Michael Edge's workbench

[New Haven Neil]

Oh that's a treat to see, Corbs, thank you.  The big Bagnalls are one of my favourites, the big roller bearing bottom end was a give-away.  Interested to see where you go with this!

[Michael Edge]

The roller bearings are a bit of a problem, I can't think of any way of simulating them with the rtr screw crankpins. I do wish they would provide proper crankpins that you can fit the rods on and then fit a fastener of some sort.

[Ian Rathbone]

The C14 is now painted and with its happy owner. A bit of a cruel close-up of this tiny engine.

 

 

Ian R

[Michael Edge]

Thanks for posting that Ian, it looks very nice, I'm still working my way round to building another one before we put the kit into production.

[Jack P]

Really looking forward to that C14 kit. The valve gear looks impressively detailed.

[Michael Edge]

Yes and it's a bit fiddly to assemble as well.

[Ian Rathbone]

A couple of photos of the GSR 800 which Mike built. I posted pics of the painting process in the Irish Railways section of RMWeb last year. The colour is a best guess but it seems to be accepted by the Irish contributors. It is a 50:50 mix of English GNR Green and Irish GNR Blue.

 

Ian R

[Michael Edge]

Back to the B7 I'm building for Herculaneum Dock/Wentworth Junction.

The fun part of these 4 cylinder GC 4-6-0s is that the slidebars are not attached to the cylinders in any way and are a long way back from them (presumably to keep the connecting rods as short as possible), this is how I set them up. The slidebar bracket is a fold up etch fitted across the frames in line with the cylinder ends, the piston rod will run in a length of tube. To set everything up the tube is in one piece through the cylinder ends and the slidebar bracket, piston rod material run through to line up on the centre of the driven axle. When it's all finished the tube will be cut away between the cylinders and the slidebar bracket.

The motor is an n20 driving through 1:1 bevel gears on the trailing axle.

Frames fitted in the completed body, chimney came from the infamous spares box, dome is a slightly modified moulding. Mudhole doors are machined from brass bar, annealed and curved (by hammering a steel bar into them) to fit the firebox, since this will be unlined the cladding bands are added in .002" copper.

All ready to paint the frames now, slidebars in place, piston rod guide cut away, valve spindle and guide added - the etch included an eccentric drive for the valve gear but for what is actually visible I didn't think it was worth the effort. The cylinder drain linkage is quite prominent though. The loco body has had a quick scrub with Barkeeper's Friend, buffer heads will be fitted after grit blasting.

 

[Michael Edge]

Back to some real (paid) work this week, the Cowans Sheldon turntable.

The turntable bridge is mainly built from accurately cut pcb with etched additions, the intention is to use the carrying wheels for electrical pickup and the design is intended to insulate each end bogie from the rest of the structure. Some additional insulation was required in places though, mainly to avoid inadvertently connecting the rails. The drive will be to the bar seen her in the well, the bridge simply locates on to this (and is allowed to rock end to end) and can be lifted off at any time.

The top of the deck is planked, some holes drilled through from below and the rails soldered to rivets with plastic chairs threaded on between them. There is no clue in the instructions as to how many chairs or what spacing to use, I tried to keep them all on the middle of the planks but this has left them slightly unevenly spaced in places.

The rails were soldered down using a rather ingenious jig system which has resulted in them being perfectly accurately laid. The three jigs provided are bars with slots for the rails at gauge and two pegs below which locate in pre-drilled holes in the 4ft.

In place in the well now, all the cosmetic bits added now, some etched, some brass angle and T section. The handrails are fitted on very nice machined stanchions which peg into pre-drilled holes in the deck. The whole thing rolls round quite smoothly although I'm not sure whether wheel pickup will work well enough - I've always had to add wipers before. This layout isn't DCC, otherwise no pickup wiring would be needed.

Just the drive mechanosm to assemble now, then paint it and take it over to install on the layout.

 

[t-b-g]

44 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

Back to the B7 I'm building for Herculaneum Dock/Wentworth Junction.

The fun part of these 4 cylinder GC 4-6-0s is that the slidebars are not attached to the cylinders in any way and are a long way back from them (presumably to keep the connecting rods as short as possible), this is how I set them up. The slidebar bracket is a fold up etch fitted across the frames in line with the cylinder ends, the piston rod will run in a length of tube. To set everything up the tube is in one piece through the cylinder ends and the slidebar bracket, piston rod material run through to line up on the centre of the driven axle. When it's all finished the tube will be cut away between the cylinders and the slidebar bracket.

