Adrian

It was things like this that pushed me into ScaleSeven, having the wheels in the right place just made it easier for building loco's. Fortunately I hadn't much stock so it wasn't difficult to change. Adrian

That's a nice model but I have a vague recollection that the kit actually pre-dates the ScaleSeven standards. It's probably just a result of trying to squeeze narrow gauge wheels into a finely balanced model <g>. Adrian

For interest then I heard an announcement yesterday that the full back catalogue of Melvyn Bragg's "In Our Time" is available online www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/in-our-time/archive/ That'll keep me going for a few years then! What I'm listening to : currently catching up on the Radcliffe & Maconie Show on iPlayer - Stuart Maconie stuck in Venice and ringing in!

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

A quick update on the Jinty progress with a few details on making the lamp irons. The lamp irons on the footplate are simple enough, the etchings supplied in the kit are fine but I thought they were a little on the skinny side so I just used a bit of nickel strip. However the rear lamp irons and the one on the top of the smoke box are a little more tricky. The etchings supplied in the kit involves folding back etches which I think end up looking too thick in places. This was my solution. I used a scrap bit of etched nickel strip from the kit, folded a 90 degree bend in each end and placed it on a bit of 16 thou nickel sheet. This was then silver-soldered together. I just used three small pallets of silver solder heated up with a small blow torch. There is something deeply satisfying watching silver solder flash into a joint, a small sliver can go a long way. After a quick clean in the acid bath I have this. A quick clean up and then using a piercing saw start taking slices, the first cut can be seen on the right hand side. Nearly there -a little bit of filing gets me to this stage. With the lamp iron being silver soldered it means that I can soft solder it to the loco quite easily with no fear of the joint melting. This shows it in place, a little prominent at the moment, I'm hoping it looks more in place once the smoke box door and chimney are fitted. This also shows the progress with the brakes and sand boxes. The brakes went together without any major problems, the sand boxes needed a little modification for Scale7. The casting are for finescale so fitted to S7 frames with slimmer wheels means that the sandboxes just foul on the rear of the coupling rods. So I skimmed 1/32" off the depth of the casting in the lathe to give me a bit of breathing room, the frames were then tinned and the boxes sweated onto the frame by applying the iron to the back of the frames.

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

Whilst waiting for a few bits for the Jinty I've switched to another piece of the jigsaw for the 2010 challenge - the control system. For a long time I've had ideas for a control system on a layout to avoid the miles and miles of wiring the usually entails. Several years ago MERG started developing a layout control bus, called CBUS. This is a system of plugin modules that communicate over a signal data bus, this bus consists of just two wires, the modules themselves need to be powered so that's two more wires for the ground and supply voltage but that is it. Just 4 wires is all that is required to connect new modules together, if I want to add an extra turnout or extra sections I just need to plug them into the bus - no more huge bundles of wire stretching back to the control panel. The system has now reached a level of maturity where MERG are about to launch a series of kits for the modules, although it's quite easy to build them up by getting the PCB's from MERG and the components from one of the electronics suppliers. To test the system out, because I wanted to build in track circuiting I thought I'd trial the system on my shunting plank. So this is the start of the control panel which consists of just two modules. The one on the left is the CANACE3 module which used to link to the control switches on the panel. This module will link up to 128 on/off switches or up to 64 pairs of push buttons. The modules converts any switch actions to signals on the bus. The module on the right is CANLED, this will take signals from the bus and drive up to 64 LEDS. These modules and the data port in the panel are connected together by just 4 wires and that is all that is required. I've then wired in a few switches and LEDS. The switches will be used to drive the solitary point on the shunting plank and a solenoid for uncoupling. The LEDs are mixed, the red ones will indicate the turnout setting and the green ones for section occupation. Any resemblance to a Ferrero Rocher box is entirely justified. Some Christmas presents are useful, I've recycled it for the control panel because this was intended as a demo and I liked the idea of the clear lid so that I can show how simple the internal wiring is. So that is it for the control panel, all the wiring is done. The blue network cable is all that is required to plug it in to the shunting plank. So it should be easy to put a few sockets in on the layout which then allows you to plugin the control panel where ever is convenient. On a layout if I need to add in a new turnout, no longer do I need to run a cable from the point motor to the control panel, hoping that there are enough spare pins on the baseboard connectors. I just hook it up to the databus on the layout and wire in a new switch on the control panel. So now I need to crack on with the track occupation detectors and the turnout control module.

