brian777999

I am into model engineering and I can silver solder (hard solder) brass and copper fittings : that is how I make my own. I thought those spirit burners for sale might be better than my own design and burn longer but they do not. Back to the scrap yard to forage for more bits and pieces !

Not really good enough then. My own burners run for about 20 minutes. It takes about 6 minutes to raise steam.

Can anybody tell me how long this spirit burner would burn for ? I usually make my own for stationary steam engines using fibreglass wicks and brass but the brass plumbers fittings I use are becoming expensive. I have never used this type of burner before. http://forest-classics.net/burner_g7.htm

Buy a good quality compressor with a moisture trap but just start with any cheap airbrush from ebay. Most of them are reasonable quality and you can experiment to find out if you prefer gravity or suction feed. I prefer suction feed (small glass jar under the airbrush).You will spend a lot of time cleaning your airbrush after a session so ease of disassembly and assembly are important. As has been pointed out above ; getting the right consistency to your paint is very important (viscosity of milk is often quoted) . I usually end up with a 50/50 mix of paint and turps. I don't like the smell of water based model paints ; it is nothing like water based house paint. Whatever paint you use, good ventilation is important : plenty of fresh air but not too windy.

That is true but parts can be much more expensive from Tradelink or Reece (although not always). Anyway, the dinner party is over and as soon as everybody left last night I replaced the faulty part. Everything is working well now and it only cost me $20.

I have bought a complete float valve from Bunnings ($20/ Fluidmaster) but my wife is giving a dinner party tonight so I thought I would wait until after that is finished. I would not be popular if I stuffed things up and we had no toilet at all while having eight people over for dinner ! In the mean time I have turned the tap right down to the minimum ; it fills very slowly but it is not so noisy.

I have been at work all day today. I will check out Bunnings tomorrow and see what they have on the shelf. Looking online I see that they do have the Fluidmaster brand.

Upon closer inspection I can now see that the water is coming up through the middle of the red cap then flowing down the side ; that made it look like it was coming from under the cap. I have not been able to remove the red cap even after watching the above video.

Water is dribbling from under that red cap into the tank. I have tried to unscrew it but no luck doing that ; it does not look like something that is meant to unscrew. I might have a go at pulling it straight up and off. Ha....I just watched the video so DO NOT PULL IT ! I will try to pull the arm up and push down on the cap at the same time and turn 1/8th turn anticlockwise as per the video.

Our toilet cistern has developed a ''dribble'' : there is water leaking from under the red cap in the photo. I have fiddled about with it but I cannot get it to stop. Does anybody have a fix for this or will I need a new part ?

Will you be weathering your locos and rolling stock ?

1. How long was ''British Railways'' used on the sides of locos before the early crest became available ? 2. Were the rear lights on brake vans during this time constant or flashing ? 3. Would you have seen GWR brake vans anywhere other than an old GWR line ? 4. How long was it before BR started constructing and using their standard brake van ?

I love the 12 o'clock off position with reverse and normal to the left and right. I wish all modern controllers were built like this...so much easier !

I have cleared my browser history and cookies as suggested. Now I will see what happens. I thought I had browser history set to zero but you can never tell with Windows 10 !

Sometimes when I am on ebay I get a loud continuous beeping sound and a pop-up that says my Windows operating system needs updating ( I know it does not). This only happens on ebay and no other site : why is this and how do I get rid of it ? I have Avast and Spybot but scans using both show nothing unusual.

I wonder how many hours of hand assembly go into each model ? I know they try to keep that to a minimum in order to keep costs down but there must have been a lot of human intervention in putting these cranes together.

How did they get away with loads like that ? It does not look like anything is tied down so surely everything on top would have slid off at the first curve ?

I had intended to change the washers on a hot water tap because it has to be turned off very tightly to stop dripping. However, after removing the tap and the flange I discovered a lot of silicone sealant where I did not expect it to be. Is this some sort of bodge : I don't know why all that sealant is there ? Can I just go ahead and undo the brass fixture to get at the washers ?

Would you describe this as a design fault or quality control issue ? Either way, Hornby need to look into this.

I thought that the first batch of Oxford Deans were the problem and that they had now improved things at the factory. Is this conclusion correct or are there still some issues ?

No, the track and wheels are very clean. I went over everything with methylated spirits to eleminate that possibility.

The Kadee #18 seems a decent fit in the supplied pockets front and rear so I will go with that. The #19 sticks out a bit too far past the buffers.

My loco seems to now run quite nicely when it is inverted in the loco rest and power is applied to the wheels but when I put it on the track it is still hesitant at low speeds. Does this give anybody a clue to the problem ?

I have upended mine and put it on the loco rest while slowly applying power to the wheels. I can see where the binding is but the only problem I can identify is that one of the red/outside rods (connecting to the valve motion) has no side play in it all whereas the rod on the other side has a small amount of play ie. the nut seems too ''tight'' on one side. At this stage I am not sure how to remedy this or even if this is the problem but I will keep fiddling until a solution is found. All suggestions are welcome...... I have already tried swearing at it and that did not help !

Yes, that is what I was thinking too. I will have a close look at my loco later to see if there is something similar going on.