dibateg

Hi Jeff - they are mostly brass, the slidebars and valve guides appear to be nickel-silver. It's remarkable how light coloured brass goes when it is polished up. Regards Tony

Thanks Ozzy - Thanks Duncan A holiday, and a return to some fitness, with corresponding dry weather has kept me outside on renovation work, but a 48 hour cold put me out of action, and the only thing I could do between sniffles was clean up castings. There are plenty of them for the cylinders and associated parts. So after a good few hours work I was ready to tack the first unit together:-

Thanks Ozzy - thats very helpful. Both my two loco's had AWS in the era I am modelling, I have to work out how to make all those clips for the conduit. Good spot on the cleats - I shall have to trawl the Irwell book again, to check for a typical arrangement. regards Tony

Thanks Ozzy - I think I saw you at a distance at Telford! The flat bars seem do show in some period photos ( page 13 in the Irwell book of 43050 being built ). On loco's that have the circular cover in place, the nut that would be in the middle don't seem very prominint, ( 43037 on Page 10, any form of securing is invisible! ) but maybe they are smaller than I am expecting... a case for some scale hardware once I get enough evidence. Yes - I don't supose it was much fun getting them out! Best Regards Tony

I can't claim originality! Its an idea from the O gauge Guild Gazette, Gladiator models and a mate. Basically double sided pcb, with the inner side soldered to the frames. A brass tube with a 1mm rod plunger passes through from the outside face of the pcb ( with appropriate insulation gaps ) to behind the wheels. a small phosphor bronze loop spring creates contact pressure. I'll post some pics when they are made up. Regards Tony

After hawking the loco's around Telford ( sorry I didn't catch up with you Jeff ), I've been pressing on. The platforms, sandboxes and upper steam pipes are now added. I had to back track, as I had fitted washout plugs and not mud holes to the boiler. So I sweated those out and replaced them with circular covers recovered from my Andrews 2P etches. I thinned them down a little after soldering on. From the photos, the retaining nut is either very small or non-existent. It looks like in BR days the covers were often retained, surprisingly, only occasionally being missing. So here is the first difference between the two locos, 43156 has two covers missing. I managed with a little gynaecology work to insert two mud hole castings next to the firebox. The Irwell book is an essential source of information, and the lightening holes are not etched out in the drag beam, and I didn't want it plain, so with a little estimation and careful drilling, and probably no - one will ever see this once they are finished - but I will be able to sleep at night:- And then as fitted:- And the real thing, although I doubt that part is original !:- I managed on Monday to clamber all over the real thing and get a whole load of detail shots, or am I just making more work for myself! So it is back to the chassis next, and I need to workout how I will fit my home made plunger pick ups.

Looking forward to seeing this Colin, it's not in my scale or interest! But I am enjoying the workmanship. I remember spotting these at Waterloo x years ago! Regards Tony

Thanks Jeff, let's hope we bump into each other at Telford. I'll try and remember to wear my dibateg badge. I wondered what that little icon at the top of the page with a highlighted number was. Thanks to everyone that has given a rating!

I decided to strip those lovely coaches in a previous post. they look tidy enough in the pics, but I think spraying in sunshine was a mistake, the paint dried too quickly and the surface was too rough to recover, so they have been dunked in cellulose thinners today.. a depressing and messy job. Ah well, always learning.. I was roughly analysing the time spent, the parts for this afternoons session had mostly been prepared yesterday evening, with the addition of the rear ends for the frames cutting out and preparation ( 1hr ), soldering - 2hrs, and cleaning up - 1.5 hrs at least, I am up to this stage:- Out of interest, here are my cleaning up tools, a ground off broken file and the emery sticks, that were obtained from a model car stand at the Bristol show last year - they are invaluable. Blame Dikitriki for my fanatical cleaning up regime!

You are always welcome Martyn - I hope we will meet up at Telford! Oh yes - go for the 8F mate!

