shellshock

I am having problems getting a reply to my emails to Brassmasters I sent one on 30/11/2022 and repeated it 15/12/2022. I understand that they are a one man band cottage industry so I do not expect instant reply's. But given the time lapse is there a problem with either there email or mine and is there an alternative method of contacting them. In the recent past they have been very good in replying. Any one have any ideas. Thanks in advance

For the basic chassis wiring I fitted TSC 2 pin Micro connectors the red and black from the rail pickups to a male connector and the motor wired to a female connector. As these connectors have black and white colour wiring for the rail pick ups I used red to white and black to black and fro the motor connector black to -ve on the motor and white to +ve on the motor. When fitting the actual decoder the red and black wires went to female connector again black to black and red to white. For the motor wires the convention was decoder grey to male connector black and decoder orange to connector male white. Also I got on with painting the body. For primer I used Halfords Etch Primer followed by a basic coat of precision paints GWR Green P9 ( GWR 1906-1928) After allowing the paint to dry fro 2 days I then masked up the green areas and sprayed Humbrol Satin black over the rest of the body top and bottom. For the safety valve cover and bronze chimney top I masked them up with Maskol before I primed the body. Once the basic spaying was done I then used a paint brush to finish off the black and green areas as well as the buffer beams and firebox back head details. Once I was happy with the paint job I then applied a coat of Glass varnish ready for the transfers and number plates. I find that HMRS transfers for the words “GREAT WESTERN”keep there finish after the final coat of satin varnish unlike the Fox Transfers equivalent. However when using fox lining I have no such problems. For the next part I will go in to wiring of the lamps speaker and stay alive.

I have now finished the Loco but I just now need to catch up with the building progress write up so for this part I got the decoder and stay alive from Digitrains who as usual gave excellent service and prompt delivery. Regarding there stay alive they can now supply some very compact units such that for this project I am able to easily fit it in to the loco body. So I decided to fit the speaker in to the bunker this being a Lok Sound 50321 unit which can be made in to various combinations including very small indeed. I decided to fit the stay alive in to the smoke box area after I had run the lamp wires through. Anyway at this stage I made up the pickups using 0.2mm phosphor bronze wire and also finished off all the detailing on the body. Lastly regarding the Cab on the drivers side leaning over very slightly backwards in the last post it is a combination of camera distortion and possibly the bunker not being quite vertical even though it appears to be square when checked with a set square but once the handrail was added possible slightly out so that it tricks the eye in to not noticing it. So hopefully only if the viewer is aware of the original slight fault will it be detected. The next write up which I may get round to doing on say Boxing day will describe the painting and fitting the Lamps speakers and other such fun DCC equipment.

I have finished the basic body structure I did notice that with the original type of bunker I decided to use for this loco that the overlays were slightly too long so I had to carefully trim them down on the cab ends also the bunker over lay I had to cut it in half and remove about 1 mm of material and then cut and shut it in place on the bunker. Regarding the chassis once I had put it together I had a pleasant shock when I connected the motor up to the power supply the chassis ran nice and smooth and all I had done was to open out the coupling rods to 1.7mm diameter as the Ultrascale crank pins are 1.6mm diameter. I do note that the Ultrascale wheels seemed to go on smother and say Alan Gibson ones however I did use the trick of plastic washers so that the compressing force was more on the rim of the wheel rather than on the crankpin boss this helps to make the wheels more square to the axle. I also temporarily fitted the body to the chassis also as to see if there were any problems as I would rather try and get theses out of the way at this stage of the build not when every thing is nicely painted and varnished. The next thing I am going to do is fit the current pickups and finish off the detailing of the body as well as order the decoder speaker Led lights and possibly a stay alive as well from Digitrains.

Got the riveting done had to break it down as it sent my eyes funny as I fed the tank sides through my GW riving tool as most of the rivets are very close together in a double run if that makes sense. Then I got on with bending the tanks up using a 3/16” diameter forming rod resting in the what is best described as steps. The lower bend I used my vice and for the upper bend I used a drilling table which is now available from the Midland Centre as in the photo below. The trick is to make sure that the rod is fully home in the jig. Once this was done I got on with the basic assembly of the smoke box boiler and pannier tanks. One this was done it became very clear that the High Level Road Runner Plus required a Drive Stretcher which I ordered from High level and got the very next day. Once this was made up I then trial fitted it to the chassis with the motor attached and there is now enough clearance between the box and the cab front. I will have to get around to emailing Brassmasters to advise them of the High Level Gear box requirements from my experience. I am now in the process of painting the chassis and whilst I am waiting for coats of paint to dry I will get on with the bunker and cab as per the instructions.

