David Holman

The Slater's tank wagon continues to provide a bit of light [ish] relief from the D16. With the chassis largely complete, attention turns to the tank body. This is a finely moulded affair, but far from being user friendly as the tank is split three ways longitudinally, plus the two circular ends. As a result, a lot of care is needed, both when joining the pieces together and filing the surfaces smooth - because there is a lot of rivet detail that you don't want to damage. Work still needed here. There is also a lot of exterior strapping, but that will have to wait, as the next step is to paint and letter the tank - 'Irish Shell' - which is going to be easier before it is fitted in place. If anyone knows of suitable 7mm scale transfers, please let me know, as otherwise it is going to be done by hand.

Getting there With the addition of the chimney, dome and cab roof [the latter albeit not fixed and unpainted], the little 4-4-0 is finally taking shape. The list of things still to do is still quite lengthy, but Wolf Dog is certainly starting to look the part. Thus far, it has occupied exactly 100 days, so though I haven't worked on it every one of these, it must be pushing 200 hours of my time. Indeed, the dome and chimney have taken the best part of a week to turn on my little lathe, along with what seems endless filing to get them to sit on the boiler. The whistle is piece of 2mm brass rod, turned up in the drill, with some .8mm wire for the pipe. Nevertheless, it is really nice to get these fittings in place, because they certainly bring the loco to life. Speaking of which, it is now a runner too, with the motor gearbox fitted, together with the pick ups. This has also enabled me to add the brake blocks and secure the rigging. Today, have added the boiler band lining - a challenging process, considering I'd thought it would be pretty simple. Painted the smokebox black too, but it looked far too dense, so added some ivory white to soften it a little, while a bit of light weathering will eventually go on too. Smokeboxes were rarely clean on any loco. Stuff still to do includes the handrails, plus all the lining on the other side. Then there's the cab roof, glazing, lettering, coal in the tender rear coupling, vacuum pipe, etc, etc. No sooner do I tick something off the list, than I notice something else to do, but that's scratch building for you.

Not sure about the fast clock idea, though guess it adds an extra level of reality. However, a well known cause of late trains is other trains running late - just like the phrase 'knock on effect' in road traffic reports. For me, a sequence is the better option. You take the working timetable (real or imagined) and just run the trains in order. If shunting takes a bit longer, so be it, but you give yourself time to complete each move. Derailments, loco failures and late running can still be accommodated, while lighting controls can simulated the time of day too. However, am guessing with a computer controlled clock, you can always press the 'pause' button - something that would be handy in real life occasionally too!

Pure class.

I know a couple of people who do this stuff and seem to remember that the cost of starting a 3D print is around £800 - £1200, though I guess it very much depends on how much you want to charge per hour. What I know about CAD can be written on the back of a postage stamp with room to spare, but would think that once a file has been created, then rescaling is a simple matter. As to the cost of actually producing either an etched kit or a 3D, the former is down to the cost of the metal and the etching process and I believe is not that high, probably under £100 per unit. As to 3D printing, much will depend on the equipment used, though time is also a factor. It would certainly be interesting to know what it would cost Murphy's to turn out say a B class in 7mm scale, or N gauge for that matter. However, suspect that while an injection moulded/3D printed model would cost very little, a working chassis is another matter entirely. For example, a 7mm scale rtr wagon costs about £40. Scratch build it and wheels cost £10, couplings a fiver, buffers the same or double that, depending on type and brake gear another five to ten as well. Hence the big bit, then body is worth three fifths of five eighths of not very much! On another front, was doing a buildings demo at a show and a gent asked me if I did commissions. I told him no, but when I mentioned the locoshed on my display had taken me somewhere in the region of 80 to 100 hours, it didn't take him long to work out how much it would cost - even at minimum wage. Ten quids worth of materials, but who knows how much in terms of paid time. Quite how Dapol can churn out 7mm rtr locos at under £200 is beyond me, but guess a J26 or similar will remain the stuff of dreams for a while yet.

Fantastic pictures, thank you both! First met Kilbrandon at Allypally, towards the end of its exhibition life and only wish I'd seen it earlier and more often. Drew's engines really are something. A D19 is certainly on my wishlist, but so is Sprite and its pay coach, along with one of the early SLNCR 0-6-2Ts, a C class diesel and the Castlederg 2-6-2 on the CVR. Don't suppose anyone is likely to do a kit, let alone rtr of one of these soon!

