Nick Mitchell

Well, I promised my next wagon project would be a pair of Stephen Harris' All-Steel High goods wagons. Up until the Jubilee Expo, I had spent most of my modelling time this year working on my Challenge layout, but as a bit of a "layout detox" after that, I have finally begun work on said wagons. As it happens, another pair of these wagon kits were on the Bring and Buy stand at the Jubilee, and I couldn't resist. So - two became four - and I am part-way through the batch. They're turning out to be not as quick and easy as some wagon kits, but are enjoyable to build nonetheless. And if I do them justice, they will be far finer than the off-the-shelf N gauge offering. As one would expect with one of Stephen's kits, the research has been thorough, and a number of parts are included to make an accurate portrayal of many variants of this humble wagon - allowing me to build four slightly different wagons. Here are a few pictures of how things are going: For wagons not featuring wood-planked doors (which 3 of mine will be) the first task is to punch the "dimples" a.k.a. securing ring pockets in the half-etched wagon sides and ends. For this a special alignment jig and punch need to be constructed. The punch is nothing more exotic than a wagon axle with the points filed off. The jig forms a sandwich round the wagon side while it is still attached to the fret, holes in the frame ensuring accurate alignment. The instructions warn against punching too enthusiastically less a hole is formed rather than a dimple. Interestingly, of the four kits I have, to seem to have over-etched slightly in production, and the half-etched parts are very thin indeed. The other two seem to have under-etched slightly, and have lots of cusp, and in a few places haven't quite etched through. The corner folds of the wagon sides/ends are also scored while the parts are still attached from the fret, and then removed. Here are the sides/ends for one of the two LNER-bodied wagons that will receive steel doors, ready to be folded up. The rails along the top edge are to be folded down and soldered on the inside of the wagon side, so there's a reinforcing rib around the top edge inside and out. Once folded up, the sides/ends attach to the 2-layer wagon floor. This is the BR-bodied version, where the ends of the floor planks are visible under the steel sides. Attention then moved to the underframes, which make up separately, with various styles of break gear available. Several layers are built up, including spacers, brakes, axle-guards, and sole bars. Below is the beginnings of the RCH 4-shoe brake option fitted: By the time I had all four wagons built up to this stage, I had examples of 2, 4, and 8 shoe brakes, plus 3 different body styles. I started needing to be careful to keep them matched up. Apologies for the slightly blurry picture below. As more parts started to be cut out and formed into sub-assemblies, I finally got organised and resorted to my trusty Pringles lids. I dread to think how many cans of Pringles I've had to eat in order to keep up with my model making hobby! Still with the underframes, the sole bars themselves are a complex piece of origami, and incorporate part of the body-side framing for the doors, as well as the door bangers. Lining these up to solder them onto the chassis (once the axle-guard layer was already in place) was a bit more tricky, as unlike all the other layers, there wasn't a really positive location tab or slot. At this point there are lots of fragile bits sicking out in all directions, and the whole thing is really rather vulnerable. Adding the buffer beams - which incorporate the base layer of the end stanchions - makes things even worse. So bad in fact that I didn't take a picture of them. But the next stage after that is to fit the body to the underframe. It is held in place by the end stanchions, and once they're soldered to the body and the side "wings" folded up and soldered, the whole thing becomes much more rigid and robust. The photo below shows one wagon with the body and underframe united. This one has been taken a couple of stages further, and vertical ribs have been fitted to the end stanchions and either side of the door. I've also fitted buffers and top-hat bearings. Having high-top-rib spindle buffers in the Association range of castings is a boon. Early-build instances of this wagon type appear to have been fitted with them all round. The same wagon seen from underneath, now with more of the brake gear added, helping to further strengthen the parts vulnerable to damage. This is as far as I've got so far, but at this stage it is prudent to temporarily fit some wheels and check everything is okay. There are still a few bits left to add - doors, couplings (cosmetic and functional), springs/axleboxes, and the remainder of the brake gear... but it's starting to look the part.

This is good stuff, Nigel. Thanks for sharing. I messed up soldering the boiler wrapper to the 4F I built many moons ago: I'd coated the tube with Carr's solder paint, and used florist's wire tied round the wrapper to keep it in place. Then the soldering itself was carried out with a kitchen blow torch. Unfortunately, where I'd twisted the wire, it dug into the wrapper as the blow torch annealed it, and left it looking rather beaten-up. I've used the same method on a couple of models since with more success (and the wires tied more loosely), but your way with the clothes pegs looks a lot gentler. I'll have to give it a try. Will you be making up the inside valve gear components on the etch? I got those wrong on mine as well!

I clamp the bobbin spacers in the jaws of my watchmakers' vice to make sure there is no twist in the frames. The flat jaw of the vice acts like the ruler in @queensquare's previous answer to ensure no bending along the length.

