Barry Ten

Thanks, Colin!

The stuff I have is in a small bottle that an aeromodelling mate gave me about ten years ago; I think it's Loctite 601 gear retainer, basically some green stuff, and that's about all I know. It's been suggested that I might be able to solder the cranks after all, so that's another option besides the epoxy.

On 29/05/2019 at 16:48, wenlock said:

 

 

I'm glad you are enjoying the Blog, quite what Baron Reith would make of it though is another story:-)

 

"It's well banging, innit bruv," says TV's Lord Reith.

I'd recommend it as a nice project which doesn't perhaps require quite so much time as a normal loco kit, and which is also cost-effective.

The two options are quite comparable. The City doesn't need that much doing to the body, but I found it more of a struggle to

get free-running because the large wheel diameter and the tight clearances under the splashers. 

The Bulldog/Bird is more straightforward in that sense but there's more to do on the body - although nothing tricky.

Ignore that wonky rear splasher, by the way - it's loosely fitted at the moment.

Yep - I swapped the motor around last night. Initially it was much, much worse (oops!) but then I realised I'd also swapped the orientation of the main axle gear, so it was all dismantled again, the gear re-orientated, and bingo, instantly smooth running in forward and (surprisingly) a distinct improvement in reverse as well.

These fold-up single-stage gearboxes can be a bit of a fiddle to get working well, but I find they do settle in quite nicely. The City was a bit grindy to begin with but it's now lovely and smooth in forward gear. 

A farmboy's WAYYY-JEZZZZ!!!

Seriously, for a moment, it's quite a good option for getting a complete loco kit, for only a bit over 100 pounds. Other than substituting straight

Gibson handrail wire in place of the curled-up stuff supplied in the kit, and a few slivers of plastic card. filler and lead, I haven't had to dip into

the spares box either. Nearly everything you need is included.

I am very ignorant of these earlier GWR classes myself. To some extent building a kit is part of the education process.

I like working with plastic as well as metal so it suits me.

Good value, too, compared to a convention kit. The current RM lists the City/Bulldog kit as being about 107 pounds, if memory serves, and for that you get everything, including motor, wheels, etc. I suspect you'd struggle to get a high-spec RTR tender loco for much less than that now. OK, there's the small matter that it has to be built as well, but we can't have everything.

I weighted up the boiler to the limit yesterday and it's running nicely. But, I think I'll swap the motor orientation around as it's a tad smoother in reverse than forward at the moment.

I can't remember how I mounted the buffers on the City (it was built 12 years ago) but the instructions do cover the buffer issue, so I think I'd have been aware of it. The snag is that, even though a Bird might have had a lower ride height than a City, and needed its buffers raised to the top of the beam to compensate, in model terms they're going to end up about the same due to the clearance issues with the front bogie. The bogie doesn't just need to be able to swivel without obstruction, but needs a bit of vertical clearance as well to allow for track dips. I found that my City was slipping in places until I packed up the body a bit more - not ideal but an unavoidable solution given my layout's undulations.

I knew an XTC reference would bring John B around to the Meeting Place.

Actually I really fancy a Barnum and wondered if one could be easily kitbashed from the Branchlines parts and other donor bits. It'd look great pulling my Big Express but I'd have to keep an eye on the tender, as I wouldn't want to have a Train Running Low on Soul Coal, obviously. If it didn't work, though, I'd have no choice but to smash it to pieces under a Rein of Blows (although I'd have to go next door as there are No Thugs in Our House), and Wake Up and forget about it as yet another Redbrick Dream.

7 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Very nice Al.

 

"Kingfisher" reminds me of an A4. I vote for:

 

Probably my favorite garden bird. I was in two minds about Kingfisher as I have a model of the so-named A4 already.

They do have different boilers but the Airfix one isn't super-accurate for a City either, I believe, being a bit short. I can live with that.

I was looking at the chassis etch for one of the "posh" etched kits for a Bird and although it looked absolutely superb, it wouldn't

have a hope in hell of getting around my curves!

I would very much like one of the curved frame Bulldogs as they had such evocative names - Avalon, Lyonesse etc.

