Obadiah

Tony. Surely it would be easier to hinge the entire shed! Sorry the Goon Show side of my couldn't resist. Ian.

Good choice, I for one hate detailing 8 shoe underframes, all those safety loops and such like. However who I wonder remembers the K's offering from the 1960's, three tons of solid whitemetal, but it's all we had Harry!

Indeed I had much the same thoughts, and by and large eliminated the circuit board by exchanging tenders or by-passing the boards completely. The fault invariably remained with the motor, excepting one S15 circuit board which did produce the 'magic smoke'. So far I have had motor faults in ten locomotives across six different classes from three manufacturers. I have never experienced this in 009 or 0 gauges though!

I have two of these excellent D class locomotives, however, after running quite satisfactorily, they have now both started to exhibit the dreaded motor problems that bedevil other manufactures locomotives. They run OK for a period, then start randomly slowing down, speeding up, slowing to a dead crawl, then back to normal again. I run standard DC with a Morley controller, have no HF track cleaners, no feed back, or similar. Has anyone else experienced similar problems? I am getting a little frustrated with having to play the electric motor version of Russian Roulette when buying models these days.

In answer as to how I managed to get the two ends to run in harmony, the answer is I am afraid, just good luck, both mechanisms ran identically out of the box, and again after one had the whole motor and gearbox reversed and lowered. this later task was not for the faint hearted. I had contemplated having to connect both ends electrically, but in the event this was not required. Also there is perilously little clearance above the wheelsets and the central frame unit. The boiler unit has been ballasted to give a nice smooth operation. Incidentally the slide bars and their supports where also extensively modified, another 'fun' job!

On the Beyer Garret theme, this is one is built some years ago from a Kitmaster kit, plus two Bachmann 'Crab' chassis, heavily modified, especially the front unit, given that the motor and gear assembly was reversed and lowered to fit in the tank. Of course having completed the thing, Hatton's announced . . . . The engine romps away with a 100 mineral wagon train, though it fills the layout!

Now to go with one's new W&U tramcars, you really need a brake vehicle, so here is my humble effort in that direction. Modelled after the vehicles on the Tollesbury line, the coach is a much modified Hatton's Genesis six wheel brake, riding on a Chivers LMS six wheel chassis kit 'slammed to the ground' on 9mm Lomac wheels. Add new buffer beams and bench seating and there you have it. Whilst not 100% GER, it does complete the ensemble. Just awaiting a J67/8/9 to arrive.

Thanks for the nice photographs Tony. The L class is a DJH kit much modified, the boiler was shortened at the firebox end, and lowered with respect to the footplate, and then the whole engine lowered, with much grazing of the whitemetal inside the splashers, with Rizzla clearances! Various fittings from Markits range to complete. The tender has the coal bed modified from the D1/E1 arrangement, new correct length raves on the tender, and Markits fittings. The Merchant is a Hornby 21c7 model, with much revised front end, and getting the compound curves in the new deflectors was 'testing' shall we say. 35009 was the last MN by some margin to retain the flat cab. The birdcage corridor composite is a Roxey kit, pretty much as sold, but utilizing a roof from a Ration bogie van B kit. The Raodrailers are the old Scalecraft/Peco kits, built a zillion years ago, and recently given a major overhaul, and much additional detailing to the underframes. They use Roco wheelsets, as they are heavy and have large tires, thus avoiding the tendency to derail when using scale wheels. The brakevans are a trio of the more unusual SR types. The nearest is a much modified Hornby LMS van, and is a model of the RCH wartime van they hoped would become a standard, (it didn't) one was supplied to each company, the SR van survived into the 1960's. The other grey one is a 15T Pillbox van using a Cambrian Models chassis and a Bachmann body. The Cambrian van body has a few issues, but, makes a good starter for the fitted van seen on the Roadrailer train. This is an ex WD fully fitted van, and is one of two vans used on the Shropshire and Montgomery Railway, and sold to BR on the closure of that line in 1960. Thus the number M360328, i.e. purchased second hand by BR post 1948. This has the left over Bachmann chassis and modified Cambrian body, plus brake cylinders of the platform.

I was told in the 1960's by generally reliable person, who had worked at Stratford Works in the 1950's, that the ultimate fate of the W&U Tramcar and the LTSR coach apparently hinged around an unfortunate incident at Temple Mills whilst being moved, and involved the hump and the retarders, leading the the vehicles being damaged beyond reasonable repair. I have wondered since if either, or both coaches had Maunsell wheelsets, which might account for them being damaged on the retarders.

Hurrah, so I can finally bin the old MTK kit that has been haunting, and I mean haunting, the back of the cupboard for many years! As a Booster aside, several of the SR booster sets were installed at Strawberry Hill depot, supplemented later by a couple of the class 71 sets. They were used to power up the Shepperton branch as as means of isolating it from the main SR power supply. This was required when various new and potentially exciting new electric units and traction packages were being tested, and prevented stray currents and any other unwanted interference escaping, especially to the signalling circuits. However the downside of the set up was that when the boosters powered up, the noise was truly awful, prompting many complaints, and the then in joke was that they had received complaints from the residents of the adjacent Shacklegate Lane Cemetery! Sound proofed enclosures were next . . . ! I expect that they are still there?

Tony. Hartland Point I do have some clips, unfortunately they are too big to go on here, I don't do youtube or such like, so I sent to you by other means! Ian.

Tony, thank you for your kind words about my H1. Having read the books featuring 2039 Hartland Point and the Leader itself, I thought that it might, just, be possible to recreate the beastie with working sleeve valve gear, in other words a challenge! The Bachmann H1 basically had the front end sawn off. Ahead of the cylinders on the chassis, and behind the cylinders on the footplate. New chassis members and frame stretchers where cuts from brass, and added to the chassis, the new cylinders and their sleeves are formed from various brass and plastic tubes. The valve gear drive is taken from the rear of the crossheads, to a pair of levers, one for each side, situated above the rear bogie wheel, from there rods transmit the drive through the frame stretchers to the front, where another pair of levers, reverse the drive to the sleeves themselves, the levers and their brackets are formed from multiple layers of scrap brass etch. The rotation of the sleeves is achieved by pins inserted in the cylinder walls engaging with angled slots giving the sleeves, about 25 degrees of rotation. The steam passages, lubricators and other stuff is all fabricated from plasticard, and tubing, the plumber's nightmare of pipework is brass wire and old fashioned fuse wire. Nameplates are by Fox, and are now available from Fox for anyone else to have a go. The 2 Nol is a cheap second-hand Hornby 2 Bil plus numerous bits of Hornby's 58' rebuilt coaches all cobbled together. The 2 Bil cab was cut into many pieces and then reassembled but much narrower. The unit is one of the last eight 2 Nols built with underfloor English Electric control gear, as against the usual Metro Vic Electro- Magnetic gear situated behind the cab. The B9 is a nicely scratch built loco circa 1960 I guess. I could have completely rebuilt the engine, but the damage was mainly to the tender, so I elected to just refresh her, changing the smokebox door from a GE pattern to a GC pattern, and new safety valves. The old plain mazac un-insulated Romford drivers were retained for that vintage feel.

Just to add a little something to the mix, my own recently completed 35009 Shaw Savil, a heavily modified Hornby 21C7, plus various parts from RT models, and parts from the depths of the old bits box.

Hornby.com don't discount? Strange, my Civil Service Motoring Association magazine aka 'Boundless' recently had an offer of 5% off from Hornby.com for Boundless members.

Nameplates excepted, 2039 is now complete, and performs really sweetly, the motion is quite hypnotic to watch.