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Dave Holt

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  1. Dave Holt
    My Caprotti Black 5, 44741, of Longsight depot, is now finished. The last job was to add plain boiler bands to the firebox and some extra weathering to bring it more to the condition these locos seemed to exhibit in regular service, i.e. filthy. This work was done, as was the whole painting, lining and weathering, by good friend and fellow P4 modeller, David Clarke. I have to say, I'm extremely pleased with the finished loco, which I think really captures the rather ungainly appearance of these locos. a study into how to transform the rather elegant normal Black 5 into an ugly duckling!
    Here are three photos of the finished model.
    First a couple of shots taken on my short length of test rack in the modelling room:
     

     

     
    And here a photo by David Clarke during a recent visit, showing the loco standing near the signal box on "Holt":
     

     
    Dave.
  2. Dave Holt
    Coachman's nightmare has come true - when a little known enthusiasts' special arrived at Delph (aka Holt) consisting of an 8 coach rake of southern region stock hauled by re-built West Country class, 34027, Taw Valley. Strangely, this rather unusual occasion was not well recorded at the time and no photos appeared in the railway press of the day. However, photos confirming the event have recently come to light and a selection is attached to this post.
     
    The arrival of this train also answered an outstanding question as to the length of the run-round loop at the station. On this occasion, 8 BR Mk1's were safely accommodated in the loop. Normally, the operating department limited holiday excursions to 6 coaches, generally of 57' ex-LMS stock, but made a special concession for this Southern train.
     

    The train has arrived and pulled up to the buffers to allow passengers to de-train from the 5 coaches which fit in the platform. Those in the rear 3 will have to walk forward to alight.
     

    Taw Valley simmers quietly in the platform.
     

    Having pushed back the stock, clear of the run-round points, Taw Valley has drawn forward again, ready to run round. The sun has come out to briefly bathe the loco in brightness.
     

    An overall view of the scene, taken from a hillside across the road and river.
     
    What did I say in the previous post about fantasy?......
     
    Dave.
  3. Dave Holt

    Track laying under way

    By Dave Holt,

    Have started to lay the track at long last - couldn't think of any more excuses to put it off any longer. Being my first ever layout I thought I'd dip my toe gentley in by starting with the main station throat pointwork! As can be seen, I used some mini jam jars full of "liquid lead" to hold the track down whilst the glue dried. The items were first laid dry, adjusted for position and long pins inserted at the ends of sleepers at key locations. The track was then lifted, PVA glue brushed onto the underlay and the track replaced, being automatically realigned by the pins, pressed down and the weights added. I think it's all gone well so far.




    Just the platform release cross-over and one turnout for the goods yard to go. Then it's the plain (flexi)track to join it all up.
     
    Dave.
  4. Dave Holt
    I collected the superb station building, platform, goods shed building and signal box from Gravy Train on Saturday and couldn't wait to try them in situ. Thought I'd place an appropriate Donkey train in the platform for some of the shots.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt
    By moving some of the furniture, I was able to assemble all four scenic boards for the first time, today. Still on the floor, naturally, as the support structure is not yet built.
    The occasion for this event was a visit by Tim Venton (Tim V), of Clutton fame, following his visit to the Midland Model Engineering Show nearby. Tim kindly helped with the removals work and assembly of the layout.
    Attached photos show the results - looks impressively long for a single line branch terminus.
     
    Two overall views, first from the station end and then from the fiddle yard end:
     

     

     
    This closer shot of the station shows the approximate location for the control panel - right at one end so the operator doesn't block the view!
     

     
    Dave.
  6. Dave Holt
    Unfortunately, I will be taking a forced break from modelling for a few weeks, having broken my right arm, just below the shoulder joint, when I tripped and fell heavily on concrete, on Tuesday. Never to be recommended, but this does seam to be a particularly bad time to be incapacitated, what with the build up to Christmas and New Year.
    Prior to my accident, I had progressed the Std 2 tank by fitting the cab glazing and adding coal to the bunker and had started to paint the [Modelu] crew members. Here's a dilemma with a push-pull fitted loco. Does one have both driver and fireman in the cab or just the fireman? It can only be right for one direction of travel, unless someone knows how to make the drive pop up/disappear dependent on whether pulling or pushing. The same issue applies to the driving trailer of the train.
    Here are a couple of rather poor quality photos of the loco, one including part of a typical Delph push-pull train from the mid 1950's - ex-LNWR motor coaches in LMS or BR livery.
     

