Adam

Having examined mine, all the bits are present and correct. I can't say what the running is like as I haven't access to any powered track in any gauge. As a mechanical observation, there is more play in it that any RTR model I've seen. OK so it has a very long wheelbase and will need a bit to get round corners, but what is there seems excessive, although I can't tell until we run it. This isn't much of a problem for me as mine will be regauged to EM (which the wheels look good for without alteration and pulling out on their axles) and the amount of said play drastically reduced. Aesthetically, I'm very impressed. Who's got some spare number transfers? Adam

Re the Coles Crane Pix - do you mean one of these: http://www.oilyhands.co.uk/Archive2.htm (scroll down a bit) Or the older type more familiar from the Airfix Recovery set? Nonneminstre models do a rail mounted versiion of the later one, I don't suppose it would be too much of a stretch to put it on road wheels, assuming you can live with the whitemetal jib? If not, a fabrication from brass angle probably isn't so hard. The basic cranes went on a whole host of chassis, and at least some of the thorneycrofts were around into the late '60s; I've a photo from an old Railway Modeller showing the erection of a roof at Pendon using just this bit of kit. There aren't many kits for this sort of vehicle readily available in model form, and especially not as manufactured in the 60s. Chaseside loaders (usually based on tractors) seem to have been fairly common. Langley produce a couple of kits which aren't too bad for these. The '60s version (which apparently ended up being taken over by JCB) looked very different however. There's a timber merchants/sawmill not far from Yeovil which still uses something not unlike this. Langley also do the mobile Ransome and Rapier crane, but my feeling is that this would be a bit early for your period, and the yard at Roath a bit small to accomodate one... http://www.langleymodels.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_OO_Cranes__Heavy_plant___Road_Machinery___RW1_RW21_29.html What sort of traffic is the crane intended for in any case? Bernard Taylor does a nice etched grill for the EFE TK btw.

Around Bridport I think the trackbed has mostly been obliterated (part is the formation of a road though I can't remember the precise details). Between there and Maiden Newton, however, I would think that it's mostly intact, but not generally accessible, not that I've actually been to look. For completeness, West Bay station is still there and the building from Toller serves as part of the Totnes terminus of the South Devon Railway. http://www.southdevonrailway.org/London_Group.html Adam

Nope, not Toller, but Bridport itself. Not remotely interested in the cars, but the state of the infrastructure (very much 'steam era', but with a lot less track - and paint) is what I associate with BR in the '70s - not that I was there, too young, too young - and the reason I'm glad I wasn't! They're nice photos, but aren't they rather low-res' scans? Adam

These from the 80s: http://dennistaylor.fotopic.net/c1768520.html Adam

Thanks, yellow is an absolute swine of a colour to weather over as it shows exactly what you managed to miss... I took the easy(!) way out and masked it. Each manufacturer of industrial diesels had their own pattern of stripes and this effort is based on Rolls Royce/Sentinel's factory finish. The transfers are generally meant for BR liveried 08s. It's taken from this image as it happens (but in the condition the loco would have been delivered in rather than as it was in 1993 since I model the '60s period): http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/grp/image.asp?Colour05/Bromford_14_4_93.jpg More here: http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/raildiary/sentinels/index.htm http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/raildiary/nwind/index.htm My opinion (and it's only that) is that the lights aren't worth the effort since you can't see 'em/they weren't used in daylight, though the flashing beaon probably is. I'm pleased with the running. It's EM, has simple three point compensation with Sharman wheels and a High Level 108:1 gearbox in it and is pretty smooth and appropriately slow, in accordance with a real machine which has a 21mph top speed. Adam

So are you going for the six-coupled or 4w (or four-coupled for that matter?)? The link to the '68 publication is interesting, though, having built one already, nothing I didn't already know! The cab doors on the real thing slide btw and perhaps surprisingly, the cab is very small and you can't see as much of the interior as you might think. Nice prototype and a good kit, even if you do the most common, 4w variant on a Black Beetle you'll learn a lot. If you want any advice on this one, please ask. Adam

Note: 'extremely effective' does not always equate to '100% reliable'! Did you find this one? http://markf6750.fotopic.net/p40339752.html Search term 'zsb'. Adam

