S7 scratch building

[Regularity]

You will be fine, Mike. Them losing samples, and sister grumpy, are indicative of poor admin and excessive strain on the workforce, but once you are in the theatre, that goes away: these will be specialists, and whilst they do have to deal with the routine nonsense, they are focussed on their job and allowed to be.

 

Good luck and let us all know how well it goes as soon as you can!

[Coal Tank]

All the Best mate

[Dave Hunt]

I'll be thinking about you Mike and saying the odd prayer (but not for your modelling - you don't need it!).

 

Dave

[Andy Hayter]

Good luck Mike and looking forward to the next instalment of your modelling triumphs.  

[ianmaccormac]

Having had the pleasure of your company a couple of years back at a show, was it the Scale7 stand? I would want to wish you the very best over the next few days. Do celebrate another Christmas when you are out of isolation. There has been so many changes of the calendar, who is bothered by a few days here or there. I am with my wife, the parish priest and his Italian friend (who cannot get home and back) for Christmas day and then sons and daughters over for Boxing day. I am cooking all the time so won't have much time to model or draw 3D things for printing but am hoping to get a LBSCR D class completed in the next couple of months along with the type 15 carriages from Craven era. Take care, hope all goes well and that the marvellous modelling you inspire us with on here gets going again. Cheers, Ian in Blackpool

[Regularity]

12 hours ago, ianmaccormac said:

Do celebrate another Christmas when you are out of isolation. There has been so many changes of the calendar, who is bothered by a few days here or there.

The Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on January 6th, so no problems!

[Argos]

Hi Mike, thoughts are with you and hoping for a speedy recovery!

[laurenceb]

Fingers crossed Mike

[MarcD]

Hi Mike 

Good luck not that you will need it. 

I was reading somewhere that looking at all the biblical evidence Christmas should be some time between August and October. So if the church and the scholars can't workout when Christmas is just pick a date that suits you.

Marc

[scfcphil]

Best of luck Mike. Will be thinking of you

 

Phil (another Stopfordian)

[wagonman]

All the best Mike. You'll soon be up and modelling/decorating again. Goops! I used the 'D' word. Sorry.

 

 

Richard

[Tom Burnham]

All the best - looking forward to gazing in wonder of more of your amazing models.

[airnimal]

THANKS to everyone for their kind messages.  

Back home from Hospital after 3 full days and not the overnight I was expecting.  I am still a bit sore but I am sure I will bounce back soon. Hospital has always seemed like a rich source of stories for someone like Alan Bennett. So many things happened to keep me telling tales when I can finally get out and about and having a pint with friends. I think it will be a few weeks yet before I can get backing to cutting bits of plastic, so it will be a quiet Christmas with just my better half.  If I don't appear for a few weeks then please everyone have a very merry Christmas and best wishes and a happy new year. 

Thanks to all the staff at the NHS.

[Mol_PMB]

Welcome back, and I’m so pleased you’re on the mend in time for Christmas. 

Hopefully time for some more wagon research and planning over Christmas so you can get started on some more wagon building in the new year! Your work is inspirational. 

Mol

[Simond]

Great to hear from you Mike,

 

all the best for Christmas & the New Year, and a speedy “return to form”

 

Simon

[MarcD]

Good to hear that you have been given parole and have got back home. Now would be a good time to start planning the layout you have been promising yourself. Nothing needed more than a pencil, a sketch pad, an arm chair, a glass of you favourite tipple (if its allowed) and your thoughts.

 

Get will soon

 

Marc. 

[Northroader]

Glad to hear you’re out, and back home in time for Christmas. Hope you have a good recovery.

[Tricky]

Welcome home Mike. I pray for a speedy recovery and wish you and yours a Happy Christmas - and we all on here look forward to a return to ‘form’ in 2022. 

[Dave Hunt]

Great to see you back home Mike. Plenty of time during recovery for planning that London, Midland, North Eastern and South West Junction Railway ten wheeled bulk jelly wagon.

 

All the best

 

Dave

[Caley Jim]

I echo the others good wishes for a speedy return to express freight duties, though maybe a wee bit of trip working to begin with to break yourself back in gently. Yes, hospitals can be a source of many stories. They are a community in their own right. 

 

Jim 

[Northroader]

The best I heard recently was a cousin of my wife’s, 90 years old, who had a bony outgrowth just behind his ear. He was given an hospital appointment, and when he arrived, in his car, directed to some point away from the main car park, and told to wait. A doctor and nurse appeared with some gear on a tray, he was given a local anaesthetic, and operated on in his car, then left to drive himself home.

[airnimal]

Hopefully I am on the mend and feeling a great deal better. Tomorrow I am back at Hospital to have the plumbing and stitches out and observations to check that everything works as it should.

I must thank my better half for all the help over the past 10 days. She has looked after me so well it has made the whole process so much easier.  

 

So the first time in a couple of weeks I have had a bit of enthusiasm for some work on the Dia 2 wagon I have been attempting to build. 

I have made a new jig to space the end stanchions out at the correct distance. I did have one in the past which got lost in the workshop somewhere,  so it a new one was made with a few improvements including the bottom face which lines up with the ends of the headstock. I also drilled it to get the coupling pockets in the right place. I have clamped a pair of end stanchions together to file the top angle so they are both in the same plane.

 

[Mol_PMB]

Lovely work - glad to see you back at the workbench. 

[airnimal]

I have glued the end stanchions on and left them to dry for a couple of hours. Then I filed them to shape with a large flat file before finishing them with some abrasive paper on a flat surface.  There is a good photograph in Vol 1 of LNWR wagons showing the shape of the bottom of these stanchions which has been a great help.

[airnimal]

I was released from Hospital yesterday with flying colours after having the plumbing and stitches out and after testing everything works. Well it works up to a point but I hope the recovery will now slowly improve so I can get back on my bike and visit friends and family.  I was with 4 other elderly men also having the same procedure but the difference in attitude was quite alarming. One gentleman at 80 was bright and chipper and moving like Fred Estaire while a gentleman at 72 was grumpy and aggressive. He asked me about my operation and who the surgeon was and when I replied I didn't know he became agitated and was very rude. I left feeling less than cheerful but quickly picked up on the way home with my wife. I have found my emotions have been all over the place throughout the past 5 or 6 weeks when I found out that I needed to address my predicament. But hopefully all that now is in the past and in the new year things will get back to normal or as normal as can be under the present circumstances. 

 

I have tried to do a little on my Dia 2 wagon with mixed results. I have marked the location of the ironwork on the sides and drilled through the sides of the body to insert the coach bolts from the inside. Once glued in I cut the excess off on the outside and smoothed the body side ready to accept the ironwork.  I then started to drill the corner plates for the very small coach bolts seen on the early built of these wagons. Unfortunately my marking out was way off and my hand drilling was even worse. I really need a jig to get consistency and accuracy but at my present state of mind I dont think that is possible.  I may fill the holes and go back to putting the larger square bolts on that the latter wagons were built with.