Love the new title. It really shouts out what the layout is all about.

My challenge layout was put on hiatus when Covid hit, but I've been trying to snatch bits of time to work on it during the last couple of months. It will be far from finished scenically, but if I get it to a state where things will run reliably, I will count that as a success and a major confidence boost. Who knows - it might even nudge me towards building the layout I've been finding excuses no to start for 10 years? I'm certainly learning a lot, which was a major reason for me entering the competition in the first place. I will bring it along whatever state it is in.

Just poking my head up from an enormous pile of exams I'm in the middle of marking... I had a 50% failure rate with Loctite 603 retaining compound - which is my go-to green juice for jobs like this. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Loctite 243 threadlocker (which in theory is less strong) has worked every time, however. I'm a big fan of soldering, but I've never had joy soldering to stainless steel, and wouldn't even attempt it with these wheels. Hats off to those who make it seem easy! P.S. My 603 "expired" in 2007, and the 243 in 2012.

I just sliced through them with a curved scalpel blade. Because there is a full stack of the frame, the tags are well supported. With a sharp blade, there's no reason things should bend.

Recently I made up a couple of the Association buffer stop kits. First up is an L&Y rail-built example. The kit design in ingenious, the six layers folding up origami-like in stages. Here's the completed item installed on a length of track. I soldered pads of thin double-sided PCB behind the beam to keep the two sides electrically isolated as an alternative to having the buffers on a separate dead section of track. The kits for the pre-grouping designs are all WSL now, which is a shame, as I imagined many examples would be quite long-lived. Next up is a more modern LMS example, the finished components of which can be seen below, ready for installation: This will be sitting on a siding parallel to another example of the breed which I built some time ago: I've also been digging some inspection pits. I've posed a tired-looking cleaner in the pit in the picture below... I'm wondering if they are slightly too deep? Or maybe the one I'm used to climbing in and out of at Embsay is unusually shallow? In any case, the cleaner needs to set to stop lazing about in the pit and set to work on 10735 - she's looking decidedly dusty!

Does it trigger the flushing urinals in the Gents under York Road when people walk past?

You're just trying to worm out of it now, Tim...

You really need to partially encase the area around the lift shafts in Perspex or glass, and put some real soil/clay in there. You could go as far as adding some earthworms to add movement/interest for when the underground services are suspended. If they look a bit overscale, you can always say they're N gauge...

It is like that, Jim. I'll probably try and make some transfers for the panel lining. They are a broad lime green band, with a thin yellow inside edge, and red outside edge. The scheme is very similar to SECR lining - above the footplate at least.

So... it's been a year since my last update on Beatrice. I did spray the main black areas a few days after the last posting, and there things have remained, while I was too scared to think about the lining. The real Beatrice has a very elaborate livery, with both edge lining and panel lining. I might end up with a slightly simplified scheme. Or I might abandon the lining altogether and cover her with "grot" if it all gets too much for me! The edge lining is a red stripe with black filling in to the edge of the surface, and this is where I have decided to make a start. The first session has been to use a spring bow compass to follow the curved edges with the red line - around the tank front and parts of the cab sides. Some bits got a bit messy and I've tried to tidy them up with a brush. Overall, I'm not too impressed with the results. With the naked eye, it's hard to tell there's lining there at all. With a close up photograph, some of it looks horrendous. I've taken it off and put it back on a few times, and this is the best I can manage at the moment. Ian Rathbone I am not! I've taken a few very cruel pictures of what I've done so far. Feel free to comment/criticise/advise! I get the feeling this is going to be a lengthy process. This is the cruellest close up of the front of the saddle tank. Trying to tidy up the outside edge of the line with a brush was tantamount to impossible. The inside edge is a bit neater, but I'm hoping the black will cover up most of it! You can see I'm missing a bit behind the chimney. I'll have to try and brush this in somehow later. I want the existing lines to be fully cured before then, so I don't ruin them... The classic side-on view with a pound coin for scale (she really is tiny!) If you zoom in it looks quite scrappy round the cab. Somehow the lining along the bottom of the frames came out much better - but was easier to get at to do. This view shows the lining all the way over the top of the tank. I had to do the centre section behind the chimney with a brush. It also shows the detail between the frames... In this view of the left hand side, the cab lining is practically invisible - and improved no end for that! While I had the red paint tin open, I brushed in the reversing reach rod and sander operating rod. i think the colour here adds a lot to the character of the loco. I do need to sort that handrail out under the tank though! Here the cab-side lining is visible. Sorry it's a bit out of focus. Still you can see how jittery the lines are. Bear in mind how much bigger than real life the photo is though...

