Adam

Thanks Andy, it's interesting to hear how the preserved example ended up where it is. I envy you your available space; I'm not sure I could find room for a gauge 1 0-4-0, never mind space to run one. Is this any use at all David? https://www.flickr.com/photos/barkingbill/2134090246/in/set-72157603696416788 Extended exhaust in place and at Rugby. Would this be the one that went to Wolverton? The smaller locos of the London Midland aren't really my beat! By way of a PS, in an alert moment, I photographed one of the modifications I made to the kit. Rather than mounting the brakes permanently to the chassis, I've opted to make them removable. The brake hangers are mounted on lengths of 0.7mm wire which feed into lengths of tube. I'm not sure whose idea this was but I first encountered it on a High Level RSH saddle tank and have adopted it, where practical, ever since. Adam

Pass Andy - there's a copy of the CAD drawing Mike produced in the box so I haven't taken the trouble to look into this - I haven't needed to (and it's been years since I paid much attention to any of the monthlies) so can't help there. I like the Hunslet David, it's nice to see another Impetus kit built as I've made two myself and rebuilt another. There are threads on these elsewhere in this bit of the forum. If I get a minute later, I will stick the links in this one if you're interested? Anyhow, here is the current state of play. All the assemblies have had a coat of primer, the body grey and the chassis red oxide and then black. All these came from Halfords. You will be able to spot that I completely forgot to install the front sandboxes and rear sandpipes before I reached this point. Note that I have gone and fixed the sandboxes too far back from the edge of the footplate. Fortunately, this is easy to resolve! While I was spotting details missed, I spotted that I'd neglected to add the small handle on the battery box and, while I had some Miliput out for another job, took the opportunity to fill said battery boxes with a mix of the putty and lead shot. Every little bit of weight helps. Adam

Thanks for that Peter. The Cadbury machines were smaller than the version David and I are building which are 330hp types so yes, it's smaller. An interesting feature of the 225hp locos were the solid, spoked wheels fitted to some of them. I'm not sure that any of the larger locos were ever fitted with anything similar or, for that matter, why North British saw fit to do this in the first place. David - let's see some pictures. There should be lots of space for a Portescap in there. Mine has made it as far as primer but it's a bit murky to be taking pictures tonight. Adam

Thank you for those pictures Peter. Is that one of the ex-Cadbury machines? These were slightly smaller than the one I'm building but again, similar to a batch bought by BR and with a very obvious family resemblance. I think they're big enough for my needs but don't let that stop anyone else putting a word in. Thanks again for sharing them. I think Rom River Reinforcement were the outfit that had the standard gauge Kerr, Stuart 6W diesel for a bit weren't they? I've never been exactly clear what it was the company did that caused them to need railway locomotives. http://homepage.ntlworld.com/foxfield/rom_river.htm PS - actually, said Kerr, Stuart is visible in one of the cab interior shots... Adam

Thanks for these Mike - I can see that I have a few extra details to add to my cab interior later in the build. My fault for modelling a cab door open... Adam

Thanks Mike, another note on the instructions that might be worth making is that the headlight bezel, if fitted, to industrials should be fitted with the bolts at 12 o'clock, 3, 6, 9. It's not immediately obvious from many photos (and needless to say, I've got it wrong on the cab backsheet). Otherwise, this has been trouble-free. David: A quick Google search (NBL shunter, NBL diesel shunter) is where I found the reference pictures I've been using. Here are a handful from Flickr if that helps: https://www.flickr.com/photos/31460388@N03/5039342781 https://www.flickr.com/photos/31460388@N03/5039343045 - note the 'industrial' shaped buffer beams and the absence of marker lights. https://www.flickr.com/photos/31460388@N03/5039341979 - this one is more or less a clone of some of the BR machines and, I think, is the same as the one below... https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=d2911 - This selection of images cover 'D2911', an industrial machine preserved on the Chasewater Railway masquerading as a scrapped BR machine. Regardless of the ethics of this, and I'm not mad keen, it sports a very odd shade of green... Adam

Just to show the state of play while the blisters from opening the rods out to suit the crankpin bushes subside, here's a general view of the chassis with the motor placed in the chassis to show the arrangement. The motor is rather bigger than is perhaps totally necessary but the real thing was a reasonably powerful beast for its size. Just my whim really. Adam

Perhaps I should have been clearer - this loco' will be compensated! Since I want a flywheel and am driving the rear axle, I'm doing something different to what Mike suggests. They'll be a pair of hornblocks and a conventional beam on the front axle. I'm just fettling the rods now so that I can set these up. The flywheel is being fitted for the same reason the loco is being compensated, to improve pick-up and to ensure proper electrical continuity. The designed in system is very neat and will work well without the faff of setting up floating bearings: I've used the system Mike designed into his Thomas Hill 0-6-0 with good effect and shamelessly copied it on something else I'm building at the minute. Adam

