GLEN. 4-4-0 in 5" gauge by Don Young.
What are the errors on this? I have heard rumours of some but have no firm information.

Peter Whillance says that: The inside top corners of the bogie horns need relieving (just above the rivets) to give clearance for the equaliser beams.

SPEEDY. 0-6-0T in 5" gauge by LBSC.
The valve gear is suspect and I understand that modifications have been published.
There has also been criticism of the smokebox size (too small), and lack of boiler lagging.

SPRINGBOK. LNER 4-6-0 B1 in 5" gauge BY Martin Evans.
One correspondent tells me that the bogie frames are too short on the drawings. Worth checking before you cut metal.

Someone else (sorry, I forget who it was) said the following:
The boiler is pitched .375" too high, this makes the cab height out of scale. On the full size engine there is virtually no gap between the frame and boiler. The cab and running boards are approx .75" too wide as is the tender. I have seen one built using Martins drawings but scaled correctly, a big improvement on mine. Have no fear though, it is fairly easy to build and steams and pulls like a good'n. If you have an old set of drawings you may find a stretcher trying to fit between the frames where the middle tender wheelset sits. This corrected on later drawings.

Titfield Thunderbolt (3½" and 5" gauge) "Lion" by LBSC.
I've heard that the big ends foul the boiler throatplate.
Again, I have no personal experience but would welcome information from any builders of this loco..

Pansy. 5" GWR Pannier tank, by LBSC.

As designed, coal dust and ash can drop straight onto the axleboxes. It is worth making a shield over the axle / axleboxes to protect them.

Some early drawings do not show the blast pipe directly under the centre of the chimney, which is where it should be.
Also, some early drawings show incorrect sizes for the boiler, the barrel of which should be 11 5/8", and the inner and outer fireboxes should be 5 1/2" and 4 5/8" respectively.

The valve rocker shaft is poorly supported, Additional bearings will prevent wear to the existing bearing, which is known to wear out very quickly.

There were some errors on the first set of drawings, which were subsequently altered. It is worth checking to ensure that your drawings have the correct information.
The length of the boiler barrel should be 11 5/8", and the firebox lengths should be 5 1/2" outer and 4 5/8" inner.

Pansy. 5" GWR Pannier tank, by LBSC.

Peter Nicholas sent me the following list of errors on the original Pansy drawings:-


1. The holes for the brake hangers should be lowered to 7/8 " above the horizontal centre line through the axles.
2 The centre hole in the rear bar of the steam chest has been removed as it fouls the fixing studs. (Does he mean it fouls the drain cock fitting?)
3 Expansion links are too small (full reverse cannot be obtained) The curved slot has been increased to 1.5" and the link length to 1.875" The length of the eccentric staps has been increased to 4.8125". The length of the big end straps has been increased from 2.125" to 2.25". On the elevation drawing of the motion plate there is a 0.09375" dimension on the edge of the bearing projection. This has been altered to 0.125"
4 The position of the firehole door from the top of the doorplate should be 2.0625" not 1.75"
5 The overall length of the tanks should be 20.125" not 20"
6 The boiler should not be attached to the footplate as shown in the drawings. This is to allow for expansion of the boiler.

Hunslet. 0-4-0 in 5" (and 7 ¼") gauge by Don Young.

1. The rear (de-railing safety) bar needs to be moved further back (say 0.25"). In its designed position there is a potential for it to foul the grate/ash-pan. OK under normal circumstances but could mean a few extra
seconds if one had to drop the fire in a hurry.

2. It looks as if the tops of the spring hangers are going to be very close to the boiler cleading - But at this stage I still don't know whether they will be too close.

3. The brake gear will foul the underside of the horn keeps if the driving wheels are slightly under size
(OK not a drawing error but something that needs to be watched).

4. It may be advisable to move the feed pump to the inside motion frame stay plate and drive it from the rear axle.

5. Don's drawing shows the reverser-arm located on the weigh-shaft by means of a roll-pin. Bearing in mind how critical things are in that area I have not had the courage to do that and have made a temporary arm that clamps onto the weigh-shaft. This temporary arm is adjustable for length as is a temporary reach rod. I shall not commit these to solid metal until I have the beast running on air. I think that even when I reach
that stage the reverser-arm will still be a version that clamps to the weigh-shaft. The clamp will be hidden under the running board so I don't think that it will detract from the appearance.

6.Lugs on the sides of the fire-box rest on the tops of the frames. As drawn by Don, there is nothing to retain the fire-box end of the boiler from leaving the top edge of the frames in the event of a heavy accident. I have attached a square section strip to the back of the reversing lever bracket and an inverted 'J' section
strip to the LH side of the frames. The intention is to allow for horizontal movement (expansion) but
restrain vertical movement.

(From Mike Hopkins, UK)

There are several versions of the Hunslet design.
Don Young's 1/5 scale (5" gauge) design. When Don did the building series in LLAS (Locomotives Large and Small), he wrote it in parallel with the John Milner's design (3/8 scale, 7 1/4" gauge).
The picture then gets even further muddied by the existence of Alan Ruston's 1/3 scale 'Elidir' (also 7 1/4"gauge). All three are in Reeves catalogue plus, of course, Don Young's 'Hunslette' (1/7 scale, 3 1/2" gauge).