Player of trains

That being said even the MER was able to exploit water courses, the company placed a turbine in the Laxey river ant it was able to comfortably supply power for the railway in off peak services which was still a surprising amount of cars in use. I visited the island for the transport festival this summer just gone, and got to take a trip around the MER’s electrical infrastructure, it’s well worth the trip if you’re ever able to do it. Although it’s out of use much of the original switchgear remains at Derby Castle terminus and so are many of the substation sheds, some of which still had working mercury arc rectifiers until 2017! It is an excellent example of how a light railway with either third rail or overhead current may have been powered

The Rheidol was apparently proposed for electrification but I’ve never found more to it than a footnote on the railway website so that might be what you’re thinking of. Given the modern day hydro electric plant in the valley and the Peebles locomotives still in Edinburgh at the time of the proposal (1911 according to the website) it doesn’t seem that far fetched, the Metcalf locos might have stayed or disappeared up north to the NWNGR

I'll be able to post a photograph later, but I have dismantled the boiler, I'm completely stumped now. It's not one spring, its three springs working in triplicate I think, three springs that are stacked up. Each is a closed section of brass tube each about an inch long that key into another, once one is fully wound it winds the next and then the third, its a very clever way at getting more life out of the clockwork mechanism. But I am no further to understanding what the springs are out of, but being three smaller ones rather than one long volute spring like I originally thought might help.

I think a typical mainspring is just called a spiral spring, a volute spring is specifically conical, I'm not 100% sure that it is a volute spring, I'm just suggesting it as a volute spring would fit better in the small tube of the boiler

They are not, it may be that I begin working on a printed model instead.

I think the mechanism may well have been entirely purpose made, I must leave a review for the seller so I’m going to email them at the same time to see if they have more information, I’ve begun stripping down the mechanism to give it a good clean at least so I’ll try to take some more photographs, the governor was doing a good job at limiting the speed of it as the spring unwinds very quickly without it fitted. I think the model needs rebuilding entirely however, the tolerances of the mechanism are rather poor, the gears mesh at sloppy angles and one coupling rod is longer than the other, I think think the actual spring and boiler were made by one person and the rest of the model by another. I’m hesitant to say it was a commission due to the quality of it, despite the charm I’d be modified to deliver something like this to a customer? Perhaps a father and son team or a club member making something for another? The rollers underneath indicate some tripping pins or rails were fitted to the layout this was intended to operate on, like a Triang tpo van, I wonder if this was destined for an early perhaps pre war OO club layout, maybe even an early Minories type layout, I’m sure the loco is supposed to be an I3 which would fit just fine.

Haha! afraid two bob didn't work, but I have figured out where its wound from. The key is secreted inside the smokebox, rather well hidden, I'll need to make a key for it as turning it with pliers will munch it up in no time. I also had the same thought too, the clockwork seems to have possibly come from something else and I think the frame may have been built by another modeller to who did the bodywork, its distinctly better done compared to the cruder body. The boiler looks to have been turned from brass tube to fit the mainspring, it could be from a parking meter?

Hi All, I won the auction on the NER BTP/G6 posted a few days ago, sorry if anyone else was bidding! Its an incredibly charming model dare I say it was made when the last of the real things were being withdrawn, but decidedly not a kit bash, rather its entirely scratch built aside from the wheels, the model is made from steel sheet which explains the build-up of rust. It's also unpowered, I'm thinking a peco wonderful wagon and a triang motor bogie may make a suitable method of propulsion. While the paint is very characterful I think I may give this charming thing a clean up, the rust needs removing and a repaint is in order, I would like to improve the details too, a new dome would match better and a smokebox dart, and I think proper handrails would also lift the model, the handrails are made from wire inserted into the model and another length fitted for the handrail itself with blobby solder for the knob. I'll give it a good clean and degrease first then see how I feel before committing possible sacrilege.

The 4-4-2 tank arrived today, its a really rather precious bit of modelling. It's definitely a clockwork model, the spring still had some life in it and I managed to coax a few revolutions out of it, I think the main spring is a volute spring held in the boiler, other than that though I'm a bit lost on what to replace, repair or call everything, so I'll probably need a few pointers. It's got a very southern flair to it as people thought, the smokebox door has a pretty close Billington resemblance. The body parts are just loose in these photos and not quite slotted together, the body seems to have been designed for a chassis that was available already or something someone else started, it feels like one builder made the chassis and someone else produced the body. Here's the body bare showing what I think is the on off lock for the mechanism in the first photo, and in the second the lever that moves the clutch for the directional gearbox. The underneath of the model brightened to show the clutch mechanism, and other levers, it looks like the clutch has two arms with rollers fitted, I assume this model was designed to run on a layout with rails in the track that tripped the direction, the cutoff lever also has a roller which can be seen so the layout also probably had trip pins to stop the model. Is anyone familiar with any historic methods of control like this or modellers who employed it or layouts? You can also see how thick the tyres are in this image too, I think the wheels are made from off the shelf turned tyres and the spokes are pieces of brass strip individually soldered into the wheel. I'm unsure what this sliding mechanism is however, I think the spring loaded item below it is the governor for the clockwork but the sliding mechanism and switch is unconnected to anything? I thought at first it was how the mainspring was wound using a ratchet mechanism but I can't see any obvious way that's done. It's got buckets of charm and I hope these photos help with any identification, and any tips would be greatly appreciated, I'm already musing cloning its principal dimensions to create a printed replica that's a little squarer to develop into an Alnogg tank.

Can’t say it looks too wrong, a taper boiler 4-4-0 was drawn up during the war, although nothing more as an exercise to keep the old boys in the drawing office busy, it’s a great realisation of that what if.

Hurrah, I’ve won the auction for the delightful 4-4-2 as well as the seemingly scratch built NER G6 0-4-4 from the same seller, hopefully it’ll arrive sharpish and we can figure out what makes it tick, maybe literally if it’s actually clockwork. I think it’s possibly a field wound motor as suggested earlier

Going to jump in and try and have a play at bidding on this model, looks infinitely fascinating, I have a terrible weakness for little brass curiosities that need completing.

It won't have literally been a ladder I don't think but constructed in the same way with sleepers being rungs attached between two rails to hold it at gauge rather than the usual railway construction of rails on top of sleepers or fixings. What a fascinating topic this is though, I can think of rather a few uses of tiny tunnel railways like this in my Alnogg island project

I say if you win it strip it and turn it into the guts of a steam railmotor

Since learning of these in the semi controversy that is the Tiger pack I thought surely the tender bodies on the flatbed wagons Hornby already did would have actually been a fair approximation of these dismountable tubs. The coal wagon tooling is a different tooling to the rocket tender as it has had an end door added so Hornby did produce a new tooling for them so surely a tooling of just the body without the integrated frames to make a tub would have been easily possible for a similar ballpark price.