JamieR4489

Sorry, I wasn't clear. The gap is between the bigger of the stage 1 gears (the one that meshes with the worm) and the thinner bit of the brass boss on the final axle. My point was that if the final drive and stage 1 gears were close enough together the gear that meshes with the worm would be in contact with that brass section and preventing the final drive gear and the smaller of the stage 1 gears from meshing properly. I imagine the problem is that the final drive gear is from a different ratio gearbox and so is slightly too small in diameter. Yes I opened out the holes on the etch and in the gears for the 2mm shaft. I was aware that the washer was missing. I leave them out until I'm happy with the gearbox incase I have to dismantle it and risk losing the washers. Jamie

Thanks everyone. I'll get in touch with Chris. I had thought they might be the wrong gears but wanted to check I hadn't made a stupid mistake when assembling the gearbox. I knew this was very unusual as the high level boxes I've had in the past have been superb and the customer service when I required replacement parts where the original had pinged off was equally excellent.

Yes I assembled it as the instructions show. I've assembled 3 HL 'boxes before and never had this problem. As you can see there is a gap between the larger of the stage 1 gears and the brass boss of the final drive gear but the teeth don't mesh and for them to do so would require them to be moved closer together by a distance bigger than that gap. If I take the gears out and turn the stage 1 gears round so the larger gear is outside the final drive gear, they can be moved close enough together that they mesh properly.

I ordered a gearbox on the 2nd and it turned up today. Like others, I was expecting a longer wait than that due to the backlog of orders so I was pleasantly surprised when Chris phoned on Friday to confirm my order. However, I have, unfortunately, got a problem with the gearbox in that the final drive and stage 1 gears don't mesh. I can spin one without the other turning. The gearbox is a 60:1 roadrunner. It doesn't look like a case of simply elongating the holes in the gearbox a bit as I can see that to get the gears to mesh properly, the larger gear on the first stage will touch the boss of the final drive gear, preventing them from being close enough together. Chris, if you're reading this, what should I do? Regards, Jamie

On my way up to North Yorkshire for a week, I stopped off at Tuxford to have a look at the site in person for the first time. I knew not much was left but still thought it would be a good idea just to get a general feel for the area. I found this stone work at the north end of where the station used to be, roughly at the platform ends so I'm guessing it was part of the platforms. It wasn't parallel to the railway otherwise I'd guess it was part of the signal box The most obvious surviving structure is Marnham Road overbridge. The walls above road level are a different colour brick (and a lot cleaner) so they've obviously been added at a later date but the rest looks original. Masked slightly by modern additions is the goods shed. You can just about make out the old door on the end, now bricked up. And finally the 'classic' Tuxford shot, taken from Marnham Road bridge with an Azuma heading south. While in Yorkshire I experienced some foreign motive power on the North Yorkshire Moors and Keighly and Worth Valley Railways (and had a chance meeting and brief chat with LNER4479 of this parish at the latter) Regards, Jamie

Not a GWR expert either but to my untrained eye the wagon behind 4471 in this 1938 picture looks like an iron mink

Haha thanks Manna but I don't think my scratchbuilding skills are quite up to the same standard as yours so 3D printing was a better option for me. At least you're making locos for a few quid each! Jamie

The goods yard has now been ballasted with only a few bits needing to be topped up or more glue. The mainlines and Up layby have been weathered as well, with a slightly darker colour where locos would stand for long periods either at a signal or in the station and on the points which would obviously be greased and so would attract more dirt. As you can see, I've also found a goods shed. At the moment, it's just a generic Hornby resin model that I'd forgotten I had until I was sorting through some boxes of Metcalfe buildings. The goods shed is, I think, the only building that still survives (other than the Marnham Road overbridge) and was perpendicular to the track, with a wagon turntable providing rail access to it. The fiddle yard design was becoming increasingly annoying as I had no way of getting trains from one side to the other so the trains could only run in one direction. I've just about managed to squeeze 2 crossovers in allowing a train to start from the Up fiddle yard, cross to the Down and go through the scenic section before crossing back onto the innermost line in the Up yard. This does mean I can't start a train from the Down side and get it to the Up side without reversal visible on the scenic section but I can live with that. The alterations also mean that I can put Down trains onto the layout on the closest line rather than having to reach over to the Down side. I've also put in a small spur for cassettes if I choose to use them in the future (which I most likely will for goods trains). Here you can see the crossover at the north end of the fiddle yard. From left to right here we have: cassette spur, fish/meat, coal, empty (this needs to be empty for the previously listed trains to get access to the mainlines and is used to make up trains from loose coaching stock), what will eventually be an LDEC/GC portion of a class B goods that gets detached at Tuxford, the Coronation/West Riding, pick-up goods, empty so that I can just let a train run round and round on the Down line, mineral empties, Queen of Scots and Scotch Goods Regards, Jamie

