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Caley Jim

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Everything posted by Caley Jim

  1. I had one of these when I was 5!! More years ago than I care to remember. Jim
  2. Shocked to find it's over a year since I posted anything here, but truth is my time ahs been taken up with other projects. Some for other people and our group layout, but also the three 65ft coaches and now a loco to haul them. Just wanted to wish all those who have been so supportive and made so many appreciative comments over the years a Very Merry Christmas. I know you'll all be on Santa's Good List! Jim
  3. I have a talk I have given to several local clubs entitled 'What The Railways Did for Us' outlining how many things which we take for granted in modern society only came about because of the railways. E.g. GMT being adopted across the country , package tours, national football leagues. Jim
  4. "The best-laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley'' (To a mouse; Robert Burns). Sometimes because the schemes weren't as well laid as you thought! Such was the case with the outside frames for the tender bogies. These were designed to be in one piece with the stretcher running under, and bolted onto, the pcb spacer, keeping them electrically isolated from the frames carrying the wheels. What I omitted to account for was that they had to pass through the relatively narrow gap between the wheels. This meant the stretcher had to undergo a bit of surgery with a carbo disc, as can be seen in this photo with the underside of the completed front bogie on the left and the etch for the rear one on the right. The axleboxes have two prominent ribs on either side and this was the next idea that didn't quite work as intended. The plan was that the little half etched triangles on the etch would be folded out, with the etch including the axleboxes having fine slots in the axlebox back plates through which these would pass, thus both forming the ribs and locating the axlebox unit on the frames. Hmmm! Bending up the eight ribs to the same angle and passing them all through the slots simultaneously proved all but impossible! The previously non-existent plan B had then to be devised. This involved cutting away the triangles and using some of the longer half etched tags, with the end cut at an angle, passed through the side from behind. Two were used at first to locate the axlebox unit, and then the others added. This is the completed front bogie. The inner end stretchers on both bogies had to be cranked towards the bogie centres in order to keep them clear of the lower gear. The axlebox unit is a multilayer etch incorporating the axleboxes, the large inverted leaf spring between them, which was pivoted on the frame, and the compensating beam between their tops. This is the rear bogie (which also has guard irons on it). The axlebox unit layers are on the left, with the other unit fitted to the stretcher unit on the right. The little slots in the end stretchers are to locate the brake blocks. Here we have the tender with the front plates + cab doors and tool boxes added and sitting on its bogies. I suspect the cab doors will have to be angled out slightly to allow the loco to go round curves. The half etched areas on the bottom of the tender frames were put there as I was unsure how much clearance would be needed to allow the bogies to swing on curves without the compensating beams fouling the tender frames, however their short wheelbase and the close bogie centres mean that the tender will go round an 18" radius curve with hardly any swing of the bogies, so I may attempt to fill these in. I can now start on the loco body, however work on that can only go so far until Squires get 10mm thin walled brass tube, for the boiler, back in stock! ☹️ Jim
  5. Perth was another location where not only loco changing went on, CR or NBR to HR and vice-versa, but much remarshalling also took place. On 7th August 1888 the 07:00 ex Perth comprised 37 vehicles from 9 railway companies, 4 LB&SCR; 8 LNWR; 1 NER; 5 MR; 4 NBR; 1 ECJS; 1 GNR; 2 WCJS; 11 HR, including 12 horse boxes, 2 carriage trucks, 6 luggage vans, 1 ECJS sleeping car, 1 HR PO van & brake van. Jim
  6. Like the doo'cot. Keeping homing pigeons was very common in mining areas. Jim
  7. The drawing office at JW Works has yet to commence work on this project as all staff are currently fully occupied in the erecting shop. Thinking will hopefully commence soon! Jim (MD,CEO, & General Factotum)
  8. If it's this one to which you are referring, it's 2FS, not 00. Jim
  9. tender body coming along slowly. The openings in the footplate and tank top needed a wee bit of fettling to clear the motor etc, but otherwise most bits fitted rather well. This side has the 'temporary' coupling rod. the extra weight is keeping the tender a bit steadier, but there is a slight stiff spot which causes it to wobble slightly. I think that's in the gears somewhere and will hopefully 'run out' once it gets a bit of lubrication. It's already been run with some toothpaste to polish the gears. Front plates/cab doors and toolboxes next, then I'll start on the bogie outside frames. Jim
