harry lamb

Good evening Staffordshire, the nearest match in 4mm would be the 'Ultrascale' 12 spoke 3' 2" job. An inch too high I know but as the B17 was a Darlington built locomotive just like the D49 and it shared the same casting as the D49 bogie wheel centre. Both being built around the same period. Later Darlington built LNE classes resorted to the standard Doncaster 10 spoke 3' 2" bogie wheels. Driving wheels for the B17 are 18 spoke Doncaster standard. Ultrascale produce both these wheels but you need to plan ahead. The waiting time is 'Mummyfing' but worth it in the long run. And it is a long run! Regards. HL.

Yes, I have. They are scanned and can be printed and mailed. Send me a PM. Regards. HL

You should visit the online 'MRJ' index and seek out Chris Pendlenton's articles on wheels and crankpins. Mr. Pendlenton and his friend, the well known etched 4mm. chassis and kit manufacturer Dave Bradwell have much experience in the improvement of the AGW wheelsets. Albeit to EM/and P4 gauges but similar work can be applicable to 'OO' I should imagine. As an aside, you may also wish to invest in the 'long wait' and order some Ultrascale wheels. These are quite expensive but of excellent quality and well worth it if you are just doing the odd engine! They also provide a consistent and well designed c/p system which is about as good as there is available and true! But the waiting list is about a return trip to Saturn ! But they are worth it in the long run! However, not forgetting the 'Exactoscale' range, which unfortunately have now gone to ground, are the finest scale wheels in the smaller gauges bar 2/3mm. but the axle setting system, in which I found no bother, left quite a bit to be desired! Not an insurmountable problem I would have thought but there you go. I am looking forward to their return. These wheels are, visually, the very best of 4mm. scale wheels of both traction and trailing vehicles. Regards. HL.

I did see some rails laid out in this manner some years ago inside Doncaster carriage and wagon works during one of the last open days with vehicles on them. Can't remember what year it was but the Doncaster built electrics were present with the class '89'? Co-Co in GNER livery.The 'Crimpsall' was closed but still standing.

Good evening, In the first instance we must take into account that what we purchase will wear out rapidly and require replacing. This is what business is all about. It's called 'built in obsolescence'. So, surprisingly to some, they may have missed the obvious as It's been going on for donkeys years! However, purchasing and flogging the 'favourite' to death and having to replace it at an inflated price is what keeps these companies going. So, they are NOT going to start manufacturing large amounts of spares just for home installation when a replacement 'new' product would possibly provide a greater customer 'pull'! Therefore, I would like to think that all these 'failures' could provide a basis for several 'Barry' type layouts in the future featuring the life expired locomotives of all the variously 'fueled' types just spread about awaiting their own demise!

During my years on Grimsby fish market no BR or pre grouping fish vans carried the logo or name of any large fish or food processing company. Frozen products may have had a ride in 'drikold' chilled containers of which some would carry a brand. ie, 'Birds Eye' but ordinary fish vans were common user vehicles for the carriage of fresh and dry fish for a multitude of fish merchants. Incidentally, you would not find 6 wheeled fish vans in a fish train originating from Grimsby unless it was added en route. Regards. HL.

Good morning, I worked in a large paper mill many years ago on the papermaking machines. Huge beasts! However. Materials delivered by rail would be -Pulp from the docks in wooden bodied 'dock use only' opens - daily. China clay (loadings) in16t. steel minerals-weekly. Papermakers Alum, Box vans- weekly. Coal, for power house, 16t. steel minerals. Engineering parts-3-4 trains per week. Calendar rolls, granite press rolls and all manner of heavy stuff on various suitable vehicles, as required. Finished products such as large paper reels went by road from the early sixties but all wrapped sheet papers went by rail in box vans and were collected daily. This was a large 6 machine mill with a twin turbine power plant that also supplemented the local grid. Incidentally, when the old wooden open BR wagons fell apart the company purchased ex. GW(BR) 24t. mineral wagons from South Wales. The rust and scale from the inside of these wagons created havoc on the paper machines as it entered the pulp bales. The company then had spend thousands de-scaling the wagon interiors and sealing them! Regards.HL.

