KH1

Can you adjust the resolution of the camera so the file size is smaller?

Not down at all actually - it was really good! Hats off to those Mickleover chaps who put on a surprisingly extensive and comprehensive little show even though it was only really an open day sort of thing. After a slightly hesitant start while things warmed up a bit and rather too long trying to track down and mend a faulty lead (must make up a couple of spares for a quick swap), things settled down nicely and we had some real fun with a very unrealistically busy operating schedule. Many thanks to Simon who (apart from the gross liberty of a lunch break!), kept things moving while I stood there and chatted - oh OK - and had a lunch break as well! A good thing about having someone else run the trains was that I could stand back a bit and see how they were actually running. This identified a couple of areas that can be improved on. The significant one is that most of the wheels are falling into the frog gap on the points with a bump that was sometimes leading to derailing or locos stopping. Experiments are now underway to find the best way of building up the gap so that the flanges will actually support the wheel. Favorite at the moment is a couple of pieces of 1.2mm brass wire in the frog gap. Am going to make up a test point and see how it does. Anyway some pictures; The layout - or what is only actually half of it - with it's temporary fascia. It was actually rather a nice size and a bit more manageable than the full 20 feet - lesson for next layout perhaps? Busy scenes in the yard with the removable roof of the Hunslet doing it's best to remove itself. And finally a very important (but poor quality 'cause it was dark by then!), reminder of how it all went in the back of the Freelander so I know how it went for next time - if the is a next time (for the Freelanderthat is), as the gearbox blew up (again!), the very next day........

All set for tomorrow now - well as well as I am going to be. Have spent last couple of days getting really frustrated with locos that ran perfectly last time out but are now displaying all manor of faults from out rough running to derailing to out right refusal to work. The most common problem appears to be pick ups not working properly and as these are one of my least favorite parts of loco construction (couplings are a close second!), you can probably tell that I am wishing I had checked them all earlier. Anyway, I have eventually got four steamers and four petrols up and running and here they are; The sharp eyed amongst you might have spotted the new Baldwin which is now running after a fashion but still needs some attention, detailing and weathering - I will finish a write up of this one soon. One unfortunate absence from the line up is the Lawton 20hp Simplex, the one which looked pretty but refused to work last time out. Tracked the problem down to a dry joint to the motor and it then successfully if noisily completed several lengths of the layout only to stop dead again. I suspect the rather thin wire to the motor has fractured where it enters the casing. have never been too happy with this motor so suspect the way forward is to try to fit a decent Mashima in there somehow. With an eye on the weather forecast, I have loaded all the big bits into the car as a wonderful design feature of the (old) Freelander is that if it is icy, the back door won't open! Yes the window gets stuck and you have to drive for at least ten minutes before it thaws out enough to open - something to be avoided at 6.30 in the morning!

I hope you are not disappointed! Is going to be quite frustrating for me knowing that there is a lot more of it to see. Two good points though, it will enable people to concentrate a bit more on what is there in that section as I think a lot of details are usually missed. Secondly, I will probably be in a much better mood having not had to lug the whole thing around!

As alluded to in my last comment Up the Line will be out and about again this Saturday - well half of it will be! For reasons that will become apparent very shortly, scheduled maintenance work has over run (sound familiar?) and as it is a slightly more informal gathering than a full blown exhibition, just a couple of boards are going. That will be nice and easy I thought - am sure you can guess where this is going! Details for the show can be found here http://www.ngtrains.com/Pages/Admin/Shows/TVG3/tvg3.htm Completely underestimated the number of adjustments (and bodges!), that would be necessary to give a decent presentation. Among the highlights - a new temporary fiddle yard; which of course meant a new place to hang the handset and a wonderfully bodged back scene support; Really not sure why I showed you that one as not proud of it! Will keep one of the end boards for packing attached to the end as a buffer stop but have had to fit a packing piece to make it stand proud a bit so that the back scene will fit between it and the board end and then double back on itself to be clipped in place actually making a rather nice curve; I run out of pictures here but have had to make a new half sized lighting strip as the proper one spans the two boards and a new fascia panel in one really awkward piece of 8x4 black Corex that will be great fun to fit in the car! Quite a lot of rewiring involved as well and to make everything even more pleasant it is bloody cold in the glorified shed where it all lives! One of the reasons that it is not all going is that I have carried out my threat to revamp the fiddle yards but am only half way through so the one end looks like this at the moment and I have yet to decide exactly what will go at the other end; The other threat I have carried out is to make a better job of the track alignment between the baseboards. Yes, I know that I really should have done it properly in the first place but that is a lesson learned and as various things regarding legs and board connections were made up as I went along my oversight is almost justifiable! These pics should explain what has been going on; This should make setting up the boards far easier as will not be messing about with fish plates and hopefully the running over them should be much better. Coupled to all of this I have been rather belatedly trying to sort out the various loco failures that occurred at the last outing - not my favorite task! Am getting there but will cover the various problems in a separate post when I have a moment somewhere between wielding a soldering iron, cursing pick ups and shivering!

