pete_mcfarlane

A couple of strips of nickle silver were drilled at the same time as the connecting rods, opened out to 2mm, and used as a jig to set the hornblocks. One of the strips has a 2mm axle bearing in it, because I opened the hole out too much (so opening it out even more to take a 2mm bearing solved that). The (9mm diameter Sharman) wheels were put on the hard way, quartering by hand and pushing on with a vice. These are actually 1mm too small, but there isn't much choice when it comes to small P4 wheels. This limited the choice of gearbox to a 2 stage gearbox with a 8.2mm final drive gear. The pickups are attached to a length of PCB sleeper, which will be inside the loco body and not visible. There's also quite a bit of lead in the body to keep it on the track, and the wheels need to be kept scrupulously clean. Brake gear is from an Exactoscale wagon etch. It waddles a bit, as you'd expect from something with a wheelbase shorter than the track gauge, but it navigated the EMAG test track with no real issues. After that, it was just a case of finishing the body with a chimney (I cheated and used tube, it should have a slight taper to it) and painting. Another cheat was to hide the interior (which is full of a mix of lead, gearbox and Mashima) by blacking out the windows and adding a tarpaulin to keep the wind out at each end. Painted using an ancient tin of Humbrol French Blue (possibly the tin I painted my childhood cardboard version with), and fitted with a set of Narrow Plant numberplates. Number 3 because it's my third P4 industrial loco. Overall, I'm really pleased with this tiny thing. Firstly because I finally have a model of something I tried to build (badly) as a child, and secondly because (as I mentioned before) I've made a loco so tiny actually move under its own power (and in P4 to boot).

I've now gone through this thread and restored the photos. And a bit of an update on my latest P4 industrial loco. I first saw a picture of the Wantage tramway's Hughes steam tram as a kid in the 1980's. My Grandfather had a stash of Model Railway Constructor annuals, one of which (1983) has an article on steam tramways including a photo of this contraption. It looked easy to make, being basically a box on wheels, so I tried to make one myself out of cornflake boxes.... Obviously that was a complete disaster, and was massively overscale as I'd sized it for my other OO stock, not realising that the real loco was tiny. It's the kind of steam tram loco that would tow a horse tram trailer or two round the streets, rather than pull lengthy freight trains round Cambridgeshire or Belgium Anyway, about 30 years later I bought a set of etches from Worsley works for the Wantage loco, as I still quite fancied a model. It will be a freelance example, rather than an exact model of the Wantage loco (or any similar Hughes locos - the Swansea and Mumbles had one as well). I do remember painting the original card model a royal blue colour, and I still have an ancient tin of Humbrol blue in my paint box which may even be the same one, so that takes care of what colour to paint it. Anyway, the etches sat in the to do box for several years as I slowly accumulated bits for the model. I finally made a start over the Jubilee weekend, and it took a couple of hours to assemble the basic etches. This is what you get - just the body: The chassis would need to be scratchbuilt, so first of all I made a mockup out of plasticard to check clearances. I then cut the frames out of 10thous ns sheet. I ended up building a home made jig to solder it all together, drilling a block of wood (in the drill press) to take a length of 2mm rod, and then using that to align the frames at the fixed axle end whilst soldering them together. This worked fairly well, at the second attempt (after the first go being slightly wonky, and being unsoldered for another go).

You can get RTR locos that are manufactured in the UK. 7mm scale, detailed, very expensive (but look like they are worth every penny) https://www.djhmodelloco.co.uk/product-category/ready-to-runs/ 4mm scale, less detailed but more expensive than Hornby or Bachmann. Also look like they are worth every penny. https://www.ooworks.co.uk/products

Schemes like this always seem like a solution looking for a problem.

Probably entirely prototypical though..... I recall an early 80s Railway Modeller (an April edition?) with an article on construction a miniature vintage telephone set up, so the operator could have an argument with a (pre-recorded) voice on the other end when things went wrong.

I trust these inspectors are all retired Royal Engineers officers?

Q Kits moved on to whitemetal/brass at one stage. I bought their 10,000 on the back of a quite nice looking build of the resin kit in BRM, only for a collection of iffy metal bits to turn up. The noses were asym3in the best traditions of D&E kits. One of these days I'll finish it as an amusement.

I've just started an old BSL Stove-R that I bought off Ebay, and was wondering how to get the chassis to work. So I'm definitely interested in one of these.

Yes, for paying for Model Railway stuff from people who don't do online payments....

That's an interesting point. 20 years ago that was how you ordered everything, so we're used to it.

Anyone fancy paying £75 for a kit that's still available from Southern Pride for about £30? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115518048568 Nice kits these Mk2s, you rarely seem to see them on layouts though.

I wish I hadn't clicked on that 'scrap loco link'. Now eBay is trying to sell me lots of similar junk.

My favourite was the 'scrapyard condition' Caledonian single. A loco that spent its entire career being well looked after and cherished, and then went straight into preservation.

He's definitely done some Southern electric stock, I'm using a set of his Bil drawings at the moment.

It was a James Stanley Beeson model that went for £14k. Somebody must have really wanted that Special tank, although that's probably not far off how much it would cost to make a mode like that if you cost up the several hundred hours of work that went in to it multiplied by a decent hourly rate for a highly skilled man plus overheads. https://vintagehornby.net/beeson-models/

I've not yet summoned up the enthusiasm to sort all the photos, but as an interim update I finally fitted some Narrow Plant Hunslet works plates to my 05. And sorted the body level, which I never noticed 2 years ago when I built the loco - it;s amazing how these things go unnoticed and then suddenly jump out and hit you later on. Dodgy photos as my layout is currently in bits and waiting for a new lighting rig to be fitted - another job!

That's a slotting file - normally used for making slots in screw heads. They also have some use by guitarists, as mine came from a music supplier. As you say, useful for opening up not-quite-properly etched slots.

I thought it was the other way around - the Mainline/Replica/Bachmann 03 ended up as their 04, and the latest 03 is an entirely new model. Anyway, I'd better build the Vulcan kit I've got stashed away before this comes out.....

There was a story doing the rounds of somebody in Darlington being given one for going to the pub for lunch on their last day before retiring and coming back a bit 'tired and emotional'. I never found out if it was true, but I heard it from several people.

The only problem was on services like Crewe-Skegness. I remember sitting in a single car 153 as it trundled its way eastwards from Crewe, picking up and dropping off handfuls of people along the way (even at Stoke). It was then full to bursting on the Derby-Nottingham-Grantham bit, and then left Grantham virtually empty. So almost empty for the whole journey, except for the bit where people actually wanted to use it.

I'm pretty sure that there was a daily Nottingham - Newark - Lincoln - Peterborough through train. Basically a Nottingham- Lincoln and Lincoln - Peterborough that were joined together. It will be accessing Newark Northgate and then reversing to rejoin the Lincoln line, back when a large proportion of trains on this line did that maneuver.

If you want to kill an hour or two in Pickering there's a rather nice castle. Good bit of exercise pushing a pushchair up the hill to it too.

Went yesterday and it was really good. Great to see Llanastr again, and a great selection of other layouts.

And you need to know how to use Excel..... They seem to want quite a lot for the salary.