salmonpastures

Having braved the warmth of the garage, ignored the Niagra Nose, and turned the bottle heater up to regulo 3 I have finished off the D21 twiddly bits, whistles, lamp irons, etc and refixed the chimney in an improved position. Having taken both the loco and tender chassis from the body's I am aware that the levels all need realigning, and I will do that when I have found all the bits of plastikard which are now strewn over the garage floor. Have become quite interested in the NER loco's whilst jousting with this one,,, enough to go out and buy a Q6 to accompany my DJH Q7,,,, and I also have a D16 to have a go at in the near future. Will attach a couple of shots of it on the turntable and a repeat shot of it before I started converting it from whatever it was into what it is now!!! Can I offer a sincere thanks to everyone who has offered technical advise and information to help me in this process it really is much appreciated,,,,, I do whish it would warm up so I can finish a few more off!! SAD

I certainly hope so Graeme,,,, "talk about Stir Crazy". I've been into the garage on several occasions,,, played with my trainset for a short while,,, took myself off to the workbench,,, sat and looked at it for a while and then on each occasion been overtaken by a most concentrated wave of "I just Can't Be Ar*ed" Now the CBA's are not unusual but I've never had it for 5 months before,,,,, anyway the "tingle-finger" is back and so I went out and celebrated this morning and invested in a Hornby Q6,,, a lovely feeling and a lovely model. There is some good news on the exhibition front,,, Ipswich and Aylsham have both been in touch asking if I'm available when they decide to go ahead,,, so the CBA's have given way to the Get Stuck In's,,, I'm sure we will be shunting into each other at some point in near future. As I closed the garage down tonight I'm sure I saw the L1 smiling at me from behind a can of Baker's Fluid!!!

Very nice too Mick,,, especially the paint job!!! The whistle's I received from Arthur K come on a U bracket,,,, am unclear if they mount with the bracket or mount as individual units,,, have umpteen photo's of the real thing and not surprisingly none of them show the arrangement from the boiler top view. SAD

After yet another break whilst looking for my mojo,,, I am back at the D21. Am now down to all the fiddly bits but it is coming together and we slowly trundling up to the paint shop. The whistle's are a mystery,,, I know it had 2 of them which I have obtained from ArthurK but how they actually fit to the boiler//or front spectacle plate is a bit of a puzzle. If any NER fans out there can point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

Mick, As requested. SAD

Temperatures in the garage at the moment are definitely acceptable so I have managed to get a fair amount of the pipework and detailing done on the D21. We now have some cab detail fitted, reversing lever, washout plugs and the Westinghouse pump plus a start on handrails, just the smokebox handles, steps, whistles and the main boiler handrail and we can then wait for the temperatures to come back before giving it a layer of etch primer. Mojo is half back having considered the progress from recent efforts on this one and I will be cracking on with the L1 Zeppelin over the festive season. Have to admit I have been in there a couple of times lately and just played with my train set,,, wonderful fun but an ever growing "hit-list"!!!

Well here we go again for another active winter,,,, We have survived lockdown 2 without any visits from the KungFlu so fingers crossed. Have given up on my old Fuji camera and am now trying to come to terms with a Sony,,, hopefully posting pics with the new one will not take as much time as the actual modelling!!! Some progress on the D21,,, the tender is nearing completion and I have spent a couple of days jousting with the various pipes on the right hand boiler side,,, compared with the last pics it now has a few bits added to the boiler top. Having spent about 6 months looking at the Jersey Lily in its coat of Citroen Black [rattle can] paint I decided it was not acceptable,,, it went on like treacle and obliterated a fair percentage of the detail so it has had another bath in the Nitro-Mors and is now back to white metal,,, as I will not be going anywhere near it with either a rattle can or spray gun until the garage gets a bit warmer I am now back to my earlier fidelity crossroad,,,, black or green!!! Can anyone suggest a foolproof way of spraying driving wheel treads,,,, as you can see on the C4 despite using etch primer all over including the drivers I am not having a lot of success getting it to adhere to the drivers. I cleaned them with Cilit Bang quite carefully before the etch primer but evidently not well enough. Good to be back,,, SAD

