Rob Pulham

Cheers Ken

Quite some time since I posted anything on this particular thread. Like many I suffered a bit of a mojo loss recently so I decided to take a short break from loco building to tackle a couple of wagons in the hope that the enthusiasm was rekindled. The first of these is a D&S Kit for a North Eastern Railway Bogie Road Van. Although I have had one of these kits for about 3 years, this one is for a gent who lives in Scotland who models the North Eastern Railway so I rang Dan Pinnock to enquire as to availability last year. Dan said he could do a kit but he would have to order the etches. And so, onto the build. I started with the basic floor pan and solebars. Like many kits the floor pan has fold down strips down the long edges. what is unusual is that these are not the solebars. The solebars have a full thickness rear section and a half etched overlay. The rear has a narrow fold along the bottom edge to represent the C section of a steel solebar. When put together the solebars fit into slots behind the fold down strips on the floor pan. To this floor pan is added a pair of queen posts Next, I made up the bogies, these are simple in design. A pair of really nice brass castings fit onto the ends of a fold up central bolster. Each bolster has a fold up strip on the top which either allows for and aft rocking or side to side. [/url] The brakes are simple affairs which fit nicely between the wheels on each side.

Modelling time has been a little sparse just lately, we were fortunate to be gifted a fair quantity of topsoil from a neighbour’s garden which is to be used to level off or reduce the slope on our front lawn and initially I was wheelbarrowing it in. I would never have moved it all manually in a timely manner, so the gent doing the groundworks offered to use his digger and dumper to bring it round to our house. Now it all needs to moved away from the dwarf wall so that the wall can be built up higher and then finally levelled off. I have managed to do bits in between and I have got the plunger pickups ready for installation and also prepared all the brake parts ready for fitting. I felt that the brake spreaders were a bit on the flimsy side so I used some of the scrap etch to double the thickness before fitting the clevis’s. Although I never thought to take a photo of them, the layers that make up the brake shoes and hangers come tagged together in small outer frames which can be placed over each other and gripped as one, to allow the parts to be soldered together before cutting out the individual brake hangers complete with shoe as in the photo above.

Nick Dunhill’s, Rhymney Railway R class post on preparing the eccentric sheaves couldn’t have been timelier. I am just at that point so the night before last I made up a similar jig from a couple of bits of wood that I had on the bench and having consulted the GA for the length of the sheave I marked up and drilled a hole for the pin (a 0.8mm drill bit). Finally, I filed and soldered up the first sheave. Last night I managed a couple more.

I am not sure where last weekend went as I had hoped to achieve a bit more on this build but sometimes that’s the way it goes. First off I cut out the Diane Carney number plates with a no 6 blade in my piercing saw and filed them to final size. Not knowing for certain whether the actual plates had a rim around the beading or whether the beading was in fact the edge of the plate I left two of them with a rim and asked Brian which he preferred. Then I soldered the boiler to the formers and fitted it to the body. The bottom edge of the boiler section that fits between the tanks has three tabs either side which fit into corresponding slots on a fold out on the inner tank sides. What a fiddle it was to get all six in the slots together. I hadn’t slept well on Saturday night and in the end, I had a snooze before my brain was clear enough to get them all in place.

Although I haven’t posted an update since before Christmas, I have been doing a bit here and there. Mostly this has been making the additional bits and pieces needed for the inside motion. The motion for the J6 differs from other versions of Stephenson’s motion in that it has four valves rather than the more usual two. There are two between the cylinders and two above them. Although I have the full LG Stephenson’s motion set, in the end I doubt that I will be able to use much more than the connecting rods, eccentric rods and the slide bars and cross heads. The other bits will go in the spares box for a future build. The arms that fit to the lower linkages still need to be shortened to 5.5mm between hole centres. The expansion links in the motion kit are a couple of millimetres longer than the GA and have a lug on one side which I would have to cut off for this particular application. As I am making all the other parts to match the dimensions on the GA, I opted to make a pair of expansion links to match. Working on the theory that I always have the LG castings as a fall back, if my home brewed ones don’t fit for any reason.

Hi Tony, It's only the one part that's wrong per, se, it's actually surprising how rigid the half etched tube is once rolled. Mine has not suffered from any problems and looking back I didn't add any additional support as I have on this one - I did it because I had the part to hand as I had found it while looking for something to use on the J6. Even if you roll a tube you will still need to use the smokebox formers, albeit that you could cut the rear one down to just use as a gap filler and just use the front one as designed. As with all things there is no right and wrong way just wat you find works for you. It's a real shame that having picked up the problem on the test build that Garth didn't modify the art work to sort it. Because it was drawn on CAD it wouldn't have taken much to amend it but it would have needed a new photo tool. Unless of course that he never did a test build...

