Nig H

Here are some more pics of the loco and tender. I think the tender is just about finished now, and the loco is finished as regards the etched parts, apart from the steps, which I will add after the difficult handrail and ejector have been added. Nig H

Hello, Here is a copy of a notice that will be appearing in the next Newsletter. "Members Products I will soon be releasing the following kits: 1. LMS 2P 4-4-0. Similar to the Midland 483 class but with detail differences. Price £30. 2. Midland Railway Johnson-style 3,500 gallon tender (rivetted version). Many ex Midland 4F 0-6-0s ran with these tenders so offer an alternative to the Fowler version included with the Mike Raithby 4F etc. Price £20. 3. Fowler 3,500 gallon tender. I have decided to provide this kit as the Mike Raithby etches for the 4F and 8F are no longer available, the etchers having lost the tooling. This style of tender ran with a number of LMS locomotives including the 4F, 2P 4-4-0, Patriots, Jubilees and 8Fs. Price £20. I will also have available parts needed to convert my Midland Railway Johnson 3,250 gal tender to the original style with lower front bulkhead and full length coal rails. Price £2. Please contact me if you need more information or are interested in buying any of them. Photo Etch Consultants Ltd. Many of you may have heard that the etchers, Photo Etch Consultants, have ceased trading. I and several other members used this company to produce many of our etched kits. Fortunately, much of the photo tooling, including my own, was rescued by Bob Jones and Chris Higgs and returned to the owners. However, finding another company that can use the photo tools is another matter. My photo tools are too wide to fit a standard sheet used by PPD Ltd, my other preferred etcher. So to produce more of my kits I would need to arrange new artwork with either fewer of the existing drawings on a PPD sheet, or parts on the existing drawings re-arranged to create a narrower but deeper fret that would use space on the PPD sheet more economically. Either of these alternatives is costly in terms of time and the expense of creating a new photo tool. Given the above and that sales of my existing kits are low once the initial rush following their release is over, I am considering not re-stocking most products once existing stocks have run out." The new kits arrived today. I just need to produce instructions for them. Nigel Hunt

Here are some pics I took at NEAG's 40th anniversary meeting. First the Groves trophy entries. Bob Jones A4 My Fowler 2-6-4T Anthony Yeates Highland 0-6-0 Bryn Davies's Ruston diesel - the Groves Trophy winner (just) Nick Mitchell's LNWR Coal tank - very close second And some of the layouts. Mick Simpson- Anthony Yeates - Port Jubilee John Aldrick - Ivybridge I didn't manage to get pics of all the layouts, and some of those pics I did get weren't very good. Nigel Hunt

Things have started to move forward more smoothly again. After fitting the firebox and checking all was square, I dropped the smokebox/ boiler assembly onto the footplate and it lined up accurately with the firebox, and in the right place relative to the front dummy frames, so I tack soldered the boiler to the firebox and left it all overnight. The next day I checked the alignment and everything still seemed OK so I finished off the soldering, starting round the smokebox and frames, then finishing round the boiler and firebox. I also added the raised footplate platform in front of the smokebox. I was confused my the instructions concerning the cab floor and found out from Simon Grand that the instructions I have are different to the ones on the 2MM website, though the latter seem to be based on my copy (3MM Society). I decided to ignore the instructions and used an unnumbered rectangular section with smaller fold-up rectangles at each end as cab floor support. This seemed to enable the cab floor to be fixed at the correct height above the footplate. I made my own cab floor/ fall plate part as I couldn't find anything for this on the etch. There is a part that purports to be the cab floor but it doesn't include the fall plate. This is after soldering the cab floor support in place. Next I formed the curves in the cab overlay and lower layer. I was dreading this but it turned out to be easier than I thought it would be. Once the two parts were soldered together I soldered the assembly to the cab sides and front, doing this a bit at a time an checking the roof didn't end up sloping down from front to back of the cab. Below is the position after adding the cab roof, with roof hatch and safety valve base now added. You can also see the cab floor and fall plate in place. I've also drilled holes for the handrail knobs. I decided to use the holes in the cab front as the datum, so all the other holes were marked out relative to those. Next the cab opening beading - should be fun. Nigel Hunt

I heard today that Photo Etch Consultants will cease trading at the end of this week. They sent out an email to that affect to their customers last week, though I didn't get a copy. I and other PEC users are waiting for more information from the company concerning acquiring our photo tools. Getting the tools may be of limited value as other etchers may not be able to use them anyway. My PEC tools will be too big for PPD sheets, so I would need to set up a new tool for a given item, and this could require significant re-arranging of parts on an etch to get everything into a narrower fret. Nigel Hunt

Hello Geoff, These look like they will work so I've bought some from ebay. Thanks everyone who offered help and advice - much appreciated. Nigel Hunt

