craigwelsh

Yes don't worry they will eventually be weathered a little where the windscreen wipers don't cover though it was more the flat glass look and lack of fingerprints I polished them up for! I haven't fitted the rest yet Paul though its definately the same cab apart from doors. I looked at my other 08 as i'd thought they were both the same but its a 3250 as you used so I may swap this cab onto that with the doors swapped over for now and look at doing the later type door one again when Brian has done the bits, might have to send him the doors to measure and try while i'm at it. The door hinges on the bodyside panels are also different, my later one has the internal hinge strapping while the one with square window doors has the external hinges so i'll change bodies as well as cab doors. I was in the NRM on Saturday looking at their 08 in the tent and noted how large the framing is on the droplight. Hornby hasn't modelled any frame on those windows so I may check with Brian about doing a smaller window with an etched from for those instead. I'll post a picture of what I mean sometime. I also got some detail on the coupling rods and that device fitted to them which seems to be an attachment to a speedo.

Brassmasters finescale rods I'd made these rods up a while ago when I first P4'd my one 08 shunter. Unfortunately after getting the first one perfect I rushed the 2nd late at night and broke it after i'd soldered it solid and not taken the correct route of stripping and starting again! It went back in a box after that as it won't run properly without the correct movement within the rods. I got it out this week and decided to fix it up and get it completed again. The rod was fixed with a spare lamination from the fret that was supposed to go on the back of the rods. I didn't bother with this as its not at all noticeable in practice. I cleaned up the existing parts, thinned the repair as much as possible and drilled the new pivot, this time nothing was solder solid and it works fine! Eventually i'll go over them with a little filler and polish up some of the laminations before painting them. Shawplan Laser cut Glazing @PMP gave an introduction to these here and I was lucky to get a set at Stormex to try out. I need to query Brian at Shawplan whether he has done the rounded windows the doors on this really need as the glazing on my sheet is for the other type of door. They look really superb when fitted and I polished the rear cab window i've fitted so far with t-cut before fitting to really shine it up. Obviously it needs a tiny bit of weathering back but at the moment it had the effect of really clean glass. Left one is laser cut while the right is original. Right one is laser cut while left is original, note how you lose the white outline and the window looks bigger. This window needs a clean really before I Klear it in place and all windows need their surround painting black. Note how the rear wall has a false section where the rear windows are glazed, you lose this with the replacements and the detial on this bit needs reattaching to the actual wall. Eventually i'll probably remove the door operating stuff and glue them in solid as you see it a lot clearer with the new windows. Bringing it all together we get the following though that cab side window needs to go up a bit when I replace it, South Wales is colder than that Note the farther rear window is much more flush being the laser cut example. I've fitted the Brassmasters balance weights to this and am glad I have as you see too many P4 08s around without them.. Wheels just blackened with a permanent marker for now while I run it in, pickups really need replacing completely though.

I think they heat weld the two halves together during assembly though you could take them apart if you really wanted to. Probably better to replace the whole thing with brass though if you were going to do anything serious. Yes currently just loose though its a really snug fit in the hole and the plastic is quite soft stuff anyway. I did try drilling the shaft but got the pilot slightly off so i'll leave getting it correct for now! I'll spend some time on it when I eventually P4 it but its the 37's this is most applicable to for me.

Its one of the original release 47s with the 57 underframe. Mine now has a D1500 body as opposed to the FYE body I swapped with Pixie. I removed one of the axles of the idler gears then took that gear out and that allows room to put the old gear up into the hole. You need to file down the plastic from each side of the gear before it can be pushed in. This plastic was to take out the slop when fitted to the axle. I didn't take an intermediate stage picture with the idler gear out but would take it apart again to do so if you want?

Last Friday the Manchester Club had a running night where all the layouts were as operational as possible. I'd tested the double track curve laid to date with a pannier tank on the Tuesday and Tony brought something more appropriate to have a short run on what was back in place and also test running across the board joints here on the skew. A couple of pictures showing how I finished off that skewed board joint from the last update. Pieces of scrap were soldered across the cut sleepers until the assembly was glued in place to avoid the gauge widening suffered on the initial joint when this wasn't done. These are later removed and I now need to clean them up. A little extra ballast was being glued in place in the 2nd shot to cover a hole. I've since split and reattached the boards to check nothing was glued up and that they went back ok. After prep work on Tuesday Dick will hopefully be laying the now fully chaired junction next Tuesday. This will really make the layout 'Slattocks Junction' and arguably for the first time ever as the old trackplan didn't really heavily feature the junction in the name! The fishplates I put on the edge of some production etches have proves useful to cheaply provide electrical joints to match the Exactoscale plastic ones without resorting to too many lost-wax cast ones. Unlike the Colin Waite/EMGS ones these are double thickness. Now we just need to launch our 'bridging the gap' project to get me enough beer to see through the completion of these two sections . Dewsbury was running a variety of BR stock that members had brought for the evening along with the other 3 layouts in the club. A rather nice 0 gauge A1 was running around that layout upstairs at speed. Our guest from the NRM was enjoying himself so much he was caught unawares and had to agree to open the MMRS Exhibition .

