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My coming out of Lockdown workbench


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On 07/09/2020 at 10:52, Brassey said:

I hope the move has gone well.  I had to let my daughter have a larger bedroom when the shoe collection was encroaching the landing!

 

I've managed to shoehorn the layout into the new railway room (along with everything else) but there is only space now for a small fiddleyard at one end only.  Currently that isn't such a problem as I don't have that much finished stock to run having focused on loco building.

 

The challenge now I face with panelled coaches is the painting and lining which I am now only just coming to terms with.

 

I’m still decorating the new room.  Today I’ve got the first coat of colour on the walls.  The problem is my health.  If I do more than 2-3 hours of activity a day then I end wiped out the next day.  Some days it’s even less.  Tuesday I did 2 hours of sanding and hoovering up; consequently I had no energy for anything yesterday.  I recon that it takes me a week to do anything physical what a normal person could do in a day.

 

But I have been able to do some planning.  I’ve designed the first of 5 baseboards for the test track that will go in the room and got a couple of quotes to have it laser cut.  Unfortunately it’s a lot more than I expected.  A similar size standard board from Grainge & Hodder is £33, my custom board is £110.  When you apply that to 5 baseboards it’s too much.  So I’m now hoping that Tim Horn will be open to orders soon as his off the shelf sizes are the closest fit.

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I’ve been thinking/planning the new test track in the new railway room.  Nothing too fancy.  Just 3 circles: 1 P4 the others OO-SF.  3m x 2.4m.  The P4 one has a couple of mock A7 crossovers to new couplings and gangways.  One OO-SF one will have a 1% grade up and down to test the pulling power on my locos.  Half of it will be made from the existing baseboard that was my sons layout and the other half will need to be new.  I was going to get the new boards laser cut to my custom design with all the gradients included.  But I’ve had a couple of quotes for the smallest board and it’s just too expensive.  A 720 x 300mm board was £100.  Compare that to an off the shelf board from G&H that would need shortening is only £33.  I haven’t been able to find out how much Tim Horn would charge for the flat designs which I can see he has done the shapes and sizes I need.  But 5 boards from G&H which would just about do are £193.

 

All this has got  me thinking about more baseboards for the next section of Penrhos.  Laser cut boards weren’t around when I made the first ones and I wish it was.  But each of the scenic boards is individual.  So that puts laser cut boards out of the frame.  Or does it?  Now how much is a Darkly Core?  Could I justify it based on how much it would save me.....

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Back to the test track boards.  I’ve drawn up 4 flat earth baseboards which share as many parts as possible.  That should keep the cost down.  There are 3 curved boards, each 60deg.  But I can’t decide what material to use for the sides?  Should it be 6mm ply like the rest of the boards, or something else?  It needs to be bent to form the inside of the board which is 1.8m diameter.  I made a curved board for my P4 area group layout and formed the ply by lying it in the garage rafters with a brick weight sitting on the middle for a few weeks.  I don’t think I can do that again as these pieces are much shorter.

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I used finally a laminate of 2 layers of 6mm ply on the curved sides of my boards. I thought one layer was too thin when I first built it so added a second layer outside. They are screwed to 44mm x 44mm blocks which pulled them into shape. 

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Those are quite substantial baseboards you’ve built Brassey.  Looks like the inside radius of them is about 2m?  I’m looking at 0.9m for my inside radius which I’m thinking might be too tight.  I’m thinking that 2 sheets of 3mm ply or mdf might be safer?

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23 hours ago, Penrhos1920 said:

Looks like the inside radius of them is about 2m?  I’m looking at 0.9m for my inside radius


my track is on a transition curve which at the tightest is 1.5m. The baseboard edge is about 10cm in from that giving a radius of 1.4m

 

I’d planned to make this a roundy with 1m curves so 0.9m inner radius would be possibly required 

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  • Penrhos1920 changed the title to My Lockdown workbench - self isolation day 258 - moving in

There’s been no modelling for a long time.  Over the summer I’ve been decorating the new railway room.  Now it’s finished and I’ve spent the last 2 weeks moving in.  It never occurred to me that it would take so long.  I thought that I’d sorted everything when it was packed away but somehow I’ve found a lot of things that I can’t see me needing in the future; once they would have been ‘useful ‘ sometime in the future, but now they’re surplus to requirements and taking up useful space.

 

Anyway I’ve also been spending money in the good cause of staying safe and with a railway theme.A76C64DB-D3AC-4B59-AD7C-2E6BDD7F1F42.jpeg.6a33c687ed1b525726e05c6f16a71577.jpeg

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  • Penrhos1920 changed the title to My Lockdown workbench - self isolation, Tier 4 - Happy New Year and another project started

So as of 12 hours ago we are into Tier 4 here - lockdown 3 has started.  More time for modelling.

