Ruston's Industrial locomotive and wagon workshop thread.

[Sandhole]

38 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

We're most likely to do the MSC ones since they are the best known but there's nothing remotely imminent.

Hmm, another warchest to accumulate.
A model of Arundel Castle would be nice.
Mike, do you remember a conversation we had regarding the possibility of you doing a kit for the big YE 0-4-0 saddle tank?
That's my other warchest. I'm still very interested.
Regards,
Chris.

 

[Barclay]

Yes I would take an MSC Hudswell off your hands...

[Michael Edge]

1 hour ago, Sandhole said:

Hmm, another warchest to accumulate.
A model of Arundel Castle would be nice.
Mike, do you remember a conversation we had regarding the possibility of you doing a kit for the big YE 0-4-0 saddle tank?
That's my other warchest. I'm still very interested.
Regards,
Chris.

 

I was thinking about that today, then we would have three generations of wasp stripe locos for Templeborough.

[Sandhole]

23 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

I was thinking about that today, then we would have three generations of wasp stripe locos for Templeborough.

My mythical Manchester Steel has YE locos .
Agenoria 0-6-0s, a mixture of yours and Oxford Janii, your Taurus and your 0-4-0 YE Diesel.
I'm missing a YE 0-4-0 steam engine.
OH yes, I also think the YE 0-4-0 is a really handsome brute.

[Ruston]

I'm leaving the Brush alone and will maybe go back to it some time. At the moment, the former Coalite hoppers have received the first stages of paint and weathering. They have been joined by three Parkside 21t hopper kits.

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

The 21-ton hoppers are almost finished. I was actually going to leave them as they are n the photos as the looked OK but under the gaze of the lens, the underframes, particularly the solebars, need more work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Mike 84C]

A camera, the modellers instrument of torture! I looked at least twice before an ahh! its a model moment. I would be applying the two foot rule. Those hoppers are bloody brilliant.

[Ruston]

I got the Brush out again and added a few bits of plastic to it.

 

The top grille for the radiator was done by making an infill piece from styrene that fits in the slot that I had filed out. The piece follows the profile of the top but is slightly smaller so that with a piece of brass mesh araldited to it, it comes back up to the same level as the original profile. The brass mesh was a very unusual find. It was just lying on the floor, where I walk the dog. A 2 inch square piece of brass mesh, just lying there. I can't think where or what it came from but as soon as I saw it I thought that it would do for this little job.

 

I really don't know where I will run this thing, if it does get finished. It is so long that even with the large buffer heads (from a Hattons Barclay) it can't propel a mineral wagon around the curve on Watery Lane. Not that it has a motor yet but I pushed it along to test it. It also has some severe clearance problems in the scrapyard. The rods make it well out of loading gauge. It is the same chassis as my BR Class 08 but that never runs into the scrapyard, so I have never come across this problem before.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

Planet Industrials Ruston 165DE kit build.

 

This is a first for me. I have never built a kit that is part 3D-printed and part etched brass. It's a kind of cross between kit and RTR as the majority of the body is a single piece of 3D print, to which the etches are glued and a Hornby W4 Peckett chassis is fitted.

 

The modifications to the chassis obviously include removing the cylinders, con rods and crossheads, and modifying the extended crank pin. They also say to snip off the motion bracket with pliers! That is a bit too much of a bodge and I wanted to preserve the bracket for possible future use. It is easy enough to remove the bracket intact by removing the 4 screws that hold the motor down and then the two screws that hold the bottom part of the boiler. The bottom of the boiler can be lifted out and the bracket removed.

 

 

 

 

The instructions say to wash it and clean up the body with 640 then 1200 grade wet and dry paper. I washed it but gave it a coat of grey primer before the wet and dry as otherwise it is virtually impossible to see print lines etc. on the bright white plastic material. Having the radiator filler cap as part of the print means it gets in the way of the preparation. This could easily have been a separate part. If I'm not happy with the lines in that area, after using the wet and dry, I may cut it off and make one from plastic rod.

 

 

Trial fit.

 

 

And that's where I hit a snag.

 

Above is one of the holes for the mounting screws. The screws that hold the Peckett together are machine screws and cannot cut their own thread, so I had to find some self-tappers. There aren't any included in the kit.

 

A countersunk one for the front, to suit the chassis.

 

 

But the hole for the rear one in the print does not line up with the hole in the chassis. Some filing to elongate the hole in the chassis is required, which is very annoying.

 

And that's as far as I've got.

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[PenrithBeacon]

Perhaps Gordon A could modify his etched kit for a Peckett chassis to suit this body. 

[Gordon A]

2 hours ago, PenrithBeacon said:

Perhaps Gordon A could modify his etched kit for a Peckett chassis to suit this body. 

Sorry David - no chance. My chassis kit does have a slot for the rear body securing screw.

Edited March 24, 2021 by Gordon A

[Ruston]

2 hours ago, PenrithBeacon said:

Perhaps Gordon A could modify his etched kit for a Peckett chassis to suit this body. 

This one is being built for someone else but I have one for myself. When it comes to building my own I may well make a chassis for it but there's no point in doing anything just yet as we can't get gearboxes at the moment. Mr. 5050 has already asked about this and I am in the process of drawing something up to make patterns for milling. I could be persuaded to run off another set of parts in exchange for beer tokens.

[PenrithBeacon]

Thanks for that, PM sent

[5050]

I'm going to wait until Dave has got well down the line with his before I start on mine

[Ruston]

The etched brass.

 

 

I have got almost all the etched panels fitted.

