Skinnylinny

I've just got hold of the last Esso one from my local model shop. Living in Edinburgh, one of the two model railway shops had completely sold out, the other had one left in the display cabinet so I snapped it up. Got it home and it seems to be missing the detailing pack. However, with many places having none left, I'm loath to take it back.

Looks interesting. I have found that the valve gear covers on the Hornby pug actually pop off with a little persuasion leaving two slidebars (no crosshead though - just a rivet between them to guide the connecting rod). They weren't glued on at all - simply lever the bottom of one of the covers down with a screwdriver or thumbnail.

And so begins another entry in the Peco/Branchlines Talyllyn saga. At the end of my last blog post I was struggling with the chassis. Having got the basic box and (finally!) got the axles to fit through the bearings, I put the kit aside as work and uni took over my life. A week off work sick, however, meant that I suddenly had rather more "free" time, so out came the kits and I thought I'd have another look. Right, so I've got the axles smoothly in one set of bearings, I think. Time to test that theory by fitting the wheels to that axle - Whoops! One of the crankpins snapped while attempting to fit the second wheel to the axle... And one of the *tiny* brass coupling rod bushes (I think that's the correct term?) got swallowed by the carpet monster. *sigh* At this point, rather than throw the whole thing out of the window, I decide to fire an email off to Branchlines to enquire about the availability of spare wheelsets and crankpin bushes. Seeing as I'm struggling with the chassis, it might be an idea to start on something a little simpler, right? Out comes the body kit... Apart from the slightly strange feeling of *everything* being overscale (I'm used to working in 009, rather than 0-16.5), the kit seems to go together relatively well. It's my first whitemetal kit, too, so I was expecting at least some flash and imperfect fits, but fortunately there were no K's style horrors here. Over the course of an evening, the main superstructure came together (regularly being checked against the chassis to ensure it would fit) and I've now reached a point where the kit is starting to look vaguely locomotive-shaped. At this point I'm still undecided on whether or not to actually build the cab. I know that on the prototype, my options are no cab and no trailing pony wheels (for two years of the loco's life) or cab and pony wheels, but it's my loco and I like the cabless look. I shall have to think about it. Meanwhile, here are some posed pictures (with the chassis parts balanced on coins, and a 009 loco to give an idea of scale). Oh, and no, that dome's not been fixed on yet...

Sadly, as always seems to be the case, the camera's gone walkabouts and is nowhere to be seen, and my phone camera is totally useless when it comes to taking photos of tiny shiny pieces of metal... I'll do my best to get the photo up when I can.

Thanks, Nick. I guess I'm a little confused as to why the instructions say to fit the shorter bearings to the front axle, then the long ones to the rear axle (which has the gearbox) - would it not be easier to swap them over? Thank you for the advice about the reamer - it looks like I now have an excuse to order from Eileen's! Anything else you'd suggest I get while I'm there? Turned brass seems like a very hard material to be working by hand...

