Tullygrainey

I've been following this one with interest Mol. You're making great (and rapid) progress. The most flexible approach to offering a chassis for OO builders might be to adopt the common method of fully etching axle bearing holes for all axles but also providing half-etched guides for horn block cutouts. That way, builders can choose how best to motorise. If you also included brackets for the Fleischmann chassis, you've covered all the bases. Alan

I’ve no experience of building in 7mm apart from one diminutive narrow gauge scratch-build and a few O:16.5 conversions using proprietary OO chassis but I’ve recently had a chance to look quite closely at a variety of standard gauge 7mm locomotives, both kit-built and scratch-built. What I’ve seen suggests to me that while 4mm work can be described as model making, some of the work that I’ve seen in 7mm approaches miniature engineering, especially when it comes to things like suspension systems, gearboxes and working inside motion. Respect! Alan

The long and the short of it. One of the inspirations for the building of No.6 in 4mm and a source of many clues and references was this 7mm version built by Tony Ragg using the Alphagraphix kit as the basis. Contrasting interpretations of BCDR green!

The joys of a garden railway! Challenges that we indoor modellers never have to deal with. Our vegetation never grows any bigger and the weather hardly ever changes. Impressive stuff and that photograph of the electronic circuitry compartment with your 4mm loco projects in the background gives some indication of just how big these 1:20.3 models are. A whole different experience! Alan

Thanks for a great day Patrick. And who knew we could get sound out of No6 on DC! Really chuffed

I must admit I tend to wrap the chip in masking tape and cover all joints with heatshrink sleeving but it’s all too easy to trap a wire and break through the insulation when bolting everything together.

Thank you John. I wonder what caused your chips to fry. That sounds like very bad luck.

Ha Ha, thanks Leslie. Yes, I knew I was winging it with this one but came to the same conclusion. For the time being, number 6 is impersonating a LSWR Beattie Well Tank. Have you been talking to @Patrick Davey? He's lined me up to build the BCDR ex-Royal Saloon next. He'll be packing me off to Downpatrick with a tape measure any day

I'm still trying to work out whether the two items in the centre of the picture are oil cans, teapots or mugs.

Finally got to the end of lining out No.6 (breathes huge sigh of relief). Some small details have also been added - whistle, safety valves, tender springs - and a bit of light weathering done. Compared to the BCDR tank locos where the large tanks could be filled with lead, there is a lot less space in this one to stow extra weight. However, putting the DCC gubbins in the tender freed up the boiler for this. Arranging things this way means having 4 wires running between loco and tender - 2 for the pickups and 2 for the motor. If the wires are too stiff as they were in my first attempts, they tend to interfere with the reliable tracking of the ensemble. Fine wire of the sort usually connected to DCC chips does the job ok. A pair micro sockets, one connected to the motor and one to the pickups are glued under the loco chassis at the back and flying leads from the tender plug into these. The lack of backhead detail is very evident in the above view. My excuse is that I wasn't sure what it should look like so as usual, the crew have the extra task of hiding the evidence, or lack of it. Also very evident is how ridiculously out of scale 16.5mm gauge is. I'm going to have to give up on OO one of these days. Even with extra weight inside the tender, there was still a wealth of free space so I decided to try a sound chip for this one. The chip, speaker and stay-alive capacitor are all secreted in the tender. It still needs some detailing and a coal load in the tender. That left side number plate needs straightened too but all in all I think it's just about done. A run at Loughan Quay. No 6.mov

Interesting idea David. I suspect the challenge would be making the shaft connection between loco and tender flexible enough to allow the combination to track properly. With my current project, the BCDR 2-4-0, I've placed the DCC chip in the tender so as to allow more room for weight in the loco. This requires 4 wires between loco and tender (2 x pickups, 2 x motor). In my first attempt, the wires were too stiff and interfered with the tracking of the tender - front wheels were clear of the rails on occasion. Finer wire solved the problem. The old method employed by Hornby - motor in the tender driving the tender wheels with a passive loco simply along for the ride - might be easier to do. Having said that though, in my experience, putting hornblocks on the front carriers and the front drivers and a compensation beam between them - effectively treating the 2-4-0 as an 0-6-0 - seems to address any issues of balance pretty effectively. A bit harder to do with a 4-4-0 where a bogie is involved but not impossible.

Another of the occasional visitors that turn up at Loughan Quay from time to time, this is UTA, ex-NCC, U2 4-4-0 No. 80 "Dunseverick Castle" rebuilt at some point in its career by CME Colm Flanagan. Last seen at Knockloughrim on the Derry Central line during a recent cold spell, it's not clear how it got here but we gave the crew a cup of tea, oiled the axle boxes while they were drinking it and sent them on their way. IMG_1732.MOV

Aye! Ye can't trust them oul synthetic fabrics. That acrylic stuff isn't a patch on a good wool worsted. Yer man was sold a pup when he bought thon suit. I suppose they told him it was linen.

Well spotted! You'd think a man in his position could afford a new suit. Sure that oul thing is out at the knees. And the elbows.

