Michael Edge

Thanks Martin, yes, I think that might be better - I was just trying to point the track builder away from REA switches. I usually fish about with switch settings until I get the flowing result I want, remembering that we are using much tighter curves than full size railways ever would.

This looks like the results I got before discovering the "short model switches" in Templot. This is very small radius stuff from a full size point of view and the REA switches don't produce the best result for a model. Have a look at the same B6 turnout and change the switch setting to 1 in 24 model - you will see what I mean. The GW loose heel switches produce similar results.

We buy these from Rymans in Castleford and until recently they were kept behind the counter, presumably for this reason.

You'll need a awful lot of bags for most of the Finney kits.

But in that case you would have lost all reference to what they are - there are no numbers on the etch and you have to search all over a drawing (with numbers scattered at random) to identify anything.

You can find some very tight curves in dockside track but not all of it was traversed by locomotives, searching round the Mersey docks system the sharpest curve I found was nearer to 150mm radius. The sharpest curve on my 00 gauge layout is 17" radius and that's a reverse curve not much tighter than scale, however we have no trouble running round it with DG couplings. Using side buffers is always a bit iffy in 00 gauge anyway because of the relation between the gauge and the wheel standards. All MDHB locos, no matter how short the wheelbase, had flangeless drivers on the centre axle, they also usually carried a length of chain with them for coupling to longer wagons.

Thanks for posting all this, hope we sell a few. Thanks also for pointing me towards that blog about building one of our kits, there's some interesting stuff on there. I like the way he says he can't remember who taught him to solder the layers of the buffer beams together (running solder round the edges) - he might just have seen it in the kit instructions....... Mike and Judith

We haven't really advertised this yet but we have plenty of them at the moment.

The tin looks the same but I'm not at all sure the ingredients are. A tin of Fluxite lasts me about 30 years and I had to buy this new one last year.

Vmware is free.......

Seems very slow to me I normally work on the basis of 1 1/2 hours per set of point blades. Tiebars are just plain sleepers with a hole in the middle, I'll be using Tortoise point motors.

Sorry John, I'd forgotten all about that - maybe before we're back in Australia next winter.

With an exhibition coming up in April work continues on Herculaneum Dock. One of the great irritations has been the lack of working signals, particularly with the colour lights. Both the main line and LOR signals are of great historical significance, the CLC was one of the earliest (1930s) examples of multiple aspect signalling in Britain - the Brunswick panel is preserved at York - and the LOR was the world's first automatic system in 1921. About a year ago I bought a two aspect signal and a track sensor from Train Tech and last week I finally got round to trying them out, a lash up on the DCC test track showed that they did exactly what they were supposed to do so today it was time to try fitting one to the overhead. They do come attached to a fairly large circuit board which is going to be difficult to hide under the LOR, the signal head is about the right size but should really be hung on the side of the post. The test train is approaching a signal which normally shows green, just to the right of the BluTack is the IR sensor which turns the aspect to red as the train passes it. Normally these are designed to lie horizontal and react to a train passing over but there isn't enough room to fit it all in at the side so this one is mounted vertically just below the top flange of the girder. The train on the other track demonstrates that this is out of range. As soon as the train passes the sensor the signal goes to red, if the signals are stand alone ones it will return to green after an interval but this interval isn't long enough to allow for a station stop. However the signals can be linked together with a single wire, in this lash up the wire comes from a separate sensor unit clipped to the handrails (this one will be used in the fiddle yard area eventually) but normally it would be the next signal down the line. As the train passes this it returns the first signal to green and if this was a signal it would got to red. All absolutely simple, the only wiring is to connect each signal to the DCC track, no switches and all automatic. It is possible to fit override switches as well and at least one will be required for the signal protecting the car shed exit.

