Charlie586 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 38 minutes ago, Northroader said: 850s were built by Wolverhampton, but as Swindon didn’t do small 0-6-0ST, they turned up all over the system, they were the carriage shutters of choice at Paddington for instance. Possibly one might venture for a short trip west from Didcot, possibly not. Either way regard it as a sound investment for your GWR modelling. Thanks Northroader, I'll treat it as rule 1 for now and hope I uncover more information. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 12 minutes ago, ChrisN said: Charlie, My motto seems to be, just because you have not finished one thing is no reason not to start something else. Yes two foot is not much even if all you have is an engine and two four wheelers, although for expresses six wheelers is more likely. I have a magnifying glass with a lamp, but they are not cheap, although I am sure I did not pay much for mine but when I went to buy one for my son they had gone up quite a bit. I assume you have read Mikkel's blog as he is the master of the little people. I did originally think I could do little bits of everything and it would all come together at the same time, however the bits I enjoy doing more are (maybe not surprisingly) getting more time and attention. I have read Mikkel's blog, and (also like your painting on your thread) I'm regularly astounded by the level of detail you and he achieve. I've got a 'helping hands' style magnifier with crocodile clips, but I've never been able to use it that well with my ordinary glasses, maybe the magnifier is just too small. I just sit closer under a spotlight but I'm not able to do it for long as it's uncomfortable and I struggle to get fine detail in the right place. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted March 26, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 26, 2019 Hi Charlie, I also used the 'helping hands' magnifier for a long time - the new and bigger one really has made a difference, although it took a little practice to get used to the hand/eye coordination. A quality 00 brush also helped. It takes time though, and we all have different priorities - I perfectly understand those who would rather spend the time on other modelling activities. I like your new 850, it look like a nice build. I think I saw the Rover on ebay - and a number of other BG items - and was tempted but luckily forgot about it :-) 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted March 26, 2019 Author Share Posted March 26, 2019 44 minutes ago, Mikkel said: Hi Charlie, I also used the 'helping hands' magnifier for a long time - the new and bigger one really has made a difference, although it took a little practice to get used to the hand/eye coordination. A quality 00 brush also helped. It takes time though, and we all have different priorities - I perfectly understand those who would rather spend the time on other modelling activities. I like your new 850, it look like a nice build. I think I saw the Rover on ebay - and a number of other BG items - and was tempted but luckily forgot about it :-) Thanks Mikkel, I'll look again at the newer helping hands, along with some decent Stadden figures. I do enjoy painting, but it isn't really practical to do it on early starts at 5am when eyes are still a bit blurry. My weekend modelling tends to be soldering or heavier work, so I never get much time to practise. One of the many problems with ebay is we're all probably bidding against each other. I noticed a white metal broad gauge tender with wheels sold for just £7.70 odd the other day, I saw it a few days before but forgot to bid on it... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 Fergus Dassenger is again concerned. The contractor arrived, chuntering and muttering something about gauge and height, and instead of laying more track, he removed the rail from one of the baulks. the contractor said it would be relaid as soon as possible, but Fergus is seriously having doubts about when the train will actually arrive. To make things worse... William Orter (station porter) arrived and offered Fergus the use of a chair. The porter also pointed out that at this time last year the contractor disappeared for 6 months to tend his garden and allotment, and he advised Fergus to beware in case it happened again. Luckily, Fergus refused the offer of the chair and stated his belief that the contractor wouldn't neglect the line for 6 months and he was sure a train to whisk him to Swindon was just around the corner. In all seriousness though, the garden, allotment and general faffing about that is the British summer will eat into what little modelling time I get, so things will slow down. I think I am close to getting the tender to run smoothly, so I will make time to finish that and work out a video. I should be able to do some track and ballasting too as I can sneak in a bit of this in the mornings in between watering the greenhouse. I'd like to be able to start on the platform as well, but that may be a bit too much (unless we get a very wet summer). I'll try to post updates, but if not much happens, the updates will be infrequent. However, as I don't have a lathe and only 1 roller gauge, I've chopped up a bit of aluminum. It's not easy to see what's going on, but there's little indents at roughly the right place. I've also added an EM indent although the thing is the wrong way around in this hastily staged photo. It needs cutting down a bit, but hopefully this, the roller gauge and the plasticard squares will keep the next bout of track laying in a better condition. The height problem appears to have been due to thicker plasticard for the packing, which I have solved by scraping off a bit. Just need to repaint, stick the rail back and re gauge now. I also cut 8 more transoms (4 of both large and small) so I can paint them at the same time. