I managed a few hours over Christmas to get the chassis painted and over the last two evenings I've got it running again!
Pretty pleased with the neat phosphor bronze pickups which should blend in pretty well with some black paint later. The rods are VERY sloppy and there is a bit of a stick due to this. To get an idea of the problem the crankpins (threaded screws) have an outside diameter of 1.6mm. The holes in the rods are 2.2mm! I've found some 1.6mm i/d tube with an o/d of 2.4mm so
One thing I have been doing over the summer is making #2 son's first layout. Quite refreshing bunging down set track!
It started as a 1st and 2nd rad loop set across the corners of two 2x4 boards using my now familiar dowels and toggle clamps. Power transferred from one board to another via the clamps.
Santa is bringing him a centre board with turntable and engine shed
So he can still have the simple 2 boards for a quick play or all three on a weekend (and Dad has a te
More progress!
The solebars were bent to shape using nothing more than a vice and two steel rules as bending bars then they were joined to the buffer beams using 188 deg solder. The angle plates were then added using 145 deg solder. You will see from the photo that the ends of the angle plates stuck out beyond the edge of the buffer beam - soon sorted with a file!
This assembly was then fitted to the superstructure and the buffers added.
Starting to look like a Sentinel now
got the lettering done on the other side this lunchtime, so 'tis done
Going to leave it for a few weeks for the transfers to "set" then I will start the weathering. I'm going to use a combination of the techniques described by David Spencer in Hornby Mag Issue 6 and bounce spraying the underframe. I'll take it slowly as this little wagon has took a lot of time so don't want to mess it up in the weathering stage 😃
Interior almost done. I've painted the seats, fitted them to that partitions, soldered up the luggage rack brackets and fitted them, printed out some railway type posters on sticky labels and painted the mirrors with silver paint.
just got to add the netting then I can get on with the exterior fittings ahead of the masking off and paint!
Still not fitted those door ventilators ....
Well I am steadily gathering parts together. Big thanks to Lord Flashheart for donating TWO spare drive bogies - I now have loads of possibilities should I need more traction
I've also taken delivery of some A1 Models air horns and some lovely sprung buffers from NMRS-Models.
The cleaning up of the bodyshell is continuing and I'm thinking of how to attach the roof now that the fixing holes have been filled in - I would prefer to retain the removable roof rather than bond it in place as
Quick update from yesterday's progress:
Bogies have met the razor saw and the front section that carries the coupling have been removed. A strip of plastikard replicating the rib at the other end for strength.
Pickups next and a 10mm hole for access to the new roof fixings in the undriven one.
I've also cemented in small sections to the body sides where the switches used to be and cleaned, lubed and test run the original power bogie - noisy by modern standards but at the sp
I have another 8F to do a sound fitting so I thought i'd show how I fit the excellent ABS-230 speaker in the tender
First remove the weight and prise off the plastic supports. using a razor saw cut down the rear weight fixing pillar flush. Drill some holes in front and behind the centre wheels. Cement in two small fillets of 1mm plastikard to seal the bottom of what will be the output chamber for the speaker - a couple of nicks in the corners will allow the pickup wires to pass through.
So here it is again, I've just painted the motor and it blends in pretty well. I still might make some fill panels sometime if the small amount of daylight visible bugs me too much ....
Here's the underside showing the "gearbox"
I've also refreshed the couplings, a few have commented in the past that the 3 links were out of scale so I had a few links left over from the Ivor build which have been put to good use
I did a test run yesterday of just the chassis on a bit of
FInally got the tender pickups done. Used a whole length of EE's 0.35mm phosphor bronze wire to give me these fancy springy coiled backscratchers
They are soldered to two bus bars made from double sided copper clad PCB material (thanks JZ for the offcuts with your sleeper panels!) These were low melt soldered to the chassis frame on the underside then the pickup springs soldered to the top.
Took a lot of fiddling and repositioning to get them right, you can't see it but the en
As promised, the GWR coach brown was applied by my trusty 6 quid airbrush - which is now stripped down and it's vital parts soaking in thinners
That's all for a few days whilst the paint hardens, next step will be to flood the cream into the panels
Spent some time this weekend sorting out and unpacking in the man cave.
So around the room from left to right we have the workbench and storage
Clear area for setting up layout boards for work with layout storage behind
Finally tool storage and bookshelves
George's train set whilst operational had it's issues. The main one was the need for the S bends on the centre board.
