Horsetan

Am pretty sure they are Orient Express Midnight Blue

Is there a RAL colour code for it?

What an amazing match. Possibly one of the greatest sporting achievements of this small island since the foundation of the state.

They'll be dining out on this one for years to come.

.... four different entries on IRM in a single evening. Is this a record? Is anybody bothered? ....

Spreading yourself?

....A rivet press is one alternative & there are many varieties - mine comes from GW Models, expensive, but a quality piece of kit.....

Yes, I wouldn't be without mine!

Worsley has confirmed the kit is just the etch. So I'll have to make or source axle boxes etc

Interesting. The build article seemed to think it came with castings.....in which case, where did the builder get them from?

What are they useful for?

Possible replacement for faulty Heljan motors, for example. Or cheap alternative to Mashima for kits. Some Mitsumis come with a worm (pitch unknown), so that will need to be extracted if you're using your own preferred geartrain.

That's what I was thinking too..

4-4-0s generally need all the help they can get, as do 0-4-4Ts.

Maxons are very strong motors. Expensive, but strong. Alternatives are Escap and Faulhaber.

....What is the reason for the change to metal boilers? ...

More weight?

Ahh..my eyes!

35 or 36 by my count...(starts counting again)

Let me know when you start hallucinating.

Give us a look, you might need a break from all the rivet counting....you start hallucinating after a while....

Dunno if this will show up, but here goes:

This is a blown-up crop of the original photo, the copyright of which belongs to SLS.

There's also six rivets on the door itself, in a hexagon formation.

Wow, the corrosion really has got into that cab door.....

Actual rivet-counting, actually going on as we watch, you don't normally actually see it happening in front of your actual eyes.

It might actually be 35 rivets because there are a couple that seem to be hidden by the smokebox door hinges.

I've taken a close-up photo of the original photo, and will see if I can blow it up even more to verify the count.

I make it 33 visible rivets on 560's smokebox front.....so far.

Only one way to settle this..

If you look at the rivets on the smokebox front of 560, and then try to line them up with the adjacent rivets on the smokebox wrapper (a bit like "joining the dots"), what you get is a zig-zag pattern, hence staggered. Most people won't be too fussed about this, and that's fine, but it is something I noticed and since I have a rivet press I might as well give it some proper work to do!

GSR/CIE really were great believers in rivets - smokeboxes were absolutely covered in them, and it can be a total pain in the **** when you're trying to get it right. The other thing I have to try to do is calculate how many rivets there are around the smokebox front of 560.

Interesting - I found DC Kits very responsive to my recent service requests last month. Same day replies.

Maybe you were lucky.

Others were not.

I think the DC Kits G Class may be a better option than the Worsley Works or Silver Fox models. The master for the DC Kits loco were prepared by Mike Edge and has a higher level of detail and a better motor bogie than the Silver Fox model. Although more expensive the Black Beetle with a 27:1 gear ratio would be a much better option for a shunting loco than a Spud or standard 15:1 Blackbeetle

http://www.dckits-devideos.co.uk/shop/kits_modelling/irish_railways_inc_murphy_models_rtr_kits_transfers/cie_irish_rail_class_g_shunter.php

 

....

What people may not know is that DC Kits can be a bit erratic these days when it comes to delivery or even simple customer service, as is evident from this thread. If they have no time to pick up the phone, how can you be sure you'll get your order?

....most British made gear boxes are designed around Mr Mashima's motors

Maybe not so much designed around the motor, but certainly around the motor mounting screw points. What other motors share the same fixing centres?

Hi all,

Got a package from NZ yesterday, from a certain John Mayne.

The contents..

Not one, but two riveted smoke boxes, just in case I was going to build another one, or fecked up the first one...

The smokebox looks fantastic, the riveting is very well done.

....

I had quite a bit of difficulty, when squinting at photos of J26s late in their service lives, trying to make out the smokebox rivet patterns as the photographic qualities weren't the best.

Eventually, a photo of 560 on the little turntable at Waterford suggested that not only were there a lot of rivets, but that the ones on the smokebox front did not line up horizontally with the ones on the smokebox wrapper, giving a sort of staggered effect. Not sure how my rivet press is going to cope with this!

Difficult choice, I reckon.

Worsley Works has crisper finish because it's etched, but you get no castings, according to the website, or any help with the rounded top of the nose. However, this build article says that castings are supplied.

Silver Fox gives you a one-piece shell and details, but may not be quite as crisp.

I've really stuck my neck out and suggested to "00" that they source the motors and pass on the increase - better that THAN NO LOCO?

 

Maybe those of us who have ordered them (and NOT PAID a penny, after all) should get our own motor and send it in? Anyone worked out which one it is?

 

Spoiling ships for a ha'p worth of tar leaps to mind?

Not every manufacturer has a Plan B, and if you're only doing short runs....

Supplying your own motor wouldn't necessarily be a good idea because everyone has their own preference and a multiplicity of different designs exist.

That said, I went coreless back in the late 1980s and built up a stock of them, so I'm not yet affected by shortages.

Little cubes cut from styrene / plasticard strip, brushed into place with solvent such as Plastic Weld. The solvent will also do a fair job of "rounding off" the cube, making it look like a round rivet.

....The reason MAY be that they are having difficulties getting motors? That's the reason they have stated for the non-appearance of the Class UG.

The motors shown on their website production process page resemble Mashimas. If Mashimas are what OO Works have been using until now, then that may explain the difficulty because Mr. Mashima, the manufacturer, announced a while ago that he was retiring from the business (having already threatened this once or twice in the past), so motor production would end.

I'm not sure what motor would be a direct replacement for a Mashima, though it could well be a Chinese-made one.

Where's the UG class, I can't see it.

On the Products page, but it's academic anyway, as they are no longer taking orders for it. Must mean that their projected batch has sold out. If ye've missed it....ye've missed it!