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ChrisN Posted March 31, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 31, 2019 Charlie, I think your porter is being, how shall we say, a bit liberal with the truth. I have seen your track plan and the main line is completely straight, so to say that a train is just around the corner................ I do like his beard though, I need to do more of that. I also like the chair, chairs are difficult. I am not sure of your family arrangements. All my children have left home so it is only myself and my wife at home. On the evenings when we are at home with nothing else to do I have a modelling tray on my lap and sit next to her. You cannot do everything but it keeps her happy and I get to model. I suppose the problem is the long evenings when it never gets dark, and oh of course you are in north Derbyshire where it probably never gets dark from next week until September. Umm. (My mum's mum came from Chesterfield, many years ago.) 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 1, 2019 Author Share Posted April 1, 2019 8 hours ago, ChrisN said: Charlie, I think your porter is being, how shall we say, a bit liberal with the truth. I have seen your track plan and the main line is completely straight, so to say that a train is just around the corner................ I do like his beard though, I need to do more of that. I also like the chair, chairs are difficult. I am not sure of your family arrangements. All my children have left home so it is only myself and my wife at home. On the evenings when we are at home with nothing else to do I have a modelling tray on my lap and sit next to her. You cannot do everything but it keeps her happy and I get to model. I suppose the problem is the long evenings when it never gets dark, and oh of course you are in north Derbyshire where it probably never gets dark from next week until September. Umm. (My mum's mum came from Chesterfield, many years ago.) Thanks Chris, I do admit the 'round the corner' was a bit of a pun. We are similar, son has left home, by the time I'm settled in the evening there's an hour or so. I've previously used that time for CAD and looking at other people's layouts on here, but you're right I could do some bits instead, though my eyes aren't up to fine detail by then. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 7, 2019 Author Share Posted April 7, 2019 (edited) Didn't manage to do any soldering, but I have stuck a few more transoms down, repainted a few bits, re glued the first broad rail and corrected the height and relaid the second broad rail. Pic only shows 2/3 of the board, but I'm not far off finishing the last broad rail, so hopefully I'll get the full board of broad gauge soon. That's it for the week then, hopefully I'll get to solder the springy wire to tender and chassis this week and can then have another crack at running it along the now straighter and less bumpy track. Edited April 8, 2019 by Charlie586 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 14, 2019 Author Share Posted April 14, 2019 So, I nearly had a full board of broad gauge track, but the dog ate part of my homework. It may be fixable, a bit of glue and paint hides wonders, if not I need to do another baulk and packing. I had to solder a broken laptop power lead in the week, so managed to solder springy wire to the tender and main chassis. The large driver hasn't been sprung, it's rigid in a bush, but the others have. I also swapped the slightly wobbly rear axle to the 2nd axle, and it seems to cope better with being pushed now. For the tender I think I used too thick guitar spring as it's not really sitting right. I also araldited the motor to the chassis and got in a bit of a mess (wheel was stuck to the chassis), but I removed most of it. Got out the gaugemaster and had a little test The tender came off the track 4 times and stayed on once completing the still short test track (just over a foot given the loco and tender length). The loco chassis did really well in staying on throughout, especially as it was being pushed via bluetack and has no real weight to it. I'll have a look for stray blobs of araldite on wheels, take off the spring wire from the tender and look at a beam type thing for the two un-driven axles. However, important thing is it worked (albeit 20% success rate). I'll have to video my next attempts, I assume you can edit out swearing. Don't tell Fergus, but I'll also try to make it pull a carriage chassis as well as push the loco next time. One other thing, the motor is rated 6 volts so I think I need a resistor to drop the voltage (I did electronics O level, but it was well over 30 years ago). I can remember W =IV and V = I[squared]R, but how do I work out what Ohm resistor to attach? And should it be in series or parallel? 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ChrisN Posted April 14, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 14, 2019 Charlie, The resistor should be in series. Have you got a voltage meter or some such device? You will need to know the current when it is at its maximum output and the voltage. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted April 15, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 15, 2019 Hi Charlie, nice to see progress on the chassis. Did something really happen to the trackwork or are you telling fibs? Maybe the dog has secret LNWR leanings? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 11 hours ago, ChrisN said: Charlie, The resistor should be in series. Have you got a voltage meter or some such device? You will need to know the current when it is at its maximum output and the voltage. Thanks Chris, I was hoping someone would know . I've got a multimeter so will do some tests. It's only a cheap £1 odd Chinese motor, but I don't want to blow it, especially as it's now araldited in. