Mad_Dan_Eccles

Thnaks Andy, though I think it still likely to be worth writing away for a copy. With Fred's material and the side and front views of the PO machines in L-M Vilain's "Chemins do Fer d'Orleans et du Midi" I have plenty to go on as long as no oneruns a micrometer over finished product. Thank you all very much for your advice and assistance.

These are a bit on the cheap and cheerful side, but are fine for some light work - I sometimes use one attached to a rivet press. Some backlash is inevitable - if there were none at all you would find it very hard to turn the handwheels. If the table needs to be reversed for the next cut, machinists will always turn the handle back past the mark then advance it again to take up any backlash. If the backlash is excessive you may be able to adust the wheel on the shaft. If memory serves, the end thrust on these is taken up by the hand wheel bearing directly on the housing, which is not a particularly good feature. Packing it with steel washer is better, but you should still have a couple of divisions movement in the wheel before the backlash is taken up. Overall tightness may simply be a matter of the gibs needing adjustment. Back off the lock nuts and loosen the hex head grub screws a turn, then tighten as you would for any sort of machine slide. However with tools of this nature it often pays to take the whole thing apart and check for swarf and burrs on the ways and around the lead screws (this doesn't always happen in the factory - there's a reason they are cheap). A bit of hand finishing can make them capable of doing some decent light work as long as you accept their limitations.

Photos as promised - from the original JG kit with some modified details. The observant will notice the lack of glazing in cab or headlight. The simple reason is that I haven't got round to weathering her and the number and builders plates, glazing and folding windshield are still sitting in an envelope. The model is based on 694 which was a Dunedin engine as she might have looked in the late 1950s. Changes include subsitutiing "wood" boards on the tender filler hatch platform; the chequer plates seems to be a late fifties/sixties mod and I have a photo of an Ab at Cromwell with wooden boards. Thye phone and interior lighting isn't the best thing for showing details of the workings where everything is basic black so the bogie details will need to wait for a fine day so I can get better shots I didn't find a lot of info about of Welington Abs. The As and the odd Ab were largely confined to the Hutt Valley - Wairarapa line by the 1950s as the overhead wires had gone up on the other side. A lot of steam engines moved away after electrification of the Wellington area, The Rimutaka tunnel meant thet the Wairarapa line was fully dieselised after it opened but there's a Derek Cross photo in of 831 Kaitoke in NZ 1950s Steam in Colour, though at times she was also on the Napier and Gisborne areas and after the mid-sixties on the West Coast. If you hunt through the NZ Railway Historical group on Facebook, there are a few photos of 831 but I can't repost these here as they don't belong to me. Essentially the piping on 831 looks pretty much as laid out in the JG instructions but watch the postion of the control valve for the Westinghouse pump - it might be right for some engines but the steam piping to the Westinghosue pump can foul the dome - I needed to plug the hole in the etching and move it back about 3/8 inch for 694. to amtc photos Paekok would have seen engines from Palmy as well, though steam didn't often work into Wellington once the wires went up and there were enough electric locos available; I understand that this usually this only happened when the overhead was shut off as the clearances between the chimey and the wires were considered a bit marginal in the former WMR tunnels and there was quite some risk of a flashover.

Thanks Gordon As far as i have been able to find out the only drawings presently available are the weight diagrams (side views only) of which I already have copies. However it seems a good line to pursue - there were some obviosu differneces and a few slightly less obvious ones between the GWR and PO and Etat engines

Fred - you are gentleman and a scholar. This is much much more than I had ever hoped for. I hope my models are half as good as the reference material they are built from.

Thank you both Fred - That link to the Loco Revue forum is much appreciated, though it definitely challenges my rarely used schoolboy French - I tried very hard not to use google but gave in to the need for assistance Anything in the Museon de Rodo scrapbooks relating to any of the SACM compound 4-4-2s would be appreciated, though my main interest for now is in the Paris-Orleans and Etat engines as these were the engines with the slightly bigger boiler, inside frame bogie and larger grate. I have side view diagrams of both the PO and Etat engines, and the pictures on the forum are extremely useful. There is an unfinished JN Maskelyne drawing of GWR 103 in Russell's book on GWR engines which has provided some information, but this shows the GWR standard taper boiler. Michael - van Riemsdijk has been ordered.

