Steve Smith

Hello Graham, Hope it's OK to resurrect this thread, but I was so impressed with your Crownline conversion of the 4F that I have opted to take a similar route for my own Q Class. My Crownline conversion kit is in the post, but I know that it has a running plate that does not have that distinctive narrowing, which seems to be the most obvious error in the Roche drawing which has the same width dimension of 8'4" shown for the buffer beam and what I'll call the drawbar beam. As a matter of interest did your kit come like that, and am I right in thinking that the buffer beam will be too wide rather than the rear end too narrow? I have the GW Models riveter so can fairly easily knock up a narrower buffer beam. I'll be using the SE Finecast chassis kit and a Perseverance tender chassis. Thanks, Steve

Thanks Linny, Do like that van, and would run that sort of thing if anything like it had survived into 1950s East Dorset. A bit of the printing process I can't get my head around is how it prints horizontally away from a support, and when we printed the crane wheels in 7mm using the supports that worked perfectly in 4mm it started off with a few droopy delaminated layers at the outer edge of the safety guards before buckling down to print properly - so it's a distance thing but also depends on the machine as my supports were too far apart at 4mm to work in another 3D printer for the first production batch. As for deformation - the resin crane weighs diddly squat, the chain not a lot more so when the pillar deformed in what was fairly weak sunlight I could see that an admittedly small unbalanced load on the slender pillar might cause this. The big surprise that has potential implications for any of our 3D printed models is that the stout jib couldn't seem to hold its own weight plus whatever compressive force that light chain could impose on it. My solution was to print voids and insert metal. The translucent blue ABS like resin used was not as brittle as subsequent prints in grey, black or green. It would be interesting to know if these more brittle resins are stiffer (since this is how these things normally work), and therefore behave more like the moulded plastics we are familiar with, but since that first crane, all test builds have been reinforced as a precaution. Steve

I can confirm some 3D printing resins are definitely thermoplastic. I modelled the Yard Crane for Verwood in 3D CAD and the first test print was in what was described as an 'ABS type resin' in a fetching translucent blue. The prototype is not a balanced design, and both jib and pillar distorted in the mild warmth of October sunshine. To ensure some semblance of rectitude in the thing, both pillar and jib have had to be reinforced with brass tube. http://yeovilmrg.org/verwood-and-semley-yard-crane/ If anyone has seen the feature on Semley in the January 2021 Model Rail, it is that very first unreinforced crane, as test built and painted by yours truly, that has somehow managed to sneak its way into at least one of the photographs! Steve

The tiny wires in the couplings are very fragile. One of mine got damaged which gave me a dead short. It would be worth having a quick look at those little wires particularly if there's any uncoupling between tests. You could see if the short goes away if each coupling is released or even check if it's in an individual coach. We isolated my fault to a particular coach and coupling that way. I then manipulated the bent wire back to the shape and place it should be, and now leave the unit permanently coupled. It travels in a long thin home made plywood box that looks much more like it should have a snooker cue in it. Steve

Very nice! Less weathering perhaps than this poor old thing near the end of its days: A Wills kit (obviously) with (less obviously) Alan Gibson milled frames, Sharman wheels and obligatory at the time Escap. Suspended on Flexichas principles in EM Gauge with rear drivers fixed and the trailing wheel set sprung on a sort of pivoty thing. This was the very first loco I built over 30 years ago; the body kit was a wedding present from the club because I was 'Southern', and it is likely to remain my only Brighton loco! Very reliable on open days as long as the long lever between the front drivers and bogie doesn't get too depressed. Holds the road very well, but nevertheless convinced me that twin beams was the future of compensation. Steve

Bob (and Ruth) at the YMRG 10th birthday bash. It is with great sadness that Sheila has asked me to tell you that Bob passed away peacefully last night after a courageous battle with Motor Neuron Disease. She has asked not to be contacted by phone for the time being. Bob was a founder member of YMRG, and for many years our Secretary. He was a prolific and inspirational modeller, who has passed on his skills and knowledge via books, magazine articles, Missenden, the O Gauge Guild and EMGS manuals. His company and friendship will be sorely missed, and our thoughts are with Sheila, David, Ruth and family at this sad time. Steve

Bob would like to thank you all for your good wishes, but would like me to correct an error regarding his time at Westlands. Whilst not involved in the development of the BERP blade for the Lynx, he was the Designer in Charge of several export and RN Lynx variants. The ultimate design signature as he put it! The YMRG website has a very useful yet entertaining collection of Bob's musings on many aspects of model railway construction: http://yeovilmrg.org/modelling-wisdom/. Steve YMRG Webmaster

Quite clearly made of chocolate. When this happened to me I carefully deepened the slot with a razor saw, then filed level to tidy up. Steve

Bob has been sorting through his archives, and has turned up his construction notes and photos for this stunning Fowler 4F built from the JLRT kit. https://yeovilmrg.org/jlrt-lms-4f-in-finescale-0-gauge/ https://yeovilmrg.org/jlrt-lms-4f-in-0-gauge-part-2/ As a bonus he's turned up the same for this brace of Ford Railcars built from the Branchlines kit, as seen on St Martin's Wharf. https://yeovilmrg.org/branchlines-7mm-ford-railmotor/ Steve YMRG Webmaster

