Dave Holt

Thanks for the comment, Robin. It's some time since I painted the bridge so I can't guarantee my memory but, as you say, it was primed with Halfords grey plastic primer. The basic stone colour was an enamel of a suitable base shade. The soot effect is matt black enamel applied by dabbing/rubbing with kitchen roll, if I remember correctly. The bridge still needs some further washes to blend it all in and give some tone variation, perhaps with a hint of green to suggest moss/lichen? Yes, I really must arrange a visit to Barrow Road, so I'll be in touch shortly. Dave.

In anticipation of a visit on Monday (tomorrow) by some friends to view and play with the layout, I've had each board out and set up on trestles to clean the track. To my slight surprise, I discovered that on two of the boards, the rail heads still had paint on - Halfords grey primer and rust coloured enamel. I'd completely forgotten that I had never cleaned the paint off after ballasting and re-doing the rails. Just shows how long it is since these particular boards have been out. Boy, did it take some scraping off after that amount of time. Fairly back breaking too, as the trestles don't really put the track at a comfortable height to extended work like that. Anyway, all done now and, hopefully, decent running will be obtained. Having the boards up did provide the opportunity to pose a loco for some photos, so my Crab and ex_LMS period II coach in carmine and cream were posed, emerging for the scenic break over bridge/short tunnel. Here it is arriving, tender first, with the empty stock for a wakes special. And here with the return working a week later. Looks like the crew forgot the lamps on both turns. Funny that no signalmen stopped the train as a result! Dave.

Following a request, and for those who are interested in such detail, here a some further photos of the chassis components. First, the frames. Nothing particular to note really. Suspension is a centre rocking point for the front axle and twin beams for the centre and rear. Horn blocks are London Road Models cast items. Pickups bearing on the tops of the wheel treads, hidden behind the tanks and the valve gear. Three views of the keeper plate. This has now become permanently entangled with the brake gear since the front brake stretcher passes between the front sand pipes and their support brackets. Besides retaining the driving axle boxes in their horn guides, the keeper also carries the dummy springs, ash-pan and sand pipes. The four hair pin shaped wire thingies are the pony truck side control springs. It's fixed to the frames by a number of 14 BA screws. Dave.

Well said, that man.

Thanks for the kind comments. Hope I can maintain the standard(!) with the body. I think the push-pull gear will be a challenge as the DJH effort is so grossly wrong. I'll take some photos of the chassis and keeper plate arrangement when I disassemble them for painting. Dave.

Having recently completed three larger types - a Crab, Jubilee and Stanier Caprotti 5, all potential holiday excursion locos but not really true to prototype, my thoughts have shifted to the next project. I have two part built Class 2, 2-6-2 tanks, one Ivatt and a BR standard type. In real life, these were used on the regular push-pull passenger trains in the last years of operation, in the mid 1950's. Both are in running condition but incomplete. A state they've been in for umpteen years whilst I've messed around with larger, generally inappropriate locos. . in terms of detail, so I've decided they really must be finished off before I start anything new. Each is in a different state of completion but on balance, I decided to work on the BR standard version first. Work has now started - given a boost by being housebound by the recent snow and freezing weather. The loco consists of a modified DJH body mounted on a Comet chassis. Initial work has been to finish off the chassis by adding the dummy driving axle springs and mountings, the brake gear, ash-pan and hopper operating gear and the sand pipes. The valve gear assembly and the two pony trucks were already completed, so only the body remains to finish off. The main issue with this item is that the kit is 2 mm too short in the cab area. Unfortunately, the loss of length (why do they make that sort of mistake?) is distributed in front of the cab windows, in the cab opening and also behind the cab opening. Correcting this accurately was just too over-facing, so I opted to cheat by simply stretching the cab opening to give the correct overall length. Of course, that means the cab roof no longer fits - Oh hum! The photos below show the current state of the major component parts, as described above. First, the chassis. Since the body kit is designed to include the front and rear sections of the main-frames, I opted to keep this arrangement, so the main chassis finishes at the front of the cylinders and under the cab, behind the steps and sand boxes. To permit assembly, the brake gear is split into two sections and is removable to give access to the pony truck pivots. There is a removable keeper plate which incorporates the dummy springs and sand pipes (the rear sand boxes are part of the body). I deliberately fitted the dummy springs inside-out as they are etched with a small number of very course leaves whereas the real things had 12 or 14 fine leaves which probably can't be seen in the gloom and at normal viewing distances, unlike the crude etched lines. Next we have the body, which is in two parts - the footplate, tanks and cab section and the boiler. A certain amount of detailing has already been done, especially below the tank and cab sides, but these parts now represent all the work needed to finish the loco off. This includes the push-pull gear, front end pipework, lamp irons, tank fillers and restraining bars and that dratted cab roof. First the footplate/tanks/cab assembly: and the boiler: Next we have the completed cylinder and valve gear assembly, which also includes the motor torque reaction links to stop the motor/gearbox trying to rotate round the axle. Also in this shot are the pony trucks: The pony trucks were made from Brassmasters etches. However, on the 2-6-2 tanks, one of the trucks (the rear one on the standards, but generally the front one on the Ivatts) was of the swing link side control type rather than the spring side control type represented by the Brassmasters etch. This was done by modifications of some of the etched parts and some scratch built parts. The difference in appearance of the two is shown in the final photo: Hope that lot is of some interest. There will be a short break from this project to get the track cleaned on the layout, ready for a visit by a group of friends next week. Dave.

