7mm The Derby Line - Rolling Stock

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Looks like I'm gonna be busy, can you tell what it is yet?

 

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Now fixed up and back on it's wheels, with a little tidying remaining:-



And... straight on to the next project, a David Andrews 2P kit , which is going together very nicely:-

 

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Three of these arrived this morning! No guesses as to what the next project will be! :-

First inspection indicates that it will be a cracking kit!

 

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So, on to the Snowhill WD kits. Initial work is on the tender chassis, I'm a little disappointed in the N/S etchings in that the etchings are slightly out of line from front to back in both kits. This creates an annoying cusp, which takes a lot of cleaning up. I didn't like the floating hornblocks either, a more positive location for them in the inner frames would have been better and a chassis jig ( which I don't have ) would have really helped. However the castings are tidy and I'm beginning to make progress.

 

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And another 9F in Area 51, I am on the 3 DJH 9Fs. There has been some criticism of DJH kits, at one time they were state of the art, and maybe they are lagging behind in the technology stales. For me, generally they go together well, and I've always found the customer support from DJH excellent. The early 7mm kits such as the Fairburn are weak compared with the later ones, I wonder if they were a toe in the water to test the 7mm market at the time.
I'm aware of some of the minor pitfalls with the 9F after chatting to other builders, so I'll tackle them as I get to 'em..
I decided to start with the tenders, and so far the etches fit together with no problem - it would be nice to have twist tabs ( MOK style ) though! The first mod is to slot the tender chassis centre axle to allow a floating bearing, the original design is for an oversize bearing, but I don't like the thought of the axle windmilling around. I've also drilled the box re-enforcing etchings, I don't like sealed boxes.

 

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Here we go! ( in a Clarkson voice ) . At last back to 7mm scale and a start on the tender. The etches are marked as 'Acorn Jim Harris' . I had already been forewarned of the provenance of some of this kit. As long as we know ahead what is to come, we can plan for it. Interestingly the whole of the chassis etch when laid out is not square - no it's not the camera this time! I suspect it was hand drawn and it's just the waste fret that is not square. One of Jim's techniques was to mirror the etchings, so rivets for the tender sides had to be carefully counted (!) as they are not the same on drivers and fireman's sides...

 

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Thanks to the grotty weather, we're off and continuing the Great Western theme I am building 4702. First job was to cut out for the Slaters hornblocks. I don't make them adjustable as once the ride height is set, there is no need to change anything. I know that I could go in the GW section, but I live here really.

 

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I'm about to embark on this project, but there are no usual disclaimers. I shall blatantly promote the kit as it will be produced by the Finney7 consortium and I know most of the members. And I might be able to blag some free stuff. Having said that, I won't hold back on what I don't like as most people know, I don't build kits straight from the box. I feel that the design comes from an era when every problem could be resolved by etching, however, the castings in the kit are top quality. More of that later.

A few hours work gets to this - and it's not invisible solder - I've not soldered it yet..

 

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The frames etch - just laying this out is a real treat:-


This one will have fully working inside motion, so I've got to stage with the frames just held by the tabs to work out how to graft in the Griffin motion. The first bit with the indirect linkage is there, using bits from the kit and Griffin. Next job is to get the crank axle to fit between the hornblocks.....