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...no story but a few details


kitpw

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From my notebook...

 

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...dimensions and cutting notes (on the small lathe) for signal lamps, based on GWR drawings reproduced in Adrian Vaughan's 'Great Western Signalling".  The lamps are bored out 3mm to house a 3mm water clear LED. Although not common, I sourced some flangeless LEDs (Toby Electronics - Toby.co.uk) which will fit right into the lamp case, leaving only the clear base of the LED to be painted and stop light spillage. The lamp is cross drilled to take the front and rear lenses which are thick walled brass tube, turned down at the ends to fit the cross drilled holes in the casing - then soldered in, filed to length and cleaned up.

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The lamp cases are Birchwood blacked and glazed with Glue'n Glaze. I forgot to put a kerf to house the wiring into one of the signal dolls so the wires run up the face of the doll but in all other cases, a pair of 0.02mm wires are set into the posts and dolls (www.componentshop.co.uk for the wire). The same cases are used on the buffer stops but with flangeless red LEDs.

 

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The lamps are powered by an ex mobile phone USB charger via a set of circuits incorporating a fixed resistor sized to suit the number of LEDs on each circuit and also a variable resistor to control brightness.

 

I've made fork end connectors for the signals - the Up starters use a "compensation" beam and really need an engineered connection which is to say that I've never had much success putting a small bend on each end of a length of piano wire and getting it the right length - the advantage of the fork end is a small measure of adjustability - the pictures show how that's possible.

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The same fork end detail is used for the point rodding, but smaller - 2.75mm long x 1.2mm square with a 0.7mm diam pin onto the cranks. The pins are about 1mm long and I dare say there are a good few spread round the workshop - missing in action. The pictures show one set of rods/cranks, recently installed and waiting on Birchwood metal black. The dimension between rods (centre to centre) is setup by the ModelU rod guides - where there is a 90 degree turn, the cranks need to be set very close together using the GWR type curved/straight cranks set at different levels.  The point rodding "works" although it's the point servos moving the cranks and not a set of levers in a signal box - some runs aren't connected to anything but there's enough that are to create the illusion.

 

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Mikkel

Posted (edited)

The point rodding cranks look exquisite. Almost a shame to paint them dull black!

 

Edited by Mikkel
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3 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Almost a shame to paint them dull black!

Thanks MIkkel: the junior porter's assistant's apprentice is sent out to polish them every morning... Now where did I leave the 'Brasso'?

Kit PW

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5 hours ago, Mikkel said:

The point rodding cranks look exquisite. Almost a shame to paint them dull black!

 


The 1907 painting instructions say Red, Torbay, bright. Not sure when it changed and can’t remember when this layout is set. 

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10 hours ago, kitpw said:

Thanks MIkkel: the junior porter's assistant's apprentice is sent out to polish them every morning... Now where did I leave the 'Brasso'?

Kit PW

 

Ha! That would be a nice surreal touch actually: To leave just one component on a layout in brass, and have a figure polishing it.

 

 

8 hours ago, richbrummitt said:


The 1907 painting instructions say Red, Torbay, bright. Not sure when it changed and can’t remember when this layout is set. 

 

Oh right, thanks Rich, I had forgotten. I think Swan Hill is 1920s?

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mikkel said:

I think Swan Hill is 1920s

It is... nominally 1927, the year that Fritz Lang's film 'Metropolis' was released and Heisenberg formulated his 'uncertainty principle', the GWR did away with painting panelling on unpanelled coaches and the few remaining round top boilered 517s would have looked distinctly quaint - much as I like them (and will model at least one for Swan Hill with said round top boiler).

 

10 hours ago, richbrummitt said:

The 1907 painting instructions say Red, Torbay, bright

I noticed the 'Torbay red' point rodding on Wenlock's 'Sherton Abbas' where it looks very much the part in an Edwardian setting but, at Swan Hill, in spite of the apprentice's best efforts, the rodding and cranks will be a rather dirty '1927 black', courtesy of Birchwood Casey!

 

Kit PW

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