O10800WB - a little holiday modelling

 

by 10800

 

original page on Old RMweb

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??? posted on Mon Jan 07, 2008 11:13 am

 

While I have them with me for safekeeping during Eridge's rebuild, I thought I'd put up some pics of the Eridge goods shed, built a few years ago (it's the one on my avatar) showing some more details of its construction.

 

The model was based on photographs and a drawing of a very similar shed (but brick-built) elsewhere on the Cuckoo line. Basis of construction was stripwood, Evergreen sheets for the main walls, Wills slate sheets for the roof, and lots of plasticard strip of various sizes.

 

 

 

 

The roof was a bit of a problem because of the small size of the Wills sheets, which I attempted to deal with (not entirely successfully) by solvent-welding sheets together. It's not as bad in the flesh as it seems here.

 

 

This shows the interior and the stripwood frame. The platform is just ply timbering for pointwork, and the crane is another Wills product.

 

 

The roof was based on a plastic strip A-frame concoction.

 

 

 

Finally, some paint and weathering experiments with the humble Ratio P-way hut.

 

 

 

 

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Comment posted by number6 on Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:14 pm

 

Lovely. I would have liked to see how a small shed like this worked back in the day... - you could get quickly overloaded inside if you didn't tranship stuff quickly. Lots of brute force required too. What was the gallows on the end wall for?

 

I particuarly like your building corners.

 

Raphael

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??? posted on Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:29 pm

 

Cheers Raphael

 

The corners were tidied up by yet another application of thin microstrip!

 

It took me ages to find out what the gallows thing was. I understand it is a gauge used by the p-way department when realigning and reballasting in the station, to make sure the rail-to-platform height is maintained. Previously I had thought it was something to do with wagon loads and door access, so I may need to take it off and review its length! There was also one hanging on the signalbox at Oxted.

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??? posted on Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:15 am

 

Nothing especially exciting, but for anyone who hasn't seen it here's how you change the wheels on a Heljan 33 (same process applies to other Heljan locos).

 

The raw materials - in this case Kernow limited edition green 33/0 and Ultrascale P4 conversion pack.

 

 

Pull off bogie side frames from the pins which also hold the pickup strips. Be careful with the 33 because you have to negotiate around the lifting lug on the solebar positioned mid-bogie (not an issue with the Hymek or 47).

 

 

 

With the aid of a small screwdriver, gently lever off the bogie cover plate, exposing the wheelsets and gear assembly.

 

 

 

Lift out original wheelsets. At this stage I also nipped off the RTR coupling pocket.

 

 

With needle nose pliers, bend out the pickup strip to ensure contact with the wider-spaced P4 wheels.

 

 

Check back-to-back of replacement wheelsets.

 

 

Drop them into place, ensuring the gears mesh and the pickups are not caught on the outside of the wheel.

 

 

Snap back cover plate and refit side frames.

 

 

Rewheeled bogie to the left, original to the right. Repeat process on other bogie.

 

 

The first bogie took about half an hour, mainly due to the photography and being interrupted by The Archers. The second one took about 5 minutes.

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Comment posted by Captain Kernow on Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:38 am

 

Excellent Rod, my blue one will be there tonight for the double-heading!...

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Comment posted by Captain Kernow on Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:39 am

 

I don't answer the door to 'em now...

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Comment posted by craigwelsh on Mon Mar 10, 2008 10:44 am

 

I didn't realise Ultrascale had full metal backs on their newer conversion packs, much better for pickup than the older ones that just had a metal tyre. I should probably swap some proper Ultrascales into my Hymek at some point and put the Black Beetle wheelsets into something that should have 14mm dia wheels.

 

ps I see your B2B gauge is as tarnished as mine although the cutout in my Exactoscale B2B allows the gear to drop down so the whole wheel is against the gauge.

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Comment posted by Captain Kernow on Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:23 am

 

I think you probably have the later version, Craig. Mine is the same as Rod's gauge....

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??? posted on Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:37 am

 

They must have changed some time ago Craig - the wheels on my Hymek and 47, which must have been purchased at least 2 years ago, have full metal backs.

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Comment posted by craigwelsh on Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:17 pm

 

I must admit most of my Ultrascale purchases so far have been second hand to avoid the wait (and save some money!) so I haven't had any new production. Good to know though, will definiately have to change the Hymek wheels and put the 14mm ones in something else.

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??? posted on Tue Mar 11, 2008 1:56 pm

 

And very successful it was too!

 

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=19496

 

Faultlessly smooth running from both 33s I must say. I still prefer the green one though!

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??? posted on Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:40 pm

 

It's been far too long since I looked at these, so I thought I ought to try and finish them before the Eridge MkII track is completed! So out they came for a rinse and a health check. This is what they looked like at the current stage of progress - from left to right: down inner home bracket (SR railbuilt post, lattice dolls); combined up advanced starter and splitting distants for the next box - also railbuilt post and lattice dolls; and up platform starter bracket (LBSCR lower quadrant arms, lattice post and dolls. Some minor repair work needed to the counterbalance pivot on the latter and the movement-limiting wire on one of the distant arms, and a couple of the spectacle plates have gone (these will probably be replaced with Kristal Klear and coloured pen).

 

 

And from the back

 

 

Horrendously cruel enlargement of some of the crank and wire arrangements. Real signals have cables and pulleys, so this is a compromise of course, but when all the detail is added and the signals are painted it shouldn't look such a mess. I'll also trim off the tails on the control wires (0.33 mm brass wire) a bit closer when I'm happy with everything.