Hi Graeme, Apologies for the delay!!!!,,, being married to a teacher I find I can basically do whatever I want during term time but am expected to act like a "devoted human/husband" during the holidays". So I haven't been "active" since July-ish Thankfully the schools returned last week so I am slowly getting back to normal. So,,, a good question and my honest answer has to be "I haven't a clue" I bought it because it appeared to me to be decidedly cheap,,, it came [as shown in the original pictures as per the 18th May post] in a very expensive Ferraro Rocher chocolates box without any instructions whatsoever but somebody had taken the time to scribble D20 on the cardboard lid,,,, I quickly found out it was a D21 not a 20. If the tender I received was the original I don't know,,, I guess that it is because the quality of the white metal appears consistent and it had most definitely been painted [very poorly] by the same person at the same time. After masses of assistance from this forum [and the other one] I can catagorically state that it is pretty academic now as the tender as it is today bares little resemblance to the one I started with!! I can also advise that despite my efforts to get it as accurate as I can even if the tender is ex Scott or Glen I have no intention of starting again with the tender as after copious amounts of fiddling/bodging it is pretty close [enough for me,,, rule 1 applies] to the Isinglass drawing that was purchased for a D21 back in the spring. Ironically what started out as a "quick funds generator" will probably be kept,,, having read up on D21's in the green bible's and having also purchased Ken Hoole's NER loco book I have become quite attached to the thing and it transpires that quite a few were shedded at Holbeck and they worked through to Sheffield Vic quite regularly ,,, so it has now acquired the "frequent visitor status",, on Salmon Pastures!!!! The soldering iron will be turned on pretty soon and I will post further pics of it slowly getting closer to the paint shop!!! Again apologies for the delay,,,as mentioned I have been VERY busy,,,, [and scored an enormous amount of marital brownie points,, which will always come in handy at some point in the near future!!] SAD

Another good day session tin bashing on the L1 and we now have started adding some detail to the cab. Nothing fixed as yet but I am sure you get the rough idea. Keep calm and solder on,,,,, I am a little bit worried this lock-down might come to an end,,, and that means mowing the lawn!!! SAD

Time for a beer!!! the steps are finished [yoo hoo],,, have spent today putting them on the right hand side and the 2 sets along the rear,, which make it look a lot better. Have spent a fair bit of time testing it with steps fitted and to my surprise no snags to attend to, so I intend to crack on with the cab tomorrow,,, I know what is going to happen,, now I've got my L1 mojo back the wheels for the D21 are going to arrive. I really am going to have to hide that 10BA nut,,, it is starting to drive me barmy. SAD

As I am still waiting for the new driving wheels to arrive for the D21 I have moved back to working on the L1. I have spent quite a lot of time running up and down through my pointwork and that has sorted out a lot of the problems. Not surprisingly the brakes on the rear bogie were contributing quite well to poor running as was the rather beefy sandboxes crammed into the front end,,, however all is well at the moment. Today I have got the beading attached round the top of the tanks and have made a start on the steps,,, I find steps a bit of a bind,, they seem to be never ending but we are nearly half way there and the area below the footplate is now starting to look rather busy. SAD

Well the tender now has working pickups, and brake gear beading on the top of the coal plates and some whitemetal lockers and detailing bits are on the way!! Looking forward to putting improved driving wheels on it and we can then set about a bit of serious detailing. SAD

It's certainly different to be doing something ex NER,,,this excercise has proved without doubt my "library" is very Gorton + Doncaster based/biased,,, but the guy's on the LNER site have been so helpful,,, as normal. Hopefully it won't be long before you can come and try it for yourself !!!! SAD

Finished the coal rails on the right hand side today and fabricated a water filler for the tender. Still have quite a lot of cleaning up to do but it is coming together nicely now,,,, hopefully won't be long before we are back on the loco. SAD

Another good session with the D21 and we now have some detail added to the front of the tender and the distinctive NER coal rails are fitted on one side. All the tin work is just sitting in place on the above shot and is not fixed to the main body as yet. The really good news is Markits have confirmed the driving wheels on their way to be fitted so we should be able to crack on with the loco again when they arrive. SAD

Some more progress on the D21 tender. Made up some frame extensions and added the smaller D holes and we now have some steps and the wing plates have been filled in and made up a new buffer beam. Have made front and rear bunker plates so next will be the side plates with all the fancy fluting and the lockers and coal hole all attached to the front plate. It is certainly starting to look different to the original from Gem tender. Also found a bit of time to clean up a long bunkered L&Y tank which I bought as a "cold winter night special" well before Bachmann released their version,,,, having had a good look at the body it was obviously made some time ago as the chimney is made up of a piece of tube, 2 washers one at the top and one at the bottom and then the shapes filled in with solder and filed to shape,,,, not to mention the split pin spring hangers,, ha ha,, just like in the good old days!! ,, I love buying old and battered models as you can see how people do things differently to yourself,, and credit to the builder as the dimensions appear to be spot on with this one Have managed to cram a 7 pole motor into it so the performance should be interesting,,, when/if the wheels arrive,,,, is Mr Markit still in business??

