[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

After much soldering, swearing, burnt fingers and nearly running out of black spray paint, the NER Iron signal bridge is finally ready for sending to its new home. All LED lit and and servo'd up, tests are complete and it actually works!

I've lightly weathered it with a thin wash of neutral shades to tone down the brightness. The staging was was painted from a palette of about 6 colours as it's brass rather than natural wood.

I'll do a youtube video of it working if anyone is interested.

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, there's another GWR stop signal with scratchbuilt sightboard just completed and ready to go.

 

 

 

More soon

JF

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

31 minutes ago, AndyH said:

Proper Job‽ Resists taking over the thread with Cornish beer puns, because that would be a Big Job... 

 

Out of interest Jon, what is that like please? Tried their Star, Market Porter, and Westway and all were very pleasant!

Cheers,

andy

It's a lovely pint, quite rich and treacly but not too sweet. Perfect for this time of year.  I've tried the market porter and that ones a bit sweeter. It's probably even nicer at the right temperature but the only place I can store it is in the garage. I have to decant a jug and let it warm up in the house for half an hour

Trouble is, I can't invite anyone round to assist with it and 72 pints may take a while to consume with just me and Ruth supping it. Just hoping I finish it before it turns

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

18 hours ago, Steve Hewitt said:

Happy New Year Jon.

 

What a good start you're making. 

The gantry looks superb and will no doubt be a fantastic model when its completed.

 

The latest Covid restrictions will keep you out of the pub so no slacking.

 

Keep safe

 

Steve.

Thanks Steve. The nearest I can get to a pub is the cask of beer I have in my garage at the moment. Which I purchased from the pub when it closed for the lockdown. It's ok but the low temperatures aren't doing it any favours

[Jon Fitness' Average 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench.]

Happier New Year Dear reader... If I still have any!!

Further progress on the "Lockdown Loco" or "Tier 4 Tank" as it later became...

Once the chassis was assembled and proved I moved on to the upper works.

The footplate is quite something, made from the same thickness Nickel Silver with a further brass overlay over almost all of it.

 

 

 

As I think I was missing a page or 3 from the destructions, I was sort of on my own with quite a few bits of this but I battered it together using a mixture of solder, assorted photos, luck and imagination..

The cab front and back went on first..

 

 

 

followed by the side tanks which were filled with pieces of printers steel..

 

 

Then the boiler assembly was tackled which was "fun" and needed quite a bit of fettling to get it to sit level and fit where it was meant to....

 

 

Once it was as correct as my limited skills would allow, I made up the bunker assembly..

 

 

 

 

As predicted by a few people, the cab and roof was an absolute 'mare to get anything like right and is still not suitable for close inspection but from certain angles will be OK. I altered the cab roof of how it finally fits together by splitting  it into 3 sections so only the middle section is removeable, and that will be glued down once the interior is fitted out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More soon

JF

 

 

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

Well! Happier New Year to all our readers!

The final project that I started last year was something a bit different. Well, for me anyway.

After a diet of mainly GW and SR signals left me wanting something to tickle my fancy so this beasty is going to be an NER gantry, complete with slotted signal arms. It will be LED lit and servo operated.

The main gantry part is made from much altered MSE GNR gantry parts..

 

 

The dolls are also MSE but the main sized arms are Scale Signal Supply. The rest of the arms are MSE but not quite the right ones as those are not currently available.

I've never done an NER slotted signal before, let alone one that fits in a lattice doll! I had to get my thinking cap on to work out how it was all going to fit together.

Once assembled, the arm is effectively trapped inside as the axle has to be permanently fixed to the arm to drive the spectacle plate. I decided to cut a slot in the doll, drop on the arm/axle and trap it in with the bearing plates front and back. Each of the bearing plates also had a short length of tube soldered in and once all the parts were carefully soldered on, the arm movement was smooth and wobble free.

 

 

Once I was happy with this, I added the finial, weight bar assembly, ladder, lamp and associated LED. The lamp was a bit bothersome as the operating linkage runs between the lamp and the doll, directly on to the inner end of the arm. Got there in the end though. Just need another 4 of them.....

 

And here's the rest of them. They will probably all be mounted on a sub assembly with all the cross linkages before being added to the main structure. Going to be fun painting this one!

 

 

More Soon

JF

[Lancaster Green Ayre - The Barn Owls have returned.]

19 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

It's been a fine day with not a lot going on so I finally got going on trying to straighten out the board.

The first thing was to cut and position a new piece of 2 by 1 across the underside of the station.  It took of bit of doing and measuring but It went in but got done.  I will have to repair some of the ground cover where a G cramp made quite a large impression.   Then I cut another piece of 2 by 1 to run longitudinally.  This was then clamped up with some other pieces of 2 by 1 to spread the load on the rails.

