Michael Edge

That's the one in Turin, ex FS 700 001, the working one is ex FS 700 003, painted green in the latest photo I have.

The Maunsell 0-6-0DE is at a fairly advanced stage, we hope to get it out next year.

One of them is in working order but the other is deteriorating rapidly.

That's the mistake most compensation systems make - far too much movement, I'm not sure Mike was entirely to blame but he certainly paved the way. I'm glad it works, perhaps it's a good job the hole in the swinging arm was drawn concentric with the gearbox axle..... Thanks for the publicity and excellent photos by the way.

Does it still work OK with the jackshaft axle moving? It hadn’t occurred to me that anyone would do that, the swinging arms often pass around the fixed gearbox axle in our kits - the idea is to make them as long as possible in this case as the arc they travel in is not concentric with the coupling rod movement.

Very nice work and thanks for your clear description of how you did it - I'm a bit puzzled about the way you have fitted the axle bushes though.

The jackshaft axle doesn't move, the swinging arm has a large hole to allow it to move around the fixed axle. The bearings for the jackshaft axle should be fitted in the frames as you say - in full size this axle is the gearbox output shaft and the gearbox is bolted between the frames.

If the steps and bogie of a Duchess are the right size and in the right place they will not touch on sharp curves.

Some video I took at Barnsley

Very similar but I've used p/b wire since it became readily available - back in the dark ages all you could get was the flat strip which could only bend in one plane. Phosphor bronze is the best material to use because it stays springy, other materials may soften with heat produced by arcing.

No, not mine, I haven’t used p/b strip for pickups in more than 50 years.

Is that U1 one of mine as well? Have you looked for a works plate on it?

I've built a lot of Garratts, here's a few of them. This was the first one, scratchbuilt for myself - not quite any of the UK industrial ones. Powered both ends (as I always do) it's pictured here at Herculaneum Dock but it runs on Cwmafon. This LMS Garratt built from a K's kit, the motion looks very clunky now but otherwise the kit isn't bad. 7mm scale NGG16 from the Backwoods kit (Ian Rathbone's photo), definitely not an easy kit to build. Another Backwoods kit, 4mm EM this time, one of the four UK industrial Garratts, this one for Vivians Copper in Swansea. Painted by Dave Studley and again not very easy to build. Another NGG16, 4mm this time - curiously the Backwoods kit seemed easier to build in this scale than in 7mm. This Backwoods kit is an absolute pig to build but it makes a very nice model of the first Garratt with the cylinders inboard. The original now runs on the Welsh Highland with some of the SAR NGG16s. Mauritius Railways 2-8-8-2 in EM, scratchbuilt with some etched parts. Painted by Dave Studley

We have two LNER Garratts for Wentworth Junction. We don't run them together but it's handy to have a spare - one failed on the first day of the Leeds show last year. The one on the nearer track is standard DJH with one motor in the hind unit, built by Andy Ross, the other one I built with a DS10 motor in each end. The twin motor one on the layout at Barnsley last weekend

On the rollers for a bit of running in. Ready for a final grit blast and then to the paintshop.

You should have stopped in Yorkshire, it's nice and sunny here.

We didn't have quite enough coal wagons for the Barnsley show (only 160!) and the double empties were running with 53 instead of 60 but look what I found yesterday. Seven coal wagons - and some of my best ones as well, weathered by the late Paul Fletcher. I was idly wondering the other day where my Airfix class B tankers had gone and eventually found a box marked "tank wagons", inside were 10 of the Airfix ones, two TTAs and all these wagons. They must have been put in this box after the last time we exhibited Herculaneum Dock without the Overhead and not been seen since - that's more than ten years ago.

I do as much of the soldering as I can from the inside (our kits are designed to be built that way) and always clean up as I go along, mostly with various scrapers. Dave Studley's comment when he has painted my locos - "I see you've been using invisible solder again".

Bizarrely the level crossing is still in use, despite a bridge having been built to bypass it.

Moving on Fittings added, these machined components are one of the best features of Jidenco/Falcon kits. I can't quite see what the whistle is fastened to so I've attached it to the ejector steam feed pipe. Cab interior is a bit speculative, full set of SR lamp brackets on the back of the cab. Minor snag with the cab roof, the etched part was a bit too short, easily replaced with sheet brass, the curved end plates were still used though. No way of avoiding the nut on the cab floor, have to stand a driver or fireman on it. No idea what the handbrake column looked like but it's in the right place here. Nearly finished now, just cylinder cladding, balance weights (not in the kit) and handbrake linkage to add. The coupling rods matched the frames exactly, con. rods and crossheads left off for painting. The slidebar material provided was 1mm square brass, this looked a bit thick so I replaced it with .8mm square wire - it will need all the clearance I can get behind the slidebars even in 00 gauge with the rather thick Markits wheels.

The only one was someone who said the bus on Gilroyd Lane wasn't showing the right route number.... Some of my photos with background clutter edited out.

Back from a successful showing in Barnsley, very favourably received by the locals and nobody told us we were doing it all wrong. Two photos ready for the start on Saturday, the layout went up in about an hour and a half on Friday night, about the same on Saturday morning to put the stock on - amongst others there were 160 coal wagons on the layout. It behaved itself very well, only a couple of difficulties which were quickly sorted and some expansion - the hall was very warm - we are still working out the best way to operate it. Back home, unloaded and back in the shed by 6.30pm which is probably an unbeatable record! More photos and some video later.

The electric blue on the early AC locos faded very quickly from the original shade, looks nearly white in some photos - this may have been one reason why it was abandoned.

Nice to see the Jackshaft 0-6-0DE, ehose was that?

More work yesterday The tank goes together quite well, location for the formers is a good idea, I didn't use the middle one - which turned out to be fortunate.. It did require my rolling and bending bars to shape it though. The completed tank turned out to be shorter than the spacing of the etched slots in the top of the boiler - the extra former was soldered on one end to lengthen it just enough. There are holes on the top to locate filler and dome - not really needed, I would rather have had the handrail pillar holes etched. The lower handgrabs are a bit awkward, right on the lower curve of the tank. I usually fill saddle tanks with lead before finally fitting them, also drilled two holes for the balance pipe. This has to be fitted on assembly since it curves round the bottom of the boiler.