Michael Edge

All plate frames can twist - including full size ones. Nearly all the torsional stiffness in a model loco is in the body, especially a steam loco with a circular boiler - just try twisting one if you don't believe me. Loose screws and nuts inevitably end up in the four foot eventually.

That's exactly how I use the Poppy's jigs as well - I've never used frame building jigs before but these are simple, cheap and very good.

The bottom of the boiler is well below the raised running plates over the cylinders, don't forget these were only outside the frames, boilers often sit down between them. The original LSW height to chimney top was nearly 13'3" but in Southern days this was reduced to 12' 11 1/2" - i.e. a shade under 52mm in this scale. In my experience most modellers (and many kit designers) don't pay much attention to height or width dimensions.

I'm not surprised if you built the S15 as it comes in the kit, the whole boiler is pitched too high.

I use Fox wasp stripe transfers but they would be a lot easier to apply if you hadn't put the lifting/jacking brackets on. I always leave everything off the buffer beams until it's painted if I have to do wasp stripes. Very nice job so far, thanks for posting this.

Not my drawing - they were Carter's if I remember correctly and most of those come with a health warning.

I had just finished doing much of the work on this when the announcement of an rtr model appeared so if anyone is interested here is my basic drawing. The 08 was considerably different in many respects due to the larger wheels required by the SR (to keep the coupling rods well away from the 3rd rail) and more restricted BR loading gauge. LMS EE 350hp 0-6-0DE 2.pdf This drawing was made from BR GA and some detail drawings.

That's the way Mr. GW thinks you should do it, however it's not so easy cleaning up the parts after sawing them out when they have already been riveted - and the process is impossible if you want to saw out two or more parts together. The clamping screws need rounding off as well otherwise they will mark the metal. I explained some of this to him and was merely told that I obviously didn't know what I was talking about....... I've only been doing this for a living for the last 45 years, what would I know?

If it rusts you're not using phosphoric acid - it's the basis of rustproofing for steel, e.g. Kurust. It does produce a grey coating on the steel but it's not rust.

Thanks to Dave Studley for the superb paint job, I couldn't even contemplate trying to do this. The model was never intended to be in the Cadbury livery when I started building it!

Sorry about the coupling rods, I only noticed this after we had put the 4mm kit into production (I had been looking at the works photo of the first 16" when I drew the rods, this is the only one of the standard Hunslets I don't have the GA for) and we had to add a supplementary etch. When adding the 16" to the 2mm range I forgot about it again.... You seem to have got round it very well though - I'm always amazed at what 2mm modellers can do with these etches.

Thanks for bringing back some more memories, Wigan Wallgate was the first proper layout I built, exhibited a few times at the Leeds show in the 1970s - that iron bridge, or at least some of it, was on the layout.

I was one of those as well, from sometime in 1958 when at the grand age of eleven I was allowed to roam away from home - seems a very different world now doesn't it? We were however usually banished from North Western's platforms and went down the side of Wallgate from where you could see both lines. The J10s shunting at North western caused some consternation as I only had a London Midland Ian Allan book and the numbers didn't go as far as 60000.... A year or so later I got as far as Birkenhead and found locos with big brass numberplates and only four digits - even more difficult to understand (and to read when they were usually on filthy Granges at Mollington Street shed).

We've had a lot of faulty TCS decoders in the Carlisle stock, mostly replaced by Digitrax or Zimo, depending whether they have sound or not.

You are correct, the 7mm kit isn't complete but that's why it's a lot cheaper than the 4mm one. It needs 2 slater's wagon wheelsets, some chain and sprockets and a small (4mm size) motor/gearbox, it's easy to build but you will have to solder it together. The reason why the 4mm kit comes complete is that the High Level drive unit is the only feasible way of powering it properly, compensated and driving both axles. In 7mm scale actual chain drive is possible and in fact very easy. The same applies to our other chain drive Ruston kit for the 88DS. As kit manufacturers we concentrate on getting the kit to you in the most efficient way possible - flat packed in a box - only O gauge modellers expect us to provide them with a stock box as well. Judith and Michael Edge

