Horsetan

That's an excellent compromise with the hex spacers.

I specifically wanted something that would give me a 16mm spacer width. It was truly the "Luck of the Irish" that I realised the hex spacers, when glued together, would do the job.

The updates of the build are very informative and are a breath of fresh air as I haven't seen anything like it on here before regarding a 21mm build of a steam loco so well detailed and described.

I adopted the step-by-step photo approach with notes, so everyone can see how I work and - if they choose - adapt those methods for themselves. Think of it as a nod to the exploded "eejit diagrams" designed by Airfix, Revell, Tamiya and so many other international plastic kit producers.

It's got me itching to have a go at something similar myself.

Scratch that itch

The cab and bunker arrangement of the "Small Tank" is highly reminiscent of the LSWR Adams Radial, even though the two are (probably) not related.

After acquiring replacement drill bits, I had a think about how to set up the frames. The instructions refer to using the rectangular brass screw-in spacers, but they weren't what I wanted. My own P4 frame assembly jigs are set at around 14.8mm wide for British standard gauge; too narrow for Irish 5'3".

Thinking laterally about the problem, and having a trawl around a local electronics shop, some nylon hex spacers and screw-in spacer caps were discovered:

The hex spacers are 8mm wide and superglueing a pair together makes a spacer 16mm wide - perfect:

The screw-in caps will help keep the frames in place whilst the proper nickel-silver spacers are soldered in:

Here is a good guide to signalling, should help you out.

 

British Signalling - What the Driver Sees

Thanks.

I was however referring to the 4-light ground /shunting signal, which has never been used on British railways. I've only ever seen photos of it on the Irish network.

BTW, Weshty, when we click the links on your individual signal kits, they don't actually link to anything.....

.....Ground signals: .... working electrical (3 and 4 aspect)

I'm familiar with the 3-light ground signal (or GPL), as it's the same as on the British system.

I'd only seen the 4-light version in a few photos - what do its individual indications mean?

I've found that most places outside of Ireland are punctual.

....but not the UK.

.... God bless German efficiency!

You'll find the Swiss are just as punctual.

Skanger sports?

...One of the lads is building a 21mm model of an SSM kit at the moment and judging from what he has done so far in his build your models are at the moment a million miles away from that quality and craftsmanship...

One thing I should point out is that I'm building from an existing kit, on which a great deal of research and design was done over two decades ago. The game has moved on even from that: hence, upgraded suspension and a few other tweaks.

The LHB Dart stock, despite its apparently simple shape, presents a fair degree of challenge. Will you try to produce a ready-to-go model, or break it down into kit form for us to assemble? How will the moulding be done, e.g. 3D printing or traditional expensive injection moulding? Will you cater only for 00/16.5 gauge, or will there be allowance for 21mm people like me? There are costs incurred at every stage.

And people do expect to see inside the models, so windows must be transparent, which means getting your frames right, plus a representation of the seats and sliding doors.

As you're discovering, the whole thing's not as easy as it looks!

Managed to break 0.35 and 0.4mm drill bits AARRGGHH

Most would expect either a good basic resin shell, to which detail (turned/cast/etched) can be added, or a fully-etched kit that you can solder together.

And there are still the gauge options to cater for as well.

These DARTs have just popped up out of nowhere!! Work to be done alright but they look like they could turn out to be something really good!!

 

The DART is a train that's been missing from Irish modelling circles so I'd be fantastic to finally have one!!

 

Wonder what the price is going to be!!

If that's for 4mm scale, then hopefully they can be re-wheeled for 21mm gauge.....

Why do I detect an element of wishful thinking in respect of what they think IR should do?

Why do people assume the Chinese will be the universal panacea to all (self-inflicted) economic ills? What makes others think that IR would simply turn over an entire route for 10 Euro?

The Cultra show is on the 10th Nov. He was at a previous show and had his kits on display.

In that case, you might want to be sending Allen an e-mail to ask if he'll be there.

"Look at them there. The Chinese. A great bunch o' lads....."

It will be if they put in a full-size NEM coupler.

...come to Fuxin ...

Slightly unfortunate if pronounced the European way

Brian Solomon has this photo of a bracket signal

Note the difference in the size of the red spectacle - the subsidiary arm has a much smaller "red", and a correspondingly longer "green" segment; there used to be examples of this all over the system, including one on the Quay end of the Westport "up" platform. My question is when was that variation was first introduced? Was it a GSR pattern, or a CIE design?

Also, are there any photos of the current IR LED colour light signal heads?

I had a pint yesterday

Do you know if Allen is coming to the Cultra Railway Exhibition this year?

His Shows page doesn't have anything listed after 27th October 2012 - I wonder if that means a "no"?

The thickness of each mainframe is 0.5mm, so the homemade spacers will need to be at least 16mm wide.

Further time has been spent using CLAG principles for setting up the continuous spring-beam suspension:

For an in-depth guide to how the principles work, click here. This being a four-coupled chassis, I'm using the symmetrical 2-axle setup.

you're only as young as the woman you feel!!.....................

There, that's better, so!

Ultrascale and AGW both make the correct 6ft driving wheels (LMS Black 5-type), and pony / bogie wheels are freely available from both. Note that the driving wheel rims are bevelled, whereas the bogie and pony wheels are not.

..... I,ve just doubled my Hattons order bound to be a better investment than gold.

It will be worth more than the stuff NAMA took on

Yes. The Mascots were the worst things ever. Weird-looking one-eyed yokes.

 

Like the love child of a Teletubby and a Dalek.

The saga of the Olumpic alien mascots is an object lesson in why ye should never accept a consultancy's opinion of what children are supposed to like, still less pay them massive fees for coming up with the equivalent of UHT milk - lasts ages, "but there's no demand for that 'cos it's s***".