Charlie586

Yeah the real thing performed terribly, I imagine hurricane with its single driver was even worse. Any poor running on a model can be shrugged off and called scale performance.

7mm would be quite an imposing model. Good luck!

I'm a good 5 years from retirement (or 10 if something goes wrong in the meantime), so I'm in no rush to start (though I do have 2 spare sets of 6' drivers). It is actually smaller than the beast it looks, but I agree it needs drive to at least 2, preferably more, of the axles by some kind of shaft. You could always make a static model and see what happens. It would fit nicely in a bookshelf.

That would be maybe a better way than I had in mind. The connection would hide a shaft very well, it almost seems designed for it. Getting enough weight upfront maybe an issue. Driving the middle, boiler section would enable using tender weight. Whether the thing would stay on the track is anyone's guess though.

(Embedded pic) I think you'd have to drive the middle or rear wheel near the boiler and propel the front truck. Getting all the gear to move is the obvious big problem. Something for when I fully retire I think.

Thank you. I ought to treat myself to the broad gauge society engines books, they cover the early years and there's a lot of early information that I don't know.

Thanks Lez I've got the book it's just not where I am this week. Not many of the earlier ones were left by 1880. I have always fancied building, or trying to build, Thunderer one day. Charlie

I think it's the same class, but I know more about the later period than the early days. The drawing is possibly also in the Sharman 7mm drawings book, I've not got it to hand though.

Yet still they come ... There were a few other marses https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GWR_broad_gauge_locomotives 2-2-2 class near top and priam class. Gnat (metropolitan) has to be the worst name ever given to an engine.

There's a definite similarity in design. The light's not as powerful though.

Thanks. I think someone did make a shoebox layout in the micro layout subforum. Probably from a boot size box rather than shoes. Is this the tube? Just a little led light, I thought I needed more light for the photo but didn't in the end.

Goods shed scale mock up. With the quite large broad gauge loading gauge, I checked it against the widest (or broadest) thing I've got Inside, didn't really need the loading dock but I got carried away. I've refound all the pictures of the goods shed along with some scale drawings of very similar ones. The only thing I'm really lacking is the distance between the roof trusses, but I'm sure I'll come across that in the year or two before I need it. Mock up of next baseboard (sorry about clutter / junk). It has another crossover them a turnout beneath heading left (south, towards the yard and Wantage). The board needs to be about 6 inches longer at top so there's enough clearance on goods shed. Another foot is needed at bottom for extra point plus a bit of room so the point doesn't end on the wood bracing. The board shown is 2ft 6 so I need 4ft, which I luckily already have in both 9mm and 12mm ply, but both are a foot wide like the others. The diverging road on the left has a cattle dock / bank on the left (according to maps) in 1880 before the shed, later moved not sure when. I did think about trying to squeeze in another point to start before the goods shed instead of just after (there's a template, but not that clear in photo) but it would be over a join so not a good idea. Clearance is a bit tight on crossing road, but it will just all fit. I've got 5 metres of rail left, but that's nowhere near enough as each line needs 3 bits of rail. Unfortunately the broad gauge society ran out of rail a while ago and the new rail is more expensive than it used to be as the old stock was bought decades ago.

My new printer arrived the other day Photon mono x. The build plate is about twice the size of the old one which will come in handy for 40 foot carriages. I'm still playing around trying to find the best settings,mostly doing various parts from a v8 plv I'll do a fuller post in next few days on the 3d stuff But for now, I'm getting near the end of laying rails for this board so thinking about cracking on with the next board rather than ballasting etc This is what passes for a track plan, it probably got lost on the thread when the photos went, so it doesn't hurt to repost. The boards so far have been 2ft 6 wide, going from left: board 1 the station, board 2 is the crossover before the goods shed. Next board will be longer to house the goods shed, another crossover and another turnout to go into the yard (downwards in pic) There's a couple of tight spots (two red arrows on the left, where I might have over compressed the layout, plus I probably need more room for the yard turnout (right red arrow). I don't trust my scale plan, so I'm making a mock up of goods shed from a cornflake box and use the turnout templates to make a full scale plan (in 4mm obviously) that I can work out the board size from. What could go wrong?...

I use an old kitchen glass worktop too. I've got some aluminium right angles someone gave me which are very useful for soldering, but not as useful for glueing.

Thanks Lez. That sounds like it would work better than just a strip of brass. I'll try it out sometime.

Thanks. I don't want to overexert myself either. It just looks like it has depth to it. Hopefully lining will give a similar effect.

