Caley Jim

Thanks, Angus. The screw holding the motor is purely to stop any chance of it rotating as it's a pretty tight fit, though it could be moved fore and aft by about ½mm. Any adjustment of the worm/wormwheel meshing could be done with packing under the rear part of the mount, but this didn't prove necessary. One of the benefits of drawing up everything carefully in CAD first. Jim

Sorry, folks. I had a glitch while typing the post and did a copy and paste into a new post and forgot to re-inset the photos, so only the links to them on my computer appeared. Fixed now. Jim

This is turning into a very eggciting project! Jim (windae picked)

Progress has been slow over the past week due to other things getting in the way and also encountering a few issues along the way, mainly down to the tight clearances in places meaning that several small pieces of tissue paper and 10thou styrene have had to be glued in place to prevent shorting along with a bit of judicious filing here and there. The motor mount has been cut from 9mm tubing and the etched fittings added along with mounting the worm on the motor. From top to bottom, the frames (with a temporary front axle in place to stop the front beams from dropping down and getting bent accidentally), the motor mount and the motor with leads attached. The mount is fixed to the frames by the 12BA screw which threads into the hole immediately behind the worm wheel. This rear etched part also incorporates the sides of the firebox, as can be seen in the photo below. The lug which can just be seen projecting from the front end hooks under the front spacer. The motor is a tight fit in the mount and is secured at the front by a very short 14BA screw, being held down at the back by the ring of remaining tube. Two little lugs which you can see on the inside of the firebox area in the top photo keep the wires clear of the worm. The decoder and stay-alives (4 x 220µf) will be in the bunker with the connection to them going under the cab floor. The reversing lever had to be fitted to the motor mount as it is slightly inside the widest part of the boiler, so if it was attached to the body, the latter wouldn't fit over the mount. The injector pipe work and clack valves will also be fitted to the mount, but not until after painting as they are polished copper and brass. The motor has been run from a 9v battery and all is well as far as that is concerned. Jim

I wouldn't say that an 812 in the border country is totally implausible as they and Jumbo's got into most parts of Scotland in BR days, though perhaps not so much in NB territory. Jim

Hi Annie. I've posted this in several other places (including having it put on the GNRS forum), but with no success, so you're the only one who's responded! My own feeling is that it is probably not that early because it is fabricated rather than cast iron. My son tells me it's now in the scrap metal skip! Jim

I recently used Pritt to attach a paper template to a piece of ribbing to cut sections out of the latter. (More on that elsewhere later) It was easier than the cyano I had used before and worked just as well. Jim

The old Minitrix wheel cleaner can be rather good at that too! Jim

Yes, Pleased to hear of that. As you say it's better than being unemployed. Jim

And I'm sure Anthony would welcome an article for the magazine which would disseminate it to the wider association membership. Jim

Need any help with that freezer load of meat?

Looks like she'll get up a good turn of speed too! Jim

Ah canna mak heid nor tail o' ony o' them either! Jim

Hi Gary, Fellow 2MM SA member Alisdair Campbell is the HR society drawings archivist. PM me and I'll give him your email address. Jim

Don't forget that the Jacobite uprisings were not simply Scots against English, but Jacobites against Hanovarians. There were English Jacobites and Scots Hanovarians. Many Lairds were canny enough to get one son to join one side and another to join the other irrespective of where their loyalties lay. That way their lands were likely to stay in the family whoever won! Jim

I've now been able to send the photo to Alan Sibley who is going to post it on the GNRS forum. Jim

Some of them tended a small allotment adjacent to the box, or worked on the flower beds on the platform. You could have a few potted plants around, both inside and around the box. Jim

The whole idea is to not only ensure that all wheels are touching the track, but are carrying weight in order to make good electrical contact. You can never guarantee that your track is dead level to within a few thou, or indeed that it will stay that way. Anyone who has tried to run a bare chassis with no weight on it will testify that it will run like a pig, stuttering along. Blue-tac some weight onto it and it will run much better because the wheels are making firmer contact with the rail. An added advantage is that, to a limited extent, you can redistribute the weight depending on where you put the rocker. For example on my 2-2-2WT I put the rocker as near to the driving wheels as I could to get as much weight as possible on them for traction. This turned out to be not such a good idea as there was then not enough weight on the front wheels to keep them on the track! A couple of chunks of lead glued to the inside front of the beams greatly helped this, but then later adding a DCC decoder into the cab roof moved the CoG back and upset things again! One day I will have a rethink and see what solution I can come up with, but it's not a priority at the moment. As Tim says compensation predates Simpson Springs by some time. I first tried it on my 498 class 0-6-0T back in the mid 70's and was so impressed with the improvement in running that I've adopted it ever since. It certainly involves more complication than SS, and though it works for me I wouldn't recommend it for a first build. Jim

Slow progress for a number of reasons, not least that I had difficulty getting the worm gear shaft bearings soldered in place without soldering the rear beams up solid! Eventually I applied some enamel paint to the inner face of the frames and the outer face of the beams and that seemed to do the trick. The beams were first temporarily fitted, with the bearings held in place by a muff jammed between them. With the ends of the wheel bearings in the holes in the frames, the rocker (40thou styrene) was made, fitted and the lugs on the beams adjusted so the the rocker didn't move. The beams were then removed and the half-etched areas around the holes in the frames filed away to allow the bearings some ½mm vertical movement each way. The beams were then fixed in place by soldering the worm wheel shaft bearings to the frames only, as above! You can just see the top of one end of the rocker and the piece of copper wire on which it pivots. I took the chance to try the gear meshing with some temporary shafts in place and all is well in that department. I had to thin down the flanges of the bearings for both the worm wheels shaft and the centre wheels and also reduce the length of the muffs due to the extra thickness of the beams inside the frames. Next up is to make the motor mount which will also form the underside of the boiler. Jim

Or no deal? Jim

This is where they are working. The dive under is to avoid trains to Spalding having to cross the ECML. I've asked fellow CRA member Jim Summers and he knows the area well from his early days with BR, but he has never seen anything like it, but suggests it may mark the boundary of a surfaceman's length or some such.. He has directed me to the GNR society and I've sent them a message, but unfortunately I couldn't see any way to send the photo. Perhaps I will be able to when they reply. Thanks for the suggestions and the insight into the complex history of the area. Jim

It's on the ECML. So I presume GN. My knowledge of that neck of the woods is minimal to say the least! I wondered if it was a 3/4 mile marker, but they were cast with raised letters. Jim

My experience of etched kits is all with 10thou n/s, but I've found that scoring along the bend line several times with a heavy craft knife, being careful not to cut through, results in not only making it easier to form the bend, but also results in a sharper bend. Sorry no postcards or pre-Raff pictures to hand, only a small boy on his tablet beside me. Jim

The story goes of a Spaniard who was on holiday on Skye and became interested in the connections between the languages of the Celtic Fringe. One day he asked an old fisherman on the pier at Portree if there was a word in Gaelic equivalent to the Spanish word mañana, meaning to put something off until tomorrow? The old fisherman thought for a while and then said "No, no, we don't have a word which conveys quite that degree of urgency". Jim

My son is currently working for Morgan Sindal on the contract to make a dive-under on the Stamford lines at 79m 15ch at Werrington/Dukesmead. They have just dug this up while digging a trial hole. Can anyone identify what it is? the plate is painted blue and the post white and there are no cast letters or holes on the plate. Jim