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Obbekaer & Ribe Skibbroen - P87


Middlepeak
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Just as a little add on to Geraints post about the Wells show. As a bit of fun the " last train of the day " is a test of how many wagons and coaches we have and wether the mallet ( as our biggest engine ) will pull them. Well the answer, excluding railcars and the trailers that go with them, is 23 and yes it moves them all no problem ! Just need a longer layout next time !

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Just as a little add on to Geraints post about the Wells show. As a bit of fun the " last train of the day " is a test of how many wagons and coaches we have and wether the mallet ( as our biggest engine ) will pull them. Well the answer, excluding railcars and the trailers that go with them, is 23 and yes it moves them all no problem ! Just need a longer layout next time !

 

Why would you suppose it wouldn't pull the same as any HO loco?

 

Andy

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Maurice,

 

Many thanks for your kind words. I was very pleased to be able to spend a few minutes talking to you on your stand the other weekend. I'd admired your work through this forum for some time, so it was good to see it in the flesh. I'm not sure I could ever part company with a layout at the end of an exhibition as you did that weekend. Layouts are very personal things for me - maybe that's why I don't build too many of them!

 

There were rumours going round the hall on the Sunday that maybe you would be considering a future effort in P87. Any truth in this, or is it just the rumour mill going completely off the rails?

 

Best wishes,

 

Geraint

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With exhibition commitments out of the way for a while, we have committed ourselves to more rolling stock for the layout. At the top of my list is a loco which would certainly have been seen in Ribe in the 1950's - we have the photographic evidence to prove it - but we may need to stretch a point to run it through Obbekaer.

 

It's a Litra D 2-6-0, a real mixed traffic 'Maid of all Work' and often referred to as the 'Sondagsmaskine' because it was often used on weekend passenger trains in addition to its regular use for goods traffic.

 

The model is a Hobbytrade one, purchased around 4 years ago when they first came out. It's quite rightly gone down a storm on home territory, for accuracy and running qualities, and so I thought this might be a relatively straightforward project for my first steam loco.

 

That couldn't have been further from the truth! The first job was to find suitable wheels to P4 standards, which could be used to replace the originals. Quite simply, these were not available, either because the number of spokes or the crankpin throw were wrong. I managed to acquire suitable Alan Gibson wheels for the bogie and tender, but the only solution for the drivers was to use the existing wheels and turn them down.

 

Thankfully, Unklian's lathe (and expertise) came to the rescue, and with a spare set of wheels from Hobbytrade in case we made a mess of things, the tyres were first removed and the wheel centre castings were thinned down to accommodate a tyre that was 1.75mm across tread, rather than the original 2.8mm. Alan Gibson P4 steel tyres of the appropriate diameter were then pressed on to the wheel centres, using a wafer thin piece of brass tube to take up the minute difference in diameters of tyre and centres. The end result is very convincing, as the attached picture shows, and a world away from the steamroller wheels of the original. That was assumed to be the hard part completed!

 

Unfortunately, that was not to be the case! Having assembled the wheelsets and put them back in the chassis, the loco adopted a very ungainly motion as it lurched along the track. I had noticed that the whole chassis seemed to be engineered to very liberal tolerances, with considerable slop in the rods, but it now seemed that the axle slots were not machined particularly accurately, resulting in some torsional movement of the axle in its slot. Even with the slop in the rods, this was resulting in very poor running, as you can imagine. A further conversation with those patient souls at Hobbytrade during our Danish exhibition appearance in April resulted in another chassis casting arriving some weeks later. Although better, the axle slots were still somewhat inaccurate - more frustration and another period back on the shelf for the model!

 

One of the benefits of our Friday night group modelling sessions is that there's a ready-made think tank if you have a problem to solve. In the end we decided that the best way forward was to mill out some new bearing channels from 3.5mm thick brass, and to accurately mill out slots in the chassis casting to take them. Again, Unklian and his workshop have come to the rescue, and I now have a better chassis block with accurate bearings running in parallel slots at the appropriate 23mm + 23mm spacing. Hopefully, chassis construction will now be more straightforward, with new rods made to match the axle spacings and black plasticard frames attached to the sides of the block at a wider spacing to reflect the wider back to back measurement of the P87 wheels. I hope the pictures help to explain this.

