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London cambrian

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  1. London cambrian
    Anyone who has followed this blog for more than a few posts will notice 2 things...
     
    1. Posts tend to be very long (for which i apologise )
     
    2. I have an ongoing project to rebuild a 5 inch Great western pannier tank to its London transport guise.
     
    But in this shorter installment, the great day has arrived...
     
     
    After 8 months of work, a few set backs and missing a good few target dates, she's steamed!
     

     
    A very last minute affair, but we made it to the booked outing last weekend down in the west country.
    In the last 3 weeks since the last posting, all the tanks and platework have been painted red, handrails black and everything put together. The during an extended lunch break on the 2nd May, she steamed for the first time in nearly 3 years.
     
    Theres a good few niggle with her yet the tanks arent sealed properly so theres a slow leak out the water feed to the crosshead pump
     

     

     

     

     
    On the saturday we had a steaming in the afternoon, pottered round the yard a little, did half a lap or so. It quickly became apparent because of a machining fault, the injector would not put water in the boiler. Theres a myriad of small issues we discovered on that first run, but nothing to put us out of action. Small tweaks to be made mostly. So i took the plunge and steamed her up again sunday morning. Pottered round the yard a bit, then did a transfer move with some coaches with a similarly new Pug. A few issues cropped up, but in the end we ran for several hours, just doing light duties, and generally proved it works!
    Overall very pleased with it. compared to some engines, especially ones that have been to bits there is very few faults with it, and nothing major. And she sounds fantastic, set up just right, credit due there to grandad!
     
    Sorry no video, maybe next time with a few more last few progress shots. But she's by no means finished, so this saga will carry on a little while longer...
     
     
    In other news....
    Dads latest projects broe cover. a very hush hush quiet project to produce 3 Met railway 4 wheelers in super quick time, started 13th december, finished 29th april! He's done a superb job, the upholstery in the 1st class is the actual material used on the full size...
     

     

     
    These were always built to sell to finance the full size van, so we'll play with these for a month or two then they'll go to pastures new. He's already ahd enquiries about more to be made...
     
    and finally a few other pics of the weekend. Thanks again t all the regulars who attended, and the laughs down the pub in the evening!
     

     
    The amount of western engines present called for a photoshoot...
    2 prairies,
    saint
    city
    star
    manor
    metro.
    a mini swindon line up in 5 inch gauge! And some really fantastic models in there.
     

    the aforementioned pug, very expertly weathered by a mateof ine. I intend to eventually finish mypannier to this sort of scheme! red panniers were never clean!
     

     

     
     
    Hope you enjoy the slightly shorter installment, mainly because off to Harrogate model engineering show tomorrow, so i'll keep it short and sweet.
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  2. London cambrian
    Or just perhaps a poor excuse!
     
    Well, I've done 25 posts, and the readers have survived them all, I thought I'd get something a little more special in. Usually my blogs consist of progress and pics of variable quality, so for this issue, my good friend Michael Topham has contributed the the vast majority of these photos, his photography is a whole lot better than mine, so thank you very much mike!
     
    the poor excuse could really come from the fact that i forgot my camera when we went down to Brent house last weekend, and then spent most of my time in the signal box again anyway!
     
    We've almost come full circle, when i wrote the first post,i featured a few pics from the December rally at Brent house in 2011, so its back to that time of year again. Colloquially known as the freeze your nuts off rally it certainly did that this year! Mighty cold it was all weekend, luckily i had a nice warm signalbox again... A luxury? by the end of the day almost a chore!
     
    But anyway, arriving at about 11, with a good few trains going around already, and good to see old familiar faces, as well a a few new ones. A newly revived loco from a track down in kent was up with our photograph provider, a LBSCR C2X that has been through 3 boilers and nearly 40 years in its time, surviving heavy use and long periods of inactivity in bits! But it was paired with our ever increasing numbers of milk tankers, there are probably about 25 in the nationwide club, though we've only ever seen a maximum of 5 together, it was nice to see 4 in a train, including a newly completed example.
     

     
    We'd bought the coaches out for a final run of the year, the wagons staying at home, their boxes are still in use as a workbench for the pannier tank!
     

     
    here under the overall roof modelled on bath green park, they sit with the yard shunter, a brilliant little model of a brush shunter, that will haul considerable loads
     

     
    One of the owners of the LSWR 02s bought his new toy out for a play, built from a kit, the SR King arthur is no doubt due for a complete rebuild, the kits were never famed for its engineering prowess, but done well do make good models.
     


     
    But all my time was spent running the brent house signal box, a mammoth 50 lever box, mostly electrically interlocked, though the lack of mechanical interlocking keeps you on your toes! Offering to relieve Brent, i presumed for maybe a few hours, meant i was still there flying solo 6 hours on! Unfortunately there seems to be very few people who will take on the job of running the box, and it should be a two man job. so, understandably, a tiring job, constantly moving, and keeping everyone happy!
     

     
    (Yes if it looks familiar i have used this picture before!)
     
    but anyway, traditionally, the host and railway owner cooks a christmas meal for those attending in the evening. But such is its popularity, by september it was booed out! So, the greystones regulars descended on a local pub, and a long and enjoyable evening ensued! All culminating in fitting 5 people in a smart car and paying the waiter to take us all back to the hotel down the road! Well all part of the service considering the twelve of us did the pub staff well for their christmas bonuses!
     
    But anyway, day 2 was just as cold, and i vowed i wouldnt end up in the box again! So much for that! But the sunday was much quieter, and i took the opportunity to train a few replacements! Dad included! But anyway, a few more photographs with the other 02 on the teak coaches, and other things that went on.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    so, even with 2 days there, i didnt get to drive any locos at all, next time someone else is running the box! I have a friend up north who says he wants to learn so he'll be my relief!
     
    We packed up and leftto warm our hands about 2pm, and after a few little hitches with the trailer that the coaches move around in, got home in the lightto unload, for once!
     
    But anyway, i do hope you enjoyed this post, next time normal service shall resume, mediochre pictures and all! That'll be when i have some more bits and pieces done!
     
    Once again, thanks to Michael Topham for the pictures, and all for turning up, hopefully see all the regulars again sometime next year.
     
     
    Cheers all, if nothing happens between now and then, Merry christmas and happy new year and all that
     
    Mark
  3. London cambrian
    That old analogy about buses has come to mind again…
    But anyway, whilst I’ve been pottering along with the pannier, the other resident of the workshop has done with building silly coaches and has no moved back to the original past time of wagon building. He blames me for this one but its his own fault really!
     
    His original plan when we went along to the midland railway centre was to go there to get photographs of the Derby lightweight DMU, which we duly got. But I had happened to look on their collection at the centre, and had been asked to take pictures of the Kirtley 2-4-0 for a friend who wants to build some kirtley 0-6-0s! But anyway, parked behind in the vintage coaching stock rake was this Midland railway motor car van.
     

     
    He’s always a sucker for a challenge, so we grabbed a few photographs and went home. The more he looked the less enthusiasm he had for an all riveted aluminium channel frame for the derby lightweight, the more the motor car van appealed! So, out came the books and a quick search on RMweb sourced some drawings, and after a good deal of studying, and redrawing on CAD, work began.
     



     
    At the same time I spotted a gas tank wagon built by the Midland railway for the Somerset and Dorset railway. Turns out this was the designs for one of the vehicles that was regularly seen at the buffer stops at Bath Green Park station. So far in our little fleet, we have 1 van, 1 flat wagon, 4 open wagons, 2 bolster wagons and a brake van, but no tank wagons. So it came to pass that S&D tank wagon no2 was built!
     
    https://twitter.com/SDJRailway/status/249437865442938880/photo/1
     
    The motor car van
    The van is to a design built in the early 1900s, built we believe t designs for a similar van, which did not have as many louvers. But in general service the vehicles were commonly used to transport car chassis’ to the Rolls Royce body factory! (the plan may be to build one of the 12th scale Bentley blower’s from airfix, and put it in, it’s about the right scale!)
     


     
    The frames were laid out and made in our traditional manner, using hardwood that is sold as skirting board in B&Q, planed to thickness. All the parts were machined, this vehicle is going to be a true Rolls Royce of wagons we hope (excuse the pun!) The frames were drilled as well, to hold the ironwork, and machined out to accept the buffer springs. Then everything was assembled using PVA glue and cocktail sticks.
     


     
    The body began to be assembled from a softwood called Obeche. It’s very easily obtainable in dolls house modelling shops and machines beautifully. He started by making each louvered section, as a separate panel. First machining each slat slot on the milling machine, sticking each panel in, and machining it all flat. Then each individual section is glued together and made into one one of four larger panels. Planks are then pitted in, all from the same sheet of wood, to minimise errors and putting the planks out of square.
     

     
    These can then be fitted to a bottom runner that fits onto the frame. In the gap left, the doors can be made, a wood frame, machined so they overlap in the proper manner, and fit into the frame.
     


     
    The next job to get some roof arches in, because the van also has opening end doors, these will hold the body square. These I shall be getting laser cut for him, it saves a lot of potentially complex machining. This is as far as the van has got, recently more precedence being put on the other project.
     
    S&D Gas tank wagon
    Originally this was only ever a side project, it’s nice to have two or three wagons going on at the same time. This wagon has proved a little more elusive, only two were ever built, but with amazing what a quick appeal in RMWeb turns up! The pic that above was supplied by a fellow RMWebber, showing the tank wagon at Highbridge. It seemed this wagon was used to transfer gas to outlying points on the S&D system. So basically it'll look lovely behind some nice panelled coaches!
     

     
    But anyway, the chassis was built in the traditional manner, wooden frame, dowel aligned, predrilled etc etc. theres nothing special about it, currently the chassis is at much the same point as the motor car van. The interesting bits lie in the tanks and supports. The supports were made from the same wood as the frame, the radius made by using a fly cutter in the milling machine.
     

     
    This gave a surprisingly good finish in spite of the slow speed we had to run it at to keep the machine from shaking too much! But the large radius gave a relatively high rotational speed. The 16 angles used to keep them in place were machined to size from a large piece of steel angle, and then chopped to width, once the whole lot had been profiled, saving a whole lot of hand work!
     


     
    The tanks are a whole different kettle of fish. In this scale to get things to look right, they really do have to be very close to right! So, in the two tanks, there are 16 line of rivets, half offset in pairs of lines, 48 in each. Plus all the rivets in the lap plate, and rivets total around 1100! The main tanks are made 110mm plastic drain pipe, the original scaled up works out at 109.2mm, so close enough! The centre section is of a slightly larger diameter, so a trip was made up to Slater’s Plastikard in Derbyshire (we were going up there to pick up some scale wheels from 17D miniatures anyway!) for some extra-long sheet (A4 was about 5mm too short!) to wrap around. The other problem he faced was bonding the polystyrene to the tube. Flexible cyanoacrylate was the answer, basically super glue with rubber added in! So, with it all stuck in, the process could begin of drilling al the hole in the tank, evenly spaced.
     

     
    Stretching our milling machine to the limit of its capacity, a rotary table was put on its side, and a relatively cheap tail stock centre obtained, the pipe was fixed between them. The tube fitted just over the chuck on the tables base plate, an a wooden plug in the other end provided a centre to support the tank, and rotate it about its longitudinal axis. Then, using the dials at 7.5 degree between each rivet, and a 1/16th centre drill (an ordinary twist drill would wander too much) 16 rings of 48 holes were drilled in the two tanks. Finally, using a similar process, the last 50 ish holes were drilled in the 4 lap plates, which were again plastikard glued on with flexi cyanoacrylate. Then began the long laborious job of putting all the rivets it!
     

     
    Not before making an access hatch for the top. Since it’s a gas wagon the filling would have been done by pressurised pipes, but when it was built, a man was need inside to seal the rivets inside. So, an access hatch is on to. This represented a job in itself. The filler was easy, a bit of brass tube we already had in stock for making the pannier tank fillers. A cap made from a bit of steel plate. Now remains one of the few mysteries of this wagon, what was on top of this cap? We suspect a lifting eye, but none of the drawings or pictures confirm this. The hole for the filler was put in the tanks using the fly cutter again, and a ring cut from plastikard. Then, taping the two rings together a ring of holes were drilled in them, for a now familiar two lines of rivets! All the holes are followed up by a pistol drill with a 1.6mm drill, and the rivets popped through with super glue. No we are not prepared to rivet them properly, that would involve rolling a tank properly, I’m not even sure riveting that that close a confinement is possible!
     