 

I got a couple of really useful presents for Christmas:

 

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they're from China via eBay.  The larger drill stand starts at 1mm and goes upto 13mm in mostly 0.1mm steps.  I've got a second one which is destined for the garage and it will be filled with mainly larger drills.  The little stand is sold for nail work but by opening out the holes slightly it takes all of my mini drill bits.  Together they have greatly enhanced the work desk.

 

True to form I've also started another new project.  Can you guess what it will be?  So far I've cut off all the bits that will be replaced and modified the internals for sound.

 

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Here’s a clue to this Peckett’s new identity.

 

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The cab is not fixed in place as I’m waiting for a stay alive to fit in the bunker.  The yellow tape is just to protect the injector overflow pipes which are too easy to break off.

 

Anyone going to suggest where I’m going with this Peckett?

Edited by Penrhos1920
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Work continues on the mysterious Peckett conversion.  I'll give you a clue that it did actually run in GWR colours, but I'm doing it in it's earlier Henry Ford style livery of black, with black highlights.

 

Having received the sound chip I found I hadn't cut enough off the chassis block or body so more has been removed.  The witness line in the cut out area is where the firebox casting joins to the body casting and makes me think that is about the limit of metal removal in that area!   I've also had to cut 1.3mm of each side of the inside of the footplate to make space for EM wheels.  That was easy except where the reverser lever is which took a bit more care.  To prevent the injector overflows from disappearing they have been removed and kept safe on a tiny piece of masking tape.  The last photo shows the EM conversion kit has also arrived.

 

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14 hours ago, 37079 said:

Is it GWR 679 (ex-ADR)? Not convinced I’m right but it seems a reasonable fit. Whatever it is it’s looking good!

 

Mike

It is.  But why aren’t you convinced?  Is there a glaring flaw I’ve missed?

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After much pontification I’ve settled on Ambis pre grouping hooks with Smiths fine links (a mixture of brass and magnetic links) for the 70+ wagons that were otherwise finished in the summer.  So I’ve been assembling and blackening loads of 3 link couplings.  But I’ve stalled at the last but one fence.  After blackening  in the appropriate Carr’s solution, I fix them with Electrofix.  But this time the Electrofix hasn’t dried, even after several days of sitting above a radiator and twice going into the oven after cooking dinner.  Has anyone else had this problem before?  If so, what is the best solution?  I’m currently minded to sanitise them in IPA.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 09/05/2020 at 20:50, Penrhos1920 said:

I've almost run out of kits to bash and these are the only bits left.  I don't need another composite so what can I make from these bits.  Suggestions on a sanitised post card please.

 

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Rather late to the table, I expect, but how about a down-graded U17...? 

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1 hour ago, Mrs Durby said:

Rather late to the table, I expect, but how about a down-graded U17...? 

 

Unfortunately U17 is a different style to the Ratio kits.  The U17 windows are shorter and the roof is a single arc rather than the 3 arc of the Ratio kits.  A pity as U17 would be nice unusual design to have on the layout.  In the end I went for a S12, which is a 5 compartment third that had wider compartments than normal.

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6 minutes ago, Penrhos1920 said:

The U17 windows are shorter and the roof is a single arc rather than the 3 arc of the Ratio kits.

Indeed, but I managed to put a saw through the length of the windows (below the door-lock key housings), then fit the whole side back together.  I then added a small sliver along the top edge before filing the end-topss round and replacing the beading with a bit of 10thou shaped to the same arc, glued then the top filed down to match.  A 2mm drill through some 20thou.  (doesn't split so easily at 10thou.), leaves you with a load of holes of 1mm radius, bits of which can be easily cut out to form the fillets in the corners.  That took me rather longer than I wanted so I did another one, took my time to make it nice and neat, and then cast it (in those days), in biscuit resin.  Here's a very poor image of a ctr-bk 3rd and a 6-wh compo - both arc-roofed - but they're packed away at present and difficult to get at to take a more recent photo - sorry ! 

6+4-wheeledGWRcoaches[poor]!-AMc.jpg

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17 minutes ago, Mrs Durby said:

Here's a very poor image of a ctr-bk 3rd and a 6-wh compo - both arc-roofed - but they're packed away at present and difficult to get at to take a more recent photo - sorry ! 

 

That's a shame - I do like to see a bit of antique coaching stock. 

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