LNER4479

Most rude of me not to have acknowledged the rather splendiferous work of our most feathered leader thus far. I blame it on spending rather too much time in the people's republic of Leeds over the last few days plus a nasty outbreak of the audits from which I hope to fully recover in the morning. Muchus grassy-ar$e Mr Ducky. Anyone would think you've made up one of these vehicles before. Horsey trading at its very best and I look forward to reciprocating in the near future

PICTURES FROM AN EXHIBITION A day later than promised... We were afforded prime spot in the 'greenhouse' area, adjacent to the pay booths Backstage, something seems to have amused Paul. A good range of the Shap 1967 fleet can be seen. However, this should be the last time the layout is seen in this form. All being well, next time out we should have a new fiddle yard, more suited to the layout - and a broader range of stock covering 1953-1968 (ish). Out front, Tony's preserved 4498 recreates her RCTS 'Border Limited' railtour of 28th October 1967 A banked freight blasts past the gallery at Shap Wells. Rear end assistance is provided by 75039, one of the final Tebay bankers. A few minutes later, 75039 drops back down to Tebay as the final Jubilee in service, No.45562 'Alberta' steadily ascends the bank with a fully fitted van train. Another railtour, this time headed by preserved 7029 'Clun Castle' has passed under Greenholme road bridge. Ivo Peters and his friend Norman Lockett compare notes. Later in the day, the sun illuminates the fell side alongside Shap summit. Std 4MT 4-6-0 75037 (another one of the last bankers operating out of Tebay), drops off the rear of a EE Type 4-hauled oil train. More interesting lighting catches Barry's distinctive green + blue DMU as it begins the descent of Shap bank. That's all folks! Stay tuned for more Shap / Carlisle news once Grantham is safely back from St Evenage in January...

Reduced formation? The prototype picture looks to have 16-20 transporter wagons on. The true story is that we were all set to have it as a banked train but when we tried it there was daylight between the buffers of the guards van and fastest banker we had to hand! So it ran unbanked for the show. Obviously, the gradient isn't steep enough...

So, layout back home safely after its second show outing. Bit late for a full show report so, for tonight, a few pics of the new train. A wonderful colour picture of a Crosti 9F being banked up Shap Wells on the Ford Halewood-Bathgate car train proved irresistible. Myself and Paul shared the cost of eight of the new Oxford car transporters and then Paul toured the local model shops, buying up Anglias and Cortinas whenever he could find them. Shared out between us, we each spent the last few weeks affixing then to the decks to produce the sight you see below. Arguably a little too colourful compared to the prototype but it ran beautifully and was certainly a popular train at the show. More tomorrow, all being well.

Planning to take some piccies of said train before the hoardes arrive ... But you can get a sneak preview if you nip over to the Leeds show thread in the exhibitions section

Shap summit signalman is limbering up, waiting to signal his first trains... Van collected, packing team due shortly, hoping to be at venue for midday to commence set up See you there

It simply must have had internal steps, as views of both end elevations do not show any exterior staircase. Thanks for reminding me - I might yet carve a hole in the floor to indicate where the steps emerged!

Anyhow... With only a few days to go before Shap is out again at this weekend's Leeds show, there has been the inevitable burning of midnight oil to tackle a few jobs on the 'to do' list. One of these involves the summit signalbox, as captured in this lovely picture by Tony Wright. But can you see the very obvious item on the 'to do' list? Yes - it all looks rather bare inside! Having checked out various options for interior kits, I settled upon the Severn Models brass etch (ref D10). I like working with brass and I felt that a etch might give me a few options - and so it proved. Here is the main thing I have done. The etch provides for levers with a 'standard' catch arrangement. However, Shap summit was an LNWR box, which almost certainly featured the distinctive 'collar' type catches instead. So - a bit of fiddling with a fine pair of pliers resulted in this. Now, just have to repeat it 35 more times. Jumping on a bit, here is a picture from a few hours ago, with all details painted and most stuck down - the others are held with a blob of Blu-tack for now About the best view I can get looking in through the windows. To 'gild the lilly' a little, I have researched as best I can the arrangements of the levers in Shap summit box (courtesy of the SIgnalling Record Society trackplans). The levers are painted accordingly and the ones showed 'pulled' relate to actual moves. In this case, the left-hand-most levers, 1,2,3,4 correspond to a northbound train heading up the bank. The other set, 27,28,32 are for an up train heading into the loop behind the box. This includes the blue facing point lock lever. I guess that's a detail that no-one would ever detect looking at the model at a show but - hey - it's good to know it's there! (before anyone asks, I've only managed to make two out of the three sets of 12 levers so far. The middle set (levers 13-24) will have to wait for another day. All of those will be 'back in the frame' as there's no other move that can reasonably be happening with the above levers pulled.) Finally, the view from the front which at least gives a suggestion of life in the box. Do say 'hi' if you're coming to the Leeds show. Otherwise, we hope to post a suitable report - including that 'new' train that we're keeping under wraps until the show.

Easy, Tiger! Save it for three weeks and two days time...

Blimey - I must have been working fast for the camera to blur like that! As this is a home layout then we don't have to worry too much about weight so an element of brick sh.. er .. 'outside closet' engineering going on here, particularly as the section shown also has to support the weight of another layer on top of it. I like using ply in vertical mode for supporting baseboards so most of the bracing will be in this fashion. The only reason for the 2" x 1" bracing at the back is that the whole arch is out of plywood as there is no scope for intermediate legs for extra support along that axis. Perhaps I'm worrying unnecessarily and over engineering it a tad but I'm sure the reward will be level and true baseboards with consequent benefit for good running in the future.

