Michael Edge

Thanks Geoff, that explains it. It wasn't very difficult to do, there's plenty of metal there.

I have departed from my normal building sequence now to finish the frames since I want to check all the etched components as soon as possible. All that remains to do on the body amounts to detail, although there is an awful lot of it on a Princess. From below, two strips of pcb sleeper for the pickups and brake gear added. The leading brakes are modelled in "worn out" condition to get them away from possible contact with the bogie wheels. This is always a problem with LMS locos as there is very little clearance here and our bogies have to move a lot more than the full size ones do, their's don't short out the railway if they touch something either. Sandpipes added, again the leading ones are fitted back from the correct position (and solderd to the brakes). Support stays are made from wire - I know these should be flat strip but it's not very noticeable. The brake pull rod isn't modelled properly either but you can't see much on a working loco, both these items are added more for security than appearance. At the other end the injectors have to be fitted now, do this with the trailing truck in place to check clearance. This is the modified truck frame which clears the EM frames, accurately shaped one wouldnt fit here. The injectors are from Comet, not absolutely accurate for this but near enough, although I replaced the very skinny feed pipe to the exhaust injector with some copper wire. Cylinders completed, turned valve chests, fabricated valve spindle guide with some spare etch components (I may add something for thsi to the etch) and drains made up from wire and strip. The snifting valves (turned brass in this case but you can get cast ones) for the inside cylinders are fitted on a wire across the frames - there's a hole in the etch here. The cover plate on the cylinder is soldered on, I used to superglue these but they have an annoying habit of detaching after painting. The central part of the cylinder ends has been cut away now to leave room for two sugar cube speakers between the frames. The slidebar brackets have also been fitted but not the slidebars themselves although they have been made up to test fitting. The Princess motion bracket is difficult from a modelling point of view because it can't just go across the frames, the wheels are in the way. The etch includes this fold up and rear face detail, it is soldered to the rear cylinder end - do this with the footplate bolted on. At the rear end I have soldered on a wire to support it. Also added are the weighshaft and link brackets. Next the whole lot is sprayed, Halfords or Hycote (same paint but cheaper, if you can get it) grey primer and satin black. Keep turning the wheels round to get the paint through the spokes on to the frames behind, you can't get behind the wheel rims but this doesn't show. When the paint is dry this is how to get it off the tyres, I've shown this before but it's worth repeating here. After lubricating the axles each wheel in turn is run against the rubber ring on the top end of my milling machine (last remaing part of my old Unimat), an old needle file removes most of the paint, followed by a scalpel blade to get into the corner and some wet and dry to finish. Don't forget to do the backs of the tyres as well if the pickups are going to go on to them. Finished frames back on the test track. Crankpins and other parts to be soldered are scraped clean now. The slidebars fit through the rectangular holes in the cylinder ends and are soldered to the front one (that's why the front cylinder cover was left off) and the motion bracket, coupling rods tried in place - not much clearance here but we don't need much as I will explain later. For the moment make sure that the crankpin can't hit the slidebars, there's just enough left on it for a thin slice of 1mm I.D. tube to form a retainer. This is why it was important not to have any sideplay in the leading axle - and building the loco rigid helps as well. A suggested alternative is to only use three of the slidebar layers but I like them to appear the correct width if at all possible. One thing I have never had to do is to move the cylinders outwards - there's always a better way than that. Trailing wheels removed and re-fitted with gearbox in place. Instead of the usual Portescap this loco is being used as a test for the new Comet Maxon motor and gearbox, seems OK so far but I was very disappointed to find a final drive gear with no grubscrew. Easy enough to drill and tap the boss for one - I really don't like using any system which doesn't allow me to turn the wheels by hand while building. The coupling rods are now fitted, left trailing crankpin is not cut off, this one will carry the speedometer drive.

Happy to oblige, a few more photos from yesterday now these two boards are in the new shed. These two are too big to go through the loft hatch where the rest of the layout is at the moment. Crated up Herculaneum Dock looks a bit lost in here but it's still a foot too long to fit in, two long Cwmafon boards on the right. Anyone who remembers the old shed will be glad to see the much increased headroom and the door at the other end this time. Rolling mill board in the background also needs some repairs. This is the steelworks board, showing what goes on inside the big new building. From left to right the tracks are as follows: the new incline from the exchange sidings up to the steelworks (on the old tippler site), one short level! siding, the old incline to the steelworks (now a very steeply graded siding - buffer stop just under the bridge in Cwmafon yard - not a good idea to put loaded steel wagons in here!), the new and terrifyingly steep incline up to the tippler (steel deck bridge over the Newport line), Newport line/Ebbw branch in its narrow cutting with points off to the cassette yard at left, finally the re-positioned tippler sidings. Another view of the inclines hidden inside the big shed, the steel deck bridge kept headroom to an absolute minimum here. Looking down on the tippler, this needs some repair after the boards got dropped on the way back in from Cwmafon's last exhibition appearance. The counterweight for the locking bar is missing, visible is the microswitch which cuts off the power when the deck returns to level.

