Chris Higgs

Even with the half-wave rectification? Give it time, Give it time...

Possibly. But the way the inner motion bracket is attached by a small tab is going to be incredibly fiddly in 2mm. Chris

Yes, by me! I already have the etches for the bogie and a minimal set of coupling and connectiong rods to fit the Dapol chassis, valve gear artwork is done and test etch of the replacement frames (loco and tender) is about to go the etchers. I have the motion parts and bogies for the Farish Merchant Navy and Duchess/Coronation Scot as well but I need to try out the chassis conversions before relasing them to the world. The trailing trucks for both remain a bit of a black hole. The Dapol A3 does slightly increase the wheelbase in pursuit of making the wheels scale diameter (their normal approach as opposed to Farish who normally reduce the wheel diameter to maintain the wheelbase) and thus dictates their splasher spacing. But of course this is irrelevant to the A4 which has no splashers. The chassis is 90+% the same as for a Farish A1 which has a scale wheelbase. So I am slightly conflicted on the wheelbase. Catrazzi truck will most likely be 3D-printed with a hidden functional pony truck, as will the cylinders which have a shape not conducive to building from etch. Still slightly struggling with the motion bracket though which hangs off the footplate on the real thing and so in mid air on an etched chassis. The same issue is preventing me tackling a B1. As others have said though, an outside motion Pacific is really not the place to start your adventure in 2mm modelling. I'm not going to beat about the bush about it, I really would not go there. Or if you absolutely must, buy one of Nigel Hunt's Jubilee or Scot chassis, look at Nick Mitchell's video series and see whether you can assemble the valve gear on which he gives a very detailed tutorial. If anyone fancies looking at the parts you might need to design a kit for an A3, this is an interesting starting point: http://www.brassmasters.co.uk/lner_a3_etches.htm Chris

So it looks like you are in luck!

Also sneaked in without fanfare is 2-164 - MR Bain 10' coach bogie

The body etch is the original, some parts on it are no longer required but are still included. We have not reproduced the original chassis, which needed additional castings and a PCB footplate, that is replaced by the new etched functional and 3D-printed cosmetic combination. But you can use those new parts together with the old kit. What were you missing? Chris

If you have been keeping your eye on the shop webpage, you will see that the Class 08 and Class 11 kits are back. Contrary to the webpage though, there are updated instructions on their way to the shopkeepers. If you are wanting to order a new Class 08 or Class 11, you should order the following parts: Class 08: 3-711a, 3-712a, 3-713a, 3-714a, 3-715a, 3-716, 3-022(3 pairs), plus gears as shown on the chassis arrangement Class 11: 3-711b, 3-712b 3-713b, 3-714b, 3-715b, 3-716, 3-020(3 pairs), plus gears as shown on the chassis arrangement For the first time, you can build a SR Class 12 as follows without buying two kits, although you are on your own in regards to making the wheels Bulleid-like: Class 12: 3-711b, 3-712a 3-713a, 3-714b, 3-715b, 3-716, 3-022(3 pairs), plus gears as shown on the chassis arrangement If you own an existing unbuilt kit, then the following parts can be used as upgrades (singly or together): Class 08: 3-712a, 3-713a, 3-714a Class 11: 3-712b 3-713b, 3-714b The new chassis use metric gears, although I expect the imperial gears used in the original kits should also work. It is also recommended you use whichever of 3-266, 3-267 or 3-268 is appropriate to you motor choice. Only coreless motors should be used unless you wish risking melting the body. Instructions Class 8 2018.pdf Class 08 body etch.pdf Class 08 chassis arrangement.pdf Class 08 chassis parts.pdf Class 11 body etch.pdf Class 11 chassis arrangement.pdf

How does it roll if you put a rod on only one side? If it is a crankpin throw wrong, then this should bind up on one side or the other. If the rods run OK on each side with the other one off, but bind when both are on, then it pretty much has to be quartering. Chris

Due to land on my doorstep tomorrow are a few new items. There will be some SR underframes and bogies for putting under the Dapol Maunsell coaches. And I am also getting a bunch of different etched overlay sides for the Farish Bulleids. PEC were unable to supply my normally preferred 6 thou nickel silver, so instead there will a one sheet in 6 thou brass, and another in 4 thou stainless steel. I'll be interested to see how those turn out. There will be 3D-printed roofs to match for anyone who is interested. There will be quite a few new items for the Association shops, but I will leave that to Tony to announce once they make it to the shopkeepers, which will be a few weeks yet. Chris

