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Looks great Chris, although you could argue that its cruel to enlarge an 009 loco to quite that extent! As for the strings of superglue, I thought they they were cobwebs, on a loco thats been in its shed for a while. And I wouldnt have noticed the cab roof if you hadnt mentioned it. Terrific stuff, are there any more photos of the layout? Cheers, Dave.

Thank you very much for your kind remarks Gentlemen. I tend to leave the final fitting of handrails etc till last; I find it much easier to paint and weather without the handrails in position. The photos of this loco I've been working from show the handrails to be relatively clean from regular use, in comparison to the filthy smokebox wrapper. Also, the bodywork comes apart in three pieces; the footplate, tanks and firebox are one section, the boiler barrel/smokebox another, and the cab/bunker the third. (see earlier in this thread) So some parts (ejector pipe and bunker-rear handrail) need to be fitted last as they fit to two separate units. Building a loco in sub-units like this makes painting FAR simpler, and its no more difficult to achieve. The handrails themselves were all constructed on the loco: Once the holes were drilled in the smokebox, I threaded the handrail knobs onto a length of brass rod, and fitted them to the loco. While holding everything gently in position I quickly solderd the knobs to the wire. Then the complete handrails can be removed from the loco and trimmed to length, cleaned up, chemically blacked etc, and put somewhere safe until needed. Mass production? Not likely, not at the speed I work! If you want a better W kit, then you could try gently lobbying PDK to re-introduce their etched version. All the best, Dave.

This W model has been quite a marathon, but at last I'm on the home straight. Painting was allover matt-black from a Halfords spraycan, preceeded by a light waft of grey-primer. The only brush painting needed was the cab interior in cream, and the red buffer beams. By the time these locos came to Exmouth Junction, they had been working tranfer freights around London; so in addition to the usual number and emblem, they were liberally festooned with overhead electric warning flashes. Transfers came from the HMRS BR Steam sheet in pressfix. These can be a bit lumpy round the edges, but they look fine when varnished. This not only protects them, but removes the glossy finish. To match the sheen of the Halfords matt black I mixed equal amounts of Humbrol matt and satin varnish. Still lots of detail bits to be added; brakegear, balance weights, buffer heads, handrails, pipework, smokebox numberplate, cab doors etc. Most of these will wait till after its had a touch of weathering, probably just enough to lift the detail and give it a working appearance, without being TOO filthy. Cheers, Dave.

It was dunked and brushed. Problem is that the brass and whitemetal re-act differently; the brass blackens much more quickly, and if you leave it too long it starts flaking off again. Cheers, Dave.

The whole loco has now been chemically blackened prior to painting, with the assistance of Mr.Carr and Mr.Birchwood-Casey. It looks a complete mess now, but at least if the paintwork ever gets worn off, the metal is black underneath, so no bright shiny brass showing through. The brass blackens very well, but the whitemetal only seems to go darker and take on a generally mucky and spotty appearance. I guess this is because its harder to clean the surface of the soft whitemetal without destroying the surface and detail. Out with the Halfords spraycan tomorrow. Dave.

Having got the whole thing up and running, tested, demonstrated etc, I had to dismantle it again to blacken it all. I guess I should have done this before assembly, but I did want to see the whole thing in shiny bare metal. I took a couple of photos while dismantling: Blackening process consisted of a wash in meths (or whatever you prefer for degreasing) following by a swill in a jar of Goddards Silver Dip, to remove any tarnish and give it a really bright clean finish. Then it was straight into the Birchwood Casey for blackening. First bits to be done were the cylinder block, bogie and pony. (without the wheels, these were done separately) All of these will receive a waft of matt black from a Halfords spraycan. Next were the motion parts; the piston rods (along with the slidebars) were given a bit of a polish afterwards to show the sheen of moving parts. The next photo shows the valve gear parts and mountings: On the left, the main Motion Bracket is a hefty brass casting with etched yokes soldered in place to support the expansion link. To pivot and secure the link, I drilled right through and solderd a 14ba nut on the inside. Assembly is a bit of a fiddle, trying to pass a 14ba screw though the yoke, expnsion link and radius rod all at once, but it does give a very positive and secure mounting. On the right is the yoke supporting the front end of the valvegear. From the yoke hang two U-shape brackets; these in turn support the front end of the radius rod, plus the combination-lever and union-link, both of which hang down vertically and attach to the crosshead. There is no physical connection between these parts and the actual valve-rod; this part is dummy and fixed to the cylinder block. Comparing this photo with the assembled photos SHOULD explain how it all goes together. Er, does all that sound clear and logical? Next job is to clean, blacken and paint the bodywork All the best, Dave. These photos also show that the motion bracket is securely screwed to a frame spacer, whereas the front yoke only sits in place. (there wasnt enough room to screw it) When the body is fitted, the footplate holds it down, but a small blob of Blue-Tac is needed to stop it flopping about when the body is off.