Hi Mike. Yes, I think looks much better. From the side-on photo of 67253, the full sized lever was quite hefty, but not quite as much as your original. Hope I didn't cause too much extra work but I find on my own models, once one spots something that doesn't look quite right, it just eats away and becomes the most eye catching feature on the whole model, even when it's quite an insignificant bit. A sagging footplate might be prototypical. but probable wouldn't look right on a model and would be sure to attract adverse comments. Great modelling and an inspiration, as always. Pity you don't turn your attentions to ex-LMS and BR Standard prototypes! Dave. PS. Posting at 6.22 on a Sunday morning. Don't you ever sleep?

Mike, The G5 builds are coming along nicely and looking good. That said, I can't help thinking that the brake crank looks rather too chunky and prominent. Dave.

If you think the shield should be fitted then I will fit it. Pete Peter, There's a photo of 6230 in as-built condition on page 74 of the Wild Swan profile book which clearly shows a heat shield fitted, if that helps. There's no reason to suppose this loco was special in that respect. Dave.

David. For what it's worth, I think the second arrangement looks visually more interesting. But there again, I like "gubbins"! Dave.

That's running very smoothly, Robin, despite any difficulties with the conversion. Obviously worth the effort and whatever pick-up arrangement you settled on appears to be working well. How much work have you had to do to the body? Ex Midland loco with tall chimney, RH drive, etc. Deeley or Johnson tender? Interestingly, that loco appears to have had an early demise as it's not listed in the 1959 shed book. Dave.

All looking very nice, Mike. I'm interested in your inset rear frame idea as I have a similar issue with a planned C13 4-4-2 tank which had joggled frames, without wheel cut-outs, both front and rear. I this case, the joggled front frames also tapered in towards their outer ends. I have calculated the wheel side throw on a minimum radius curve to establish the amount of narrowing required - just hope my trigonometry skills were up to it! I particularly like the jumble of hoses, jumper cables and the like on the bunker and rear buffer beam on the push-pull fitted G5, 67282, shown higher up the page. Perhaps the low level camera position helps emphasise these fittings, but to me it makes the rear end so much more interesting. I gather one of your models will be so equipped? Regards, Dave.

Mike, You mention getting the body CoG in front of the rear driving/coupled axle. What suspension arrangement are you using? If it is twin beams on the coupled axles and a fixed point at the bogie centre, then a CoG roughly at the rear coupled axle will give a total weight on the bogie about equal to each of the two coupled axle (depending on the wheelbase and ignoring the axle hung motor/gearbox). It's also a good location in a triangular support arrangement for stability (a third up from the base). Dave.

Hi Jol. Thanks for that. A colleague of mine on P&O group models Midland in fine-scale OO, so has lots of 4-4-0's and 0-4-4's which he fits with compensation. His arrangement is to have a solidly mounted bogie (in the vertical, that is) and twin beams for the coupled axles - giving the classic three point suspension. The bogie is compensated within itself. A rather neat arrangement in my view. On the 4-4-0's, he also has the tender resting on a bar at the rear to increase adhesive weight. Dave.

Hi Robin. That all looks very well thought out and neatly executed. I've incorporated a dead section for the last half metre leading to the fiddle yard on "Holt" which will be fed from the fiddle yard area when a cassette is in position. I must say, your safety barriers appear rather substantial - designed to stop a scale 600 ton train traveling at 150 mph? The first photo caused a double take with me thinking the curved plain track was not layed, so I presume it's an older photo than the others, as you've clearly got a full, continuous circuit now. Dave.

Jol, That looks a very nice collection of models but I don't envy you the painting and lining which, again, looks very good. Sorry to back track, but what suspension arrangements have you got on the Jubilee? You mention a sprung bogie and the chassis appears to have a fixed, driven, rear axle. So how is the front driving axle arranged? Dave.

Pete, I think the cab roof colour depends on the era you're modelling, in theory, at least. In LMS days, the inside of the cab roof was painted white. However, in service it rapidly became discoloured, becoming cream and probably ending up a dirty brown or nearly black with grime. Officially, in BR days the cab roof was black but I wouldn't be surprised if some works continued with pre-BR practice as an unofficial variation. Interestingly, BR specified black between the frames but I believe many locos were painted vermilion, as per pre-nationalisation practice. Sorry if that confuses the issue! Dave.

The drawings in these books are weight diagrams rather than GA drawings. Being diagrams, they are not necessarily accurate or to scale. Better than nothing, but you need to be wary. Dave.

Peter, It's your model, but I would definitely go with the single front and twin rear beams. None of the other arrangements give proper compensation. On the other hand, perhaps 7 mm doesn't need working suspension because of its mass? Although it would give better electrical contact with the track. Dave.

Peter, It looks like the chassis is designed to be compensated (hole for two cross shafts). Is it one single beam and a twin beam arrangement, to give three point suspension? Dave.

John, Looks a very neat and tidy model. The twisted wire "chains" look very effective. If you hadn't highlighted the minor discrepancies, I doubt anyone would have noticed. Dave.

Peter, It looks like you could extend your idea on the Cartazzi carrier by adding the uprights from the third (narrow) alternative to the outside of your structure, in place of some of the spacing washers, if you want even greater bearing area. I must say, your opening out of the axle slot in the tender frame looks much neater than I would probably achieve. Dave.

Mick, They look very neat indeed. Are the hinges stiff enough for the discs to stay where you put them in the open position. I believe the real things had clips to hold them which would be too small and fiddly to model. Dave.

Peter, A superb looking model and very well finished. I'm particularly taken with your technique for the lining on the bunker - a neat way round a tricky configuration. I'm really looking forward to seeing it weathered. Good luck with the Finney A3. Dave.

Hi Robin. It must be most satisfying to have stuff running right round at last. Very smooth, too. Interesting sounds though! Dave.