gordon s

I didn't know any different.....They were in the pack, so thought I had to use them. Probably explains why I had to open the holes in the rods to take the bushes. I guess the DJH instructions are probably easy to follow if you've built kits before, but for someone who has never built one there are numerous gaps, hence my questions. Just checked the drawing as no washers are supplied and the only option are the bushes. There's no mention in the instructions of any other method. I'll have another go tomorrow, so grateful for any other ideas to smooth the process. There's always eBay I guess...

I'm not one for giving up, but after hours of fiddling on this chassis I'm no further forward... I initially set up this J50 chassis on an Avonside Chassis2 jig and set the axle pins up so they were in the centre of the coupling rods. I then placed the chassis over the rods so that the bearing bushes were correctly aligned and soldered them into position whilst they were held in the jig. I'm able to slide the chassis up and down the dummy axles, so am fairly confident the bearings are all in the right place and the chassis is true and the wheels level. Added the wheels and placed the coupling rods loosely on the wheels and am able to push it back and forth with the wheels turning and rods moving OK. However, when I've gone to add the tiny rod bushes I found they were larger than the holes in the rods. I used a 5 sided broach to open up the holes to take the bushes and went to on to try and assemble the wheels/rods and bushes. The quartering is correct as that is set by the Markit's wheels, but once the Market bushes are in place, both rods bind and I cannot get smooth running with these in place. I have taken the rods off numerous times and that's not easy for me as the bushes are so small and even with powerful glasses on they are really fiddly to fit correctly on the threaded rod screws. I've opened up the holes in the rods gradually and it is improving, but I'm really concerned about opening them up too much and ruining the chassis. Just reviewed your video again, Tony and of course yours go together easily, although you talk about binding at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and opening up one hole with rat tail file. I wonder if you could you elaborate a little for me on how to solve this problem? As I said I've tried for numerous hours and had to take a break before I hurled it across the room....

Thanks Tony. Took me a few hours to get to that point as I kept reviewing your video as I went along... I was thinking of fitting a flywheel on the protruding shaft. Would that be a good thing to do?

I happened to buy a DJH kit for a J50 several years ago and before the Hornby model was available. Reading the DJH site a couple of days ago, the kit plus wheels, motor and gearbox are now £230. Hattons are selling the Hornby J50 for £69...... I have one of the Hornby model and it runs perfectly and the body is much better than anything I could kit build. Apart from the pleasure of saying I built that there is little to support buying a kit unless a RTR model is not available or the model itself is far from accurate.

Thanks John, pretty obvious when you think of it in those terms......Doh!....

Well they say the first one is the hardest, but managed to get the chassis together and it seems to run smoothly, so that's a result.... Now I'm stuck. I can ring DJH tomorrow, but wondered if anyone had built one of these before. There is no mention at all in the instructions as to whether the motor faces forward or backward in the chassis. Placing a few bits together doesn't appear to help as it would seem to fit either way. There are several backplates, one of which is cut away, so you would think it goes towards the cab.... However the boiler is hollow and is a similar dimension to the diameter of the motor, which may allow the motor to face forward. If curiosity gets the better of me, I may have another play with it tonight, but that involves dismantling the chassis. Not the end of the world, but wondered if anyone had the answer.

Good grief, I thought it may be you, Geoff as soon as I saw you had moved over to O gauge in your post re couplings. I wondered if there was a link back to Dave....... Hope you’re keeping well. Still golfing?...... One day we’ll all catch up again...

Had a good day and the J50 chassis is coming together, but I knew there may be questions.... All the bearings are in, but when I came to fit the Markits wheels, none of the axles fitted easily into the back of the wheels. I understand they have to be a tight fit, so wondered if some lead in is required to enable the square shank of the axle to pull into the square hole of the wheel. Should I scrape away the edge of the square hole in the back of the wheel to create a lead in for the axle or take a small file to the axle to take off the sharp square edge? Grateful for your guidance...

Thanks Jonathan. The problem is some of the parts are held into the sheet in four places so there is no movement on the part at all. The gaps are very small and the thin sheet is too thin to use a razor saw. I'm not familiar with the Swan Morton knife so off to take a look. I know their scalpels well as I use them all the time. I get the impression that any pressure on the sheet will distort the part.

