harry lamb

I like the weight of the model to be transfered to the rails via proper bearings so I use a triple beam system where the beams themselves have no contact with the axles. This system also works with 6 coupled steam locomotive chassis with HL gearboxes. Regards. HL

Just out of curiosity, 'Enterprising Western' mentioned that the rails in the pictures of the locomotive looked rather closer together than they really should be, considering the Irish gauge, but the platform road gauge appeared considerably wider than the outer roads! Are they? (I am aware of the Father Ted 'Far Away syndrome')

Just a note on 6 wheeled fish vans on Grimsby Fish Docks. I worked on Grimsby Fish Market for many years and 99% of fish by rail was loaded directly from the market platform (same level as van flooring) The fish market was served by single roads but mainly it was 2 and 3 roads. The boxed fish being loaded though vans lined up to pass the goods through to the vans on the outer roads. Curvature on these roads AND in the fish dock complex was severe and the later longer wheelbase diagram vans would squeal like hell when being placed and removed but I never saw any derailments, only battered ex.army lorries that carelessly got in the way of the trains. In all my years 'down dock' and before, as an occasional 'spotter', the only 6 wheeled vehicles I saw would be in New Clee sidings or the various yards and stations in Grimsby and Cleethorpes. Regards, HL.

Do any of you gentlemen know if the design of the bogies themselves will, or are to be changed? This was one of Bachmanns reasonably early designs and they ran very nicely and were relatively easy to convert to EM/P4 with full idependant springing to each axle. I have done a couple of the older ones and the running is superb but the older bodies really need updating. So, I wouldn't mind having a go at one of the latest ones providing the mechanism hasn't been drastically altered. But, if it has, I will give it a miss as I have enough on my plate as it is. Cheers. HL.

I will be very happy with a pair of these vans Ian please. I will Email you my details as I have moved home over the last year and I cannot remember if you have my new address. Looking forward to building stock again now I have enough of the old repaired track from my original test track to put them through the 'humps, bumps and bends' in my new workshop which is the home of my latest trainset! Cheers.

Steel for the 'purists' but Hi-NI for the pragmatist! Late last year l ordered 25m. of 18.83 gauge Hi-Ni B/H ready to lay 1m. track lengths from C&L and finished up with the very pliable steel rail instead! Didn't really matter but the chap at C&L was very busy with moving house etc so I accepted it and just got on with the job of laying it! However, the steel track was laid and all my turnouts etc. are N/S and Hi-Ni N/S but the visuals are not too obvious. The only real differences in rail 'colour' are my PB check, wing and siding rails but I use that material specifically for that purpose. Damp atmospheric conditions could be problematic with steel rail though. Incidentally, any steel rail I may use for switchwork has the foot and web pre tinned to prevent corrosion. Regards.HL.

Jeff, this is the page you need on the NLS site. https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=53.51971&lon=-1.14395&layers=168&b=1 Cheers. HL.

Wow, it's a bit dangerous out here in 'threadland' so I'm off back to lurking after this! However, somebody did ask, after I posted a picture of my modified NRM DP1 with full sized 18.83mm. gauge wheels, the minimum radius that it can negotiate. But, before I answer, do I require a new 'thread' for this information? If I do then I don't have a clue how to start one! But, If you track back to page 43 or whereabouts on this thread and look at some of the curves on the photo of it on my old trainset you can see they are quite generous, 5 foot. On my new trainset they are even wider! 6 foot min. Both with wheel tops inside the valance and no scraping of the fairing in either situation.

I have no idea why you should say that! However, I would have been more interested in them had the prototypes been wrapped in the DP2 bodyshell which was basically a variation of the production 'Deltic' one and the locomotive itself was the forerunner of the 50's!

Certainly not! I have no interest the class 50's and of all the 'EE' DE locomotives I find the 50's the least appealing! Awful looking machines! Bland is bland and then there are class 50's! I am not interested in wish lists whatsoever and I will pick whatever model I may deem useful for conversion to 18.83 gauge with correct size wheels and fully sprung/compensated bogies to improve running and appearance. I also re-gear some models if I find then too 'quick' for basic DC use, in particular some of Heljan's offerings which appear to have Mach 2 capability! However, if somebody gifted me an SLW quality 4mm. fully sprung 18.83mm. gauge model of a class 50 I would thank them very much for it, rip the body off and trash it and then have hours of enjoyment playing with the mechanism and maybe putting it in a EE type 3 or twin engined EE type 5. I also reckon the class 50's would have had more appeal, for me, that is, if they had wrapped it in a BR Mk.1 carriage shell! Anyway, I had always thought of 'wishlists' as belonging to the larger layout owners and users rather than small time bods like me who only 'dabble' in modelling in a small way. My biggest expense is in finding and purchasing components for the conversion of some of these RTR jobs to run on my very limited 'test/shunting plank' and that can be time consuming. Class 50's? Never!

