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Dave Holt

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  1. Dave Holt

    Future project?

    By Dave Holt,

    Having run out of steam getting the Black 5 chassis painted and not sure how to proceed with the Ivatt tank, I thought I might do some planning (scheming) and some preliminary work on a future project - a Brassmasters Re-built Royal Scot.
    To add interest and a bit of a challenge, I decided to fit the model with working inside valve gear. The kit provides most of the prototypical frame stretchers but makes no provision for the inside cylinder or valve gear. My representation is not going to be exactly to scale but should be a fair representation using as many spare etched and other parts from various kits and left-overs, modified to represent the Scot parts as near as practicable.
    Here are a few photos showing progress to date.
    Frame plate marked out for inside cylinder

     
    Inside cylinder laid roughly in position.

     
    Inside cylinder with front section of valve gear in position.

     
    Rear portion of valve gear, temporarily inserted into the mounting bracket, which will be attached to the rear face of the (kit) motion plate.

     
    Connecting rod fixed to the cross head and located in the cylinder. Again, front portion of valve gear attached.

     
    Dave.
     
  2. Dave Holt
    Yes, I have made some progress with the Standard 2 tank, but it seems to be at a glacial rate. Various details have been added but it has also involved re-fitting bits I've managed to knock off (probably not very well attached in the first place) or having to move existing parts that interfered with new, additional items and in a couple of cases, removing new bits because they prevented re-assembly of the whole thing. Definitely a case of two steps forward and one and a half back!
    Some of the newly added parts are custom etchings very nicely made by Justin Newitt of Rumney Models, based on my fairly rudimentary sketches. Thanks Justin - they fitted beautifully. There are still some more parts to come, including a replacement cab roof, but the ones fitted so far are the wheel balance weights, brackets which support the push-pull vacuum actuators and the tank support straps.
    The push-pull apparatus is now completed, as best I can, including most of the associated piping and a representation of the electrical jumper cables, front and back. The only parts of the original kit which have survived are the vertical leg of the outside steam pipes and the vacuum diaphragm actuators mounted on the smokebox sides.
    Parts still to do are the top, front and the bunker mounted lamp irons, fire-iron holders, lubricator drives and the cab roof. The smokebox dart, number and shed plate will be fitted after painting (by David Clarke). I might need to do a bit of filling and sanding on the drop sections of the footplate at the front.
    Here are a few photos of the current state of the loco. I also need to re-fit the speedometer drive which I managed to break off during handling of the body.
     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  3. Dave Holt
    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.
  4. Dave Holt
    My Jubilee, 45701, Conqueror, has now been weathered by friend, David Clarke, ready for me to finish off. Cab glazing, crew and DCC chip to be fitted, the tender coaled up and the cab roof fixed. For some reason I haven't yet identified, it has developed an intermittent short when running forward which it didn't have previously. A quick check of loco brakes and sand pipes hasn't shown anything out of place, so some further investigation will be necessary.
    Here she is in her current state:
     

     
    Dave.
  5. Dave Holt
    Not much progress with the layout - although I have now fixed the coal drop retaining walls and deck support pillars to the base-board.
     
    Last Saturday I helped (?) friend Dave Clarke and the regular team (Simon & Jim) with his Amlwch branch layout at the Derby show - as fiddle yard operator - I didn't trust myself to operate out front!
    The normal green/blue era diesel service was was disrupted from time to time by a typical Delph Donkey formation, consisting of Fowler 2-6-2 class 3 tank loco, number 40056, with an ex-LMS Period II open third non-driving trailer and ex-LNWR M15 driving trailer. Steam era trains to Amlwch were more generally Ivatt class 2 tanks with non-corridor push-pull coaches, I think - at least towards the end. Nevertheless, the Donkey train looked perfectly at home and it was nice to see it run on a finished layout. Loco needs finishing and the coaches weathering. Must do something about the acceleration inertia/starting voltage though - the controller could be set to full and the loco didn't move for about 10 seconds and then smoothly accelerated. Took a bit of judgement to stop in the right place too. Perhaps deceleration inertia is not such a good idea on terminal layouts!
     
