Dave Holt

David. It's all looking very nice indeed. Regarding the facing lock mechanism, if you want the lock to be visible, Ambis do a very nice etched version. Otherwise, you can hide it all under a ramp type cover. On mechanical rodding FPL's, there was usually a detector bar on the inside of one of the rails to prevent unlocking if any stock was standing too close to the point switch. Hope you don't mind, but here a some photos of how I represented this on my Holt layout. It was ex-LNWR so the arrangements might not be quite right for your location, but the principles probably apply. Overall arrangement with FPL to the left and the fouling bar drive to the right. The bar is inside the lower rail. FPL with drive and representation of point blade and lock detector rods. In this case, the FPL was actually moved by a connection from the detector bar, rather than direct from the signal box. Thus, if the bar was broken or became disconnected, the FPL could not be moved and the signals not pulled off. Fouling bar moved from the far end so that a broken bar does not give false indication. Spring device took the weight of the bar to reduce the effort needed to operate. The bar itself, was made from brass angle with the Ambis cranks soldered on using a simple card jig. To plant the bar, pegs were attached to push into holes in the cork underlay. I had to cut off the bottom of the cranks to get the bar to sit at the right height, so as not to catch on wheel flanges. Unlike the prototype, my bar is not attached to the rail. Hope that gives you some useful ideas. Dave.

John, Good point about the level of detail versus location on the layout, but it does seem a lot of effort. I'm particularly impressed with the pipe flanges and clips and the super-fine sanding operating rods/linkage. Dave.

David. Point rodding makes such a difference to the overall presentation, in my view, so it's looking good so far. Have you included representation of the compensators - none visible in the photos? Dave.

Mike, I think you certainly did capture the essence of the prototype - very nice indeed. Don't think I'd fancy using those ladders up to the lamps, mind. Dave.

Mike, A lovely piece of drawing work. I'd probably quit at that stage, but I expect you'll go on to build an equally wonderful model! Dave.

Mike, Very nice, impressive, looking models. No one would know they were plasticard, under the paint, unless you said. As a matter of interest, your Bradwell B1 chassis has gone very quiet. Is the valve gear proving a bit more challenging than you hoped, or just temporary loss of interest? Dave.

John, Nice looking High Level chassis? I did one in EM for a Pendon Pannier, last year. Went together and ran beautifully. On the body, did you fill the huge holes with plastic card plugs or some sort of filler/modelling putty, prior to fixing the new hand rails, lamp irons and fire iron rests? I've got the same issue on my Bachmann Ivatt 2 tank body and was wondering about the best method. Dave.

Great article in the new MRJ. The layout looks terrific. Dave.

Strictly speaking, the inside crank is not set at 120 degrees but is adjusted to allow for any difference in inclination between the inside and outside cylinders, which I suspect is quite significant in these locos where the inside cross head has to pass above the leading axle, even on full compression of the suspension. It's certainly the case in Bulleid pacifics. Dave.

David. Coming along very nicely, I'd say. Your rendition of the diamond pattern edging blocks looks particularly effective. Working out the best layout of rods and signal wire pulleys outside the box is quite tricky. It took me a couple of goes to figure out something reasonable for the box on Delph/Holt, where I found the pulleys to be the main problem. Looking at your arrangement, I would imagine that the two outer cranks aught to be some sort of reversed accommodation cranks to give greater clearance to the corners of the platform wall opening. I don't know if such cranks existed in practice. Dave.

The brackets look just the job. Dave.

Ray, I'm really enjoying reading this build, so I'm sorry to read of your trial and tribulations with the boiler/smoke box assembly. Unfortunately, once one has spotted a misalignment or something slightly out of square, however slight, it becomes the thing you notice straight away, each time, and it just has to be sorted out. As you mention, unsoldering stuff without moving parts you don't want to is much harder than attaching bits in the first place. I've experienced these issues myself, so I have loads of sympathy for you. I bet you'll get it sorted to your satisfaction, though. Dave.

David, That's all looking very promising indeed. I suppose one of the major advantages of laser cutting is that you can create customised brick bonds and other features to exactly suite your requirements, rather than relying on trying to work round standardised embossed sheets, like most of us have to. What with grass one week and buildings the next, your rate of progress is a wonder compared with my glacial (or slower) work rate. Dave.

David. The bushes look very nice. Thanks for posting your method - another idea stored away for future use. Easier on the fingers than Bowden cable! Dave.

Although these locos were often seen with crinkled casing, I'm not sure that it would look right on a model. Happy to be proven wrong by anyone brave enough. Dave.

Mike, Thanks for your kind comments. Unfortunately, there are no current plans for the model to appear in public in the foreseeable future. I do run my locos from time to time on club test racks and other peoples layouts, but those are generally private events by invitation only. My own layout is far from complete (if it ever is) and being in a condition to exhibit. Traintresta, Not quite sure what to say on this. I wouldn't say that the outside Caprotti gear is easy to create the way I did it. I had made dimensioned sketches from the real loco at Butterley, years ago, before it was restored and also took some information from the GA drawings of the last two Ivatt Black 5 Caprotti locos that appeared to share some common components. The representations of the universal joints was also rather fiddly, to say the least. The Comet Reidinger gear might be a basis for modification to suit one of the outside Caprotti types. I've seen a Crab model with this type of gear that looked very nice indeed. Dave.

Robin. Must say, your header photo looks most realistic. I take it the steam and smoke effects have been Photoshopped in? Dave.

The Ivatt Black 5 model is by Comet, but was a full loco kit, rather than just a chassis or valve gear kit. As a matter of interest, I also have a BR Standard Caprotti Class 5, with the outside drive shafts you mentioned earlier. The centre axle drive gear box and slide bars are from the DJH kit but all the shafts, universal joints, reversing gear boxes, brackets, etc., are home made from brass sheet, wire and tube. Dave.

Yes, as Regularity says, on the earlier Ivatt locos, the drive was taken from a gear-box fitted to the leading coupled axle, on the loco centre line, to a cross shaft under the smoke-box saddle, which drove the cam shafts in the Caprotti valve gear boxes on top of the cylinders. I have included the main drive shaft and the top portion of the bevel gear-box in the model, but it's not very visible in the finished model. Dave.

Tom, Some way back, there was discussion about post and wire fencing. I'm not sure if you finally resolved this question, but it might be worth taking a look at Fen End Pit's latest post in his blog, if you haven't already seen it. Dave.

David. Very convincing, indeed. I had wondered about representing the wire in this type of fencing, but your Ez-line looks very good. Have you thought about how to cross base board joints, or doesn't the fence cross any? Or perhaps the joints are now permanent? Dave.

Dave, I don't think it answers your specific question, but if you type "Hachette" into the search box at the top right of the page, you will find previous posts on this subject. These include Flying Scotsman, although it appears to be an early, RH drive version. Good luck with it, based on a brief read of the first page of the thread. Dave.

I'm not an expert on this, but I think you're going to have to be a bit more specific about dates. From LNER 1946 to BR 1948, probably not much change except numbering and, possibly, livery. LNER 1926 to BR 1960, massive changes - boiler, chimney - then double chimney, dome, change from RH to LH drive, smoke deflectors, etc. Dave.

Yes, a fantastic piece of miniature engineering, Nick. Copper pipe work doesn't stay that colour for very long in service and the sort of rainbow colour effect which develops on the injector delivery pipes to the top clacks will be an interesting challenge. Dave.

Very nice. Just spent part of the afternoon oiling all the joints in that lot on P&O at Toddington! Dave.