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Yes, please do. It's these little tips that make it possible to extend ourselves and tackle new problems. Best wishes, Graham

I've just found this and am lost in wonder!

Thanks for this, Peter. I have used your Scratchbuilding (the way I do it) to learn loads of new techniques. Those of us without engineering backgrounds haven't learned that a dark colouring on brass etc.,before marking out shows up the scribe marks, or soldering scraps together to make four of a small piece, or (the best yet) cutting straight lines in brass with a stanley knife! Thank you so much for such great advice freely given. Graham

It's been a while since I posted anything. Problems have occurred and been overcome, I think! The most difficult bit so far has been modifying the O2 cylinders/slidebar unit and attaching it to the chassis. So far it's superglued to a horizontal plate which fits in the top of the conrod splashers and is bolted to the front of the main chassis. There isn't room for the bogie to swing at all so I will have to think again. I've used plasticard for the tops of splashers again. I'm not happy with the tender buffers yet. They are rather low even though the tender floor and frames seem right. I made a whole new set of frames to get the correct height but have to leave a bigger space above the Caley Coaches tender axlebox springs than in the prototype. Could they be the wrong type? The tender leans against the rear of the loco to add adhesion and I have packed lead in, even to some snippets within where the coal will be added. The main items still to add are the cylinders above the footplate and the brakes between the drivers. Thanks for all your encouragement, Best wishes, Graham

Hi Hi Steve, Lovely engine and ideal for a silhouette cutter, I would think, My 179 Oban bogie has inside frames and single slidebar pistons but is at that jaunty angle. I am currently struggling with the cylinders and slide bar units on a 125 Dundee bogie (horizontal and partly hidden) and am cheating by using a Hornby Well tank cylinder/slide bar/connecting rod unit from a well known spares supplier. I am also considering changing tack as the throw of the connecting rod on the 6'8" wheel on the125 makes the Hornby slide bars only just long enough and they might pop out in use. Also, they seem to be plastic so may be a bit flimsy when bashed around to make them fit my 125. I've just received a Markits crosshead which could slide beautifully on 1mm square nickel silver slide bars. I think I'll run it a bit and see.

Sorry to miss this for a few days, Steve. You seem to have found a treasure trove of engine kits! My Jumbo tender is new from the footplate down apart from the buffer beam, draw bar and top of steps. I tried to take a slice out of the 123 tender frames but it didn't look right and was quite weak. I thought a Caley Coaches tender frames and the outside frames cut out of 10 thou brass was a better way. I still have to weigh it down a bit. How much do you think a tender needs to weigh to keep it on the rails in front of a train of three or four coaches? Best wishes, Graham

Hi Steve, I used a Caley Coaches tender chassis even though it is 6'6" x 6'6" and I think the Jumbo was 6' x 6'. It needed slight shortening. The outer frames are my own cutting out. I've just had a minor crisis on my Dundee bogie chassis - pictured I took the motor off to redo the electrical connections onto those absolutely minute tabs that stick out the back of a mashima 1024 motor. Well, it seems I tarried ere long and the blighter disappeared inside the casing! I took it down to the Blyth and North Tyne Club and left it for a younger member with better eyesight to open it up and rescue it if he can. I've taken the separate frames over the bogie off it while I work out how to fasten the three quarters of the cylinders that sit below the footplate. I have bought a pair of Hornby Well Tank cylinders, crossheads, slidebars and conn rods from Peter's Spares and am modifying them to fasten to a nickel-silver sub-frame which sits up in the top of the side rod splasher and screws to the front spacer on the frames (extreme right of the picture. The well tank parts are just the right size and much finer than I could make. All will be revealed soon. Best wishes all, Graham

Well it has been a long time. I decided to take a photo of the jumbo at the partly painted stage to show how it is proceeding. I have been focusing on a Dundee bogie after a kindly member of CRASSOC gave me some splasher frets but have been finishing the jumbo in a rather desultory manner in the background. Here it is with some painting glitches to sort out and still a bit of work inside to stop the coupling rods hitting the over-thick white metal body. I have some frets for finer side rods and may use them instead of the Hornby one. The curved member behind the coal bunker on top of the tender broke off and needs adding. Thanks to Steve (Londontram) for the Hornby123 single tender which I have cut down and added a brass chassis as it seems to be on tip-toes leaving the footplate much too high. It still needs front steps. Thanks for looking in, Graham

Lovely work. Could you explain your crafty transfers for the slow on the uptake, please? Graham

Welcome back, Steve! Much missed. Graham

So glad to see you posting on this site again, Steve. Great work. I've just joined CRASSOC and am blown away by the generosity and knowledge of the guys there. Great modelling on the wagons. Happy New Year, Graham

Hi folks, More progress on the Jumbo converted from a BEC 700 class Blackmotor. The motor is attached and I have managed to get the chassis running reasonably smoothly. I decided to go with the pannier tank siderods that I had from the Hornby chassis I had intended to use. The rear ones needed extending and you can still see the gap. Not sure how to fill it. My efforts at fabricating them out of nickel silver were not up to the mark. I have also used screws rather than the Romford crankpins as the holes are too small for the latter. I have fixed them with a little glue inside the wheels. The superstructure now fits on top and does not impeded running.but I had to trim so much metal off the underside that there is a visible gap in the centre splasher where it joins the footplate. Must fill it. I am completely hooked on the process of making locos and then seeing them run. My efforts might be only average but the results give me a real buzz. Thanks for all the feedback and advice on this great website. Happy Christmas to everyone. Graham

