Triang TT Technical advice

[Golden Fleece 30]

It is not something I have seen advertised Nigel.  Also, I think all "modern" kits use the Romford style wheels and combined motor gearboxes etc. I am trying to keep things simple using Tri-ang parts where possible. I am not a member of the 3mm society and therefore never had any kits from them so cannot personally comment but reading a lot of different sites some seem to be good and some leave a lot to be desired and may not fit what I have.  I know we are all different and what is difficult for one may be easy for another.  Years ago I would have a go at anything but now my resources/facilities are limited and I can easily draw up what I need to get etched and at times able to try out before committing to the etching company like the tender chassis and this one now hopefully.   I have seen lots of excellent models on the websites 3mm/3smr etc and admire them but these days it is time, and, I am not after a lot of models like I would have done years ago.  It is like the Schools loco, I know there is a kit and it looks nice but I will be happy with the Atlas one repainted with a basic chassis fitted when I get to that one.

 

Garry

[NCB]

Fair enough. I've taken to doing my own etching, largely as I can then get what I want rather than somebody else's idea of what I want! And it's fun!

 

Nigel

[Golden Fleece 30]

Finally got myself a Boadicea today, not mint but a lovely runner.  It was boxed although no internal sleeves.  A little touch up is in order and possibly a full black paint job but the green and lining/numbers is fine, might have to sort out some nameplates though.  Cannot complain for £45.  The only two seen on Ebay were well over £100, one I think was over £200, admittedly they both had open spoked wheels.  Wagons were a bargain between with the track cleaner the most expensive at £4.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Do you actually do the etching yourself Nigel or just the drawings? 

 

Garry

[NCB]

Do the artwork and send it off to PDP, who seem to do a good job. I'd been interested in trying it for some time. Then had a bash at scratch building a Rhymney Class M, but had no illusions about my skills in scratch building a working chassis; a chassis kit for a GWR 56XX had been promised (which would have done) but there was no sign of it appearing, so started thinking about etching one myself. In the meantime had started to build a Mallard kit for a Dukedog which had been reduced to 3mm, and decided the chassis was no good, so set to on designing my own. Quite pleased with the result. Here's the basic lash-up:

 

It has twin compensation beams on the drivers so the weight is shared between those and the bogie pivot, gets rid of the problems with balancing a 4-4-0. Here's the chassis with motor:

 

 

I later replaced the Mashima 1015 motor with a Mashima 916 open frame one. The tender was a Brynkits kit for which I did my own replacement compensated chassis, and the complete thing is:

 

 

It's now going through the paint shop.

 

Then, back to the Rhymney M, and did a chassis for it. This is as far as it's got:

 

 

 

It has twin compensation beams on the front drivers and a single one on the rear driver and pony axle; part of the reason for doing it this way is that I had problems getting a pony truck to pivot in the right place.

 

It is now waiting for the body to be completed before final testing, as I'm not yet sure the motor I'm currently using will fit.

 

I'm also doing some etched wagon chasses for some 3D printed wagon bodies I've obtained, like the Chris Higgs ones mentioned on another thread.

 

Nigel

[Golden Fleece 30]

I use PDP for mine too, have done for about 7 years now mainly Dublo repro but just recently my first lot of TT.  I like your locos and also looking at an 0-6-2 myself but need pony trucks at the rear as I only use Tri-ang curves so yours would not get around.  As you said earlier you get what you want yourself which is a good thing, and, you at last know what should go where.