This morning I added the semicircle of spare etch attached with a couple of small bridging pieces made from scrap etch. I had already rolled the boiler but hadn’t soldered the seam so that was done next and then I realised that the two slits which allow for the curve out of the smokebox base the fit the smokebox saddle hadn’t quite etched right through. A simple task to cut down it with the piercing saw once the seam was soldered. But equally had I noticed it before rolling the boiler I could have done it in the flat with a blade. There are some tabs on the ends of the inner frame at the firebox end but I can’t see any corresponding slots in the cab front, so I think I will have to cut those off to get it to sit in place correctly. But that will be a task for next year when I resume.

Progress has been slow this weekend, but a mystery has been unravelled. You may recall that when I started the footplate, I couldn’t find two out of four part 60’s? Well today I found them… I started yesterday’s session by rolling the boiler and it mentions using part 52 to ensure that it’s round. This is the drawing of part 52 I found it amongst the remaining bits of etch and tried it in the boiler all was well. Then I started to assemble the inner support frame for the boiler using the diagram below and photos of my previous build. In my previous build I hadn’t used part 52… so I started questioning why not. Although I obviously hadn’t worked it out before due to lack of experience it quickly became apparent that there was something wrong with part 52. The photo above shows both sides of part 52 as etched. Although it’s one piece when you check against the drawing snip above it should in fact be three parts, 52 and 2 x part 60 (the missing parts). It looks like when he drew the artwork Garth Patrick got these bits on the wrong layers and the bit’s that should have been etched though have been half etched on one side and the outer ring which should have been full thickness has been half etched on the back making the part completely useless. I contemplated cutting the ring out with the piercing saw but I obviously managed without it on my build so could on this. As it happens in my spare etch box I found a semi circle the correct diameter which I will attach with a couple of bits of scrap to support the firebox end of the boiler tube. Photos to follow once I have done it.

I have been distracted for the last few days by teaching myself to draw in QCAD with a view to getting a few things etched. Before that I had made some progress on the rest of the inside valve gear. Early in the week Tony Geary kindly pointed me at a photo of the inside valve gear on a 7 ½” gauge N2. Armed with this as a starting point I searched online and found a Facebook page chronicling the guy’s build. In his photo section I found loads of photos which have gone a long way to clarify in my mind what I was struggling to interpret from the GA. I have a few photos of the full sized N2 valve gear which again are great for showing how things fit together above the slide bars but not below which is the area that I was struggling with. The build photos have clarified things now I just need to make up all the parts. Unfortunately, most of mine will need to be made from scratch as my spares box is nowhere near as comprehensive as Tony’s. The sections are just resting in place for the photos I have a lot more to attach to both the motion plate and cylinder front before finally joining them.

I am pleased to say that the replacement side has been a complete success and even in bare metal, if you didn’t know I doubt that you could tell that it wasn’t original. Each side has a couple of ovals representing works plates so I used some off cuts to file up a couple of replacements and soldered them in place before fitting the side. I took measurements of the side that I had taken off to get the correct placement. Before finally soldering the new side on I fitted the front and rear of the cab and the cupboard on the cab and their overlays. Once they were all in place, I added the beading around the cab opening. Although I am sure that I used them last time I failed miserably to get the beading to slot onto the tabs in the cab openings. In the end, I filed them off and did it as I would have if there had been no tabs. Using the opening as a former I pre-bent the beading to shape and them with the aid of self-locking tweezers soldered them in place. I will have to revisit one of them as while taking photos this morning I noted a couple of small gaps that need filling.

Hi Tony, I have added visible details above the footplate for as long as I have been building kits sometime to the detriment of finishing the build (I bit off more than I could chew a few times). But adding things like ashpans is a more recent thing like you.

Hi Tony, You haven't missed anything there isn't a representation of the ashpan that I can find. I had a look under my original build and no ashpan there either. At the time I was more concerned with detail above the footplate so it never occurred to me to add one. All the photos that I have of them have the coupling rod in the wrong position for seeing the bottom of the ashpan below the frames but the GA shows it as being visible below the frames to the level of the bottom of the axle boxes.

Today’s model making session saw the replacement side created. I still need to solder it in place but I am going to fit a few other bits first. It would have been much extra work to add all the tabs so it will need a little more care to fit some parts in place without the help of the tabs but most kits don’t have tabs on these particular parts so it should present too much of a problem.

After reading Tony’s struggle to fit all the inside motion in his J6 and observations made on a couple of forums by Ian Middleditch and Jim Snowdon. I decided to take the plunge and cut some new frame spacers to give me more room to play with. With the new spacers I have given myself a couple more millimetres. The downside is that I need to make a new motion bracket but I am sure it will be worth it.

Hi Tony, You should be fine if you tin the inner frame and then use the iron from the inside to attach the overlay. My Iron is and ERSA 80 and I had the temp set at 340 degrees.

