brian daniels

Yes Jeff stopped there for tea in their MkI. Just as we left the public DMU drag went by with their steam loco.

Yes they have, but everyone still took pictures but it was a case of keep them to yourselves when the site was run by Tata but the new owners apparently don't mind.

Went on a brakevan tour round Scunthorpe Steel Works on Saturday and very nice it was too. Started off with a Janus diesel but swapped after a tea break for a Di8 from Norway. Amassing place and I can still smell the sulphur from the coke ovens, lovely!

Had a visit to Pete Watermans Leamington Spa layout yesterday. Now that's over I can get and paint the 47.

Sorry for a few gaps in replying here but this retirement lark is never ending, I'm never in! Just had a week in Switzerland hunting Re 6/6's amongst others. Class 27 I can't find any in my sprues I'm afraid. You could get some lost wax ones from JLTRT? I must do something about the weathering stuff for you but it's basically spray on and rub off with a paper towel.

The other tail light was basically a spare should the bulb blow in one. Always made me think that if units and light loco's have to have two reds then why not hauled stock, freight and passenger?

I know what you mean Dan but I don't know how to make them thinner in photoshop. Got the boiler exhaust from Laurie so the loco is just about done now.

Had a go at weathering a new Heljan 05. Also added a nameplate made for me by Pete Harvey. And if you are wondering who Tillypup is Should have painted the 05 black really.

Sorted out the lighting although it's not 100% tidy as I am still not sure if I will stick a chip in it just yet but it all works. I have used some old Heljan connectors to join the body to the chassis. A sleeper PCB split into two makes a good bus bar to solder wires etc to. I filed the little nipples off the LED's so they just about fit in the recess. I drilled a 3mm recess for the left LED to sit in so I did not have to damage the interior and a hole through for the right LED will be hid by the desk. All looks ok. Lights are a bit bright so might try going over the rear of the paper headcode with a black felt tip. I think a bigger resistor might help to dull them down a bit as this was only on about half speed. Tail light works as well. Modelled before two lights was mandatory.

The hours you have saved will go searching through this lot!

I have now drilled out a tail light each end and fitted a red lighthouse LED and drilled the fronts for a DJH headlight casting. Couplings are CPL but mounted on the JLTRT hook as that is the correct size to go in the bufferbeam slot. Also added the little clips on the bogie corners that used to support a sandbox. Although 47004 never had sandboxes the bogies are off a loco that did hence also the lack of return springs for the brake rigging where the sandbox would sit. Had a look in my spares box and found a casting nearly like the drain pipe that was not included in the kit.

Any idea when she arrives?

I am off to Devon next week so another bit of down time on this loco. This retirement lark is wearing me out, I'm never in! Whilst in Yorkshire I popped into the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway to see 47004. Looking a bit sad for it's self but doesn't look too bad but I think it should have been covered up. Looks like it's still got the Railmatch paint from 2000 when it was re-painted for the Old Oak open day.

After a nice break in Germany and Yorkshire I have been back at the 47. Found a way to fix the snowploughs by making a bracket out of some milled U channel I had and soldering the etched bracket to the top of them. They are fixed to the chassis with a small self tapper so can come off for painting. One slight problem though is that the handbrake gearbox is hitting one of the brackets as it turns. It might not matter on large radius curves but I think I will grind away the etch to get a bit more swing. All the bufferbeam detail now on Finally found where the small triangular casting goes by studying the instructions with a magnifying glass! Electrical conduit from the battery boxes made up from 1mm wire to represent a series parallel loco. Radio antenna is from my spares box is a DJH etch. Headcode made up on the computer.

Thanks for the link Pete but I see they are 48mm long and the headcode box is only 23mm long. Can you cut them down?

I have today glued the cabs and roof to the sides and fitted a few more castings. Now I am away for a couple of weeks so no more progress unfortunately but here is something for you to ponder over. Can you get something to illuminate the headcode. It needs to give a nice even light to illuminate the old fashioned style numbers. There is not much depth if you drill out the headcode box, I don't want to make up a box arrangement in-front of the secondman to hide a light if I can get away with it, it needs something like a thin strip light?