Hi David This is the industrial version, hence the headlight, among other details. The motor/gearbox I'm using is High Level's Loadhauler + with a 108:1 ratio with a Mashima 1424 and a flywheel driving the rear axle. This is the opposite way around to what Mike suggests in his instructions, mostly because I wanted the flywheel with compensation bearings on the front axle. Fitting this requires quite a chunk to be cut from the central frame spacer but this is quite big and there are plenty more so the structural integrity of the chassis isn't compromised. Obviously this renders the designed-in compensation arrangement unworkable but a simple 0-4-0 doesn't present any real problems and a flywheel isn't essential; for a small loco there's masses of space to fit everything in. There will be more pictures, just as soon as there's something meaningful to photograph! Adam

Interesting to see how the kit is clearly spec'ed for the GW pair - Swindon injectors! Nice work Andrew and what an attractive engine. Adam

Many thanks Tony. I shall set about tracking that down. Adam

Very nice indeed, Tony, especially given the starting point. Can I ask where you found the drawings shown in your pictures? Copies of these would really speed up my build if I were able to lay hands on them. Adam

The weather has been good enough for dad to (very kindly), spray my Clayliner tank. The original colour these were painted was Bowaters' corporate scheme of the time, a pale blue that, so far as I can tell from contemporary lorry pictures and dad's recollection of the rake, was near enough BR Ice Blue, as applied to fish vans and refrigerated containers. So that's what has been used. Detail painting and transfers await as well as a repair for the bottom of that ladder... Adam

A birthday present to myself, bought a few months back, is this Judith Edge kit for a diesel hydraulic built by North British. This type of 330hp 0-4-0DH was built for industry, but BR had a handful and a look the JE website will tell you about those but I wanted the industrial version, a pleasantly bulky thing which differed in many, many details from the BR versions. The ScR bought quite a collection of different types of NBL 0-4-0 and Mike and Judith will cheerfully sell you just about all of them. It assembles in the usual way for Mike Edge's designs with modular elements - bonnet/cab, footplate and chassis - all of which jig together and rely on each other to make assembly reasonably easy. The instructions assume that you know something about basic metal forming (why shouldn't they?) and that you are are capable of finding photographs to address which collection of details suit your chosen prototype. This is essential for this particular type; there seem to have been a collection of different bits which went together in various permutations, almost all of which are in the box with scale printouts from the CAD which answer just about any assembly question you might ask yourself. As such, it has rather flown together and I completely failed to take any pictures along the way so that we reach the point where the body and footplate are complete. There isn't much more to say except that I couldn't find part number 22 (risers for the inner cab floor). This doesn't matter since there is no shortage of scrap etch; straight, parallel strip, basically, to use instead. You can just make out that I've modelled the LH cab door open and added the large industrial headlights. Only the bezels for these are in the box, there were various styles and would be difficult to cast in resin but easy to make from scrap etch and shim. Basically, you solder the bezel to the scrap, centre pop the resulting sandwich and drill through to lend the resulting lamp a bit of depth. Then cut and file the thing to shape using the bezel as a guide, solder that to the top of the bonnet. Then cut a sort of squat 'T' shape from shim to represent the 'brim' over the top, form and test fit, trim to length and then solder in place. This can be filed up to shape and then the back filled with Miliput for the back of the fairing. The buffers, by the way, are Lanarkshire Model Supplies items intended for Austerity saddle tanks, 2-8-0s and 2-10-0s. These seem to be exactly what many of these diesels had. Not altogether surprising really since NBL built lots of the tender engines. Next for the technical bit, making it run. Adam

I'd agree with all of that - the boiler and saddle tank will be replaced on mine and the functional bits of the chassis used with severe modification. Not a good kit by any standard. Adam

Interesting, not least because, in the bottom of a box, I have one of the very same kits in its original incarnation, sold by C.J. Lester. An interesting looking loco (which is why I bought the kit) and a very similar Neath and Brecon railway machine lasted at Alnmouth with the NCB into the very early '60s, This is the proviso I will be using when mine gets built!The kit - based on my assessment of it at any rate, will provide for either as built or GW style cab/bunkers, while the boiler seems more suited to the GW replacements some of these received. That said, the smokebox door supplied is incorrect for that boiler and too thick for the dished version as originally fitted. The advantage of the GW boiler is that items such as smokebox doors and the appropriate chimney (my kit only has one for the B&M version) can be had from Mainly Trains and Gibson respectively though the B&M round-topped cab is more elegant in my view. Happily at least one of these had both and that's the version I will produce. Yours will be long finished before that! Some were built by John Fowler of Leeds and many of their documents and drawings are in the Museum of English Rural Life at Reading. Some of the works photos certainly are but I haven't yet made time to go and have a look. http://www.reading.ac.uk/adlib/images/nof/fowler/photos/tr_fow_ph2_2/223.jpg Good luck with it. Adam

