Michael Edge

Try High Level, you should be able to find anything you want there and the quality is second to none in 4mm scale.

Interesting variation in the cab roof vents but definitely not taken on the same day. At least this shows it running with numbers at the outer ends and at least one window (I think it's a window), still doesn't help to see which side we are looking at though. This loco on its own is more of a minefield than most large classes!

You might find that a lot more difficult than you imagine - and the turned in ends of checkrails and wing rails will be very visible, neither of which existed on MD&HB track. Incidentally I've got all the bogie mouldings done for your LOR train, send me a pm or email with the address to post them to.

Wait a bit, let's take this in chronological order - this was I think the first time any of us had had a full size track plan on paper. This was in the pre-computer age, no Templot, no CAD design and plotting, all hand drawn on a big roll of paper.

All the proposals were the same size - 30ft x 12ft, basic premise for all of them was a complete railway running from one terminus to another with a separate goods only route.

It was fun to operate and you could get a huge crowd round it at shows, did need a large crew of experienced operators though. In those days (1970s) we had more members who were interested in operating model railways - and you really had to work the traffic round this, it wasn't just playing trains at random. It was built to replace our old club layout which was in more than one room in our then clubrooms, tunnelled through a wall (not that this stopped us taking to the Corn Exchange) this was something of an operational challenge as well. We had a design competition in the club before starting the layout, this is one of the alternatives. There were a couple of others but they don't seem to have survived. I built a 1/2": 1ft model of the final design before we started, the only time I've ever done this. This is the original design, after it was complete it was extended slightly in the middle of each side, which is what the first trackplan shows.

I mostly use 30swg soft round wire, I only use half round when it's a bit bigger than most beading. The solder fillet effectively disguise the round wire, all you see is the half round top of it.

One at a time is enough for me - that's why I tell customers I don't build coaches any more. The last one I built was a dynamometer car so that was a reasonable exception. I sometimes get asked if there is a discount for building more than one loco at a time, I tend to say no, the price goes up to alleviate my boredom.

I've been using EM minus2 for some time (about 6 years) now, all the new fiddle yard pointwork was built in it and so is the pointwork for Wentworth Junction. Gibson and Romford/Markits wheels are perfectly happy with it but the old K's wheels (I still have quite a few locos with them) have thicker flanges and are set at 14.5mm back to back so they tend to bind a bit in the tighter curves. Following this discovery some of the fiddle yard pointwork was eased to 16.5mm gauge except for just through the crossing area. This was only on curves down at around 30" radius, there's nothing that sharp on the visible bits of Wentworth Junction and the K's wheels are OK there.

In turn to be replaced by D95xx 0-6-0 diesels, many of which were sold on (at scrap value) before they had done any useful work for BR - plus ça change.

Looks good so far Dave, no idea when we'll be able to get more stock though. We are really busy now but quite a few kits are sold out.

If we are having galleries of O4s here are two of mine. O4/8 63805 is the oldest one, scratchbuilt many years ago and expertly weathered by Paul Fletcher at the Leeds show in 1991. I used a lot of K's driving wheels in those days, these are still OK but the flanges are a little thick and don't really like the new 16.2mm gauge pointwork. O4/3 (ex ROD) 63713 is much more recent, mostly scratchbuilt but with some etched parts and a Judith Edge tender. I have a K's one as well but it seems to have escaped the official photographer. Brunswick sees a lot of O4s (we have some more available as well) and Wentworth Junction will also need them.

I was referring to normal times, I haven't sent an order to Slater's since the lockdown started.

I will but we may be waiting some time to get the 4mm one out at the moment. Once that's done 7mm shouldn't be a problem but I need to do another test etch on the 4mm one first.

Clamp the laminations together add flux and run solder all round the edges, nothing else is necessary it will go well into the middle by capillary action. Make sure that the solder covers all the joins in the laminations so that they can't be seen then file it all smooth. Keep the soldering iron away from the front face if it has rivet detail though - if it doesn't you can sand the face flat as well.

Many of them were built in the mid 1950s to replace old Mersey Railway stock, they must have been new when I first rode on them from Liverpool to New Brighton.

I agree about them being rotten but I rode on them (and the Southport sets) regularly in the 1950s and 1960s and the ride was excellent, bearing in mind that the Mersey Railway track wasn't always all that good in the underground bits. I remember the contrast when the AM4 sets arrived on Liverpool- Crewe - they were truly awful in comparison.

I use Slater's gearboxes in nearly all my 7mm loco building, they are designed and made in the same way as the ABC ones with as far as I can tell the same gears. I've had no trouble or excess noise with them at all and they are usually sent as soon as I order them.

"silver" casing door handles on a Barclay? Rusty black bar would be nearer the mark, if not painted body colour. They didn't go in for much in the way of fancy finishing at Kilmarnock.

I've posted this before but this was the track plan, the railway ran from Leeds Victoria which was a terminus version of Wakefield Westgate via Dewsbury to Bradford London Road. Banking was necessary up the hill to Victoria, some of our trains were extremely heavy.

I know someone who has some bits of Wigan Wallgate....... In answer to a question above, the Craftsman kit for the L&Y 0-6-0 has nothing to do with the old MPD one.

The MPD kits were supplied with plastikard strips which you were supposed to press into the machined grooves in the boiler, it's probably about 40 years since I built one of these kits but as far as I remember it did work. I've still got two of these kits tucked away somewhere, waiting for an L&Y layout to run them on I suppose.

Very true, I've found this sort of thing countless times. The best answer is to measure the loco yourself (if still possible), otherwise check all the time against photographs - if it doesn't look like the photos it's wrong. Sometimes there's a lack of photos as well and then the job gets really difficult - eventually it's a matter of doing the design work yourself but a fair bit of railway engineering knowledge is required for this and that tends to be in short supply amongst a lot of railway modellers.

Sometimes a weight diagram is all that you have but GW ones are much better drawn than most. No drawing can be absolutely relied on, there are frequently errors in them and/or unmentioned alterations between drawing and building - and the process was sometimes the other way round, building before drawing.

I was assuming that the controller had a two way centre off switch - all the ones I have used do.