David Holman

My 7mm G has a wheelbase of 8'6 Angus. Built from the Worsley etches, though adapted them to make mine one of the early versions. Reported the build on my workshop thread a couple of years ago.

More progress, less swearing! The next step was the splashers over the front drivers. A case of more cutting and filing for the two sides, [18thou NS], with 10 thou brass for the tops. The latter is easily cut with a pair of strong scissors with little distortion - much better than using a fret saw. As with the coupling rod splashers on the footplate, I made a simple jig from a piece of hardwood to support the top while soldering on the sides. Used 240 degree solder for this, so that my general purpose 145 solder could be used to solder the finished articles to the footplate. Once again, am grateful to Roger for some more Alphagraphix bits and pieces - in this case to 'top' frames [above the footplate] and the cab sides. Unfortunately, the latter were both for the same side, so the etched bend line which acts as the roof support had to be bent the other way on one of them. As have said before, it would be interesting to know how far Roger got before deciding not to progress with a kit for the D16. The cab sides also needed a bit of fettling, as there were no cut outs on the bottom to fit over the coupling rod splashers, though it didn't take too long to file these to shape. The etched holes for the various handrails look way too big for the usual 0.8mm wire used for these things in 7mm scale, but have decided it was easier to use them as is, with some filler later, rather than cut two new sides. Time will tell... The fiddly bit has been the cab front. I soldered the sides in place, then did some more careful measuring in order to cut out a piece of 18thou nickel silver. This was made harder because the front curves outwards to make part of the splasher over the rear pair of drivers. All in all pretty awkward & am wondering if I should have used thinner sheet metal as forming these curves hasn't gone too well, so will be needing some more filler. Also needed to mark where the exact centre of the boiler will be, so I can use a bolt to align the latter accurately, with the same idea at the smokebox end. The cab spectacle windows are only partially drilled out at the moment , while I need to buy some brass tube of the right diameter to make the surround. Speaking of tubes, the next step will be the boiler. The Chatham Club has a set of rolling bars, so hope to pick those up tomorrow.

May have been 16 years in the making, but worth the wait, for sure.

One of my previous layouts was based on a fictional roadside tramway, so built one of the Connoisseur GER tram engine kits which also came with a set of 'Toby' nameplates. Couldn't resist fitting them and even bought the book, so I could draw Toby's face on two squares of card. Stuck them on with bluetak, in case I offended the purists, but needn't have worried, Tony proved a real hit at exhibitions and not just with the children.

Now come on Noel, surely Thomas is an 0-6-0T!

Thanks Ken. Know what you mean - am going to have to either file a slot in the plate, or thin down the coupling. There's always a compromise somewhere, it seems.

Impressive scene.

[Lots] of rude words Thought the footplate and valences would be a challenge and I was right, though I didn't really help myself. Never mind 'measure twice, cut once', the moral is really just 'measure, measure, measure... Started by soldering two strips of nickel silver together for the valences, after which came the laborious task of marking and then cutting out with a fine bladed fret saw, followed by carefully filing to shape. The footplate was done the same way, but to follow the curves of the valances, it needed a lot of trial and error to work out the dimensions and I eventually resorted to a piece of thread. The footplate is 10thou nickel silver, the valances are 18thou. So far, so good and the initial soldering went ok too. Taking a tip from Geoff Holt's book, I made a template/jig of the valance curves from a thin piece of hardwood, then clamped this to a piece of MDF and the workbench. A strip of cereal packet card was stapled on as well, so as to ensure the footplate has a small overhang. Indeed, it was all going far too well, but when I tried the footplate against the chassis, it became clear that all was not as it should be. The cut outs on the footplate top needed a fair bit of adjustment, while I also discovered that the spacers on the frames weren't consistent in their width. Hence a profusion of bad language followed by having to dismantle parts of the chassis and file everything down to the correct dimensions. Geoff Holt has a novel way of joining the chassis to the loco body, which involves the front of the former fitting into a slot behind the buffer beam, then the rear of the chassis is bolted to the drag beam with two 10BA bolts. This avoids using nuts and bolts under the footplate, but required a bit of thought, not least to ensure that everything lines up properly before drilling the bolt holes. Needless to say, what I now have is the mark two version. On top of all this, I also discovered that cutting the front frames to the prototypical shape meant the bogie wouldn't sit properly, so have hard to carve a chunk off them. Fingers crossed, am hoping I've now got these issues solved and can now move on to things like splashers and foot steps while I psyche myself for the boiler and smokebox.

Wouldn't be without Eileen's Emporium for basic materials. My last order of sheet metal, nuts and bolts, wire and so on couldn't be got locally (at least not from a single supplier), even without lockdown. The service is excellent and they are good value too.