The other bogies were BR1's btw. The number series aren't the same.

Yes sorry, I did realise some didn't have the, just meant that where they did they retracted so wouldn't have the upright section as Brian mentioned. Thanks for clarifying though.

I did wonder as I didn't see springing parts. Presumably some Scale7 modeller out there will have fitted coil springs into there or something to do as you describe. Unless you come from Denmark though those Heljan things don't look very much like mk1s.. I look forward to the completed guards compartment, I liked the detail shown on the one built in Model Rail.

The armrests in 2nd class compartments normally retracted up into the seat from what I have seen to allow 8 people into the compartment instead of 6. I do like the guards heater . Do you allow the axleboxes to move in their guides by the way or solder them solid? That bogie has given me some ideas for the BR1's I want to do in 4mm.

The green responds well to a bit of t-cut giving it some depth in the same way the Stanier coach maroon improved. Hornby seem to use a decent colour but apply it in a way that makes it very flat matt.

Or you could get a file to deal with that..

On Friday at the Bluebell 50th I was moaning to Richard from Bachmann about their banana shaped bogies that were really bad news in P4. Some of mine are bad enough that they still rock on the gear after the bearing holes are filed back. Richard however pointed out a fairly easy mod you can do to get around this problem and he'd done it to his P4 locos. It turns the drive into an A-1-A arrangement but this is perfectly acceptable in my Heljan Western so I have no problem doing it to 37 and 47 classes from Bachmann! As supplied the drive chain goes via the central axle to the inner axle. You need to transfer drive to that inner axle still. Luckily there is a hole up in the tower of a perfect size to take the gear from the middle axle once it has been filed back to the thickness of just the gear. Its a perfect fit for it and you can get away with it working well without an axle for the gear to run on. I'll probably fit one at some stage though. Any issues now with the central axle and I can spring the bearings if I wish with a tab and some wire through handrail knobs. A simple solution to an annoying problem I had holding up my projects . I may in the future go down the Brian Hanson coil sprung route but until the kit is out this will do nicely!

Just take the axle out and set the pickups to splay by an even amount both sides before re-installing the axle, it should self-centre then. You could always fit washers to take out that slop too as its only the middle axle on each bogie that really needs the movement.

Bill Bedford did the slip coach end as I have one somewhere..

Class 116 DMU's at least weren't built with them and had recovered ones from GWR Siphons and other coaches added later. The Red Dragon also featured a GWR restaurant pair quite late into its mk1 formation so that too would need the detail shown in that shot. I believe there was a lack of such cars until late into the mk1 build so thats why we see lots of this sort of thing. The strengthening coaches on the Capitals United for certain days and part of the journey are also listed as ex-GWR and fitted with the adapters.

They look exactly like the curtains in the Stanier coaches which have proved a nightmare for me to remove as I want to use some as replacement glazing for some glue impacted examples. The window bar will probably be painted on too which is a pity .

That really is spot on and I look forward to seeing one either in grimy steam age condition or modern and mouldy with a shiny new diesel underneath and orange tape on the steps!

Can autocad 2011 save in 2007/2004 format? I know PPD take those dxf files.

BR choc and cream as per Chris' note above? Obviously its know that some were built by the GWR in choc and cream and pictures of those are in all the books.

51L did the heavy duty types of BR axleboxes for their Iron Ore hopper kit, Andrew sells them via MSE now. Must admit though the ones I have show quite a lot of flash on the rivet heads either side of the main box up close.

Actually the Exactoscale panels do have those connecting pieces between sleepers but you either chop them out before or after glueing the track down. In my case before as we are laying painted track and ballasting at the same time. Looking good Tim, must admit i've gone back to pva instead and kept the Klear for windows.

What's amazing about these new Castles is how much discounting is going on so soon after initial release, being able to pick up a superb new release for £60 is amazing! Both tender types have been available in that price range now as well instead of just the Pete Waterman one with the Hawksworth tender I initially got. Not sure if Tintagel will get the same level of discounting when it arrives though.

The dirt adds a lot of depth to the building and certainly echos the pictures of steam era weathered grand buildings. Although its more accurate like this I think it looks better now than in the red anyway.

Thanks for clarifying its a Gloucester one you're modelling, i'd agree they have a flatter roof looking at the pictures posted. While your playing with windows, and I'd agree with modifying the front ones a little may I suggest dropping the front of the triangular windows a little as the front bit seems to be slightly lower than the front windows at this point not higher as it currently seems to be on yours. I think all of the rain and rivet strips will make a difference to the look of the front of this though. It'll be great to see a finished version of these earlier Bananas!