Worsley Works

On 19/01/2006 18:03, Neil Kirby said,

Provided you take these for what they are, they are great. They are not intended to be kits, but an aid to scratch-building. You won't find many tabs and slots in their rolling stock kits, for instance, and you might find that you want to do some things differently. I am currently building several dozen 4mm scale coaches for the Festiniog Railway from Allan's etches, and so far so good (apart from the tedium of batch building!!!)I also have a "kit" for the FR Funkey diesel, and a few dummy runs shows that that will turn into a nice model.

What I would advise though is that firstly be prepared to wait sometimes, and also when the etches do arrive, check them carefully to make sure they are what they are meant to be. I have had some shipping errors, but they are always corrected quickly.

Which particular etches of his are you interested in?

I'd echo Paul's comments.

Treat as scratch aids, and they are decent. As kits, they fall well short of what really good kit designers achieve in slot-together and thought up folding sequences (though well above that which some truely dreadful "kit" producers have sold in the past).

Alan (proprietor of Worsley Works) is a friendly chap, and will usually modify and consider corrections if suggestions are made to him. As well as checking the etch to be what you've ordered, also check for any bits missing (through over-etching eating the tabs) and check the register of front to rear (I've seen some coach sides where the window register was out by a significant and very noticeable amount).

I'm the builder of the 2mm scale O2 on the Worsley site, which was a gift from Alan with a "can you motorise that challenge".

- Nigel

In message , Paul Boyd writes

I have noticed that he is now selling 4mm version of the 42xx, and says to ask if you want any of the others in 4mm. I really, really want a

you little show off :o)

often look at that and marvelled... it really is excellent... certainly puts me in a downer :o)

I asked Allen about producing class 07 but he doubts there will be much call for it. Heh, I was looking forward to the challenge of scratching a chassis for that one :o)

I have built two locos from Allens kits and you have to remember they are not what you'd get from Langlet etc... they really are the necessary stuff to get you going and you will be doing a lot of filling and filing to get it all looking just right.

My first was class 22 in N. Where as I am quite pleased with it, it was my first attempt at this approach. It really is the best fun I have had building a kit and the most testing. The finished item is a fine representation of the class but a tad rough in places - but this is totally down to me and my in-experience.

The second that I did was a D6xx warship (oft called class 41). This turned out much better and it is obvious this was down to me understanding the medium better.

I can testify that Allen is very helpful and encouraging and if you have any recommendations on the kits (I made a suggestion regarding the warship roof and horn grills) he will take it on board.

My advice is get stuck in and enjoy yourself - get a good soldering iron (temperature controlled is great) and take your time... get lots of pictures of the real thing and keep offering the parts together before soldering.

I looked at his site today and he has a new class 35 Hymek kit listed and I understand he may be planning class 74.... oh joy!!!

at the risk of being accused of kicking the arse off it, have a look at my two completed kits here under the "More advanced stuff" heading.

On 19/01/2006 18:50, Nigel Cliffe said,

Having seen what some of you 2mm boys can do, I would have thought that Allen (I spelt it right this time!) should have known he was on to a loser there! Mind you, I wish I had as much room between the frames as you do for my finescale 4mm narrow gauge stuff :-)

Easier than it looks. Mechanism is essentially the same as the DY1 (described on 2mm website) with smaller 816 motor, remove gears between axles and substitute power transmission by coupling rods.

However, not much use for N, unless you can make your own wheels :-)

Not sure I'd put Langley anywhere near the first division of small scale kits.

I was thinking of 4mm stuff by people like Mitchell or High Level. Or in

I think your locos look pretty good from the photos. Clean from mess and excess solder on the outside, which is the main thing to learn.

If you want a soldering suggestion; try some of the 179 degree lead/tin/silver solder which is available from the Carrs range (at least its available now, Carrs are suggesting it might disappear with the new "no lead in electronics" solder regulations). Its expensive stuff, about 5 times the price of normal tin/lead solder, but if you want free-flowing super smooth solder, its fantastic.

Agreed.

- Nigel

He'd just seen the DY1, which is a much bigger loco, and it has skirts. He's a generous chap, and I think he thought I'd like a puzzle. It took me a while to realise that an almost identical mechanism to the DY1, with an 816 rather than a 1016 would fit easily.

Build outside framed stuff :-)

- Nigel

I made the mistake of buying a "complete kit" by Crownline (on eBay so maybe I was naive). OK, it was complete as far as it went, and fitted together OK but it seems no thought had been given to what a kit should build.

It started out as a detailing kit for a Hornby loco and had been added to so you got a body kit, a chassis kit with no thought for motorizing (the Hornby model was tender drive), a whitemetal replacement tender top and an etched tender chassis so now it's no longer tender drive!

It's still sitting in its box, half fininshed.

MBQ

It sounds like your eBay seller has gathered together a few bits and pieces and passed it off as a complete kit. Crownline used to do either detailing kits, or a few genuinely complete kits.

I'm not too sure about the implications behind your phrase "on eBay so maybe I was naive" though :-)

Well, the box is labelled as being a complete kit. The instructions refer to all the bits in the kit. I definitely get the impression it was originally bought as a complete kit from Crownline.

I meant maybe I should have asked more questions of the seller.

MBQ

On 20/01/2006 12:02, snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com said,

Oh well - maybe that's why Crownline are no more! I must admit that I thought their complete kits were "proper" kits.

Ah - yes!

The later ones were, and generally quite good, too. Some of the earlier ones were a bit iffy. I remember LMS Caprotti & BR Standard 5MT 4-6-0s which I think started as Hornby conversion packs and progressed to include resin boilers etc. to make "full kits". Still got a couple tucked away somewhere . . . .

A lot of the "proper" etched kits are now back with us under the PDK banner, although quite possibly these are new tooling rather than simple re-releases - wouldn't like to make rash statements without inside knowledge and upset anyone :-)

TOS

like the Ivatt/Standard 2 tank conversion pack for the Hornby 2-6-0 which included white metal slide bars and the replacement motion for LNER 4-6-2s which had the expansion link at least twice the length it needed to be for the motion to work.

Mike Parkes snipped-for-privacy@mphgate.removetoreply demon.co.uk

Mike Parkes writes

I had this one as well, I gave up when I realised the gap between the left & right slidebars was less than the width of the wheels with the coupling rods on! Tight clearance I can just about cope with, negative clearance is beyond me ;-) I have mentioned this kit before elsewhere, and asked if anyone had ever seen working example...... I had no takers.