Nig H

I thought the usual composition was BTK/TK/CK/BTK, called 'inter-corridor' sets. This is what David Jenkinson says in LMS Coaches volume 1. He does add that occasionally a TO was used instead of the TK. The three car set was BTK/CK/BTK. Nig H

Hi, What scale? I got 2mm scale sides for both types from Bill Bedford, and he is currently listing 4mm scale sides for D.1719. I assume he still has the artwork for the period 1 version too so could produce them. Might be worth contacting Bill to see what he can do for you. Nig H

Thanks for this Nick. Great work as usual. Here is the link to my topic for this build. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/128847-fowler-2-6-4t-in-2mm-finescale/page/2/ Nigel

Hello Richard, The ones already made up into bogies and the set of four in the second from bottom row look like the ones I'm after. Maybe you can PM or email me to arrange a transfer of economic benefit. Nigel

Hi, Open and vestibule are the same thing, just different terminology. I'd stick with 'open' as it's what is used for the BR carriage codes (TO/ SO third/ second open), and it's less letters. One issue I'd look at for is mixing coaches from different makers as they may not be a close match in terms of body colour, lining, or general appearance. I don't model in 4mm so I am not an expert on 4mm RTR coaches but I think it may be worth thinking about this. Nig H

The idea of a gloatbox exchange seems good to me. I have a lot of items that are surplus to requirements, I just need to sort them out and list them. On the wants side, if anyone has any whitemetal castings for LMS 9' bogies, rivetted (more recently produced) or welded (no tie bar, produced decades ago), I'd be interested in acquiring them. Nig H

Hi Jim, I use flattened lead sheet filed and cut to shape for backheads. It probably doesn't add much extra weight, but every little helps! Nig H

Hi, The L & Y Soc has a list of its works loco drawings you can read through. The drawings are kept in the Archives section at Manchester Central Library and they will dig out the ones you want to look at. When I went to get details of the large boilered 0-8-0 I was able to photograph those I was interested in, but not photocopy them. I'd specify as many likely drawings as possible as you don't always get given what you expected from the drawing description. Nig H

Hello David, You've won a coconut for identifying the shed correctly. I thought about putting a number plate on, and I may yet. The running number for this loco is wrong actually as 45249 was a prewar build with a shorter union link. Thanks to Jim and Don for your kind comments too. Jim, I will bring some old type wagon wheels to Aberdeen for you to sift through. Nig H

Here are some new pics of my Black 5. I put a light coat of satin black over the transfers to tone them down, then a coat of gloss varnish as an experiment. The smokebox has a thin wash of matt black. I think this will have to do for now. I might start again after the Aberdeen exhibition. Nig H

Hi Tim, Thanks for your description of how you made your chimney. I've learnt much from your informative and inspirational posts. I'm relieved that the techniques you use to make a chimney are not so far from what I do. I learnt from Mike Raithby, and he knew what he was doing too. I hope you don't mind me adding a couple of comments to your post. I go along with checking the turning against a scale drawing and sometimes I've tried to get a near to 2mm scale version of the drawing to hold behind the turning in the lathe to check the turned shape looks about right. In our scale it's not so easy to measure any but the most significant dimensions of a chimney even if they are given on a works drawing. Once I've finished the overall shape of the chimney, I usually polish the turning in the lathe with fine wet and dry paper, then a glass fibre brush. I too part of with an overlong underside. I then start the smoke box shape with various oval profile needle files, holding the chimney (or as here, a dome) upside down between two cut-offs from pieces of rocket firework stick, as shown below. You can see that the edges of the remaining flat section are curved. That is because the filed away section rises up in the centre of the turning and falls away again to the far edge. This has happened because of the see-sawing motion of the file and needs to be corrected so that the curves become straight lines, parallel to each other. This view also suggests that the curve is fairly central and if maintained, will avoid the chimney being lopsided on the smokebox as viewed front on. If the sides of the curved section narrowed towards one edge of the circumference, this would result in the chimney leaning front or backwards as viewed side on. When the front and rear edges are within about half a millimetre of the curved base, I use various grades of wet and dry wrapped round brass tube of slightly smaller diameter than the smokebox to finish forming the curve, as below (apologies for the blurred image, but I hope you get the idea). As for the remaining padded shoulders, I use round and oval profile needle files to remove it and blend the curves round the base of the chimney before finishing it all off with fine wet and dry. I find this last bit really satisfying. As regards fixing to the smokebox, I always epoxy in place so I have time to check the alignment and make small adjustments as necessary. Nig H

Hello Nick, The cab-side panels were one piece, the tender panels cut into four quadrants. I'm tempted to give the whole loco and tender a thin extra coat of black as you and John BS suggest, then varnish and weathering. I agree with you about the rear tender lining. The drop from the higher level to the lower level is unchanged from the original transfer (I checked an unused pack) but if I moved the rear section up closer to the top edge of the rear of the tender, then the higher middle section would have to rise over the turned over section of the side. I'd say the change in height required is about 1mm, which suggests to me that the transfer is wrong. Thanks to everyone else for their comments and suggestions. I'll see how the next stages work out. Nig H