The motor is an n20 driving through 1:1 bevel gears on the trailing axle.

Frames fitted in the completed body, chimney came from the infamous spares box, dome is a slightly modified moulding. Mudhole doors are machined from brass bar, annealed and curved (by hammering a steel bar into them) to fit the firebox, since this will be unlined the cladding bands are added in .002" copper.

All ready to paint the frames now, slidebars in place, piston rod guide cut away, valve spindle and guide added - the etch included an eccentric drive for the valve gear but for what is actually visible I didn't think it was worth the effort. The cylinder drain linkage is quite prominent though. The loco body has had a quick scrub with Barkeeper's Friend, buffer heads will be fitted after grit blasting.

 

Looking good Mike.

 

You have probably said elsewhere but to save me looking for a while, can you tell me the source of your tender please? Have you etched a self trimmer or is it one you have obtained from elsewhere?

 

When I built Valour, from the same source as the B7, I looked at the slidebar bracket and decided it was a bit too square and found that it was fairly easy to round off the front edge. I would be interested to see if you think it is a modification worth doing.

[Michael Edge]

The tender is an old Perseverance kit which I've had for several decades, with our mouldings in place of the built up stuff in the kit (you were supposed to build up each tender axlebox/spring from a casting, wire and individual leaves!). Most of it isn't bad though and I wanted a self trimming tender for a change. I'll have a look at the shape of the slidebar bracket in light of what you just said, it won't get painted till next week now. The lubricator on the piston rod guide is worth adding as well.

[Barry O]

I may get my kit of parts out...but then put them away until I finish other jobs off. Lovely looking loco.. will cause even more confusion in the shed on Herculaneum... (just look top down through a shed roof (open to the skies) onto a row of black ex GC tender locos and work out what they are..)

 

Baz 

[t-b-g]

That wasn't the best quality photo I have ever taken as it was added from my tablet, which hasn't got the best camera.

 

Here is a better quality one now I am on the big computer. On the real thing, the slidebar bracket is very much a horseshoe shape, tapering off at the rear outside edges (only visible at the top as the step plate covers the lower edge) and rounded at the front. 

 

I also looked at the guides for the piston valve and decided that the etches provided were OK but that the instructions suggested that they be mounted the wrong way round.

 

On the real thing, the widest bit (top to bottom) should be the nearest the cylinder.

 

[65179]

4 hours ago, t-b-g said:

 

I also looked at the guides for the piston valve and decided that the etches provided were OK but that the instructions suggested that they be mounted the wrong way round.

 

On the real thing, the widest bit (top to bottom) should be the nearest the cylinder.

 

 

Simon

[t-b-g]

34 minutes ago, 65179 said:

 

 

Simon

 

That was the photo I based my choice on. That plus the GA Drawing.

[Michael Edge]

I didn’t look at the instructions…….

[t-b-g]

21 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

I didn’t look at the instructions…….

 

A proper modeller then!

[polybear]

On 13/08/2021 at 08:27, Michael Edge said:

Back to some real (paid) work this week, the Cowans Sheldon turntable.

The turntable bridge is mainly built from accurately cut pcb with etched additions, the intention is to use the carrying wheels for electrical pickup and the design is intended to insulate each end bogie from the rest of the structure. Some additional insulation was required in places though, mainly to avoid inadvertently connecting the rails. The drive will be to the bar seen her in the well, the bridge simply locates on to this (and is allowed to rock end to end) and can be lifted off at any time.

The top of the deck is planked, some holes drilled through from below and the rails soldered to rivets with plastic chairs threaded on between them. There is no clue in the instructions as to how many chairs or what spacing to use, I tried to keep them all on the middle of the planks but this has left them slightly unevenly spaced in places.

The rails were soldered down using a rather ingenious jig system which has resulted in them being perfectly accurately laid. The three jigs provided are bars with slots for the rails at gauge and two pegs below which locate in pre-drilled holes in the 4ft.

