bertiedog

Many thanks for the kind offer, I have to admit that I do know a bit about Puffers, having built several now, and having a scratch built R/c one that was an entry for the Model Engineering Exhibition and the Sandown, and Brighton model shows. I'll PM the email to you as any extra shots are worthwhile, although I have never modelled one of the War Dept VIC types. Photos of the early "real" puffers are quite rare, I have the books etc, and some privately sourced stuff, and a DVD copy of "The Maggie"!! I have also sat through modellers talking about "The Vital Spark" and how accurate a model is, biting my tongue, before reminding them gently that it is all fictional from the pen of Neil Munro, writing as Hugh Foulis!. The current "Vital Spark" is a Vic dressed up as an earlier type. With Puffers it's all the extra bits and pieces that make the model, this new one is not quite right on a lot of points, but with additions and cover ups more than passes muster. I am trying to source a good material for the tarpaulins! They are needed as the wooden covers are a bit simplified, with no way to secure or remove the planks, and no taper blocks for holding the tarp covers in place. The old model used old Victorian red and green dyed satin cotton handkerchiefs, with a doped finish! Stephen.

It would cost more than the whole Clyde Puffer!!..... I might be tempted to make one, but it's to the same standard as the rest of the Puffer and will get a tarpaulin fitted to partially cover the plywood sheet look. The Puffer bow shape annoys me a bit, they got the shape of the hull correct except for the bow which should be vertical on typical puffer hulls. Stephen.

Relco operation depends not on an ultra high voltage, in fact about 40 VAC is the lowest that track cleaning circuits will work with, but Relco does generate higher spikes. My own designed circuits are limited to about 100 VAC, I do not know the upper limit for a Relco, offhand, but I seem to remember testing on a scope with spikes of about 200 VAC peak at very, very low ampage. The air is ionised in the gap, just like in a spark plug in a car, and voltage applied causes a small current to flow, which being AC breaks the insulation properties of the air further and reconnects the current flow. The unit does nothing if the contact is OK, and stops as soon as contact is restored, in milli or micro seconds. The new US HF "cleaning" units work with voltage limitation, and fast clamping of the signal, and do not interfere with the Digital signal to the chip, and should not cause any breakdown in the chip or the board. Note very carefully the bad use of the word cleaning, as I mentioned before the last thing these units do is clean the track!!! They just maintain a circuit, that's all, they do not remove, destroy, vaporise, or teleport the dirt away!!!! The track and wheels must be clean to start with, and the Relco and equivalents maintain contact if the dirt gets in the way, that's all. Stephen.

Shot of the more re-built 1:43rd O scale Clyde Puffer Vital Spark, with extra detailing and rigging, reduced vents, and re-built bridge, with wheel and interior, now painted in more correct colours. Pulleys etc have been added, as well as davit and winch for the anchor lifting. The head looks better now, less like an Aussie dunny! Lettering still to be sourced and final details like the funnel braces to go back on. I am not using it on the Hastings layout, but will be using it on a small O gauge layout later this year. Stephen

Shows layout for main drive, wire in the track groove, with cord to pulleys, one powered by geared motor, scale and size arrangement to suit your layout. With the gearhead motors the drive for rotation is very straightforward, simply replace the main bearing with the motor, and the jib drive is as simple as a pulley drum on the motor shaft in the cabin, mounted again direct on the geared motor shaft, nothing complex at all. Pick motor gearboxes with at least 200:1 or more, even over 1000:1 if available. Some surplus DC motors may be found at shows with these gearboxes fitted. Any DCC decoder could handle the control, or use mechanical switching. Stephen.