     

     
    Dave.
  7. Dave Holt
    Well, it's cooled down somewhat recently and I've finally got down to a bit more modelling after nearly two month hiatus. The final details still outstanding were the lamp irons and fixing the smokebox front.
    I actually did the latter a couple of weeks ago during the hot weather and failed to spot that some Araldite has squeezed out and covered some of the rivets round the top half of the wrapper. I have been worrying about what to do about this and had come to terms with leaving it for fear of damaging the white metal casting. To help this decision, I painted the local area matt black to see how it might look on the finished model. However, today, I tried a stiff fibre-glass brush to remove the paint and noticed the Araldite seamed to also partially rub off. I also noticed that the residue of adhesive in the mixing lid had set to a sort of rubbery consistency rather than hard as glass - perhaps i didn't use quite enough hardener? Anyway, this prompted me to try scraping it with the back of a scalpel blade which resulted in the excess peeling away, leaving the cast rivet detail unharmed. A bit of good fortune on my part.
    The lamp irons are another custom etch from Rumney Models, which fold up to represent the correct pattern of irons for the smokebox top and bunker rear. They're rather fiddly to do and have a tendency to ping off into the far corners of the room. I needed five but lost two to the carpet or somewhere. Luckily, Justin had etched seven irons in a set so I was just able to get all that were needed from one etch.
    After fitting the irons, I have reassembled the body and chassis so that the speedometer drive could be bent back into the correct shape, having been moved during handling.
    I'll leave it for a couple of days to let everything cure before cleaning up ready for it's trip to the painters.
    Here are a few shots of the assembled loco.
     

     

     

     
    And the other side, with the front plates and door handles temporarily fitted.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  8. Dave Holt
    I've previously posted about my ex-LMS Crab model, which uses a Bachmann body on a much modified Comet chassis with a Comet tender. The previous photos showed it with the un-painted tender but it has now been painted and lined, the number changed and the whole thing weathered by good friend David Clarke. Here it is more-or-less complete.
     

     
    Since the photo, the odd bend in the brake ejector pipe has been improved by correctly locating the vertical pipe through the hole in the running plate.
    Front AJ coupling to make and fit, then conversion to DCC and coal in the tender.
     
    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt
    After what feels like a lifetime of back-aching effort, leaning over the board to focus my magnifying head set thingey, I have now completed fitting the cosmetic chairs to the point on the current board. Not only did thids involve cutting each chair in half to fit round the rivet, but also reguired lots of grinding of the rivet heads either side of the rails to enable a snug fit for the chair halves. On some, I didn't quite achive this, but the overall result is quite satisfying. I did consider only fitting chairs to the visible side of the rails, which would have halved the effort, but in the end I decided to fit both sides - must have too much time on my hands!!
     
    I've also experienced some problem getting the point blades to throw over fully, especially on the diverging road. This was causing derailment of the loco front pony truck when travelling in the facing direction. This seems to have been solved by increasng the Tortoise throw to near maximum and an adjustment to the operating link to the TOU.
    Photos show the completed point with BR Standard Cl2 tank being used to test the throw of the point. Also a close-up of the loco in its part completed condition.
     

     

     

     

     
    Next to do on the track on this board is represent the rail joints by cutting through the rail head at the appropriate locations to represent 30 foot and 60 foot rail lengths. Intending to use a slitting disc on a flexible shaft drive for this. Then it's cosmetic fish plates.
     