 

I used superglue gel for all but the rad grille which is fixed with epoxy. This took a lot of adjustment to position just right, so I wanted an adhesive that gave time for this as there is no means whatsoeverof positively locating it. There are two grilles on the fret and I initially thought that one was a smaller inner that would locate the outer if soldered back-to-back, but they are both the same size and with screw detail. I have no idea why there are two and the instructions don't mention it.

 

The cab steps fit into a slot in the underside of the running plate but this is going to be a very weak joint, so I glued a piece of plastruct to the back to reinforce it and give a larger surface area for the glue to grab.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Kevin Johnson]

The etched brass panels look great Dave.

[PenrithBeacon]

Would a contact adhesive work?

[Ruston]

More progress on the kit.

 

I have all the handrails fitted but the knobs provided are all the same length. All are probably too long but I suppose they won't look too bad when it's finished, except for those on the front of the engine casing - here, they would overhang too far and look ridiculous, so I have replaced them with some short ones from my stash of parts.

 

I have also fitted the brass overlays on the Peckett chassis, and the 3D printed weight blocks to it.  Other added parts are the strengthening plates at the bottom of the buffer beams have also been fitted.

 

The instructions say these should only be fitted "only once you no longer need to remove the chassis, as they make it captive". That's just silly! For one thing, I don't want to have to paint the body with the chassis fitted and, for another, how are you supposed to get to the insides to lubricate anything?

 

It's quite easy to get around this by cutting a section out before folding them over and soldering them on, but why not simply make the etches with the cut out to begin with? The photo, below, shows the rear one after cutting and fitting. The front one didn't require any alteration.

 

The chassis is screwed in using 10BA screws. The tube that can be seen in an earlier pic really isn't up to having a self-tapper screwed in and it collapsed. If instead of a tube, the area for the screw was a solid block of print, it may have been OK but it isn't. I ran a tap through the print to cut threads into it for the 10BA screws. They may have cut in themselves but I didn't want to risk forcing anything.

 

So far, I do like the kit, and is is quite good, but it's almost as if I'm doing a test-build and these niggling problems really ought to have been addressed by the designer before the kit was released.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

More progress with the Planet Industrials kit build.

 

It is almost all together now. I have drilled a hole in the bonnet and fitted a short length of brass tube as the exhaust pipe. Buffers have been fitted (these must be sourced separately and do not come with the kit), and it has been given a lick of paint.

 

The RH/BTH plates have been painted and fitted - annoyingly, these are etched in brass but really ought to be nickel silver as the prototypes were aluminium alloy. The driving rods on the Peckett chassis have gib and cotters but these Rustons had quite substantial rods that did not have gib and cotters. I felt this looked wrong and so have made new rods.

 

The above loco is being built for someone else but I do have one of these kits for myself. Buying a Hornby Peckett, just to use the chassis, goes against my Yorkshireness, so my own loco will have this scratchbuilt chassis.

 

It is powered by an inexpensive Chinese N20 motor, coupled to a High Level Roadrunner 60:1 gearbox. The wheelbase on these locomotives was 5ft, 9in and although the Peckett chassis is only 1mm out, I reckoned that I may as well make mine to the proper dimension, as it is being built from scratch. The wheels will be Gibson's 3ft. 3in. Garratt wheels.

 

 

 

I have made the fixing holes elongated, so there is no problem lining it up to the screw holes in the body. The lower stretcher has holes for wires to pass through, from the pickups to the motor (or decoder) and a central hole that will be tapped 10BA to fix the copper-clad paxolin for the pickups.

 

I found a turned brass air horn in my spares box, so have fitted it as no such thing is provided in the kit. the headlight is from RT Models.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Barclay]

Those chevrons look excellent - how do you do yours?

[Ruston]

38 minutes ago, Barclay said:

Those chevrons look excellent - how do you do yours?

I made them myself. I drew up the design, using Photoshop, and printed them onto waterslide decal paper. The yellow is printed but I also painted the entire buffer beam yellow as a backing colour. If you want some, I can send you the file so you can make your own.

[Barclay]

4 hours ago, Ruston said:

I made them myself. I drew up the design, using Photoshop, and printed them onto waterslide decal paper. The yellow is printed but I also painted the entire buffer beam yellow as a backing colour. If you want some, I can send you the file so you can make your own.

Thanks I'd like to try. Will PM you.

[Ruston]

Time to fit the brakes to the Peckett-chassied one.

 

There are four blocks/hangers provided but no mention in the instructions of how they are supposed to be fitted. It would appear that holes need to be drilled in the chassis. A loating hole through the etched overlay would have been useful to indicate where to drill.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Ruston]

The Peckett-powered one is almost finished.

 

I mentioned, previously that there is no exhaust pipe in the kit. There also as no fuel filler, or indication of where it should be. I made one, plus a fuel tank dipstick. There is also another circular thing on the bonnet, which may be the filler for the tank that supplies the starting air donkey engine. Whatever it is, I made and fitted a rough representation of it.

 

The other change was to the cab roof. The roof supplied in the kit is etched brass and whilst this would normally be a refinement on a 3D-printed kit, the cabs on these later 165DEs appear as if they are a thick slab. They are actually only sheet metal but the sides are folded down, almost like a tupperware lid. I made my own roof from 30 thou. plasticard. I also added rain strips and the roof vents, plus a lifting eye. There are no rain strips on the etched roof, if you do use that.

 

There are a few things about the kit that could be improved on, and some that need to be changed, but all in all, it's turned out pretty well.

 

 

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by Ruston

[Kevin Johnson]

That's really nice Dave.