Playing With Trains by Sam Posey.

I found this book by chance on Amazon, and thought that it might make good holiday reading. I was right.

Sam Posey is an American model railway enthusiast, ex-race car driver and sports commentator who grew up with Lionel trains. When his son was born he embarked on building a layout that they could both enjoy together, the story of the layouts construction forms the first part of the book. The writer becomes obsessed with the layout, which starts out as fairly freelance but morphs into something larger based on the ill-fated Colorado Midland, taking sixteen years to finish. The story follows his early attempts, and frustrations, his finding help in the shape of Rolf, who works in the local model shop, to the layout being featured in Model Railroader (twice), and his diagnosis with Parkinsons.

The second part of the book sees the writer visiting several well-known modelers to try and understand how they tick. The book shows us that there are two camps of modeler is the States, those that concentrate on scenery and are content to just watch trains go by and those that put realistic operation first and foremost (although its interesting to note that the operation guys featured have layouts with first class scenery). He also takes to the rails himself, driving a Baldwin which he describes with great emotion.

The book is highly readable, so well written in fact that I finished it in the first two days of my break.
My copy came from across the ocean, cost me whole ten pence plus £2.80 postage.
Recommended.

Paul.

A bigger road-rail cherrypicker.

This interesting piece of machinery has been sat next to the A6 in a layby north of Dove Holes for a few days;

I've been driving past it all week, today I headed out on my bike with the camera after work to have a closer look;

Its four wheel drive and the rail wheels are driven by friction from the tyres. Here's a closer look at the drive roller;

I note that its not road legal, this layby is next to and accesses the Buxton - Manchester line and often has road-railers in it (usually excavators) which are delivered by low loader.

A last look;

Its certainly more impressive than the last road-rail cherrypicker that I photographed.

Paul.

OO9 Ruston Proctor part 5 - couplings, a new chimney, and a repair.

Couplings on OO9 locos are always going to be a compromise between being prototypical and functional. Of course using the usual Bemo type of couplers limits our choices, but to me choosing the right style can either make or break a loco. I feel that the best aproach is to try and follow the protoype as closely as possible, within reason. Several styles are available from the trade, in whitemetal, 3D printed and etched, but nothing that comes close to the type fitted to these locos. To my knowledge two types of coupling gear were fitted to Ruston Proctors, either two dumb side buffers with a pin and link between, or a central buffer with a hook either above or below. In either case the buffers are formed from flat bar.

I decided to make up a central buffer from scrap etch. First job was to find a piece of etch with a suitable section that can be cut out (to save a lot of filing...), like the section marked out in the photo below;

Then I made a sketch of the coupler followed by a rough prototype, to prove the design. After refining the design its simply a case of filing the off-cut to size, drilling a couple of holes (.4mm), then bending the brass to shape. For the ninety degree folds I followed etched kit practice by using a triangular file to make a fold line. The curved bends are formed with round nosed pliers. Here's one made up and the other still flat;

I've started using a pair of spring dividers for marking out, as seen in the (very poor) photo above. That pair came from China via eBay, and are as cheap and nasty as they look. Still, they do the job. I've replaced one point with a piece of brass rod, so they can be used as odd-leg or Jenny calipers for marking out a line parallel to an edge.
The couplings have been chemically blackened with Birchwood Casey Brass Black, which has taken so nicely that I'm going to leave them in that state and fit them after painting. Here they are blu-tacked onto the 'beams;

Note the scrap couplings in the photo above, I don't always get it right first time...

I've given the body a light squirt of acrylic car primer as I've started to smooth down the print, using rubbing sticks, files and a three-sided scraper(!). Whilst doing so I managed to damage the cab rearsheet. Handles are cut-out either side, which look far neater than the handrails fitted to most locos. One the right hand side I managed to break the handle, the print being quite thin and fragile in this area. My solution was to file away material above and below the damage, and then cyano a piece of brass rod into the filed area, which in turn is blended in with a file;

Both sides don't quite match, and a little filler is needed to blend the repair in further, but hopefully it won't look too bad once painted. Frosted Ultra Detail is an odd material to work with, its quite brittle and hard, feeling more ceramic than plastic. I'm not sure that I like the stuff.

Printed boiler fittings never look right to my eye, even if they're the right shape there's always an issue with surface finish, so I turned a new chimney on the Unimat. Actually I turned two, as the printed job looked pretty good I made a straight copy, but when I compared it to photos of the real loco it didn't look at all right, so I turned up a second chimney after making a sketch from the drawing in the Parkinson book. Its actually quite a subtle shape, convex above the lip and concave below. Another lesson learn't, when making new parts don't automatically copy the part thats being replaced but go back to the prototype. Here it is fitted;

Of course it isn't really a chimney but a vent for the engine cooling hopper.
To improve the running I've replaced the .315mm phospher bronze pick-up wire with 36swg (.193mm) wire, which obviously is springier.

The next job is to sort out axleboxes etc., as well as finish off the interior.

Paul.