     
    Finally, the tank ends. These were a domed affair, making them doubly difficult to machine! The wagon is always gonna weigh very little with wooden frames, so to add some weight, but not too much, the ends are made from inch thick slices of 120mm aluminium. This we bought at the local model engineering, were we met with some old friends, one of whom owns the brent house track. Anyway conversation to what we had in our bag, oh some big slices of aluminium, but long story short, a mate of his offered to CNC machine the tank ends for us! So, a very complex job, done for us, free of charge! It’s amazing what you can get with friends! We’ll be picking them up this weekend at the brent hosue rally.
    This is all the woodwork and plasti covered, I’ll update on the steelwork when theres a bit more to it! For the moment, just buffer stocks have been turned, and the shanks fitted to the knees that rest the buffing leaf springs.
     

     
    Well, if your still with me, I must say thank you very much! But when its been near 3 months since the last update, and two wagons have emerged in that time, the tank wagon will probably be finished by February time!
     
    I hope some of you find this stuff interesting, to finish I’ll leave you with a quick pick of the pannier tank as it looking at me now, in the lounge out the way, whilst I make some sanding gear rodding for it, and prepare to paint the buffer beams red!
     

     
    So, cheers all, thanks for following this, maybe net time I can cut the length, but enjoy
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  4. London cambrian
    I'll be honest, i have been a little lax when its come to writing this little blog of workshop antics! But since Gilling, theres actually only been one run, and workshop has mostly consisted of pannier bits and pieces!
     
    My other excuses are two fold, Just started my A levels, so thats rather eaten into my spare time for writing, and other time has been spent admin-ing and using the GL5 facebook group! So, anyone interested in getting involved, an easier way to reach us is via that group, its aclosed group but non members can join, so if your on facebook, just drop me a message on here and i'll let you know more.
     
    But otherwise, running round-up...
     
    Greystones once again...
     
    Yes, its back to what is fast becoming my second home it seems, end of september, weekend after my birthday, we pottered down to the west country to run on this excellent if a little testing track. Didnt manage to grab many pictures, mainly because i spent most my saturday driving!
     
    The day started well, we arrived, about 11, with a trailer full of coaches, the first time a full set of 5 had been to the track

     
    A friend had bought up a Britannia which was an unusual sight doing the circuit! Far bigger than the usual mtive power! removing the side control springs meant it just about squealed its way round! Then some bright spark thought, well lets do a bit of shunting with it! Now anyone who knows a britannia will know it has a screw reverser, not ideal for shunting!
     

     
    So, out came the coaches, and that same bright spark decided he would try and pull them, with a further two teak coaches (commercial items which are really quite heavy)
     
    But anyway, see the results...
     

     
    Personally I wasn't mad enough to try it myself, but when the offer came it seemed i spent the rest of my day driving that superb little loco. It may have massive wheels and relatively little tractive weight but it really punches well above its weight!
     

     

     
    Personally my favourite shot of it, and our coaches, we lent the owner our driving truck for the day just to complete the teak set, but this pic is currently my computer wall paper...
     

     
    Last pic of that weekend, most of us seemed to be busy and very few of us have any pictures! Bt anyway, the day ended with the usual social evening meal. When we got back, we had one last little play. Utilising the newly installed lighting in the coaches, and the dark night, we gave the coaches a couple of laps of the track behind the electric, with full lights on, on radio control. No pics i'm afraid, just that bit too dark for effective photos!
     
    To keep this post short but sweet, just a quick round up for the workshop, i'll do some more next week, after the groups annual christmas run, the Freeze your nuts off rally at Brent house!
     
    Pannier
     
    Lots has been going on n the pannier, a huge amount has been done to it, andi have nowhere near enough space to documentit all here! But i promise more pannier progress for those who want next week, if you can bear anymore that is!
     
    So in short, what has gone on is
    -running plates are all painted and nearly finished, only waitin to be lined
    -The engine is fully permenatly on its wheels
    -The valve chest has been sealed after a long delay
    -I rebuilt the drain cock mechanism because the last one was frankly rubbish
    I have reprofiled the chimney
    A new boiler topfeed arrangement has been made
    Work has begun on the tanks to change the filers to correct round pattern
    Allthe brake gear hasbeen reassembled
    the sandboxes have been cleaned and painted
    the guard irons have been refitted
    The lubricator has been overhauled and the feed arrangement has been changed
    The running plates have been dilled and fitted
    Tonite two of the bufefrs wen on and a drawhook went in.
    Everythig that needs to be chemically blacked, has been
    most of a new blower has been done, with fine directed nozzle in it to replace the old arrangement
    the front buffer beam has been cleaned up again, and is ready to receive some red
    buffer heads have been reprofiled, as have hooks
    The sokebox has had a goodly amount of detail put into it, whilstits not perfect, it'll do for now
    and finaly bits have started to be made to make the non working sanding gear linkages.
     
    Below hopefully is a selection of whats gone on, hopefully a suitable amount!
     








     
    I havnt always managed to keep up with progress with accompanying photos so please excuse their lack!
     
    But the plan is tohave her steaming by sometime in the new year in a mostly complete state. If shes back in a whole enough entity by this weekedn i may take her to the brent house run, and trundel her through some points, tow itround the track, just to wear in the bearings!
     
     
    Well i hope the wait has been worth it. I'll soon post about whats been happening in the world of the other inhabitan of the workshop, some pretty stunning progress he's made i must say in the time of my absense from RMweb!
     
    So, pics to come hopefullly of brent house, and more wagons, and bit of lcuk i'll be playing with another engine this weekend
     
    Please let me know what you think, its a little rushed this post, but i hope it doesnt show too mush hehe
     
    Cheers all
     
    Mark
  5. London cambrian
    Hi all, like a bus, two post come along at once!
     
    Anyway, I'm calling it an excuse to test out my new laptop, so a few more pics of gilling August 2012
     


     
    Yes the weekend was rather wet, certanly the saturday and by end of monday! train sizes were limited as the track became slick with oil, especially the passenger trains, also as we only had 2 passenger sets, though one could be split to make a 3 and a 10 set, an the timetable calls for it to be split later into 5 and 5.
     

     
    Thius yer there was 4 of these hoppers. they have bottom openin doors, and last rallya coaling stage was kocked up so that they could be bottom discharged. However this was made difficult this weekend by the continual drizzle, meaning the coal was rather reluctant to come out at times!
     



     
     



     
    Our coaches spent much of their time with our friends Metropolitan electric, as a suburban set, occasionally getting taged with vans as tail traffic
     



     
     



     
     
     


     
    My Friends' IoW 02s also made regularturns, always double heading, often managing decent sized trains, and frequently with only one of them pulling!
     
     



     
     
     



     
     




     
     



     
    Right, this one has been very image heavy, so sorry to those on slow download speeds!
     
    But anyway, thats it for a week or so, there might be some pannier activity this weekend, i reprofiled and detailed the chimney this wek, and i'm doing the smokebox at the same time, running plates are painted, they just need lining and lacquering before oing back on, then the loco can be rebuilt upwards for now, we'll modify the tank fillers before total reassembly, then replumb and get it a steam cert.
     
    A arge hole has appeared in the garden for a some sidings, we're just pricing up ballast atm, so hopefully we'll have somewhere to test the pannier out and photograph rolling stock, especially the new stuff my dads just started.
     
    Next weekend is a bit of a clash, two event on at once! Its another greystone weekend, next weekend, but its also the colchester night run, both great events, greystones we may even be persuaged to run into the dark, so we'll have to make a decision on that one!
     
    So anyway hope you enjoy, comments welcome as always
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  6. London cambrian

    Gilling August 2012

    By London cambrian,

    I really am getting worse at this! If anyone is looking for an excuse for my lateness, just started my A-levels!
     
    But anyway. The bank holiday weekend of august sees the annual second mainline rally at gilling rilway. The weather looked iffy but still we persevered!

    Due to previous other reasons for which i shall leave space here to insert excuses [ ] , we didnt get our names in the running roster for the weekend. So, we would turn up to gilling with no guarentee of even a run, but no matter, we were taking the coaches for only their second run as a full set.
     


     
    That didnt matter, it soon conspired that as at all rallies, engine inevitably fail and ther is always cover duties to be had. Arriving at about 9, yes thats a 3 hours drive, getting up at 5 to go play trains, only having had 4 hours sleep!
     
    Most our first day was spent helping out elsewhere, amainline rally cannot run without an army of helpers! So, yard duties and generally lazing around watching the trains go by! That and getting the coaches out and ensuring all was right with them.
     






     
    So, anyway, a large collection of some of the finest 5 inch gaugelocomtoives was ssembled in the weekend, some 40 of them, many of them belonging to good friends of mine, and an equally superb collection of wagons and coaches.
     


     
    Day two dawned bright, though not hugely encouraging as the day wore on, becoming wet at times, but all in all a fantastic sunday. Its never good when a loco fails, but my friends electric loco failure mean we got some turns! Covering for a loco thats a good deal more powerful than your own can provide its challanges!
    One of the most challenging turns on the rally is E pilot, or the bunker pilot. Overnight all rolling stock is put away in a massive 6 road 25metre long underground bunker, with the consequent graded headshunt to reach it. The bunker houses the resident 13 mk 1 set, and 2 or 3 lines of wagons when the rally is on, but is full to the rafters over the rally weekend. The bunker pilot is a very busy turn in the early morning, from 8 am onwards. Our turn, around 10 30 was when the last runs of wagons are pulled out. Our little engine was rostered for the turn and proved itself amicably. Pulling not only our rake of coaches with tail traffic up the two 1:100 gradients, no mean feat in itself, then pulling 39 wagons, including 10 loaded out the bunker, and up into theyard above. If ever i could be proud of a loco that was a moment!
     




     
    The rest of the turn passed un eventfully, ending about half 11. Returning to shed, taking the yard pilot with us, a well used little Y4 dock tank, a favourite amongst many mebers!
     


     
    a second turn just after lunch on a down goods had us back into the up yardby mid afternoon to run our final turn of turn of the day, yet again the E pilot! During the day this is an uneventful turn, more a standby duty, occasionally fetching carriages to the bunker. The Previous engine, an apple green V2 had tripped over to the up yard on a transfer working, and we were booked to accompany it back to erimus yard, with the return steel train, where he was due to terminate, and return to the MPD, which is right back to the up yard. Considering i was going over there, i woukld take the steel train, a train of about 3o wagon lengths, but mostly heavy bogie wagons, only bout 15 of, but still a very heavy load. Doubting my ability to pull out the apple tree siding with the train, we set the train down on the V2, and without its assistance in the end, pulled out the steel train, and tripped it to erimus yard. Thats was all the excitement over though really! There had been muttering of a night run but rain bout 5pm put paid to that!
     
    So, yet again the final day dawned bright. Our only turn was a late bunker turn and a the scotch goods, not worth getting up for when last day usually winds down about 3!
     

     
    It did give me the opportunity for some slightly more artistic shots! The early morning light does wonders on wagons! Not ideal as it transpired, though i would love to see some of the phots my mate Kempenfelt took, he hasnt been decent enough to share them yet ;)
     






     
    So, with no booked turns (it turns out the one i did have had been covered already), and seeing noone was covering the duty, thought i'd try my hand at a bit of Yard master! The down yard is the smallest of the yards, but has 2 pilots that dweal with freight trains and any train alterations in the platforms. So in actual terms is quite a busy yard. Many activities involve a bit of light shunting wuith the pilot, organising the odd pic up freight. Removin vans from the rear of trains to collect in the yard to trip over to the up yard to form an up fish train later. It all has significance. But yet again, it turned very wet late on, and rain stopped play, some people carrie on running, but it all got a little shambolic as stok wasnt where it should be and loco failures. Playing yard master is a great way to spend a rally, a sense of control is great in the melay that is a mainline rally! So it is, that this idiot has got himself invited back by a ryedale club commitee member to run a yard next year!
     