 

There will be further reports as we proceed, with the target being to have a rolling chassis completed before Scaleforum, when there might be an opportunity for a brief outing on Baron Harrap's 'Axalp'! However, given case history, it's probably better not to count my chickens!

 

Regards,

 

Geraint

 

 

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There will be further reports as we proceed, with the target being to have a rolling chassis completed before Scaleforum, when there might be an opportunity for a brief outing on Baron Harrap's 'Axalp'! However, given case history, it's probably better not to count my chickens!

 

Regards,

 

Geraint

You'll be very welcome, Geraint. I'd better make sure my ancient P87 trackwork is up to scatch. Baron.

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  • 8 months later...

It frightens me how the time passes. A whole winter has gone by, with intermittent progress on the Litra D and two additional etches produced to replace coupling rods and bits of valve gear that didn't pass muster on the original.

 

And now we have the next exhibition commitment looming!

 

Our regular group of 'Friday Nighters' here in darkest Cambridgeshire are putting together one of their 'mini-exhibitions', this time to give some financial support to the activities of St Mary's Church in Sawston. This will be a very informal affair - just a collection of layouts and modelling displays from our group across a range of scales from 2mmFS to Gauge 3! Among the exhibits will be -

 

Alex Duckworth, a frequent contributor to MRJ and Greystar Publications with some of his 2mmFS models running on a small test track, including some stock he is building for a future 'Woodhead' project.

 

David Barham (Fen End Pit on these pages), with his 16mm scale sand quarry, complete with working dragline.

 

Brian Page, with 'Oxenbridge', a superb rendition of the Keighley and Worth Valley terminus in the 1960s in P4

 

Alan Browning will be showing a section of his 'Isle of Dhoon' system in 009, recently featured in Railway Modeller

 

and finally Ian Thomson and I will be playing trains on Obbekaer.

 

The venue is St Mary's Church Hall, Church Lane, Sawston, near Cambridge, CB22 3JR. Doors will be open from 1030 to 1600 and a small contribution for entry will go towards the work of the church in the community.

 

We hope to see you there!

 

Geraint

 

 

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=svTDe2u797Y

 

There is actually a lot going on over here behind the scenes. Proto:87 and P4 are getting far easier to model in,  as well as pretty much 100% reliable.

 

You'd have to come and visit California for now though. I haven't got a travelling exhibit up yet. :cry:

 

Andy

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Apologies Trevor and all - I missed the most important bit!

 

The Sawston Modelling Day is on Saturday 30th May, 1030-1600 at St Mary's Church Hall, Church Lane, Sawston, near Cambridge.

 

Hope to see you there!

 

G

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  • 3 weeks later...

A brief report to confirm that all went well yesterday at Sawston. The layout ran perfectly all day, so we were able to enjoy running some trains and indulging in polite conversation with the audience, including some old friends that we hadn't seen for some time.

 

However, the big news of the day was the first appearance of the Litra D after a long period of time in 'the works'. You may recall from previous posts that the conversion of this beast to p87 has been something of a tortuous process. Initial assessment of the chassis showed it to be a rather sloppy affair (literally!) which ran reasonably well out of the box, but which would not be adequate for the more exacting standards of p87. I reported before that the wheels had been turned to p87 profile by Ian Thomson, and Ian had also produced a set of accurately milled brass channels for the axles, which were positioned in milled slots in the Mazak chassis block.

 

That was not the end of the problem however, and the work since then has involved design and etching of new coupling rods, connecting rods and return cranks, and the insertion of small coil springs on the centre axle. Final assembly happened over the course of a couple of evenings this week, and I'm pleased to say that the loco came through its initial trials on the test track successfully, in time for it to appear as a 'running-in turn' from Esbjerg shed yesterday morning!

