Meanwhile, I had a Farish ref 4101 maroon BG with a busted chassis and my appeal for one resulted in @Bob G stepping up to the plate and sending one c/w bogies and wheels. It was received today and I've replaced the pizza cutter wheels with more modern ones (379-412) which is an easy way of improving the looks. The maroon is somewhat dark and the lettering is a little faded but it's back in revenue making traffic so big thanks to Bob

A model of DoG would be unusual so, if you can repair the damage, I'd like to see the finished article

Well, here's a pleasant surprise.

Taking another break from the (characteristically slow) layout build, I've decided to reduce the number of locos in the 'To Be Repaired' box. I have 3 Minitrix Britannias which I don't think need much attention apart from a good clean, so I thought I'd start with those. I have Boadicea, John of Gaunt, which I renamed and numbered myself, and Firth of Forth which I bought at a show with the intention of bringing it back south of the border and renaming Hereward the Wake. But what's this?

  A fourth, reliveried as 71000 Duke of Gloucester! I have absolutely no recollection of acquiring this, and I certainly didn't convert it myself. Unfortunately, it has been in the wars a bit. Someone has cut the cab roof off for some unfathomable reason, and it is missing the chimney and one smoke deflector.. I've acquired some Midland carriages and it would be ideal to haul those, so I would like to repair it and keep it as it is but it may be too much effort. I knew very little about the prototype until I looked up the restoration website. I did know that it haunted the WCML, so I don't expect I even 'copped' it when I were a spotter. DoG nameplates are available from the NGS and I think I have a spare smoke deflector somewhere but I may just bin the body and use the chassis for another project which has been in cold storage for 30+ years...

Something may appear on my workbench thread at some indeterminate date in the future.

Cheers,

Chris

Excellent, as always, John. Thanks for posting!

An Old Boiler

Occasional Special No. 3. Part B


Hello Chums

I know, I know! I shamelessly 'plugged' this 'Occasional Special' as having interesting stuff about locomotive boilers and all I've shown you is a picturingham of the firebox end of a boiler with the cladding removed. Nothing new about that - every steam railway enthusiast and her pet poodle will have seen one of these, either in the metal or in an illustration in a book or magazine. You'll be saying, "Pull your socks up, laddie, and show us something new."

After taking the course photograph seen in Part A, I shimmied [wobbled on crutches, more like] to the other end of the boiler and took another coarse photograph. "Not yet another picturingham of a smokebox," I expect you are saying. Not quite:-





You see, the boiler has been partly dismantled and this gives us an opporchancity to examine parts normally only seen by a boilersmith.

We have already discussed how, since Robert Stephenson's time, a locomotive boiler has an inner and outer firebox and a series of tubes. The tubes are absent, but you can see the holes in the inner firebox into which they fit. That's the bigger holes. The smaller ones towards the bottom are for the stays that hold the inner firebox to the frontplate of the outer firebox. This has been removed.

You can see the water space between the sides of the inner and outer fireboxes - possibly narrower than you expected.

The thick piece of metal, with lots 'N' lots of holes, at the bottom is called the 'Foundation Ring'. Certainly, it's the foundation of a boiler, but it is a bit of a stretch to call it a ring. More a rectangle with rounded corners. The inner and outer fireboxes are rivetted together through the holes in the foundation ring.

There's more to see, of course, but, for that, we'll look at another coarse photogarph in Part C.

To be continued...


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Pip-pip

John

Agreed. Transition period modelling at its best and loved the running speeds !

Super spiffing videos.

Pretty sure Arran's already done a Stolt tanktainer.

I will have one of everything proposed! No suggestions on the other gaps. Tex 20' would be good, or maybe TAL in brown with the red Transamerica Leasing building logo.

I think 20 footers provide the opportunity for oddball rarities. I'd buy a dozen of any of:

Containerships

Cronos Containers

Balearia Cargo

To quote an esteemed forumite and true gentleman @Train Waiting (and hoping he doesn't sue me for plagiarism), tonight was a SuperSmelly diseasel night on the club layout. (Descriptions can be found alongside the image you click on. Trains on the 'Up' line courtesy of friend Rob))

EFE class 17 on engineers train just outside Heatherley by Mick Hollyoake, on Flickr

Farish EE Type 3 runs through Heatherley with a short parcels rake by Mick Hollyoake, on Flickr

Farish EE Type 4 passes Heatherley with a rake of blood & custard MK1s by Mick Hollyoake, on Flickr

Farish Sulzer Type 2 passes Heatherley with an engineers train by Mick Hollyoake, on Flickr

Thanks for looking