If the springs seem too strong try Alan Gibson Buffer Springs in Phosphor Bronze if memory serves me. Use the adjusting screws so that it rides on the stops with the springs pushing the wheels down when the load comes off them.

I have now as good as finished the chassis all I am going to do is reposition the reversing lever on the chassis so that it as close as possible lines up with the one on the footplate. Regarding Brasseys point about needing a drive stretcher I would agree from my trail assembly of the chassis it looks like the front of the gearbox will foul the front of the cab and also I think it needs to be higher so that the motor sits more in the boiler pannier part of the body. I have never been able to understand how the Horn block ties work in practice so I have made up wire bearing retainers which will stop the bearings and wheels from completely dropping out. The front one was fun to work out and then make it took two attempts. It is a combined retainer and pick up for the front wheels gapped suitibly. I have got the basic footplate made up as there is a temporary cross member where I presume the motor will pass through I am going to slog on with making the Smokebox Boiler and Pannier tanks and remove it when the instructions say it is safe to do so. Being a glutton for punishment I am going to make the pannier tanks snap head riveted about 500 of them! My GW riveting tool is going to see some use.

I have now built the inside motion and after a bit of fettling I seem to have got it moving freely the acid test will be on the final assembly. I also assembled a Ultrascale wheel set using the GW quartering jig in order to do this I substituted the supplied cheese head 14BA bolts with 1/4” long countersunk 14BA bolts . This enables two things first the 1/4” length means that it will fit in to the crankpin slots in the jig as the supplied bolts are far too long and being counter sunk they clear the inside wheel to axle boss unlike the supplied one which would need either counter sinking on the inside or could cause back to back clearance problems when fitting them to the chassis. Having said that the wheels seemed to press on a lot smother than Alan Gibson wheel set. The next thing I am going to do is make up the bearing retaining plates and current collection Paxilon boards as well as finish of as much of the chassis prior to painting. Before I paint the chassis I am going to get the basic footplate built so as to be sure that the body and chassis will fit together as with inside motion there may be clearance issues which I would like to sort out as early as possible. Lastly I have assembled the High Level Road Runner Plus Gear box as well.

Darwinain a nice loco there and thanks for the tip about the safety bracket so I will try to remember to fit this on when I fit the brake gear which will be after I have built the rest of the chassis. I am now reading the instructions for the inside motion this will keep me well out of trouble!

I have now fitted the compensation beams theses being the one supplied separately and not the ones on the etch. In order to fit them I had to both open out the side slots in the middle frame spacer as well as carefully thin down the section of the compensation beams where they pass through the slots. Having done this I then made up the brake brackets and fitted them to the overlays before soldering the frame overlays on to the chassis. Having done this I then had to fettle some of the horn block slots as the frame overlays very slightly overlapped and thus caused the bearings to jam up. Once this was done I then fitted the guard iron struts made up the RHS pipe from the ashpan and then carefully soldered in in place as well as the mud door brackets. Next there is the brake pull rod safety brackets I am not sure how these are supposed to fit on. I can see where they slot in the the ashpan but the rest of the information as to how they go I am clueless. So possibly some one on this forum may be able to help me out. I emailed Digitrains with the new Highlevel Coreless motor details and according to them there should be no problems using these motors with a Zimo decoders I wish to use. So have on order from Chris of High level a Road Runner plus 60:1 ratio and one of these new motors. The next thing I am now going to do is the inside motion . This will be fun!!!

I have fitted the horn blocks and made sure that the bearings a very slightly tight fit which either can be worked in by hand movement or very careful strokes a of a file. Having done this on the Avonside jig I assembled the basic chassis. Prior to assembly I fettled/broached out the frame spacer slots in the frame sides with and old 0.5mm diameter drill bit this ensured that the spacers and frames were a sung fit. Also I used a small engineers square to ensure that the chassis was square in all planes. The next thing to do will be the compensation beams and the frame overlays. Regarding using a Coreless motor form High Level with a Zimo decoder I will make suitable enquiry via Digitrains who are my main supplier of DCC equipment as I have find them to be very helpful and always give excellent service.