I did an article for Railway Modeller years ago but I can't remember which issue and it's not in my index system. With the arrival of my new layout shed the tippler board has been moved out of the stack in the garage and is now accessible so I'll put some more photos up later.

I am trying out a few new ideas with this one, starting with the firebox. The firebox back former is already on the etch and has register holes to locate with the cab - a hole in the middle for a screw might be a good idea here. The firebox front former is hand cut for this one and locates with two pins on the back of the boiler. Joining pieces from scrap were added with the whole loco bolted together to check that it remains straight and square on the track. The lower side ones will be cut out later but the upper corner ones can stay in permanently. At the smokebox end the sides and back of the saddle are built up, this will now be filled with plastic padding. The wires across are to reinforce this filler and a greased peg has been soldered into the centre of the smokebox. The underside of the smokebox is also greased and a small screw just in front of the saddle holds it all together. I want the boiler to be removable, at least for now. All components dismantled again. Firebox sides, paper pattern and cut out of .010" n/s - its the yellow light that makes it look like brass. Washout plug holes drilled, rivets pressed out and plate join scribed on. The firebox for the Princess is made in two halves because there is a cleading joint on the top. It's useful to transfer the position of the cleading bands to the outside, these two were never lined so have to be added. Top corners rolled by hand with 1/4" steel bar, the paper is left on at this stage so that I can see the bend lines, it also helps to stop the bending bar slipping. The holes in the wrapper were drilled 1.3mm, now lead sheet is soldered on the inside. LMS and BR washout plugs did not have a raised lip on the outside of the cleading so these are just plain holes slightly de-burred. For the GW type which does have a raised lip I drill the holes from the inside with a slightly blunt drill to deliberately raise a burr on the outside. This burr is then sanded down to represent the rim. The holes are then drilled through from the outside (.7mm), cleaned up and short legths of .5mm square wire inserted. It's much easier to do this with the firebox sides, rather than an assembled box. Finished firebox side Finished firebox All assembled and sat on the test track, this is a 3'6" radius reverse curve, the Princess is quite comfortable on it.

After some years exhibiting Cwmafon in its wider form two things became incresingly unsatisfactory, the traverser fiddle yard and the position of the tippler. The traverser,originally hand operated, had been powered with a leadscrew and motor at each end. This was always very noisy but worked reasonably well until one end drive failed - during an exhibition of course. One of the four roads on the traverser had been modified with a precarious looking steep ramp to get up to the higher level of the steelworks. The tippler is also fairly noisy and attracted a crowd peering over the top of the traverser to see what was going on. The decision was made to rebuild this area completely, abolish the traverser and move the tippler to the front of the layout. By this time I had built Herculaneum Dock and dveloped a cassette storage system, this was adapted and fitted on the inside of the layout for the Newport trains. With the tippler out of the way a new and gentler incline was built for the steel trains to and from the exchange sidings but the coal still had to get up to the tippler. The solution was to hide the ridiculously steep incline inside one of the steelworks buildings, tests were done to see just how steep a grade could be worked with a train of at least six loaded 16T wagons. Most of the NCB locos managed this quite easily, although the 4wh Sentinel was dragged back down by the wagons. The tippler board wasn't rebuilt, just cut out, turned round and re-connected in its new position, the line to Newport now runs down a very narrow cutting with the points to the cassette yard hidden under the steelworks. The trackplan now looked like this - and still does for the moment. The big new steelworks building hides a siding and there was room for another short one (actually level for once) outside the building. At the moment iron ore loads are removed here but another tippler would be better. The tippler sidings in their new position, train from Newport in the narrow cutting. The view along the cutting from Cwmafon - I said it was narrow! The buldings along the road bridge have been improved somewhat now, this was intended as just a scenic break at the end of the original layout. The Cwmafon Iron & Steel Co's office building is actually based on Blaenavon police station. To bring the story up to date the layout was completely re-wired before its last outing. This took a year to do, despite Nick Easton doing about half of it but the origianl wiring was a mess to say the least. Next instalments will be some loco pictures.

The copper tube is part of the hand rolling equipment, 1" is mostly used for cab roof forming. I usually have various diameters of tube and bar lying about the workshop.

The cross sections show quite clearly that the boiler is below the footplate top at the firebox end. These are the drawings I use to set the boiler up on the loco. I'm not really bothered if I don't get the exact developed shape, there's a cleading band at each end anyway which will cover any small gap. My main concern is to get the job done on time and looking right when it's finished and painted.

