rowanj

While there is nothing remotely wrong with being in a caravan in Provence for 3 months, it does mean, as Mrs Rowanj does not approve of me soldering or even glueing, my modelling is confined to the brain. On that basis, I wondered if anyone had attempted , and preferably succeeded, in fitting any of the latest Hornby cam motors to Highlevel or alternative gearboxes. I have a few motors from failed chassis, including a couple of A4's. Anyone tried it? I'm aware the worm would need removing, but I don't recall whether there are screw holes in the motors...

What a smashing little engine. Well done, Brian. Next?

Coming on nicely, Brian

Mark - thanks for the uploads. Blue Peter looks very nice. Having looked through my bags of coupling rods, I think I can now confirm that the AG frames were designed to replace the old Brit chassis. I wasn't looking forward to tracking down or fabricating coupling rods, but found a pair which fit and were almost certainly removed from a Brit which had the original wheels replaced with Romford, many moons ago. I cant remember the source, but NuCast were very useful for valve gear parts back in the day. Anyway, that's it. A bientot. John

Though this doesn't prove it will work, the chassis now shows a bit of promise. Obviously the body is just perched loosely, but I see no reason why the levelling cant be carried out. I only fitted 3 spacers to check so there is still plenty room for additional strengthening. I have an old Mashima round cam motor on a Branchlines gearbox lined up to use if all goes well. The wheelbase has proven to be 25 x25mm, and I'm wondering if it was originally supplied as a replacement for the Triang Brit Chassis/Wills A2 combination?

To complete the J27 posts, 65813 rests before setting off for the Esso terminal at North Shields for a fuel train bound for the RAF base at Carlisle, This was a turn the loco actually worked, and I have a photo to prove it. Whether it took the train the whole way, or perhaps was relieved by a Blaydon loco, I don't know. In reality, the train wouldn't have passed Little Benton, unless it went towards Backworth via Blue Bell, but it did in my world. A more authentic photo is the pair of J27's together - a wholly familiar sight.

To complete the J27 posts, 65813 rests before setting off for the Esso terminal at North Shields for a fuel train bound for the RAF base at Carlisle, This was a turn the loco actually worked, and I have a photo to prove it. Whether it took the train the whole way, or perhaps was relieved by a Blaydon loco, I don't know. In reality, the train wouldn't have passed Little Benton, but it did in my world. A more authentic photo is the pair of J27's together - a wholly familiar sight. If I get time today, I'll finish tidying the A2 frames, solder in some spacers and see how the body looks with drivers fitted. Then I'll spend the next 3 months in our caravan thinking about it. John

That's the one, John. I was at Durham 1969-72 and I think that A2 was in the window all that time (though probably not...) Re the AG chassis, it is certainly the one advertised for the A2. I still have the invoice, and have just checked the number against the online catalogue. When I get the wheels on, I'll be able to check the wheelbase properly - I assume it should be 26 x26mm, John

Whether the A2 will ever come to anything is a moot point, though I have at least got 2 sides now cut to size. The wheelbase seems to be 25mm x 25mm,which makes it 2mm short overall. If the DJH boiler is overlength, it may make the whole thing look ridiculous. Any more work will probably have to wait until after our break in Europe., though I may find time to fit a couple of spacers and see how it looks with wheels on before Monday. In the meantime, here are the proving pictures for the Alexander J27. They show there is still a bit of tidying to do, but the kit is pretty sound. I had to provide the sanding rod on the LH side from etch scrap, but otherwise it is more or less what came in the box.

My mother was a History teacher, and got me "1066 And All That" when I was 11. I ,even at that age, thought it was funny, especially when Caesar called the Britons Weedy,Weeny and Weaky. When I quoted some of it at school, just for laughs, my teacher asked if I knew it wasn't real history.... As if. I suppose the modern equivalent is the Horrible Histories series. I found them quite funny, but it seems to reflect how clever irony has become rather coarser in our modern world. I've just painted my J27 in Satin Black, and it looks all wrong...far too clean. John

That never occurred to me , Mark. When I was at Uni in Durham, I often walked past a model shop which had Trix A H Peppercorn in the window. It stayed there for months as I lusted after it, I never did get to own one.

Classic NE Region North of Heaton from my early-teens when J27's on hoppers were every other train, and were usually ones we had seen umpteen times anyway. what I'd give for a Time Machine to see it again. Both locos are Dave Alexander kits, the completed one an original all-whitemetal on a basic etched chassis, The loco on test was his latest/last iteration, with an etched boiler and cab roof, bur, surprisingly, still a whitemetal cab.

Classic NE Region North of Heaton from my early-teens when J27's on hoppers were every other train, and the locos were usually ones we had seen umpteen times anyway. What I'd give for a Time Machine to see it again. Both locos are Dave Alexander kits, the completed one an original all-whitemetal on a basic etched chassis, The loco on test was his latest/last iteration, with an etched boiler and cab roof, bur, surprisingly, still a whitemetal cab. I think both capture the shape of what I feel was a loco whose looks absolutely matched the work it was designed for.

