Tullygrainey

Stellar job! Totally convincing.

Great jobs both. Proper model making!

There's a surprising amount of free space inside this Hunslett so a sound installation looked feasible. The sound chip was hardwired with all the joins covered with heat shrink sleeving. The speaker wires are connected to the chip via a mini-plug & socket arrangement which will allow the speaker to be permanently mounted and un-plugged if/when the chassis needs to come out. Testing the wiring. Despite a 50:50 chance of getting it right first time, I invariably wire the motor terminals the wrong way round so that it runs backwards with the controller set for forwards. Easily fixed but irritating. IMG_5818.MOV Yes, it all fits. The speaker is in the cab where the backhead should be (can't be seen) and the chip and stay-alive capacitor are in the boiler. IMG_5827.MOV Paint next. Alan

Cleans up nicely does Hunslett But nothing like a coat of primer to show up where the filler needs to go. I must have squandered about half a mile of brass rod getting those handrails the way I wanted them. I'm never entirely happy mounting chassis with bolts front and back, given the chance that tightening both could twist the chassis. So this one has a bolt at the back and this little bit of bent 1mm brass rod at the front which locates into a slightly oversize hole in the front chassis spacer. Chips soon Alan

It’s very clean!

A rare sighting at Loughan Quay this evening. No idea how it strayed here but the station master at Clogherhead said the 22.15 from Drogheda didn't come through. IMG_5799.MOV The locals aren't sure what to make of it.

Thanks. Does doesn't it!

Hunslett now has pickups. 31swg phosphor bronze wire shaped to hook over the wheel flanges at the top. Since @Northroader (I think) suggested this method somewhere a while ago, I've been using it and it works well. The hook keeps the pickup wire in place and there are two possible contact areas - wheel flange and wheel back - to keep things moving along. Each brake hanger has 2 bits soldered together. The RSU did this job very neatly Brake rigging is 0.45mm brass rod The whole nine yards - pickups, brakes and sand pipes. Phew! Trial run under DC at Loughan Quay. Bodywork isn't secured yet. IMG_5771.MOV Hardly any burnt fingers today Alan

I've always found cab roofs difficult. Should they be removable or not. If you solder them as the instructions for this kit suggest, it can make painting the inside of the cab or adding a crew difficult/impossible. If you paint first, then soldering becomes difficult with the possibility of damaging the paint. The way this particular kit has gone together, soldering from the inside isn't possible anyway so in this case, removable looks like the better option. I have used clips on some locos in the form of springy wires soldered at each corner on the underside of the roof. These slide into the corners of the cab and hold the roof in place. It's effective but tricky to do well and mine are not always entirely secure. I've lost count of the number of times at exhibitions I've noticed daylight showing between cab top and roof. I've also used the following slightly more secure solution on some builds. A strip soldered across the cab at roof level, either front to back or side to side contains a captive nut. A hole in the cab roof allows a bolt (14BA c/s in this case) to screw into this pulling the cab roof down tight. The bolt head is then concealed by a dummy ventilation hatch BluTacked or Tacky Waxed in place. I know these Hunsletts didn't have cab roof hatches - there are ventilation flaps front and back of the cab - but mine had one fitted after the loco was bought from the MSC by the well known (to me anyway) Belfast engineering concern of Sprocket, Layshaft and Moonshine Ltd for use in their private sidings complex. Well, it's my railway Alan

More Hunslett. The boiler came pre-rolled and also had a cutaway to clear the gearbox/motor. It just needed tightened and seamed. Adding the smokebox was the usual struggle to get sufficient heat into the job. The front sandboxes are complicated little items but BluTack and brass rods held everything together for soldering. The rods were then trimmed back. High Level Minispinner gearbox checked for any glitches. Worm gear was fouling the final drive cog causing clicketty running so it got moved up the motor shaft a fraction which cured the problem. Smooth as silk now. Not sure how much welly these little can motors have but we'll soon see. Crankpins fitted to wheels and for once I think I got them all in straight. It's worth spending time on these, countersinking the hole at the back of the wheel and thread-locking the pins. I've had crankpins wind themselves out before now, meaning the wheels had to come off again to fix it. The axle holes in the wheels also get countersunk and the axle ends chamfered before the GW wheel press does the job of fitting and quartering the wheels. What a brilliant device! Rods on and a little reaming of the holes to get rid of tight spots. Rolls freely under finger power. Another bridge crossed! Lots of detail still to add but it's beginning to look like a loco. The tanks are full of lead. The boiler is just trial fitted for now. I'll have to confront pickups soon Alan

I didn't know about the sugar trick but I tried it on the current build. Seems to work well. Certainly gets into corners the old toothbrush can't reach! Sweet talking my way to a clean machine..

Ah that’s a puzzle solved! I was struggling to make sense of the 2 pics together

A busy spot indeed. Looking very fine Patrick. We don’t often get a view of the road side of the station building.

What's the location for the ones above? The road vehicles in that last one also caught my eye - there seems to be a line-up of MGBs and/or Midgets.

I do believe it is. Thanks for sourcing the photos.