Chris Higgs

The Dapol one is surprisingly heavy. They have done a pretty good job of filling the tanks with weights. I believe it is 35g as against a Farish model weighing 47g One amazing thing is how Dapol have left the cab area totally free for the DCC chip. So if you wanted to model an open cab Pannier using this as a basis you could. Chris

After thinking about it, I'm going to go for option 2. I don't think I can live with retaining the horribly oversized crankpins and coupling rods that option 1 would imply - unless I make up some special crankpins (which is possible) and then use etched coupling rods. To solve the pickup problem with Option 2, I'm going to replace the brass bushes that are fitted in the Dapol chassis. These are 3mm I/D, 3.78mm O/D. They will be replaced with some which are 3.2mm I/D (1/8" in old money) which are just standard 4mm scale axle bearings that I happen to have for a 3mm scale kit I do. They have the same O/D as the Dapol ones. I can then use the 2mm SA drive bushes (item 3-112) which are 1.5mm I/D, 3.2mm O/D as sleeves on the axles. Not sure if I will fix these to the wheels or the chassis yet. Combined with the 3mm O/D muff and the gear, the conversion will be done entirely with standard components. And with almost no soldering involved, it makes it open to the maximum number of fellow modellers. I could of course go out the lathe and make myself some custom bearings of 3.78mm O/D, 1.5mm I/D. But it's mighty cold this time of year in the workshop where the lathe resides. Chris

The Dapol is an expensive option. 55 quid at the moment as against a tenner for a Farish body plus 15 for the etched chassis. The way the motor is mounted in the body tanks instead of attached to the chassis probably limits the resale possibilities of the Dapol innards. Chris

My Dapol Pannier arrived today. After admiring it for a minute or two – it’s a little beauty - I proceeded to strip it down to its component parts! For those who feel the same urge, here is a sequence which works – it is not necessarily the one I followed though. Unclip the outside brake rodding. Unclip the couplings. Remove the gear cover plate from the bottom of the chassis, which includes the coupling mounts. This has clips to the front and rear of the wheels. If you are careful, you do not have to cut any of the piping that is found below the footplate to do this. This reveals a small screw under the footplate at the front. This bolts the footplate to the tank and boiler assembly. Unbolt this Remove the cab, having first unclipped the main tank handrails as well as the rear vacuum pipe from the cab. This is as per the instruction sheet. Then remove the DCC chip blanking plate There are two clips which hold the rear of the tanks to the footplate. Unclip these and lift the tanks until two screws are revealed each side of the chassis where the wires are attached. Unscrew these, as well as two on top of the blanking plate socket. This now allows the tanks to be fully removed. Whilst doing this be careful to detach various bits of pipework as needed without damaging them. There is a screw at the rear on top of the footplate. Unscrew this, and the chassis can now be removed from the footplate. Remove the crank pins. They are a knurled fit into the wheels, and can be prised out using a combination of small screwdrivers and pliers (and patience). Undo the crankpin nuts using the tool provided by Dapol in the accesories pack. Remove the coupling rods. The wheels can be detached from the plastic axles by prising them off. The wheels are metal wheels with half axle, which has an outside diameter of 3mm and internally a 1.4mm square hole which fits over the axle, ensuring quartering - provided you don't remove the axles themselves from the chassis. You can separate the two halves of the split-frame chassis by undoing the two screws in one side of it. Be warned, at this point consider carefully if you will have the skill to reassemble it with all the gears in the correct positions. Having got this far, I can see three possible options for converting the loco to 2FS. Get the Dapol wheels turned down. They are quite a fine profile (1.7mm thick, 9.45mm diameter with 10.65 diameter over the flange, flange thickness 0.5mm) and I think just removing some metal from the rear of the flange to reduce it to 0.3mm thickness would produce a working result. Attempt to replace the wheels with 2FS ones from the shop. The 9.5mm drivers (shop item 3-008) could be used, and a standard ‘metric’ muff of 3mm diameter (3-102b) would run in the bearings of the Dapol chassis - assuming there are no wear issues with an acetal muff running in brass bearings. The gears on the driven axle are 20 tooth MOD 0.3 gears (3-393). The only problem is that there is then no pickup from the wheels! Fit a replacement etched chassis. I believe the rear axle driven frames that were provided with the Farish pannier chassis would fit the Dapol body, and the centre axle drive type might do so also, although it is far from an ideal solution. I am also thinking of a new variant with centre axle drive but with the motor facing forwards instead of back.