With the S1 finished I've made a start on the track. Point timbers and sleepers stuck down to the Templot drawing with double sided tape. The timbers have been tweaked considerably at the LH end, the narrow gap is where the baseboard joint will be. This is a new technique I'm trying out, previously I've used 1.6mm timbers with the rails soldered directly to them but this gives a very visible discrepancy when connected to moulded track bases with proper chairs. I'm not keen on the current fashion for building pointwork with plastic chairs, I'm not sure it's strong enough and it's almost impossible to adjust. All the pointwork for Chapel-en-le Frith was built like this and it was a very long job fettling it for smooth running. What I did was to etch a series of baseplates (can't really call them chairs) to solder on to the timbers to raise the rail off them. It's a long job soldering these on, just about doubles the time for point construction but I think the overall effect is quite good. They are soldered on with 2% silver solder, blob of fluxite on the timber, drop the etch in place, hold down and touch the iron at the side of it. All done for two turnouts and a single slip, this is about a third of the pointwork required so it was a good layout to try this out on. This is 16.2mm gauge, at least through the crossings, no need for fancy gauges, just use EM ones with the checkrail position for one rail. The last one on the left is 16.5mm gauge where it will join up with the moulded track. I usually start from one side and work across, this is the up running line, the nearer rail has the start of the crossing V filed on it. Now I'm using ordinary 60/40 solder, I'm quite happy for it to form a blob where the chair should be, visible on the right another absolutely essential tool - Xuron rail cutters. Nobody likes filing point blades but this is the easiest way I've found, I've never found a way of machining them. First file the back down to the web and a little bit past, Templot tells you the length of this planing. The rail is clamped to a piece of wood on the bench top with a G clamp and a sharp file is used with both hands to file it down flat - keep your newest and sharpest files for this job, this one isn't used on anything else. Now the head of the rail has to be filed down (same file), leaving the foot untouched. Depending on whether you are left or right handed one of these will be more difficult than the other, I'm right handed so this is the more difficult one. The whole process takes no more than 5 minutes. This is another very useful home made gauge, a flat piece of steel cut square to exactly 16.2mm width. Not visible is another narrower layer soldered underneath to lift the gauge off the chairs. This is very useful for aligning at least the first part of a K crossing, an EM gauge alongside the point blade which is clamped to the stock rail with a miniature bulldog clip. I have a couple of these, no idea where they came from though. I've used the flat gauge on the running line, alignment is more important for this direction, the other routes will mostly be used for light engine movements. Checkrails are fitted last, I test the running without them first. I've used phosphor bronze rail recovered from many of the old Herculanum cassettes, not sure if it will be very noticeable but it's worth a try. The checkrails are not set with the roller gauges, you really need a check gauge which is what this is. The EM society provide this in their gauge set but I had to make my own for 00. The checkrail is not gauged from the adjacent running rail but from the crossing V - the distance to the running rail doesn't matter much but the distance from the wing rail to the checkrail must be less than the back to back minimum of the wheels in use. The gauge has a plain section which fits in the flangeway and two grooves to hold the checkrail, the large boss on the end nearest the V is machined off at rail level so the gauge can sit over the other rails. Everything is tested with all the different wheels in use, the Hunslet at the end has Romfords, the Jackshaft nearest has Gibson, in between is an old Hornby Dublo Lowmac which is ideal for hand testing. The long wheelbase and small wheels coupled with the ease of pushing it over the track makes it easy to feel any faults. Set out in place on the layout, this crossover, incorporating a very unusual facing slip, runs from the water tower (marked on the right) and the signal box on the left. In this photo from track level I think the effect is quite good. If anyone is wondering these are A7 turnouts with REA switches.

Get VMware or something similar and keep running your old XP machine as a virtual computer within your Windows 10. I use a Mac but most work is done on virtual XP and Windows 7 machines, Judith uses a virtual XP computer on her Windows 7 machine for most of the kit work. Another advantage is being able to use Templot without an internet connection, the virtual machines are only suspended, not normally stopped, so Templot stays running. I get all the Office stuff with my OneDrive subscription which removes nearly all back up worries.

I was referring specifically to the loco etches, wagons are a bit different being generally smaller - although the one wagon kit we do has its own tool.

The big problem (as told to me by Colin just after he took over) with the Gibson kits was that not only were the different locos spread across several etch tools but in some cases they weren't even with the same etchers! I have no idea what the Jidenco/Falcon etch tools look like but we stopped making this sort of mistake about 3 kits into our range and every kit now has its own tool.

Judging by our experience "etches only" would be easy to do and should be profitable - assuming the etches are sensibly organised.

2mm etches, possible but you've just missed the latest 2mm sheet and it might be some time before we do another. I think the fireiron brackets would be far too small in this scale, personally I prefer to make them from round bar as they should be. As Tony says not all these tenders had sanding gear, a pair of sandboxes wouldn't be difficult to add but I don't think I have a suitable pattern at the moment. Tender sanding was once very common but fell out of favour during the grouping era on most railways, although Bulleid on the Southern continued to use it. It was only used in reverse and dropped the sand a long way in front of any driving wheels in most cases. I din't bother with any of the brake rigging, partly because this a fairly old design now, mostly because it's just about invisible behind the steps unless you get your eye down to rail level. Leaving off useless invisible detail was one of the original design aims of all our kits.

I can put a few around the edges of a new etch, they aren't very big and I'm usually looking for things to fill unused space.