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 15, 2019 Author Share Posted April 15, 2019 1 hour ago, Mikkel said: Hi Charlie, nice to see progress on the chassis. Did something really happen to the trackwork or are you telling fibs? Maybe the dog has secret LNWR leanings? It was a dog related incident, honest, I'm not sure if Captain Huish had any involvement in the matter but I like a good conspiracy story. I think it will be fixable which should save an hour or two. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 21, 2019 Author Share Posted April 21, 2019 Hope you're enjoying the break and weather. For the tender chassis, I did find a few stray blobs of araldite on the wheels, so with that removed and the springy wire also removed it worked better in a very short test. Still no video, not had time what with the bank holiday thing and all. I did have a few early starts this week, so cut out the pieces for a beam type thing. Just a bit of tube (which looks squashed in the photo)and some brass rod cut to size. I'm also making a pair of these Rocker type things. I can make the hole for the rod in the chassis do both types, so I'll be able to pick the best and use that. No soldering done, so that's as far as it's got. I also fixed the broken piece of baulk and stuck it back, no photo though. I might get a chance to do some more on the various bits tomorrow, but with the weather forecast being so good, I doubt anything will get done. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 22, 2019 Author Share Posted April 22, 2019 So I did manage to have a small play with the trains today The tender chassis hasn't got the beam or rocker attached yet, so that's next on the list, however it seems to run okay without it but I do need to add some weight at the front where there isn't really any room (I can't leave the back to back gauge blue tacked on however well it works). I also need to solder up the body bits as well for both loco and tender, now that it runs okayish. Then buy a silhouette for the K1/2, then the coaches etc. Forgot to say yesterday, but I've been given a 5' by 3' sheet of ply, it's not as thick as the one I've used so far, but it's free and will probably do for all the boards I'll need in the next 10 years or so (based on current rate of progress). 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted April 28, 2019 Author Share Posted April 28, 2019 Early morning bitting and bobbing on things is all I've managed this week. A bit of sawing and marking out on what will eventually become another tender outside frame (2nd from bottom - the two above them are in various states of unfinished), and a few more rivets banged into the tender side. Call me weird, but I do like early morning piercing sawing and filing. I find it very relaxing. I went to check the wheel rocker against the chassis, But some idiot put a frame spacer in the way when building the chassis. With the motor araldited in it probably doesn't need the spacer anymore, so I'll cut it out at some point. I've started to cut the ply down as it's blocking the allotment shed, I've made the width the same as the current board, but will leave the length for now. I'll need a board with 2 turnouts on for one track to cross to another, and am not sure on the length I need at the moment. I know I said it a month or so ago, but I'll try to make a start on the platform soon. 6 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted May 4, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 4, 2019 Hi Charlie, hope you get time for modelling this weekend. My chance was this morning, only to find I was out of the material I needed 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Northroader Posted May 4, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 4, 2019 That’s when the masterful policy of having loads of unfinished items lying around comes into play.. 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted May 4, 2019 Author Share Posted May 4, 2019 4 hours ago, Mikkel said: Hi Charlie, hope you get time for modelling this weekend. My chance was this morning, only to find I was out of the material I needed Yep , I have the soldering iron out at the moment, however I seem to be reading RMWeb instead of actually doing any soldering... 2 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 (edited) So, the soldering iron was out last weekend to firstly fix the laptop cable (again), but I did manage to solder bushes to the rocker arms That was as far as I got with that though. I've done a bit more to the tender sandwich frames above since the pic was taken. And banged a few more rivets out for the tender upper side overlay. Had a small think about bending the tender flare and a trial bend, but couldn't get it to budge but I didn't want to use a lot of force. I've not got a blowtorch for softening the brass, or bending bars, so will have to think again and maybe cobble some bending device together. And started to think about soldering up the main sandwich frames for the loco. As you can see I had to chop a few mm out due to an admin error on the length. The chop will be hidden by the plate as in the photo below. The nickel silver piece is actually 2 identical plates together for the driver spring, another spacer type piece is needed in between them. I did have the correct width needed somewhere, but can't find it now. (from wikimedia under creative commons licence) For the platform, I need it to sit 18mm above the baseboard (this includes the transom height) I've got numerous offcuts of wood and some ply and mdf sheet for the actual platform, but none of them together add up to 18mm. I'll have to hunt round the B&Q offcut bin again, if not then it's sawing and placing bits end on with the ply or mdf topping. Edited May 12, 2019 by Charlie586 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted June 2, 2019 Author Share Posted June 2, 2019 Three weeks have flown by with life getting in the way of modelling things. What I