NCB

Devil's Bridge shots. First No. 8, on 29/3/2013 Then Palmerston, on a visit from the Festiniog, on 21/9/2014, celebrating 100 years since she was last loaned to the VoR. Notice the new raised platform in the 2014 shots.

Another tiny bit of progress. I don't like cast handles on smokebox doors, so replaced them on the casting I had lined up: I carved off the originals using a sharp Stanley knife blade, then drilled a 0.4mm diameter hole. The handles were formed from a bit of 0.4mm nickel silver wire bent a right angles, with another bit soldered across the corner, the lot then trimmed to size and stuck in the hole. Looking at the pic the casting might benefit from a light polish.

Did a quick enquiry and at the moment there doesn't seem to be any publicity for it; it is a very new product, although has been a long time in development. I'll shove something in these threads if something becomes available. Nigel

A few thoughts. The platform is going to be a bit squashed between the bay and the main. I'd shove a reverse curve in the bay platform line so that it moves away from the main quicker before returning to being parallel to the main, or there abouts, Don't think you want it too curvy; branch line termini often had plenty of room and railways tended to be straight unless there was good reason to use a curve. I'm thinking of the left hand end, where also having the goods shed on a curve is a bit unusual.

Loch nan Uamh viaduct, on the West Highland extension to Mallaig. Taken 27/6/2017.

Refreshed by an extended break in Scotland, clobbered by a subsequent scheduled op, which wasn't too bad but the aftereffects are still kicking around, I am ready to return to the fray. I'll be easing myself in gently; don't know if anybody else finds this, but I find it hard to model in summer evenings when it's still light outside. First task is to complete the cab roof, by adding the top to the small ventilator at the front of the roof: As etched there's a couple of small tabs to each side of the hole in the roof which were intended to bend up and locate in etched grooves in the top. However, I realised it was going to be difficult to do without distorting the roof, so instead I soldered a couple of bits of 0.6mm nickel silver wire into the grooves in the top, and then soldered that to the roof. Needs a bit of a clean up. The holes in the top are for whistles. The idea is that the roof will be painted separately from the engine, and then as a final move glued to the cab; this allows the cab to be painted easily.

Kit cars were popular at one time simply because they avoided purchase tax. The Lotus 7 and Gilburn Invader were examples. With the change to VAT Gilburn went out of business, while Lotus concentrated on assembled cars.

Never heard of TT-25. International TT (1:120) seems always to have been known simply as TT. It originated in the US with Hal Joyce and his company HP Products which was formed in 1945. TT stood for Table Top railway. Rokal started a couple of years later, and from there the Eastern Europe TT companies developed. Some individuals were building TT layouts in this country before Triang got started with TT-3; they largely scratch-built their own components, including wheels. Re the reference to "fine-scale" above, think it was to do with the use of hand-built track with rail soldered to copper-clad sleepers, which looked rather more realistic than the Triang product. Some 3mm/ft modellers currently use 12mm gauge finescale track and standards, which is essentially near-scale code 60 bullhead rail, using soldered construction or plastic chairs, as with 14.2mm gauge but built to the narrower gauge. Done well it's hard to tell it's a narrower gauge.

Tillig does some set track in 12mm gauge. Looks OK, rather like Kato Unitrack. May be a bit pricey, not sure.

Yep, Alan Searle. Moved into O Gauge, currently has a very nice layout Worcester South Quay on the exhibition circuit. A look at the larger scales can sometimes give you some good ideas for quite compact layouts in the smaller scales.

I should mention that the 3mm Society has just introduced a Fowler 4F 0-6-0 tender locomotive, as an easy-to-build kit. It is complete, including wheels, gearbox and motor. It has resin loco and tender bodies, etched chasses, and whitemetal fittings. As far as I know it's only available for 12mm gauge. It's not cheap at £117.50, but as I said it is complete; the wheels, gearbox (High Level) and motor probably account for around half the price. I don't know anything further about it, and as yet there hasn't been a review, but it seems it's one way of getting started. Other new products: Brian Golding of Brynkits has just introduced three GWR 54XX/64XX/74XX 0-6-0T kits. I've no further information at the present time but if they're like his earlier 57XX kits then they'll be available in both 12mm and 14.2mm, and be a mixture of resin, etched and whitemetal components. Price £60. Don't include wheels, gearbox or motor.

The basic problem is that parts are overscale, in particular the finescale wheels, although fine, are still wider than scale. So anything on the prototype which gets near to the face of the wheel may give problems, particularly if that axle has sideplay. For example, I built a Mitchell 517 class to 14.2mm gauge: There was no way would the front wheels fit between the inner faces of the splashers, so I had to drift the splashers outwards. The obvious problem is when you have outside cylinders, and the configuration is such, as stated in the previous post, that the crosshead passes in front of a crankpin. In that case the solution is to cheat. On my 42XX, I thinned the coupling rod at that point, filed the crankpin nut to half thickness, and still had to drift the cylinders out about 1mm on each side to be sure of things clearing. Here's the beast: Not surprising; even Churchward had to recess the crankpin boss into the coupling rod. Bottom line: if using 14.2mm track then on some prototypes you have to cheat.

