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New foundations for a castle

Killybegs

Entry posted by Killybegs

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Well to be more precise building an etched chassis to a Hornby Castle.

 

I had been waiting for Brassmasters to release one of their fold up chassis conversions for the Hornby Castle, but it seems that this has been put on the back burner while they concentrate on LMS locos. So I dug a Malcolm Mitchell kit out of the cupboard to see if I could use the chassis from that as a short term fix.

 

The Mitchell kit follows the prototype very closely which may be OK in 7mm but in P4 it means that clearances are very tight. I therefore decided to build the front half of the chassis first (it is designed to be built in two parts which are then bolted together) as that's where most problems are likely to be encountered. To get clearance between the crossheads I have had to reduce the bosses on the front drivers (Ultrascale) by 0.5mm and I have also had to cut away the rear of the cylinder casings to give a reasonable amount of movement on the bogie. The bogie itself has been modified to have a central sliding sprung mounting rather than being treated as a pony truck as per the kit design.

 

As they both have to be reunited with their respective other halves at some time in the future, any modifications to the Hornby body or the Mitchell chassis were very limited.

 

It has been a very fiddly exercise but I think it has been worth it. Now for the rest of the chassis!

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Mike G

Having measured across the front splashers, you'll have found that a P4 set of drivers won't fit - well they won't on the Hornby body I have in front of me. The splasher sides look particularly thin, how are you going to tackle this. I have a premeditated reason for asking this as I have 3 or more Castles that will be taking Comet chassis in P4 and I have not thought of a way round it yet. Just trying to crib others ideas

I have to say the quality of your build is stunning, is the bogie sprung or compensated?

 

MORE please

 

Mike

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craigwelsh

Any closeups possible of the bogie spring mount would be great too for my Mitchell Castle in the cupboard.

 

I'd thought Philip Hall had been doing something with a Hornby Castle in P4 on the Scalefour Forum Mike? Interesting about clearance issues as I hadn't checked.

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Mike G

Craig

Clearances can be 'made' on the middle and rear driver but the front is going to be a problem. As far as I know Phillip hasn't posted anything with a 'how to' - yet.

 

Mike

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45609

Hi John,

 

Very nicely detailed with pipework. It's looking good. I can now appreciate the clearance issues you described to me the other week. What min radius is it likely to encounter on Worseter?

 

Cheers.....Morgan

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Killybegs

Having measured across the front splashers, you'll have found that a P4 set of drivers won't fit - well they won't on the Hornby body I have in front of me. The splasher sides look particularly thin, how are you going to tackle this. I have a premeditated reason for asking this as I have 3 or more Castles that will be taking Comet chassis in P4 and I have not thought of a way round it yet. Just trying to crib others ideas I have to say the quality of your build is stunning, is the bogie sprung or compensated? MORE please Mike

 

My Hornby body is Ince Castle. A pair of Ultrascale wheels have overall width of 21.9mm across the tyres (much more across the hubs) and I have scraped out the rear of the splashers to give me a clearance of 22.2mm. As I will be having no sideplay on the front drivers this should be more than enough.

 

See below for details of bogie and thanks for your kind comments.

 

John

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Killybegs

Mike/Craig

 

The bogie is sprung as a complete unit and has compensation beams allowing the rear axle to rock. Details of the springing/mounting arrangement are shown below.

 

Oops can,t see how to add pics in a comment, will create new blog entry!

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Killybegs

Hi John, Very nicely detailed with pipework. It's looking good. I can now appreciate the clearance issues you described to me the other week. What min radius is it likely to encounter on Worseter? Cheers.....Morgan

 

1200mm on the running lines but the real test is the reverse curves leaving and entering the fiddle yard.

 

John

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