Nig H

Hello Guy, Thanks for your comments. I will probably do an etch of parts later this year. Nig H

Some pics of the loco now fully assembled with wheels and motion painted. Next step is weathering those parts to try to blend in with the body. I very impressed with this GF model. The level and quality of detail is excellent, and the motor is so smooth and quiet. Nig H

Here are a couple of pics of my L & Y saddle tank, now painted and awaiting weathering. Not the greatest runner but I'll try a few more attempts at improving it. Nig H

Hi Atso, Thanks. The loco and tender bodies were painted separately. The chassis were painted as complete units with the wheels and motion in place. I had to rotate the driving wheels after a couple of passes with the airbrush to get at otherwise covered areas. I cleaned paint off wheel rims and gears as soon as the paint was touch dry. I have only lined boilers with transfers so its easy enough to do that with the handrails in place. Ian Rathbone lined City of Birmingham for me with the handrails in place, but he's an expert. I wouldn't fancy fixing the handrails after I'd painted the boiler as I think I'd get glue everywhere. Also, I prefer boilers made from nickel silver or brass, so the handrail knobs are soldered in place prior to painting. I'm not keen on using white metal for boilers but that was what was in the Black 5 kit. Nig H

I thought I built from whatever was in the box. Here is an earlier picture, maybe the door is clearer. The handrail knobs look huge! Nig H

Thanks for your comments. I think you get used to working with small, fiddly bits. You need to work out how to hold them securely first. They then seem very small when you work on them, then much too big when you come to fit them in place. I think that whatever scale you work in there are small bits that can be added to a model, but in the larger scale many of the small bits are just too small to be modelled in 2mm scale. Nig H

I've now primed the loco and it should be ready for the top coat soon. I almost ruined the paintwork on the tender side but I think I managed to retrieve the situation. I used Spectra grey primer cellulose paint, which I have had for years without using before. It will be interesting to see how well it adheres to the metal. The top feed pipework isn't totally spot on but it is quite small and fiddly, and its about the best I could do. Nig H

I've finally got round to priming my L & Y saddle tank. The grey helps show blemishes. I'll try to test how well the primer adheres to the metal when I get ready to apply the top coat. Regards, Nig H

Things haven't quite gone according to plan. I had hoped to join the connecting rod and the union link to the crosshead by crimping them under the respective stumps left on the crosshead after removing the GF motion parts. This didn't work because there wasn't enough stump left. So to Plan B. I drilled a 0.5mm hole through the crosshead connecting rod stump and attached the new connecting rod with a crankpin from the front of the crosshead, and retaining the GF disc with a crankpin washer. For the union link, I drilled a 0.35mm hole through the remnants of the union link securing stump. However, the hole in the etched union link was designed to fit over the GF stump, so was far too large for a length of 0.31mm nickel silver rod I intended to use. Luckily, I had a spare union link with small holes at either end, so I used this spare instead. Anyway, after a bit of fiddling about with the separate sections of motion, I managed to assemble all the replacement bits back on the loco chassis, and they all seem to work OK. Of course the acid test will come when the driving wheels etc. are fitted to the chassis, and the return crank soldered in place on the middle driver crankpin. Fingers crossed it will work. Nig H

Here are some pics showing how I started dismantling a Farish Fairburn tank to convert the chassis to 2mm finescale. This shows the loco dismantled. I needn't have removed the cab. The front sand pipes get in the way when removing the keeper plate and one of the pipes tried to escape. I think it will be possible to glue it back in place. The slide bars can be prised away from the back of the cylinders to help release the crosshead and piston. Wish I'd done that before bending the slide bars to release the crosshead. Anyway, with the slide bars removed it was easy enough the re-straighten them. The big lump under the keeper plate is the reversing lever rod and connecting lever. The pip on the inside holding the radius rod in place came away from the plastic moulding when I tried to separate the two parts. Fingers crossed I can insert a length of 0.3mm or so rod where the pip went, to re-attach the radius rod. I've made sets of replacement valve gear, so now its just a question of mounting them on the chassis, fitting finescale wheels on Association replacement Farish bearings, soldering the return crank to the middle crankpin........... I'll post more pics as I progress. Nig H

Thanks Kris. It helps that it's a very good kit. One might say 'its a deuce of a good kit'. Maybe you could keep us informed of your progress. Nig H