    The following photos show the train simmering at the buffer stops following arrival (being a Fowler class 3, it was probably having to get it's breath back!!!) and also approaching the station area.
     

     
    40056 at the buffer stops.
     

     

     
    Approaching the station.
     
    Thanks for the invite, Dave. I really enjoyed myself and I hope folks enjoyed the Donkey ride!
  6. Dave Holt
    Whilst I have the station boards down on the lounge floor, with Gravy Train's superb buildings temporarily in place, I thought I might just simulate the arrival of a through local from Stockport (via Oldham Clegg Street). This service is one of the deviations I'm making from the true operation of Delph, to give a bit more variety than just the motor trains would allow.
    In this case, the train consists of Stanier 2-6-4 tank, 42551 - one of the darlings of Lees shed, with a two coach suburban train (models not yet finished - no glazing or buffers) consisting of an ex_LMS period I lavatory composite and an ex-LNWR brake 3rd. The train stops short of the run-round points, then the engine moves up to the buffers, ready to run round. Actually, this shows just how far along the platform passengers would have had to walk if this sort of train had actually run. Not much fun in bad weather!
     

     

     

     

     

     

     
    Soon the fantasy will have to stop and I'll have to get back to working on the boards to get the track wired up and operational! Still, it's nice to play a bit.
     
    Dave.
  7. Dave Holt
    Now that the Jubilee has gone off to be weathered, I've started to prepare my Stanier Caprotti Black 5 for painting. This entails stripping it down for degreasing and to give access for painting. The disassembly is quite complicated and has to be done in a specific sequence to get access to various fixing screws. Due to the short cab sides and exposed, open type steps, the pipework under the cab has had to be split between the footplate unit, the chassis mainframes and a separate carrier plate at the rear end. In order to dismantle the loco, first the tender is disconnected, then the pipe carrier plate is removed to reveal the screw which hold the footplate to the chassis. As built, the boiler can then be removed from the footplate as it was fixed by two screws under the saddle and by a pin engaging in the cab front at the firebox end.
     
    Here are the main components after separation. The chassis will be broken down into its component parts for me to paint shortly.
     

     
    The separate pipe carrier also has the rear section of the brake rigging attached. The brake pull rod and the exhaust steam injector pipe plug into their mating parts on the chassis brake rigging and keeper plate, respectively.
     

     
    Here's the footplate unit. You can just about make out the Caprotti drive shaft sloping up towards the saddle area. Also visible, with the circular spiral on the end is the valve actuating pipe running from the dome to the cylinders. In a previous post, I explained the thinking behind fixing the cylinders and slide bars to the footplate, rather than to the chassis, as one might expect.
     

     
    My friend, David Clarke, who is going to paint and line the body, has advised that he would prefer the boiler and footplate to be supplied as a single unit so I have now fixed them together with Araldite, which is curing as I write. Once set sufficiently, I'll trim off the excess which has squeezed out and fill any remaining gaps.
     
    Dave.
  8. Dave Holt
    My Brassmasters Jubilee, 45701, Conqueror, has been painted and lined by good friend, David Clarke. It's now come back to me to be re-assembled and various smaller items attached before it goes back to David to be weathered.
    The attached, very poor quality, photos show the re-assembled loco ready for some test running prior to the weathering.
     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  9. Dave Holt
    Having decided on the method for creating the large area of cobbled (setts) roadways in the yard, using mount board hand impressed with individual setts, I've spent some time hoping it might do it itself. However, nothing has happened so far and now seems unlikely to, so I've re-started work on this aspect.
    The area behind the platform end has had a framework of tapered foam-board ribs erected to give the slope up to the yard entrance (off scene) and a template made from thin card for the whole of area to be covered with setts and the immediate surrounding area.
    Because of the complex shape and the need for a close fit round the goods shed and where it borders the track, this has been made up from a rough cut spine and a patchwork quilt of smaller pieces glued on. I started using a PVA type glue intended for craft work but this has caused a degree of rippling and distorsion of the card, so the later pieces have been attached using a solid stick adhesive.
    The template will be used to mark out the two layers of 1.3 mm thick mount board needed for the roadways and surrounding areas. The setts will be impressed off the job and the surfaces painted before fitting to the layout.
    The following photos show the general result and a close-upnear the goods shed which illustrates the patchwork nature to get a close fit round the walls.
    A few small isolated areas remain across the track at each end of the goods shed, in the four foot and just beyond. These can be seen as pale grey areas devoid of ballast in the photos.
    Two general views:
     