Hello Ian and Izzy, Here is a photo showing the power supply box, the socket adaptors, and the Velleman unit, which looks like the one Izzy kindly pictured above. I'd prefer not to chop the power unit cable up and that's why I'm trying to find some sort of adaptor to connect the units. Maybe I could get a jack plug and route some wires from it to the Velleman? Nigel Hunt

Hi, Thanks Nigel. The Velleman unit is a VM124 1A power supply module. Maximum input voltage is 24V AC or 35V DC. Output voltage between 1.2V DC and 30V DC. The power supply is AC stepped between 3V and 15V. I'm still wondering how to connect the two units. Nigel Hunt

Hi, Probably a silly question to most of you but I know almost nothing about electrics/ electronics. I want to connect a c. 16V AC power supply to a Velleman voltage step-down thingy. The power supply has a jack plug like female connector and the Velleman has two separate screwdown sockets for wires or spade type plugs. What I want to know is what I need to connect the two devices together, and where to get the connectors. Any help gratefully received. Nigel Hunt

I spent an hour or so filing the firebox to fit snugly against the cab front, footplate and slashers tops. One final check on the firebox came to mind and I found that the outer wrapper was slightly off centre. This would mean the safety valves and their base would be off centre too, something which can be quite apparent. So I dismantled the firebox and tried to ease the outer wrapper over to one side so that it was no longer lop-sided. This meant the previous fettling to fit the footplate etc had to be re-done, and the height of sandbox access hole on one side had to be increased to match the other side. Some lessons about checking and re-checking to be learnt or re-learnt here! Now that the firebox was corrected, I tried to hold it in position on the footplate while I tack soldered it in place. This I found quite difficult as it kept on moving when I changed my finger-hold to check the position of the other side of the firebox, mainly whether it was central between the cab front outer windows. Eventually I thought it was in the right place so tack soldered the cab front to the firebox rear. The firebox had moved slightly in this operation so I tried to force it into position while I re-did the tack soldering. This didn't seem to work so I unsoldered the firebox and cleaned away the solder from the firebox and cab front so I could start again. However I noticed the cab front had moved backwards on the right hand side, so I tried to press it back into place with the soldering iron. It sort of worked except the cab side fell off and the adjacent splasher top moved out of position again. I'm starting to feel seriously disgruntled by now! Another battle ensued but finally the splasher top and cab side were re-attached, and in the right positions. I'm now wondering why this loco is proving such a struggle to build. Maybe I'm getting a bit slapdash and careless in my old age and maybe I'm out of touch with working with brass rather than nickel silver. More trials and tribulations to follow soon no doubt. Nigel Hunt

So onto the next stage. I decided I'd add the cab and firebox as a single unit. First I soldered the cab sides to the cab front. I found this quite a challenge as I struggled to position the sides in the exact position relative to the front and hold them in place while I did the soldering, but I got there in the end. This is what I finished up with. Next I fixed the cab front to the rear of the firebox using the openings in each as a guide to positioning the two assemblies together. I just tack soldered these together and did a trial fit. It was miles out and I realised belatedly that the openings weren't supposed to line up. Of course, when I unsoldered the firebox from the cab front, the cab sides came adrift. Once I'd re-attached the sides to the front I tried soldering the cab unit to the footplate, but I found it very hard to get the cab in the right place, hold it there and tack solder, so I gave up. In the end I soldered the front to the footplate, then checked it was positioned accurately before adding the sides. So here is where I'm up to now. Oh, and a splasher top came adrift though it went back quite easily. Probably didn't want a stern, Basil Fawlty style talking to. Next step will be adding the firebox to the footplate. Nigel Hunt

Hello Simon, Thanks for this. It shows there's often more than one way to put kits together, some ways better than others. I'd convinced myself that the corner plate overlapped the end of the buffer beam but your pic of 44604 and some in the Wild Swan book show the buffer beam end exposed. Ideally I should have taken a smidgen off each end of the buffer beam backing piece, with the corner piece butting up to the buffer beam overlay, and over the backing piece. I calculate the real buffer beam to be 0.19mm thick in 2mm against the overlay thickness of 0.125mm, so about as close to scale as you can get. However, its done now and I don't want to change it again. I think the smokebox front plate on my model is slightly proud of the wrapper. I tried to squeeze the front down, but its gone as far as it can go. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that when the smokebox is positioned as shown in you pic relative to the frame, I don't end up with a gap between the rear end of the boiler and the firebox front. Nigel Hunt

