drmditch

I bought one of these as a Christmas present to myself last year when I was quite poorly and miserable. It got checked for running but was then put back in it's box. This year, I thought I would celebrate a bit more and opened the box again. Yes, it is a darker green and does have a ski-jump, although not as bad as some I've seen. The tender appeared to be lower at the rear. The photograph below shows it next to my A1 'Flying Fox' that I've had for I don't know how long. (The later is a 'special' 1938ish engine for my late 1940s railway.) I was able to correct the front footplating quite a lot by: - Notching the inner edge of the footplate moulding just behind the front false frames. and scribing the underside. - Fitting a washer to the body location screw so that it imparts a greater downward pull to the front footplate. This has reduced the bend by more than 50% (actually the LH side is better) I was considering making a bending jig, but thought I would try this first. The tender rear fixing screw (above the rear coupling) was very, very tight. I was trying to work out what was needed when I realised that with the screw a lot looser the problem disappeared! Both locomotives are, apart from coaling 'out of the box' I think No.108 'will do' with some further work. It is going to get re-numbered and re-named, and may well be a Gateshead allocated engine. It will therefore probably end up quite dirty!

Many thanks. That looks just what I have been looking for!

My railway room may be only about 1/3 the size of yours, and my design and and concept a bit 'toylike' compared with yours, but it's actually about the warmest room in the house! When the virus has subsided you must come 'down the line', and visit. (You will have to bring something to run of course!)

Just to complete this thread. The parcel did arrive quite quickly. The new drive unit was simple to install, with just three wires to solder. Problem solved - and my locomotive storage works! Thank you to everybody who helped.

Happy New Year to everybody, and I am very grateful that I have a railway to help cope with lockdown. Here are some pictures of progress: The South End of the Railway Room. Convenience and comfort of the Workbench. Looking North from the 'modelling chair'. For this design of railway swivelling chairs are essential. Recent work on girder bridge construction. Based on ex NER bridges in the area, of which the one surviving is the Albion Road bridge at Langley Moor. Mine is made of re-cycled cardboard rather than wrought-iron. Sorry about the clunky screw fixings. They are just there until the girders are finally fixed. There were something over 320 pieces of card to cut and fasten to make this, and still I haven't dealt with the rivets! I'm now back to track-laying for the upper-level. If anyone knows of any convenient source for small LED light strips please could you let me know? My three level design works - but I need to be able to see what trains are in the lowest level sidings!

Re: Workbench Pictures (This thread moves so fast its difficult to stay topical!) My workbench is nicely positioned at the south end of the Railway Room. A closer view, with an A8 in shops (again, and I still haven't worked out how to fit brakes). The workbench uses a surface top of re-cycled shop counter fastened on top of an elderly workmate. Rather than constantly replace it, I use a 'project block' of off-cut MDF, of which I have a quantity surviving from all the work on the house/baseboards etc. When this gets too messy it gets turned over and then discarded and replaced. I have good light, and I can see down the garden and look out for hedgehogs, acrobatic magpies, dancing crows, and other entertainments! I can also, thanks to the design of the railway, sit and watch trains running around me, for which the swivel chairs are ideal. I do however need to improve the sound system, currently depending on an old DB radio. Radio 3 is essential for good modelling!

Happy New Year, and Good Afternoon from 'down the line'. Splendid progress. Very impressive I'm making some progress too, and if my pictures are any good, I'll update my build thread when I've been out to enjoy the sunshine! Please may I ask two questions: What is your minimum track curvature radius (including 'hidden areas')? Have you found any convenient light source for your storage/'hidden areas'? I've realised that I do need some convenient LED type lights, otherwise it's quite dark in Newcastle/Darlington/the Rest of the World, and I can't see to operate them. WWW search not come up with anything suitable yet.

You might like view my thread

I thought it was just that they lived in Dunland. On the line of these jokes however, surely Sir Terry Pratchet achieved the culmination with a home for the Gods being 'Dunmanifesting'

18th Century? Democracy? Good Heavens - who did you support? Tom Paine? What a dangerous radical you are!

Please excuse a question. I'm planning some work on an A3 and/or a D49/2. I'm sure I have seen recent reference on RMWeb to a supplier of nameplates but now I can't find it. Could anybody give me any advice please? (Usually most of my locomotives are black without names!) PS - I tidy my work surfaces between projects, but since my projects seem to take a long time I do get very cluttered. Also, I don't like throwing away offcuts of materials, so these eventually pile up.

Sailing from Nice to Monaco, in a Red Ensign yacht, I was told that it was very important to strike our French courtesy flag before entering Monegasque waters. Unfortunately, we didn't have a red over white flag on board. (Would it upset Indonesia flying their flag upside down?). Entering Monte Carlo harbour was a whole story in itself...…..

Re: Best A1 names:- North Eastern (of course!)

