Corbs

Looks ace, the space in the goods yard makes a huge difference. Reminds me a bit of the yard at Beamish

Sorry Nellie/Polly fans.... Another, slightly different saddle tank conversion under way http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1365/entry-18548-nwr-no106-pollybashing/

It reminds me of the engines that gresley fitted with boosters, like the C9 http://www.lner.info/locos/C/c9.php

Thanks Nile. Am currently using the motion and pistons (from Peter's Spares) on an 0-4-0ST project. Works very well although the assemblies needed widening to clear the forward driving wheels, I guess because the 0415 is driven off the front axle so no need for the clearance.

I did find myself musing if you could make a plastic/metal horse 'skeleton' with gears driving movement of the legs and bobbing of the head, and cover it in a 'skin' of elasticated material. You could hide the joins in material in the harnesses....

Think the tight issue is resolved - connecting rod was catching on the motion bracket. I've swapped the washer around to hold the rod in and it seems to have worked. The brass rod arrived so I could add some steam pipes, together with some cans from RT Models - the real Portbury always carries a few oil cans on the running plate. Nearly finished!

Great to see more from you Cap'n. Are you thinking of something like an inglenook or timesaver for this? Sounds very sensible, for me there's nothing that boosts the creative juices more than being able to just sit down and immediately play trains, without having to unpack and set up a large layout.

I love it! Was thinking of something similar for an ex-W&S loco, or possibly something similar to the Lambton tender locos. On Portbury, I filed out the middle wheelset reliefs which I think helped a bit. It is hampered a bit by the pickups (which were designed for bigger wheels).

Maybe that's it, I might try chopping out some more in the wheel reliefs in the running plate block

Here she is with steps (from the parts bin) and weathering, aesthetically I think she is nearly there, just waiting on some rod to make pipework, then adding lamp irons and details and a crew. I was quite pleased with the weathering, I tried to go for the effect that she had been cleaned at the start of the week but had a busy time working the docks. I tried to pick out the areas I knew would get dirty - around the bunker from coaling, and on the steps from mucky boots, for example. She does run ok-ish although quite jerky, she seems to have a tight spot every half revolution that I can't figure out. Could it possibly be slack in the coupling rods causing this?

Think the axle is sorted, raided the parts bin again and I had some wheelsets more suited to having connecting rods (with a stub). Pressed the new ones onto the middle axle and it seems to be much better. Interestingly the loco doesn't work without coupling rods as the middle wheelset doesn't touch the rails. Bonus pic showing the newly lettered and lined other side:

Possibly it's torn the splines out. Need to investigate.

A very playworn Hornby Pug was dismantled to provide connecting rods and pistons, I chopped a large chunk out of the chassis to squeeze the cylinder block in. Getting there.... Slightly huge problem in that the driving axle is chewing up the wheels. Possibly need to find a way to weld it together.

Thanks mate. Just wanted to share this pic as managed to get the lining and transfers on Portbury (on one side at least!) Also cleaned up some of the black lining, I think the white/black/white helps with that too.

Today 'evil thomas' gained some frame extensions, as it bothered me how much daylight was under the running plate. Then some weathering, a mixture of smoke and rust powders and matt black. A couple of the NCB wagons got the same treatment. Portbury gained some kadees

There was a chap on here who was building a fictional very early railway, it may have been set in the 1830s though. He was kitbashing quite a few GBL 'Rockets' I think. Whilst not a model (although some may say it's a 1:1 scale model), Paul Jarman wrote an interesting article about ancient locomotives that you can download from this page:http://beamishtransportonline.co.uk/downloads/articles/

Nice to see your photos of Bristol, Julie! I'm working on a model of Portbury (IW&D 34) at the moment - in my freelance cobbling thread. Hoping to make a model of the whole passenger train.

I know I'm in danger of saturating this thread with similar pics. So here's some more! Got the Lambton lettered up and sealed with some Klear Portbury has acquired a filler cap courtesy of RT models, upper handrails from the Pug donor, and handrail knobs and rail fitted on one side so far. Most of the straight black lines have been done with lining transfers, the curved ones I did with a cotton bud but not totally happy with them. I'm tempted to re-mask and re-do. Due to the size of it, I'm tempted to simplify the white/black/white lining and possibly just do it on the tank sides. Tonight I'm going to attempt the other handrail, then lettering the tanks.

Would that not be the coupling rod?

Would anyone with this loco be able to do me a favour? I need to know what the length of the connecting rods are. If someone could measure one and let me know I would be very grateful!

While waiting for new lining and lettering purchased from Fox Transfers to come through, I've been trying to make as much progress on other things. Painting the rods grey is a huge difference, a damaged Hornby Pug has arrived to possibly donate cylinders and valve gear. Am sanding and filing the dome to get as snug a fit as possible. Meanwhile the Lambtonesque Tank got a new face, think this is from a GBL loco but fits nicely. Posed alongside the LBSCR E2, soon to go under the knife to become No.301 'Thomas Allen'. Need some NCB lettering before it can be grubbied up. This should really be a blog entry but meh - Finally got around to lettering one side of the tender for 805 'Suddery Cathedral'. Think it's the longest time I've held my breath for as long as I can remember! Modelled here by 704 Duke of Gordon

You know when you know you should do something, and you don't want to, so you try and persuade yourself you don't need to? Basically, I think I've set my kadee uncouplers too low into the sleepers. They are at about rail height. Here's a question - when you plonk your kadee uncoupler magnet down on the track, is that the height it should be? i.e. no need to dig out the sleepers to set the magnet lower? I feel I'm going to have to dig them all out, and space them out, then adjust the trip pins on all my wagons. This is fine, I just have too much inconsistency between wagons at the moment.

I know I'm a bit late to this conversation but I've been trying out my elderly E2 body on a chinese-made 'Thomas' chassis and it actually runs really nicely, possibly needs attention to pick ups but surprisingly smooth. Edit: Here's a quick video of it running on DC, went this slowly over pointwork which was quite nice

Is it bad that I tend to add as much weight as I can to all of my wagons? I just like seeing the locos struggle!

It is Ford Polar Grey, I had a good look through to find a non-metallic grey and there were 3 of them in the shop. The lining will be tricky, as the real loco has outlines of black on each vertices. Do you think I should do this using something like HMRS lining? I don't really trust my hand to be steady enough to do it with paint. Here's what it looks like with some black thrown on (whistle from a GBL castle): and here's the real thing showing the black accents: