Rods_of_Revolution

Spent today helping Jo operate Maesglas at the NGS AGM, it was a nice little exhibition and great to see Maesglas in the flesh now it's finished, (although it's never really finished as no doubt little details will keep appearing as time goes on!) Here's a couple of photographs I took on my phone: Well done to Jo on completing Maesglas' first outing! After the interest we had today it certainly won't be the last! All the best, Jack

There's the Mk1 based Inspection Saloons. Three were built at Swindon to Diagram 1/552, numbers 999506, 999508 and 999509, TOPS code QXB. Also there are the peculiar Train Heating Boiler Vans. They are smallest Mk1 based vehicles to be built. I never have found out if they actually ran or where just positioned at termini for preheating stock. Here's a photo at Departmentals: http://www.departmentals.com/photo/70185 All the best, Jack

Nice work Jo! I really like the way you've used the pipes to create the supporting rig, in fact you could even use the pipes as conduit for cables. All the best, Jack

The wheel base is 21mm with 6mm diameter wheels, so it's only marginally shorter than a Mk1 bogie. All the best, Jack

I buy quite a lot of chassis from PlazaJapan on eBay, usually to go under 3D Prints I've designed. I saw recently the Tomytec HM-01 had appeared and I couldn't find much information online, so I bought one (under £20 eBay 351526636630) to see whether it was any good. I thought I'd post my findings here where perhaps they will be of assistance to others modelling N/OO9/H0e. I was amused when I received it this morning as the packaging wasn't what I was expecting! Turns out that it's actually a product aimed at children and it comes with a plastic body and some white decals for them to colour the model in their chosen livery. In the box is a plastic blister pack containing the locomotive, some instructions (in Japanese), the white draw on decals and couple of bags of bits: The locomotive comes with hook and loop couplings fitted as default, but also supplied are standard rapidos (no NEM pocket though.) The main body comes off by flexing the sides outward to release and then lifting it off; contained within the body are some weights. The motor can be separated from the chassis flexing the case outwards at five points and then lifting (a bit tricky!) The plate which is used to hold the body on can be removed and the chassis reassembled without it, to give a narrower profile. The maximum width is 13mm which isn't too bad, though probably a bit wide for most N scale applications. The chassis would certainly work well for OO9/H0e. The chassis also comes with some side plates which are an interference fit; these may be useful as axle boxes and leaf springs could be glued on top. With the weights the chassis was quite happy to pull 4 Mk1s round 9" radius curves. Without the weights it would pull 1 Mk1 without any slipping, though a second Mk1 resulted in slipping on the curves. All wheels pickup power and provide traction, but as the axles slide to the extreme left and right it looks like the wiper comes away from the back face of the wheel, so I bent them inwards until they made more consistent contact. Hopefully this is post is of use to someone! All the best, Jack

Looking good! You could try stripes of yellow masking tape to add the yellow edges to the loading bay? I wouldn't worry about the road damaged, you'd be hard pushed to find even a short stretch of road these days that hasn't been repaired after being dug up for pipes/cables or after being potholed! All the best, Jack

I think you're misunderstanding faith, faith is to trust absolutely; when said outside of a religious context it's generally hyperbole. Most people don't trust a chair absolutely, therefor most people don't have faith in chairs or chair builders. Most people accept that there will always be a possibility a chair may break but generally that chance is low and the consequences of a chair failure are minimal; it's for that reason people sit on chairs without much thought. If people had faith in a chair then they would gladly bet the lives of their family that the chair will not break when they sit on it; they wouldn't be able to conceive even the remotest possibility that the chair may break. Thus faith is irrational, it's not based on logic because logic says that the chair may break and betting the lives of your family on it not breaking would be mad, but risking the embarrassment of falling on your backside for the high likelihood of a successful seating experience is logical.