I did one of these many years ago, in the 1970's for a display at the London MRC Easter Exhibition. The drive for the whole thing moving involved using a straight quayside track, with one side of the track, (they were double rail like a tram track), having a hidden piano wire laying in the track groove, with the wire end bent up to engage the whole crane. The wire was led along the track groove to one end and was connected via cord to a pulley, (several turns to get grip), and a hanging weight, with the pulley controlled by a slow motion DC gear-head motor. The other end was taken to another pulley at the other end, with a weight to tension the return motion. (The weights were 1 lb bag of sand!). It moved very slowly, at about a foot a minute at minimum. The rotation was done by another gear-head motor, and a further one added for the jib. the control was by 2 rail pick-up from the track, with a RC tone decoder, so the best modern equivalent would be DCC , with two decoders, and a DC drive to the main movement (or another DCC decoder). The track can be basically two rail, you will need metal wheels etc and pickups. The whole crane will need a lot of ballast weight, and a bit of strengthening all round. The weight return system was chosen to eliminate needing tension springs, which a continuous loop of cord drive would need. I found the cord slipped to much with spring and induced drag, which the weights eliminated. Supplier of the motors, (with the highest ratios gearboxes) try: Precision drives , no connection except customer. Gears can be scrap, or inexpensive plastic gears for modellers, several sources. Stephen.

As I was browsing Ebay, I spotted this very nice Clyde Puffer ship model, a wooden Far eastern model, in O scale size, at ??9.95!!! About 16 inch long, quite detailed, well finished, but worth a spot of re-working and detailing up. the hull has the right lines, albeit a bit shallower in draught than most real hulls. The bridge roof was far too large and needed cutting down, and the windows are a bit small as well, but left for the moment. The rudder is now on the right way up!, and the fluffy cotton cord replaced with woven black silk. Most of the brass eyelets are replaced with small cast ones, and some cast details added like a door for the engineer to get into the engine house!... coalholes, ladders, steering gear cover plates etc. A few items have been moved to the correct positions, and further work is planned like block and pulleys and proper rigging. The rear handrails could also be worth replacing with a scale brass one with two rails, the current one is single wire in split pins, neat but too low. The rowing boat has been stripped of paint, and will be stained and varnished. Very nicely detailed with paddles etc inside. The crew with be sourced, and some lettering for The Vital Spark, Port of Glasgow, as the model Puffer is pretty near the type that Hugh Foulis wrote about in the famous Para Handy Stories. Nothing has been re-painted as yet except the roof of the bridge, which was sanded to size and filled, then stained black. The unpainted white metal parts are visible in the shots, bases for the vents, buckets, eyelets, and lots of detail castings. So a quayside 7mm shunting layout will be needed?!!!! Stephen