 

The inhabitants of Obbekaer had never seen anything like this come through their sleepy little station, but hopefully when the final fit out of brake gear and other details is completed and the loco in renumbered as nr. 850 (an Esbjerg engine from the early 1960s), she will be seen quite often on the RGVJ.

 

A photo of the trial run is attached, and more will follow once detailing and weathering is complete.

 

Regards,

 

Geraint

 

 

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It was realy great to see such a collection of layouts,  Enjoyed looking at all the addition you had made to the layout since last I saw it and very please to see the Litra D stretching here legs on the layout.

 

Best Wishes

David

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  • 4 months later...

Dear All,

 

The next chapter in the intermittent saga of Obbekaer happens this weekend when we head off for a convivial weekend at the Uckfield Show. I'll post some pictures after the event, but for those of you who have seen the layout before, there are some small changes, including revolving point lanterns, accommodation for the RGVJ's skinnecykel (you should be able to translate that one) and the Litra D in its new but unweathered guise as Nr 850 from Esbjerg shed.

 

I'm also hoping to have the first models for the new layout 'Ribe Skibbroen' there - if I can find a way to transport them and exhibit them safely - but at the very least you will be able to see the layout plan in its final form. As to when it will be finished, I'm taking no bets at this stage. These things have a nasty habit of taking much longer than you expect!

 

If you're in Uckfield, please drop by and say hello.

 

In the mean time I'll leave you with a photo of one of the local inhabitants pondering over the problems of the M25 on a Friday afternoon!

 

Geraint

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Thanks for your good wishes Brian. Skibbroen will be some way off yet, but I have some interesting ideas on construction which I'll share with the masses when I have a bit more time.

 

Anyway, hot off the press (literally) is the news that we have made it into the Norwegian modelling world, thanks to Haavard Houen of MJ Bladet - who happened to see this series of posts a few months ago. Thanks Haavard, and although I can't dash out to W H Smith to buy one, I'll treasure my copy when it finally arrives in the post! Now to brush up on my Norwegian .......

 

In the mean time, here's a sneak preview of the cover.

 

Geraint

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Further to Chaz's request, a few more shots of the layout following our outing at the Uckfield Show over the weekend.

 

Firstly, my two colleagues Ian Thomson and Brian Page fully occupied with operating. Despite the fact that this is basically a passing loop and a siding with a fiddle yard at either end, we do run a very intensive service, which requires the second operator to keep turning the cassettes as each train arrives. We've also started to develop the dialogue with the punters a bit more, explaining the purpose of each train, and highlighting some of the details, such as the operating point lanterns, track scotch protecting the loop and the water crane.

 

In the second picture, the skinnebus is seen crossing the river bridge on its way into the station. This railcar has a resin body from Tikob, with a scratchbuilt chassis that uses High Level gears and 6mm diameter wheels expertly turned down for me by the ZOB Works (thank you Baron!). The other end of the vehicle has the luggage rack lowered to carry crates of herrings and eggs back from market.

 

The third picture shows the 'sprojtevogn' or weed-killing wagon that is attached to the end of the PW train, usually hauled by the RGVJ's Kof tractor. This is a scratchbuilt model of a wagon from the Kalvehavebanen, where the end of an open wagon was removed and an old boiler installed as a weedkiller tank.

 

Picture 4 gives you an aerial view along the platform as loco nr.3, the RGVJ's 0-4-0WT, arrives with a short freight from Gram.

 

Finally, picture 5 shows the DSB Litra D in its new guise as Esbjerg engine nr.850. The loco has had a lot of work around the front end to improve its appearance, on top of the major tasks of converting it to p87, some of which have been described briefly here before. The remaining job is to weather the beast and add the crew, who have been waiting patiently in the box and ready to give her a spin!

 

So that's about it for now. For those of you in the area, you can see Obbekaer at the High Wycombe show on 7 November, after which we shall be taking a mid-winter break - to get some modelling done!

 

Regards,

 

G

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