    Cheers for now,
     
    Dave.
  10. Dave Holt
    Following on from the fitting crews and fire irons to various locos it's back to some rather more fiddly modelling in the form of the injectors for my Ivatt Class 2 tank. These injectors have quite a distinctive shape and I am not aware of any commercial source of realistic representations of these items. To overcome this lack, I decided to try and represent the injectors and their mountings using multiple layers of custom etchings, produced to my sketches by Rumney Models. I use the word "fiddly" because each injector unit consists of 30 separate pieces, not including the wires representing the pipework, despite the body only being 5.7 mm long.
    Here's a photo of the real thing, fitted to the Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0 tender loco at the SVR. The injector is identical to that fitted to the tank engines except for the mounting bracket and orientation of the water feed pipe.

     
    For the model, I produced this sketch of the assembly relative to the chassis main frames (on the right) and underside of the cab/side tanks (along the top). Drawn 10 times full size, I realised I needed to make some slight changes (as noted) to allow for some minor dimensional compromises.

     
    Here we have one of the assembled injector body/mounting bracket units (LHS of the loco) with the various pipes and water valve operating spindle laid out in roughly their correct relative positions. The pipes will be bent to shape and fitted after the injectors have been fixed in position on the loco main frames.
    Also shown is the other injector and bracket (RHS) which is, of course, the opposite hand.

     
    Think I probably need to go and lie in a darkened room for a while after that lot.
     
    Dave.
  11. Dave Holt
    The Caprotti Black 5 has been making steady progress over the past few weeks. I started the chassis ages ago but only since (almost) finishing the Crab have I really concentrated on finishing off the Caprotti.
    The rear sand boxes and all the sand pipes are still to do, along with the front guard irons on the bogie.
    I joined the Leamingtom MR Society earlier this year and have been able to try the loco out on Clarendon (a bit out of place on an early 1900's LNWR layout!). This has shown up some issues regarding the front bogie wheels rubbing behind the cylinder drain cocks and motion brackets/front brake hangers on tightish curves and some points. I've filed various bits away to try yo solve this but only another running trial will tell if I've succeeded.
    Here a a few photos of the current state:
    A couple of overall views, side on and front three-quarters,
     

     

     
    Rhe front platform height on Stanier tenders was adjusted to suit the class of loco they were attached to. The Comet kit platform is too low to match the cab height of the loco, so a 1 mm thick piece of plastic card has been added to get somewhere nearer the correct arrangement.
     

     
    Dave.
  12. Dave Holt
    Well, crabs are generally said to scuttle, but that's sideways, so it's not unreasonable that forward progress is fairly slow.
    Following the conversion work on the ex_GCR push-pull coaches, I thought I ought to try and finish off some part completed projects which have been sitting around for quite a while. One such is the ex-LMS Crab, which is a Bachmann body on a Comet chassis and a Comet brass tender, together with a Brassmasters detailing kit. The original idea, inspired by the demonstration version on the Comet exhibition stand, was for a quick production based on a straight forward assembly of the chassis kit for P4 gauge. Needless to say, I couldn't go through with that approach and ended up adding lots of extra details and some missing bits, all of which added extra time.
    So, in a mad bout of renewed enthusiasm, the final details have been added to the chassis and body and a bit more work done to the tender. There, the only outstanding parts are the cab doors. I've assembled the Brassmasters doors with working hinges and am dallying with the idea of springing them open but need to obtain some fine phosphor bronze wire to make the springs. A trial with 0.33 mm brass wire proved the geometry but was too stiff.
    On the loco, which sits on coil springs, I have had a bit of fun and games getting the weight in the right place. Initially, I added too much in the front portion of the boiler, causing the front driver springs to be nearly fully compressed. It was a mighty struggle to get the weight back out, having glued it in rather too well. That made things much better, especially after I managed to squeeze a bit more lead in the firebox and some under the cab roof, but after I fitted the the front pony truck, which is also lightly sprung, I found the reverse problem! Now the rear driving springs were fully compressed, so I had to re-fit part of the boiler weight and remove the lead from the cab roof to get a reasonable ride attitude. Compensation is a lot less bother!!!
    Anyway, here it is in its current state. The loco still needs overall weathering and the tender remains unpainted till the cab doors are sorted, but definite progress.
     