Good morning, seeing that 'English Electric' type locomotives have been unquestionably the most long lived and reliable of DE locomotives on BR and it's successors, with many of the classes from the '50's and '60's still active in main line use, could possibly benefit from a dedicated thread on BR era EE products which may be concentrated on these locomotives as they share much in common mechanically and in longevity. I reckon 'English Electric' rail products as a whole deserve recognition. If there happens to be such an existing thread then please ignore this observation! I'm only a 'lurker'! Regards. HL.

Good evening Andy, I reckon your system is the only truly universal jig across a number of gauges whereas mine was and IS scale and gauge specific. Other than the adjustable one. The original jig's could only be used for EM/P4 and S4. Not 'OO'! But, the adjustable version could be squeezed up to accommodate 16.5mm. gauge wheels but I have never needed to do that. The 1/8" common steel axle is the datum I work to. When I fit my wheels to, or when I used to, each axle would be fully equipped, cranks set, with it's own bearings to be presented into matched hornblocks (Mr. Gibbons) in the models frames plus spacing washers and gearboxes before wheeling. All completed axles being ready pre quartered, balanced, painted and ready to go in their allotted positions in the fully prepared loco frames. So, the conclusion is that yours is a block for all seasons whilst mine is axle specific. The field is yours. Regards. HL.

Good evening. I have discovered a picture of my old quartering tool which had been in use for some time before this picture was taken. Originally made for Sharman's, U/scale, AGW and Maygib wheels. Unfortunately it was not successful with 'Exactoscale' wheels because of the pre mentioned problems with the 'grooved' stub axles. This was why I built the adjustable jig!

Excellent representation of the '1-CO' cosmetic bogie frames compared with the pathetic Bachmann, Hornby and other offerings so I reckon I would certainly chance one for conversion to 18.83mm. gauge. I do have a good stock of 'Ultrascale' 3' 7" and AGW 3' 6" disc wheels plus some second hand ones that are not too tight to the axle that I can play with by adding 'holes in the disc'....ish! Unfortunately I missed the release of the 'BR green livered' models so having never seen the model in the 'flesh', so as to speak, I may have missed my opportunity to have crack at one of these models! PS, I did see the actual locomotives at Euston circa '58-60', 10-12 years old then when on my way to Richmond visiting family.

It was never intended to work with anything other than 1/8" 4mm. scale axles and the only 'complication' I can see is the ability to alter the B2B to cater for the now gone 'Exactoscale' wheelsets with 'grooved' journals which was exactly the reason it was made for in the first place! It works perfectly for 'OO', 'HO', 'EM' 'P4 and S4'. NOT 2mm, 3mm. or 7mm. or any other 'mm'. Barring 'Romford' type and Hambling's and it does the job perfectly. Although presently O.O.U, railway modelling is, and has been for many years, no.3 on my current list of interests as I prefer sea angling and marine modelling. However, nowadays, I do enjoy converting RTR diesels with 'Penbit's bits' and my own form of compensation and springing when no suitable Penbits conversion pack is available. Complicated? The thing was made of scrap brass and N/S sheet and the base out of FG PCB so it must have been the 4 8BA nuts, screws washers and bolts that done it!

Quartering TEST jigs. Adjustable to accept 'Exactoscale' wheels with 'lube channels' in stub axle ends and 1/8" standard U/S and AGW plain axles. Once wheels and crank pins are lined up they are pressed home in whatever device you favour and very rarely shift. If so final adjustment is straight forward and can be rechecked before final fitting. Only suitable for fully fitted out wheelsets c/w bearings and gearboxes.

The sooner SLW do a 'proper' model of this extremely popular prototype the better! Not forgetting the Brush type 2 as well!

I did try the GW wheelpress, the 'Deluxe' Hamblings pattern, but I found a little bit of 'slop' in the crankpin slot for 14BA bolts and the bolts themselves are easily moved out of line. So, I made myself a 'quartering TEST jig' set to around 90 degrees 'ish' for crankpin setting and it works a treat! As I only use push on wheelsets, Ultrascale and AGW plus what I have got left of the 'Exactoscale' jobs, to CHECK the crankpin wheel settings. Now, being a pragmatic sort of Herbert I don't really care if the cranks on my model steam engines don't match the prototype because neither one my two eyes are on its own flexible stem enabling me to see both sides of the locomotive at work simultaneously so I am quite happy to watch my engines run up and down the track one side at a time be it LH or RH leading with crank settings 85, 88 or 95! The beauty of it is that if the jig is out of 'kilter' then every set of completed wheel, axles and bearings that have passed through the jig will be exactly the same and that's the principal I have adhered to for the last 45 years in 18.83mm. gauge with not a single problem. Pictures of the jig, built from scrap have been posted on this forum previously. Somewhere!

