Ian Major

I'm still breathing. Firstly, my thanks for the likes and the support from "the Poynton Crew". In particular I must thank Dave (Daifly) who, via PM, drew my attention to a clear 1930s photo of a loaded MACAW B on EBAY (the photo that is, not the MACAW). The subsequent discussion between us was very informative. I have a had a few things on the go recently. These include many Zoom sessions with the family. My eldest grandson (11 years) loves to set quizzes with Kahoot then fire them at us in one of the Zoom sessions. He decided to make it easy on me by setting a quiz on the Ffestiniog Railway. I failed miserably. Well I took the plunge and bought myself a Minerva pannier tank and here it is: I will get some plates for it. It also needs an ashpan fabricating and generally toned down. There were a few minor issues. When I took the photo, I thought a spider had decided to decorate the smokebox door. This actually turned out to be glue strings from the manufacturing process. There were others around the chassis. All were easily dealt with. I am going to give it a good run to make sure all is well before mucking it about. I have also joined MERG which will help me make a DCC controller for the loco - then a shunting layout and then ... Meanwhile, the second "B" is progressing. I made up the frames from 6 x 2mm brass channel. I had some spare 6 x 3mm channel which I used for internal cross bracing. The latter will support the inner queen posts. I made a crude wooden jig to keep it all in line, straight and square whilst I soldered it up. The solebar overlays were those displaced from the "B" kit by the others I had made to suit the DC brake layout. The floor pan was cut from 0.25mm NS sheet in three parts. The joins were arranged to lie on top of the cross bracing. The sides were made from 6 x 0.25mm strip with 0.8mm dia wire soldered along the top edge to represent the bulb profile. The vertical bracing/bolster supports were made from 2 x 2mm brass angle. In the photo below, the end ones have been left off until after the frame and floor pan are soldered together. The four 1mm holes along the centre line of the floor are pilots for the bogie support fixings. These will be enlarged once I decide exactly how I am going to attach the fixings. The plastic piece in the background is the representation of the floor planking. For some reason, one end of it is completely out of square. How I managed that I don't know. I will cut that end off and splice on a new piece with the join under the end bolster. I soldered the frame and the floor together. Amazingly they fitted together perfectly. Next to try the ride height (and for a bit of fun) I put the assembly on to the bogies and their supports. Even with the spacer that Jim supplies with the bogie kit, the ride is about 2mm too low. This is fine by me. It gives me room to add a thick plate on the underside of the floor at each end. These can be drilled and tapped to take fixing studs for the bogie mountings. Starting to look the part. Next job will be to make the bogie mountings - and order bits for the DCC controller. Ian.

Hello George. I thought the weathering on that GUV was not up to your usual high standards. It looked like a child with chocolate (or worse) covered fingers had been fondling it. It was a relief to find out it wasn't your work. Ian.

Ade, Enjoy your trip to North Norfolk. The railway there is an interesting visit. Hopefully whilst there you will see trains run off the North Norfolk line on to the Railtrack (or whatever it is called now) line towards Cromer. It is an interesting, labour intensive, spectacle to behold, involving clearing the route through a small public park and parked cars. Have a look at this GOOGLE Street View ( https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.941498,1.2098521,3a,75y,95.45h,67.37t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sA49lkT9zzgxYbyolrSJP2w!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 ) for a flavour. Spin the image through 180 degrees for the little park and signal box beyond. It was great fun. On my trip there, I decided to forgo the pleasures of steam and ride their DMU to get much better views of the glorious scenery. Ian.

Ade, Very nice work. I keep looking at the cattle wagon kits with a view to converting one to a Y10 Fruit Van. Haven't found a suitable one yet. You are right about the limewash ban. I think it was about 1924 when that came in. At about the same time a minor design change to the GWR cattle wagons removed the floor level slot in the body side just above the brake handle to stop the coddie muck from polluting said handle - to the relief of shunters no doubt. (I've been reading my ABT.) Ian.