These photos should cause some amusement. Years ago, when I started building kits seriously -an apt description, I fear- and people like DJH attended local exhibitions, I bought an A2 kit. The body and tender went together OK, but I made such a mess of the chassis, I threw it away, and the body/tender languished out of sight and mind in a drawer. A few years later, I picked up a Craftsman A5 ready assembled kit, and sent to Alan Gibson for chassis frames, but ordered the wrong ones, and got an A2. These went into the bag with the loco, and the correct frames were ordered. Fast forward, and I wondered if I was now capable of assembling them. We shall see. The frames certainly weren't designed for the DJH kit, and have needed some fairly brutal cutting with Dremel and piercing saw, One side has been almost finished - it may still be riding too high at the front end. The other side is untouched and is shown to illustrate how much is needed to be done. I may find time to do the other side and solder up the spacers before my annual Brexit, but this will be a slow project, though hopefully productive.60535 was a reasonably frequent visitor to me layout spot at Little Benton.

I think it depends what era we are talking about when modelling the NER and its successors. Tony may well be trying to contentious about big locos and Doncaster, but in BR days there were as many north of York as there were south. The commoner ones just had different names/numbers and I never "died waiting for Cicero" at Newcastle. So all the Pacifics, V2,B1,K3 etc were common fodder. What we didn't see regularly/ever were the J6,O2 and 4, etc, but there were plenty of NE based equivalents, J27, B16, A8, G5 etc. So I doubt it's just about locos as such. What there has never been , until relatively recently, is a tradition of readily available RTR and kits to build a representative stud. Even now, it's an issue, though much improved on the motive power front. Andrew (Headstock) keeps asking me to build Ex-NER coaches. Believe me, I would if I could find them... Whether there were or still are economic regional issues, I don't know. It's certainly a possibility. But there have always been model railway clubs and exhibitions , and model shops too, in North East England, so presumably, plenty of local modellers too. My current, and probably last, railway is a Tyneside prototype, and I wouldn't want my wife to find out how may locos with an ECML connection, (which is how I used to justify my having these things), I decided to sell, on the basis that they were too "foreign". Of those left, almost all were renumbered to better fit the location. In short, I don't know the answer. John

With reference to recent posts on Jinties on the NE Region, I have an article in Steam World Jan 2003 on the subject. My (dodgy) memory seems to think there was another earlier one, but I cant find it. The attached scan shows an "Odd Couple" at York, and a table giving relevant dates and numbers. Reading the whole article, they weren't exactly welcomed with open arms...typical inter-regional prejudice, or merely a preference for the known, tried and tested. If Mods think there is a copyright issue, I'll withdraw the photo. John

Morning, Mark. It never occurred to me that J27's wouldn't have worked that stretch, but, though I don't have a lot of research material on the line, I cant find any references. The Shed Bash sites for Scarborough, which would give a bit of a clue, show no J27's at all on shed. A bit of a stretch, but the closest I could get was a photo of 65894 in 08/64 at Coxwold on the Ryedale Branch. I hope others can be more helpful. John

My current project is what is likely to be the last of Dave Alexander's J27 lits. Building it and taking the proving pictures reminded me of a day out in 1966. A couple of observations first on the build itself. Other folk have made a real job of inside motion, and Arthur Kimber's' kits which I have built contain appropriate etches. Here, all I have done is try to fill the hole into which the eye is drawn without making any real effort at prototype fidelity. At least it looks as though there is something going on between the frames, and it's an easy job on an etched chassis, just using scrap etch. The chassis runs nicely with the body fixed in place. Even in OO ,clearances in the splashers was very tight to avoid shorting on the insulated wheels. When I can, I always make one side live and the other dead, and I would have struggled if I had used insulated wheels on both sides. On earlier kits, Dave provided all the splashers as separate castings, but on this one they are now cast integrally with the footplate, hence my difficulty. How EM/P4 modellers would manage, I have no idea , but suspect they would need to cut away and re-fix or replace the splashers nearer the footplate edges. The loco in its' current form looks suspiciously like one of the last I saw being dismantled at a small scrapyard in Choppington in 1966, when I acted as chauffer to Ian S Carr, the well-known photographer, who was a master at my school, Wallsend Grammar. I was 17, with a licence and occasional use of Dad's car. Ian, or should I say Mr Carr, didn't drive so how he got around the region taking all this photos must have been a challenge. He was a splendid man.

