drduncan

Hi Gareth and Mike, Thanks! Managed to get some....isn't ebay wonderful? D

I knew it would be my fault somehow... But you are a demon with the piercing saw! drduncan

As I discovered I had run out of crank pins a pause has been forced in 2811's progress. So I decided to have a renewed crack at the Nucast Armstrong Standard Goods. Russell's locomotives of the GWR gives 2 nice pictures of 788 in pre 1906 livery - all glorious lining and indian red frames etc. Also 788 has a belpaire firebox which might give an extra mm to hide the motor and gearbox, always a problem with wasp waisted Victorian or Edwardian locos! The original Nucast kit had a massive, yet narrow gauge (ie OO) brass chassis, milled from a single block of metal, that I'm hoping the new Model Railway Museum project at Ashford will accept as an exhibit in due course. The replacement chassis has been constructed using Alan Gibson milled brass mainframes and MJT hornblocks to make a compensated chassis. The rear axle is fixed (I'm still not to happy with the idea of floating/compensated driving axle - although this is exactly what the Finney kits and High Level Dean Goods chassis do, so I'll have to get over my constructional fears at some point). Prior to yesterday evening, I had soldered up the running plate... And the boiler (although the smoke box was still loose) and tender too (although the tender picture refuses to load in line and appears as a thumbnail at the end) So yesterday as the SHMRC I got busy with the cab, and then fixed it and the boiler/smoke box etc to the running plate The intention - when I next get a moment (I'm hoping the postman will deliver the crankpins for the 28xx today, to that will got back to the top of the list if they do arrive) - is to move onto the chassis and fit the wheels and motor for testing, and check the fit of the body, before looking at making the tender leading and middle axle float and thus transfer the tenders rather appreciable weight onto the draw bar - oh and somehow fit a large speaker for a sound chip in the tender too.... Anyone know a supplier for those natty 4 way connectors that Hornby and Bachman use to provide electrical connections between loco and tender? I might need some...

Can anyone date the wagons that are drawn in the Raikway Modeller article posted above? drduncan

Come see Empire Mills in something approaching glorious Technicolor and almost Dolby stereo quality sound at the Model Railway Club's open day on Sunday 11 May, 11am to 4pm! We will be running (hopefully) Western Region diesel hydraulics (and Gareth's class 25 interloper as well as my 08 if the wasp stripes are done), BR china clay and mineral wagons. If that's not enough to tempt you to come along, also on show at the open day are: Lacey Dale, the MRC's new N gauge layout. Happisburgh Goods (O gauge). Caledonian Road Goods (part of the Copenhagen Fields 2mm F/S layout). And... 'Minories'; Tom Cunnington's EM tribute to the late C J Freezer's famous urban minimum space terminus scheme. More information and directions on the MRC's website: http://www.themodelrailwayclub.org/ See you there and do stop by for a chat. drduncan

Dear all, Attached is a copy of the Railway Modeller Jan 1965 article which may be of interest. drduncan RM china clay article.pdf

Well, in that case we should blame the iniquitous job market that required me to abandon London for Portsmouth.... D

I hope to get a look at Mr Finney's Dean 3000 gallon tenders at Expo to see if he does one that matches 2811's D

Hi Stefan, Thanks for the note. I hope to modify the mainline tender, but we shall see as there will be a bit of work involved. D

While mulling over the top feed issue, the tender issue, and summoning up the courage to start drilling holes in the spectacle plate - and above all because the laser cut plasticard side frames had arrived from Ultrascale - I have decided to make some progress with the chassis. Stripping the chassis was not as traumatic as I feared and the wheelsets, coupling rods, and cross heads gently slipped out of the chassis into a heap on the floor. The sandboxes were removed too, as was a small bit of rectangular plastic next to one of the sandboxes. I haven't a clue what this bit of plastic represents but it will be glued onto the Ultrascale frames along with the sandboxes in due course. Then the Ultrascale false side frames were offered up to see if they fitted (they did). The Ultrascale frames had the brake hangers (the tiny little point of metal on the Hornby chassis) marked off and holes drilled. The brake hangers were added using brass lace pins. Those little bits of metal representing the brake hangers were snipped off. The Hornby chassis then had pads of 40thou plasticard superglued to it, to give something to glue the side frames to and get them out to a more respectable distance (the article in MRJ 216 was a great help at this point). The Hornby chassis is 12mm wide, the Ultrascale frames 20 thou/0.5mm each and with a 40 thou sapcer on each side gives an overall wdith of 15mm. Or put it another way, 1.5mm of sideplay (0.75mm each side) on the standard EM bakc to back measure of 16.5mm. Hopefully this will be enough... Then the side frames were glued to the spacing pads using plasticweld. And thats as far as I've got. Time spent on the conversion so far: an hour on the body, 3 hours on the chassis, about 6 months plucking up courage to start.... D