have been up to, on the side so to speak, is making a 3d rover chassis to match the bodyshell. This was done in the cheapest, grainy WSF as it won't be seen. There are either rocker type bars which bushes can be pushed into, and the central pivot point will accept a piece of 2mm brass tube which can sit on a piece of suitable rod. I've also done simpler rocking beam which will touch the top of the axles, but this means the axle would run directly against plastic so wouldn't be ideal (unless you use over-size bushes and bore them out slightly). I've not had the time (or the correct number of bushes) to check it yet. Hopefully I'll get some time this week. Also A selection of springs, chimney and other bits. As shapeways is now so expensive, and the photon anycubic a fairly reasonable cost, I'm seriously tempted to get one. I know I said that about the silhouette a few months back, but there seems little point getting things done at shapeways when I could get a printer and do it myself to a similar if not slightly better quality. Hopefully I'll get back to doing some actual modelling soon. 6 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 Life still continues to get in the way, but I did manage to get some bits together for the chassis suspension and even removed some old bushes to reuse. Apologies for wonky photo. That was as far as I got. However, while looking for photos, I did find some pics of my old layout attempt from 15 years ago. It was an invented GWR branch line (just for a change). I only got as far as two baseboards before a house move meant we had no space and it was relegated to the shed where they are now covered in 15 years worth of dust, damp and mouse droppings. The carriage is a ratio midland kit painted chocolate and cream which I obviously thought was a good idea back then. Anyway, enough of that nostalgia stuff. There's quite a bit of rain forecast this week, so I might get something done. 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Mikkel Posted June 12, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 12, 2019 Hi Charlie, nice looking Rover chassis. That's unsual and intriguing stuff you have on the Shapeways site. I suppose Shapeways does have one advantage, namely that is offers a sales platform. Or is there a website or forum where "home" printers can sell their goods? 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted June 12, 2019 Author Share Posted June 12, 2019 19 minutes ago, Mikkel said: Hi Charlie, nice looking Rover chassis. That's unsual and intriguing stuff you have on the Shapeways site. I suppose Shapeways does have one advantage, namely that is offers a sales platform. Or is there a website or forum where "home" printers can sell their goods? I haven't heard or come across a site for people to sell things they've made, I suppose etsy would be the nearest thing that could be used. Most things I make are for myself initially and shapeways is good in that it's easy for others to buy (albeit at a high cost). Printing and selling yourself gives a whole new level of product regulations and product liability insurance, which can't be much fun. 1 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie586 Posted June 16, 2019 Author Share Posted June 16, 2019 Fergus thinks that chassis are like busses Nothing for ages then two come along at once. Saying that, he doesn't really know what a bus is, as they haven't been invented yet. He has a point though: it's been all Rover for a while now, and a change is needed. I had a bit more spare time this week than normal but still no wood needed for the platform so, with Fergus's approval, I dug a carriage kit out. Broad gauge society E7 kit. The Penrhos site http://penrhos.me.uk/Clerestories.shtml#E7dwg has all the details, to get an idea of how it would look in 10' wide Broad gauge, scroll up a bit to the E1/2 photo. The problem with this kit is the underframe is a generic 46'6" but the E7 carriage is 40ft so a bit of cut and shut is needed. While thinking about whether to cut first or build then cut, I remembered reading somewhere that brass angle maybe easier to use, so I'm afraid, it went back in the kit pile at that point. That was on thursday, but since then I've looked at some angle and can't work out which section or sections combined would be best, so I've decided to build the underframe first to help visualise it, then work out whether to fabricate a new one or cut and shut. In the meantime, and lacking anything else to hand, I relented and got the rover body and soldering iron out. I've run out of glass fibre refills so it looks a bit of a solder mess, but it will clean up. The boiler tube is soldered as well, which was fun. I can't find the front splashers, I'm sure I made them up when I did the others, but don't know where they've ended up. I also bent the flare for one of the tender sides I started with it clamped in a vice with the top few mm showing, then attacked it with various blocks of wood, bars and lumps of metal until it started to bend. Then I finished off with smooth pliers. Hopefully painting will make it look better (and maybe hide that annoying top right rivet that's off line) With this afternoon's rain, I got the paints out i picked out a few more bricks on the station building and did a mortar coat and the first brick picking out of two platform edges. Also is some wood planking painted stone-like to give me a guess at the platform edging. The edging doesn't look too out of place (though I need to check scale length width etc). It also turns out that an old scrap of wood with 2 matchsticks on top is about the right platform height. Shame I don't have more of the wood. Next up, I'll make a start on the underframe kit, get some wood, do some ballasting and have a go at a cardboard mock up of the bridge side. 9 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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