Michael Edge

Alan Smith of Leeds MRS was involved with moving the locos from the old museum in York to the current one, in those far off days this was done the obvious way along the rails connecting them, nowadays it would no doubt be done by road. He was amazed at how much the bogie wheels ground into the frames while doing this, not a problem for full size locos which don't use two rail electrification.

That's a fine theory but I like to keep the work as close to the support as possible which leads to the saw running against the table and also I deliberately run it there to more accurately start a cut in thin material. I don't use the method of taping it to a piece of wood. I couldn't begin to think how much has been cut out on this in the last 43 years - not just by me, my son and daughter both learned to use a piercing saw on here from a very early age. Current use is often sawing lengths of brass tube to go in Judith's kits and I am considering actually making a new one..... It will have graduated scale at one side though for measuring said lengths - just visible at the right are some scratches for commonly used ones.

Sounds more like a problem with your crossover, B6 is generous in comparison with where I get problems - on the (Herculaneum) dock system with crossovers at about 2ft radius and 18" minimum radius in other places. The DG buffer does need to be outside the wagon buffer faces and exactly on the centre line if it's fixed. Having come across couplings with loops of varying accuracy, too short a loop doesn't always get over the peg, too long and the magnet struggles to lift the latch - simple mechanics, too long a lever. My loops are jig bent round taper pliers with the two widths clearly marked on them - inside dimensions 5mm wide, 7.5mm long. Not really visible from this angle but the sides of the jaws angle backwards on these pliers which allows the wire to be bent a bit further to spring back to a right angle. They make a nice sharp bend at the pivot end - if the bend here is rounded (such as by wrapping the wire round a block) the loops can easily pull round the pivot holes. We did a lot of experimenting with these couplings when we first adopted them in Leeds and also tried to make sure that everyone's were the same. They are easier if used single ended but that's not much use for the sort of layouts we produce. It's not so much the length of the wagon as the end throwover (distance from the axle to the buffer face relative to the wheelbase), LNER long CCTs and LMS long Tubes are about the worst.

This is the one I've been using for at least 15 years. It's ground from a No.11 blade, gets sharpened occasionally and might be nearly due for replacement. My saw table (1/16th mild steel plate) has seen a lot more use than TBG's........ It has been on the bench since 1977 though. I get saw blades from Shesto, 4/0 for thin sheet, 0 for thicker stuff. Sawing accurately is mostly a matter of practice, it's actually much easier to do a curve than a straight line. The blades do sometimes stat to wander one way or the other as they wear, I gradually twist the frame round to counteract this. TW's advice about using tinsnips is very good and also applies to nibbling up etched frets.

Anything with a long throwover may need pivoted couplers but long wheelbase wagons such as tubes and plates are a bit difficult on sharp curves - don't blame the couplings there are limits to what a fixed one can do.

The Prince of Wales and experiment 4-6-0s had two inside cylinders with Joy valve gear. This involved a two throw crankshaft for the connecting rods but the valve gear was all driven from a pin joint mid way along the connecting rod. Four of the Princes (known as "Tishies") were later fitted with Walschaerts valve gear outside the wheels but the cylinders remained inside. look up Joy valve gear for a description of this gear.

Scribe and snap for straight lines where possible, I use a scalpel blade ground into a sharp hook shape for this. All rolled material has different properties in each plane, it cracks much more easily in the direction of roll, most brass doesn't crack very well across this direction. For curves and more complex shapes I use a piercing saw but for short straight cuts a good pair of tinsnips is quick and easy - also used for cutting parts out of etched frets. For short precision cuts Xuron ones are by far the best. I do have a small guillotine but it only gets used to nibble small corners out as a rule.

I've not seen that happen yet but my DGs don't suffer from this problem very often. I'll let you know if it happens.

It was completely solved but then everything went out of production.

Janus frame kit for P4/EM is available from us Mke - and has been for some time now.

Running the graphite pencil along the rail head seems to perform this cleaning function at the same time - as long as it's just loose dirt.

As far as I know it's still all owned by Precision Paints.

The original Gibson wheels had brass inserts to fit on a tapered axle end like the Studiolith ones. I used some in 00 gauge back then, they fitted perfectly and were such a tight fit that one set proved impossible to remove when I wanted to change a gearbox - eventually I resorted to sawing through the axle at the back of one wheel with a piercing saw. Presumably this system went out of use because it was too expensive. Are these actually new production Sharman wheels or just old stock? The wheels produced by David Stapleton with glass filled nylon centres were excellent, solved all the problems with wonky centres caused by the unstable plastic originally used.

