Caley Jim

The prototype seems to have 2 Salter safety valves on the dome, while the virtual model only seems to have one? Jim

Th E&G opened in 1842. Jim

They did better than third class on the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway! They didn't even get roofs! In fact that looks rather similar to an E&G second. First Class - roof, glazing, upholstered seats. Second Class - roofs, no glass, bench seats. Third class - Seats, no roofs. Fourth Class - (you've guessed it!) No seats! Jim

A good coating of neat PVA will seal the card. Jim

Progress report on the Brake 3rds. Four bogies built and as mentioned above four ends assembled (apart from handrails) and four side with the turn-under created. The floor sections are also bent up ready to receive the solebars and stepboards. A merry Christmas to you all.

The bogies were given a spray of black from a rattle can, then a thin coat of 'almost black' (matt black with a touch of grey in it). I also spent a couple of evenings painting 18 sets of wheels (for this and the two brake thirds), so, with the bogies fitted back on and the footboards painted this one's done! While waiting on the etches coming I had made up the ends for the brake thirds, formed the turn-under on the sides and fettled the buffers. batch building of the bogies is now underway. Jim

I've always used a suitable diameter of tube. I now draw out a development of the boiler with the various holes required, firebox opening etc, print that out and cyano it round the tube as a template for cutting a drilling. Jim

It's not the rail dimensions which are critical, but the wheel profile, back-to-back dimensions and check and wing rail clearances which are important. These things have to integrate with one another as is the case with the 2MMSA track standards. There was discussion on here recently as to whether 2MMSA wheels could be made to run through N-gauge turnouts, or vice versa, the answer being 'no'. Jim

The Engineer was a magazine published from some time in the 1800'S. The Mitchel Library in Glasgow has a full set of them and they are a mine of drawings such as that. The CME's of the day regularly submitted such drawings with accompanying articles. I once spent the odd afternoon in there and photocopied several drawings from both it and The Railway Engineer. Jim

I generally use 10 thou n/s with Association p/b bearings. Unless your locos are going to be doing CF type milages, that will be perfectly OK. Jim

Sunny off and on here, but still b****y cold! Jim

As one who has been waiting for an op since the summer, I will second that motion. Jim

The sheet of etches from PPD arrived this morning (delayed two days through the postal strike!). That has allowed me to add the secondary suspension parts to the bogies which I forgot to put on the trial etch. These can now get a good clean and will then get painted. Jim

I Hope this photo of one of mine (on interlaced sleepers, a mixture of PCB and Easitrac) might help. The red 'circles' are the gaps. Crossings A and B are always the same polarity which is set by the TOU at 1, the inputs to the switch being from the outer stock rails. The polarity of C is set by the TOU at 2, which switches it between crossings A and B and the lower stock rail, i.e. one input to the switch from the crossings and one from the lower stock rail. HTH, Jim

If you ever have to write a letter to your daughters, you'll have to use a DL envelope to get all their qualifications on! One of the benefits of email! One of my former employees has a daughter who got a PhD in Psychology and then went on to gain a doctorate. I asked if that meant I had now to address her as Dr Dr. Jim

Unless you count the rivets, you won't know how many to put on! 😁 Jim

Just back from going to Braehead, on the West Side of Glasgow. - 9 when I left here at 15:30, c-1 or -2 going through Glasgow on the motorway, -3 when I left there and -13 when I got home! Jim

When we had the very cold spell about ten or twelve years ago there were a lot of problems with the telephone lines in the Lanark area and they had brought some engineers up from London to help. One came in to us one day complaining that his van was showing -6° outside. I told him that was nothing, try the -15° my car had registered in the middle of the day a week or two earlier! Jim

T-shirt and shorts weather here at the moment! 😄 Jim

Running a 1.5mm drill through by hand (drill in one pin vice, muff in another) doesn't open the holes out too much, but makes inserting the axle easier and once you put the gear on the driven axle I find that tightens the grip on the axle.. I actually only use Association muffs on the driven wheels, using some 2.5mm od. styrene tubing (evergreen I think) for the others. Once you get everything running smoothly I've found cyano is OK. That's one of the reasons I file a slight chamfered flat on the end of the stub axle, to give a wee bit of a key. I would agree with Tim that slightly countersinking the opening of the muffs helps in inserting the axle. Jim

Huh! That's just a dust. This was our back yesterday morning and we had another inch overnight. I passed on going to the F&CAG meeting in Livingston as our street wasn't too clever and I didn't fancy the A70 'Lang Whang' which is pretty exposed and remote in parts. Jim

In the December/2006 issue of the Magazine I had an article entitled 'Coupled Chassis Mechanics' in which I discussed how quartering works and described how I achieve this without any jigs or tools. My method has worked successfully on 10 chassis so far, (the 11th is a 2-2-2WT). If you don't have the Magazine back number archive (why not I ask!) I can PM you the article. Jim

I've done it using Sellotape, with each strip generously overlapping the last. Jim

That brake block looks a h**l of a long way from the wheel! The lever is going to be right down at the bottom of the guide before it makes any contact with wheel at all! Jim

The CR had roofed lime wagons, Dia 25. They were basically Dia 22 dumb buffered mineral wagons with fixed 'gable' ends and peaked roofs. They were designed for carrying quicklime in sacks and the specification demanded that they be 'perfectly watertight'. Jim