34theletterbetweenB&D

Let's try the explanation this way. It doesn't matter about the drive type to the driven axle, pistons or electric motor. Consider the real Schools locomotive. All the piston drive is to one axle. The trailing axle is driven solely by the side rods at 120 degree crank angle. And it works, (as it does on other three cylinder locos). Drive the crank axle by electric motor on a test plant, and the unpowered axle will still be turned as it was under steam power. If this works on the prototype, it must work in model form. The difficulty as the model becomes smaller scale is that greater precision in parts and assembly are required as the crank angle moves away from 90 degrees. I suspect the required increae in precision will be proportional to the square of the cosine of the deviation from the 90 degree setting; but would welcome any thoughts, as angular stuff was never my strong point. Ah well, when P4 was shiny and new and all the go, it didn't matter if you could see it or not: it must be right! I have a V2 mech that is going to be fiddled around with. Once I have summer daylight I will see if I am up to it: think my Hamblings wheelpress with 120 degree drilling is kicking around somewhere.

Well, they cannot be better than the fullsize originals, because those were the prototypes; but they do look rather like photos of the prototypes.

The drive style matters not a jot, the prototype has to roll in works and coast in service with power off, the wheels pushing all the rods around; and with the majority of multicylinder UK express types having been three cylinder machines there's all the demonstration required that the engineer was correct. Now, the 90 degree setting is far more tolerant of small errors, and therefore a lot simpler to employ in small scale model form. But 120 degree crank settings are possible in 4mm models, surely I am not the only person to have seen examples running? I have even - once - built a successful one myself. Much more demanding than 90 degree settings, not going there again!

The Hornby Brush 2 mech parts are easily adapted and cheap thanks to mazak rotted specimens. Easy to build a replacement brass baseplate with pivot points for the gear towers, and just glue on the motor. Just need a spare plastic bogie frame to dress one of the gear towers.

Three pairs of wires with plugs on the board in the tender. Lift the board out to work more easily on it (only held down by tape, plenty of wire slack) and push home the little plug at the rear of the board, which is from the loco pick ups. The red/black wire pair plugged in at the front of the board are the tender pick ups: you can trace the board paths to the rear socket, indicating that this must be the loco pick-up connection.

By chance I managed to attend the Warley at which the Danes were exhibiting the first test shots of the O2. While dribbling copiously over this delight I did try and explain to them that the part of this island facing Denmark across the water had all the best stuff in model railway subjects, and there really wouldn't be much competition if they would just stick to that. Clearly I wasn't quite persuasive enough. Perhaps they couldn't take a profusely dribbling man seriously...

Is there an available simulator that really 'does it' for steam driving? I tried one years ago and it wasn't nearly well enough featured. For example you couldn't just apply the tender hand brake while running to 'build up' the fire and superheater temperature for maximum power output on the bank you were approaching. Attempts to skilfully fill the boiler to the top of the glass, and then mortgage the boiler while on the gradient were defeated too, the auto fireman was keeping the injector on to perfectly match consumption at all times. Very frustrating, took all the fun out of it.

Alternative opinion. It would have been truly impressive if the Riddles team had standardised on existing designs for those roles, instead of increasing diversity by designing and building yet more classes of steam loco, requiring their own unique stocks of spares and all else to support them. That way the diversity reduction starts from 448 instead of 460, just shy of 3% organisational efficiency gain.

Hornby have done for you there, if I am any judge. Their fine J50 model to be offered in 'service loco' form as no 14. Ideal for scenes at The Plant, moving gleaming locos in fresh out of the paint shop condition into the yard ready for a test run ahead of return to work.

Depends on the volume and width required to accomodate those 'gubbins' I should think; the convenient lack of any underboiler quite an asset of the A4 in this regard. It'll definitely go inside Stanier's upturned bathtub of course. And the W1 in both its forms... All a little premature, first see if the market gives the initial offering a big enough hurrah to indicate potential for range expansion.

Not necessarily. it needs the construction inspecting. I have sawn very large chunks off Bach chassis castings with great success, the similarly tank filling lumps on the 56xx for example, to enable it to power a small 0-6-0 tender loco. If it can be done, then a BR std 3 mechanism with the right wheel diameter that will fit within the class 3 boiler for height is available. Only the body to build... Yes, but. If going at it this way the 4MT motor is neatly in the firebox, and the firebox to cab relationship is much the same on std 3 and std 4. Changing the wheelsets to the 5'3" of the std 3 will drop the mech. height a little too. Graft the slimmer std 3 boiler and smokebox section onto the std 4 firebox, and a good lookee-likee should result. General ramble. The 'parts mine' that present RTR offers is now very large. It is strange to me that as the choice in what is available RTR has dramatically increased, so the 'what can I carve out of this?' orientation within this hobby seems to have been severely reduced. There's better tools and materials to support the bashing process nowadays too. What's inhibiting people from having a go? If anyone looks at the GBL thread in 'Other Magazines', you will see it's great fun.

