Getting my Mamod/Meccano MEC1 running

This is an engine that I bought last year, which came with problems (see here). Basically the boiler was scrap, and the options were to scratchbuild a new one or sourcing a secondhand job. I did get as far as buying the material for a new boiler, but I haven't had the enthusiasm to do the work. So when I found a used boiler on eBay I put in a bid. I won, and the boiler promptly arrived. All I needed to fit it was to solder the steam pipe to the cylinder backplate, a 5 minute job. Then I could test it, first with air and then properly with steam;

As all was well I riveted the top cowl back in place (once I'd found it, it had gone missing);

And of course I steamed it again.

At some stage I'll get some Meccano and see what I can do with this rather nice little engine. I quite fancy turning it into a locomotive.

Paul.

Corrugated wheeled hut thing

Here's something quite unusual, a corrugated iron hut near to a converted water mill that we've been staying in over Easter;

A closer view of the steering arrangement;

It looks smaller than a typical shepherds hut (not that I'm an expert), and the corrugated sides look more like a repair being laid over planking as this interior shots show;

And judging by the wheels it's not designed to move any real distance, just around a yard perhaps.

Here's a photo of the mill, called Barford Old Mill, near to Barford Saint Johns in Oxfordshire;

It's not as cool as Mapledurham (I wonder how many will get the reference!) but still very nice. The undershot wheel and workings are still in situ, although sensibly enclosed and no longer capable of being used;

The mill is also surrounded by red kites, I counted 10 in the air at one time.

Paul.

006 single plank waggon

I decided to try my hand at converting a 009 Society 1 plank wagon to 6mm gauge. I've built one before, seen here, and it is an excellent and affordable kit.

I started by chopping down the floor, cutting 4mm from the length (2 planks) and reducing the width to 16mm. Both ends could then be cut to suit, using a razor saw and cutting so the join was next to a stanchion;

With care and the tiniest amount of filler the join is invisible.

The sides had the same treatment;

I cut down along the corner plate on one side, glued the plate into place then once the glue had set reduced the length of the side to suit.

For the solebars I started by removing 1mm from each end, then removed a section from the middle so each solebar measured 24mm long. I added a strip of styrene behind each solebar for strengthening.

Here's one in place;

Note the .040" square styrene strip glued under the ends, this is to give larger surface to attach the couplings to.

As the solebars have been strengthened and shortened I decided to trap the wheelset in place now rather than spring it into place later, which I felt would be difficult as there's now less give in the axleboxes. So, I covered the treads in masking tape to protect them from paint;

Wheels are, as usual, home made. The diameter is 6mm, and they sit on 1.5mm dia. axles 12mm long with an approx. 54 degree taper turned on each end.

After giving the waggon a waft of grey Hycote primer I first painted the bare wood decking, using a Lifecolor Weathered Wood set (Warm Wood base, Warm Light Shade, followed by Warm Light Shade 2, then finished with Cold Light Shade). The rest of the body was brush painted with my go-to for non-mining 006 waggons, Vallejo 70.982 Cavalry Brown. Axleboxes are Vallejo 70.862 Black Grey. The number 12 (this is my 12th 006 waggon) was done with a mapping pen and white ink.

And forming part of a train on the as-yet-still-unfinished Drystone Moss;

On the left is my Borth van, detailed here, and on the right a R.A.R. gunpowder van, covered here.

To show how tiny this waggon is here's a couple of shots of it with a standard unmodified flat;

A successful conversion I'd say. The proportions suit the waggon well and I like the couplings and the extra material below the waggon ends.

Paul.

Bell pads

Something completely different.

I've mentioned before that I've taken up morris dancing, and for that you need kit. Bell pads are a part of that kit and are strapped to your calves and are, as the name suggests, covered in bells. 20 per leg in fact (the side supply the bells). Now, you can buy these, but I want to make my own kit (within reason, top hats are beyond most peoples skill sets). I found some instructions on-line courtesy of Berkeley Morris and those formed the basis of my plan.

