Evening  all.

Well  all the modelling activity culminating in the production of a second Collett Goods loco did produce a nice runner. First picture sees the running in session on the rollers. I think that was Thursday some time.

Today saw a bunch of us at Aldershot for an excellent show and an AGM thrown in for good measure. I took a couple of shots, during the set up phase when a lot of locos were in the shed area - it never got that crowded in normal running.

As this was the first time running the layout in its 1930's guise, I feared a degree of finger prodding, but things could have been worse. We found the Jones goods and the two Colletts pretty reliable. The 2p was a little variable, but fine once moving which is a little odd. Tre Pol and Pen had a couple of "moments" but benefitted from tweaks done during the course of the day. The Pannier pilot proved very able, but I spent a lot more time cleaning and re-cleaning the track throughout the day. I don't recall any real problems with the Manor, but David or Richard may tell you differently. We sidelined the 45xx fairly early, but I do have a plan to improve it soon.  A couple of coaches have had running issues, and as usual it is a question of identifying and rectifying these. Only through continuous monitoring will we improve things. Even the diesel stock went through this phase, so I am hopeful of seeing imporovements in reliability tomorrow and at future shows.

Anyway, it was good to see so many 2mm Association folk today and share ideas. We need to entertain the general public more tomorrow, so a long clean will be the starting point of the day.

Hi,

It has been a busy day. I made the most of dry weather this morning to do some outside carpentry to mount the screen we will use to display the timetable to our audience. The screen is an old 15 inch one that my wife used to use before a new widescreen edifice took its place. A frame that allows us to attach it to the front of the layout but angled upwards gives us the ability to display information without distracting too much from the layout itself.

David has been doing a large amount of work on the timetable itself based on some real items for Pwllelli - Llangerisech's mythical neighbour! A concoction that is based on a semblance of reality helps us place the layout and lends a sense of purpose. Trains will be shown along with their destination or origin. The first picture shows things mocked up, but gives no idea of the amount of time that David has devoted to researching this and coming up with a workable item.

Once back inside, the last bits of the Collett Goods were put together. The tender uses the Association 8mm driving wheels with extended axles, but with the extensions turned down. On the old Manor models, a phosphor bronze strip had indentations in the form of cups, so the extensions were turned to points. On the newer version fitted to the 28xx and new Manors, the strip has changed to one with holes. The result of this is that the points need to be turned accurately to 1mm diameter. This has the benefit of extra sideplay, but means that a lathe is really needed to do the conversion. However, the lathe time was less than half an hour for me.

The chassis and wheels have all be painted, so it was really just a bolt and fit together job. The main advantage of the design is the ability to build then separate the worm carrier, so once the centres are established very little fettling is needed. In fact this one went together first time, so the measurements must have been accurate.

The intermediate gear (30:1 plus a 16 tooth gear) was mounted on stub axles and the rear wheels and final gear (20 tooth) mounted then checked. All OK, so the worm carrier could be fitted and the gear train checked throughout. Removing the worm carrier and completing the other axles allows the quartering and coupling rods to be sorted with all the gears turning.

The body required some plastic removing from around the firebox area to allow the drive shaft from the tender to pass through. All that remains to do is to finish soldering the crank pin washers, fit the driveshaft and bolt the body on with a new tender drawbar. The final picture is just a dummy - you will have to come to Aldershot this weekend to see if it runs OK!

The second Collett goods is coming along nicely and should be ready in plenty of time for next weekend's show.

The first photo show the large part of the chassis block being milled out. The front axle clearances are complete and the area around the gear train are in the process of being milled up to the marks.

The second gives the fully milled chassis components including the worm carrier and the insulating bushes on the screws which hold the two parts together.

The third picture shows the chassis dry assembled along with the tender axles and the bodies that will be mounted on this concoction.

So the balance weights and crank pins need adding to the wheels, the tender axles need turning to points and the gear axles need preparing. After the two chassis halves are bonded and screwed together, everything will be primed and painted before final assembly. Having already checked things against known templates from the first build, I don't predict any nasty surrpises.

Once this loco is finished there are some wagon transfers to be finished, coaches to be fettled and some platform furniture to fit before Friday. Nothing like a deadline to ensure progress!

Nigel had set himself quite a task in getting Llangerisech ready in its 1930s guise for the AGM/Aldershot show so, when at one of our area group meetings he said he was running a little low on non-Great Western wagons, David and I volunteered to build a few. Well, how hard could it be?

That meeting was at least two months ago and I still haven't quite finished, though the only things outstanding are couplings and a few tweaks. In that time Nigel has re-wheeled a 2P, scratch built a goods shed, finished off several rakes of coaches, plus Lord knows what else!

Still, I have learnt a lot, and thanks to my new RSU, I actually enjoyed building kits for the first time. The pictures show the wagons I have built on my scenic test track. I am helping Nigel operate Llangerisech on the Saturday, so if you are going and have any questions please pop along and see us.

Edit 10/10/14:

I subsequently rescued a second LNER open that had been put to one side due to me messing up the underframe. When I had finished the other wagons I found I had enough bits to make a suitable underframe, albeit 10' rather than the 9' I had intended. To help distinguish this from the other similar wagon I decided it would get a tarpaulin and the finished model is shown below on its own and with the other opens, a couple of which now sport loads.