LNER4479

The popular spot always used to be from a footpath that heads south from the Sandiacre road on the East side of the line. Great view of the whole complex from raised land if you walk along there far enough. Take a pair of binns. with you, mind!

Another vote for back row, third left - and I have met you ... Once.

Have you tried speaking to Sir over on Wright writes? He's pretty hot on stuff like that.

Midland Hotel, Derby and Crewe Arms Hotel, Crewe - 'the Officers' Mess' - favourite venues for us more northern chaps. And an honourable mention for the Brunswick in Derby, albeit not so much for meetings as after work 'relaxation'. Still going strong, with its micro-brewery.

Good question, which I can comment on, hopefully reasonably knowledgeably... 100 miles between water stops for Tornado is about spot on. On the Top Gear race special, which I was fortunate enough to be on, water stops were at Grantham (105 miles), York (189 miles), Tyne Yard, where more coal was also taken on (approx 266 miles) and a final 'splash n dash' top up at Berwick loop (not sure of mileage) - that latter was a real grand prix pit stop, I think we were stationary for 6 mins, just long enough for the 'Aberdonian' HST to get past us! Over on the West Coast, the mileage between stops has to be less, particularly on the northern sections due to the greater effort required for hill climbing; however the loco can still do Preston-Carlisle (90 miles) on one fill. A good indicator back in the day was the spacing of the water troughs which were every 30-40 miles generally speaking. A complete fill could never be guaranteed so crew would bank on 2000-2500 gallons per dip. The logistics behind 4472's famous 1968 non-stop run all hinged on this. Apparently, half (ie every other) set of troughs had been taken out of use by that time (those left still being retained to fill diesel tanks for steam heating boilers). 4472 did of course have two tenders but critically only a seven coach train which greatly reduced water consumption.

Boris for Prime Minister! (no - not THAT one)

Ees nice! Going back a bit, though. That looks like 5305 in SLOA days. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

They have a castle and some gardens. And the railway station is quite impressive. Most other things are out of town, eg Linlithgow for Mary Queen of Scots history lesson Falkirk for a spin in a big wheel North Berwick for National Museum of Flight and the seaside What's not to like?

Got no photos of that

Has he fallen in the water?

Ooh, don't get me started...

You av been added to ze list.

LNER - Late & Never Early Railway The 'in' joke was more of a Hornybee Dublo one:

Note to self - don't read last post first. I do like me fleece though, purchased at an altitude of 3,500ft a.s.l. so it immediately came in very handy.

And a fleece. Perhaps not a golden one though. Jason might get upset Not to mention 60030

Latest instalment of the Quint construction story. Last time you saw it, it was a Quint set Cabriolet. So now, time for - roofs This might seen excessive but for me a distinctive feature of these vehicles is how the gutter is formed where the roofs meet the top of the body sides. So here the gutter strips are being attached, shaped at the end. Aiming for an approx. 1mm overhang from the body sides. Plastic roofs were supplied for all but one of the vehicle kits but I prefer to use metal for a more integral and structurally sound body shell. So here I'm 'rolling my own'. I'd love to show you my all singing-dancing, super-doper, whizzo set of rolling bars ... but I aint got any. It's all done manually using the vice in a distinctive Heath Robinson manner with round bar and sellotape. Not showing you that. Now soldering roofs on, partly from the inside but mainly from the outside, hence the unsightly blobs of solder at this stage. Looking better having been cleaned up with needle files. This view is intended to show the effect of the gutter strip. A cruel close up. If you can avert your eyes away from what appear to be deep gouge marks but are in fact only slight surface scratches that will disappear under the first waft of the primer spray can ... this is intended to show the end profile including the base of the gutters. All that needs to be added are the rain strips above each doorway. Proof that it's been done to all five vehicles! Bearing in mind rate of progress thus far, I'm aiming to have the bodies complete and painted in time for Wakefield. Nice-ities such as underframe detail and interiors will have to wait!

All that is needed is two wires. Simples. Just two wires (I think that was less than 140 characters?) Dino Soar

Nothing so sophisticated I'm afraid! It is designed as a push on once interference fit. However, with the inevitable multiple handling and mucking about with it as a test build, I've ended up (carefully!) running a ring of superglue round the outside of each of the bosses and that seems to be satisfactory. Ultimately up to the skill and preference of the builder in terms of how they're secured, methinks?

