Really interesting NSWRcars. Months ago when weight was brought up I was going to try and dazzle everybody with a 200g Wombat.  I gave up quickly and didn't take into account balance back then but I'll be keen to revisit.  thanks for those figures and measurements.

Thanks a6et, I haven't checked kerroby's listings.  Slide bar covers were available from Casula Hobbies under Wombat Spares though they have sold out for the moment. I did get one set for the purpose of fitting my saturated 30 with a complete outback pack if I can call it that.  Cowcatchers were mentioned as a future project on facebook I think.

A quick question for you or anybody that I've been meaning to ask for ages - What's the purpose of tailrods and why aren't they on superheated versions?

Really interesting NSWRcars. Months ago when weight was brought up I was going to try and dazzle everybody with a 200g Wombat.  I gave up quickly and didn't take into account balance back then but I'll be keen to revisit.  thanks for those figures and measurements.

Thanks a6et, I haven't checked kerroby's listings.  Slide bar covers were available from Casula Hobbies under Wombat Spares though they have sold out for the moment. I did get one set for the purpose of fitting my saturated 30 with a complete outback pack if I can call it that.  Cowcatchers were mentioned as a future project on facebook I think.

A quick question for you or anybody that I've been meaning to ask for ages - What's the purpose of tailrods and why aren't they on superheated versions?

Tail rods[[color=#0b0080]edit][/color]Early steam engineers were convinced that horizontal cylinders would suffer excessive wear, owing to the weight of the piston riding on the bore of the cylinder. Vertical cylinders remained a favourite for some years. When horizontal cylinders were adopted, one measure used to carry the piston weight was to have an extended or second piston rod on the other side of the piston. This emerged through a second stuffing box and in rare cases (illus.) was supported by a second crosshead.
Enclosing the entire tail rod in a sealed casing avoided the need for a stuffing box and any leakage of steam. However this also gave a risk that condensed water could accumulate in the casing, leading to [color=#0b0080]hydraulic lock and mechanical damage.[/color]

That's a wiki interpretation, and doesn't really answer why, but I cannot recollect any superheated steam loco's in my time on the job having the extended tail rod, interestingly the 13cl did not have them, maybe owing to the cylinder positioning, others such as the 26cl & only the snotty nosed variants of the 30cl, and standard goods loco's had them, Superheated types no.

A quick question for you or anybody that I've been meaning to ask for ages - What's the purpose of tailrods and why aren't they on superheated versions?

Regarding tailrods. Their purpose is to reduce wear on cylinders. I don't know why they were dispensed with on superheated locos, but I'm sure someone will be able to answer, anyway, here are some ideas.
Many superheated locos had their slide valves replaced by piston valves. I think this was the case with 30Ts. Perhaps the change required fitting of a cylinder liner (porting?) and the tailrods were then deemed unnecessary? Maybe also changes to cylinder lubrication for superheating? Not all saturated locos retained tailrods, either. An example is the SMR 10 class, they were delivered with tailrods, sometime mid-life the tailrods were dispensed with, then quite late in their life SMR refitted tailrods to the locos. The 10 class were never superheated. Go figure.

Thanks fellas much appreciated.  It's one of those questions I've been meaning to ask for ages but I didn't know what the part was called let alone what to search for.

Wombat have special discount prices on a number of their locos at present.

Les.