And now for something completely different... 15" gauge in 1/2" scale

[Hauk]

MRJ is a great mag, I've always found it a wonderful source of inspiration, superb modeling and outstanding model photography. It's unfortunate that it's so difficult and expensive to get in this country.

The process of subsribing to MRJ directly from Wild Swan (the publisher of MRJ) is bordering on the absurd. Neither MRJ or Wild Swan have a company email adress. Subscribers have to call some person privatly to get subscribtion information (involving long codes for bank transfers etc). I just gave up on this, and order the magazines from a reseller twice a year.

I order them from Bob Pearman Books. He accepts PayPal and I have never had any trouble ordering from him. It is really nice to receive the magazines in packages of four. He charges  £3,75 (around $6,20) for the recent issues. Postage is actual shipping cost by regular email.

A little warning though, this is what I would call a "Gourmet magazine", and my liking for it could very well be called "an aquired taste". But hey, we have to read something between the Modelling annuals!

By the way, Wild Swan has some really nice modelling books, I would especially reccomend the latest one on painting and lining. 

[RoughboyModelworks]

Yes, MRJ is a real pain-in-the-butt to get. I used to be able to pick up the occasional issue at an international newsagent just off Dupont Circle in Washington, DC when I lived back east. After moving to Calif, I was able to get some through colleagues in the UK from time to time, but even that got to be too expensive after a while and it was always inconveniencing someone else. So, now that I live in the cultural desert of central Calif (can't even get Uncle Russ' books here  ) I've basically given up on MRJ, hoping that one of these days they'll move into the 21st century and offer online ordering and so on. I don't understand the mindset of any publisher in this day and age who doesn't maintain an online portal, but they are a touch eccentric...  The closest thing I've found to a web site for them is http://www.titfield.co.uk/WSmain.htm so perhaps things are looking up...

Wild Swan is an excellent publisher for those here who don't know their publications. I have several but my favourite by far is Martyn Welch's The Art of Weathering, hands-down the best book ever published on weathering railroad models (that is until Chuck Doan writes his!).

Paul

[marc_reusser]

Really neat project idea.....I look forward to seeing this develop, and how you go about it. Will be a great lerning experience for all here I am sure.


M

[RoughboyModelworks]

Thanks Marc... I'm looking forward to spending as much of the weekend as possible working on the loco construction drawings, hopefully with some progress. Had planned to do that last weekend, but ended up in the hospital instead which tends to put a damper on modelling activities as well as most everything else for that matter.

Paul

[RoughboyModelworks]

Came across a short video from August 2005 of the reconstructed Katie at work at Eaton Hall. Love that waggly bit valve gear.... Click link below to view the video, at least I hope it works, never had much luck posting video links. If it doesn't work, the video is posted on the Roughboy]=http://roughboy.net]Roughboy site.
http://roughboy.net/imgs/eatonparklong.wmv

Video credit is © G A Cryer, http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/raildiary/eatonpark/index.htm where there are a few more photos and a shorter video.

Paul

[marklayton]

Paul -

Thanks.  The video link works fine.

The valve gear linkages are quite complicated on that little machine.

Mark

[Ray Dunakin]

I downloaded the movie, but when I try to run it (using QuickTime Player) it says, "This file is not a movie."

[RoughboyModelworks]

Ray:

Movie is a .wmv file (Windows media). If you are using Quicktime on a MAC, download the free version of Flip4Mac from Apple and you will be able to play .wmv files in Quicktime.

The movie is posted on my site http://roughboy.net and you can watch it there without downloading, though depending on the speed of your connection, you may or may not get sound. Video quality is not that great to start with. Alternately I have a Quicktime version of the movie that I could send you if you like.

Paul

[Ray Dunakin]

Ah, I see. Thanks!

[RoughboyModelworks]

http://www.greatnorthernsteam.co.uk/

These are the people who built the replica, believe they are still building a 7.5" gauge version so it might be worth contacting them for a chance of getting some build shots .
Gordon

Gordon:

I contacted Great Northern Steam and they told me that James Waterfield built the Katie replica. I also contacted an old friend, Andrew Neale who is working on a full-size Katie. He has offered to put together an info pack for me so I'm awaiting more details and confirmation on that from Andrew. He confirmed what I was afraid of, that no original drawings or documents concerning Katie's construction survive, apart from the Abbot & Co. boiler drawing (still in business btw). On a hunch, I contacted The Engineer (based on some Smithers references) in the hopes that I could convince someone to do an archive search through their late 19th century issues. That seems to me unlikely, but you never know, certainly worth a try. If I can get accurate enough information, I may go ahead and publish my drawings for any future modelers who want to attempt this loco.

Paul

[Belg]

Guys, I'm wondering if someone could help me with settings or somehow fixing my version of wmv files, please pm me if you can help and I will explain my dilema and delete this. Thanks for any help Pat

[Krusty]

Mike Dekker in Denver is/was very heavily into Heywood stuff and produced most of the better drawings (there were allegations floating around at one stage that Smithers had lifted some of Dekker's drawings for his book without due credit). Would he have any more information on Katie?

[RoughboyModelworks]

That's a possibility Kevin... thanks for the lead.

Paul

[Gordon Ferguson]

Paul,

semi useful link http://www.7-8ths.info/index.php?topic=16680480.msg25398#msg25398

[RoughboyModelworks]

Thanks Gordon. I'm awaiting my info package from Andrew. He did mention that the frame construction for Katie followed very closely the construction principles of the 0-6-0s, though obviously much simpler. Smithers made much the same assumption, go I'm going forward based on their assumptions.

Paul