Entry posted by D869
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There hasn’t been a huge amount recently that has really justified a blog posting on its own but there has been plenty going on so here is a potted summary of recent developments and the covoluted paths by which they progressed through the works.
Another Stephen Harris tank is now ready for the paint shop. This one is a class ‘A’ tank. I went for one of the early ones with the shoe suspension and without bottom discharge because that’s what the transfer sheet covers. On the whole though I’m thinking that I need to find some way to get away from the numbers on the sheet so that I can build a few other variations with the remaining kits. The early ones don’t seem to show up much in later photos which makes me wonder how long they lasted in their original traffic. I was trying to speed up my building of these kits… I started this one in September so I don’t think it’s worked.
The first diversion from the tank was an Association BR 20T brake van kit. I felt that I was rather short of brake vans so this kit was purchased at the Expo in June. For the most part it went together as per the instructions. The only major departure that I can remember are the roof vents – the positions of the holes for these don’t match the drawing in Don Rowland’s ‘first half million’ book (nor do they match the photos) so I filled the holes with solder and drilled new ones further inboard. Oh, and it's missing the holes for the little handrail above the ducket on the chimney side. This van was ready for traffic at the Burton show, although I still need to do some weathering on it. Here's a photo of it next to its rather longer in the tooth friend - a cut down Peco model.
During our half term week on Exmoor I finished the brake van and did a bit more on the oil tank. I then started on another Hawksworth that I’d packed as my ‘holiday project’ - a brake third this time. Needless to say I didn’t finish it over half term (not even close) but now it too is ready for the paint shop – I managed this one in just under a month which is not bad for me. Then I felt guilty about that tank and finally did the last remaining jobs before the paint shop. Here's a picture of the Hawksworth. It's sat on NPCS bogies just now - once painted these will be swapped with the BG which is currently sat on a set of long spring bogies.
Having scored a minor victory over my coaching stock gloat box, a package of assorted Collett and Hawksworth kits arrived from Mr Higgs last week. I then took the obvious next steps - put them away for later and order a few more to go with them.
D1051 has been running progressively more roughly (sounding like a bag of nails) and was finally declared a failure at Burton, seemingly unable to make a round trip from the fiddle yard to the station and back without conking out. On reaching home I took it to bits and after a good deal of trial and error found that one of the motor bearings had worn to an oval shape allowing the armature to rub on the pole pieces. I also found that one of the motor brushes had been running at 90 degrees to the correct angle for a long time, so the wear pattern on the brush was a sort of ‘cross’ shape. I had some spare bearings and brushes from BR Lines in stock, so these were fitted and D1051 seemed much more chirpy when tested on St Ruth last Tuesday.
Having recently cleared two builds from my workbench, there must be room for two more. The plan is to make a start on the David Eveleigh 45xx chassis and also get another bracket signal underway for St Ruth. Whether these projects get finished without interruptions and distractions remains to be seen but here’s a photo of the 45xx etch with its frame bushes fitted.
Oh, and I almost forgot… South Yard has finally gained its own lighting rig. This was inspired by bcnPete’s use of Ikea LED strips. I started out with a set of ‘LEDBERG’s which were nice but I felt that they lacked a little in terms of output for South Yard. I then started experimenting with various of the self-adhesive LED strips that can be had for few quid on eBay. At the moment the rig is extremely ‘Heath Robinson’ being constructed from foamboard in a way that allows it to be packed into the briefcase with the layout. The LED strips are stuck on with Blu Tack at the moment and the power supply has a peculiar daisy-chain of connectors and adapters. The photos were taken under ‘warm white’ illumination using (most of) a 1m strip cut into 3 parts. Judging by the above photos, the camera seems undecided regarding the correct white balance to use. More work is planned, including painting the facia panels – white is not the intended facia colour – and some rather better put together electrical bits.
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