I have made up the coupling rods I had to be careful soldering up the forked joints just a very quick application of the soldering iron on the back however I oiled up the rest of the joint so as to ensure that solder did not go where it was not wanted. The basic frames have been drilled and cleaned up as well as the rear horn blocks fitted. The next stage will be to get out my Avonside Jig and set it up using the coupling rods as the basis and then fir the rest of the horn blocks and bearings which I have marked up with my own code of drill marks recorded on the instruction diagram for the chassis. From the Brassmasters site they recommend a High Level Road Runner Plus and a Mashima 12/20 so I would consider using a Mashima 10/20 motor however they are getting scarce and High Level now have a coreless 12/19 motor which having already used one I am very impressed with but I will have to check if it is compatible with the Zimo MX648 or MX649 decoder I wish to use for this loco.

Hi there It is some time since I have posted here and I am going to be building a Martin Finney 2721 0-6-0 Pannier tank to P4 Standards using Ultrascale wheels fully working inside motion DCC controlled with working headlamps glowing firebox and sound. The first thing I am going to do is assemble the coupling rods and then use them to set up my Avonside Chassis Jig for assembly of the chassis using the compensation method.

See if I can embed the file At last I seem to have got it to work they way I want hope you like it . The film consists of short segments filmed with my digital camera and then pasted together. Later this week I will post some more photos of the Dean Goods plus comments on what I have learned from this build

At last I have finished the loco. Fitting the decoder was fun as it was a case of carefully feeding the decoder, stay alive and lighting connector through the firebox in to the boiler and then the motor. As the smoke box door was not fitted I was able to using tweezers pull these components through. I had to tape the various wires from the pick ups , firebox LED and wires to the speaker in the tender to the sides of the motor so as to make installation as easy as possible. Even though I have noticed that all these wires do tend to stiffen up the compensation of the chassis. As you can see from the first photo with the smoke box door not fitted there is very little room in the smoke box. In fact when I fitted the smoke box door I removed as much of the inside ledge of the door as possible so as not to over compress the wiring/components on to the back of the motor. Anyway I got there and have had the loco running very nicely on the rollers. For the connection to the speaker in the tender I used connectors supplied from Digitrains Soundtraxx Mini Micro Connectors so as to give a single micro pin and plug connection either side of the draw bar. Lastly I have uploaded a compilation video of this loco on you tube and I will in a separate post try and provide a link to it as well as some further thoughts on this kit.

I am now on the basic painting stage as can be seen from the photos all I have to do now is to tidy up the paint work and then gloss varnish the body’s ready for the transfers and number plates to be fitted. Also the second photo shows how I have in effect removed what I would call the bulk head between the smoke box and boiler this I hope will make it easier to fit the decoder and stay alive unit as well as all the other connectors and wiring. Whilst waiting for paint to dry I have got the Zimo Decoder MX649 loaded with sounds for a Collet 0-6-0 as I did not realise that they also had slide valves so as Digi Trains do not have any specific sound files for a Dean Goods this in my blasphemous opinion will do. Also I am painting working DCC Concepts LNER loco lamps red. I think I will fit the decoder to chassis whilst waiting for the final coat of varnish to dry as once the final coat of Satin Varnish has dried I will then have the job of first fitting the lamps and suitable connectors.

I have now fettled the body so that it clears the Motion Cylinder assembly really I should have modified the cylinder assembly as per the instructions but anyway I now have the body a snug fit to the chassis. I have now made up the wiper pick ups for the middle and rear wheels I then temporally fitted the wires to the motor and low and behold it worked. Regarding the front pick ups wires I carefully routed them around the inside motion and across what I call the front firebox chassis spacer. This took time as I used gel super glue for each section of the routing and made sure that it had set before commencing on gluing the next section. Also for the routing across the front firebox spacer I filled groves so that the wire was not above the top of the chassis and thus interfere with the body to chassis seating. Also I have made up the removable back head as well as the brake gear. Lastly regarding the motor gear box combination I am using Mashima 10/24 with a Roadrunner + and D1 Drive stretcher 60:1 ratio also the back on the drive stretcher rests on the compensation beam when running as a chassis alone. However when the body is fitted the motor gearbox is slightly lifted and thus just clears it. From some of the comment above I will have to get on with sussing up You Tube and see If I can load some of my dodgy videos there first and then link to this site.

As promised a dodgy video of the chassis on the rollers and yes I was well pleased when I got the wheels on to the crank axle with no mishaps!. Before I start to fit the pick ups I am having to do some fettling of the body so that it sits down at the front due to the inside motion cylinder assembly. Dean Goods 4_WMV V8.wmv

At last after 3 attempts I have got the inside Motion built and working. After this experience I think I am beginning to get good at building crank axles and inside motion. When I assembled this one that works I remembered to insert the packing pieces between the crank webs. Also I have finished the Tender and Primed the body as well as painted the chassis black. Whilst waiting for the paint on the chassis to dry I have fitted the coupling rods and Loctited the nuts in place so tomorrow I will start on the pick-ups for the chassis which I am sure will be fun and games as I will have to route pick-up wires in such a way that they do not foul the motion and any other moving parts and also be as inconspicuous as possible. I will add a separate post showing a dodgy video of the motion working!

