Dave Holt

Peter, it looks very good to me. You wouldn't believe how awkward those delivery pipes are under the running plate as they wiggle past the valve gear support bracket and other obstructions, with umpteen almost inaccessible union joints - an absolute nightmare to assemble and make steam tight! Dave.

Brian, The injector delivery pipes should be a scale 2.25" O/D. Also, they should pass vertically through quite large diameter (3.5", say) holes near the back of the running plate rather than passing through the gap between the boiler and the rear edge of the running plate. Dave.

Your re-aligned track looks good. It's odd how once the idea forms that something isn't quite right, it burrows into your brain until you can't see anything else and it just has to be sorted out. I'm sure you'll keep looking at the new arrangement and think "Yeh!" The other good point you make is that however long one leaves a job, or divert on to alternative projects, the issue doesn't seem to resolve itself. I kept putting off the cobbled area in the goods yard on Delph/Holt, but months later, when I went back to it, it had failed to do itself in the meantime. I was quite put out. Of course, when I did get down to it, the whole thing was easier than I had anticipated, as is nearly always the case. Happy modelling in 2018. Dave.

My trackwork consists of rivetted ply sleeper points, with cosmetic chairs, and C&L plastic flexitrack plain track. I fixed all the track in position using PVA and then attached all the electrical connections by soldering dropper wires to the foot of the rails on the non-visible side which pass through the baseboard to the wiring underneath. I then painted everything with Halfords grey primer from a spray can. The rails and chairs were then hand painted in suitable rusty brown colours and the sleepers with weathered sleeper colour (basically grey with a hint of brown, in my view). Eventually, some variations in shade will be added, but for now, I defy anyone to tell where the wooden and plastic sleepers meet/end. Dave.

Hi Larry. Mmmm. Lunch in a warm sunny garden sounds very appealing but a distant prospect with the snow only just melted, here. Regarding Delph/Holt, I'm still plodding along, mainly working on locos with the layout not really progressing. I still make occasional entries in my RMweb blog. Next year, I really intend to get the garage cleared and converted into a model railway room so I can have the layout up permanently and also get on with the messy aspects of scenic work. Can't really do that sort of stuff in the lounge, can I? Best wishes, Dave.

Is that an Oldham Corporation bus sneaking in by any chance? Probably turned left instead of right at Featherstall Road South! Happy New Year.

David, Thanks for your kind comments. Mr Clarke has also suggested it looks far too clean for a Caprotti, so I have invited him to render it "more prototypical" if he wishes, so I'll see what happens. Dave.

My Caprotti Black 5 has gone for some finishing details and David Clarke has kindly sent me some rather enlarged views of the loco, prior to the work. Overall, I think the model stands up quite well to these larger than full size photos, although there are a few blemishes and omissions apparent. Best wishes for Christmas and New Year, Dave.

Very smooth running, Robin. Sprung stuff does seem to have that nice, steady, solid sort of running. I bet you feel very pleased to have got something moving through the fiddle yard - a nice little pre-Christmas present to yourself! Best wishes for Christmas and New Year to you. Dave.

Peter, I think the rearranged ejector looks far better. Sorry if I've contributed to causing more work. I can understand why you had trouble aligning the hole in the back (front, actually) of the ejector body with the exhaust pipe down the boiler because, on the real thing, there is an "S" shaped adaptor piece between the two (at least on our loco) such that the injector is about 1.5 to 2" inboard of the pipe, as per attached photo. Too late now and, anyway, doesn't really impact on your excellent looking model. Dave.

I can confirm that your brake ejector is upside down and if turned over, it would be correct for a left-hand drive loco. We have a similar, but later, version on P&O. However, if you can live with it as is, that's fine. Dave.

Ooooo! That's a bit below the belt. Point nicely made, though. Dave.

That seams an unusually short baseboard, or am I missing something? Glad to hear your making progress and getting stuff moving. Dave.

It's looking very good and neat. Are you using a fixed driven rear axle and a single compensating beam between the front driven axle and the centre of the bogie? Dave.

P4 wheels have a flange depth of about 0.5 mm, so if your O/D over the flanges is only 1 mm bigger than the tread diameter, then they are P4. Dave.

Mike, That one looks like a rough shunt or collision whereas the previous example looks like it was hit from above, somehow, as the buffer beam appears undamaged. I'm intrigued by the double or split balance weights. I've never noticed that arrangement on any other locomotives although Royal Scots had some odd shapes due to additions during service. Were all B16/1 like that? Dave.

Robin, Wiring looking very neat and tidy, as always. There are quite a few wires connecting to your point motors, so I imagine some of them are for polarity switching using on-board contacts? I fitted Tortoise motors but used extra poles on the panel switches to switch polarity as I'd read that the on-board contacts were not all that reliable. Of course, my approach vastly increased the number of wires to and from the panel and I ended up with rather more pins in my board connectors! The mechanical linkages under the point operating units look very complex but very neat and well engineered. They put my efforts with plastic sliders and "00" rail rodding, to shame and no mistake. Dave.

Mike, If you look closely, the main footplate above the RH cylinder also slopes down to the front and to the outside. Presumably, this has pushed the vertical leg down, taking the front with it. The valance angle is quite substantial, so it must have taken quite a wallop to bend it like that. I do very much enjoy reading about your builds, even though I have no real interest in ex-NER locos. Looking forward to the next project. Dave.

Peter, Is the motor/gearbox restrained from rotating round the axle when in reverse? Obviously, you additional spacer prevents rotation the other way. Dave.

David, Well, they move on my bit of test track! Now they are all DCC chipped, I can't really test them on Clarenden as it's DC only and has different DIN sockets to my DCC unit. I'm hoping to give them a run at the NLG Christmas meeting. Dave.

I took my three latest completed locos to pose on Clarenden at the Leamington Club, last night. Here they are being serviced in the loco shed after arriving with excursion trains from the North and also seen departing for home with a return working. Hopefully, they look better here than on the shelf in my modelling room! Here they're seen on shed in various poses: 44741 and 45701 are seen double heading a return working past Scrubbs Lane West Box: Dave.

It looks like the wiring along the buffer beam to the junction box is still there, but the jumper cable to connect to the coaches has been removed. The connector would be housed in the holder seen below the additional vacuum hose. Presumably, the push-pull gear was out of use by then, even if not fully removed? Dave.

I've made some reasonable progress in the past couple of weeks with the various locos under construction. First the Crab had a front AJ coupling added and a shed plate, which I had somehow overlooked, a crew in the cab and coal in the tender. Since then, I've almost finished the Jubilee, the latest jobs being coal in the tender, cab glazing and fixing the roof after adding a crew. Just waiting for the glue to fully dry in the tender before reconnecting loco and tender. The Caprotti Black 5 (loco and tender bodies) was collected at the Warley show after painting. Today, I've fitted the buffer heads, AJ couplings, number and shed plates, glazed the cab and re-assembled the bodies and chassis. There will need to be some adjustments to the chassis and body weathering to blend them together and there is still the crew and coal to fit. The Caprotti and Jubilee are shown in these photos. It's clear that the Jubilee loco and tender are not connected. Neither is the Caprotti, but that pushed together to the proper positions, unlike the Jub. First, the Caprotti, with the Jub peeping in: Then the JUb. with the Caprotti tender: And finally, a front three quarters showing both: Dave.

Is that a prile of Grampii, then?

That can't be right, surely? (0.056 mm?) Dave.