The Night Mail

[Tony_S]

7 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

If you put in  a pair of copper clad strips i

I shall investigate that as a solution for some new Peco 009 points I have recently bought. The frog can be isolated by snipping a couple of links but there isn’t anywhere obvious(as on the  more recent 00 gauge points)  to bond the switch and stock rails without weakening the plastic sleeper moulding. Some pcb may do the trick. I won’t cut until I am certain though.

[SM42]

19 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I always thought that about beer, you really just pay the rent on it.

 

I was once told by a wise Dutchman  that you only borrow beer and you have pay back for it  plus interest 

 

Andy

 

[Happy Hippo]

A trip to the tip this afternoon removed another car full of surplus timber:  This time mainly old off cuts of ply.  I know deep down that in about a month I'll find a really good reason to have kept it all, but I do need to create some sensible space in which to do some work.  It is all very well having enough stuff lying around to have fixed the hole in the side of Titanic, but it's not really any good if you can't  move around inside.

 

Over the next month, ever more trips will take place as I really thin down my stocks  some of it has been there for close on 20 years!  

 

So you can see why I've finally started to get rid of it.

 

If the weather holds tomorrow morning, I'm going and try to do  some more work on the cassette tables that have been sitting in a corner awaiting the union of sides and tops.  Once I've got the lids on, I can finish off the rebuild of the integral leg units.  I've made a fixture to allow me to make repetitive cuts with the router for the joints in the legs, but since I prefer to do all my sawing and routing outside so the garage does not get too dusty, I need to make sure it is at least not raining (or snowing).  Even with a proper extractor running which is connected to the power tool in use, there is still quite a bit of dust that gets loose, so fall out management is a high priority.

 

On other fronts, I see that someone has started up a thread on, wait for it, pannier tanks.  I immediately thought they were talking 7mm scale so was about to chip in with 94xx and 16 xx, when I realised they were talking about 4 mm stuff.  So I'll leave that well alone. Ditto the 'Titfield Thunderbolt'/Rapido/Hornby thread.

 

If some of the manufacturers wanted to really do the modelling hobby a favour, then producing an rtr Midland 4F in 7 mm scale would be a effort worthy of much praise and support. (If you like that sort of thing.)  Another pannier on the market would be a bit of overkill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SM42]

I need a bit of a wood pile cull too, but I can see a use for all of it.

Well maybe not the bit of worktop from where the kitchen sink now is.

 

I suppose the bits with the most unlikely future use will have to go

 

I need room in the shed to empty the garage which will soon  become the new west wing ( railway room. )

 

Of course the garage needs a cull of old furniture too good to throw out but of no further use here at SM42 Towers.

 

I really need to try and get on with it next week when I'm not working.

 

Anyone want a chest of drawers? 

New handles required. 

 

Andy

[AndyID]

48 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

If some of the manufacturers wanted to really do the modelling hobby a favour, then producing an rtr Midland 4F in 7 mm scale would be a effort worthy of much praise and support.

 

I thought Lima did that already

[J. S. Bach]

Yes, but the shipping would be prohibitive!

[simontaylor484]

I have commented recently on ERs that I too am having a garage clear out and rearrangement . I have loads of timber left over from various projects. We burnt a lot of the really smallbits on bonfire night. With other bits we built a wishing well planter. Next jobs to add a couple of double plug sockets and sealing the floor to stop horrible white dust coming up in clouds every time I sweep up I have some Everbuild 403 ready to paint on the floor when the weather warms up.

[PhilJ W]

Given the current cost of timber I'm not throwing any away. I do have rather a lot of it and I have space in the garage to store it all I need is a round tuit.

[SM42]

26 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Given the current cost of timber I'm not throwing any away. I do have rather a lot of it and I have space in the garage to store it all I need is a round tuit.

 

I suppose I could lay it out on the floor to make a  thicker floor and duck as I go through thd door and stoop when inside.

 

Andy

[Tony_S]

As we are not going to shops nowadays Aditi was very pleased that I just happened to have a piece of plywood suitable for making an extra shelf in a cupboard. It had been in my “possibly get rid of pile”.

