WoSG's running days of 2015

[Chris Cairns]

With the original 1st running day of 2015 being cancelled at short notice earlier this month, we had a very good turnout for what became the 1st running day of the West of Scotland Group.

Unfortunately I spent a lot of the day talking, comparing notes & seeking advice so only took a couple of photos.



My Accucraft Edrig on its first outdoor running session. An eBay purchase this suffered from the 'chip pan' syndrome with a poorly metered lubricator causing over oiling with all the steam oil being burnt off in the smoke box with a very distinctive blue exhaust. Fitted a Chuffed2Bits replacement No.5 gas jet, aftermarket Gremlin gas regulator lever, and on the 3rd attempt found a suitable sized piece of wire to partly block off the oversized hole in the steam pipe going through the lubricator. My annual servicing found a fault with the safety valve not operating (it had previously been fitted with too large an 'O' ring) and this static shot proves it now functions correctly. With the gas turned right down it had an impressive long run.



After many had departed for Mother's Day duties, a locally based member turned up at the end with his Roundhouse Billy. This has been enhanced with the Locoworks detailing parts, with more to be ordered soon, and it was good to have a short drive of this loco to get a feel of what to expect when I get my Billy kit running soon. Nice to finally see where the factory position the lubricator which confirms I'll need to adjust the bend in one of my Billy's lubricator pipes.

Chris Cairns

[Big Jim]

Your Edrig looks rather good Chris. Nice lining job you have done on it.
Is it my iffy colour vision or is the boiler a different colour to the tanks?

[Chris Cairns]

Nice lining job you have done on it.

Not my lining job Jim, and yes the side tanks/spectacle plate/cab back have been repainted brown with the original green boiler. This is how I received the loco from eBay.

All I've done is replace some screws and missing ones with hex head bolts, and tried to tidy up the radio control wiring. There is no space onboard for my standard 4 x AA battery box (it is the load covered with a balloon in the attached open wagon), so I'm considering removing the R/C from the regulator as the servo is mounted in the R/C space below the cab floor. I have a Train Department replacement steam valve to fit, and my Ragleth quite happily runs with R/C on the reverser only.

Chris Cairns

[Big Jim]

so I'm considering removing the R/C from the regulator

Funny you should say that. I have been thinking the same thing about my Cardoc, I never really use the regulator control when running it. Might as well use the servo for something else.

[kandnwlr]

Nice pics. Looking forward to the next running day.

[Chris Cairns]

As I'll be attending several of the Group's running days this year I've edited the subject title and will add photos from more running days as they happen.

Easter Sunday turned out to be an excellent day with full on sunshine arriving just as lunch had finished.


Darjeeling B Class visiting from the Glenmutchkin Railway


Ian McG's Atlantic carrying out a couple of warming up laps prior to hauling a train


Glenmutchkin Railway's modified Mamod SL3 completed several laps with only one slight derailment


Having recently completed my HGLW flat bed & open wagon kits which should be running at Peterborough this coming Saturday I took the opportunity to give them their first run behind my Ragleth

After we had all completed our running our host Ian W, a very experienced model engineer, posed a couple of his scratch built locomotives for some images in the sunshine.


Britomart


Cegin

One of our members had driven some 2 hours north from Stranraer, and had brought some surplus stock for sale. I left with 8 assorted wagons plus a nice R/C Caradoc for a very attractive price.

Chris Cairns

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for sharing some lovely photo's.

In the first one there is a small lever frame in the middle of the shot, do you know what make it is please?

All the best,

Andrew

[Joe]

very nice Chris, and some lovely locos too

[williamfj]

That's a very good looking railway Chris, love the photo of Atlantic

[Big Jim]

Nice pics Chris. Any of your new Caradoc?

Britomart and Cegin look rather interesting, any more info on them?

[MuzTrem]

Darjeeling B Class visiting from the Glenmutchkin Railway

How nice to see a B-class in red! I think people often forget that DHR engines were once painted red, and personally I think it suited them, but sadly one very rarely sees it modelled!