     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    Hope this works - continuing the story of my layout and workbench. On the old RMweb thread (which I no longer appear to be able to access), I had posted regarding the setback experienced when the paper track plan which I had stuck to the cork underlay and on which I had intended to lay the track, wringled up very badly with the recent damp weather. The following photos show the trial fitting of the station throat pointwork on the track plan.
     

     

     

     
    Fortunately, the wrinkled paper came away quite well and did not damage the surface of the underlay, although it did reveal a few areas where the cork was not well adhered to the base-board top. Following removal, I have had to mark the track position directly on the cork and this stage is shown below.
     

     

  14. Dave Holt

    Caprotti valve gear

    By Dave Holt,

    In a recent blog, Tim has shown his developing model of an LMS Caprotti Class 5, and very good it looks too.
    Here are some photos of the gear I made for the similar BR Standard version. Also a sketch of how I represented the universal joints in the shafts. THe shafts and joints were made for various diameters of brass tube and rod and the return crank gear boxes were from the DJH cast brass gear I was replacing. For ease of assembly, painting, etc., I made the gear as a set of sub-assemblies held together by small 14 BA) screws. The photos were taken by Barry Norman, so I hope he doesn't mind me putting them on here. The original prints are much sharper but have lost something in the scanning!
     
     
    The assembled gear looks like this:

     
    The various sub-assemblies are:
    1) Cylinders with slide bars and connecting rods,

     
    2) Main drive shafts,

     
    3) Reversing shafts,

     
    These make up the overall assembly,

     
    The universal joints consist of a pair of interlocking "ears" filed onto the end of a length of 1.5 mm tube, mounted on a length of about 0.8 mm wire.

     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  15. Dave Holt
    Like some sort of UFO, the goods shed has descended from space (the spare bedroom, actually) and landed in the prepared cut-out in the cork surface of the base-board. It's been there before, but I thought I'd re-fit it, just to complete the station scene.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  16. Dave Holt
    It's been quite a while since I last posted anything about Delph (or should I say "Holt"). This is mainly because there's been precious little progress in recent weeks, partly due to the warm weather making work on the layout an unattractive proposition but mainly because I've been shying away from what seemed like a difficult and fiddly task. Needless to say, when I actually knuckled down to it, it proved much less of a problem than I had anticipated.
    Anyway, a concerted effort over the past week has seen good progress and it now only remains to do the facing point lock (which straddles two base-boards) and the cranks outside the signal box.
    Here are some shots showing the main rodding run, complete with compensators, and the arrangements to get the rods across the entrance to the mill siding.
    First, the main rodding runs. In the second photo, the hole in the base-board is for the starter signal to plug in.
     

     

     
    And here, the rods pass under the track into the mill siding, seen from each side. An Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet can be seen under the middle rod.
     

     

  17. Dave Holt
    Yesterday was just one of those days. A little progress with the Jubillee but a series of set-backs, sufficient to make me want a few days away from it!
    The progress was in successfully cutting back the rear edge of the cab footplate to clear the front of the tender, fitting the fall plates and some guide pins that hold the pivoted tender doors in place whilst allowing movement on curves. I also fitted the whistle to the cab front, although that bit leads into one of the set-backs.
     
    In anticipation of the painting and weathering of the loco, I have been refreshing my memory of the necessary assembly sequence and found that the motor must be attached to the gearbox before fitting through the footplate/cab, then the motor wiring attached and finally, the boiler fitted over the motor, plugged into the cab front and fixed to the smokebox saddle from underneath. I also needed to find a suitable space for the DCC chip - not easy as the resin boiler is packed with lead sheet to give tractive weight and balance on the locomotive springs.
    I had dallied with connecting the motor up for DC operation initially and fitting the chip later. However, I decided to fit the chip straight away as I have had the loco running successfully on DC previously. In the end, I was quite pleased with the motor/chip installation, although the soldering wasn't my best after struggling with bits coming adrift when I added the next wire. These photos show the arrangement without the boiler. The tender is not coupled in the first shot and fits closer to the loco than illustrated.
     

