Michael Edge

00 standards are fairly forgiving (sloppy?) when it comes to back to backs, mostly anything between 14.3 and 14.6 will run safely. It does get a bit tighter with EM-2 (or 00SF) with 16.3mm gauge through the crossings which I have on Wentworth Junction and its fiddle yard - quite a few rtr back to backs have had to be altered if hey are to run on this.

I don't think I did in that one, it couldn't move very far - a loose wire strap over the motor is usually enough though, it has to be able to move a bit but not too much.

Working on the big water tower now. The tank has been 3D printed by Innocentman, not entirely successful yet but it's looking OK. The support structure was a mixture of wood and steel girders, assembled out of Plastruct sections so far.

I used grey tile grout with the cobbles impressed but some of mine was set in concrete where I used something like the technique you have shown.

At the risk of being overoptimistic this is starting to look like a very good kit... Footplate bolted to the frames and buffer beams prepared, these are a fold up with an overlay for the bolt heads making a reasonable representation of the wooden buffer beams. Buffers provided are Slater's so need the holes opening out considerably, small backing pieces (or filler) will be required at the back but that;s not too much trouble. Buffer beams attached to the frame ends, this is an industrial loco (acquired from Southampton Docks) and as usual the footplate doesn't overlap the buffer beams. Cylinder ends fitted in the frame slots, this shows how to set them up so that the piston centre line coincides with the driving axle centre. This is just about universal, the only exceptions I know of are GW 2 cylinder locos with a 2.5in vertical offset, but many builders get this wildly wrong. The kit provides some really nicely machined cylinders as an alternative but I won't use these - cylinders might always round on the inside but they are never round on the outside. Cab front and sides added, the front locates nicely in two slots but no location provided for the sides, the back is just resting in place for the moment. Next up will be the boiler but I'll leave that until I get the motor/gearbox from High Level. This is clearly from the same designer as the last Jidenco kit I built (SEC F1), all the parts have fitted perfectly so far. Only two snags so far, the 00 spacers were far too wide at 13mm and like the F1 the parts are separated with very thin gaps on the etch. This prevents me using the Dremel cutting disc and snips for cutting many of them out, the tags are also full thickness rather than half etched so chisel/chopping methods won't work without a big risk of distorting the parts. In the end I have resorted to using the piercing saw - a 4/0 blade is just thin enough to get in the gaps. These are very minor irritations in what looks like being very good.

How is the bogie fitted? The trailing wheels don't need to move far, the leading ones can do most of the movement on curves. I would expect to easily get this round my 28" radius test track.

I've used this technique on parts of Herculaneum Dock - be careful that the filler doesn't come even slightly above rail height. Most loco wheels are significantly wider than the rail head and can easily be lifted out of contact if the filler is a bit high, I spent a long time patiently scraping it down alongside the rails after discovering this....

It looks like a test train to me - was this after the reverse turbine had been altered? Running in reverse was important at Euston because the arriving train loco was normally required to bank the train on its way out, at least as far as the platform end. It might well have been needed at Lime Street as well given the sharp gradient into the tunnel just off the platform ends.

This was the only way I could think of to keep track of about 200 locos on the layout, especially as they are often too far way (and the lighting isn't very good) to read the numbers - and some earlier "weathering" has obscured the cabside numbers completely. The only thing you have to remember is to take the tag with you when you move a loco from one location to another. They are also colour coded, red for express passenger, blue for mixed traffic, green for diesels and yellow for local passenger and DMUs.

No idea, it's all there now anyway, I've just checked.

They are swinging arms for one axle, beams if they are connecting two. Most modern railway rolling stock is suspended this way but with springs and dampers rather than compensation - not many hornblocks around these days. In this case the knife edge is done simply by trial and error until the frame rides level, if I had designed it as a kit the height and position would have been set with the etches.

C&L, all the plain track on the layout is from them.

Moving on to the second week in France More baseboard construction, the plywood had been delivered to the railway room but turned out to be nearly twice as thick as what I had specified before so construction was a bit different. This stuff was really difficult to saw as well but it did make one part easier... It's so thick it was self supporting at the narrower end so I didn't have to move any of the control panels, they are all still easily visible underneath - one did have to be undone, threaded back through its hole and fixed lower down. Pointwork laid out to see exactly where it would fit - in the end it all moved back a bit. Designing this at home without actually being there meant a lot of work was done as I went along. Finished boards with just a narrow fill in bit to join it to the scenic part, the slightly odd reverse curve shape was to clear the panel and control sockets on the right at the end of Garsdale without getting too close to the Citadel tower at the other side. It does lengthen the loops a bit as well. View down the whole length - it's quite a big layout in itself. Overall from the scenic break bridge The first down train running on to the loop. Once I get a crossover which was missed off the plan up and down trains will use the track on the left with four loops for storage. The only access back to the main lines through our existing storage area is via the loco yard road which is the only one with up and down connections at the far end. This will access the main line into Citadel and both goods avoiding lines to Bog Junction.

