Graham T

Now and again I take a few minutes to just look at the layout and ponder what might work better (most of it), and so on and so forth. I was having just such a ponder this morning and thought it might be nice to have the Cordon parked at the end of one of the tracks near the platform, as I've seen done at Lambourne. Far more by luck than judgement, I've found I can do that and still get the Dean or Collett Goods onto the spur as well, so that I can leave the gas wagon parked and still run around goods trains 🙂 I must add a handrail to the goods shed office steps...

That rings a bell...

And a left-handed screwdriver at that…

Still impressed by the stream you've created here Rob. And is that a boundary marker that I spy this side of the bridge?

That really is looking quite top drawer Herr Wolf!

That angled tip is rather strange...

I think I need to order a replacement one perhaps. I started by using the pointed tip that was fitted to the iron as supplied, and then switched to one that is circular and cut through at an angle, so giving a flat oval contact area, which seems better. And now I'm thinking maybe this is the shape I need?

That's exactly the flux I'm using too (and also their solder). I got a 65W iron from them too. Which tip do you use Neal?

Muchos gracias Neal. It's by Langley Miniatures, but I can't remember where I got the fret from, sorry.

Thanks Bill. There are two more on the fret, which hopefully will come out a bit better!

Managed to finish it off this evening. As you can see I also managed to fill some of the holes in the wheels with solder, I will have to try and drill those through...

And a little more done during my lunch break. Wheels laminated and fitted, and also the tow handle. Brakes next - haha - but first I need to get some work done in the real world.

Am getting slightly better less bad at this soldering witchcraft. No tinning, and iron turned up to 11. This is three parts laminated together for the tow handle of the luggage trolley. Still needs a bit of tidying up with a file, but way better than previous efforts...

Let's hope so!

That's what I was trying to do, but not very tidily as you can see! I tinned both faces, then applied DCC Concepts flux and then tried to heat them to get the solder to run. As you say, getting the pieces to stay aligned was a challenge. I've since been directed towards a very useful guide by @BWsTrains, so will read that a couple of times and then try again.

I can imagine... We had some fairly vile drinks in the RN too.

Didn’t someone recently buy Cooper Craft? Hopefully we’ll see at least some of the range getting re-released.

A dangerous variant of snakebite was available in Hereford - local rough cider (known as scrumpy to the cognoscenti...) and Stella. Or if you wanted the adult's version, Gold Label Barley Wine and rough cider, referred to as "a pint of dynamite" for some reason...

Yes that's the one. The benches were a lot easier!

As I had the soldering iron out, I thought I'd try putting together one of the Langley Miniatures luggage trolleys. Hmm. Not too certain about the results so far! To be fair, it doesn't look quite so bad in the flesh as the close-up pics make it appear. But I'll need to see if I can get some of the excess solder off without the whole thing falling apart again! And attaching the smaller parts is really going to be a challenge...

I'd go for the 1:35 if you can make it work.

One of the main nightclubs in my home town was known by most of us as "Sticky Carpets".

Well there's something I didn't know! (Obviously...) Thanks Nick.

Having got the wee beastie running without too much difficulty, I had enough time to add the "jewellery". Smokebox darts from Alan Gibson again, screw link couplings, a fire iron on top of the left hand tank, and some real coal in the bunker. I haven't got any etched plates for this one yet unfortunately.

Having managed to put Humpty back together again I was able to make a start on wiring in the decoder, a Zimo MS490R from Youchoos. John had already connected a pair of Tantalum stay-alives and the speaker to the chip, which saved me a task that I don't especially relish, as I'd imagine it's pretty easy to trash a decoder with some ham-fisted soldering (a specialty of mine...) So all I had to do was remove the Bachmann PCBs, the bead capacitors on the motor, and the motor wires themselves. I used to solder the decoder wires to the motor wires, but then realised that I was just adding an extra join that wasn't needed (and another potential point of failure), so now I solder the decoder wires directly to the motor. The stay-alives and speaker were popped into the smokebox, and the decoder stuck to the top of the boiler with black-tack, and then I tucked all the spare wire into the smokebox as well. I was pleasantly surprised when the chassis fitted neatly back into the body at the first attempt. And even more surprised when the loco actually ran at first time of asking on the layout! So here you have a pair of prairies to enjoy 🙂 They're noticeably different colours but I think I can live with that. They'll be getting a mild weathering at some point anyway.