I can't see a train - all them unsightly masts n wires in the way... The new train is modern image-ish, after a fashion

Looks great, Tony. Many thanks for posting, it's good to see how other builders are getting on. I'm planning to tackle Mike's tender kit myself next.

Build 'em on the Saturday; weather 'em on the Sunday. What's the problem?

Used it once -100% satisfied. So, I guess that time will tell but off to a good start. The only thing to point out is that, for this particular locomotive, due to relatively long wheelbase over the coupled wheels, the middle-to-rear spacing is fractionally too long to use the jig as designed. I had to (very carefully!) extend the rear slot by 1mm. But otherwise no problems. (thinking on, I have used it for a further time as I made up a second set of frames for Graeme to use to mount the footplate/cab test build as his reference for the boiler manufacture. It too went together fine but I haven't fitted any wheels/rods to it.)

A few more views from yesterday's 'shoot'. The final view is the complete resin set that Graeme has developed - the idea is that a chimney and dome will be supplied according to builder's preference.

One thing to point out if I may? The etches for this kit are supplied in nickel silver, not brass. If you've not worked with nickel silver before then you'll find it a revelation compared to brass. It accepts solder easier (partly - mainly? - because it doesn't conduct the heat away so fast). If you've done some etched brass soldering of wagon chassis and carriage bogies then it should not be beyond your capabilities. Just steady as you go, taking each joint in turn. Meanwhile, a significant milestone was reached today with the successful marriage of boiler and chassis / footplate: I'll post some more details later (still en route back home at the moment) but a very enjoyable joint session with Mr King the resin-meister resulted in this. All coming together very agreeably. Talking of Warley, both Graeme King and myself will also be demo-ing at the show and we plan to have the loco as shown (possibly with an assembled Mike Edge etched tender replacing the stand-in Bachmann one) available for examination on Graeme's stand.

The penny's just dropped - I think you're referring to the items in this picture (I originally thought you were referring to items as supplied in the Poppy's kit) Unless I read them wrong (quite likely!), I believed that the instructions referred to fitting the blue tube pieces to the outside of the alignment bars, having the effect of clamping the bars against the outside of the jig. That will hold the bars firm but leaves the frames in the middle free to move on the bars. I couldn't see therefore how to hold the spacers in place between the frames so that they were snug in their half etches, allowing the soldering iron to be wielded without fear of the assembly slipping at the vital moment. So I elected to use the blue tube pieces as shown - but then I thought there was a risk of the heat from the iron melting the tube material ... so what you see are simply pieces of 1mm card with a hole in the middle which the tube pieces clamp up against. The card acts as insulation to protect the tube pieces from the heat. As shown, the whole thing is still free to move about in the jig; however, I didn't find that a problem as it was quite steady in practice. I guess a couple of bits of sellotape or blu-tack (other sticky products are available) could be employed to stop that if necessary. I am aware that some people solder the spacers to one of the frames first before fitting the second but I prefer to have the whole thing set up in a jig first as shown to avoid any risk of things not being square and true. All I know is - and as the video hopefully alludes to - I have a sweet and true running chassis straight out of the jig without any tweaks being required. Hope that helps?

Oi! What about a bit of Sir Viss Onear... A splendid time was had as always at Ducky Towers yesterday. I broughted my proper-ist camera along. I was going to take some photographs of the electrickery but: a) it's boring b) SOSJ's meister-in-chief was concerned about such images appearing in public (I think he doesn't want to show everyone else up with his impossible-to-achieve standards in that department) Instead, our intrepid camera man trudged up the line to the tunnel to observe the civil engineers at work. But, finding none, he recorded these scenes instead. A mockery is being made out of the rather splendid tunnel mouth by using cardboard. Here, someone looks to be thinking about elevating the land over the yard of fiddling The 'save our cardboard' campaign appears to be working as it has now been substituted by some 6mm plywood. At this point, the navvies spotted the man with the camera and made a hasty dash for the brew hut. These three pieces of wood have been cut oversize for now and a jigsaw (with a few pieces missing) may yet be wielded in anger to trim them to a more accurate shape. The discerning viewer might be able to detect two supports projecting out over the fiddle yard area. The idea here is for a series of scenic trays, with integral backscene, that can be lifted off for access on the odd occasion when an erroneous entry into the Dee-See-See controller sends one train careering uncontrollably into the back of another in that area. Not that that will ever happen in practice of course... Apologies for taking the thread off topic for a moment.

6207 rules OK!(a cracking name for a steam locomotive if ever there was one...)

And then there's the fella whose constantly harping on about this that and other fault with latest RTR release... Sir Mone a Lotte Better not go into how his good lady got her name..

Good old GEM angle cranks still going strong... https://anticsonline.uk/N1587_MerControl/2410313_GEM-Mercontrol-Angle-Cranks-1002.html

Slight pause, but nothing sinister - been away for 10 days or so at the end of last month. Chassis is now complete Front end looks very 'busy'. The diagonal rod is the linkage to the cylinder drain cocks. Partly to prove that it's finished on both sides(!) Prominent here is the rear sand box. The front one is all but obscured by the motion bracket and steps - but it is there! Finally, as promised last time, some video to prove that it all works You should be able to see the inside valve gear working on the second pass. On the final two runs, look carefully and you should be able to detect the valve rod moving back and forth. Hopefully shouldn't be long now before loco and the trial resin boiler casting are united for the first time...

Awww He's up above the streets and houses now. (unless St Peter's heard the rude version)

Yey - way to go Duckie! Remind me, what obscure LNER J-something-or-other class of loco is it? Come to think of it, wot's it doing so far south-west at Seaton Junction? Lost da Plotte

Tertiary suspension, Clive - all them springs in the seat cushions. A M Fourfan