Barry Ten

What constitutes a tight curve will depend on circumstances and personal standards. To get a reasonable layout into my room, I have to work with Peco curved points which I believe are about 30" radius on the tighter route. This then becomes my ruling minimum radius throughout the layout, although I accept that there may be tight spots here and there. All this comes into play when "commissioning" new locos into service, especially kit-built ones which may have been made to operate to different standards. I accept that a few tweaks may be necessary here and there, and in a way such modifications help impart a small degree of personal association to the models which wouldn't otherwise be the case. Here a few examples acquired via Tony, which I'm now in the happy process of pressing into service. Hopefully a few notes are of interest. First up is a Brian Lee DJH 7F with a Portescap motor. This is a very nice loco in quite early condition, representing the first batch of 7Fs with small boilers. As far as I'm aware, this is a right-hand drive loco with the steam ejector (?) on the other side of the boiler, so I presume the reversing gear should also be on the right side, rather than on the left as shown here. The model needed no adjustment to get around my anti-clockwise loop, which is the tighter of the two main running lines (and where a loco is obligated to run through the tighter route of a Peco turnout). Next is another DJH 7F, this one from Paul Bromige in BR condition: This is a lovely model with a fair bit of added detail. Again, it depicts one of the first series of small-boilered 7Fs and is correctly modelled as a right-hand drive loco. It's interesting to note some detail differences to the firebox and smokebox compared to the Brian Lee one - I'm not sure if these reflect different castings, or loco-specific modifications made by Paul Bromige. The loco has the extended cab roof which was eventually applied to all 7Fs. Again, this 7F needed no mods to go around my curves. It's a little noisier in forward gear than reverse, but not obtrusively so. Going back a decade or so, I acquired my first DJH 7F from a second hand sale: This one also had the reversing gear on what I took to be the wrong side, so (rightly or wrongly) I rebuilt it. This one was much less happy on tight curves when acquired. I made a few adjustments to the chassis, and also swapped the original Portescap for a much quieter DJH motor, and it now runs nicely. However, I made no changes to the boiler details, so after examining the Paul Bromige example, I may want to revisit it. Moving on from 7Fs to Western territory, the next two (for now) are from the Peter Lawson sale and both very nice models. Broughton Castle is another Portescap-powered model but a very quiet runner, and no adjustments were necessary for my tight curves. It ran like a treat straight out of the box. It needs a tiny bit of touch-up work here and there, but the weathered green finish is lovely. The last one for now, Bearley Grange, is the only one that was a little bit troublesome. On the tighter route, it seemed to bind and stop at certain points. Although I got to the bottom of the problem, I must admit to going down quite a few rabbit-holes before I eventually cracked it... When the loco halted, it seemed (to me) that the deflection of the drivers on tight spots was causing the rear set of drivers to bind against the body. I cleared as much metal from the insides of the splashers as I could, but nothing did the trick. I then turned my attention to the bogie-cylinder clearance and again spent a fair bit of time removing metal and adding araldite insulation - but again to no avail. Finally, I realised that the problem was with the centre drivers shifting slightly on curves and contacting a brake shoe that was the live to the opposite polarity. A tiny tweak of the brake shoe was all that was needed to resolve the issue - but this in itself was somewhat tricky due to the close proximity of the pickups. It affirms my general preference for building electrically-dead chassis, when making my own locos. However, once this issue was resolved, the loco proved itself to be a beautifully smooth and powerful runner, able to just creep around at a crawl if necessary. As with the Castle, the weathering is very nice. All of the locos in BR condition will be in line for DCC conversion, in due course. At least where I've examined one (the Grange), there's ample room for a decoder. Many thanks to Tony and Mo for their sterling work in helping pass these and other models on to new homes. It's greatly appreciated. Al

That's what I did when I bought a Wills King from Ellis Clarke. It had suffered damage in transit, but I still felt it was worth having. I contacted them and suggested a partial refund, which they then offered to double, sort of like the reverse haggling scene in "Life of Brian"!

Here's a brief clip of my Nu-Cast M&SWJR 2-4-0 under test. There isn't an RTR comparison to be made here, and with only three locos in the class, I wouldn't imagine it would represent an attractive proposition to a manufacturer. I've quite enjoyed building this kit so far; the castings are good and the only minor snag is that a few bits have been packed wrongly, so I've got a matching pair of rear cab steps instead of L and R hand ones. I'll try to get some replacements from Nu-Cast, but failing that, it would be a good opportunity to practise a bit of scratch-building.

Three hedgehogs hanging around: And a fox checks out a hedgehog:

Yes, very impressed with Turkish when we flew with them Istanbul-Madagascar a few years ago.

I guess a move to early April also avoids any possible clash with the Key Model World thing at the NEC, if it happens again.

