David Holman

Progressing well & should certainly be a nice runner with that chassis. A bit quicker than an etched kit methinks[!], but resin is the ideal medium for the complex shapes of diesel locos. Will look forward to seeing the paint job.

Very smart & crisp modelling

Every time I think I'm ready to start putting pieces together, I realise there is something else that needs doing first. However, this is the additional challenge of scratch building - though there are kits where it can pay to see what additional detail may be needed too. In the case of Sir Henry, realised that though I'd made the outer parts of the cab, tanks and bunkers, I hadn't sorted out how they fitted with the inner pieces, hence some further cutting and riveting required. In addition, because I'm using 10 thou [0.25mm] thick brass for the tanks and bunker, these need some reinforcing to keep their shape. Found some thicker brass strip in the scrap box and after tinning it first, got my truster RSU out to attach to the sides. Got mine several years ago, but I think Swanage Models may still sell them. Comparable in price to a temperature controlled unit, so not cheap... For those who haven't come across this, a resistance soldering unit works in a different way to a conventional iron. As you can see from the pictures, it comprises several parts - the main power box, a metal plate, a carbon probe and a foot switch. The probe and metal plate have leads which are plugged into the power box. This has several sockets to give different outputs, from 1 volt to 4.5 volts. Doesn't sound much but the higher outputs can literally vaporise small items if you are not careful! In this instance the cab/bunker rear is laid on the metal plate, then the reinforcing strip [already tinned & fluxed], placed in position. The carbon probe is pressed on the latter, which holds it in place and then the foot switch is used to apply power. Heating is almost instantaneous. Foot off the switch and hold the probe in place till the solder cools & job done. Not applicable for all soldering jobs, but very useful for some, including adding fine details/overlays etc - as long as you turn the power down. Photos also show the assembled bunker & cab rear on the footplate. Would like to say this didn't take long, but made a mess of the cab rear initially [not straight or central!] but didn't notice until I had the other parts on, so had to unsolder & start again. Even then the join is not perfect, though at this stage, it is just tack soldered in place till I'm happy with the overall way things sit. Stuff happens [or something like that, as the Bhuddists say] and at this stage of a model it is crucial to get basic alignments correct or it could end up throwing the whole model out of line later. Occasionally have to remind myself, it is not a race. Likewise, always best to stop when you are going well. Doing one more job almost always means you make a horlicks of it & it needs doing again later...

Quite a beast, John - very impressive. Re painting, I've always used car body spray primer from Halfords. Not sure if you have them over the water, but am guessing there will be something similar. Grey primer is also what I use for unfitted wagons and bauxite colour for fitted ones. Before painting, always give the model a good wash. Some folk suggest a proprietary stainless steel sink cream cleaner, though washing up liquid works just as well. Important to get any flux off, plus finger marks and even grease on the resin castings. Set aside to dry [or use a hair drier if in a hurry] & double check there are no droplets of water hidden anywhere. When spraying, I do have a proper spray booth, but for short jobs am happy using a bit of wire to hang the model from & them spray it outside in the garden. Hang from a shelf to dry after. Several light coats will avoiding over spray, with resultant running/sagging of paint. If you do get any blemishes, leave overnight to dry and treat with T-cut or similar.

Spent the last few days going squiffy riveting. The GW Models press is superb for getting evenly spaced rivets, but still requires care setting up or you soon find the lines aren't as parallel as you'd wanted. Hence had to do a couple of pieces again, while the initial sides also had to be re-done because I got the spacings wrong... At least the rejects will serve as the inner tank sides, so not completely wasted. So, with well over a thousand rivets to do on the sides in the first place, I've probably almost doubled that. Not recommended. However, at least now have a basic set of parts to do the tanks and bunker - as you can see in the photos. Have included one which shows the difference between using the 7mm anvil in the press [at 1.5mm intervals] and the 4mm one at 1mm intervals. much neater methinks. The other picture is of the cab front sheet. Did this out of thicker brass, with the window surrounds done by soldering a 10 thou blank over the initial hole, the drilling & filing back. A fiddly trick taught me several years ago by Laurie Griffin in his MRJ scratch build of the Wantage Tramway loco 'Jane'. The next step before assembling the parts will be to solder stiffening strips to the back of the parts, some of which will be placed to help locate bunker and tank tops. A chance to get out the RSU [resistance soldering unit], so will hopefully show you how that works next time.