Maybe to not confuse the average user, perhaps I have over simplified too much in the replies, but........ Hardly one of a kind as I sold units based on these circuits some 35 years or more ago, and the design was very, very, closely looked into, I am a qualified electrical engineer, and proper research and design was always done. BEMF suppression does not affect the HF signal, different frequencies, and back EMF does not clean, or dirty, or influence the track tarnish in anyway, it's too low a level to break tarnish, which starts at about 25/30 volts. Our model motors do not generate such large signals, the BEMF suppression is to ease the reading of the digital signals, and help prevent spurious pulses being interpreted by a DCC decoder. Please note, track tarnish, this is all Relco or equivalent, will remove, NOT DIRT, OIL, OR MESS OF ANY TYPE. This is the most deeply miss-understood aspect of these cleaners, they do not clean track!!!!!!!!!! They keep cleaned wheels cleaner, with a satin matt finish usually, that stays clean with no tarnish or oxide build up. If all you run is nickelchromed wheeled Chinese models, then Relco would not have much to do, chrome does not tarnish in the same way. but most modellers have a mixture of makes and wheel finshes and most respond to the HF cleaning, as does most nickel silver track. Steel track is different, the HF signal appears to induce some corrosion as the device is used, due to the iron oxide flaking more on removal, and steel track can become a bit rough in use with these devices in the very long term. I did say very clearly the separate cleaning car offered would be safer, but this does not imply the direct use is unsafe, it is all relative. When a DC model train proceeds down the track, although it seems to proceed smoothly, without lose of contact, or any visible effect, try putting a scope on the circuit and see what is happening, it is a constantly dynamic situation, with the current going up and down rhythmically with the motor rotation, and minute, and constant spikes and jumps and jitters in current occurring, plus BEMF effects, sending the voltage up and down from the applied voltage. Even in this "perfect" situation the Relco does actually fire up, a few cycles, occasionally, an effect that can only be observed with a digital tracking scope, and is completely invisible to the naked eye, so to speak..micro breaks occur all the time and may last long enough to trigger the Relco. I have also checked the exact situation on DCC, both a new home made unit and an NMRA approved design, and the digital signal is so much larger, than these effects, it does seem to suppress the Relco firing up, but it is there intermittently if you look hard enough. It comes on during the spaces in the DCC signal, if there is a poor contact at that point, it is operatng at the signal speed, a dynamic situation, again observable only on a digital scope, I have an older PC devoted to digital grab display, and recording voltage and current tracking. the trace shows no operation at zero cross point of the signal, obviously no current is flowing then, but the HF comes in during the rise and especially the fall of the digital pulses, but again only if the signal fails to get through, all of this is happening so fast it is unobservable except on digital grab. A lot of the time Relco does nothing, due to the good contact, but every so often it does operate, and as practical observation of the wheels show it is keeping the wheels cleaner than without. None of this is a comment on others comments, just notes to outline the use and help outline the operation and possible pitfalls of these devices. My personal position is that DCC has a poor record on the issue of track cleaning and running quality, if the signal had been raised to 40 volts, and the pulses applied, the cleaning action would be automatic, and tarnish would be broken naturally, but the German designers at Lenz, when they took the early Zero One design and other development work, adopted the lower voltages, due to chip limitations, and the computer practices of using low voltage as far as possible, and we have to live with a simplified Digital Control System based on commercial priorities rather than electronic excellence. The US designers in the 1960's, who pioneered the use of what was to become DCC, made the use of a high standing AC voltage a cornerstone of the idea, with track tarnish cleaning in mind, but it all got forgotten when the industry got around to being able to make the Digital ideas practical. Hope the notes make it clearer, the waters are already muddied about Relco, let alone adding DCC to it!!! Stephen.

I should add that practical examination of wheels showed that even when several trams ran at once there was still cleaning, and I made up a DC test train with lighting to see what actually happened with more conventional set-ups, and even with the load of the lamps on it, the Relco operated whenever the motor lost contact, as there is a sudden change of load which triggers the HF in most situations. This would be especially true with today's low ampage LED lights, they draw low current , the motor high and the contact loss to the motor triggers the signal, which would be damped by the lighting somewhat. What happens with dozens of locos on a large DCC layout is pretty obvious, nothing at all!! So triggering may well occur in practice on DCC even with several locos, I do not know how the US designers have allowed for this in the commercial unit. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and with multiple DC tram set-ups cleaning still occurred, the usual proof was clean blackened brass wheels losing the blacking on the contact area. The Trams used Jackson brass wheels, and without the Relco wore to brass., but with Relco developed a matt sheen on the tyre, always clean. The same applied to 00 wheels like brass Hamblings, whick were blacked, and wore in the same characteristic way that Relco induces, a matt sheen on the surface with extended running. Stephen.

