Sandy Harper

This is the test build of a new kit from Walsworth Models (www.walsworthmodelservices.co.uk) A Highland Railway Dia.25 Jones 6 wheel goods brake van, or 'road van' as the Highland called them. It is presently available in 7mm scale but a 4mm version is in the pipeline It is all Nickle Silver construction with brass lost wax castings for the roof detail and the spring/axlebox units. Being a 6 wheeler it has an internal bearing chassis of which two of the axles are built like a bogie. It has a degree of compensation and a spring to self centre the bogie. When Mr Drummond took over at Lochgorm he considered them to be too light at around 11 tons and replaced them with 15ton 4 wheel vehicles. They were not popular with the guards so he reverted to 6 wheeled vans of a different design.

And a happy New Year to you to. I will continue to strive to build a decent model one day!!!! Watch this space!! Best wishes Sandy

Fowler 2-6-2T update: Work on the cassis has stalled as I need to scratch build the Motion bracket and I am awaiting a couple of small castings. So I have started on the upper works. As this kit originally came from the same stable as the Stanier, I have come across the same issue in respect of the cab floor. The designer has not allowed for the wheels to protrude into the cab so I had to cut away most of the floor to give the wheels clearance and I will need to cover the resultant 'holes' with some form of wheel splasher. I have also noted, since taking the photographs, that the platform at the rear of the bunker seems overly long to me. I need to check that out. Regards Sandy

NIce paint jobs there Peter. Sandy

Well done Ken. . Full marks for perseverance. Sandy

Ooops! Think it is only secured with a screw though. Sandy

Only the glazing to complete now. Regards Sandy

Brake shoes, hangers and cross bars fitted along with single slide bar and piston guide. The cross head, as it was cast,needed quite a bit of remodelling to make it work but a new one will be cast that will fit correctly. Sandy

You can never have enough brake vans! Sandy

Ok, with the Highland Brake van out of the way and progress on the Neilson stalled due to a fundamental design malfunction, it's back to the Fowler. I added the spring wires to the front and middle axle bearings and prepared the main drivers. The front two have had their 12BA crank pins replaced with 10BA and the Slaters top hat bearings tapped with a 10BA thread plus two extra for the middle drivers to attach the return crank. All was assembled along with the connecting rods and the result was a nice free running chassis with no binding. Woopee! Next I wanted to start on the cylinders but apart from two sloping slots in the chassis frames all you get on the etch is a pair of etches for the front and rear of the cylinders. Now, with outside valve gear I like to have the cylinder block, and the attached valve rods, to be removable to assist with the building and later, the painting. So a bit of lateral thinking was needed here to achieve this. I had already spotted that the original kit designer had included a half etch line on the inside of the chassis sides, in between the locations for the front and rear cylinder plates, as if it was meant for a chassis spacer but, there was nothing in the kit, so maybe he forgot about it? So first job was to make a spacer to fit from some scrap etch and drill a hole in the centre. I then soldered the spacer into the gap between the frames and into the half etched lines. (But not to the cylinder plates!) Next I needed another spacer, this time to join the front and rear cylinders plates together so that they could be lifted out of the frames as one unit. This started off as another piece of scrap etch, marked out for the dimension from the outside edges of the cylinders units, a central hole drilled to match the chassis spacer, and two 90 degree bends to fit over the cylinder plates and to be soldered.(They would be adjusted later to get the required rake) Having marked where I wanted the bends in the cylinder spacer I first scribed them with a cutter blade and then opened them out with a triangular file. Finishing off with a metal bender to get a nice sharp 90 degree bend . Finally the bottom, fixed, chassis spacer was tapped 8BA and the cylinder spacer hole opened out to take the bolt. A tweak with a set of flat nosed pliers to set the angle of the cylinder front and rear plates ensured a neat fit in the chassis slots at the correct angle. When I come to fitting the valve gear and the reversing block etc the motion bracket will become part of the cylinder unit with another scratch built item!! Regards Sandy

