michael mott

Daniel, following your work is one of the reasons that this is my go to website when I need some inspiration and humility. Your workmanship is outstanding and helps me know that there is no substitute for doing a job with less than one's best abilities. It is a joy to watch this ship come to life. Michael

quite right Druxey there certainly will be gaps for the flanges This picture shows it a little more clearly, I have been shaping the rails and there will be enough clearance in both rail sizes for the wheels of each to clear. This overhead shot gives a better view of the way the track will set. The points will function as a normal set will function. The most fiddly part will be filing the gaps in the large and small rails at the cross over place. One of the comments in the Crewe book is that most of the points on the narrow gauge were kicked over by the driver when needing to change tracks. Mark and Egilman welcome to this new project. Michael

Thank you Yves Thanks Druxey , I am always a b it hesitant about posting about the railway stuff here because I know I should be posting about the cutter and boat related stuff. That said I really do enjoy reading about all the wonderful work that so many do on this site. it is still my favourite forum for the warmth and sharing that occurs here. So apologies for not being around for a while. Hi Moab Yes I call them rabbit holes it is so easy to get tripped up by them, and then away we fall. Having some interesting decisions about how to deal with the crossing and points (switch) inside the standard gauge track because I did not want to have the large rail cut into a short piece between the narrow gauge track. Most of the track will be buried up to the rail height anyway with ground texture as in these images. Again these images are credited to Edward Talbot and Clive Taylor book about the Crewe Works narrow gauge system. The reason that I have the narrow gauge join the standard gauge track just before the entry into the works is to avoid having a small door next to the large one, it just looked odd. Once the track is all laid The Idea is to be able to move a standard gauge wagon on the narrow gauge trucks as in the picture so that it theoretically can be moved to another part of the works with the narrow gauge loco. I love the outfit that the chap is dressed in so will have to make a figure dressed the same way. Michael

Wonderful to see the final pictures Eric, you must be satisfied with the results. A beautiful looking ship. Good luck with the move of your in laws not a good time as you say with all the restrictions in place. Stay safe and enjoy your next model and the prepping of the lumber from your own farm. It is a great feeling to take the time to take the raw material and see the change from tree to model lumber. and the wood will not have been cooked during the drying process so the natural oils in the wood are still there and it makes a difference to the colour and texture of the finished wood. Michael

Hi Roger thanks for your kind words and I have been wondering about the floor in the workshop and it occurred to me that wood blocks on end would be a practical floor, forgiving and yet easily replaceable. I seem to remember that some of the sets in the streets of London were wood as well especially around the tram tracks. The overhead crane is is not all that heavy duty and will have a loop of chain hanging down to the floor like this one. In Edward Talbot and Clive Taylor's Book "Crewe Works Narrow Gauge System" published by the London & North Western Railway Society. And this one shows the flooring in fairly good detail and I had wondered if the sets were wood . Currently I an sorting out the best way to tackle all the brickwork, which will likely be done by adding strips if 140lb watercolour paper and cutting out the vertical gaps as once the strips are glued onto the backing. like this. At least I cannot ever claim to not having something to occupy my time. It's a good thing that I am not into model aeroplanes as well as boats and trains. here is a shot of the little Crew loco running That's all for now Michael

Yes well done indeed Steven. great work all round. Michael

Hi Vaddoc, Mark makes some good points. A couple of observations I noticed that you have a fairly large bagginess diagonally across the mainsail, to correct this you need to either raise the gaff at the mast which will also entail raising the peak of the gaff as well, or you need to pull down on the boom at the mast. I am wondering why you have laced the foot of the main sail as it restricts the airfoil shape near the bottom, I have preferred to have my mainsail on my sailboat loose footed and it allows for a nice shape. I agree with Mark regarding blocks on the clews this is not a good practice and also creates a catch when coming about as the block has to pass over the forestay of the sail below it especially with the two upper jibs. When changing tacks you want those sheets to flow as smoothly as possible across from one side to the other. It is better to lead the sheet through a fairlead of some sort even the sheaves that you have made and then lead them to a winch to be adjusted and cleated putting multiple purchases on the sheets will cause no end of difficulties when under sail and changing tacks the sheets are often let off in a hurray and the sail whips around the mast as in the staysail and over the forestays of the next two. In my opinion it would be better to use a shackle to attach the sheets to the jibs there is also a simple looping type fixing which does not use ant hardware at all. Michael

