Tullygrainey

Ah, but did you remember to plug it in?

Patrick, you’re a musician and a multi-instrumentalist. Of course you’ve got fine motor skills! Just think of a soldering iron as an instrument that produces heat rather than sound

A pair of absolute charmers. Lovely work.

That’s not cheating, that’s pragmatism

Yes Patrick, brakes touching wheels would certainly cause a short, hence the big, safe gap but I think I could shrink it a bit without causing mayhem

No.9 wearing most of her jewellery. Could do with a little less space between brakes and wheels. Bits variously sourced from Roxey Mouldings (safety valves), Wizard Models (smokebox door and handle) and Smallbrook Studio (dome) but the chimney was made by the now traditional method - brass tube, a washer, lots of solder and a Black & Decker Alan

Ah, lovely. Looking forward to seeing this little gem restored to life. That little throwaway line "Made some new coupling rods this morning" caught my eye David. Marking out a chassis using a set of coupling rods is fairly straightforward but making rods to fit an existing chassis is trickier. Tell us more...

Very glad to hear that David!

Some detail added to No.9 while the stormy winds blew outside. Lamp irons (scratch), vacuum pipes (Gibson) and steps (More Iain Rice designed etches from Wizard). Earlier, when I wasn't looking, this happened... Absolute pain to fix neatly. The fitter responsible has been sent back to soldering school for the rest of the week. This will probably need filler No.9 now has pickups on the driving wheels - 31 swg phosphor bronze wire bearing on the wheel treads. I'd rather make the contact on the wheel flanges from above but that's been nearly impossible to arrange on this one without risking them shorting on the running plate or clashing with the brake hangers which still need to be added. Having said that, my model of BCDR No.6 has the same arrangement as this and has been reliable. So far. Trial run under DC - shuffling along nicely. IMG_6056.MOV Chips soon. Alan

Your layout looks the business John. Great lineup of stock. Glad it all went well and you enjoyed the show.

Masterclass David and a persuasive incentive, if one were needed, for some of us to consider moving up to 7mm scale! Fully agree with you about Gordon's book. Full of brilliant ideas though I've struggled on occasion to implement some in the smaller scale. My efforts have ended up looking heavy-handed or just overscale.

Hi Tony, When you say there's plenty of power, I'm assuming you mean track power to make the trains move. It's likely your points motors have a separate power supply (?) so the first thing to check is whether that power supply is working and is delivering power to the points. How's it connected to the layout? Could it be something simple like a wire coming adrift at the source? Points are often wired with a separate feed to each motor but a common return wire daisy-chaining from motor to motor and back to the PSU. Given that all the points have failed, the trouble could be a bad connection somewhere in this common return. Hope you get it sorted. These sorts of things can be very frustrating! Alan

The chassis for No.9 is finally wheeled up and the rods are on. Rolls smoothly under finger power - first hurdle cleared. Crankpin nuts tightened up. Still rolling smoothly - second hurdle negotiated. Motor fitted and power applied - hurdle three behind us! IMG_6042.MOV Meanwhile, the bodywork is coming along. The smokebox wrapper/saddle was a pig to attach as usual, the main difficulty being getting enough heat into the job whilst trying to keep things straight and tightly wrapped. Destroyed 2 in the process. I have now embossed about a million rivets. By contrast, the clash between smokebox and front wheels mentioned in the previous post was easier to fix than I expected. Just needed a sliverette (of course that's a word) clipped off the rear edges of the saddle thus ... ... and it's all more or less hidden behind the splashers. Some cutting and filing got the motor/gearbox to fit inside without too much having to be removed from the boiler bottom. Drive to the front axle and a compensation beam between the other two... ... and this is progress to date. Chassis now needs brakes and pickups but that's a trauma for another day Alan

This has all come together beautifully David. And what a great collection of motive power! Especially love that little Wantage Tank.

Knew you'd spot it!

Tanks for No.9. Nickel silver with 0.7mm brass beading and 0.45mm brass handrails. I think modelling Irish locos in OO 16.5mm gauge is finally about to jump up and bite me. The smokebox is due to get another wrapper, including the saddle linking it to the running plate and I suspect that the front wheels and the saddle both want to claim the same bit of real estate. Pushing on regardless. I foresee terrible trouble but I stay here just the same, as someone once said. Alan

BCDR Baltic

They look grand Derek. The camera generally shows things the naked eye never sees. The Two Foot Rule rules

What a beauty!

Moving forward again with No.9. First, a cab flatpack in 16 thou nickel silver. A jolly afternoon spent with piercing saw and files, listening to the rain on the roof window. The window surrounds on the cab front sheet came from this lovely Mainly Trains etch (MT226) designed by Iain Rice and available from Wizard Models. Bunker bits. More nickel silver and some embossed rivet detail. Boiler rolled from a rectangle of 10 thou brass... Firebox end has 3 additional layers with the front edge contoured. The smokebox will get another layer to incorporate the smokebox saddle. Given that this one will be driven on the front axle, I'll need to keep clearance for the gearbox. Haven't quite sorted this yet. Travelling hopefully Alan

Windows can make or break a model building. Good ones really pull everything together. Those look great John. And I can see the sash frames!

I think it's worth paying a little extra for decent piercing saw blades. I've found that the cheaper ones are harder to control and the cut tends to drift sideways. I always buy Vallorbe blades now - grades 2, 4 and 6 - the bigger the number the finer the cut.

I could've left the running plate as it was - scratch building in 4mm is full of compromises, a track gauge of 16.5mm being not the least of those - but I knew it would bother me so, biting the bullet and ladling on the flux, the valances came off again. Not particularly neatly. New shaped valances made up and soldered in. Bending that 1.5mm square brass rod is no joke, even after annealing it. Running plate shaped to match and cleaned up. Shuffling forward quietly and pretending it never happened Alan

Ah John, I play safe. After scribing guide lines, I drill holes near each corner and cut inboard of the lines with the piercing saw. No need to be too precise (first photo). Then I file up to the lines using needle files (second photo).

Spoke too soon! Looking again at the Casserley photo in Leslie's post above, the running plate narrows ahead of the tanks. Bu**er.