Wright writes.....

[Chas Levin]

20 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

...My intention is to never waste a future minute...

 

Thanks, Tony!

 

And although I model more slowly than you, I share the intention never to waste a future minute.

Edited February 24 by Chas Levin

[manna]

G'day Folks

 

Yesterday was a Doozy, Started by extending an old Tri-ang 0-6-0 chassis, to go under a kit N7, plastic card and super glue flying all over the place. Then Oh !, I'm feeling weird, heads thumping, fingers tingling, heavy breathing, dizzy, and no it wasn't the 'Wacky Baccy', so I went for a sleep ( and wondered if I would wake up) hour or so later, up but definitely not right, then I remembered, 'Super Glue' haven't used it in a couple of years, last time I'd used it I had a reaction, and it seems I haven't got over it, I would now say that I'm allergic to the stuff. 24 hours on I feel a lot better. Certainly a wake up call.

 

manna  

[St Enodoc]

30 minutes ago, manna said:

G'day Folks

 

Yesterday was a Doozy, Started by extending an old Tri-ang 0-6-0 chassis, to go under a kit N7, plastic card and super glue flying all over the place. Then Oh !, I'm feeling weird, heads thumping, fingers tingling, heavy breathing, dizzy, and no it wasn't the 'Wacky Baccy', so I went for a sleep ( and wondered if I would wake up) hour or so later, up but definitely not right, then I remembered, 'Super Glue' haven't used it in a couple of years, last time I'd used it I had a reaction, and it seems I haven't got over it, I would now say that I'm allergic to the stuff. 24 hours on I feel a lot better. Certainly a wake up call.

 

manna  

Take more water with it...

[Roger Sunderland]

Yes , I have the same, diagnosed as Benign Essential Tremor(BET) it affects mostly my right hand. I was right handed but I’ve taught myself to do most things left handed like soldering for instance.

 So far it hasn’t stopped me from building layouts and indeed kits but can be very frustrating .

[MJI]

I found i got steadier from 50 or so, less wobbling , but my sight is a pain.

 

I bought what is basically a soldering stand to help me.

 

My worries about white metal soldering came true.

 

Will be making a new tank filler from plastic card.

 

Will use devcon for the rest of the castings.

 

And the next loco kit is a lot more white metal. Not just detailing bits.

[grahame]

Time for something different, . .  or rather an update on my latest N/2mm buildings. This time it's an old style warehouse. It's not finished as there's still some details to be made and added, like down pipes and the hoist jib, but here it is just plonked in place next to the vinegar brewery on my under construction layout.

 

[Tony Wright]

Thanks for all the recent posts about modelling/well-being/overcoming adversity.

 

I think we're all very lucky to be participants in such a rewarding, creative and therapeutic hobby. Maybe 'lucky' isn't the right word, because it will have been a conscious decision to participate, though I count myself extremely fortunate in having made so many marvellous (and generous) friends through the hobby. Regarding being generous, a very recent example has been my old Wolverhampton mate, Ron Smallshire, who donated several models for me to sell on behalf of CRUK. I'm delighted to say they've almost all gone, making over £150.00! My thanks to those who bought them, especially to Keith Pearce who took on the 'dodgy' Crab. It was a delight to see it romping round his layout on Friday, hauling eight bogies with ease. He'll make a new front buffer beam for it. It's gone to a good home. 

 

I'm getting less surprised now by the generosity of folk in this hobby. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised in the first place, but frequently now buyers of models I have for sale will add more. Or, they'll donate models for me to sell, like Ron and Poly Bear (Brian) in the last week. Thank you all ever so much. 

 

Another example of generosity last week was after I'd fixed a couple of models for another mate. I suggested a certain amount as a donation in return, and he added a tenner! 

 

I've now reached the conclusion that the models I sell are either priced dead right or I price them too cheaply. Maybe it's a bit of both, but last week a cheque for almost £1,000.00 went off to CRUK. There's now more to come........ 

Edited February 25 by Tony Wright
typo error

[Michael Edge]

15 hours ago, DenysW said:

Extra to @St Enodoc's succinct post, in my case it's down to age-related tremor, which set in in my 50s, which is typical. For the unfortunate it sets in in their 20s. The symptom is that your main hand shakes when trying to grip something - for example, teacups rattle enough that you can spill the liquid. Forget soldering, but glueing may be possible. - it doesn't require quite the grip.

 

Judge not, etc.

I've had that most of my life - you work out ways to get round it all the time. My son and grandson both have this as well but it doesn't seem to have affected any of the girls.

[resin001]

Hello Tony

Reference our discussions at Doncaster with respect to my Caprotti Black 5 , I have followed your advise and replaced the Gibson bogie wheels for the equivalent Markits Wheels and added a lump of lead to the front. The wheels alone increase the bogie weight and I can confirm that thorough testing has resulted in zero derailments. In addition I tweaked the position of the main drive gear and this has resulted in smoother running around my layout curves. Once the bogie frame has been painted this loco will finally be added to my roster. 

