John Isherwood

The roof panels were removeable; hence the double handrail knobs and the gaps in the handrail at the roof panel joints. My transfer sheet BL149 (see http://www.cctrans.org.uk/products.htm ) contains the lining, including the curves. The lining is 1.0mm. wide; as the moulded lines are not dead straight I am replacing them with 1.0mm. wide Evergreen syrene strip. Regards, John Isherwood.

Am I right in thinking that these were the tractors used post-WW2 by the RNLI for lifeboat launching? I recall the one at St.Ives (Cornwall) as looking very similar to this one. Regards, John Isherwood.

Martin, I'll let you know how I get on with fabricating the step / handholds; I interpret the photos as a cut-out step with a midway handrail; note the upper one has a vertical handrail, too. The tender sides are too tall - I have removed 1.5mm from the lower edges; I then had to reprofile the lower edge by scraping and sanding. On my mouldings, the trim lines that carry the lining were not straight on both loco and tender bodies. I have carved them off; cut a straight top edge to the tender body sides with an Olfa 'scrawker', and reprofiled the upper edges by scraping and sanding. I replaced the trim lines with 0.375 x 1.0 mm. Evergreen strip, aligned against a straight edge. Regards, John Isherwood.

We called in there last Saturday - a regular steak pasty each for lunch, plus six regular and six large for the freezer. The car smelled like a pasty factory for days afterwards! We can get good pasties here in Bodmin from Barnecutts, but Philps of Hayle have the edge. Funnily enough, we're off down to Hayle and St. Ives again today - I wonder what will be on the lunch menu? Regards, John Isherwood.

Martin, Funnily enough, I came across that image during the last week, and it has been very useful. I am currently struggling with the three step / handholds on each side of the tender. The Golden Arrow moulding has them in the wrong place, and I've tried filling them and carving new ones in the resin casting - none too successfully! I'll probably bite the bullet and fabricate new inserts to fit into spaces cut into the tender sides. For those who haven't already seen them, here are some close-up images which are very useful for modelling purposes. Regards, John Isherwood.

Yes please. Regards, John Isherwood.

Do you read MRJ ? There was a very interesting article in a recent issue on building a road shunter based on a digger, which ran on rail wheels hidden behind the road wheels. I found the finished model very convincing. Regards, John Isherwood.

My own modelling venture into this subject means that I am far from surprised that weight and traction were a problem. Regards, John Isherwood.

Thanks for that - two of the photos are of a much higher resolution than the versions in my database and the third, rear three-quarters view, is new to me and very useful for tender detailing. Regards, John Isherwood.

Yep - just take a recording device next time you're off to Malaga, or wherever. You should have all you need during the taxi run to the runway threshhold ! Regards, John Isherwood.

Get's you every time, doesn't it ? Try this, too ! Regards, John Isherwood.

Now; to the pile of mysterious junk referred to and illustrated at the start of this project - this is where it all goes downhill and get's a bit Monty Python !! I should declare - for those who don't already know - that I don't do equalisation, springing, DCC, and particularly, sound ! I am fortunate enough to be able to remember well the sound of steam and the pilot scheme diesels, and so am quite happy to imagine the appropriate sounds when running trains. That said, GT3 was so radically different from the contemporary traction - particularly in the sound that it made - that I feel duty-bound to have a go at reproducing this sound; albeit electro-mechanically. Also, the front air intake fan was bright red, and very visible. When I mentioned to Tim Shackleton that I would like to make this operate on the model, he quite rightly pointed out that, driven by a free motor, the fan would rotate so fast as to be invisible. So, I found a tiny 200 RPM gearbox-motor on Ebay, which sits snugly beween the frames. As to the turbo-jet whine, I reasoned that the most likely way to reproduce this might involve a fan - or rather three micro-fans bolted end-to-end. I chose three, mainly to maximise the emitted sound, and because the micro-fans that I found on Ebay were rated at around 4V. However, when run in series from a 12V supply, the sound was far too tame. On the other hand, when run in parallel from the same 12V supply, the sound of the over-rated micro-fans was MUCH more in keeping with a turbo-jet !! I reasoned that the micro-fans would be self-cooling, and they only seem to get a little warm. Now, the micro-fans will only operate on one polarity, and the front air intake fan should only operate in one direction, regardless of the direction of travel. So - a rectifier was necessary, and was duly sourced from - you've guessed it - Ebay. When tried out as a test bench rig-up, the loco started to move before the 'turbo-jet' whine could get up to full revs. So, reasoning that a resistance in the motor circuit might delay movement, I sourced from you-know-where a selection of ceramic resistances in the 0 - 200 OHM range; trials suggest that something around 75 OHMS may well be optimum. The observant amongst you will have noted that the motor / gearbox is about to migrate from the front to the rear axle, in order to make room for all of this nonesense; and that I am proposing to fill any free space within the coupled wheelbase with copious amounts of 3mm. thick roofers' lead sheet. Now all of the foregoing is largely theory as yet, with only the bare minimum of practical testing. However, it all seems, somehow, to be in keeping with the ethos of the English Electric GT3 project. If they could get away with this; anything that I do will be tame by comparison ! Assuming that I don't disappear in the same cloud of smoke as my model GT3, further reports will follow. Regards, John Isherwood. PS. I wonder if a smoke-generator could be located, so that the fumes would be drawn into the fan and blown out through the roof exhaust vents? On the other hand, the whole sorry lash-up will probably generate more smoke than is desirable all on its own !!