Patience Barry, new shed arrived at 7.30 this morning.

I use a set of rolling bars (from Ian Cherry, many years ago) but I used to do it with steel bars of various diameters on a slightly resiliant surface. Mouse mats, unknown back then, are quite good for this. For short items I still often use steel bar in a V block.

This is not a GW boiler, the bottom is not level - have another look at the drawings. Method is part calculation, part trial and error, there is a gap at the bottom where the barrel joins the smokebox but there's a cleading band here so I don't worry about it.

Cwmafon was at the last Leeds exhibition in the Corn Exchange, Mike Cook was one of our operators and complained that the layout was too narrow. In view of the fact that a house move had left me without the 28ft loft space I said I would widen it, whereupon Mike said "can we have it for York next year then?". The two end boards were sawn in half and two new 4ft boards inserted, at the steelworks end the corners (where it used to fit into the loft window) were filled in as well. With the fleet rapidly expanding, loco sheds seemed the best use of the space. For a modern looking steelworks shed the relatively new BR one at Pwllheli was chosen as a prototype. This is a two road shed with fuelling facilities, one road runs through a workable roller shutter door at the back. There was space at the side of the shed for three loops, seen here rather full with wagons (the Trestrols have since been fitted with trestles, one empty and one with a large steel plate on board). Nearest the camera is the Ebbw Vale branch at a lower level, this forms part of the seldom used continuous run. This is perhaps my favourite photo of Cwmafon. The filled in corner made room for a short slag tip siding and a lagoon. On the left is the old CISC shed, now disused with the track disconnected. the board shows the boundary for NCB locos - this is a more recent addition, connected with the relocated tippler. The two slag ladles are scratchbuilt. At the other end there was just enough room for a small LNW loco shed, these were of a highly standardised design so no particular prototype was followed although there was something similar at Tredegar. Cwmafon Junction has an allocation of two LNW 0-8-4Ts, typical of the MT&A, one 0-8-2T for the marshalling yard and a few 0-8-0s etc. The 0-8-4Ts are scratchbuilt, the 0-8-2T is a Jidenco kit. The push-pull train from Brynmawr to Cwmafon passing the shed behind a coal tank, this is not double track, the line at the left is the yard arrival road. A view from the balcony at the 1989 Leeds show (Armley), there are five busy operators in this view, which means that one control position is not manned. This should give exhibition managers a guide to why we take seven operators with Cwmafon now - and also why it needs to be seen all round. We have had a long tradition of lady operators at the pit ( Hilary Oliver followed by my daughter Gwyn and now Judith) but this seems to be an exception. At least I'm wearing an appropriate shirt.

The tender was finished on Monday, Comet kit goes together very well and quite quickly, the only modification needed is to the front platform. As supplied in the kit this is far too low for a Princess, higher one is easy to fit though. Back to the loco and on with the boiler. Starting by rolling the smokebox (I use rolling bars for this but it can be done without), solder up the seam and fit the front end. This is in two laminations to give it some thickness, remembering that it protrudes slightly from the wrapper. The boiler pattern is printed on a paper template, stick this to a sheet of .010" brass with double-sided sellotape, then cut out and roll. The boiler band position is scored through and the centre lines marked with small nicks. Roll a brass joining ring to fit just inside the smokebox, all three components ready for assembly. Finished boiler barrel from the firebox end, the scribed lines marking the cleading band position are clearly seen. I have cut out boiler back and firebox front formers (connected with wire pins), these will be on the revised etch. The firebox back former is cut to rest on the main frame tops to assist in setting the smokebox coreectly. Note that even in EM gauge cut outs in the boiler are needed to clear the trailing drivers.

Three more photos of the pit before moving on to the next development. View from the tip end, too many clean wagons in those days! Pit buildings from above, the whole of the screen roof lifts off to refill the hoppers. Full end of screens

I have used this etch with full thickness slidebars in EM (in fact I haven't built a 00 one yet) with both Romford and Gibson wheels - no problem so far. I'll look at the lubricator stand.

Already on with that, more tomorrow.

I can't find any photos but they aren't too difficult to tip. The permanent magnets did make life more difficult though. I'm still thinking about a rotary tippler for the iron ore wagons, I think I know how to make one but need to work out where to put it.

Cwmafon has been at lots of exhibitions over the years, not just Leeds. Doncaster, Hull, Nottingham, Warley, York, Bremen and South Wales to name a few from memory. One more photo of the tippler in action, this time an old one at the operator's side of the layout. The counterweight for the locking bar proved inadequate so an additional lump of lead had to be suspended on wires to keep the wagon in place. Our old club couplings (SJR Mk 10?), basically an upside down hook and bar, magnetcally operated, are seen here.

