Horsetan

Scalefour Stores has covered itself in glory by sending me the wrong back-to-back gauge. Back it goes. Read the order sheet next time, Mr. Suter! :-(

Is that John Craven's voice?

Ah...deadly! Thanks!

Yer man Jimmy Savile brought back so many memories. Wonder who the singer was who did the "This is the age of the train" jingle?

Eh, no. There was no diagram...*bangs head against wall repeatedly*

Signal and town background reminds me of the full-size signal which stood in someone's front garden in Strabane after the station there had closed down.

As I already model in P4/S4 standards, I'll be using P4-profile wheels, set to 19.9mm back-to-back. I know I won't be able to run my eventual "S"-class 4-4-0 around tight curves, but that's not the point of P4 standards anyway. With the MJT torsion bar bogies widened, that's a simple way to get a working suspension. I'm not sure if Bill Bedford's sprung bogies are available for 21mm gauge, but would be worth finding out. Alternatively, it might be possible to widen his standard gauge ones. They are now under the ownership of Eileen's Emporium.

....and here's a closer look at the later style of upper mainframe profile, as used by no.171: Today's update: a complete set of wheels have been ordered from AGW and might arrive by the weekend...... High Level hornblocks have also been ordered, and might arrive next Wednesday.

That's interesting. Sounds a bit like plastic after exposure to UV / sunlight over many years.

Here's a closer look at some of the nameplates that are provided as part of the etch: One of the things that marks the age of the kit design is the absence of a copy of the etches showing the individual part numbers. It must be frustrating to read the instructions and not instantly recognise the parts. I spent the greater part of the evening photocopying the etches onto a sheet of A4, and have been marking off as many of the part numbers on it as I could manage. The thing is, "Weshty" has probably already done this, but is waiting to see if I'll work my way through, for the craic. The oul devil!!

I measured the width between the upper cosmetic frames on the engine footplate with digital calipers. This came out at about 17.9mm, and tells me that the chassis spacers underneath should have a width as close as possible to this. 17 or 17.5mm would be a more practical width. Meanwhile I have also ordered a copy of the County Down Railway Trust's book on the "S"-class engines - apparently these have drawings in them. My order went to Cuan Publications of Newtonards, so let's see if anything turns up.

I wonder if this was one of the kits for CDR nos.19/20 that were produced by Anbrico. They were the only kits available at that time for this last pair of CDR railcars, and did not replicate the real thing's articulation between driver's cab and passenger section - they came as one fixed unit. Unbuilt ones have commanded large sums in the past. The Anbrico railcar was relatively short-lived in production, and we had to wait about three decades before Worsley Works brought out its own etched kit for 19/20. For more details on the rubber band / O-ring drive idea, click here

Things moved on again today, and I was privileged enough to visit Ultrascale's engineering workshop this afternoon to collect the axles that I had ordered only last week: This is one of the fortunate things about living along the way from them (actually, a few miles south) - they give you the option of coming to collect your order personally when it's ready. These axles are from their standard range: the 1/8" driving axles (on the left) are in fact meant for British engines with outside frames / outside cranks, but can be usefully employed, with maybe a bit of trimming, as axles for 21mm gauge driving wheels. The 2mm dia. bogie axles (middle) are also turned out 26mm long. You can specify this at time of ordering, and it gives you the facility to trim them back if they are a bit long. Much easier to do this than find your axles are too short. The 2mm dia. pinpoint axles (right) are the standard 28mm long, as used in 21mm gauge anyway. Again, Ultrascale give you the option of specifying this when ordering. By using standard Ultrascale products, not requiring anything of new design to be made, this can speed things up considerably. All we need now are the wheels themselves, a back-to-back gauge, and some High Level hornblocks and bearings! THOUGHT: it may not be necessary to buy a back-to-back gauge immediately, as Stephen Johnson's helpful diagram suggests that a maximum back-to-back of 19.92mm can be used for Irish broad gauge......

Hairclips! Great for holding things together when soldering, like coupling rod / valve gear layers, or hornblock guides when mounting up in the chassis frames.

This somewhat grainy shot shows the etch for 171's tender: Looks fairly straightforward. As designed, it has a rigid rear axle, and is meant to place increased weight on the drawbar and contribute to the adhesion of the engine (traditionally a weak spot in model 4-4-0s). I'd like to modify it slightly so that all axles can float.

That's good. I used to get caught up in the tailbacks when coming back from the West on the N4. On one occasion I gave up sitting in traffic and parked in Liffey Valley until things had died down.

Never mind getting it around the M50. Wait 'til it reaches the M50 toll plaza.