Scalefour Forum

The majority of photos of horseboxes in transit show them next to the engine. This presumably to minimise sudden movement as the train moves off. It would be possible for the train to be detached and the engine to shunt the horse box into the yard under such circumstances. Horses in Victorian and Ed...

IIRC, and I am sure you will already know this, but you can set the sleeper spacing in Templot. I modelled mine to LNWR spec which had wider sleepers at the join too.

I can't remember how I did this but Martin Wynne helped me a the time.

...The basic idea of the droppers is to get the job of making holes in the baseboard away from the rail heads. Numerous times I have drilled alongside the rail only to find the chuck hitting the top of the rail when breaking through the wood so these droppers were designed to reduce the risk of tha...

I to attached the templates onto cork with PVA with no ill effects including ballasting. The sleepers were also stuck down with PVA and only two had become detached prior to ballasting. I do not think I could have achieved the flow I was after without this method.

Since David Geen retired, the 4mm Mitchell range has been off the market. I believe ownership has reverted to the Pete Waterman empire. Others may know more. I managed to get a 517 just beforehand. PS: IIRC the 7mm range was withdrawn by JLTRT as that ceased trading so both are unavailable a present.

I always remove the chassis when working on the bodywork to avoid any damage including from handling.

In the absence of any other instructions, I soldered wires to my droppers and bent them down through holes in the baseboard directly beneath the sleepers. All wiring is below baseboard.

I bought my Churchward chassis initially for a K's kit but then later the body kit only from Modelex whilst they had the range. Both are brass and the rolled parts are still flat on the etch. I do need to backdate mine but the small bunker is provided for in the kit according to the instructions. I ...

I have kits from both and as far as I can tell there is no difference indeed the Brassmasters may have improved castings and the instructions are on larger paper.

Are you planning to represent the springs behind the wheels? If so, that might prevent the wheels from dropping out.

In terms of spacers, I have seen this done with small washers.

This may be P4 heresy but, as the axles are supposed to move up and down with the horn block guides, the wheelbase is a moveable feast.

For the same reason the brake shoes can't be too tight against the wheel.

I have used Narrow Planet who are the only ones to do bespoke number plates to my knowledge. I have also bought from some of the others who have limited choice of numbers which are searchable online.

What you have built does not match the drawing in that the gearbox sides are now much lower than the axle centrelines. I would question whether this leaves sufficient clearance over pointwork. You can guess how I discovered this kind of problem using an underslung gearbox with relatively small wheels!

I have the cross slide; it's great for doing straight lines of evenly spaced rivets such as along the edge of a footplate.

It came with two 4mm points one of which is for half etched rivets. There are also 7mm and 2mm points.

Peter

David,

Which size Mashima motor did you use in the High Level chassis please?

I managed to use an old Sagami 1428 (I think) for mine in my etched GWR class 517 as I didn't need to shoehorn it into a DJH body. Still just protrudes a bit into the cab area but I can cope with that.

Cheers

Peter

Would there have been a seasonal local crop out such as sugar beat too? I only say this because such traffic was on my layout being modelled.

Largely agree with the previous two comments too and I face similar dilemmas as I am modelling Summer 1912

Should there not be some inclination in the rail. No. 4 seems straight to my eyes

On attachment to the rail, mine were all bowed but, blissfully unaware that this was not how they were meant to be, I stuck them with Butatone but only with a count of 12! No problems to report thus far in over 3 years. I did mix in some soldered joints too based on the Iain Rice book. My bullhead r...

From gwr.org.uk: "...Brake van handrails were originally body colour (grey), but were thought to have been first painted white during WWI..." http://www.gwr.org.uk/liverieswagongrey.html I just happened to have researched this yesterday as I am finishing off an AA12 van

Very impressive overall!

Can I ask how you did the road surface on the road bridge please?

Tank engines could possibly go a fair distance between watering locations. On my line, tank engines were rostered on local passenger trains from Ludlow to Hereford which is a distance of 24 miles.

I have a explanation sort of, unsolicited, for the mystery building in the loading dock area from the current owner of the station building: "...in the picture, you can also see the black P.Way and staff building built where the goods platform was for the staff who maintained the small sleeper ...

David Knight wrote:Are there any templates for "Wye" turnouts? I'm thinking about either a number 5 or 6 for a layout currently in the planning stages.

Cheers,

David

Not sure this is what you mean or if it's of use. PM me for high res version scan. I have larger angles too.

Peter

Before ballasting using the GordonS method I stained my sleepers with a mix of Colron wood dyes, thus preserving their wooden appearance. I did not seal the Templot base as i needed to see it in order to lay the track - had that not been the case I'd have painted it grey. The PVA did not seem to ad...

Peter, Although I laid my track after ballasting, my situation is pretty similar to yours. I stuck each sleeper individually onto the templot print out and the paper wasn't sealed. I ballasted portions of track dry and tamped down (I can't see that actually having the rails in place is greatly diff...