Caley Jim

They and '&' are my pet hates neither of which I ever seem to be able to get right. Another good reason not to model the G&SWR!

I still say it looks b****y good! I agree with what you say about signwriters I had a patient whose family business was painting and signwriting lorries. This in the days before vinyl transfers etc. He told me of the time his dad was lettering a road tanker for a firm which had a double 'S' in its name. Once he had finished one side the son had to point out to him that he had spelled it with a triple 'S'!! Jim

I see nothing to be ashamed of there, Mike. In my experience weathering, like painting, can mask a multitude of sins! Jim

Highland Games were and are held in many locations, not just Oban, the most famous, through their Royal patronage, being at Braemar. There are many other reasons why they could be going there, grouse shooting, fishing etc. and don't forget that Oban was, and still is, a major ferry terminal for the Islands, especially Mull and on occasion Islay. Jim

Getting better all the time, Mike! Jim

I have a friend who was the Medical Director of two of the big hospitals in Melbourne. Several of the consultants were also Glasgow graduates and of they were all having a coffee together in the morning none of the Aussies could understand a word they were saying! Jim

We are talking NBR here!! Jim (ducking for incoming)

The rods are part of the alarm gear. When the communication cord is pulled the transverse rod rotates so that the flat 'paddles' on the ends are vertical so indicating in which coach the cord was pulled. At the same time a crank in the little box opens a valve in the brake pipe, via the vertical rod, to apply the brakes. The two fitments on either side of the corridor connection are the jumper cables for connecting the coaches electrically. HTH Jim

Thanks for the responses. I knew Tim had recommended something, but I couldn't find where it was. Having looked at that, I don't think I'll ever need a litre, so I'll order up the aluminium one from Eileens. I've never used such products before, but thought I would try it to blacken the edges of parts of my 0-6-0ST. Jim

Which of these is best on n/s? and is the Birchwood Casey super black matt pen worth getting? https://eileensemporium.com/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=product&task=show&cid=282&name=birchwood-casey-super-black-matt-pen&Itemid=189 . Jim

RH injector and pipework made up and sitting inplace The tale to this one is that I had the injector half made, spigot created and four holes drilled, and was in the process of cutting it off the brass stock when it suddenly parted and flew off into the hands of the carpet monster. A quick search failed to find it, so I set about another one. When I had finished filing it up and was walking out my study last night something glinted on the carpet at the door..... You've guessed it, the missing injector blank!! Ah well, if I ever decide to build another saddle tank I've got the beginnings of a RH injector for it! (CR side tank and tender locos had the injectors either on top of the boiler or under the footplate.) Jim

Is that not just the light reflecting off the side and top of the end door? The tops of the ends of the adjacent wagons look the same to my eye. The photograph appears to have a very high contrast. Jim

Spot-on as always!! Jim

I have a suggestion as to what to do with that photograph which would involve a wall and darts, but I don't want to fall foul of the moderators, so I'll restrain myself! Jim

After a somewhat frustrating time I have managed to make up a representation of the LH injector and ts associated piping. The injector itself is filed up from some 1mm thick brass with a spigot at the back which fits into a hole in the side of the firebox. Shallow holes were drilled with a No.80 drill where each of the pipes are attached. The frustrating bit was getting all the lengths of copper wire 'pipe' attached to it without getting too much solder on everything as the whole assembly will be left as bright metal. After several unsuccessful attempts I ended up setting the injector upside down on my soldering mat with lengths of wire, longer than required and with their ends well tinned, sitting in the holes and held in place with blue tack at the ends furthest from the injector. I then held the injector spigot in tweezers and applied the soldering iron to the back of the injector. This way most of the solder is on the back. The wires were then cut back to length. The clack valve was turned in the minidrill from a scrap piece of 12BA bolt, first making a small hole in the end for the wire. Once turned to size I then drill a hole in one side to fit over a spigot on the boiler side. I managed to inadvertently drill right through, in the process breaking my one and only No.80 drill!! Once the assembly had been test fitted and the pipe to the clack valve adjusted so that the latter sat vertically, a small length of fine wire to represent the support was wrapped around the pipe and passed through a fine hole in the centre splasher before being fixed to the wire. It will be glued in place after painting. BTW, the cosmetic frames have been removed to avoid damage to them when handling the loco. I wonder how many attempts it will now take me to make the RH one? Jim

You certainly haven't ruined it - far from it! 'Black' ironwork always looks better as a very dark grey. Jim

CR 1 and 29 classes had a similar arrangement for working through the Glasgow Central low level lines. The drivers didn't like condensing, though, since condensing the steam heated up the water in the tanks and injectors didn't work so well with hot water. Jim

All I can say is 'that looks b****y good' !!! Jim

Half the population of peers ARE tubes! Jim

I'm just about to start filling the smokebox and tank with lead. Jim

Most of the bodywork is now at the stage where it's ready to be painted and I don't plan to do that before I have the loco in running order, so I'm now turning my attention to making the bits to be fitted after painting. Yesterday I made up the backhead. The backhead itself is two pieces of 30thou black styrene laminate together and then cut and filed to shape, the firehole door and shelf above it being from 5 and 10thou styrene respectively, then painted black. The various pipes and fittings are cobbled up from copper wire, with the regulator handle cut from scrap etch. It's all no more than 'representational' since the only good view you'll get of it will be from over the top of the bunker. It is just sitting in place here. The pressure gauge sits above the backhead, so it and its associated piping will also be made and fitted later, though again, it will only be seen when viewed almost horizontally from above the bunker. I note in the last photo that one of the cabside lamp irons has gone awol, so that will have to be replaced. Jim

Actually, she's in New Zealand. A similar mistake to calling up here 'English'! Jim

Now done and posted here . Jim

The smokebox door hand wheel on this loco is slightly different to that on Tim's 'Valour' in that it has four distinct spokes as opposed to four holes, so a different approach was required. I started by turning down the head of a pin in my minidrill, firstly reducing it's diameter to 1.5mm and then flattening off the top of the head, but leaving a tiny dimple in the centre. The head was then thinned down from the back and the top part of the pin itself reduced to about 0.4mm diameter. In case anyone thinks this was straightforward, the one photographed is the fourth attempt! The other three either broke off at the pin head or I made the shaft too thin and it snapped. BTW, I forgot to include a bit of white paper in the original (un-cropped) photos, so these are not colour corrected. Next step was to hold the pin in a pin vice and use the four slots between the jaws to guide filing triangular areas out of the head to leave it with the four spokes. Some .25mm fuse wire was then wrapped several times round a No.54 (1.4mm) drill and a ring cut from the resultant spiral to form the rim of the wheel. Getting this soldered in place on the tips of the spokes was more a matter of luck than skill!! The locking handle was formed from fine copper wire, wrapping it round the shaft of the pin and then twisting the ends tightly together before flooding it with solder, with it tight up against the back of the wheel, and cutting it to length. It was then 'turned'down' by closing my smallest pin vice down until I could just rotate it around the lever without any resistance, then closing the jaws a tiny fraction (less than ¼ turn), running it down again and repeating this until any suggestion of the spiralling had been removed. I've used this technique many times before to 'round off' something which started off square or to smooth off something which can't be readily put in a drill, e.g. the spigots of the cast brass wagon buffers. Finally, the wheel in situ on the smokebox. It is just sitting there in the photo as it won't be glued in until after painting, it being bright metal. Jim

I would guess that they were printed in either a resin or wax which leaves no residue when it burns and these were then used to make brass castings by the usual lost resin/wax process. Jim