See my new thread.

Jerry, Obviously you were not very diligent in your spotting. I used to write down the numbers of the loco hauled coaches as well. And to think I tell my son off for wasting his time away playing Minecraft. Chris

Your lad is only having limited influence then Tony if he is choosing stock that was around when we were all kids. Now a Bachmann Voyager would be more like it... Chris

That was some trainspotting trip! Puts what I was doing at the same time in the shade.

Yes they did. There are photos on the Paul Bartlett site of both diagrams in blue. K41s up to the mid-1970s at least. Chris

If you can afford them you should. I find them as a reference much better than the main books with almost all diagrams covered. There are quite a few mistakes in there though. The Michael Harris book 'Great Western Coaches' is excellent also. It has a full list of the lots built in the back, but the text also explains in more detail than the Russell books about how the coaches were built. Chris

More can easily be printed with a quick turnaround. Chris

These all seem to be photos already found in the Russell books - 109 is from the main book volume 2 and the other three are in Part 2 of the appendix. Chris

Have you bought our new and wonderful book 'Track'? If you are not a member, then not as it's only on general release in the new year. That will tell you all sorts of tiebar mechanisms, plus more or less everything you could ever want to know about 2mm trackwork. However, soldering to a moving sleeper is still very much a valid method. The solder joints have to be small but strong. Chris

Based on photos in Russell, continuous rainstrips were applied to a number of different coach types built in 1937, mostly suburbans. They do not seem to appear after that, so were probably not deemed a success. Chris

Ah, so what you really wanted was the new NGS model after all... As far as I know, the Dapol Collett bodies are bang on scale for N, although the underframe might be another matter. I re-underframed mine. Chris

If they do, then you can point out that yours is to 2mm scale, not N. Chris

Hmm, yes OK, we have heard this as the conventional line, but there are rather a lot of 2mm models out there that have been powered for years and years using direct drive from coreless motors without adverse effect. Could be that they don't actually do many hours running, spending most of their time in boxes, or perhaps the smaller forces involved in such light models do not produce that much stress. Chris

I'm pretty certain that the space between the frames under the boiler between firebox and smokebox will be open, with the inside valvegear showing. Chris

First version of the bufferstop photos can now be found at https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B7V9MIj3SLTgYlhxcXhrdEVsMWc/edit Chris

If they are in situ and painted, then yes. I am looking to include a few more pictures of them in a finished state. There were some nice SR ones on Annendale Town at the AGM, but I didn't have my camera with me. Chris

Very late to be adding a comment, but as I have researched and produced 2mm etchings of all three bufferstop types, I can clear up their origin at least in part. Type 1 is the LMS wartime design, which went on to widespread use on BR. There was a drawing of this in an HMRS article. Type 2 is what is often known as the straight rail design. There are examples known of it on the LNWR, but it was also used by the GNR, LNER (York division), SR and as observed is still produced today, there is a nice new one outside St Pancras on HS1. In addition to the PHD etch, BIll Bedford does one of the GNR variant. There is a drawing of an example from Oxford Rewley Road in Precision 1973. Type 3 is also a LNWR design, and dates originally from 1879. I have an original drawing and article by David Hanson, although I forgot from where.

I can't seem to find the photos of the GWR bufferstops you built. This was some time ago. Chris

I'm on the lookout for any photos people may have and are willing to share of builds of the etched loco chassis range. I want to create a document of photos with captions to help others. Of particular interest would be things not already covered by the instructions, such as how you mounted the motor, and conversions and modifications. I am also looking for any photos of assembled etched bufferstops from the Association range, to create a similar document. Chris

Geoff Jones did it that way and then complained to me it was almost impossible to get them all lined up correctly. Do you have some trick that us mere mortals don't know about? Chris

Now it has been pointed out that I have been selling the wrong bogies with my full brake kits, I probably will be doing some. It is probably only 10 minutes work to modify the artwork. I have dug out my Slinn book on Siphons and see the error of my ways. Mind you, it didn't help that the book printed a photo of a long spring version (but with short footsteps) in its section on Siphon bogies. That also reminds me that I have some half-done artwork for Siphon underframes somewhere. Andy, if you are coming to the AGM I will bring your Maunsell kits with me. The roofs are still at my brother's house so will have to follow by post the week after. Chris Chris