As most bell pads are made of leather I started by buying a secondhand leather skirt from Vinted, a M&S one which cost me £4 plus postage;

It didn't fit me...

This I cut up into several panels;

I cut two of my panels down to 330 x 160mm, then marked out where I wanted the bells to sit as well as where the top and bottom folds over;

The punched holes (5mm) are for the ends of the slits, and are there to stop the slits from getting longer.

I then sewed the folds at the top and bottom, these are for the leg straps;

Leather is a sod to sew, at least in my hands. I used my 1960s Singer, which has just come back from being repaired (needle height problem), and I had to increase the foot pressure to get the material to feed properly. My sewing here is not the neatest, in fact it's pretty rubbish truth be told, but it will do. Thread is just normal Gutterman black.

To reinforce the area where the bells will sit I cut out strips of leather which I then glued behind the pads before re-marking out the bell positions and punching a series of 4mm holes using a home made punch;

For glue I used Evo-Stick, I find contact adhesive to be horrible stuff but it does the job. Please ignore the messy workmanship! Once the glue had set I cut three slits in each pad, so they could flex as I'm moving.

To hold the pads onto my legs I bought a pair of ready made straps complete with buckles from eBay, I did look at buying the webbing and buckles separately but ready made straps were a bit cheaper. These thread through the larger 'tunnel' at the top, the smaller 'tunnel' at the bottom has shoelaces threaded through. These are tied as loops, so I just need to step into them and pull the pads up to just under my knees and do the buckles up. The bottom of the pads sit fairly loose on the legs. More shoelaces are used to hold the bells in place, being threaded through the loops on the bells;

From the front;

And on me legs;

I decided that they were a little plain, so I punched three more holes in each to thread some ribbons through;

Much better.

I've enjoyed the challenge of making these, although I did find sewing the leather to be frustrating, maybe a walking foot would have helped. I have enough material to make another pair if these fail, or as a pair for someone else if I'm feeling generous.

Perhaps I'll wear them to exhibitions, after all they can't be any more irritating then those noisy diesel depots with the DCC sound turned up to 11. Or maybe I'll wear them on the bike, which would be especially useful on the Monsal Trail on a busy summers day.

Paul.

Type 4 couplings

I wanted to design some easy to make 006 couplings for fitting to locos and larger wagons, styled rather like my type 2 couplings but made from square styrene section for convenience. I chose to use 3mm material, and prepared a sketch on the back of an envelope (literally);

As I use link and pin couplings for 006 work there's a .4mm hole drilled for either a pin or split pin. The front face is filed to a curve.

The advantage of these is threefold, they're quick and easy to make, I can hold the material in a self-centring 4 jaw chuck, and, I can drill the pin hole by hand rather than set the machine up. 

Here's a batch that I've made (there were 6 but 1 didn't cut the mustard);

Note the front two coupled together. And that white plastic is a pig to photograph.

As these are 3mm square and I'm using a coupling height of 6mm a centre line needs marking on the bufferbeam of any vehicle they're fitted to, using a 4.5mm gauge that I made to use with my earlier couplings;

Once the height is marked a 1mm hole can be drilled and the coupling temporarily fitted;

The photo shows a 'link' coupling.

Like all of my 006 work these are an experiment, so I need to fit them to a pair of waggons to see how well they work.

Paul.

Hole punch

I needed a 4mm hole punch for a project. So, I made one;

It's made from 7mm dia. silver steel, 60mm long. The business end was drilled 3.7mm and reamed to 4mm, only about 10mm deep. A 60 degree taper was turned, using my compound slide, leaving a nice sharp edge. Then I heated it to bright red to harden it and followed that with a couple of hours in the oven at 200 degrees to temper the steel.

It's been tested, on leather and thin plastic glazing material, and it works well enough. It could do with a slot behind the cutting edge to eject the punchings, which I could have milled, but I didn't fancy the extra work. Punches are of course available to buy, in fact I have a set (which doesn't go down to 4mm) but I wanted to make one for a couple of reasons.