I only did an hour or so on this yesterday. Frame etch is OK but the "00" spacers were more than 13mm wide - far too much for these Markits wheels - so it has some of mine. I'm not going to build this tiny 0-4-0 rigid so the frames were modified with my usual compensation system. Two hefty brass beams pivoted as far forward as I could get form swinging arms to carry the leading axle which can rock under a knife edge. The pivot pins can be seen in the first photo just above the guard irons, these are far too long but easily shortened. Back to this on Monday.

I've just got the Mk3 version of the DG coupling hook. I've modified the latch again, now the top part is half etched to fold over. It rests on the peg quite securely now and the loop can't catch on the top of it - worked perfectly on test with this J10 on the colliery trip.

Looking again that might be the altered setting, I'll check with Tony.

My original Templot drawing had 1:7 crossings, between two B7 turnouts - I haven't seen Tony's altered plan. They do work perfectly though.

Back at work here now, next up is this: I'm a glutton for punishment, here we go with another Jidenco/Falcon Brass kit.

Just back from another trip to France, Yorkshire weather today a bit of a contrast to Dordogne though. I left Hest Bank in May with baseboards for the scenic part and not much more, back this time with all the pointwork and the cork had already been laid so I could start with tracklaying. The weather was extremely hot (for October) and sunny - ideal conditions for the job. Tony's pointwork comes neatly packed on the Templot printout so it's easy to set it all out and see how it fits together. This time we have prototypical fixed diamond crossings instead of the switch diamonds we had on the approach to Citadel. When I drew the pointwork out to scale Tony quite correctly pointed out that the crossing angles were too flat for fixed diamonds in EM but this time (I wasn't involved with the earlier stuff) I simply asked him to adjust the angles and lengths to bring it with the range for fixed. The switch diamonds work now but they were a real pain fix motors to and set up, comparison below shows the minimal difference it woould have made. This is one of the new ones laid over the Citadel approach junctions, the very small difference in length would not have been noticeable. To form the approach to the new section I had to rebuild one turnout into a tandem, minimum (4ft 6in) radius here but it works. There was only room for a single track connection to Hest Bank, anything else would have involved points in the tunnel between here and Garsdale, northbound trains will run wrong line here, crossing back over on the approach to Garsdale. This is the very long sprung point which turn it back into double track through Hest Bank, it just fits in the original return loop structure (this is part of the return loop made for this end of the layout which couldn't be fitted when we added Garsdale). Tracklaying as before, glued down with No More Nails, weighted with a variety of steel and iron lumps for a couple of hours or so, then move on, point motors fitted now. The coach is for testing purposes, no power on the track yet but a free running vehicle can be hand propelled along to check the alignment. The curve of the main lines here is about 40m radius and it wasn't easy to set out. When I originally drew the plan, tracing from OS 1:2500, this looked just about straight. When we went to Hest Bank and looked at it there was a very visible curve all the way through which we found a little worrying - but once the model track was actually laid the curve was just as apparent as it had been full size. Looking the other way it's not so tidy! This is about four days work before I got on to the missing baseboards, I left these longer so that I could still walk round the end rather than ducking underneath all the time. More later

I always use compensation for 4-4-0s, I find bogie springing too hard to get just right, especially for a lightweight loco like this.

Yes, it had an LMS BCK at one end - our Caledonian set on Carlise has a BR catering car though, not an LMS one.

There's a video of one of the Swedish turbine locos, I'm not sure if it still runs though. I do remember seeing the few gas turbine racing cars which have been run, they were almost silent in comparison to the other cars, just a whoosh with not much whine. There was an F1 car, an American sports car and the Rover/BRM which competed (and finished) at Le Mans.

At least it was easy to take apart - unlike many rtr locos today.

The Kitmaster 350hp was fairly accurate but I've never done anything with one. I do sometimes run a Hornby Dublo one (fitted with Sharman wheels though) on Herculaneum Dock, it goes unnoticed next to a Bacnmann one.

Overall dimensions are about right but Hornby lengthened the cab to fit the Ringfield motor in, the engine casing is correspondingly shorter.