This was always a little understood bit of the operation of Relco, if the loco was in contact and other items were in parallel, say lit coaches, then the device will not fire up, and with a DCC system with more than one running at a time the same must occur. My own set-up rarely runs two at once, so the unit does work, but a big layout will damp the operation, and in theory the unit never functions at all. If it all is working, then Relco simply sits there doing absolutely nothing at all, all the time, simple as that!!!! But the logic of this seems at first glance very perverse, if it does nothing then why have it? but it's the point of the device to make things run, and if running, then the track is OK, and the device is out of action. The same applies to DCC, if it is running, then all is well. The only way to guarantee with DCC some cleaning action, would be to run one loco and nothing else for a cleaning session on a large layout, or use the towed cleaner B unit. This is why the makers in the US offer the vehicle based unit, a better idea with DCC and DC all round, but it is US outline and big, too big for an 00 layout. As I said before,on a big well used layout tarnish is not a problem, just awipe over will keep clean, but on small end to end, or small scale like N , it can pay to use the devices. I would never bother on O gauge, the weight guarantees contact. My own reason for researching these and using them is for trams with overhead contact and it works very well here, as it does with any overhead system on DC. it would work with DCC, but with multiple feds may well be masked of and never come to life. My own choice with DCC and over head, would be a feed to the over head being isolated from the track power anyway, perhaps even using DC feed to the track for coach lighting, with a shared return for the separate signals. And by the way, the HF devices do not add spikes of hundreds of volts, about 25vac to 30vac HF is applied during the operation of a single cycle, that's the RMS value approx., of the spike, it can exceed that voltage for a while on each cycle, but it will be a low average. It is not a zap of high voltage! Stephen.

Well... whilst I was designing the modifications to both the Relco and a home made version of HF cleaners, I contacted a leading supplier in Germany, who I cannot name, and they confirmed that the system is safe with suitable precautions. However as usual with the continental makers, they refer to the original idea of DCC have a sufficient standing voltage to over come dirt on the track, and extra cleaning would be not needed. The arguement is that the mark space digital signals will get through to the loco, and give control, but the current required to propel the loco has to arrive at the loco, and the tarnish etc., may reduce the power available, and the HF unit may help maintain contact. They do chips that overcome this in a different way, but confirmed that the DCC signal is not affected by the HF one, as long as strictly current limited, and of short duration. The silicon chips do not deteriorate or age with high voltages, the main trouble possible with a HF unit is the use of modern lead free high tin solder, which can cause a condition known as "whiskers", minute crystals of metal that could short tracks out on PC boards of the decoders. The HF cleaner signal could jump the gaps more easily, but the input stage of the chips are designed to damp such voltages, and the chips are protected with Zener inputs, there to stop static and handling voltages. I was also told that makers had made tests with the chips in the States and all worked with the HF systems very well. They were testing it to see what would happen. I believe that the NMRA have an application for conformance for these US commercial devices and are looking in to it. As I said before I cannot really publish the circuits, they might or might not work with all chips and I cannot be responsible for mass destruction of the UK MR communities chips!! However the US supplier is able to offer the same option commercially, and I can see the way the unit operates. There are still those around who refuse to believe the Relco worked at all, and do not understand the operational details for DC use , let alone DCC. I have heard everything from destruction of a complete model to one bursting into flames due to the devices, frankly impossible. I have heard descriptions of the action as using ultra high static voltage to Zap the dirt at over 2000 vac......and one man blamed the demise of his Hi-Fi on one of them. All I can say is that they work, as does the equivalent circuits, understandable operation, and yes, DCC will work with reservations, but if you want peace of mind do not use them...... Horses for courses...... Stephen.

Click on picture for full image Click on picture for full image Cleaned up body, with all the handrails removed, filed off. ready now for lots of brass parts to detail the body, starting with the handrails and lifting rings, handles for the fillers, and both the chimney and safety valve. The windows will be on brass plates, and a new brass roof as well for the cab. The remains of the stamped GWR show, but will be left to be filled after the undercoat is on, sanding it flat and filling at that stage, as the marks are very shallow, too shallow to take filler now. Stephen

You can remove the pinion, with the motor removed, with a pinion puller or a blade and vice, and just put it on in reverse and you have got another 50 years life on it!! This is typical of the wear that could affect them. Pushing it along will help as well, as long as an unworn part is in contact. Stephen.

