2mm Coal Tank test build

[Chris Higgs]

Thinking about it further, you could just have a hole through the spacer, solder short stubs of wire/rod into holes in the frames (to provide accurate alignment) and then superglue the frames to the spacers.  The stubs need only be a couple of mm long.

 

As I type this, the idea has come to me of just having a 10thou deep recess in the top of the spacer and a bent in tab on the top of the frame which fits accurately into the recess.  Or, a 10thou projection on the end of the spacer which fits into a rectangular gap/hole in the frames?

 

Or am I thinking too far out the box now!  

 

Jim

 

Well it would work I expect. But I cannot really see what advantage you see in having separate spacers as compared to printing the whole chassis as one and letting the axle bearings do the locating.

 

As it happens my designs (not this one though)  already have the foldover parts - these are provided for building the frames with conventional PCB spacers and the printed bloack has space to locate them. They provided a convenient point at which to solder on the motor wires.

 

Chris

[Branwell]

Managed to get a bit more done on the chassis today - brake hangers/Simpson springs soldered in place (yet to be trimmed back) and front and rear spacers added. Next job is to add the central spacer/motor mount.

 

 

 

 

Etches are on their way to those who've ordered and paid for them, but still have quite a few left if there's anybody that still wants one. 47 sold so far and looking forward to seeing how others get on with their builds.

[Chris Higgs]

Managed to get a bit more done on the chassis today - brake hangers/Simpson springs soldered in place (yet to be trimmed back) and front and rear spacers added. Next job is to add the central spacer/motor mount.

 

 

 

 

Etches are on their way to those who've ordered and paid for them, but still have quite a few left if there's anybody that still wants one. 47 sold so far and looking forward to seeing how others get on with their builds.

 

Not sure what you are planning for the rear axle. as built, the chassis seems to incorporate no sideplay - at least you won't need to think about a pony truck arrangement that way!

 

Also the photos highlight with such flimsy chassis material that you are going to need a lot of spacers to keep it rigid.

 

Chris

[Branwell]

Thanks Chris,

 

The chassis does look curved in the photos but it is an optical illusion - it's very straight in reality.

 

Quite possibly not the way to do it, but I want to get it running as an 0-6-0 first and then I'll worry about the pony/radial truck.

 

Regards,

 

David

[Branwell]

Motor now mounted onto the chassis and connected to the frames. Kept it as simple as possible - super glued a length of double-gapped 7mm wide PCB spacer to the motor and then soldered that in place from below.

 

The wires were then soldered to the frames and the isolation checked with a multi-meter. Thankfully there was no sign of a short so power was applied and the wheels went round  

 

Now to get the wheels quartered and the coupling rods on ...

 

 

 

[nigelb]

riceived my n brass bits on friday  now need to order the wheels and motor   before thinking about starting construction

[nigelb]

just seen the bashers gadgets and mourners book on amazon 

and no its not a spelling mistake

 

Bashers, Gadgets and Mourners: The Life and Times of the LNWR Coal Tanks by Skellon, Peter William ( 2011 )

Hardcover

£771.42used & new

 

from another seller i  got one for 11 pounds  an ex library book so  should soon be   starting work  on my offering

[Phil Copleston]

 

just seen the bashers gadgets and mourners book on amazon and no its not a spelling mistake Bashers, Gadgets and Mourners: The Life and Times of the LNWR Coal Tanks by Skellon, Peter William ( 2011 ) Hardcover £771.42used & new from another seller i  got one for 11 pounds  an ex library book so  should soon be   starting work  on my offering.

 

Whaaaat? This book is 19 to 25 quid brand new! http://ingrowlocomuseum.com/?page_id=35  

Edited June 14, 2016 by Phil Copleston

[Nigelcliffe]

Whaaaat? This book is 19 to 25 quid brand new! http://ingrowlocomuseum.com/?page_id=35  

An example of a book not distributed through the usual wholesalers. Consequently Amazon, Wordery, etc.. can't easily add copies to their stock lists, so Amazon's stupidity algorithm (and chancer resellers working through Amazon) rates it as a very rare book. It is rare at Amazon warehouses !

 

 

- Nigel

[JohnBS]

An example of a book not distributed through the usual wholesalers. Consequently Amazon, Wordery, etc.. can't easily add copies to their stock lists, so Amazon's stupidity algorithm (and chancer resellers working through Amazon) rates it as a very rare book. It is rare at Amazon warehouses !

- Nigel

It is £17.99 on eBay with free shipping!

John

[Branwell]

Three copies sat on the shelf in the KWVR's shop at Haworth last weekend.

 

Limited progress on the build of late ... mainly been adding weight to the body - tungsten sheet in the side tanks and mix of tungsten copper granules and Loctite 603 in the bunker and the front of the boiler.

 

Next job will be to get the boiler finished off I think.

[Phil Copleston]

Next job will be to get the boiler finished off I think.

 

The body seems relatively straightforward, particularly when combined with the N Brass lost-wax brass fittings. http://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/fitlms1.html

 

But how about the chassis? I'm interested to see how you tackled strengthening and making more ridged the rather flimsy LRM's mainframe etchings... 

Edited June 18, 2016 by Phil Copleston

[Branwell]

The body seems relatively straightforward, particularly when combined with the N Brass lost-wax brass fittings. http://www.nbrasslocos.co.uk/fitlms1.html

 

But how about the chassis? I'm interested to see how you tackled strengthening and making more ridged the rather flimsy LRM's mainframe etchings... 

 

Nothing more than some decent sized spacers so far, Phil - four in at the moment and one more to add in once I've sorted out the rear pony/radial truck arrangement out. Seems to be holding up pretty well.

