The splendid weather in May seems to have led to rather more socially distanced activity outside in member’s gardens than inside at their model railway workbenches, with a number of claims being made about the wildlife to be found in member’s gardens. It looks like a grass snake going for a swim trumps slow worms, and chickens given the opportunity eat wood mice and chase dogs – so now you know!
First up we have a Morris Commercial Parcel Van by Springfield Models for Kingsferry. Not an easy kit to build, but then it was a whitemetall kit soldered using a normal temperature soldering iron – so actually quite an achievement! Those with x-ray vision will spot that the propshaft is ‘in the post’. Our featured image also comes from Kingsferry with a not quite so big green engine arriving with a Comet Collett coach in tow.
Progress continues to be made with the Deeley 990 Class with a very handsome cab interior being produced. It’s based on a Slaters backhead and castings but modified quite a lot as the Slaters one is for a smaller engine. A photo of a MR Compound cab was used as a guide, assuming the 990s were the same. Lots of bits knocked up from bits of tube and scraps of metal, plus the contents of Bob’s scrap and castings box. The very nice oil box castings are from the same hoard. They are by Microcast, and they are very, very good castings. The rest is copper and brass wire plumbing and a bit of plywood planking.
The Modelling Musings of Bob Alderman continue to grow. Most recently his thoughts on baseboard construction and a set of hints and tips for model construction have been added. Both of these are in presentation format and run to around 50 pages. Bob’s thoughts on Baseboard Construction feature a lot of previously unpublished views of YMRG layouts and it’s probably fair to say that dear old South Junction falls firmly into the ‘how not to do it again’ category!
The last time we showed you what was going on with Bob’s GT3, attaching the bogie to the chassis was the next job.
After some thought about the pivot bought for GT3’s bogie, it was decided that more movement was needed (side to side). Although Bob’s method of bogie attachment would give up/down, yaw and side to side, there was no pitch. The pivot had it all (up/down, yaw, pitch) but no side to side. In a simply brilliant bit of model engineering a way was found to combine the pivot with Bob’s springs. The end pictures show the result installed in the laser cut ply and MDF chassis. The bogie frame has been 3D printed. The next update may see progress on the loco body for GT3.
And I think that’s probably enough excitement for now…
Yeovil Model Railway Group (YMRG) 