The bits I needed to add to the footplate were the buffer beam, valances, splasher tops and the dummy frame bits. I curved the splasher tops between the knife handles shown before. I had to squash them slightly to get the curve the same as the splasher sides. I also filed a chamfer on the underside of the openings in the footplate to reduce the gap between the splasher tops and footplate. At this stage I should have trimmed the splasher sides level with the tops (there were some small differences in height), and cleaned up the excess solder. I didn't do this until fixing the dummy frames in place and these got in the way a bit. Next I filed the bottom ends of the splashers flush with the underside of the footplate. I then added the buffer beam and overlay. This fitted first time despite the comment about fettling in the 3mm instructions. Next step was the valances. I added the corner plates to the valances and filed the plates flush with the front end of the valances. No! The plates need to be left to cover the edge of the buffer beam, and that also helps position the valances. Trying to hold the valances in place while soldering them to the footplate. As often its best to do a bit at a time and check they are going on level and square. Bits of rocket stick proving useful again. Well, tarra a bit. Nigel Hunt

Anyway, Back to the build. Things seem to have got slightly out of sequence in that once the boiler/ smokebox wrapper has been soldered to the tube, the latter needs to be filed to length level with the wrapper. Its probably better to do this on a lathe but I used a saw and needle files instead. You need to be careful to get the ends of the tube flat and level all round, otherwise you might have problems getting the smokebox front and firebox square to the smokebox/ boiler assembly. Checking the boiler is level. The next step was adding the two smokebox layers. You can use the holes in the etches to get the positioning right. These were soldered to the smokebox with the help of pegs as before. The instructions refer to bending the bottom ends of the outer layer at a line of rivets to match the saddle under the smokebox. The inner layer is not mentioned as I think it is not used in the 3mm scale version. I tried this but it didn't seem to work all that well for me, and there was also the inner layer to deal with. In the end I soldered the inner layer to the smokebox, from just below the centreline on one side all the way round to just below the centreline on the other side. I then folded the loose ends of the wrapper away from the smokebox starting about where the vertical sides of the saddle would start. Next I added the outer wrapper in the same way. I scribbed a line down the centre of the smokebox front and used this as a guide to solder it to the smokebox. I used this to line up the bottom edge of the saddle rear, and solder this in place about level with the rear end of the wrappers. I could now force the wrappers tight against the smokebox and into the transition between the smokebox and saddle. I used a peg and a thin wooden skewer as below whilst soldering the wrappers in place. Its best to do a bit at a time and check that the wrapper isn't coming away from the smokebox further round. Next step will be adding bits to the footplate. Nigel Hunt

Hello Chris, As Simon said, the tenders are all 2mm scale, and at the test etch stage. I will get production versions organised soon. I did have a look at the high-sided Fowler tenders a while back, but I'm not very interested in doing that variant currently. Nigel Hunt

Hi Andrew, No it isn't. As you know, I was told the etchers either lost or disposed of the artwork, so we cannot get anymore copies. The only source, as Chris Higgs has suggested, is members gloat boxes. I have no intention of producing an etch for the loco, though I have produced a Fowler tender, including a riveted version, and this will be available in due course. A Johnson- style 3,500 gallon riveted tender is at the same stage. Nigel Hunt

Hello Nick, Thanks, and I'm sorry I cannot match the expertise of your 'Jubilee' videos. I have neither the technology nor the presentational skills for that. To solder overlay round tube, I have always used the method I've described. Most of the time it seems to work OK as long as you go round the circumference of the tube/ overlay a bit at a time, and check you haven't squeezed the overlay up and away as you move the iron round. I try to solder near to the point of contact of the peg. I'm not planning on making up the inside valve gear. At my age, there are other things I'd like to do with my time. I probably have bits of the etched valve gear around if you want to have another go. Nigel Hunt

After the firebox, I decided to tackle the smokebox/ boiler. It had to be done at some point, I suppose. I found some brass tube, diameter about 10.3mm (probably 13/32") which seemed to be about the right size when the boiler wrapper is added. The kit includes a smokebox/ boiler wrapper, and two smokebox wrappers. A problem with the two smokebox wrappers is that they need to be bent away from the lower half of the smokebox to form the sides of the saddle. This proved to be quite a challenge. I rolled the wrappers between two knife handles as here. The two smokebox wrapper were done in the same way but not full circle. Once the above wrapper was curved, I soldered it to the boiler tube. This was tinned first, and any lumps of solder smoothed over so that the wrapper was a close fit all over the tube. I held the wrapper in place with clothes pegs. You can see its possible to squeeze the pegs quite tightly to squash the wrapper down onto the tube. I used my antex 25w iron for all the soldering, with plenty of flux and a good dollop of solder on the iron to maximise the heat transfer. I soldered a bit at a time round the circumference, moving the peg round too, to keep the wrapper tight against the tube as I went. The assembly gets very hot and its useful to have two pegs round the boiler so you can hold everything with one peg, and move the other. The final section to solder is where the two edges of the wrapper come together. Here is the assembly, prior to adding the the smokebox wrappers. Underneath is the smokebox front. The instructions were a bit vague about what to do the the parts on the etch. I soldered the smokebox front to the full thickness backing piece, then the saddle bottom on the inside of the smokebox front assembly. Its a good idea to check that the smokebox/ boiler assembly sits in the curve of the saddle bottom with the same amount of overhang of the smokebox front all the way round the smokebox/ boiler assembly. Well, that's all for now folks. Nigel Hunt