Not exactly, the search facility doesn't always work, but when it does, I find is extremely effectve at picking out the information that the user supplies with the photo. This is the failure of the system; spelling, mis-reads, etc. can all give strange results. Flickr has it slightly better with tags and so on, but this is even more reliant on the user being on the same wavelength as the searcher... See the debate over this site's gallery for the reasoning. Adam

The usual source (Paul Bartlett's wagons site) yields hundreds of photos of these types. http://www.gallery6801.fotopic.net/c163789.html http://gallery6801.fotopic.net/c163031.html They were all 10' wb fitted 5 plank wooden bodied 'Highs' - for clayliner use, most were fitted with roller bearings which is an essential mod' to otherwise fairly standard vehicles (mostly with Morton brakegear) - Parkside can provide the BR pattern with corrugated ends and an LNER five plank. Ratio a GW five and a half plank (but that will need a thorough rebuild to get that version). There's a start, anyway, I'm sure others will know more! Adam

I'd looked at that, but the stuff we have in stock is too thin. It needs to form but not give, if you see what I mean. The military modellers tend to use lead foil, but I doubt either Modelzone in Southampton or the aeromodel shop do it. This is surprisingly readily available in bulk - you can get it by the roll from 0.15mm upwards - it's used as shielding in labs, but you'd have to model every clayhood in Cornwall to make that wholly cost effective! Adam

Looks like nice neat work Andy. I've done a few of these stripy finishes now and have always used a variation on this approach, as each manufacturer of industrial locos had their own way of doing it, and being particular, I like to at least try to get it right! The variation is to get the registration correct - I use more strips of the correct width to register the neighbouring stripes and then, once happy, remove it. Trying to do it by eye is a pig of a job... Adam

Thanks! Still not certain on how to do the hood. Since these had some of the early plastic coated jobs rather than old fashioned tarp's tissue isn't going to cut it (had a go anyway last night, but not happy), so some sort of foil would seem to be the answer. Now, where to get it... Adam

Leaving aside what I think of that conversion, you'd have difficulty sorting the buffer beams out without altering to entire footplate, cab, pipe-runs, etc. - the buffers being at the bottom of the beam... Adam

The Austin tractor unit is from this collection (so someone else's copyright): http://timchapman.fotopic.net/c1725717.html Adam

Leaping ahead with the Shochood, all the detailing, both of the body and chassis is now complete, though as the first photo shows, I've kept the detail to where you can see it. Planning ahead is important here, as is keeping the reference books open on the right page. My copy of Bartlett et al now seems to fall open at about thihis point! The perils of not paying attention will create more work later. This is why the second MDV I built has a replacement plastic end; I assembled the body the wrong way round and only noticed when I'd completed it. Oops. The sheet rails which the hood will go over have been modelled as a seperate, though permanently fixed sub asselby. This effectively makes the wagon body a box with a fancy lid on top. The relative position of the rails is retained by a triangle of 40 thou' which should help keep everything solid. Note that the sheet rails are handed (and of 0.9mm wire - the real things seem quite chunky). Here are (some of) the bits: And here is the completed assembly. The rails rest in slots and are supported with more plastic from below. They were first tacked in position with cyano' and then properly anchored with epoxy. Now to work out what material to use for the hood... Adam Edit - Third picture added.

Both of those look really good and the layering isn't so pronounced on the Ravenscraig vehicle as might have been supposed, though as you suggest, I doubt that the rivets will survive the rub-down. I was imprssed by the progress on the Brush-Bagnall BO-BO as well, very encouraging. Adam

No, it isn't, more's the pity. There are two preserved (consecutively numbered no less), 68077 and 68078, both built by Barclay and both preserved in the south east of England... Adam

A small correction Mike. With one other similar machine, they were actually built for the Steel Company of Wales (at the same time as diesel electrics by the same builder for the purposes of comparison), before being sold to Austin/BMC (the third went to the NCB in south Wales and was later scrapped). Adam