Once again many thanks. 

[MJI]

I am going to give a shout out to the hobby givers.

 

The people teaching, the free software people, the free 3d designs.

 

It is great that people give freely to the hobby.

[dibateg]

I found that as I've got older, I've become more sensitive to the fumes from the various substances we use, particularly Humbrol paint and Mekpak.

 

I'm on a project to build 28 4mm scale turnouts for Bala Junction, Bala and Trevor, oddly Butanone doesn't seem as bad to me as Mekpak. But something had to be done to get rid of the fumes and enable mass production, so I rigged up an extractor system - the hose plugs in to an exhaust vent mounted in a piece of ply that 'clips' in to the fan light of the window. 

 

Excuse the chaotic workbench...

 

 

Regards

Tony

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, resin001 said:

Hello Tony

Reference our discussions at Doncaster with respect to my Caprotti Black 5 , I have followed your advise and replaced the Gibson bogie wheels for the equivalent Markits Wheels and added a lump of lead to the front. The wheels alone increase the bogie weight and I can confirm that thorough testing has resulted in zero derailments. In addition I tweaked the position of the main drive gear and this has resulted in smoother running around my layout curves. Once the bogie frame has been painted this loco will finally be added to my roster. 

Once again many thanks. 

 

 

Good afternoon,

 

I'm glad my suggestions worked.

 

I built/painted a Comet Caprotti Black Five when the kit first appeared...............

 

 

I've no idea if the kit is still available.

 

 

Phil (the Duck) built one as well some years ago.

 

I imagine it's now finished; it certainly ran well.

 

Caprotti-fitted locos have been of interest running on Little Bytham.

 

 

 

Iain Henderson brought this pair, one a Hornby conversion (I think) and the other Bachmann.

 

Both are splendid representations.

 

 

I can't remember who brought this one, but it might be a Comet conversion.

 

 

It's certainly an excellent model. It could be the late Paul Bromige's work.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Edited February 25 by Tony Wright
to add something

[polybear]

Hello Tony,

Do you think you could detail the method & parts you use for crankpins please? Many thanks,

Brian

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

10 hours ago, manna said:

...then I remembered, 'Super Glue' haven't used it in a couple of years, last time I'd used it I had a reaction, and it seems I haven't got over it, I would now say that I'm allergic to the stuff. 24 hours on I feel a lot better. Certainly a wake up call...

That's a valuable reminder that we are not all physiologically identical. Sensitivities to organic chemicals in particular can vary very significantly, for good and for ill. One friend was exposed to a lethal concentration of hydrogen cyanide and is still very much in life, half a lifetime later. Another had a dangerous reaction to ozone in concentrations lower than at the time was measurable, and way below the maximum 'safe' exposure then specified.

 

The moment you are aware of a reaction is the time to take avoiding action and not 'press on'.

17 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

My intention is to never waste a future minute!

Carpe diem! That was reinforced for me when visiting my late Pa, who was necessarily in care for his last two years due to vascular dementia. I greeted him as usual in Dutch, what with that being his native language, and he replied "I am sorry but I didn't understand a word of that". So we carried on in English and then he later asked "Is that DCC system what you hoped? Can I see it again?". After something of a struggle getting him safely seat belted in the car he did, and we had a whale of a time, including recollections of the operation of the Gresley B-B 'Tommy' during his time in National Service in The Netherlands Armed Forces, which he had never told me before. 

 

(A few months later, his Dutch returned. Happily I had been told by the excellent psychiatrist who had diagnosed his condition of the likelihood of random loss of memory, and that it would sometimes be recovered, but nothing should be taken for granted. Thanks, Dr Venkat.)

Edited February 25 by 34theletterbetweenB&D
grammatical boo-boo

[John Besley]

That reminds me of the events over the last year with my Father who passed away in October last... he couldn't remember anything from one day to the next, but start talking about events in the 60's and it would come back. 

 

I well remember him reminding me of a trip back from Barnstaple in his Morris Minor when I was a small boy (around 5 - 6) the road between Lapford and Coppelstone runs below a long embankment at one point and leaving Lapford we paced a Bulleid all the way to the point where the road and rail split, the crew spotted us and joined in with a few extra whistles. - I well remember looking out of the back window as she strode along besides us in the low everning sun

 

He could remember almost all of the Westcountry's names and numbers... Happy memories - that made up for everything else... when he was in hospital in his last week it distracted him and got him into a good frame of mind showing him youtube videos of Bulleids and Brittanias as he remembered them (Brittanias) when he lived in Stowmarket in the 50's

 

There is so much I wish I'd asked him including where all his B&W photos went and colour slides from the 60's

[Michael Edge]

2 hours ago, dibateg said:

I found that as I've got older, I've become more sensitive to the fumes from the various substances we use, particularly Humbrol paint and Mekpak.

