Dave Holt

Robin, You must have put the bits back on to good effect - it's running very nicely. An enthusiasts special or football supporters train, perhaps? Dave.

All looking very nice, David. You've got the Bradwell chassis B1 running very smoothly and with good track holding. It's a very complicated chassis though a well designed and produced kit. You must be rightly very pleased with the resultant model. I've got one to do sometime. I wonder if it will run as well as yours? Dave.

The tender has now acquired four sets of steps and all the springs and axleboxes and is beginning to look the part. Intermediate buffers and hoses still to do. Buffer heads will be fitted after painting. Dave.

Very nicely done, Robin. Looks as if you will need to add quite a bit of random debris on the roof. Also, one minor point. I see from the first photo that the structure was actually built with a Jubilee behind it, not a Black Five. I'm sue you'll be able to fix that before final installation. Dave.

Not much progress, but the loco and tender are now connected. The loco and tender kits are from different periods of design and manufacture and the adjustable draw bar supplied with the loco is far too long for the later tender. The fault really lies with the tender because the draw bar pivot is far too close to the buffer beam whereas the earlier tenders were about scale in this respect. The more recent tender is not easily modified to correct this aspect, so the only solution was to make a hybrid draw bar using the etched bar at the loco end and a new part, incorporating a formed eye, made from 0.8 mm brass wire at the tender end. It took a couple of goes soldering the two pieces together to get just the right pivot centre distance so that the rubbing blocks touch but allow the required movement between loco and tender. Although the gap between loco and tender is almost scale, the fall plates on the loco do not land on the front platform on the tender, so some further work is required on this aspect. Dave.

Thanks for the comments. The Ivatt chassis is quite old, despite it still not being finished, and the coupling rods are simply as Comet etched them. Many of my earlier models have the rods split at the centre crank pin and work satisfactorily even though it's an inferior design compared with working knuckle joints. The two half rods sit on a short crank pin bush and are retained by the connecting rod and return crank. Dave.

I see it's been over a year since my last posting on here. To be honest, I find the constant pop up adverts which now appear a constant irritant, so am less inclined to participate. Anyway, I have made some limited modelling progress during the gap. Nothing on the layout, but work has been done on locos. We left the Ivatt tank at the stage of making the injectors. This and all other work on the chassis is now complete. It is currently stripped to its component parts, ready to be painted. I left it like this in anticipation of demonstrating at this years Scalefour North which, inevitably, never took place due to the corona virus. No progress has been made on the body. I was pondering whether to cut out and replace the boiler with a spare cast white metal DJH and decided to re-start another loco whilst I made up my mind. Well, it's still not made up and the other model is now well on the way to completion! This latest project is a Brassmasters Stanier Black 5 - 45232, of Newton Heath. The basic frames had been assembled years ago but had not been wheeled. It has now reached the stage of the loco being complete, except cab glazing and fixing the cab roof, both of which have to be done after painting. The tender is also well advanced but not yet finished. Dave.

A wonderful scene, John. Mind, I'm a great admirer of your 9F, so that might be a biased opinion. I imagine that your layout could be viewed to advantage sitting down, so that the embankment is above eye level, as it would be in real life. Dave.

Robin. Yet another lovely running loco by conversion from an R_T_R base. Mmm, I really wonder why I'm bothering with kit construction when they invariably run worse than your conversions. It's the joy of overcoming the challenges, I suppose, but it does make one wonder. Dave.

John. Coming along very nicely. The addition of the buildings and canopies will make a tremendous difference to the look and feel of the station area. They'll also make judging the precise stopping point over the uncoupling magnets rather interesting. Dave.

Lovely load of ground scatter to model. What do you think the two round topped post were - some sort of fire iron rest? Interesting that there appears to be a fire iron resting against the ladder on a lighting column? Have fun. Dave.

Not very realistic - you've got the loco number wrong! Kidding - it looks very good. The ladders must have been quite a job without etched stiles(?). Dave.

Robin, Another nice bit of detail to help add to the atmosphere. In the first photo, there appears to be rather less debris on the roof, so I wouldn't over-do it. Like the rickety old table on the running line side and the very basic fence between the shed area and said running lines. Dave.

David, That's running very smoothly indeed, especially without any running in. I wish all my chassis were that good! Just take your time and use paper washers with a spot of oil or, perhaps, blacken the pivoting component, when assembling the valve gear joints, to help avoid soldering them solid. I haven't tried the blackening method, but think it might be the best solution and will try with my next set of valve gear. Dave.

I take it that the whole roof will be removable for access - just in case....? Not that we P4 modellers ever have a derailment, of course. Dave.

Yes, Jeff, I'd forgotten Steve's work. Absolutely superb, as you say. Dave.

Bob. Nearly all my kit-built locos have Portescap motor/gearboxes, usually the 1616 type. I always start them running on DC to get the running smoothly as DCC can hide minor mechanical problems. I've only used them with non-feedback controllers on the Pentroller and, currently, a PICtroller. I have been lead to understand they don't like older DC feedback controllers. Once satisfied, mechanically, all my completed locos are then DCC fitted. Modern chips run feedback at such a high frequency that even coreless motors can't chatter. With the very low current consumption, I normally use chips intended for Z gauge and have settled on Digitrax DZ126 model. I have also successfully used chips by Lenz and another I can't remember. I settled on the Digitrax simply because they are very small and fully encapsulated, making them easy to install. All that said, many of my Portescap units are extremely noisy, sounding like a cement mixer and clearly audible in use, even in a large room. Again, I'm told this is because the tooling for the nylon gears wore, causing poor meshing and mechanical generated noise. I don't fit sound, so this only an irritant to me, not a major problem. Hope that helps. Dave.

Robin. Sadly, Delph/Holt has never progressed to the scenic stage, so I haven't got any practical advice. I covered the whole of the goods yard, other than the cobbled areas, with so called "ash" ballast as a first pass. Wasn't too bad, even if it was a bit uniform, but, the stuff I used has faded to a pale beige colour and now looks nothing like ash. The best ground cover in a loco shed area I can recall was on the P4 layout Blackgill(?), set in the Consett area. They've posted some stuff on here in the past and I'm fairly sure articles have appeared in S4News and/or MRJ, which might give some ideas for suitable methods. I wonder what John has done on Worceter? Dave.

The huts look very good in situ, Robin. Rather like John, the photos caused me the think about ballasting and general ground cover in a shed area. Have you any ideas of how to represent these aspects? Dave.

Looking very smart and I'm glad to hear of your positive progress. You won't regret buying the Dave Bradwell chassis kit, which also contains some rather nice brass casting for boiler fittings and alternate smokebox doors. Get researching your prototype! Dave.

A very neat looking model, there, Robin. All adding to the atmosphere of the place. The prototype photo shows a much less pristine appearance. Are you planning to suitably distress your model in due course? Dave.

Don't forget that DoG (and other BR Standard pacifics) had narrow frames - only 3'-4.75" outside. This was because the frame plates were centred on the driving wheel axleboxes. Most UK steam locos had frame about 4'-1.5" inside, to allow for the narrow firebox. Dave.

Peter, It's great to see more of your work on here. All looking very nice, indeed. The station building in particular is absolutely marvelous, especially in situ. I did wonder about the strange arched opening in the centre section, but now see it's to accommodate the foot bridge. Look forward to seeing more. Dave.

Very neat arrangement and no risk of shorting. Don't forget to trim the bottom of the etched W irons. Dave.

Michael, This really is coming together very nicely. You must be well pleased with the progress so far. It looks like scenic work is the next phase? Dave.