     

     
    And a close-up:
     

  10. Dave Holt

    Delph max

    By Dave Holt,

    As a follow-up to my entry the other day, I've added the next board along - with the coal drops. This is the maximum length of the layout I can erect on the floor without moving furniture around, so the station platform board is not attached. I haven't started the fiddle yard.
    In use, the layout is high enough (1400 mm to rail level - quite high) to go over the furniture, but I haven't made a start on the support structure so far.
    Having these boards connected allows the point rodding runs and crank, compensator and stool positions to be determined.
     
    Similar shots as last time, but with the extra board - beginning to give a sense of the overall size and space.
     

     

     
    Dave.
  11. Dave Holt
    In the 6 weeks or so since my last entry, I've been plugging steadily away at ballasting the track, which I finally finished yesterday. It proved nowhere near as difficult as I had feared but certainly was laborious and back breaking work.
    My original intention was to use a latex based carpet adhesive to allow a bit of sound deadening but just couldn't get on with it on a couple of test panels. In the end, I used diluted PVA applied with various sized brushes, small(ish) areas at a time, then vacuuming up the excess ballast for re-use. I used C&L 2mm ballast for the running line and run-round loop and their ash ballast for the goods yard and sidings. Areas to be covered with cobbles/setts have generally been left clear.
    I'm pleased with the results so far, but it all looks a bit too neat and even, so there will be quite a bit of weathering needed to create some variations in tone and texture.
    I've also had a go at representing what appears to be some home made steps made from piled up stone blocks with concrete capping behind the running line buffer stop. I imaging these were built to ease access between the platform and the ground frame which operated the run-round poins and was located in the 6 ft, beteen the buffer stops. Parts of this structure appear in various photos of Delph in the 1950's but no clear overall view. I originally thought it was just a pile of surplus stones, like under some of the other buffers in the yard, till a friend suggested they might be steps. Some further photos accquired more recently appear to confirm the step suggestion but my interpretation may well not be very accurate. This hasn't been helped by my leaving too big a gap between the buffers and the lorry loading bank which was added to the end of the platform at some time or other. Again, it doesn't really show up too well in the photos I've got but probably covered part of the buffer stop rails, whereas on the model it's immediately behind the bottom end of the rails forming the stop. No doubt someone will point out my error if it ever makes it to an exhibition.
    Although I tried to be careful with the gluing, ballasting and vacuuming, sad to say the platorm lamps, already fitted, took a bit of a battering from inadvertant bumps. The damage ranged from simple bending, which I've corrected, to completely snapping one off at the base. This will eventually be re-attached with a brass wire peg to support the joint.
    Here are some photos of the final board to be completed, including to location of the snapped off lamp and the steps mentioned above.
     

    Buffer stops with steps added.
     

    General view from the end of the layout.
     

    Looking the other way. The location of the goods shed and extent of the cobbled road-ways can be seen.
     

    Overall view looking towards the buffer stops.
  12. Dave Holt
    Faced with the daunting task of laying the ballast, I've taken a break from the layout and have picked up a loco project which I started ages ago but didn't get very far.
    It is a Stanier (Ivatt!) Caprotti Black 5 based on a Comet kit. Previously, I'd built up the basic footplate and cab, but without the splashers, and soldered the frames together and marked out for the compensation beam pivots, but that's about it. Anyway, I've knuckled down over the past few weeks and now have a wheeled chassis and footplate/boiler unit, as shown below.
     
