Michael Edge

Don't run yourself down, we thought you made an excellent job of it - especially as a first attempt. Glad to have been able to help.

I don't really know anything about it, just what I was told by PEC years ago. Normal process is a front and back film, where the two coincide all the material is etched away. The time in the etch is obviously variable and presumably done by time/eye/guesswork - our production etches do vary quite a bit but I am very often pushing things to the limit. PPD usually tell me I'm over (under?) the limit but they generally work out OK and we mostly use them for test etches anyway.

I don't know what George would do but I use a scribing block for this - slide it along the loco or roll the loco past it on the track.

I've had to take these etched covers off some EM locos, as you say the Markits wheels are overscale width at 18.2mm gauge.

Tools are still on film for what we do, I think there was a different process for two stage etching but we have never tried that. The few examples of two stage etching I've had to build have been fairly unsatisfactory.

We (Judith Edge kits) use both PhotoEtch and PPD, quality and reliability much the same from both but PPD still usually a bit quicker. Almost all of our production work is with PEC and has been since we started. I draw everything in Turbocad but the etch tools are printed from .eps files. Working with PPD I send the eps version of my .tcw file directly to them but for PEC I get the films done myself, check them visually and post them on. The film work is done by Phillips Digital Printers in Letchworth, they send the films back the day after I email the files to them - I wish all our suppliers were as quick and reliable as they are! The cost is roughly the same either way, PPD a bit quicker but with the films here I get a second chance to check for errors, usually missing tags.

It's not ideal but everything has survived a few years now. The high temperatures this year produced on small track buckle which was easily dealt with. Nothing in the fiddle yard or on Herculaneum Dock (or even the bits of Cwmafon hanging on the wall) has moved at all. Some rolling stock (nearly all steel tyres) was left out all last winter with no problems. I always intended to insulate the shed but haven't got round to it yet....

Ballasting well under way now. Should be finished in a week or so, then bridge building followed by building up the landscape. First one will be the underbridge for Moorend Lane since this is ballasted around a central girder, then Gilroyd Lane bridge at one end and Silkstone No.2 tunnel mouth. These will include some overhead wiring tests.

The Airfix Brush 2 looks a lot better with some buffer beam detail. The pipes have had to be moved sideways a bit to allow the DG coupling to swing far enough but the effect is OK. I would use the new design hooks if I was doing this again.

I should have added that it's the tender inner frames which are insulated, not the loco frames - much too difficult.

That's how I do it in 7mm with cast iron wheels.

You'll just have to be patient...... YE DE2 is in stock though.

That's from the Derby collection, I looked at everything they had from this. These are the dimensioned drawings which were normally used to set out the parts to build the loco, GAs were often just illustrations and have very much gone out of fashion more recently - they certainly didn't exist for the 325s when I was researching that job (as they were being built at Litchurch Lane).

Fair enough Arthur, but 4' wide means narrow all the way along since 4'1 1/2" is more usual. The point I was making was that there has to be some room for the radial wheels to move sideways and a joggle in the frames is usual. I wouldn't use uncontrolled radial movement at both ends of a 2-4-2, especially with the much greater movement we require in our models. The C14 in my picture has the frames set out in exactly the same way as the full size one was, just narrower for 00 gauge. At the front end there is another joggle inwards for the bogie and the extreme front ends are tapered inwards.

300 is fine with 1:1 final drive, certainly for a small shunting loco.

The one that Barry is referring to (in the OPC microfiche collection) has no dimensions on it. The detail drawings of 10100 at the NRM do not include body profiles and the crank drawing is missing - in their catalogue but they can't find it. I spent a long time at the NRM studying all these drawings to produce our kit.

Not really, they come up from various sellers, I just do a Google search for 12vDC motors or something like that. This configuration is usually more expensive (less cheap?) than the inline version. Different sellers advertise them for voltages between 3 and 12 but I've never found any actual difference between them, there are different gear ratios in the inline version but all of these I've seen have been the lowest ratio. In 7mm it doesn't go very fast but this sort of loco would probably only do about 25mph anyway. One more comment about the loco, it's a more or less standard Siemens product and was available as a battery loco as well - if you want one of these just leave the pantograph off.