     

     
    The first set-back came when I tried to programme the chip with its proper address (5701) which involves first setting CV29 to accept four digit addresses. On doing this, after swatting up from the various instruction manuals, I got an error message. Furthermore, the chip appears to be totally unresponsive despite trying both the new address and the factory default address of 03. Now I'm not sure if there's a chip fault - nether had any previous trouble with the Digitrax DZ123 type, before, or if the problem lies in my Lentz DCC control unit or throttle. Further checking of wiring, etc., is in order before I rip the chip out.
    The second set-back resulted from fitting the whistle as this now prevents fitting of the boiler till I've ground away loads more of the inside of the firebox. Previously, the boiler just squeezed over the motor with the back end clear of the cab front. Now, with the whistle protruding from the cab, the boiler has to be about six or seven millimeters further forward, to clear the end of the whistle and the thinned down firebox sides no longer coincide with the motor body. Oh well, out with the rotary burr.
    The final set-back was the disintegration of my illuminated magnifying glass that I need to see what I'm doing. The mazac castings that grip the lens/light unit broke, causing the lens to fall down, suspended only by the power cable, luckily without hitting anything but effectively ending any use of the unit. A smaller, cheaper replacement has been ordered but will take a week or so to arrive. I do have an Optivisor head set, but find it hard to get on with and also a lack of bright illumination to see the detail in my modelling room.
     
    Hopefully, all these issues will prove no too difficult to overcome, in the end.
     
    Dave.
  18. Dave Holt
    Powered up the wiring of the first board using various jump leads to connect 16 V AC, a hand-held Pentroller and a second controller to swith the point motor. Ran my part finished Ivatt Cl 2, 2-6-2 tank up and down the platform road, then transferred everything to the loop road. This has a point giving access to the siding which runs along the side of the goods shed. Was able to switch the point using the second cpntroller and found that by chance, I'd wired the route indicating LED's correctly for the diverging roads. Had to do an adjustment to the Tortoise travel to get the point blades to sit hard against the stock rail for the siding, in order to get reliable running in the facing direction.
     

     

     

     
    Photos show an overall view of the test with the Pentroller plugged into it's socket on the facia of the board. The adjacent socket is for the DCC Xpressnet connection. Also seen is a close-up of the facia showing the point switch, route indicating LED's (with the diverging road set and the LED illuminated) and the red button is for an Alex Jackson uncoupling magnet. Lastly, a view of the loco taking the diverging road. Now for the rest......
     
    Dave.
  19. Dave Holt
    After departure of the visiting West Country and its train of enthusiasts, it's back to the slow progress with layout construction. I must say, without the station and goods shed in place, it does look to have taken several steps backwards!
     
    Since my last post, back in December '10, I have been working on the station board. All the track is now wired (except final connections to the Tortoise moters and AJ uncoupling magnets), cosmetic chairs fitted to the points and cosmetic fishplates fitted to all the track. Next job is to make & fit the jumper cables which connect to the control panel, located at the end of the board near the buffer stops.
    This choice of location for the panel, at the opposite end of the layout to most of the point-work, means that many of the wires have to run the whole length of the layout - making the wiring look worse than it is!
     
    With regards to the cosmetic chairs and fishplates, after some deliberation, i decided to only fit them to the visible side of the rails - cheating, I know, but it saves quite a bit of work and the back side of the track will never be seen, even by the operator, so why bother?
     
    Here's a few photos to illustrate progress to date:
     
    First, a couple of views of the platform release cross-over, now with chairs and fishplates.
     

     

     
    Second, some views of the wiring underneath. In some of these, the board is connected to the adjacent board via the jumpers as it was easier to identify the connecting wires from the tag boards than by trying to identify the plug/socket pins.
     