    First the chassis from above, showing the compensation beams (twin at the rear and single at the front. This transmits weight direct to the fron bogies wheel sets, so the bogie frames pivot and slide on side bearers, without any vertical movement, as on the real thing) and the High Level gearbox, complete with torque reaction link (at the rear):
     

     
     
    A shot from underneath showing the keeper plate with the dummy springs and ash pan sides, and the front bogie (which uses various Brassmasters bits):
     

     
    A couple of shots with the body attached. There was a lot of adjustment and filling with low-melt solder to get the boiler and firebox something like. There will be some minor filling required to the firebox over the wheel splashers. The dark blotches on the boiler are where I splashed excess phosphoric flux on the castings and didn't wash it off quickly enough:
     

     

     
    The coupling rods are already made, so the next job will be to open up the crankpin holes and sort out the crankpin bushes. Then I'll find out if the quartering is OK or not. I used a GW wheel press/quartering tool to press the wheels on, but there's a pit of play between the wheel locating stubs and the axle bore in the wheel which allows some slight variation between wheel sets.
     
    Dave.
  13. Dave Holt
    Since my last post back in September, I've painted the remaining track and point rodding with basic colours and recently installed the signal wire posts. There's just the rodding outside the signal box to complete and then I'm faced with the slightly daunting task of laying the ballast.
    I'll be using C&L ash ballast in the yard and run-round loop and a mixture of ash and proper ballast for the main line. Photos of the real place suggest the ballast even on the running line was pretty old and contaminated with years of accumulated muck, dust and oil. The type and colour of what proper ballast there was is an unresolved question and I'm a bit undecided whether to use a pale grey (granite) or creamy (millstone grit?) colour mixed in with the ash. Any suggestions of the type/colour of ballast in the Lancashire/West Riding border area in the mid 1950's would be welcome.
    My proposed method of laying the ballast is to cover an area with loose ballast, then soak in a diluted carpet adhesive with a few drops of washing-up liquid added. A fairly common approach, I think. One concern is whether the glue will also be drawn down the holes in the board for electrical dropper and drip all over the place. Has anyone any experience with this?
     
    Anyway, here are some photos of the current state of play, showing the painted track, rodding and signal wire posts. The tops of the rails have not yet been scraped clean. The dark coloured areas along the back edge and in some sleeper bays are where there will be little or no ballast in the cess and where stretcher bars, point rodding and signal wires pass under the track.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  14. Dave Holt
    Complete, that is, except for the signal control units and their local 12v DC power supply units, which I haven't got, yet.
     
    After months of putting it off, I finally knuckled down to wiring up the station throat board with its numerous turnouts and diamond crossing - by far the most complex in terms of electrics. Photos below show the under board wiring on this board.
     

     

     
    However, methodical work and constant continuity testing seems to have paid off as only very minor re-work was required. One heart stopping moment occurred when, having more-or-less finished, I realised I'd run a great bundle of wires right over the space reserved for a signal sevo motor, despite having remembered to keep the area free from electrical track droppers. Fortunately, I was able to divert the offending wires by cutting a slot in part of the base-board support rib, as shown below. It looks a bit odd, but the prospect of having to modify the whole bundle of wires was just over facing! Originally, the wires just ran along the bottom of the member with the lightening holes.
     

     
    Once completed, I checked track feed continuity with a small meter and then conected the power feed from the control panel. In order to do this, all the boards have to be connected as the panel feeds into the station end board and the track power is passed alonf the boards to the oposite end where it connects to the track. Initial power up showed that some of the point position LED's and several point motors needed their polarity swapping - a simple job. Otherwise, my methodical approach seems to have paid off as everything works as intended. This was confirmed by running locos over all tracks on the throad board in both DC and DCC modes from both the main panel and yard controller sockets. I did find that on DC, the loco ran the opposite direction to the switch on y hand-held Pentroller, so the track feeds from the panel and facia sockets have been reversed.
     
    The test session is shown below. A general view of the boards connected together, two standing on edge and the station throat board flat so locos can be run and a shot of the control panel with the point LED's illuminated.
     

     

     
    These tests also confirmed that the sharply curved route into the mill siding can be negotiated by a variety of locos, without any shorting. My Stanier 2-6-4 tank and WD 2-8-0 are seen on the board. The WD is on the curved siding link.
     

