relaxinghobby

Is this the sort of design that a modern high speed steam engine would be like? This one is from the 1930's and was a prototype in Germany for super fast steam trians, it was the sort that inspired Gresley to do something similar, better and more usefully work-a-day on the important London to Edinburgh route. The 1930's era was the start of the diesel versus steam debate and Art Deco streamlined go faster shapes were the fashion, what is the best for high speed travell? There was the Flying Hamburger DMU between Berlin and Hamburg over in Hitler's brave new Germany and the Heafty Hiawatha Stream, 100 mph, 1000 ton streamliner trian running between New York and Chicargo across the Atlantic in the 'States. This picture is from the Backtrack magazine.

Hi Bluebell Model Railway Another option for a Sir Baxter type build , that is for an 0-4-0 loco with outside cylinders. an old conversion from years past. The loco crew seem to have just pop off for a cup of tea during shunting. It's a cut down Airfix or Dapol pug kit. The foot plate is just glued onto the top of the Tenshendo motor bogge, it's ends up at the right height. That's the original plastic valve gear fron the kit, the crank to piston connecting rod is running on a crank pin made of a sewing pin glued onto a wheel cover disc of plastikard which is then glued onto the outside of the wheel. It does not have to take any force, just cosmetic so only a loose fit will work well. There are no coupling rods as both sets of wheel are driven inside the bogie, no one notices because the con rods and cylinders hide the fact. It runs a bit fast, but once warmed up is controllable and pulls well because that saddle tank and boiler is full of lead.

There is the old modellers adage that 'As soon as I scratch build something a manufacturer brings out a kit or ready to run model of it' , usually just as the difficult scratch build is finished. In this instance they actually built a real full size, rebuilding an 0-4-0 saddle tank back to it's original tender version. As a saddle tank it had spent most of it's life as a shunter and when worn out it had a second career as playground climbing frame. Now it has a new career as a character actor in historical films and television programs. Long live Bleak Expectations, Jane Austin and Sherlock Holmes and Watson, they probably pay for the upkeep of this one. These pictures are a bit blurry, they are from the old film camera days.

Hi this is how I made the clack valves, it's an idea I got from an Iain Rice Book. I dont't know how much a nice etched or cast brass one would cost because I've never bought one. This method allows you to custom make any of the boiler pipes and plumbing around the engine.

Getting ready for a repaint I've been using Modelstrip. This is about the 3rd application of the paint stripper and there is still some paint left, the resin material that the loco kit is made of seems to have a very porous surface, I guess it is now ready for the new paint.

Another possible donor chassis for this or a similar project could be the High Level Pug replacement chassis. It's more expensive in money and time but produces a super slow and controllerable chassis with it's 108 to 1 gearbox and fly wheeled motor. I used it on a similar Southampton Dock Pug conversion. The only trouble is that it took 2 years to fettle and get running properly.

Thanks for the encouragement, the pipe work was made up from a piece of suitable thickness of wire and a short bit of tube, anything of the right fatness will do. Here Ian Rice's book on building and detailing white metal kits gave the method. I'm currently rubbing down the paint with fine grade emery paper and emery nail sticks and have bought a new tin of Humbrol.

Oh dear what a mess the paint has gone lumpy, it's an old tin of Humbrol number 3, Brunswick green I think, I'll have to buy a new tin.

Hi Guys Thanks for the help my with old Olympus digital camera, it is now back in action. High Street battery prices where from £18 to £27 pounds, I got one from the 7dayshop website purchasing facility for £4 including postage but this just showed that it was the charger that was not operating properly although it did flash it's green 'charged' light cheekily at times making me think it was the battery not the charger at fault. So another look around the shops and I could easily have spent up to £40 on a charger. Back at the 7dayshop web I bought one for £9 including an adaptor plate to suit my particular format of battery ( Lo-ion 10b ) and postage. Delivery took about 4 days and after that short wait I found it merrily charged up both my old and new batteries. So a fix for £13, thanks again RMweb guys. To put the price into perspective I revived my old film camera whilst I was waiting & deciding what to do, and on that the two motor wind-on batteries ( CR2 x two ) cost £12 from Boots. Plus the price of the film and processing.

Hi Does any one have experience of ordering replacement camera batteries from on-line shops. I need a LI 10b ( small rectangular black cuboid thing with three contacts ) for my Olympus Stylus 300 ( 3.2 mega pixies ), don't laugh it was hot stuff in it's day. Jessops want £25 for the battery, but made by Energiser, they would not part exchange for the old one. I've seem an actual Olympus battery for £8 on the net and all other prices in between. So where is the best place to got? In the meantime I am using another ancient piece of kit, a 3 year old Motorola phone which can just about get up to 100k picture file size and has a fish eye lens. e.g

Glad to see someone using the Brass Masters 6 wheel Clemison chassis, it certainly can go around tight bends. Here is an old project from the bottom draw that has seen no progress for years. One of the Roxey Mouldings old plastic basic coach sides. All you got was a single sheet of plasticard with the detail for 2 sides and 2 ends moulded on, you had to cut it out and do the rest. I think it is to make a Furness Railway Brake end?

Thanks BMR for your comment I have been following your website with interest. Here is a progress report, I have started to paint my O1. I had some problems with the tender pickups, the back of the old style Jackson metal wheels I am using had a lot of burrs on them around the spokes which were catching on the wire wiper pick-ups, so I have filled the burrs flush with the back of the wheel rims. The picture tries to show how I have added lead weight to the front inside of the hollow boiler and tender cab. This second picture shows where I have sawn of the back of the Hornby chassis, I cut too much off and so have added a spacer to fill up the gap I created by mistake, The horizontal screw is the new body fixing screw and there is a loop of paper clip wire for the tender to hook on.

I'll stick pictures of the Cambrianised Gem 2-4-0t kit in the kit and scratch building section

Trying to post a picture

Hi Mikkel. Here's what the Gem Kit looks like when it is back dated and de-Swindonised by cutting off the bunker and cab, and replacing it with a scratch built cab. It is destined for a vaguely dated pre-grouping layout not yet built.

Ages since the last post, the O1 is now ready for the paint shop....

Hi , an interesting adaptation of kit parts, I wander if the same process can be applied to making standard gauge rolling stock? The paint job is very neat and stands up to the close up photography well, particularly picking out of the fittings in black and the window frames. Did you use a brush for that part? Well done.

Final picture shows it next to a Midland 2F for a size comparison, which would make the O2 about a 2F power rating, a real O2 can be seen on the Blue Bell steam railway in Sussex.

Some work is needed on the body to fill small holes left by the moulding process. There are only a few large parts to the kit. It saves all that fiddling about trying to get every thing straight that you have to do with a white metal or brass kit, but the resin is not very heavy and there is only a little room in the body for extra weight so it's performance will be about the same as the original plastic Jinty the chassis came from. In the tender you can see there is some smaller details of the springs, the resin gives good reproduction of large parts such as the dome and chimney but is not so good at the fine detail for example the safety valve which broke on the sprue.. I am intending to make it tender pick up and have made the draw bar arrangements more complicated than the kit instructions suggested.

Here is the Golden Arrow SECR/SR/BR O1 resin body kit to fit on the current Hornby 0-6-0 chassis. Gives a model of a typical late 19th century goods and mixed traffic loco in 00 form. Major surgery is needed and about 19mm has to be sawn off of the back of the Hornby chassis.