Elmham Market in EM

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Last week I took delivery of one of the Ellis Clark quad art sets (crimson and the set with first class accommodation). Over the last couple of evenings I have been converting it to EM. This principally consists of removing the very fine brake gear (rather annoyingly some of the sets weren’t just push fitted, they were quite firmly glued in place, which made removing them quite a delicate operation), removing the wheels, regauging them to EM with the back to back gauge, then reinserting the wheels, adding in the specially provided brake mouldings for EM/S4 and finally tweaking the pickups for the lighting.

I didn’t get a chance to try the set out on Elmham Market but this evening was our EM area group meeting and Richard Stevenson had set up Metropolitan Junction, so I took the set over for a spin. It seemed to work well. The rather amusing aspect of the operation was that Met Jct has a branch which rises up to a terminus over the main running lines. That terminus has an arrangement of magnets to aid uncoupling and every lap different carriage lights would go on and off as the train travelled under those magnets. A couple of photos attached.

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
May didn’t turn out to be a very good month for my railway modelling activities. After my last post, I helped steward at ExpoEM (and caught up with a number of friends in the process), then flew straight off to Greece to see a range of the Ancient Greek monuments. A quick turn around on my return saw me driving diesels on the Ffestiniog for a few days and in my return home we welcomed my youngest daughter, son in law and grandchildren for a week. That, in turn, was followed by a long weekend in County Durham seeing some of the museums with an emphasis on the cradle of railways. A couple of days sorting out the garden stopped in its tracks today with persistent rain.

This all sounds like a litany of excuses for not doing anything; maybe it is, but I did have a few days of fun running trains on Elmham Market for my grandchildren and we did run a pretty intensive service on the Wey Valley Light Railway over half term!

As a result of the rain today, I have dusted down the ex GER restaurant car kit (the ever obliging Dan Pinnock has kindly swapped over the incorrect bogie etch for the right one) and made a start. I have pretty much finished the first bogie and made a start on folding up the underframe as I wait for the superglue on some of the smaller components to dry.

I attach a random selection of photos from the last month…

Nigel

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James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
With the continuing inclement weather I have made more progress on the restaurant car. Second bogie made and some more progress on the underframe assembly, with the buffer beams soldered on and the first battery box assembled and fitted…

Nigel


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Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Did you get to Marley Hill shed?
I imagine there may be as much investment in the parts of the P2 that can be seen, as in the big part that isn't there (the boiler) - what a project!
Are you pleased with the fidelity of EC's Quad Art set?
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Just had a quick look at the P2 project, latest update on the boiler here - seems it won't be long before that too will be in place:
www.a1steam.com

March P2 engineering update

Following the report from Daniela Works about the condition of the cannon box castings and the conclusion that they cannot be rectified there was a meeting in November at DLW with Daniela, Brian Hall (B17 Trust) and myself to review the cannon box patterns to understand what improvements could...
www.a1steam.com
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Osgood said:
Did you get to Marley Hill shed?
I imagine there may be as much investment in the parts of the P2 that can be seen, as in the big part that isn't there (the boiler) - what a project!
Are you pleased with the fidelity of EC's Quad Art set?
Click to expand...
No, the rest of the group went on to the Tanfield Railway but we had to head back south, so sadly missed it. One for our next foray up to the North East! I am most impressed by the quad art set; what is quite striking is the shortness of some of the carriages. EC have done a magnificent job of recreating them. I’m almost tempted to buy a matching quad to make up a prototypical eight car train…

Nigel
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Osgood said:
Just had a quick look at the P2 project, latest update on the boiler here - seems it won't be long before that too will be in place:
www.a1steam.com

March P2 engineering update

Following the report from Daniela Works about the condition of the cannon box castings and the conclusion that they cannot be rectified there was a meeting in November at DLW with Daniela, Brian Hall (B17 Trust) and myself to review the cannon box patterns to understand what improvements could...
www.a1steam.com
Click to expand...
Yes, when we were being shown around, Steve Davis was intimating the the boiler was only about six weeks from delivery. I think they plan to trial fit it into the frames when it arrives, then take it back out and fit the quite amazing cylinder fabrication (and I use that word advisedly because it isn’t really a casting; it had a very few cast bits in it but is mostly welded together pieces of steel), then the valve gear etc, before refitting the boiler. I will attach a couple of photos of the cylinders tomorrow, when my iPhone has updated itself.

Nigel
 
Osgood

Osgood

Western Thunderer
Thanks, I’m sure we would be quite amazed at the engineering ingenuity that goes into recreating these new builds - not just driven by a need to overcome lack of resources to make stuff the way it used to be made.
 
simond

simond

Western Thunderer
And the new-fangled options that were not available at the time of original builds.

I was thinking specifically of abrasive waterjet cutting, which became useable in the fifties and sixties, around the demise of steam traction.

I’m sure cylinder fabrications would be much easier with that approach than the old gas axe…

and much cheaper than casting for one-offs.
 
Brian McKenzie

Brian McKenzie

Western Thunderer
I was fascinated to see the way cylinders for the T1 duplex drive 4-4-4-4 loco project are being built up from layers of heavy steel plate.


Another recent innovation, 3D printing of sand moulds for the casting of steel directly, removes the need for complex patterns with cores etc.

-Brian McK.
 
Dave Holt

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Very nice. Just look at the sky - blue! Not your usual liquid Welsh sunshine but the real thing.:))
Brilliant excuse for no modelling activity.
Have to say (wash my mouth out?) that I'm rather more excited about progress with 134 and its recent Beer Festival trains. Not too long now, I hope, that it'll be taking turns about with the Garratts on normal service trains?
Dave.
 
James Spooner

James Spooner

Western Thunderer
Dave Holt said:
Very nice. Just look at the sky - blue! Not your usual liquid Welsh sunshine but the real thing.:))
Brilliant excuse for no modelling activity.
Have to say (wash my mouth out?) that I'm rather more excited about progress with 134 and its recent Beer Festival trains. Not too long now, I hope, that it'll be taking turns about with the Garratts on normal service trains?
Dave.
Click to expand...
Hi Dave

I think 134 is at the absolute boundary, gauging wise, of the WHR kinematic envelope. It has been cleared for service from Caernarfon to Beddgelert but there are still one or two bits of interface with infrastructure that need to be attended to between there and Porthmadog before it takes its turn on regular full length services.

Nigel
 
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