So, having sat down and opened the box, I checked to make sure all the parts were there. Easy enough in the Peco kit - the exploded diagram and parts list corresponded to all those big grey lumps of metal. Having a basic knowledge of steam locos, I had no trouble here. The Branchlines chassis kit was rather more fun. The parts list in the instructions included such joys as "Etched nickel silver fret of most parts (1)". In fairness, everything else is listed fairly clearly and has been packed into small resealable bags in an organised way, such as wheels and axles and crankpins and associated nuts being in one bag. I should really have taken a picture of the various bits in the kit before I started, but having got up the courage to start, I dived in. Starting out, I managed to get the main frames off the etch, remove the etched representations of the springs (as mentioned in the instructions, if I wanted a full footplate on the body) and fold it into something vaguely box-shaped. Out came the soldering iron, away went the swear box, and construction commenced. So far, I have a basic brass box with some spacers. Not too shabby, thinks I. Best to check it's square, though, so I popped the included bearings into the etched holes in the chassis, reached for an axle and... oh. The axle doesn't fit through the bearing. Hum. Not that the chassis isn't square, it won't even go through the first one. I decided to try the axle through just the chassis, and no surprise, it's a fairly sloppy fit. Not even at the end of step 3 of 23 and I've hit my first hurdle. The axles are 1/8" steel, and the driving wheels are described as "specially commissioned, black plated, steel tyred, wheels of the correct pattern" which is all well and good, but doesn't tell me much about why the 1/8" axles won't fit through the 1/8" bearings. Incidentally, there are two types of bearings included (both for use with the 1/8" axles) - described as "long brass "top hat" bearings" and "short brass "straw-hat" bearings". The axles will happily pass through the long bearings, but not the short ones. Could anyone offer ideas or advice on why this might be, and how I could go about remedying this? Incidentally, while I'm asking, apparently the long bearings will need shortening at a later stage and I have no idea how to go about this - the instructions assume you'll know how! So it looks like I'm signing off for tonight. I'll post a picture showing where I've got to in the morning - the light here is no good for photography sadly.

Hi, all. After several years learning the basics (building plastic scenery kits, then moving on to plastic wagons etc...) I've decided I want to actually start on building a loco kit. I know that a lot of people would recommend going for a simple kit first, maybe a wagon or something static, but I reckon I've got the basics of soldering down, and after years of building Kitmaster/Airfix/Dapol loco kits wanted to build something that might eventually move by itself. I came up with a couple of criteria for choosing the kit: MUST be a complete kit - I simply don't have the knowledge to be able to buy wheels, motor and gearbox seperately yet! I wouldn't know where to start looking for them. MUST be "simple" - no tender locos, 4 coupled wheels maximum, preferably no outside cylinders but definitely no Walschaerts valve gear! MUST run on 16.5mm gauge track - My plank layout has 00 and 009 track on it, but I have a Hornby rolling road, and ideally I don't want to be chasing a loco around a layout trying to see tight spots when it's moving. IDEALLY a whitemetal top half/body - My soldering's ok, but I'd like the added weight, and I'm more comfortable working with a solid material than a sheet, after years of just working with plastic. PREFERABLY steam outline, but early/industrial diesel might work. I had a look around, and considered a couple of kits. The first ones to catch my eye were the DJH starter kits - a rather cute Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 and a BR class 02 diesel. Very nice, I thought, especially when someone brought the steam loco, built up, to the club. But... and there had to be a but... the price was a bit of a stumbling block. Being used to RTR prices, I baulked somewhat at paying £125 for a diesel shunter or £135 for the Barclay, especially given that they still needed assembling! On a student budget, these are not items I can afford to make a mess of. Next, I saw the Branchlines chassis kits, designed to fit the Dapol bodies I know and love... At least I ought to be able to make a decent bash at the top half, even if the bottom never worked out... But lack of weight looked like it might be a problem. Finally, eBay threw me a curveball I wasn't expecting, and I somehow ended up the owner of a Peco Talyllyn body kit and the "complete" Branchlines chassis kit to go with it. At £90 it wasn't cheap, and it didn't exactly fit my layout plans but it claimed to have everything in it (except solder, glue, tools and paint) and I'd heard good things about Branchlines kits, ran on the right gauge track, has plenty of heft (there's a lot of whitemetal in that body kit!) and is 4-coupled and steam outline. Besides, at 7mm scale rather than 4mm, the parts ought to be bigger and less fiddly, right? The parcel arrived at my work, and my colleague was intrigued enough to ask to open it up and have a look. I'd just had my lunch break so couldn't really look myself, but told him to go ahead. A quick scan of the instructions, a look at the parts and he packed it all up carefully and walked away, muttering something about calling the nice men in the white coats for me. When I finally got a chance to look, I panicked and figured he might be right. The instructions are terrifying. A few days later, I bit the bullet, got out various tools and bits, and sat down at the table...