"Jizz" comes from birdwatching, by the way - there's a whole sub-culture of attempts to explain the origin of the term!

It's derived from that fleeting impression of a bird which is nonetheless sufficient for the experienced birder to identify the avian in question, because

they get the "jizz" of the bird - some indefinable quality not strongly related to colour and markings. It's been said to derive from "GISS" meaning "General

impression of size and shape", which in term has at least tentatively been linked to WW2 aircraft identification charts!

Anyway, as you were.

This all looks fab, Dave.

For what it's worth I spent a bit of time looking at pictures of signal boxes in my Southern Infrastructure books to see if I could discern how the wires

terminate at the box, but other than a vague impression of them going in somewhere level with the guttering, I didn't have anything useful to add. The

wires are one of those things that don't register well in old photos, alas.

Very sorry to hear that, Tim. As Dave says, Paul was generous and kind in his comments to others and his presence here will be missed.  Best wishes to you at this difficult time.

You might be all right. There's not going to be much load on that repaired part, in normal use, so the joint should stand a good chance of holding. I've glued bits of pony truck and bogie back together in similar fashion over the years, without any problems. If all else fails, try reinforcing the join with a layer of thin plastic or metal sheet, and hope for the best!

Duly edited - thanks for the correction!

If you can't repair it, I reckon a Comet pony truck should be a feasible replacement. There's a degree of flexibility about where you solder the washer for the pivot, so you should be able to end up with the correct spacing between the axle and the rest of the chassis.

Wizard Models should be able to supply the relevant part.

One of my three has suffered the metal fatigue to one part of the chassis but I was able to get a spare casting from (I think) Peter's Spares.  I'm hoping the other two (which are older, or at least were bought earlier) will continue to be fine. I think they are still nice models, and like you was very glad when they appeared.

Hi Job

I have nearly completed the bus now, other than tidying up the paintwork and adding some varnish. I added five passengers; I didn't want the

bus company to look as if they were having too much success!

I don't have much reference material for buses and the internet pictures I turned up were either of the same kit, or of ML3s which looked to be from

a different batch, with different body designs. However, I found a good picture of a 1927 ML3 in my book of GWR road vehicles, and this looked very

close to the kit other than the roof not projecting fully forward over the engine.  Close enough! I used the photo to add some extra detail, including an opening top window

for the cab, and some lamp brackets on the front. I also went back and redid some of the glazing as I wasn't happy with all of it.

I owe the T9 an apology as I seem to remember the boiler is indeed a metal casting - but it did look a little matte and plasticky. 

I've found that this weathering  + burnishing treatment helps with Hornby's GWR green quite a bit, giving it some much-needed

depth and lustre.

That missing bus will haunt me, I really wish I knew what had become of it!

Thinking a bit more, if you're determined to have it at that end of the layout, perhaps a slightly smaller tower set back into a bricked recess in the embankment more or less where the loco is situated? It presumably wouldn't matter if the loco was stopped over the release points to be watered; after all there are cattle-docks positioned adjacent to double-slips and so on.

One thing that's always struck me with Sherton is the spaciousness of the headshunt end of the layout, which to me is one of those features that lifts it above the competition; there's a real feeling of locos trundling quietly into the distance before they come back around the loop. I do think the mock-up somewhat undermines this, as well as detracting from the excellently effective view of the abbey on the backscene, which works really well as it stands, and as you know gets a lot of positive comments at exhibitions. I think people really like that sense of nothing much going on at that end of the layout, which really helps emphasize the bucolic atmosphere of an isolated branch terminus.

I don't really have an alternative suggestion (so not very helpful really!) but I'd be wary of undoing the good work that's already there.

One of the traders who attends Railwells always has lead sheet in stock, so I buy a couple to tide me over until the next time.

Nice work, CK - you deserve a smoothly-running 14xx after all this.

Thanks chaps!

Mikkel: no changes to the stock, really, just more of the same. The only difference is that the branch will allow me to run some of my railcars and auto-trains, B-sets etc a bit more often than I do now.

Dave: thanks for digging that one out of the recesses of the blog!