Hi Vaddoc, just catching up, wow you have done a lot of work the rigging and sails look wonderful. Michael

Rob the combination of the furled and billowing sails is wonderful, You are show you excellent skills with the paper sails. Michael

Hello Keith it has been a little while since looking in, My you have been doing outstanding work on this yacht. Michael

OK so I confess I have been absent without leave for a while! I hope everyone is well and that the pandemic has abated for some, we seem to be loosening up some restrictions here in Alberta, although I am being very cautious when going to the grocery store or the hardware store. Anyway enough of that this will give some Idea about what I have been doing for the last few months. It has all come about because I was looking at my collection of English model railway magazines and the old railway bylines magazine. A complete rework of the garden railway because of track issues which happened because I did not make a solid foundation for the track and had it "floating " instead and pinned to a few posts buried in the dirt underneath the track. This led me into another world of my own dreaming. Years ago I built a small layout called Macton Locomotive Works, which was eventually damaged badly by damp and mold during a poor storage situation when I lived at the lake. I though I could make a new railway layout in the spare room in the basement so I cleaned it up and made three 2 foot by 4 foot baseboards bolted them together and planned a new iteration of Macton . I set up the new space in the new "railway room" the problem was up and dow the stairs a lot and not very nice light, meaning very little daylight, just a tiny window at the ceiling at the south end of the room. Then I was bringing various tools down to the basement all hand tools but no real bench and a semi shag rug. All conspired to the point that I thought I should just move all this stuff up to the model shop. This entailed a big reorganization in the shop, and so it goes. I am building to the ridiculous scale of 27/32nds to the foot, just shy of 7/8ths to the foot. You might be asking yourselves is this guy nuts or what..... probably! The reason for this scale is that O gauge track can represent 18 inch gauge at this scale, so rounding up a few thou here and there we get .070" equals 1 inch. which means that standard gauge is equal to 3.955 inches so I rounded that up to 4 inches. Still a lot smaller than the 1/8" equaling 1 inch which I have been building the cutter at. A layout was prepared that would feature the inside of a locomotive works and a bit of the outside as well. The workshop will give me the opportunity to build some larger model locomotives plus all the overhead cranes and assorted workbenches and other stuff that one finds in these sorts of environments. I did build a small working loco of Pet, out of plastic to run on O gauge track. And now I can have some fun building some 4 inch gauge locos out of card and plastic as props in the loco works. when I am not working on Cutters or launches A working overhead crane will run on a track between the brick arch wall at the back and the columns in the front. The height of the wall at the back and the columns is 21 inches and the overall length of the layout is 12 feet. . The cutter waits patiently knowing I will work on some more when I run out of the other steam. Michael

Hello Keith, sorry for not replying earlier I have not been on the forum in a few months, one thing and another. I have been working out in the garden and had to relay all my track in the raised bed because I did not lay the track very well the first time round. Then all this Covid stuff happened and I have been beavering away on a new project. I like your Loco, the roundhouse parts are well liked by Peter Angus if you know of his work he has built hundreds of locos using roundhouse parts. Have you anyplace outside where you could run your loco? I will check in more often now. regards Michael

Exquisite work Javier, Glad that you are safe. Michael

What Druxey said!! congratulations Geert a wonderful model. Michael

Brilliant! simply Brilliant! Michael

Very nice Geert, I will have to follow your lead on my next fishing smack. Michael

Lovely! back in 1972 I visited Bibury with my Mum"s sister and we had tea and scones in a little tea shop very close to this historic row, it was a memorable visit. Michael

Denis Yes there are lots of surprises inside "dead " electronics I have one more printer that has ceased to function I wanted to get it repaired because the message was that the print head is missing or damaged. it is a 7612 HP and was a great printer that could print 13x19 sheets and scanned 11x17 It originally cost me $149 dollars. the cost estimates were $200= for the print head and more for labour amounting to over $400. I ended up getting a new printer for $200 and then it was another $200 for ink so a new glass worktop and more odds and ends for the electric motor drawer and all sorts of rollers and gears are sitting there in the form of the "dead 7612" I just wish I knew more about electronics. Michael