     

     
    Not everything was perfect and a few minor (I hope) issues need to be resolved.
    1) Both my Ivatt and BR Cl 2 2-6-2 tanks derailed their rear trucks on the point blades when reversing out of the mill siding. With the cross-over reversed, the trucks went up the head shunt whilst the driving wheels took the correct route over the cross-over. Might havr too strong side control springs on the trucks.
    2)Neither end of the double slip is thowing over properly. The springy operating wire on the Tortoise motors isn't stiff enough to move two sets of blades with the required travel. Hopefully, this can be solved with some thicker steel wire. I believe that 7 mm modellers do this with Tortoises, so if anyone knows the details. I'd be very pleased to receive advice.
  15. Dave Holt
    The plastic structure of the bridge is now complete - parapets clad, capping stones added, etc and I've sprayed it with Halfords grey plastic primer in preparation for painting the stone surfaces.
    Whilst most of the local buildings, including the station and coal drops are millstone grit, my colour photos of the actual bridge show it to be made of a grey coloured stone. I'm not sure whether to try to replicate this or adopt a similar colour to the other stone-work, for a more consistent appearance, especially as I've moved the bridge much nearer to the station features than the real thing.
     
    Two shots from the Greenfield side.....
     

     

     
    ...and one from the station side. The short extension at ground level is a small retaining wall at the bottom of the cutting.
     

     
    Next job is to paint and ballast the track through the bridge, which has already been primed, so it can be permanently fixed to the base-board.
  16. Dave Holt
    The part finished ex-LMS D2008 vestibule brake 3rd has been completed to partner the D1916 version already done. As before, the bulk of the work was done by Coachman, leaving me to make the interior and finish off. The D2008 is a bit unusual because it has only 51/2 seating bays but an even smaller brake compartment than the D1916, which has 6 bays. This must have resulted in very generous leg room for excursion passengerd who chose to sit in this type of coach.
    Here's a shot of the complete coach and also a closer view showing the brake compartment and half seating bay.
     

     

     
    Here the two coaches are seen together for comparison.
     

     
    Dave.
  17. Dave Holt

    More track & trains

    By Dave Holt,

    Track laying continues, but progress is quite slow. I thought plain track would be quite easy, and I suppose it is technically, but it still takes an age. Progress is not really helped by my attempt to replicate the 60 ft and 30 ft track panels used on the real thing. It appears that only the main platform road was 60 ft, all the other being 30 ft. To achieve this, all the sleeper ties on the flexi-track have to be removed and sleepers moved along to the correct spacings. I've already marked the position of the rail joints as near as possible from the Templot track plan. All this cutting and sleeper moving takes time. Then there's a limit how many jar-weights I have to hold the track down whilst the glue dries and there's the ply sleepers with panel pins to be soldered at the board edges......
     
    Anyway, I've now got most of the track in position on the station throat board - just the loop head shunt left to do. Meanwhile, a Delph motor train arrived, hauled by the Fowler Cl 3 2-6-2 tank and consisting of M45 driving trailer M3419M and M12 non-driving trailer M3425M - both beautifully modelled by Coachman. Thanks Coach!!
     

     
    Overall view of the station throat track-work. Lead filled jam jars on the coal drop road whilst glue dries.
     

     

     
    A taste of things to come. Typical 1950's motor train crosses the curved diamond which gives access to the mill siding.
     
    Dave.
  18. Dave Holt
    As far as I know, no DMU ever visited the real Delph, but in my model version (Holt), a Cravens power twin unit is being trialed as a potential replacement for the steam powered ex-LNWR push-pull trains.....a trail doomed to fail I predict!
    Anyway, a converted Bachmann set is seen arriving past the head-shunt buffer stops. Behind the unit is a template for the extended over-bridge I have relocated from Dobcross. Also seen is a photo of the actual bridge (with my late wife, Sue, acting as a 5' - 2" tape measure!).
    The final shot shows the space for a group of cottages from Dobcross which will form part of the scenic break to the fiddle yard and the steep lane rising to cross the aforementioned bridge. You can just make out a photo of the real location in the copy of Larry Goddard's Delph book, open in front.
     