That is not a cooker it's the supplementary heating device. It needs a can to go on it and a sound chip with the rattling lid when it boils.

I wish, I don't think I can make the next couple of meetings. So much for being retired I still get things happening all at once.

The kit has a nice set of castings for the pipework that comes out of the battery boxes. But it's for a 47401-420 generator. As you can see in the pictures the pipes go from the battery up to the lower bodyside where as on the series built locos it only goes over the top of the batteries. So I will make the pipe runs from wire. Some pictures of how it's all coming on. The buffers are only pushed in at the moment. The handrails are supplied as lost wax castings but I prefer nickle silver wire so these will all be changed.

It is going together quite quickly I suppose. Glad you liked the TC, it looks even better being pushed round a layout!

Cab interiors can be put in after the model is painted. The glazing can be put in after painting too. I have painted this in all over cream as looking at my pictures I cannot see any evidence of a lower green band like these green locos had when built. Transfers on the rear bulkhead are from Railtec as are the dials. Before anyone tells me I know the dials are the wrong way round, they should be black with white increments but these don't really show up in this scale. But I stand to be corrected if you can show me otherwise. Unfortunately JLTRT did not supply the radio telephone handset but I had a couple from previous DJH kits. Had fun putting the windscreen wiper operating knob casting on! These closeups do show that a bit more touching up is in order with the paint brush.

I eventually found out it was easier to add the 4 inner brake blocks that attach to the rear of the sideframes first before you fit the sideframes to the end stretchers, checking that the wheels rotate as you go. I found that I had to file the blocks back a bit as they rubbed on the wheels. Then I added the outer brake blocks with the slack adjusters to the chassis. Once set then I attached the sideframes to the end stretchers whilst screwed into the inner bogie frame to hold it all square. The etched brass brake pull rods were then soldered on the outer brake hangers together with the safety strap. The handbrake linkages are glued into place. Airlines are made up of 5 castings that can be soldered together one at a time on the model. Just be careful with the iron and don't touch the resin! The airlines on 47004 are a bit unusual as the bogies are secondhand from an ex sandbox fitted 47. So the airlines go up and over the frames instead of along the face so as to clear the sandbox when it was there. Also of note is that the spring on the brake linkage on the corners of the sideframes were removed on these to make way for the sandbox but never put back so they are missing on these locos. The delrin cogs needed for these kits are 10 tooth ones. The one one the gearbox axle needs cutting back to fit. I fitted it with the teeth next to the gearbox and with the teeth next to the bearing on the leading axle.

The bodysides are attached by 3 screws each side that go into brass collets that have to be pressed into the holes in the bodysides.. The centre screws are longer as they have to pass through the water tanks. Unfortunately these are a larger diameter than the other two but all the brass collets were the same size in the kit. Thankfully I had some spares from previous kits!

First thing I did was to solder up the bogie pivots. To stop the 8BA nut getting slack inside I have since this picture was taken soldered them onto the inside face of the pivot. The bogies are made to take a Slaters motor/gearbox without any mods so as I just happened to have two in the draw that is what I am using. I am also using Roxey 3'9" wheels as I had these already as well. Sideframes pushed into position. A slight oversight is that the gear is in the way of the end stretcher so a slot has to be filed into it to clear the gear. As the Roxey Wheels are insulated on one side only I am using the bearings on one side as the pick ups. So to help soldering the wires I drilled and soldered a piece of 1mm wire on the bearings down one side, this also makes a good anchor for a croc clip to clean the wheels. A small recess will need filing into the frame to accommodate the 1mm wire on the bearings. To stop the middle bearings rotating and provide some springing I copied this idea from Cliff Williams. A small piece of tube is soldered onto the end of the bearing and a piece of phosphor bronze wire threaded through it and soldered to a brass plate that is screwed to the inside of the frames.

A week before Telford I took delivery of a JLTRT class 47 kit to do as 47004 in it's two tone green with ploughs. Once you open the box and tip all the foam packing out this is what you get.