Continuing with details of the chassis build. Tonight, focussing on the valve gear. Valve gear? But it is doesn't have any, does it ... well not as you can see on a model? Well ... yes and no. There IS some valve gear visible on the outside and it does move - the real loco wouldn't move at all if it didn't! So, the etch includes parts such as this which are purely an optional extra. The outside parts can of course be assembled in a fixed position. However, this is what is entailed to get it all to move. These are the parts for a simplified version of the inside eccentrics, sufficient to impart a prototypical movement to the outside valves. Now assembled, the off-centre hole for the axle is clearly apparent from this view. These are the outside parts in cruel close up. There are two pin joints to allow for the slight rise and fall of the valve rod, connecting the crank to the valve piston (although such a rise and fall is very slight). The bottom of the crank is fixed to a shaft that runs through the lateral tube (highlighted at the end of the last post) to link with the inside part of the gear. This shows the complete assembly, showing more clearly how the inside motion is imparted to the outside via the cross shafts. The installation on the far side is a simplified version, just trying out the two types as part of the test build. Meanwhile, this shows the now completed motion bracket with the connecting rod now linked to the piston/crosshead. There should be a vertical handrail as part of this, which is attached to the bottom of the slidebar strap. Putting it all together, it all revolves around smoothly, with just a nice lazy back and forth movement of the valves. I'll try and get some video of it all in motion for the next post as the chassis now has a motor in it and will power itself.

You wait till you see all the Hornby Dublo tinplate stuff gaily rattling around! Mind you - this gets a few marks for creativity and invention. One of my Dad's model railway mates enjoys conjuring up things like this. You wouldn't have seen one of these in the 1960's HD catalogue.

Knowing him, probably Evostick which he uses for absolutely everything - including assembling metal kits (shh! Don't tell Sir!)

100% mechanically operated and interlocked 36 lever frame here, Tony. OK, arguably not 100% scratchbuilt as it is based around a Modratec lever frame and uses GEM angle cranks (still available!) and MSE signal parts but otherwise a lot of time and effort expended to set this all up as a 100% mechanical installation. Do feel free to come and have a look for yourself one of these days. I'm sure there are others around with similar installations. Well-impressed however by a transportable set-up that can pull this off. I wonder how they pull off the trick of taking the mechanical motion across baseboard joints - or is it all confined to one board or with a separate frame for each board? Have oft pondered this conundrum over the years but it remains filed under 'hmm...'

I believe that you may be correct. However (my turn for a 'however'), as the current custodian hasn't complained in over 30 years of running (longer that the real Princesses lasted in service - good grief!), then not currently top of the priority pile - Sir! (I'll get lines for that...)

Turn around, then you won't hear the other half of what she's saying

Thanks, Graeme for those latest boiler progress photos. I'd better keep pace with details of the test build, starting with the chassis. Here are the frames, prepared ready for assembly. The spring detail is an overlay etch. Half etch cut-outs are provided on the inside for those who wish to fit proper axleboxes. The non prototypical down piece between the front and middle axle holes is an alternative mounting point for the brake blocks, as there's not much clearance to play with here. Here it is all set up in the Poppy's jg, being soldered up. The coupling rods (usual two etches, sweated together for a chunkier look to the rods) have been assembled to assist in ensuring accurate alignment of the frames. The rods can be jointed but I haven't bothered on this build. Everything fitted fine (spacers have the usual half etch slots allowing use for either EM/P4 or OO, as in this case). Nice and square n true with the wheels fitted (this is just a spare, older set of Romfords - I'll be using newer RP25s for the finished model) and, although not shown here, where subsequently fitted with crankpins, a test fit of the rods saw it running smoothly without any tight spots. A promising start. I showed the assembled bogie in the original post. Here are the bogie sides assembled. A total of three etches for each side which give some nice layered detail. There was an error in the positioning of the curved slot for the bogie centre pin; that has subsequently been corrected for the pre-production etches. The cylinder formers simply slot into the mainframes at 90 degrees. With the front former soldered into place, a length of 2mm rod is used as an alignment check to check it passes through the centre of centre wheelset - the rear former can be adjusted to get this accurate before soldering up. The most challenging part of the chassis is the distinctive motion bracket. This folds up from a single etch. The top profile of its shape has been refined slightly for the pre-production etch. There is a front and back to each bracket. These are quite small parts! Four slidebar assemblies in total; each fits in a half-etch on the inside of the brackets. This shows the bracket assembly now with the slidebars fitted. A certain amount of fettling of the slidebar assembly and crosshead slides was required to get a smooth running fit but I guess that's better than things being too sloppy. This shows the overall effect of work done to this stage. The bracket assembly is only tack soldered at this stage as it need to come off to allow access for the next stage. A clue to this is given by the 1.5mm tube soldered laterally in front of the motion bracket. That's for the outside valve arrangement which I'll feature next time.