 'Branchlines' and see that they do single bar type, so I'm ordering some. They'll be for another locomotive, but might fit the bill. - Oh, I forgot that I was going to try some square section tubing.... I've been tracklaying and doing a couple of other projects including trying to accurately bend up sheet metal - nickel silver, actually - for a J1 that I've wanted to build. This has involved me in making a jog (now on mark 2) and torturing lots of rectangles of said nickel silver until I get it right. I attach a photo of mk 2 jig.

This is mark 1 of the little bending jig. Both upper and lower parts are of 2mm thick aluminium, which is good since the step height of the raised portion of the footplate is about 2mm. The outer edge of the lower part of the jig has a rounded edge whilst the upper part likewise has a rounded edge but is set back. The idea is that the footplate blank is sandwiched between the upper and lower jaws(?) and a round rod of about 13mm (which was to hand) used to curve the footplate. The first picture shows it in use, but with a piece of rail intended for valancing in it. The second and third photos shows what I'm trying to achieve, part of a drawing and part of a works photo. The radii both upper and lower are 7.33mm (give-or-take the thickness of the footplate, 0.25mm) The fourth shows a footplate blank duly folded whilst the fifth shows a number of test trials of valancing using the same jig. I think that I should be using different radii for the curves on the valancing (7.58mm and 5.33mm) but we'll see how really necessary that is. The little piece of brass shown in photo 1 is the allow for the thickness of the footplate. In practice, the upper bend in the resulting footplate seems a little sharper than I'd want so I need to devise a way of making it gentler, although in this scale (4mm:ft) as long as it isn't actually sharp, it shouldn't show. However, the curve in the prototype photo is quite gentle - the working drawing radii scale out at 7.33 mm. My main problem, though, is with the valances - not the radii, but getting the raised section the same length to match that of the raised section of the footplate. So, on to mark 2 of the jig...

Nicktoix - please my apologies for not having responded sooner than this. I have made a jig, but am not totally happy with the results from using it, but will carry on modifying it - the jig - to see if I can make it work.