D51

John Senior, founder of mopok, is still very much with us. He had his 80th birthday last year. Counting out packets of a dozen 12BA bolts and nuts, with two dozen washers, has done him no harm at all! Frank

These are S&B Productions ground signals. There were two varieties, one with semi-circular arm as shown here, the other with a rectangular arm. The diamond logo with 'S' and 'B' within it is the S&B trademark. The 'S' in the name is the same Rex Stedman who ran Leeds Model Company. When Stedman died about 1959, S&B closed down and many of the models, including the ground signals, were taken over by George E Mellor of 'GEM' fame. Frank

Markits do 10.5mm disc wheels in solid nickel-silver as well as blackened brass. They are available with 20mm long axles for inside bearings. Frank

I believe the Mastermodels castings were made by Kemlow. Frank

Here is a picture of my K's Dock Tank, fitted with Mashima motor and High-Level Gearbox. Frank

Yes, as far as I know all the original Romford gearsets from 30:1 to 60:1 were designed for centres of 3/8", which is 9.53mm in today's measure. Frank

Here is a picture of the completed loco with RM Evans chassis, from their 1949 catalogue, body kit price 35s. The chassis parts from the same Evans catalogue were F10 OO Frame Stretchers 6d. each F13 Main Frames for 3F 5s. pair F17 Coupling Rod for 3F (32x34mm) 3s. 6d. pair EM Frame Stretchers were not available at that time. Alternatively a complete chassis with 5-pole motor was 3-rail £6 2s. 2-rail £6 8s. Frank

R M Evans was one of the model railway manufacturers in the early 1950s. They manufactured this pannier and also a 3F tank as brass kits and chassis components, as well as making individual models to customers' requirements. They also manufactured components for other suppliers. All the loco fittings, chimneys, domes, coupling rods and so on, sold by ERG (Bournemouth) were made by Evans, as were the very comprehensive range of varnish-fix transfers available at the time. I understand that the tools and equipment from R M Evans were bought by K's when they started their business making white metal kits in the mid 1950s. At that time R M Evans moved to larger scale live steam models and as Martin Evans became editor of the "Model Engineer" and designer of many successful models. Frank

You are correct, the bottom of the gearbox has been cut off for some reason. The motor should be secured to a frame spacer piece by a 4BA bolt on the bottom pole-piece, opposite the slotted bolt which can be seen on the top. The wire from the pickups to the brush is far too heavy gauge. The chassis side frames seem to be sawn and filed, rather than stamped as they would have been with Jamieson.

The Romford Series IV motor was a deluxe in its day, but as Jon points out the insulating sleeve on the brush spring seems to have slipped off shorting the motor out. The wheels are also Romford with the tender using Peco Insulaxles. The cylinders seem to be Mazak castings but I cannot think of their origin. Did Jamieson make a kit of this type? Frank

David, You would have been better with the SME 3009 Mk.II and Garrard 301 than the B&O! Today well over £1000. Frank

The price for the SME signal is not too bad compared to the Hornby-Dublo equivalent which was 9/11d. at this time plus 4/6d. for the D1 switch making a total of 14/5d.. The SME signal at 14/11d.only needed a Woolworths low-voltage on-off switch costing 1/- making a total of 15/11d. (a push button might have been better!).

These beautifully made signals were, as you know. made by SME, now famous for their Hi-Fi pickup arms and record decks, still made in Steyning,UK. There are two heights, the home and distant being 33/4" high and the starter 2" high. They never made double-arm or junction models. They were available as solenoid operated or hand operated and first went on sale in 1949 when the prices were 17/- for solenoid or 9/9d. for hand. At this time GEM made hand operated signals, the comparable price being 11/11d. although they had tapered posts. By 1959 prices had come down, the solenoid signals being 14/11d. and the hand ones being 6/-. At this time Ratio had upper quadrant signals in plastic for only 4/8d. As far as I am aware SMEC never made other model railway products other than the signals. Frank

The power unit sideframes are either KMR or Essar LMS tender sideframe castings. They were very similar. The flat-topped buffers are Peco. The window vents look like signal ladder stampings. A very imaginative home made model.

Dublo three-rail track is not all level. The exception is the uncoupler rail where the centre rail is a rod held by clips at each end and is perhaps slightly higher than the running rails. I once made a three-rail locomotive using two Trix pick-up shoes for the centre rail pick-up and mounted this just too low. It worked everywhere on the Dublo track except over uncoupling rails!

There is an excellent article on the use of Peco Setrack and Peco Streamline live frog points along with C and L chairs and code 83 rail to provide a modern 3-rail track, in the current (February 2016) issue of the Hornby Railway Collector. Note that it is not possible to use Peco Streamline flexible track with this method as the solvent will not work with the flexible plastic base, but it is ideal with the hard plastic used for Peco Setrack and Peco Streamline points.

There is currently on a certain internet auction site what is described as a "Hornby-Dublo 0-6-2 modified tank" but which looks like a 2-rail Kirdon 0-6-2. Interestingly it has a Gaiety body casting, not the Trackmaster one. The illustrations all show the body and chassis separated so we don't know if the body actually fits the chassis! It looks as though the body might be too short! Frank

Further to the information above, there is an article in the 2014 Railway Modeller annual about the firm of Marshall Stewart, its HO products and its various addresses in the 1920s. It became Stewart-Reidpath Ltd in 1932.

As David has said, this is an ERG Cattle Wagon. Originally released as "Masterpiece " parts about 1946 or 47, they were manufactured by the McMurdo Instrument Company, a radio component manufacturer. About 20 years ago, McMurdo made audio DIN plugs using mazak castings. In 1948 ERG took over the distribution of the parts and also sold them as kits. At that time there were the following types available: flush-door van, hinged-door van, sliding-door van, high-sided open, low-sided open, steel mineral with or without end door, and petrol tank wagon. By 1949 two more types were added, brake van and cattle wagon. In 1949 the cattle van sides were 8d. each, the ends 6d. each and the roof 51/2d. Adhesive (perspex cement) was 3d. The underframe parts were: floor with nuts and bolts 11d. each, solebar 5d. each, buffer beam and buffers 11d. each, 8-spoke wheels 1/11/2d. per axle, and couplings 71/2d. per pair. By my reckoning the cost of the wagon was 9/6d. But when ERG sold them as kits the price was 8/2d. plus couplings and adhesive, so the total was then 9/01/2d., a saving of 51/2d.! The wheels were really excellent for the time with steel axle, perspex spokes and plated brass tyres. However after a few years these became unavailable. ERG then brought out "Rex" wheels which were made of a hard plastic with steel half-axle moulded with the wheel. The two half-axles were joined by a piece of black celastoid tubing which held them in gauge. The "Masterpiece" kits were renamed "Rex" kits when supplied with the Rex wheels and sold at a much reduced price, initially 3/9d., eventually reducing to only 2/6d. The tool for the cattle van became damaged in the early 50s and it was no longer listed. However some stock must have been found as it re-appeared in the late 50s for a short time as a Rex kit. This is the wagon as illustrated here. To make up the types available, a Rex bolster wagon was introduced, but this did not have plastic body parts. It was just the underframe with stripwood for the sides and bolster and a piece of brass wire and length of chain for the stanchions. The quality of these wagons was quite remarkable for the time although the height of all the vans except the cattle van was excessive. The buffers were brass turnings and were a force fit in the holes. You tapped them in with a light hammer. The coupling slot was always too short and had to be enlarged with a fretsaw blade. Quite a difficult job for a young boy! I have a lot of these wagons and unfortunately the mazak used in the solebars is now deteriorating where they have been subject to damp. Frank