     
    It was my intention to limit the words on this post but ah well! so if you've taken the time to read, thank you! Anyway, hopefully you enjoy the pics from the huge variety of rolling stock and activity that was there. Please feel free to comment, GL5 mebers ay hello, and if you wish you are welcome to come along to the next event in May!
     
     
    Cheers all
     
    Mark
  7. London cambrian
    Haha I'm back. I havnt had the time or opportunity lately to be posting on here, partially because of holiday through the finer parts of birmingham on a canal boat, and partly the furious activity in the workshop!
     

     
    Right, having few issues with upload, since the new servers max file size is down to just 2mb, and most of my pics were around the 3mb mark! so sorry if the text isnt fully illustrated!
     
    Im scratching my head actually what has gone on in the time since the post. We had another very enjoyable trip to greystones, catch up with friends, good turn out and a good weekend with the social side in the evening was very enjoyable.
     



     

     
    On the pannier front, visibly not a huge amount appears to have changed however a lare amount of work, cleaning reassembling painting etc has gone in, the largest part in the running boards.
    Originally the running plates had a series of very large over scale rivets in it as per the orignal design. the detailer in me decided these would not do and so hatched on the plan to drill them out, file them flush and replace them with scale 1/16th ones. At the same time i would double the numeber up, and make it look far more realistic. of course, with this in mind you look at phots and realise theres more and more stuff, until you end up putting them all in. of course all the flat side of the runing plate there are more rivets, and bolt heads. so, in they went. And after teaching myself how to and how not to rivet, and about 180 rivets and 30 10BA bolts later, i'm sorta happy!
     





     
    The last few days and tomorrow have/will be spent cleaning these running plates and prepping for priming. the difficult bit is to paint them finally. The top surfaces are black, but most thing facng out wards is maroon, except some steps, which will be very tricky to mask and get sharp crisp lines on, even before we line i in straw, including a lovely arc over the splashers!
     
    Other things include a new set of springs to seat the valves in the chest when no steam is passing them. this means they remain seated when stationary and you can get a nice slow start to the engne when pulling away.
    The bearing on the big end at the crank axle has been modified, it wa rubbing excessively, The vast majority of parts below the running plates have been cleaned and painted. For an engine that hasnt done 200 yards its was filthy thick with dried oils. But everything is now painted.
     

     
    A new mushroom non return valve has been made for the lubricator. this was giving troule whn we last steamed it, steam was blowing back into the lubricator and condensing, no oil was getting to the cylinders and they we squeaking, running dry.
     

     
    The loco is now back on its springs, this has allowed us to finally set valve gear and the balancing of the valves, though we have found that the loco doesnt achieve full forward or reverse as going by the gear rack, a problem we have yet to sort. it'll probably mean making new gear lever racks or changing th reach rod, it may be a little unbalanced as is.
     

     
    Also brake gear has beeen painted and mostly fitted. i'm retaining the fairly crude looking arems for the moment, just get the engine rnning first, they can and will be changed for some nice cast items at a later date, when i order the kit for the new cab i may get some proper GW pattern brake arms. But for the moment, now that the valve chest is sealed down, and the cover soon will be, i can replace the drain cock lever arm, and get the brake gear back together.
     


     
    attention is turning above the running plates. as seen last time, toolboxes are painted, as are now both the tank supports, now that i have some high temperature black paint. The smokebox was cleaned up, though that will not be painted until the tanks are done. these require extensive work, the original design uses horrific great rectangular fillers which need to be replaced by nice round ones, though we are having trouble tracing sufficiently good drawings, if anyone can help with a 57xx water tank filler i would appreciate it!
    other minor jobs have gone on, i attempted an air test to prove the valaves worked, they do, but the loco was too stiff to turn over on the pitiful air supply! I'm contemplating a new blower ring, a combined blast pipe and blower arrangement, the current is a little basic i feel.
     
    I also have friend doing a nearly identical build who is helping along the way, thanks to john if he reads this, him and his mate simon are detailing theirs, doing a few thiongs i'd like to, including a correct profile chimney with the slotted cap, something i'll do pretty soon, when i work out a way of holding the chimney in a chuck!
     
    On other news,
     


     


     
    We made a visit to Harrow and wembley society of model engineers with a few other members of GL5. We were welcomed with open arms and a warm reception, thanks guys. It was also a great opportunity for the first run of the complete set of the coaches! They've been done for a while now, but building the trailer took plenty of time, so that we can move them safely. But anyway, i hope you agree, my dads done a fantastic job on these...
     

     
    Well that wraps it up really.
     
    A trip to gilling for the august mainline rally is for this weekend, the coaches will hopefully be out once again, weather permitting, hopefully get a few turns in, a holiday meant we were late for booking in so have no offical duties over the three days, but there no doubt will be plenty of failures to cover!
     
    And finally, GL5 now has a group on Facebook! we formed a group to have a little chat about things, so if you're interested in what we do, just click join group, have a look at our photos, no member ship required, though drop me (Mark Harding a message about it before hand, mention rmweb) and i'll let you in.
     
    Any GL5 members reading i hope to see you this weekend at gilling, anyone just coming along,your perfectly welcome to come and watch, its always good fun, please say hello, make yourself know, i'll most likely be on my electric most the day, but please say hello!
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  8. London cambrian
    Morning all
     
    A little later than intended but a quick catch up before another visit to Greystones this weekend, and pictures i'm sure.
     
    Yes the last few weeks have mainly been pannier overhaul, most of it covered in the last post. The frames have gone from rolling chassis to flat pack and back in a matter of days, with a layer of paint in.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5Qg-yjXxyg&feature=plcp
     
    The air test, a short clip above revealed the expected niggles. The biggest problem, revealed just by rollling it over on the bench was tightness in the frames. Its perfectly normal for a locoto be tight after being built, i'm sure many will be familiar with running in. But this tightness was patchy, nad while most would wear out, as much of it did under air, just half an hour of running had freed considerably. A partial solution is to take a fraction off of the right hand big end bearing surface, frees it up further.
     

     
    Another solution is taking a little off of the axlebox faces, so that there is a little movement sideways.What many model engineers have failed to understand is that a loco needs a bit of slop all round, and cannot be made absolutely tight, like this one is.
     
     
    Elsewhere a few bits are being disassembled, stripped down and painted in preparation for the final modifications to the chassis, and reassembly in the next few weeks.
     
    A few things like tank suports and tool boxes have been painted, but i wasnt happy with the finish so they need to be re painted.
     


     
    Rods have also be reassembled, painted and ready to go.
     
    Another project in the workshop has been our riding truck, now a fully fledged Milk van, a ventilated van for carrying milk churns before tankers became widespread. We found that we were using it so little now for its purpose, that we decided to make it look a bit more presentable.
    So with the addition of semi scale footboards and a new roof (we are retaining the old padded one of course) it looks like this.
     



     
    Also added is a water tank for the ever approaching pannier tank, so we can draw cold water from a seperate tank for the injectors. Injectors dont tend to like warm water, and if you were to draw water for them from the side tanks, the injectors would most likely stop working. I may put a tank in the bunker for use of injectors on a raised track where they are little used when you have an axle pump.
     
    On top of all this tinkering, we went to the brent house railway once again. Pictures below.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Over the day i drove a friends little great western saddletank.The class escapes me but its a fantastic model. A clinkered fire is my excuse for battling to maintai n pressure, so in the end bynthe end of the day we retired it, though for a small 0-6-0, it did fairly well with the heavy lump of myself, 2 rather old passenger coaches and two parcels vehicle.
     
     
    Right, later maybe down to greystones and have a play there, into the evening and stay over to tomorrow, and come back after a good catch up.
     
    Cheers all
     
    Mark
  9. London cambrian
    Hi again, thought you got rid of me didnt you!?
     
    Nope, back after a while since my last post and alot has happend in the intervening time.
     
    Most importantly the pannier has moved on in leaps and bounds.
     
    If you look back to previous posts you'l see when last shown the frames we all bare metal, i was having varying issues, and it was realy grubby and covered in oil.
    After a call from my grandfather to come over and stay for a few days, view latest progress on his 7 1/4 B1 and other things, i realised it would be an excellent opportunity to set all the valve gear, as he is abit of an artist when it comes to sorting the most intricate and tricky part of any loco.Theres really only one way to have valve gear set, anything else is bad.
     
    This was Monday before last, and ideally i would want all the loco frames painted, the valve gear painted where it wasnt rubbing and th rest of the wheelsets finished in maroon. No small order in 5 days till the weekend. To make it worse I had some sixth form inductiojn days mon/tues, so actually had only 3 days to strip the loco so it resemmbled an ikea product, deep clean it to remove any trace of grease (paint wont stick over it), prime in etch primer grey, mask off any bearing surfaces, spray the black bits and hand paint all the red, everything had to receive atleast 2 cots of this (precision paints buffer beam red, pretty good stuff. And then reassemble into somethingi could work with. In 3 days. Let the Marathon begin!
     
    The buffer beams were the first things off. They had been painted red, but this was flaking as the original builder hadnt used any primer, and the rivets he used, not real, just dummy this time we so easy to pop out it was untrue, several had already come loose. So armed with a can of ambercleanse and plenty of kitchen towel, i removed all the grease and removed all the paint by hand. the buffer stocks themselves got the same sort of treatment. they were spin up in the lather and the paint removed. I also replaced the step pads on the them with some lovely cast ones i had left over from my dads Britannia. All the dummy rivets were popped out, partially as they were copper in a steel buffer beam (would have suffered from bi metallic corrosion) drilled out deeper, and replaced with steel ones. The whole beam was then all primed up, everything seperately, and the backs of the beams painted black. The masking tape has been left on to keep the primer pristine for when i put on thestocks and paint the whole lot red.


     
    On Wednesday, the whole frame assembly was stripped down into flat pack. Anything like valve gear was reuced almost as far asit can be disassembled, and placed in panel wipe to remove the grease. The frames were stripped and seperated, and wiped down repeatedly with varying cleaners and panel wipe, before being primed with etch primer. Then the outside of the frames were sprayed black (Halfords satin black aerosol!) and the insides sprayed upto the point of the middle frame stretcher. everything forward of this is painted red. Red was used as a rudimentary form of crack detection, the principle being that dirt gathered in the cracks and showed against the red. Anywhere red received 2 coats of best bufferbeam red bruch painted on, great care being taken to make a sharp edge with the black. This was done by temporairily bolting frame stretcher, motion bracket and cylinder block in and painting upto them.
     





     
    After that anything else that could be painted, was. The crossheads, the sides all receive a coat of red, as did the lifting arm, the con rods and the coupling rods. The thin parts of the eccentric straps also received a coat of red. As did the rear face (facing inwards to the frame) of the cylinder block. I'll reserve judgement of this for the mo, the cylinder block will get quite hot under steam, and as this is not high temperature paint. So it may flake off, but for now, i dont mind, it wont show.
     

     
    The rods on a london Transport pannier sport a rather interesting paint scheme. As many may have noticed coupling rodsare rarely painted on a steam loco, even rarer two tone! The LT rods are red with black bosses around the bearings. After a clean up, andf thall the brass bearing surfaces masked up, the rods were primed before after a tricky masking session, the ends around the bosses painted black. After that had dried (a fairly quick time compared to the brush on!) the red was then painted on, in two coats. this was a crucial appearance item, because they are visible items and noticeable, especially if you have a spoiled the paintwork!
     





     
    The wheelsets were the final major item. The inside wheelset wasnt painted before so after a bath in panel wipe, and a liberal application of masking tape, it was primed, and then painted in my shade of London Transport red. The axleboxes was left in panel wipe for a good few hours and afterf much investigation (caused by me not recording which was round the wheelsets came out, locoframes, even slightly out of alignment are very sensitive to bits not being in the right way round, as i'm sure many have found!) was reassembled.
     




     



     
    All this, waiting for parts to dry, especiallly anything in red, and cleaning up and priming of various bolts, took me to friday night. I had arranged to meet my grandfather at the guildford society rally on saturday, and go to his for the week. so it needed to be reassembled that night ideally, so i could set all the valve gear over next (this week) I was up till midnight reassembling frames, and dropping wheelsets back in.i however reached a point where i couldnt do anymore until i had drilled some new oil wells in the con rods, so i finished at half midnight with the engine with rods on, wheels in but no valve gear.
     