     

     

     

     
    I've also been having some further thoughts about the rodding from the ground frame (near the buffers) to the cross-over. As far as I can see from photos, there were no compensators fitted to the real thing, which had me a bit puzzled. Closer examination of the photos shows that the rodding from the frame extended beyond the toes of the nearer point and the rodding crossed from the six foot to adjacent to the platform face under the switch blades, enabling approximately the same length of rodding pushing as pulling, thus avoiding the need for compensators. (Hope I've got this right!)
     
    There will be a lull in layout work now, as I need to check my locos over, ready for a run out on Dewsbury at Scalefour North (with a test session beforehand).
     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    I left the Class 40 with the bogies wheeled and the loco test pushed through some of the yard throat point work. Since then, pick-ups have been added and the loco rendered operational, though not without some trials and tribulations.
    My clever plan for the pick-ups proved a bit too clever for its own good. The mounting bus-bars were just fine as were the simple phosphor-bronze wire pick-ups for the inner wheel sets but those for the outer driven axles gave lots of problems with shorting out on the bogie mounting units. This resulted in a brief period of near despair when I thought I had blown the DCC chip or the control unit or both as on first power application the whole thing went completely dead after moving only a few millimetres and the hand set had a flashing display I just couldn't get rid of. Perhaps old bods like me just shouldn't try to mess with new technology. In the end, it turned out I had simply failed to press the reset but had tried unplugging, cancelling and all sorts of futile actions.
    The solution involved moving the pick-ups to the outer side of the wheels and re-bending them to try to clear the mountings at the extremes of the suspension movement. In the end, I also had to file some mouse-hole shaped cut outs in the mounting stiffeners on the under side.
    This appears to have finally solved the shorting problems and I now have a fully functioning chassis - at least up and down my short, straight, test track. I'm intending to give it a longer running in session on the North London Group circular test track next Monday. In the mean time, I also attached the Bachmann cosmetic bogie frames. making quite an improvement to the appearance of the loco and providing mounting points for the Alex Jackson coupling hooks.
    Still got most of the piping and other details recovered from the Lima project to fit to the new frames. The Bachmann moulded plastic air pipes on the bogie front plates have proved particularly fragile and vulnerable to handling damage and will be replaced by the brass wire versions I made for the Lima.
    Since sorting the electrical problems, I have to confess to the rather childish pleasure of running the sound, repeatedly going through the start-up sequence and then leaving the loco idling for ages with that characteristic warbling whistle, so redolent of these locos. I imagine the sound will be switched off after a few laps of the test track, to avoid me being pummeled to a pulp by angry NLG members, driven to distraction!
    Here is the loco in its current state:
     

     
    I've just been advised that the painting and weathering of my BR Standard Class 2 tank is now finished, ready for collection tomorrow. David Clarke has sent some photos showing the result. I have to fit the windows, coal and a crew to finish it off. It looks like some minor adjustments to the return crank positions might also be required, although it might just be the angle of the photos and crank positions. We'll see:
     

     

     

     
    Thought I might have a go at the Rumney Models sprung chassis for a couple of BR 16T mineral wagons I've had for a while. Just preparing to start shows just how little I know about wagons. Help! They look trickier than locos.
     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt
    The signals made for me by Steve Hewitt (of Liverpool Lime Street fame) were collected last week and have been trial fitted to the layout and the operating mechanisms and contol units fitted and wired. Steve has made a wonderful job, as seen in his semaphore signals thread in the forum section of this site.
    The following photos show the signals in situ and the operating bits fitted. The signals have since been removed and refitted into their carrying frames for safety during further layout construction.
     
    First, we see the signals in their layout locations, starting (appropriately) with the starter signal.
     

     
    Next the miniature semaphore ground signal controling the exit from the loop& yard into the running line.
     

     
    Coming in the other direction, we have the home signal. This is a two doll bracket controling entry into the platform road or into the loop/yard. This signal is seen from both sides.
     

