I didn't do at all well with the brass tube, neither of the sizes quoted is available from Smiths any more. The best they could offer was 1/2" x 16G, it won't be in for another two weeks, and is about £10 a metre. However, I think if it is made full length, and put inside a piece of ordinary 15mm pl...

As a start, I'm interested in building an LMS two arm signal, principally because we could use a few of them (is that right Jonny?), and most of the parts are commercially available. I've been looking at posts, and according to the LMS Signals book, the tubular steel ones were stepped, ie of two dif...

The ideas behind forming the group are to to try and involve more members by offering something new, to see if (as a group) we can help source parts and designs (drawings) so that anyone can build a signal or two for themselves, and to encourage the production of a sensible signalling system for Shi...

Seems like it's to be semaphores then. Just to prove their continued use, I went down to Uttoxeter, nearest station, camera in hand. I even took a spare battery, but forgot to check that there was a memory card in the camera! Anyway, here's one of them. Looks very much BR to me, but with LMS ancestr...

Just checked some books. Railway Signal Engineering (Lewis), has lots of generic signal drawings, none of which is dimensioned, so no use really. Mechanical Railway Signalling (Wilson), has lots of good drawings. Generally they are of different bits of different signals, the only ones which cover wh...

THE LIST, part 2. Post top gear. I've added this because I can't get more than 10 photos into one post. BRS-SM1 reduced.jpg Spindle bearing. Drill the 4 centred holes 1.7mm for the U bolts. The round pocket is for a buffer. Drill through the bottom of the pocket and tap 10BA. Then turn up a cylindr...

For the last Shildon event, I built some crude colour light signals to protect the bottom yard, they worked and created a bit of interest. Ben has suggested on another post that he would like to build some 1/8 scale signals for Shildon, but I think has reconsidered and agrees that to proper scale fo...

Hi J C, and welcome. If you or a friend have access to a lathe, it is easy to knock up a gauge, the usual thing is to turn two grooves in a piece of inch or so diameter aluminium. Obviously they should be 5" apart, and sized to suit your rail. Alternatively, saw and file two slots in a steel plate. ...

Ben, As you know, I make waterslide transfers, and when I started making them I wanted to try them on something with a large area of smooth white paint on it. I wasn't allowed to use the washing machine, so used my car instead. They weren't varnished or covered in any way, the car was always left ou...

Thanks to all for the input. Bad news is that I've still not got an answer to my question though there has been some interesting discussion, and that's good. By way of comparison, the same question was put on the rmweb site (much, much bigger than GL5) at more or less the same time and there have be...

Impressive progress David, very much looking forward to playing on it next year.

Just been searching Google, and if I read it correctly, 'Lynx Model Works Limited' is on the 'Companies Court Winding Up List 29.07.13' ie, last year!

I assume you mean John Clarke of Lynx models. I feel rather guilty because we carried his advert, but previous enquiries had been moderately positive. However, since about August I heard some pretty negative reports about him, and having met him at his workshop when I helped to retrieve a friend's l...

Doug,
We had plenty of wagons last year, so I don't think we'll need more this year, but that's not a reason not to bring a few if you feel like giving them a run.
Dave.

According to the RCTS green books, "Steam brakes were fitted on the engine and tender". No mention of vacuum. Also, "A G&C combination vacuum ejector was provided for the train brakes". No mention of tender. However, apart from the brakes, on reading through the section on tenders, it quickly become...

I should have added this, side control springs on an LNER carriage.

I've checked a number of drawings, and early GCR, all LNER, and BR Mk1's seem to have had side control. This makes sense because, as there is nothing to align the gangways, if the carriage ends were allowed to move sideways relative to each other then the gangway faceplates could slide across each o...

Ends are now in stock (in Bedfordshire). The two parts of each end are already welded together and chemically blacked. They are only £7 a pair. We have managed to get the price down by buying in a large quantity. We are unlikely to buy as many again, so when these are gone, the price will go up. If ...

This isn't strictly a GL5 topic, but as this is where the brains are, I thought I'd try here first. I am drawing up the BR CCT (4 wheeled version of the GUV) for a future model, and an interesting point about couplings has appeared. The CCTs were fitted with screw couplings, and the usual way of att...

"LNER 1-6" clipped buffers (ideally with a slot, but that could be added) - dependent on cost (future project!), looks like 3 1/2" diameter rod on the drawing, I'm estimating the rod was about 3'-10" -ish long?" From my drawings, it appears that the buffers on LNER gangwayed stock were 3'-11" long (...