Bunker time

 

The imaginary bunker is a simple afair. Four sides to be joined together, and fitted to the footplate. Raised beading on the sides indicates these go outside the front and back. 

Once fitted to the footplate, they didn't seem parallel to the cab sides, so I loosened the joint, and gently levered them back a little with a long, thin screwdriver. At least the doorway looks right, even if it's a bit tight for the normal, portly crewmembers. 

A top is supplied, but that's going in the spares box as making a solid box would preclude getting anything in to clean out the flus. Also, it's pointless, as I'm going to put some real coal in the back eventually. 

The sharp eyed will spot I've fitted the bufferbeams too. Quite a bit of glue to be removed to do this, but now they are firmly fixed.

Mike Buttell - RIP

 

I'm sad to report that my friend Mike Buttell passed away this week. 

Mike was the Isle of Man steam railway in many ways. He was an ebullient figure who was responsible for many of the Enthusiast Week celebrations. You'd see him sheperding people around the sheds on official visits, providing entertaining commentry on the progress of various restorations. He'd then be climing on locos to fit headboards that he had arranged to comemorate figures from the line's history. 

I have a couple of reasons to remember Mike. 

First, I was over there on holiday, but planned to grab some content for a BRM DVD, and arranged to interview him about the history of the lines. This was to take place after the late train to Port Erin had arrived, and everyone was looking around the museum. Obviously, this made it a bit noisy, but Mike quickly dragged my Dad and I up into the locked royal saloon, he had a key, which made the perfect studio for our chat. 

The other occasion is when Sea Lion's side tank and cab back came up for auction. I was keen to buy them, but didn't have an easy way to collect, or anywhere suitable to put them. Mike volunteered to not only get the things from Groudle, no easy task, but find them a home in the Port Erin railway museum, where they lived until recently. 

Without Mike's help, it's unlikely that I'd have aquired these items, and they would probably be say, rusting, in someone's garden. 

I'm going to miss Mike's updates from the Isle of Man, and his jolly help when on the island. A sad loss to this very special corner of the railway world.

Shim brass

 

Shim brass is basically just very, very thin brass sheet. Modellers in the old days seemed to make pretty much anything from it, and I was always impressed by the versatility of this wonderful material. 

Of course, I aquired some, and have hardly ever found a use for it. 

Until I came to fit the backhead to Ghillie. 

The whitemetal backhead is fitted to a U-shaped lump of the same material. Said U-shape is to be cut back so the backhead just clears the rear fixing screw. Trouble is, when you do tha, you are still left with a gap between the back of the backhead casting, and the cab back. 

No problem, a strip of shim brass, soldered to the backhead with some 100 degree solder (a process that sounds simpler than it turned out to be) covers this, and makes the whole assembly look much better. 

And I've still got loads of the stuff left - probably a lifetimes supply!

Tack soldering win

 

I mentioned that I was soldering the kit together last week (and yes, I must put a guide on whitemetal soldering together one day) and starting on the body demonstraites why I am right to do so. 

The cab front consists of three parts - two sides and the front. Easy enough to assemble, except do the sides attach either side of the front, or on the back? 

I guess on the sides, so tacked them in place. Then I put the assembly on the footplate, and realised its too wide. They should go on the back. 

No problem, heat the solder, and the parts are seperate again. A little cleaning up, and we are good to go again. This time with them as the designer intended. If I'd glued them, I'd have had to wait for the stuff to dry, and then broken the joints. A much slower process.

Trainspotting at Quorn

 

Phew. Good job I didn't do any of that train spotting then...

Nope. Didn't see those Airfix tank wagons going through. 

Ummm. Look at those bad boys spotting trains. I'm going to tell on them!