Whoops - sorry. Forgot to check. But you surely can't complain about Gannets (unless you are a fish of course!) A bit pre-occupied with more bridge girders. Re: A3 names - Centenary please (what with the bi-centenary coming up).

And if Seagulls (even Herring Gulls) were scarce we would say what magnificent birds they are, with brilliant aerobatic control accurate enough to steal food from human plates/newspapers/packets. Yes, so gulls are basically pirates, which is presumably why humans, who are far worse pirates, claim not to like them. It's a shame that Gannets and Fulmars weren't used, but they are best appreciated in their natural environment far out at sea. with their long gliding wings. I may have said before that the Eider Duck (which is I understand the fastest flying UK duck), could have been used. Perhaps it could only have been run on down trains? Oh yes, worst names, - Bryan, Davina, and Brigid. And in the middle of a war too!

Sparrow Hawk (May not be the fastest, but one does visit my garden!)

Excuse me, I grew up in Chelmsford. Memories from childhood include:- - Having to shelter in a china shop (well actually it was a kind of stall, but it had folding iron gates) when a bull got loose in the cattle market. - Getting grit (char/ash) in my eye when walking under the railway viaduct. - Seeing, for the first time, a train with no engine crossing the viaduct, and worrying that it was running away. - The snow and cold in the winter of '63 (?) - The narrow gauge tracks set in the ground near the old brickworks. - The smell from Grays Brewery. - The model railway items sold in Pope and Smiths. Later it got less comfortable, (where doesn't when one is growing up?) but I still have some good memories. Of course, I was eventually able to head north on a four hour train ride from King's Cross and find a new centre of life In Durham.

Re: The Summer of 76 and the Flying Scotsman and the Soup. I got away from the factory early one Friday, and arrived at Newcastle Central in time to catch the (delayed) southbound Flying Scotsman service. There was room in the Dining Car, so I sat down for lunch. The train, I think it was hauled by a 47, was accelerating past Low Fell, when the brakes started to come on. This was just as the staff had started serving soup, and one very sensible attendant went down the aisle shouting 'Stand clear of your soup' (or words to that effect.). With the train juddering to an emergency stop anybody sat facing the direction of travel was likely to get their soup in their lap, and this did indeed happen to several people. There was a general mopping up, and the train managed to set off again. Apparently the problem was on the locomotive and was the reason why the service was delayed in the first instance. However, once the train was again travelling at speed and the soup being served, the same thing happened again. Again the message was passed 'Stand clear of your soup' and again one person was late to react and received a lapful of soup. I think he got a round of applause. I can't really remember what happened after that. I think we stopped for some time at Darlington where presumably the locomotive was changed. Now, I do like facing the direction of travel, but I had opted for the prawn cocktail (it was the 70s after all). Only once since then have i eaten soup on a train, and that was on the NYMR Dining Train a few years ago. I did enquire carefully about the health of the braking system before we set of!

Please excuse a question. Are there published details anywhere of your construction of the bridge girders? I'm trying to make some NER girders at the moment, but I doubt mine will be anywhere near as good as yours!

Re: The Long Hot Summer of '76. (I think this was mentioned a short time but many posts ago.) That was my summer for travelling up and down the eastern side of the country, using the ECML and the KX/Newcastle sleeper service on Sunday evenings, and sometimes driving if I needed the car in the week). On one trip I took the A19 (for a change from the A1) and used the Humber Ferry (the last of the LNER paddle steamers?) That was a marvellous and magical trip. Then, on one southbound railway journey, there was the story of the Flying Scotsman and the soup.........

Re: Wants vs Needs I want, but don't need an A2/3 - but have ordered one I need and want at least one LNER black V2 - and have an MJT body and Alexander 'stepped-out coal rave' tender, and am just deciding what I will order to make the 'works'. I want, don't need, but would really like an LNER Green V2. What I really do want and need to do is get on with the cast-iron pillars for a wrought-iron girder bridge, and avoid all these temptations and distractions please! (So the WWW gives information and the WWW takes away time!)

Yes, and I never understand why it's called 'perfect'.

The NER changed to lined black for goods locomotives in 1904 (according to the estimable Mr Hoole). This means that the first T 0-8-0s were outshopped in full Saxony Green. I am working on one now, but don't know if I have the courage to attempt that. It would work well in the context of a 'what if one had made it to preservation' scenario.

Is there not a problem also with binding? One doesn't want to 'force flatten' a book if that would damage it. Any printed works that I have where required drawings cover two pages gets handled carefully, with any measurements 'across a page' taken from quoted figures and then lined up with a reference point on the same side as the page. Also, I am experiencing an increasing problem with my RCTS 'Green Books'. They live in my bedside-reading bookcase, and get taken care of. Even so, one or two of the most used volumes are showing some deterioration of the spines and binding. (The essential reason for them being bedside books is that if afflicted with sleeplessness (an unfortunately increasing problem for me), a slow study of Gateshead/Darlington boiler types and the number of tubes/stay-tubes/flues is interesting without being exiting.)