thegreenhowards

That list excludes my four favourite exhibition layouts…which I guess proves just how subjective the list is. for the record, the first four on my list would be: Gresley Beat Leicester South GC Grantham - the streamliner years; and Hornsey Broadway I realise that you are including some ‘stay at home’ layouts which might well be worthy of the list, but I don’t think a magazine article can always do a layout justice. It certainly can’t demonstrate the reliability and realism of operation which is key to me. As I haven’t seen them in the flesh, I wouldn’t include them. Regards Andy

…and in O gauge please! I did speak to Phil and he is considering O gauge so I have my fingers crossed! Andy

Here’s my King/Bachmann A2/3. I feel I makes a very handsome model. Andy

Going back a couple of weeks (and 24 pages!), I asked a question about white metal soldering which Graeme kindly answered as above. Well I finally found the time and plucked up the courage to have another go today. And it worked much better with a lower temperature - so thanks Graeme. I think that rather than forming a new alloy, the issue was more that with the higher temperature the low melt was not setting quickly enough (I.e. before my fingers got burned), so even though it had skinned over it had no strength and came apart. I used my iron set to about 250C today and it worked well. I got this far with the boiler and footplate (which are just rested on the chassis). I have to say that I found the whole process of rolling the boiler and firebox with their tapering sides and various curves very difficult and it doesn’t look very smooth. I just hope that I can lose any imperfections under some filler. I won’t be buying any more kits which need their boilers rolled - especially if they taper or have square fireboxes and awkward shaped cabs. For info the kit is an O gauge DJB engineering kit for a Standard 4 2-6-0 which I bought part built in September. The chassis is as bought. The brass above all came etched on flat sheets which I’ve had to bend up. Andy

I’ve used ‘Stripmagic’ from (I think) deluxe materials. It’s a bit slow but does the job without affecting the plastic.

I do like the look of that. I have one on pre-order for my (under construction) O gauge West Highland line layout. Sorry to lower the tone with RTR purchases! Andy

The lamps look good Rob. With the 20 have you considered renumbering it to a similar number, e.g. 20048. I’ve no idea whether other ED versions had the standard numbering, but it might allow you to change just one or two digits rather than the whole number and BR symbol etc. Andy

Yesterday I went to the SEGOG running day. They have a good test track which gives my O gauge locos a chance to stretch their legs in winter (when my garden railway is packed away). I attach a video which was show’s my J6 and J50 running on a nice long goods train and showing that they can pull a fair load - I do like the MSC helical gearboxes! The wagons are mainly Parkside kits and represent the majority of my O gauge big four goods stock. The video finished with a still photo of my C12 on @woko’s 3d printed Howlden 6 wheelers. Sadly the C12 only lasted a couple of laps before stopping in a cloud of smoke….so no video and a post Xmas repair to investigate! Sorry for the slightly grainy video - it was the shortest day and raining so light was very poor. Andy

Rob, A couple of photos of your wonderful Howldens at SEGOG this afternoon, one with my C12 before she ‘blew up’ and then with my J6. I’m pleased to report that Rob’s coaches performed perfectly. Andy

My transition era layout uses brake vans which makes the goods side easy. I do use a lamp on each end of coach rakes and hope the rear of the loco hides the front light.

I won’t have the latter two on Gresley Jn. - too much of a cliche! I have 60700 (built from Graeme King’s conversion kit) and 60113 is ‘on the list’. Andy

I have a particular love of the sleeper trains and have three which run on Gresley Jn, The Aberdonian andThe Night Scotsman for which most of the coaches were kit built built/ bashed and the Car Sleeper Limited for which the sleeping cars were from Kirk kits. Here are videos of two of them - can’t find one of the Night Scotsman right now. I find videos best to show the whole train. The good news is that Isinglass are planning to bring out some 65ft Gresley sleeping car kits next year which should enable me to expand the sleeping car fleet. Andy

The RTR mechanisms will be fine unless you’re planning on hauling huge trains (15+ coaches). Where RTR will fail you is in coaching stock. End door Gresleys and Thompson and Gresley catering cars are not available RTR and are definitely required. Not to mention some of the more esoteric stuff like artics. Build a few of those and maybe 60113 and away you go. Andy

I love the video Rob. One vid is worth a lot of still pictures and when you add sound on top it’s even better. One small AFI if I may. A tail lamp on the Alcan hoppers would improve it. Andy

