Wright writes.....

[Jesse Sim]

Completely and utterly off topic, but I couldn’t help but post this. 
 

One of the upsides of Facebook modelling groups. 
 

Tony, apologies for the hijack, but it’s Monty Python....

[Hollar]

6 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Nobody's mentioned PC. I don't know how good they would be functionally but I've used them cosmetically and I think they look good (yes. I know you can't get them anymore).

I've found the Masokits screw couplings to be a very good compromise between robustness and appearance.  You have to older them up, of course, but it's quite an enjoyable little job for those says when I'm feeling too ham-fisted  to go nar anything delicate.  You get a choice of bottom link - near-scale or usable.

 

Tone

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

P.S. I've already ordered a further Comet V2 chassis to go underneath the next one! 

 

Hi Tony,

Excellent news, and perfect timing!

Now with all this sudden surge in V2 chassis construction fever,  could you be persuaded to do a blow-by-blow photo feature on valve gear construction, pretty please?  

Many thanks

Brian

[Tony Wright]

28 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

Hi Tony,

Excellent news, and perfect timing!

Now with all this sudden surge in V2 chassis construction fever,  could you be persuaded to do a blow-by-blow photo feature on valve gear construction, pretty please?  

Many thanks

Brian

Of course, Brian,

 

As soon as the next one arrives.........................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

15 hours ago, Barry O said:

there was a song sung at York Show which Tony may remember as part of the "Music Man"  it included the words "counting rivets, counting rivets, one, two , three, four , five.....! making a reference to someone modelling in the track gauge as noted by this page number.. things have changed..for the better!

 

Baz

Good morning Baz,

 

I think one of the highlights of the York Show, way back in the day when it was held in the Assembly Rooms and the De Gray Rooms was Ian Futers giving us a masterclass on piano playing (what a virtuoso!). 

 

York singing? I remember getting into a sing-song with the Buttcombe Group (is that the spelling?) - something to do with Nempnet Thrubwell - late on the Saturday, which carried on into the pub after the show closed. I recall waking up in the Lady Anne Middleton Hotel next morning, but what happened to me between entering the pub(s) and the next 12 hours is still a complete mystery. Can you help, please?

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Barry O]

Tony

Yes Futers can play the piano very well to the point of outdoing the Les Dawson approach to piano playing when he wanted to.

Butcombe Junction Group..yes they brought Butcombe Beer in a Barrel, the Viet Gwent brought a barrel of Brains beer and , we also had "cold tea" aka Somerset Cider.

 

I believe you may have ended up in the bar at the Lady Anne Middleton  singing and drinking and generally enjoying the camaraderie of the York Show run by the Captain.

 

One evening in thier I decided at 2am I needed sleep. Next morning some were still in the Bar.

 

Happy Days!!

 

Baz

[Tony Wright]

8 hours ago, Atso said:

 

What a stunning locomotive Tony and far superior to the current Bachmann offering. I see that Mr Trice has set a high bar for when I get around to doing an N gauge version to replace my rather dated Farish offerings.

 

I've been busy with my C1s finishing offer the lining on 3286 and 4435 (wobby boiler lining behind the dome of 4436 has be replaced now) as well as starting to finally add the last details to 4452.

 

 

It is nice to see a few of these locomotives taking shape now although Hadley Wood will eventually require six of seven representatives to work the various services planned.

This is wonderful work, Steve,

 

Thanks for showing us. 

 

I really don't know how you chaps, working in such a small scale, produce such outstanding models.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[micklner]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Are these of any use - the price is certainly attractive.

 

https://accurascale.co.uk/collections/couplers/products/screw-link-couplings-pack-of-8

 

HTH

Brian

 

edit: Link added (did it disappear?)

 

 

I believe the Tommy Bar is on the wrong side of the coupling ? When they are in use the bar should hang down, these look like they "hang" the wrong way i.e vertical !! . If I am correct ?, it is a shame as they look good.

[t-b-g]

8 minutes ago, micklner said:

I believe the Tommy Bar is on the wrong side of the coupling ? When they are in use the bar should hang down, these look like they "hang" the wrong way i.e vertical !! . If I am correct ?, it is a shame as they look good.

 

The product description says that they are made mainly for cosmetic purposes but can be used but the tommy bar is reproduced in an "uncoupled" position and will be wrong in a "coupled" situation, so you are quite correct but it is not that the product is faulty in some way. Just that it was done that way for a reason.

[micklner]

Strange decision , it has lost them a lot of sales IMHO

[t-b-g]

8 minutes ago, micklner said:

Strange decision , it has lost them a lot of sales IMHO

 

Possibly but it does read as if they were designed as a dummy cosmetic coupling that happens to work. It also says that they are made from metal and plastic but doesn't say which parts are which material. If some of the working bits are plastic I wouldn't fancy it lasting very long in service.

[St Enodoc]

48 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Tony

Yes Futers can play the piano very well to the point of outdoing the Les Dawson approach to piano playing when he wanted to.