In place in the well now, all the cosmetic bits added now, some etched, some brass angle and T section. The handrails are fitted on very nice machined stanchions which peg into pre-drilled holes in the deck. The whole thing rolls round quite smoothly although I'm not sure whether wheel pickup will work well enough - I've always had to add wipers before. This layout isn't DCC, otherwise no pickup wiring would be needed.

Just the drive mechanosm to assemble now, then paint it and take it over to install on the layout.

 

 

Thanks for posting these pictures Mike - I've been considering a Metalsmith kit for some time now (options are very limited when it comes to Turntable kits for some reason).  I notice that the website states 00, EM or P4 options - do you think there would there be any issues in constructing one with 00-sf trackwork?

 

Many thanks,

Brian

[Nicktoix]

On 13/08/2021 at 08:27, Michael Edge said:

Back to some real (paid) work this week, the Cowans Sheldon turntable.

The turntable bridge is mainly built from accurately cut pcb with etched additions, the intention is to use the carrying wheels for electrical pickup and the design is intended to insulate each end bogie from the rest of the structure. Some additional insulation was required in places though, mainly to avoid inadvertently connecting the rails. The drive will be to the bar seen her in the well, the bridge simply locates on to this (and is allowed to rock end to end) and can be lifted off at any time.

The top of the deck is planked, some holes drilled through from below and the rails soldered to rivets with plastic chairs threaded on between them. There is no clue in the instructions as to how many chairs or what spacing to use, I tried to keep them all on the middle of the planks but this has left them slightly unevenly spaced in places.

The rails were soldered down using a rather ingenious jig system which has resulted in them being perfectly accurately laid. The three jigs provided are bars with slots for the rails at gauge and two pegs below which locate in pre-drilled holes in the 4ft.

In place in the well now, all the cosmetic bits added now, some etched, some brass angle and T section. The handrails are fitted on very nice machined stanchions which peg into pre-drilled holes in the deck. The whole thing rolls round quite smoothly although I'm not sure whether wheel pickup will work well enough - I've always had to add wipers before. This layout isn't DCC, otherwise no pickup wiring would be needed.

Just the drive mechanosm to assemble now, then paint it and take it over to install on the layout.

 

 

The pickups on the 0 gauge version work very well

Nick

[Michael Edge]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Thanks for posting these pictures Mike - I've been considering a Metalsmith kit for some time now (options are very limited when it comes to Turntable kits for some reason).  I notice that the website states 00, EM or P4 options - do you think there would there be any issues in constructing one with 00-sf trackwork?

 

Many thanks,

Brian

The three jigs provided are specifically for the stated gauges - but why bother with 16.2 here? 16.5 will actually look very slightly better and work just as well - I only use 16.2 through crossings where it does make a big difference in appearance and running, my plain track is all 16.5mm. The only exception to this is the inside road in my fiddle yard which is laid to dual gauge, 16.2 and 18.2, to give me a longer EM test track.

[Michael Edge]

I should have included a photo of the track setting jigs from the turntable.

The pins locate in accurately drilled holes in the pcb deck, the slots hold the rail fairly tightly for soldering to the rivets. These are the three provided for EM gauge, I've no idea what the peg projecting on one side was for though.

[Mol_PMB]

45 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

I should have included a photo of the track setting jigs from the turntable.

 I've no idea what the peg projecting on one side was for though.

It looks rough enough to be the stub remaining after parting-off on a lathe?

[Michael Edge]

You're right, I hadn't thought they would have had these in a lathe but on closer inspection they look as if they have been parted off.

[cctransuk]

On 17/08/2021 at 15:44, polybear said:

 

Thanks for posting these pictures Mike - I've been considering a Metalsmith kit for some time now (options are very limited when it comes to Turntable kits for some reason).  I notice that the website states 00, EM or P4 options - do you think there would there be any issues in constructing one with 00-sf trackwork?

 

Many thanks,

Brian

 

I am currently trying to purchase the 60' turntable; ideally ready assembled, but in kit form if necessary.

 

The only contact email address was on the Metalsmiths website, but they have referred me to the Midland Rilway Centre.

 

I can find no mention of the model turntables on the MRC site; am I missing something?

 

John Isherwood.

[Stanley Melrose]

I hoped the turntable products had been taken over by the chap who has taken on the Metalsmith products but he hasn't taken the TTs which remain with Mr Smith who is retiring and appears to have no interest in selling any.  A big shame but that seems to be a dead end.

Stan