With reference to an earlier posting, it is suggested that using these new type devices might not blow the decoders, but might blow the actual DCC controller. I did not immediately answer this, as it needed a bit of very careful consideration, but on such reflection I cannot see any way that any conventional DCC output stage would be affected by the signal being present across the feeds. The US unit has as a separate power supply as well, and all that will be there in the output stage would be spurious AC voltages, filtered by the output stages damping factor, which cannot return into the DCC stages in any way. The output stages resist EMF spikes and back EMF etc., easily. The signal is degraded a bit, but the error correction handles this along with all the other jitters and junk on the rail feed to the DCC decoders. But it is all up to the user, DCC and Relco do not mix unless modified. so if you are still uncertain, then just use plain DCC. after all the use of DCC is meant to help get the signal through the dirt to the loco. Relco works to remove tarnish, it does not clean messy, oily or dirty track, it still needs a wipe over to clean oil and mess, but once clean it will keep locos running., but on a heavily used DCC layout this would occur naturally anyway. Stephen.

The old Relco( and I assume the Gaugemaster) is safe with DCC if limiting resistors, and modifications are added, it is the key to the new commercial units that the current is limited by a very fast acting current regulator, and if working, ( the HF unit, not the Chip), the chips will be quite safe at these currents, despite the high voltage. These are not really new, the principle on DCC has been known for some time, but I never mentioned it in previous postings, as it might cause great confusion and lead to an un-modified unit being used with DCC. Now a confession, I have used Relco for about two + years with DCC, no problems at all, and clean track, but it is modified to reduce the output and has a limiting circuit added internally, ( FET discrete components, not a chip regulator, making a high speed current limiter). It's operation was studied on a scope to set operational speed above the frequency of the Relco and similar signals. I don't wish to post the circuits openly, it might lead to claims about blown chips all over the place, as the use and assembly is so outside my control, so it would be best to use the new US based design, fully tested with all NMRA compliant DCC products, (I believe that they have applied for NMRA compliance as well). I fully know Relco is still very contentious after all these years, I have used them since day one, and commercially, and at home, and have a 100% satisfactory performance from them, no blown coreless motors, no blown PC track, no blown commutators, no failures of power supplies, and now no troubles with DCC, as long as the modifications are done. I cannot recommend the particular maker from direct experience , but it seems that they are able to provide the Relco operation with DCC without the troubles, as expected by myself and other users who have always had good operation from them in the past. The unit is not exactly cheap, but all the indicators are it works. Stephen.

As requested, photos of the original, ( three rail ) version, the original motor, which is 5 pole, and the gearbox, with the contrate and spur gear drive to the front axle. The chassis is cast, with drop in wheels sets, that could be sprung if you wanted, and the three rail pick-up on the base plate. The buffers retained the chassis to the body, the screwed shanks bear on tabs on the chassis to retain it. The very odd shaped safety valve cover, why so bad? Impressed numbers on the plates, badly aligned, as were the GWR letters, gilding was added as they were struck with the die stamp. Casters marks., J.V.M. Birmingham. View of underside, lots of space, and poor painting! Stephen.

Some later Gaiety castings have a matching area at the back to take the Tri-ang chassis mounting lugs, added as an extra by JVM, I presume to Castle Arts request. The buffers were solid, not screwed on like the earlier ones. Some other model railway makers of the 1950's period supplied Tri-ang conversions, Hamblings for one, with a stamped out brass bracket. Stewart Reidpath did a lead cast chassis conversion, to take a Romford motor, and Hamblings wheels, in OO. By the time this was made, Stewart Reidpath were part of Hamblings company. The number of cast bodies made far outstrips the number of RTR versions. A lot remained unsold at closure of Castle Arts model railway production, and one Ebay advert even sells the undecorated bodies at the moment! I think all production ceased about 1958 or thereabouts, so 50 years old. Stephen.

