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Hi Stubby, Thanks very much, I must say that this is the shorter edited version. The full length "Directors Cut" is on the Narrow Gauge Online Forum at http://ngrm-online.com/forum/index.php See you on Sunday, well thats the plan anyway. I might bring some stock along. Cheers, Dave.

Finished in matching style to the coaches, the result is one of my favourite vehicles. I seem to have a bit of a thing about brakevans, I've got almost as many as I have coaches, and theres another one planned. The limitations of the waterslide transfers are apparent in these pictures; some of the cut edges are a bit too obvious. Still, you dont notice it when the train is moving on a layout. All the best, Dave.

To complete the train a matching brakevan was needed, the vehicle that Branchlines never got around to producing. My version is the Clogher Valley Van with the addition of one end balcony. The model is a "cut & shut" job on a secondhand coach that came my way. A section was removed from the middle of the coach sides, and the two ends put together. The section removed from the sides is used later for the sliding door. Construction began with by re-uniting the sides using a strip of brass to blank off the windows. From then on the procedure was similar to building the coach kit. The floor is two-thirds of the coach floor (with one set of end steps) screwed to the body as before. For chassis parts, I turned to yet another Branchlines Clogher Valley kit, this time the standard wagon chassis. Parts from this etch were added to the underside of the van, and wheels added separately on a circuitboard plate. This was all a bit of a lashup to get it ready for Warley at the last minute The sliding door and other detail were added to match the coaches. I've got a complete end-balcony and steps left over, which will form the basis of another brakevan. Dave.

I had decided early on that I wanted a varnished teak livery on these coaches to contrast with the maroon & ivory of the existing stock. Undercoatd were a spray of white primer, followed by a pale crem colour. The the "varnish colour" was brushed on with a wide flat brush, deliberately streaking it in the direction of the grain. The photos shows them after one coat. A second coat followed, and I was very pleased with the result. Once lettering was done, they were given a coat of Humbrol Satin Varnish for protection. Transfers came mainly from the HMRS Pressfix sheet, LSWR Coach Insignia, while the company initials were from the Mabex lettering range. BHTC by the way, is the "Bridport Harbour Tramway Company", my latest attempt at further mangling the railway history of this part of Dorset. Glazing was done with 1mm thick microscope-glass, slipped behind the seatbacks where a recess had been left. and secured by a blob of glue at the top corners. The final task was a touch of weathering by the Martyn Welch method; running a touch of diluted matt-black around the corners of the panelling, and cleaning it off a bit later with a cotton bud moisted with white-spirit.

With such large windows I was going to need interior detail. Longitudinal seats were fabricated from plasticard and the slatted appearance was done by printing black lines on a sheet of paper using Excel and then gluing the paper to the plasticard using Mekpak One all was hardened I painted the seats in a sort of varnished-pine colour, making sure the dark lines showed through. Instant slats! To represent roof-canvas I glued strips of tissue paper tot eh roof, and painted it dark grey All thrtee coaches were brought to a state of completion beofre painting began Cheers, Dave.

My main modelling interest is narrow gauge in 7mm scale, I'm still building rolling stock to run on Bridport Town and Charmouth. Much of this has appeared on the Narrow Gauge Online Forum, but its high time I put some of it on RMweb. A recent project has been a set of tramway-style balcony ended coaches. The origin of these are the etched-brass kits by Branchlines for the Irish Clogher Valley Railway coaches. I've adapted them slightly to make them less obviously CVR and fit in with my existing stock. The main change was loosing the clerestory roof and fitting a plain one; its suprising what a difference this makes to the appearance. Constructionally the main difference was to make the bodies removable to assist with painting and interior fitting. This was done by screws through the floor from below, into captive nuts in the corner of the compartments.The roof had to be fixed to the body, as it retains the end balcony railings The roof itself is a plain piece of brass, with various bits of wire soldered in place to provide positive location for the railings and the bodies. More to come shortly, Dave.

Last night Mike Oldfield's "Incantations", to my mind the only one of his to have stood the test of time. Today, Planet Rock's finest. We don't get many decent gigs around here, but I've just found out about three coming up locally; Mostly Autumn, Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash, and The UK Pink Floyd Experience.... All on the same night !!!

Thats fabulous, you can almost smell it! Dave.

I've only just come accross Carrick Road, what a brilliant layout Mr.Rat! Is there a trackplan thats viewable somewhere? Many thanks Dave.T

Your's or the layout's ?????

Hi Paul, What you've done there is very effective. I've agonised over interiors before, and then found that I cant see that much when the vehicle whizzes past on a layout. You dont need to model the interior to the finest detail, as long as you can se that the vehicle isnt an empty cavity, then the effect is usually a success. Is the railcar destined for an operational layout? As I've said, you're more than welcome to run it on Bridport. Once I've got a few more shows confirmed I'll let you know where its goiung to be. All the best, Dave,T PS Sorry if the spelling and grammar is a bit out, its Sunday night and I've just finished my second G&T.