Daft question, but any simple way to remove small parts from the etched sheet? The gaps are to narrow to use my smallest side cutters and I certainly don't want to distort the small parts before I start. Will a thin slitting disc do it or am I likely to damage things.

Always enjoyed the Saint and Greavsie chat on TV. Saddened to read this a few minutes ago.. Thanks for some great memories, both on and off the pitch. RIP Ian.

Funny how this has cropped up this morning as after rummaging around for something to do, this popped up.... a DJH J50 bought long ago and way before the Hornby release. I've never built a loco before although did build a Comet B1 chassis many years ago. I'm also sat watching Tony's video on kit building, so tempted to overcome the usual fear of failure and make a start. The cop out for me will to be to build a new single slip. Soldered track I can do in my sleep, but after sitting on this kit for numerous years, I ought to have a go. No doubt there will be numerous questions......

Having read TW's notes I will solder the chassis with 145 degree solder. I feel comfortable soldering and have some low melting point solder and a temperature controlled iron so tempted to solder the body as well, rather than use epoxy. I'm always fearful of epoxy spilling out and suspect it could be a problem cleaning it off, but I'm all ears to those who have built kits before. Of course I may well just put it back in the box for another day and tackle the slip instead......

Morning all.... I ran out of decoders yesterday after running in and fitting my last Zimo into this wee beauty. Always loved B17's and 61637 Thorpe Hall from Hornby runs really well or should I say now runs really well. Had a problem with the front bogie continually derailing on one crossover so out came the vernier and as suspected the back to back was down to 14.07mm. A few minutes adjustment to 14.4mm and it now runs sweet as a nut. I still have all the bits and bobs to fit, but here it is trundling around this morning. Many thanks to all you input on the storage issue and I can see now that moving the storage around will be a benefit. Particular thanks to Paul for that suggestion. What's more there is the space to do it and some unexpected bonuses. Of course it means building a single slip, but a few clicks with my mouse and a C10 turnout was miraculously turned into a single slip on the same radius as before. I know I shouldn't be amazed that it fits after pottering with Templot all these years, but it will be a drop in replacement if I can build it. It will have a switched crossing so will need four Tortoise motors to run it, but I have no problem with that as my other switched crossing behaves impeccably. The slip pans out to be just under 18" long, but the slip road stays the same as the old curve at 51" radius. In case I struggle building this, I have mapped out an alternative yesterday using separate C10 turnouts and that also works fine, but obviously reduces the run slightly and that in turn steepens the gradient. To be honest the single slip looks so much better, that I'll run with it. I mentioned some unexpected bonuses and have found that moving the storage around 180 degrees removes the need for the two outer lines over the stairwell plus the additional crossing from line 6 won't be required. I was never 100% happy how tight things were against the stair back wall, so gaining around 6" will allow a better scenic finish. With no decoders for a few days, I pulled this out of storage for another look..... Apart from a Comet chassis I built years ago, I have never built a loco, so looking at this pile of bits for a J50 from DJH is somewhat daunting. I've probably had this four or five years now, so last night I scanned through the DJH site and was staggered to see the kit plus wheels, motor and gearbox is now £230. Even more surprising is that you can buy the Hornby one for £69 and I suspect at the end of the day, it will look better, run better etc but I'll have the pleasure of knowing I built it. Whether that is worth the additional cost is debatable for me, particularly if I mess it up...... https://www.hattons.co.uk/newsdetail.aspx?id=742

Thanks for that Tony, as Wizard Models only had one pair in stock with further deliveries unknown I have left a message with Alan Gibson direct, so I suspect a call to Mark may be the better option. Apologies. You're right they are both Bachmann. Just different size boxes which threw me.....

I would like to order some new Alan Gibson 10 spoke bogie wheels for both my Hornby A2 Happy Knight and Bachmann A1 Great Central. I'm assuming from what has been said the A2/2 Thane of Fife is OK. I understand they are 10 spoke and 3'2" diameter, but looking at the Alan Gibson catalogue they have pack 4838 plain or 4838ST bevel wheels. I've looked at Yeadons etc and they appear plain, but to be honest, I'm not sure what I'm looking for in terms of bevel.... I'm sure Tony or others will know immediately which ones, so perhaps you could confirm before I go ahead and order some. Many thanks... Heard this morning that Hornby have added me to their list for replacement A2/2 bodies so that's a result. I really didn't want to return mine as it runs so well. Thanks for the tip off.

