Michael Edge's workbench

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Due to the crazy way the current railway operates, 9T79 nowadays is likely to a WCML Pendolino working or some such!

 

Mike

[St Enodoc]

2 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Thanks John, yes it should be 9, I don't know where I got 1 from.

No problem, I'll dig the numbers out. Do you want the same at both ends or something different?

[Michael Edge]

Same both ends, it won't have anything else to do. I've also got photos of a 47 with 9G97 (with what looks like a spoil train off the colliery branch) and also a 47 showing 9G91 in the colliery siding - although that might be the other end of the same loco. Any movement on the down line involved at least two locos and/or some shunting.

[St Enodoc]

25 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

Same both ends, it won't have anything else to do. I've also got photos of a 47 with 9G97 (with what looks like a spoil train off the colliery branch) and also a 47 showing 9G91 in the colliery siding - although that might be the other end of the same loco. Any movement on the down line involved at least two locos and/or some shunting.

Leave it with me.

[Michael Edge]

Latest workbench photo from yesterday.

The GKN 0-6-0T has moved on a bit now, in the centre the next loco for Wentworth Junction - a Q4 - and on the right my current 7mm job is well under way now - GW 1361 0-6-0ST.

Boiler fittings for the GKN 0-6-0T - it's getting to that time of year when I don't much like going out to the cold garage to do bigger machining jobs.

A closer view of Arthur Keen, the sandbox is the mostly plastikard pattern for moulding, temporarily placed on the footplate. Coupling rods still to be built up, this is just one layer placed on the crankpins to show what it looks like - they were articulated, the front section has a vertical joint just in front of the knuckle. Step plates fitted now that the boiler is on and I don't need the bottom edges of the buffer beams to check that it's square - it's impossible to twist the loco body now. Not much more to add before going back to the frames, there are two tank straps over the boiler, cladding bands will go on after painting, tank fillers, safety valve lever, whistle control rod and step treads - buffers I'm not sure about yet, two different varieties were fitted at different times and I don't have clear photos of either of them.

Some moulds poured this morning, the sandbox for the GKN is in the centre one, other parts are a Hunslet control desk and preliminary moulds for the remaining fittings for 7mm 05 and HE twin disc 0-6-0DH. Patterns are stuck to the bench top with double sided tape and lego boxes built round them, this is at the first stage with moulding rubber poked around all the possible undercuts and places where air bubbles are likely to form, the rest of the rubber is then poured in up to the top of the Lego bricks.

 

[Michael Edge]

Arthur Keen is just about finished now, just waiting for some buffers and a motor to make it go and it will be ready for Dave Studley to paint.

The plates are stuck on temporarily with double sided tape for the photos - nameplates are fine but I'm not happy with the others. More guesswork with the washout plugs, I can see in the photos where they are but not exactly what they looked like so these are just short lengths of square section brass. I had to take the safety valve bonnet off and squash it to an oval plan to fit a representation of the two valves and spring inside - the lever needed a slot in the back to fit it as well.

The elaborate works plate under the smokebox needs etching again in some thinner material, all the lettering is drawn but not legible.

The lettering on the number plates can't be read either. The back of the loco is mostly guesswork, I had no photos at all from this angle. The firebox back will be supplied separate to fit from below after painting.

Close up of the wheels and coupling rods, the vertical joint is just simulated. The rods are split and overlapped on the middle crankpin for vertical movement, crankpins are 10BA screws so I had to make bushes and threaded fasteners for them. It all rolls freely enough so I must have got the crankpin bosses fitted correctly.

[Wolfy]

On 25/10/2020 at 11:53, Michael Edge said:

Latest workbench photo from yesterday.

The GKN 0-6-0T has moved on a bit now, in the centre the next loco for Wentworth Junction - a Q4 - and on the right my current 7mm job is well under way now - GW 1361 0-6-0ST. […]

 

Those all look very nice indeed. Is the Q4 from your own etches, and is there any chance they'll be available?

[Michael Edge]

The Q4 is from my etches but there were quite a few errors and omissions in it - for example I'd forgotten to draw the footplate angle. I think I was compiling this test etch in a considerable hurry.

[Michael Edge]

I finally got the remaining buildings for Carlisle, these were delivered from Kiev earlier this year and should have been installed in April but....

After driving to an eerily quiet Heathrow and back last week I opened the very substantial box to find that the baggage handlers hadn't done any damage.

In the bottom of the box there is a layer of wall and fence sections - there's an awful lot of this to fit around the layout.

