Darwinian

A different viewpoint of shunting taking place. 56xx collecting fulls, that have been brought down the hill by the colliery Peckett, having brought up empties and some pit props. This is more or less a platform level view taken on my phone. Progress on the signals continues and the semaphores are almost done. Just need to fit the lamps and linkages. Oh and then I'll have to wire them up of course.

I am intrigued. The clerestory behind the Collett appears to be all one colour. Lake? Brown? Filthy?

You've probably tried this but it might help with the balance weights. When I have to make some I use 20thou black plasticard. My measuring And cutting weapon is simply a pair of dividers. Use the dividers to measure the radius needed on the actual wheel used. Determine the radius of the inner curve from a suitable drawing. Mark centre points for the two radii along a line on the plasticard. By repeatedly scribing the inner and outer arcs you can make a groove about 1/3 to 1/2 way through. Cut in a series of straight lines (knife needed for this) a 4mm or so outside the curves of the balance weight and then cut radially away from to the scribed line to form a number of short segments. These can then be snapped out and the edges of the balance weight tidied up with files.

Finial successfully pinned with a short length of 0.4mm dia. nickel silver wire. This signal now needs the paintwork restoration doing. The two most recent signals have now been given a coat of Halfords etch primer and the balance arms, levers etc. Treated with metal black.

That first single elevated disc signal seems to be jinxed. I realised that the mechanism was set so that the balance weight falling would clear the signal. Oops. Turning the crank around sorted the problem but I melted the fibre optic in the lamp post with the heat from the soldering iron. Testing to get the fibre optic out the bracket broke away from the post. Having fixed those back and got the mechanism working correctly I gave it a wash to remove any flux residue and knocked the top off the finial. I don't have a spare so I'll try to pin it back on. Hopefully that's the 3 problems for this signal 🙄

Yes.

I have used a Z bend in the drive to my point tiebars (00 handbuilt track) from Fulgurex point motors. Simply bent into piano wire although I think mine is nearer 0.5mm. I bend it so that the drive in and drive out are opposite one another. Also try to keep the bends to each side equal. So more like two Vs linked together. They absorb the overthrow of the motors and keep light pressure on the thrown tiebars. No problem with failures so far.

Here's one that got a bit further in July. The combined elevated disc and somersault. The operating linkages have been made but will not be installed until this and the bracket signal have been painted. I have to admit that it's a bit speculative, drawing on photographs of a number of Aus and UK McKenzie Holland signals to get a might have been arrangement.

This is the latest signal for Cwmhir. The home signals. This is a bracket with the smaller doll reading to the colliery exchange sidings. That arm should probably have a circle on it (only the main arm shown). I've used an MSE McKenzie Holland bracket etch with some additional support framing from brass angle and etch waste. The doll post was filed up from a couple of pieces of concentric telescopic tube as I only needed one.

Those butterflies would be perfect to replicate the giant butterfly "ornaments" people stick up on their houses these days.

I decided it was time to get the coals moving again. Between them these two shots (trying the camera on my budget Motorola phone) show all of my P.O. coal wagons apart from four 7 planks wagons (all in the same livery and seen previously). The Colliery's Peckett B2 places full wagons into the exchange sidings. ex ROD 2-8-0 (must be on a shake down from Caerphilly works) arrives with empties to exchange.

Various odds and ends of progress over the summer. My 3 coach non-corridor clerestory set refused to run up the hill into Cwmhir without derailing. I finally realised that although the bar couplings hook up behind the buffer beams into holes in the floors (they had to be deeper than the buffer beams) on my gradient changes they were coming out of the holes and then lifting the "hooked into" carriage by its floor, thus taking all weight off the bogie at that end. My fix has been to fit (araldite) a piece of brass tube, filed flat on one side, behind the buffer beam and then use a Dremel to open up the hole in the floor to match. Crude but effective.

Since metal wheels are often narrower in "tread" width than plastic, Unless you expect regular rubbing of wheel on solebar an insulating piece of sellotape, painted over might be an option.

I built mine soon after they were originally released by Slaters. No sign of warping yet but then I have stuck the roof on and modelled some droplights open which might help I don't recall having significant issues building it but it was many years ago! Oh apart from the bogies of course.

Hopefully they will be back in production soon.

The Milk van was one of the early Mallard Models kits (later Blacksmith and now....). It was the first etched kit I built way back when it was released having been sold one by Fred Blackman at their Camberley shop. There were not any transfers for it at the time so it's got some rather dodgy hand lettering. I don't know if anyone else produced it.

That looks like the suggestions I put on here a few years ago. Glad they've proved useful. Apart from the Cam Green the colours are all in one of the starter sets. They were matched by eye to Phoenix precision enamel paints.

Whilst progress is slowly being made on the signals I have had another problem. When I got the Aberdare out to give it a run I found it had seized up. It appeared that the small amount of acrylic paint on the edges of the bearings had been dissolved by the lubricating oil I used and turned to sticky gunge. I stripped down the chassis but had to take out the wheel sets with the inside and outside bearings. Strip off one outside crank and one wheel from each axle and clean everything up. Once reassembled I evidently haven't got it back together with the bearings in the same places/quartering of the cranks correctly set and now it binds. All very frustrating. I'm probably going to have to strip the chassis down and buy new wheel sets too. I think I might open up the outside bearings into inverted U shapes and make the clearance enough that they can be fixed in their top position and not move.

It came from a Wizard models etch of signal fittings. I cut it down to just the two holes closest to the pivot.

Revised mechanism with lamp.

That's what I have done for tail lamps. I've been working on a mark 2 version of the elevated disc. It's a lot less chunky and I've kept the working tolerances better so there is less slop.

Flanges hitting the chairs should not be a problem, however what flangeway the points are built to could be. If the 1mm of 00-fine standard and the associated gauge (think I got that right) then I find that Bachmann locos will go through but tender wheels can bump and grind a bit. Hornby I've always had to open the back to back up as their flanges seem to be thicker.

Not surprised it's your favourite view. That is stunningly realistic.

In theory they would have gone with the rest of the Blacksmith range to a certain Somerset firm. No news on that range's future for a while. Mine were kindly provided by another RM Webber who happened to have some. I have been unable to find an alternative.

Just a quick update on the D37. I was able to obtain some Mallard/Blacksmith etches for the parcel door's droplight grills. Here they are being fitted using a blob of micro Kristal clear each side, which should be enough as they are very light.