After the flurry of activity last week, things have slowed down a bit. After wiring as much as I could, the board is the right way again and I'm doing top left corner. As usual, within minutes of the board being the right way up, stuff and junk started to accumulate on it. The firebox sits properly now. The side panels look high, but aren't properly in place yet, holes need drilling in footplate for the pins to drop into (neither is the wonky boiler tube in its permanent position) (Embedded pic from https://www.flickr.com/photos/124446949@N06/25588141017) Although this isn't dewrance, its in a similar condition and the only photo I can embed in its cabless state. Anyway, I thought the side panels were just lined, but I'm now thinking it's a raised moulding. I'll have a go at it ,I've got some scrap etch that's very narrow. Need to do the band on the firebox too. And everything else...

Felt really rough and headachey for last few days, but tested negative, so must just be some old fashioned bug/virus. Managed to do a bit of the wiring Droppers dropped through, then flipped board on its side/end Most of it done,needs more feeds on far right and left in picture. The light switch is for changing polarity on the 2 frogs until I sort out a permanent way. I've sorted out the 2 holes for the top turnout switch to slide (on left hand side). I've not put any isolating switches in yet, but have tried to group the wires to make it easier when I get round tuit (famous last words) I took a broken 4 way extension lead apart (as you do). I was surprised there was so much metal in I thought it would be wires. I'm not sure what metal it is, maybe an alloy or brass coated? Obviously it conducts really well so will come in handy. Anyway, I drilled a hole for the rod in picture to meet up with first switch holes that have pins dropped through. Hopefully I can get it moving to change the point temporarily with some combination of the bits above. Longer term I still want to use the signal box to change points, but realistically I could go off on a tangent for a year or so with that. Will hopefully do a bit more to track tomorrow.

Trying to put the hawthorn body back together and fit on the chassis properly The motor is in the way a bit due to a small admin error Luckily the gear box pivots before the final stage (roadrunner +) , need to take out some of the lead beneath then reposition it properly. I've also been drilling holes through the pcb and baseboard. I got some brass pins cheaply from dunelm Mills, they were in the haberdashery bit, but there just not quite long enough which is a shame. So I'm going to solder scraps of brass pushed through as I did on the first board. I can wrap/squeeze the bottom end of these around wires underneath and put a dollop of solder on. Drilling took a while as did it by hand, didn't want to risk breaking the pcb to cork join with the imitation dremel.

Thanks Lez, I didn't think of that but it makes complete sense. Cheers.

I'll try that, I imagine you don't need much black. embedded from https://www.scaleseven.org.uk/index.php?id=11&galItem=232&galAlbum=1&galTag= Something like this (taking into account original photo lighting, my lighting, monitor settings etc)

Had a cheap last minute holiday on Norfolk Suffolk border. Didn't visit any of the preserved railways, but did go to Wroxham miniature world which has some massive model railways, along with lego and scalextric. Anyway It's one of those rare occasions when the board is tidy. The temporary wiring is getting a bit Heath Robinson, not helped by me using different colour wire all over the place. So, I'm going to start wiring from underneath. I can also sort the bottom of the points while I'm under there and hopefully get the crossing wires in place. The mass of wire at the bottom is from my might come in handy collection, most of it is too thick so I might have to actually buy some so at least I can keep colours the same. Did some paint tests and paint on a bit of paper (which looks nothing like how it dries on the models). The coach brown and rover tender green were single very thin airbrush coats, but I don't like the colour so I'll try again with different mixes. The red was thinned and brush painted, but again not right. I was trying to match them to the precision colours I've got and colour matches on various threads here and elsewhere. Needs more messing around, but I'm having fun which is the main thing.

The photo is before it went to Wantage, but there's nothing in the tramway books about any external changes. Must have been quite an experience for passengers to sit so near the boiler. The engravers must have worked from the original patent and a misunderstanding about the roof. It makes you wonder what other early railway drawings, engravings etc are wrong.

Put extra pick ups on the leading wheels of the Hawthorn Runs a lot better. The body still shorts against the wheels so I left it off. Need to isolate the splashers fully As I kind of said yesterday, I've got too much on the go at once (there's other things I haven't mentioned yet, but I'll ignore them for know). I'm going to concentrate on 3 things, the track, the hawthorn and a wagon or coach (not sure which one yet). I'm very close to being able to join both baseboards for a longish run and if I'm not careful a year will fly by before I get around to it.

Other stuff what I've been doing ... Sprayed the Grantham body, but flooded it a bit as still not got the hang of it yet. I used a paint brush to spread the flood around but it's a bit streaky (the other side is worse). I should probably have used a cotton bud to soak it up while wet. I'll try some ipa to take some of it off. I should have done the ladders and handrails first, but I got a bit overkeen to airbrush. (Embedded pic from https://www.tramwayinfo.com/tramways/Articles/Grantham.htm) I've got some etched ladders, but those handrails on top are going to be a nightmare. Did a tiny bit of weathering to the hughes body, but it barely shows. Need to sort the glazing. Run out of photo room again...