Making my own means that I can make punches to any size that I want (within reason), handy if I want to cut out glazing for loco spectacle plates. And some ready made punches are of variable quality, if mine are rubbish then I only have myself to blame.

Paul.

Knightwing Jung

I built this back in 2008, as a way back into modelling after a long (even by my standards) lay-off.

It's a plastic kit of a Jung RK20B 4 wheel shunter. It was also my introduction to airbrushing, using a newly bought Badger 150.

The body colour is Tamiya XF-5 Flat Green, I can't remember the frame colour but it's probably Phoenix Precision Dirty Black acrylic or Tamiya Nato Black.

I used Tamiya XF-3 Flat Yellow on the buffer beams, and the wasp stripes are Impetus transfers. Varnish is Phoenix Precision Airbrush Enamel.

The end guardrail was soldered up from brass wire as I decided the plastic moulding was too heavy. I also replaced the bonnet side handrails with wire.

I meant to straighten that coupling (Smiths LP10 3 links) before taking the photo!

Buffers are brass A1 Models 18" jobs.

Can interior;

And the underside;

Power comes from a 35mm wheelbase Tenshodo spud, converted to EM with 14mm Romford/Jackson disc wheels, the bogie being held in place by friction. I had to move the sideframes out by a few millimetres to clear the wider gauge. To add some much needed mass I used lead fishing weight, glued in with PVA. No nasty side effects so far!

It's quite a nice kit, and I'm still happy with the build although it's never seen use. The paint finish is pretty good and it fulfilled its function of getting my hand back in as well as being my first attempt at spray painting.

A 4mm scale kit of a Jung is an odd choice for the UK market but I believe the loco was chosen for the possibilities for kit bashing, there are certainly many of these running as 009 locos. But, I still think Knightwing missed a trick by choosing a German prototype instead of something British, a Ruston 88DS would have been a far better choice in my opinion.

Paul.

2025 - good grief!

It looks like I've had a busy year - 55 posts on 'ere including this one. Views are up as well, except they aren't as a lot of traffic has come from some dubious places with ok sounding names, if you're a blogger as well you've probably seen the same. It's all a bit odd, this blog is hidden from search engines (which means no spam comments), so what's the scam here?

Anyway, I seem to have developed a habit of making a new controller every year, and 2025's was a bit more interesting as I made it 'dual fuel', able to run either off the mains or an onboard 9v battery. Very useful!

One of my prouder moments has been building a little van in 006. I'm less proud of the fact that Drystone Moss still isn't finished. Maybe in 2026 it will be. I have however finished my first 006 loco and built some more stock for it to pull.

I've also taken an interest in live steam, specifically Mamod, which has seen me acquire and steam a few engines (and accessories) including a loco which has been stripped and is slowly being re-assembled. At the moment it's too cold and windy outside for a steam-up.

Sticking with larger scale stuff, I've also been playing around with SM32. This is something that I haven't touched in over 20 years, and it's a scale that I enjoy working in. I have gone a little mad and built no less than 6 harvest waggons, mad because I have nowhere to run anything. But, I enjoy the process of putting them together from cheap materials, and 16mm is a nice change from 006.

There's been some interesting oddities on the bench, a Gaiety N2 which came from a charity shop and needed a full rebuild with new parts made on the lathe, a super rare Saltford Models plateway loco which need a little help but now works, and, a Tri-ang Battlespace plane launcher (great fun!).

Towards the end of the year modelling tends to tail off for a while, I start winding down and tiredness takes over, not helped by doing a manual job. I use the time to recharge and reflect, what I should be doing however is tidying and finishing.

Away from the workbench I've re-started my outdoors blog Getting Out (link in the sidebar, and here) which covers outdoorsy stuff like stone bothering, mountain biking, and my ongoing obsession with drainage.