 

Garry

Edited December 6, 2016 by Golden Fleece 30

[Golden Fleece 30]

The 9F project seems to be coming along nicely. Here is a view showing how the coupling rods and valve gear may look, not all lining up as the parts are on card glued in place but will be pinned on the nickel parts as normal practice. It is hoped that the plastic bracket holding the rear of the gear support will be retained for strength to hold the expansion link etc. The rear set of wheels will be unflanged but as yet I am still awaiting a spare chassis for them. The other 2 flangeless sets have dropped here as at the moment there is no plate holding them in situ. With luck I may get the etchings before Xmas to give me something to do over the holiday period.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Here is the first electrical test of my TT 9F chassis. At the moment it looks to be an 0-6-0 as I have yet to locate screws and spacers to fit the remaining wheel sets. The valve gear pin above the slide bars is held with blue tack at the moment for testing. The return crank and rod will not be put on until the chassis is painted as I need to get to the screws still for stripping. The wire to the motor is because I do not yet have the pick up plate made. There is a little work still to do but it is looking good so far and thankfully the Tri-ang brackets do fit and used for the assemblies.

 

 

Garry

 

[Golden Fleece 30]

A second electrical test for the 9F. The rear wheels have been fitted after being removed from the geared axle and put on a plain one but I am now short of the second pair. The cylinder valve gear has been lifted and angled downwards and the pony truck is on test. The loco has its own pick up now so the trailing wire to the motor from last night has gone and I can try her with the body on. Going well, the clicking I think is the far side valve gear as it is not set with all its parts yet. A tender is on its way sometime so should be a good runner for the new year.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01UyB0qZ980&feature=youtu.be

 

 

Garry

[NCB]

Getting there!  Keep at it.

 

Nigel

[Golden Fleece 30]

Thanks Nigel.

 

My tender arrived yesterday and looks good coupled to the loco. Things will be easing off now as it is getting close to Xmas and my "space" in the kitchen is required for other matters lol. I need to modify the pick-up plate and then it should be ready for stripping painting, I will take a gamble on the other wheels running okay when I locate some, unless they come first before any warm weather as all my spraying is done in the garden.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Now I have a tender I thought I would see how the loco looks pulling a freight train. I know I still need another pair of wheels though but it seems to work fine fast and slow. The track is not good electrically I think for very slow running as it needs the rails smoothing and fishplates tightening but the loco works which is what I wanted.

 

 

Garry

[Robert Shrives]

Very impressive ! and great fun I guess.

[Golden Fleece 30]

Thanks Robert. It is fun and I have plans to do a V2 chassis next.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

I have been giving some thought to different locos but using the Tri-ang chassis's and the first one I am going to try is the N7 tank loco which will hopefully be a direct fit in the Jinty chassis. I have to use the Belpaire firebox due to the magnet pole piece width and this will be wider to fit (like Tri-ang did). Obviously there will be the odd one or two other parts adjusted to fit like moving the smokebox front forwards a mm due to clearance fitting on the chassis but basically it will look like the real one (hopefully). I printed out some of the drawings on paper to cut around some plastic and card to see how it may look. The windows will be cut out and the cab one will be curved at the top. These parts will actually be etched in 0.4mm brass. This loco may not look much here but it shows it may work. I could do a full boiler but that would need the chassis cutting up considerably which defeats some of the concept to start with.

 

I could look at removing some of the pole pieces to narrow the width but I don't know if others would want to do that if these parts get offered for sale.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Won these two little locos recently and did not realise how limited space is for the chassis and motor. I am hoping to have one chassis running soon but waiting for another motor to arrive then on the lookout for some Romford wheels for the other. Hopefully one will be in lined green, the other in lined black. I need to use a light spring on the rear wheels to keep the front drivers down due to the standard issue of 4 wheel drivers being unbalanced.

 

Garry

[NCB]

They make nice models. Well worth the effort.

 

Nigel

Edited January 12, 2017 by NCB

[Robert Shrives]

Hi ,

Blimey look at the cost of the chassis - extortionate !! 61/2  over £3 not sure I can afford the hobby !!

You had some lovely bargains there and look forward to chassis works - I do wonder if an effective 060 chassis possible but of course without rear part rods will make for a balanced chassis - it must be shorter than a jinty...

hope the other bits good for you and look forward to seeing 9F fully wheeled

 

Robert   

[Golden Fleece 30]

Hi Robert,  I know what a rip off lol.

