The Construction of the Far North Line

[Ben Alder]

Thanks all- most future postings will be in the "son of FNL", which has retained the same thread title, with this original now renamed as "Construction of the FNL" - anyway here is the new thread- http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/66265-the-far-north-line/

 

Cheers all.

[Ben Alder]

A progress report, and I thought that I would put it in the old thread rather than mix up WIP with the more finished pieces in the new one. Anyway, despite the silence I have been busy, tackling some more of the white metal mountain , something that most modellers of my age and era seem to have accumulated. Work on these I find slow, with most of the time spent fitting, filing, fettling and filling, often with a fifth f... used as well , the word kit sometimes being a loose description of what comes in the box. To be fair, the current build do seem to be some of the better examples of the genre.

 

I firstly tackled a Stanier 2-6-2T- 40150, a Thurso resident, and posted a shot in primer up on the other thread recently. This has now reached an almost finished stage, but I ran out of transfers for the second's side's lining, so moved on to the 16xx panniers that worked the Dornoch branch. Here is 40150 halfway through the paint shop.

 

 

I acquired two of the GW tanks through Ebay- one untouched and the other half built, which was stripped and dismantled as far as possible, and as it was more sensible to tackle any problems once rather than twice, decided to build them both at once. I might only motorize one just now- it won't take a Portescap due to its lack of size, so am waiting for a High Level gearbox/motor combo, and we'll see how that goes. A couple of shots of the two of them...

 

 

 

 

And one of 40150 and 1646/9 together.

 

 

 

I have filled in under the boiler of the static one, but it should be easy enough to open up anything needed for clearance if required- the second one is going to be fun- I soldered the boiler and footplate together without thinking how I was going to get the firebox sides and underboiler into place. Trials suggest it is going to be a ship inside a bottle type of manoeuvre, but I'll wait until the motor comes before I tackle this, hence the less finished state of this one.

 

Compared to the general building progress last year, I find this aspect of the hobby tedious,although the results do prove worthwhile, but I might rethink my planned loco  projects a bit- I have enough stock now, to all intents and purposes, and might start casting an eye over the coaching stock, which could do with some thinning out, and are going to gain from a closer coupling system to reduce the 6' gap between them that I have been ignoring for too long now.

Anyway, more anon, no doubt.....

[benachie]

Hi Richard,

Both of these are on my list.

Is the 2-6-2T on the Nucast chassis?

I am 90% along the way with my 16xx but got a bit unsure of the positioning of some of the parts with strange Western names!   I used the underside of the Mashima 1426 to fake the underside of the boiler and so preserve the daylight.

Alan

[Ben Alder]

Look forward to seeing your models of these two -I am sure you will do a more thorough job of them than mine- all I want from my builds are engines that run well and can pass as what they are supposed to represent. And to that end 40150 is another piece of Ben Alder bodging, with the running gear being a Bachmann 2-6-0 chassis and bogie. The wheels are slightly on the small side and the rear pair should be further back, but are hidden by the tank sides, and at normal viewing angles will, I declare, not be too obvious. I'm not too concerned about this one, as I suspect it will be a Bachmann release in a year or two- it is bubbling under on the annual wish lists, and I might replace it if this happens.

 

The Locomotive Illustrated series has been very useful with the 16xx's in showing where all their bits and pieces fit although the Dornoch pair have been well photographed- it's only when you start working on them you realise how much smaller than a "standard" pannier they are.

[Ben Alder]

I thought that it would be apposite to more or less conclude this thread by recording that as of the other night I now have a fully operational layout again The last two weeks were spent giving the railway room a long overdue clean and tidy, and getting round to all the unfinished bits and pieces that accumulated during the build. The main job was to electrically connect the outer  run and loops to the two stations- originally planned for a rotary switch, but finally solved by the existing double pole section switches and a bit of lateral thought - the two stations are linked to the continuous run by a loop that feeds them both and acts as a head shunt off scene when operating them- see photo- and has a two pole two throw switch for this. By using the Helmsdale controller as a second option for the "main line", this can take either the Thurso or Helmsdale train from the loop onto the continuous run and then be switched to the loop controller for independent running. It does mean  an occasional hiatus in station operation, but as I work single handedly is not a real problem.

 

The photo here shows the exits from the two stations- Helmsdale's two platform roads on the left and Thurso on the right.

 

 

Much of the other work was "invisible"- cleaning contacts and adjusting one or two point motors that had got knocked about during the construction phase, but, to my pleasant surprise, very little needed to be done to get things running smoothly- a testament to the work I put in on the trackwork before the scenic side started, I guess. One hitch was with the Helmsdale T/T, where one ends wiper contacts would not provide a reliable connection with the access road. As I had already ruined any guarantee by altering the table details, I tried soldering a wire from the rail to the wiper, but this proved unsatisfactory, and adding a solder blob to it affected its rotating,so I decided to just extend the station connection to the table itself and not rely on the T/T to provide power beyond the table. This has worked perfectly, and the accompanying photo shows the WIP. It illustrates the benefits of using Tracklay as a ballasting system- slide the fishplates back, slice along the ballast strip and it all lifts out in one piece. Station track power now extends to the T/T supplied access track as seen in the photo attached to the table.

 

 

 

 

 

Back in place and waiting a bit of Copydex and sprinkle of ballast to hold it both in place and retain flexibility.... I have also been cleaning out a bit of the plaster alongside the shed tracks to stop flanges catching on the infill- paint to follow....

 

 

So, a fully working layout again- and one happy modeller - heavy running in sessions have been taking place with the recent builds- the Bens especially are now running like sewing machines without traction tyres, and the older engines have had their first real taste of juice for over a year, and I must confess to a sense of achievement with regard to my work this last whiles- helped on in no small measure by the encouragement and help from many here.

 

Here's to a long life for the new layout

 

Thanks to all....