Well as it is/was half term I can announce the kitchen is redecorated and Mr Isinglass has sent me a drawing full of NER tenders so we have set about improving the accuracy of the D21 tender. I started by removing all the coal rails around the top of the tender body,,, and about 4mm from the front end of the chassis plate which is where the wing plates used to be. There were no small D cutouts on the main chassis plates so the front and rear plates were also removed so I can replace then with more accurate ones with the holes in place.It has proved to be a much easier hacking session than I was expecting and the tender is already starting to look completely different,,, which is the object of the excercise. Am also pleased to announce that as the school reopens tomorrow I can get back to some serious self isolating with the D21. SAD

A good day for the D21 today,,, it is starting to look like an engine again. Removed all the boiler bands and filled in the horrible join along the top of the boiler and fitted the handrail knobs. Made a proper smokebox from brass then fitted the boiler to the frames, and cleaned up the cab sides, refitted handrail knobs and then both sides fitted in place. The chassis now has some suspension which were fabricated from bits out of the spares bin. I started on filling in the horrible seams on the tender panels,,, a bit of a pain as things can go wrong very quickly,, but so far so good and it is worth the effort as the end result will be so much better than the 2" gaps it came with. Am building with some 26mm drivers and will test tomorrow for shorts,,, the project will then go on the back burner until the 27mm wheels arrive. SAD

Thanks for the tips Graeme,,, I am in un-chartered territory here,,, any advice is appreciated,,, do you use modelling varnishes or DIY stuff,,, was reading Wright Writes this evening and somebody mentioned using "polyurethane satin" sounds lovely but is it applied "neat,, diluted,, just a smidgen",, I don't know!!! But I'm about to find out!!!! SAD

Phew,,, what a difference a day makes. Having looked at the C4 again this morning in some very decent sunshine I decided it wasn't orange peel it was more like a basic lack of paint,,,, so we went at if again in the paint shop to increase the depth of paint. I tried wafting a thin layer over the tender and it looked better,,, so I gave it another thin layer and it looked a lot better and we don't appear to have lost a lot of the detail in the process either. So then I gave the loco a couple of thin layers and this is the result. I DO NOT like gloss painted loco's so at the moment I feel it is a bit in your face ,,, but after we have got the lining installed and then get it toned down with a bit of satin varnish I am hopeful we will have an acceptable C4,,, then it can go to the weathering department and get treated accordingly!!!! I did not want to do the chassis in gloss and then varnish as I felt I might be pushing my luck so that got the usual satin treatment from the start,,, when it is all weathered I am hoping it will all come together!! SAD

Just to balance out how well things went yesterday,,,,,, in today's photo we have 3 loco's successfully exiting the paint shop. The Atlantic is unfortunately still in there,,,, having read of the benefits of using gloss paint if you are going to add lining I thought I'd give it a try. Purchased 1 can of Citroen Black which appears to be a very nice strong colour. Sprayed it on in several light layers,,,, and,,,, Eergh,,,I think it must have reacted with my etch primer because if you look very closely it has an underlying case of the orange peel finish. Drat,,,, no medals today Muttley,,,, I will leave it over night to see if it has miraculously cured itself but I have a sneaking feeling we will be back to the Nitromors can tomorrow,,, Ah well I have plenty of time!!!! there really is no rush to get it finished,,, having started it approx 25 years ago. [[I knew I should have stuck with the cheap and cheerful Halfords satin black]] SAD

We got there in the end Alan,,, I was told at lunchtime I smelt like a humbug,,, "it's the paint darling". When I get the running gear reinstalled I can see I'm going to have a crowding problem somewhere on the layout,,,, 2 meter spacings,,,ha ha,, you'll be lucky,, we are currently at 2mm with our isolations,,, but at least they are now colour coded!!! Am enjoying salvaging the D21,,, probably something to do with the fact that I get filthy when I'm white metal bashing,,,, some of the castings really are in a pretty awful state,,,, but it looks a lot better than it did. Will have another go tomorrow. SAD

A good day in the garage today,,, 3 loco's painted and awaiting inspection. And time to make the D21 project a lot cleaner and play with my chassis jig and get some movement out of the chassis,,,, wonderful progress,,, some days things just seem to click. The D21 has gained a new project name,,,"primate" as I am sure that is who put it together first time round!!! I won't complain about the amount of metal in the castings anymore as quite a lot of it has been moved on in an effort to get rid of some of the gouge's in the castings,,, I think our pal primate only had 2 files a small rat tail and a very course flat file,,, I won't give it it's proper title but you know what I mean. I am very impressed with the jig,,, first time I have used it and it certainly makes life easier,,,,, within 10 minutes of it coming off the jig it was turning a knacked driving wheel,,,, impressive. Can't wait for tomorrow!!! SAD

No need Alan,,, just this very minute a gent called Tom on the LNER forum has produced a General Arrangement drawing from 1903!!!! Unbelievable,,, at times I am very cynical about technology but on the odd occasion it breaks down some mighty barriers. I do enjoy getting grubby doing rubbings on a battered old white metal kit. Don't worry the Zeppelin will also progress but as you know I like to have various things on the go which fits in nicely with my goldfish like attention span!!! I've never seen a GA drawing before,,, the level of detail is out of this world,,,,, I could even count the rivets!!! I also now have 3 units etch primed and the Atlantic will squeeze itself in there tomorrow. The paint shop at the minute is running at full tilt. SAD