After unpacking to check everything it's all distributed round the spare bedroom for the moment - we can't have any visitors so it's not going to be in use for a while.

This is part of the old leather factory at the side of Rome Street bridge.

These are a shortened version of the factory buildings near Nelson bridge over the goods lines, we don't have nearly enough space here to do all this to scale.

This is one of the buildings by the side of the Newcastle line, again the area isn't to scale or even the right shape but we can put in authentic buildings.

This building is quite prominent along the goods lines, cut off at an angle to fit against the wall.

The shelter on the platform in Bog goods yard for the Nestlé milk depot.

We can't do all of the milk depot or we wouldn't have any operating space but this is about half of it.

This was a bit difficult, the wartime emergency power room by Citadel station, a lot of guesswork involved with this.

 

The Ukrainian model builders do an amazing job, despite having little or no knowledge of buildings in the UK. I supply them with little more than an outline drawing and as many photos as I can find but they have got very good at interpreting these now. All the buildings are made from plastic, mostly on something like foamboard shells, the painting and weathering is excellent - especially as there are very few contemporary colour images and most of the surviving buildings have been cleaned since the 1960s.

This is the very basic drawing I sent for the cardboard box factory, along with a few photos - the results are quite superb.

I've still no idea when we'll be able to get back to the layout, hoping for next spring now, meanwhile we've got more than enough stuff to fill the car with on the next trip.

 

 

 

 

[Stanley Melrose]

Mike,

 

I'd be thinking seriously of shipping the buildings to France before 1st January.  I wouldn't like to be responsible for the duty payable, let alone the paperwork that will probably be involved.  I took delivery of wine direct from a co-operative in south-west France today just to avoid any duty that will probably be payable in 2021.

 

HTH,

 

Stan

[Wolfy]

On 04/11/2020 at 19:16, Michael Edge said:

The Q4 is from my etches but there were quite a few errors and omissions in it - for example I'd forgotten to draw the footplate angle. I think I was compiling this test etch in a considerable hurry.

That's a shame, the Q4 is on my list of locos I'd like to build one day. 

[Michael Edge]

Completed photo of Arthur Keen.

Frames with Slater's motor and gearbox fitted, two bars soldered across the top restrain the gearbox while still allowing the wheelset to rise and fall.

That will be on its way soon so back to the 7mm 1361.

Saddle tank locos do tend to look a bit strange without the tank. This will be built separately and pegged to the front of the cab in the same way as our JE saddle tank kits, although in this case the boiler is soldered on to the footplate. The cab roof will be removable this time, it overhangs all round so presents no problem.

 

[Michael Edge]

13 hours ago, Wolfy said:

That's a shame, the Q4 is on my list of locos I'd like to build one day. 

I didn't say I wouldn't correct it eventually, I'm making notes and corrections as I build it.

[5050]

Do you get any noise through that method of restraining the gearbox with the cross pieces Mike?  I would have put a thin piece of foam either side myself - but perhaps I have a tendency to over think things!

[John Tomlinson]

The buildings from Kiev are both beautiful and remarkable, given that they are done by folk who've never seen anything like the real thing.

 

I think I'd be terrified to open the crate if I were you. The thought that some idiot might have dropped it the wrong way up or something like doesn't bear thinking about.

 

John.

[Michael Edge]

5 hours ago, 5050 said:

Do you get any noise through that method of restraining the gearbox with the cross pieces Mike?  I would have put a thin piece of foam either side myself - but perhaps I have a tendency to over think things!

It doesn't move much - and I like to keep everything simple!

 

3 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

The buildings from Kiev are both beautiful and remarkable, given that they are done by folk who've never seen anything like the real thing.

 

I think I'd be terrified to open the crate if I were you. The thought that some idiot might have dropped it the wrong way up or something like doesn't bear thinking about.

 

John.

Apparently the baggage handlers in Cyprus were observed to be extremely careful and it looks as though they were just as good at Heathrow - I will admit to being a bit nervous when I took the lid off though. 

The Ukrainians didn't know anything about UK buildings when they started (and only one of them speaks English) but they have learned very quickly - they are architectural modellers and seem to understand the information I send them very well. They now quite frequently spot things in the photos that I've missed myself!

[bécasse]

On 05/11/2020 at 19:15, Stanley Melrose said:

 

I'd be thinking seriously of shipping the buildings to France before 1st January.  I wouldn't like to be responsible for the duty payable, let alone the paperwork that will probably be involved.  I took delivery of wine direct from a co-operative in south-west France today just to avoid any duty that will probably be payable in 2021.

