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Hello sandy, lovely restoration job, but I see no sign of any cab doors. Did the crew hop through the cab cut outs "Dukes of Hazard" style?

Hello Sandy, Don't know why but this build had fallen off my radar. Glad to see it is progressing. Superb! By the way, I think some Scottish bloke might have won at Wimbledon, and I believe the other recent news high light, is that a woman in London had a baby. Can you believe it!

Very nice work and some interesting tips. I like your idea of chemically blacking areas that are prone to chipping. I guess that would be useful on green locos also(GWR/BR)as a small blackened area where the paint has chipped would be much less obvious than a small brass one. Not sure if it would be any good for the brighter railway colour - Garter Blue, Apple Green, Crimson Lake etc.

Hi Sandy, the difficult part is that you have to line up the fore and aft position as well as the lateral position. On the Brit, Rebuilt MM and Duke, kits I have built, there was nothing to help with this, so it was trial and error. I see two raised spiggots on top of the bars. Perhaps these locate into alignment holes in the bracket? Excellent build so far.

Hello Ken, great work as usual. I guess that is black etching primer on the chassis. If so, would you mind letting me know what brand, as I would like to give it a try some time. Cheers, Peter

Hello Ken, you know more about it than I do then. I thought there was only one water carrier which I assumed was from Flying Scotsman. The one I saw in Ropley was there just after Bittern had just been restored to mainline running. It was in BR green same as the loco at that time. I see you have gone for outer fixed axles with the center one allowed some up and down movement. Is that you preffered method? That is what I tend to do as I have found it simple and reliable, and unless the track is horrendously bad, it works very well. That said, with my Seven DoG, I have built it as per the instructions with compensation beams on the centre and rear wheels. It will drive on the rear axle, so not sure how that will work as it will be a first for me. Hope to get the motor and geabox from ABC at the Cleckheaton show this weekend. For those who think it is unwise to build the chassis without the motor, let me say there is a scale drawing in the instuctions that shows that the ABC set I want will fit. Cheers, Peter.

Hello Ken, superb as always. Since reading your thread, I have also been trying your method of prepping lots of parts at a time before soldering. It is certainly a good method of working so thanks for the tip. I saw the water carrying ex LNER tender on the Mid Hants Line some time ago. Was quite surprised to note that the corridoor ran through the middle of the tender not along the side as in the normal LNER corridoor tender. Cheers, Peter

Hello Ken, I wish you would slow down. There will be no kits left for the rest of us! Joking apart, superb job as usual. I guess as you have primed in red oxide, t will be finished in either LMS or BR crimson? One other question, do you use an etching primer first just cellulose? Cheers,Peter

Nice idea Ken, I'll keep that in mind. Jeff, if they are soldered in place then you cannot remove the inner chassis with the wheels!

Hello Ken, looks excellent as usual. I built a Javelin. Black 5 and the design/fit of the parts is identical and very easy to construct. Will you make the frame cross members detachable or attach them to the inner frames in some way? That's what I did with my class 5 (albeit 9000 gall tender), as if you attach to the tender frames as in the prototype, then you seal the wheels in. Cheers, Peter

Hi Ken, now that is what I call a locomotive and again superb workmanship. Agree with your comments on the firebox despite my aversion to large castings. The Javelin/Gladiator approach with srcew in spaces between the front and rear firebox formers is good for Belpair types but the Duchess is a very complex shape. I am building the Seven Duke at the moment and that has an inner etched frame with outer etched wrappers and a casting for the front shoulders. I think that should work ok but we will see when I put the wrappers on. Cheers, Peter.

Hello Ken, not my cup of tea really (just a kettle on wheels), but superb workmanship as always. I don't know about you, but I much prefer all brass construction to cast or resin firboxes and boilers. Much more satisfying.

Hello Sandy,thanks for the feed back (and Barnaby also). I see where you are coming from now. I can appreciate the value of having to spend less time cleaning up after the joint is made. Maybe I'll give one a try some time. Cheers, Peter

Sandy, I appreciate that the torch gives a nice joint, but what was the reason for using the torch as opposed to an iron? As far as I can see there is nothing outstanding about the result achieved, compared to what you would get with a good iron. Despite, the comments in one of the other replies about the heat sink effect of the frames and the brass bushes nearby, I don't believe this joint would have caused any problems for an Antex TCS (50watt). I use only thus iron for building anything from small tank locks to pacifics in o gauge without problem.

Hello Ken, just started on the BR1E tender. Have downloaded the pics from your thread and I note your comments regarding the lower curve on the tender sides. Will watch out for that and see if I can see a way round it to correct. I'll start a new thread when I get time. I'll be pleased if turns out any where near as good as yours. Cheers, Peter.

Hi Jeff, I hope to write up the build on the Seven Duke when I start it. Will do it under a new topic though as I've already taken enough liberties in Ken's thread. Apologies for that Ken.

Hello, just been reading the thread on your build of the Acorn Duke. It very much reflects my own experience of building the Acorn Britannia (with BR1 tender). Looks like you have made an excellent model from what is a quite difficult kit to build. Just a couple of points that might be of use to anybody out there with any of Acorn's kits sat on the shelf. A common fault on Jim's BR tenders is that the rear ladder is set too high where it loops over onto the tender top. This puts the top ladder rung above the top of the rear tender plate. It should be a couple of mm or so below. Needs to be modified by trimming the top and bottom end to lower it down. On the slide bars I found the same problem (they are for a rebuilt MN/WC). I improved them, although they were still not perfect by filing the lower edge to something nearer the BR slidebar profile and removing two of the cast bolts from the top. On the ashpan on the left hand side there should be two levers for opperating the the ashpan doors. There was one on the Brit and this was not included so I had to make it. I guess they were not in the Acorn DoG either and I now have the Seven kit which does not appear to include them either (two fiddly little bits I'll have to make). I hope you found that of interest. You never know you may be "lucky" enough to make another of Jims BR kits in the future.