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Michael Edge's workbench


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1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

I've been slowly going through older locos in my collection and replacing motors and gearboxes with more efficient modern equipment.

IMG_0461.jpg.2611ea01f148d89864f331d93a028838.jpg

This is one of the oldest, dating from 1977, in the foreground is the K's MkII, good in its time but rather weak and high current consumption now. The cheap Chinese motor was an easy replacement, leaving the Romford 40:1 gears this time. The K's motor was bolted to a plate across the frames, to fit the new one (which has no fixing screw holes) I soldered a nickel silver plate to the bottom pole piece and soldered all that in place on the frames. It runs really well and a lot less on the ammeter.

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This is the loco, the last of the L&Y small boilered 0-8-0s. It was built to run on Wigan Wallgate and has been out of use now for many years, not really appropriate for any layout I provide motive power for. All scratchbuilt from brass, steel and nickel silver it still looks good, only marred by the visible worm gear under the boiler, BarryO added the weathering more recently.

One of my favourite locos.
Mine is the NuCast kit with an ECM motor. Runs well.
Lovely weathering job.
I liked those ECM motors. I had good experiences with them. Three are running on my train set. They must be over 30 years old now.

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4 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

this is not going to be a working model - the next one might be though.

 

Is it a case of building an unpowered test model to check over everything (and if so, is this your usual practice?) or was there another reason?

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10 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Some more pictures of the DL Sentinel

IMG_0458.jpg.d6f1bce155918cece76a14854e6b4217.jpg

IMG_0459.jpg.2f48bfca022961e975632b44bcf8cef5.jpg

The sliding doors can be made to work (and were often left open - it must have been hot in there), showing the rather basic representation of the boiler.

IMG_0460.jpg.2f6d3eb2f32f114427b727affe416695.jpg

From underneath it's just the same as the 0-6-0DH, the conventionally shaped cranks can be seen behind the covering discs. No bearings fitted to the compensating beams, this is not going to be a working model - the next one might be though.

That is a very chunky loco, Mike.

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22 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Some more pictures of the DL Sentinel

IMG_0458.jpg.d6f1bce155918cece76a14854e6b4217.jpg

IMG_0459.jpg.2f48bfca022961e975632b44bcf8cef5.jpg

The sliding doors can be made to work (and were often left open - it must have been hot in there), showing the rather basic representation of the boiler.

IMG_0460.jpg.2f6d3eb2f32f114427b727affe416695.jpg

From underneath it's just the same as the 0-6-0DH, the conventionally shaped cranks can be seen behind the covering discs. No bearings fitted to the compensating beams, this is not going to be a working model - the next one might be though.

 

I cannot wait for this one Mike looks great.

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3 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Two items from the last photo now ready to leave:

1379759646_20-06lfpainted.jpg.cefb17f3b7f9b368c8eaa60dee586314.jpg

The Little Engines D10 painted and fitted with nameplates.

 

 

The D10 looks great Mike, but aren't you taking the Henry Ford maxim a little far? You can have any D10 as long as it's 62659...

 

Simon

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3 hours ago, 65179 said:

 

The D10 looks great Mike, but aren't you taking the Henry Ford maxim a little far? You can have any D10 as long as it's 62659...

 

Simon

Not my choice....

 

10 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Magnets?

It didn't fit well enough for that and it shouldn't need to come off again - it's only going about 12 miles away anyway.

 

Harton No2 was put away in its own box for the test track renovation, only work in progress came back out. I need to arrange for some cast buffers, otherwise it's ready to go to production

4 hours ago, richard i said:

That is a nice steam railmotor. I have a soft spot for them, not sure why. 

I didn't even know the Midland had anything like this until I saw this model - I had to Google it then to check. The motion, especially the underslung weighshaft is very similar to the GW version - and just as spindly.

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On 21/01/2021 at 14:25, Michael Edge said:

 

IMG_0468.jpg.c4d8e0ff9b756ccd187d28d63b7e76ae.jpg

 

Apparently this model was advertised on Ebay as a Midland Railway Electric railcar - with the roof on the wrong way round!

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When I took the cab roof off I wasn't surprised to find that it had been glued on the wrong way round (clearly marked on the inside of course), I cleaned the thick glue off and it clips back into place now - the right way round. I know it should be symmetrical but this is scratchbuilt after all and it isn't perfect - which is why I mark things like this.

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More on the GER T26 (LNER E4), this is now ready to go to Ian Rathbone for painting.

2146507248_19-14GERT261253rf.JPG.6d009a5a60ece04b2e9aa5e94d3dd311.JPG

This is a Gibson kit, built in P4, the tender axleboxes will be fitted after painting and the only cladding band is the one that was etched on the firebox wrapper - others will be added with the lining. I altered the coupling rod splashers to leave a brass top which can be polished, the smokebox wrapper was the wrong length and had to be replaced with thin steel sheet. I don't have any P4 track so it's on the slightly wrinkly cloth - the footplate heights do match up on the track.

I modified the kit to be compensated rather than sprung, two driving axles are linked with beams, the leading axle is in hornblocks but rocking under a knife edge. The tender frames have kept the hornblocks but the rear two axles are linked and the leading one is under a knife edge. A small motor in the firebox and a High Level Roadrunner+ drive the leading axle and all out of sight.

1662701863_19-14bl.JPG.011642a26be0d373b7803bcf8ab14c9d.JPG

The firebox back is also left out for painting. There were two options for the flared top on the tender - white metal or lost wax brass castings. These were in three pieces but in both the back part was considerably narrower than the top of the tank so I used the brass ones with the back sawn in half and about 1.2mm soldered in the middle.

The side pieces had huge sprue runners on the outside (i.e. inside the curve) which took some filing off but the end result was quite good.