Next job was to attach boiler and smokebox to the cab. Then clean up and put on the boiler bands and other detail. The boiler bands were put on in their entirety and then ground back where not required. I deviated from the instructions and made the pipe conduit up as a separate unit, as I was not confident I could solder the cover on neatly enough next to the boiler. It is a separate item in any case and is only attached at it's bolting on points. Flat headed pins pass through holes in the mounting frame into the boiler:- So both engines are now at this stage:-

Thanks Martyn! - mine are the larger ones, but the 6" should be quite adequate Mark... I have noted a few amendments to the instructions and deviated from them where it comes to adding the boiler fittings. Let me know if you are interested and I can pm them to you. Regards Tony

I spent yesterday rolling the boilers and shaping up the fireboxes. Even though I use a set of GW rollers, it's the one weak point in my constructional skills It just takes patience, careful work and no rushing. I did make a couple of tiny errors - not checking that the boiler edges were fully aligned before soldering up for one thing, but it was only fractional. I made the same mistake on the 8F, anyway that is fixed now. Apologies for the rough workshop shots taken during construction, the problem is I am taking them into the light.. The firebox wrapper is thin - but that allows it to be shape easily to fit the transition ring casting. The only way to do this is to solder from the outside to ensure it is fully seated. One I prepared earlier is in the background.

So yesterday between sleeps, I managed to finish the detailing on the front platform assemblies, on to the cab today I hope. Up to now it's all been sub assemblies. Now its just beginning to look like something significant:- I made a decision on the numbers, 43155 and 43156, both Colwick engines, both unlined, grimy stained and unglamorous! Both had AWS, so will need all that pesky extra piping...

So an update on where I am up to, the frames are assembled using slot and tab, so everything can be assembled before soldering. This view is post soldering with the tabs ground off:- Then the overlays are seam soldered on and cleaning up is next:- The whole front section is a sub assembly:- I am going through cycles of reading instructions, cutting out and cleaning up parts, assembly, soldering, wash, clean up. Then on to the next phase of construction. This is looking like the best kit I have ever done.

Great stuff Brian - I have a complete 1st class carraige seat - with luggage racks and lights, mirror waiting to be set up in my railway room.. So will you be adding the lights to the racks? !! Regards Tony

As far as I'm concerned MOK are the ultimate kits in 7mm scale. The 8F was an absolute pleasure to build, I've a feeling the Ivatt kit will surpass that, no white metal, excellent brass castings and slot and tab construction.

I loaded the pics seperately, hopefully they can be seen now!

@Nth Degree - The images might not be linked - I pasted a whole section in from somewhere else..

Thanks Peter, I could'nt get that to work for me - fingers to weak I guess! I forgot to post a pic of the 2P after painting. Still with a little finishing of required to the weathering:-

An early start after being unable to sleep allowed me to get the last jobs done on the Thompsons, so they are now ready for the paintshop: Generally, that was modifying the buffer springs, relocating the dynamoes, adding the roof strips and general tidying up. also this ex LMS full brake. A typically rainy Welsh summer day at home on call allowed me to get stuck in on my next project. Two MOK Ivatt Class 4s. Not bad, delivery Saturday and contruction beginning Sunday! I spent the evening running through the excellent instructions and examining prototype information in the Irwell book. Here's most of whats in the box:- And here we go! Start with the chassis:- And this far without using the soldering iron, the next step is to add the sanding valves :-

Yes - tried that! - thats what wrote off the the first set of sides, they warped all over the place...

I've not got any lomg enough Jeff - and I think they would put too much curve into the whole coach side as the distance between the rollers exceeds the depth of the tumblehome...

Back to 4mm scale for a day or so to make the signals for Geoff Taylors Penmaenpool. Here is the distinctive bracket signal that is opposite the hotel ( for those familiar with the location). With one of the 4 single posts alongside. I need to check for positioning, then add the cranks and tidy up. The ghastly weather has kept me inside and boosted the progress of several projects. I used to be able to manage forming tumblehomes in 4mm scale with no problem. 7mm scale is another story. I managed to write off a set of sides, as the brass is a heavier gauge in this scale and I found it was like trying to bend a spring! Jonathan Matthews came to the rescue with this technique:- The the sides are clamped between a piece of 2x1 and skirting board in the workmate. Starting with just a little projecting the side can then be bent over the curve in the skirting board . This is done in steps - 2-3mm projecting more each time. This results in an over formed tumblehome. This can then be brought back to the desired curve to match the etched end by pressing down with fingers and working along the side with the upper part of the side overhanging the edge of the workmate, so that only the tumblehome receives pressure. Then emery sticks of reducing grades are used to reduce the fold marks, ending up with a polish with wet & dry. Once finished, and polished with 1000 grade, the sides look a lot better. I won't say these are perfect, but at least I have found a way to do it and am refining my technique... I tend to build in batches, and I remembered that I had built a whole set of LMS bogies a few years ago, so decided to include the 50' LMS brake in this curent project. So work on detailing the sides will now take place whilst I look out on the snow covered garden..