Andrew Young

Thank you. I’m not in any hurry, but hopefully it’s a one day rather than never. Cheers, Andrew

Just catching up with your thread Michael, that Harland & Wolff loco is fantastically ugly! Very quirky. The 14” Hunslet is indeed a most attractive loco, do you have any plans to make it available in 7mm scale? And thanks to all the suggestions about motors and bevel gears, I’ve got some of those style motors direct from China on eBay and will now have to put an order in for some bevel gears. Cheers, Andrew

Great news for North Eastern fans. Hapoy to take credit for this announcement as recently taken delivery of my Dad’s Old Nu Cast kit for the G5 and bought a chassis to build under it, the former having sat in a drawer for 30+ years so Dad’s layout based on Harrogate can have the Pateley Bridge Branch Loco, 67253 appear. Now to build the kit, or renumber one of the TMC ones, that is the question...?!! Andrew

Having completed the framework, I’ve been busy with the wriggly tin and now the new station building is ready for the paint shop. Cheers, Andrew

A couple of us used to take modelling projects into work to do on the ferry turn, there’s never any time to do so these days. If you’re not given a job when you book on, you’re working the 1V70 fiddle and spending your evening in New St. See what happens if they redo the diagrams in December as they’re threatening too.

The framework for the station building is now complete, found all that styrene cutting and sticking to be quite therapeutic, now for the corrugated iron cladding. I’m using the foil version from Kitwood Hill Models, initial trials suggest that getting a near and tidy finish could be anything but therapeutic.... will see what happens! Cheers, Andrew

Had a very enjoyable weekend last weekend with the Mickleover Members Day for our local group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association. A very sociable weekend catching up with friends, whilst I missed having a layout to operate, there was the added bonus of cake this time. Though with my wife Liz in the kitchen, I was slightly hampered in the number of pieces I could have... With Association Sales present, I took the opportunity to stock up on some Grandt Line windows and doors for the impending building work on the layout. If you go back far enough in this thread, you’ll find I built up a stone station building with canopy for the layout. This proved to be too large for the site and has gone into store for possible future use. In its place will be a wriggly tin structure and have made good progress with the framework out of styrene strip this week. Inspired by the wriggly tin buildings of the Welsh Highland from the1920’s, next task is the roof framework. Cheers, Andrew

Glad the cake rations helped the long day. They also (I’m told) help my diet...

Thanks all for a cracking day yesterday, thoroughly enjoyed the day, although I did miss having a layout to play with so must rectify that... hopefully we’ll be back to the old hall next year. Only took two photos, first up is the fantastic selection of cakes. Examples seen here baked by my wife Liz, Neil’s Mum and Alex’s girlfriend. Have just consumed the last piece of coffee & walnut traybake that we brought back. Very tasty! Second up, to show there were some trains about, one of Frank Sharpe’s locos takes a turn on the Adamant Cement Works. Cheers, Andrew

The modelling mojo appears to have returned with a vengeance. The two baseboards have been moved down into a warmer spare bedroom rather than the freezing attic. They’ve been trimmed, removing the over high front fascia and the too low (and warped) backscene down to baseboard level. A new backscene will be required at some point. The front and rear have been primed and painted with a subdued green colour. Point control rods have been fitted, brass rods running in brass tubes finished off with plastic knobs to the front of the boards, the Powercab unit has also been fitted along the front. Next step has been painting the track and cleaning off the rails, plus some trial running before going any further. Next step is to progress buildings and structures, a bit of full size 3D planning to see what fits where. It’s been a while since I made any buildings so have got a couple of buildings kits to start me off and get the proportions right. Cheers, Andrew

I know of two people who have contacted Peco about issues with the points, hopefully they will comment on here when they have suitable answers. Though don’t think their points were out of gauge. Andrew

Time flies by again. No time for modelling over Christmas as we were away for over a week, though there was time for a lengthy walk along the old railway line beside the Mawddach and a day driving on the Talyllyn. So far this month has seen a get together with the rest of my family, several shifts at work, a bout of the lurgy and this last weekend away in Talgarth near Brecon on a bread making course. Following our drive home via the Elan Valley where the reservoirs were spectacularly overflowing the dams, there was time to put the finishing touches on my Sentinel Steam Wagon. Had my usual Dulcote and dry brushed weathering finish. The lettering is from individual letters from a sheet of HMRS Methsfix transfers which tried my patience somewhat! And here’s the bread we made on Saturday, I now know where I’ve been going wrong! And finally, one from today’s trip through the Elan Valley. Most impressive sight!! Cheers, Andrew

Just to bump this topic a bit.... those who are regulars to our event will be used to seeing Mike with his pinny on in the kitchen will be in for a shock this year as Mike will be escaping out the front. My wife Liz has offered her catering skills to help us out, her form is in a previous career she ran the Talyllyn’s catering operation for about five years. Liz’s first two questions to help gauge what to expect were 1) what kind of cakes should I bake? And 2) how many? Details nearer the time, but providing the facilities are there, should be some more hot food options at lunchtime this year.