Every 4TC needs something to shove it and in my case it's a Heljan 33/1 with the sublime Penbits sprung chassis conversion (only suitable for P4 and EM Gauge models). Initially there were problems with a low top speed that were entirely Heljan related. For those who would like to know more: https://yeovilmrg.org/class-33-1-penbits-sprung-crompton-in-em-gauge/ The 4TC with 33/1 pushing rides extremely smoothly (unlike the real thing) at full speed (scale 90mph), and perhaps best of all generates loads of 'it's going the wrong way' comments at exhibitions! Steve

Hi, Found it, right at the back of the shelf in its box. It's a complete chassis and a runner by the look of it, will test it further at club tonight - I don't have any 00 track at home! Steve

Hi, A very long time ago I started a Comet chassis for one of these Bachmann split chassis 4-6-0s to both super detail and convert it to EM Gauge. The wheels with the rest of the Bachmann chassis really ought to be in a box in the railway room. No sign of it so far, but I'll have another look if you still need them. Steve

Funnily enough the Bath Road viaduct is only a couple of hundred yards from where I'm typing this - I used to take a regular lunchtime walk over it in the 1980s before it was all barricaded off. Our model of Pecking Mill Viaduct is effectively a very long stiff beam that despite appearances does fully support the trackbed; in contrast the viaduct on 'The Summit' just dangles from the trackbed! :-)

As a progress update Evercreech New has recently been attached at both ends to the fiddle yard also used for 'The Summit' and track laid and wired up. On August 25th we were able to run our first train through Evercreech New and happily the moment was captured on video: The engine is Bob Alderman's lovely 9F on a longish coal train. One of the extension boards has a model of the eleven arch Prestleigh Viaduct and the other a model of the rather unusual Pecking Mill Viaduct with its unequal arches on the widened side. Whilst 'The Summit' is currently erected in preparation for its visit to Fareham Rail-Ex in early October, work continues on Evercreech New with the steel stillages being constructed to transport the layout safely, the huge task of painting of Prestleigh Viaduct is in hand, and a model of Allen's Bridge that was so close to Pecking Mill Viaduct is well advanced. Evercreech New is indeed booked for Taunton Rail-Ex later in October, and will appear with a selection of S&D trains, but in something of a YMRG tradition will be exhibited as a work in progress at its first outing. As something of a teaser this is a 3D CAD for the Allen's Bridge outer girder - although this is not expected to be ready in time for Taunton: As it was a skew bridge the railings were not symmetrical. Steve YMRG Webmaster

The Yeovil Model Railway Group website now features a collection of photos and videos taken during the construction of Hobson's Brewery. I have added some words to try to explain some of the thinking behind this masterpiece for those interested. http://yeovilmrg.org/hobsons-brewery/ Steve YMRG Webmaster

The full BBC Points West broadcast clip has been uploaded to Youtube:

Also of course white sashes with coloured frames was quite a thing. The paintwork on my Victorian stone house was various shades of brown (with and without light sashes) until it went dark red with ivory sashes, then all green, followed by all blue, and under my stewardship cream with blue doors and black ironwork. It must have looked very smart in red and ivory, but I suspect that the various brown/stone shades were much more serviceable! Steve Shepton

This currently pristine loco is another variation of the 4mm Black Motor which we believe is a Jidenco Kit built originally (and very wisely) to 00 gauge. I have since converted it to EM gauge with compensated Perseverance chassis for loco and tender. The posing of the loco crew with the driver sat on the tool box/splasher is as the model came to me, and I would like to think was something the original builder saw in real life, perhaps when shunting. Some details of the conversion (which was not the 'quick win' it was supposed to be) can be found here.

Hi Jim, I used Kadee No 5s for the HST, although for most other stock I use a coupling with a longer shank (No 26 or similar) so that the box is completely under the buffer beam. The Kadees are mounted on the underframe with the buckeye at a more prototypical (less visible) height just under the gangway not at normal height for a Kadee. My HST will only just negotiate a 3'6" radius and I mounted the coupling in a slot (with captive nut) on the coach floor so that I can fine tune the position to minimise the gap between the coaches. I wrote up my HST here but there is very little about the couplings and I could add photos and description to that post if it would help. There's a lot of fun to be had with a good HST and it will be worth it! Kind regards, Steve

Hi Matt, Roxey Mouldings have a plastic eliptical roof section that is part of their coach kits, but these appear to be vacuum formed and are quite delicate. Hornby have a more substantial roof moulding on their recently released Maunsell rebuilds, but I don't suppose they will be available as spares. Anyway, have contacted Chris to see what the score is on his roofs as I would consider using them on my coaches if an improvement on the Roxey roof and will post an update here when I find out. Steve