Ah yes - I remember the strange noise of the original Flash Gordon craft. I also remember its exhaust (a firework) which produced sparks that gently arced down to the bottom of the screen rather than straight back as per a real rocket. Still as a 10 year old I wasn't bothered about such detail - no change there then! I think I prefer your original final caption. You can't beat a bit of good old fashioned Anglo Saxon honest language. Ian.

Ian, you and me both! I don't normally indulge in model magazines but the taster of your article has tempted me - get behind me Satan. In the legible part above I am particularly intrigued by the start of the reference to Mallory climbing Everest. Since Mallory's journey was fatal your incomplete reference has left me on the edge of my chair - shades of the end of each Flash Gordon episode at the Saturday Matinee. "Is Dremel the Merciless poised to make a fatal attack? Will Ian survive this onslaught? Tune in next week to find out". Or at least I will have to get a copy to set my mind at rest. Ian.

My word Rob. To describe your work as prolific is an understatement. I makes me feel tired just trying to keep up with you! Another gem on the way is my prediction. Ian.

I fear that this project will remain Hendie's sole excursion into the world of model railways. His current model aircraft work can be seen on BRITMODELLER at https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/forum/19-aircraft-modelling/ under the same handle "HENDIE". The standard of work remains very high. Ian.

George, Moss Lane developing really well. It keeps tempting me to make some form of shunting plank. Those boxes look very handy. I will have a look at those next time I am at Brookside. Ian.

Thanks George. It was a good session. I am still cogitating on which DCC controller to get. Then perhaps I should make a shunting plank on which to shuffle about. Once I am happy with the pannier's performance I will add the detail parts, number plates etc. In the meantime it is living in my display case where it looks huge against "Jane". Ian.

Ade, The cattle wagons are looking very good. The Slaters wagon kits can be a challenge (try the milk tank!) but most satisfying. I tried but failed to work on kits whilst on holiday. Too many distractions, usually the kids, plus I always managed to lose something. The jig-saw that Lez has done got me thinking about other things that Cuneo produced. So I had a dig around my box of old documents, or junk as my Mother used to call it, and found my copy of the 1962 Tri-Ang catalogue. The front cover is from a painting by Cuneo that Tri-Ang commissioned. Inside on the first page is a photo of a Britannia "dirtied" by Cuneo. This was a very early example of "weathering" as we call it now, may be one of the first. By today's standards it is rather crude but pointed a way forward. Looking at modelling magazines from that time I could find no other examples. I have a copy of the First 10 Years" book. In it is a 5 page article by Cuneo about how he approached the application of dirt. Equally interesting is the book's foreword that was written by a certain Dr Richard Beeching! Looking forward to seeing the cattle wagons in use on Malmesbury. Ian. BTW Did you buy Lez some shoes from Street whilst you were down there? BTW2 I tried to spot Cuneo's trademark mouse on Lez's jig-saw but couldn't find it. Since the signature is missing I suspect the mouse has also been cropped off by the jig-saw maker.

Thanks Andy. Here is another photo of the day. George is driving the "31" hauling my engineers train towards Helensburgh station. Conversation went along the lines of: Mark - "George, the train won't fit in that siding. The local won't be able to get away." George - "Hum." Adrian - "Arf, arf." I hope George is still talking to me after this! Ian.

The MACAWs plus other wagons, including my LORIOT, got a run at Mark's today. My favourite shot of the day. A Class 31 (not mine sadly), my engineering train wagons plus Mark's brake drifting through the countryside. The engineers' train arriving at Helensburgh ... ... and the engineers' train being dragged back to its siding by a Class 08. The MACAWs behaved impeccably. Ian.

Hello George, it was a good day today. Below is a photo of the lattice bridge that you are producing scaling the lines at Helenburgh. It also shows Mark giving lessons to my grandson Noah on using the NCE Powercab. BTW Noah and his parents gave me permission to publish this. Ian.