     
    In Farnborough, under the sound of roaring jets at the airshow, i finished the chassis, drilledin oil wells and went through the motions of equally setting the eccentrics, balancing the valves and getting the best out of the valve gear.
     
    We ran it on air, and noticed it was very lumpy, and there was a massive air leak. So after liberal application of thick steam oil, much of the leak in the cylinder was sealed into the valve chest, but the tightness still persisted. i tried several things, with varying success, until on wednesday, i felt reasonably comfortable with putting it back under air.
     


     
    Wednesday is the trackwork day at the Frimley Lodge miniature railway, and a perfect opportunity for a good air run. So after back breaking work restoring ballast shoring, and a delicious curry, i had the chassi on the steaming bays, and ran it up and down on bay.It was then a case of chocking the chassis up and turning over for about half an hour on the air line. All the time it got steadily freer and knockings became less or more apparent. all in all a useful little session. I'll leave it to a second post to expand and fill in on everything else. Hopefully i'll have a video up as well, just to prove it does work!
     
     
    Right, sorry this has all kinda been one subject but its been a massive marathon charge to do it! Other things going on have been the odd bits and pieces, sorting the trailer out, the milk van riding truck has received a bit of an overhaul and detailing. And today i worked on the next stage of the engne overhaul, the running plates, springs and brake gear, as well as fixing the outstanding niggles.
     
    Cheers all, next post will hopefully be sooner, though it may not be tillsunday evening, as its off to brent house again on sunday, driving an SR Q1, possibly if i'm lucky mike a 32XX.
     
    Cheers all
     
     
    Mark
  10. London cambrian
    How do all.
     
    Well, I'll take abreak from my constant schedul or revising to bring you the news of the weekend just gone
     
    Twice a year, Ryedale Society of model engineers and The Lindsey Model society (Yes the LMS!) Organise a Main line rally at the Ryedale track at Gilling (Village of Gilling East, look up 54.184772,-1.061845 in google maps).
     
    Its a double track mainline with three yards, an MPD and rolling stock storage bunker, semi automated signalling system as well as two manual signal boxes. I woul;dnt say its the perfect place fo railway operations but it does a damn good job! A large amount of stock lives at Gilling, including a rake of 13 BR Mark 1 coaches, detailed down to the nth degree. That and ahost of Ryedale members wagons. But when a mainline rally is on, it gets very crowded despite its size, and we had 200 plus wagons there, and probably around 30 coaches with 10 parcels vehicles. So alot of stock. Around 15-20 steam engines, and 10 diesel or electric locos,



     
    The railway is all run to a timetable, with each move planned a head, starting about 8 am with a bunker pilot duty, trip workings, the local passenger, Parcels, milk, the Down Paletine express, and then varying trains of Fish, Mineral, Oil train, Pick up goods, Fitted vans, semi fitted freight, bulk steel, etc etc. The only thing we are short of are permenant way trains, mainly because we lack the stock! The odd mishap or cancellation happens because of loco failure, of which there were quite a few this weekend, but trip freights and special movements are organised as traffic demands, and yard pilot duties are changed regularly with trains departing from one yard, terminating in another and running light loco back to the shed, often with the pilot at change of shift.
    I think minimumm motive power required is 4 train engines and 5 pilots (1 for each yard and 2 spare as up and down line pilot/spares)but a lot more are often in steam waiting to come on or off shift.
     

     
    My Weekend
     
    It was touch and go whether we would go or not, but glad we did cos we had a great time. Its my first time there, done loads of other GL5 stuff but never the rally. The weather nearly put us off, me and my dad were both tired on the friday night, and bad weather would not be kind to our coaches so we were in two minds. So, having hitched up the trailer, loco, someone elses wagon, (a very nice NE drop door wooden hopper), riding truck and the 4th coach, completed the day before in the boot, we set off on the 3 hr journey up north. We got there, meeting friend from previous events there, pitched tent and sidled off down the pub to talk all things railway. Returned from Pub about 11;30, went to check our duty roster (you are given a charge sheet of all the duties we would be handling that day) Anyway, started talking to a couple of guys and ended up not going to bed till 1:30!
     
     
    First day dawned, got up to see people getting engines ready for their first turns at 7:30am! So, unloaded engine and took a proper read of my charge sheet for the day. 3 duties, but in the end we ended up doing 4 because a friend was double booked. He was meant to be in both the up and down yards at the same time. So as we had that duty before him, we just carried on and covered his. )its very unusual to do so many, most people are booked for only 2 maybe 3) we left the yard at 20 to 12, for PA4, down yard and station pilot duty. A duty that involves frantic rushing around then sitting idel for long periods, running onto the mainline occasionally and being quick on your feet, especially with the signalman shouting abuse at you! (all light hearted of course!) We were on for an hour and a half, covering the next pilot as well before being rushed over to the up yard to form the 14;25 up local, double headed with another electric. It was on this run that we blew a fuse on the bank with 10 coaches on, so, as a failed loco, rescued by the standby pilot. this put our final run in jeopardy but a leant fuse meant we could fulfill it, taking it cautiously with our 4 coaches, the teak glistening in the sunlight.
     




    Myself taking the teaks out, the dribving truck looking truly in place, not a hugely common thing
     

     
    Sunday dawned dry but overcast. Our turns were not till 2pm, so we could relax abit. Our second turn would be a local around 4pm, but as its the last day and ecveryone packs up, i went to the duty foremna, alan and put myself forward for cover duties. A duty duly arrived in the shape of covering the up local passenger with 3 mark 1s and some fish vans, for a failed class 20.

     
    With that turn completed, retrurn to shed, and get some tea! However around lunch was again called after one engine didnt show and thother failed, but that turn was covered buy a better suited loco. So, back to standby. Then, talking and eating cake in the clubhouse, Foreman comes in, 'can you cover a pilot turn?' of course, i can, so 13:43 off shed, over to the down yard to fill a by now familiar station pilot turn!

    All the time when on station pilot turn, also acting as shunter, organiser and all round dogsbody to the signalman! Anyway, the coaches got a run, with our friend other metropolitan electric, in an afternoon local, a great sight with the engine whirring its way up the banks.
    All too soon it was over, we packed the coaches uinto the trailer and beat a hasty retreat home, just before 5, stopping to collect some bits for my next wagons, and saying our goodbyes, and 'see you at the AGM at Brenthouse'
     
     




    121 wagons just in this one yard at one point, more round the track and wagons that never came out, stayed in the bunker!

    Amongst my favourite wagons there, as well as various extraordinary loads, plate glass, foundry castings, ships propellors , a diving bell, several cars, cable drums, a tunel gauging vehicle, and other assorted oddballs!
     

     
    All in all a very enjoyable but very tiring weekend, i do have a few things iwould change or note, but i wont bore you here!
    Its not perfect, it does fall down in one or two places and as any club you get the odd character, and difference of opinion but its hugely enjoyable and definitely something i'll do again, hopefully in August!
     
    If any one wishes to come and watch, the public are more than welcome to come and watch. The next event is August bank holiday if your in the area. Say hello to me, follow what the organisers ask, unlike some people we encountered and got all officious, but most of all come, watch and enjoy!
     

     
    Sorry its so long, but a long weekend deserves a write up!
     
    If your still with me,
     
    Cheers all
     
     
    Mark
  11. London cambrian
    Hi all.
     
    Now, with time on my hands, progress can seriously rebegin on the pannier tank!
     

     
    Right, bit of background. In 2010 we bought this fully built but almost totally unpainted pannier tank from a dealer.
     

     
    Really it was a bit of a catch. We had just sold our part built winson Britannia (a battle in itself!) and we always wanted a pannier, the LT connection being evident!
     

     
    So we purchased it, had it on a rolling road, and apart from a few niggles, all seemed well. So, into the workshop, took tanks, cab, boiler off to get at the water pumps, and fix them, they were not pumping sufficiently, making getting water in the boiler a little difficult. While it was this far down, we took the time to investigate the valve gear. We knew we'd have to reset it a bit, but what we had was perhaps a partially set gear set with eccentrics all over the place. To be honest it was a miracle it ran at all! We also wanted to do some mods to make it to the Don Ashton/Doug hewson valve gear, which improves valve events and therefore steam efficiency. It basically went down to rolling chassis, and the mods we made. We then went to air test it, what we thought was a pin on the rocker shafts sheared and it was put on the shelf, lacking enthusiasm for about 6 months.
     

     
    Until last week. With exams finished and the 4 coaches we said weren’t going to be built till after the pannier have been completed, the project was restarted!
     

     
    So, with my newly found freedom, I set to work. First job, take the motion plate had to be dropped out. Now I’m sure this is true on many other locos but basically a pannier tank to the Pansy Design is a pain in the neck. Everything has to be done in a certain order, as I have found to my cost several times! The wheels have to out to get at the bracket or even the reversing gear for that matter, because the wheels are in the way! So, down to bare frames it was. We had done some modifications to the cylinder block during the last blitz, new piston rings and countersunk bolts in the covers so this could stay in. Plus it adds strength to the frame and keeps it square when the motion bracket and frame stretcher aren’t in.
     



     
    The motion bracket was removed and the offending rocker was found to be only grub screwed to the shaft, no sheared pin hooray! It was also found that the previous owner had drilled for pins but never put them in, but had reassembled anyway. So, pins were made, with the holes opened out slightly, and the bracket was reassembled, both rockers being fixed. These will be Loctite-d when it comes to panting. We haven’t painted at this stage because of many potential adjustments that may be needed, but it could be done now.
     


     
     
    All the valve gear were taken to the drawings and compared for length, and we were very pleased to find this man was a pretty good machinist! Everything dead on. It was also at this point I found out the valve gear wasn’t to the published pansy Stephenson valve gear designs (which leave a little to be desired) but to the improved designs. Oh Joyous day! So everything was assembled back together, wheels dropped back in.
    Now, I expected everything to be a little tight when first running because many joints would be dry of all. But not this tight. And what was more the valve gear seemed to have developed a strange rear bias, meaning the mid position of the valve gear was quite far forwards. Back to the drawing, but everything seemed well. Pieces were assembled again, and yet again the bias is there. I must confess to still not knowing its cause yet, but that’s for a future post. All it means that mid gear has the expansion links are quite a way down on the die blocks, for those technically minded.
     


     
    However the tightness was fixed when a second set of eyes entered the workshop, and noted the centre axle was in upside down! Oil pots were pointing down. Ah well. Strip down again, and turn the axle over. The strip allowed me to confirm what I thought as well, the right hand cylinder is a little stiff, hopefully will loosen with time and steam oil.
     

     
    Currently I am consulting with a friend on the valve gear issue. I have a feeling it may be to do with the position of the reversing lever and the rack for it, the pansy isn’t different drawing wise to the ashton valve gear, but that to me is a likely solution, that and the lifting arm/links that we replaced.
     
    Other than that, so far things are pretty good. While this was all going on I drilled the oil wells and channels in the top of the axleboxes on the centre axle yesterday. After reassembly it was back to square one really, today I made a start on some springs over the top of the valves in the chest below the cylinders. These stop the valves dropping off the port faces when stationary, which require a heavy hand on the regulator to shut when starting otherwise. I am still pondering this, most likely a brass strip over the buckles and a small spring or more likely phosphor bronze strip to keep everything pushed down. Sorry no photos of that.
     
    The next job is I’m probably going to strip and paint. Other than that valve thing, I am otherwise happy with it. So its paint the last pair of wheels. Pain the frames, black on the outside, buffer beam red inside up to the frame stretcher and black all the way back from that. New coat of red on the buffers and beams. All the motion will mostly be left bright, there seems to be variations in prototype panniers, but because it’s more cramped than a full size one, it’ll probably be left oiled steel.
    The coupling rods are all distinctively red (unlike to my disappointment the tyseley pannier!) with the bearings outlined in black. In case anyone is interested, the shade of red we use is Volkswagen Gambia Red from Halfords!
     