Butcombe Junction Group..yes they brought Butcombe Beer in a Barrel, the Viet Gwent brought a barrel of Brains beer and , we also had "cold tea" aka Somerset Cider.

 

I believe you may have ended up in the bar at the Lady Anne Middleton  singing and drinking and generally enjoying the camaraderie of the York Show run by the Captain.

 

One evening in thier I decided at 2am I needed sleep. Next morning some were still in the Bar.

 

Happy Days!!

 

Baz

There was one year when several of us bought bird calls from Blake's Music Shop, across the road from the Assembly Rooms, to accompany the music-making. What a bl00dy racket.

 

Of course, in the real good old days the show didn't open on Sunday, so we could all work off our hangovers with an all-day trip to the NYMR.

 

Then there was the year the Yatton boys played a prank on someone by telling him we were all going for a drink at the Brown Cow in Unigate. We never saw him all evening.

Edited June 26, 2020 by St Enodoc

[coronach]

4 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

There was one year when several of us bought bird calls from Blake's Music Shop, across the road from the Assembly Rooms, to accompany the music-making. What a bl00dy racket.

 

Of course, in the real good old days the show didn't open on Sunday, so we could all work off our hangovers with an all-day trip to the NYMR.

 

Then there was the year the Yatton boys played a prank on someone by telling them we were going for a drink at  the Brown Cow in Unigate. We never saw him all evening.

Good old Captain Cookie!  Some of the antics from the York show are told in his biography - ‘The Show that Never Ends’, published by Santona. As an ‘Old Boy’ of the Castle Railway Circle, I have happy memories of being involved in the running of the York show during the 70s and 80s. The Butcombe, Gwent and Cardiff groups in particular I recall generating much evening entertainment at Lady Ann Middleton’s.  And the standard of modelling was superb. Where are they now?  Ian Nuttall (Trougher) of Butcombe is still modelling - I’ve been enjoying his recent articles in RM. 

[St Enodoc]

14 minutes ago, coronach said:

Good old Captain Cookie!  Some of the antics from the York show are told in his biography - ‘The Show that Never Ends’, published by Santona. As an ‘Old Boy’ of the Castle Railway Circle, I have happy memories of being involved in the running of the York show during the 70s and 80s. The Butcombe, Gwent and Cardiff groups in particular I recall generating much evening entertainment at Lady Ann Middleton’s.  And the standard of modelling was superb. Where are they now?  Ian Nuttall (Trougher) of Butcombe is still modelling - I’ve been enjoying his recent articles in RM. 

Yes, a great little book. I was one of the Leeds crowd as you may have surmised.

[PJT]

2 hours ago, Hollar said:

9 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Nobody's mentioned PC. I don't know how good they would be functionally but I've used them cosmetically and I think they look good (yes. I know you can't get them anymore).

I've found the Masokits screw couplings to be a very good compromise between robustness and appearance.  You have to older them up, of course, but it's quite an enjoyable little job for those says when I'm feeling too ham-fisted  to go nar anything delicate.  You get a choice of bottom link - near-scale or usable.

 

 

For cosmetic use I've often used the Sutton Loco Works (they of the lovely Class 24 model) ones.  The only drawback with them is that the shank behind the alloy hook is a bit fragile if you're enthusiastically (stupidly?) trying to push them into a slot that makes a bit of an interference fit.  I broke a couple early on; I learned my lesson and I haven't broken any since (touch wood).  The trade off for the lack of robustness is a very to-scale looking screw link coupling, to my eye anyway.  They're £10 for a bag of eight couplings, including postage.

 

SLW's Oleo hydraulic buffers from the Class 24 are also available as a bag of eight for £10 and make a great visual upgrade for many 4mm diesels.

 

To find them, scroll down to the bottom of this page on the Rail Exclusive website:

 

https://railexclusive.com//products.php?cat=14

 

Pete T.

 

[Atso]

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

This is wonderful work, Steve,

 

Thanks for showing us. 

 

I really don't know how you chaps, working in such a small scale, produce such outstanding models.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

Thank you Tony,

 

I really don't know about the more accomplished models such as Tim, Jerry, Nigel and Ian, but I cheat wherever possible!

 

One area I can't cheat on though is the painting of the corners on the tender. I made my own decals for the straight triple lining (as per Tim's methods) but corners have to be done using a brush. I'm not good at putting neat lines onto a model using a brush so I'm always grateful that enamel paints can be manipulated and cleaned up using a brush moistened with white spirit.

 

Below is one of the two tenders I'm working on, having just received the outer 'white' lines. In reality these are a light grey created by mixing Humbrol gloss white with a few drops of gloss black, as recommended by Mr Rathbone and Mr Haynes. I'll add the centre black line tomorrow, once the existing layer has dried.

 

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

There was one year when several of us bought bird calls from Blake's Music Shop, across the road from the Assembly Rooms, to accompany the music-making. What a bl00dy racket.

 

Of course, in the real good old days the show didn't open on Sunday, so we could all work off our hangovers with an all-day trip to the NYMR.