Well, I already painted part of the chassis (the bit behind the wheels), and the wheels themselves, before installing them. A lot of the paint had to be scraped away to solder the brake gear / sanding gear in place after fitting the wheels. The brakes etc. preclude the use of the quartering tool, and also trap the wheels. Some more of the paint has come away with repeated handling and washing, but I should be able to touch it in behind the wheels with a brush, being careful to avoid gunging up the bearings.

I've made a bit more progress with the valve gear over the last few days. I turned some valve-chest covers on my lathe. The front ones have a little locating spigot on the rear face, and the rear ones are designed to slide over the tube used as the valve spindle support. Sorry the picture is not quite in focus. These things are only 2.2mm across! Here they are fitted to the cylinder block (along with the front cylinder covers): The valve gear had to be threaded through the motion bracket before final assembly, making the final pivot joints quite tricky. Once the motion bracket and slide bars are soldered together (in-situ on the loco to get the alignment right), everything becomes much more rigid, and the pistons/crossheads are trapped. This really the point of no return, everything having been carefully checked for clearances and smooth operation while it was all loosely fitted together. I decided to solder the cylinders and motion bracket to the main frames then cut a gap in them. In the past I have soldered gapped PCB to these parts to keep them as a removable unit, but I usually end up soldering them to the frames anyway. If I ever need to take the wheels out of the chassis it will be a complete disaster / rebuild situation in any case, so needing to unsolder the cylinders will be the least of my worries. The gap in the motion bracket had to be nibbled away with cutters. The cylinder block was cur through with a piercing saw. I did have one issue manifest itself with the gear wheel rotating on the rear axle muff. It was never a tight fit when I assembled it, but I thought wen i inserted the wheels into the muffs, they would expand and grip the gear. in this case, i was wrong. i fixed it by drilling a couple of small holes diagonally into the muff and gear, and fitting a "key" of Araldite. The picture below is before the Araldite was added. I also had an issue with the wheels going out of quarter. This muff is seriously dodgy! I use the Association quartering tool to set things up initially, but if i ever encounter a subsequent issue, re-quartering is fairly straightforward. I use an "optical alignment" method, similar to looking through the spokes, but easier. A dot of ink form a fine-tip indelible marker on the outside of the wheel flange on one side, and a matching dot on the inside of the opposite flange can be lined up easily by eye. The dots are in line with a chosen spoke. You can just about make out the remains of my dots in the picture below, at the very bottom of the wheels: Clearances between the moving parts are virtually non-existent - like on the real things. Everything has been carefully checked to make sure nothing catches. With the body looslely placed on top, she's really starting to look the business: The lifting arms for the radius rods still need to be fitted, as to the valve spindle crosshead guides. Both will be cosmetic. I think I will fit the latter to the body rather than the chassis. After all that work - does the valve gear function?

It was on 11th April that I said I'd need to give my eyes a rest before continuing with the valve-gear of my Fowler 2-6-4. I didn't realise they needed 8 months rest!

It has been quite a long time since I posted anything on this thread - or indeed any other... mainly because it has been a very long time since I've done any significant model making. Back at the start of the year I embarked on a quest to build some Stephen Harris wagon kits. I had about a dozen of his kits of various types in the "not started" pile, and I began with a pair of LMS D.2083 plate wagons. The original idea had been to build them as a batch of two, but I got bored about half way through, and just finished off the first one. Then I got side-tracked modifying the Chivers D2069 plate wagon body kit, and never went back to the other one. I did get as far as priming the first plate wagon a few weeks after completing it, but I experienced the dreaded "cobweb" effect from my airbrush. I posted a picture of this in my Hunslet 16" loco thread. Since then I spoke to Nigel Hunt about it, and he takes a less gentle approach to removing the cobwebs that I had previously. I'm glad it isn't just me who experiences this sort of thing from time to time. Anyway, this weekend I tried Nigel's method of giving it a vigorous scrub with an old toothbrush and water, and it worked a treat - despite them having been left in situ for 9 months. Here are before and after pictures. With handling, most of the cobwebs from the body had already rubbed off the body sides, but there are dense concentrations round the brake gear. I hadn't got very good coverage with the primer in any case... After less than a minute, not a trace of cobweb remained. Where the primer had stuck originally, it stayed stuck. At the ZAG yesterday it was suggested I try U-Pol Acid8 primer in a rattle can as a more reliable alternative to the Precision 2-pack primer i used here. i have to say that when I don't get the cobwebs, the results from the precision precision primer are really good, but it would be interesting to have something to compare it against. Also at the ZAG, I finally completed the twin of this wagon, save for fitting tubes for Electra coupling and gluing on the axle-box castings (both of which were done after the photo below was taken). Fitting the timber battens to the wagon floor was the final soldering job, and the photo below shows I still have a bit of solder to clean up inside the wagon before this one heads for the point shop. The ends could benefit from a bit of filler where the top flange bends forwards. These really are lovely kits, as you would expect from Stephen. My next wagon project will be a pair of his LNER all-steel high sided goods wagons... unless something else takes my fancy in the mean time.