Yes, need to do a small repaint on my three Sligo locos! The photos of the railcar and railbus were stunning too - was amazed how smart the paintwork was. Equally, one of my favourite pictures was of the cattle fair, with all those folk in long brown overcoats. For me it is stuff like this which can help us bring our modelling scenes to life. As another aside, I must put in an early vote for these meetings to continue on Zoom, once things get back to normal. For me, it would be a three hour round trip to get to the London venue and the others would require an overnight stay! The quality of the presentations has been excellent and If love to see them continue.

Well done Leslie, a wonderful presentation of inspirational photographs! Thoroughly enjoyable, so thank you.

Roxey Mouldings do a fair amount of Markits stuff.

Well here's food for thought. Love the application of engineering principles to scenic modelling. Have a feeling it is going to work rather well.

Two beauties! The 7mm model sounds like a nice refurbishment project, not least because it compares so well with its smaller sister. Both of course deserving of layouts to run on...!

Thanks Paul, can't argue with the new purchases - am sure you will enjoy them. Dare I ask what the 7mm loco is? Sounds like I'm not a million miles from what Trevor does with boiler fittings. Have never used a peg in a hole with castings, as prefer to simply wrap sandpaper round the boiler and scrub away. After, fix with 5min epoxy, which allows me to tinker while it is going off. No doubt that 7mm scale is very addictive, but equally, if I could start again, then S would be very tempting!

Great work John and as ever, not just fine models, but historical detail too. Never knew the coach partitions were cream, while that looks to be a classic train for the J26.

Apart from the Mail train project, work has been proceeding on other fronts, notably another Christmas present in the form of a Slater's Tank Wagon. Thanks to Galteemore and others, turns out that this is a rare beast, being a mainland Britain wagon that is also appropriate for Ireland. Indeed, the only real difference seems to be the buffer spacings needing moving out to a scale 6'4. The Slater's kit is really rather splendid. Not exactly easy, but really well thought out. It is a true mixed media model too, involving etched brass, plastic mouldings, lost wax castings and both brass and plastic rod and strip. Unlike say, an open wagon or box van, these tank wagons are completely open, so Slater's have enabled us to model all the under frame detail - hence all the various materials in use. If you want to lean about how wagons are constructed, this is the one to try! The instructions are a bit ambiguous in places, but if you take your time, a really rewarding model is the result. I've built several of these in the past, including a couple of six wheel milk tankers too, so compared to recent scratchbuilding projects, this has been like meeting an old friend. Pictures show the [almost] completed chassis. The buffers were easy to move out, as there are plastic bases to add to the headstocks, while moving the wheels to the right gauge is a simple case of moving them out on their axles to 33.98mm back to back - ish, anyway!

Slowly, slowly... Progress boosted by the arrival of some brass rod and the long awaited ABC motor gearbox. The latter is a very fine piece of engineering, with the motor being a Maxxon 16/26. Small, but powerful, while the gearbox actually 'drives back', meaning you can turn the driving wheels even when fixed in place. It fits nicely too, with plenty of space all round beneath the cab floor and in the firebox to add lead sheet eventually. Not cheap though at £135, but it is quality. I've completed one side of the loco's lining now. A decidedly fiddly job, especially that inner panel on the cab side! One aspect that still needs attention though is that some of the lining is just one black and one white line, but hopefully that won't be too hard to remedy as this mainly occurs where it meets things like the edges of both the cab and footplate. And so to the dome. Ideally, a slightly smaller diameter piece of brass would have helped, but I could only get 25mm, while the dome itself is only 22mm where it meets the boiler, reducing to 18.5mm, which of course means lots of material to turn off on the lathe. Initial setting up was a bit of a trial and many rude words were expended on the ether while I tried to get my head round how to reverse the three cast jaws that make up the chuck. The instructions require you to open these up until they drop out, whereupon you put them back the other way round. Easy enough you'd think, but if you do that, the jaws don't centre and I spent a frustrating time trying to get it sorted until I finally found a tiny note on the diagram which showed that jaw 'B' stayed the same, but A and C needed to be reversed. Oh well... Anyway, once done, things progressed reasonably well, but taking it slowly is essential. On top of this, a lot of finishing and polishing is still required, plus the base of the dome also needs to be filed to the profile of the boiler. Geoff Holt's book suggests using a fly cutter on the lathe, but this is beyond my ability at the moment, so instead have laboriously done it by hand. It still needs a bit more work, but that can wait until another piece of brass rod [18mm this time] arrives so I can do the chimney.