[Jol Wilkinson]

But how about the chassis? I'm interested to see how you tackled strengthening and making more ridged the rather flimsy LRM's mainframe etchings... 

 

The chassis I built was okay in 4mm and this is perhaps one area where "shooting down" a design by 50% requires a redesign.

 

I once adapted CAD  artwork to produce a 7mm kit from a 4mm version and that required a considerable amount of work to do it justice.

[2mm Andy]

Three copies sat on the shelf in the KWVR's shop at Haworth last weekend.

 

Limited progress on the build of late ... mainly been adding weight to the body - tungsten sheet in the side tanks and mix of tungsten copper granules and Loctite 603 in the bunker and the front of the boiler.

 

Next job will be to get the boiler finished off I think.

 

David,

 

Out of interest, can you advise where you got the Tungsten sheet from? It sounds useful stuff, but (apart from dart bodies) is quite tricky to find.

 

thanks,

 

Andy

[Branwell]

David,

 

Out of interest, can you advise where you got the Tungsten sheet from? It sounds useful stuff, but (apart from dart bodies) is quite tricky to find.

 

thanks,

 

Andy

 

Andy,

 

The sheet I got from Troutcatchers - http://www.troutcatchers.co.uk/tungsten-sheet-c2x17213338 and the tungsten copper granules from Ebay. The sheet's very easy to work with.

 

Regards,

 

David

[Branwell]

I made a start on the smokebox this morning, using the etch from the kit and a Mike Bryant smokebox wrapper which Steve Dunkeyson very kindly gave me.

 

The wrapper needs a little bit more trimming to clear the front sandboxes but otherwise it's pretty snug fit.

 

 

The boiler filled with tungsten copper granules.

 

 

Smokebox front and wrapper from the rear ...

 

 

... and from the front ...

 

 

and in place on the boiler.

 

And whilst I had the camera out.

 

 

 

 

[nigelb]

Basher , Gadgets and Mourners book arrived  this morning    the parts are coming together . just need to wait for pay day and i  can get the wheels motor and gearbox  then it will be  start   build and finish time

[nigelb]

I made a start on the smokebox this morning, using the etch from the kit and a Mike Bryant smokebox wrapper which Steve Dunkeyson very kindly gave me.

 

The wrapper needs a little bit more trimming to clear the front sandboxes but otherwise it's pretty snug fit.

 

 

The boiler filled with tungsten copper granules.

 

 

Smokebox front and wrapper from the rear ...

 

 

... and from the front ...

 

 

and in place on the boiler.

 

And whilst I had the camera out.

 

 

 

 

just looked on Ebay and the granules are for a  250 G tub how much did you use  on this build ?

[Branwell]

just looked on Ebay and the granules are for a  250 G tub how much did you use  on this build ?

 

About 12g so far.

[nigelb]

About 12g so far.

mmm so a tub  will do  loads of  2 mm models    

[Branwell]

Making progress with the smokebox.

 

Used the front from the etch as a former for the wrappers, but wasn't happy with the look of the NBrass smokebox door so decided to have a go at making my own using a thinned down 8mm domed brass disc, some 0.33mm brass wire, a NBrass handwheel and some phospher bronze strip.

 

This is the second attempt, the first being too coarse. The door is only loosely placed at the moment.

 

[Branwell]

I'm starting to get a little bit frustrated. Admittedly the test build was about making mistakes and learning from them but I think I'm starting to reach the limit of my current skills so it may be time to step away from this for a while, go off and build something else a bit easier and then come back to to it and have another go.

 

Anyway, as things stand, I've added the bolier and the smokebox to the body and some tank supports to the chassis, but I'm not happy with the look of the front end or with the running of the chassis. Maybe it'll look better with the bolier fittings and pipework added or maybe it won't but at the moment I'm not enjoying it so it's time to put it to one side and build a few wagons to get a bit of confidence back.

 

With the 4mm kit having a resin boiler this was always going to be a challenging part of the build and may need a bit of a rethink. Biggest problem was getting the smokebox wrapper to fit and the smokebox front to marry up and that part's a bit of a mess. Would be grateful for any suggestions as to how I might make a better job of it.

 

Latest photos attached below. Has anybody else made any progress so far?

 

Regards,

 

David

 

 

 

[nick_bastable]

looking very good wish I could solder as well instead of burning my fingers so much

[Nick Mitchell]

I made a start on mine when it arrived, but it is currently on pause awaiting the availability of the Chris Higgs chassis.

There are some photos below showing progress to date. I deviated substantially from the instructions and had to modify a few parts to get this far. I would call this kit "difficult" when compared to others I have half built(!) but I am pleased with the way it is coming together.

 

I haven't gone any further with the boiler and smokebox (which is the next step), as until I see how the motor fits, I don't know how much of the underside of the boiler tube to cut away.

 

When I do get round to the smokebox, I intend to form it in the same way I did the L&Y radial tank (Nigel Hunt kit) smoke box. There's a photo of this on my Gallery.

Basically, I rolled the wrapper to be a tight spring fit. I spread solder paint on the top half of the inside of the wrapper and soldered it in place with a gas flame.

The bottom edges of the wrapper (which remained unsoldered) could be peeled back and rolled the other way to match the profile of the smokebox front plate.

 

While there is no etched wrapper in the kit, a suitable one forms part of the previously available shot-down Brassmasters etch for a Bowen Cooke 3000 gal. LNWR tender.

(Perhaps that nice Mr Higgs could be persuaded to include one on the chassis etch?)

 

At the moment I am debating with myself as to whether a 5 thou. "inner wrapper" should be installed, level with the front of the boiler tube, then the outer wrapper placed on top, projecting forwards by 10 thou. to fit over the front plate. If only a single wrapper were used, the front plate wouldn't fit inside it, and would have to butt onto the front of it.