     

     
    Now some shots of the under-board operating mechanisms and control units. The operating mechanisms are servo motors and the contol boards are made by GF Controls. I believe they are based on those developed for Lime Street and they each control two servos and incorporate a switchable bounce facility and simple adjustment of the on and off arm positions. The bracket signal unit incorporates two servos to operate the two arms. The others have one each.
    Here's the arrangement for the bracket signal.
     

     
    As I explained previously, space for the yard ground signal mechanism is very tight and I had to re-route a wiring bundle to make room for it. This shot shows just how tight it is. The original route for the wiring was straight through the two redundant wiring clips (fixtures visible either side of the mechanism, as is the re-routed wiring).
     

     
    In contrast, the started signal servo has loads of room!
     

     
    Finally, heres the control board for the starter and yard exit signals. Both controllers have been located so the arm postion adjuster pots can be reached easily from the base-board edge - a very sound suggestion from Steve.
     

  22. Dave Holt
    Following on from my last entry, I've started work on the over-bridge which forms part of the scenic break between the station and the fiddle yard.
    The bridge is based on Bridge No. 4 which was (is) actually located in Dobcross, a mile or so along the branch from Delph, but which, together with the nearby group of cottages, forms an effective scenic break. A photo of the real thing appears on page 23 of Larry Goddard's excellent Delph book. The bridge - at about 81 feet long, more a short tunnel - carries Mount Lane over the railway. Mount Lane actually leads off Wall Hill Lane, but in my version it connects directly to Delph (Holt) New Road, which runs along the front of the layout past the coal drops and up to the station.
    I had formed the base for Mount Lane as part of the base-board structure but found that I hadn't made it high enough to cross the railway with sufficient clearance, so additional packing pieces have been added and similar levels incorporated into the bridge structure. This latter is made from plastic sheet, with a basic core clad in embossed sheet to represent the different types of stone used in the bridge wing walls and parapet.
    The photos show work in progress. I'm currently waiting for further supplies of plastic card and some additional tools to help finish the bridge.
    The final road surface will be 2 mm higher than the supports, but as yet, I haven't decided on the best material for this or for the ground in-fill between the (quite narrow) road and the widely spaced parapets.
     
    First a view through the bridge, looking towards the station:
     

     
    Now a view from roughly the same view-point as the photo in Larry's book:
     

     
    Finally, the station side of the bridge. Judging by photos I took some years ago, the stonework of the wing walls on this side of the bridge is quite different from the random style used on the other side. Strictly, none of the embossed card is exactly right, but these are somewhere near. The proper way would be individually engraved stones cut into plain card - as per Geoff Kent's lovely bridges recently illustrated in his MRJ article - but perhaps I'm not that dedicated!:
     

  23. Dave Holt
    Not much visible progress with the layout recently, so in view of some recent interest in Caprotti fitted locos on RMweb, I thought I'd post a few photos of my effort - BR Standard 5, number 73129 - intended to work my Wakes special (for the North Wales coast). I think it's fair to say that Caprotti fitted locos were not well liked by footplate crews during the BR era, being regarded as weak on banks but fast on the level and good coasters. The super performances by Duke of Gloucester in preservation have disproved this view which was probably due to lack of familiarity and a sharper exhaust than normal locos leading to working at too short a cut off. Not that these issues apply to our models.
    Anyway, Patricroft shed ended up with all the English allocation of these locos and one of these was the last BR steam loco I saw in everyday service - the west end (Horse Dock?) pilot at Manchester Exchange in 1968. I spent a pleasant half hour on the footplate chatting to the fireman whist waiting for my (Peak hauled) Newcastle bound train.
    Possibly for this reason, I've always had a love of these locos.
     
    The model is based on a DJH kit but using milled main frames from Alan Gibson. In fact, the only DJH bits on the whole chassis are the cylinder /steam pipe castings, the slide bars, brake hanger/brake block etches and the return crank gear box castings. The valve gear shafts, complete with representations of the universal joints were made from various diameters of brass rod and tube. The injector casting are Alan Gibson and the pipework, lubricator and valve gear support brackets, etc., all home made.
     