'I would say yes, 18 inches is definitely enough.' - that is reassuring, I am sure I have seen your layout at an exhibition and don't remember it falling over on me! 'you could use water filled 5 litre cans' - a good idea but cans would eat into available space in car - did have a nasty soft skinned water carrier for camping though (hated it as it could never be dried out internally for storage), which could work if needed. 'But will it be ready for Mickleover next week . . . . . . . . ? ?' - Yes! Probably not with cut down legs though as there will be no space issues in car this time as only half layout going. Was going to tell everybody about this little trip soon! 'have tapered legs so their wider at the bottom than the top' Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to do this with these trestles as they move up and down vertically but I am an expert at packing Tetris!

As a result of my constant attempts to cut down on the space that the layout takes up in the car I have come up with another plan but there may be one overriding problem that I would appreciate some opinions on. The trestles that I have been using - all five of them - are currently 27 inches wide and the layout is only 18. The result is and awkward protrusion at each side which I keep catching myself on and which means that the skirt to hide them has to stick out rather ridiculously. And of course I am carting around extra metal I don't need. The following picture should explain my plan. The first and simplest thing (apart from the tube is an inch and a quarter), will be to cut off the two inch overhang at each end at point A. Down to 23 inches. Second thing would be to take 5 inches out of both cross members at point B and weld up again. I would probably fit a sleeve of steel over the join to aid the strength. I do have a very dusty MIG welder at the back of the garage so could do this myself or I could talk to tame local fabricator. Lastly, the other two cross pieces would need cutting down at point C - much easier as much thinner metal here. Actually, not quite lastly, as the bolts on which the layout actually sits would need repositioning but there will be just enough room for this. So, all quite feasible but will a base of just 18 inches be sufficient to prevent a twenty odd foot long layout toppling over? This problem being exacerbated by me liking the layout almost four foot off the ground. Views and any experience of such things would be most appreciated as it will all be a bit late once I have hacked them up!

It is addictive - once you try it, you will be hooked and exercising you mind in working out how to fit it all in is better than crosswords or suduko for stopping you vegetate!

Finally, I am happy with the running - was pretty good on the whole but just one bit of valve gear was giving a problem. Eventually, nipping up the rivet with some pliers sorted it out. So onto fitting the chip and sound. First job was to drill some holes in the tank backs and the boiler bottom to let both sound and wires out; Then a simple job to fit a speaker into each tank; The chip fitted in my slightly remodeled bunker and was then covered with a piece of plasticard which will, in turn, be covered with coal. There is a fair amount of messing around with routing wires under the floor and through the boiler with this set up but is the only way to fit it all in. Everything all snug and flywheel fitted once I was sure it was not going to foul any wires; One little brainwave I had was to keep the boiler top separate so to keep it in place I have used a couple of magnets - should be obvious from picture; So here it is, almost finished and ready for some paint, which, given the rather simplistic nature of the livery, shouldn't take very long!

What with Christmas and a few windy days in Pembrokeshire, slow progress is a familiar story. Have been pottering around though, which is actually the sort of modelling I really enjoy - working from just a couple of photos in a way that looks right without the need for 100% accuracy as a) it will be pretty much hidden and I actually want to finish this year! This whole backhead problem only arrises though as I have been too clever again and have moved the motor to the boiler. The original kit has the motor filling much of the cab so there is no backhead or cab detail supplied. One of those rather indulgent purchases a few months ago came into it's own straight away with some circles of plasticard being punched for the firebox door and some to turn into wheel weights while I was at it. The back head soon took shape but it would have been much easier to have cut the main blank BEFORE fitting the firebox into the cab. Rivets are some little lead shot which always seem to be rolling around the desk despite my best efforts with the Hoover - bit like pine needles really! And here it is almost ready for a quick spray. A real mixture of brass, Nickel Silver and plastic - whatever seemed easiest to work with and was to hand. One thing you might just be able to spot (but it is deliberately hard), is the 8ba bolt for fixing the cab structure. A floor was made up from brass and a nut soldered on the underside. The bolt was then cut off level with the floor making it very hard to spot. A bit of black spray and some copper wire later and here it is, all ready to be hidden under roof and behind driver!

