CF MRC

Bet your car didn’t look like this, though Ian. Phil Parker took this excellent picture of the Kirtley well tank with the late Steve Sykes’ beautiful scratch built wagons. The sign of things to come is shown by the Sonic Models J50 - they don’t get much better than that. It was great meeting Sam Leung, the proprietor, at the show. Tim

We had an excellent weekend at the Thornbury show. I managed to get this video of the Kirtley WT and many other engines at work. The driver’s view down the layout takes some beating. One of the aspects that really worked well was that we were completely open at the LH end. We always try and engage with the public at shows and we let quite a few people come behind to take a look. This seemed to be very popular and allows people to take a close look at locos and stock - and our brass strip track of course. The new scenic efforts were quite subtle, really, but did make it a bit more interesting in the hinterlands. We are forever trying to streamline set up and take down. We were loaded and in the van at just over two hours on Sunday. Tim

Taking CF to a 2.5 day show is always a bonus as it gives us a better chance to shake out the gremlins. Our position was very good and having the LH end very open worked well. We spent a lot of time talking to the public out front as well and many came behind the scenes - this really makes exhibiting fun! It was a great show and very well organised. We even got a new building facade fixed in place on Saturday. Thank you for having us. Tim

CF on show at Thornbury. An excellent show without being too crowded so everyone could see the layout without a struggle. We have added a new frontage to one of the buildings at the show. I happened to photograph the last remaining contemporary building in Vale Royal a few days ago. I took a rubbing of the relevant building on the layout. This was then passed on to Ben Weiner who processed it into a new facade, with two Club members immortalised. It has a really useful effect in this area of the model. In other news, the Kirtley well tank hasn’t yet got going on the NLR. It’s quite tricky sorting out new engines on a layout at a show, so we’ll try it out tomorrow morning. It was lovely talking to visitors at the show - it’s what makes it all worthwhile. Tim

After a fairly tricky few days, my second scratch built loco has had it’s second major overhaul, 43+ years after it’s first appearance. The loco was stripped down and any wear assessed. The loco construction was written up in a ridiculously early MRJ - the front end compensation was removed long ago. It has been fitted with a new Portescap 1212 motor with a home made brass U/J as the original Mike Bryant plastic moulding (made by Geoff Jones) had cracked. The brass pins were silver soldered into the knuckle and then drilled to allow the shaft through. The second shaft was also replaced as the original steel had worn; as can be seen by the shouldering on the left. The new shaft is from a twist drill, so well polished. The long arm gives fine adjustment of the worm and worm wheel. This loco was made in the days when Association gears were nearly always eccentric: the teeth on the 64DP gears had been ‘adjusted’ to mesh truly. The engine has been put back together and will hopefully perform OK on the NLR at Thornbury this weekend. It certainly always had a fair turn of speed with a 6V motor. Once it’s all proven then a trip to the paint shops beckons for the tired edges to be touched-in, some tweaks to the cab and the sandbox linkages reinstated. Tim

The lettering is doing a valiant job of compensating for the nose-down attitude. I am just working on a 0-4-4 and they area bit tricky to get right. Tim

After careful weighing up of all the signs and symptoms, I think Tony can be diagnosed as suffering from A*CMD. For the uninitiated that means A (* - insert appropriate number) Compulsive Making Disorder. There are other sub-variants… Tim

Clearly designed for mountain railways. Tim

You certainly settled into a rhythm at the MRC Easter shows. We used to have lunch in a superb Italian restaurant under the Westminster Chapter House: luncheon vouchers were provided by the MRC. In the evening times you would see bowler-hatted city gents lining the barriers, with their briefcases moving along the rail. I actually much prefer three day shows with CF as it gives you more chance to enjoy the layout rather than knowing that the whole lot has to come down the next day. Tim

As an aside, a friend has just turned up this guide photo of Chiltern Green. Had darker hair then, but I’d only been married six months at that time. Tim

You may well be right. However, I don’t think the area could be modelled (properly) with commercial track. (photo Barry Norman, courtesy MRJ) One of the great strokes of luck during its construction was the acquisition of a copy of the LNER track diagram dating to 1932. One of our club members is a great collector of antiquarian railway books and ephemera. He was tipped off by the auction house, for which he was a major client, that they had a copy of the LNER engineer’s track plan for Belle Isle and the KX Goods Yard for sale. Due to his standing with them, we were allowed to borrow the plan for a few days. It was a simple job to get the drawing scaled to exact 2mm scale in a print shop and run off a couple of large copies. We therefore had an accurate track plan in the early 1990s, well before Templot was invented. The late, great, Keith Armes made all the track work in the Belle Isle ‘trough’ and commented that the turnouts and crossings were the longest he had ever made. GNR drivers didn’t hang around getting into the ‘Cross from Finsbury Park, so the cross overs on the up lines were clearly built for speedy transitions. Tim