While a 28xx is probably a bit big for a china clay shunting layout - a viewpoint I struggle with - the Hornby model of the straight framed version looked lovely so I had to have one. The Hornby model is of 2812 in 1930s condition so not only will it need to be converted to EM gauge, but also back dated to 1912-ish. The early locos were builtg with short coned boilers, not the top feed fitted long cone of the Hornby model. However, the early locos started to receive D4 long cone boilers from about 1910, but top feed remainded a later addition. There also will need to be the small but distinctive Churchward ventilation 'port holes' added to the top of the spectacle plate above the firebox as well as sundry other details which can be seen (hopefully) in the picture of 2811 below. The observant will notice that 2811 has a different tender to the Hornby model - a Dean 3000 gallon tender (I think) rather than the Churchward version. This is going to be probably the hardest part of the conversion, as although Dean 3000 gallon tenders are available (Mainline Dean Goods, W & T Models etc), they are not that type of 3000 gallon tender as they have a scallop taken out of the leading edge of the fender lip around the tender top. I have considered using a Dapol City of Truro tender kit, but the amount of effort needed to turn that into a decent model means that scratch building a new tender body may be the easiest (!) way forward. Any bright ideas always welcome though... So to start. After a long time summoning up courage I attack the boiler. It was very carefully removed from the footplate and all the screws, boiler supports, handrails etc put safely to one side (I lost one handrail knob in the process though). The safety valve & top feed cover pulls off quite easily and then the top feed piping was filled back. I'm mulling over whether to source a replacement safety valve cover or cut away the top feed cover and reuse the Hornby one.... Anyway the next job will be reinstating the boiler band.

Seriously, Gareth has also reminded me that there is also a K's 26XX Aberdare in 1912 condition in the dark recesses of my workbench (he should know he cut out new frames from brass strip for me) and while trying to find some crank pins for the 28xx I also realised that there is also a Mainline 43XX + Perseverence chassis awaiiting completion (one with the extended/'normal' cab so 1914 batch, 4321 or similar) - its now gone to almost the back of the queue until I've made serious inroads into the pure frieght locos.... D

And I may one day accept that!

I blame Gareth. This, I can assure you, is a default position - but a very good one - derived from long experience of shifting the blame. Admittedly I had been mulling over doing a 'what's on my workbench and how I've managed create a masterpiece/complete pigs ear' for a while, but lets be clear - this is all Gareth's fault. Why? Well he has volunteered the EMpire Project to appear at the MRC's March 2015 Alexandra Palace show. Well so what? It’s already done that, so why blame Gareth? Because, gentle reader, there was a tiny little caveat... with completely new stock to portray [wait for it] a GWR china clay branch in the Edwardian period. And as the number of GWR pre-grouping modellers, who do EM gauge, are active [!] modellers, involved in Empire Mills, who could nominally supply stock for a china clay branch is, and are members of the MRC is, you've guessed it, just 1 - me. Hence what was going to be a leisurely production of stock has now gone into overdrive - and I'm also supposed to be progressing my own layout too. So this blog will attempt to keep up with the frantic efforts to produce at least half a dozen EM gauge locos (DCC to boot and hopefully sound chipped too) and associated rolling stock that could, if viewed in a gentle light, be imagined to frequent a GWR Cornish china clay branch as well as the stock that may one day see the light of day on my own layout (or more likely the way my layout is going) on the South Hant's MRC's Hope under Dinmore - maybe... Now I've already managed to shift some of the work back on to the all too deserving shoulders of Gareth; kits of a 517, a part built 1076 pannier tank and an even worse part built 850 saddle tank were chucked at Gareth and he was invited to get cracking. However, he's clearly been slacking as it's been over a week and he hasn't finished any of them. He has, however, explained at length my errors in putting them together - probably fairly, it has to be admitted. And I'm sure he will delight in pointing out my rubbish soldering and dodgy kit building, either on this blog or his own. So what can we look forward to? Loco wise and in no particular order there is a: Nu-cast/cotswold 42xx in original condition Alan Gibson 1076 saddle tank SE Finecast 1854 saddle tank Dean Goods (Belpaire boiler) on a High Level Kits chassis Martin Finney Dean Goods Nu-cast/cotswold 2021 saddle tank Hornby 28xx in 1911/1912 condition (superheated, D4 boiler, no top feed, Dean 3000 gallon tender etc etc) Roxey no 34 0-4-4T Nu-cast/cotswold Armstrong Standard Goods. Modelex 45xx And then there are the other locos waiting to be converted/built for my own layout.. Bachman City (to be fair this one is done, sans DCC chip, but I owe Mr Butler and have to convert his one for his 'Westcliff' in return for him making me a stock box or 2...) Craftsman 36xx Finney Stella class K's Dean single M & L Dean single (I like Dean singles...) I'd also like to get my hands on a 44xx, a steam railmotor, a straight framed 29xx and a Scott Atlantic... Wagon and carriage wise we can expect: More GWR and PO china clay wagons than is healthy. PO Coal wagons Brake vans And when that is out of the way... GWR NPCS like Pythons... 4 and 6 wheel siphons Fish wagons Assorted GWR open and closed vans 4 and 6 wheel coaches Dean clerestories And probably some sexy Dreadnoughts, Concertinas, or Toplights for the City to pull... So not a lot at all!