Photo of the etch (or whats left of it!) attached. The fret on the left containing all the one-off parts (frame spacers, pony truck, etc) is the one labelled U/U1/N/N1 On the right are the two mirror-image frets containing the mainframes, motion and brakegear, labelled U/U1 They appear quite different to the frets in the River article, but of course there must be a difference; the front end of the mainframes are quite different on the 2 and 3-cylinder locos. So there must be two versions; one with frames for the N,U & River, and another for the N1,U1 and W. Or possibly three, as the River mainframes extend right to the rear of the loco, over the bogie, whereas the W frames end behind the rear drivers, matching the moguls. Maybe the etch is labelled incorrectly, and SHOULD read N1/U1/W as per the exploded diagram in the kit This is getting very confusing:( The expansion-link is a one-piece etching which folds longitudinally to form the correct three-dimensional shape. Not sure if this helps! Cheers, Dave.

I've just examined the etched parts again, the nickel-silver chassis etch is labelled "N/N1/U/U1" and dated 1992, and the valvegear etch says "U/U1", 1993. Theres also a brass etch for bodywork parts, labelled "Class W Tank", 2002 My photos have re-appeared, hooray! Cheers, Dave.

Thanks very much, very kind of you to say so. The valvegear etch in this kit is very good indeed, and as you say, the expansion link is truly three-dimensional. The etch does contain some alternative parts and is labelled U/U1, so my assumption is that the one etch does for all four Moguls, AND the two Tanks. Maybe the more basic Mogul etches you describe are older? The N kit dates from the 1960s, whereas the River and W are more recent. I've been re-reading Tony Wright's review of the then new River kit, in Modelling Railways Illustrated, May-June 1995, and a lot of the bits look very similar to the W. (I think you said in an earlier post that they use the same boiler & firebox casting) So perhaps the etch dates from that period, and the opportunity was taken to replace the earlier Mogul etch at the same time? Anyway, that my theory; and its consistant with the fact that the real locos were made up from various leftover bits! All the best, Dave. PS Now to find out why some of my earlier photos have dissapeared. I know Andy has ben having a purge on oversize images, but mine were within the limits.

At last an update on the W Class, theres been a bit of a gap in proceedings. The valvegear is complete and fully functional. In fact it all went together without a hitch,apart from the Eccentric Rod (from the Return Crank on the crankpin, to the Expansion Link) being 2mm too long for some reason. I snipped the boss off the end and soldered it back on in the right position, before drilling a new hole for the rivit. Fiddly though the valvegear was, the difficult bit was mounting it all on the chassis, and here again the chassis' U1 origin was the problem. The U1 has a higher footplate, and the motion bracket in the kit (a hefty brass casting) is the correct size for the U1, resulting in the lower footplate of the W sitting too high. I had to reduce the height of the motion bracket by over 1mm to get the footplate height correct. The Expansion Link should poke up through a slot in the footplate; needless to say there wasnt a slot. The choice was to cut a slot and weaken the footplate, or reduce the height of the Expansion Link. We chose the later, although I still had to file away some whitemetal to create clearance for the truncated Link (see pictures) I will patch the footplate valance in order to hide this compromise. The brakegear went together without too much angst, although mods were needed as it was designed for the larger-wheeled U1. I raised the level of the pull-rods (they were almost touching the track) but the brake hangers (set at U1 position) are too far away from the smaller wheels of the W. If I had realised this at the chassis construction stage it would have been easy to correct by drilling new holes at the right position and soldered the hanger-brackets on accordingly. At this stage however, such a mod would be a major task, so we've left them where they are. Apologies for the lack of detail pics of valvegear bits, but I will do some when I dismantle it all again prior to blackening and painting. For now though, the next job is to finish the detailing; handrails, safety-valves, and various other bits & pieces. All the best, Dave.

Jethro Tull - Minstrel in The Gallery. Just bought the digitally remastered cd in High Street store Fopp, for £3 ! Dave.T

Hi Mudmagnet, (love the name..) You're right, Countess didnt fit on the shed, or through the hole on the backscene. It was the whistles mounted on the cab roof that did it. Everythings ok for Stafford at the mo, van booked etc, lets hope the weather clears up a bit before then! I've had to stay home to look after the children, so maximum sledging has been done this morning. Cheers, Dave.