Good running with a Gaiety usually indicated the chassis had been changed to the same Vintage Tri-ang 060, often the early solid wheeled variety. The producer of the GWR Pannier 5700 locomotive was Castle Arts Products, I believe hailing from Nottingham, who sold novelty items and toys, and developed an interest in Model Railways. They did a 062 as well, and it is rumoured other locos from a different caster. They also did some rolling stock, but this was never widely sold. The body was cast by JVM of Birmingham, who were car parts makers and still in business making precision castings, or at least till recently. They also made Hamblings parts, like the wheel press and the track gauge, cast in Mazak, a zinc alloy. Unlike Graham Farish the zinc is relatively soft, not the hard type that G/F used. the design was quite good for the day, early 1950's , and the motor was a five pole of substantial size , with strong magnets and decent over all outline. I think the main armature was bought in from Taycol. The troubles began with the motor bearings, very crude and wore badly, also the chassis was far too sophisticated for its own good. The chassis was die-cast, but the sides were too thin for bearings and they wore rapidly. The design however was sound in outline, and the chassis could be converted to full springing as it stood, leaving just the driven axle at the front un-sprung. The drive is via spur gears, and a contrate gear driven by a pinion on the motor shaft. The design is good, and the gears OK, but the chassis was not well fitted and the gears could come out of mesh. Easily fixed by the owner, especially if the chassis was changed to the Tri-ang. Castle Arts realised the chassis had problems and marketed the body as a "Kit" to fit the Tri-ang. It seems the body was modified several times in production over about 8 years or so. The last ones were altered to make the fit of the Tri-ang chassis easier. The original chassis was held in placed by the ends on the threaded shafts of the buffers, they were simply unscrewed to remove the body. Three rail versions were offered and were the most popular, as Hornby had no GWR loco in production. The Gaiety all had cast chromed wheels, quite reasonable for the time. The safety valve is the only really bad feature, quite what made them model it so badly is very odd, as the rest is accurate within the design limits. The often quoted problem of the square windows is down to making the moulds cheaper, and of course later 5700 Panniers had square windows! the interior of the body is "open plan" plenty of space available. The original motor was so big it occupied the cab, and fitting a smaller one is a priority to allow full cab detail to be added with crew etc. I often got customers having the old locos modified to newer standards, Romford or Hamblings wheels, and one was an early 1967 conversion to P4, as this one will be, as I do not run OO at home these days. The "Duck" , the Rev Audry's loco is based on the Gaiety 060, he had one with a replacement chassis. The finish of the paint was not wonderful, no undercoat and poorly impressed GWR lettering and stamped numbers on the cab side. However the castings are sound, and with a few brass additons will detail it to a reasonable standard, with better running and no trace of FE parts in it !! I expect the Motor will be German, a coreless type, but using the gears as made by Gaiety, with the exception that the contrate may be changed to an Ultrascale version in plastic to be quieter, we shall see later one. Gibson, Markits , and Ultrascale do the correct wheels, but I have un-machined Hamblings 18mm which will suit, turned to P4 profile. The front wheel remains un-sprung, but the rear pairs can be sprung easily, same as the original could be. Some pictures to follow soon, Stephen

Not that much wrong with the rear bunker shape a touch of filing will not cure. I have seen worst on other commercial models. Stephen.

Start of the work, the awful cast safety valve removed in the miller, and also the chimney reduced to use only the base, with a new turned top half. The edges and the cab roof have been smoothed over, ready for a brand new brass roof, and the cab windows to be corrected to round type to match the cab style. The steps can be used, with brass steps added to the cast backs. Next job is to remove all the cast one handrails etc., this will have to be done with needle files by hand, then the plates and GWR impressed letters filled and sanded smooth. Stephen

It's not so far out as seems, the pannier top is quite all right for dimensions, fully plated but no raised bump, but who cares*, the dome is usable, the saddle is easily corrected with some brass plate, and being all metal is likely to still be here and running in another 50 years, long after plastic commercial FE are long rotted away. As soon as all the fine details are added all round it is actually quite an accurate model, and heavy to boot. The cab roof is near correct, (on one of them), it just needs a new rounded brass plate top added with details, and the bunker is reasonable, the real ones varied anyway. * Wolverhampton didn't, as I have a shot of a 5700 with a flat tank top. They varied a lot. Stephen. Ohh and I have done this before, many times! during the 1970's onwards, why bother to scratch build a body when the remains of an older one can be revived?

