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Very nice indeed Ray, but it seems to have aquired a rather strange extra boiler fitting in the last photo...... Dave.

Footplate rebuilding has been completed successfully, I will put some photos up later. dave.

Come and see Charmouth at the NEC, stand C41. Warley is going to be a feast for Narrow-gaugers this year. I'm looking forward to seeing Tucking Mill. All the best, Dave.

Superb set of pictures Jerry; hard to beleive its 2mm scale. All the best, Dave.

Thanks very much Ray, its always a nice show, and I would have enjoyed it all the more is the layout had behaved! Cheers, Dave.

Thanks for your thoughts guys, I'm still fiddling with it and trying not to lose any sleep. I know, I need to get out more! I've made no major or irreversible alterations to locos or layout wiring, so its a simple task to convert back to dc if I get the urge. Its been suggested that this might be contributing to the problem with Bridport, the DCC signal is having to travel through the whole Cab Control wiring to reach the track, with the potential for voltage drop. Charmouth is wired in a more simple manner, for one dc controller with basic on/off switches. As the section switches are on a remote plug-in panel I can replace it with a blanking plug that shorts all the sections together, doing away with the switches. I can't do this with Bridport, as the panel is built into the layout. Dave.

Well I've taken the plunge, and taken a saw-blade to the footplate. The idea is to saw horizontally through the drop-section just below the footplate, insert a spacer of the correct depth and solder it all back together. This gives us a footplate with the correct vertical dimensions for the U-Class, with a drop of about 6.5mm, as opposed to the 5mm drop of the supplied footplate (correct for the N) The photos show the procedure on the front footplate section. I have to admit I've already done the rear, to make sure it would work before I put any photos up! Cheers, Dave.

Edited to remove double posting. When I posted, it didnt appear so I thought I had messed it up and did it again. Dave.

Next job was to finish the roof. Two pieces of 40thou styrene were fixed to the inner roof, large enough to just overlap the sides and ends of the building. Slaters Corrugated plasticard was used for the actual roof cut into 43 x16mm sheets, with nailheads embossed with a compass point. Fixed in place with the appropriate amount of overhang, between 1 & 2 mm. The ridge cover is a length of styrene rod and a strip along each side. Bargeboards are made from fine card, appropriately spaced out so that the meet the underside of the corrugated and hide the slab of the roof. Sofit(?) boards, along the tops of the walls where the gutters fit, were made from plasticard and spaced so that the gutters (Evergreen 3.5mm half-round styrene rod) are fitted under the ends of the corrugated roof. The plasticard allows the gutters to be fixed with solvent. Dave.

Hi Don, Thanks very much for your thoughts and suggestions. The layout is terminus to fiddle yard, and the fiddleyard is the cassette type to give hands-off hand shunting, while saving space. Thus the locos do not end up in a predictable position or direction. The system can remember which direction they last moved in, but I can't! One large dcc layout I've operated is Bob Harper's extensive 0n3 sytem, controlled by Lenz with each operator having a Lenz 90 handset with the knob and switch. This worked like a dream and was a joy to operate. However many of the dcc usability inovations can seem an unneccessary complication on a small terminus-fiddleyard layout. I'm sleeping on it for a few days before I make any further decissions, and it may be a case of going back to dc for Warley. It could be suggested that as I'm not installing sound or lots of powered accessoruies than I'm wasting my time with dcc. Cheers, Dave.

My apologies to anyone who came to the Thorncombe Exhibition, for the very poor running seen on Bridport Town. It was my first exhibition under DCC control and the results weren’t far off an unmitigated disaster. Locomotives stalling and needing prodding, stopping for no apparent reason, not starting and then taking off like a rabbit, & jerky running. All such operating problems had plagued model railways 25 years ago and were just what I had striven to eradicate in my own modelling. Then there were the glitches in control, such as the speed setting mysteriously resetting itself to zero. I suffered an exceptional build-up of dirt on the wheels, which didn’t help, and I was cleaning locos by mid-morning! I would normally expect to get through a whole day without cleaning again. (As per normal, all locos were cleaned and packed away two nights previously, and all track cleaned at the start of the show) Just to explain the setup, I have an NCE Powercab, and in addition we were using my friends Powercab as a slave unit, plugged into the right hand socket with the 4-pin slave lead. Is it possible that this setup isn’t suitable? I’ve been using the Powercab at home for testing for quite a while with acceptable results but this was the first exhibition. I can’t really make any decisions yet on the usability of the controller due to the problems with running, but I’ve made some immediate short-term observations. I had adopted dcc to get rid of the section switches and make operation more versatile. At shows we spend too much time peering at and fiddling with the section switches. Today we spent the time peering at and fiddling with the display and buttons on the controller instead! Some of the features of dcc control that seemed to be intuitive/improvement in theory proved not to be in practice. For instance, push-button forward/reverse, and “forward” meaning chimney first whichever way the loco is pointing. This proved to be a pain in the backside if the loco was out of sight in the shed or fiddleyard. I was having to look for the loco to see which way it was pointing and then look at the display to see which direction was set. All this compared to flicking a mechanical switch in the direction of travel. I realise that many of these features are designed for large American style basement layouts with umpteen locos, where the system really comes into its own. I know this was only the first day under exhibition conditions, and I will let my anger, embarrassment and bitter disappointment recede before I have another go or make any snap decisions. The fact is I want this to work from an operational point of view. At the same time, I’m not a control-freak and don’t want to spend hours programing to get locos to work properly. For me it’s got to work, and be simple and reliable. Thanks for listening! Dave.

