Mr Grumpy

Lol!! And to think I got an English 0 level back in the day!! In fact, after a trawl through the archives, I have retrieved an old photo from my class....

As the year draws to an end, signs of the new order have arrived in the shape of a pristine 08....and a cuckoo in the nest..... Happy new year! Edit for classic spelling error :-)

A short parcel working is about to depart, with a rather clean auto trailer in the background. The wagons serving the abattoir (also used as a dairy when I’m playing with the milk tankers) are equally sparkling :-)

I’m taking a couple of weeks off from building and enjoying playing with the models I have built over the last couple of years :-) My MMP suburban BS has made its maiden voyage behind my JLTRT 22. I’m so pleased to have it in service, it runs beautifully and gives the loco a nice hefty weight to pull!

...Don’t take all the credit...Dave’s kits are a delight to build :-) Everything just, well, fits perfectly! Dave recommends buying a 2nd cut file for the white metal sides. The file is still in its wrapper. I’m going to take a break and play with my trains until the new year, then expect to crack on with the loco.

After building my layout, I’ve been keeping myself occupied by starting my MOK 9F build. I’m still a tad nervous about building the loco, so started with the BR1G tender. I still have a few rivets to re-instate after dressing the corners of the tanks.

Bearings in back to front?

Ray, Your thread is excellent, enjoyable and informative:-) It makes it all worthwhile when others add useful information to assist you and others with their build. I have had a workbench thread for some time, but decided to stop posting for a while, just from a personal perspective. Your build finally made me crack on with my MOK BR1G tender for my 9F. The tender has mostly gone together very well, except for the transverse beam rocker cradle which was etched back to front. I have built two MOK locos and the 74xx instructions were particularly lacking. They are mostly excellent, but sometimes they need updating. If you venture into MMP kits, his instructions and fit of parts are generally excellent :-)

Ray, Why don’t you give Dave a call in relation to the ribs? He’s really helpful and sometimes parts are located in obscure places :-)

I did make an attempt at Tetbury, but the length was just too prohibitive. I also built the cattle dock which, like the goods shed is huge! But again, a very nice model. I’m really going to enjoy seeing your layout develop, so I’ll stay tuned :-)

Hi Ray, That looks suspiciously like Tetbury station canopy :-) I built all the Timbertracks Tetbury range and they are excellent kits and beautiful buildings. The goods shed is huge!! Shame he’s retiring. BTW, I used One bottle of De-Luxe Rocket card glue for all of them:-) Richard

Many thanks:-)

Hi Ray, Having built a couple of Dave’s MOK kits, I can appreciate your frustration with the instruction manual:-) on the whole though they were pretty comprehensive and well detailed. I’m enjoying your build and look forward to keeping up with your updates on your build. I’m considering starting my 9f to keep me out of mischief for some time :-) I was interested in the little hand tool you use to assist with cleaning up the castings. I have seen similar, but could you tell us the name of the one you are using please? Thanks, Richard

Hi Harlequin, A lot of stuff has been prepared in reverse...I built the Tetbury buildings a year or so back, and the goods shed and cattle dock are huge! So, as I’m building this layout as an intrim, I wanted to re-use as much of the track, points buffers etc as I could from the previous layout. I’m going to delve in to the mystery’s of hand built track and Templot for the next one in a couple of years. The main platform road will take my Hymek and either my B set or a couple of Mk1s nicely. The run round will also take the above coaches without any fouling issues. I can’t easily elongate the run round due to the entrance to the loco shed. I would be the first to admit the layout isn’t ideal, but it will keep me occupied for a while :-) Apparently, Tetbury was a pig to shunt too!!

