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A New Beginning - and some improved skills and stock to go with it


Beardybloke

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blog-0261717001327575669.jpgWell, as it’s now rapidly approaching 18 months since my house move and nearer to 20 since my last update, I suppose that I’d better write something!

 

Progress has been by turns non-existent, considerable and backwards over the last year and a half, with a heavy emphasis on non-existent. That’s not to say that I’ve been idle, but taking up running and reducing my chin-to-face ratio from 2:1 to 1:1 as a consequence took up rather a lot of my time – especially in the early days when I was running myself into the ground enough to pick up an injury and was ready for bed rather early on in the evening. Couple this with a commute that changed from a 20 minute walk to over an hour in each direction and hopefully I will be somewhat excused.

 

Anyway, enough waffling about car journeys and my quest to stay off the pies – that’s not why the three people who used to read this blog are here (if indeed, they still are – hello, if so!) but I suspect that you’re reading this in order to learn how not to do things. Certainly, going from my past track record, I excel as a bad example…

 

So, to the update. Hafod Las Mk. II is no more, a protracted stay in the garage having an unpleasant effect on the state of the plywood board edges, with the track being lifted. If I’m honest, it was probably repairable but the layout was a little limited in scope. A semi-modular layout has replaced it, and is almost at the same stage as HL2 was at the point of the last post – that is to say, the track’s laid and each board is wired individually, but there’s no control panel, no switches and no jumpers between the boards. Nothing’s run on it yet, although an old bogie carriage and a 4-wheel van have been used to check curvature and clearances. I’m intending to merge the moribund Hafod Las Mk II thread in the 2010 Challenge forum with this blog, so I’ll go into a little more detail on the layout in a subsequent post.

 

There has unfortunately been no change to the status of Blanche from this blog post, but plans are afoot to get her into running condition. It appears that the coupling rods are very slightly longer than the wheelbase which will have a significant impact on the quartering! Apart from (obviously) replacement coupling rods, I’m looking at sourcing some replacement axles and cranks and will be checking that the wheel centres are still concentric after the escapades with soldering and a bowl of water. Finally, I’m intending to make the gearbox removable rather than a permanent fixture on the axle (trapped by cranks soldered to the outside) and to make both axles gear driven if possible so that the connecting rods and quartering are purely cosmetic. I lay no claim to the above ideas as my own, but I will document my progress so that you can all learn from my mistakes!

 

An initial rebuild attempt was made at the power bogie of the Single Fairlie (documented originally on RMweb3 here) but has resulted in only slightly worse running; I’d managed to seize the layshaft when gluing it into the chassis frame – due to me cutting it slightly undersized, something of an excess of cyanoacrylate had been used and it was glued in wonky to boot! This was replaced with a longer one, and (if I remember correctly) with bushes used to mount it correctly. However, there’s still a serious lump in the motion with the motor attached, and a more substantial rebuild is required, possibly stripping it back down to components. Thanks to Nick Welch’s excellent book ‘A Festiniog Odyssey’ I have another cunning plan of how to get this running and if I’m honest, the book has rather re-enthused me to get things running. Taliesin can be seen in current form below, but is very much in a non-running state:

 

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However, it’s not all doom and gloom. Two locos in the works are nearing completion (both using RTR chassis – lesson learned, for now at least) and some more rolling stock has been built up. One of the new locos should be visible as the header image, if I've managed to figure out how to work the new software, and my only completed carriage (apart from couplings) is below:

 

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The major stalling point now (apart from my time) is couplings – I’m currently awaiting a Microtrains starter set on back order, and as I’ve been waiting since November, I’m not looking forward to ordering the rest of the couplings once I work out which types I actually need as at this rate they may be delivered not by the postman but by four dodgy-looking blokes on horseback…

 

With the planned new blog structure in mind (i.e. actually giving it a structure, rather than it simply being a stream-of-consciousness) and also the length of this post, I shall leave it here for now. The next updates will cover the current loco projects, and then the rolling stock and eventually the layout. Fret not, because there are plenty of cock-ups in there that you can learn from!

 

Finally - if anyone does actually read my ramblings, please feel free to comment, ask questions, give me any hints and tips or, indeed, tell me to go back in my box - I suspect that this blog is not one which will hold people in awe and so any help and advice would be much appreciated...

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I thought I had not seen you about here for a while, and now we know why!

 

Shame about the layout, but, I like the idea of modular construction, something I am trying to do with my latest creation.

 

I always read peoples ramblings! so you will always have at least 1 view to your blog!

 

looking forward to seeing more soon.

 

Cheers!

Frank

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Hi Steve

 

Good to have you back and looking forward to some regular updates!

 

And make that 2 on your blog!

 

Martin

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Thanks for the welcome back, gents! Frank, I had a (brief) look at your latest layout blog at lunch - it looks very promising!

 

There'll be a few updates coming in relatively quick succession, but then they'll probably slow down a little as the source of already-complete material dries up a little. Due to other commitments, my modelling can be a little sporadic at the best of times...

 

Still, it might be some incentive to get some more done on the layout too!

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