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Hi, in an unexpected burst of speed, I've built the main bogie structure. The inner frames are rather slight as they have to fit invisibly behind the outside frames proper which will be cosmetic. I used the same hefty 0.60mm thick brass and am rather getting to like it; in smaller pieces it is no trouble to solder. The motor and gearbox are from the excellent Tower Models Shogun range at a ratio of 18:1. It's quiet, easy to fit and comically tall. I was a little worried that the weight of brass whirling around at the top might un-balance things with such a short wheelbase bogie, but I wanted to keep the fly-wheel so I set everything at 90 degrees up-right with a brass "claw" on one of the spacers. And it works! Very smooth running and no discernable wobble... I'm going to compensate the unpowered axle. I was thinking of using delrin chain to power both axles but there's very little room to do so. As it's a shunting engine, things should be OK. We'll see.

Unusually I've not rushed ahead with the soldering iron and used some blu-tack instead to hold everything together. The reason being that I need to work out the size and shape of the floor cut-outs to accomodate the motor and bogie fixings. Also I haven't yet checked which end is which!

Right, got to the point where I can start soldering the sides and ends together without regretting it too much later on when I have to do some time consuming hacking because I've forgotten something important and everything else is now in the way...or is it just me? I've added the end doors, with their rivets, drilled for handrails and various pipes and soldered on the recessed window frames ("droplights" aren't they called? It's a very descriptive term, I've positioned one slightly dropped). Next the fun bit!

I've made a bit of progress soldering the strapping to the sides of the loco, mostly located between all the lines of rivets which is rather helpful. Pete Harvey generously sent me some waste fret scrap which is just the right dimensions. Many thanks Pete! The high-tech soldering clamp is half a clothes peg screwed to my conti-board bench hook. I.m going to represent the various sized rivets and bolt heads on the straps using a number of different methods when everything else is finished. I've made up the ends in the same way as the sides. The rivet detail is different on each end so I've labelled them to avoid confusion; must remember to the label the sides too. I'm itching to solder everything together but I must drill various holes in the ends for piping and build up the inset window frames before I do. My apologies for the rather rubbish pictures. I'll try harder next time.

Thanks for the very kind offers of help I've had with this build. RMWEB is a great modelling resource and a beacon of good will in the sometimes murky world of on-line blogs. Cheers. So far, I've soldered a strengthening layer of brass to the inside surface of the sides. I used quite thin nickel-silver (0.2mm) for the outer sides because I wanted the rivet detail to be crisp and those windows that are near flush to be near flush. The brass is from a huge sheet, 0.6mm thick, which I bought cheap years ago and haven't found a use for up 'til now. I've made cut-outs in it to accomodate the glazing and the frames of the non-flush windows. The frame of the grill is also provided in the same way and the small circular vents are backed by it too. Photo thanks to Luton O Gauge group

Does anyone know of a supplier of flat etched grills that would suit this? I'd rather not have to knit one from fuse wire. Photo thanks to Luton O Gauge group

There are some interesting little circular vents on both sides and I wanted to represent the slightly domed appearance of the covers. Photo thanks to Luton O Gauge group I drilled holes in the appropriate places and soldered in some thin walled tubing to provide the rim. After filing flat on the rear surface I soldered on strips of very thin brass strip, normally used for 7mm boiler bands. And then carefully pressed in the curved shape from the rear using a scriber.

I've mananged to make some head-way with the Ford Diesel Shunter. The outer sides are cut from 0.25mm nickel and rivetted in my excellent GW Models machine. There are a great many rivets! I've worked out their spacings from the many photos that I have and the drawing to 7mm that I prepared. I mark the horizontal and vertical lines to make sure I keep everything square and the callibrated knobs on the rivetter make the spacing a pleasant task. Still takes a while though.