 

It isn't just the fact that duty - and VAT - will become payable on all but the tiniest consignments, every shipment will face Customs' delays and, even if they decide that duty/VAT isn't payable, there will still be a charge to cover the cost of their examination. However, that is just buying goods and books, what is, in many ways worse, is that exhibiting British layouts in Europe and European layouts in the UK will become unaffordable because the owners will need to obtain a Carnet de Passage en Douane, basically an insurance policy guaranteeing the payment of duty/VAT if the layout isn't, for some reason, returned to its home country after exhibition. Like many one-off insurance policies these don't come cheap, I've heard suggestions of charges of the order of £ 1.000 or more. Similar problems apply to musicians and their instruments, but at least there their representatives have some muscle and the EU seems to have put in place a scheme which avoids such costs - but it doesn't apply to model railways.

[Chas Levin]

7 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Completed photo of Arthur Keen.

Frames with Slater's motor and gearbox fitted, two bars soldered across the top restrain the gearbox while still allowing the wheelset to rise and fall.

That will be on its way soon so back to the 7mm 1361.

Saddle tank locos do tend to look a bit strange without the tank. This will be built separately and pegged to the front of the cab in the same way as our JE saddle tank kits, although in this case the boiler is soldered on to the footplate. The cab roof will be removable this time, it overhangs all round so presents no problem.

 

Beautiful looking loco!

[Arun Sharma]

1 hour ago, bécasse said:

It isn't just the fact that duty - and VAT - will become payable on all but the tiniest consignments, every shipment will face Customs' delays and, even if they decide that duty/VAT isn't payable, there will still be a charge to cover the cost of their examination. However, that is just buying goods and books, what is, in many ways worse, is that exhibiting British layouts in Europe and European layouts in the UK will become unaffordable because the owners will need to obtain a Carnet de Passage en Douane, basically an insurance policy guaranteeing the payment of duty/VAT if the layout isn't, for some reason, returned to its home country after exhibition. Like many one-off insurance policies these don't come cheap, I've heard suggestions of charges of the order of £ 1.000 or more. Similar problems apply to musicians and their instruments, but at least there their representatives have some muscle and the EU seems to have put in place a scheme which avoids such costs - but it doesn't apply to model railways.

If so that will have a major impact on shows like the annual IPMS Show at Telford. I suspect a goodly proportion of the trade stands and 'special interest displays' are from across the Channel.

[bécasse]

12 hours ago, Arun Sharma said:

If so that will have a major impact on shows like the annual IPMS Show at Telford. I suspect a goodly proportion of the trade stands and 'special interest displays' are from across the Channel.

It isn't just Customs' that will form an impediment from January to visits by Europeans to the UK for exhibitions, etc. It has been announced by the Home Office that they will no longer allow Europeans to enter the UK using their identity cards on the spurious grounds that they are less secure than passports (really, do you now have to have a police visit in the UK before you can get a passport - or move home?). The majority of Europeans don't possess passports, because the ID cards replace them for travel within Europe, and I think it unlikely that they will go to the trouble, and expense, of getting one just to travel to the UK. They will just forgo that "pleasure" instead.

 

Personally, I should still be able to enter if I so wish as I retained my UK citizenship (one has to pay a substantial sum to revoke it) and the British Ambassador in Bruxelles assures me that British citizens don't actually need passports to enter the UK.

[Michael Edge]

Can you please leave this tedious EU argument off ny workshop thread.

[D-A-T]

2 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Can you please leave this tedious EU argument off ny workshop thread.

Agreed. 
My hobbies are my escape from real world cares. My sanctuary. 

[Wolfy]

On 06/11/2020 at 13:07, Michael Edge said:

I didn't say I wouldn't correct it eventually, I'm making notes and corrections as I build it.

Great, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Staffordshire]

 Any news on any of the following 4mm kits ... 

 

      LSWR/SR/BR     C14  0-4-0T

 

      ED1 - ED6         Fowler Diesels 

 

     15201 - 15203  SR  0-6-0  DE 

 

        Cheers, Ian

[Michael Edge]

Test etch for the SR 0-6-0DE is on order, etchers are a bit slow at the moment. C14 may wait until I've built another one, Ian Rathbone has the first one for painting now. ED1 isn't in my list, that's an 80hp Fowler, ED2-6 waiting to see if I can find drawings or dimensions. Plenty of other stuff on the way though - I can't just work on one project at a time!