I have had my second jab and I think I am over the side effects, so have started working on the second "B" in earnest . I have also painted the first "B" in "works grey" AKA Halford's primer. It is reassembled (less the plastic flooring) ready for a trip to Mark's garden railway tomorrow. The purpose is to make sure the thing stays on the rails. A couple of photos of the primed beast. The first a general view. Some of the second "B's" platework acting as a load. The grey really highlights the DC mechanism. I couldn't resist a shot of it. Unfortunately the close up shows some of the sheet hooks have been knocked out of line - easily fixed. It also shows the kit supplied split pins for the rings are too large - much bigger than those supplied with the "H". Pity. I will have to live with that. I am looking forward to tomorrow's trip. It will be nice to see some friendly (socially distanced) faces. Ian.

Thanks George. It will be good to give them a run and make sure they stay on the track. Hopefully I can come round next Sunday (2nd). The "B" is stripped back down for cleaning and painting. Maybe I can get a basic paint job done before then. In the middle of the painting sessions I have started on the second "B". I cast enough bolsters and turned enough stanchions for three MACAWs. I also have the parts that I replaced with scratch versions eg the brake components. The main job will be scratch building the platework. I bought a pair of Connoisseur GWR freight wagon bogies for the second "B". I assumed they would be identical to the bogies supplied with the MACAW kits. In fact their construction is different. On the MACAW kit versions, the side frames have to be soldered or glued together. In the bogie kit the sides are held to the central bolster by lengths of 1.6mm dia rod. The only gluing required was to hold the brass bearings in place. There was virtually no cleaning up to be done on the castings, just drilling out the holes. Jim's instructions say to fit 10mm lengths of rod held in place with Araldite to fix each side in place. I decided to pein over the end of each rod to make a rivet head. These can simply be held in place using Threadlock. These pins can then be knocked out at any time if removing the wheelsets is required. The first photo shows three bogies. On the right is one taken from the completed "B" showing the sides soldered to the central part. It cannot be easily split. I will have to mask the wheelsets before painting. The middle one is a complete bogie of the pinned type. Note also the different top mounting arrangement. On the left is one with a pin knocked out to release the side frame. The side frame has a bifurcated block which fits over the narrow end of the central bolster. The pin is lying next to the side frame (I have put the bearings in the box at the back for now). The ends of the axles are filed from 5.5mm down to 4.5mm (as per Jim's suggestions) to allow the sides to fit correctly. The second photo shows the two complete bogies with the mounting block fitted. The pivots are 6BA bolts which I will replace with a a pair that I will turn in brass. I don't like threaded portions of bolts being used as pivots! Behind the bogies in both photos are parts cut from 6x2mm channel. These are the solebars, bufferbeams and central spacers in preparation. The bogie kit does supply some brakeshoes which are easy to fit but impossible to see. I have left them off. All in all these are very nice bogies. Now for more platework and painting. Ian.

John, you have certainly captured the crusty state the locos got into during their time at Barry scrapyard. It took me back to a visit I made to the model railway exhibition in Westminster 1965. In it there was a cameo showing part of a semi derelict station with several (actual Kitmaster kit) 'Schools' in various states of destruction. It was a very well executed model though distressing for an impressionable, young steam enthusiast to see. I can't remember the name of the builder. I do remember the name he gave to the cameo - "Class Dismissed." Ian.

A quick update. The construction work on the "B" is now finished. I added the kit supplied DC brake levers. I modified the corner stanchion sockets to merge (ish) with the corner plates as per Raymond Walley. I also trimmed the plastic floor to be a better fit. I cut it in to three pieces with the joins hidden by the middle two bolsters - without doing this it would not go in. Fitting a plastic floor in the "H" was easy by comparison since it has no end raves. When the weather improves I will break out the painting equipment. A couple of photos. Ian.

