PhilH

Cracking place to trainspot!

Thanks for posting.

Mars Bar 9d? You wuz robbed mate, tanner (6d) at most! (from someone who remembers these things)

Fabulously evocative photograph and a great narrative - thanks.

Nice to see Highclere in the flesh at last, well worth the wait - still convinced you have Superman (sorry,woman) x-ray eyesight though. How you can even see some of the parts you work with is beyond me, amazing. I hope that yesterday has convinced you to get it out on the exhibition circuit.

Notice you didn't mention jumping the salad queue......

Thanks Mike and Adrian for your kind comments. Looking at it again after a couple of days I can once again see why I took it on - As you say Mike I think it will be worth it eventually. I haven't really looked at the motor, I'm sure it's something simple. Once I do get it running I think it will spur me on to finish the bits and bobs it needs.

Good stuff - what lathe have you got? I've got a Colchester which is a little on the large side for what you do! I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to chuck your lathe tools away - if they are HSS it might be just a case of grinding different angles on them. The top rake etc. used on brass is totally different to that used on steel, for instance.Usually you have a different set of tools for ferrous and non ferrous metals (sorry if you know all of this already.) Also have you thought about a rotary table for the mill? Much more versatile and you can do most dividing jobs adequately well on them.

That is realy, really good. I have a somewhat lesser 7mm Q1 kit to build, it won't turn out anywhere as near as good as yours, but your build has certainly been inspirational to me.

That's cracking Dave - look forward to seeing it on Wednesday at the next meeting of the 'Itchen Dogs' (see what I did there?). You don't hang about do you - can you lend me a bit of your mojo please?

Thanks both for the interest. I've been following the great debate, I know that once I get past the Barclay I'll have to look at springing or compensating the next 7mm models that are in the pipeline. I suppose the only consolation is that although there are difficulties of working in 7mm as described previously I know that I have the materials and tools to remake if I cock things up. I think I will be looking for the simplest method there is.

Hi Phil, I would love to see some of your 5" gauge stuff.

Many many years ago I was involved with a club in NZ which had a raised 3 1/2" and 5" gauge track, I spent many happy hours driving some of Martin Evans and LBSC designed locos amongst others including Springboks, Enterprise, Maid of Kent, Brittannia, Caribou, Virginia, Simplex, a Juliet as well as a couple of New Zealand type locos from memory I think one was a J or a JA 4-8-2 .

There was a vintage Stirling Single that was origanally built to 4 3/4" gauge which was converted to 5" gauge, it had a lovely exhaust note but was a ###### for priming without the dome.

 

Darren.

Hi Darren, glad to hear that you used to be involved with model engineering. I think that LBSC and later Martin Evans certainly made the hobby accessible for a lot of people, their designs are on most tracks around the world. Unfortunately my model engineering took a back seat 20 years ago when I started messing around with the full size stuff - I used my workshop almost exclusively to machine bits for full size locos for quite a few years after that. I then started with a model railway which further marginalised my ME activities, then came a disaster - I knew I had a leak in my workshop roof, but I didn't realise the extent of it, not going down there very often. To cut a long story short most of my previous efforts were reduced to piles of rust, the water having got into the cupboards where it was all stored. I also lost hundreds of pounds worth of tooling as well, precision tools rusted beyond use. All because I was too lazy to sort it out when I first noticed it. I had made the frames and stretchers for a 5" Merchant Navy, pretty useless now. I think I will be able to rescue an 80% complete Isle of Wight O2, will include pics of this when I post the pics of my various projects.

Phil

Hi Phil,

 

Keykits from Dorset do a range of milled rods, and if you can't see your chosen loco on her website Kay will usually make some up for you at the same price.

 

Regards, Martyn. p.s. info@keykits.net

Thanks Martyn, pretty much decided I'm going to give it one more try - I've got a workshop full of tools and metal, it ain't gonna beat me!

Come on then, where's the progress? :icon_yawn:

 

Cheers

Dave

I am doing some bits, currently trying to carve some coupling and connecting rods out of solid for the Barclay at the moment. Trouble is I've got a lathe and mill which is somewhat too big for stuff like this. Next buy might have to be a Unimat or similar with milling attachment, or at least a vertical slide. Will get some photos of the various projects posted this week.

Please do keep on nagging, gets me off of the sofa!

Hi Phil,

I'll bother to look at it - if you keep it updated

 

Wasn't there a certain brass kit started on the old forum?

 

... and posts of your 1:1 scale work?

Mikel

Thanks Mike - 2 brass kits were in fact started, a Meteor 7mm O2 and a PDK 4mm 700. The Meteor was paused when I realised that it is in fact an aid to scratchbuilding if a reasonable model was to be produced, the PDK kit, although a very good kit, entered the same state as I failed to reach, in my eyes, a reasonable standard of build. Both will be revisited in the near future although not until after I've got something finished. This will be a 7mm Tower models Barclay 0-4-0 tank which I purchased part built and for which I have tonight started milling new con/coupling rods for, not liking the built up soldered ones. I am going to try and become / remain disciplined about this, and hope to take it slightly more seriously than I have in the past which should lead to better results than previously and hopefully resulting in finished projects.

So the blog plan is:

Produce list and pictures of ongoing projects

Produce evidence (and progress pictures) of finished 7mm Barclay

Take it from there

As far as the 12" to the foot stuff, that's just ticking over with a couple of days a month spent on the MHR, either driving or in the locoshed. I've still got some unfinished 5" gauge business too...

Phil