Adding the parcels shed requires an extension of the boarded deck of the platform. The original surface was made from a worn out industrial grade sanding belt, giving a nice even texture. It was a simple matter to cut through a section of it and peel it away from the base to leave a perfect depth for the new boarding. (Actually, cutting through the belt was a pain, and I was constantly sharpening my blade) The shed now has all its cladding plus a door, I need to bed it down now and then give it a roof. Dave.

Interesting, sounds expensive though. Isnt the Bachman N-class difficult to take apart? Dave.

The cab is a very nice peoce of etching, and rolls in one piece. Bit of a pain to get all the curves in the right place and symetrical to fit the front, but a bit of trial and error paid off. The etched handrails will not last last though, they will be replaced with .5mm brass wire. Beading around the cutout is a bit heavy, but can be rounded off to a degree. Getting the chassis on its wheels at last gives the chance to look at the proportions, measure the various heights etc. Standing it all together, alongside the excellent Hornby 3500gal tender makes the problem all-too obvious. The cab and tender footplates should line up; the footplate above the drivers is the correct height, but the front and rear stepdowns arent deep enough. I think I can get round this by cutting horizontally through the vertical sections, inserting a spacing piece and fixing everything back together. I think thats a go-er! Dave.

Cladding for the shed is overlapping horizontal planks made from good quality card (0.6mm thickness) I ruled horizontal lines on the sides of the shed at 4mm intervals to act as a guide for gluing. The planks themselves are 5mm wide, giving a 1mm overlap. Glue was PVA, applied to each plank with a brush. This photo shows the internal base for the roof in place. The internal roof is made up of more foamboard, mostly offcuts. Dave.

That is my understanding of the situation at Silverton. Hele Mill is indeed near the site of Hele & Bradninch station, and that too has a siding embedded in concrete, see this Streetview location. http://goo.gl/maps/ZqJuU Cheers, Dave.

Quite so, the camera is but a tool.

Looking lovely Rob, very effective. The timber wagon, is that an old Three-Aitch kit? Cheers, Dave.

I'm adding a small Parcels Shed to the station at Charmouth, where theres always been a rather large gap Similar to the one at Bridport (shown) its basically a foamboard box, made from offcuts of 5mm, all laminated for strength. I think (hope) the photos show the construction method so far. More details as it progresses. all the best, Dave.

Three wagons now resplendant in BHTC livery. The left hand wagon is the only one weathered yet. Dave.

Thanks Peter. The N makes a very impressive model in 0-Gauge. I have no knowledge of the 7mm scale kits for these locos, but I would assume that a greater accuracy is to be had. Thanks very much Lofty, you probably deserve a medal for reading through the whole thread, did you do in one sitting? I notice that some of the photos of the W-build have vanished, I will try and get them up again (if I can remember which ones they were) Thanks Horse, I'm sure they would be. Do you have them in electronic form, or do you need a postal address? All the best, Dave.

Looking terrific Tim. Dave.

Thanks a lot Horse, do you have any photos? Dave.

The etches in the kit include various alternatives for building U, U1, N, & N1 including two patterns of cab, and the various different front-ends. The cabs are clearly labelled, but some parts are just listed as alternatives. The instructions assume knowledge of the prototype, as its not always clear which bits go with which loco. Also parts are numbered in the exploded diagrams, but there is no corresponding numbering on the frets. So you need to know your variations, and the old advice of working from a good photo of your chosen loco is valid here. I've done battle with the South East Finecast chassis before, when building the W-Class. It covers the U & U1 variations and very nice it is too. The chosen drive mechanism is my favourite combination of Mashima & Highlevel. This time its a 1424 motor and SlimlinerPlus 54:1 gearbox. Cheers, Dave.

At last some actual modelling of the U to report, and a good look over the kit to suss out all the variations available, Firstly the footplate comes in two parts, and the first job was soldering them together. Made my usual cradle to support it during construction. Referring to the works photos of the N & U shows the difference in the footplates. The U's is higher (to clear the higher cylinders) and the high section is longer than on the N. That supplied in the kit appear to be a compromise between the two (to cover both locos?) but I reckon its close enough to pass muster. Replacing it would be a major job. The boiler and firebox castings look really good, fit together well and sit on the footplate perfectly. The smokebox is nicely round in section, but does have a slight flare towards the front end. Not a problem as it can be filed down, and will need a brass overlay anyway; there should be a line of rivits round the rear edge of the smokebox, but no sign of them on the casting. More later, Dave.