 

 

 

I didn't plan sufficiently for the actuation arrangements, so the short sections of bearing tube that the control wires pass through (the three-arm signal in this case) were too close to the plug-in cylindrical section for the method I now want to use. I didn't want to unsolder the cylinder 'casings' because of the knock-on effect on the signal itself, especially in respect to the whitemetal railbuilt posts, so I have now removed them by carefully snipping them into sections with tin snips and levering the sections off. The tubes will now be replaced by new ones in a more suitable position.

 

 

 

The diagram below (not to scale) shows in cross-section how I now plant to actuate the signals, using Tortoise motors mounted so the movement is vertical rather than horizontal, but most importantly enabling the signals to be removed easily for safety. The basic idea is that the 3/16 inch brass bar acts as a counterbalance enabling the control wire to be pulled down by gravity, and pushed up again by the action of the Tortoise. There will be additional limit stops added for the Tortoise arm itself to prevent too much movement being imposed on the signal arms, and the brass 'weights' will be lubricated with graphite (4B pencil). If necessary the wire/bar assembly could be removed for maintenance by detaching the control wire from the signal.

 

The black bits on the diagram are fixed, the red are the moving parts on the signal assembly, and the blue the moving parts from the Tortoise(s).

 

 

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Comment posted by pinkmouse on Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:19 am

 

Looking good Rod, I look forward to seeing them in the flesh.

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??? posted on Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:03 am

 

Thanks Al - next stages are:

 

1) Finish off all the crank and wire fitting

2) Solder on all the safety rails and ladders

3) Fit the details - counterbalance weights, lamps, finials, strengthening plates on the railbuilt posts, track-circuit diamonds if appropriate etc etc. To avoid bits falling apart when soldering, these will probably be glued with epoxy (and some bits will be plasticard anyway)

4) Paint

5) When I have the track boards, build and fit the actuating mechanisms

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Comment posted by Horsetan on Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:17 am

 

Any plans to illuminate them, Rod?

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??? posted on Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:24 am

 

No Ivan, Eridge only runs in daylight! And TBH I'll be more than pleased to have the arms go up and down. Mind you, on the down inner home and up starters the backblinders are there to stop the signalman seeing the white backlight when the signal is pulled off ...

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??? posted on Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:41 pm

 

Slowly but deliberately steadily progressing with the rod and crank arrangements. I'm using the cranks that come on Alan Gibson signal bracket frets, which come in two sizes - trying to use the small ones where possible but sometimes they just don't give enough throw so have to use the larger ones. There's a lot of trial and error, and moving of position to get the most reliable and efficient configuration. Also lots of frustration with the wire fitting - especially with the bending of the tails once fitted, where you can cause a bit of damage if not careful. For this reason I'm only doing a bit at a time, but the worst is now done Otherwise it would soon be a case of "right so you want to bounce do you, let's see how much you bounce off that *!@!** wall over there!".

 

One useful tip is to use dividers and Bill Bedford's handrail bending jigs to prepare the wires. Saves the error of multiple measurements on something that rarely keeps very still.

 

 

Just offer up the dividers to the crank-crank separation concerned, and adjust to fit:

 

 

Then transfer the dividers to the jig and find the length that matches:

 

 

and prepare and cut the wire accordingly. Works every time.

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Comment posted by timlewis on Tue Jul 22, 2008 11:04 pm

 

Hmm, don't you just love trial and error.

Nice to see these again: looking rather good. I always think that good signals really make a layout: it seems to be the thing that everyone leaves till last (maybe you know why!) and then it's not always easy to get right (one of the advantages of modelling a real place, assuming you have a signalling diagram that is).

 

Tim

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Comment posted by Hamilton on Wed Jul 23, 2008 3:23 am

 

There are some really usefull little tips there thank you very much that I will take on board for my next signal construction project (after building some points and a loco and some rolling stock!)

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??? posted on Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:18 am

 

Best way to learn and improve, although sometimes it doesn't seem that way I should have started with some simple single-post examples (which I now have two of to do now that the layout has extended a bit at the station end) but hey life is for living

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??? posted on Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:24 am

 

Mick Nicholson of this parish has suggested pre-heating the wires with a match to make bending easier. Bending the tails round is just about my least-favourite task in modelling because of the potential damage you can do and the all-round fiddliness. I had thought about using a 1-2 cm length of tubing as a lever but the smallest I had available was 0.7mm bore and so there was still too much slop over the 0.33mm wire to make it effective. So it was back to the needle-nose pliers, perspiration and blue air!

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??? posted on Wed Jul 23, 2008 10:38 pm

 

The good news is that all the wire and crank fitting is done!

 

 

 

 

Not so good is that the various crank bearings (or rather my method of doing them) means that they (and the counterbalances) protrude too far forward and so the landing rails would be inboard of them on at least two of the signals Hmmm ... OK, just another challenge and part of the learning process I guess - what I will do is graft another plank worth of landing on the front of the existing landing to provide the space and clearance without the whole thing looking stupid. I could cut off the rear of the landing and move that to the front, but then I'd have to drill more holes for the uprights in the next plank in and I don't fancy doing that in situ; I could unsolder the dolls and move them back a shade - no I couldn't, not after all that effort in getting the wires working . So the landing will just end up being a little wider - another compromise, but the least of several evils I think.

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??? posted on Sat Jul 26, 2008 8:31 am

 

Now that they're 'working' I've decided to take each one through to completion separately. So starting with the ex-LBSC up starter, this now has ladders on the landing and the rails added (authenically wonky! ). Starting to look more like a real signal now! There's just about enough room to squeeze the lamp in between the doll, arm, ladder and backblinder on the left hand one.

 

 

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Comment posted by Horsetan on Sat Jul 26, 2008 12:00 pm

 

The signal arms seem very similar to the GSR / CIE arms, Rod.

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??? posted on Sat Jul 26, 2008 4:02 pm

 

Indeed so Ivan, straight out of the Saxby & Farmer catalogue!

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