     
    To other matters. The trailer is being built for the coaches, and adaption and extension of a standard Erde trailer. I haven’t any pictures, but it involves a system of using rods through all the coaches and the side of the trailer to support them, meaning they cannot go anywhere, and it should take far less time to pack away at runs! I haven’t my camera with me so I’m afraid photos will wait till it’s finished.
     
    For the benefit of Pannier tank, few shots of one of the 3 or 4 reasonable regular 08s, this one resident at the Lindsey society track in Lincolnshire, possibly the most railway like track, and one of the smallest as well!
     


     
    Finally a few more shots of echills wood event last weekend, thanks go to Mark Franklin for letting me use his pictures.
     

    On of a pair of black 5s that day is seen on the approach to the level crossing i think...
     

     
    Mike (Dinmore Manor) on the GW Hall over the station/yard level crossing.
     

     
    A rather nice Blue Duchess visiting, an engine that probably for springing reasons in wet weather was a little light on its feet! I beleive Mike did several laps acting as banker for it!
     

     
    A BR B1, an engine that my my grandfather (who built the T1 seen last post) is building, though in LNER Green. I tried to persuade him it had to be black but higher authorities said no!
     

     
    That very nice dean goods again, alledgedly painted in Land rover green!
     

     
    Finally an LNER 02, and engine i have seen plenty in 5 inch of but few in 7 1/4. And i think and German state railways Kriegslok (correct if wrong please!)
     
     
    Right, I will be back next week, I am away at the moment so no pannier activity till at least Monday, hope you enjoy.
     
    Thanks again if your still with me. Anyone with knowledge of valve gear, please chip in!
     
    Cheers
     
     
    Mark
  12. London cambrian
    Hi all,
     
    Fun packed weekend this weekend, despite inclement weather, the GL5 AGM was held at brent house in cambridgeshire, Echills Wood railway held their Standard Gauge gala, which i wandered along to, and today has been busy.
     
    Right, deep in darkest cambridgeshire lies the Brent House Railway, a 5 inch gauge railway, double track mainline with branchline, 3 yards and a 50 lever signal box!
     

    The Yard throat and station approach with the smaller yard cabin
     

    The main Motive power depot, after the BBQ, when most of the locos had been put away
     

    The station platform roads
     

    The upper junction, where the line down to brundall gardens branches off both the up and down lines
     

    The view the other way down the slope, into the station, from the junction. I didnt get any shots of elsewhere really, i'm sorry to say
     
     
    Its owned by one of the co creators of GL5, which started with a 3 hour conversation about 30 years ago! Hes also the man taking pride of place in his 'signalbox' in the post on Gilling!
     
    Anyway, this weekend was the Annual General Meeting of the GL5, so its always a good excuse to have a bit of a rally! We turned up at about 12, to find a very quiet track. A locomtive shortage because of a poor forecast, meant we only had 8 engines or so, and could have done with a few more. However this provided to keep up my end of an offer i made to the owner, Brent.
     
    At the mainline rally, brent commented that he had been stuck in the signal box all day because as always noone else could run it (it takes a great amount of skill and patience to do a mainline rally manually!) And then went on to muter that it would be the same at his tracks rally for the AGM, so in my infinite sensibility i volunteered to learn his Box!
     


     
    All 50 levers, block instrument (A real set i beleive) and deciphering and learning which signals are where, and then remembering signalling procedure!
     

     

    A 2F dock tank trundels past with a pick up freight from Tidsbury yard
     



    The other end of the station, with the wagon storage bunker on the right
     

    They're not as finaescale as the gilling ones but they make for a good sight behind an engine, along with the maunsell coaches and suburban set there.
     

     
    Familiar to you all i hope, our engine on a freight.
     

     
    A pair of wagons i have been wanting to see for a while, double bolsters, one of only 4 sets including mine, i beleive in GL5. Good chat with the owner about how he made those!
     


    Again, no 18 Michael faraday runs past on a freight, video below.
     

     
    Finally for brents rally, the T1 descends the grade with a freight.

     
    So after, the running, the meeting was held, and we all slowly began packing away, we had only taken engine and driving truck, so not a big job fo us. I of course (typically for the hard part!) ended up as the signal man for the frantic activity of signalling all trains in to put stock away! A tricky job with trains of wagons and engines going to and fro. Anyway, our chairman manned the BBQ and the general chater on railway matters commenced!
     
    As if one day of railways wasnt enough, My grandfather invited me over to Echills wood railway with him for their 7 1/4 standard gauge weekend. Its not my usual fair, but hey run reasonable trains of wagons and rolling stock, and it was near so what the heck! Having friend sin the right places, and we also met up with Dinmore Manor (On here, not the loco!). I must say there were some very nice locos there. I only managed a few shots, but i'll put up part 2 with some more froma friend.
     
    A workstained 4F in the steaming bays

     
    A very nice Dean goods, wouldnt make a bad model in 5!

     
    My Grandfathers T1. A beast of an engine, was hardly worked that day with 10 coal wagons!

     
    A workstained Q1 which seemed to spend most of its time in the yard that i saw it!
     

     

     
    Right, thanks for looking, hope you enjoy, feel free to comment and I'll put part 2 up tomorrow, more pics, work on the trailer and finally some work on the pannier tank!
     
    Cheers all
     
     
    Mark
  13. London cambrian
    Hi all
     
    This ones gonna be picture heavy so sorry to anyone with a slow browser!
     
    Went to Railfest on the tuesday bank holiday, took a look around, and despite the weather had a thoroughly enjoyable day. I'm guessing knows the big deal about railfest, so as per you might expect was dominated by the big names in preservation, Mallard, Tornado, Lizzie, truro, and even scotsman, just about back in loco form made it. But luckily a few more workaday forms made it, with everything from the smallest standard gauge loco, to my favourite, the last engine to run outside of preservation on the mainline in revenuse servcie, London transport's L94 (yes up until the last day on 6th june 1971, three panniers were still running over BR metals on a regular basis to the exchange sidings at West Kensington, in blatant defiance of the steam ban!)
     
    Right amongst the stars, a rather appropriate pairing was made; L94 and Sarah siddons, 2 of only 3 working LT locos in LT livery, paired together.
     



     
    Acuriosity of the show was the drift bogie from the bowes railway, a wagon that was used with ropes to gravity shunt wagons at several collieries right into the latter years of NCB
     

    I'd hate to be the shunter on one, his position is where one of the buffers would have been!
     

     
    Cheltenham, fresh out of Eastleigh works, i doubt he paint was fully dry! I also doubt it had even run a mile beofre getting to Railfest. Also i beleive the most powerful class of 4-4-0 hence its place at railfest
     

     
    The oldest working steam loco, Funess railway no 20, not a pleasant experience driving it must have been!
     

     
    The NRMs 37, My mate has one in this livery in 5'', seen in several picture of gilling.
     

     
    Everyone favourite new build pacific, actually the first time i've seen it since i saw it that first weekend up at the GCR when it was still in grey and running in, 2008!
     


     
    Almost top shed 1949, shame about the fences!they were strange those, they were there, put up for the event, but there were gaps in them so people could get down onto the ballast and round the locos, not quite sure of their function really!
     

     
    Palmerston, not prince, which appeared at Railfest 2004, which i also went to, and was there the day that Pen-y-darren, fell off its wheels! (one of the iron axles broke, leaving it in an embarressing state of twisted across the track, 3 wheels on my wagon!)
     



     
    You all know this one! Again first time i'd seen Hamilton since streamlining. Last saw it, unstreamlined at Railfest 2004!
     

     
    Bill Parker's Polska Prairie. It has an air pump fitted round the other side left over from its wanderings hauling suburban services in Eastern Europe
     

     
    A large contingent of modern stock turned up too. Sorry if my captions are more brief, not really my bag!
     


     

     
    The Mardy monster, the most powerful 0-6-0 industrial tank built for the UK, about the sdame power as a 7F classification loco!
     

     
    Thunderbird loco, tintin, along with virgins 2 car trainer unit were on site, demonstrating the coupler
     

     
    The brighton belle, and interesting project to recreate one of the three 5-BEL pullman DMUs to run on the mainline, one of the restored powercars was there.
     

     
    A rare tripo north for one of the javelin units, that run HS1, and may do the same fo HS2 should it ever come.
     

     
    The grand old 100mph lady herself, City of truro
     


     
    Britains (possibly the worlds) smallest standard gauge loco, gazelle made the trip from the KESR. Its original owner, in 2-2-2 guise reserved running rights all over east anglia in her, travelling over many mainline until she was purchased for the shopshire and montgomeryshire railway by Col stephens. then,when the army took the line over, she worked on till transferred to the longmoor military railway and put on display, before being donated to the KESR. As if to empahsise, theres a shot of her inside cylinder driving her 4 driving wheels (yes converted), it cant be anymore than 6'' bore!
     

    Evening star

    SECR Wainwright D class

    J69 'Buckjumper'

    Stephenson Long Boiler goods

    Terrier box hill, approproately boxed in, by the fencing which is so unneccessarily prevalent at the NRM

    LSWR M7

    The rather depleted Main hall
     

     
    SECR pullman Car Topaz in a beautiful rich red-brown colour, being mooted as a future 5'' gauge project! Thje MET had 2 pullman cars, which save from a few modifications such as no gangways and a slightly narrower roof profile, were identical to SECR pullamns, like topaz, actually from the same batch (Edward wtakin being chairman of both companies might have had something to do with it!)
     
    Engine there that escaped the camera (exluding residents inside)
     
    Mallard, Scotsman, Deltic production model, Webb Coal tank, Jubilee Bahamas, Teddy (industrial, with very small cylinders!) GNR N2, LNWR Precedent, Peter Pan Puffing Billy and varying coaches, and other small locos, and several diesels, and oddities.
     
    My thoughts. I feel that the NRM is getting a bit hemmed in, tucking its stock into corners. Ideally the gret hall needs a sorting out, i couldnt photograph the aspinall 2-4-2 because there were access ladders in the way, the lighting in the station hall is appalling, and all the locos are incarcerated in wooden boards, stopping people falling off platform edges. The BoB spamcan, Winston Churchill was looking a little tired, and things were often difficuklt to appreciate properly. But its still ver yworth while going, i shall be going back soon. Even if its just for the warehouse which is crammed with thousands of interesting things, as well as many 5 inch models, designer models and paraphenalia.
     
    Railfest i felt needed to take a leaf out of Barrow Hill's book. Only the two running lines were moving. things would be better for it. Only truro was runing the shuttle. Many locos were in light steam, but, especially the coal tank, were trapped in by up to 6 dead locos ahead. if they were at the front, they'd be able to move and give the public a better show.
     
    But other wise i thoroughly enjoyed my day. I will be back soon!
     
    Right, on another note, if you can handle any more pics, finally the coaches are finished! People who missed the last post, they are now running, rolling, and have now all received their final numbers, decor, individual works plates (2 built in 1919, 2 in 1923 and one in 1912, and all the works plates correctly reflect that!)
     
    So they have gone from this;

     
    To this in 8 months.

     
    We also took the opportunity to line them up in the house, 24ft of coaches, with the locos and riding truck thats 32ft of teak coach and engine!
     




     
    First run out is next weekend
     
     
    Right, still with me? Good, you can relax, its over!
     
    Cheers
     
    Comments as usual welcome
     
    Sorry its been so image heavy,
     
     
    Mark
  14. London cambrian
    Hi all
     
    With the excitement of the last few weeks with gilling mainline rally, things at Neasden carriage and wagon outpost have calmed down!
     