Hi Paul, This is looking very good, you've got the curved bodywook very well; something that always put me off building railcars! Are you coming to the Cornwall Narrow Gauge Expo later this month? We could give it a run on Bridport if you like. Cheers, Dave.T

Hi Des, I've just caught up with this thread, looks like the layout is progressing very nicely; most inspiring. Interesting that you mentioned Frank Crudass and the list of his articles; but was there ever a feature on his layout? His models were excellent, and his Wadebridge layout must have been quite something. Cheers, Dave.

Thanks for the info Guys. Dave.

How is the Hornby Arthur wired for DCC? Presumably the decoder is in the tender? Thanks, Dave.

Thanks very much Des, it does look impressive next to the Arthur. Good luck with fitting the decoder, theres not a lot of space, but would a long thin one slide into the boiler? As somebody recently remarked, decoders are like Lingerie; the smaller they get, the more espensive they are! I'm interested to hear how you get on, so that I can make future locos easy to convert. My current methods probably make conversion a bit awkward. All the best, Dave.

I resisted the temptation to sit an overscale driver figure on the front of the tender Cheers, Dave.

Hi Geoff, Based on my experience with the PDK S15, I have no hesitation in recomending PDK kits. They do both MAIN variations of the H15. You pays yer money and takes yer choice! I thought the DJH S15 with perfectly ok, even though it had some dimensional problems. It was nothing like as bad as I had been led to expect! Bits of it were particularly good, for instance the design and mounting of the cylinders. And the cast whitemetal cab was easier to construct than the etched PDK version. For dimensional accuracy and general fidelity though, I think the PDK wins it. Getting sufficient clearance for the front bogie is a problem with any loco of similar wheel arrangement, and I think my problems with the DJH bogie were down to me trying to be too clever! Cheers, Dave.

Hi Richard, Thanks very much, there are certainly more SR locos in the pipeline, but I've got some narrow gauge modelling to finish off first, including a tram-loco to go with the new coaches. You're quite right, photographing them on Charmouth is awkward with a confusing overscale background, and an unfortunate baseboard joint. An appropriate photographic diorama is needed, but its low on the list of priorities at the moment! Darren, I'm afraid the S15 won't now be able to make a special visit to Torrington. Due to the build time over-running, it had to be delivered to its new "home shed" almost as soon at the last bit of paint was dry. All the best, Dave.

Many thanks Barry, Many people are put off kitbuilding by the thought of valvegear, but quite honestly I've often found brakegear to be more fiddly; although I'm getting the hang of it now. DJH have got around the problem by completely ignoring it, theres no brakegear in the kit, nor any suggestions on providing it. The etched SR Brake gear fret from Mainly Trains is very good, nicely detailed etchings. It just provides the visible bits, its not a "kit" as such. You need to provide plenty of straight brass wire and work out how to assemble it. The parts I used were a tad on the large side, the blocks needed filing down a bit to achieve sufficient clearance. I positioned the longitudinal pull-rods so that they were just touching the inside of the springs, giving the whole assembly a positive lateral location. The front end is screwed to a new chassis spacer, soldered between the front springs. I drilled holes in the loco frames for the hanger rods, but in the end only fitted one through the rear holes, (there isnt room between the front drivers) so the front and middle brake-hangers are not attached to the frames. Hope this helps, All the best, Dave.

Thanks for all the comments Guys. I quickly realised that theres not a lot of space for the bogie to swing, and filed quite a large amount off the rear of the cylinders. The motion bracket came in for similar treatment, having first been strengthened with additinal bits of brass (see earlier in the thread) Once thre was enough clearance I smeared Araldite on the rear faces to insulate them, just in case the wheels touched. The clearance issue isnt helped by the fact that the loco body is slightly short; so the cylinders are closer to the drivers than they should be, giving less room for the bogie wheels. I adjusted the forward/back position of the cylinders and bogie to give the best compromise between appearance and clearance. I first fitted the bogie with Romford wheels, but didnt like the appearance, and I think the profile contributed to the derailing. The Gibson wheels look a lot better, and have the right number of spokes. The slightly deeper flanges helped to keep them on the track, but also just touched the frame and the underside of the footplate in places, causing shorting. More filing and scraping was called for, and more Araldite smearing. The wheels also come very close to the bufferbeam and the footsteps on sharp curves, so clearances remain pretty tight. Cheers, Dave.

Well I think its finished at last. Had a problem with the bogie derailing on turnouts. After quite a time fiddling with clearances and the lateral springing, I removed it all. So of course the bogie no longer provides any guidance, but it does stay on the track! Apart from that, everything seems to be fine. Cheers, Dave.

Thanks very much JE, Thats a very clear and concise summary of the variations, and a huge help. I had been getting confused with the numbering, with the later locos having lower numbers. Best wishes, Dave

Thanks JE, You can probably tell that I havent got far with familiarising myself with the loco yet! As ever, once you start delving you come accross almost infinite variations, even within a relatively small class. So perhaps I should leave the choice of numbering till a later date. Many thanks for the info, Dave.

Thanks for all the help Gents, and especially to Michael for his drawing. Its looking likely that a Chonker will be featuring in my program shortly, using the excellent looking PDK kit for the 33 series, with the stepped footplate. These were all shedded at Salisbury I beleive throughout the postwar period. Thanks again, Dave.