-
Posts
853 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Jon4470's Achievements
2.3k
Reputation
Bookmarks
-
Inkscape tutorial
Introduction to using Inkscape to produce cutting filesMoving on.
Create a new layer: "Master". Draw a rectangle (zooming in on the guidelines to ensure alignment) then set the colour to red: To help with visibility in the creen images I have set a line width of 0.2mm.
Duplicate the rectangle (Ctrl-D) then move it to the right using either the arrow keys, or drag it with the mouse whilst pressing the Ctrl key. Align the left hand edge to the right hand edge of the first rectangle (zoom in when necessary) and adjust the width of the new rectangle as required:
Note that the status display tells you that you have a rectangle selected. Click on "Path" -> "Object to path" (I will cover this in more depth in a later session). Afterwards the status bar reports we now have a path.
Zoom in on the top of the new rectangle:
Switch to Node edit mode and select the top two nodes (either click on each one in turn while pressing Shift).
Click on the "Add node" toolbar button. A new node will appear in the middle between the two selected nodes:
Deselect the nodes (easiest way is to just click off the path) then click on the path again to redisplay the nodes and select the centre one. Drag the centre node vertically (while pressing the Ctrl key) until it reaches the guide line. Again zoom in if necessary to get it spot on:
Scroll across to the location of the side window and draw a rectangle:
Create a second rectangle inside the first:
Select both rectangles and click "Object" -> "Align and distribute". Click on the horizontal and vertical centre buttons:
This is what you should have:
Draw a rectangle to represent the door. I chose to make it 12mm x 26mm and match the bottom edge to the bottom edge of the side:
Duplicate the door rectange and change its dimensions to 14mm x 27mm. Select both and use align centre horizontally:
Our office now looks like this:
I decided the end was a bit on the narrow side, so I selected it and using the resizing handle stretched it on the right hand side to increase the width:
I also decided I wanted a slightly smaller door so I resized it and moved it slightly to the left:
-
Spencer
Spencer, Harrogate Gas Works Railway's least favourite engineSo here we go new year and another new project. I have been wanting to crack on with my 009 version of Bilton coal drops for a while after building the RT Models Harrogate Gas Works Pecket & Drewerey so whilst im patiently waiting for RT's release of the Barber kit i got tempted at Wakefield show to visit LAngley and purchase one of their war office hunslet kits to bash around, thanks in no small part after chatting to the owner of the excellent Purbeck layout and chatting to him about his version of spencer and how he built his.
Anyway, a little back ground, the Harrogate Gas Works line was a 2ft guage line running from the Leeds Northern main line (Harrogate -Ripon) where there were coal drops at Bilton junction, the line then ran through open countryside round the north side of Harrogate to the corporations gas works at New Park. The line was known locally as the Barber LIne, so named after the 1st loco Barber, named after the managing director of the gas works. It opened in 1908 and was quite successful, so much so that another loco was needed by 1920. After the ww1 there was a surplus of narrow guage engines that never made it to the front.
WD 1340 was purchased from store and was rebuilt by its makers Hunslet in leeds to 2ft guage and also had its cab and boiler fitting cut down to fit in the very restricted loading guage to fit through the tunnel into the gas works, on arrival it was named spencer after one of the gas works directors. From the outset Spencer wasnt very successful, it wasnt as powerful as Barber resulting in a deviation of the line to lessen a gradient just so it could haul a train without slipping. Spencer eventually became a little more successful after it was found it would steam best on briquette coal, as came about when normal supplies of steam coal were scarce due to the general strike.
Spencer settled down to a faily steady life as Barber's stand by and worked on the line until 1943 when the peckett arrived and was finally cut up in 1946 so ive read, heres a link to the only known phot of spencer in steam:
http://www.warofficehunslet.org.uk/ukphots/WD1340Harrogate.jpg
As you can seen the cab is heavily cut down from standard and also the chimney is smaller than standard as well.
There is a good picture in a book about the line of an advert from Hunslet in the Railway Magazine in 1920, showing Spencer fresh from conversion looking very handsome to go to Harrogate. Obvioulsy they were trying to drum up some business to get rid of a few more suplus locos!
So thats the history lesson over, now heres where the knives & saws appear........
First of all i needed a minitrix 2-6-2 chassis said the instruction, now i wasnt paying what they were going for on that well known auction site just to chop it up so i took a gamble and went against the instruction and got a 2-6-0 for just under 30 quid which i thought wasnt too bad, so before i started the kit i stripped the chassis down gave it a good clean and made sure it was ok before i started messing with it. The main difference with the chassis is that the valve gear needs to be moved from driving the centre wheel sets to the front wheels, no mean feat for me who has very little in the way experience bashing steam engines about......
So it began with it stripped down and the useful bits stored, it was time to start hacking the chassis block.
I was quiet surprised as to just how much metal needed to be removed according to the instructions.
Most of the front of the chassis needed removing to as to get the front frame extensions to fit, now the instructions on the langley kit are ok as a guidline but i found myself getting a bit lost as to how the motion plate & fornt extention peices fited on. It took a bit of head scratching and a couple of nights work to get my head round it all and the castings tidied up a little but tonight i managed to get some bits glued together.
The first bit to secure was the new motion bracket as you have to split the original motion into two separate sides. After that the front extention was glued and squared up, although im not convinced just yet......
Now here is the fiddly bit and the bit i have been dreading, rebuilding the valve gear. I followed the instructions and the very useful diagram of walschearts valve and managed to get it through through in my head. First job was to slip down the new cast cylinder mounts on the chassis extension, i took off quiet a lot of material, perhaps more than i should of but managed to get one side lined up, next stage was to secure it to the new motion bracket. This was very fiddley and one of them jobs you could do with having 3 hands! Next was getting the crankpin in the hole and making sure the gear ran smoothly easier said than done..... after a lot of trail and error i got one side of valve gera on and running very smoothly so chucked a bit more super glue about to lock the monting point up and then it was onto the other side, same process as before but i couldnt get smooth at all. 3 hours it took tonight of stripping down and rebuilding but i have finally got the gear on on running smooth.
I found that bending the con rod out slightly heped as the cylinders are further out than they were for an N guage 2-6-0. Also what i found through a lot of trial and error is to make sure the fly crank & fly crank rod are set as close to the centre of the wheels as possible, alos i found that there is quiet a lot of play n the minitrix rods that making sure there is enough room around the motion bracket for the bits to move around, if not it gets tight very quickly and will undo any glued joints youv just done!
After much cursing, cigs & tea i have finally got a rolling chassis of sorts together tonight. Heres a couple of pics shoing the vavle gear in place and the front extension glued in as well. The front bogie was added to check clearances and all seems to be well. Only problem now is ill have to take out the crankpins again when i put the idler gears, wheels and coupling rods in/on...........so ill be pretty much back to square 1 getting it all running freely again, but i suppose ill know what im doing this time, famous last words!
I think thats it for tonight, apologies for any spelling mistakes and if its a bit of a ramble but its late and this valve gear has driven me round the bend. Hopefully by the weekend ill have a fully working chassis again and then i can crack on hacking the body about to get that distinctive cust down cab.
Any comments critisims always welcomed, and if any one else has built one of these langley kits please let me in on any tips!
Thanks for looking
James