    The photos were taken by Barry Norman and i must apologise for the poor quality reproduction. This is due to way I've scanned them in and re-sized the files not any fault with the original photos.
     
    First some shots of the finished loco:
     

     

     

     
    Now some taken during construction:
    The front bogie frame, showing the hollow pivot tube which was later soldered into the chassis spacer between the cylinders. A pin passes down the pivot tube to transmit the weight from the bogie external compensating beams to the front compensating beam in the chassis. This arrangement allows full compensation of the front bogie wheels without the bogie frames moving vertically. The bogie slides sideways with rubbing pads on the bottom of the mainframes resting on the "ears" protruding either side of the bogie frames. Light springs resting on the bogie axles keep the frames pushed up onto the pads. Hairpin side control springs centralise the bogie on the pivot tube. A bit complicated, perhaps, but it works really well and is applied to all bogies on my locos.

     
    Now some shots showing how the cylinders and valve gear are made up from sub-assembles which are held together by small screws (14 BA, if I remember correctly).
    First the cylinders with slidebars and connecting rods:

     
    Next the main drive shafts. This unit fits on top of the cylinder unit. Part of the exhaust injector steam feed pipe is included - the "S" shaped piece of brass tube!:

     
    Then the reversing gearboxes and shafts. The long, separate shaft is from the cab to the valve gear:

     
    When it's all assembled to the top of the chassis, the valegear looks like this:

     

     
    At the rear end of the chassis, on the right hand side, there is the rather distinctive lubricator mounting and drive. The lubricator bracket is quite massive and has the steam feed from the blast pipe to the exhaust steam injector passing right through the bracket, or rather the lubricator bracket incorporates a tube which forms part of the exhaust steam supply pipe. On the model, sections of this pipe are attached to bits of the valve gear, as seen above, and some to the chassis mainframes. The injector castings are Alan Gibson. This shot has the brake gear removed. Also visible are the dummy springs, sand pipes/brackets, ash pan and hopper operating gear and the pick ups - all mounted to a removable keeper plate which retains the driving axles. The motor is a Portescap 1616 fitted with an MJT gearbox conversion. The electrical connection to the motor, via bits of gapped copper-clad sleeper strip glued to the gearbox side plates, has since been modified to include a DCC chip.

     

     
    The brake gear is made in two sections. The "herring bone" main section with the brake hangers, which clip onto the chassis mountings and is easily removeable to get the wheels out. The rear section with the operating lever is attached to the chassis by screws, below the cab:

     
    The complete chasis, unpainted, looks like this:
    From underneath

     
    and from above:

  24. Dave Holt
    Having brought the coal drop board home from the workshop, I've been able to make better progress with the stone retaining walls, in comfort! The brick pillars and stone retaining wall sections in between and at the ends are now ready to be coloured (not sure if to paint or try the crayon technique being used by Barrow Road on his excellent loco shed buildings). Anyway, had a trial fit of all the bits which are on this board (the RH wing wall is on the next - station - board). Couldn't resist placing the deck and putting a few unfinished coal wagons over the cells to visualise how it might finally look.
     

     

     

     

     

     

  25. Dave Holt

    Delph - Trial assembly

    By Dave Holt,

    Now I've got all three boards with track laid at home, I was able to assemble the three together for the first time on the lounge/diner floor - after moving a bit of furniture and a rug! The three sections together are just over 12 feet long, with another scenic board (as yet without track) to take the line off to the fiddle yard (at the far end, in the photos). Current work includes fitting the point motors, TOU's and Alex Jackson uncoupling magnets under the boards, together with trimming some rail ends at the board joints, opening up some rail joints for rail expansion and electrical isolation purposes and cosmetic rail joints at the appropriate positions (these latter cut into or through the rail head but not right through the full rail section). Then it's on to the wiring.
    I think I will get three of the support boards made up, so i can have the boards at a good working height. Kneeling on the floor isn't doing my knees any good, despite use of a foam kneeling pad (intended for gardening!).
    Photos show the three boards assembled on the floor.
     

     

     
    Dave.
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