Elmham Market in EM

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
After several false starts and a few rethinks I have fashioned a new boiler front and smokebox door out of plasticard and a bit of wire. I think it is better than the casting in the kit (the smokebox door was definitely too small when compared to the drawing and was also too ‘flat’). I’m inclined to live with this and move on now.

Nigel

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AJC

AJC

Western Thunderer
That does look much better - those cast brass smokebox fronts were not the best part of those Gibson kits; the LSWR O2 had the same problem with an undersized smokebox door (well, one of the two supplied). I built mine up with a bead of Milliput using the outer ring as a guide. That and the massive heat sink the boiler provided made it quite tricky. Your plastic front solves all that!

Adam
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Well a return home from my latest week driving on the Ffestiniog seems to have restored my F6 mojo. Inclement weather preventing me from sorting out the garden (and also the new found time given to me by retirement!) has also helped. Whatever the reasons, I have been ploughing through the detailing on the body and I think I now only have to add the lamp irons and it is ready for a good clean and then start the paint job. A couple of photos of the current state of play are attached.

Nigel


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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Much of the weekend has been taken up with gardening as well as taking our youngest son to uni but I have managed to get a coat of black on the F6. A photo is attached.

In other news I have been applying tape between wheels and underframes on some of my D&S bogie coaches in an attempt to avoid shorts. I’ll test them out tomorrow.

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
As the weather has picked up I have spent more time outside re-engineering the Wey Valley Light Railway. The station area has now been completed as far as the brickwork is concerned and I have now broken out into the main line. If the weather stays fine tomorrow I hope to relay the track I have lifted and then knock out a few dozen more bricks and replace them with engineer blues. A photo below shows the current state of play.

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In the evenings I have continued to make progress towards completing the F6. Top coat, transfers and buffers have been added and the chassis coated in Precision dirty black. This evening I have given the loco some weathering, which I hope approximates to the state it was photographed in a picture shown in Yeadon’s. Grimy but not uncared for and with lettering etc clearly visible. Again, a few photos attached. Glazing and couplings tomorrow…

Nigel


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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
I’m afraid there have been a few days of radio silence. Partly that is down to a visit to the LT museum reserve collection at Acton Town and a visit two days later to Scaleforum (both well worth the trip) and partly because I have been struggling with the F6. I had tested the chassis before starting on the body detailing and all seemed to work fine but when finally assembled it really had a fit of the sulks. I went through a number of iterations until, as @Herb Garden of this parish can testify, I was close to chucking the chassis and scratch building a new one. George counselled reason so I put it to one side last night and slept on the problem (again). This morning with a refreshed mind I hit it again and this time: success! I attach a video (admittedly going too fast for station limits!) of it on one of its test runs.


Full of the joys of completing this project I felt inclined to have a play with my camera and attach the results of my very poor photography.

Nigel


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Dave Holt

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Nigel,
Whatever you did, it certainly seems to have done the trick - running very nicely now - and looking really good, too.
Will have to try and keep an eye out for you on the FfR next weekend, if you're going?
Dave.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Dave Holt said:
Nigel,
Whatever you did, it certainly seems to have done the trick - running very nicely now - and looking really good, too.
Will have to try and keep an eye out for you on the FfR next weekend, if you're going?
Dave.
Click to expand...
Yes, it does, although I’m not quite sure why!
I am going up to Porthmadog during the week and will probably stay for at least the first half of Bygones so might see you there.

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
My latest (of many?) excuses for not doing any modelling last week: I was up in Wales for the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railwys trustees week then the first half of Bygones. Lots of meetings but a reward at the end with a gravity train ride early on Saturday morning, a living reminder of why the Ffestiniog Railway was built and the conditions men worked under to win and ship slate around the world. Fortunately the weather on Saturday morning was glorious. A video attached…

Nigel

 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Can I drop this link to a very informative video of the Gravity Train here, Nigel? Having watched your short clip I just had to see more!.
Well worth a watch - would really like to do this one day.
I started to get a bit frightened at one stage - but then realised I had switched playback speed to x 2 :))

 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Osgood said:
Can I drop this link to a very informative video of the Gravity Train here, Nigel? Having watched your short clip I just had to see more!.
Well worth a watch - would really like to do this one day.
I started to get a bit frightened at one stage - but then realised I had switched playback speed to x 2 :))

Click to expand...
Feel free Tony! It is a great experience. It was Mrs B’s first ride on one and she was blown away by the experience (and believe me, she has no interest in trains!), although she did say her view might have been different if the weather hadn’t been so kind!

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Back home now and a realisation that my local EMGS group is coming round on Thursday so I have dealt with some maintenance tasks and tested all of the points and sidings. I have also added a couple of irdot infra red track occupancy LED light units for the Stratford St James fiddle yard sidings as operators had commented they couldn’t tell which siding was already occupied. Photos attached to show the current state of play.

Nigel


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Chris Veitch

Chris Veitch

Western Thunderer
James Spooner said:
It was Mrs B’s first ride on one and she was blown away by the experience (and believe me, she has no interest in trains!), although she did say her view might have been different if the weather hadn’t been so kind!
Click to expand...
Indeed - I arranged one for my own wife’s birthday last year as the run happily coincided with her birthday. Needless to say it was torrential and while she really enjoyed it, she also confirmed it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience…
 
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