Vans nominally easier than opens, because no interior detail required. You just have to be careful with how ends and sides mate up. The main issue is if the casting is too thick (because too much resin was poured into the mould), so best to avoid overflowing or a meniscus, or you end up having to do a lot of filing. One option is to mitre the corners, but I've found that just filing down the outer edges of the ends (to make a simple rebate) works well enough. Vans with lots of strapping give extra thickness to the ends to make this work. Also, have found that thicker, slower setting cyano is better for assembly - quicker than 5 minute expoxy, so less time sitting holding the pieces while it sets!

Wonderful!

Inadvertently made the frames a bit tight - thought that a scale 4'3 would leave plenty of leeway, but had to file the fixed bearings down to only 1mm. Geoff Holts books crank the frames inwards at the buffer beam ends, but with 6' radius points on Belmullet am fairly confident things should be ok.

Chassis complete [ish] Awaiting the motor and gearbox, but the loco chassis is reasonably complete. Latest work has focussed on the following areas: Bogie - made an equalised unit similar to the ones on my Sligo tanks. A block of 6mm square brass was drilled through the middle to slot on to the 6BA bolt which acts as the pivot. The brass block then had 1.2mm holes drilled in each end to take short pieces of brass wire, over which are slipped two small coil springs [same as the ones used on the hornblocks]. The brass block is then encased in the centre of the bogie by a bottom plate with a slot in it, same as the top plate. A large spring, the same as used for couplings, gos over the 6BA bolt and then a nut and two washers hold the whole thing in place under the frames. Turning the nut adjusts the height of the ride against the drivers. The splendid photo of Wolf Dog in Rails to Achill shows some nice detail on the bogie - essentially the springs and equalising beams. These are dummy on the model, but were made from a mixture of brass strip and plastic, glued in place, with white metal springs chopped out of some wagon W-irons. Brakes - had to make up four brake hangers from brass sheet and these were drilled each end to slide on to 12BA bolts. The top bolts are soldered into the frames, while the bottom ones are soldered on to spacers made from more flat sheet. Using bolts mean I can eventually fit the brakes in place with 12BA nuts. The actual brake blocks will be glued in place later and be cut from plastic sheet, which will reduce the risk of any shorting. Was pleased to find that on the frets that Roger gave me were the four brake rods - a real bonus as cutting these from sheet would have been a right pain! Coupling rod bosses - the etched rods looked a bit light weight, so I soldered squares of 28 thou brass to each end, filed them to shape and then drilled through for the bearings again, so they now look much more substantial, as per the real thing. Behind the front brakes on one side is what appears to the the regulator rod, so made this from some plastic strip. It goes behind the front driver and space is tight here, so again plastic was important to avoid any shorting. Finally, made up an overlay of 10 thou plastic sheet to go on the frames above the bogie. Another piece of insulation, this time with some large rivets [made from 1mm rod] welded on, though I see in the photo that one of them has gone walkabout! So, decent progress. However the next step is probably the biggest challenge as it involves making the valences and running plate. It would be so much easier if the latter was straight and flat, but it's not, so will have to go very carefully.

They ain't pretty, but they make fine models!

Scratchbuilding panelled coaches in brass will be a bit of a nightmare and even flush sided ones will require a huge amount of cutting out, so much easier to do in plastic, though etched brass kits do much of the hard work. In 7mm scale, I've built at least 20 coaches, both bogie and six wheelers, panelled and flush, etched kits and scratchbuilt in plastic. At shows (remember those?), I occasionally ask people to spot the difference and the fact is that from normal viewing distances, you can't tell once models are painted. Thus far, haven't had any issues with warping and some models go back over 20 years. As others have said, more a case of choosing what you are comfortable with, but the late, great David Jenkinson always made his coaches from plastic sheet and he built hundreds, in both 7mm and 10mm scale, which is good enough for me.

Used Templot 'Irish EM' points plans at 3' radius. Actually 20.2mm, so blew them up to 21mm on the copier. The b2b on Fintonagh is 19mm, with not a lot of leeway before problems start. Make my own axles from 2mm brass wire as I use Kadees and didn't want the uncoupling magnets grabbing steel ones. The Branchlines bogie coaches are probably the main limit to minimum radius, but can go round tighter curves of the pivot points are moved in a bit.

Had mine (a basic roller gauge) made by a friend at the Chatham club, but had it done for Code 83 fb rail, which Peco sell. Might be worth considering this route as CVR track was fairly lightweight and it's no more trouble to make than code 100. The Ragstone kit goes together nicely, likewise the coaches, even though the design must be over 30 years old now. Great to see someone else doing 7mms scale, 21mms gauge, so will look forward to seeing how things progress.

Love seeing how these conversions come together.

