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Movement on the I3

jeff_p

Entry posted by jeff_p

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Now that the (apparent) rush with the blog is over a more sedate and relaxed pace will be the order of the day, but I mustn't allow lethargy to take control.  So, in the spirit of showing that the lock down protocol hasn't resulted in me wandering about the house all day dressed in my slippers and dressing gown (what a terrible image, sorry :blush:, and I don't even own any slippers), there's been some progress on the SE Finecast I3 kit.

 

I've rebuilt the chassis now with some new parts sourced from 'Finecast.  It became apparent when making a more detailed inventory of bits and pieces that I had lost some of the kit.  Nothing big, just from nuts and bolts, stuff for the electrical pickup, that sort of thing.  I have absolutely no idea where they could have gone to, but given how long it was stored for anything could have happened.  Unfortunately (for me) that meant I needed to contact 'Finecast and request some missing bits, and that mean that I accidentally (honest gov', he made me do it) bought one of their  SR 0-4-2 D1 kits :rolleyes:.

 

The chassis is far from complete, but rather than ploughing on I thought it sensible to make absolutely sure I had the chassis and wheels sorted and rolling smoothly before adding details.  The result was this:

 

20200427_192900.jpg.48e9a5cc5f0e355c7db420faa3348f98.jpg

 

Two key elements were causing trouble at this point.  Naturally the coupled wheels were spinning fine independently but wouldn't when coupled, and the bogie (being so light) wouldn't stay on the rails on the tighter curves.

 

The cause of the first problem is no revelation, and neither was the solution (well most of it).  Using the broaches that I do have I have I eased the bearings in the chassis just a bit more, and then progressively did the same on the ends of the coupling rods.  This I did with the coupling rods back-to-back to make as sure as I possibly could that they stayed the same length, even if it wasn't exactly the right length. The other thing I did was tie the two halves of the compensation arms/levers together.  It can be seen as the slightly off-square bar just behind the front driving axle in the following picture:

 

20200427_192916.jpg.7adb8711eae4d421ac2efc0212f48069.jpg

 

The compensation still allows the driving axles to rise and fall a couple of millimeters, but has stopped a possible twisting motion laterally.  It was fiddly, but was this necessary?  I don't know, but as far as I can see the driving axles cannot now move further apart through the motion of the compensation, and so this ought to maintain smoother running while still allowing the chassis the best chance of keeping its wheels on the track.  Time will tell.  The bar was placed there as the gearbox fills in the equivalent space around the rear axle and effectively keeps that under control, but the front axle bearings were free to move laterally along the axle so this seemed like the obvious place to add some rigidity.

 

As for the leading bogie, a spare spring from a three link coupling kit has been donated to the cause, and after trimming has been installed over the bolt between the chassis cross bar and the bogie itself.  Thanks to Martins' suggestion on Monday nights club call for that one.  As is not uncommon for me I'd missed the obvious solution and was caught up in trying to work out how to make something out of some springy wire :rolleyes:.  The spring is too strong for an unladen chassis (even cut down), but once all that white metal added then this should resolve itself.  It's easy enough to tune later.

 

I've also started working on the body of the kit for a few reasons:

 

  • I need the weight on the chassis to enable some testing etc..
  • I might need to trim the motor shaft and also create some restraint for the motor (given that it rises and falls with the driven wheels)
  • I also need to see where I can run wires and place a DCC decoder (probably the bunker)

 

So here I am starting to piece together the major components of the body:

 

20200428_172440.jpg

 

Finally, the D1 kit:

 

20200428_182214.jpg

 

This goes onto the shelf for the time being, but I have been wanting one of these for the layout for a while now.  It fits nicely into the period and concept of the layout, so much so that I might even need two ... :D

 

Jeff

 

[Edit: just to sort out the typing and phrasing]

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pete_mcfarlane

My Finecast I3 had a minor rebuild recently to fix the same issue with the bogie. I fixed it by adding loads of lead to the bogie, and also fitted some wire to the top of the bogie either side of the pivot slot to act as side control springs to help lead it in to curves. It now runs a lot better. 

 

One problem I found was that the body sat a millimetre or two too high, which made the loco look a bit odd.  It was years ago since I did it, but I ended up somehow modifying the body and chassis to get it to sit at roughly the right height. 

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jeff_p
52 minutes ago, pete_mcfarlane said:

My Finecast I3 had a minor rebuild recently to fix the same issue with the bogie. I fixed it by adding loads of lead to the bogie, and also fitted some wire to the top of the bogie either side of the pivot slot to act as side control springs to help lead it in to curves. It now runs a lot better. 

 

One problem I found was that the body sat a millimetre or two too high, which made the loco look a bit odd.  It was years ago since I did it, but I ended up somehow modifying the body and chassis to get it to sit at roughly the right height. 

Ahh, thanks for your comment.  I had already thought about some form of lateral control on the bogle but will worry about that once the model is complete enough to operate and test.  Not having got the body compete I've not seen how high it rides,  but I'll definitely keep an eye on that now. 

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