 

I'm on a project to build 28 4mm scale turnouts for Bala Junction, Bala and Trevor, oddly Butanone doesn't seem as bad to me as Mekpak. But something had to be done to get rid of the fumes and enable mass production, so I rigged up an extractor system - the hose plugs in to an exhaust vent mounted in a piece of ply that 'clips' in to the fan light of the window. 

 

Excuse the chaotic workbench...

 

 

Regards

Tony

It looks tidier than mine...

[mullie]

46 minutes ago, John Besley said:

That reminds me of the events over the last year with my Father who passed away in October last... he couldn't remember anything from one day to the next, but start talking about events in the 60's and it would come back. 

 

I well remember him reminding me of a trip back from Barnstaple in his Morris Minor when I was a small boy (around 5 - 6) the road between Lapford and Coppelstone runs below a long embankment at one point and leaving Lapford we paced a Bulleid all the way to the point where the road and rail split, the crew spotted us and joined in with a few extra whistles. - I well remember looking out of the back window as she strode along besides us in the low everning sun

 

He could remember almost all of the Westcountry's names and numbers... Happy memories - that made up for everything else... when he was in hospital in his last week it distracted him and got him into a good frame of mind showing him youtube videos of Bulleids and Brittanias as he remembered them (Brittanias) when he lived in Stowmarket in the 50's

 

There is so much I wish I'd asked him including where all his B&W photos went and colour slides from the 60's

This kind of information is priceless and is often lost as most people don't write or contribute to books.

 

I successfully applied to Heritage Lottery for funding to talk to people who could remember when the railway ran from Weymouth to Portland, the stories I heard were fascinating and included children playing in the goods yard, details of air raids on Portland harbour, I met the fireman on the final special in 1965 and someone, who as a boy travelled on the final demolition train with his Dad. 

A link to the project is still in my signature below and includes a video of the final special with audio clips overlaid that I completed as part of the project output. The project finished in 2019, a lot of the people I interviewed are no longer with us. People were interviewed, recorded and the recording transcribed, it is now with our county history centre in Dorset and may be part of the National archive..

 

I have since contacted two Railway 'line' societies about recording the memories of their members before they are lost and found a surprising level of resistance, as I wanted to bid for funding to cover my expenses and got no further.

 

I'm currently in the process of recording my mother's memories of growing up on an Essex farm during wartime and have the necessary paperwork to submit it to the local records office. Her memory of events is amazing and the kind of information she has spoken about is not seen in books. One example, is that a lot of people don't realise farm workers were given additional rations during harvest.

 

In all cases I have set up a digital recorder and simply let them talk, just guiding the conversation when necessary, recordings are not edited.

 

Martyn

[John Besley]

19 minutes ago, mullie said:

This kind of information is priceless and is often lost as most people don't write or contribute to books.

 

Martyn

 

Exactly...

 

When I was researching the 82xxx in the early days of the 82045 project I interviewed a couple of ex Newton Abbot fireman as I wanted to get to the bottom of the much trumped myth that they where poor steamers... both of them said the same that the issue was down to them not being 'proper WR' engines despite all being built at Swindon...

 

One of their issues was the self cleaning smokeboxes as once they had been cleaned out they steamed well and were capable engines, when the SC boxes where let go you ended up with 'birds nest' on the tube ends that restricted the hot gasses through the tubes.

 

At Newton Abbot there was a sump to collect river water for the works coupled up to a pump in the sump was a sieve to strain out unwanted 'extras' ... every now and again it was the job of a cleaner or two to take a flare lamp and shovel down at low tide and knock the heads off the conger eels that had got wedged in the sieve .... and some of those 'water snakes' where viscous bu66ers with big heads and eyes 

[Northmoor]

The posts from @mullie and @John Besley above on recording of memories make important points both on doing that while people are still around to recount them, but also how recalling those memories can be very important and comforting for people with dementia.  Some years ago there was a fascinating programme where a well-known businessman (whose name ironically, I've forgotten) visited some dementia care homes to look at what was wrong and right with such care in the UK.  He'd had recent experience of his own father being in a dementia home. 

 

One of the things done at one home was to avoid drawing attention to the things the residents couldn't remember (normally events of recent years), if at all possible, and to encourage a focus on what they could remember clearly.  They had one example of where an elderly man had been a car body sprayer for much of his working life, starting in the 1950s.  So the family arranged for someone who owned a 1950s Vauxhall to take him out for a few hours; he was so happy because he was back surrounded by the familiar and not the unrecognisable 21st Century.

