Michael Edge

Presumably you've left the cylinders stuck out where DJH put them and not moved them inboard to where they ought to be. I've had to bring a lot of the Carlisle locos built from DJH kits into gauge to clear the platforms.

Just completed first 4mm model of one of these HC locos - this is one from the second batch with an additional battery box, will be No.45. Buffers and lifting brackets not fitted yet, I'll do the wasp stripes first.

Looks better this way round...

I think you need to reverse this one, slide must have been scanned the wrong way round!

Bank Hall in Liverpool supplied an 02 to shunt a yard at the south end of the docks, when the dock railway was severed at the Pier Head it took a whole 8 hour shift to change over this loco, working around Liverpool.

For small locos I usually the smallest Digitrax decoders - used to be 123 or 126, seem now to be 136, they keep changing these but all have worked satisfactorily. I only use basic motor control functions.

Carlisle doesn't have this Princess though One of the other victims of the Harrow crash, I built 46202 many years ago from a modified K's kit and a Hornby Dublo tender. Not much point in getting this one weathered too much - it was nearly new when it was written off. I've since discovered that the tender steps are wrong but they wouldn't be easy to change on this.

Atlantic Dock Junction was on the Bootle branch, Jack Nelson made a diorama of this many years ago. As you say the name is very appropriate.

Graham Varley built the other big Lizzies in Barry's post above from DJH kits, 46228 is scratch built from 1980 and two others are even older. I built City of Glasgow (as repaired after the Harrow crash - without the "utility front") in 1979, painted by Larry Goddard and now weathered by Barry, this is the most powerful steam loco we have on the layout

I'm not sure about that, David doesn't like some of the names and we do have 204 locos on the layout at the moment.

I cut through half of the spokes with a piercing saw - size 0 (less than .5mm - about .35 or so), clean off any raggy bits which may have got in the gap and fill with ordinary (slow setting) araldite. Put the wheels on a steel plate in the oven (about gas mark 2) for an hour or so. When they have cooled down I file the araldite smooth before cutting the other half of the spokes and repeat the process. To save time with the piercing saw I usually (depending on the number of spokes) cut them in blocks of three or so, cleaning up half way through helps me to see which ones I have already done. I also test them electrically after cutting the second set of spokes and at the end of the process, this is done with the aid of my test track power supply which has a very slow acting cut out. Connect the power to the rim and the centre with crocodile clips and switch on, if there is a small short (usually from iron dust in the araldite) it burns out quite spectacularly. Sometimes a bit of filler is needed where the araldite has shrunk or moved in the gap but this method is extremely strong, I've never had a mechanical failure in more than 40 years of doing this.

Yes, that one's mine, here are most of the others on Carlisle. 46206 and 46207 are K's kits by unknown builders, the others are mine from our etches, painted by Graham Varley, weathering on 46208 by Barry Oliver. We also have 46204 and 46209 but I can't find photos of these.

All railway lines (except the inclines on the C&HPR!) seem flat to someone who rides around Barnsley/Sheffield.

This looks like an excellent replacement for 10x24 motors, not sure what to call this one but on Ebay at about £1.35. This fits neatly on a High Level Roadrunner+, 60:1 gear ratio gives good running speed and controllability. There are no fixing screw holes in this motor but the boss is a reasonable fit in the hole in the gearbox and it's easily fixed by soldering top and bottom. Just for completeness thsi si the finished loco, an old Gibson kit for a GW 1076 Buffalo 0-6-0PT. This was a nice kit to build, it even included a set of perfectly round wheels with solidly fastened tyres - it was purchased in 1996 though. Photo shows that I need to tweak the handrails a bit before it goes to Ian Rathbone for painting.

Etches ordered now for the LOR structure and the trailer from the 40ft motor coach stock, we can have some by the end of this month. Judith and Michael Edge

Soldering the cranks to the axle shouldn't be a problem with the right flux - but it will be now after you have got Loctite on the axle. If these are the old Romford cranks they are very thin and difficult to keep in place even when soldered, I used to thread a 10BA brass nut on the end of the axle and then solder the crank to both. We don't have any etched cranks of this shape but Markits now have a range of machined cranks to fit Romford axles, they are a bit expensive though.

Yes, all the 7MT smoke deflectors are usually in stock, we have only one set of 46106 deflectors left at the moment though.

They are steel not brass, I have one more set but I can't remember where they came from, they've been in my miscellaneous gears box for a long time.

I'm not really concerned about what is inside the motor, just as long as the loco runs smoothly and does what it needs to do. Given the right gear ratio (which has taken a bit of experimenting) all the motors I have tried have been perfectly satisfactory. I don't take much notice of the quoted voltage either, if they do the job without taking much current, don't get too hot or produce smoke they are fine.

Might have been a different line then, we finished at a campsite in Consett that day before continuing down to the Tyne via Rowlands Gill - it was a few years ago though.

Photos of n20 motor/gearboxes installed in locos, first the Hunslet 14" 0-6-0ST. The motor fits up through the firebox and into the tank, DZ126 chip down between the frames. This has the 1:1 skew gears in a brass frame attached to the spur gearbox. The other one is the test etch MDHB Hudswell 0-6-0, this one has plastic bevel gears. In this case the gearbox is soldered in to the frames. There is only just enough room for the bevel drive in this frame - it is 00 but many of these Hunslet and Hudswell frames were as narrow as this, axleboxes were fitted on the outside for standard gauge, on the inside for 3'6" gauge.

Chee Tor was a very impressive layout, the first one I remember which really exploited the vertical dimension. It's only real fault was the extremely unlikely single track tunnel - this was supposed to be the Midland Railway which didn't go in for such things, in fact it had the most multi-track (more than 2) route mileage of any railway in the world.

No they did a later version without the "piano back", we do kits for both though.

We did that once on a tour with two fully loaded bikes - very hard work in places as all the underbridges have been removed leaving some very steep climbs. I ride a touring bike because that's what I do. I do also have a narrow tyred road bike but that's just for the road in good weather (no mudguards).

S&DJ to Bath is superb, Combe Down tunnel a bit spooky though, with eerie music playing at intervals in the darkness. Road cyclists blasting through with no lights can be startling as well. Selby to York on the old ECML is very good, it has a scale model of the Solar System along it for added interest. Miles and miles of old railway paths round here in Yorkshire, more and more of them with a hard surface - I ride a touring bike, not a mountain bike and the type of surface is vitally important to me but maps and information rarely tell me anything about it. Recently the section of TPT from Aldam Junction to Worsbrough was surfaced, turning an unusable quagmire into a vital link.