Hi Becasse, Many thanks for bringing that to my attention. I absolutely agree that it won't have been the Sheppey unit because that was equivalent to a 2-lav set not a P+P set, and it was even photographed at Fordingbridge on a train in place of the 2-lav set that should have used. Though a P+P unit it was specified on some services it must have been hauled in both directions. In 1957 it was probably one of the Bournemouth LSWR panelled sets then in use (Set 36 was photographed at Wimborne in 1957). By 1960 it could well have been one of Ironclad P+P sets that David Vidler spotted on the line. I'd come to the same conclusion about the Sheppey unit when looking at 1960, but it slipped through in 1957. I'll amend my table to remove that particular bit of speculation. Cheers, Steve

Dear All, I am in the process of trying to build an accurate replica of Verwood station, and an important part of that process for me is to accurately recreate the types of trains seen on the line. So, with the help of David Vidler, who with great patience has shared his extensive knowledge of the line, I have collated WTT, CWN and EWNs (not usually from the same years) to produce lists of the scheduled trains (locos and stock) seen on a high summer weekday in 1953, 1957 and 1960. I have created a web page to cover services on the line on the YeovilMRG website and the very latest information will be found there. http://yeovilmrg.org/trains-on-the-salisbury-and-dorset/ As an aid to understanding how the service was scheduled, I have prepared a pathing diagram for 1957 (via link above). To give a flavour of the undertaking it combines timings from a hand copied 1957 WTT (from the SWC Portfolio) with pages copied from a 1956 Goods WTT courtesy of David Vidler. The mismatch of time tables and notices is far from ideal and although the train service followed a similar pattern from year to year, the engine duties were substantially recast at least once between 1954 (Nigel Bray book on the line) and 1958 (SeMG Martin White Collection). I also recognise that the engines used (if not the duties performed) are likely to be quite different in 1958 and 1960 due to the ongoing withdrawal of older loco types. If more appropriate source data is available I will happily update what I have already done and add the peak Summer Saturday services. If the data for 1963 could be made available I could document the final year of peak Summer service when a few ex-Somerset & Dorset trains were added to the mix. With the limitations above plus the effects of human frailty I fully recognise that this data is not complete or accurate. Corrections and additions will be most welcome! What is surprising is that in 00 gauge (ignoring oddballs like the Sheppey unit) a representative service could now be run for the years featured using almost entirely ready-to-run models! Steve

That's a nice idea as that train would have passed very close to my home at the time. In the meantime I've resolved my brown underframe conundrum: A fantastic model, but quite delicate. Over the last few days the guard irons seem to have gone missing from one end (now replaced in brass) and I found one of the dangly end steps on the floor. The steps under the door for the guard also get bent really easily. All that and the risk of damaging another wire in the couplings means that my 4TC is now permanently coupled and living in a nice long purpose built plywood box. Steve

This is by far the most interesting thread on HSTs that I have found on the internet and I have used it a lot for reference. I'm not trying to wake up this thread or looking for a response, but if anyone is contemplating a full length HST then my experience using two Lima power cars is documented here. It represents a cross country set (so 2+7) and runs on a large permanently erected EM gauge club layout with a minimum radius of 3'6 - YMRG's South Junction. Some of the upgrades covered are: - Lima power cars both ends re-motored using the diesel-trains can motors - no connection other than very satisfied customer. - Conversion to EM gauge. - Body mounted Kadee couplings (suspect this will limit the set to not much less than 3' 6" minimum radius). - Constant level head and tail lights on a DC layout, with two dull yellow marker lights and a bright headlight (for day time running). - Detailed Hornby cab interior (until the lights upgrade). - 2+2 seating in standard class from Joueff Mk3 donors. The EM conversion of the power cars replaced the crude traction tyred wheels with steel treaded wagon wheels (you can't see the holes once the etched disks are on). In this form there is plenty of traction available despite additional weight in the carriages. I only added this extra weight because one of the coaches (or more often one of it's neighbours) occasionally derailed. Only when I tried to add the extra weight to that carriage did I find that there was no weight at all in it which explained a lot. :-( The set can complete the scale mile circuit of South Junction in 20 seconds so we'll call that a scale 180 mph and our youth section are not alone in giving it some welly now and again. The HST has run at the last two Open Days and one guest who had his back to the layout commented how nice it was to hear the first power car, then the full complement of coaches then the second power car go by. It's easily the most fun I've had in railway modelling - and it just keeps on giving! Hope somebody finds this useful one day, Steve Edit: Minor corrections to spelling etc..

Hello Robin, Also guilty of using black and white film in my teenage years. My photos on that day didn't even capture the loco or set numbers. My Parkin has a drawing on Page 67 showing that the underframes and bogies should be brown and gives the BS 3-039 reference. It then wanders off into the post-sectorisation era rueing the resultant lack of uniformity in coach liveries, but I couldn't find a further mention of anything as mundane as the colour of underframes or bogies. All the pictures of corporate livery stock I've seen show a liberal coating of grime something akin to Humbrol 62 (Leather). I've never thought that black underframes look quite right on blue/grey stock, but hadn't made the connection that they might have started out brown. I shall weather mine (charcoal/leather enamel wash) and then it won't matter what colour it would have been ex-works. The idea of modelling the last train to Wimborne all bulled up does appeal although re-numbering to set nos 409 or 413 (from 404) doesn't! Steve Edited for spelling...