The tippler was part of the original layout design, it used to be located on the inside - Cwmafon wasn't designed with exhibitions in mind. After many years of watching the public peering over the top of the traverser fiddle yard to see what was going on (tippler is a bit noisy) it was moved to the front and the steelworks re-designed. More on this later. 13T coal wagon carefully positioned on the tippler, this is the only part of the layout which has to be set up level. The setting of the locking bar over the wagon was the subject of much experimentation to tip anything from this size of wagon (and a bit smaller) up to 21T. The bigger 24T wagons won't fit, nor will most of the loco fleet. Locos are not normally run across the tippler though, the wagons are shunted across until the siding at the far end is full, using more as reach wagons if necessary, then the empties are transferred to the next siding. A 4wh Sentinel is usually kept for this duty since it's low enough to go across the tippler if necessary. Underneath the baseboard there is a large plastic tub (or should be, accidents have been known) to collect the coal for transfer back to the screens. Same view with the wagon tipped, the locking bar fits neatly on to this height of wagon, smaller ones rock a bit but it still works. Close up from the other end, CISC locos are not normally seen on this job, usually NCB steam although they have to run through the steelworks to reach the tippler sidings now. The tippler was damaged slightly when Cwmafon returned from its last show and needs some repairs and perhaps improvements.

Mine was a very early one - there weren't many kits about in those days. I didn't say anything about kits - just on my drawing list, probably just etch the difficult bits as I have done before. It will certainly include frames and motion.

I've just put it on my drawing list. easier to build without the steam pipes - although I think they look better with them. Yes the original kit has cast white metal con. rods, which actually lasted a remarkably long time

This was the first white metal kit I built, before that I had to build from scratch. In 1965 I was a university student with a grant and thus wealthy enough to fork out £4/19/6 for the kit. It had K's split axle pickup system, with brass centred wheels pressed into plastic sleeves and a MkII motor. I did eventually get it to work quite well and it ran like this for many years. Eventually 40063 was in need of a repaint, I dunked it it Nitromors and then found that the latter was quite capable of dissolving the Araldite which the body had been assembled with. This left me with a remarkably clean K's kit - so I built it again, slightly better this time. After more years of running the original frames and wheels were worn out so it acquired a new set of correctly profiled mainframes, Romford wheels and new motion work, although I think the coupling rods may be the originals. Cylinder castings were re-used. 40063 still runs well (far more effective than the full size ones were) and is a regular performer on Herculaneum Dock.

The duff road is the short one on the outside, this one doesn't work. The other two do and we do have the option of using two grades of "coal", we never have though since I think they would inevitably get mixed at some point. I agree with what you say about the area being too clean but there are practical considerations, the layout has to operate reliably. The tracks under the sreens need to be swept out regularly as spilled coal builds up all over the track (depending on the skill and experience of the operator). A long handled paintbrush is kept handy for this.

That brings us neatly on to the pit. Working colliery screens were an essential part of the original layout concept, the South Wales location gave a good excuse for squeezing everything into a narrow site. View of the pit from the top of the incline up from Cwmafon, empties are hauled up the right hand track here, the Sentinel is waiting to take fulls off the sreens down to the exchange sidings. We use two locos, one on the empties shunt, one on the fulls as locos are not normally allowed under the screens (only the Sentinels will fit underneath anyway). View from the top end shows wagons being propelled under the screens, close inspection will reveal the pile of coal going into the fitted 16T. Coed Cae only has one shaft (upcast - cased in to prevent air entering the pit this way), the other is presumed to be a drift off scene. On the left is the fan house, over the tracks is the dirt conveyor. This is the public's view under the screens, the operator is looking the other way and it can be quite disconcerting to see a pair of eyeballs staring back while you are trying to position the wagons under the loader. A few dim lights add to the atmosphere - they are dim because the loaders are operated with coreless motors running on quite low voltage, the lights are on the same power supply. Another view of the lower end of the screens, these wagons should be full but empties were posed here for the photo. Although the pit is supposed to be in Wales NCB architecture was fairly universal and the prototypes for the screens and sttling tank were nearer home at Skelamanthorpe. The stone built winding house is more typical of the valleys, with the name and date of the shaft in relief. A few windows lacking here, some never made (this was long before I could etch window frames) and the ones in the screens regularly drop out. The roof of the screens lifts off to refill the coal hoppers every hour or so. The open shed with the hoist gives an excuse to run all sorts of materials wagons up here.

I use the Comet bogie, tender and injectors, the reverser handle is my own etch, the gear cover is on the Princess etch and the rest of the reverser is made from tube. It's not really all that detailed, you can't see it very well in the finished cab. Leading buffers are Gibson, Comet ones on the tender. I might take a mould from the chimney of this one, if I can get J63 chimneys out reliably the Princess should be easy.