Ultrascale drop in wheel sets are simply superb. They make converting loco's to EM gauge an absolute doddle - at least in theory... Foxhound is one of Bachmann's creations and very nice it looked to, even if it was, to put it bluntly, narrow gauge. However, the loco's transition from OO narrow gauge ugly duckling to EM standard gauge swan was just a matter of throwing an acceptable sum of money at the problem and waiting the required half a lifetime for the wheels to arrive (I freely admit that patience is a virtue I venerate in others...). Still, the Ultrascale drop in wheel sets eventually arrived and the keeper plates on the bogies removed and the OO wheels thrown across the attic with expressions of disgust and revulsion. The drop in wheel set were, well, dropped in and the keeper plates offered up. At this point the conversion became a little less simple than say the Heljan Hymek Class 35 - a conversion so simple with the Ultrascale drop in wheels that its not even worth writing about, it was over in less than 5 minutes... Anyway, Foxhound's narrow gauge origins now came to the fore; the nicely moulded brake gear on each side of the bogie was too close together to allow the keeper plate to be pressed home over the EM wheel sets. So it was out razor saw and off with the brake gear. A piece of 20 thou plasticard was stuck on each side of the bogie and the brak gear and spring unit reattached. (The plastic spacer can be seen, and Imust remember to refit the last bits of the brake gear...) With the keeper plates now fitting over the wheels it was a quick test and then detailing, weathering and couplings. It was only after all this was done that a noticed that in the photo I had of Foxhound with 6318, Foxhound a full yellow ends, not the small yellow panels of the model - back to the paint shop we will have to go.

There has, it must be admitted, been a hint of discord between the CME's and Operating Departments. The Operating department (Gareth), following Empire Mills recent foray to the nether regions of north London, had reproached the CME's department (Duncan) over the dross a certain Wagon and Carriage Inspector (again Duncan) had been passing as fit for use - apparently AJs were doing anything but uncouple at the time and place the operating department wanted, and his team were getting fractious as well as losing the will to live. The righteous indignation that resulted had to be heard to be believed and after the expostulations had come to a stop (due to lack of breath) it was pointed out that claims that they worked OK when tested on Hope under Dinmore were without value because of a lack of witnesses. In a spirit of reconciliation (and nothing to do with the fervent hope that the Operating Department would be proved wrong) the CME agreed that the wagons should again be inspected, this time on Empire Mills and, lo, sackcloth and ashes were found to be needed. The problem, it has to ruefully and publically admitted, had been predicted by that sage of Fareham and unwitting consultant to the CME's department, Mr Richard Butler (he of Westcliff fame). He had pointed out that using U shaped magnetic droppers ran the risk of them finding the steel axles more attractive than the electro-magnets, but his wise words had been laughingly dismissed by the CME as he had a deadline looming and needed something that was good enough rather than good. It seems the CME's solution was neither good nor even good enough and urgent rectification work was needed. So it was out side cutters, soldering iron, solder and brown label flux to solder one end of the U shaped dropper firmly to the AJ coupling and snip off the end of the other leg so that it could be bent into an inverted 'L' - with the added benefit that the wheel sets could now be removed without having to take off the coupling. (On the right can be seen one of the U shaped droppers, on the left one that has been 'modified'...) Most of the recalcitrant couplings responded to this treatment, but one or two still failed to work properly when the magnet was energised. Further surgery followed and the rather light gauge soft iron wire that had been used for the droppers was replaced with much thicker stuff and now even these troublesome trucks were behaving. The CME then fled the scene, wailing about all his GWR Edwardian period stock that would have to be redone....