At the ZAG this morning, I was playing with a new product which hit Shop 3 a few days ago and popped through my letterbox yesterday - a milled brass 30:1 gearbox. I'm very impressed with it. The worm shaft has standard phosphor bronze frame bushes soldered into the brass frame. When properly assembled in a chassis, the gear will be fitted to a muff, and the muff will rotate in the large hole, ensuring the gearbox is electrically isolated from the frames. Instructions are on the Association website. Here I'm using a 1/8" drill bit so I can slip a skew-cut gear in and out for testing the mesh... in this instance a not-quite-perfect gear from a batch I recently made. The perfect ones were all delivered to the shop earlier this week...

I rolled up a Raithby etched 8F boiler barrel to see what it was like. That had been my Plan A (I think?) as well. It came out as a section of a true cone, which is not quite right. It needs to be oblique. The bottom of the boiler should be horizontal - it is quite noticeable in photos of 8Fs taken side-on, because the boiler bottom is just above the top of the frames. I think Peter Whitehead and David Eveleigh had an article in the Magazine many years ago about turning such a shape form solid brass for a Great Western engine.

That's looking very nice. What are your plans for the sawn-up Black 5 boiler/smokebox casting with this kit? I've been looking at mine and wondering what the best way forward is. I don't think I could simply glue them together.

That's correct, Simon. At first I tried 603 retaining compound, but I had a 50% failure rate. I really don't understand why. 243 threadlock gave much more reliable results. In theory, the bond shouldn't be as secure, but the forces it will be subject to are miniscule. Don't forget the tyres are held on the wheels with retainer, as are the axles on the Mark V wheels. I'd be much more worried (if indeed I were worried at all!) about soldering the crankpin into the wheels than soldering the retaining washer onto a glued-in crankpin. I have had soldered-in crank pins fail and start rotating on brass wheel centres due to not heating them up enough (through a surfeit of caution), but touch wood I have never had a tyre come loose. You need special flux to solder successfully to stainless steel. While it is fine to have your crankpins retained with a plug of solder and able to rotate in the wheels on an 0-6-0, if you have a return crank fitted to the crank-pin, you would have a disaster on your hands... guess how I know?

The worm sets we got from KKPMO in Poland had a 3.0mm bore. Yours must be one of these. The current gears have 3.2mm (1/8") bore like the Ultrascale ones the Association supplied even longer ago. The last batch we had from Poland were problematic in that the skew was cut the wrong way so they didn't mesh at all with the worms! As long as you haven't got one of those(!), you need to fit it to a 3-102b metric gear muff. The stepped muffs (3-102a like your unused one) are designed to take a 1/8" worm wheel and a 3.0mm spur gear. You can't fit a metric worm wheel to them, since the 3.0mm section is on the short section. I don't think you'd be able to fit a 3.0mm bore gear onto a 1/8" muff without noticing, however brutal you were!

It is no illusion. The firehole door is below the level of the footplate. It is actually quite easy to fire with the world's smallest shovel - once you get used to the idea that the grate is circular! There are no dampers, so you have no control over the rate of combustion other than with the blower. The ash pan (a flat, round tray) is almost touching the floor.

It is an absolutely awesome machine. I want one! I'm really hoping Paul "Piglet" Middleton will allow it to stay at Embsay for a while, or visit us again soon. For anyone who doesn't know what Chris is talking about, Joining Beatrice and the resident NER Autocar at Embsay last weekend were three visiting locomotives. On Monday I spent the day firing No.8 "Lucie", a Cockerill Type IV 0-4-0 tram loco as she hauled our set of Victorian and Edwardian 6-wheelers. I was pleased to get the text on Sunday night saying Lucie was replacing visiting Terrier "Knowle" on the roster (firing the Terrier had nearly killed me on Saturday), and I couldn't stop grinning all day. She has Walschaerts' valve gear, but unusually the return rods are driven by eccentrics inside the frames. I'd never fired anything with a vertical boiler before, but it steamed brilliantly and thought nothing of our 2 miles of 1:100 out of Bolton Abbey, thrashing along at 15-20mph while sounding like a Black 5 on an express... A model would certainly be a challenge, but do-able I think. The water tank is fairly large (basically the whole of one end) and the boiler has room to conceal a motor.

He was indeed witness to this ritual... just once... though I believe the madness had already taken him by then.