Terry, do try to get along to a club or at least have someone with experience of loco running as there are a lot of little points you need to know to avoid damaging the loco and boiler during start up and cool down.

You should also track down the drawings and articles in ME if you can as they will tell you and show you where the controls are.

I also have not run my Bantam Cock, not sure if i will ? Heavily into the A4 Pacific build currently.

Apologies re; orientation of pics

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 07/04/2023 16:41:18

Phil a five inch gauge Rob Roy is basically a Simplex, with my many degrees in hindsight I would build five inch gauge, I have a 3 1/2 Doris black 5 and it goes well enough but I don’t find it as relaxing as a small 5” loco. I have a Rob Roy under the bench that only requires platework to finish, it has sat there for 25 years. In answer to your question, I think you would regret the time and effort.

Phil in answer to adhesion that is down to weight of loco on the driving wheels, performance comes down to cylinders and grate area. For me it comes down to relaxed driving, not always having to keep an eye on the fire and the water and the pressure, and of course the signals. I tend to run the 3 1/2 gauge during the week when I have the track to myself without signals, for club running days I prefer a five inch loco, lastly some club members class the smaller gauges as rolling roadblocks, particularly when they are chasing you round on a five inch Black 5 and you are on a small three and a half. Comparing the Jubilee and a Simplex for a start the Simplex will have a grate wider by about inch and a quarter purely because of the difference in gauge. So having said all this what am I currently building…….a 2 1/2 inch gauge Toby 0-4-2. You must build what you like regardless of gauge.

Phil PM sent.

Neil – are you sure you rotated them as still display Australian mode for me

I have just joined this forum as very keen on 3 1/2 inch steam locos, I inherited my Dads Henley 0-4-0 which I’ve had running a couple of times but having problems with the cylinders hydraulic locking with water & shearing the 1/16 inch steel taper pins that connect the piston rods to the motion link rod. I wonder if 1/16 inch is a bit small? I can’t see any details for these on the original Reeves drawings? Has anyone else encountered these issues with a Henley?

I’m going to fit cylinder drain cocks to alleviate the hydraulic locking

Many thanks Phil for your reply,

i’ll check the valve clearances first before I do anything else & that’s a very good point about keeping the taper pins at 1/16 inch so they continue to act as shear pins in case of any further lock ups.

I’ll see if I can post some photos on here of the loco.

cheers, Dae

Has anyone yet built the GWR pannier-tank loco whose construction series in MEW concluded a few issues back?

I recall Part One described it as designed with the beginner in mind. It uses Rob Roy (I recall rightly?) castings and laser-cut plates, and the boiler simplified from Belpaire to round-topped for easier fabricating.  This modification is hidden on the complete miniature by the tanks and suitably-formed cladding. I wondered if the resulting loss of steam space would be significant, but decided probably not.

A GWR loco might have an advantage for right-handed drivers, too, in placing the main controls on that side.

Regarding LBSC’s two 3.5″g stalwarts, Tich and Juliet, I’d have thought the latter the easier to make and drive, being that bit larger. Although Tich‘s external Baker valve gear gives easier assembly and servicing than Juliet‘s inside Stephenson’s Link Motion and valve-chests.

(I own a 7.25″ g version, which LBSC himself wryly suggested would be a Julie, presently still waiting for me to pluck up the courage to get on and perform some rather delicate surgery on “her” superheater header.)

I had a copy of the ‘Tich’ book, and that gave only the Baker gear version (or slip eccentrics, I think).

I’d suggest the difficulty some see in making eccentrics stems from the various designs of them, with some trickier than others.

I am basing my steam-wagon’s enclosed engine on the Harris improvements to the LBSC design for the 5″g Maid of Kent, and manufactured the eccentrics and straps by making them a single diameter right across but using a sort of cross between circlip and piston-ring in one central groove in each, for the retainer.