I extracted all the dimensions from the MACAW diagrams in my book. I put these in to a spreadsheet and got it to calculate the scale dimensions. The result: When I looked at the detail I was annoyed with myself. When I had added the solebars I noticed the bogie supports would not fit between them whilst still being in line with the headstocks. I didn't stop to investigate where the error was at this stage. I reduced the bogie support widths to match the headstock. Later I found the cross trussing was also about 1mm too wide. It would have been simpler at the early stage to replace the headstocks with a wider pair. It would have avoided all of the later agro. Soooo - moving on ... I removed the corner plates and the buffer backing plates. Then the question was - do I take the whole headstock off and replace it or try to extend it in situ? I decided on the latter. I made a bending jig and created 4 "stapples" out of 0.7mm brass rod. These were soldered on to the ends of the headstocks. The rod was deliberately too big in diameter so that when it was dressed back the rod was squared up. Then I made replacement plates. The corners were made from thinner material. I also started on making the sheet hooks out of 0.5mm brass wire. Three are made and fitted to one end - only another 23 to go. I fitted the buffers and couplings temporarily to one end to see how the ensemble would look. A bit of cleaning is required after today's efforts. A composite picture for comparison. Left shows the platework as was, middle is the platework now, right is the real thing. Still not perfect but I am much happier. Actually I quite liked the photo that the middle detail came from. So out of pure vanity I decided to add it here. You may notice the "Bramhall Carriage and Wagon Works" internal user open has bits of discarded MACAW clogged in to it. Next up is finishing the hooks and the remainder of the soldering followed by gluing on the whitemetal details. Note to self - I must order up some lettering transfers. Ian.

Thanks for the likes guys. They are most appreciated. Well the sun came out for a time but disappeared behind a big black cloud before I could get set up with my camera. I went ahead anyway. I have realigned some of the DC brake parts so here is a couple of fairly reasonable photos. Working on the superstructure... First up was adding brackets around the four corners as per Raymond Walley's approach. I cut 6mm wide strips of 0.45mm brass, embossed it then cut to size. The next photos with the B posed next to the H show them fitted - revealing an issue. Side view. All fine:- End view. Hum. Ignore the fact the B is cock eyed on its bogie. I subsequently sorted that:- What a full sized one looks like:- I did some measuring. I found the headstock on the B is 1mm narrower than the H (as supplied in the two kits). The body of the B is about 0.3mm wider than the H, which is probably down to me not getting the fold lines tight enough - despite deeply scoring the etched fold lines. The body widths on my B and H are within a scale inch of that shown on the official diagram. The brackets add nearly another 1mm to the width of the body which highlights the discrepancy, particularly when looking at the vertical lines of rivets. I put the B away, turned my back on it, tried to convince myself it was OK really. It didn't work. I will remove the brackets - it won't be easy - and make replacements out of much thinner brass. Hopefully that will make the error less obvious. This will have to wait for Tuesday now. Ian.

Very nice pair of locos George. Your Excalibur certainly oozes the power of the full size Arthurs. Ian.

I cut out the parts required from spare bits of the kit etch. I assembled these in the "V"s. It was a good job that I had not added the inner truss rods for now. The brake was rather a fiddly task which would have been impossible with them in place. The return spring I represented with 0.5mm nickle silver wire in a short length of brass tube. One end was attached to the adjuster the other end was held by a tapered length of 1.5 x 1.5mm brass angle. I felt that I should have filed more off the "Y" shaped link, it looks a bit overfed. Looking at the unit fully assembled I realized the "Y" was sitting about 0.5mm high. I feared attempts to correct this would result in destruction. Oh well. Life? I tried it on the bogies to check clearance. That is the under carriage almost complete. Time to finish off the superstructure. If it is sunny tomorrow I will try to get better photos. Ian.