Whilst waiting for the replacement Motion Kit from Brassmasters I have started to build the tender. So far I have got the basic chassis built and made a good start on the body. One thing I noted is that for the Martin Finney design the centre axle is 26 mm long parallel bearing not pin point and Alan Gibson do not make this type of axle whilst last year when building the Hall tender I used Ultrascale wheels and Ultrascale provided one of the axles as required for the Martin Finney Kit as when I ordered the wheel set I told them I was building a martin Finney tender. So I used some spare 2mm dia steel rod left overs from the many High Level gearboxes I have built for this axle. Also I found them easier to assemble. So maybe for the next Martin Finney tender I build I will use Ultrascale wheels for the tender. Anyway I will now slog on with the tender and as soon as the replacement Motion Kit arrives go for Inside Motion MK2! Lastly thanks for all the supportive remarks.

Bad News when fitting the wheels to the crank axle fro the final push to get the axle home I did a very stupid thing I forgot to fit the crank web spacers I had made up and successfully used for the initial press fit using the GW press tool so I broke the axle. To say I was not pleased with myself is an understatement the air around me was bluer than blue! Anyway I am calming down and I have already ordered a replacement inside motion set from Brassmasters which they say should be going in to the post tomorrow. Also I contacted Colin from Alan Gibson and explained my C--- Up and very kindly he is going to post me a replacement axle free of charge. In the mean time I am going to make a start on the tender which is a Dean 2500 Gallon version.

I have now done the basic building of the loco body as well as painted the chassis. Thanks Brassey for the tip about size of motor I am going to fit Mashima 10/24 in to it as from my trial assembly it does fit in to the boiler even though it will be interesting to see how the fire box back head mates up as according to the instructions it is a pull out sub assembly which allows the the chassis with motor to be fitted to the body. So I am now going to assemble the wheels and in the case of the crank axle I think I will make up some suitable spacers to temporally fit between the crank webs when I press the wheels on so as to reduce the chance of ruining the assembled crank axle.

I have now made the keeper plates and the front pick up using 0.22mm Phosphor Bronze wire rubbing against the wheel outer flanges. The rear set all I have done is cut out the pick up plate and after I have painted the chassis and fitted the wheels I will make up the pick ups to suit as it is mounted with a 10BA screw I can remove as many times as required so as to get the pick ups correct. For the front pick up I have worked out a suitable routing for the wires. Also I have made up the High level Gear box and extender and laying against a drawing to approximate size it looks as though it will work. Anyway whilst I am painting the chassis I am now going to get on with building the body. If I run in to the problems that Brassy has raised I then have the choice of a 10/20 or 10/24 but time will tell when I get there

I have now assembled the rest of the valve gear and then did a trail fitting of the motion to the chassis. A very fiddly job getting the valve spindles and cross-heads to fit in., but with perseverance I succeeded. I now have free running inside motion. I am now making up suitable keeper plate assembly’s and also working out how to make up suitable pick ups and especially fro the front pick ups how to route the conductor wires back to the rear of the chassis with out fouling the motion ans also that it is not too visible. I have also received from High Level a road runner plus Gear Box and a D1 extender as well as a 1.5mm worm and a 2mm worm. The reason for this is that have a Mashima 14/20 which is my first choice but I may find that it will be too big so I have a plan B ready and waiting using either a 10/24 or 10/20 motor. Anyway I am now getting on with making up the keeper plates using the springs as well as the pick ups and sussing out a suitable pick up wire routing. As a check I will soon make a start on the body and see how things actually go together.

Interesting the comments about the eventual fitting of the driving wheels thanks for the warnings. One possible idea I have to overcome this would be to fit the wheels to a standard axle first a couple of times so that it is a light push fit and then when going for the final fit using the GW Models fitting tool only initially press the axles half on and quartered correctly and then use Loctite for the final press home on the outer end of the axle and wheel. Anyway I have made up the cylinders and also the cross heads and connecting rods using other suitable wheels I them trial fitted them to the chassis and all so far seems to be fine. The next thing to do is the valve rods motion bracket and then the final riveting of the eccentric sheaths expansion links and valve rods.