As most of you Highland Railway Modellers will know, photographs of the Dia 25, Jones, 6 wheel goods brake van are as rare as hens teeth. So, taken from the information available, this is what it looked like! This is a 7mm test etch to see if it went together, and it did, mostly! A few tweaks are needed, especially in the wheel brake area but otherwise quite pleased with the result. The masters for the spring and axle box castings have gone to the caster and should be back in a week or so. The wheels are temporary, awaiting the correct spoked wheels from Slaters. The roof and cupola are attached with screws so glazing can be fitted after painting. And before you ask, yes , it will be produced in 4mm scale! Regards Sandy

On with the Highland Railway, Dia 25, 6 Wheel, Goods Brake Van. On Thursday I cut out the etches to build the spring units and the axleboxes to make casting masters. Sorry no photos as there was a bit of a hurry up with these so that they could be sent of to the caster. They were in the post on Friday afternoon. I try and fit as much detail as I can whilst the sides and ends are still in the 'flat'. On this kit there is quite an amount of beading to be attached to the body over the top of the planking. When designing a kit it is desired to keep down the amount of space between etched components and not waste the material by having large areas that are surplus to requirements. So the designer will always try and fill all the available space! In this photo you can see that the beading for the side of the van, the thin outline of N/S, is filled with lots of other small components and they need to be carefully cut out before it is attached to the van side. The requirements are, a box to hold the bits that are removed, various tools to cut the tabs (snips, scissors, sharp blade etc.) and a steady hand. It is obviously very important that you don't accidently bend the beading etch or any of the other delicate components whilst doing this. So take your time. I start of with a pair of sharp tinmans shears and remove what I can with them first, cutting as close to the beading as I can. When I can no longer use the shears I use a pair of curved scissors and as a last resort I would use a sharp blade but I am not keen on that method as it is too easy to distort the etch. This is what you should end up with! Next is the really delicate bit, removing what is left of the tabs and the cusp. For this I use a fine swiss file. I think it is a NO4 cut. The outside edges are not too bad as you can usually trap them in the vice and gently remove the cusp and tabs with the file or one of these card files that swmbo uses on her nails. The inside edges can also be done the same way but there are times when the beading is too fine and you can't get it to hold in the vice. I then hold the etch on to a Variflex block which has enough friction to stop the piece moving and gently file the edge. I attach the beading with a Resistance Soldering Iron and solder cream otherwise, gently tin the rear of the beading using the minimum amount of heat you can get away with and sweat it on to the side of the van with plenty of flux. Avoid the use of too much heat otherwise there is the danger of buckling the beading. Next I attached the door etches before assembling the van into its basic box. The cupola is a fold up etch that fits between the sides. The door beading is still to be added. Sandy

I found that the trick is to cut them into smaller manageable pieces. Sandy

Thanks Peter but you may need to wait a bit as it is likely to get shunted to the back of the shed for a while. The tool is a Nut Spinner from Markits. The screw-in tips are marked in BA 14 to 6, and their Metric equivalents.. Very useful. He intends to add a Slaters wheel screw Allan key in the .future Regards Sandy

Update. The Neilson has been put aside awaiting castings to arrive. A start has been made on a Fowler 2-6-2T to keep my hands busy. The frames have been erected, along with the rods and valve gear but, today I have been informed, that the etches for the Highland 6 wheeled Goods Brake van Dia 25 (the older version with the greenhouse cupola on top and not the later one with the ski slope appendages either end to prevent the Guard banging his head!!!) are arriving this afternoon and I need to make an immediate start on that to build up the etches for the springs etc, to make casting masters, that then need to be sent away to the caster so that they will be back ASAP. Now, if you have been concentrating, that will be three models on the workbench at the same time! A couple of very quick photos of the Fowler so far. The rear axle will be fixed, for the motor /gearbox. The centre axle has about .5mm movement both up and down from the centre line and the front axle .5mm movement in the down direction only. All four top hat bearings will have a length of sprung wire with one end soldered to the side of the chassis a short distance from it and the other end resting on the bearings with the wire bent at 90 degrees and inserted into holes drilled in the top of the bearings to prevent rotation but, with enough downward pressure, to ensure that the wheels remain in contact with the track at all times. Sandy