Frames behind radial wheels were always joggled inwards but not many kit designers seem to have realised this. Your solution might "engineering anathema" but if it works it's OK - simple side movement usually causes the radial wheel flanges to climb the rail, resulting in random derailments on plain track.

Well, swapping the wires over wouldn't have been too hard.... Getting rid of the rubber tyres and plastic wheels took a bit longer. It's loaded up with lead and it's still a bit noisy but it does its job on the colliery trip (no more than 15-20 wagons) well enough.

We're still busy sending kits out and stocks are a bit better now but I've had time to finish another 7mm test etch. The nearest available Slater's wheels are a bit small so the production version will be altered to give the correct ride height, it's a bit low at the moment. Construction is the same as the 4mm one but without the motor bogie option. Buffers are resin for now but will be lost wax castings. No cab interior details, I wasn't able to get inside either No2 or no10 to find out what they look like - there was no room in the 4mm one to do anything much anyway. Close up of the pantograph, works very well and not too fiddly to build. Nobody has bought one of these yet in either 4mm or 7mm scales to use on a tram, which is where they came from after the Sunderland system was abandoned. We don't intend to provide any drive components but it's not difficult to arrange. There is an inner frame carrying the wheels with the usual compensation option and the folded back version of the n20 motor/gearbox bolts neatly into the side frame with two plastic spur gears to the axle. Two of these would have made a very prototypical drive arrangement but one has more than enough power so the compensated axle is chain driven. View from underneath, pickups are a bit fiddly and short but seem to work OK.

Back at work now after a few week's holiday. The test track today, right to left: Next 7mm loco is a 7mm GW 1361 0-6-0ST, I've etched nearly all of this, more later. The GSR 4-6-0 has come back from Ian Rathbone for some minor attention. 7mm test etch for the small Harton 4wh now finished - more in the kits thread. D5679 is an ancient Airfix loco which has been in stock for many years. It's been on test on WJ for a while as part of the all electric era fleet, it will run on the colliery trip in place of the GC steam locos. Now in the workshop for some buffer beam detailing and proper glazing. The Kirtley 0-4-4T has moved on quite a bit this week, might even be finished next week. Midland steam railmotor is a customer's Ebay bargain, needs vlave gear repairs and re-gauging to EM. The Sentinel 0-6-0 really does need finishing, not much left apart from pattern making and fitting handrails. Closer photo of the Kirtley before fitting the dome and weatherboard, there's nothing wrong with the London Road kit but it was never designed to produce a model of the loco in its original condition. The whole of the boiler is visible with no cab front and the water tank is partly guesswork. I think there must have been some sort of well at the front of it to shovel the coal from but no idea how wide it might have been. The smokebox front has been altered to fit the original "cupboard doors", photos show some sort of linkage from the LH handrail to something across the smokebox front but I've no idea what it does. The only photos I've been able to find show the loco from the side - at least I've got both sides though.

The Stephen Poole one didn't do corners very well as designed, simple straight frames with sideplay on the radial axles. You do need radial movement on at least one end of 2-4-2T but both ends would require side control springing as well. My latest solution for this is an internal pony truck on the effective radius of the radial axleboxes, seen here in our C14 etch. This works quite happily down to my 28" minimum radius in 00 gauge at least.

That looks very good for a first kit build, the cast headlamp is easier than the etched option but I mostly had the BR locos in mind when I designed the kit.

It's not a very good switch but electrolube on the contacts will improve it a lot - tweaking it will probably make it worse though.

Your pickups look too short and too thick. I use .35mm phosphor bronze wire (one piece each side - there's no point in splitting it) soldered to a pcb pad in the same position but taken to the far side of each wheel, not the nearest point. All looks OK otherwise so far.