The plan was just to pull out the wheels and file away the backs of the bogies to provide clearance. A rather course file was introduced to the bogies and just over 1 mm removed from each side of the bogie. I used a (borrowed) GW Models wheel puller - I really must get one of these things - to deal with the wheels and with a little bit of to-ing and fro-ing between wheel puller and back to back gauge all was sorted. The wheel sets were tested through various point work and there appeared to be no problem with flange width or depth. The wheels were dropped back in the bogies, the decoder installed, body replaced and the loco placed back on the track and I sat back to bask in the glory of the class 22 as it growled around a china clay siding on the club's new (so new its still being built) EM layout. Only it didn't quite work out like that.... Instead of growling to life the loco stayed silent and the short protection gubbins on the NCE system kicked in. The loco was removed, heads were scratched; wires were checked, all possible metal to metal surfaces that might be causing a short were examined and covered in insulating tape - and still it wouldn't work and kept shorting out. Head scratching was upgraded to bad language and other dcc users consulted with, shoulders were cried on and electrical gods pleaded with over a period of days. The problem was traced first to an short on the wheel sets, which resulted in them all being carefully checked for any signs of flaws, back to backs re-set, reassembled and for a brief glorious nano-second the loco crawled into life - and then shorted out again. The wheels were again removed and checked and this time it seemed that only one axle was shorting out. The axles are a split axle design and I wondered if the insulation between the stub axles was at fault. The stub axles were pulled out, reset in their respective wheels and then put back in the plastic insulation tube and the back to back reset: no short. The axles were put back in the loco: no short. The body was replaced: no short. The loud celebrations caused the domestic authorities to query what was going on in the loft. What caused the problem? I can't be sure, however, I think that the wheel puller not only pulled the wheels, but also pushed a stub axle in, closing up the insulation gap - hence the short. With the short fixed it was on to detailing, weathering and of course fitting the AJ couplings. Fortunately, renumbering wasn't needed as I found a picture of 6318 and Foxhound coming off the Newquay branch with a clay working.

Those happy few, that band of brothers (and sisters) who have seen Empire Mills in action will not have seen the projects' most shy and retiring inhabitant, the class 52 western hydraulic no 1067, Western Druid. The reason for this was simple; the line contoller (aka Gareth) had regretfully withdrawn it from the 1st XV (well 1st IV) due to antisocial tendencies: to whit pulling wagons off the rails on corners. 1067's history has been, it has to be admitted, rather problematic. One of messers Heljan's creations, it seemed that it would be a straightforward conversion to EM gauge, thanks to Ultrascale drop in wheel sets. After the obligatory wait of several months for the wheel sets to arrive, it was a work of minutes to lift out the old sets, drop in the new ones and adjust the pickups - simples. It was then on to the dcc sound chip. This involed cutting a large hole in the plastic moulding that is fitted beneath diecast chassis for the speaker. Again not a problem, but feeding the speaker wiring through the diecast frame required taking the motor out. When the motor went back it the sound worked fine but the loco didn't. Instead, it moved in arthritic jerks and couldn't pull anything. Much head scratching then followed until eventually it was discovered that the motor has a right way and a wrong way round. With the motor turned round it ran well and sounded lovely. Then the next heartache was over the extra details Heljan included. For reasons that defy all understanding and comprehension it seems the Heljan have perfected a plastic that is impervious to solvents and cannot be gripped by superglue or impact adhesives which made fitting of the little plastic pipes difficult, a task made much harder by the fact that the holes in which they were supposed to fit being too small or the wrong shape... After much swearing white metal ones were substituted. Then came the brake gear saga. Hejan have produced some beautiful brake gear mouldings, unfortunately from the same glue repelling material as the buffer beam detail, and with the same attention to getting a reasonably easy push fit. After much more swearing and copious refitting of brake parts that had catapulted themselves out of their fitting points such was the pressure exerted on them once pushed into the location sockets, the brake gear was finally in place only for it to be proven beyond doubt that the brake gear prevented the bogies form turning AT ALL. Now Empire Mills is reasonably curve free, or at least has very gentle curves but even these defeated the Western, and as for trying to persuade it to get round the curves in Hope under Dinmore without chucking itself into the cess.... So the brake gear was removed with some force and cast unto the darkness. So what next? Well I'm toying with trying the Brassmasters bits to see if brake gear and corners can be made compatible and the AJ coupling will be moved from the buffer beam to the bogies via a slot in the buffer beam which should allow the bogies to swing and the coupling to cause less chaos with the rest of the rolling stock. I'll keep you posted!