Sorry for the delay Andrew, I'd only just remembered that I commented on this. there are some images on my long-forgotten blog: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/78/entry-8270-an-impetus-bagnall/ Bascially, the answer is that I made the boiler and saddletank as one sub-assembly into which the motor and flywheel slides. The boiler is fixed by means of a bolt in the smokebox and is located at the cab end via the hole etched in the front sheet. Simple enough, once you've worked out how to do it... Adam

Thank you for the additional information Paul, it is much appreciated as are the pictures of the real thing which make attempts at accurate models very much easier. What I am not clear about is the 'disagree' rating. If it is my irritation at the limited referencing it is because I really don't know where Mike King has had his information from; it is not clear in the text, except by inference and I am not sufficiently familiar with the internal workings of BR to understand what sort of documents he might have used or have access to. Your's, I guess, must be from the diagram or diagram book and I am interested, partly because it might help my modelling but also because I happen to work as a historian; it piques my 'professional' interest because I am not familiar with these documents - my speciality is government records of the 13th, 14th and 15th century so there is absolutely no useful overlap for me there! I respect Mike a great deal and his work, over the years, has made the cause of modelling the Southern, in its various forms, very much easier but I am curious as to how such information was recorded. Precise references to documentary sources - unless they are reproduced in facsimile - are rare in more or less all railway books which is a shame and sometimes a problem in the day job (which involves technical editing of history of all periods - it makes it very difficult to check the accuracy of any given statement based on otherwise useful books or articles). Thanks again Adam

ZG Thanks for the clarification. Yet another manifestation of the bane the modeller's life: under-referenced railway books. Mike King does indeed use 1389 and must have based it on something but it isn't quite clear what that is. With my 'professional' historian's hat on (I am lucky enough to do this for a living) I have to say I find this extremely irritating. Do you happen to have volume 4 of the OPC SR Wagons to hand? Does this say any different? I guess that he is referring to the 1961 wagon census but where this is held and what other records have been referred to he is not good enough to say. I shall have to ask him as and when I next see him at a show. Capping strips - I have tried the 5 thou' strip method and it works but is extremely fiddly. Colin's method - cutting a slot into the top plank of the wagon and inserting a piece of 20 thou', applying solvent and coming back to clean up a day or so later - works just as well. I bond the 5 thou' capping strip with cyanocrylate since this doesn't cause the strip to evaporate! You can speed the process up even further by bonding the clips with cyano' as well but at risk to your fingers... Adam

Thanks Colin, that's saved me a job for when I make it home! The black capping clips are exactly as you suggest - though I made them oversize to start with - and I cheerfully acknowledge the idea to you. The white ones are strips of 5 thou': too much like hard work! Adam

Hi ZG Thank you. I'm reasonably sure that it's a 1375 (but I'm on the train right now so can't check). I don't think that the retro-fitting of Mortgon type vacuum brake makes a difference. Now I've set myself up (!), back to the tie bars. The real things are strip, usually (some 16 tonners converted to Morton vac' brakes in the mid-60s did have angle fitted 'L' side out), but that tends to flex, or bend or fall off. Hence the angle, which is durable and only a little more expensive. The glued area is also doubled which helps. I should add that this isn't my idea; it's shamelessly filched from Ian Fleming, who may well have seen it somewhere else first. I haven't built a Mink G, but weren't most GW tie bars made from rod? I know that the pre-Nationalisation Fruit Ds were. Adam

Yes Mike, I know about that - very nice it looks - and if I happened to have a LIMA model or two to hand... Adam

The other ongoing work concerns the Cambrian-based SR open which has not received those fiddly little details which had been put off. Specifically, these include capping strips and clips - 5 thou' plastic - door bags, stays for the lever guides, safety loops for the brake push rods and a few bolt heads. Nothing very exciting but it all adds to the overall impression and it's now ready for painting. Most of the detail I've added is a matter of personal preference reflecting how the wagons were modified in service. I daresay that, once it's painted, it'll just blend into its surroundings and only those in the know will notice the things that make it different but I'm happy enough with it. Oh, and since I've taken these pictures, I've tacked the end of the capping strip back and tweaked the lever guide straight. Aren't digital cameras great? As for the kit itself, I thought it very good, particularly for a representation of the wagon as built. The thin sides reflect the real thing (a wartime expedient), the one-piece chassis is embarrassingly easy to get running but the floor probably wants a strip of 10 thou' down one side to stop the sides bowing in and I've retro-fitted this. There are some nice buffers on the sprue by the way, just not the pattern I was after, and these would benefit from some metal heads rather than the plastic ones supplied. Adam

Gotcha, thanks. I did wonder - I have a High Level RSH which has just such an arrangement and have incorporated something similar into my Bagnall 0-6-0ST, which you've seen of course. Presumably the saddle tank will lift off? Adam

Quick question Andrew: how's the motor mounted in this? Is it vertical in the firebox? Adam