Michael Edge

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.

Yes we have the D10 etch in stock, £32 + £1.50 postage. We also have the 4000 gallon tender kit at the same price.

I found (after much searching) the other test etch for the Stone-Faiveley pantograph so my AL1 now has two pans as built. The second one (on the right here in the down position) was built slightly differently, mostly in the way I altered the etches for the support frame. I've now found a way of adding the additional linkage which keeps the head level. I can't work out from drawings or photos of exactly how this is pivoted but this gives a good impression of it. It needs to be there even if it doesn't work since it's quite clearly visible. A small vertical dropper (chopped off some spare brake gear) is added to the centre of the head with .3mm wire through the hole. The other end is simply passed through the space under the knuckle assembly. In the down position this extra link conveniently hooks under the end of the wire forming the parallel link. This important for the early electrics because when they had two pans only the trailing one was raised. I'll probably do another test etch including components for the air motor and get this into production as soon as we can. The moving parts of this proved relatively easy to design, most of the difficulties have been in arranging the fold up/overlay parts for the frame.

Quite, best to ignore it and find more useful dimensions.

The exact thickness of the insulation is of no interest to us as modellers, I was mainly pointing out that the actual boiler inside the insulation and cladding is irrelevant.

I think this is the Avonside which is being restored at Elsecar, not much tyre left on these.

How are you going to inset this then? The MD&HB used a heavy type of tram rail section with the checkrail formed in the head. The moulded chairs will get in the way as far as I can see.

From what I remember of looking at it last the B4 being restored has considerably thinner tyres than the ones at Stairfoot.