doilum

And you are nervous about folding a chassis! Excellent work.

My guess would be the radial axle. What gauge are you working to?

The working height and operation of the screens varied from pit to pit. Some,eg Wheldale, operated a rope haulage system in order to prevent a locomotive being tied up all day at the screens. The run that S134 was too tall for at Allerton Bywater Colliery was the muck run out to the spoil tips at Fairburn.

Cut it out carefully leaving as many other components as possible on the fret. Keep it flat. It looks quite thin. MY preferred method is to use an Exacto#2 knife cutting into the grain of a small ply or softwood offcut. Drill out all the pilot holes 1mm whilst it is still flat. This is the time to consider plunger pick ups. Also check the fit of the axle bushes. There appear to be two folding operations. Lacking any folding bars I rely on an offcut of steel bar to clamp the brass to the edge of the folding bench ( a60x30 offcut of chipboard). MY advice is to burnish the brass before folding so that onc⁹e you are happy you can run a bead of solder down the fold line to retain that perfect 90° fold. The complication is the double fold. I would do the short centre fold first before turning the work round to clamp the frame sides and bend up the rest of the work. A good set square is essential. Turn around and repeat. It is now time to say a quick prayer and test fit the wheels and axles. Hopefully it sits perfectly flat on a short length of straight track. I do have some plate glass but recalling Brian Clough's famous quote regarding Leeds Utd, I need to see it sit and roll on real rails. It shouldn't be too far off and a little vertical adjustment to the axle holes with a small file will resolve the issue. Old school books remind you to ensure that a six coupled loco doesn't rock on the centre axle by filing the hole about 0.5mm . Don't solder the axle bushes until you are totally happy with the whole mechanism including rods. Now have a coffee and wait for a completely alternative method to arrive.

At Selby the telegraph office was located next to the station master's office.

For those at home watching in black and white: Jinty is sporting a bright orange paint job on the tanks and bunker..... It really shows the hole provided on the previous clockwork version.

Another small detail in the photo. The "emergency winder" was mounted on a large road vehicle and operated by the Mines Rescue team. There was probably just the one to cover all the areas of the South and North Yorkshire coalfields.

The nose has a similar look to the Ford based Rochdale GT I once owned. They did a convertible called the Riviera. The Austin 7 underpinnings look a tad too narrow for the body. The Rochdale used the sloping headlights from an early Porsche or Beetle but these appear to be the standard Lucy's type. Shame that MrPhilby never got round to publishing volume one of his guide to British kit cars.

Somehow I have not come across this fabulous image before. My late father was head teacher of the village school 1966 -73. Prior to his appointment, two small children had been killed playing between the wagons down near the river basin. The release of another batch of loose wagons under gravity caused the parked wagons to compress with fatal consequences for the children stood between them. In an almost bizarre twist of coincidence, the consequences of playing with colliery wagons is at the heart of the plot of "The Hills of Heaven" which would see S134 repainted as the#"7" in the photo.

S134 He 3168 was rebuilt at Allerton Bywater workshops circa 1970. It was then moved across the road to the colliery where it was stored in the wagon workshop. The paintwork was not quite finished lacking the lining and gloss lacquer. Sometime circa 1979 it was put into steam to appear in a BBC children's TV film The Hills of Heaven. Repainted green with an Awdry style "7" in yellow on the bunker it was sent via BR metals to the stump of the Methley Joint which ran up to Newmarket colliery. Most of the film had already been shot at Bickershaw using He 3776 which was also given the green makeover despite being recently resplendent in lined out blue. If anyone knows why they had to go to all the expense of creating a Yorkshire doppelganger I would love to know more. When the couple of days filming were done,S134 was returned to Allerton Bywater Colliery where it was left outside until mid 1981 when Hunslet approached the NCB with a view to undertaking some research. This was agreed on the condition that Hunslet sent their own engineers to recommission the loco. Originally it was planned to undertake the research at Allerton Bywater but the austerity was too tall to work beneath the screens, so it was transfered across the river to Wheldale where it could work the mile of internal track that linked it to the washers at Fryston. The test work was completed in late '81 but this was a very long cold winter that saw several diesel failures and S134 was in use until the following September. During this time it gained celebrity status and is probably the most photographed and filmed Industrial Locomotive this side of the pennines. It was then retired to Embsay whee it was repainted red and named " Wheldale".

I forgot to add that it is much easier to clean up tarnished parts whilst they are still flat / attached to the fret. A bonus also being that after a quick wash the finished model is ready for a coat of etch primer. Paint. Now THAT is another can of worms......... We all have our own favoured approach. The key is to be open to advice and new ideas but default to what experience tells you works best for you and the tools available.

So I have six months to build the Selby canopies 😁

Perhaps the only time I would disagree with Mr Edge but in the land of solder cleanliness IS godliness. Nickel silver isn’t quite so fussy but having prepped brass properly half an our previously it gets a quick kiss from the fibreglass pencil immediately before soldering. Not sure if you are aware but most of the assembly is done with 145 degree solder. Save the electricians solder for wiring or attaching a small item that might be disturbed by future soldering.

Aware of that. This was a random connection to the Wrexham area. Turns out this was a red herring as the history of the United Cooperative ties it firmly north of the border. The mystery continues!

But no obvious colliery name in the online lists.