    First the DMU with the bridge portal behind:

     

     
    Now with the photo of the actual bridge - the tack-bed at this point is now a footpath:

     
    And finally, the cottage/lane feature:

     
    Regular readers might note that for a change, the base-board is not on the lounge floor! No - I haven't finally got round to assembling part of the support structure - in this case, it's carefully balanced on the backs of two dining chairs!!!
  19. Dave Holt
    Not much actual modelling progress to report, but it's been a while since the last layout update, so here's the latest.
     
    After spending what felt like weeks on my hands and knees - the major drawback with having the base-boards on the lounge floor! - grinding off rivet heads and applying cosmetic chairs to the ply sleepers at the base-board joint, I have painted the whole lot with grey primer, prior to applying the actual sleeper and rail colours.
    I got this idea from Iain Rice's book on fine-scale track.
    The problem is that the ply sleepers used at the joints and in the pointwork are different in both colour and texture from the moulded plastic sleepers in the plain track. The normal wood dye/staining method for ply sleepered track would be very difficult to match with the painted plastic track, so....everything is given a coat of aerosol grey primer to even it all up and then if can all be painted with the same range of colours and apart from very close inspection revealing the proper keys on the cosmetic chairs, it should all blend together. I think you'll agree with the effectiveness of this approach, as shown in the attached photos. It really is hard to see which are ply and which are plastic sleepers. I used Halfords grey plastic primer. It will be interesting to see how durable it is.
    The eagle eyed will spot that although I tried to be careful to mask of items not being painted, I have managed to get a bit of primer in several areas where it shouldn't be, although it's not much and should be easy to touch up.
     
    First a general view over the station and coal drop boards:

     
    And now a closer view at the base-board joint (staggered to fall between sleepers on the diverding tracks) and at one end of the platform release cross-over points:

     

     
    As you can see, I haven't made any attempt so far to represent the point blade tie bars. These will be non-functional and, bearing the shallow viewing angle which will result from the high track level on the completed model, I'm thinking along the lines of just dummy, fixed stretchers not actually attached to the blades at all.
     
    I also have to figure out the best colours of paint to use for the sleepers. These will have to be individually painted, I think, so another long laborious job in prospect. Well, it won't do it itself, so I'll just have to knuckle down....
     
    Dave.
  20. Dave Holt
    Having been putting this off for some time, I finally knuckled down and have fixed the coal drop deck and sloping wing wall in position. Some minor adjustment to the end of the track on the adjacent board was required to align the rails, mainly to correct a slight difference in height. This was done by re-soldering the rail attachment at the end sleeper, where it is soldered to the head of brass nails which pass through the rivet holes in the ply sleeper. After a couple of goes, as satisfactory result was achieved, as checked by rolling a 13 ton steel open wagon (visible in the photos) over the joint. Actually, there wont be much stock movement over this section of track, but it's best to have the alignment to a good standard.
    Fixing the deck wasn't quite a straight forward as it might have been due to a slight degree of warping and bowing of the deck timbers. A general purpose glue (similar to UHU), a pile of weights at each end and a final dose of super runny cyno appear to have done the trick. Time will tell......
     
    Photos show the deck and wing wall in situ, after fixing. Also a more general view over the station area with the deck in place.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    Dave.
  21. Dave Holt
    As part of the scenic work for the station board, the right-hand wing wall has been completed. I'd cut the stone facing pieces from Wills sheets some time ago but have now completed the wall by assembling the two pieces and adding the capping. The assembly has been painted using the sooted stone technique explained to me by Peter Leyland - paint the basic stone colour all over, when thoroughly dry, paint matt black and wipe off using kitchen roll with a vertical action.
    This new angled section of wall is on the station board whilst the remainder of the coal drops is on the adjacent coal-drop board. You can see the joint in one of the photos, just below the edge of the coal drop deck. Overall, I think I've managed to match the colouring across the joint and then gradually have less blackening progressively along the wing wall where less dirt and coal dust would have been flying about.
    Behind the wing wall and then along the front of the goods yard, there is an extended low retaining wall holding back an embankment. I'm debating the best way of producuing the retaining wall - which is curved in both plan and in the vertical plane along its length and has an appearance which is not replicated by any of the embossed/printed products I can find - and also the embankment itself. For this I'm hovering between some sort of closed foam material and wire mesh with plaster bandage construction. Any thoughts and suggestions would be most welcome for both the wall and the embankment.
     