Storm Éowyn kept me and most others indoors on Friday so I got on with lining out Number 6. It helped to distract me from the noise of the roof tiles doing Mexican waves. It seems that with a little perseverance and the judicious application of Decalfix, straight lines can be made to bend quite well. So, dodging the bow pen so far... Alan

A masterpiece Patrick. You've excelled yourself with this one!

A perfect parallel universe. Love it!

You're right. There isn't room for hornblocks on the rear axle. As I understand it, the QuadDrivers are designed to provide 3-point compensation - one axle running in fixed bearings and the articulated arm permitting the other axle to rock on a central longitudinal beam. QuadDrivers come as part of the package in Judith Edge kits for Ruston 4wheel shunters and also some RT Models kits and that's how they're deployed in these. That photo of mine shows the arrangement for the Ruston. I'm not a great fan of rigid chassis but that's just me! Alan

Measured at the point where the articulated arm overlaps the main body, the QuadDriver is around 11.5mm wide. The axle bearings add a bit more but these can be filed flush on the outside if necessary.

If you'd be prepared to drive only 2 of the 3 axles, I'd recommend considering High Level's range of QuadDriver kits which come in a variety wheelbases, one of which might be right for your project. You'll find them in the Bogies section on the High Level site. https://www.highlevelkits.co.uk/bogies The one described as "Planet Power Unit" is similar and works in the same way. They all enable 4-wheel drive as well as some compensation. They need to be built into a chassis but that can simply be a pair of basic frames. I used the Planet version to build a model of the Belfast & County Down's 6 wheel uncoupled diesel electric No.2 a while back. It drives on the front and centre axles and runs well. As it happens, the prototype drove on only two axles too. IMG_6189.m4v If it's useful, you'll find an account of the build here: I like the sound of your project. Good luck with it. Alan

The 'Lists' option on the Mousa Models website allows you to see other items not listed in the main sections but mostly available to order. One of the 'hidden' categories is Irish coach etches specifically NCC, GNR(I) and BCDR. You need to be registered with the site to see these lists. I was able last year to order kits for BCDR 6 comp 3rds by emailing my order to Mousa.

Excellent! Another recruit to the burnt fingers club. Looking good JB

Welcome to the forum Ben and best of luck with your layout plans. That's a big, broad question so it's hard to know where to start with an answer. If you're an experienced railway modeller trying out a new scale, then you already know most of what's laid out below but if you're just starting out in the hobby, then I hope some of the following will be useful. Please read on... There's a wealth of advice and examples of good practice buried in this forum so I would suggest as a first step that you spend some time exploring what's here. If you follow some of the threads in the 'Irish Model Layouts' section for example, you'll get an idea of how others have tackled what you're embarking on. It will undoubtedly confirm some of what you already know about the job but also point to other things you might not have thought of. That will help you refine the sorts of questions you need to ask to help you with your build. And do ask questions. It's been my experience that the folk who hang out here are friendly, knowledgeable and very willing to share that knowledge freely. Whatever the question, someone here knows the answer. A bit of planning before jumping into laying track will stand you in good stead. Think about what region, era and type of layout you want ( for example, Irish? British? Continental? Passenger? Goods? Industrial?) and how you want it to operate (Round'n'round? Terminal station to fiddle yard? Shunting yard? etc). Spend a bit of time drawing track plans. Drawing these full size (in your case N gauge) on wallpaper lining paper will give you a good idea of what works and what doesn't. The Peco website has downloadable templates for their various bits of track which can be printed out and used for this purpose. https://peco-uk.com/collections/track-plan-sheets/n-9mm As a general rule, we all start out thinking big but often find as we go along that what we aspire to is out of reach for one reason or another. The spare room isn't big enough. The time it would take is longer than we've got. The piggy bank isn't big enough either. Whatever. By all means think big but be prepared to slim down your aspirations as you progress - and don't regard that as a failure. It's part of the learning process on the way to getting the layout built. There are lots more specifics that you'll encounter as you get further down the road with this but whatever you do, take your time and enjoy each stage. Again, best of luck, Alan

Thanks David. Yes, it is a watershed moment. This is the stuff I use. Halfords stock it. Strips paint very effectively but will also dissolve some plastics! I clean the airbrush with it too.

It's that time again... Paint! There were a few hiccups and in keeping with tradition, the cellulose thinners was deployed at least once thanks to some ham-fisted work with the airbrush. However, I'm confident that before the decade is out, I will have figured out how to work it. Here's No.6 before the paint flew, scrubbed up and with most of its fussy bits loosely attached. Then a rattlecan coat of Halfords etch primer. Next, an undercoat of Tamiya acrylic black applied with the airbrush. I didn't use the rivet press for the smokebox so these rivets are Railtec 3D resin transfers. Topcoats of Tamiya acrylic dark green XF70. Airbrush again. I don't bother wearing a mask when airbrushing because mostly I stop breathing. The lining will be a challenge on this one because there are curves that won't be possible using transfers. Can ordinary mortals master a bow pen? How long does it take? Drop me a line, Alan