jazz

Here is the Fowler all ready for collection. John is having her finished in Crimson Lake, fully lined out. I think that should look very smart. It's now straight on with a Scorpio 4-6-0 County, I've lost count of the number of these passed over the WB. At least after that one, a stranger will pass through, the (Gladiator) LNER B4. That should be interesting for me.

Hi all. She is now ready for all the detailing. General view. The tanl top/bunker top & cab opening beading is srach made. the supplied was quite over scale. The boiler/smokebox is a very heavy and solid turning. I drilled and taped it 8BA for the chassis fixing. This is how I knocked up the swinging couplings. Simple and effective. The sprung buffer make up for the fact they are not sprung

I have not heard any whispers, I hope the range does not disappear there are some very nice models in it.

I have not heard any wispers, I hope the range does not disappear there are some very nice models in it.

Away fron the WB yesterday, visiting mother in Cheshire. However, today, a fair bit of progress made. The body has presented no problems. Just had to what the alignments to get the boiler/firebox/smokebox right. As the instructions stated the firebox needed a small amount removing from the base to align with the top of the boiler. I just have a few more soldered parts to attach, then it's down to the detailing. I will hvae to arerange the screw coupling to swing as on the prototype and allow the easy removal of the body from the chassis as this looks like it may compromise removal. More on that later. This it so far.

Hi again. Just started an interesting loco. The Fowler LMS 2-6-4T. A kit by Jim Maidment. As some of you may know, Jim sadly passed away last year. I never did have the chance to meet him in person, we only conversed over the phone. He will be sadly missed. As for the kit, it is with a sad heart I am building it. I have followed the instructions so far, only adding springing to the centre axle and fitting centralising guild wires to the bogie and pony trucks. As usual with Jims kits, all has gone together very well. Powered with an ABC unit and Gladiator plunger pickups, it runs very well. A start has now been made on the body. It has been a bit tricky get the front end right but has gone together quite well. Much use was made of blocks of wood to get the alignment correct. I have deviated from the instructions by fitting the valances now. Only because the footplate is much better supported at this stage. Pictures of the build so far. The centralising wire on the bogie is clearly seen. The new bending bars recently purchased are a godsend to speed the bending process.

Here is the Jinty with the plates now added. Still not sure whether to weather her in any way.

Hi all. After the battle with Duke of Gloucester I have taken a rest and built myself the Gladiator 'Jinty'. Seen here almost ready for duty on Pen y Cwm. (You can see the kit in progress I built for Gladiator on page 14). This one has a sprung chassis and the Slater's 7l001 gearbox/motor unit. She is a very nicer runner with this unit fitted. I have used wiper pickups as the inside valve gear gets in the way of plunger pickups. The glazing has been sandwiched between the inner and outer cab etches and looke very neat showing of the nicely etched wndow detail. The close up shows this and driver Jimmy Jones taking a well earned cuppa having brought the locoal goods up from Oswestry. The livery is the then new 1937 style and as my layout depicts this period I intend leaving her fresh from the shops. Shed plate 6A (Chester). I am just waiting for the builders plates, s/box number plate and bunker plate to arrive form Guilplates. The roof requires pshing down completely, (I had not noticed this until the photos were posted).

Just completed final assemby on the Duke of Gloucester, after painting the chassis ready for delivery. After the rather tedious build, she runs VERY well with the ABC gearbox/Cannon motor. Certainly romps along at express speeds. She is quitye heavy too, even without added weight. The photos were taken with the wide angle lens and does have a slight fish eye effect. With this camera it's difficult to get such a long model in the frame without standing a long way back.

Thanks Dave, appreciate the compliments. Ken

Here is the J21 ready for duty. The idea was not to create a delapidated look, just a dirty look. As such I have given her a good rub down with coal dust, followed by a dusting of sooty weathering powders plus other shades of greyish, brownish colour of my own mix. I used an almost dry brush to creat some streaks. Also a hint of dirtyish white runs from the chimney, dome and safety valve bases. Not all of this ia apparent in the photos, as they are quite subtle. The last picture is a doctored photo of her simmering on the road.

Will do. Jazz

Highly unlikely I will see here fully painted. Geoff will not have it painted for quite some time. I will, however, post photos shortly of her in primer. In the meantime here is my J21 I have just completed for Pen y Cwm. She is now ready for some quite heavy weathering, glazing, crew etc., etc. This class of loco would not have been seen around Oswestry/Shrewsbury but I happen to just like this loco. Plus it is a Col Stephenson railway and he did purchase eclectic locos, so that's my excuse. I have used Slater's GB03 spur drive gear box (all brass gearbox and gears running in ball races). She is a beautiful runner. I will be adding sound to her as well.

Decided to take a break and had a pleasant day trip to the Imperial War Museum (North). A great day out too! Finally, I am ready for the big clean up and priming. I just may take a rest from this build and do something else. It really should be renamed, Duke of Pain, but there you go. Still a few things to attach after priming. (The smoke deflectors are very loosly fitted until after the final painting) I am so pleased it's nearly over, I hope I never need to build another of these. Here she is so far. (Apologies for the poor quality of the images, taken in VERY poor light.)

