auldreekie

Back on 22 February, I posted some pictures of 4mm scale narrow gauge locomotives for overseas railways built and/or designed by UK firms and/or engineers. A couple of the ones pictured in their styrene birthday suits have now been more-or-less completed and painted, and here they are. These are: - an early C20th Kitson-built pacific for the railways of the Federated Malay States (nearer the camera); and - a pacific for the Colombian Railways (South America) built by BMAG in Berlin,. but designed by British engineer P C Dewhurst to incorporate the best of 1930s practice in the UK and the USA. I like the contrast between them in styles of design and appearance. auldreekie

mispost

Portobello, near Edinburgh on the NBR/ECML. Island platform between Down and Up tracks of ECML Goods marshalling yard directly across Up track. As I recollect (1950s) traffic lights on the road bridge (almost a short tunnel) beneath. I don't think it was a girder bridge - arch more likely, given the narrowness of the road beneath auldreekie

It's the price of having a loyal customer base. auldreekie

Long time no see. I started a catch-up somewhere in August, and life is too short today to run all through and get myself up to date. I was very taken by "semi-itinerant shrubs". It's a nice concept. but I' don't think we have tumbleweed in East Anglia.... auldreekie

My figure of about 60 was rather casually given. In fact, so far as I have gleaned from the internet (I claim no expertise in the matter), there were at least 26, which encompassed maybe two batches, of the superheated Federated Malayan States Railways Class P (the version of which a model has been attempted). Then there were a further 20 of the subsequent enlarged and improved Belpaire-boilered class L. And, before Class P, the very similar but saturated class H numbered 60 units. The history of these classes appears to have been quite complicated. Although the main original destination was the Federated Malay States Railways, a few of the two earlier classes (H and P) were diverted en route to Indian railways, and some of these may have found their way onward to Malaya later. As you say, a significant number of Class P ended up in Thailand auldreekie

A roughly H0 scale (6/7 x 4mm to 1foot) model nearing completion, of a Federated Malay States 4-6-2 built by Kitsons in 1916, NBL in1919. Some of these found their way to Thailand during(?) and after WW2. There were a lot of them (of the order of 60 I think) in three related classes And another, same peculiar scale, similar state of completion. This is of a Colombian railways pacific, designed by a Briton, PC Dewhurst and put into service in 1927. It was designed to incorporate the best of UK and of US practice of the time. Only two were built, one by Haine St Pierre in Belgium, the other by BMAG in Berlin. And this one has a bit further to go before it's up and running: a small pacific for the Darjeeling Himalayan railway by North British in 1914. The design of this one was based on an earlier and larger NB product for the Bengal Nagpur Railway. This one , and the Darjeeling derivative are to 4mm scale, for comparability with the others. The were respectively on 2foot 6 inch and 2foot gauge, whereas the others were on metre gauge and therefor rather larger all over. auldreekie

My. That would be interesting on the Indy2000 circuit... auldreekie

The "Woolnough" boiler used by Sentinel on some of their larger locomotives (including the Buenos Aires tram) was similar in principle to the "marine" boiler used by Gresley on the W1. I was particularly moved to model the Buenos Aires machine, because its bogies used steam traction motors of a relatively traditional form, unlike the (possibly) better-known Colombian Sentinel machines which also used the Woolnough boiler. auldreekie

I found it a good read, especially taken in conjunction with John Hutchings' "Sentinel Locomotives and Sentinel-Cammell Railcars": there's a lot of read-across, particularly in respect of boiler design. Taken together, the two books offer a different perspective on a well-worn tale. I was even motivated enough to build a model of the Sentinel Buenos Aires "tram locomotive" which used boiler technology similar to that of the original W1. and auldreekie

Here's a somewhat improbable heavy-duty narrow-gauge steam crane, based on the Dapol diesel crane kit. The main piece not scratchbuilt or very heavily adapted was the jib, although that too was not unmodified. It has outriggers which function. So adapting the kit involved quite a learning curve. I suppose you could regard the low-loader match-wagon as part of the kit-bash, as its bogies used the sides of the ones in the crane kit. auldreekie

