mike morley

I have recently kitbashed a small Welsh upland longhouse from an Airfix church (Link below. Scroll down the page) only to to be told that despite there being two magnificent examples at St Fagans there were actually hardly any longhouses in Wales. As the man on the scene, what are your thoughts on the subject please, Jonathan?

Not exactly "outside the railway fence", for reasons that are obvious, but I think in a similar vein to the last couple of pictures. As it happens, I started a model of this some years ago but it ground to a halt when still less than half built because I couldn't decide whether to make it a complete building or half relief. One day it'll get finished. This picture was taken not long before it ceased to be the premises of the Laxey Blacksmith, when the Manx Electric evicted him in order to use the building themselves. I cant remember if they wanted it for a museum or a pw store and workshop. I believe the blacksmith himself decided to retire.

The one by the crossroads? I've often commented on how modellogenic it is when collecting a friend who lives in Newton Longville on model railway club night. He thinks the place is closer to collapse than gentrification.

The furthest I've been in the last week or so was to Sainsbury's, so I've nothing new to contribute, but while searching for a picture of something else I stumbled across this. This pair are in Stewkley, in Buckinghamshire. Both interesting buildings that would make good models, especially the nearer one (although I'm not too sure about the mustard-coloured paint!) without being in the least bit ostentatious. That tank (diesel?) at the far end adds a certain something, but it would be a challenge to include the wooden-clad water pump where the two buildings meet without making the resulting model look a bit twee or cutesy.

Amongst much else,Wikipedia states that Acton Lane was indeed used for Aliens and Batman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acton_Lane_Power_Station

I might not be in the least bit religious (many, many years ago I was married to a fully-ordained White Witch) but that doesnt stop me appreciating the charm of the county's numerous chapels. Weedon, Northants, close to the WCML. There's quite a bit of graffiti gouged into the stonework that even I found offensive. At the very top of Cwm Rheidol. As your train exits Devils Bridge station, look down to your right and you will see this. The high hedges surrounding it make it difficult to photograph, which is why I couldnt quite get all of it in. Disused, on the outskirts of Pennal (I think) Finally, just round the corner from me. Not actually a chapel at all, but wouldnt it make a good one?

I discovered a while ago that buttresses are surprisingly difficult to model convincingly. It is somehow reassuring to see that builders find them equally difficult.

This might interest you. https://www.rtmodels.co.uk/rt_models_023.htm I think doing something about the fin-like smokebox door hinge is also worthwhile.

Two questions. The first is whether anyone can point me in the direction of the dimensions of one of these. https://www.alamy.com/signal-lever-at-castletown-station-on-the-steam-railway-in-the-isle-of-man-image187873400.html There is a picture in the Middleton Press book on the Douglas- Port Erin line of the stationmaster at Ballasalla operating the lever that controlled the signal at Ballahick crossing. The top of the lever is about level with his mouth, suggesting that either the lever is somewhat taller than might be expected or the stationmaster is somewhat shorter than average. The second question concerns interlocking. I know very basic interlocking with pointwork was possible (Robin Winter's book about modelling Manx railways includes a picture of some) but how about with block instruments? My guess is that it wasn't possible, in which case what was the officially approved procedure for their use? I'm not looking to model the Isle of Man. I'm looking at a minor light railway on the mainland that isn't one-engine-in-steam.

Forders, along with all the other brickworks in a band that ran from the far side of Peterborough to Calvert, near Buckingham, became part of the London Brick Company, for whom I worked briefly in the very late 80's. The methods of working then were hardly any different to those in the film - the internal narrow gauge railways had been replaced by long conveyor belts and the finished product was taken away by lorry instead of standard gauge railways, that's all. The only thing someone from that film would not have recognised in the late 80's were fork-lift trucks. The clay LBC and Forders before them used (Lower Oxford Gault, IIRC) had a substantial carbon content. This meant less coal was needed to fire the bricks and meant they cost somewhat less to both produce and buy. It also meant the finished bricks were porous so would have weighed rather less than those of other companies. Being porous also meant LBC could not produce Engineers Blue bricks, which rely on their density for strength.

We do like canals on this thread, don't we? Oxford Canal, north of the Heyfords. Bridge 200 has a different parapet on each side. I've never seen a gated towpath before but there's lots along the entire stretch between Somerton Crossing and well north of Aynho. Nearly all are variations on a very similar theme, very substantial and obviously made by a skilled blacksmith, probably in the foundry of the original canal company. Very similar gates were found everywhere, not just on canals, until comparatively recently and having knocked up a couple of simplified versions out of scrap etch a month or so ago I'm pleased to report that they are rather easier to scratchbuild than you might expect. The Oxford Canal's version of an occupation bridge. Other canals used variations on the same theme. Beautifully balanced, it took hardly any effort to get it tilting, but when I tried to stop it mid-tilt I was instantly made very aware of both the considerable weight of the bridge and the laws of inertia!

Mentioned a couple of weeks ago Pub sign of the Crewe Arms, Hinton-in-the-Hedges. Perfect for anyone who fancies having ago at a lattice signal post but whose layout is of a railway that didnt use them.

https://www.langleymodels.co.uk/awd1/index.php?route=product/product&path=190_191_201&product_id=8381 They do other stuff suitable for quaysides, too.

