commsbloke

Today, a few possible gotchas in on picture. If you build in the order of the diagrams in the instructions, the brake arms/shoes are fitted in fig.4. The parts that pull on the brake arms (The brass A frames) in the photo are not fitted until fig.9. The possible gotcha here is that the A frames need to pass through the brake arms. Luckily I saw this before gluing . Next the "A frames" with the long arm both point left if the vacuum cylinder is at the back. Here my long arms are pointing to the left but the vacuum cylinder is at the front. So off with the brake arms to reverse the "A frames". Also as John said earlier "I like to work on things like buffers and couplings before doing anything else." This is also stated in the instructions. Now I can see that I am going to have fun fitting the split pin in the coupling shaft.

Today I wanted to get the wheels on. First a dry run with the W irons, bearings and wheelsets. I believe that there was too much side-play on the axle. The wheels felt pretty sloppy. Not having any suitable washers handy I decided to try and make some from some evergreen 1mm sheet styrene that I had to hand. On a second dry run these proved a little to thick, so I thinned down on a sanding stick. and fitted between bearing and W iron. Once fitted and glued to the solebars very little wheel-set play seen. Continued with leaf springs and axle-boxes. I used the larger type of axle-boxes although no info in the instructions about this choice. Finally for today I fitted the vacuum reservoir.

Not much progress, during the week I also have had a little trip to Lidl, diamond burrs, and cutting disks purchased with a quid change from a fiver, thanks airnimal. Buffer guides removed, epoxy cleaned off, and quick workover inside with the diamond burr. Glued back with cyano. On that note the model shop has thin medium and thick cyano. Any advantages of one over the other?

They look good and at a price I can get past Mrs Commsbloke

Good plan, that will be the way to go next time.

You did thanks but thought that I had blown them out. The problem was only visible to me with two pairs of reading glasses and a good torch. Also it wasn't just the powder in my photo you can see a large bit of sprue? in the hole. My first attempt to clean out with a 2.2mm drill (my largest) it just grabbed on the protrusion. I will try and keep track of the tools that I used as it may help other rookies. Nick

Thanks again Adrian and John

Thanks Mike, yes I have now found the parts on the brown sprue. Thanks also to Hal, I will be bracing but I think compensation is for a later build. Tonight's little problem, I did drill through the buffer guides but i didn't clean up the wide part. So three of the buffers wouldn't seat fully. I am not sure what the pest tool is for cleaning these out and I probably don't have one. So I bodged my way through by twirling a square needle file. I think that a 2.5mm drill would also have helped clean up. All that work shows that the gorilla 2 part epoxy hadn't done a very good job. Any recomendations for gluing metal castings to plastic? Thanks Nick

Got it, Thanks Hal.

Thanks Michael, sorry I don't know what Oleo buffers are and I am not sure what " the piece that goes where the coupling hook" refers to. Do you have a picture?

Again, another good idea, many thanks.

Many thanks, that sounds a great idea. Will give it a go.

This is where I started, just floor, main chassis members and solebars. Then body sides and ends fitted using Tamiya extra thin. An extra pair of hands or two would have proved useful here, ....and on to the buffer guides? These needed a little work with a file to get the ends a little more round. The instructions don't say that they also need to be drilled. I used a 1.5mm drill in a pin vise. Finally for today the buffer guides were fixed using Gorilla two part epoxy. Perhaps the buffer guides should have been fitted before the body was assembled. Getting those little nuts on is going to be fun.

From the instructions, I don't believe that this one does.

Not too much done in my first session although most time was spent finding my Tamiya Extra Thin Sides, ends, floor, chassis frame and solebars removed from sprues and cleaned up. Holes drilled following instructions in ends, solebars and van sides. Slots opened up in solebars. Chassis frame glued to floor with Extra Thin, correct location assisted by rectangular raised area on floor. Chassis and floor left to set under weights on a mirror to keep flat.

Ha ha, thanks Katy, that was one of my first questions. Nick

I guess that many of you will have done this many times but this is the first time for me. I have built plastic tanks before but this will be my first 7mm kit. To start me off I have chosen a Slater's Vanwide. First thing that I found is that there is quite a lot in the box. I think that I may have some questions on the way. I plan to take thing slow so don't expect it finished in a week

Very nice. Have you found any problems with any of locos on the set track points. I have acquired a Heljan 05 so I am currently looking at my options.

Also fish vans were running till 76 from https://www.bloodandcustard.net/bluespot.html

It was called York Way AKA Maiden Lane if that helps.

There is a great book called "The Kings Cross Story" by Peter Darley which covers all of the rail related infrastructure around The Cross. I can't immediately find an exact date for the last wagon based goods but the freightliner terminal opened in November 65. There are lots of demolition pictures of the goods areas dated 77. There was also a concrete yard that "received inward materials by rail"

Thanks for the advice gents, the current plan is as follows. 1) The 05 is the stud 2) A homemade microcontroller based PWM controller (DCC Sound will have to wait for a good bonus) 3) A couple of Parkside Dundas / Slaters box vans, before I go for a Connoisseur brake van. 4) A small dockside shunting layout based on the timesaver plan. (something like 3 x 4ft by 2ft boards) A quick question if I may, how do I run the loco in without a loop?

Well that's me taken the plunge. Rails of Sheffield's fantastic reduction on some of the Heljan's 05 shunters were just too good to overlook. 1st step a little light testing with my son's train-set controller. Next step, build my own PWM controller.