doilum

AH#3 may be a one off but there are clearly nine plates in the construction. I know it returned to Pecketts during the war for a rebuild and guess that steel shortages led to the re use of part of the original tank or, sheets of sufficient size were temporarily unavailable and there was pressure for a quick turn round from the owners. Whatever the reason, it worked as this is the tank shown in the late photographs used by the preservation group.

In that case, very impressive use of the iron!

Working in 7mm I set out a couple of years ago to build Ackton Hall #3. I could not get the rivet pattern right either and, thanks to the amazing generosity of Trevor at Mercian and a bit of scratch building I ended up with three X2s plus a " grounded" saddle tank amongst the clutter of Frydale yard. In the end the Ackton Hall tank was made prototypically form plates of shim brass over an undersized former. I have not been able to ascertain how AH#3 got that particular tank. Good luck with the project.

Excellent work. Standard iron or RSU?

Back in 1975 we got into LOTS of trouble for depicting Mickey in bovver boots on our rag week t shirt.

I may have told the story before, but I bought a Flintstone edition of the Fiat 126 as a £50 donor for an off road buggy project. From the outside it was immaculate and my good lady fell instantly in love. With the gas bottles filled and steel procured, my brother in law and I hàd it MOT ready in three evenings. After a year of good service it sold for £450 to make way for an MGB GT, but that is another story!

Yep. My E plater was still totally rust free at 11 years when we finally traded it. However, at 7 years, the original battery died and was replaced by top of the range Bosch. Six months later front seat passenger complains that the footwell is full of water! Fortunately the local panel shop did a repair panel complete with battery tray. The whole dash, seats and carpet had to come out as these were the days before DIY mig welders and the gas axe was the weapon of choice. Turned out that the FoMoCo battery had a pair of natty covers that stopped the rain water coming into contact with the terminals. Later models came with a plastic tray that covered the whole battery top and I found one in the local breakers.

Not sure why but XR3s seemed to last a little longer than the lesser models. Possibly because they were prized and polished or maybe because they were built in Belgium.

It isn't one of the last ones that is precious, find a mint early example before they made it increasingly softer and easier to live with. ( I had examples of both back in the day!)

Invertrain have a wide range of resin windows. I have used them several times on my own and club layout buildings. If you don't see exactly what you need have a word with Chris. It may be possible to get a custom window at reasonable cost.

They make a great factory roof

Scratch building: definitely in the chassis fit the rods camp!

Use the etch rods and a bit of scrap etch to make a datum rod. This gives you something to go back to if problems arise later. It is my starting point when scratch building.

Is there room for a strip of Velcro behind them?

Working in 7mm I have built kits with the second option but these tend to be a triple laminate. I might have concerns over the support for the joint with just two. When scratch building it is usually option one as it allows me to get away with just a double lamination or, better still, file the rods from a single piece of solid bar.

And I should have added: once complete and clean, apply a coat of etch primer!

You'll have to join the poor people in Pontefract!

Prefer to clean individual components with a fibreglass brush immediately before soldering. Large parts can be cleaned with 2000 grade w/d paper used wet with a little washing up liquid.

Don't forget to drill the holes for the chairs to match the local pattern. Sometimes the ends of the sleeper would be trimmed off at an angle to prevent water accumulating and soaking into the end grain. Being heavy items set by eye they were not quite perfectly level, though not far away.

Probably taking about half that by road at present

Outside my knowledge zone, but last night's Top Gear had background shots of disused railway stock on Salisbury Plain. No doubt someone will be able to identify the various items.

Just a personal recollection. Circa 1970, I remember rugby cup tie specials using corridor stock. Grubby with torn / worn out seating, they were probably only used for this particular Saturday traffic.

Those are the ones I had in mind. Install lighting to the mill in series to drop the voltage to the motor?

Cigarette paper?

Agreed. Rubber O rings might be a source of useful belts. As a belt connected motor does not have to be as perfectly aligned as one driving fine gears it might be possible to mount the motor in a rubber sleeve. Taking the fine gear option, look at the work of Giles on his radio controlled lorries, cars and cranes. These tiny units come from China at a ridiculously low cost and are extremely smooth running.