'Evening all... I have got onto something of a compound kick lately and have unearthed a number of drawings and diagrams of both the Nord type as well as the slighly larger PO/Etat pattern (which were the basis of the seond batch of GWR engines). To date I have sectional view, a sectiotnal plan view and diagrams of PO Etat types as well as the Nord and Mid engines and the GWR locos. That means I have nearly enough to devlop some working drawings, but what i have not found are end or plan views of any of these which show important deatls such as width over cab sheest and splashers. I have some ideas and end views of other SACM built compounds, but wondered if any one could steer me towards a source whether it be online print or archive drawings? Its the later and slightly larger PO and Etat engines that are of most interest - vague ideas about a triple build of one GWR, one PO and one Etat engine are burbling around in my brain. Thanks

Side control was wire springs mount to the loco frame - photos to come later in the week hopefully Plastic brake gear was used because there's not a lot of room between the drivers and between the leading driver and the bogie wheel and I was getting occasional sparks on some point work. I also like the slighly chunkier look of the plastc brakeshoes vs the laminated brass version Unless you want to start counting clips on the smokebox hopper doors you won't need to do much though watch out for rivets - some had flush riveted headstocks which is very noticeble. Piping was different on every Ab - the kit instruction are typcial but some had lifting injectors some had exhaust steam injectors and so on. I will dig out some photos later this week so you can see some of the differences. Paekakariki would make a fantastic model; in late steam days you had changes from electric power to steam, and in WMR days there were engine changes on just about every train

That is the NY gearbox - Branchlines sells the version designed for 1/8" axles. Northyard ( northyard.co,nz ) make a variery of gearboxes and lot of other usefulthings as well. They don't seem to have thier current catlague up on thier website, but here s an older version. It hasn't changed much in the last few years. North Yard Product Catalogue June 2013.pdf

Glad to see another NZR modeller popping up. That looks like the NZ Prototype Models upgrade of the JG Models kit. While John's choice of meterials seems a bit odd - pewter running bards and cab but an etched boiler - the kit was designed to be built by someone without extraordary ablities. Some things things worth thinking about The cab makes her a bit tail heavy so you wil need to chuck some weight in the boiler at the front - its quite accessible after assembly, so get the soldering done before you add lead or whatever The JG version had a larger motor by he looks of things - a Mashima 1833 from memory - and it might be worth upgrading to a Canon 1833 or similar Add a torque arm or something across the fAmes to stop the gearbox rotating under load Plunger pickups or PB strip wipers help - John designed it for P/B wire as wipers on the back of the wheels and these are hard to hide and soak up a fair bit of power The leading bogie works much better if you add some form of side control The brakegear is etched but i subsituted some Alan Gibson plastic brakegear No two Abs were exactly the same - pick one for reference; the kit has some details which suggest an Otago or Southland engine, but you can order a whitemetal smokebox front from North yard from the oldA class kit if you want a Canterbury loco

Folks I have a question about miniature Cardan shafts of the type used in OO and HO diesels. I am working on a small single Fairle in 16.5mm gauge,. One of the featurs of this particular design is very short side tanks which means that a convential drive to a gearbox on the driven axles is going to be in full view and will rather kill any semblance of realism . Turning the motor round and mointing it in the firebox so the ouput shaft is at the rear, dirving to a reduction gearbox and cardan shaft to drive a low profile final drive works very well in hiding the works - a couple fo millimters of the of shaft will be still visible to the sort of people who like to inspect models with dentist's mirrors. However the final drive has to be to the rear axle of the engine bogie as the bogie pivot is almost on top of the middle axle. which means the worm end of the shaft will be at the worst place for side to side deflection on tight curves. Sketh attached in roughly to scale but shoudbe regarded as nore tha a diagram tio show the layout I have never used this sort of drive other than in RTR form and am concerned that the throw at the rear of the bogie and the short lenth are going to cause issues. I am looking at about a 7 degree angle at both ends of the shaft on a 500mm radius curve and the distance beween the centres of the UJs works out about 16mm with the wheels all pointing in a strait line. In a full sixe kight duty application I would usually be fine with these at speeds up to about 1500-1800rpm but with a 14:1 final drive the shaft will be turning at nearer 3500-4000rpm. Not knowing how these things scale is this angle is likely to be a problem? Most diesel drives have much longer shafts and are have the UJ closer to the pivot piont on the bogie an I dont have any refercne to deal with such small drives