Looks very nice! Are you giving the industry a name? All the best, Jack

I think the most likely Scenario is CAF coaches as currently being produced for the Caledonian Sleeper operated by a dedicated pool of 5 Class 57s; depending on funding the Class 57s may be superseded by Vossloh Euro Duals. All the best, Jack

There's quite a few welds and castings in the Mk3 structure which according to the BS spec they were produced to means that they will soon be life expired. They will all need an extensive inspection with some welds and casting potentially needing to be renewed/replaced to extend the life of the coaches. There are some operational issues with using HSTs Power Cars on the Sleeper, especially after they have been replaced with Hitachi units and few PCs remain. If the leading Power Car had a fault with a safety system down at Penzance for example, the train would be out of action. You'd then need to send another PC to replace it. If you want to run a spare London facing PC down to Penzance then you actually need to send two PCs as you can't run a single PC to PZ. So right there you have 4 PCs tied up on a single train because the AWS isn't working in one cab. You'd also have a West facing Power Car stuck at PZ until the fault with the London facing PC was corrected. With the current set up that scenario would require a single 57 being dispatched to PZ, this would leave a spare 57 on depot should the other set fail or should a 57 be out for the night on an exam. Total number of 57s required is 4, though 5 is what FGW would like. The total number of PCs for running the sleeper would be 7 or 8, 4 to operate the standard service, 2 to be on standby for failures and 1 or 2 on exam. All the best, Jack

Somewhere near Hullavington, I took a few to give me a selection of pictures to use. I still need to work a bit on the perspective. All the best, Jack

Jo and I went out to photograph the possession between Thingley and Bath, on the way back we caught a diverted 6B33: We were actually having some fun with a little photography plank I made, whilst taking pictures of the TDAs for my Shapeways shop; but the loco and stock are Jo's wonderful workmanship so I figured I should post it here! All the best, Jack

Looking top notch! It's certainly worthwhile undertaking as anyone who's familiar with the prototype will notice the effort! All the best, Jack

High on Emotion - Chris de Burgh

Those windows are wrong, I can't really see any debate about it! I really hope they are 3D Printed samples and not the product of some very expensive tooling! Best regards, Jack

Rain - The Cult

I'm sure all the track bashers would have loved getting the rare track through the wheel lathe afterwards! Cheers, Jack

Good job! I couldn't have managed to get the stripes so neat! I look forward to operating Sunday! :-) Cheers, Jack

The Class 70 has a superior starting and continuous tractive effort, couple that with more modern electronics it should, in theory, perform better than either a 59 or a 60. This does assume that the Class 70 isn't on fire... Cheers, Jack

That section should certainly stand up to the elements for the foreseeable future! The mock stone work doesn't look half bad either, certainly a good compromise. Well done all involved, especially Captain Kernow; it certainly pays to have a competent and capable chap at the helm! Cheers, Jack

Thanks for the photos! From what I gather the trips to Pontsmill were sometimes (often?) controlled by a shunter rather than a guard. The wagons would be propelled up to Pontsmill with a brake van leading, if there were more wagons than usual, or there was a hold up with loading, the wagons would be left at the clay works, the 08 returning with just the brake van. When the 08 returned to collect the wagons, if the move was controlled by a shunter, a brake van would not be required (it would require a brake van if a guard was controlling the move as the guard couldn't ride in the cab). In this scenario you'd get the 08 returning with just the wagons, no brake van! I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong :-) Cheers, Jack

The bridge is looking great! I spent my college years in Bath and still go there often, to photograph the trains as well as enjoy the pubs and The Little Theatre Cinema. I know the city well and I think this layout will really do the city justice, I'm enjoying seeing your progress! Cheers, Jack

That's how the grounded van at Malmesbury ended up there. There were a couple of condemned Iron Minks sat in the sidings, one of which ended up next to the goods shed stood on bricks in a similar manner to the kit above. Strangely one end of Malmesbury goods shed was of timber construction (the other end being stone). The Iron Mink sat at the timbered end, but unfortunately a rake of wagons was pushed out of the shed with their side doors open, this resulted in the timbered end being demolished and collapsing onto the Mink. I assume the Mink was damaged beyond repair as in subsequent photographs the Mink has gone! That's my GWR branchline anecdote of the day :-) Cheers, Jack

Coping stones are not especially structural, they are more cosmetic and can easily be damaged without effecting the structural integrity of the wall. When I say damage I'm referring to structurally significant damage which effects the structural integrity of the wall leading to collapse, rather than the cosmetic loss of coping stones. During storms, vertical sea walls cause a clapotis wave pattern to form, this wave pattern attacks the base of wall causing heavy erosion and eventual collapse. Cheers, Jack