  10. Yes, indeed. The CR had some early similar asymmetrical ones with a raised centre section. Jim
  11. that's got mair pipes and tubes than a plumber's van! Jim
  12. Hi Adam. It's just that I have a'thing'about not wanting to have a drive shaft flailing about between the low tender and relatively open cab of my tender locos. I've no objection to other folk doing it, that's their choice. It does make things a bit more complicated with the extra gears on the tender and the need for a lay gear in the loco, but for me it's worth it to get the drive shaft out of sight. Purely a personal thing and not something I would necessarily encourage folk to do unless they are similarly minded. Jim
  13. My daughter is working in a University post where she was dealing with postgraduate students, almost all from overseas. It was their fees that are paying her salary! If the number of overseas students is reduced then the Universities are going to suffer financially. Forgive me if I'm missing a point here, but I cannot get my head round the logic that the threat of shipping immigrants off to Rwanda is somehow or other going to stop the illegal gangs taking oodles of money from them and dispatching them from the beaches of France! Why aren't the French getting on top of the gangs? I'll tell you why, they're only too happy to see the back of the poor souls and don't give a sou what happens to them after they are out of their hair! Jim
  14. If it's Zinc, it should be possible to solder it. Jim
  15. At least we don't have someone standing for election who thinks Al Capone 'was the greatest' (it takes one to know one) and says he will only act as a dictator on the first day of his presidency! that will probably involve making himself President for life and abolishing all opposition parties! Small comfort. Jim
  16. Another addition would be to drill a pair of holes vertically into both parts, from the underside, and fit a couple of wire staples in them, spanning the joint, to not only reinforce the joint, but also hold the parts together firmly while the Araldite suggested by @WFPettigrew sets. That would be the most secure way of doing that. Getting the staples the correct size between the legs will be the trickiest part and may need a few goes to get them right. Jim
  17. After removing the sacrificial tabs etc., adding the springs carrying current from loco frames to tender and masking off the gearbox with tape, the chassis was given a quick blast with rattle can black. The wheels were then fitted along with the gears. At this point there was one of those 'b****r it!' moments when I found I only had a set of layers for one coupling rod when I was absolutely certain I had put two on the sheet! Close examination of the artwork showed that I hadn't put any tags on the second set attaching it to the parts around it so there was a glaring hole in the sheet where that set should have been! See this C-Nile virus? Does it never stop raising it's ugly head? Guess what will be going on the next sheet I do! Only solution in the short term was to use the made up rod as template to make a temporary one and, while it's not as neat as the etched one and not fluted, it seems to do the job as the wheels turn in unison when powered. The photo has the good one on this side. The crankpins on the other side have been left long to make it easier to eventually replace the rod. Running is somewhat erratic as the lack of weight causes both chassis to shake about a bit resulting in poor current collection, so no video of it, but if the tender is held steady, the wheels turn reasonably smoothly. Hopefully the weight of the tender and loco bodies will cure that. You can just see the drive shaft running behind the spring. I won't be making the front bogie until the loco body is well on the way as the body fixing screw will only be accessible with the bogie off. Jim
  18. It's what I've always used. Watered down to the consistency of thick cream and applied with a soft No.6 artist's paintbrush. Jim
  19. Sorry, Mike. I should have been paying attention😒! Jim
  20. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, Mike, and I can't make out what you've done from the photos, but the side cupboard doors were usually double skinned, with one layer of planks vertical and the other horizontal, which layer was which depended on the builder, e.g. the CR built them with the outer layer horizontal, but private builder often had that layer vertical. Jim
  21. Mike Williams has replied stating that he and Ed McKenna, who have been researching traders wagons, have nothing to add. In that case I would go with red oxide, black ironwork and white lettering. Whether you shade it or not is your choice. If anyone comes along and says you are wrong, the appropriate response is, as always, 'prove it'! Jim
  22. I have a few of them! There's another five where they came from!🙂 (And a few more to build) Jim
  23. Following some advice from @AY Mod, I've rescanned the photo as a .png and been able to upload that. Jim
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