Not steam but we do have kits for three Spanish locos in 1:87 scale. YE Taurus 0-8-0DH (now preserved in Madrid as RENFE 306-001) and Hunslet 0-4-0/0-6-0DH industrial locos. Judith Edge kits

This sort of obvious error is remarkably common in GA drawings, I've found lots of them over the years. It's not usually so much that the drawing is inaccurate but that the quoted dimensions are wrong, misreading numbers creates quite big errors in fractional feet and inches drawings, more modern metric ones aren't usually so problematical with all dimensions in mm - big numbers but very clear and not subject to the usual misplaced decimal point errors of the metric system. Don't forget that GAs were never intended to be used to build anything from, that's what the detail drawings are for, there aren't nearly as many errors on these.

No, you're not imagining it, first trials went very well but I'm waiting for a second test etch to make sure before it goes into production.

Sorry but I don't think you'll get to weather these two!

Photo of the last two completed jobs. 47003 built from one of our kits in P4, this is the one which worked in Swansea, unusually it had a right facing crest, the electrification flashes must have been left over from its earlier home. View from underneath shows that this is possible in P4 with Gibson wheels without any cheating in cylinder position but clearance behind the crosshead is minimal. The Craftsman 02 is a very good kit as I've said before but it is complicated to paint, the Yorkshire plates aren't in the kit but we can supply them. The engine air intakes are our mouldings as well, the white metal ones in the kit are a bit weedy.

The last of these workbench photos provoked a bit of interest so here's an update as of this morning. Three pictures this time, shows just about everything this time. The 06 is just overspill from the kit display model boxes, parked here, not being worked on. The two 00 wagons are for DG coupling testing, on the left just visible is the spring and scale used as a crude dynamometer rig. The stop blocks (nails) are good for provoking panic in visitors. Note the ancient Triang resistance controller and ammeter - the cut out is disabled on this so I can whack full current out which is excellent for detecting short circuits (nice big visible sparks). There is a proper controller as well... the DIN plug in the centre is for a proper modern controller, at the left switches connect the power to various parts of the test track - varying from O gauge to a section of Hornby Dublo three rail at the back, this more for the sake of nostalgia than any practical use. In the foreground things have moved on a bit, two locos ready for delivery - next job underway is at the right, TT this time, after that it will be back to the P4 Kirtley 0-4-4T. the Stanier 3P has had its chimney temporarily removed to make a new mould and the LSW C14 is still here. From the far end, Triang TT track nearest with a couple of test wagon underframes. The Kitmaster 08 has been parked here for many years, I think it was part of some kit development work at one time, the 4F frame is a very poor runner and will probably be stripped for its Portescap motor eventually. Coupling height gauges live here, the steel block is for DGs and the other is a Kadee mounted at 4mm scale UK height.

Chain drive locos only have a nominal wheelbase but I don't think the maximum adjustment would be as much as 6" and in any case the wear only lengthens it, doesn't shorten the wheelbase.

I think I used something like 68:1 (in a High Level gearbox) for this motor, it does run very fast and I might use even lower gearing for the ones I have left. Very low gears often leave the motor screaming at high revs while the loco is running slowly, generally I prefer to use the controller to keep the speed down - just because your loco can run very fast doesn't mean you have to let it.

Not quite right John, Central was the original idea (my earliest plan was drawn up when I was still at school) and Herculaneum dock was its planned extension. It wouldn't be difficult to operate so much as impossible for anyone to see if it was exhibited, it would be very interesting to operate. Some suggestions in this thread have left me thinking again now though - I hadn't thought of the idea of looking into the side of the train shed although that was the proposal for the Mersey Railway station below platform 1 and 2. Following Tony's reminiscences above I realised that I used the same route in the other direction on trainspotting trips - Eccleston Park to Lime street, walk to Central, underground to Rock Ferry and train to Chester. We used to go on to Crewe then and preferred this to the rather more direct route from Lime Street. We used a similar route to get to Manchester as well, via the CLC and Manchester Central - rather than just walking a bit further to Rainhill and a direct train to Exchange, no idea now why we didn't use the obvious routes but this was back in the 1950s.

Glad to be of help there! I think these motors are very good - as long as we can get them at this sort of price.