Have now completed the Baldwin valve gear - an evening for each side, so moving along nicely. As I remember, the instructions that come with the Wrightlines kit are pretty useless here so will go into this bit in some detail. First off, a little bit of filing to the cylinder block to allow a bit more leeway in getting the length of the piston correct. Then a bit of DIY with a 10ba nut soldered onto the long bit that wiggles (a technical term where my knowledge of the correct terms for valve gear bits is concerned!), this gives the correct clearance in the bracket and being fixed makes fitting all the bits together much easier. A cocktail stick poked through both provides a good location. Next up was to make the slide bar a good fit in the cross head and a quick polish made for a nice smooth fit. Next up was a bit more DIY with the white metal piston rod being chopped of and a length of brass fitted instead - far more reliable I think. So here is the cross head and connecting rod with a 10ba bolt soldered into the back of it and the head filed back to withing an inch of it's life to provide a good clearance. Here is the cross head bolt being soldered up - a 12ba would have been better but couldn't find any! Note the old trick of a bit of fag paper between the bolt and the head to stop it all getting soldered up into one big lump. This pick should show the 3D arrangement which is something sadly lacking in the instructions, note the 10ba nut on the rear axle to provide clearance and the crank on the middle axle bent to a Z shape; One thing that I have found to be invaluable here is the little set of tapered broaches - far better than drills for getting an accurate fit of parts without the risk of snatching and ripping all the bits apart. Another thing I substituted were the horrible solid iron rivets that come with the kit for some much nicer hollow ones that compress easily just with a pair of pliers. Finally, I cannot stress too much the importance of checking that everything is running smoothly after every single item is added. Very boring but is so much easier than having five places to look for that mysterious knocking noise rather than just that one piece you have just fitted!

Had some 2mm roller bearings delivered this morning so was able to make up a pony truck to my own design this evening. I have completely ignored the one which comes with the kit as I have found this approach to be the only way to keep it on the tracks with the other Baldwin. Firstly some brass strip was soldered together the marked out drilled and filed to shape. When separated (quick touch with blow torch), you have two identical pieces; Just s little reaming to get the bearings to fit and a touch of Loctite to hold them in. The frames are held apart by an ordinary loco frame spacer with a notch filed out of it so the head of an 8BA bolt will sit flush. The sides are then screwed on but left loose with the bolts being secured with Loctite introduced via the filed notch. This allows a little compensation and the whole unit to rock back and forth. It is then pivoted directly through the cylinder block; So here we have the chassis so far; Although you can't see them behind the wheels there are roller bearings on the two front axles and the whole thing is running very smoothly indeed. If you fancy trying out roller bearings I have found SMB Bearings to be excellent and have used SFR 144 ZZ SMB for the 1/8th and SF 682 ZZ SMB for the 2mm. Another thing that is a bit unusual on the chassis is that I have used Gibson style wheels on the two outside axles but had some flangeless wheels to use, as per prototype, on the center wheels but these are Romfords so have two sorts ox axles on the one loco!

Well that is what I thought I would treat myself to! Having already built one and a half Wrightlines Baldwin 4-6-0 kits - one had the chassis already built when I got it - I thought another would be straight forward. Am actually being a bit naughty here as probably ought to be rebuilding the chassis on the second one as it does not run particularly well and has the standard, and ugly, motor set up. Anyway building a new one just seemed more exciting. So problem 1 - me being too clever! I always intended to build this with a revised motor setup to allow daylight under the boiler and a clear cab and will highlight the various modifications as I know there are a few people out there sitting on these kits and just need a bit of a nudge to get going. But.... I got a bit to cocky and decided to fit roller bearings to the front two axles (It is difficult - but not impossible, as I have proved, to fit out the driven axle due to the gearbox being in the way). I thought it would be a simple matter to just drill out the holes to 8mm but I don't know if it was the drill that was wonky or just that I did it too late at night but the holes ended up all over the place. Much filing and swearing later I had this; I have not done it yet but pretty much all of the area circled needs to be filed away to make room for the bogie to swing but to ensure that the whole front end is strong enough I have soldered the frame spacer which should be at the back (but would foul the new motor), on top of the frames. Next up a bit of bodywork. The cabs on both the previous kits went together with no trouble but not this one - nothing would line up at all, the castings just seemed to be completely different from the others. Got it sorted of course but but had to hack away quite a lot of metal. I have also circled the quite large amount of metal that needs to be removed from the front plate to make the gearbox fit. On the back plate I have cut off the supports for the full roof as I am making this one a cut down version and I have also removed the completely inaccurate coal bunker - this space will be useful fot speaker or decoder. I then moved on to the boiler and again have circled the metal that needs to be removed. No the gearbox. On my first Baldwin I used a Markits MM-3L-2346 of which I though I had another but it turned out to be the MM-3L-2338 - basically the same but a slightly shorter extension to the final gear which has meant a little more metal needs to be taken out of the front plate. The former is the best to use. Now here I made the mistake of actually reading the instructions for once - what evil genius came up with the idea of loose fitting the bearings first and then soldering them in once all the axles are in! This resulted in solder going everywhere, even more swearing and gears that would just not mesh. At this point I went to bed. This afternoon I dismantled it, soldered the bearings, assembled it (after packing out the shafts with washers to reduce side play - one of my least favorite tasks), and it worked perfectly. So here it is fitted in the chassis and getting a bit of a running in on the bench.