I should add that one very nice touch is that the cab and tender handrails were already soldered onto the castings, eliminating at least one major opportunity for a cock-up.😂

I've been working on a loco kit, in this case a Nu-Cast M&SWJR 2-4-0. This is in GWR condition after reboilering so regrettably can't be in the gorgeous crimson livery that it ran in originally. The kit is "of its day" so to speak, with whacking great brass frames and no brake gear etc, but the castings are clean and no major snags have arisen thus far. I hadn't built a loco for a while (other than Comet chassis) so felt I needed to do at least one this year. I gather Rumney models do a more up to date chassis for this kit, but I'm happy enough with the basic product.

His carers took the eye off him for a moment.

Agreed!

Not the best shot ever taken but better than nothing?

There's definitely a service lull on Paynestown while the pasties go down!😂

A few of us had a ride behind 6990 on Saturday, just before the RMWeb SWAG gathering in Taunton. The loco looked sparkling and took the train with ease. Conditions in Minehead were distinctly chilly, though.

This looks like something you'd pick up in a garden centre, but it's real, honest! Picked up on one of our trail cameras in Februrary, but we didn't check the card until the weekend.

Had a great day at SWAG with Paynestown. Many thanks to Rob, Muz and all the organisers and helpers for making such a splendid, welcoming event possible. It was nice to chat to new and old faces and adnire the wonderful layouts. Additional thanks to my two happy helpers Dave and Roger, and to old pal Marc for the photo. We also enjoyed an afternoon on the WSR followed by the obligatory excellent curry in Taunton. All in all a thoroughly good weekend! Thanks all and best wishes to those that weren't able to make the event.

The "9 0'clock bump" was a well-known phenomenon in South Wales in the late 70s/early 80s - someone will correct me but I believe it was always around 9 in the evening. when there'd be a general muffled thud in the neighborhood. About a decade earlier, when we were living in Cornwall, we'd get a similar effect on garage doors during Concorde's test flights, but they happened at random times of the day.

I believe the brake is indeed to the same diagram as the Hornby model, Tony - and yes, you have a PM!

These earlier Hornby Collett coaches are a good basis for budget modelling. They can be picked up cheaply - get the ones with GWR bogies, not the 1970s ones with Mk1 bogies - and they are not bad representations of bow-end stock. To improve them, the moulded ends are blended in to the sides with filler, then the whole lot repainted and relined. I added SEF flushglaze, separate roof vents, MJT corridor connections and moved some of the chassis details around on the brake. The restaurant car can also be made into a good model in GWR condition, but needs more work for BR condition.

If Ellie wants a quiet lie down under Paynestown, she'll be more than welcome!

I've shown this before I expect, but here's my J72 after a new chassis was substituted. I bought a part-finished Comet chassis and wheels from ebay, reasoning that the wheels alone were worth the punt. The chassis wasn't assembled very well (the centre axle bearings were just slopping around loose in the frames) but after some tribulations I managed to get something working out of it. I think I put a Branchlines gearbox in which is a bit noisy as it stands, but certainly gives adequate slow running and haulage. The whirr-whirr either drowns out the hip-hop, or the hip-hop drowns out the whirr-whirr, depending on your tastes.

Not for a week or two, Tony. Due to the logistics of getting back from York, I've left the box down in Cardiff with Dave for temporary safekeeping, although I hope to collect it soon. Not this week for sure! I'm in musical theatre all week, with three small parts in our local production of "Made in Dagenham"! Dress rehearsal tonight, then the first public performance tomorrow.

Here is my Mainline 4MT, purchased from (I think) a Carlisle model shop during a family visit to the Lake District in 1980. To put that into perspective, the other thing I bought that day was the special "Borchester Market" edition of Model Railways which I still have. The 4MT is a bit noisy but it runs quite well apart from that, and for the hell of it I converted it to DCC (a bit tricky due to the way the motor brushes work) but not too bad. The weathering was acrylics, brushed on not long after the model was bought.

If you've used bearings, and you're feeling brave, you can resolve this with a soldering iron. Put the wagon on a flat surface, identify which bearing needs to be adjusted down (you only need to adjust one side of one axle) and then remove the relevant wheelset. Warm the iron and then touch it to the bearing, applying gentle pressure in the desired direction until the bearing just starts to move in the softened plastic. Remove the iron immediately and assess whether the wheels are now closer to level. The plastic will reharden quickly so you can have another go if things need further adjustment. Don't dwell with the iron or the plastic will melt all the way through to the front of the axlebox. It's a method of last resort but I've found it works if done with care! I had to do it on on one or two Dapol cement wagons with the soapy plastic.

The Battle of Britain/WC was always loco drive, as was the B12.