Tullygrainey

Another Hunslett shunter on the bench, an 0-6-0 side tank from CSP Models this time. Like the Hawthorn Leslie that began this thread, it's a 4mm version of a former Agenoria 7mm kit. Superstructure in brass with some very fine lost wax brass castings, chassis in nickel silver. Everything needed to build the kit is here which saves shopping around - various gauges of wire and rod, handrail knobs, even copper clad strip for pickups. Couldn't ask for more. Wheels from Gibson, gearbox from High Level. The supplied motor looks like ones I've seen on the Tramfabriek website. Gearbox is a Minispinner+, a recent addition to the range and a new one on me. It's a cut down version of High Level's RoadRunner Compact+ which takes up even less space. There are two sets of frames and two sets of coupling rods to choose from, allowing different versions to be built. Just as well because I destroyed one of the rods (broke an end off - does this sound familiar?) while soldering up the laminations so had to use the other set. Managed to get those done without further mishap. The instructions describe a rigid chassis with drive to the middle axle but I'm building it compensated with drive to a fixed rear axle and hornblocks on the other two. The frames have half-etched lines to help get the cutouts in the right place. A compensation beam will be needed so that's been made from two thicknesses of scrap nickel silver etch. With its edge touching the two axles, a pivot point is drilled through it and into the frames. Frames ready for assembly and the compensation beam tidied up. Enough for one day. More soon. Alan

I couldn't possibly comment

Looking good! Magic too. Goes by itself. No crew, no coal

Kilmore had an outing to the Ulster Model Railway Club exhibition at Dundonald High School this weekend. Very enjoyable two days. Many thanks to the UMRC for a well organised show. The new venue seemed to work well. I've posted some photographs in the 'What's On' section. Thanks as always to Kieran Lagan for sharing running duties. Between us we managed to keep trains moving throughout the 2 days without any major dramas. The odd derailment and a few decoupling moments were about the extent of it. We're still getting the hang of the Gaugemaster Infinity controller which didn't help us by refusing to power up first thing on the second day and then wiping the loco roster from its memory when it did. Operator error maybe. However the BlueTooth did mean we could operate the layout from some nearby soft chairs when the oul legs began to give out. IMG_5619.MOV

Many thanks to the UMRC for a really enjoyable show. Great venue, great layouts. Some photos from the two days...

Hunslett just about done, bar a crew and coal load IMG_5559.MOV

Hunslett is just about ready for paint. Tank not quite seated properly in these pics. IMG_5507.MOV Another one from the roster. A Drewry diesel with a High Level chassis kit under a Dapol plastic kit body with extra detailing. Mashima motor, Gibson wheels.

Cheering for you here Darius. Hang in there.

Two more shunters from the roster, these with Irish connections. H&W Harlandic 0-6-0 DM in its final UTA days and a Ruston and Hornsby 0-4-0 DM, a nod to the ex-CSE loco currently with the RPSI at Whitehead. Both built from Judith Edge kits. If you're wondering why the the 3-link couplings on the front of the locos are defying gravity, there's an uncoupling magnet under the track just there

Beautiful runner

A brilliant job, from beginning to end. And speedy too! A credit to you.

The Hunslett gets brakes. What a fiddly job. Half way through. Rigging is 0.45mm brass rod. Easier to cut things over length and trim back after the soldering is done. No short circuits. Yay!! Some lead weight tucked between the frames front and back. There's more lead secreted in the saddle tank too. Since the boiler is largely covered by the tank and won't be seen, there was nothing stopping me from cutting lumps out of the top. So I did. More elbow room for the motor/gearbox which is mounted on a floating axle and needs to move about a little bit. Pickups fitted (31swg phosphor bronze wire) with flying leads... ... and a chip hardwired into place - a Layout Concepts (DCC Concepts as was) ZN8H.2 with the 8 pin plug cut off. It's a fairly tight squeeze but it works ok. The blue, black and white wires are intended for a stay-alive but I doubt there'll be room for one. The smallest I have just fails to fit inside the smokebox or anywhere else for that matter so I may just trim those wires back. More work still to do on the bodywork, including adding all the resin cast bits but it's always encouraging to get the little beast running. It'll also need a good scrub before any paint goes on! Alan

Great work. Love to see step by step pictures of a build. Keep posting!

It can be challenging for sure but very satisfying when it goes well. Even when it doesn't, it can be an incentive to try harder and the satisfaction comes from solving the problems (or taking a hammer to the insoluble ones - just joking, there's always a solution). In actual fact, it's likely that visitors often don't notice that you're having a bad time because many don't spend long observing any one exhibit. And if nothing is moving on the layout they just pass on to the next exhibit, leaving you to have your nervous breakdown unnoticed