This weekend was a one step forward and two back, weekend. I added the sides and fitted the coal bars to the rear cab side sheet and also dry fitted the cab front and inner cab rear. Where it took a step backwards was on one side, I wasn’t sure that the middle of the tank side had soldered properly to the inner former so I ran the soldering iron over it. Unfortunately, due to the very thin material of the overlay (0.1mm) it left an indentation where I had run the iron. After consulting with Brian, I removed the side and attempted to remove the indentation but as I suspected it wasn’t possible so I will use the side as a template to make a replacement side from nickel sheet.

Not a great deal to show for this week’s efforts on the J6. I filled in the lightening holes in the front of the frames as the photo that I am working from doesn’t show any. I also cut away the bottom of the etched ashpan sides and fitted a representation of the bottom. This may need a bit of trimming to clear the gear wheel once finally fitted. The rest of the time has been spent patiently filing the hornblocks, hornguides and the cranks to enable the cranks and eccentrics to fit between the centre hornguides and rotate freely. Due to the need to get the loco around 5’6” curves the frames are a bit narrower than they might have been if I had been building for myself. So far, so good.

I didn’t have much in the way of modelling time this weekend but I managed to make some progress. I had cut out the footplate and valances last weekend so they were quickly put together via the tabs. The buffer beams were easily laminated and then again attached via tabs. There are four fold ups that represent the ends of the timber backing to the buffer planks these sit in a recess made up from some strengthening plates (parts 89 and 90) Parts 89 are dotted about the etch so took a bit of tracking down. Parts 90 are shown to be quite close together on the plan of the etches but despite spending the best part of an hour looking I could only find two of the four so I cut some replacements from scrap etch and cut one of the tabs off a couple of the part 89’s With all the parts found or made it was a simple job to solder it all up to make solid footplate. Then comes the task of chopping all the bits out of the inner cab/tanks/bunker and attaching it to the footplate. You need to read the instructions thoroughly at this point because if you twist all the tabs you cannot get the overlay to sit in the tab holes. You also need to fit the inner tanks before fitting the overlay because you need to file off all the twisted tabs to get the overlay flat – you will note that in my photo the overlay is still loose as I haven’t filed off the tabs yet. Talking of tabs, there is much mention of tabs in the instructions at this point. The cab beading has slots for tabs You will note that to make life a bit easier when fitting them I removed the tabs from the door opening on the inner etch but left them on the overlay. This was a trick I learned from the last build.

Thanks Tony, You are right I am pretty sure that this kit (George Norton Connoisseurs Choice) passed through the hands of LRM, who I believe may have upscaled it to 7mm. I have a G5 and a J21 in my pile that are both in LRM boxes which then passed to Gladiator via Fourtrack Models.

Although it hasn’t been without its trials, I have made good progress this week and the bodywork is almost complete. The left side handrail caused a few problems because the etched hole in the cab front, to which I had soldered the tube for the handrail proved to be slightly out of position. I am not sure whether it was a vagary of the hand drawn art work which I have then exacerbated as I have opened the hole with a broach or that my positioning of the boiler was slightly low. To make it all line up I had to remove the stub of tube, fill the hole with brass rod and file flush then redrilling the hole slightly lower. I also drilled the rims of the buffer stocks and inserted some scale hardware fittings the collar of the buffer stocks is quite small so it was a bit nerve wracking drilling with a 0.4mm drill bit, but it came out okay. All the boiler fittings are soldered in place with the exception of the smokebox door which it just resting in place for the photos. The front steps come with an interesting fold up support which makes them fairly rigid but before I had finished fitting the front one’s, I had managed to bend the rear ones so I soldered some 2x1mm bar behind them to give some strength. The only things left to fit, are a pair of globe lubricators that sit on the front of the sandboxes either side of the smokebox. The reason that I haven’t fitted them yet is that I have lost them. I bought them at the same time as the backhead and some additional valve rods so I know that they are here somewhere but can I find them…. Of course, the moment I order some more to replace them they will pop out from where they are hiding so I am holding off for the minute.

Mine too as I am only working on it at weekends, the J6 is taking my attention during the week.

Hi Tony, You would need to upload your MP4 file to YouTube or Vimeo etc. and link to it from there. Mine is hosted on YouTube. Aside from the sparse instructions the kit is very well designed. In fairness, it should be because Garth was taught to draw in CAD by Dave Sharp of MOK. If you ever build an MOK kit, you will note many similarities to this one with the crisp tab and slots that allow you to do much of the construction dry fitted before committing to solder.

Hi Tony, Mine came as part of the Hobby Holidays Chassis Jig, which is the bit in the background that it's sat on. If I have any sort of criticism it's that the rollers are a fraction too far apart making some locos wobble around a bit on them. One of these days I will get around to moving them inwards.

This hadn't finished uploading when I replied earlier https://youtu.be/QDBUtobGelE