On with the MACAW B. This is where I had got up to. I wanted to make a floor from 40thou plastic sheet then fit the bolster retaining brackets using the floor as a guide. I got a heavy duty blade for my Silhouette cutter (genuine part etc). There was/is a software fault that adds a spurious cut on each run. The pandemic got in the way of progressing this so I got bogged down and distracted by this problem. Approach two was to use the standard blade up to its maximum depth to deeply score the 40thou then fracture it along the cut lines. This worked well. So well in fact I cut out two and set one aside for a second "B". At this stage I had not folded the ends up. I wanted to make sure the floor fitted before doing so because once the floor goes in with the ends up, it will be very difficult to get it back out if it ain't right. Progress then rattled along. Construction followed the approach that I took with the "H". Once I was happy with the floor and brackets I folded up the ends and secured them as shown in the next photo. The "B" is stood between two other wagons to check its ride height and alignment. The plastic floor is placed next to it. The open is a useful part of the Ian Major Wagon Works. Here it is in use as a test vehicle. If I had taken a high level view you would have seen it is loaded with prepared chains, stanchions and other bits waiting to be fitted. It normally sits on a length of track above my workbench. The "H" sits with it holding long items such truss bars. This keeps the parts together, free from damage and generally brightens the place up. At this stage, the construction diverges from the "H" since I am fitting DC brakes to the "B". Big Jim supplies three pairs of "V" hangers in the kit. The short and medium height pairs are used for DC brakes with a Hayward slack adjuster. The medium pair support a short rod along the lateral centre line. These I fitted in line with the inner queen posts. The short "V"s I attached to the inside of the solebars 24mm from the centre line. They hold a full width cross shaft that requires an extra "V" that is not symmetrically placed. It also has one leg near(?) vertical. I used one of the kit supplied small "V"s as a guide - then it was out with the brass sheet, piercing saw and Swiss files. As can be seen from the next photo I have not yet fitted the inner truss rods. They would block access to the DC brake location. An interesting comparison to this photo is one that I took of the "H" at this stage of construction. There are a few variations in the way the two kits are designed eg the bogie mountings. Next up is the "B" on its bogies. The "V"s are clearly visible and I believe the DC gubbins that will be strung between them will be very visible. So -what to represent? The following is an annotated detail from a photo of 107291. The arrows show the following:- "a" identifies the short "V"s. "b" is the lever and ratchet. (The lever pulls the brakes on and then knocks the pawl off the ratchet to release the brakes). They sit to the far side of the longitudinal centre line. "c" is the Hayward slack adjuster which is in line with the ratchet. The two are joined by a "Y" shaped rod. Just visible is the double lever that sits at the centre of the wagon. This has the pull rods to the bogies "e". "d" is the spring that pulls the adjuster back when the brakes are released. I think it is worth modelling all of these. The only kit item that I will use here is the double lever. The ratchet/lever supplied in the kit are lovely pieces of work but are the wrong type. They would be good for a MINK or OPEN. So rather than modify them they will go in to my parts box for another project. Time to fire up the piercing saw again! I started with the adjuster. Using various photos from my books and others on line, I did a design using Inkscape. To work out the dimensions I used the kit parts along with a good dose of guestimation. A print of this design was attached to a double layer of brass using sticky both sides tape ready to cut the adjuster parts out. I hope to have the brake components finished in the next few days - but who knows what will happen? Ian.

Thanks Ray. Actually I have fitted a block on the rear of the frame. The idea is that the cast frame sides can then be screwed to a transverse piece of brass as per David Jenkinson. This would totally replace the Wayoh parts. I also have the option of placing a piece of wood in the mold as a core piece. It would fill in the area that creates the attachment block leaving the rear of the cast frame flat. The casting would then fit as a cosmetic cover on the Wayoh carcass. I have not decided which way to jump on this yet. I will have to see how the molds and castings turn out first. Ian.

... continued ... Next shows the two pairs before being glued together. Rather than build all the parts in plastic I intend to make molds and cast them in whitemetal. From my previous casting sessions I found the parts shrank between 2 and 3.5% when cooling. I guess the Wayoh master was made spot on scale and then the casting shrank to the size that I observed. Using Inkscape I added improvements (?) to the design and scaled up the design by 2.8%. A fresh set of parts were cut and the Mk 2 version produced , along with a spring. I have started making a Mk 1 master for the bolster. Before making any more parts I need to validate the size of the master by producing a mold and do some test casts. Of course I am running short of material to make the molds. So until I get fresh supplies it is back to the MACAW B! Ian.