D.Platt

Or maybe to give others a warning , I’ve looked on this post this last week or so , but today click onto page 2 and there was modelmasters . Also I’m not logging on as much theses days as even as I write this the adverts are in the way !

I placed an order on the 31st of March , a sale price because of a stock check ! One month on and nothing , on the website it ask not to email but to phone , goes straight to answer, but you can’t leave any message because it’s full , emails don’t go though! I know he could be ill or have other problems , but reading this post it’s been going on for months , so why the stock taking sale .

What’s happening, I’ve found this last few weeks but especially tonight that the advertising is really becoming annoying and distracting from reading the forum , so much so that I found this article, and this has been an issue for the last year, is this deliberate to make readers become gold members?

Morning All Sorry to go off subject here , a few months back I mentioned that I was building a K’s Jubilee, and that I had won an eBay bid for another K’s Jubilee kit , but when I came to unpack it I discovered that the firebox had the same hand castings (still on its vacuum packed card ) Somebody on here suggested calling Dave Ellis and last week after seeing the advert for nu-cast I sent them an email asking for a miracle, and a prompt reply came back and a miracle happened, I phoned him had a lovely conversation and yesterday the missing casting arrived. Dave told me they have no plans to produce a Jubilee, but they do have castings from a lot of the old nu -cast /K’s kits so for me a little miracle happened, and obviously for anyone building old kits don’t give up if you need a part . Now can I ask for some more help with the Jubilee , I have my brothers K’s Jubilee and typically when you start building one you notice differences , so on the long firebox Jubilee there is a mud cover /washout plug on the top radius of the firebox, my brother had drilled and fitted a brass representative of this , and here’s where I need help , does anybody have any idea who’s casting it could be ? I talked to our friend at Markits and it’s not one his . Hope someone can point me in the right direction again. Dennis

Bit surprised the way that you have mounted the flat can motor , I always have the flat in line with the frame . Also recommend the high level boxes , they take me about 30 minutes to put together , and a good customer service. Dennis

Agreed much better angle of photo , I knew that there must be some good photos of the preserved locos , can’t argue with the real thing .

Not sure about the vee looking at my photos , looks more like the Hornby version. Dennis

Thanks for the photo , I’ve been looking for a large flat can motor , onto eBay fingers crossed

Mabuchi motor , not come across this one , any information on it regarding size and source ?

Morning All Looking at the Black 5 and the aws , where was the battery box on them , and the Jubilees ? Anybody know . Dennis

Afternoon Tony I sold a Portescap motor that I had , it had been sat in my draw for years , never liked the whining noise, anyway it fetched £85 not a bad return on something I never would use . So if I had wanted one of the locos you were selling, yes sell the Portescap , but replace with a high level gearbox , not throw the rest away , I know you said it jest ! l liked the WD that you kept , if you remember a few weeks back I converted one to the Doncaster version, you really should have one on your layout . Dennie

Morning Tony Reading the above you appear to contradict yourself with the value of “named “ builders , for me like yourself good running is more important than looks. I have mentioned this before , I have an old friend who you could call a cheque book modeller , because my brother was to busy to build a loco for him he bought a lot of locos from a guy /stand at York or from his north east shop , a lot of money to me and all required attention from me or my brother to get them to run. I sold a lot of these locos later on along with my brothers on EBay , locos that had cost up to £400 I was lucky to recover £150 , I also sold a lot of my brothers for my nephew, his locos ran like sewing machines , again they went for similar prices , the odd one out was a 47xx which raised £400, what would that raise now with a RTR version available ? Bit like loco nameplates , if you bought these items as a long term investment well , I think their value peaked a few years back , and like our collections it’s all down hill in their valuations , I’am not bothered with that , I’ve had my money’s worth out of them with the pleasure gained from building them and running them . Dennis

Afternoon All I have had an old Keyser Jubilee body only kit , well on forty years (cost £28 ) , recently I bought another one off eBay , a complete kit for sixty pounds , well I thought I would build the two as my LMR loco fleet needs adding to. After building the chassis’s (Comet ) and getting the footplate fixed nice and square I looked at the rest of the body parts , well the one I have just bought, an original Ks kit , with parts on the card held in place with that hard to remove vacuum seal , I’ve encountered a big problem, the firebox castings are the same hand !! The body only pack has the two correct castings , so do I now only get to finish one kit ? I don’t think the new owners of the nu-cast range which took over the Ks range will ever do the Jubilee, so has anybody any ideas on how to make a replacement firebox ? Dennis

Thanks for the update Chris , I have three chassis’s built and awaiting your gearboxes. On another note have you managed to find any suitable replacement for the 1628 flat can motors? Dennis

Is there any update as to when things are going to be up and running again ?