Just a quick update. Spent all day detailing her. Soldering all the pipework took forever. There is still quite a bit of detailing to do though. I will not be at the WB tomorrow, (another project to tackle), so should have it finished ready for priming Thursday/Friday. Photos then.

Hi John, I thought the ACNE photo looked too much like the JH. You are quite correct, the slide bars are not quite right for BR. Anyway the chassis is now at the stage for painting. The return cranks and speedo will have to be fitted after final assembly. Thankfully all the attachments went OK with virtually no mods meeded. Now it's back to the body.

Hi John. As you know, this is the original J Harris kit, I cannot say for certain if the ACME kit is the reincarnation or not. Studying the AMCE photo it does look remarkably like it. By that I mean the etches and joints look the smae m.o. (The builder seems to have great difficulty in getting the cab to sit right.) Anyway to the build on my WB. Today turned out such a lovely bright clear and sunny day my better half and I took a turn down to the prom and back, so not a full day at WB. Unlike Johns problem with the 5mm short connecting rods, these were just fine. However there were plenty of the usual clearance problems with the coupling rods hitting the various attachments including hitting the connecting rods. Plenty of filing and fiddling around and moving the piston covers out a little has solved that problem. So tomorrow should see the valve gear attached and hopefully the chassis all but complete. (That is the target but I may not hit it.) Todays progress.

Thanks Steve. No, only the chassis and priming the body, then it will off to Geoffs own painter.

Hi Mike. I guess there's no answer to that? Had a good day solving the issues on the build. (The photo makes it seem like not much has happened but it took all day to do it) First job was to get the firebox/boiler and s/box to sit better on the running plate. I had only tack soldered the unit in place so unsoldering was easy, making the adjustments took quite a time before I was completly happy. Having done that I looked at the pony truck. The frame extension was adjusted as high as it would go and still allow the body to sit level. But there still was insufficient room for the pony unit to ride properly. So that left removing 1.75mm from the lower edge to allow clearance for the units vertical movement. The photo shows that. Adjustments were then made to the casting to allow the unit to sit level. This involved filing off some of the casting where the bolt attaches it to the frames. Then I had to figure out the best way to attach the body to the frames. (This is not covered in the instructions.) I have decided to fabricate a 'box' with a 6BA nut soldered inside and solder that to the underside of the s/box. This will then allow a allow a 6BA bolt to pass through the frame spacer to hold the front end. The rear will have two 8BA bolts passing through the vertical plate below the cab floor and into the nuts soldered onto the frame rear spacer which also has a vertical end immediately behind the afore mentioned plate. The tender will be attached to the loco via a fabricated swinging hook from the tender to a horizontal bar across the afore mentioned plate below the cab floor. (That is my preferred method on all my tender locos to make the coupling/uncoupling very easy. So this seems, I hope, to be the big problems all solved. I can now complete the chassis. I have all the associated brake gear made up and attached, couupling & connecting rods made up. The chassis is now running very freely with the centre axle sprung. Tomorrow starts the remainder of the chassis build.

Almost forgot, thanks for the kind comment Pete. You're very welcome Duncan, my pleasure. Well, this is turning into, perhaps, the most challenging loco I have built in memory! It is taking quite a bit of fiddling and rebending to get things as accurate as possible. Even then things still will not line up exactly. Noye the etched handrail hole on the s/box. Then there is the problem of the fire/box, boiler and s/box being over long makiking the s/box front over hang. Solution was to trim a small amout off the front of the boiler, likewise a shade off the rear of the s/box. Extend the running plate 1.5mm and now it is acceptable. That has taken all day as unsoldering work had to be done to achieve this. Here she is so far.

So do I Kristian. Ken

Not much to report today (A short day due to post Christmas family visitors) Just time to post this pic of todays effort. More about this part of the build tomorrow.

Frustrating day today. The PC crash first thing, took half the morning to get it running again. The rest of the day spent fiddling, tweaking and shaping and reshaping the cab & firebox to get it to line up. Almost there with the f/box. Another day tomorrow with a fresh start.

Hi Seve. Acorn kits have given me some headaches over the years, I must admit. I hope this kit continues no worse than it has so far. My experience with Scorpio kits has been quite good, (some iffy castings at time but only because of worn moulds). So I would expect the Duke to be a nice kit.

Another good day at the WB. The chassi is built to stage 1 (as per instructions). I have decided to now assemble the running plate but not the whole of bodywork. As the complexity of the build and getting evrything to line up, I think that is the best way forward. There is a LOT od bits and attachments on the chassis will require carefull alignments. This is the chassis so far. There is only one area of concern, the pony truck is hard up against the chassis extention. So clearances will have to be made here when I can check against the running plate. A start has also been made on the running plate. The first photo is the chassis etches. The lower photo shows some of the body etches.