Our first show to demonstrate the layout concept was at the last IMREX at the Wembley Conference Centre (probably 1985). We were on the balcony, showing Bill Blackburn’s impressive track making jigs and other display bits, such as the model of the model. During the show an elderly gentleman and his son enquired on the stand, “Why don’t you use the new PECO track?” I replied that this layout was going to be 2mm finescale and that it would be incompatible. He responded “I’m sure you could get a good deal”. Again I said that it was incompatible with the wheel standards, asking him who he was. “Sidney Pritchard”. He walked off muttering to Michael… Interesting how things turn out isn’t it? We certainly didn’t expect to still be working on it nearly 40 years on. Tim

A significant change of style has seen quite a lot of work expended on the Vale Royal board (situated west/ behind Belle Isle). This has always been rather sketchy in its presentation, which works, up to a point… We were fortunate to inherit some fine industrial buildings from the old ‘Hill End’ 2mm scale layout. I suspect these were made by Ray Fricker. They have been useful to add interest into our industrial hinterland. At the same time, the south end of the Tylor building has been lowered by 8mm to give a better relationship with the Vale Royal road. The medium and far distant houses have also acquired rear extensions, garden walls and trees. We will need to see how all this works with the layout fully assembled and how much more detail could be added. CF has always been a layout of broad brush strokes. Indeed that has literally been the case over the last working sessions as it has had a major clean up. I’m looking forward to seeing it all together at the Bristol Show in Thornbury at the end of the month. It is exactly 40 years since John Birkett-Smith, Mike Randall and I started planning the layout. Tim

Any updates? Tim

David, PM’d you. Tim

Does anyone have an original Mike Bryant (made by Geoff Jones) plastic UJ? These were made in the late 1970s. I actually only need the ball & pin male component. The current Association set is not appropriate for the job in hand. Tim

Just looking on ebay I found these for anyone interested. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203680871226?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20221018081743%26meid%3D1e7a64362abd46ccbccc05155fcd288c%26pid%3D101429%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D272894791506%26itm%3D203680871226%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2332490%26algv%3DSimplAMLv9PairwiseUnbiasedWebCpr08MlcBERTGreedyV3KnnRecallV1%26brand%3DSKYSEA&_trksid=p2332490.c101429.m2460&amdata=cksum%3A2036808712261e7a64362abd46ccbccc05155fcd288c%7Cenc%3AAQAHAAABIFVAfz4vmJboe8N%252FfRYfRpkGnGuVpKoiKJ1XR%252FPBbEk2IyDS9eHJSGUt14M5EGunOBPNQImpe2ExIwtTF9FZzcfPHYA1ybIYWNhPJ%252B8EnUQNR435oQWLE%252FfbYE47Tsu0QhueXMsrxQ8YqnfSlzb%252BmFV7semTN8HoqAZJIiJ2ZpaucQ%252BOzd3CA2LBvUpC2z6xWLLC2pbzm7OAHxPk6xfUGi36lDF4hBlL4yvORFf9Uo6K%252BVF0smU1nQwfKEn5rWwcs89r99OagfKAX3hAO%252Bz2ufrU65QS255gXgBe6VRi55MMQlq90PiN0nhSc3X4OKnOJK8CHTNxV17vFMElsGOK9KDq%252B3IEvVRZxi%252FtwQuhsWBCNOq0HgkFkPf9VnxeirVwyw%253D%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2332490 Effectively a Chinese copy of a Japanese copy of an original German design. Tim

The revised brake wheel drive modifications came early for Sir Sagramore as I remembered that there was an old dental hand piece in the big workshop. After a bit of dismemberment it looked very promising: The original brake column was modified to take the hand piece head. The vertical brake shaft needed splicing onto the hand piece drive, (not a trivial exercise) and the brake handle shaft re-engineered to mimic a dental bur, with a ‘latch grip’ drive. The original box, made by Ian Jaycroft, was significantly re-modelled to be closer to prototype. The mechanism works well, as the original alignment of the contrate gears is maintained. The prototype has a rounded top to the brake column and this now correct on the model. The video probably shows the quite complex arrangements better than photos. The whole assembly is held together with 10 bolts. The support column should be square / rectangular in section, so that can be modified quite easily with some brass channel section. The improvement in the view from the tender I think makes all the work worthwhile. Tim