Apologies for the lack of updates; I hadn't realised how long it has been! Around this time last year I won an Isinglass D120 van at the BRM virtual exhibition and as I had a week off school in mid May I thought it would make a nice quick project. It's been built largely as it came but I have added metal handrails and some of the underframe components (including brakes which I forgot to add until after taking this photo!). I've done it as the preserved one on the North Norfolk as it can then run on either Weybourne or Tuxford North, hence the ex-works condition. A wagon I've been wanting for ages is a GNR 19' van. I felt for an ex-GN mainline I ought to have at least one but with the non-availability and stupid eBay prices of the D&S kit I decided to try and scratchbuild one, encouraged by Steve Banks' models. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, the hardest bit being scribing the planks into the plasticard. I used 30 thou braced internally with 2mm plasticard. The W-irons are from Eileen's, designed for Mike Trice's 6 wheelers. I had some left over and just modified them to suit the wagon. Most of the brake gear is from the spares box, predominantly Cambrian (the bufferbeams came from the same source) and the axleboxes/springs from Wizard, being the only parts I had to buy specially for this model. Roof vents were from Isinglass, again found in the spares box. As I mentioned previously, I've started to get into 3D printing and a few weeks ago, my first loco design arrived, a J5. The CADs were done from Isinglass drawings and rather than Shapeways I used a company called Hexa Cubed. They can print in high detail resin for far less than Shapeways could in fine detail plastic and being UK based I didn't have to pay huge shipping/customs costs. The quality of the prints are absolutely superb (all thanks to Hexa Cubed, I might add); there were very few print lines and no warping which was very pleasing. I can absolutely recommend Hexa Cubed and James who runs it is very helpful (usual disclaimer applies). This photo was taken a while ago so the frames have guard irons and have been painted and I've started on the pickups and brakes. The chassis is one of @chris p bacon's J50 kits suitably cut down in length. I've used Hornby L1 wheels due to Markits/Romford wheels being hard to get hold of and I managed to get all 6 Hornby wheels for less than one Markits wheel. The axles are splined so it's quite easy to quater the wheels and the crankpin threads are identical to Markits ones. I've had to file out the balance weights as they were wrong for a J5 and I'll add new ones from plasticard. The wheels have been tidied up since the photo was taken. My preference for a motor and gearbox would have been High Level but as they're temporarily out of business I got a Comet gearbox and Taff Vale 1015 motor. I'll certainly be avoiding Comet gearboxes in future as this one is very noisy (the gears are metal rather than nylon as in High Level 'boxes) and I had problems with it jamming, hopefully sorted now. I'm just waiting for an order from Eileen's Emporium to start detailing the body. Regards, Jamie

I remember someone at the North Norfolk Railway saying that they used to get Russian coal and it was awful. The crews found bits of polystyrene it in which was curious as the coal was priced according to weight not volume.

Not as simple as that, unfortunately. The original deflectors were cut back when the extra pair were added

Tony, 60008 was repainted in the States. When it came over in 2012 the NRM found loads of tiny holes as it turned out the Americans had grit blasted the engine to remove the original paint. 60010 still had its original paint when it came here. I think I've read that it had only had one top coat so it lasted pretty well. Regards, Jamie

I don't think Jesse expected some kind of Spanish Inquisition!

I had another, shorter running session today. Beforehand, I painted the tracks in the goods yard ready for ballasting. This was mostly ash on the real thing so I'll use sand as I've done on my Weybourne layout with satisfactory results. The first train today was a Colwick to Doncaster mineral empties behind Colwick's O4/5 5008. It passed Doncaster's 4673 on a parcels train at the southern end of the station. A closer look at the K2. This is a Graeme King kit on a Bachmann K3 chassis, for those who are interested. The wobbly lining is due to this being my first attempt at lining anything. New England's 4774 hauls the Scotch Goods after taking over from another, King's Cross based, V2 at Peterborough. My phone's camera is making the green on the loco seem much lighter than it is in real life. To the eye it blends in much better with the wheels and tender. One of Grantham's elderly D2s accelerates a Doncaster to Peterborough North stopping service after pausing at Tuxford North. Jamie

Part 2: Having collected the empties, the J6 runs round the wagons to be dropped off and as it does so, the Queen of Scots races north. Unfortunately I had to stop and this point and when I got back the light had almost gone, so I apologise for the quality of these next photos. Pretty Polly of Grantham shed coasts through with the Scarborough Flier. 3591 has pushed the wagons for Tuxford into the loading dock and is now uncoupling from the empties so that it can run round them and add them to the front of the train... ...and having done so, the pick-up carries on its sedately paced journey. No sooner has it left, 4500 Garganey takes a Glasgow express, probably as far as its home city of Newcastle, up the 1in200. This will surely get the spotters shouting 'cop!' as I've read Garganey was a bit of a rare 'un down south. Jamie

