Tullygrainey

Thanks David. The High Level gearboxes are wonderful little devices and I nearly always use them but they do need careful building. I think we've all managed to get glue in the wrong place at least once. And those grub screws seem to have a life of their own. I lost one earlier in this build and against all the odds, found it again by trawling the carpet with a magnet!

The BCDR 2-4-2T progresses slowly. I soldered guard irons and brake hangers to the chassis - all a bit of a faff because they should've been done before the gearbox went in and the wheels went on. Anyway, after all the mucking about I checked the chassis was still running ok. Was it? Nope! One half revolution of the wheels and it seized up. Couldn't see what the problem was at first but eventually traced it to this... Seems I'd been waving the soldering iron around like Harry Potter's wand and managed to melt some teeth on the final drive gear without even noticing. Clumsy? One yeah! Minus 1000 brownie points and no supper. Luckily, High Level sell spares and in the meantime, I borrowed a replacement from an unbuilt gearbox in the to-do drawer to keep this project on the rails. Next up, the running plate, made from 15 thou brass sheet. In common with the later BCDR bogie tanks, the running plate on the 2-4-2T narrows just ahead of the water tanks. This is No 30 at Cultra. What should have been a simple rectangle ended up taking a lot longer to do and involved filing a bit out of one flange on the 1.5x1.5mm brass angle strip used for the valances so it could be bent. The end result is more or less symmetrical but since you won't be able to look at both sides of the finished loco at the same time ... Buffer beams are two thicknesses of 15 thou brass. Now I look at that last photo, I can see a pickup wire being stand-offish with its wheel. I'll give it a severe tweezering later. Alan

Whilst granite quarrying in the Mournes was extensive and some of the quarries are sizeable, there's nothing on the scale of the Welsh slate quarries you mention but the challenge of getting stone down the hillside would have been much the same. It didn't occur to me to measure the gauge but 3ft probably wouldn't be far from the mark. As far as I know, extensive quarrying in the area mostly ceased in the 1950s though small quantities are still occasionally taken at various sites. Carr's Face is best approached from Bloody Bridge (where some of the mountains sweep down to the sea). About a 2 hour walk, at my pace anyway

It's easy to miss this stuff unless, like me, you're looking for it

Not a locomotive in sight but this does involve rails. A sunny day today took me to the Mourne Mountains for a wander. This is Carr's Face. It's one of many sites in the Mournes where granite was once quarried. The diagonal slash up the slope is a railway used to transport stone down to the quarry track in the valley. Some rails and sleepers are still in place... ... and one of the wagons. It looks like a classic gravity system with the weight of the descending loaded wagons pulling the empty ones up, though there are pulleys and winches at top and bottom. Three rails at the top, with the centre rail common to up and down movement. Half way down, the centre rail spits into two, creating 4 rails and allowing wagons moving in opposite directions to pass one another. Seems to reduce to a single track near the bottom. I first came here about 20 years ago. Nothing much has changed in the interim. A grand day out. Alan

Brilliant! I love the blending of fact and believable fiction to create a coherent system. Rewritten history or not, it's still more logical than my scattergun approach - "I think I'll build... hmmm... that" (points finger at random photograph of locomotive). I'll enjoy watching this take shape David. Best of luck with it.

Eight wheels on my wagon now. The London Road Models radial trucks slot into guides soldered to the chassis frames and are prevented from falling out by short lengths of brass wire underneath. The trucks slide from side to side in a gentle arc. A length of 0.33mm brass wire soldered to a frame spacer at one end and slotted into a tab in the middle of the radial truck acts to centre it. It also provides some downforce. Pickups on the coupled wheels are 31swg phosphor bronze wire soldered to a bit of gapped PCB epoxied across the frames. A first run through the points on Loughan Quay looks fairly promising. All the wheels are turning in the right direction despite the video evidence. Honest. IMG_0122.MOV It's spinning its driving wheels in places but the addition of some weight and a bit of tweaking of the truck springs should improve things. All in all, it's performing better out of the traps than I expected. I think this might work! Onward and upward Alan

Absolutely agree. If it works, it's not wrong

Meathdane's advice is sound. You will only need one pair of bus wires. Received wisdom suggests that, for reliability, each piece of track should have droppers to the bus wires to avoid relying on rail joiners for connectivity. Received wisdom also says it's wise to keep droppers as short as possible so this will dictate where you route your bus wires. This always involves some compromise but looking at your layout, a horseshoe shape a bit inboard of your inner oval might be a good arrangement. The odd long dropper is neither here nor there, as long as the connections are sound. How are you planning to connect your dropper wires to the track? Good luck with your project, Alan

Happy modelling Denis

That’s coming along nicely David. There can’t be many examples of model locos being converted then converted back again (unconverted?)