Hi folks. Merry Christmas. I have just bought a side view photo of 126, one of the Dundee bogies, from ebay. It has four 7'2" driving wheels. Does anyone know anyone who's built one? It is a lovely looking monster. I think it calls for a tender-mounted motor with one of the new Markits universal joint thingies to drive the rear axle. One might get a mashima in the boiler, though. Best wishes all, Graham

I'm running into a problem on clearances. As you know, the white metal kits has a thick footplate that extends to the bottom of the valence. With Romford wheels and the triang side rods, there are serious clearance issues. I have eaten away at the metal but I am in danger of erupting out of the top! Has anyone a solution other than judicious paring away?

Hi Folks, After a long pause, here's a picture of the 'finished' 179 with my 55 class that still needs its Westinghouse pump replaced. I've tried lining it but it has proved very difficult to get right round the cylinder. Any advice? The lining is HMRS Pressfix. The whole 55 class needs a bit more lining, mostly below the footplate on engine and tender. I have run in the 179 at the local MRC. I almost ran a lap of honour when it motored really well at reasonable speeds both forwards and backwards for over an hour without a hitch. I have been working on a Jumbo converted from a BEC 700 class kit I bought for 4 guineas back in 1970. It was partly converted before I stopped modelling when my tools were stolen from our shipping en route to Zambia in 1972. I tried to fit it on a Hornby pannier tank chassis but it is very narrow. I stripped the frame off the motor and tried strapping it with a brass strip passing tightly over the length of the motor and screwed at each end. It would probably have worked but I decide to build a new chassis. I have a Mashima 1024 motor with a roadhauler plus and a D1 extender driving the rear wheels to bring the motor fully into the smokebox. The photo shows my first attempt at a full set of brakes (NBR tender brakes fret). Steve (Londontram) has kindly supplied surplus 123 tenders so I can shortcut the tender building process. Just working out how to fill the arched holes in the frames to replace them with higher rectangular oval holes. I'm trying some plasticard shapes to fill the holes, backing plasticard to hold and strengthen them, lots of filler and then cut the new holes. Watch this space! Thanks for following, Graham

Thanks. I got a lovely one on a fret from Eileen. It even had four spokes sticking out.

I've found some rolling stock that I built 40-odd years ago in card with airfix chassis. Have you seen the Duchess of Arbroath in Card thread by a Polish gent? It needs a strong stomach and a resolution not to give up and sit in a corner in the dark when looking at one's own offerings! Graham

Richard is right. I am married to a teacher (now retired, thankfully) who did a 70 hour week for 20 years. She looks back and finds it crazy. I found it quite wearing and a bit lonely, to be honest. If you have a 'better half', give them all the time you can or they might wander off!

I will watch this with interest. Graham

Hi Folks, Some progress mainly in painting and lining. I used my usual whitened colours (six brushloads of colour plus one of white) mixed in a palette before application. There are four coats of blue applied with a brush and rubbed down with 1200 gauge wet or dry paper used wet. Thanks for the tip, Bill (66C). Pressfix LNER lining does the job but curves are a bit difficult. The tender brake wheel is still to add, and coal. Anyone any advice to give on a wheel with eight straight spokes and four elongated as in a ship's wheel, all only about 5mm diameter? Buffers will be added after the painting is finished. Next job is lining round the red panels in the buffer beams and adding "C.R 181" around the drawbar. Not sure my eyesight is up to it! Thanks for following and all advice. Best wishes, Graham

Thanks to Bill (66C) for the wet rubbing down advice, painting the 179 is proceeding despite being in Qatar in excess heat. A question. Do all railways paint the smokeboxes of locos black despite the boiler being whatever pretty colour. If so, why? Home tomorrow to the autumn on Tyneside by the sea. Graham

Any updates, please?

Just a little RTR bodging. I have been lent the August 2013 issue of RM that has the drawing of the 439. It was also the last issue that my friend Dave received before he died of cancer. I owe him much, especially being able to hold a bass line in a song but also because, as his hand-eye co-ordination went, I constructed several Wills building kits for him and got rehooked. Anyway, I bought a M7 off ebay and set about it with a razor saw and mitre block and a piercing saw. I decided to scrap the footplate and boiler so that I could build the various bits onto a 40thou plasticard footplate with a 10thou overlay to overhang all round. This is the progress after a couple of hours. Plastic is so much quicker than metal! Thanks for following, Graham

Hey, this 1200 wet and dry paper from Halfords is great. Used wet, it smooths the paint without bringing it off (no connection, just customer). Thanks for the tip, Bill. Will put the first coat of beautiful Caledonian light blue on in Qatar. Thanks for encouragement, chaps. Graham

Thanks very much for this useful advice. I haven't got any that fine so it's off to Halfords for me. I am going to take the loco, paint and equipment to Qatar as we are visiting my daughter there next week. I've got rid of many of the blemishes found in the photos and am ready to take another set to double check! Filling the PC screen with a photo really does show up problems! Thanks for reading and for all the likes, Graham