 

Then there was the year the Yatton boys played a prank on someone by telling him we were all going for a drink at the Brown Cow in Unigate. We never saw him all evening.

Indeed, the good old days, John,

 

On the Easter Sunday (hangovers permitting) the Wolverhampton chaps used to pop over to the Harrogate Show, which was open then. It was always worth a look. 

 

Was the York Show's closure on the Sunday something to do with arcane trading laws on the sabbath, within the ancient city walls? I seem to remember Cookie telling me that once: he could open the show, but no traders would have been allowed to sell anything. Weird! The Lord's Day Observance Society and all that? 

 

Once the move to the racecourse was made, it then became a four-day show. Thankfully, it's now a three-day event (or will be, once again).

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

2 minutes ago, Atso said:

 

Thank you Tony,

 

I really don't know about the more accomplished models such as Tim, Jerry, Nigel and Ian, but I cheat wherever possible!

 

One area I can't cheat on though is the painting of the corners on the tender. I made my own decals for the straight triple lining (as per Tim's methods) but corners have to be done using a brush. I'm not good at putting neat lines onto a model using a brush so I'm always grateful that enamel paints can be manipulated and cleaned up using a brush moistened with white spirit.

 

Below is one of the two tenders I'm working on, having just received the outer 'white' lines. In reality these are a light grey created by mixing Humbrol gloss white with a few drops of gloss black, as recommended by Mr Rathbone and Mr Haynes. I'll add the centre black line tomorrow, once the existing layer has dried.

 

All I can say, Steve,

 

You must have damn good eyes!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Atso]

3 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

All I can say, Steve,

 

You must have damn good eyes!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

I wish I did Tony! I do have a secret weapon though.

 

[queensquare]

23 minutes ago, Atso said:

 

Thank you Tony,

 

I really don't know about the more accomplished models such as Tim, Jerry, Nigel and Ian, but I cheat wherever possible!

 

One area I can't cheat on though is the painting of the corners on the tender. I made my own decals for the straight triple lining (as per Tim's methods) but corners have to be done using a brush. I'm not good at putting neat lines onto a model using a brush so I'm always grateful that enamel paints can be manipulated and cleaned up using a brush moistened with white spirit.

 

Below is one of the two tenders I'm working on, having just received the outer 'white' lines. In reality these are a light grey created by mixing Humbrol gloss white with a few drops of gloss black, as recommended by Mr Rathbone and Mr Haynes. I'll add the centre black line tomorrow, once the existing layer has dried.

 

 

Hi Steve,

I'm flattered to be included in that company. I think I'm a pretty competent blacksmith when it comes to locobuilding,  (my customers are happy anyway) but I can't line to that standard in 2mm, superb work.

 

jerry

[Clem]

4 hours ago, Hollar said:

I've found the Masokits screw couplings to be a very good compromise between robustness and appearance.  You have to older them up, of course, but it's quite an enjoyable little job for those says when I'm feeling too ham-fisted  to go nar anything delicate.  You get a choice of bottom link - near-scale or usable.

 

Tone

Yes, I've completely gone over to them too. They're not perfect - the tommy bar is fixed (I always make sure it hangs down!!) - but they are very robust and don't fall apart over the years like some of the others.

[t-b-g]

Another thumbs up for the Masokits couplings. I made up a batch some time ago and found that I could chemically blacken the centre part, then solder a wire through the pivot holes on both sides of the link and it left it free moving and as indestructible as any 4mm scale screw coupling can be.

 

 

[Clearwater]

Hi Tony
 

Having resolved my soldering woes by using a new tip, I’m cracking on practicing by assembling some comet chassises (is that the plural?).  Thanks to all for the advice!

 

I have a couple of reaonably solid frames that roll nicely back and forward under a gentle touch.  However I now have a gearbox question if I may.  I’m using a Comet GB1/20 with a mashima 1624.  I’ve put on a 2mm worm but it doesn’t mesh with the 38 cog wheel.  I could redr I’ll holes and move it lower but I was wondering whether the worms that go on the motor shaft are all the same girth?  Clearly a larger one might reach the gear.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

David

[TrevorP1]

Regarding screw couplings. The Rail Exclusive and Accurascale items, while very useful, look like they are for diesel locomotives. They have a pair of straight forged top links rather that the single curved link found on most steam locomotives.

 

Accurascale  also make useful looking instanter couplings.

[Clem]

I think I may have found my future method of (semi) springing my locos, using High Level hornblocks, a piece of 2mmx 1mm brass strip, a 14BA screw and a spring:

 

 

Right. All I need now is either: a) a source for tiny springs that fit snugly over a 14BA screw, or

b) The knowledge of how to make them (presumably out of 0.0013 steel guitar strings) - i.e. how to get them to retain the required shape.

 

I have to admit to completely nicking the idea from Maygib hornblocks which however are plastic. But if this works, it will be a quick and simple way of achieving a chassis where all the driving wheels touch the rail for picking up current no matter how bad the trackwork is (within reason). It also improves the ride over point work.