Going back a subject or two, on our way home from Kings Sutton we stopped for lunch at the Crewe Arms at Hinton-in-the-Hedges, near Brackley. I didnt notice it while we were there, so unfortunately no picture, but as we drove off I realised the pub sign is supported by what began life as a lattice signal post.

Firefox goes into meltdown, warning of major security issues, when I click on that link.

Not part of Scalelink's current range.

Photographed a couple of weeks ago on the last of the really nice days around Kings Sutton, south of Banbury. A stench pipe. Once upon a time most houses had one, but now they seem to be quite rare. I certainly can't remember the last time I saw one. I have a vague memory of someone making a 4mm scale version in cast whitemetal but I cannot for the life of me remember who. I knew about village pumps and wells and springs before but until recently I'd never heard of village tap. Now, just a few weeks after encountering my first in St Briavels, I've come across another in Kings Sutton. This one is quite low, about knee height. Kings Sutton is stunningly picturesque and could have come straight off the cover of a chocolate box. I spent the whole time I was in the village thinking "That would make a good model" and "So would that", but after a while I realised it would actually be very difficult to model without the result looking extremely twee and contrived.

Both the height of the buffers and the way they are mounted on the cab back sheet doesnt look right to me, and the footboards stick out beyond the footplate far enough to make me wonder what sort of loading gauge it was built to. Could the picture be a fake? A Victorian version of Photoshopping?

My only thought with the crane is that it looks a little cramped where it is. Move it towards the stop blocks by, say, a wagons length?

Footnote, prompted by re-reading all your suggestions and realising I'd failed to mention Jeff Smith's. It's fitted with a Perseverance gear bracket and Romford 40:1 gears. When I first built it I was suffering from a plague of gearwheels that werent quite concentric (I had four or five, all from different sources) so mesh, concentricity etc. would have been checked and rechecked very carefully then and the motor run in on the bench connected to just the gears.

Thanks for all your responses. To cover all the points raised . . . The loco is a Dean Goods with a Hornby body, a compensated Perseverance chassis under the loco and a compensated Comet chassis under the tender. At one point I replaced the Perseverance chassis with a Comet chassis but it made no difference and I didnt like the Comet chassis so I went back to the Perseverance. During one of the chassis changes it went from Gibson wheels to Markits. It began life with conventional wiper pick-ups on just the loco, had them added to the tender later then changed again to American-style pick-ups. Nothing made any difference. The motor is a rather tight fit in the firebox and at one stage I wondered if the problem was caused by the motor being squeezed. That theory was able to be rejected when removing the body didnt make the slightest difference. At another stage I wondered if drag from the tender was causing the problem. Again, removing the tender made no difference. One thing I have noticed is that the problem is far worse on the track than on the rolling road, to the extent that on more than one occasion I've come to the conclusion that my latest tinkering session had been successful, only to discover that it quite definitely hadnt when I tried the loco on the track. This is the first time I've noticed the motor was getting hot but it might always have being doing that without me noticing before. With regard to end float, I've found with 1220s that "running clearance" is a little tighter than they like and that they prefer just a little room room to move. That's the clearance the 1224 has got and although I dont remember doing so I'm sure I would have experimented with clearances during one of my previous abortive attempts to cure the problem. It's DC powered and after finding another loco of mine, powered by a Mashima 1628, is extremely controller fussy and will only run properly on a beaten up old wreck of a cheap and nasty Gaugemaster I experimented with everything from an ancient H&M Duette to a high-spec Kent Panel Controller via the aforementioned Gaugemaster without, as usual, it making the slightest difference. So much has been tinkered with or replaced without making the slightest difference I'm starting to suspect the problem has to be the motor itself, simply because there's not much else left to try! Barclay's broken wire to one pole will be investigated but the matching symptoms means Becasse's broken magnet is what I'm expecting to find. Thank you all for your assistance.

I'm trying to sort out a loco that, despite much tweaking, hasn't run right since the day it was built. The controller needs to be wound up far beyond the point needed to get any other loco under way before it even thinks about moving, then suddenly it takes off like a rocket. The controller is promptly wound back to what ought to be the level needed for a steady speed and the loco responds by slowing to a halt. Increase power by the merest fraction and it promptly resumes runaway rocket mode. (Old bikers amongst you: think 1970's two-stroke) My latest investigations have revealed that after just 10 to 15 minutes on the rolling road, with no load (obviously) and the body removed so nothing to retain any heat, the motor was rather more than merely warm. Is this another symptom or the cause of the problem? A quick survey of my loco fleet reveals that, astonishingly, I don't have a single other 1224-powered loco so I've nothing to compare it with, but I was always led to understand that all Mashima motors were cool running.

I have a Markits Wakefield lubricator I wanted to use and I thought the best way to install it without making things excessively complicated would be to make a replacement nickel-silver footplate that was part of the chassis, rather than the body. In the end, I didnt fit the lubricator (chickened out) but I might go back to it another day. I find with saddle tanks in general it is easier to make the tank and boiler a separate unit that slides over the motor from in front like a sleeve. I've got three saddletanks built and two being built that way so I've done it often enough to know it works. Far easier than the weird and wonderful contrived system Hornby (and, I think, DJM) used for making the bodies detachable on their Austerities/J94s.

Full bells and whistles upgrade of a Hornby body. I'll dig her out and take a picture of her undressed later.