    The lull in any running and with the exam season in full swing the opportunity was taken to do a bit of finishing and new things in the loco. so this post will be a bit of a workshoppy type post
     
     
    The project to build the full rake of coaches nears completion. My dad, the builder of the coaces has received the final eight wheels, the last few days they went onto their axles.
    Hes been painting the bogies, having assembled them as he built them, mainly from aluminium, and them disassembled them for painting, for the past few weeks, However while the 4th coach in the set, the Metropolitan railway dreadnought first class coach made its debut at the Mainline rally at gilling, the other one, was still lacking wheels. On friday he got them from the machinist (yes we could turn them ourselves, we have the capcity but its easier and quicker to expend the money and have them CNC machined) and fitted them to the axles, after a slight hitch where we only had 7 of the eight wheels! The axles are turned to SMEE (society of model and experimental engineers) back to back standards from 12mmsteel bar, the wheel bores are 10 and the bearing surfaces are 8mm, running in plastic bearings inside a white metal axle boxes, running in slots in the frames, supported ansd sprung with an 8 leaf working leaf srping, made from 10mm wide packing crate banding! Try getting that in a 4mm model!
     
    so we now have all five carriages rolling. In theory we could take it to a friends track tomorrow and give them their first run as a full set. But as ever the problem remains of transporting them. We take three in the trailer but the current system for securing them is awful and would have been replaced this weekend but our metal suppliers were closed for the weekend (grrrrrr mutter lazy mutter mutter) so that put paid to building the new system for the trailer that would allow us to stack and transport all 5 with space for extra gear.
     
    But the time did allow him to detail the coaches further.
     


     
    On the end of the vast majority of coaches of that era there exists controls for the lighting, These are a series of rods, running through or below several electrical switch boxes. They are a very prominent feature that is part of the clutter on the end of a coach, but our first coach has been running without it for nearly 10 years! So, a little while ago some research was carried out, with the aid of a London transport rolling stock engineer, (heres your credit Engineer_London!) and we found a general arrangement of these control boxes (two for heating controls and 1 larger for lighting), in relation to battery boxes and the 600 volt train line for the engines, and carriage orientation. But as with all best plans, picture evidence always contradicts so a certain amount of license has to be taken!
     

     
    Whatever, the boxes were cast from whitemetal into a homemade mould. The patterns were rapid prototyped, a brlliant but expensive process, and sillicon moulded around to make the moulds. Rodding is brass strip, cant remember the exact size, and the securing covers, only approximations of the full size thing because of their small scale size, were milled from more brass, and all glued together, before being nailed to the body work. The biggest problem came from positioning. There is very little spare room on the rear ends, and on the protoype some boxes replace the steps. what made it worse is the drawings for the end are not accurate copies, so a lot of jiggling was required to fit all the rodding between steps, other rods, windows, vacum pipes, tail lamps and lamp brackets! But he got it in the end.
     



     
    The final job were all the conduits that run from the Heating control boxes upto the top corner and diappear into a junction box. This was made fom 16th rass rodding, bent to the proper path and soldered togther, before being painted black and fitted on.
     

     
    These are all fairly simple jobs but it all takes time. this has been the work of nearly all week for him, though we cast the boxes a few weeks back. But considering there are 5 coaches, thats10 small boxes, 5 larger ones, 20 bits of rodding (one rod is in two parts) 10 bits of conduit, 10 securing rails, and about 30 bits of wood packing, not bad really, all of course sprayed black individually.
     
    All that now remains are lighting connectors, the 600 volt bus line (actually 12 volts coach lighting circuits) works plates, bodyside numbers, one set of vacum pipes and door handles (64 off! They'll be made by lost wax casting, by an outside contractor, he did the original 20 by hand!)
     
    I havnt been totally idle. The exam period has afforded me with the odd bit of free time and i have spent it semi constructively!
     
    For a long time now, the loco (Metroploitan railway Metrovick no 18 michael Faraday) has had front and rear headlights. however further research reveals they are actually headcodes, and marker lights rather than headlamps as such. they were a cool white with red being achieved by lenses. Rumours of green and blue lights via similar method persist! But red was only used when running light or shunting. Our loco has always carried red and whites. this however is really wrong, because it is not the end of the train. So with the advent of radio control and are ability to switch at which ends these lights appear, thoughts turned to havng the option of taking the reds out as and when required.
     


     
    The original basic circuit was of 5 LEDs in one circuit running of the 12 volts off the main batteries on one circuit (4in series, 1 in parallel) and four in another circuit arranged bu use of a dual LED lamp (perspex rod with LEDs fired into it so either colour can appear out the end!) so that each lamp except one can be switched from white to red, by the flick of a joystick on the controller and a radio control swithc wired to a relay.
     



     
    For the electrically minded of you, a circuit diagram is included, not 100% accurate but the basics of it. A relay was then into the existing circuits with the option that rather than going via the red LEDs, the current returned via an equal resistance resitor and back to the battery, leaving the reds off. The relay was controlled by a remotely operated switch on the 5th channel of the radi set (the one usually used for landing gear in model aircraft)
     
    After having rewired parts of the body shell, the lighting was tested with the loco on the rolling road, and hey presto, everything worked perfectly first time! Very pleased i was with myself that day! I then replaced all the water proof covers for the LEDs ion the body shell (scaffold tubing end covers!) it is now back in service.
     


     
    The next challenge was solving a problem highlighted over the past few runs. The loco is incredily free running, and will roll away down a hill, or as at gilling, heavy shunt into rolling stock parked on the down hill, annoying the shunter no end! So, fitting in a servo operted radio control parking brake is the next challenge! we still have a channel free on the radio set so.
     
    But, if you have battled your way through that,and found it interesting, then comment, leave your thoughts etc etc and await the next installment, if not all abuse kindly sent elsewhere!
     
    If off to quainton tomorrow, the Bucks railway centre, to see a m,an about a dog, but i beleive the next run is at Brent house in cambridgeshire, for the GL5 AGM on 17th june. If nothing interesting happens before then, i shall post then,but feel free toleave comments here.
     
    Thanks all
     
     
    Mark
  15. London cambrian
    Right since i got such a great response last time, a few more photos can be posted! That and a few of the best videos from the day and one for Kempenfelt
     
    Before i collapse from what is almost certainly alife threatening ailment, i shall continue!
     
    You heard all the details yesterday so few more piccies wouldnt go amiss.
    To satisfy john, here is a pic of his admittedly lovely sounding western, nearly twice the length of my loco!

     

    Double heading metrovicks, literally minuter before blowing a fuse on a ten coach train, possibly because mIke (the driver in front wasnt pulling his weight!
     

    One i'll put on the GL5 forum, our very own regular signal man in his new box! he shouts 'comments' from the box, but nobody takes him too seriously because depsite all his wingeing we can see the enjoyment in his face!
     


    Another couple of shots of the turnatbe well and MPD, a wide variety of motive power
     

    Finally piccies wise, a recreation of Rickmansworth pre 1960 perhaps?
     
    I'll leave you with these videos, a small selection of my vids from the day. More will be on my youtube channel, GL5mark in due course
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mn85HirARk
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzOPiobIrJM
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyZvIvn1Mss
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opp6UmoD6Sw
    The last video has John's western, uip on the embankment, clearly heard from  ost places on the track, along with the 2 37s!
     
     
    Finally, one for you kempenfelt and dinmore manor especially. The Dave Noble 21 ton hopper
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G2_AXeaTSA
    There were 5 of these at gilling this weekend, and for the occasion a quickly knocked up staithe was erected to let dave play with his hoppers and entertain the kids!
     
    Ok, i shall go and recover from my illness, and go back to exam prep tomorrow.
     
    Feel free to leave comments, its good to hear your feedback!
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  16. London cambrian
    Hi all.
     
    Your in luck, double helping of my crazy antics. Thanks for all your comments on previous posts, keeps me putting them up!
     
    The reason for the title is that there are three greystones runs a year, so if i go, there'll be plenty more this year!
     
    With the gilling mainline rally this weekend, i'm off tomorrow evening to go camp in a field, get up at 8am and run trains in the wet! Lots of fun.
     
     
    Heres a few more photos, this time from the camera, rather than my camera phone (really quite impressed with it then!) Theres also a few videos, some from coate water and the best of the ones from greystones. theres about 30 of them so i'll string them togther and post them on here via youtube later in the year.
     
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAky1MhII80
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=MRW8leWhWAA
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdEc05E6Knc&feature=relmfu
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RMZEVEBjMU&feature=relmfu
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ7KstOtyaI
     

     
    The 1361 tank shunting the yard at the far end of the track, actually where most of the action takes place
     

     
    The other 02, this one i put on a milk train on day two, looked very good going round!
     


     
    The yard got very full and hectic on occasions, we had about the limit of what was feasible on the track. 65 wagons was the count on the sunday afternoon!
     

     
    The 02s going smokeox to smoke box was a sight to see! the rods would variously run in and out of sync with each other as they struggled on the banks occasionally!
     

     
    Galloping gertie!
     

     
    the highland loch on the teak coaches, an especially good pairing in the sunlight! But at the same time, an odd one, coming dfrom different ends of the isles (london and highlands!)
     


     
    Line ups in the station
     
     
     
    Right, hope you enjoy, Will get photos of gilling up next week, with maybe a sneak peek on Saturday night!
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  17. London cambrian
    Hi all.
     
    Exam revision has put paid to a large amount of the model engineering, that and lack of laser cut components, but that hasnt stopped me going out and playing trains!
     

     
    The greystones railway is a private railway near bath, built into a hillside. its featured on here before but not this year. The owner has alarge collection of engine and wagons but they were hardly needed because we were so full!

    The roster,
    2 metrovicks, which we bought because we had given the other an overhaul (nightmare that was!), No 18 Michael faraday (spent most of the time on yard pilot duty) and no 17 Florence Nightingale (friends who we overhauled)
    2 LSWR 02s in BR black, i know three people with one in that livery. These two are numbers 17 and 27 i think, seaview and Merstone.
    1 GWR manor, that had come from kent, with a large amount of wagons
    1 Highland railway loch class, a beautiful model, little light on its feet, but when put on our teak coaxhes, looked stunning
    1 LNER K1 mogul, in black, a regular engine but the owner had come from lincolneshire and bough 20 wagons with him, including 6 oil tankers
    A rather burbly BR green western
    A rather worn black five which had not been run in something like 30 years, but in its worn livery and Kempenfelts chalk markings, looked rather 1968esque
     
    Over two days, other engines visited.
    Galloping gertie, the GWR ex M&SWJR mogul, also known as galloping alice.
    A very nice, but a little shiny Adams Radial tank in SR green
    A 1361 GWR saddletank,
    unusually, because we dont allow these in GL5, a German railways Harz railway system mallet tank, again an engine that hadne been run in a while.

    Two metrovicks in our boot, an unusual site indeed.
     
    We arrived to see the railway up and running on saturday, so unloaded just the car, the usual 8 wagons but this time two locos. having got both running, and found the track was really swamped, the coaches remained away till later in the day. We spent a day mostly running freight turns, and taking a shunting turn in the yard. We got the coaches out about 3 and they had a few runs round, before we packed up about 5. All the engines staying overnight and wagons and coaches packed into the garage and after more railway talk, we went down the puba and 14 of us whiled away the evening talking of all things railway!




    The black five complete with 1968 style chalk messages of Dont let me die, the end and a drawn BR logo, carefully copied on by Kempenfelt
     
    Second day dawned and i having received a rude 6 am wake up call from this little ######,

    (yes the monty python sketch did spring to mind, it'll be an ex parrot, it will cease to be!)
     
    breakfast duly eaten all the stock was pulled out the garage, with the metrovick acting as pilot, wagons taken to the yard and coaches inot the station. Our loco spent most of the day in the yard that day, a more prototypical operation was run, pick up feeights organised, local passenger turns organise, including one with a milk portion of two tankers, mineral trains and an oils train.

    I spent most of the morning working the box. the aforementioned loch, being light on its feet presented an operation difficulty considering the gradient on the line. The manor took charge of the minerals, with one 02 on the local passenger. the Black 5 and K1 took a back seat until the lunch, when we reversed running direction and the K1 took over from the manor, with the Loch running tender first. We packed up and left about 4 pm, but I understand that they ran into the evening, not packing up till late, and ran the monday as well, though the weather was nowhere near as good.
     




    A request was put in by the owner, and depsite being a riding truck, our milk van was coupled into the train, their feeling was that it looked appropriately victorian!


     
    I'm surprised the owner let me shoot this one, he would never suffer the indignity of being rescued buy an electric!
     

     
    The harz tank, another shelf rescue i think. Made a wonderful sound though!
     
