Adrian

I'd have been tempted to name it "The Pedent and Armchair" just to for the full wind up, as for the licensee the best I can come up with is Noah Tall.

Next on the workbench will probably be the MOK 4MT. Although if my bonus at work comes through, there might be either a JLTRT 3F or Pannier tank in the wings as well, both types were photographed at Tewkesbury.

Adrian

That's looking good - but when are they going to get that track ballasted?

Adrian

Blimey you're not hanging about - it's looking good. I'm not surprised about the SevenScale Pug. I've built one for myself and it weighs a ton with all the white metal castings. It's a nice little kit.

Adrian

That does look nice - looking forward to seeing it with a few numbers and a bit of weathering. Although you might want to put a spot of paint on that red wire!

Adrian

Well done - that's looking good. That's a nice clean crisp finish on the primer - a distinct lack of detrius in the paintwork, how did you keep it so clean? Also was it airbrushed or from a can?

(fingers crossed - this comment gets through on the third attempt!)

Adrian

I've heard the zoo keeper is very fond of rum, but I don't believe it!

Love the pictures.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, it is encouraging. I'll have to switch back to the bodywork as I've just run out of 12BA bolts. I was hoping to pickup some bits from the Preston show at the weekend but it seems like it's either been cancelled or postponed.

see note here.

Yes the 4MT kit is a whole new level - it's a wonderful incentive to get the Jinty finished.

1. I'm a little curious as to why you think you need a flywheel if you are using electronic control...

 

2. Why Paxolin - couldn't you use any of those flat rectangles of left-over ABS from your 'Death by a Thousand Cuts'?

 

3. Have you perchance checked out the Perfect Miniatures plunger pickups? Centre sprung, and quite slender...

As to the specific questions, in reply

1. No idea really just that's the way I've always done conventional DC loco's, just having a bit of inertia on the motor seem like a good idea to smooth out any cogging or tight spots in the mechanism. Are you saying I don't need one?

2. I like paxolin as it's that bit harder than some of the plastics, so I can cut it with a piercing saw and it doesn't clog up the blade and I find it easier to file. I've always preferred metalwork to woodwork and so paxolin is more in line with my style. With the mounting hole near to the edge I think it's that little bit stronger, purely subjective of course.

3. No I haven't seen Perfect Miniatures plunger pickups - any known photo's in the wild?

Adrian

I thought you were supposed to push the rail through while the chairs were still on the sprue?

That's certainly one way of doing it, and works fine for main line track where they were all keyed from the same direction. On the sprues there are 5 lefthanded keys down one side and 5 righthanded keys down the other. I'm not an expert on track matters but it seems that on track where there was running in both directions then they seemed to be keyed alternately. i.e. one left, one right, one left, one right etc. and this seems to be the case at Tewkesbury MPD. So for my situation it was as easy to remove them all from the sprues and stick them in tins. The one downside will be sore thumbs from pressing on all those chairs.

Adrian

Fascinating details in these photos Adrian. I see what you mean about the second one, it's just crying out to be modelled either as part of a larger layout or as a mini layout in itself. Presumably, this is the covered area between the two roads in the map? If so, I think you meant "Moving further west..."

Nick

You're quite right - now suitably amended. Thanks

Congratulations, it's a nice step forward after all that hard work. I remember seeing Heyside at the Blackburn show, it was the one layout my two young kids would have spent the entire day watching. So it's great to see the progress.

What a lovely compact and somewhat claustrophobic choice - definitely approve. A perfect excuse to use a 3-way point.

Are you intending to build it post LMS alterations to the coal stage - converting it to a ramp with a shelter? The track was raised slightly so should be a challenge in S7.

Cheers for the feedback.

I was intending to model the coal ramp just for a bit fun, actually I think the rear would be a little devoid of detail if I didn't include it. In keeping with the competition 5 ethos I was contemplating setting the date as 1955. I just need to check the configuration at that time.

I really need to draw up a time line of the various modifications because there were quite a few. Not a comprehensive list but off the top of my head it includes

• The original station used to have a canopy over the tracks later removed.
• The original coaling stage was next to the shed, it then got moved opposite and put on the ramp. The shelter over the ramp wasn't always there, again I need to check details.
• The malt house behind the shed at some point had windows put in the tiled roof.
• Towards the end of the shed life the terrace houses behind got demolished.
• Again towards the end the trackplan got simplified, maybe a couple of times, down to one or maybe two turnouts for a return line into the shed.
• A small brick built "utility" room got built infront of the shed ( one photo caption labels it as a privvy!).

I can see myself poring over photo's again tonight.

As for the 3-way - that could be the basis of another posting, following the examples on the Templot site I used the GIMP to tweak a photo and build the templot plan on top of it.

That does look nice.

There is a definite art to getting something running smoothly - I think it's called persistence but it's one I've yet to master!

Correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like you're driving on the rear axle. Sorry to say but IMHO this is one of the hardest set ups to get right because of the knuckle joint in drive chain before the second set of wheels. If you disconnect the rods from the rear set of wheels does it run smoother? Do the front coupled pair rotate smoothly?

Get this cracked and the rest will be easy!

That sounds great Adrian, I'm going to keep my eye on this one, another couple of loco's to the standard of your Jinty and it will look great, any chance of seeing a picture of the shed? I've been playing around with idea's for the layout challange myself but have'nt come up with anything that would fit yet 2010 inches sounds a lot but a couple of B8 points soon eat into it. I'm not going to commit until I can come up with a workable plan, but it will be Modern image for a change.

 

J.P.

I've got a few photo's from the HMRS showing the shed. As they have the copyright I've tried contacting them via the website requesting permission to publish them but have yet to get any response. I might have to chase up with a phone call or a letter instead. Until that's sorted I can't really post them, although I do have a couple of OS maps to show the layout which I'll post soon.

Re your query about the custom content blocks, yes I have the same experience with everything other than the standard code being stripped when you save. Links and images are all you can put in there, it seems. Bu that can be done nicely, see eg Buffalo's blog.

Thanks for the link, you've not done so bad with your index either - I'll try something similar for the 2010 challenge blog to have a nice index. With only a handful of postings on here a full blown index seemed a little over the top. However once I've got a little more structure organised it'll be worth updating.

I was amused to see a photo of a couple horizontal jogging in the very article where he purports to find this kind of cameo puerile! Anyone reported him to his ISP for posting erotic images?

It's good to see you are taking it seriously.

I'm curious to see how this develops - how many points are you controlling and how many roads are you setting? Will all the points fire at once or will there be some stagger to minimise the load?

The main reason for asking is I'm currently looking at doing some thing similar on a layout and I've been looking at the MERG CBUS system. I'm just weighing up the merits of the two different approaches.

Thanks - I know cast iron can be nice to turn once you get it to "sing".

Some nice rescue work there! Is there any reason why you used cast iron rather than steel for the new tyre? For what will end up being quite a thin tyre I'd have thought that cast iron would be a bit fragile, or was it just what was to hand?

It is an MOK 8F. I unreservedly recommend it. It's going to the BRM show at Peterborough for my demonstration stand, along with the A3.

I thought it might be a MOK but I had a slight doubt due to the cast hinges on the smokebox door. Given their well deserved reputation I'd have expected something with a little more "profile".

Adrian

Hi, That does look good. just one question though - whose kit is it? I struggle to get to many shows so I'm not too familiar with the various kits available. I would like to build an 8f at some point, I believe MOK do a nice kit but I've yet to see it in the flesh or photo's.

Regards

Adrian