Several have tried (me too with a Farish 08 which basically has the same construction as the C) but I am not clear if anyone got to a 2mm/N wheel that really ran well. Sent mine to Alan Smith for testing and comment, he indicated you have to get the degree of tightness bang on, otherwise they either fall out of the rims or distort as they pressed in. Interestingly I did not find strength of the fine 3D printed spokes to be a problem, they seemed quite robust. If you get a set of true-running wheels, the next issue is to set up those pickups reliably touching the rather narrow rims. Chris

I have a Farish Jubilee converted by Bill using the anodised axles as a testbed. It doesn't work too well as the 13mm drivers do not run that true and the anodised axles are not polished enough to rotate freely - it is tender drive and so the loco wheels are undriven. It might work better with 10mm drivers which are driven but you had better be skilled, and prepared for stoicism if you end up wrecking a brand new loco. You'll probably have to have the gear specially made as well. Chris

If you could find a set that ran true in the first place... That is one less expense for me then, as the C has just been deleted from the Rule 1 purchase list. If the bodies appear as spares (not all do) I may well run up a chassis. The bodies quite probably have a large chunk of the bottom of the boiler missing. Chris

You want the Farish Jinty conversion chassis 3-650 as this has the correct wheelbase in the correct scale. You will have to sort out the gearbox yourself. I do have artwork for a 4F chassis in 1:148 scale but it has never quite made it onto a production etch yet. Chris

A dig through my photo drawer turned up these, taken on 25th July 1977. 56021, 47305, 56004 56009, 47314, 56005, 37126 56005 That was the first time I had seen class 56s, but the following week there were more on show at Tinsley, and here at Doncaster on 1st August: 56033 Chris

Hmm, so I shouldn't use a Pentroller feedback controller designed for coreless motors on coreless motors. As the lucky owner of a couple of these (lucky as you cannot buy them anymore) I think I'll just carry on. I would have thought the advice should be - feedback or not - check if your controller supports coreless motors. If it dosent say so, then it probably doesn't. I won't be using my H&M Duettes on coreless motors, even though they have no feedback... Chris

As I understand it (from CountryFile) they beat the pants off a full-sized camera for closeups due to the tiny lens. Chris

Believing you have the spare capacity (and/or ability), and whether you actually do are not one and the same thing. Chris

There have been a number of instances (think Bachmann Modified Hall) where silly mistakes have been made and not picked up where the CAD designer is not familiar with the subject matter except through a set of drawings, and cannot just go and look at the real thing in preservation if a feature is unclear. I would have thought these are more likely if the designer is Chinese and is not a UK railway enthusiast. Discussions are also naturally more difficult if the two parties do not speak a common language fluently. Chris

You have to have one for HMRC anyway, so it is not that great a benefit not to have to file one to Companies House. Chris

Back in the day (late 70s) our school model railway club had an N gauge model of Shirebrook too, inspired by our trainspotting expeditions to the East Midlands, where I seem to recall my first sighting of a brand new Romanian built class 56 took place. It was a bit of a hike on a bus to Shirebrook. Our layout was not nearly as good as this one, but there were only three of us, and we were all only 15. Our model of the local slag heap was interesting, it came out looking like a cross between a volcano and a massive coal store. We ran whatever stock we could assemble - there was not so much around in those days, and included perhaps the only recorded visit of a Hymek (the Peco kit) to Shirebrook. It won't be back, it took a tumble off the end of a basboard at a local show and was never the same again. Chris

To my view, he always made clear that the CADs were done in China, as I believe is also the case with Dapol. Based on the amount of balls he was juggling all at once, there was more than enough to do just project managing them, without doing any of the tasks himself. Chris

These look really great. The boiler bands are more prominent than the prorotype TBH, but that seems par for the course with N gauge RTR steam locos. Chris

Wow, the controller brings back happy memories. I wouldn't fancy running any coreless motors on one though. Chris

Not that I am aware of. I do harbour vague hopes of doing etched frames for a Bulldog/Dukedog with appropriate printed boilers but it may well never come to anything. Chris

Not sure about the GW Wagon grey, I have always imagined it a bit darker but then again I have never seen an original, only the GWS take on it. However, that DC1 brake lever in the photo is supposed to run behind the axleguard, not in front of it. Chris