Well I am glad it is not just me! Thanks for the tip, have heard of this glue but never met it as yet. One thing that I have decided to do is to turn the jack shaft into two independent stubs - will saw in two then solder a washer behind the frames to secure them. Am thinking that there is no reason they need to be connected and any discrepancy in the quartering here is just putting extra strain on the rear crank. Will update in due course.

I have a plan for empty shell cases but am assuming the empty wooden boxes disappeared as firewood or a myriad of other uses! Mind you, am sure I could do something with a two part design and the cameo cutter a bit like Job did with whisky boxes a while back.

Having left the Baldwin and it's dodgy cranks to mature for a bit (maybe some Christmas elves will sneak in one night and fix it for me!), have turnrd my atention to something else I have been avoiding - ammo boxes. These formed a very large part of the wagon loads so obviously have to be tackled. First option would be to just buy a load These are available from PLM but would be prohibitively expensive and would need loads of cleaning up and filling before they could be used. Second option was to just cast my own from these - cue ethical debate! Well I didn't and took the only practical step and set about making my own from which to cast. After a bit of thought and scratching around in the vast array of bits and pieces that always seems to build up, I found some American 'sideing' wood. This was cut into strips which were then easily cut into two plank sections, glued together and clamped with mini bulldog clips. Strapping was then added with micro strip plasticard; Problem here was that I found the plasticard quite difficult to stick and was hard to get it accurate enough - it also takes quite a lot of it and I didn't have much left! Cue the Cameo cutter. I have had this a couple of months and apart from one rather unsuccessful play it has remained in it's box. That is nearly where it stayed as well, as took a huge amount of experimenting to get it right but got there in the end. By cutting out a fairly heavy paper and including a sacrificial joiner at the bottom I was able to make plenty of straps accurately and at a decent scale size. I made up ten and mounted them on an off cut of foamboard which was then built up to be filled with rubber mould making compound; Small amounts of resin were then prepared by weighing and mixing on a small set of scales and then poured. It is remarkable how quickly this sets and made ten batches easily in an evening; So if you have ever wondered what a hundred 7mm scale ammo boxes look like - here you are1 Have primed them in grey but will leave them like this for the moment as I need to make up some larger boxes as well to vary the loads a bit. When I have done this they will be finished of and made up into several new wagon loads.

Wouldn't it have been easier to solder the droppers before spraying?

Unfortunately, I don't think there is enough meat on them to drill through sideways which otherwise would be a good solution. I have thought about cutting a slot in the end of the axle and then making a saw cut across the crank into which a bit of metal rod would fit. Other more drastic solution would be to make up a pair of cranks in brass, replace the axle with a brass rod and solder them on. Two problems though, is that this would mean disturbing the main gearwheel and the wheels which so far have behaved nicely, and secondly, I am not sure I could make the cranks accurately enough.

Ah, the last photo is just to show another attempt to get a bit more weight into the body with lead shot looking a lot like caviar! Have also noticed that on the final shots of the completed loco the cranks are all over the place. This is effect and not cause of the poor running as the rear crank on the other side is hanging off which also explains why you have pictures of just the one side!

