Popular Post Ian Major Posted January 2, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted January 2, 2020 We got our youngest grandson a train set for his birthday. This consisted of a new Hornby 0-6-0 loco, some refurbished track and stock which had been his father's 30 years ago. I bought some new turnouts and controller plus made a 4ft x 3ft board on which to mount it all. For Christmas he asked for point motors. So we obtained these and some Hornby levers. To house the levers I decided to make a signal box. I looked at the dimensions of the ScaleScenes R010 signal box and decided I could house 5 levers in it. Since I was modifying the design I emailed John Wiffen for his blessing, which he promptly gave along with some advice on the modifications. Then it was download the file, print it and mount the prints on card. At this point I regretted using Hornby levers because they are quite expensive but the quality does not match the price. In fact of the 5 that I obtained 2 were duff and had to be returned. The ground floor of the box was built following the normal instructions fairly closely. There are a couple of differences. The rear wall is cut in two to give separate lower and upper walls. The internal strengthening walls were spaced further apart to clear the 5 lever bodies. At this stage I only had 4 to play with so it all had to be done by careful measurement without trial fitting. The levers are actually a little too tall for the signal box, so I made a thick base out of laminations of 2mm card. Little boys like to move things around so recessing the levers in to the baseboard was out. The next part to be modified was the lever room floor. This was cut to match the internal strengthening walls. I also added a narrow strip along the top of the rear wall. This is because the unmodified floor butts against the unmodified rear wall and I wanted a level surface for the upper wall to sit on. I also cut a slice off the bottom of the upper rear wall to allow for this. A test fit of the levers showed that I needed a couple more layers on the base so that that top of the lever would be level with the upper floor. I also folded up the upper front wall to ensure the levers did not foul the windows. The upper floor was assembled. The roof was tiled then cut in two. One half of the roof was fitted permanently to the front and side walls. The rear half of the roof was attached to the upper half of the rear wall along with a reinforcing frame. This frame also lines up the detachable part of the wall/roof. The barge boards were mounted on thick card and cut back to the rear edge of the side wall. This was to make them knock proof. The rear of the porch should butt up against the rear wall. With the rear wall removed for operation this would leave the rear of the porch unsupported. As a compromise I reduced the depth of the porch so that it fully butts up against the side wall. This left some of the dark tread area exposed so a small piece of the floor covering that had been removed earlier was fitted as an overlay. After the photo was taken I painted the white areas and edges to mask them. The next photo shows the detachable part in place. Sadly it shows up the fact that I managed to leave off the thickening areas under the corner pieces so they are rather flat. Doh. ....and now with a chimney pot made from some Biro tube. The next view is the underside showing the recesses in the base to allow routing of the wiring. The contacts on the end of the wires supplied by Hornby stick out too far to fit in to the signal box. Out came the lathe. I turned a set of replacement connectors. The heads of these were cross drilled to take the wire and the pin cut part way down the middle. This cut was opened a little with my scalpel blade to give it some bite in the socket. The following photo shows my version (on the left) compared with the Hornby version. ...and a set trial fitted to check wire routing. ...and the full set of levers fitted to my grandson's layout. Finally a view with the signal box fitted with my grandson's pride and joy passing by. I am pleased to say he is very happy with it which makes it all worth while! Ian. 8 1 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Stokes Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 That's a great piece of work ! I wonder who will get the most pleasure from it - you making it or him using it. Nine years ago, when my eldest grandchild was 5, I made him a small model railway for Christmas after he showed interest in mine. Sadly that interest only lasted a few weeks. (He was possibly too young and I should have waited another year or two.) I hope that your grandson's interest will last much longer. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Major Posted January 3, 2020 Author Share Posted January 3, 2020 Thanks Robert. My grandson is 7 years old so I think the extra couple of years makes a difference. He has been interested in my 0 gauge stuff for a few years and wants to get involved. The old Kitmaster/Airfix kits, now Dapol are great for children his age. If they don't come together well nothing much is lost. A lesson I learnt was not to get over enthusiastic. I found out the hard way that this had put off his father (my son) when he was young. We bought my grandson a Metcalfe loco shed kit which my son and grandson did together igniting and re-igniting interests. It was wonderful to see. I teach my grandson (and granddaughter) how to use with safety some of my tools in my workshop. We have two important workshop rules: Rule 1: No messing about. Rule 2: No-one is allowed to say "I can't do it". Only time will tell what will come of it all. I suspect they may end up doing 3D computer modelling for which they are already showing an aptitude - and to think I was 15 before I laid hands on a typewriter keyboard let alone a computer! Ian. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Major Posted January 7, 2020 Author Share Posted January 7, 2020 Thanks Terry. There is a little space between the controller and lever frame so he can drive the loco and his sister can operate the lever frame or vice versa. If he invites you to drive whilst he signals you have to be prepared to be told off for SPADs! Ian. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marly51 Posted January 16, 2020 Share Posted January 16, 2020 On 03/01/2020 at 13:31, Ian Major said: Thanks Robert. My grandson is 7 years old so I think the extra couple of years makes a difference. He has been interested in my 0 gauge stuff for a few years and wants to get involved. The old Kitmaster/Airfix kits, now Dapol are great for children his age. If they don't come together well nothing much is lost. A lesson I learnt was not to get over enthusiastic. I found out the hard way that this had put off his father (my son) when he was young. We bought my grandson a Metcalfe loco shed kit which my son and grandson did together igniting and re-igniting interests. It was wonderful to see. I teach my grandson (and granddaughter) how to use with safety some of my tools in my workshop. We have two important workshop rules: Rule 1: No messing about. Rule 2: No-one is allowed to say "I can't do it". Only time will tell what will come of it all. I suspect they may end up doing 3D computer modelling for which they are already showing an aptitude - and to think I was 15 before I laid hands on a typewriter keyboard let alone a computer! Ian. I agree with your approach totally, Ian. My dad showed my brother and I how to use tools safely from an early age and modelmaking has been one of my favourite activities since childhood. My own daughter also made models from an early age, progressing from basic cardboard box houses, for her collection of plastic animals, to detailed scale buildings when she was a teenager. Now she is happily working in the digital games industry as an illustrator and designer! Marlyn 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NittenDormer Posted January 19, 2020 Share Posted January 19, 2020 That is a fun way of hiding the levers! Dare I suggest hinges and a remote control for opening the roof? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Major Posted January 26, 2020 Author Share Posted January 26, 2020 NittenDormer, I am glad you like it. I suspect a hinged roof would not last very long! Nice idea though. My apologies for not replying earlier. I have not been in to RMWeb for a while. Ian. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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