A quick bit of measuring with the spare 2 by 1 you can see showed that not all the dip had been taken out. This was the sight that greeted me underneath.

I had put some packing under the new cross beam to give extra uplift but as you can see the longitudinal bent along it's length.   I may well have to go with my original idea of a piece of steel.   However I will leave it under tension overnight to see what happens.

 

Jamie

Possibly better with a piece of 3/4" ply cut to specifically fit the area. That way it touches the entire area to be supported. You could then fasten it at each end after jacking it in position to take out the dip.

JF

[Jon Fitness' Average 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench.]

I decided to dip into my stash of kits to do a "Lockdown Loco" between all the signal projects

This turned out to be a Mercian Fowler Dock Tank 0-6-0T. My last loco was an ex L&Y one and although this one has more Midland influences, they were built at Horwich. 

This is to be my first loco with Walshaert's valve gear so hopefully it'll be reliable and won't start shedding wibbly bits all over the layout when it's finished.

After reading through the instructions I decided to start by modifying a few bits almost straight away.

 

The coupling rods as supplied are jointed so I decided to take advantage of this and add beam compensation on the front two axles.

 

 

The next modification was the cylinders. The whole cylinder block assembly is designed to be permanently soldered in to form part of the chassis structure. I decided I wanted the cylinder block removeable so I could build up the slidebars and valvegear without struggling to assemble all the various parts on the loco.

 

 

This meant adding an extra frame stretcher across where the cylinders fit and making up some support for the slidebar/motion bracket assembly. It all worked fine but as this is a slidevalve loco with inside admission the valve gear is a bit odd. I didn't like the look of the valve crosshead so that was altered later and the modification hidden behind an etched representation of the valve crosshead guides.

The clearances around the brake gear are very tight and the brake hangers, who's supports are meant to be folded and slotted into the frames actually touched the wheels! This was exacerbated by the fact that the front 2 axles can move up and down so those supports are now purely cosmetic and don't even reach the frames anymore!! At least the front faces are visible

 

I have used an old Finescale Brass or Bachmann motorgearbox on the rear (fixed) axle and tiny plunger pickups from Alan Gibson and after basic testing it seemed to run reasonably well.

 

After painting and re-assembly I discovered that the return cranks were way too long!! The pin for the radius rod to fit on is usually in line with the axle centreline or thereabouts and is swung off centre to provide the action of the union link which in turn can operate the valves. On this one it should lean slightly back from vertical with the big end of the connecting rod at BDC. Had I done that it would have pulled the union link back so far it would have jammed.  I shortened the return crank by 1.8mm on each side and all was ok and I could set the offset correctly.

 

 

Too long!

 

 

 

Just Right!

 

 

More soon

JF

 

 

 

[Jon Fitness' Average 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench.]

I recently had the pleasure of test running one of the pre production engineering samples of the Ellis Clark presflo wagon on my garden railway. It has coil sprung axleboxes and ran superbly within a mixed rake of other wagons. Looking forward to these being available next year!

JF

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

Those etched arms look absolutely brilliant - superbly capture the real thing and the weathering and appearance of the backs of the arms on the co-acting signal in particular looks just right.

Thanks Mike, looks like the fold over flanged edges have done their stuff. I'm trying to "improve the breed" so to speak.

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

Still Busy at the signal bench!

Due to the sad demise of the model layout at Saltney, I had to retrieve some of my older signals. I plan to refurbish them and either use them myself on some layout or sell the better ones on.

The first re-furb was an LMS co-acting arm signal that had the old cast whitemetal arms on. Both had broken off so I used it as a test for my new etched LMS upper quadrant arms. A new LED was needed in the top lamp too.

 

Next up is another SR lattice post signal. Once again I'm using my own etched arm, disc face, backblind and weightbar assembly on this one. The bracket and "casting" are also scratchbuilt...

 

 

More Soon

JF

[West Kirby Town: narrow gauge is coming to town.]

46 minutes ago, Dmudriver said:

Memo to self:

 

ALWAYS check the lid of your toolbox is fastened before lifting it up!!!

 

 

Some extremely robust industrial language was heard - not only in the shed, but by my next door neighbours, I shouldn't wonder!!!

 

I've been doing "bitty" things recently - painting fence posts, dustbins and oil drums with dispensers.  None of which warrant photos just yet.

 

I bought the oil drums and dispensers and the dustbins at Guildex last year and they've been lying on my workbench waiting to be done.  So, after painting a lot of fence posts, they got done as I had all my painting stuff out.

 

Photos soon, after they've all been weathered and placed on the layout.

 

 

Rod

Been there, got the T shirt! I was in the signalbox at Chester at the time too!!

JF

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

On 27/11/2020 at 16:49, LNERGE said:

You will be most welcome. Hopefully soon the worlds most unusual key token instrument will be there too!