Finished the last bits of detailing so it was time for a bit of paint which was pretty easy as this kit splits into really useful sections. After a coat of grey primer, I started with the frames, a tin of Humbrol track dirt, an old stiff brush and plenty of talcum powder. Being rather taken by the results I carried on but swapped to some olive green. For someone who has been proudly spraying locos for quite some time going back to a brush was quite a shock for me but really pleased with the results. The technique is more akin to dry brushing really with a small amount of paint being taken up from a palette then dunked in talc and then sort of stippled onto the model. No brush marks result just a lovely, almost pre weathered matt finish. See for yourself; After a not terribly necessary coat of matt varnish couplings were fitted and I ran up some USA letters and numbers. 'Ran up on the computer' - these are words that normally cause an impending sense of doom in me when I read it in articles. All to often the results are bland and just look completely wrong with just a standard font which is completely inappropriate. Well not here (I hope!). I used the example at the lovely Tacot des Lacs in France as a guide, found a font that looked promising and then spent ages squishing, squashing, adding bits, and removing bits in PhotoShop. Final touch were some cab curtains made from paint soaked tissue and held up with paper straps. There were some etched straps in the kit but found these impossible to use. So here we have a rather fine model; No there is just one problem - the bloody thing ( can I say bloody? Yes I think I can. Bloody, Bloody, Bloody!), just doesn't work!. It rolled along just fine with the wheels connected and even when I fitted the jack shaft rods but when I fitted the motor it keeps going out of quarter and jamming. The problem seems to be that the cranks are rotating on the axles and in act one has not fallen off completely. They are meant to be a push fit and I have been really careful and they have only been put on once so pretty annoying. I did try to fix the one that came off with some Loctite 603 I have but this has not done the trick at all and just came off again. Am considering tying to pack out the axles by super gluing some thin paper around the ends in an attempt to get more grip. Has anyone got any other suggestions? Am going to put it down for a bit to cool off and have a look at something else.

And rightly so! A very well designed kit of an interesting prototype which adds a little touch of the exotic to the usual menu of Hunslets, Listers, Motor Rails and Rustons.

Things seemed to move on very quickly , until I started to detail the cab that is! The rods fitted very well and it all pushes along very nicely. The resin bonnet was detailed p with the very nice lost wax castings. Again, in my attempts to get the most weight I can into the model, I have drilled the fuel tank and filled it with lead shot. Am sure there will be some scope for adding weight inside the bonnet but will wait until motor and chip are fitted. And then the cab...... The basic structure went together well with extra weight being added behind bulkhead, in the tool box, in the sand boxes - pretty much any hole I could find. Then the detailing - this seemed to take forever! Some of the etched items really are on the edge of practicality being SO small AND requiring bending. After a fair bit of cursing and finger burning it did all go together nicely - then I dropped it! Yes, being very good and taking it to the kitchen to rinse off the flux after the final late night session I managed to knock it straight out of my hand and onto the floor. You can imagine the language. It stayed in one piece but adopted a rather displeasing rhomboid shape that I have still not managed to completely rectify. Anyway, here it is all sitting together and awaiting some paint. I have decided to paint the frames at least at this stage even though it hasn't run yet as don't want to dismantle it once it is running. Strangely, I don't seem to have taken a pic of the cab interior - obviously didn't want to be reminded of it!

A very satisfying feeling indeed when you have made a chassis and even better when it works! Just one thing though, you don't have to open out the holes while soldered together - as long as you have pilot holes through the two halves they can be opened out later.

Making good progress with the Baldwin Gas Mechanical (BGM for short), and now have a beautifully smooth (by push power!), chassis. Not without problems though! Above picture shows the lost wax spring castings soldered on but just a bit too low it seems as they were fouling the cranks and had to be filed back quite considerably. Have just wondered why I didn't just re-solder them a bit higher but for this I have no answer! Even then I think they would still have required a bit of attention to get them safely out of the way. Bonnet front, buffer beams and rods went together and the rods polished up particularly well, which is a shame as they will need to be heavily weathered All the bits. I have a feeling that getting enough weight into this model is going to be crucial so am looking at all opportunities to get a bit of lead in. One place which was screaming out for it was the resin cast gearbox which mounts right at the front. This was drilled out from the bottom and then the resulting hole filled with lead shot and sealed with a good dose of thin super glue. So here are all the bits together with the bonnet casting just sitting on top for now.

There was a very good blog on building the Hunslet recently on this very site http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/861/entry-13284-spencer-the-hacked-about-wd-hunslet/ Meridian also make a great Dick Kerr petrol electric or if you want to be adventurous there is Nigel Lawton's 20hp Simplex. Mind you, if you can wait long enough I believe you will be able to just open a Bachmann box to get something suitable!