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

Well I've switched back to the body work. I needed some 12BA bolts to finish the brakes. I was going to pick some up from the Preston show this weekend but it's been cancelled, so the bolts are in the post somewhere. I covered a little bit on the cab platework in the previous RMweb thread, basically the cab roof supplied in the kit is a white metal casting which although there is nothing wrong with it per se, I felt that I'd struggle to get the characteristic roll on the cab side sheets using the bits supplied. So I replaced the cab side sheets but this also meant making up a new roof from nickel silver and devising some method for making it removable to fit the cab detail and crew. I've not done a cab roof this way before so it'll be interesting to see how it lasts but this was what I came up with. First cut out a piece of 16thou nickel to size, run it through a set of rollers to fit. Then on the underside on the right I fitted a couple of tabs to slot under the side sheet, on the left hand side a couple of lengths of small brass rod slightly overlapping the edge of the roof. So fitting the roof involves sliding the tab side under the cab side sheet. The other side drops down onto the other cab side sheet. With a little downward pressure the roof snaps into position. A few strips of angles brass for rain strips hides the joint quite nicely. The roof is quite firmly held in position. I'll have to see how successful it's been after it's had a coat of paint.

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. 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

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

Finally started to cut metal for this challenge, well plastic if you want to be pedantic, and 1800 cuts to be precise. I walked away from the Wigan show with various goodies from Exactoscale. So the few spare minutes over Christmas was spent cutting various chairs from sprues, fortunately I remembered on the third sprue that the keys were handed, 5 left and 5 right. So 1500 std chairs, 200 bridge chairs and 100 slide chairs later I have this to show for my efforts. I really think that Exactoscale ought to have a green recycling policy considering the amount of scrap from the sprues. As Tewkesbury MPD ballasting is erratic, more just ash judging by the photos, many of the sleepers are quite exposed. So I've opted for the full depth wooden sleepers from Perfect Miniatures rather than the Exactoscale sleepers. So this week will be a quick test on staining them and ash ballast.

Having received a MOK Standard 4MT kit over Christmas has given added impetus to getting the Jinty finished first. I'm trying to make sure that I finish this Jinty before diving into the 4MT kit, whether my resolution holds will have to be seen. So I've made a little progress on the bodywork, but I've been concentrating on the chassis. I'd like to get a running chassis to test out a MERG CBUS system I'm setting up. So progress to date is shown below. The detail changes from previous postings are crankpin nuts - finally got round to fitting some 12BA steel nuts, although they still need thinning down and a washer behind them. brake hangers brackets - I fitted these as specified in the kit, although in reference to the works drawing they seem a little too low, however the hangers themselves seem a little too short so the brake rods should be in the right place. The kit instructions just have a bit of brass rod through them. However I've drilled the outer hole 12BA clearance and the frame and the inner part of the bracket has been tapped 12BA so that hopefully the brakes will all be detachable for painting and maintenance. balance weights - fitted as supplied, I always think a loco character starts to emerge with the balance weights, until them they're just a set of wheels. plunger pickups - I picked these up from a GOG show at Halifax, I think they are from Ron Chaplin but I can't be sure. I always seem to struggle with pickups and these look nicely engineered so I thought I'd give them a try. The plastic bushing needed a little trimming with a scalpel as there wasn't enough room between the S7 frames and the wheels for them. Now the more observant among you may have noticed that the motor and gearbox has been reversed. The motor is now pointing forwards and into the boiler and smokebox area. With it rear facing it was getting awfully close to the boiler backhead, such that it was going to be difficult to squeeze in a flywheel. By having the motor facing forward then I hope to have enough room to squeeze in a flywheel. Final bit for tonight is the brakes. The kit is supplied with etched components for the brake blocks but I'm always cautious about putting any metal bodywork anywhere near wheels as I think it's a recipe for creating shorts. So the brake blocks are replaced with a nice non-conductive paxolin alternative. This is work in progress, draw a few concentric rings on a sheet of paxolin, mark out the blocks and drill the mounting points 12BA clearance. Hopefully get these finished and fitted in the next couple of days - that 4MT kit is calling!!

You're quite right - now suitably amended. Thanks

Many of the photo's published have come from various collections, a few of which are available for purchase. I've collected a few from The Transport Treasury and from the HMRS Photo collection. Both of whom have very graciously allowed me to publish a selection on this blog. So as a reminder the map is shown below Starting from the East side, where the later station is situated, first we come to the shed area alongside Station Street with the raised coaling stage. This photo is taken from Oldbury road looking East up towards the station. This is the bit that I'm hoping to model for the 2010 challenge. My aim is to try and recreate something similar to this photo. The terraced houses on the right hand side providing a useful backdrop, as is the line disappearing behind the Maltings building. Not too sure about leaving a bloke stuck in the 4ft though! Moving further West over Oldbury Road and alonside Sun Street we come to the old station. The building and platform on the lefthand side was the original Birmingham and Gloucester station in Tewkesbury. When built originally all this area was under a large wooden canopy. This photo is published in the Wild Swan LMS Engine Shed book and is one of the original photo's that piqued my interest in this location. The loco in the old station is an 8F, No.48388, stabled here because the shed was overcrowded! Another photo in the engine shed book shows 5 loco's stabled in the shed area. The track in the foreground then runs down to the quay side. Now in all the books it mentions the line running down to the quay, the flour mill buildings are still there, but there was not one single published photo of the quay area with the railway still present. Then searching through The Transport Treasury archives I came across these 2 fine photo's from the James Harold Collection. The track layout seems to have been simplified compared to the original plans but is still very evocative. Hopefully this gives a flavour for the line, for the 2010 challenge I can only really concentrate on the main shed area. However if it works out ok then future plans would include extensions in stages down to the quay.