Today it was the turn of the tender. Ian Macdonald's tender chassis kit goes together like a dream - I am using it in a cosmetic role - and the High Level functional inner frames fit within it with no problems whatsoever. Round-headed sprung buffers, from a set of Markits' LMS Duchess buffers, were soldered to the chassis; and I now await the arrival of a set of Gibson BR tender springs / axleboxes. A tiny amount of flash was removed from the Golden Arrow tender body moulding, which then slid into place over the locating / fixing panels of the cosmetic chassis. A few oddments of lead glued to the chassis to assist track-holding completed the principal tender work. Regards, John Isherwood.

Excellent shot, isn't it ? Note too, that it appears that English Electric fabricated the brake shoes from the pile of etched laminations in the foreground !! So this 4mm. scale chassis must be merely a scaled down version of the prototype 1:1 artwork. The original would have been hand-drawn too, as digital design had not then been invented. I didn't know that High Level Models was even in existence then; let alone subcontracting to EE - they must have needed huge sheets of brass. Regards, John Isherwood.

When Mr. Edge releases his 10100, I strongly suspect that he'll make a lot more than four sales ! Regards, John Isherwood.

...... which it is - as per, I think, all High Level gearboxes; except that in this case there's a secondary idler stage too. That's the point of replacing the worm / wormwheel-idler - that pairing dictates the ultimate gear ratio. Regards, John Isherwood.

Just a short report today. In order to emboss the rivets on the tender outside frames, I got out my homemade rivet press; which I mount in the vertical drill stand of my Unimat 3. Having done the rivets very quickly I decided, whilst the lathe was out, to turn up a 20 x 7.5mm. brass flywheel, to hang on the spare shaft of the Mitsumi motor. Glad I did, the improvement in the driveability is amazing - you really get the impression of taking up the load, and having some considerable mass to control. Regards, John Isherwood.

Stewart, Do you know - I'm not sure !! I discussed decreasing the ratio with Chris Gibbon, and he said that he would send me a replacement worm / idler gear. ..... I suppose that I could count the teeth on the idler - I'll try and remember to do so tomorrow. If you need to do the same thing, Chris will be able to tell you what he sent to me. Whatever it is, it's done the trick ! Regards, John.

A little more progress today, and effectively the end of the High Level chassis build. The tender inner chassis is a very simple fold-up item, especially if, as I did, you build it rigid with a little up / down allowance for the centre axle ! I opened up the axle holes to take 2mm. ID brass top-hat bearings, and soldered the bearings into the front and rear axle holes. I extended the centre axle holes a little in a vertical direction, both upwards and downwards, so that the top-hat bearings could move smoothly up and down. The inner chassis etch was then folded into a rectangular U shape; (the etch has relieving slots to assist in folding); and the folds were reinforced with solder on the inside. Four lengths of 0.8mm. brass wire were soldered into the holes in the half-etched outline of the brake hangers / pull rods, to stabilise the inner chassis, and a length of thicker brass wire was soldered into the brake shaft trunnions. As the dummy outside tender frames will completely hide the notional brakegear, I did not feel that I needed to add any more substantial representation of the brakeshoes. Job done ! Next, I think I'll be gettng out the Ian Macdonald detailing etch, and assembling the tender outside frames. Regards, John Isherwood.