[PhilJ W]

I'm an inveterate hoarder, not a lot gets thrown away unless it is well past it, rotted or damaged beyond repair.

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

 

I thought Lima did that already

Bachmann did a very nice brass 7mm 4F in rtr.  They do come up secondhand now and again.

 

Jamie

Edited January 10, 2022 by jamie92208

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

Bachmann did a very nice brass 7mm 4F in rtr.  They do come up secondhand now and again.

 

Jamie

There is one in bare brass on eBay at this present time with a starting price of £400.

 

I suspect it will go for a bit more than that.

 

Of course, once one has it, it will have to be cleaned up, painted etc.

[AndyID]

29 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

There is one in bare brass on eBay at this present time with a starting price of £400.

 

I suspect it will go for a bit more than that.

 

Of course, once one has it, it will have to be cleaned up, painted etc.

 

There's always this

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333996692132

[PhilJ W]

3 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

There's always this

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333996692132

A well known vendor on the E-bay madness thread.

[J. S. Bach]

3 hours ago, AndyID said:

There's always this

https://www.ebay.com/itm/333996692132

I have one of those that I found in a Georgia antique mall for $15.00; only it is black and lettered L M S.

[AndyID]

44 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I have one of those that I found in a Georgia antique mall for $15.00; only it is black and lettered L M S.

 

You could always bung a couple of pannier tanks on it and paint it green.

[AndyID]

The problem with this 3D printing lark is, once you get it going it's hard to stop. "Wonder how it would work if I tried this? Oh, I'll just print one out and see."

 

I have to print the base in two pieces and each piece take around 15 minutes which is a lot faster than I can assemble them into complete turnouts. Once I get going I could easily print all the bases I'll need in a day.

 

This model is intended to be purely functional but I can also print quite passable bullhead and FB turnouts. I have to use a smaller bore extruder nozzle to get enough detail and that extends the print time quite a lot. They are not as crisp as injected molded parts but still fairly passable, and dirt cheap . Here's a couple of examples.

 

[jamie92208]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

I have one of those that I found in a Georgia antique mall for $15.00; only it is black and lettered L M S.

Theybusedcto go for about £40 .  I've got several on my layout that a friend modified by fretting out the wheels and putting better detail on.  They are a bit underscale and have been described as three and a half F's.  There isxa guy who produces a new brass chassis for them..

 

Jamie

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

There is one in bare brass on eBay at this present time with a starting price of £400.

 

I suspect it will go for a bit more than that.

 

Of course, once one has it, it will have to be cleaned up, painted etc.

 

The catch with that one is it has to be collected from Derbyshire; the last (painted) example to sell on the 'bay was back in November and went for £420.

[Happy Hippo]

33 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

The catch with that one is it has to be collected from Derbyshire; the last (painted) example to sell on the 'bay was back in November and went for £420.

I'm sure that Laurence or Mike could be persuaded to collect it for a small fee.

 

Getting it off either of them once in their possession might be more difficult.

[Happy Hippo]

Well the fruit of this morning's labour are the tops being fitted to the second pair of cassette tables, and the back scene boards made up and put in place to get the exact sizes marked out.

 

For those who have forgotten what Pantmawr North looks like, here is a picture of it joined up first thing this morning. 

[jamie92208]

There was an Alan Gibson kit gor a 4F in 7mm.  The less said about it the better. I've had to buy a tender kit from Ragstone to make it anything like and am attempting to fit working inside valve gear,  it has gone back on tbe shelf of shame for the time being. It will carry my old police collar number.

 

Jamie

 

 

[Adam88]

29 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

There was an Alan Gibson kit gor a 4F in 7mm.  The less said about it the better. I've had to buy a tender kit from Ragstone to make it anything like and am attempting to fit working inside valve gear,  it has gone back on tbe shelf of shame for the time being. It will carry my old police collar number.

 

Jamie

 

 

 

49?

 

[Happy Hippo]

40 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

There was an Alan Gibson kit gor a 4F in 7mm.  The less said about it the better. I've had to buy a tender kit from Ragstone to make it anything like and am attempting to fit working inside valve gear,  it has gone back on tbe shelf of shame for the time being. It will carry my old police collar number.

 

Jamie

 

 

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