Good evening 'hayfield'. I don't know what or who's wheelsets you are using but if they utilise the 2mm. industry standard axle then twist the wheels off and then pack them out with Peco 2mm. fibre washers each side of the bogie until you reckon you have enough to centre it. However, firstly use a larger 2mm. brass inner washer against the frame before the fibre washers. Carefully, and with equal pressure on both the ends of the wheelsets squeeze them very gently into the bogie frames whilst twisting them slowly together on the axle until the bogie frames centralise. Use a bit of spit on the axle ends ends if necessary!! Two of the most useful items to be had in the 2 wider gauges in 4mm. locomotive building wise, are the Peco 2mm. and 1/8" Peco fibre washers. They can be 'thinned' by careful use of flat fine needle files or emery clad homemade 'sticks' to slightly reduce the thickness (caliper) of the material. Plasticard spacers may seem the obvious answer but unless you can turn or cut off 4 of the exact length spacers then use the washers. Regards. HL

Good evening gents. I have this picture of the said A1 after a trail trip round the 'plank' happily weaving through a number of reverse curves in forward and reverse with Rizla (blue) clearance on the lead C/P and little end con rod when the loco suddenly stopped in it's tracks! I had taken a couple of stills of it's progress, some years ago now, and with the enlargement you can clearly see why! It's picked up a dog end of pick up wire! This is not off the loco or tender as I haven't used wire pick-ups on tender loco's and bogie diesels for years and the loco had not been fully restored. I do get some shunter repairs now and again but all my own small stuff is split axles. However, the reason I posted this enlargement is that it also gives a clearer view of the leading crankpin partially behind the con rod as it came to stand. And it does work. However, if I would wish to build an A2/1/2/3 or a K1/3 or any outside cyl. loco where the c/p is behind the slidebars in EM/P4 then Mike Edges system would seriously need to be considered and it's more than likely that would be the road I would take. Regards. HL. ps. I'm usually on a railway station on a Friday and Sunday nights (retired 6 years).........supping!

Good evening Paul. What you see in that picture is only track built to 18.83mm. gauge and a cosmetic set of wheels plus an axle. It was my old 'test track and shunting plank'. P4 in itself is an overall standard of the model making in that scale and you are not looking at part of a trainset built to P4 standards. Only the track gauge itself and the check gauges are spot on. The P4/S4 concept as a whole is much more than just wheels and rails. I build, or rebuild these 'planks' every 2-4 years. Depending what I want to do next. The wheel in the picture is standing on a BH code 75 crossing which has double slips on each entry/exit. To the wheels immediate left the double slip is built from code 55 F/B rail. Rail ideal for light industrial use. Other points and slips are built from code 83 and 75 F/B. Plus a couple from code 60 F/B and code 83 F/B. Rail is a mixture of N/s, steel and P/B. All stock that runs on it does not fall off, and does so on track intentionally built to trip it up as all are sprung or compensated and the track is not level. I do not do any ballasting, scenics or buildings. The bottom line is I enjoy mucking about with what I've got and continuously altering and changing things. However, if I was you, EM would make more sense. If I had done that in the first place I might have had a nice little trainset by now but what fun I would have missed!! Regards,HL.

Hello again gents, This crank axle is made up from a faulty pair of Mr. Newmans and Wellers Exactoscale cast offs. There had been problems with the first batch I purchased and they were replaced without question. Consequently the kind gentlemen allowed me to keep the faulty ones to play with so I made 3 sets of dummy crank axles out of small brass tube and N/S offcuts. Crank settings are guesswork. Cheers. HL.

Good afternoon gents, 2 points here. First, the Gibson wheel being more accurate than the Ultrascale 6' 8" Doncaster wheel? I would doubt that very much. Indeed No, not at all. I am still using some of Brian Rogers Ultrascale wheels and the later ones supplied by David Rogers and quality has been maintained whilst also sticking to the correct 26" crank throw. When you build Finney and Bradwell kits these things matter! However, the most accurate of these 4mm. wheels was the Bernard Weller/ Len Newman series of Doncaster wheels that emerged a few years ago but used a rather convoluted tapered axle system that appeared to put people off. I managed OK and so did others but they were not everybody's cup of tea. In the end you get what you pay for. But, I still occasionally use AGW wheels and they are fine. But nowadays to make things easier for myself I indulge myself in Ian Penbirths sprung diesel bogies in BR steam era infernal combustion jobs and they mostly run on Ultrascales and some on Gibsons. I have attached a couple of shots of the Weller/Newman wheels for comparison. Regards. HL.

There has always been an issue with clearances in EM, P4 and S4. This how I get round it with a leading partially or fully recessed crankpin. This is on a Dave Bradwell A1 frame set in P4. The rods are newly fitted Brassmasters replacement rods and are a little more 'beefy' than the originals which I replaced after a some wheelsip on one axle. Edit. I did forget to mention that there is absolutely NO sideplay on the leading axle and virtually none on the two trailing ones. This model can briefly be seen in motion on the 'rollers' on Youtube. Regards. HL.