Hello Jerry, thanks. The loco and tender weigh 86g, the tender probably 24g, so the loco alone 62g. I set up a train of two bogie bolsters and two white metal tar wagons, and I added some brass rod to the bolster wagons. This gave a total weight of 145g which the loco seemed to be happy with, although better going forward. The weight equates to 34 of my mineral wagons, or 7 coaches, all these being largely plastic. I got the impression that adding big lumps of brass rod to the bolster wagons significantly increased the drag on the bogie wheels and that if I had made up a train of reasonably free-running vehicles without weights on them, then the loco would have pulled better. Also my test track was on a slight incline although I attempted to correct this while running the loco. I want to do a bit more fettling to the loco and I hope that this will improve the overall performance. I hope that the loco will cope with 200g loads eventually. Nig H

Thanks Simon. Here are some pics showing the motor and drive arrangement. The Faulhaber 1219 is araldited to the motor mount on the tender chassis. The Bob Jones tender uses brackets or mounting rings to which the motor of choice is attached. The male parts of the U/J are etched housings soldered around a length of 0.3mm spring steel. I found it necessary to file the 'housings' to a taper towards the centre to increase clearance inside the female parts of the U/J. Hope this helps. Nig H

Here are some pics of an almost completed model of a Black 5 built from a Bob Jones Fence Houses kit. I added a smokebox ring to the front of the smokebox. It was turned on my lathe, not etched. I added a smokebox door support bracket. It could do with being a half mil wider really. I should have tested the fit of the cab doors against the tender front before soldering the cab floor and roof in place! Two side views showing my attempt to represent the top feed pipework. I soldered some filed down to D section 0.3mm diameter rod to some strips of 1 thou brass sheet, then bent the pipework to shape as best I could. It came out as well as I could have hoped for. An extra pic for Simon. Nig H

Hello John, There are pics of Polyphemus and Simon's Jubilee on my products page of the Association website at Farish Jubilee. Nig H

Thanks Simon. Here is a pic showing a Jubilee with the Black 5. Both use 6.5mm diameter wheels, which is about to scale. I forgot to mention the tender is built from my own etched kit, its not one of Bob's etches. Nig H

Here are some pics of an almost finished Black 5 from a Bob Jones kit. Some tidying up and fettling still to do and a few bits still to add. I've since added the pipework for the top feed, fingers crossed it looks OK when painted. I'm not looking forward to lining the tender with Fox transfers. Nig H

I use a single layer of greaseproof paper , without oil, between the coupling rod and washer. This gives enough clearance unless you press hard down on the washer as you apply solder. Nig H

Hello Andrew, Your model is looking good, and it's nice to see someone build one of my kits. Your comments are noted. I too am waiting for N Brass to do the castings. Which loco will it be? Mine will be 50850. Have you done the roof yet? Mine is detachable so you can get inside the cab. Regards, Nigel

Hello Ian, Sorry for not replying sooner. The 6mm motor seems to run quite fast, but its overall performance is hard for me to tell, as the 1F rarely gets used. On my test track recently, the performance wasn't great, and the decoder seemed to be malfunctioning. I've now stripped the chassis down and cleaned it in CIF. With the motor removed, it runs fine down a plank of wood, so I think the poor running was because of electrical pick-up issues. The loco is so small that it's hard to find anywhere to add any more lead to aid adhesion. Your milled chassis should help in that respect. Regards, Nig H

Chris, That's right. The body was made from a shot down etch. Nick Dearnley got turned up at an Expo or AGM with about ten etches, and I managed to persuade him to let me have the last one. The chassis is scratch built, first with compensating beams for better pick-up (didn't work all that well), then finally with Simpson springing, which is working better. Work on the loco was helped considerably by a series of articles in Model Railways magazine, starting January 1975, and entitled 'For Building begin Here', by B. Fesank. These articles can be regarded as essential reading for any would-be scratch builders. The articles were especially useful as they used a half -cab as the subject matter. The first issue includes scale drawings of a half-cab (w/base 7'4" and 7' 8"). My model started off powered with a Faulhaber 816. The chassis had to be attached to the body with the motor loosely screwed to the chassis, then the motor tightened up to mesh when inside the boiler tube. At some point the motor seized up and has been replaced with a Nigel Lawton 6mm diameter motor, so at least its easier to get the motor inside the boiler. Nig H

Hello Andrew, I think this is correct. There is a description of the new range in the April/May 2012 Mag, page viii. Nig H

I agree - the latest Farish loco bodies are pretty good and worth finescaling. Nig H

Here are some pics of the finished Ivatt, with BR livery body. Nig H

Thanks Jerry. It does sort of clank a bit, and I've spent a while trying to figure out why without success. I can do wheezing noises myself, so who needs sound chips? Nig H