Hi Chris, The bay will be used for push-pull coach and a pannier with a suburban coach as a passenger service, so I will add the trap point to the dairy siding :-) Kind regards, Richard

Hi Chris, The bay is to be used as the dairy headshunt and for a single suburban coach. I did ponder over the dairy point being used as the trap point. So would that negate the need for one on the siding itself? I will shuffle the points and insert one as in your point 2. Thanks for your advice! Richard

After a few years of building many kits, I felt the time is now right to actually build a layout for them to live on. I have built most of the Tetbury branch buildings from the excellent Timbertracks range, but alas, I just couldn't find a way to squeeze it into 18'6" in 0 gauge. While I think through several options I have of creating more space to play, I thought I would build a reasonably quick layout to keep interest flowing. I dug out my ancient Winrail disk, found an old windows laptop and came up with the design below. Space is tight, as I'm using the redundant boards from a previous layout, but I think there should be enough operational interest to keep me happy for a while. So, on to my burning question........ Please could a signalling wizard come to my rescue and advise on the signalling? I have one signal so far which was kindly donated by a good friend, and also have some GWR ground signals in stock. I'm wondering if the catch point is necessary and if so, should there be another from the goods yard line? I thought the signal would be ok for the end of the platform, which doubles as the dairy headshunt and bay platform for a single suburban coach. Any help greatly appreciated, my 'Tetbury' branch operated on one engine in steam so signalling hadn't really crossed my mind! Edit.... This is the signal I have for possible use at the end of the platform, but with the posts transposed.. Many thanks, Richard

I found the ‘no smoking’ triangles last night :-)

Well, that’s just about it. I can’t lay my hands on the ‘no smoking’ triangles so will order some in. The roof is just dropped in place at the moment, and the fit is spot on. I’ll glue it in place once I decide if any passengers will be populating the compartments.

It’s been a long road, but well worth the effort. I have just come in from spraying in the coach ends and couldn’t resist popping it up on to it’s chassis. I’m off to the show in Reading to buy some bits and bobs, and if time permits, I’ll make a start on the glazing later. Edit...noticed the battery box a tad pushed back after posting the photos. Now ok....I must check more thoroughly:-)

I still wasn’t happy once the interior was fitted. It still pushed the sides out a little and as I don’t want to glue the roof to the body, I had to think about my next move. So I removed the inner walls and consigned them to the bin, put the rest of the assembly in place and the fit is now excellent. I will paint the inside of the coach ivory with brown doors and add a red arm rest from paper next to the seats. Next, I soldered two nuts to each end of the coach floor and slightly enlarged the clearance holes in the chassis so the bolts can be easily screwed in. Hopefully the weather will be kind and I can get the coach painted and glazed. I still have plenty of transfers so no hold up there.

I decided it was time to tackle the suburban BS roof once and for all. I have had a few more dabbles with no real success, so felt for my limited skills, a new roof was probably the way forward. After great success with the Sidelines Stove R roof, I wondered if such a roof would be a sensible way forward. I ordered a roof and vents from Sidelines and put to one side until I completed the first GWR tanker. The roof has inner ‘beams’ which runs the length and adds great stability to the coach sides, preventing any accidental pushing in while lifting. This may cause an issue when fitting the interior, so I may have to remove a couple of mm from the interior walls. The first step was to remove the paint from the ends of the coach as I wanted to strengthen the corner joints to prevent splitting when (hopefully) re-fitting the interior. The roof was then cut, allowing a couple of mm overhang of the gutters. These were filed from the rear and bent to shape. I harvested the periscope fittings from the original roof, but fitted lost wax cast vents to the replacement. The next job was to solder a strip of nickel silver along the tops of the coach ends and file to shape to ensure a nice fit of the roof. So far, I’m pleased with the result, but there’s still a fair bit to do. The whole coach has now had the paint removed, as I need to re-fix a couple of hand rails, a door hinge, handle and an end step.

The platforms are a tight fit over the solebars and take a little patience to get on. This was due to the studs I fitted in the splash plates. Had I been able to drill through then fit the studs after the platform, it would have literally slid into position. The transfers, name plates and chassis weathering will be completed once the last two tankers are finished. I’m really pleased with the look of the tanker and building and fitting the platforms is well worth the effort to finish up with a model which is somewhat different to the standard Slaters tanker. Edit....just noticed a droopy buffer :-( Its now sitting level :-)

There wasn’t room to drill through the top of the solebars to fit pegs for the platform supports as they would have protruded down the front of the solebars. So this is what I done. First, two rivets are filed off the plate where the 0.5mm holes will be drilled. Once the holes are drilled using the jig supplied with the platform kits, I made a U shape of wire and soldered in place. Then the rear of the wire is filed back and the pegs cut to length. Once happy, the plate is glued in place.