I have been waiting to finish off my Fence Houses Black 5 for ages. The main issue was what to do about the BR mixed traffic lining. When Fox brought out a transfer pack for this I thought the problem was solved. I've just applied the transfers and the pics below show the results. Most of the loco lining has been done using the specific lining pack but the valances on the left hand side have been done with the Fox general BR mixed traffic pack. I could have used the specific pack but I thought it would be useful to see how I got on with the general pack. For the latter, you have to apply a red/grey line first then once fully dried apply a black line down the middle of the red and grey lines. The specific pack includes a clear gap between the red and grey lines. The pics above look OK ish to me apart from one or two specific areas. The pics below show these in closeup. The valance uses the general lining pack, and the radii available for the red/grey are too tight for the radius of the valance so to line up the ends of the transfer, the middle of the curve has dropped over the edge of the valance. Getting the black in the middle of the grey/red on the curve was a struggle for me. I think you can tell that the lining fills almost the entire depth of the valance, which is 4" or 0.667mm in 2mmm scale. I think that at some points the transfer, even though there is only a very thin transparent edge to it, has ridden up over the edge of the footplate too. As far as I can tell, the specific lining pack doesn't have an item for the sharp curve in the valance just to the right of the cabside number, so I used the general lining pack for the red/grey, then tried applying a seperate black line on top of it. Apart from struggling with the radius of the black line, you can see that the line is wider than the gap between red and grey from the specific set. For the tender I cut the lining panel into four quadrants and applied each separately. I did this as I considered the panel to be too big in width and height for the 2mm tender. And what fun it was getting the individual sections straight and in line, and the correct distance from the footplate, upper tender edge, and front and rear handrails. If anyone does use the transfers, for the tender I'd recommend viewing from a distance to check all the lines are straight and or perfectly vertical. Viewing up close (with a magnifying lamp in my case) helped get overlapping joins lined up but doesn't help with the other aspect so well. The cab numbers are Modelmaster sets. Having looked at the results of all my work, I'm very disappointed with the results. I'm sure many modellers would have made a better job of applying the transfers than me but I think that it's maybe expecting too much to get transfers that are close to scale and useable for this application. Next step will be to remove the transfers and restore the paintwork. Nig H

Hello Eaton, Thanks for sorting this out. Regards, Nig H

Hi, I got an advance ticket via pdf file email and on it it said ' DEAR GUEST, This is your event ticket. Ticket holders must present their tickets on entry. Your ticket will arrive via 2nd class post.' I got something through the post which said 'ticket' on it too. Which piece of paper do I need to bring with me for the show? I don't want to print the pdf file if I don't have to. Nig H

Here are a couple of pics of a Fowler 2-6-4 T chassis I've been working on. If it's any consolation to William, getting this chassis to run smoothly has been hard work, though mainly getting the valve gear to function without catching. The problem areas included the combination levers catching the bottom front and rear edges of the valve spindle guide box, the front crankpins catching the inside face of the crosshead and possibly the connecting rods glancing the rear ends of the slide bars. There seemed there were so many things going wrong it was hard to decide what really needed correcting. After several hours fettling I think I've sorted it all out and got a reasonably smooth-running chassis. The pics show a temporary motor arrangement I rigged up to run the chassis in Jif. I didn't want to use the intended Faulhaber motor for this so I used one of the Chinese ones I bought on eBay. I rinsed the chassi twice in my sonic cleaner to remove all the Jif. I've still to add the rear crankpin washers and finish off the brake gear. Nig H

With advice from the VAG (use Tacky Wax), I managed to fix the Caledonian Express headboard to City of Birmingham, on loan to Camden shed from Crewe North for a few weeks (in my modeller's world). I think I'll see about colouring the border of the headboard. Nig H

Hi William, If the idler axle is a single piece, won't you short out the chassis? Or does the idler 'axle' comprise two short axles with a gap in the middle of the gear muff? Nig H

Thanks, I'd hoped so. It makes the balance on the sheet easier. Early on in this project I looked at using the etched chassis under the GEM body. The GEM body footplate is solid down to the bottom edge of the valance and would need to be hacked away to fit the etched chassis. An alternative would be to slice about a millimetre off the top of the etched chassis, or a combination of the two modifications. There may be other work needed to get the etched chassis to fit too. So, I don't think the etched chassis could be used with the GEM body, I may be wrong though. A shame, as it would have been a quicker way to get something up and running. Nig H

Hello Valentin, One thing I'd look at with the body on is whether the coupling rods are catching the steps, or the footplate (probably not this though). Also check the wheels are not catching the splashers. I note the hesitation seems to occur at the same point each time the wheels rotate. I'd stop the wheels at that point and inspect the underside of the loco carefully. I'd also look to see if the worm wheel is rotating concentrically, though I'd have thought the hesitation would occur whichever direction the wheels rotate. There are all sorts of things to consider, but especially the obvious - often overlooked (well by me anyway). Maybe leave the loco for a day and start the investigations with a fresh mind. Nig H

Thanks David and Angus. Which cab style(s) do you want? Nig H

Hi Jim, Thanks Jim. The last I heard Ian was only doing work for previous customers. The link is www.IanRathboneModelPainting.co.uk or something similar. Nig H

To me, the hexagonal 'crank pins' are more of an issue than the rods themselves. An impressive model, nonetheless. Nig H

Hello Jerry, Thanks. Ian Rathbone's paint job on Princess Arthur really helps. If I'd tried it would have been a real mess, and she would not have been amused. I think its my favourite engine, even including LNWR G2s. Nig H

Just off the workbench really after Princess Arthur was serviced in readiness for a trip to the Aberdeen show in October. 40439 is also going and has been tweaked to improve the running. I added extra 'Simpson springing' to the 2P to improve pickup. I'm looking forward to seeing these in action. Nig H