Your quayside is coming along well Dougal. That’s a result with the Railbus, mine does the same so might have to try the same trick. Cheers, Andrew

Lovely photo that PGH. For the earlier grey livery, a quick google search finds this thread, see first post: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/70331-derwent-valley-light-railway-centenary-event-2021-july/ There are also photos in the rather nice book on the DVLR I have at home. Andrew

Testing the Skylark Andrew 7EE185D2-DF9B-46BF-97B0-134AE84C9FF8.MOV

Time flies by and it’s been two months since the last update! Have done some work on the baseboards painting them, but being up in an uninsulated attic, the cold weather has halted progress on those. Have received agreement that in the new year, I’ll start on insulating the attic to make it bearable for longer periods of the year. Meanwhile, the modelling bench in the study has been nice and warm thanks to the log burner in there. First up on the desk was an IP Engineering 16mm scale Ruston Loco that I’d been asked to build for the young son of a friend of ours. That complete, I also finished building my Sentinel Steam Wagon kit whilst the soldering iron was out. This is currently going through the paint shop with basic painting complete. Still requires transfers, weathering and final assembly of some of the detail parts. Also on the workbench has been my Wrightlines Skylark. Built this years ago when the kit first appeared, but in my naivety I used the naff motor that came with the kit and ran accordingly. Rebuilt with a Mashima motor and Branchlibes 50:1 gearbox, I had two attempts that failed at getting the outside cranks quartered properly so the thing spent years back in its box. Decided it was finally time that I got the Skylark running, it’s had new axles and cranks and thanks to some patience and relaxing music, I’m pleased to say that it now runs rather nicely, both on rails and on my rolling road. So that’s one demon put to rest! Cheers, Andrew

Not strictly true.... 221 Voyagers were fitted with tilt so as to fit in amongst the Pendolinos on the WCML, specifically when working Euston to Holyhead services for WC and XC services from New St to Glasgow via WCML. When the franchises were split in 2007, all those services that required tilt came under the West Coast franchise. The one exception was the tilt down towards Aynho Jn and essentially Wolverhampton to Stafford with the number of stops XC services make on the NEw St to Manchester corridor. Tilt on Voyagers was particularly unreliable and even on the routes where the sets didn't tilt we had no end of tilt failures resulting in trains cancelled and a return to Central Rivers at 40mph max. The furthest I drove one was back from York, a mind numbing exercise! Therefore, with most routes benefitting from tilt falling under the WC franchise, it didn't take an expert to realise that removing the unreliable tilt mechanism would go a long way to improving reliability. Whilst you also pay lower track access charges, the amount of route miles XC services could benefit from this were very small. There are different timings for 220 and 221 services units on all routes. There was tilt on the 221 on some routes, but their additional weight makes them slower on others as 220s have superior acceleration. A decision was made very early on in the AXC franchise to provide flexibility with sets and prevent incurring delay when substituting a 221 for a 220 that all Voyager services are timed for 221 timings, whatever the booked traction. Now if only the money that was spent on tilt had been spent on building longer sets.... My colleagues in train planning do as far as I'm aware attempt to diagram five car 221 units on the busier services as far as possible, namely Bournemouth to Manchester and the Plymouth to Scotland services. There are also a few that run as eight cars for part or all of their journeys. The DfT decides on how much stock XC (and all other franchises) gets to run, their extension of the current XC franchise only achieved the continuation of the status quo rather than doing something about overcrowding! What happens next depends on what shape the next XC franchise forms, I'm pretty confident that the DfT will make some changes. As for solving the overcrowding, without electric string going up along the MML, can't see us getting any 222's. suspect that the most cost effective solution would be for WC to replace their 221's with IEP bi-modal trains or some such traction and have all the 221's transfer to XC. But, logic and the DfT rarely go together.... Andrew

Stunning modelling! This and the small Black Hawthorn look great. Cheers, Andrew

Have to agree with others here. My first thought of 'that'd be nice' has been replaced by thinking it's a shame they've repeated the alternatively available versions. Either an earlier version like the one the Criggion Quarry had, or the post war 'streamlined' one would've tempted me. However, as I've previously resisted the Skytrex and Walsworth ones, suspect that Dapol will have to produce an exceptional model to tempt me.

Have finally worked out my confusion, I'd somehow missed publication of the East of England book back in July. Calamity! Have just rectified that with an online order with the publisher. Agree that they are superb books. Cheers, Andrew

There's also a thread running on the 7mm section: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/127521-arun-quay-by-gordon-gravett-in-mrj-258/?p=2917299&do=findComment&comment=2917299 Andrew

Agreed, met Gordon and Maggie on a visit to the Talyllyn years ago and have always found them to be friendly at any shows I've seen them at. Their first layout, 'Llandydref' is what inspired me to put down my oo trainset and build my first 7mm narrow gauge loco. Cheers, Andrew

Gordon previously wrote in MRJ an article about the buildings built for the layout. There are also two books about modelling in O gauge and three more recent books about modelling trees and grassland from Wild Swan that have all his techniques in. Andrew

Keith, The crossovers at the Up end of Bromsgrove aren't signalled for up to down reversing moves, what we're talking about is having properly signalled reversing moves, not talking you by signals and crossovers verbally. At Droitwich, the down to Up turn back doesn't have an FPL on it so you can't take a passenger train through it without someone coming along and clipping the points, which is why when we've done the move, we've had to go through to Shrub Hill to reverse. Andrew