Scalefour Forum

Pete.
I really like the way you jigged the bending bar location for the coal rails. That is an example of clever thinking and planning. Well done.
Dave.

Julian. The Crabs had very prominent and distinctive drain cocks which were, I believe, a Midland design. There are some good photos and drawings showing them in some detail in the Wild Swan profile book. For my model, i used some castings which were a good representation. Can't remember their origi...

Wow, another long term loco finished off in quick succession. My Fowler Class 3, 2-6-2 tank has been nearly finished for some years but was missing the cab glazing, crew, coal in the bunker and the cab roof attaching. As part of my rehabilitation progress, I decided to finish these outstanding tasks...

Julian.
At least for the expansion link, could you not use a headed pin. inserted from the back and retained with more of your nail varnish (don't wear it myself, but...), or similar?
Dave.

I've finally got round to completing the finishing touches to the loco, as a gentle reintroduction to modelling, now that I have more use of the arm I broke before Christmas. These finishing touches were the fitting of the DCC chip, two crew members and fixing the cab roof. I also had to re-attach p...

Mike Garwood wrote:Pete

Count me in ; Std 3 and 4 in the to do pile.

Mike

Don't need one for the 4, Mike. See my earlier comment.
Dave.

Pete, Your etch looks just the job, even if it needs a bit of a tweak to get the bends right. Wish it had been available when i was doing my trucks! Regarding where else the swing link was used, it was just the rear truck of the Std 3 tank. All the locos with just one truck used the spring side cont...

That looks to be going very nicely - congratulations. I do like the weathering on the freight wagons. keep up the good work.
Dave.

Justin, In more recent times, I've either used the "P4" spacers provided in the kit, where applicable, or used either society or Alan Gibson etched spacers, without much thought about their width. Looking through some of my model files, it looks as if a width over the main frames of about ...

Mike, Have you had any thoughts about wheels, yet? In the introduction to the instructions, Dave writes about this with particular regards to the width over the crank bosses vs the space between the connecting rods (25.5 mm on the diagram). I've just bought a set of Alan Gibson (V2) wheels - 6'-2&qu...

A bit naughty, I suppose, but here are two fotos of terraced houses in Oldham, designed by Stott & Sons (taken from the book of the same name, Holden). As the example posted by Grovenor shows, the shape of the guttering was usually a moulding rather than a plain rectangle. These shots also show ...

Ralph, Congratulations on your success with Alpha Mill. Fully deserved in my opinion. It's magnificent. Regarding gutters on terraced houses in the Manchester area, from my childhood recollections, growing up in Oldham, gutters were invariably made of wood and were not rounded on the outside. This g...

Ralph,
How did it go at the Manchester Exhibition? It would be nice to see a couple of photos of it Alpha Mill its final condition.
Dave.

David. Providing you allow sufficient side play on the centre drivers and enough sideways movement on the bogie, I don't see any reason why a 4-6-0 cannot traverse a 40" radius curve. My earlier efforts, including a WD 2-8-0, a Fairburn 2-6-4 tank and a BR Standard 5 4-6-0 were all able to nego...

Mike, Getting to the more interesting bits, now. I wouldn't concern yourself unduly over the outside valve gear. Dave looks to have put a lot of thought into the design of the etched parts and I'm sure it will all go together very well with a bit care and by being methodical. Use of cigarette paper/...

As a change from my more usual steam loco models, I am working on a Bachmann Class 40 with sprung chassis which has reached the stage of being a functional loco but still devoid of much of the detailing work required to make a convincing model. Here are some photos showing various stages of the work...

Mike, Looking very neat, especially as you clean off excess solder as you go - something I'm a bit lax at sometimes, perhaps. Clearly a good discipline to adopt. Regarding the delicate nature of the brake hanger brackets, I notice that in his instruction update sheet, Dave recommends leaving these t...

Mike,
Looking good so far. Brave to do two in tandem.
I've also got one of these to do, so I shall watch your progress with great interest.
Dave.

Hi Pete, again. On second thoughts, I think you are right about the cross-heads. Whilst the Comet item is a fairly good shape in side view, it should be flat on the front face to match the LMS design. I've rather overlooked this aspect, (which also applies to the Caprotti Black 5) when opting to use...

Hi Pete. To be honest, I don't think I even considered the DJH parts at all, once I'd decided to use the Comet chassis. Now you've mentioned it, and seeing your deliberations on your Ivatt thread, I've looked again at the photos Morgan posted. To me, the cross-heads fitted to 46443 and 43106 don't l...

The Ivatt 2 looks to be coming along nicely, if possibly even slower than mine! I think I used the Comet etched valve guides and if I remember correctly, I might have slightly shortened the cast white metal valve chests. Mind you, it's so long since I did that part of the construction, I wouldn't be...

I think that to some extent, the use of the pits at a depot depended on its size, although I imagine that ashing out would only be done over an outside pit. Oiling up can be done inside or out doors whereas maintenance would preferably be done indoors unless the loco could not be moved inside. At la...

Robin. The last entry prompted me to look back to find the quoted Black V reference and to re-watch your video from last June. I must say how well the loco runs - absolutely superb. I just hope my efforts ca do half as well. The train of ex-LMS coaches is also rather nice. What are their origins? Da...

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments. All rather embarrassing, really, as I have never set out to impress anyone, just satisfied my own interests and obsessions. There's loads of models out there to a better standard than my efforts but I do try to capture the essence of the prototype and incorp...

Tony, It's quite some time since I built this loco and, to be honest, I was struggling to remember quite how the pick-ups were arranged - I don't always follow the same arrangement on every model, varying it to suit the particular chassis layout. However, looking at an enlarged view of the keeper pl...