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.

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.

Over the years I've slowly collected bits of information about the Tewkesbury Quay Branch. Various articles and photo's from several sources. As part of the project I thought a bibliography might be of interest for the scholars amongst us. So with out further adieu and in no particular order: LMS Engine Sheds - Volume 2 The Midland Railway, Chris Hawkins and George Reeve, Wild Swan Publications, ISBN: 0 906867 05 03 Three pages of photos and plans to the usual WSP quality that sparked off this project. British Railway Journal - Issue 40, Winter 92, Roger Carpenter, Wild Swan Publications, ISSN 0265-4105 An essential 8 page article with superb photo's, maps and stock details. British Railway Journal - Issue 42, Summer 92, (yes this is listed as 1992 - one can only assume that WSP published the Winter issue in January-February!) Wild Swan Publications, ISSN 0265-4105 Just a couple of letters, one on the original Birmingham and Gloucester branch at Tewkesbury and one on the fate of the wagons shown in issue 40. Bromsgrove to Gloucester including Ashchurch to Great Malvern - Midland Mainlines Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith Middleton Press - 2006 ISBN : 1 904474 73 X 6 pages on Tewkesbury including a 1902 map of the station and MPD, one nice photo of the MPD from 1949 of 3F 43506 which to my recollection doesn't appear in the other publications Tewkesbury Historical Society Bulletin No.12 John Dixon Tewkesbury Historical Society A fascinating article describing the original Birmingham and Gloucester Branch to Tewkesbury with a photo of an early B&G loco in the street approaching an ornate Gothic arch entrance to the station The Birmingham and Gloucester Railway P.J. Long and The Reverend W.V. Awdry Alan Sutton 1987 ISBN : 0-86299-329-6 8 pages about the building of the line, no photo's of the MPD but an interesting account, none the less. Midland Record, Issue 20 Wild Swan Publications ISSN : 1357-6399 No article but a cracking photo of a Midland 0-4-4T P-class No. 58071 outside the shed in 1955 spread over 2 pages (2-3) If anyone knows of any other sources then please let me know.

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!

Hopefully I'll get the copyright issues sorted out soon then I can publish a couple of photo's to show what I'm trying to capture. In the meantime I have the OS maps and the beginnings of a templot plan. On this map the goods yard, mainline and station are off to the right. The shed is to the left of the malthouse on Station street. It was called station street as the old Birmingham and Gloucester Railway used to have a branch terminus here, it's the covered bit by Sun street. The line then runs down left along quay street down to the quay. My understanding is that quay street was the limit for loco's, the wagons were then shunted around the quay by horse power. However I think I'll be using a little modellers license and allow loco's down to the quay if it ever gets that far. Crown copyright. The quay area is shown here, which is the location of the quay photos posted a few days ago. Crown copyright As mentioned there is no way this will fit in 2010" so for the moment I'm just concentrating on the shed area. I've made a start on a templot plan For the challenge it's just the middleboard and righthand board which works out at 100" by 20", annotated with a quick sketch to show the main features. The fiddleyard will be off to the right hand side hidden behind the Malthouse. The plan shows a board for the old B&G station on the righthand side, this will be a future extension down to the quay.

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.

Yes my 2010 effort has been launched with a separate blog and so the pictures posted yesterday are of the quay side at Tewkesbury. It's an area I'd like to model eventually but for the challenge I need to restrict it to the MPD which is just up the line. More info to follow later. So having planned this over a number of years I thought it was about time that I actually did something. So really it's a big thanks to the support from this community and the challenge set by Andy Y, otherwise it would have forever remained a virtual layout. Whilst planning this launch I came across a blog which struck a nerve entitled There's no speed limit. (The lessons that changed my life.) I'm usually quite disdainful of the plethora of motivational emails that are spammed round offices however this blog had a philosophy which had a certain resonance. So if you have read the article then you may understand it when I say that I hope this community is that great teacher and it sets high expectations that I need to push myself. I hope that I can do more than anyone expects of me, including myself! Time to draw up that shopping list for Wigan.