Thank you George. Because it's a small layout - the scenic area is only 4 ft x 2 ft - it's possible to add a fair bit of detail without it requiring half a lifetime.

A quiet social life as well as nothing much on TV of an evening

That's just perfect!

Thanks for these David. The London Road radial trucks seem to follow a similar principle but implemented differently. They're intended to have a central wire which encourages them to self-centre but they may need optional spring wires either side to provide downward pressure and stop them tilting. This is Iain Rice's take on it. Fiddly and a tight squeeze in 4mm. Image: Copyright Wild Swan Publications Ltd.

Well, this bit works at least, despite the video making it appear as if the wheels are turning in the opposite direction from the rods! Trick of the tech. no7.MOV Had the usual trouble getting the crankpins in straight. I think they must all be at the same 'not quite straight' angle because the chassis rolled smoothly under finger power right from the off. The chassis got a coat of Halfords etch primer followed by matt black before the wheels went on. Wheels were a very tight fit on the axles - so tight the wheel press couldn't push them on first time and they had to be gently reamed. The radial trucks next. They'll be a bigger challenge I think. Four wheels on my wagon Alan

Absolutely. It can be very satisfying when you do. Go for it John!

Yep, that works better than an all-red cab. Plan C for me too then!

I would certainly buy 4mm etches for the BCDR 2-4-0 No 6. Am also tempted by the J26 and the GNR(I) JT class. And if we could stretch a point include the BCDR 6 wheel state coach, I'd have one of those for sure! Alan

Another little jewel from the High Level stable. This is a RoadRunner 60:1

You've made a fine job of that David. A terrific might-have-been. I remember reading your posts on the original build and being mightily impressed. I wanted one, even though I hadn't anything to run it on. The red and cream livery blends it nicely with the railcars but if we're taking a vote, I think I might favour an all red cab.

only by coincidence I suspect. It’s what was left in the paint-shop after a certain Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0ST was outshopped.

Probably one of the longer lived ones Patrick - No 7 which apparently came to grief in an accident at Queen's Quay in 1949 or No 27 which was scrapped around 1951. Livery options include: a) Vauxhall Burgundy Red, because I've got the paint b) GNR(I) unlined black, so it can sneak in undetected at Brookhall Mill c) Some variation of BCDR lined green Probably c)

After the distractions of industrial railways, both standard and narrow gauge, it’s back to the County Down. After much pondering, I’m going to have a go at one of the BCDR’s 2-4-2T tank locomotives. Beyer Peacock supplied two of these in 1896 and 4 more in 1897. Before long they were edged out by the more common and more successful 4-4-2T bogie tanks. The first one was scrapped in 1924 but some were still working in 1949. Deciding how best to build a 2-4-2 chassis, I rummaged through my collection of guru advice. In Mike Sharman’s little booklet “Flexichas”, there is an elegant design with a floating gearbox cradle and compensated pony trucks each end. Elegant but complicated. I closed the book and tiptoed quietly away. Iain Rice’s “Locomotive Kit Chassis Construction” has a photo (page 48) of a 2-4-2 chassis with radial trucks at each end. That might be do-able and it might steer better than simple axles with sideways movement at each end. So here we go. As usual, I started with the rods. I used an Alan Gibson universal rods etch (4M92) and a little jig made from PCB and brass rod to make sure both rods were the same length. (If they’re not, game over) I’m going to try these radial truck etches from London Road Models. Received wisdom suggests that the chassis needs to be narrowed at each end to allow the trucks to do their thing. This usually means joggling the frames. On a kit with nice half-etched lines for folding, maybe. On a scratch build and in my hands, I could see disaster looming with the likelihood of chassis frames bent in all sorts of unhelpful directions. My solution is frames made up in 3 flat parts with the end sections overlapping and fastened inside the centre section. Even this was difficult enough to build straight. More jigs. OO chassis spacers for the centre section and narrower 10mm ones for the end sections. For the coupled wheels, one fixed axle and one with hornblocks. Poppy Woodtech chassis jig pulling its weight again. Remains to be seen if I can make this work. But nice to be back on the County Down Alan

Kadee couplings proved their worth over the weekend, allowing hands-free delayed uncoupling. Kadees.mov