Re the 45XX on Ebay, my guess would have been the one from Signal Products. A nice kit. Now offered by the 3mm Society together with a Malcolm Mitchell etched chassis (quite complex, but builds OK); the original had a fairly basic cast chassis block. Keith Gowan's now retired exhibition layout Helston had three of them. The Society also offers the complete Mitchell 45XX kit; I have one, in the "to build" drawer. When I have time!

Can see the 3D thing on the Shapeways image of the Dean Goods OK. Nice. Question: do you think you might get a problem with the thickness of the material reducing the space inside the splashers, so possibly fouling the wheels? Cheers Nigel

On mine I managed to put the drive on the second axle, which meant I could then fill the missing underside of the boiler with part of a brass tube. Improves the look quite a lot. Have you thought of all-black BR livery?

Anbrico produced good stuff for the time. I can remember one layout which appeared in RM which had the Derby lightweight dmu and thinking how good it looked.

Alan Smith's Lydney was a well-known TT3 layout on the exhibition circuit in the 1960s. Starting as a table-top layout it expanded over the years into something of an empire. Quite a few articles in Railway Modeller. The scale may be a minority one, but these days it's a healthy mix of anything from Triang-based on 12mm track, through other 12mm options, to 14.2mm finescale. Here's a snap of my (very) slowly developing 14.2mm layout, Port Aeron: It's a great scale for those interested in doing their own thing. Nigel

I have an Airfix B set and the autocoach stored away somewhere. Think the B set had the shirtbutton emblem. But I've an idea the autocoach had the later livery.

Yep, reckon the waisted ones cover most needs. The only non-waisted ones I've used are where the body is thinner anyway; these tend to be shallower so not always appropriate. The only use I've heard of for flangeless is in rewheeling old Triang rolling stock, but doubtless there are other uses.

That's running fine. Looks good. I have a Society JM etched 2P kit to build sometime. Won't have the weight of a cast body so a rigid chassis won't have much pulling power. I'll be putting compensation beams on the drivers which should improve running and increase haulage; worked fine for my Dukedog..

Surprised at an Atlas C424 having problems. Atlas diesels are normally very good runners these days (the original ones were variable). I think the bogies are flexible enough to ensure good rail contact. Is this on pristine track, or has the track been painted/weathered? The latter can dramatically effect reliability. If this is the case, ensure that there's no paint on either the rail top or the inside of the rail head. If in doubt, scrape off, or run some fine wet-and-dry, or polish with a fibreglass pen, or all three. If that's OK, try cleaning the track before each session; I use meths and a cotton bud. If you think the track's OK, check all pickups are in contact with the wheels, as suggested above. If still no joy, think of a new controller. I find the Gaugemaster Combi a relatively inexpensive but reliable option.

Depends on your light railway; some had decent track, others something more primitive. The Aberaeron line, for example, was built with solid track and foundations. "Light Railway" was more to do with cost savings on the infrastructure, e.g. ungated level crossings.

Building a tester is a good idea. It shouldn't cost much, and it's easy to change direction re track and gauge if you find that you want to. Biggest challenge is getting a working locomotive. There's Triang, and the 3mm Society 2nd hand shop may have kit-built alternatives, otherwise it's build-your-own. Brynkits does some excellent, mainly GWR, chasses; the quickest and easiest way is probably stick a white metal body on such a chassis. Alternatively, if you're happy with soldering, there's some nice etched kits around, of varying degrees of complexity. Any kit is probably going to cost upwards of £60 to complete, by the time you've bought wheels, gears and motor. Larger engines can top £100. The easiest way to get into it is buy a Society Parkside wagon kit, these are generally excellent. I'd budget for joining the 3mm Society, where you'll have access to a wide range of parts and kits, including wheels, and information; the Society egroup is useful for getting advice. The Society does plastic track bases for plain track in 14.2mm which are as easy to use as flexitrack. They also use chairs e.g. for building pointwork. I use such chairs with Plastruct strip for point timbers; some people use ply strip instead. Current prices are £6.20 for a yard of plain track including rail (some saving if buying more) and £5.30 without rail, and £6.30 for a pack of chairs, enough to build a decent sized point. Code 60 bullhead rail on its own costs £4.80 for 10 yards. In 12mm there's Ratio track bases, which uses a rather coarser rail. Some people go for soldered track construction using copper-clad sleepers. 3SMR has a point-building service using copperclad in both 12 and 14.2. You can also use Peco HOm track for 12mm gauge, which looks reasonable and is a quick way of getting things going. Difficult to advise on gauge. For getting going quickly, especially if using Peco track, 12mm has something going for it, useful if you're restricted on time as well as cash. But 14.2mm isn't that difficult.

Looks neat. If you wanted to experiment with the tender bearing on the engine rear a simple spacer on the pin would do it. Edit: maybe that would cause unwanted friction though.

You're right about the Prairie, a K's. Designed to fit the Castle chassis. Must take a look at the Brynkits 64XX. They were intended for push-pull use, especially for more demanding lines such as the South Wales valleys where the larger-wheeled 54XX might have struggled. But I believe they ended up being used for other purposes as well. It might be possible to use the kit for a 74XX, which wasn't push-pull fitted and was intended as a general purpose branch line engine.