 

A couple of years ago, I wrote a series of articles for the Railway Observer about travelling around Britain on Regional Rover tickets through the 1980s.  There are events and conversations that both Dad and I can still recall from 40 years ago that I wanted to document while we did remember; this is (relatively) recent history but It is amazing how many details are quickly forgotten.  Most of what we saw and travelled on was routine; this is the most important information to document.  I've been a bit disappointed how disjointed the publishing has been, but I respect the editor who has to compile the magazine in his own time. 

 

On another subject, I have my Grandfather's hand-written memoirs of his time serving in Tunisia in 1943.  He wrote these and typed them up in the mid-1980s, after many years of not talking about his experiences (which included supporting Commando operations, motorcycle dispatching, being injured and captured before recovery in a German Field Hospital) and subject to family agreement, I'd like to see them published.  

[Tony Wright]

5 hours ago, polybear said:

Hello Tony,

Do you think you could detail the method & parts you use for crankpins please? Many thanks,

Brian

Certainly Brian.........

 

 

Romford crankpins/washers used to be sold in packs of six or eight, in simple packaging. 

Markits now does the same, but in more-substantial packaging.

These are all slotted (to be fitted to the drivers using the Romford slotted screwdriver - one will last a lifetime's modelling). Early Romford crankpins didn't have slots, making them more difficult to fully tighten into place.

 

Buying packs of six (or eight) is daft in my opinion. For six-coupled locos with outside valve gear, eight washers are required - more because some inevitably ping into oblivion. 

 

I buy them in 50s and 100s...........

 

 

50 crankpins at a time and 100 washers (the washers, being smaller tend to lie at the bottom of this heap!).

 

Markits does a de-luxe crankpin set which secures the rods by nuts, not washers soldered in place. I don't use them, preferring............

 

 

To solder the washers to retain the rods. A paper washer (instruction-thickness) acts as a barrier to solder and also to give a working clearance. The paper is discarded once the rod is secured.

 

 

A close-up. It's vital that solder thoroughly penetrates the joint, meaning this can be later filed down if clearance issues occur.

 

This is the DJH Standard Five I'm currently building. 

 

 

The need for an extra washer is evident here on the driven crankpin. Note also the fibre washer between the return crank and the connecting rod - a further barrier to solder and also for clearance. These fibre washers are no longer available - I bought all the remaining stock! 

 

This is an OO chassis for a DJH A2. It also has an EM chassis, which it sits on right for running on Retford. On that, the leading crankpin washers had to be filed thin to give clearance. 

 

I hope these help.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[sjp23480]

6 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Markits does a de-luxe crankpin set which secures the rods by nuts, not washers soldered in place. I don't use them, preferring............

 

Hi Tony,

 

Do you use bearings on the crankpins for the coupling rods?  I have always found it easier to get a chassis to run with them than without.

 

I also use a deluxe crankpin on the wheel where all the gubbins goes (connecting rod, return crank and eccentric rod).  I find it easier to get the return crank in position by soldering it to a nut threaded onto the crankpin.

 

Thanks

Steve

 

 

[polybear]

Hello Tony,

 

Many thanks - is it necessary to put a washer behind the rod, other than for situations where you need to increase clearance?

 

Brian

[Tony Wright]

51 minutes ago, sjp23480 said:

 

Hi Tony,

 

Do you use bearings on the crankpins for the coupling rods?  I have always found it easier to get a chassis to run with them than without.

 

I also use a deluxe crankpin on the wheel where all the gubbins goes (connecting rod, return crank and eccentric rod).  I find it easier to get the return crank in position by soldering it to a nut threaded onto the crankpin.

 

Thanks

Steve

 

 

Good evening Steve,

 

No, in both cases. I find it easier that way.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

51 minutes ago, polybear said:

Hello Tony,

 

Many thanks - is it necessary to put a washer behind the rod, other than for situations where you need to increase clearance?

 

Brian

Good evening Brian,

 

Using Romford/Markits driving wheels and Romford/Markits crankpins means that the rods are always clear of the wheel-face, so there's no need to have a washer between the rod and the wheel. 

 

As for others' wheels, I don't know.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Tony Wright]

7 hours ago, dibateg said:

I found that as I've got older, I've become more sensitive to the fumes from the various substances we use, particularly Humbrol paint and Mekpak.

 

I'm on a project to build 28 4mm scale turnouts for Bala Junction, Bala and Trevor, oddly Butanone doesn't seem as bad to me as Mekpak. But something had to be done to get rid of the fumes and enable mass production, so I rigged up an extractor system - the hose plugs in to an exhaust vent mounted in a piece of ply that 'clips' in to the fan light of the window. 

 

Excuse the chaotic workbench...

 

 

Regards

Tony

Good evening Tony,

 

The view from your window reminds me of the days (long ago) when I used to play cricket in your part of Wales. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.