Ooh, sounds interesting..

 

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

8 hours ago, LNERGE said:

We installed the final version of the diagram yesterday..

 

 

Looks a lovely job mate! One day I'll get across to see it.

JF

[Jon Fitness' Average 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench.]

The Coke Wagon turned out OK and is now painted and ready for some serious weathering....

 

Here it is on a running in turn!

 

 

More Soon

JF

 

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

Some better lit pictures of the SR gallows signal.

 

 

.

 

More Soon

 

JF

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

10 hours ago, Steve Hewitt said:

Jon,

Those etches are superb.

I'm green with envy.

Steve.

If you need any for a 7mm job just let me know..

JF

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

Latest signal off the bench is an SR (Ex LSWR) gallows bracket, based on one that was at Swanwick and taken straight off the drawing that's in the SR signalling book by Mr Pryor.

The post and finial are MSE, The bracket is scratchbuilt and the arm/weightbar/backblinder and TC diamond are my own etched ones. Its LED lit but will be manually operated.

I've had some more sheets of etch shiny stuff delivered from PPD with the production version of the LMS running line to loop brackets, Nicholls pattern Upper quadrant arms, SR corrugated upper quadrants, and a very useful little etch for those peculiar staging handrails at the top of GWR posts. All will in due course be available from the website and possibly another source too.

 

 

More Soon

JF

[THE RAMCHESTER CHRONICLES]

On 13/11/2020 at 19:56, railwayrod said:

Hi Jon.

 

Your bus looks superb - the culmination of many years of restoration I suspect. For some reason I had it in mind that your bus was a single decker not a huge double decker. Where on earth do you keep it? Not in your back garden unless you live in a mansion! 

 

Just an idea when it is finished could you get one of the model bus manufacturers to laser scan it amd produce a 7mm model. Might help to swell the coffers somewhat and give you a bonus for all your hard work.

 

From the photograph it looks as though you have done an excellent job of restoration - well done.

 

Rod

 

Hi Rod,

Its still up at Freckleton in Lancashire, about 275 miles from where I live. Until lockdown, I was travelling up there by train and staying in nearby Preston, staying for about 5 days and working all day on it. I'd be doing that about every 6-8 weeks which just about equals the number of visits I was making when I was still living a mere 80 miles from it and travelling up there on a day by day basis about once a week.

 

I'd love it if a company would scan it and produce it as a 7mm scale model but its probably a bit niche for that. I think Stockport had some almost identical vehicles but not sure if that particular body/chassis combination was widespread!

There's still lots to do but I'll get there eventually!!

JF

[THE RAMCHESTER CHRONICLES]

On 10/11/2020 at 14:36, railwayrod said:

Hello Jon.

 

You reached the same conclusion as me and as it happens Howard has given me some cranks which will hopefully help to solve the problem. All I have to do now is to get stuck into the job as quickly as possible.

 

By the way how is the bus getting on? Is it finished yet? I would like to see a picture of it when it is nearing completion.

 

Rod

Hi Rod,

 

Here's how the bus looked when I'd just finished painting it back in March, just before lockdown. I managed a 10 mile test drive, put it away and I haven't seen it since sadly..

 

 

Was hoping to see it a month or so ago as I was planning a quick trip up to Lancashire to grab all the seat cushions and backs for renovation but lockdown V2.0 got in the way.

Cheers

JF

[THE RAMCHESTER CHRONICLES]

I see what you mean Rod. There's a few that are quite tight there but could possibly have point motors at a right angle to the points with a 90 degree crank to transfer the motion. Others, as you suggest, could have wire in tube under the adjacent tracks to point solenoids at the front of the board. Your foam underlay can really help there as it makes it easier to pass operating rods under the tracks.

JF

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

Nice. Is the diagram produced on the computer too? Been looking for the UNO font for ages...

JF

[Heaton Lodge Junction]

I know Agecroft never had MGR wagons in or out and I think the last output by rail went to Huncoat PS in the late 70s or very early 80's at the latest. Most of Agecroft's output went direct to the adjacent power station via conveyor.

Did Bickershaw despatch coal eastwards or did all that go to Fidlers Ferry?

JF

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

58 minutes ago, LNERGE said:

Definitely a kit bash....

 

 

 

Ooh, some heavy soldering required there!

JF

 

[THE RAMCHESTER CHRONICLES]

Rod, in response to your query about electrifying operation of the fiddle yard point, could you post a picture of the point so we can see how much space you have?

Jon F

[Jon Fitness' average 7mm signals workbench.]

2 hours ago, LNERGE said:

Beautiful. I have finally started my 12 inch to the foot version. I'll post some pictures in due course.

Ooh looking forward to that! Kit bash or scratch build?