Yes, it's signed by Larry as usual under the footplate. I've no idea why the tender was wrong, I'll just have to blame the drawing I was using at the time (it was more than 30 years ago).

Nothing etched in that B3 Tony, everything sawn out of sheet material, mostly shim steel.

The 7mm Hunslet 0-4-0T has been like that for many years, I really ought to finish it but I don't have a layout for it to run on.

Now for the slidebars and con. rods. Sidebars are 1mm square, pushed through the cylinders and soldered to the motion bracket. 1mm n/s rod pushed through to check that the cylinders line up with the driving axle centre. Connecting rods have been soldered together and finished as for the coupling rods. A snag appeared with the crosshead etches - no hole in the centre! A cross mark was made from corner to corner, popped and drilled out to take the little end pin. On the left of this etch is the unused mechanical sanding lever. The crossheads (as in our other etches) are made from front and a back layer, both have small rebates etched into them to engage with the slidebars. At the piston rod end there are two thin fingers which are bent around the piston rod as seem here - leaving the rod full length for the time being. This shows the piston rod soldered into the fingers of the crosshead back which is propped in place with a selection of needle filesl Connecting rod in place with a pin dropped into the hole, the crosshead front is on the bench with its fingers already bent back. Front now threaded on, at this point the front is soldered to the piston rod. The whole assembly is slid out backwards and the little end pin securely soldered in (to both crosshead faces), the little end of the con.rod is well greased before doing this. Piston rod shortened, packing washer(s) added to the driving crankpin to bring the con. rod parallel to the coupling rods and finally the cylinder cover glued on. Because I have always put this on last after painting a lot of my work has appeared with shiny bright cylinder covers as certain professional painters have misinterpreted this process. A useful trick with bogie locos is to stick the covers on with epoxy so that they remain insulated fro the frames. Pick up wires from .35mm p/b soldered to the pre-fitted plates. Wheels run round by hand while doing this to check that the wires aren't being carried into the frames or brake gear as the wheels rotate. Wires connected to the motor and it's ready for its first track test. First track test quickly revealed that the big ends fouled the footplate so two holes were chopped out of it as shown. Finally on the dynamometer rig - not all that sophisticated, just a spring on a nail and the loco running past a scale. Temporary weight of a v block on the boiler brings it up to 550g - it still easily spins its wheels at this weight and pulls the spring out to about 45mm - more than enough for its likely jobs. For comparison the most powerful pacifics on Carlisle reach about 65 with a weight of 650g. I've made the pattern for the bogie axleboxes, just need to make a mould now.

S1 again With the frames out of the body brakes are attached on cross wires. Incidentally the Mabuchi motor bolts straight on to the High Level gearbox - as long as there is room for it to be at this angle, no problem in a big tank loco. View from underneath showing brake pull rods and the pcb pads which will carry the pickups. Motor and gearbox masked up for spraying. Hycote grey primer all over, wheels turned while spraying to get the frames covered through the spokes. Hycote satin black all over, masking tape removed now. The wheel treads and tyre backs are cleaned as soon as the paint dries, leaving it to fully harden just makes the job more difficult. All the motion parts from the etch laid out, because two of the rods had the holes drilled out for the crankpin all the others need to be opened put the same. The coupling rods are fluted both sides, also thickening pieces for the knuckle bosses and the trailing boss, the leading end doesn't have a thickened boss for clearance reasons. Connecting rod components there as well. Holes are etched in the components to make knuckle joints but far far the simplest way to articulate coupling rods is to split them and overlap on the crankpins. It's very difficult to spot the difference in movement when the loco is running and it's perfectly respectable practice mechanically - plenty of full size locos had separate coupling rods overlapped on the crankpins. This also avoids the possibility of accidentally moving the crankpin centres when making knuckle joints (very easy to do this if they are riveted). The photo shows the LH trailing section with the parts laid put in order, top to bottom = inside to outside. The parts are held together in register with broaches through the holes, solder run along the top edge only, it will get through by capillary action, no pre-tinning is required. Each section of rod is cleaned up along the top edge using a flat needle file and a round one around the bosses. After a final check that everything revolves freely the rods are greased up for final fitting. Each rod is retained with a small slice of 1mm I.D. brass tube (I cut these with a piercing saw), as thin as possible on the leading pin, thicker on the others. Excess crankpin length is snipped off, filed flat and just touched with the soldering iron, if you linger here it will heat the brass pin and could ruin the plastic wheel centre. Don't forget to leave the driving crankpin full length to take the con. rod later. just a small amount of solder is sufficient to keep these on but they can easily be popped off if the motion has to be dismantled at any time.