In the photo above the bike sat on Drystone Edge, the inspiration for my Drystone Moss pizza. I need to finish making some rocks like the ones above for the pizza then I can get it finished. 

Rescue dog Polo joined the household back in February, turning our lives upside down. Quite literary. He was a real handful for the first few weeks, pushing our patience to the limit. He's a young street dog, a Brittany Spaniel from Spain, so coming to the UK and living in a house with two people he didn't know was a massive shock for him. He's grown to be very fond of us, as we are of him, and he's now settled into the house and our routines. Around the home he's absolutely fine most of the time, but he is very nervous outside, walks tend to be short to keep his stress levels down. Time and patience works wonders, as did consulting a vet behaviourist. He really is a lovely little dog, although he does tend to jump on me in the mornings if I try and have a lay in! He's also our third rescue, the others unlike Polo settled in very quickly so we were a little caught out. At the moment he's the only dog in the house, that may change next year.

Every year I like to try something different and learn something new. This year I taught myself to do Sudoku, I can usually finish the easy and medium puzzles in the Metro and on a good day with time aplenty I can also finish the hard. I've also been learning Morris Dancing, with local Borders side Powderkegs. This is something that I've wanted to try for a few years, so earlier this year I cycled over to Whaley Bridge to watch them dance at the canal basin. My plan was to watch, then after their set ask about joining in. However, before I had chance to speak to them I was approached by a couple of dancers who noted my interest and asked if I was interested in joining. This was ideal as I wanted to see what type of people they were before having a go, I'm generally not a club or 'people' person. Anyway, I took a card and mid September saw me going along to their first practice session of the season. The odd thing is, I don't dance. I don't even go in the moshpit at gigs (I'm usually on the edge pushing the mad buggers back in). I didn't even dance at my wedding (although there is a memory of being on my back on the dance floor, heavily drunk). And I'm very shy and introverted and quite un/anti-social. But it seems that a lot of Morris dancers are introverts so I might just fit in (which would be a first, I've never felt like I've fitted into any social group). My first 'dance out' was on Boxing Day, at a pub in Whaley Bridge. I took part in two dances (Upton Skirmish and Ragged Crow), which went well enough for a first go in public. Next year I'll be learning more dances, dancing in public and hopefully getting more polished. I also need to dig out the Singer and make a rag jacket and bellpads, which I may feature on the blog if there's any interest.

I'll sign off with another photo of handsome boy Polo;

See you in the new year,

Paul.

Land of Iron

Land of Iron is a museum in Skinningrove celebrating the areas ironstone mining and steelmaking history, and is listed as something to do on a wet day if you're staying in North Yorkshire. Today was a wet day in North Yorkshire, so we booked our tickets (this was my wife's idea) and off we went. 

Outside the museum there were a few things that grabbed my attention;

Should've packed a tape rule and notepad...

To be honest I would have liked to have seen some info on these exhibits, but then I'm probably not the typical visitor.

Once inside there's an interesting and well laid out room with displays on the industry, the mine, and, perhaps most importantly, the social history of the area. Mine tours are on the hour, and its recommended that you arrive half an hour early so that you can view the displays beforehand.

Once the tour starts you're handed a hard hat and taken into the mine buildings, starting with a talk about the ventilation system and a demonstration of the type of fans used, without proper ventilation mining would be impossible. Then into a tally room, and another talk, and a taped story, about the tally system and the roles of miners, loaders, etc.

After that we were taken down through a haulage tunnel;

We didn't go too far into the workings, the shaft was capped off just behind where I was standing when I took the above photo due to the water level inside the workings, but it did give a general idea of how the shaft would have looked and worked. Outside we could see the rain pouring down...

Our next stop was back inside the mine buildings, with a demonstration of how the rock would have been drilled (by hand!) and blasted using gunpowder and a squib in a section that replicated a section of the underground workings.

The guides were friendly and knowledgeable, as you'd expect, and the tour interesting. I reckon that most readers of this blog would get a lot out of a visit, we certainly did.

Paul.