 

I have already tried the Jinty chassis but far too big motor wise in height and width, the 14xx body is actually very small.  I did get a chassis running last night but now looking at getting an etched one made as I have a different and lightweight motor to try, it will also drive the rear axle but still shorter than the motor here.  If it works then I can fill the front end with "lead" to keep the front end down.  These two locos also came with a set of 97xx castings to assemble and some 6 wheel wagon underframes.

 

The 9F chassis was sprayed today and I am hoping to drill and insulate one of the centre wheels you sent tomorrow then may be start assembling it again over the weekend.  I am scratch building a large tender for this loco and using my spare Brit one for the Standard 5 which is now soldered up and on a chassis , thank you.

 

The N7 etches should be here next week so plenty to do, any ideas where I can obtain more hours per day?

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

Due to the difficulties of trying to get a Britannia tender on its own I have decided to make the high sided version for my 9F.  This is from 0.5mm brass and at the moment sits on a borrowed Brit chassis.  I will probably make a chassis too if nothing suitable comes along in the not too distant future.

 

Garry

[NCB]

Garry

 

Here's an article I wrote for the 3mm Society's "Getting started" FAQ, using the 48XX as an example..

http://www.ncb.ndo.co.uk/rail/3mm/Getting_started/cast_loco/index.html

 

I used a Mashima 1220 flat can, with a High Level Roadrunner gearbox. They fitted fine, and the 1220 runs very well. For 12mm gauge I'd have used a High Level Slimliner Compact +. But other options are possible.

[Golden Fleece 30]

Hi Nigel,  strangely I found this report of yours two nights ago when looking up about these locos.  Mine obviously will be 12mm gauge and I have just found a small motor to test on a chassis but that could be a while yet.  It will allow drive on the rear axle as opposed the front with the set up I received so that will give plenty of room for extra weight above the driving wheels.  Out of interest does yours go around the small radius Tri-ang curves?

 

Garry

[NCB]

Hi Nigel,  strangely I found this report of yours two nights ago when looking up about these locos.  Mine obviously will be 12mm gauge and I have just found a small motor to test on a chassis but that could be a while yet.  It will allow drive on the rear axle as opposed the front with the set up I received so that will give plenty of room for extra weight above the driving wheels.  Out of interest does yours go around the small radius Tri-ang curves?

 

Garry

Not a chance of going around Triang-type curves! I reckon it might do about 27" radius. However, this is partly due to the Brynkits chassis I used being not allowing much at all in the way of sideplay on the wheels; Brian Golding who designed it is a 12mm gauge modeller, and it's possible the 12mm version of the chassis is better in the way of sideplay, but for 14.2mm he more or less had to guess how wide to make chassis. So, it is possible the 12mm version might be a lot better; in fact if it is the same width as the GEM chasses then I don't see why it wouldn't go round the same radius curves.

 

Nigel

[Golden Fleece 30]

Hi Nigel, The only way this will go around the Tri-ang curves is having the trailing wheels as a pony truck as per the kit.  I tried to see if just side play would work but unfortunately not.  I know the Tri-ang curves are very sharp but I don't have the time to start making a "normal" type layout, plus I have enough Type A for the plan I am looking at doing and want to keep it more vintage than scale.  That is one of the reasons I use Tri-ang chassis (or parts) as opposed to the more scale for most things, there is always the exception lol.

 

Garry

[Golden Fleece 30]

I have at last painted the 9F chassis and fitted all sets of driving wheels and valve gear. The second set of wheels has a Jinty screw fitted but with the head filed down to the same diameter as the main body. This allows it to fit inside the coupling rods still driving the wheels. I just need to paint the pony truck then complete the loco and tender.  The video shows it traveling around a reverse bend with Tri-ang small radius curves.

 

 

Garry