Still amazed by that photo of the turf train. What a superb piece of adaptability & as already commented, a model of such would perforce need an explanatory label. My aging, but much treasured copy of S Maxwell Hajducki's Railway Atlas of Ireland shows two Bord na Mona systems in north Mayo - Oweninny [1958] & Bangor Erris [1964]. Had the line to Belmullet been built, then perhaps this resource might have been tapped earlier & provided a reason to keep the line open into the 1950s. Sadly, can find no turf railways anywhere near Arigna & with a half decent coal supply the locals would perhaps not need the turf anyway? In 7mm scale, Alphagraphix do a range of etched brass 6 wheel coaches, plus there are their cardboard kits [with chassis available too]. This has certainly become a possible project for me, as the stock wouldn't be too difficult to construct, though a proper weathering job might take some effort and as to a turf load, I wonder what could be used in this scale? Certain types of rabbit food perhaps? Am sure the fertile mind out there will soon come up with suggestions!

What a fabulous picture! Just checked the calendar to make sure it is not April 1st... Am wondering if such a train would have run on the Sligo Leitrim? However, what prpted the question was see the turf railways on the Belmullet headland. JHB's book on Achill Island details the projected lines, so turf trains could have been a real possibility then. Food for thought!

Especially if its a Guinness JB, though it is not quite the same this side of the water.

Was turf ever carried by broad gauge lines & if so, what type of wagons were used?

P4 now proven for those that like the precision. Plenty of layouts around now that run well - certainly not the case 10 years ago in my experience. 21mm to EM standards is [i'm fairly sure] the same as FS 16.5. The crossing gaps are slightly narrower & by the by, is why some folk in 7mm scale have a track gauge of 31.2 mm. Wheel back to backs stay the same, so flange ways through the points are tighter/smoother.

Seems there are no rivet counters out there at the moment - or more to the point 'lines of rivets'. Thought I finished the horrendous job of doing the tank sides, only to find I'd put five panels of intermediate rivets instead of six... Reaction was fairly muted for once, though the word that rhymes with what rowers put their oars in was uttered at least once. However, had been increasingly feeling that the 7mm scale 'anvil' was producing rivets that were too big. So, out with some more brass sheet and spent much of the day making new tank sides, which [to my eyes at least] look neater. Probably also said something that rhymes with rugger too - though much of that and more was reserved for Saturday's debacle. No, not against the Aussies - they were just too good, it is the Wales match that rankles. So, must now transfer my allegiances to Ireland [of course, you say], though the Haikka is still my favourite piece of sporting theatre.

The layout only gets seen as still photos on the web, but at the recent Worthing Show, some video footage was taken. it can be found on http://www.railwaymodellers.com Go the the 'Wadebridge Show' section & after a few minutes of modern image, Arigna town gets some attention.

21mm [or indeed 36.75mm] definitely the way to go. Everything just looks so right for the Irish scene & as Iain Rice would say, is THE prime layout'signature' While have no experience of 4mm scale, in 7mm 'fine scale' standards work perfectly well. OK the flange/crossing clearances are over scale compared to S7, but Arigna Town sees no derailments other than operator error & this is with Code 100 rail [as opposed to 124] as well. In 4mm scale, C&L point kits should make up perfectly well in 21mm gauge. As they come with blades ready machined and crossing fees already assembled, construction should be no more difficult than making a plastic kit... Can see why folk stick with 16.5mm in 4mm scale [especially the larger layouts] and as long as the viewpoint is kept at a low angle [plus using Code 75 rail], then it can look fine - as many photos on IRM show. Correct gauge really lifts things to another level though & would certainly encourage folk to have a go. Start with something small though!

In engineering terms, it borders on heresy, John. Am using 10 thou brass, so it can be cut with strong scissors. Do the same with 15 thou [likewise nickel silver], but anything over that means the fret saw. Really don't like it much, as it takes so long, which was why the frames and rods took so long to make. However, am not above using a slitting disc in my Dremel. Needs care, but much quicker! In each case, cut as close to the marked lines as I dare, then clean up with files. The 10 thou brass is probably a bit thin for 7mm scale, so am reinforcing it with scrap strips and/or L shaped angle as appropriate. Definitely recommend the rivet press. Well engineered from mild steel, have had mine for several years & though it doesn't get used a lot, it is one of those tools I would not be without.

The Worthing show went fairly well - a 6.15am start not withstanding on the Saturday morning. The venue was a modern high school, so good, flat floors - always a help. Most of the show was in the main corridor, which made a very quiet day, rather than the background noise you get in big hall. All went well on the Saturday, but I'd managed to get hold of some Track Magic for rail cleaning and though this works well, it turned out not to be a good idea to clean the wheels with the same stuff as adhesion suffered somewhat. Indeed the excursion track was inoperable with the G2 slipping to a standstill. A few other bits of remedial work are required for the next outing at Beckenham in three weeks time, including a new set of wheels for the railbus, as its drive wheels have become badly pitted. One sobering experience was driving on the A27 past the Shoreham air crash site - still very evident a month afterward.

