Michael Edge

Yes, this is HE 2082, sent away 24/10/1940, although this is a much later photo. it was back at Jack Lane for fitting of blast furnace anti glare and a horn in 1953 so the photo might have been taken after that.

That all looks strong enough, I wouldn't use plastic brake gear for anything now.

Put some graphite on the track and see what a difference that makes.

Looks good, thanks for posting the pictures.

A very expensive new footbridge, I like it but it’s not universally popular here. Almost every building in that photo has gone, a new station/bus station and platform appeared and most of the town centre rebuilt.

Not all that long ago but just about everything in this photo has changed since then! Even Jumble Lane crossing has gone now.

In my experience brake gear has to be very securely fastened, especially if the blocks are close to the wheels. It shouldn't be necessary to remove it.

They are Romford wheels, you can wriggle them off (if you ever have to) with very close fitting brake blocks - they don't have to pull straight out.

It was the only BR loco with outward opening doors - there was no room to open inwards and there was a large casing in the middle of the cab covering the mechanical radiator fan drive.

I would have soldered up the spacers, then removed the unsightly screws and filled the holes - or just filed them right back.

I thought that was my idea....

I scrounged some from old mechanisms and bought some Hornby ones. We have a great variety of motors in the loco stock, very few rtr ones (these gave no trouble) but anything from ancient K's (again no trouble!) to modern coreless and Portescaps. What sort of shielding did you try?

There are two main faults with the Seep, both related. The wire fastening from the coil to the plate is often far too tight, should really have a bit of slack in it and the crude fitting of the coils into the baseplate often fails, early ones are much more prone to this. I now fasten a wire round the coil and the baseplate, tightened by twisting, this prevents the coil from dropping off even if the melted plastic fastening fails. I have found the the frog switch can work fairly reliably (at least in a warm dry room) and can be improved with application of electrolube. I went through most of the process Stewart describes and then got rid of the problem by using Tortoise motors for my fiddle yard and new layout.

It wasn't too expensive but we now have another problem with the signals. All worked fine on test and installation but I gradually noticed that they occasionally malfunctioned, stopping working at all, losing the setting and fluttering at times. The first was fixed by the time honoured method of switching off and switching on again - rather than pulling a plug out I put a push to break switch in side of the baseboard to reset everything. The second and third appear to be linked as I realised that only certain locos were causing the problem, fitting suppressors to the motors mostly cured this but D11 and D13 motors still do it. With no rogue locos running the signals seem to have kept their setting. More curiously only some of the signals show this fluttering, about half of them never do it and one in particular (up Strafford Crossing) does it most - however some locos (bankers) don't normally ever pass this signal. The interlocking works well but the design of the Dingo Simplex boards hasn't made it any easier because they have an internal common connection between the power supply and the control circuit. I needed to use either of these to interlock the switching and would have preferred them to be completely separate. One samll snag from the operator point of view is that if the power supply has been used to interlock the signal lever has to be put back before the points or section switch is put back - otherwise there's no power to return the signal arm.

I put brakes and sandpipes (fit to frames, not to footplate) on before painting.

No chance, get on with building it! Nice to see you doing some proper modelling again.....

I built one of the Blackpool single deck trams many years ago, it wasn't bad as I recall but I can't remember what I did with it. We tried running it on Andy Ross's Leeds tram layout but while it got round the corners the combination of a long vehicle with a pantograph in the middle (rather than over a bogie) was too much for the overhead wires.

I would go with the trailing axle option.

Just to remind everyone that we won't be doing our usual demo at York this year but we will be there with Wentworth Junction (stand 11). If anyone wants to pre-order kits we can bring them with us. Mike and Judith

Another Hecate just finished, ready for the paintshop. This time with the original boiler and open coal rails, to be painted in SR black with green lining - the lining will be subcontracted to Dave Studley though.

I used to collect bits of scrap etch to make these from, all the narrow strips with a right angle in them - although I now have a supply of etches for GW lamp brackets.

I think that’s five now, plus an E1 which is the same kit. I used to like them……

This works fine at least down to 3ft 6in radius (probably tighter but I don't have direct experience), all the Mk 1s and LNER corridor stock on Carlisle has Kadee No5 couplers at the correct height for the full size buckeyes.

Interesting photo, that must have been its last overhaul when it was painted green - at last it's possible to know which side is which, it had a left facing crest this side and right facing on the other. The second photo in his collection is even more interesting, taken four months after 10100 was withdrawn (because of high maintenance costs, not the usually quoted fire or catastrophic failure) and it seems to be still intact.

If you need to stop locos chuffing to a standstill (which always sounds ridiculous) all you need to do is alter the deceleration delay until it stops - somewhere between 5 and 10 is usually enough for this. Incidentally acceleration delay has no place in steam locos - when you open the regulator steam goes straight to the cylinders and the loco moves.