Ajax

Detail
Trethosa

Hi Kevin

Very impressed with what you’ve done with the 50, especially around the cab area. Redoing the cantrail combined with the reprofile of the nose has made a huge difference to the appearance to the loco and rectified the biggest issue with the Hornby model (IMHO)

From the photos it looks as though you have done some filling and filing before putting the windscreen etches and cantrail on. Can you provide more detail and pics about this?

Many thanks

Ajax

Hi Ajax, thanks for your kind comments. Hopefully the pictures below will give some idea of what I have done around the cab windows.

First I removed the gutter from above the front and side windows. when you do this a step is left above the windows at the bottom edge of the roof. I removed this. I then fixed the etched window frames temporarily with PVA so that I could work out where the new gutter would need to go, and also how much the top of the nose needed to be raised.

The new gutter was made from 0.3 mm square plastic strip. Two pieces, one for each side of the loco and meeting at the apex between the front windows. It is a good idea to refer to the particular loco you are modelling at this point because the way the gutter runs around the front of the loco varies between class members and also between different ends/sides of the same loco! I don't know but I suspect this is because the guttering is sometimes replaced during works visits, and never quite goes on the same way each time. For 039 all but one of the corners exhibit a downward slope towards the front of the loco, and I have recreated this on the model.

These pictures illustrate what I mean, you have to look carefully, it's quite subtle:

No.1 end A side, the gutter slopes down relative to the top edge of the side window - https://www.flickr.com/photos/131083590@N05/16553903024/in/faves-124903335@N08/

No.2 end B side, the gutter runs almost parallel to the top edge of the window and then dips above the left hand end of the front window - https://www.flickr.com/photos/131083590@N05/17130067876/in/faves-124903335@N08/

The nose needed to be raised 0.5 mm in the centre.

At this stage I could also see where the front windows needed to be opened out.

The frames were removed before raising the nose.

With the nose reprofiled I then used 0.13 mm thick plasticard to represent the body panels that hold the front windows. In reality these are slightly sunken relative to the corners, but that would have meant some quite major surgery. At least this way the panel lines at the outside edges of the front windows are represented.

I also added more 0.3 mm square strip to the gutter above the front windows, to make it deeper and protrude further forwards. These peices were shapped to give a slight curve around the front of the cab (looking from above) and blend into the rest of the gutter at the corners of the cab. A small amount of filler was then applied above the new deeper guttering, from the corners to under the headcode box, to blend it in with the roof profile. This gives the effect seen here - https://www.flickr.com/photos/jjm2009/37256767970/in/faves-124903335@N08/ - note the windows are flat but the guttering curves slightly. The gutter overhang is greatest at the centre of each front window - again it's subtle.

Hope this helps. Let me know if anything (or everything!) isn't clear - it's difficult to explain some of this!

Cheers,

Kevin.

May 1, 2021

Nose end detail
Bachmann Class 45

11 hours ago, Mophead45143 said:

Unless I am mistaken, with the exception of the battery boxes, this news should make renumbering a 45/0 to a 46 fairly feasible then?

Good to hear though either way.

Depends on whether or not they include the rectangular folding access panel on the side with the cooling group to the left, between the trapezoid panel/grille and the radiator grille. Most if not all 45s had this mod by the time flush fronts appeared but 46s don't seem to have.

10 hours ago, D1051 said:

Nose end doors in for improvement ? Or will we still have pre refurbish class 44 doors with vertical bar in middle of door ? See my picture below

I believe that they are aware of that issue as well, but time will tell. We really need to see some EPs to be sure, tho.

Kevin

May 9, 2021

General detail
Bachmann Class 45

Someone was asking what brackets were missing.....so while doing some essential winter maintenance i took some shots.... and differences between a 0 and 1

No 1 end and its buffer beam pipe work

We will start with No1 one end B Side nearest camera, fuel filler valve, followed by the radiator Drain/filer followed by 1 of 4 external bogie retainers, followed by speedometer drive, followed by the engine water filler/drain, followed by the oil filler. (note the different bearing suppliers for No1 axle and No3 axle (timken and SKF)

Further down, Battery boxes and gravity catches each of the 4 boxes contains 24 cells, the tanks below were added during dual brake conversion, the two orange boxes are the centre point tappings for the batteries (required for the lighting) which is split into two 110v circuits and the control emergency switch (which used to allow the cubicle to run from a battery supply) also present on the right hand side of the tanks is the check valve for the engine room compressor. Note the missing sandboxes on the outer ends of the bogies.

Above we have the hatch for the charge circuits, and light switch, as well as jump start terminals!

Further down...the external BIS Pull lifting bracket attachment points, fire alarm PULL, bogie retention bracket no2, urinal cistern filler another lifting bracket attachment, and finally the white pipe is vacuum pipework.

No2 end A Side....note the different headcode panel 149 was unique in that it had different ends due to an accident at this point of its life...

going forward lifiting bracket, urinal cistern filler, fire alarm pull another bracket

Close up of No2 end

Further on at No2 end A side, the NON return valve for the locomotives nose end air compressor, the pipe facing down is the turbocharger breather and storm drain, the brass "whistle like object" on the white pipe is a safety valve for the main air reservoirs, outer tank and pipework is unique to a dual braked machine.

battery box B side, with oil drain, and bed plate drain (out of view)

Moving further up...

Engine oil filler, engine water drain, Exhauster breather (peaks were synonymous with a white mist coming out of this pipe, this indicates the train they are hauling is vacuum and the exhauster (a heavy consumer of oil) is running, lifiting bracket...radiator overflow, retention bracket, and another lifiting bracket, rad filler and fuel filler, and the main vacuum pipe (like the other end)

Close up of the buffer beam.

ETH room roof, with the water tank fillers blanked off

and covers unqiue to an ETH machine

Underneath showing the arrangement of the water tanks and the bed plate water tank. the inner pairs of tanks were fitted as built, the other tanks added when dual braked.

close up of the retention bracket

someone mentioned about viewing the frame through the grill, its actually the back of the grill you can see....it has sections fabricated to fit between the frame, not over it.

Someone mentioned the fuel tanks, well there you go

Just for fun, this is where the toilet used to be, in the former (now ETH) boiler room, the outlet is all thats left of the urinal the shelf above is where the cistern sat. You can see the frame in good detail.