Cheers Ken, they've gone straight on to my shopping list! Simon

Hi Ken, that's a beautiful model of a lovely old loco. Did you modify the axle ends to take screws for the fly-cranks? Cheers Simon

Hi, my last post was over a year ago, so it's time for a bit of an update. One big distraction was moving to Ludlow, very nice, and getting a room with a work-bench instead of the kitchen table, even nicer. The other distraction involved this 4mm scratch-build project. And at the moment I'm collaborating with Luton 0 Gauge group to build this rather interesting diesel shunter, used by Ford motors at Dagenham. There is a preserved example and I've been given loads of photos and dimensions of it and started the drawings. The idea is that I will scratch-build the body and other club members will produce detail castings. I'm looking forward to working with other people on a project and will keep you posted on its progress! Cheers Simon

Those photos are beautiful Stewart, thankyou for sharing them. She's a fantastic looking engine. I wasn't aware that she had steamed at Bressingham. Do you know what mechanical condition she's in now? Cheers Simon

As usual, excellent information and kind offers from everyone, thankyou all very much! So, can anyone tell me the current where-abouts of the preserved loco, it's all a bit vaque on the internet? Cheers Simon

Hi, can anyone point me in the direction of any drawings of the LTSR 4-4-2 "Tilbury Tank" ? Regards Simon

As the weather in my painting studio, AKA "the garden", hasn't been good recently, this is as far as I've got with Earl Cawdor's paintwork. Still some bits missing too! And I've been distracted by another project, which I'll post up soon...

Here's what the Earl looked like in grey primer...

That's looking lovely! I too have kebab skewers as an indispensable aid to railway modelling. Have you tried the shorter version as helpfully supplied with roll-mop herrings? Marvellous! Regards Simon

Thankyou Peter, I very much like the creative problem solving side of scratch-building! Some more arty shots (that's my excuse for the distortion effects...) The small steps on the curved frame are filed down spares (a fantastic time saver from fiddly soldering) from my MOK Armstrong kit. The splasher beading is from some lovely square section brass wire from Eileen's after being wafted through the cooker gas ring and the square socket lamp brackets (irons?) come from Laurie Griffin. I scratch-built the loco steps from nickel strip. MOK are looking to supply various castings from their kits as spares, which is a real boon to all of us Edwardian GWR 7mm modellers out there!

I made up the small strengthening strips between the splashers by rubbing an impression of the footplate edge into a piece of card and then cutting out a template for the nickel-silver, before fretting out and soldering.

Hi, after much rushing around I've at last got some time to post up a bit of progress with my scratch-built "Earl Cawdor". I'd got as far as the splashers, which I wanted to shape to the sides of the boiler and firebox. I built them up with parallel tops soldered to the sides and then filed them, very gently, by eye and then offered them up to the loco. I use permenant felt-tip to help me to see where stuff needs to come off. It takes a lot of time and it's very satisfying when it works! They where then attached to the boiler etc., which I'd attached to the frames and smokebox saddle...

Hi there, sorry about lack of updates. Normal service will be resumed as soon as my outdoor Shakespeare is over. Looking forward to some sunny weather for the next few weeks...or slightly less rain.

Ah, thankyou. I'll let you know how things go! Simon

Hi, thanks for everyone's interest; it's the same for me with white spirit, I can't bare the smell and it does my eyes in rotten! So far I haven't used it for tapping but I hope to have a go with a bit of tufnall soon and see what it might do to that. Cheers Simon

Hello! Pressures of work of late have interfered with the modelling, curses, however here is some progress! The Armstrong has aquired some springing and a beautiful dome, fettled to fit (over some hours) using the time honoured method of wet and dry wrapped around the boiler. And "Earl Cawdor" has had the smoke-box saddle fettled and fitted and dome and chimney balanced up top... And I bought a fantastic bottle of "artists low odour white spirit" from an art shop on Charing Cross Road for tapping and dieing without the pong! Cheers Simon

I've built up the smokebox saddle from nickel-silver and brass, using brass for the curved sides as they had to be quite thick and brass tends to be easier to shape to these complex curves. The boiler, firebox and smoke box all bolt together. I ran a long piece of brass tubing through the boiler and its formers with a sawn-off 8BA bolt soldered in at the back and allowing it to turn with a slot for a screw-driver at the front. That's so I didn't have to fiddle about poking a screw driver inside the boiler. The photos show just how enormous the boiler was! When everything's bolted in place with the splashers on, I'll solder it all up solid.