The many scales of Toby

You might have been wondering why I have been building an N gauge J70. Well, here's a hint. You'll have to wait a while for the full reveal.

Missing the incandescant light bulb

In the good old days of incandecent light bulbs, a modeller could use the heat from his or her desk lamp to dry paint, or in this case Micromark Krystal Klear glazing.

No such luck with the modern low-energy version which couldn't melt an ice cube. I just hope the polar bears appreicate the suffering caring about the environment is causing.

Soldered up

What a cruel enlargement!

The main kit parts were soldered together for speed, and because I needed to test my newly cleaned soldering iron. Fit was pretty good with no significant clean-up required.

On the roof we have a condensing pipe made from brass fixed with the magic C&L 100 degree solder. One mystery is how anyone would fit the traditional N gauge coupling. I assume it would poke out through the cow catcher, there is a support inside for an NEM box. It wouldn't be pretty but then N gauge couplings never are...

A tiny J70

According to the packet of this kit, it's for a "Toby J70/Y6". Interesting that Thameshead Models think that we hard core chuffer builders will associate the design with the Rev W Awrdy's books before we think of the LNER prototype!

The 2mm scale kit is a simple whitemetal model designed to fit on a Lima motor bogie. A neat piece of design is that the sides are double-sided. Since the loco is not symmetrical along the centre axis - the cylinders are at one end, all the modellers has to do is use the inside out on one side and the result will be accurate (that doesn't make sense I think.).

Other parts are fiddly, small and not very cleanly cast. Feting the buffers will be an act of sculpture but never mind, for the purposes I have bought this for, it's not going to be examined too closely.