Chris Mitton wrote:First, belated thanks for your J15 / Y14 blog. I recently suffered a short spell in a cardiac ward, and came out to find your pics - and decided it was time to stop procrastinating and get my Gibson J15 and E4 off the shelf and start work, otherwise I'd end up running them on the Great Layout In The Sky - which I don't want to do, at least not yet..... So the E4 (you'd probably call it a T26!) is under way at last.
Hi Chris,
Glad to hear that the ramblings have inspired you! Sometimes , when work is a bit manic and I don't get any free time, I look at the dates of the entries and realise that I haven't done anything for three or four weeks. Sometimes the inspiration is all I need to get going again.
As you've started on your E4 build, why not start a thread of your own about it? It doesn't have to be a comprehensive blow by blow account, but a few words and a couple of photos from a digital camera can do a great job in sharing the good/bad/impossible of any modelling project. I'd certainly enjoy reading it, and learning from it, as I have two of the E4 kits to build in the near future.
Chris Mitton wrote:Like you, I've decided that CSB is the way to go and the High Level kit is the way to do it. Did you sort your problem re the tender hornblocks being too small for the cutouts?
In all honesty, I haven't picked the Y14 up again since. On the modelling front I've been finishing off the three wagon chassis that I've just posted about, and I've also done a bit more work on the Pug chassis. Having seen those rather neat coil spring designs by (I think...) Morgan Gilbert elsewhere on the Forum, I've ripped the old ones off and fitted coils instead. I've yet to connect up the motor, but they do seem *much* neater than my previous wipers.
Chris Mitton wrote:I rang High Level this week and asked him what would be his solution - he told me that he can supply the "standard" 1/8" blocks with a 2mm bore (although it's not an option on his website). As that was my theoretical solution, that's what I've ordered. That means the only really tricky bit of the CSB (apart from getting the weight distribution right) will be accurately extending the carriers for the leading axle. However, the "spacesaver" blocks are still "coming soon".
Well, as the tender doesn't have to have coupling rods or other forms of mechanical chicanery underneath it, I think that I'll stick with the approach of using old Perseverance bearings. I'll be sure to post about how I get on!
Chris Mitton wrote:However, I don't think I need the narrow blocks. I've got a High Level gearbox, that the invoice swears blind is a RoadRunner Plus, for another loco (it looks much narrower than yours in the photo, though?). Having assembled the E4 frames, spacers and footplate (mostly with Blutack as yet!), I've convinced myself that I can get a Road Runner (but not a Road Runner Plus) between the axleboxes. The spacers are 15.18 mm wide, which with 18thou frames gives a gnat's whisker over 16mm frame width, and according to my maths leaves just enough sideplay to get through a B6 turnout (I've decided to treat the E4, suspension-wise, as a 0-6-0). The J15 (which appears to come from much older artwork) is a horse of a different colour, though - the allegedly P4 frame spacers supplied, which also serve for EM (!), are only about 13.8 wide. I think I'll adapt some from Jeremy's Stores, which are as near as dammit 15 mm. wide. Thanks for the warning!
I'll look forward to hearing how it goes together in practice. Your approach sounds good.
Chris Mitton wrote:I was also fascinated by your (and Will's) musings on GER stations (threatening to turn this thread into a GER love-in, and why not?) - especially Wells-Next-The-Sea. My own layout, being built painfully slowly, is based on Framlingham (but relocated to the Fens so it can be GE and GN Joint, for the usual personal history reason!).
It's *our* modelling, so why not relocate it? I'd always aim to produce something that is enjoyable and representative, whilst following prototype practice, rather than perfectly reproduced but dull and tedious. The former approach is the way of Pendon, after all...
Chris Mitton wrote:Has anyone thought of Halstead? Not strictly GER - the Colne Valley and Halstead stayed aloof until LNER days - but IIRC as the headquarters of a small independent railway it had everything, up to and including a loco works, crammed into a relatively compact site.
Hmmm... I hadn't thought of that. A quick check of my library shows that I have almost no reference to it either. The top photo here
http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/h/halstead/index.shtml shows that it looks like a busy little place.
Perhaps with some further research... I wonder if it ever had a brewery
Flymo