This latch seems no more likely to slip down the peg than the ordinary ones do and in any case the coupling works without it, just not with the delay. I'm going to put these on the front of every loco now, a lot of them have nothing in the buffer beam, just an empty slot. Usually it's not possible to fit a drawhook in the buffer beam with DG couplings as the loop tends to get over them but this one is far enough back from the peg to be out of reach. The peg itself (I don't call it a hook because it isn't one) has the backward angle incorporated, the flat DG one is easily left upright (so the loop won't ride up on it), bent too much (so the loop can't reach over it) or hook shaped (producing both faults simultaneously) - the angle was a guess but it seems to work reliably so far. It remains to be seen how robust they are when packed in stock boxes etc. The same etch had the second test of the Stone-Faiveley pantograph so that might be moving along soon.

Some tests on the layout earlier today were completely successful - in fact in some circumstances it works better than the ordinary DG. The EF1 has come down the hill attached on the front of the class A tanks (for extra braking) and has to be detached at Wentworth Junction. Stopped here with the J11's front coupling over the magnet, there's a section break here as well (in the near rail) to permit separating the locos. Button pressed and the coupling loop is over the EF1's latch - the J11 looks in need of a dust! EF1s never worked here although they were originally intended to, this one will be painted in BR livery soon. With the class A tanks away, the EF1 returns to banking duties, this time on the Wentworth colliery trip, coupled on to the brake van. The bankers all need a coupling hook on front since they have to pull the fulls off the branch before the train loco hooks back on at the front of the train. The magnet in the fiddle yard where the bankers detach is on a curve which can cause problems uncoupling, this combined hook seems to work better since it's narrower than the flat DG one - I may replace all the front couplers with these now.

I've not built many GN Atlantics since I've had digital photos but this is the last one. This is 7mm scale with Slater's 6'8" driving wheels on the correct wheelbase. It's not easy to see with the footplate step in place but the wheels were machined down just enough for them not to touch. I've often wondered why this step was placed where it was, almost looks like an attempt to disguise just how close the wheels were, it isn't the best place to clmb up on to the framing.

Machining the tyre down looks better than using a smaller diameter wheel which would still have a full thickness tyre.

That's still a long way off, I have another one to build from the test etch before I get round to production. The first one has now gone to Ian Rathbone for painting.

We can supply etched plates in 4mm and 7mm scales.

I would agree with all of that but it is possible to build GN Atlantics with scale wheelbase and wheel size - just remember that tyres normally have up to about 2" machined off during their life. I just build them with slightly worn tyres, having machined a bit off the diameter of the correct size wheels.

Production etches on order, no idea when we'll get them though.

Just arrived from PPD, this test etch for an idea I had some time ago. These are combination draw hooks and DG coupling pegs, etched in .015" n/s. This is the sort of job which prompted the idea, DG couplings are very difficult to fit to deep buffer beams but there is always a drawhook slot at consistent height. The separate L shaped etch forms the latch, pivoted on a pin - this is a bit more like a Dingham latch than a DG one but it works well so far. Without the latch the coupling is fairly unobtrusive - even more so painted black - and it's still a conventional drawhook (there's a hole in it as well for a 3 link or screw coupling). I thought at first that it would mean propelling with the buffers (not good in 00 gauge) but it turns out that it pushes against the DG buffer on the vehicle it is coupled to. I've also fitted them to the C14 4-4-2T, they work well on the test track, I've not tried them on the layout yet. We have a good number of locos without leading couplings on the grounds that they are rather unsightly and rarely used - but sometimes essential, e.g. the Wentworth Junction bankers have to have one - I think these will be a much better option.

I am only talking about the tyre here (boss thickness varies with the type of wheel) but Gibson P4 wheels are 2.2mm thick and therefore too narrow for 1:64. I'm still struggling to understand the problem here, most of my S scale experience is in NZ 3'6" gauge but Gibson wheels work perfectly.

I very rarely use hornblocks but it works fine in just the same way.

Gibson 00/EM profile wheels are 2.4mm thick, this is exactly the thickness of a GW driving wheel in 1:64 scale so how thick are the S scale wheels you mention? - I don't see the problem here. Markits are a bit thicker and have a fixed back to back measurement but I don't know how long their S scale axles are.