Scrapman

Tony Slight mistake in my previous post. Everything you sell on other people's behalf CRUK get a percentage of. The main bulk of the monies raised normally goes of course to the deceased modellers estate or in the case of Brian Lees collection to the man himself. Sorry. Stupid mistake. Normal state of affairs according to her indoors. Ray

Tony With regards to you having first dibs on any collections you are asked to sell. I personally have no problem with that. You, or the person you have reserved the models for, make a donation to CRUK so no problem there. Also, I know you work very hard to ensure the models are in a reasonable condition, I think you deserve at least the honour of first refusal. Plus you don't say " I'm doing a lot of work here, I deserve to get something for nothing". You make a reasonable donation for the model. Can' say fairer than that. Ray

As soon as I saw the post about the these tow Duchesses I dug outmy very dog eared "Profile of the Duchesses" by David Jenkinson. I too was convinced that City of St Albans was an ex-streamliner and that the model was wrong in having a cylindrical smoke box. According to Mr Jenkinson City of St Albans was never streamlined and had the Austerity footplate and cylindrical smoke box from new. However, it did not have a rivvetted tender fron new. That, I think,was Hornby doing what Hornby did best. Use an existing moulding that looked about right had hope the customer didn't know any better. They did something similar with the Ivatt 2-6-0. Made a new body moulding for the the tender but stretched it to fit on the existing Duchess / Black 5 chassis moulding.

In response to the question as to which Hornby locos used the B12 chassis block. The only others I can think of are the Saint 4-6-0 and Ivatt 2-6-0. As for the demise of the ring field type tender drive a new type tender drive appears on the Service Sheets for 3 of the THOMAS Range tender locomotives. SS 423 JAMES SS 424 GORDON SS 425 EDWARD HENRY changed to locomotive drive by using the Railroad range Black 5 chassis (SS375B). All of these Service Sheet are dated June 2016 Ray

For the ultimate bus on bridge I suggest Eccleston Bridge in London. The bridge crossed Victoria Station roughly in the middle. Across the bridge ran the Greenline bus and coach stops in the Victoria area. Extra stops could also be found in Buckingham Palace Road. No pictures I am afraid and of course all long gone now. Ray

That is an X03. Worm should be black plastic and the gear should be grey plastic. Worm and gear pictured appear to be white. The worm appears to be the correct profile for an X03 and is most likely from a 0-4-0. The gear looks to be the one used on locos fitted with the type 7 motor used on some Margate produced 0-6-0's, Fowler 2-6-4's, Bullied Pacifics and early China produced B12's.

Google Quickwedge screwdrivers. Got my first one in 1974. Available in lots of blade sizes and lengths. Other makes are available but they are just copies. You pays your money, you makes your choice. Ray

Clive, The original plan for the B2 tenders was to use the G.S. tenders from the V2 based A2s. They got used for some new build locos instead. You could invoke modellers licence (or indeed rule 1) and say that they used the V2 tenders as planed. Or the tender was swapped with one from a withdrawn B17. Ray

Clive, Are you building a Thompson B2 from the B1 using a Great Central tender? Ray

Used the search facility and found a reference to Taming Smokey Joe. First time I have managed to find something. Not saying this is correct but Railway Modeller June 2014 seems to be the place to look.

Hi cypherman I assume you are talking about the tender for the streamlined Coronation. If so the Black 5 tender body will not fit. Believe it or not the Coronation used the drive unit from the LMS Compound. The Black 5 and the Duchess used the same tender drive unit so the Black 5 tender top will fit that. Just to make life interesting there are two types of drive. The original type used the unit with separate tender weights, smaller wheels and a plastic tender chassis. The later ones used the drive unit with the integral weights, large spokes wheels and a metal tender chassis. Hope this helps. Ray

Hi cypherman. The brass insert you are after is usually referred to as a helicoil. It looks like a length of spring but wound the other way. Originally Hornby ( and Tri-ang before them ) used a proper brass brush. Expect helicoil are now used because of cost. Ray

Andrew Your picture of the Port of London building is not near Spitalfields Market but is actually in Charterhouse Street, opposite Smithfield Market, about a mile away close to Farringdon Station Ray

Hi Owen The X776 wheelset was pretty generic in the 1980's. As well as being fitted to wagons and some coaches it was also used in the pony trucks of some tender locomotives and, as you are aware, the King bogie. I am unable to access my Service Sheets at the moment but,from memory, they were used on the Flying Scotsman type chassis. This chassis was also used on the LMS pacifics (Princess and Coronation). The X776 appears to no longer be available as a spare but the scotsman type pony trucks are. Buy a pony truck complete, remove the wheels and sell the remainder on ebay. Hope this suggestion helps. Ray

Popped into my local Homebase (Basildon) to get some sand paper this morning. Just so happened that on the other side of the aisle were the adhesives. Low and behold Evostik in tubes. Lots on the shelf, £4.00 a tube. Ray