For the tender brake wheel on Sir Sagramore a steel disc was turned up and drilled on a rotary table. A styrene spoke template can also be seen resting in the wheel face. This plastic template was used to mark out the spokes using the obligatory gramophone needle. The material between the spokes was fretted out within 40 minutes. After cleaning up with files The final finishing, e.g. rounding the spokes used steel burs, stones and a rotary steel brush. Here it is In-situ. Awaiting a knob and a steel 10BA nut. Ian Jaycroft’s gear drive to the brakes is beautifully engineered, with two quite large bevel gears. It could be made smaller with a gear set from a contra-angle dental hand-piece: but there are other more pressing things to be getting on with… Herewith the spinning knob for the handle. Tim

There have been some interesting and, dare I say it, fairly predictable comments on the RTR vs. kit built conundrum on WW. On a big exhibition layout such as CF the availability of decent commercial models as a basis for conversion to 2mm FS is a godsend: e.g. the advent of the Farish Jinty’s was in the nick of time, just as our original Grafar conversions were beginning to wear out. Similarly our Dapol B17 is now on its second chassis with a decent motor fitted. Jolly useful engines (if somewhat lacking in the traction stakes) that will be the first ones to get out and start the layout running at a show - and the range available will get better… As to kit building, there aren’t that many kits that suit our particular theme, but shot down 4mm etches are a good starting place. My last loco was one of these, the GC 9P ‘Valour’. This was shot down from some excellent 4mm scale Nick Eason loco etches and a tender etch from Paul Craig artwork. The construction was fairly straightforward and the superb finish was from the hand of Ian Rathbone. I normally paint my own engines, but at the time my eyesight wasn’t quite up to scratch (it is now) for such a complex livery. I enjoyed making the engine, and it looks super on CF at the head of an early Pullman train, but somehow it’s just a bit too far short of ‘all my own work’ However, my current project, the NER 4-6-2 class is in a different league. The tender again uses etches (from Steve Barnsfield original artwork) but the loco is nearly completely scratch-built apart from the driving wheels and gears. I am enjoying this construction far more as I have complete control of how it is made: e.g. I can design it to make it easy to paint and use the ‘correct’ materials for the valve gear. So is there a right and wrong: I don’t think so. I have been scratch building locos for nearly 50 years, so some might say there’s an advantage - I have also invested in superb tools for the job over the years; so that’s another advantage. Importantly, it’s a matter of what gives you pleasure that counts. The ‘short cut’ conversion of an excellent commercial model gives me satisfaction when I know it will be useful on CF. But the real head turners are when a unique scratch built engine makes it’s way on the layout: that is what really gives me pleasure. Tim

One can use pipe bending springs and other devices, but I generally just bend them by hand for the smallish diameter pipes on this engine. They are constantly being re-annealed though. If you don’t do that they will distort. Tim

Back to big stuff for a while. The original water control for the RH injector on Sir Sagramore was fiddly and deep inside the cab and not at all practical. With the new injector’s streamlined plumbing I thought a water valve towards the back of the tender would be more practical. A commercial valve has therefore been adapted to fit the water pipe below the tender tank. The handle was made and located with a taper pin so that it can be removed for photos. Once it is chemically blacked I don’t think it will be too conspicuous. I think it should be reasonably convenient to operate. Fortuitously, the taper pin rotates against a positive stop cut into the inside of the valence - which makes positioning it much easier for ‘off’. The next job will be to re-make the tender brake wheel, which currently has four spokes and it should have six. Tim

When I first saw the net I thought you were going to do a working TPO… Lovely detail. Tim

Seems pretty unequivocal https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=car+drive+shaft+angle&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwi37Z7zs_f9AhX8iv0HHfyzBvQQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=car+drive+shaft+angle&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQDFCICFiTD2CnI2gAcAB4AIABRogBgAOSAQE2mAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=fRQfZPe6HfyV9u8P_OeaoA8&bih=1302&biw=1381#imgrc=IRA-FnR1KjFAQM Tim

I think we’re saying the same thing, Jim! Tim