Hi, Great to see more of Blackgill, it was one of my favourite layouts on the old forum. I didnt know you already had a blog here, I must have missed it. I have to admit I dont look at the blogs very often as I find them rather slow and cumbersone to browse. I much prefer the forum section. All the best, Dave.T

Thanks very much for the compliments. The green locos are indeed scratchbuilt, and are based on Hunslet locos. One is a model of the design that Hunslet proposed for the Lynton & Barnstaple, and the other is totally freelance, but with standard Hunslet design features. I recomend membership of The 7mm Narrow Gauge Association, see their website http://www.7mmnga.org.uk/ The publish a bi-monthly magazine "Narrow Lines", and I also recomend reading the quarterly Narrow Gauge & Industrial Railway Modelling Review, mentioned earlier. I havent moved the Bridport Town thread over from the old site, but I might start a new one here. Or I could carry on with this thread, as long as Arthur doesnt mind ?? Cheers, Dave.

Hi, Bridport has a fair dose of Welshpool in its parentage, I havent added anything on this forum (yet!), but Bridport Town was featured on the old forum at http://www.rmweb.co....7b174fcd8339f1b There is an extensive article on Bridport in the next Edition of Narrow Gauge & Industrial Review, due out later this month. If you are interested, details of the magazine are at http://www.narrowgau...industrial.com/ Cheers, Dave.T

A glance over the fence near Mill Street crossing shows an ex-WD Baldwin 460 receiving attention at Bridport Shed.

Aha yes, I get your drift. That hadnt occured to me. Dont suppose I'll get anything else done before the festivities now, but I really need to crack on with this loco, its taking too long. All the best, Dave.

After a spell and decorating as decreed by SWMBO, and several repairs to the workshop roof, I've at last returned to the W class. Specifically matters below footplate level. This is turning into a long job. First job is the cylinders, the whitemetal castings fit onto an etched bracket that carries all the holes etc. The bracket is fine, but the castings were a bit out of shape. Following quite a lot of filing, the castings were square, but there wasnt much left of them! Comparing the result to the prototype photos showed that they were quite a bit on the small side. New wrappers were needed to help beef them up a bit. The photo shows the etched cylinder bracket, the undersized castings and the new brass wrappers. Fitting these with lots of araldite to fill the gaps should bring them up to size. Merry Christmas, Dave.T

I thought they were giant Champagne corks......

Capercaillie, Scotland's finest modern/traditional/roots band, playing "Delirium" and "To The Moon" The rather dated term "Folk/Rock" doesnt do them justice. Dave.T

Hi James, have you tried the Pantiles sheets from the Wills Scenic range? They might not be quite the right type of pantile, but as they are moulded, they have plenty of relief and would be a huge improvement on the Slaters. All the best, Dave.T

I thought you might say that! Would you have noticed if I hadnt mentioned it? :icon_what: Cheers, Dave.

Thanks very much, your comments are much appreciated. Its certainly looking more like the real thing now. I'm sure there still a slight downward slope on the smokebox though, as a result of raising the firebox. Does it show? Cheers, Dave.

As a quick diversion from the W class, another Southern loco project is the South Eastern Finecast E1/R kit. My involvement is building the chassis, as seen below. I've done it pretty much as per the kit, apart from any mods needed in order to fit my chosen mechanism etc. Supplied in the kit is a DS10 motor, with Romford gears and gear cradle. Instead I have fitted a Mashima 1420 flat-can motor and a Highlevel Roadrunner-Plus 54:1 gearbox, same as in the O2. Chassi is rigid, with Romford wheels, insulated on one side only, and Backscratcher pickups. The only other change was to fit Alan Gibson coupling rods, which provide a huge improvement over the supplied etches. I first fitted the rods as intended, in two pieces jointed in the middle. Running was jerky and poor, not what was wanted or expected. It improved dramatically though when I soldered the front and rear rods together to make single rigid rods. With a rigid chassis, jointed coupling rods are not only totally superfluous, but could be a source of problems. The whitemetal body parts look good, if a little hefty in places, and the single piece footplate fits perfectly. Has anyone else built one of these kits? I would be interested to hear. All the best, Dave.T

Very good, the rendering looks particularly effective, how is it done? Whats the other building in the background on the bench? Looks like part of Penrhyn Castle! Fascinated to hear of your connection with David Lloyd and the Augher Valley Railway. Seeing it in the 1964 Railway Modeller at the age of six had a huge influence on me, and helped to kickstart my narrow gauge affection/afliction. Many years later I became acquainted with David during his time at Peco. He was building Coolcalaghta and I was building Charmouth. His untimely death was very sad. Best wishes, Dave.T