Good afternoon, Just out of interest. All EE classes from 20, 23, 37, 50, 55 plus DP2 used the same size wheel. BRCW and Brush type 2 driving wheels are the same, 3' 7". For those of you who use quite generous curvature on your 'OO' gauge model railways an increase in wheel diameter could be tried as the thickness of the tyre in replacement wheelsets may be thinner than RTR and the wider B-2-B may also give a little extra play behind the skirts in such situations. Replacement wheels from the two main suppliers, AGW (Alan Gibson) and Ultrascale are available in all three gauges and use industry standard 2mm. axles which would mean the existing wheels could be twisted off and correct dia. wheels directly substituted. Changing gauge from 'OO' to either EM or P4 requires an axle change. Currently Ultrascale have a 3 month wait for orders to be completed but it's worth it. I have attempted to add a link to my Flickr page but I'm not too sure about these forum thingumbybobs. Seriously I haven't a clue really on how to use them correctly and I never touch social media. Not my cup of tea really. Regards. HL.

Good afternoon and thankyou for your kind comments gentlemen. However, atom3624, I don't have the answer to the question of minimum radius curves in P4/S4 as it is supposed to follow prototype practice as far as possible in all situations. Take a good look at as many photographs of the real thing in action or idle and attempt to replicate those situations. It works. Believe me! Therefore I only 'mess about' with P4 track and wheel standards only and do not build layouts or suchlike. I do not possess the necessary skills and imagination to produce a working model railway as a whole. Motive power, stock and trackwork are my main interests so I stick to these three core items and create 'shunting planks' every 2-4 years to 'play' with, after all, a change is as good as a rest! Now 'johndon', the P4 wheelsets came from Ultrascale, not Accurascale. These are the generic 3' 7" disc favoured for this particular type of bogie for EE types 3 and 5 and the D400's If you are looking for the earlier production Deltic wheels with the holed wheel disc then, as far as I am aware, Alan Gibson may have them. Because my last 'test track' was dismantled when I recently moved home and the new one is not even at the bench building stage all I have is some pictures on the old one prior to scrapping so I have included a couple of the engine standing on a curve and a shot of the curves it had to negotiate. After looking at these pictures, which I haven't seen for a couple years, I can clearly see the dilemma Accurascale are facing but I'm certain that they will overcome this problem. Regards, and thankyou for your interest. HL

Good afternoon all, I have one of these Accurascale 'Deltics' on order, a Finsbury Park blue job with alternative P4 gauge wheelsets. I had also purchased a 'OO' NRM Bachmann prototype about 4 years ago with the intention of modifying it with correct size wheels and Penbits 'bits' just to see what the visuals and running would be like and I was quite happy with the results. But, to all intents and purposes it's still a toy train, as 'NoelG' quite rightly points out! The almost finished model is shown here but the R/H bogie frame is loose. Regards. HL.

Hello hayfield, thanks for the reply. Although I'm a little old now but I used to make my living by building 'computers'. Ensconced in a deep vault on the corner of Gracechurch St. and Leadenhall St in the City of London during the early to late eighties I would turn them out by the dozen to whatever specification was required for the City banks I worked for. Building them was easy. After the initial programming I did not have to use them but the programming was simple. I used the software provided to do the job so I'm no stranger to IT. Current IT I am though! I'm not a fool but a practical man and I can still rely on my memory on what track looked like and how 'deformed' it could become in intensive service in heavily used situations so I can very easily replicate that condition in model form. It is not rocket science. I like to use code 55 F/B in industrial situations in 4mm. as it looks the business and that 'light' rail was very common in the once very common private sidings. Thankyou Chris Nevard for that and 'Brewery Quay'. Look, the bottom line is that I am a old fish filleter and barrow lad off the Grimsby fish market which was probably the largest, in mileage terms, of any 'goods shed' in the country! It was a bloody hard life and I loved it. However, regarding WT and any other 'forums' I reckon I'm throwing the towel in on all of 'em and returning to 'lurking' but I certainly agree that Mr. Wynne 'Templot' is a huge leap into track building and planning. Most modellers I know make good use of it but it's not for me. I'm running out of years! I just build temporary 'shunting planks' every couple of years and I regard it as my 'trainset' in which I can happily while away the hours with a couple of beers. This is an edit. I have been building track to P4 standards now for over 40 years and that standard has never let me down.