Firstly, apologies for any muck evident in the photos - my Lidl ultrasonic cleaner has gone on strike again !! Right - the front bogie ! Assembled exactly as per the instructions, easy - except that I forgot that I was going to install the bogie with spring-loading onto the lower plate, and that this would require slots across the frame cross-members ! UNDERSIDE TOP The resulting slots are not as neat as they would have been if I'd cut them in the flat etch. The upper slot is a wide, clearance width for the spring; the lower slot is to take a 2mm. ID top-hat bearing as a sliding fit. The mounting pillar is an 8BA cheesehead screw, the head of which matched the hole in the chassis top etch. The spring is, I believe, one of those supplied with spung three-link couplings, and is a perfect fit onto the smaller outer diameter of a 2mm. ID brass top-hat bearing. The bearings themselves slide freely on the 8BA screw. Another 2mm. ID top-hat bearing slides in the lower bogie plate slot, and the whole arrangement is held in place by an 8BA large washer and nut. In this way, spring pressure is applied below the axle centreline, resulting in a very stable bogie; the spring length can be adjusted to avoid excessive transfer of adhesive weight from the driving wheels. The bogie was fitted to the chassis and a test run was made - with less than satisfactory results ! Short-circuits in considerable number were noted - particularly between the flanges of the bogie wheels and the underside of the chassis top plate; (the bit with the mudguards). In fact, clearance at these points was zero - why? Back to the Markits driving wheels; which you will recall had initially been incorrectly fitted as 5'-6'' (22mm.) diameter, and were then replaced by nominally correct 5'-9'' (23mm.) diameter. However, measurement with a micrometer showed that they are, in fact, 22.68mm.diameter. Only 0.32mm. undersize, but enough to lower the chassis top plate onto the bogie wheel flanges. Tim Shackleton, who published his GT3 build in Hornby Magazine, used Gibson wheels apparently without problems. So, if you too are going to use Markits wheels, I would recommend ordering 6'-0'' (24mm.) diameter wheels - which will probably be spot-on for 5'-9'' (23mm.). I was not prepared to order yet more wheels for my model, so some drastic surgery was required to accommodate the bogie wheel flanges. You will see that I cut large sections out of the chassis top plate, and soldered in a new front spacer plate to restore some rigidity to the frames. In the interests of eliminating all short-circuits, I revisited the pick-ups. The phosphor-bronze strip back-scratcher pickups can work well, provided that there is plenty of clearance between the frames and the back of the wheels; in this case, there wasn't. So I made up a set of traditional phosphor-bronze wire flange-edge wipers, and fitted these in place of the original pick-ups. I also noted that the brake pull rods had only a fag-paper clearance on the wheels. Rather than rebuild the brakegear I took the easy way out; cutting the cross-rods at their centres and using telescopic brass tube to space the two sides a little further apart. Finally, I decided to substitute one of my Mitsumi motors for the Mashima that had been supplied, as I find that the former run exceptionally quietly. Whilst undertaking this motor change, I fitted a lower ratio worm / idler pinion set into the High Level gearbox to slightly increase the top speed of the chassis, and a torque arm was soldered between the gearbox and the chassis. After all that modification - which was entirely due, I am sure, to my insistence on using Markits' wheels - I finally had a smooth-running, almost silent chassis with a realistic top speed. Regards, John Isherwood. PS. As you can see, I also fitted the balance weights.

May the good Lord spare us - shades of giraffe cars and low bridges. What goes around - comes around, regardless of it's merits !! It could only be from Dapol. Regards, John isherwood.

I quite agree - but those nylon wheels were muck magnets, weren't they? Regards, John Isherwood.

.... or we are just being pragmatic, knowing that there is little likelihood of a better option emerging in the foreseeable future. Many modellers take the risk, knowing full well that any remedial works will be simpler, and probably cheaper, than building the equivalent kit. I see RTR as a shortcut to a desired model, and if a little genuine modelling is required to bring the model up to my standards, then so be it. I'm certain that today's models could be made absolutely perfect - at a price; but then we'd be back in that other thread, which bemoans the outrageous prices charged for models. Pragmatism reigns OK !! Regards, John Isherwood.

But if they announce tomorrow one of your 'must have' prototypes, would you buy one? I know I would, and so would most other modellers. Regards, John Isherwood.

The point is that the size of this distribution exercise, whilst considered large for the model railway field, is miniscule in global retailing terms. To employ a dedicated distribution company would be considerably more expensive, and would add to the cost of the product. I seem to remember that the NRM used a 'fulfilling agent' early in the days of their exclusive models, and that a lack of understanding of the model railway trade caused quite a few problems for both the NRM and their customers. At the end of the day we are talking about toy trains - for that is all they really are. If these toys, (and whether I had to wait a few more weeks on top of the typical three years for delivery), figured so high up in my scale of priorities that I 'lost my rag' about it, I'd be worried. Surely there's more to be got out of model railways than stressing about whether someone got their shiny new toy before you did? Regards, John Isherwood.