Light weight rail. Probably used on all of the Colonels lines. Much of it flat bottom which was also in industrial use. Krupp of Germany has been mentioned somewhere ( I cannot remember where though!) as supplying such rail to UK prior to WW1. However, a very good example of such light rail in use in a model situation was the Weston Clevedon and Portishead Railway in EM by Andrew Ulyott in MRJ 162 and later mentioned in MRJ 229. I have a small number of books that contain good clear photographs of the Colonels standard gauge railways with the lighter rail of both B/H and F/B sections. In 4mm. code 55 F/B rail is an excellent source for lightweight industrial sidings and such. HL.

Recent references to NRM Bachmann 'DP1' reminded me of a post I made some time ago with some pictures of the said 'DP1' I butchered with improvements to bogies and wheels with replacement full size P4 wheels and fully sprung wheelsets. However, there appeared to be some interest in other 'established' manufacturers products who's efforts really are lacking in 'finesse' and two that I would pick out are the Bachmann 1-CO-CO-1 type 4 DE locomotives of the class 40 and 44/45/46 because of their appalling cosmetic outside bogie frames! At least the Bullied/BR diesels, 101-03, from Mr. Kernow had cosmetic outside frames far superior to the Bachmann efforts but not having viewed them from close hand I could not comment any further. Regards. HL.

For those interested in changing the wheels take a look at page 44 of this 'blog' thingy where there are a couple of photographs of my Bachmann DP1 (2016) with full size P4 wheels taken at eye level. The wheels can be clearly seen looking 'up' into the body skirt to the depth of the tyre plus a bit more but I suspect the model body sits a 'tadge' higher than on the prototype. But the late Roy Jackson told me there were some clearance issues on some lines radiating from the ECML with DP1. I have no drawings of the prototype or the production models but if necessary I will mill a bit out of the chassis block if required but as it stands now it is not required to negotiate anything any tighter than a 5' radius and I believe 4' could be pushing it. Please don't take that as read because I don't have any 4' radius curves. Incidentally, this NRM model is, so far, the best Bachmann diesel model locomotive I have converted with fully sprung or equalised bogies so far. So, I am also looking forward to having a 'play' with the 'Accurascale' EE models we have all been patiently waiting for!

Reminds me of the days I worked on Grimsby Fish Market as a youth on school holidays in 1960. Actually, when I left school 2 years later I stayed with what I knew and was very happy with! They were the best years of my life! But, if modelling a fish train out of Grimsby Fish Docks don't be tempted to add an ex. LMS 6 wheeler or the BR Swindon built 'insixfish' as six wheelers could not manage the curvature in places such as 'Bass House Corner' or the 'Swing Bridge', to name a few places because of the track curvature around the the dockside!

East of Boston? I'm Lincolnshire born and bred and railways east of Boston are largely defunct! The reason why the government of the day removed the Boston-Spalding link was to eliminate railways in the whole of east Lincolnshire, especially to Skegness, Cambs. and north Norfolk towards the south. The governments of the day realised that it would be fiscally advantageous for the Treasury to 'milk' the large amount of fuel taxes when goods and people become reliant on road transport regardless of the future environmental consequences. Sleaford was, I believe, the only line intended to survive as it directly linked to Werrington Jcn. on the ECML and the avoiding line from Doncaster via Lincoln. Regards. HL.

I have D6702 on order via 'Rails of Sheffield' and will require P4 wheelsets, as I also will with the Finsbury Park later blue livery/white window surround Deltic I also have on order from 'Rails'. Now I realise these will be self fitting but that is not the problem. Since I ordered these models plus wheels there seems to be a lack of info on these replacements as they need to be of the correct diameter. If not, I do have a stock of Ultrascale 3' 7" disc wheels but I would rather not dig into them as yet.

Good evening 97xx. I have attached 3 pictures showing my method of triple beam compensation which is self leveling and ensures an even distribution of weight to either 3 or 4 axle vehicles particularly in 18.2 and 18.83 gauges but I have managed to fit a HL gearbox between the double beams in an 'OO' chassis successfully. The pictures I have attached show the arrangement under a scratchbuilt LNE G/S 3500 HF tender once towed by 61701 and latterly by a J39. (64971 I believe) All 3 beams are independant and are used with HL 2mm. hornblocks. The beams, with rounded contact surfaces, bear down onto the top surface of the axle bearings in the hornblocks. The single axle cross beam, also bearing down on the axle bearings either front or rear, has vertical adjustment for fine tuning enabling a perfectly level vehicle. This same system works perfectly well on six and eight coupled locomotives. Incidentally, axle sleeves are missing on the Exactoscale tender wheels. I could find them! When these vehicles are run along a length of rail with indents in the railhead a very reassuring series of even 'clicks' give an indication of the even distribution of the weight. Cheers. HL