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What's this you say? Well my new Flying Scotsman that I am building with the deflectors and double chimney doesn't like blowing off through the safety valves atop the boiler. Instead the steam exhausts down and under the cab turning the steam into water. Removing the body and steaming up, the safety valve works fine, but with the body in place, I get the problem. Any Ideas as to what's happening?? I hope to get the double chimney soon and have some special coaches on order for a really nice train. More on that later. Cheers.

Well it went alright, but it wouldn't stop. Silver Link. Something wrong here I thought. On examination I found the regulator drive rod wafting about in the breeze. It be broken, oh dear! I've toyed with the idea of making my own drive rod so long as I can identify the thread, maybe, maybe not, or maybe another visit to the club shop. Anyway I decided to strip the loco down for an overhaul, a clean and replace dodgy looking seals, etc. The Hornby rotary valve cover is showing age cracks so it will be replaced. Now white wheels on a locomotive look nice when they are clean, mine were decidedly not, so removing them 2 at a time they were washed using a paint brush in hot soapy water and now look (nearly) new.

I've changed my mind! Well in my last update I had decided not to polish the loco, being toyish looking, however, as FS in the flesh is positively gleaming, I decided to go for it and I actually like the result. I used Humbrol gloss cote for the locos finish (because I had some) it works ok but goes tacky over the superheater when hot but solidifies again when cold. 😱 !!

The 2 pictures show the finished deflectors, I'm afraid my painting job could be better, so I might improve the finish in the future. As for the double chimney, it is being redesigned so that it will locate in the existing chimney hole.

"SEAGULL" Bodyshell for sale £20 - includes postage

Is damaged / repaired - it cracked across the cab/boiler top.

No Chimney / No body screws

Photos try to show the injury - Looks fine from a distance

Post to UK only

Whilst searching for something an AI engine generated this as a means of applying steam oil

"The Mixing Ratio: Add exactly 2 drops of oil directly into the boiler via the filler neck before you inject the distilled water. The water will then emulsify the oil during boiling to lubricate the cylinders."

No mention of the normal method. As it would be easier, any thoughts?

At last, real progress. Now that I have all the hardware, I have been able to complete a trial assembly of the deflectors. I have been able to use the original Hornby handrails, they are just long enough to do the job of replicating the top rail on the deflector and by bending I have been able to thread it along the handrail knobs along the boiler, this holds the deflector in the correct and a steady position. In photos 5 & 6 you can see a brass tube threaded across the boiler barrel, it uses the existing holes where the original handrail was held. The brass tube is 1mm dia with a 0.5mm dia hole and is ideal in which to fit the end of the handrail. All that remains is to fit a 0.5mm brass rod into the lower handrail position drilling a hole into the boiler to…

There's always something new, eh! My number 96, Papyrus, has had a maintenance schedule performed and in doing so I decided to renew the wiper assembly. The old one had decidedly gone beyond its use by, the wires were brittle and the insulation was very 'ows your father. So, replacing was easy enough but when I connected the loco to power, both lights came on and remained on regardless of the position of the regulator. On inspection the soldering looked ok, there was no bleeding of solder onto the adjacent connection on the PCB. So next was to look at the business end and the wiper board, and here was the problem, the brass wiper had not been segmented so this created a closed circuit across the cab lights. Remediation was easy, using a new craft blade I gently cut across the wiper to create separation and this rectified the…

Well it has been a while with not much action, but now I can show you the cast brass double chimney. At present it is only sitting in situ on top of the smoke box so I need to create a spigot of some sort in which to secure it. I'm hoping to locate it the same way the single chimney attaches as I don't really want to cut into the top of the smoke box for any reason. I'm very pleased with the casting, comparing it to the A3 doner loco, it's spot on, so I am indebted to friend Stephen for creating this little gem. He tells me he cast 4 of them. I had a set of German deflectors but have used them on repairing the Hornby loco, Brown Jack, which had one deflector broken away, so I am waiting on another set from Silver Tay Models…

No, it's not your son or daughter! I have bought an unused R2485 Flying Scotsman set, it's the one without the track and controllers. It's labelled 48/05, so everything is stuck solid. Wheels, pistons, electric motor. So I first removed the Walschaerts valve gear from each side enabling me to undo the gland nuts to remove the pistons. Everything needed a clean, I removed the o-rings from the pistons and after a massage with some steam oil I decided I would re-use them as they had not gone hard. re-assembly then followed. Next was the wheels, so removing one side only in turn, so as not to get confused with the quartering, I removed the opposite wheel with its axle giving it a good clean and oiling. On final assembly this showed everything was moving as it should, wheels and pistons. The motor and gearbox only required a slight oiling…