Hello Tom, It is because I am a pack rat and was in the commercial model building business for many years, one thing that this project did do was force me into reorganizing my strip styrene collection which goes back to the late 70 and early 80's It has mostly been kept in closed cabinets in order to avoid the UV but some has become a little brittle. ine of the forum members had built a good storage using some clear poly packaging tubes and I purchased some of the same (much more expensive up here in Canada but still a good purchase). When I was working building the architectural models I purchased the various sizes from Evergreen in their commercial packages of 100 needles to say I still have lots of the small stuff. The sheet stock is stored separately. these tubes have really helped to keep things better accessible. Michael

Part 2 The end plates contain a large number of conical rivets these were made from some 1/8th brass rod. The central part of the boiler is a piece of 1 1/2 inch ABS pipe covered with some .020" styrene. The top part of the loco contains the water tank and the coal hopper. The top of the boiler tube was reinforced with evergreen strips. The top elements have been made from sheet that was first prepared with the rivet forming tool. The first attempt at making the top part ended up not being practical for the change from track power to battery power. This meant making a new top with a different configuration. The second top was fabricated differently. Here you can see the difference side by side. At this point I also discovered that the wheels were the wrong size, this was caused by a print error and because I had accidentally resized the page with the wheels. Again one of those steps back. they were removed and reduced. To be Continued. Michael

Part 1 Feeling a bit low a few weeks back I wanted to whip something up fast and as I have been working on transcribing a couple of the original drawings from the National Railway Museum at York of both the Horwich Locomotives and the Crewe internal tramway system locomotives I thought that a small O gauge quick styrene plastic model would cheer me up. Quick usually ends up tripping me up because midway through whatever I seem to be doing I take a step forward and then three back, There definitely seem to be a pattern here. What started out as something I thought I could do in a couple of weeks is taking a bit longer. but it will see me through a few days of social distancing. First I scaled the full size plans I am working on Using my old 2002 Autocad Lt to O gauge it works out to >070 to the inch or 27/32 to the foot (easiest to draw full size then scale to whatever scale I need later) The loco is only 7feet long in full scale and 18 inch gauge. The goal is to build a 3 1/2 inch live steam model down the road. Im probably just dreaming but it keeps me amused. the chassis was cut out of some white evergreen .060" sheet and laminated together to give .120" thickness I laminated them so that there would only be the scale (close) parts sticking out at the front What to power this with first thoughts was to rummage through the electric motor scrap box and I found a nice worm drive that I salvage from the last printer that died. A promising looking set up that seemed about right. With a bit of surgery with the jewelers saw things began to look quite good. Initially I had simply drilled the holes for the axles, remember this was a quick build nothing fancy. Here was the first problem! wheel quartering would be difficult The wheels were brass with rigid PVC centers so that they would not short out the track. (Old school 12 volt Trackmaster controller to make it go) So I popped off the wheels cut a block of wood to fit between the frames and cut a couple of slots in such a way as to create a snap fit for the 1/4 inch diameter bushings. The slots were cut on the sled with the table saw. The wheels could now be set up and removed easily without taking them apart. The motor was removed from the printer housing and made to be a press fit into a slab of 1/8th thick styrene. a couple of leads to the motor from the power supply confirmed that the motor was adequate for the job. The the main parts of the body began to take shape beginning with the end plates These were cut from some .020" styrene sheet, and then I pondered how to get the rivet detail which is quite prominent. The end plates were shaped with some printed drawings done with large label sheets stuck to the .020" (not easy to remove so I won"t be doing that again) To be continued. Michael

I had to take a break on this model in order to keep my sanity. it is on the shelf for a while, I will most definitely get back to it. Michael

Wow! impressive indeed. Michael

Hi Danny I really don't know what to say, that hasn't already been said. looking at what you have achieved with such precision with the humble card is inspirational. Michael

Very nice way to make those pieces Keith. Michael