This was because the layout was originally just two 4 x 2 ft boards with an oval across the corners to maximise the run length. When the centre board was added by Santa it had to have the curves to make everything join up.
All those curves meant that my APT-E would not run and even the baseboard joints on curves gave the occasional
Way back in the mists of time (2007) I built my first BR Standard "neverwazza" the 8F 2-8-0 that was in the 1956 build programme but never made it into metal
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8690&hilit=+93xxx
It has run successfully on Summat Colliery ever since and always provokes a reaction when folks clock the number and count the wheels etc. However, it's tender drive makes it tricky to add sound to and as the only remaining tender drive loco in the operating
Attention now has moved from the chassis to the body. I've filled in the section of "missing" false chassis ahead of the cylinders with plasticard and fashioned the front sandboxes in the same way as the chassis mounted ones.
I had hoped to pick up some 0.5mm piano wire from Squires at Wycrail, but they hadn't taken any. I'll have to wait until the next order to either them or Eileen's to make the front sand pipes.
Waft of grey primer soon to see how good the moulding is and how muc
The target for the weekend was to get the chassis painted and that was achieved, eventually ......
here's the chassis all cleaned and prepped for primer
So, Sunday morning after the storms the sun came out and so did the paint - far too early as it was way too humid still and the primer went on like talcum powder. After an hour in Superstrip and another good go with the Cillit Bang! I was back to stage one ...
Fortunately mid afternoon a breeze was evident and the pool of water
It was far too flippin' hot to work in the loft/workshop/man cave today, so this evening I decamped to the patio to get the last three footboards folded up for the Slater's coach
And jolly successful it was too, all folded up, but I ran out of light before the axlebox cut-aways were filed in the final lower board. A job for tomrrow
Again, ahead of the Mansfield Show I've finished off the T34 that I built last year. The buffers were oil finished and fitted according to the instructions and two JLTRT screw-link couplings were put together and chemically blackened.
So here we have the first coach for Fourgig ready for the show.
It will have to run with a green Lima MKI for Mansfield, it's matching all third will be done in time for RMweb Live! in September ......
After some more surgery with the razor saw (not a lot left of the original tanks now!)and some internal supports cemented in which were cut from sections of the Dapol floor, the body and chassis are finally joined to my satisfaction
The body is held in place really well with the "handrail" clip but I will re-use the nose end screws as a bit of belt and braces.
So, a bit of filling, fitting of the roof horns and the bodyside grilles and it's ready for a coat of primer.
I've start
The Dart Castings crew turned up this morning, handy that, as last night I finished the weathering. Here's a snap taken in my new 30 quid photo booth with my trusty X-10 Mini cameraphone
Just got to paint the crew and stick em in and it's done. Now for that article for MR .........
What can I say apart from URG!
The owner is well known for his love of spray oil having quite an extensive collection of Hornby Dublo. I am trying to wean him off it for the sake of his modern locos and their plastic parts .....
A full strip is in order methinks
OK, a couple of hours with the low melt solder has seen the Duke back in one (heavy) lump. I soldered the boiler assembly to the footplate in the end and have filled the gaps around the cab etc with solder. The Crownline detailing kit has been raided for the blower and tunnel as well as the top feeds and pipework.
Just got the pipework around the cab/firebox are to sort now. Will use one of the Crownline castings to represent the blower valve and make the rest up from copper wire. The i
After a few productive minutes with some plasticard and copper wire over lunchtime we have a representation of the sandboxes for the Crosti
Next step is to paint it all black and then I can get the Zimo sound chip wired up to the loco and test the fit in the body and of course the sound!
I should have this at least functional for the Weston-on-Trent show on the 10th November
So another damp cold Saturday allowed me to get all the track laid on the centre board. The adjustment the screws allowed for at the baseboard joints worked really well - allowing for the differences in alignment that somehow crept in between mine and Santa's workshops 😉
Just need to wire up the centre board and then we at least have a layout for the Mansfield Show 🙂 Didn't take long for George to move in though ...
The lack of power does not deter
Detailing has started on the bodyshell, the Comet Britannia/Clan/Duke detailing pack has been opened and the following added so far:
Smokebox dart
Safety valves
Clacks and feed pipes
Vacuum ejector
Steam manifold
Carriage warming valve
Injector steam valves
Here's a quick shot of the right side of the firebox showing the pipework so far.
A few more evenings to go with this one then it's the deflectors and footsteps. Once these are done then I think I will be in a position