Thanks to Gents who appreciated my trackwork in this thread but like others I'm defecting to WT. Nothing personal of course but I would rather view the forum as a 'lurker', as I did for many years. Regards. HL.

Good morning, like jf2682 I also make my own track in P4 and I don't use Templot because I don't know how to! Simple as that! I'm a pensioner! However I totally accept that Templot is a valuable and very useful aid in layout planning and tracklaying but I have always managed by looking at the prototype and using memory and photographs as a template. To be quite honest I'm too old and thick to even contemplate using the tool but here's a few examples of recently lifted handbuilt point work from my last train-set, all built built in situ using home made templates, pencil, paper and eye but I accept that using Templot is the way forward! However, I do use 'French curves' in drawing up my model boat frames, hulls and so forth. They can also be helpful in trackwork forming transitional curves in certain situations. Cheers. HL.

Good evening Brian, Whipping silk/cotton from fishing tackle shops. Many grades available and it does not 'fluff' up. I am a sea angler who build's my own rod's from 'raw rod blanks'. Whipping my rod rings myself from the range of whipping 'silks' available from tackle shops. I am also a marine modeller and the same material is my first choice for light / medium rigging. For mooring ropes and such as I use tanned 'Cod-line'. Regards. Harry Lamb.

Excellent work 5050 and very neatly done. Very interesting. I did consider a similar point and switch control using slide switches but as my 'planks' never last more than a twelve month and with scenics being completely out of the question I thought it was pointless! Superb effort!

Thank's for the reply John. Much appreciated. Back to the grind for me! Regards, HL.

Thankyou John Isherwood for the information on the BZ ends and I apologise for not using your correct handle. I don't really know how these 'Forums' work as I am quite unfamiliar with them other than as a casual 'lurker' but at least I will be able to get the correct finish on the completed models. To be quite honest I can't really remember what colour the ends were other than brake rust brown and other varieties of 'muck' thrown up from the track! It was such a long time ago and Ian's picture of the painted BZ body threw me. I can't seem to find any clear colour photographs of the early BR period other than those of the vans in the blue era. So, I take it that the BZ vans should resemble the LMS 6 wheeled fish shown here but in BR coach red? If that's so I am a happy Bunny! Many thanks for the correct info. Regards. HL.

Good evening 'cctransuk', Interesting thought but as these vehicles being built at Stratford I would have thought that Derby and Crewe would be conveniently ignored when it came to liveries. I don't think the LT&SR had that much influence at Stratford! However, I did witness several of these vehicles in traffic in the mid to late sixties plus beyond and what struck me about these vans in particular was the 'archaic' 'W' iron's used in the suspension system of them which I considered very 'Gooch broad gauge era' trickled down from the Swindon archives! Loved them! Nevertheless I do not recall any of these vehicles with black ends and maroon bodywork but I could be corrected. Most of them I remember were filthy but not so mucky that a wet finger couldn't give us a clue of the livery and that includes the carriage ends. However I do have three of 'macgeordies' superb etched kits on order, from Scalefour North where I examined an example of the prototype model, and was suitably impressed and I am really looking forward to the build. Nighty night. HL.

Hello everybody, my name is Harry. I'm a new member but not a stranger to these pages and I am also a senior 70 year old person who has always had a small 12' X 8' purpose built workshop in my backyard which doubled up as the home to my 'plank'. Recently my wife bought a smallish detached bungalow with a spacious loft which would be ideal for a trainset and so forth but after doing a lot of electrical, plumbing and allied work up there via a loft ladder, I'm not going to use that space for anything other than storage because I have to admit that age has finally caught up with me. As an example only four months ago I would cycle and walk as much as I have always done but this work has taken a lot out of my knees and I am not a happy 'Bunny' any longer. However, fortunately, slightly to the rear of the said ground floor only abode there is a 'garage', 6m. X 4m., brick built by the 'won brick and concrete' process, a brick a day plus a bucketful of concrete for the base by the original owner in 1973. The existing garage base is a joke just like the walls, now all to be demolished and the base relaid. I'm surprised it lasted so long! However I have looked into the log cabin alternative, as many of my modelling friends have and also visited my neighbours Swedish 'shack' of the same dimensions and that will be the route I will be taking rather than struggling up a loft drop down loft ladder. This approach has actually worked out at a much lower cost than a pucker stairway into the existing loft taking into account building regs. and is reasonably affordable. So long as does not intrude into my beer budget. Which is nothing like it used to be yet I still manage a couple a day. Happy Days!