Over the past 3 weeks I've made a huge push to try and get some scenery down. The layout was becoming increasingly embarrassing and I was having to be quite selective with camera positions and crop photos very tightly. The main scenery on Tuxford is, of course, the 2 embankments either side of the railway. Before I started anything, I realised that I could pull my 2 kickback sidings closer to the inside edge of the board and have them go underneath the embankment, tripling their length, meaning I can now store 25 wagon goods trains plus their locos in each siding; that's far more than I'll need. I've also added a third line that comes in front. It won't go under the embankment but will allow me to store another ~15 wagons. The embankments are both formed from 12mm x 12mm uprights screwed into the boards with 3mm ply in curved strips following the shape of where the backscene will go nailed on top to give something to attach the rear of the embankments to. For the first bank I used chicken wire as I had done on previous layouts and then glued 2 layers of kitchen paper over the top before painting on 2 coats of plaster mixed with a hint of brown paint to provide a limestone colour for any areas where the grass was very thin. On the second bank I used a method I've only seen on Little Bytham, although I'm sure others must have used it as well. The method in question is to glue vertical strips of cardboard about an inch wide and then weave horizontal strips in and out of the vertical ones. Then repeat with the kitchen roll and plaster as per the first bank. I think the chicken wire still wins for sturdiness but I found the cardboard weaving easier to form to the shape I wanted and fix down. For the grass itself, I again copied Little Bytham (I know lots of other people use this but LB was the first I saw) and used hanging basket liner. It's much cheaper than static grass and looks just as good, IMHO. I got some cheap stuff from the local pet/gardening shop and tore it up into randomly shaped/sized pieces and then glued it down with PVA, deliberately thinning it out towards the bottom and leaving a few bare patches, as per photographs. After the glue had dried I used hair clippers to trim the grass and neaten it up a bit. I didn't want it to look manicured but equally, I didn't want it to look too wild. It looks a bit brown in some photos, but to the naked eye it looks much greener. Here you can see the hidden sidings, which clearly need hoovering! As I'm sure you'll agree, a huge transformation from what it looked like before. To celebrate I ran some trains and took their pictures. I didn't run to a sequence but picked some trains at random First up, the 8:45 King's Cross to Doncaster, hauled by Grantham's 4446. Next was New England's 3458 on a coal train, evidently with an ex works PO wagon leading (!). Must get round to weathering that... The Grantham to Doncaster pick-up trundles into view, with Hitchin J6 3591 at the head. I've no idea what a Hitchin engine is doing on this working, my excuse is it's going to Donny for overhaul and to save a light engine move, it's being worked north on timetabled trains. The pick-up reverses into the goods yard... ... and the loco uncouples 2 wagons to be dropped off, reverses them into a passing loop... ... and then goes to the loading dock to collect 2 empties.

Oops. I thought that might have been the case but wasn't sure

I think it was Edinburgh or Carlisle Canal; the only places on the layout you'll see proper engines

Very natural-looking. I see 31A has remembered to remove the droplight from the toilet window; something I only realised after I'd glazed mine.

J6

N1. Did what it said on the tin and was in service longer than the Atlantics.

Mousa Models do an O4/7 boiler and cab that is a drop fit onto the Bachmann model. https://mousa-models.co.uk/product/blp0501-4-lner-class-o4-7-boiler-unit-copy/

GER Y14/J15 for me

Other than a streamlined non corridor tender from 03/12/1936 to 02/10/1937, no.

Something a bit different this week, in the form of some locos. This Bachmann C1 was a Birthday present a few years ago and has been in out-of-the-box condition since then. I got hold of the relevant Yeadons volume and had a flick through that to decide on a new identity. Eventually, I settled on Grantham's 4446 but that required the smokebox saddle to be removed (being a slide valve engine rather than piston valve). Luckily the smokebox is soft plastic so careful work with files saw the saddle disappear. It's not perfect, but it'll do. Unfortunately when I took the numbers off the first cab side I accidently removed some of the paint so I had to do a little bit of patch repainting. It looks ok from a distance but not great close up. A coat of Clear gave the loco a really nice metallic sheen. Only after I'd applied the numbers did I realise that, for some reason, Bachmann have done the shorter handrails on the tender that only a handful of tenders received. This makes the tender correct for the original engine (4421) but not 4446. It's not that they only did this variation for 4421, their model of 3251 has the shorter rails as well. Oh well, I can live with it but I may change them on my 3251 when that becomes 3280. Something I've been working on quietly over the past few months has been some CAD files. I sent them off to Shapeways to be 3D printed a few weeks ago and they arrived on Friday. The tender is a GN Ivatt horseshoe type. I'll be needing several of these and I struggled a bit with the LRM kit so I figured this would be the best way to build a decent fleet of them. Obviously, it needs coal rails. I'll make them from brass. The tender was ordered in a cheap plastic so the surface finish isn't great. In total, it's probably had about an hour of cleaning up, just on the sides and rear and it's still a bit grainy. To clean the sides up, I've copied someone off the LNER foum by using an electric toothbrush with the bristles cut off and fine sandpaper/emery cloth glued on. In future, I'll use fine detail plastic. It's nearly double the cost, but it will give a much better finish. Some of the detail I'd designed into the tender has disappeared despite it being over the minimum Shapeways will print. The cab is a GN K3 side window cab. This is made in fine detail plastic and it's already much better than the tender. It did, however, arrive warped. A few minutes under boiling water sorted that out. The K3 will hopefully become 91 as I wanted a low numbered one with a GNR tender. For now, it'll tow the 3D printed tender but eventually I'll do a swap to get the prototypical Ivatt self trimming asymmetrical wheelbase one and use this tender on a C2. Jamie