mike knowles

Can't seem to find it.

Just received my acknowledgement.☺ Hope there's enough pre orders to get the go ahead for production.

Assuming I did it correctly I placed a pre order last week for 3 wagons in brown livery. As yet I've not received an acknowledgement of this. Should I have?

Had a great day at the show today which was well worthy of it's 50th anniversary status. Arun Quay was just sublime but there were plenty of excellent layouts there to suit all tastes. Roll on the 100th show!

Sounds like we could have organised a coach trip!

There's about 8 of us heading over from Hessle Model Railway Group on Saturday so make sure the kettle's on!

214mm over buffers, 219mm over couplings ( see post number 42) ☺

Anything (including watching paint dry) beats watching football. Love the videos. Makes our club layout (Invermire) at a mere 30 feet long seem like a shunting plank in comparison!

Good idea. I'll give it a try.

I was planning to make removable loads for my wagons but given the sides slope inwards at the top I can't see how I could do this. Anyone got any ideas?

With apologies to McC I've got my 8 wagons and very good they are too! I quickly changed the wheels to P4 ones on four of the wagons (need to get some more wheelsets for the others). A simple job which only took a matter of seconds. A couple of photos below of them posed on my Boston Frodsham layout. Now placed on my to do list to have instanter couplings and the supplied air pipes fitted then I'll have to summon up the courage to weather them. Though I'll probably practice on my old Lima and Horny models first!

When I got my brake levers from Colin Craig I believe he said the ones for the OAA wagon were different to the ones for the VDA van. Apologies for the vagueness but it was a few years ago!

For completeness here are some photos of one of the finished wagons.

I modified some Hornby OAA wagons some time ago basically using the methods described by Jim Smith Wright on his website. Whilst the body is OK the chassis was err not! The solebars were replaced with the spare ones that come with the Cambrian SPA wagon kit, W irons are Bill Bedford Units (as you have used) and the brake gear is an etch from Colin Craig though not sure if this is still available. Axleboxes are roller bearing ones from I think Wizard Models but like you I was stumped when trying to find some suitable springs. To get over this I made my own using 40 thou x 10 thou microstrip for the leaves (sounds a bit daunting but if was easier than I thought it would be). These were initially cut a bit overlength and glued together in a stack to make a rectangular block and further microstrip added to represent the strap in the middle of the spring. (Note use the solvent sparingly otherwise you'll end up with a molten blob of plastic - I know!) Once it has all set hard the ends can then be cut/filed to produce the shape required and also to fit between the links on the Cambrian solebars. I thought I had some photos of the springs during the course of construction but regret I can't find them but hope the attached give some idea. Based on the photos below (also refer to the detail photos on Paul Bartlett's website) I fashioned the brake valves/cylinders form bits of microstrip and brass wire. Referring back to the first three photos a couple of minor improvements to the body were to add some microstrip to represent the stanchions on the inside and also I removed the representations of the wooden planks on the inside of the ends (the ends being sheet metal). Hope this helps.

Thanks again for the kind comments. The signal box is based on Bridlington Quay Crossing box and given Sean who built it used to work there it had to be right! The switch panel (basically a length of UPVC window cill with a (long) row of SPST switches to operate the servo motors) was designed to replicate the lever frame in the signal box. At the moment only a portion of the switches are in use to operate the points. When we get the signals built and installed and all the switches in operation then the fun will really begin. Whilst on could I thanks the organisers for their hospitality and allowing us to bring our work in progress layout to the show, it gave us the opportunity to give it a real test. Apologies to anyone who may have been upset by the prescence of an unfinished layout but hope to bring it again in a few years when it's completed.

Thanks Paul, glad you liked it. Overall we were pleased with the way it ran for first time out though getting our heads around the operating schedule was taking some doing!

Cayton Bay already for the holiday traffic!

You like to live dangerously!

Getting excited now!

Cheers,thanks for the info.

Hope your surgery is better organised than ours. Went for my jab the other day only to give up when I saw the queue stretching way down the road. You could be later than you think!

Do you know the overall length of the model so I can determine how many I could get onto my cassettes?

Is the round plastic base moulded on or is it removable?

Thanks Tony. Unfortunately I can't make it to Scaleforum and for the few chairs I needed at the moment (to complete the last siding on our club layout) I used some from C&L. However good to know things are moving forward so I can get back to planning my own 7mm layout.

Apparently you will be able to order online direct from Exactoscale but you'll have to pay an extra 10%!