     
     
    That was two weeks ago, bit of a delay, last weekend went to the Mid hants to watch the ful size 02 which was over from IoW, and had a good chat to the owner of the third 5 inch 02.
     
    Right, cheers
     
    Mark
  18. London cambrian
    Looking back over the short period of this blog its strange to find that my main project has received no coverage. So to redress the balance!
    The little van which i have recently been working on is technically a sideline and afterthought to a pair of 3 plank dropside wagons like the ones shown and mentioned earlier. The project is for two more MET ballast wagons commonly used from 1896 uptill around 1980, when the last two were retired.

    My two are BD704, a wagon adapted from BW251 for carrying equipment variously associated with the breakdwon train too large to run in the covered vans allocated to the task. Most often it carried a bogie for supporting damaged vehicles during recovery. Its almost certain there was two of these vehicles, one later than the other. My one will be through vacum piped, probably an earlierone, though the one i have a photo of has a vacum cylinder.
    The other is SC631, a stores wagon that like the van would have run in the acton depot stores train, carrying everything from building materials to brake blocks and other consumables like oils. One or other of these wagons was regulaly seen between two tools vans on trains all around the Met system.
     
    Wagon frames are made almost exactly as per original, only i have dowelled mine togther with cocktail sticks and have not morticed joints, mostly because my skills are up to nice clean joints needed but also because i have not the will or patience to do such a thing! Frames are hardwood with brass tie rods, all the members cut by hand but in many cases machined to ensure a square edge, and sides drilled as a pair to ensure exact alignment and the wagon doesnt end up crabing down the track!

    So, to the wagons. they are still at frames stage, awaiting iron work, but the majority of the bits are made for them. They really await asembly once i have the other wheelsets, axle boxes and iron work from the laser cutter.
     
    Yesterdays efforts were little, amongst them being the making of back plates for the door knees. These are wooden knees that support the 3 plank dropside doors when they are dropped down. They are an incredibly complex shape as can be seen from the pics from the last round of wagons, the current ones have no doors yet! Today i finished them off and now await access to either a printer or cnc router to make up the knees themselves.
     


     
    Most of todays efforts, after the customary exam revision and general tidy up of the work tables, went on buffers for the van. They are of the self contained type, i solder a piece of round steel bar onto some 3mm plate, then put it in the lathe to produce a convex round face. The stocks are turned from solid inch brass with backing plates carefully drilled on a milling machine, before being soldered together. Because this project was inherited from someone else (frames and a few bits for buffers), i had to make some plugs for the buffer shanks as not enough material ha been left to drill to provide enough support for the threaded rod which attaches the buffer and housing or stock together and holds the spring in place. So several hours were went on that, and i have litterally just finished soldering them all together, leaving them in the cleaning acid till tomorrow morning.
     

     
    Elsewhere on the 3 plank wagons the buffer beams have been drilled to take the bolts that secure on the buffer stocks, and they are now bolted on.
     



     
    On coaches, footboard brackets are being prepped to be put on the frame so that the whole frame can they be sprayed black in the coming week.
     
    A can be seen below the mould for the lighting control boxes has just been made, hopefully we can cast the boxes soon and add them to all five coaches.

    So, till i do a bit more, progress remains as usual visually slow until i start assembling everything. Perhaps next couple post i shall reveal the next projects, especially as modelling will slow down next few weeks as i prepare for my end of year exams.
     
    Cheers all
     
     
    Mark
  19. London cambrian
    Hi all
    Dont know what happened with the last post, some images wont display and others are in wrong places so oh well!
    The problem so much of the time is that visual progress is slow so i wont always have something to show for hours work. So going back a little, theres this, proving it is still model railways!

    Every year the london transport museum depot at acton holds two open days, the first of the year being themed on London transport in miniature. For a few years we have attended with the rolling stock in increasing amounts, and after a poor organisation last year, we were tucked in a corner and few people came to look. So we got very bored and realised there wasnt anything to hold peoples interest in our stand. We had a static stand and people came looked and went away again.
     

     
    So with the advent of the radio control system in the loco a cunning plan was hatched. Table top running in 5 inch gauge. we hadnt seen it done anywhere else so we thought, How Hard Can It Be?
     

     
    A call was put to a friend of ours and ten metres of track were obtained to complement the existing 8 metres we already had. A complete 25ft radius Rh point was purchased for £235 (very reasonable condsidering they usually go for over £300, and a kit for a custom 0 gauge one will cost you about £50 from C+L) as well as a reverse curveand we had enough track for two sidings and headshunt on a 13.5 metre stand.
     


     

     
    So there we were, we turned up at the depot on the friday with the track in the trailer, and with the help of a good friend, gathered together the tables and set up two sidings with a 3-4 metre headshunt. The spare track formed a display area for the London transport pannier tank of our friends and one of the coaches.
     


     
    With our 8 wagons and 4 more from our friend, we shunted the sidings all weekends, exciting the children and captivating the adults alike! Our fiend bought his identical electric loco but due to electrical faults this wasnt running, just sat in the sidings with oil lights flickering.
     

     
    So running 5 inch on table top? Great fun, but lots of work on the set up. Its amazing what fun you can have with just two sidings and eight wagons, especially with limited space! makes for interesting shunting, reordering wagons. And it attracts people and keeps them interested. we had some people who came back again and again, asked questions and some people even stayed for up to half an hour just watching the engine transferring wagons from one siding to the other. Unfortunately i doubt they'd allow us to run live steam so electric locos only!

    Finally a short video. I'm sorry for the appalling quality, taken ona camera phone but its shows what tricks we could get upto. people were fascinated by the radio control, and were perplexed when we would drive from the balcony that overhung the aisle we were on, and they couldnt see adriver as it ran on its own. People became convinced it was computer controlled!
     

     
    I'll leave you to digest that and remind anyone with an LT or Metropolitan railway models, the depot are looking for stands for next years show with a strong Met Railway theme, what with it being the 150th anniversary of the opening of the first public underground railway next year.
     
    Hopefully more wagon progress next time. I have all next week off as well so who knows what'll come.
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  20. London cambrian
    Yet again my day saw little activity on my part, something to do with get up unusually late and punctuated by a visit to homebase and Halfords.
     
    However the van SC630 progresses. The planks for the other two doors were fitted, a time consuming job. Then, while one pair fitted, the other doors would not due to a mistake on my part, the changeable nature of wood, a miscalculation of about a mm and the fact the door frame was ever so slightly askew Oops.

    Anyway after some gentle persuasion (dont worry no hammer involved!) the doors now fit and do not give any visual impact of my butchery! Oh the forgiving nature of wood!
     
    Dreadnoughts
    If i asked you what you thought of when i said dreadnoughts, views would differ. Some of a mindset would think of the massive battleships of the WW1 era, others of a greater mindset would go to the Great westerns massive 70ft express coaches. Other would look at me blankly! However mine and others who have an interest in the met would go the Met railways 'Main line stock' often known as dreadnoughts due to their massive bulk, comparitively to previous stock. However they are only 51ft long which in coach terms are tiddlers. (it also means they are just over 4.5ft long in 5 inch gauge and a perfect fit for an Erde 142 car trailer!)
     
    What follows is entirely to my dads credit, which he probably hasn't received enough of in this blog!
     
    Recent activity has focused on the bogies, a completed example being shown below
     
    Hes building his last two coaches to complete the 5 coach set, and they are now reaching assemly point. the bogies are now complete, save wheels on one which he is waiting on. The frames are just receiving final details such as vacum cylinders and battery boxes as well as dynamos and footboards.


     

    Bodys are made from frames of marine ply (available from all good hardware stores) and Birch ply, routed to form windows and panelling (not available at all good hardware stores)

    Bogies are aluminium plate and angle milled to the correct profile to resemble Fox pattern 7ft bogies (they may well be familiar to southern railway modellers as well)

    Axle boxes are our own casting, rapid protoyped from drawings from pictures of surviving vehicles. The preserved examples on the Keighley and worth are on different pattern bogies, having been swapped when the originals cracked. the boxes are based ona surviving pair on a 1905 underground trailer car at acton LT museum depot.

    Springs are made from one layer of spring steel and several more of packing crate banding steel which is ideal for wagon and coach springs.
    Someone asked about wheels last post, these are CNC machined steel by a contractor who does favourable rates for 'hobbyists'.
     
    Before anyone asks yes there are seats but no the doors dont open. you wont beleive the amount of people who ask.
     
    Hooks are laser cut but severely cleaned up, then safety chains as fitted to all Met passenger rated stock were made up. It severely annoyed him to find four laser cut safety chain hooks just after he had hand filed four and got them cleaned up! Ah well, such is life!
     
    So like i said, little credit where its due, my dads taught me the vast majority of what i know and his work is far better than mine! Hopefully few projects time I'll give him a run for his money, but he'll have moved on to greater things, so hey.
     
    Hope you enjoy. will try and get a video uploaded for next time, few pics of acton depot show. Wagon progress will slow again as i need to get on a cnc router for my roof arches.
     
    Hope you enjoy, any questions, please ask
     
    Cheers,
    Mark
  21. London cambrian
    Today hasnt seen a huge amount of activity so i'd thought i'd do an introduction to part of my current project.
    When my dad first started with the wagon building a few years back, his first wagon was a brake van seen previously. then came four wagons then the outside framed box van. My first were the rail wagons and i am currently working on a follow up, two open ballast wagons and a much smaller box van. The van presents more challenge than the wagons so that has been the focus of recent work. These are all Ex metropolitan railway stock, in London transport livery ( post 1933 and possibly even only post 1948)
     
    First a history lesson. Very little details of the wagon later known as SC(stores car) 630 are left. it was thought to have been rebuilt from an early ballast wagon built somewhere between 1866 and 1882 by the Metropolitan railway. But the origin of these short wheelbase 2 plank open wagons is unclear, so the Met probably bought them second hand. At any rate, one was converted at an unknown date to a short box van. Despite the vast majority of Met goods van not be passed to London transport in 1933, this one did and ran in various stres train including the Lillie Bridge Ealing common train i beleive, being numbered SC630. Interestingly, one of my other wagons is the next in sequence, SC631 Anyway, details are sketchy, though one thing that is not is the bodywork. All of our drawings are taken from James Snowdon's book Metropolitan railway rolling stock, whom we are greatly indebted to!

    At the start of the week i started with a pile of small section wood supplied from a dolls house supplier. Any small section wood will do, preferably soft woods but this time round all i could get was obeche, which is actually very nice and easy to work with.
     
    after matching wood sizes to a scale drawing, the corner and door posts were let in or rebated using a combination of a sharp stanley knife and a carefully set milling machine. This allowed planks to sit at a required depth and strong joints to be made.

    The frame was glued together with ordinary exterior wood glue. Unlike previous construction, they were dowelled together for alignment and then glued, being left over night to dry.


    16mm wide planks were then cut from 1.5mm birch ply, being careful to ensure the grain ran the correct way. These could then be glued in place, each one was given a chamfered top edge that act as a rain run off on the fullsize to stop water rotting the edge of the planks.

    Diagonal body frame bracing was then fitted. these milled down to the correct width (nothing appropriate being available) and were cut using a razor saw to shape

     
    Door post were then cut to length and the other pieces in the door frame were also cut. again these were dowelled together. Being a lazy person i couldnt be bothered to rebate the door frame so glued bits of ply running against the planks to simulate a rebate.

    Finally planks were cut for the doors and glued, and that is how things stand currently.

    So next job is to start adding various bits of strapping and platework, make the hinges and fit the doors, before making the ends, assembling the body and making a rood, sometime by next week.
     
    So until i find something else to write about.
    Hope you find it interesting. Its really not that big a leap from model railways to this. I did it.
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  22. London cambrian
    A few people have expressed an interest in my larger scale modelling activities, not really the norm on here so you understand the interest when just a wagon is bigger than the human baby! So, with a bit of luck what follows is an account of the world of 5 inch gauge railway modelling.
     
    Hope this ok on here Andy and all the mods (if not chuck me out with a shout of 'and stay out' ) but 5 inch gauge is basically model engineering and is usually associated with the miniature railways found in many parks across the country. But like those modelling in the gauge 3 society, theres a small group of us who build scale wagons and run scale train operations on a large scale.