I could have carried on with the footplate, the next job being the splasher tops, but I decided to do the firebox next. I have a firebox bending jig which makes forming the side curves much easier. Here's the tool. You have to mount the inner firebox layer over the pin on the top, clamp the layer with the metal bar, then form the bends round the side of the tool. As far as I can tell you cannot use the tool to form the bends in the outer layer. Instead, I then soldered the inner and outer layers together, with just a small amount of solder on the front and rear edges, making sure no solder got into the curves on the sides. I then bent the outer layer round the inner layer. Initially the inner layer bends were less than 90 degrees, so I bent the layers to right angles around a length of small radius rod. Once I was satisfied the bends matched the profile of the end pieces, I soldered these in place, then checked the firebox was square and the top level. Here's the finished item. The tool made this job much easier than trying to work out where the bends in the sides needed to start, then bending round suitable diameter rod. If anyone wants to use the tool, please email me at nigelhunt62@outlook.com . Nigel Hunt

I decided to start with the footplate next. I found it was quite hard to fold up the splasher sides to right angles to the footplate. Maybe the half-etched line could have been a little wider. I'd recommend anyone doing this scored the fold line and maybe ran a triangular needle file along it too. Here is the footplate after folding the splasher sides. Nigel Hunt

In this thread I'll describe how I built a Mike Raithby 4F. I have already made two, though a long time ago, and I cannot remember much about how I built those. I have instructions for the 3mm scale version and these helped though they are a bit vague about some stages of the build. The 3mm chassis is built using a different method to the one Mike used for 2mm scale locos, so that part of the instructions is irrelevant. The instructions also assume the builder uses a turned smokebox and boiler, with just the smokebox front, outer wrapper, and saddle rear from the etch needing to be used. I hope that my account will be useful to anyone considering building one of these kits. It will be useful to learn of alternatives to the methods I use during the build so please feel free to do so. The kit was one of the first 2mm scale kits available as far as I am aware. Mike is an incredibly skilled modeller and didn't think it was necessary to include wimpy things like tabs and slots to help locate the parts. This means building the kit is a bit more difficult for us mortals. There are also some stages in the build which I think are just quite difficult, as there are on most loco kits. This is where I got to after posting some pics in 'What's on your work bench'. The tender almost complete and the loco chassis also, just brake gear needing to be added. The loco chassis with all the drawbar bits now added. Nigel Hunt

Hello Adam, I've had this happen once or twice. I clamped the chassis between two straight lengths of rocket stick wood, and held this firmly in a vise. I then went along the soldered spacer joints one at a time re-soldering them. After this I released the chassis and if there was still some bend noticeable, I'd repeat the process. This method seemed to work for me so maybe worth you trying. Good luck. Nigel Hunt

I have been building a Deeley/ Fowler hybrid tender from a Mike Raithby Fowler tender, one or two bits from the Deeley tender included with a Midland Railway Belpaire 4-4-0 and some bits from my own etches. Here are some pics. The chassis before attaching the draw bar top plate. This might not be totally necessary but secures the coupling better. I moved the bend at the front of the motor mounting beam backwards by about 1mm after this pic. Close up of the lower drawbar fixing from the Mike Raithby kit. I set this lower down on the rear spacer than intended to allow for the kink in the front end of the motor mount. The ideas is to transfer some weight onto the back end of the loco. Two pics of the tender body, showing the characteristic expanse of footplate at the rear end arising from fitting the shorter Fowler tank onto the longer Deeley frames. I think this is about done apart from fitting some of those very nice new 3D -printed axlebox/ springs Tony Simms has produced. The drawbar and u/js complete and assembled. I hadn't appreciated how close the the gearbox and motor would be and the male u/j is quite short. I'll wire the motor up to the frames and give the chassis a trial run next and see how it performs. Nigel Hunt

I have seen videos of the Caledonian Express showing one of these in maroon livery. Also, a pic of one in BR maroon livery. I suspect they were used in a lot of named expresses so would have received post 1956 maroon livery. Here are a couple of pics of one I built. Nigel Hunt

These look really good Tony, nice work. Will you have the Fowler 3,500 gallon and Midland Railway Johnson tender axlebox/ springs at Derby, or have you been overwhelmed with enthusiasm and printed even more types to take with you? I was really impressed with the level of detail and delicacy of the test Fowler ones you sent me to look at and I think these new items will be a boon to many of us. Nigel Hunt