Rowsley17D

Helps if I send it to the right Graham.

PM sent. Hope you got it, Graham.

Taking advantage of the warm weather, I got some undercoats of Halfords' primer and surface primer on to the Flatiron. The cab roof was still in the box when the other bits were being sprayed.

The 1P is entering the home straight with a back-head, cab fittings and a crew needed. At some point I must get round to lining at least one of the passenger tanks. Edit Crew now fitted and will miss out back-head as it cannot be seen once the crew is there. I've also fitted the front coupling hook which I found had been missed out of the last photo.

Markits/Romfords for me but as your kit has 2 coupled axles quartering should not be too much of a problem with non-quartering makes. I would advise not using the Markits deluxe crank pins though as you have to take out an awful lot of meat from the coupling rods to make them fit.

Good to see a bit more progress, Giles

A while ago, I'd more or less finished building yet another 1P tank. With the weather nicely warming-up, it was time to get the rattle cans out and have a go. First a few wafts of surface finisher I got from the York show, then some coats of Halfords' etch primer followed by coats of their matt black.

I used them for a while buying the softest 9B graphite stick from an art supplier. Trouble is I found it builds up on carriage and wagons wheel treads.

I can vouch for the London Road turntables, Graham. No indexing but if you have eyesight of the tracks then they can be lined up easily as it turns extremely slowly on DCC speed scale 1. I use speed 10 until I get near where I want to be. http://www.londonroadmodels.com/various_pages/arch_kits.php

Is this what you're looking for? http://www.londonroadmodels.com/rolling_stock_pages/brake_etc.php Scroll down to Wagons, Vans & Trucks.

Jamie, plate 45 is wagon No 33, a Chas Roberts & Co Ltd built May 1923, registered to LNER, side doors only, brakes both sides, oil 116 axle boxes. Livery slate grey body, black ironwork, white letters shaded black. Dimensions Over headstocks 16' 6" Body width 7' 11" Plank widths 5 @ 7", 1 @ 8", 1@ 9" Wheel base 9' Plate 46 is also a Musgrave wagon a 1923 standard 8 plank built in 1928 No 2. Built for the "new" company.

It can be used for all the applications you describe. I use cotton buds for wheels and pieces of J-cloth to apply to railheads and smaller pieces to clean pick-ups. No need to wipe off as the solvent evaporates. It does not affect plastics either.

Another vote for WD contact cleaner. IPA is polar liquid leaves a charge on the surface which attracts more dirt. Here's the "science".

Ballasting has been completed around the new double slip and approaches. A bit of trackwork painting and touching-up need to be done.

Day 1 after 4hr chemo session yesterday afternoon. Apart from a bit of a headache, no adverse reactions so far. Hardly slept last night but that's due to the steroids. I was fearing an instant dire side effect which would have occurred as the first infusion went in (there's a bit of clue there as to what it would have been!) but was not to be thankfully. Double slip is working well. There was one derailment of one set of bogie wheels on a Hornby corridor coach even though the b-t-b was the same as all others to measurable limits. A 0.5mm increase cured the problem. I also found out a neighbour two doors down is also a railway modeller he only has boards laid and a bit of track, so reciprocative visits are to be arranged.

The new double slip is working much better than the old one, so just the ballasting to complete. One of the tests was with a Crab and here she is with a local to Derby.

Unusual duty for one Rowsley's Crabs. 2873 has been "borrowed" by the Derwent shed master for an all stations to Derby.

The powerful servos have been fitted and do the job well. They were from The Pi Hut. As they are 20mm wide they wouldn't fit into the alu channel I usually use but were attached to some alu right angle with an alu plate for the actuating wire to go through. Now for some real testing of the stock to see what goes through as it should.

A lovely work-a-day look to that loco, Graham.

This site gets spookier by the minute.

There's an echo in here, you posted this on Monday! Page 183. 😁 Still excellent modelling though.

I like the stonework on that goods shed, very realistic.

I thought I would get it done before chemo starts as crawling under baseboards isn't much fun after a treatment session. I'll look and see if I can get more powerful servos as @lezz01 suggests, otherwise it will be the British Finescale route. Just ordered 2 servos with metal gears which give 10kg of torque and 180 deg of turn.

The approach track has ha sleepers fitted and the formation wired up and connected to its servos. Ballasting still needs doing but I've left until all runs reasonably well. Stock runs through it better than the one it replaced but the closure rails are very stiff for the servos despite me cutting through the rail foot and web in several places.

Having had enough of super glue that will only stick your fingers together, I buy a card of 6 tubes for £1.25 from our local bargain shop. It sticks just as well or badly as your branded stuff.