It looks great! Hats off to you and Alan at Wordsley Works. I'll definitely have to order one. Do you have details of the floor plan? Duncan

I'd be very interested in sides for the 1913 buffet/tea car conversion! Duncan

Hi Andy, thanks for the tip. I'll try to track them down and report back. I may even be able to post scans if we're lucky! D

Dear Coline33, Yes the ex-cmr iron bodied wagons are the very thing I'm interested in. D

Regarding moving the track from the work boards to the layout proper, no real problems and yes it was an Iain Rice technique. His book, 'An aporoach to finescale track construction' was of great help. Of course there are lots of ways to get the same result, but Iain's method worked for us.

At Ally Pally, Empire Mills operated with its china clay works option (to be fair, it’s the only option we have at the moment), using BR WR diesel hydraulics (a class 22, class 35, class 42 and class 52) and a solitary class 25 diesel-electric. I’m told (I wasn’t there – arrival of first born got in the way) that we didn’t disgrace ourselves. But for the next few week – if not months, there is a lot of work to do. First we (I) need to persuade the Class 52 western to go round corners while coupled to anything. We have a niggling problem with one of the points to sort out. The large china clay dry needs finishing, the layout detailing added, scenery finished and then the whole lot covered in snow. The CME also has been directed to pay more attention to the setting up of Alex Jackson couplings as my bleat of ‘they worked fine on Hope under Dinmore’ apparently was not helpful and provoked a certain amount of incredulity by those in the group who did get to play trains at Ally Pally... Finally, although we ran as DCC, we need to re-wire the layout so that it can be used for both DCC and DC stock. So not a lot to do then. I’m sure Gareth and I will keep the posts coming...

Empire Mills - the final name for the layout 'collective' that is the MRC's EMpire project, has just finished its first outing as something rather more than the bare boards state it was seen at Ally Pally in 2013. For the 2014 Ally Pally bonanza we had scenery and buildings! Yes, I admit, it isn’t finished, but you should have seen the layout at Christmas – it’s come on in leaps and bounds (more in a later post). Empire Mills is a shunting layout; it is the end of a freight only branch line, presumably a short distance from a main line. To encompass a range of modelling interests it will have a number of different options. The current plan (which of course is a basis for change) is A china clay works (the current option under development) A coal mine, maybe in Somerset, or the North East, or the Midlands An exchange siding with a narrow gauge line An exchange siding with a War Department depot They way we will ring all these changes of industry and even location is to use lift out sections that plug into the main run-around loop and siding. The ‘industry’ is reached by a kick back siding that leads onto the lift out sections, and as long as you meet the geometry of the track at the join to the lift out section, what you do is up to you. Also, to make things a bit different, the layout will be set after a fall of snow – it will also help reduce the number of geographically identifiable features on the permanent part of the layout – at least that is the plan. Incidentally, if you live in or around London, are an EM modeller, or want to give it a try, or are a 4mm narrow gauge modeller and fancy taking on the narrow gauge bit of one of the options, come along to the MRC's HQ at Keen House, Calshot Street (it’s about 10 minutes from King’s Cross station) any Thursday evening between 7.30pm and 9pm and say ‘Hello’.