What a wonderful set of pictures. Thanks to you, and to Mr Bower The HR open wagon rather looks like a 4 plank type introduced by Peter Drummond, but it seems that many older wagons were also rebuilt to this same general style but using older components. I am inclined think its the same general type as the model in your follow up post. The Terrier livery is a puzzle, but we know the RN rather liked to paint all things that move grey, so I do wonder if this is what we can see here? RNAS armoured cars and the first landships also got grey paint (aeroplanes were an exception but even then metal parts were often painted grey). At the beginning of the war the Grand Fleet used a dark grey; this was replaced early in the war with a rather lighter shade; the early shade was 3 parts black to 2 parts white, giving a very dark charcoal grey, whereas the later version was 3 parts black to 4 parts white and that seems to be in the right sort of range to match the contrast in the photos. (Invergordon also had a passenger service provided by a GWR steam railmotor which was on loan to the Highland. It's success can possibly be deduced from the fact that the HR apparently had to have spare engine and coach on standby in case of failure and that the GWR didn't seem want it back when the fighting finished - it was apparently still in Scotland for some months after the grouping.) Somewhere in my collection of stuff I have seen sketch diagram of the layout at Invergordon and will dry and fish out a copy.. Aidrian

A Jones goods may be pre grouping but it certainly isn't French! But a Castle could be - L' Etat had several built by North British and a Big Goods is probably as close as you can get

Twos step forward one back and one sideways. Pics attempted but the paint used was the same as the stuff they used to paint Disaster Area's Sun Ship - light just falls into it. I'm reluctant to try Nitromors as i have no idea what it might do the wheel centres and have reverted to stripping with scrapers, wet and dry and scratch pen Removing all the brake gear and ashpan has improved access and some thoughts are beginning to form. Removing the wheels isn't going to be easy for a couple of reasons - In past experience once a Slaters wheel has been locked down pulling near the tyres will simply result in spokes going crunch - there isn't enough space to get the puller jaws in between frame and wheel so i can pull on the hub In this case it's made more challenging because the bodger in chief decided to fill the sockets for the Allen key with solder...In heaven's name why? If you do need to fill something like a 1:1 screw head that is visible a little bit of clay wiped into the slot or hole can be painted over and scraped out again if you need to undo the screw again of future However there may be light...there's evidence to suffer that the hornblocks have suffered from the attentions of the Mad Aralditer. Araldite can be softened with heat and comes apart when dunked in caustic soda

Folks Despite lurking for a very long time i think this is my first post. I started this with with the intention of simply repainting a Slaters 7mm Midland 0-4-4. Once I got the old paint off and collected all the parts that had come adrift, close inspection revealed that this had been worked on by someone who ran out of enthusiasm and skill part way though or perhaps two different people had worked on it; the main part of the work was nice and square and neatly soldered, but much of the detail work had been somewhat haphazardly attached with blobs of solder or Araldite. All this is pretty straightforward to sort out. However, while the chassis runs quiet nicely, it has been slightly bodged and I am not at all sure how to unbodge it. The hornblocks have been neatly soldered and lined up but instead of springing the axleboxes, these have been soldered solid at the very bottom of the guide. While I think I could live with an unsprung chassis, the setting of the axleboxes is such ride height is off - the buffers sit quite a bit higher than Her Majesty's Small Railway Inspectorate will allow. I simply don't know what the best way to fix this would be. Ideally I would remove the wheels to get a decent sized iron on the hornblock to free it up before cleaning and reattaching, but can't safely remove the wheels with the axles in the chassis. On the other hand getting the hornblocks free with wheels and axles in situ means playing a lot of heat from a torch in close proximity to the gear box and wheel centres, neither of which are likely to survive the experience unscathed. Inspiration seems to be at a low ebb right now - can someone lend me some please? Aidrian