Horsetan

I have no idea what's going on with the images. They are uploaded into the normal albums, all of which are publicly viewable. I posted them up using the standard forum image links and they are visible to me in IE, Firefox and Google Chrome. Not being any sort of IT expert (feck, I only use the thing), is there some sort of coding error that makes the images visible to only a few people?

That's weird. I uploaded them and they all show up grand here....

Someone should get them interested in that oul MGWR six-wheeler at Clifden - the poor thing's been rotting away there since the late 1980s!

Has anyone tried making a model of 356, the "mental Turf Burning Locomotive"? I can imagine stuffing as many smoke generators as possible into that one to simulate all the steam leaks!

171 was only ever going to be blue.....

I know this is getting slightly ahead of ourselves, but I couldn't resist just fitting the sub-assemblies together just to have a look..... I think it's starting to look more like the "S".....

The next bit of the work was - on the face of it - simple: seating four tiny caps into the half-etched marks shown for them on the footplate. The etch provides five, just in case you lose one of them: I tinned the backs of four of them with the usual 188 solder and Carr's Green Label flux: However, separating each individual cap, filing off any excess tags, and positioning them is the very work of the Devil himself: Eventually you get there: ...though if you use too much solder, you end up having to scrape all the excess off (as here).......which may take you longer than it did to position the caps in the first place. With all four caps soldered in their correct positions, I could then add the front mounting 10BA nut. This is simply screwed tight in position using the matching 10BA bolt, brushed all around with flux, and soldered. The reason why it's screwed tight is to prevent solder leaking in towards the bolt and soldering that solid! I test-fitted the smokebox shell, just to see where we were: ...and you can also see the curvature at the base of the smokebox front overlay. This is why you solder the front overlay at the top and upper sides, BUT NOT THE BOTTOM! As stated earlier, I used the handle of a needle file to form the curve, but you could also use a 3mm dia. drill bit. A useful point to note when forming the curve is to ensure that, when finished, the base of the overlay should sit perfectly on the footplate. If you can see a gap, your curve is too tight. Conversely, if the smokebox shell won't sit neatly on the footplate, it means your curve is too shallow. This can be a difficult area to get right, and photographs of 171 and her sisters don't always show the curvature clearly. I moved on to solder the preformed firebox and boiler barrel together: ....and since all the soldering is on the inside, with luck you should end up with a flush joint on the outside:

An early hangover.

Who's going to inherit that lot when yer man passes on?

Nollaig Shona Duit.

Careful now - any more an' ye'll have the whole set

I think you should start somewhere. After all, I had to.

Goes well with Guinness.

Between six and eight quid each so far. Depends on the class, really. Every class member is listed, as well as some useful photos. There is also a weight diagram at the back. I've picked up "S", "V", and "WT" so far. Waiting for "Q" and "800". Not sure the author will touch the 101/J15s - there are too many of those and, anyway, a very good book "Steam In Three Centuries" has covered that class.

Yes, I've heard about the dark side of those fellas. But the books are useful.....

Tooling technology means you can create one main tool for the footplate, splashers and cab. Separate tools could then cover the two main smokebox / boiler / firebox types: you just clip in / screw in the one you want onto the footplate assembly. The loco chassis is the same, anyway. The only real complication is the tender: I'd agree you would need dedicated tooling for each tender type, and that's where the real expense is.