The woodies get dealt with by the peregrines and other raptors (cleared up a wing and foot from Mrs Tenderharty's garden this very morning) but it was the grey-tree-rat-with-good-PR that got the washing up liquid mediated death. (It was well below zero, and I suspect hypothermia once it lost the insulation of its fur coat; they are really very small indeed underneath all that fuzz.)

You don't need a shotgun. Tesco's cheapest washing up liquid does them in. I know this because one got itself stuck in a caged 'squirrel proof' peanut feeder. I happened to be doing a little washing up and thought the soapy water will help it slither out, so I put some in the plant mister used on the indoor orchids; and sprayed it on, and it worked. Out it slithered, fell on the ground, walked about ten yards toward the woods and kicked the bucket. (Probably a good job I use rubber gloves when doing the odd manual washing up job doncha think?) Red kite disposals inc. did the clear up within half an hour which quite impressed me.

Let's see what the Highway Code has to say about that. "The Highway Code is essential reading for everyone. It's rules apply to all road users..." Ignorance isn't a defence; rather it is immediate evidence of a scoff-law attitude.

There's no rush, and thanks on my part for such a detailed reply. Let me be a heretic here. I suspect that whether 'bob-on' accurate or not, there will be considerable demand for the O2(s) most fully 'GN' in character. We are very short of RTR locos that carry the visible hallmarks of a Doncaster GN pedigree, although this is an improving situation now we have the C1 and J50 as good models.

I understand that it has been seriously proposed that on the rear of motorway signs at all access points - everywhere an incorrect direction attempt might be made in other words - to actually explicitly sign 'Wrong Way, stop immediately on hard shoulder'. The objection to this idea is that it would almost certainly be ineffective, so much other roadsign information having already to be ignored to get to the point of actually seeing the 'wrong way' sign, indicating that the driver ain't really observing anything. My conclusion too: one wrong way job on the motorway, lifetime deprivation of driving licence on grounds of demonstrated incapability.

Robins are generally pretty high on the 'cunning' list. Where they disappear from view may be some distance from where the nest site is. It's female blackbirds who seem to have no sense at all, nesting in plain view with nothing to prevent cats, weasels and corvids breaking up the happy home. Which usually occurs about half an hour after a clutch of three or more eggs has been laid.

That's worth knowing. So if I want a GN style cab on an O2/1, that option is only ever going to be on LNER or GN liveried examples

Took a lovely walk in the woodland behind our garden at first light, to locate where the several very audible woodpeckers were drumming, and also where the 'crash' in the wee small hours had occurred. The latter was quite entertaining, nothng like in the direction the wife and I had suspected. When I finally got to it, Brian the woodwarden was already there sizing up the clear up job. Sadly the Rainbows' fairy glade is now garnished with a lot of tree.

... super efficiently ripping the buds off the soft fruit bushes. Must put the top net back on the fruit cage now that there is no risk of snow, perhaps.

One simple aspect to test. The tender top comes off very easily, just the two underside screws to remove. There are three plugs into the board, make sure they are all 'home' and also lift out and replace the DCC socket blanking plug I would suggest. The board is only secured with double sided tape and there is ample slack in the wiring, so it is easiest to extract it from its location and work on it 'free floating'.

Small mod to the tender underframe tooling. The moulded boss under the tender into which the rear securing screw for the loco to tender drawbar locates. Were this moulding extended rearwards and a second hole put in set for scale spacing that would 'ice the cake' for me. Good as the O2 model looks, as with any tender loco it looks that bit better when loco and tender are at scale separation. Eager anticipation of the O2/1 and O2/2 following this very satisfactory first release.

Drew back the study curtains this morning and there was a charm of goldfinches with members zipping about the garden from a group I would estimate as about ten sitting in the shrubs growing through the top of the pergola. Twenty years in our present home to see this. A bare three hundred yards away, just half an hour will spot you a goldfinch most days. But in our garden only the very occasional solitary specimen. Strange how tightly they confine themselves, as the whiole area is uniformly one time old woodland margin onto ploughland with houses and gardens put up circa 1960, most of the trees and hedgelines maintained.

That's what my intended O2/1 purchase is hopefully going to metamorphose into, despite the small resulting inaccuracies. Swapping the crank axle wheelset to no3 leaving the gear on no2 axle, carving of footplating, cuboid form steam pipe casings, and letting in a modified cylinder block from B1 or 8F and a motion parts assemblage from same, should achieve a reasonable facsimile.

Keep fighting the good fight people, best to all with their health. My very favourite style. Because firstly it is easy to make swift and readily apparent improvements if 'parachuted in' to initiate restoration of order; and secondly it's usually easy to encourage those responsible to walk of their own accord, rather than grind through the LTWTL process of disciplinaries etc..