Slow progress this week, due to other commitments. However, have managed to cut out a footplate, adding 2mm brass angle for the valances, plus spare buffer beams left over from my 'Small Tank' kits. Since then, have been experimenting with 10 thou brass for the tank and bunker sides. Like the small tanks, Sir Henry has hundreds of rivets. Was thinking that I would have to do some serious marking out to create them. However, then remembered that my GW Models rivet press, has a spacing table, which enables you to mark out rivets easily, with spacings down to 1mm or less. The first couple of attempts went a bit awry, but these will form the inner tank sides. The third attempt is good enough for one of the outer sides, so now need to get the second one done. Have cut out the pieces for the bunker sides/end, plus the tank fronts, so a fair bit of riveting is now required. unfortunately, the photo of the rivet press is too big to post, so will have another go & update soon.

There are all sorts of options for fiddle yards, but as noted above, depends on whether you want a space for 'the rest of the world', or to leave it open & scenic. A good compromise is to hide the fiddle yard behind a scenic space - maybe your branch line? The simplest/smallest fiddle yard is a 'cassette'. this might just be a removable piece of track [on a strip of plywood perhaps], or use two pieces of aluminium angle screwed to a strip of ply. One train per cassette, that you set up for each move on to the layout. Have used cassettes quite a lot, including on exhibition layouts and they do offer quite a bit a flexibility. However, perforce they need to be fairly short - maybe loco & 3-4 coaches, or the length can become unmanageable.

They look like small tension locks to me Broithe. Fairly discrete too.

Check out the Dapol Terrier W, 'tis a little gem!

Sounds splendid John. When I joined the Chatham Club in the late 1980s, the Doyen was a lovely man called Tony - a genius with tinplate. His favourite medium was empty Castrol GTX oil cans. One of his now legendary exploits was in bringing a drawing of a LSWR B4 0-4-0T down the club one week and a completed model of it the next - all cut from GTX tinplate. He also favoured 20-50 motor oil to lubricate the mechanisms of his locos, applied by hypodermic syringe - his was was diabetic. This was towards the end of that era when if you wanted anything out of the ordinary, you built it yourself. If I was starting again, then maybe I'd be sticking to RTR, but there is much satisfaction in creating something from scratch and happily the Irish scene still provides that opportunity.

Thanks John. Several people at shows have suggested the Small Tanks were long boiler types and looking at them it is hard to disagree, even though the design must have been very outdated by then. There again, there were described as primaeval! Though the wheel base of the Large Tanks is a different spacing, overall it is the same as the small ones and the more I study them, the more Similarities emerge.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]20122 Around 4 days [probably getting on for over 20 hours] work has got a rolling chassis completed for Sir Henry. Helped very much by Slaters and the Royal Mail - put in an on line order for the wheels and bearings on Friday morning & the parcel was waiting when I got home from town on Friday morning. I had a few frame spacers left over from the Small Tank kit [now with Studio Models], plus a couple of spare buffer beams too, so the former were very useful when setting up the side frames. I used some 3/16" rods through the bearings to ensure the two frames were square, then added additional pieces that I cut myself afterwards. Hazlewood and Fermanagh form useful references for each stage of this project & I'm pretty much following the same order of construction. If it works... Anyway, this morning was able to assemble the wheels, drill out the coupling rods to 2.5mm and then [with more than a degree of trepidation] see if the chassis would roll. It was a bit tight at first, but this is not because of the rods, but the rather short crankpin throw on these wheels. The only 16 spoke ones available close to scale 4'8 are 4'7.5 for a GWR 2271 pannier tank. The throw is only 10", which means the 10BA crank pin bolt head fouls the frame bearings. Out with the Dremel again to grind a bit off each bearing. Guess I could have counter sunk the bolt heads, but in the past I've found this can reduce the strength of this joint. Anyway, all seems well and the chassis rolls very smoothly with just light finger pressure. Always a very satisfying moment in loco construction, 'cos if it doesn't work at this stage, then a lot of fettling can result before you get a good runner. One other thing to note from the pictures is the small gap between the two rear drivers - just as well I stole an inch on the frames - and indeed another inch on the drivers - or they would have been perilously close. Next step will be the footplate, then I can add the rear bogie. Happily, the Gladiator Models bogie equalising kit is the original from the Northstar - it still has their logo etched on it!

Much as I would like to extend, experience has taught my my limits in terms of exhibition layouts. Plus it was built to fit in my workshop and I don't have any storesge space for more boards. That said, I could well do a couple of diesels - C, 121, G etc, so there is still some mileage in the layout. Further ahead, a kit of the Clogher Valley Sharp Stewart tanks is being released soon and I've always liked the railcars...

Sorry W, know the scale, but is it 5'3 ( 36.75mm) gauge)

Very nice indeed.