?© Phil Scott, GNU distribution licensed Photo from Wikipedia. The type of GWR 5700 Pannier to provide the extra details for the model, the cast Gaiety body has no top feed, round brass opening windows are needed, and decent square based buffers are needed to be made. I have some un-machined 18mm Hamblings wheels, that can be turned to full P4 standards, so will be using them on the build . The chassis will be a brass copy of the original cast chassis , with full springing, and compensaton, with the original drive gears, and a Coreless Motor instead of the original motor. There is a lot of space for that smaller motor, so adding a flywheel as well. it's all well hidden as there are no open sides under the panniers, the splashers being solid to the footplate, and backed by a solid wall, which hide the original motor. The spur gear to the front axle will be retained, I will pierce it out to allow light through the spokes. I may replace the primary contrate gear with an Ultrascale one in plastic, as it may be quieter, it needs experiment to see what is smoother and quieter.

**IMPORTANT** If you have followed this link from an eBay listing please be aware that RMweb or the writer of this post has no connection with the ebay listing concerned. This topic is for information purposes only and is not provided as a reference source for commercial sales Gaiety Panniers for re-building. Two models on the bench, one 2 rail in poor condition for a scale re-build, and a three rail version that works fine, but needs attention to the paint etc., These were made in the early 1950's, by Castle Arts of Nottingham, a die-cast all metal model body, and chassis, Mazak body and main chassis parts, steel axles, and a five pole motor of substantial size with a gearbox and spur drive to the front axle. The models were mainly three rail, but were also supplied as two rail with all wheels insulated, and body only to fit the Tri-ang 060 chassis of the period. The original wheels were for 00 track Hornby style, and are chrome plated Mazak, and quite good quality. The model is of a 5700 GWR Pannier, generally accurate , but with mainly cast on details, and a very odd shaped safety valve cover, which can be changed on the scale version. the other fittings are about right in size, dome , etc. Numbers and lettering were impressed by hand in to the soft zinc alloy, and gilded over, unfortunately very crudely in most cases. The castings are very good, made by a Birmingham company who specialised in Car parts. Generally they are sound, no cracking or lead contamination, which other makes of the time often suffered from. The soon to be P4 scale wheeled version is being stripped of all the cast on details, handrails etc., and the plates. replacements with be made for all the smaller details before a re-paint. Close examination shows that Castle Arts made several versions, the cabs are different width, with different roof edges, the painted one is narrower, and details all over the body are different. The stripped one has guard lamp mountings at the front, and other extra detail, and better tank fillers. The Cab windows are wrong, they should be round, but were made square as the later type 5700's to make the die cast moulding easier. The Safety Valve bonnet is just as bad though, and will be removed and replaced with a bronze one., along with tidying up the chimney and top. The body dimensions are generally right, and the Locomotive is going to be fitted with P4 wheels, Gibson's, and full scale brake gear, with a brass chassis and new coupling rods. The original gear box, with contrate gears,and spur gear drive, is being retained, but with a modern coreless DC motor and flywheel added to the original fittings. The motor will just allow cab fittings to be done, something the original could not, as the magnet was in the cab. Performance of the original was never much good, the 5 pole motor was a good design, but made with very poor bearings indeed, and ran noisily at best.

I have simply got to add this... you have really tried this with T......? Stephen

A small tip for the novice track electricians, if there is a option, it is to use an old fashioned meter with a needle, they are still made, and give a better go/no go indication at a glance for testing joints. Digital display is easy for those used to them, but there is time lag in most, and they get confusing, and need study to get the continuity reading when you are new to it. I keep older needle meters for quick " at a glance" work, and digital for better accuracy when needed. Hope this helps, Stephen.