Also out recently was this 7mm Sentinel 4w DH from one of our kits.

IMG_1015.JPG.3eb0cee444c575c60f5241c6efffa777.JPG

I didn't notice that the leading handrail on the RH side had come out of its hole in the engine casing until it was packed ready to post.....

IMG_1018.JPG.dcf6d4f9aee13e2cf454ee2cee58f24e.JPG

This is the drive arrangement, the drive chains aren't much bigger than scale in 7mm and these run as in the full size loco from a central final drive shaft down to each axle. It is possible to drive on this shaft but only at the expense of removing the bosses from the sprockets which of course weakens their grip on the axle. The easier option is to drive on the leading axle at one side, this is a Branchlines 30RU gearbox with one of the large Mabuchi motors bolted to it. The Slater's wagon wheels come on 1/8th axles, the leading one fixed, trailing one rocking under the knife edge. All the working parts, brakes etc. are in inner frames, the outer ones with the axleboxes are just cosmetic.

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3 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

Also out recently was this 7mm Sentinel 4w DH from one of our kits.

IMG_1015.JPG.3eb0cee444c575c60f5241c6efffa777.JPG

I didn't notice that the leading handrail on the RH side had come out of its hole in the engine casing until it was packed ready to post.....

IMG_1018.JPG.dcf6d4f9aee13e2cf454ee2cee58f24e.JPG

This is the drive arrangement, the drive chains aren't much bigger than scale in 7mm and these run as in the full size loco from a central final drive shaft down to each axle. It is possible to drive on this shaft but only at the expense of removing the bosses from the sprockets which of course weakens their grip on the axle. The easier option is to drive on the leading axle at one side, this is a Branchlines 30RU gearbox with one of the large Mabuchi motors bolted to it. The Slater's wagon wheels come on 1/8th axles, the leading one fixed, trailing one rocking under the knife edge. All the working parts, brakes etc. are in inner frames, the outer ones with the axleboxes are just cosmetic.

I am looking forward to getting started on my one of those!

I have a couple of the tiny N20 geared motors in stock, GA1024 12V 100rpm, would one of those be suitable or do I need something bigger as you have used? The loco will operate on shunting plank about 6 feet long hauling a handful of wagons, but I'm aware that my HC 0-6-0 for the same duty has a much bigger motor and a massive flywheel too.

Cheers,

Paul

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

More on the GER T26 (LNER E4), this is now ready to go to Ian Rathbone for painting.

2146507248_19-14GERT261253rf.JPG.6d009a5a60ece04b2e9aa5e94d3dd311.JPG

This is a Gibson kit, built in P4, the tender axleboxes will be fitted after painting and the only cladding band is the one that was etched on the firebox wrapper - others will be added with the lining. I altered the coupling rod splashers to leave a brass top which can be polished, the smokebox wrapper was the wrong length and had to be replaced with thin steel sheet. I don't have any P4 track so it's on the slightly wrinkly cloth - the footplate heights do match up on the track.

I modified the kit to be compensated rather than sprung, two driving axles are linked with beams, the leading axle is in hornblocks but rocking under a knife edge. The tender frames have kept the hornblocks but the rear two axles are linked and the leading one is under a knife edge. A small motor in the firebox and a High Level Roadrunner+ drive the leading axle and all out of sight.

1662701863_19-14bl.JPG.011642a26be0d373b7803bcf8ab14c9d.JPG

The firebox back is also left out for painting. There were two options for the flared top on the tender - white metal or lost wax brass castings. These were in three pieces but in both the back part was considerably narrower than the top of the tank so I used the brass ones with the back sawn in half and about 1.2mm soldered in the middle.

The side pieces had huge sprue runners on the outside (i.e. inside the curve) which took some filing off but the end result was quite good.

 

Nice job on a b. awful kit! On mine, none of the wheel and splasher cutouts in the footplate match the ones on the other side - or the chassis! There are numerous other issues with it too, including the tender faring which you mention. I seem to remember there's something wrong with the tender frames and axleboxes too.  

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1 hour ago, Daddyman said:

Nice job on a b. awful kit! On mine, none of the wheel and splasher cutouts in the footplate match the ones on the other side - or the chassis! There are numerous other issues with it too, including the tender faring which you mention. I seem to remember there's something wrong with the tender frames and axleboxes too.  

I didn't think it was that bad, I've certainly struggled with a lot worse - and it is a fairly old kit. I haven't really looked at the tender axleboxes apart from sanding the backs flat, they are very nice lost wax castings. The tender frames match the GER Society drawings.

1 hour ago, 65179 said:

Is the B7 for Herculaneum Dock Mike? Which one are you doing?

 

Simon

B7 will be E1349, intended for Herculaneum and Wentworth Junction. They were fairly common at Brunswick and no reason not to be seen on WJ. 

2 hours ago, Mol_PMB said:

I am looking forward to getting started on my one of those!

I have a couple of the tiny N20 geared motors in stock, GA1024 12V 100rpm, would one of those be suitable or do I need something bigger as you have used? The loco will operate on shunting plank about 6 feet long hauling a handful of wagons, but I'm aware that my HC 0-6-0 for the same duty has a much bigger motor and a massive flywheel too.

Cheers,

Paul

 

 

Judging by my experience with these so far the geared n20 will have plenty of power for that job, my 7mm 05 is weighted up to 460g and can still slip its wheels under load.

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17 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Judging by my experience with these so far the geared n20 will have plenty of power for that job, my 7mm 05 is weighted up to 460g and can still slip its wheels under load.

Michael,

Many thanks.

Do you have a GA drawing for the MSC Hudswell Clarke 204hp diesels (either batch)? I have become aware that they did not all have the same wheelbase, and were also different from the MD&HB and BR versions!

Best Regards,

Paul

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