Other folk have made a real job of inside motion, and Arthur's kits which I have built contain appropriate etches. Here, all I have done is try to fill the hole into which the eye is drawn without making any real effort at prototype fidelity. At least it looks as though there is something going on between the frames, and it's an easy job on an etched chassis, just using scrap etch. The chassis runs nicely with the body fixed in place. Even in OO ,clearances in the splashers was very tight to avoid shorting on the insulated wheels. When I can, I always make one side live and the other dead, and I would have struggled if I had used insulated wheels on both sides. On earlier kits, Dave provided all the splashers as separate castings, but on this one they are now cast integrally with the footplate, hence my difficulty. How EM/P4 modellers would manage, I have no idea , but suspect they would need to cut away and re-fix or replace the splashers nearer the footplate edges. The loco in its' current form looks suspiciously like one of the last I saw being dismantled at a small scrapyard in Choppington in 1966, when I acted as chauffer to Ian S Carr, the well-known photographer, who was a master at my school, Wallsend Grammar. I was 17, with a licence and occasional use of Dad's car. Ian, or should I say Mr Carr, didn't drive so how he got around the region taking all this photos must have been a challenge. He was a splendid man.

Highland Chieftain now has its' A4 non-corridor tender. It needs some weathering to match to the tender to the loco, but 64B kept their Pacifics in good order, so it will only get a dusting. It has the same mixed freight, but now heading for Tyneside. The barrier wagon is now in place, but I'm going to re-site the wagons in the middle of the consist, where I think it will look better. The J94 is just a renumbered/repainted Airfix, now a Heaton loco. The loco held in the relief sidings is a Heaton J71, converted from an ancient Mainline J72 on a Mainly Trains/Wizard chassis as designed by Iain Rice. Thanks again for the tips.

Good evening, Tony. I have worn out my eyes working through Coster to see the strip on the A4 non-corridor tender. I accept it is there, but wonder if you have,or can point me to, a suitable photograph. I have a correct tender body, and,when I get good advice,it behoves me to try to follow it, otherwise what is the point of posting?. Regards John PS the barrier wagons are now in situ.

Thanks to both Clive and Tony. I really want to avoid obvious visual errors without being puritanical about it, so these comments are particularly helpful. John

Thank you Arthur. 65813 went to Blyth from Percy Main, and so was a regular sight on Tyneside.. too common for young spotter oiks. The fact that I still remember the number nearly 60 years later speaks volumes. I am using a Mashima 1030 and Highlevel Compact+ on the J27, and it has fitted easily enough. I needed to remove about 8mm from the centre of the boiler bottom to clear the gearbox, but the outer metal of the visible curve ahead of the firebox was retained, thus hiding some of the gearbox. I now have a working chassis, so will complete that, checking against the body as I go, paint the chassis, the complete the loco and tender simultaneously. John

Thanks for the comments, Tony. You have caught me with a "hat trick" of errors, one of which is easily remedied by the provision of a barrier wagon. The tender for Highland Chieftain was already on my "to do " list, which is still quite long. Modelling a real location has already caused me to reduce inappropriate stock and renumber others, and I find it to be a really enjoyable part of the hobby. Mods to the tender have moved up to the top of the queue. Re the tanks, they are not in a block train, but part of a mixed freight. Is this prototypical for the mid-late 50's? If so, where would they normally be in the consist? Would it depend on whether they were full or empty? I am finding questions like these, and trying to act on the answers, as interesting as actually running trains these days. John

I wont put much of this build on here, but a couple of things may be of interest. This was the last J26/27 Dave Alexander had - he looked much better when I saw him last week- and I needed to do a couple of things to get it to this stage. The chassis is assembled by 2 screwed and 2 etched spacers, so I removed the 4 screws once I knew it was square, having soldered the spacers inside the chassis. The holes were then filled with Milliput. As can be seen , there is a considerable space below the boiler, even when the gearbox is fitted, so I'll have a go at some inside motion. I've done this on a couple of kits, and though it hardly looks like the real thing, it fills the eye and is easy with an etched chassis. Of course, once the loco is in service, you forget all about it !!! The kit provides parts for the superheated long smokebox and saturated short one, My loco will be early - build saturated 65813 which we were sick of the sight of back in the day,. It has the original shape cut-outs in the tender frame. Dave provides both styles, and I'm hoping at some point to use them, along with the superheated smokebox, on a DJH D20 to replace their parts which are either inaccurate or don't match a BR - era loco. The cab has most of the castings you need. However, as Dave updated the kit to produce an etched chassis, some of the loco / chassis fixing points don't match, especially at the rear. I cut away the original mould in the cab floor where a nut was originally to be fixed, as the hole in the chassis etch is further forward, near the backplate. So far, I've managed to use self-tapping screws and so I cut away the cast "nut-holder" and will fit a tissue-paper planked floor as a dodge I learnt from Mike Meggison. The shape of the original casting can be seen on the tender. The filler at the cab front is as a result of over- enthusiasm with the soldering iron and that on the smokebox is a consequence of a pre-drilled hole for the handrail not aligning with those on the boiler. It's a real pity this kit is no longer available, though I suppose the imminent RTR model would have killed sales in any event. The rest looks straightforward.