Shocked to read this a few minutes ago in another thread. Such a nice guy who had often posted in my ET thread. Sincere condolences to his family. RIP Peter

Thanks again for your reply,Mike. I did lift up the cylinders, but then realised I would probably have to unscrew all the rods as well, so put the cylinders back. I didn’t want to cut it off in case I sold it in future, so wanted to keep it in one piece. In all honesty from what you have said, I may just leave it there as it sounds there’s not much to be gained.

Any space under the floor? You’d be amazed where railways get built. Just saddened that I read the builder died a few years back. I couldn’t even contemplate clambering around in such a low space.....

Good grief, Arsenal beat Leicester and Spurs 3-0 up against Burnley in 30 minutes....Meanwhile Pep’s boys are in a class of their own. Apparently Tottenham are looking at Nick Pope for the summer. He’ll be good at picking the ball out of the net.....:-)

Thanks. I’ll take another look in case I missed it, but I had the body off yesterday and if it is a screw, I’m sure it didn’t appear the other side but was hidden under parts of the chassis. I even took off the cylinders carefully, but nothing under there that I could see.

Not life or death, but any ideas?

Not sure what's going wrong today, as things seem to fit...... Taken the shed road off the storage loop (shown in yellow) and it is possible to run the shed board as a peninsula over the storage board. The overall clearance is circa 200m, so I may need to think the support structure carefully so as not to restrict access for perish the thought, a derailment or probably a tie bar that has come adrift, although I've had none fail as yet. It may well be a bit of tweaking the incoming curve can ensure access to pointwork is fine. I've laid the shed road out in yellow and it will ascend 82mm to clear the main lines. Total length is 6.432m, so a gradient of 1:78 which is perfectly acceptable for light locos. An afternoon of sitting on the sofa watching football awaits. I did 11 minutes on the cross trainer earlier which damn near killed me, so I'll even watch Arsenal before Spurs come on.....

My word you have been busy whilst I've been sleeping..... Martin, I wondered how long it would take before you spotted that.... Yes, it was bugging me, but ran it through Templot this morning and was surprised on two fronts. Firstly, I didn't think it would fit and I'd already decided I wasn't going to rip up existing track and secondly, I knew it would shorten the approach and could screw up the gradient. Wrong on both counts. The crossing will be a switched crossing, but I still have a few Tortoise motors kicking about from those I bought in 2005. Having totted up the lengths of all the track pieces I'll lose about 1.4m from the gradient, but it still comes out at 7.623m or 1:93, so acceptable. I'll leave the turntable suggestion for another day. Thanks Paul for your suggestion and again surprisingly (for me) it may work. I'm not a great fan of slips, but feel I could cope with it, so I could change the turnout at A to a single slip. The reversed storage certainly improves access and the length of run is still 7.359m or 1:90, so below my 1:100, but acceptable. None of the storage has been built yet, so I'll bear this in mind. I haven't had time to look operationally if it works, but it possibly poses another challenge in as much I was thinking of the shed being on top of the storage, so that will need considerable thought to see if that can be reversed also. First thoughts were the gradient implications would mean it would have to come in at the top of the layout, but then that shuts off access to the back of the layout, so a non starter without a lift up section. Pointwork/buildings etc may not make that feasible. Disclaimer......Thanks for all your suggestions, but nothing of any consequence will be done for several months. I have now been given a date for my surgery of April 5th which will lay me up for several months (or for good....), so any ideas you have have kindly put forward are for Templot and discussion only. I'm blessed with a few weeks where I can't do much other than think and doodle, so the timing is perfect. Any revisions will have to be simple to install and not involve ripping up anything already in place or this will never run again.... Never a dull moment.....

You’re not alone. Told the story before, but I build pcb strip pointwork and had a random short. Spent hours disconnecting wiring and track and eventually tracked it down to one turnout. Lifted the turnout and all was fine, but then tested the turnout on the bench and that was fine. Put in back again and another short. Eventually the penny dropped. For some reason unknown to me, I had used some track pins to hold the turnout in place and whilst the top surface was gapped, the pcb strip was double sided and the track pins were shorting out on the rear face. Of course as soon as the track pins came out, all was fine........ Doh......