Chas I have no pictures, but if you can imagine a large cast iron thread say 1/2 inch thick , the turned lead at the start of the thread starts off like a knife edge , so you removed the first few inches until you had nearly a full thread, this was to help stop any weak material from breaking away and seizing up the moving parts. The brass worms on the gearboxes would have been 3inch or so in diameter,but that knife edge at the start of the thread was removed to stop it being damaged, with our small sized worms you can just remove a small amount with a needle file , and that’s what he had to do to repair the damage worm . Hope I’ve managed to explain it to you. Dennis

Hi, My method is to solder a small piece of brass off cut , a little way above the top shaft , and this covering both shafts and do this on both sides , the shafts have to be just a little longer than the gearbox width so that it fits between the frames, this is in “00” if your doing EM it’s not as critical. Dennis

Morning All , Interesting debate regarding the gearboxes, looking at the very good photos that LNER 4479 put into the discussion may I offer a few points. I have only come across the high level gearbox this last year and now have five locos running with them , so yes very pleased with the results, I know LNER4479 made it without any instructions , so a couple of points in the instructions include 1) the fitting of the remote attachment onto the pips on the front of the box (temporarily) this helps with checking the squareness. 2) Running the piece of 1mm wire across the frame. I also with a larger drill put a chamfer where the shoulder of the axle bush is going , this helps the bush to sit square before soldering. After always cutting the ldler shafts with a cutting disc , I found on the last one that I just used a junior hacksaw, maybe they have changed it to mild steel! I open up the worm till it slides onto the motor shaft and loctite it into position, and talking of worms when I was in engineering it was practice to chisel the start of the thread until the full thickness of the thread was attained. The only problem I have now is unavailability of the high level gearboxes, I did look at the djh website this week, and have decided to wait a little longer till Chris is up and running. Dennis

Having a quick look on the link I found a photo of my late brother with his best mate Raymond stood in front of the cab of 05001 , with John Wade in front of them. And an answer to my own question, it’s Allan Fawcett leader of the scouts that I remember, from Barnoldswick .

A little late finding this thread, I joined the NCTS in 1978 , was Dave from Barnoldswick ? working for Rolls Royce if I remember correctly, the other main lad was John Wade , happy days ,when we joined the coach off the M66 at Bury the first thought was “is this coach going to complete the journey “ which for the 1979 Grand Scottish tour it didn’t. Lots of memories of creeping round places like Hoo Junction in the middle of the night , and the daftest was crossing the four tracks trying to bunk Gateshead from the rear of the depot. My brother George sadly passed away years ago but Raymond Smith is still going strong, the three of us were usually together. I will now read the links to the NCTS

I had the sad job of selling off my brothers models , I sold them on eBay , first my sister in law who would only sell the unmade kits ,then I sold the kit built locos for my nephew , who I’am sorry to say rubbed his hands together with the thought of the value , I had to tell him what his father had told him in the past no longer applied as most of these kits were now available in RTR ! The only one that attracted a good price was a 47xx which two bidders wanted , but that wouldn’t be the case now with the RTR version available. So regarding my collection, I enjoy what I have , when I’am gone well que-sera- sera .

Sorry I’am a 1mm out, but this is for valve gear rivets not axles.

I don’t know if your still looking for these pins, These were from Eileen’s Stall , make sure they are brass lace pins, a good haberdashery shop should also have them, mine are about an inch long.

Tony I see you are building a DJH A3 ,will you be going though it’s build ? I have two to build in the near future so any tips on things to avoid would be welcome. Dennis

Morning Tony Ebay is like any auction house you need two or three people bidding for any item , it’s like watching certain tv programs the experts can give a valuation but on the wrong day /crowd and items can sell at bargain prices. I think in the past you have listed kits and invited offers ? with the number of viewing you attract on here give it a month for offers , obviously only if this is allowed on this website. Dennis