     

     
    Cheers,
     
    Dave.
  22. Dave Holt
    Philbax was asking about the Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2 tanks which appeared in some recent photos.
     
    The Ivatt is an as yet unmodified Bachman body on a chassis based on the Comet kit, with some additional detail and the valvegear modelled in forward rather than mid gear. The chassis is compensated as an 0-6-0 using twin beams on the rear two axles and a central rocking support on the front. Drive is a 1616 Portescap on the (floating) centre axle. The trucks are sprung.
    On this loco, the pony trucks are scratch built and sprung using hair-pin springs made from 0.33 brass wire. These are just visible through the frames of the truck, but not too obtrusive on this rather open, bar framed truck design. The two trucks are quite different in appearance as one has spring side control and the other swing link side control (the difference was to avoid the risk of hunting caused by having the same natural frequency at both ends if two identical trucks had been used). On the Ivatt, the swing link truck was usually at the front.
    The BR Standard loco is a stretched DJH body on a cut-down Comet based chassis. On this loco, thetrucks are the Brassmasters etches, suitably modified to represent the swing linkat one end. On these locos, the swing link truck was always at the rear.
     
    The two photos try to illustrate the differences in appearance. (Sorry for the slightly out-of-focus on the front shot.)
     

     

     
    Dave.
  23. Dave Holt
    Have started to do some of the electics under the board I currently have at home. Frighteningly slow progress and vast quantities of wire being consumed - and this is one of the more simple boards, with only one point and one AJ uncoupler (not yet started). I dread to think what the station throat board will be like!
     

     

     

     
    Photos show progress to date. The tag strips will eventually carry the connections to the adjoining boards.
     
    Dave.
  24. Dave Holt
    Today, a construction worker engaged in reinstating the railway at Delph station site discovered a tortoise buried beneath.......
     
    OK, in a slight break from the coal drops (awaiting more plastic supplies), I decided to mount and connect the first point motor to the TOU on the only turnout on this board. On fitting and attaching the droppers from the switch blades to the pre-made TOU I found that the blade opening at the tips of the blades is slightly over the scale 4.5". I think I'll live with this (hard to correct anyway, without making a new set of sliders) as it's better to have a larger than smaller gap for running purposes. I then fitted and connected the Tortoise point motor with the blades/TOU and motor drive set in the mid-stroke position. I then adjusted the throw of the actuator to give a fairly firm pressure in the closed position. Being the first time I've fitted on of these, I'm not sure how to judge the correct amount of over-travel at the motor (how much bend there should be in the actuating spring steel wire at full throw). Advice on this from experienced Tortoisers would be welcome.
     
    Here's a couple of photos of the under board installation.
     

     

     
    The motor is mounted on an Exactoscale adaptor plate, which in turn is screwed to a mounting pad fixed under the board. All the motors are set along the back edge of the boards, clear of the track above.
     
    The operating rod from motor to TOU passes through a mouse-hole slot in one og the strengthening ribs under the board. This connecting rod is actually a length of rail from some Peco "OO" flexi-track purchased specially for the purpose at the recent Leamington show. P4 friends operating Amlwch took great pleasure in taking a compromising photo of me carrying said track in it's distinctive bag. "Traitor" was one of the words used.....
     
    Dave.
  25. Dave Holt

    Track creeps onwards

    By Dave Holt,

    The snail's pace addition of track continues. The main running line has reached the (country) end of the platform and the yard tracks progress slowly. Since these photos were taken this afternoon, I've extended the coal drop road as far as the drops and the mill siding as far as the connection to the buffer stop track.
     

     

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