I don't get on with HMRS transfers or their lining sheets. Too much extraneous glue that is almost impossible to get rid off. Have a look at Fox waterslide transfer lining. There is a nack to putting it on but it is very forgiving and can be adjusted very easily before it dries. The photos below are all done with Fox Waterslide. Good luck Sandy

I got a bit 'side tracked' (groan!) from the Neilson into building another Petrol Inspection Saloon which is now just about ready for painting when the weather improves in the next couple of days. The issue I had with the Neilson was the fit of the motion bracket which is quite a complicated shape. With no drawings to refer to, it was a case of guess work. The shape, that we came up with on the original etch, turned out to be way off the mark so it was now a case of measuring the model and trying to get a shape that looked right and fitted. I started with a paper cut out to get a rough idea of the shape then moved on to a plastic one which was made oversize and paired down to get the fit as close as possible. It had to butt up against the boiler under the tank, avoid the tank, attach to the frames, attach to the ends of the slidebars, and avoid the throw of the rods! Easy peasy!!! The photograph shows a couple of duds before I got a shape I was happy with. And finally a photograph of the bracket loosely placed on one side of the loco. The overlong slidebars have also been cut down and reprofiled. Sandy

Thanks for the pictures Mike but, I am convinced that that is a different engine. True it has a box tank but the chimney looks to be a 'Modern' adornment. The loco appears to have a footplate (not seen on the original engines) and the cylinders look nothing like the original. The cab side sheets are also a different shape and the smokebox door seems to have a more modern side hinge. Intriguing to say the least. The depression on the top of the tank is obvious and explains why we could not locate a water filler lid on the other photos. We are amending the drawings to include a separate top to the tank. The cross head feed water pump appears only to have existed on the early , original engines, and my version is the rebuild (by the I&AJRly at Lochgorm) where the valve gear was changed and the pump removed plus the addition of a new Stroudley chimney. The photo of the cab/firebox of your model is of great help as that was taxing us a bit as to how it all went together. Thanks again. Sandy

Can you please post a copy of the picture you are referring to or a link so I can find it? Many thanks Sandy

Not rude, inside the tank! Sandy

The castings for the cylinders, slidebars and cross heads arrived a couple of days ago. Unfortunately we found that our design for the motion support bracket was way off the mark and needs to be redrawn. If fact the experience of building this test etch has thrown up a lot of anomalies and the drawing is being suitably amended as they are discovered. It is not unexpected as we are trying to produce a kit from 4 grainy photographs, three line drawings, of dodgy provenance, and a sketch by Ian Rice. I don't think we have done too bad for a first attempt! Sandy

Dale, are you using flexi track for your curves? Flexitrack, if curved to a tight radius, (Less than 6ft) the gauge between the rails has a tendency to reduce. On straight track there is normally plenty of 'slop' between the rail gauge and wheels but that can quickly disappear on tight curves. I recommend that you build a 'test plank' with a length of track curved to the tightest radius on your layout. That will give you a good indication of how much side play you need. A long wheel base 0-6-0 can need a surprisingly amount of side play to get round. Good luck Sandy

Of course they are Duh! Back to my Box tank. The cylinder castings arrived today so on with the motion. Sandy

Jim, I'm sure you have seen PAD's 2-6-4 which he has posted pics of before painting. The smokebox on his model does sit quite a way below the footplate. Sandy

THanks for that. I did manage to obtain one from somewhere on the net and it proved quite useful in determining some key dimensions. Sandy