A slightly longer term project that has made some progress in the last week is a partially (well, mostly) scratchbuilt Shochood B. These seem mainly to have been used in conjunction with steel products (they were all initially branded 'Empty to' for Port Talbot or Newport (Mon) from new), and later many found their way into engineers service under the codename 'Dace'. It's a wagon type I've always rather liked, and since Bartlett et al contains the drawings... Some time ago, when I was building a couple of Parkside 21T hoppers - one on a Bradwell etched chassis - I found myself with a suitable underframe which has been just that for about 18 months. In hindsight, the Parkside underframe for their fitted Grampus would be a better starting point, but there you go, they'll probably produce their own now... Most of the brake gubbins fitted (barring shoes and linkages since these are too easily damaged) along with couplings, buffers and so on, but only at the weekend did I start on the body. 40 thou' sides and floor allied to Parkside ends: the rest of the Parkside open will be converted to an SR pattern Shock with wooden ends at some later date. To this was added 15 thou' overlays with all the many rivets embossed by hand. I haven't bothered with the detail at the top of the sides since this will be hidden by the hood (which was a semi-permanent fixture on these wagons). This is just as well since the interiors of the prototype wre unusual as shown here, or here. I'll leave all that to those who want to model one after the engineers got their hands on 'em! More, once progress is made. Adam

It was the layers I was thinking of, some of the earlier versions look like some of the brutalist buildings you somethimes see with the witness marks of the rough timber shuttering used during the pour. This looks a lot better, as far as I can tell. Adam

Are you going to splay the sides like the example in the link? I can't imagine that the wagons would have stayed so neat and tidy for long. I'd be interested to see what the prototyped ravenscraig wagon looks like under a spray of primer. Any form of resin (or plastic) is a swine to photgraph in its 'natural' state. Adam

Hi Alastair I had remembered the plastic parts (even made a nice brass template for them in fact), but wanted to finish waving the soldering iron around before I started with those. I don't know if you've seen this picture from Kier hardy's site (models by Hywel Thomas)? I can't seem to link to the page directly, but you want 'Projects' and 'Morfa Bank Sidings Wagon Gallery'. http://www.emgauge70s.co.uk/modelpageindex.html The texture is an interesting question. I was thinking along the lines of talc mixed in with the paint and perhaps some other effects which the military modellers use. Watch this space... Adam

Now comes the really fiddly/interesting bit. The working parts of these ladles are very simple. The chain used to tip the ladle runs through three pulleys. One at each end of the wagon and another mounted on one side of the ladle itself The pulleys themselves are rather nice turnings mounted on castings which need a little bit of preperation (and some care as holes need drilling - a bit of 80 thou' plastic between worked for me. The pulley attached to the ladle was fixed to a swinging link, here fixed to the label using a 16BA bolt with the head removed and nuts fixed on each end. The prototype ladles were in two halves, bolted together, to enable stubborn loads to be removed without unnecessary damage. The other pulleys were fixed to the carriage with the chains passing through holes in the buffer beams with loops on the end attaching to one of the pair of hooks fitted there for that purpose (there will be a plate over the top here, but this will be fixed later). Note the heavyweight construction of the (dumb) buffers and gussets. Adam

First, an update with progress on the ladles. The wheels as supplied are not quite to the correct pattern (this is detailed in the instructions). Who knows, some one, somewhere might want to do something similar so how I did it is shown, and described in full, below. The wheel as supplied is originally meant for 4mm scale narrow gauge, has a recessed face and six holes. We need a flush face and 8 holes. I used Miliput to do the bulk of the job. Once this was fully hard, I levelled off the face of the wheel using Squadron green putty - used because it sets quickly, and importantly, it's a different colour - before sanding flush using various grades of wet and dry. Next, in order to ensure that the holes were drilled accurately and consistently, I made up a jig from plasticard. The holes are on a circle of 15" diameter (5mm) so using a pair of dividers, I marked out a circle, and the eight positions using a steel rule and a set square, though you could do it by eye. The centre was drilled to 1.5mm diameter to match the axle and the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock positions to 0.7mm, the required diameter with the remainder to 0.5mm (to save wear on the jig and possible inaccuracy). Mounting each wheel independently on an axle and the vertically in a small vice, the jig was placed on the end of the axle and the 0.7mm holes drilled. The jig was in turn anchored in place by short 'pins' of 0.7mm wire prior to drilling the smaller holes. Fiddly, but well worth it I think. The jig and completed wheels are shown below: Finally, a photgraphic selection of the bright yellow machines that will go with the pair of ladles. The Sentinel has been featured before (see also my RMweb mk III workbench thread ) but here is dad's Judith Edge YEC 0-4-0 DE (these photos and more can be seen on Mike and Judith's display screen on their exhibition stand [with permission]). More shortly Adam