[Chris Cairns]

In the first one there is a small lever frame in the middle of the shot, do you know what make it is please?

Hi Andrew, I suspect like everything else it is scratch built but I'll ask Ian when I next see him.

I'm sure you have already worked out it operates the points on the right side, plus the 2 semaphore signals for the main line & branch line that connect at those points.

That's a very good looking railway Chris

Indeed it is, and this was my first visit. If the owner's plan comes to fruition it will be completely rebuilt before his next Group's running day.

Britomart and Cegin look rather interesting, any more info on them?

As I said they are both scratch. Not sure about Cegin but I know that Ian took a lot of photos & measurements of the real Britomart in order to produce a very detailed & scale accurate model.

How nice to see a B-class in red

That is the standard paint scheme for all locos on the Glenmutchkin Railway. The fictitious story is this is a B Class loco that was not delivered to the DHR.

Any of your new Caradoc?

The sun was out yesterday as I cut the front lawn for the first time this year so here is the Caradoc and 3 of the 8 wagons I purchased.





Had it running well on blocks (burner lit first time, and does not seem to over-lubricate like my Edrig used to) but it is fitted with a 40 MHz AM R/C which glitches a lot. I've re-routed all the wiring and resoldered the aerial to the brass plate on the cab roof so will see how it behaves at our Group's next running day on the 19th April.

Chris Cairns

[Chris Cairns]

In the first one there is a small lever frame in the middle of the shot, do you know what make it is please?

Hi Andrew,

Had the opportunity to ask Ian today about this ground frame and as I suspected it is all scratch built by Ian.

Chris Cairns

[Soar Valley Light]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for remembering to ask. He's certainly a very accomplished builder, way out of my league.

I may have found a commercial alternative although it doesn't look (and I suspect operates) anywhere near as good.

Maybe weighted point levers is the way forward for my line!

All the best,

Andrew

[Chris Cairns]

Suffered a failure of my external hard drive (fortunately fixed by a new power supply) plus corrupted drivers on my laptop, so been unable to edit/store images until recently.

The Group was invited to attend the Kyle Model Railway Show 2015 with our portable layout 'Glendreich'.



This 2 day show is held in a school and we were located in the gymnasium - very handy for the car park but the furthest venue away from the cafeteria!

As a local Heritage Railway Group did not turn up we were given extra space to spread out. So we had 2 separate display tables running live steam on rolling roads.



I manned the 2nd display table and spent the weekend demonstrating my part built Billy kit (ideal for explaining all the workings, etc.) & PPS/RWM De Winton on the rolling road/blocks, plus running a gas fired Mamod TE1A connected to a lineshaft & some tools (a Group member had donated an early meths fired TE1 which I had overhauled, but our 'Chairman' had no space left in his car to bring it to this show).



Chris Cairns

[Chris Cairns]

The Group was invited back to attend the 3rd Summerlee Model Railway Weekend in June 2015, and I was available to attend on both days.



However, compared to last year, we were allocated a less favorable location being stuck under a noisy walkway and surrounded by an even noisier interactive blast furnace display (we never did find the OFF switch!).



Our 'Chairman' has been keen to run more theme related rolling stock (when the layout was originally constructed the Group obtained a bulk order of resin barrels from Modeltown at a discount) so I found a suitable (& cost effective) alternative in the Brewery Rolling Stock Range from The Line Side Hut ( http://thelinesidehut.co.uk/brewery-rolling-stock.html ).



I obtained a supply of their plain barrels to temporarily convert some of my sand carrying Binnie tippers, plus a Barrel Flat Wagon (with barrels) mounted on some spare Binnie bolster chassis's using the extra pivot pins that come with the bolster wagon kits. I also bought a barrel wagon kit from eBay seller vwmonkeyblue which uses the same barrels.



David Hippey ( www.hglw.co.uk) from the East of Scotland Group joined us on the Saturday, and presented the Group with some very appropriate etched whisky crates. He has now been commissioned to produce suitable grain wagon & whisky crate flat wagon kits in due course.



Those whisky crates mounted on a Swift Sixteen Flat Wagon.

Chris Cairns