It’s 150W so should be plenty powerful enough. this one https://www.dccconcepts.com/product/150-watt-hand-held-soldering-iron-with-temperature-control/ I upgraded from a 60W iron when I started building O gauge kits. Andy

That makes sense. However, I’ve found that I always have to go to a higher temperature to get solder to melt, particularly with the larger castings in O gauge. That’s why I went up from 300C to 350C. But I’ll try doing as you suggest. My main iron only goes down to 250C, so I may have to go back to my older less powerful one. Andy

Can I bring up a favourite thread topic - soldering? I'm building an O gauge DJB kit for a BR Standard 4 2-6-0. This will be the first time that I have to ‘roll my own’ (boiler!), although I’ve done tumblehome and a cab roof before. I started by annealing the smokebox wrapper and then bent it round a rolling pin. This seemed to work - not a perfect curve but I hope the white metal ring formers will sort that out. I then tried to solder the wrapper to the formers and this is where it went wrong. I tinned wrapper with 179C brass solder and the ring with 70C low melt. I’m using 12% phosphoric acid flux. Then then tried to put them together with my iron set to 300 and then 350C but the bond doesn’t seem to hold - the wrapper just peels off the former with a little tug. I've previously been OK with this sort of joint, so I can’t understand what I’m doing wrong. Would the annealing have upset the brass? I normally use 145C solder but I’ve run out and I’m waiting for a show to reorder (see Eileen’s topic!). Could the 179C solder be the problem? I’d be grateful for any suggestions. Andy PS. Why don’t they use white metal boilers in O gauge? - it would be much easier and give some useful weight.

I have a lot of number 5 above in my unmade kit stash. Although not necessarily in a complete jumble I do keep nicking things for other projects. Sometimes I put a post it note in to remind me…but not always. Beware if you ever see one of my unmade kits on eBay! Andy

Thanks Gilbert. Sadly I think that in this case cameras lay the truth out only too clearly - truth which an analogue eyeball can process away.

I’ve realised the weathering on both the J6 and J69 looks pretty crude in these photos. I assure you, it looks fine under normal light and with a (my) human eye. I think it’s the combination of bright daylight (by the french windows) and digital photography which makes it look streaky.

I used to buy something from Wizard nearly every time I saw Andrew at a show. I think I’ve only done one order since he stopped shows. I need a signal finial now, but it’s hopelessly uneconomic to order just that, so it will have to wait for a bigger order or maybe I’ll find one in a rummage box at a show. Andy

I’ve finished repairing my J69. On the plus side it’s made me replace some 3D printed bits with brass which I should of done to start with. Things like cab handrails, buffers and vac pipes. However, I had to give it a good weather to cover up the uneven bits and there’s still a crack visible on the right hand side if you look closely. Overall, I think she’ll do as a layout loco and will be pressed into service as station pilot on our club layout, Smithfield at our running session next week. But my friend @wokois considering improving his cad of this and reprinting it in which case I may be tempted to do another - perhaps in GER livery next time. Andy

Apart from not being able to see what I’m buying as a customer, the big issue with that approach is the cost of P&P. I hate paying ‘dead’ money for Royal Mail or similar and therefore save up my list of items until I’ve got enough to qualify for free postage, or at worst get the price down to a small percentage of the order cost. It must also take a fair bit of time and cost for the retailer to do the packaging. All that hassle is removed by face to face contact at a show. So surely there’s still a market for specialist retail at shows. It may have to be a smaller number of specialist shows. For example I recently attended the Guildford O gauge group’s trade show. This was purely retail and was well attended and the traders seemed to be doing brisk business. I spent a few £100 which I wouldn’t have spent otherwise. Please let such things continue! Andy

Here is my latest kit built loco now commissioned for use on our club O gauge, Smithfield. It’s an LNER J6 from an unknown kit which I bought on eBay. It’s nicely built and runs with a large mashima driving an ABC helical gearbox - very smooth. It was in good condition when it arrived but in BR livery and with a few paint chips. So I’ve renumbered it, changed the couplings, added lamps and crew and weathered it. I’m really pleased with how she’s come out. I’ve also fitted a Zimo sound decoder with a large speaker in the tender which, I think, sounds great. If you want to listen there’s a video here but you will need decent speakers on your PC to do it justice. Andy

That is a real shame. As far as I’m concerned, it was one of the best layouts on the circuit in the immediate pre Covid years. I was really hoping to see it again. Congratulations on a fantastic build. Andy