Only just found this thread and very good the Lego model is too. Really remarkable what can be done when you put your mind to it. Speaking of remarkable things, in the latest Railway Modeller is a review of KRModels 'GT3' - the English Electric gas turbine 4-6-0. Clearly they must believe there is a market for such a beast (and very nice it looks too), so maybe an rtr Turf Burner is not so far fetched after all, especially when KRModels are actually planning to do a Leader...

This book one I wasn't aware of, but found a cheap second hand copy on Amazon and took a punt. Very glad I did too. Ok, so the photo quality isn't that great (but it was published in 1974), but there are plenty of interesting maps and diagrams - including one of how Limerick Junction was worked. That dust jacket is just wonderful, not least because the painting also includes a WL&WR 4-4-0 in all its glory. Wasn't expecting the text to be quite so comprehensive either, which is another bonus. Well worth seeking out a copy I'd say.

A friend of mine drives the Javelin high speed commuter units and is not allowed to drink for 48 hours before going on duty and gets regularly tested. Just as well really, when they go up to 140mph. That said, once on the North Kent line, these racers actually become all station stoppers - bit of a waste somehow. However, also tells me that Channel Tunnel drivers could potentially get away with all sorts of things as the locos are pretty much fully automatic.

I believe there are regulations about sending paint in the post, so the moral of the story is to avoid buying it this way of you can - or at least order enough to offset the high delivery charges.

Managed to get a tinlet of Humbrol 27004, metalcote gunmetal, in a local independent DIY store today. Not even in the current catalogue, so quite a find. They had the full range, but both matt and gloss black out of stock, but at least there was black in the wargame acrylics set.

Not perfect, Robert, but passes the two foot rule! Fox stuff is good, but as you say, not entirely user friendly, though this lining pack seems better than ones I last used a couple of years ago. The range is astonishing and we are all grateful for that, but trying to find what you want is a challenge. Also, the complex shapes on the D16 mean some templates are not available, so care and Microsol required to tease around corners.

Thanks everyone. Credit must go to our resident livery guru, jhbachill, who has been really helpful in identifying likely shades. Thinking about it, the tops of both the piano front/valve chest and splashers should be in black, while the outer white line on most, if not all panels on the loco itself need going over in black too.

Serious stuff! Love to see proper engineering and workshop practice in action. So much to learn and really interesting, even if you're not about to copy it. Meanwhile, to paraphrase Crocodile Dundee - now that's a lathe!

Alchemy! As Galteemore says, the smokebox door makes all the difference and the dogs around the edges can easily be made from bits of plastic strip too. Nobody knows once the paint is applied. While is is only right to chase prototype fidelity, there is always the old adage about 'if it looks right, it is right' and we can all be encouraged by what Westcorkrailway is brewing here, not least because the skills involved are very much the same as in kit and scratchbuilding. A great way to learn, have fun and most of all produce something that is yours to be proud of.

As I'm still waiting for brass bar to arrive [hopefully next week], decided to make a start on the painting. The loco and tender chassis have been done in matt black, though the inside faces of the loco frames are red, as per practice in the early 1900s. Must admit that I'm more than a bit disappointed with Precision matt black paint, which shows brush marks, despite my best efforts and doesn't look as good as Humbrol. The loco and tender body is Halford's 'Garden Green' - the nearest I can get to what I'm told is MGWR green, apparently Great Central green is close, in the absence of colour photos, though a Google search does throw up a model loco in this shade. Initially, it looked very bright indeed, but as is often the case, once things like the tender top, footplate top, axles boxes and so on are picked out in black, it does change things. Likewise when paired with the chassis, where the wheel spokes are green, but the rims and centres black. The boiler/smokebox is a separate unit, so will not be painted until the chimney and dome are made and added. Have also ordered etched name and number plates from Diane Carney - not cheap at over £40, but as bespoke items, still a fair price I think. So to the lining! The main reason I haven't posted anything for a couple of weeks is that my attempts with a bow pen proved a miserable failure, even on just the relatively simple tender lining, so I really couldn't see me mastering the horrifically complicated loco lining, especially on the cab. Hence put in an order to Fox Transfers for some white/black/white transfer lining sheets, including various curves. Even so, it is proving very challenging, so the photos just show progress thus far, including the cab interior.