     
    As could probably be gathered from my posts in the london underground section, my interest lies with the Metropolitan railway, naturally our models reflect this (when i say our, its me and my dad). My dad lived by the Met at one point and so my interest was invoked when he built a 5 inch model of the Metropolitan-vickers bo bo electric (of same class as Sarah Siddons). And about 3 years ago we got into the 5 inch gauge world nd now run a set of 5 coaches, 9 wagons (with three more coming) and a radio controlled electric loco. Impressive really considering only three years and the loco is 5ft long and a two man lift, as are the coaches!


     
    The group we run as part of is called the GL5 or Ground level 5 (mainline) association. Rules are simple. Build wagons, dont carry passengers, no narrow gauge, run proper trains and most importantly, have fun! It was set up a fair few years ago by Doug Hewson and brent hudson, to run scale trains in a prototypical manner, many of you on here wil recognise. The group has nearly 500 members and runs at various club and private ground level tracks around the country.
    I myself dont have track (though with luck that could soon change slightly!) but have built two wagons and with three more on the way, as well as doing parts for the majority of the other vehicles in our collection.


     
    My interests also lie in studying the real vehicles with intent (yes it does sound like a crime...) to model
     
    Right, if your still with me, this blog with a bit of luck will be my workbench,what i have done, what i get up to, and hopefully entice a few of the other 5 inch modellers on RMweb out! Dont ever tel me you havent room for a railway!
     
    You may well of seen this stuff at the acton depot open weekend a few weeks back if you went, so yes its us, and its big!
    Anyone interested can find more photos on my flickr http://www.flickr.co...s/33124243@N06/

     
    Edit- and oh yes thank you to Mike (dinmore Manor) for use of the last pic and letting me drive his engine (LSWR O2 tank) all afternoon at Brents track last december!
  23. London cambrian
    Pannier wise, dug out some pics of the current state of affairs. We're fiddling with the valve gear atm, though work has stalled for a long time now.


    As anyone who has built an outside cylinder loco kit knows, valve gear is the tricky part. and being quite a lot bigger doesnt make valve gear any easier in 5. Its something of a black art, few people understand it fully, many people get the basics and are happy with that, but being live steam it is essential to the working. Parts of our gear are being redone to newer drawings but i wont bore anyone with details.
    And yes we are eccentric..!

    (for anyone not in the know so much, this is an eccentric strap from the pannier tank. The eccentrics are the four offset discs on the axle)
    Think yourselves lucky 0 gauge boys.
     
    On to wagons, currently under construction are two more ballast wagons, numbered SC631 and BD704. Also a box van that is really quite short.

    Frames are made from some nondescript hardwood availbale from Homebase, planed to thickness. Wagon bodies made from a mixture of B&Q pine and obeche obtained from a dolls house supplier. So really any one can do it. Today i am making the doors so will post pics tomorrow when they are done. Then its onto the ends, though i have to work out how i am going to construct the roof arches yet. CNC router might be the easiest option.

    Buffers are turned from solid inch steel or brass bar. We've only just started using steel because the price of brass is through the roof, but steel isnt as nice to work with.

    Recently the loco was back in the workshop. after a series of events, our friend required a new radio control unit for his loco, so we swapped out ours and replaced it with a higher spec one. We took this opportunity to rewire alittle and investigate higher power sound systems. Nothing much to see except the inner gubbins.

    I'll try and upload some videos of stuff as they come, when i work out how to that is!
    Little bit of what we're about.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7G2_AXeaTSA



     
    Hope you enjoy this out there.
     
    back tomorrow with building progress.
    Cheers
     
    Mark
  24. London cambrian
    Right, afternoon all.
    Its just too cold to be out in the workshop and i am bored of cutting up planks for van sides (more another time) and waiting for glue to dry so here goes part two
     
    Perhaps i should just identify the pics alittle. The first pic, not a single wagon in there belongs to me, thats a very small selection of wagons that can turn up to any GL5 event. A small event may have 30-50 wagons. a medium size, 100+ wagons, and the biggest easily top over 200!
    The second and 5th pics are at a private railway in Lincolnshire, you can see pretty much all the layout in that view, from that viewpoint, but we still had 100 wagons, 5 coaches and 8 locos there that day.
     
    Right, since i havnt been kicked off with shouts of take your model engineering and stick it... on another forum, I'll continue.
     
    Over the last few years, the Neasden outstation of Southam carriage and wagon has been rather busy.
    The original loco was built nearly 14 years ago now, and i probably have some embarressing shots of a very young me driving it! Which i will spare the viewers from...
    Numbered as 18 Michael Faraday she (or should i say he) runs on halfords car batteries and 7 beuhler motors so has a good turn of speed and grunt! Its also fitted with radio control, hence most recent shots show her driverless! Decked out in Metropolitan/London transport red of the 1930s (Halfords volkswagen Gambia red!)

     
    As Nigel quite rightly commented, live steam is best, so currently in the shops is a pannier tank which will of course be outshopped in LT red livery. Currently its in many bits awaiting niggle sorting and painting.

    The first coach was built nearly ten years ago and remained for a long time solitary. The metropolitan railway extended brake 3rd 'dreadnought' no 495 was originally ride on but hasnt been used as such in years.


    More recently 2 more third class coaches have been built, in a similar manner using birchply normally associated with model planes or boats, and varnished several times to achieve a rich teak colour.
    The short teak van is a loose model of the Milk van preserved in the london transpoert museum. before anyone comments, yes its too long but its a riding truck so it doesnt matter, just looks good.
     
    The first wagon built to scale was B563, a metropolitan railway brake van of 1898, in its final livery under LT.

     
    After the brake van came 4 wagons in a year, three Met railway 3 plank dropside ballast wagons, Met 23(soon to be renumbered), LT BW32 and BW147

    also, on an identical chassis as they were rebuilt from the ballasts, a 5 plank open, ash wagon, A952


    Then came an unusual vehicle, and one of only three Metropolitan railway goods wagons to survive, the 'Pooley' workshop van, for the men who calibrated and maintained the weighbridges at station. this vehicle is modelled with a full interior including forge and workbench, as well as opening underfloor lockers and doors. A full photo survey of this wagon was taken as it quietly rots in a field in Rutland!


     
    My first two wagons were a pair of articulated railwagons, for which i had to design my own drawgear for (nothing similar exists) and the livery is totally based on supposition, there being no photos.

    Nearly there,
    As mentioned earlier two more coaches are on the way, this time first class coaches to make up a minimum 5 coach set. Still a PITA to move around!
    On my workbench are two more ballast wagons, to take the total up to 5, and a short little box van for which i am making the body for this week.
     

    Finally, all our wagons together in one train back in dember. There are three more London transport wagons in 5 inch gauge belonging to a friend that make up the full 12 wagons, with three more coming, and another brake van from someone else. Pretty good considering it was only a farily short line (approx 50 miles) and only had 600 wagons
    So, if your still with me, a busy house and a lot to move around!
     
    Cheers, LC
  25. London cambrian
    Image heavy, but i hope you enjoy...
     
    Well, a rather delayed happy new year to you all, I realised I haven’t posted since the last event of 2012! But not to say much hasn’t happened, I’ve had a quick look back at what was going on with things back then, and projects on going that have moved on considerably!
    Unfortunately time has rather overtaken me since my last post, no runs as such have happened, and I’ve had one round of exams, and am preparing for the next, the pannier is now weeks from steaming (and due out on first weekend of May with a bit of luck!) with all the important bits made, Dad has bought a full size wagon and has been ploughing on with projects other than the tank wagon and Motor van! All that on top of two model shows (Alexandra palace model engineering show and Acton depot open day) a day removing bits from our new wagon and a couple of days getting mucky under the full size!
    So, more than anything we’ll have a photostream of various things and maybe a little bit of an aside about it. To anyone with a slow internet speeds my deepest sympathies, lots of images here!
     
    I'll deal with everything in chronological order, so from December...
     
    Hopefully the various railway presses havnt let you forget its the 150th anniversary of the worlds First passenger underground railway, the Metropolitan railway, and you may have noticed alot of my modelling focusses on it, so only right when the LTmuseum organised the return of steam on the underground, we spent most of the first saturday of runs chasing it round london!
     
    Sorry the images are poor quality, it was very difficult shooting mostly at night!
     



     
    The last image belongs to a friend who was stood right next to me when he took the shot!
     
    The weekend after, we had been invited by the 7 1/4 society to put on a display as part of their Met 150 themed stand. So we set up a siding for shunting the same as we do at acton depot, and had an interesting weekend after that!
     

     
    Problems of many miles for this weekend, when we got to Alexandra palace exhibitio hall, the one coach we had taken was looking stranded as in the cold the bolts in the tie bar! But much cussing swearing and frantic searching for tools, we got it free. Dad was ill most of the weekend, so that was no fun, and the weather closed in for the sunday evening. The Met 150 specials were also on that weekend, but i'm glad we didnt wait till that weekend to seem Met 1 and sarah siddons, the roads on the way back, especially with a trailer were not at all fun!
     
    On another note of Metropolitan railway interest, and general railway preservation, Dad became proud owner the last unrestored Met railway vehicle. The history of the van is long and convoluted, but essentially its a workshop van to a standard Met railway van design, that spent its last days in Quarry service as Glendon Quarries. Fro there it was preserved at Rocks By Rail in rutland, and when it became surplus to their collection focus, we stepped in to see if LT museum or Quainton railway society, we ended up buying it!Any way, at the back end of last year it moved to its new home for restoration, The northamptonshire ironstone railway trust, at Hunsbury hill, where it will be restored under contract by their volunteer staff.
     


     
    Also on fullsize front;
     

     
    I spent a couple of enjoyable days at Tyseley locomotive works working on Dinmore Manor, with my good friend, Dinmore Manor of this parish (of course )
     
    She should be back in traffic later this year, rumours are rife already, and i look forward to seeing her running! But anyway, very few ictures of my time there, too busy cleanin several thousand miles of somerset muck off the coupling rods, and putting the odd bits back on and more than a few off as well! Very cold but good fun!
     

     
    (credit to DML group for permission to use their images)
     
    Back on the home front...
     
    The only progress on Dads wagon projects have been the arrival of the CNC turned tank ends, done as a favour for us...
     


     
    Pannier news... lots and lots of stuff done... tank fillers, lots of paintwork done, tons of pipework made up and put into place, bulges i the back of the tanks so, like the ful size the fillers do go into the tank! So, i'll just leave you with the pictures...
     






     
    Also the cover plates for the top of the tanks have been made
     
    Another interesting project going on is my A level project... i managed to wrangle it so i ended up building a 5 inch gauge wagon! I saw this little wreck first at didcot back at the GW175, and i was rather taken by it. Dunno why, its a total wreck! But since then i have spent the odd moment designing it in autocad. Finally i found the time to finish the designs and get it all laser cut, not a cheap excercise it turned out, but so far its not turnd out too bad!
     










     
    Its been mostly soft soldered up, with the upright frames being made of brass angle, amongst other things and seperate pieces
     
    My local line, Battlefield line played host to a north Cornwall theme... The Beattie well tank from Quainton Railway society, and the T9 from the NRM/Bodmin and wenford
     




     
    And finally... still with me?
     
    Acton depot open weekend was delayed a little this year, but was by far the best and busiest ever! Mainly because of the presence of In steam Ffestiniog railway Prince (a railway also celebrating 150 years, and who also restored the Met railway Jubilee coach 353) as well as Met 1 in light steam with said coach and Milk van. I'l leave you to be a judge of how superb the jo they did on the both of them was...
     






     
    Our stand, much the same as last year, but longer with more stock!
     


     
    and before the show opened. we took the opportunity to reunite Sarah Siddons with some former headboards from its southern region wanderings... exclusive pictures, only a few people got these pictures!
     


     
    But if your still here, well done!
     
    Any questions ask away, hopefully we'll get back to 5 inch gauge work next time, perhaps with a bit more frequency of posts! Theres plenty going on this year, this weekend GL5 have set up a track inside the hall at NRM Shildon! I wont be there this weekend, but if anyone is about, drop by, support us and have a watch of what we do.
     
    Cheers
     
    Mark
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