Progress! Well, a little anyway, but no matter how many locomotives I build, there is always something intrinsically satisfying in creating a working chassis. Everything else after that is just 'cosmetic'! OK, still requires a lot of work, but it is really nice to know that the model is going to work well. Getting there has been 'interesting' shall we say. The extended frames above the bogie were a straightforward bit of cutting and filing, while soldering everything together with the frame spacers went reasonably well. The main issue was ensuring everything was square and level, but apart from a bit of tweaking, everything seems to sit nicely. However, the horn blocks proved a right pain - though it must be said it was my own fault in not reading the instructions carefully enough and when combined with my latent ability to assemble anything that is 'handed' back to front, resulted in three hours of bad language yesterday afternoon, culminating in me thinking for a while that the frame spacers I'd made were too wide and the chassis would need dismantling. I'd already had to file down the fixed, 'tophat' bearings, as the new driving wheels were very tight. The hornblocks were likewise fouling the other pair of drivers so it was a case of either leaving things alone for a bit, or chucking the whole lot in the bin! Fortunately, sanity prevailed and this morning saw where I'd gone wrong. Reversing the hornblocks provided the necessary clearances and though the frame cut outs needed enlarging a little, this time everything went together nicely. I'd used the Poppy's Woodtech jig to assemble the frames, but went old school for the hornblocks by just using my tapered, extended axles to align them. The coupling rods go over the ends and then hair grips hold the hornblocks in place while they are soldered to the frames. So, with mounting excitement, it was then a case of adding the wheels and coupling rods to check everything rolled smoothly, which it did! Big sigh of relief, hurry in from the workshop to show the missus [usual underwhelmed response, but hey, I know how important this bit is] and celebrate with a cuppa. There now followed a small bonus as Roger Cromblehome [Alphagraphix] kindly gave me a handful of etches, which included bogie side frames and spacers, so it was only half an hour's work to put these together. The frames include a slot to enable some side play to be included, so once some new materials arrive from Eileen's Emporium, that will be the next step.

Thanks folks. Interesting to hear about the frames from Ken. Originally was considering doing the frames to include above the footplate, but decided against, so reassured that the 'traditional' method seems to work better.

Making a start First of all, many thanks again to everyone who has offered help. The last week or so has been spent poring over drawings and photos, plus having a good read of Geoff Holt's two books on scratch building locomotives, again. As an all round layout builder, I find it can be very useful to remind myself of basic techniques when you start again on something you haven't done for ages. So, the first job was to make an outline drawing of loco and tender. Wheels, chimney, dome etc are not included, as this is all about working out basic things like the frames and, in particular, how to fit a motor and gearbox. Being a small, light weight loco, this hasn't proved easy and is almost certainly going to be expensive. The only thing I can find thus far is an ABC 'Mini', which with one of their 16/26 motors is going to set me back around £120. However, this is a real Rolls Royce of a mechanism, which despite its small size packs quite a punch and has been used in things like a Franco-Crosti 9F 2-10-0 - so should be enough for my three coach mail train, especially as it will leave plenty of room in the firebox for ballast. You can see the unit shaded in on the drawing. Reading Geoff Holt's first book on building the chassis, decided to copy his recommended method, so Wolf Dog will have a fixed rear driving axle, sprung lead drivers and an equalised bogie. Geoff also suggests splitting the frames so that those above the bogie are inside the driving wheel frames to allow a bit of extra side play. The brass strip I've used is about 36 thou, meaning I can overlay a bit of 10thou plastic later to help avoid shorting if the bogie wheels did touch the frames. The choice of thicker material [28thou is the norm in 7mm scale] is partly down to what I had in stock and also because the cut outs for the horn blocks mean there are a couple of areas where the frames could be quite weak. Construction basically involved soldering two strips of brass together, marking out the frames with a scriber and then laboriously fretting them out with a fine saw and the filing to shape. Used one of the etched coupling roads to mark the axles holes and drilled the fixed one out with the pillar drill. Four small bits of metal doesn't seem much for four days sawing, filing and polishing, but I now have my driving wheel frames and a couple of spacers. You can see the cut outs for the Slater's sprung horn blocks, along with their drawing and a second photo of a test fit of one. Scratchbuilding is not something to be rushed!

Should have known better Got a PM last week from our resident livery specialist. Not the first time either, but his advice is always very welcome, even [especially] when I get things wrong. To be honest, was rather expecting it, as the GSWR brake and van were not only too light a grey, but the former had its strapping highlighted in black. So, out with something darker, which also necessitated doing the lettering again. Shame in a way to over paint Richard's brake van, but even the maestro got it wrong occasionally. Anyway, many thanks JHB and hopefully this shade looks a bit better!

Continues to amaze me that the body of Richard Chown's Shannon is held together with just a single 12ba bolt in the cab floor! The end of the boiler is a push fit into the back of the smokebox and that's it. Not a light engine either.

Love the buffer beam! Probably shouldn't mention this but ice lolly sticks a possible alternative, albeit nowhere near as seasoned or close grained. This project is clearly showing the value of challenging yourself and has moved your work up to a new level. Not that there was anything wrong before, I might add! Also shows the value of breaking complex shapes down into simple ones - very much a reminder to self as I pour over that photo of Wolf Dog... Inspiring posts - keep them coming.

May have taken a few attempts, but certainly worth it. No hiding place in a close up like that and none needed. Great work!