Hi, Les. Welcome aboard. For the meantime (I hope) it beats paddling an inflatable boat across the Channel.... Here's my latest Bodge-o-ploy. There's a particular weak point in these builds. The boiler tube is of butyrate (whatever that may be), and it doesn't take well with styrene solvent. So I have used two-part epoxy well slathered on to fix it to the styrene of which the rest of the structure is made. OK for tank engines, where there is a large contact area between the hacked-out edges of much of the tube and the underlying main box structure. But not so good in tender locomotives, where the boiler tube tends to be glued only to the front of the firebox, and secured at its front end by some combination of glue and bolt. At the firebox end, matters are complicated by the fact that there's usually a major cut-out in this area to accommodate the motor, so reducing the extent of possible contact and support.. So contact area for the glue needs to be maximised, and some support given. In the past, I've done this by carving a segmental piece of 80 thou styrene sheet to attach to the front of the firebox in order to support the boiler, which slides into position over it after it has been liberally coated with two-part epoxy. This has given me no trouble so far. But it is untidy even by my standards, and the increment in surface area isn't as much as I'd wish. A small eureka moment has been today to fashion the support piece from nested styrene tubes. Tidier. And it gives the possibility of increasing the contact area a bit for the glue to grasp on to. We'll see if/how well it works.... auldreekie

I thought I'd make a start both on the cab end of the CC class pacific and on its tender. But I'd forgotten about the joggle in the frames to accommodate the wide firebox. I ought to have known: goodness knows, I've built several machines with this characteristic over the years... Nevertheless, it took me several hours and about three attempts before I understood that, whilst the firebox and ashpan do fit within the frames, it is between a joggled and widened set of rear-end frames. After all that I was rained out of the garden by a thunderstorm and I'm only now back to something like normal, Next up is to build the joggle castings which embrace the front corners of the firebox/ashpan. Then perhaps the tender, before I address the front end and how to connect it to the rest via the multi-level running plates. More later. Maybe. auldreekie

Since it looks as if Doug may be continuing to follow developments for the meantime on RMweb, here's an update on what I've done since my previous post. A fair bit of detail added to the little Norwegian tank locomotive.- - Four steps on tank fronts. - Hinge, hinge straps and "doorknob" on sand-dome. - Shovelling plate on inside of cab rear spectacle plate. - Positions marked-up to locate whistle on cab roof and balance-pipe beneath tanks, when in due course these can be added. - Beading added to upper portions of cab entrance cut-outs. I did find a builder's general arrangement drawing on the internet, courtesy of Museums i Akershus, With my revision to the tank layout, I am pleased to see that my version is a reasonably close fit at scale. Odd that I can find no photographic or diagrammatic indication of the existence of the usual brake pillar in the cab.... It looks as if I cannot make much more progress until rejoined with bits and pieces in the sticks. Primarily, this is because I left behind there my stocks of plastic-coated wire, which is needed to make both the smokebox-door hinge and the delivery pipes for sand from the sand dome. I'm loth to start painting until these are all in place, and such other further detail as is intended needs to be provided only after at least a first coat of paint is in place. So I made a start as can be seen on the CC class pacific of the Bengal-Nagpur Railway. Donor mechanism stripped-out non-destructively (Grafar pacific). Boiler cut-out made using slatted top of garden table as a jig in the usual way. Main "bones" of firebox cut out and glued together, leaving much shaping yet to be done. Many other of the more complex and other main parts have previously been cut out and form a home-made "Airfix" kit, and I shall no doubt make use of them to achieve partial assembly in days to come. auldreekie

Thanks to Mike, Matt and Roger. Like quite a few others, I'm looking forward to the re-emergence of NGRM from the mysteries of the computer/software/hosting industry. That would be a cue to re-establish communication with Doug and others. Meanwhile I think the Chiverses ought to go on enjoying their holiday, preferably without laptop. I'm sorry Doug has been put off RMWeb by unpleasantness. It does happen in the best of worlds as they exist, and I'm afraid that I tend to react in kind. But better, I'm sure, to stand clear. auldreekie