Yes, this is the technology-compromised Chris Ludlow! Sorry for the delay in posting. How my name here came to be just 'ludlow' I don't know, but there it is. I have no wish for anonymity (at least not here). Maybe I will change it sometime. Back to the P8:
This model bears all the traces of having been designed by a computer, and maybe the meths-fired version (which I have) was a last-minute thought. Here is my list of problems:
- Impossible to close-couple engine and tender in the closest of the three holes provided in the drawbar, because the meths-feed tube gets in the way.
- Impossible to see, and therefore replace, the silicon tube from the meths supply under the tender.
- As supplied, the back end sat down on the copper pipes at right and left. The engine did not rest horizontal. The truck could not move left and right freely.
- The left-hand Baker crank caught against the back of the dummy pump casting.
- The wheelsets fell out of the front bogie - loose screws in the frames.
- The loco trembles slightly, but noticeably, on the track.
- On the real thing (except in a works photo) there is a horizontal box structure full-width above the front drag-beam. (I would normally say buffer-beam, but there are no buffers). This is absent from the model.
- Similarly, on all except the works photo, there are two footsteps down from the footplate on either side of the smokebox. The model has just one each side.
- The boiler handrail takes a dramatic upturn for the coned section. On the model, the upturn is slight.
The engine runs well, but seems to create too much steam. I wonder if four wicks is excessive.
Dick Abbott helped me out with the meths tube connection, and we were going to discuss the trembling, but ran out of time at the GTG here.
I do wonder if others have experienced the points above, and what they've done about them. They are a mixture of function and form.
Best wishes, Chris Ludlow, Toulon, France.
