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With the tender up and running as a basic unit, this afternoon saw the J3 thoroughly layout-tested..................

 

795394342_J310.jpg.546e581f9139a3aebc727d92ca7d7c6c.jpg

 

It passed with flying colours on the MR/M&GNR bit (for which I'm building it). 

 

The temporary pieces of folded lead in the smokebox are just to aid stability, prior to the whole boiler being filled with lead on completion (no room for a decoder!). 

 

It's essential that any kit-built locos are thoroughly put through their paces at most stages of the construction. If any future problems now occur, it must be because of the latest pieces I've put on. 

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25 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

With the tender up and running as a basic unit, this afternoon saw the J3 thoroughly layout-tested..................

 

795394342_J310.jpg.546e581f9139a3aebc727d92ca7d7c6c.jpg

 

It passed with flying colours on the MR/M&GNR bit (for which I'm building it). 

 

The temporary pieces of folded lead in the smokebox are just to aid stability, prior to the whole boiler being filled with lead on completion (no room for a decoder!). 

 

It's essential that any kit-built locos are thoroughly put through their paces at most stages of the construction. If any future problems now occur, it must be because of the latest pieces I've put on. 

 

Don’t worry, Tony.  Looks like you’ll have plenty of room in the tender for a decoder... and speaker!

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Well they say the first one is the hardest, but managed to get the chassis together and it seems to run smoothly, so that's a result....

 

DSCF1600.jpg.61e7e7ca79a86f7e3ac8650ed1d2a34d.jpg

 

Now I'm stuck. I can ring DJH tomorrow, but wondered if anyone had built one of these before. There is no mention at all in the instructions as to whether the motor faces forward or backward in the chassis. Placing a few bits together doesn't appear to help as it would seem to fit either way.

 

There are several backplates, one of which is cut away, so you would think it goes towards the cab....

 

DSCF1601.jpg.1265db70b0b98089b2d634f4ba71f0eb.jpg

 

However the boiler is hollow and is a similar dimension to the diameter of the motor, which may allow the motor to face forward. If curiosity gets the better of me, I may have another play with it tonight, but that involves dismantling the chassis. Not the end of the world, but wondered if anyone had the answer.

 

DSCF1603.jpg.85b5da66c308cf8d1deaaa7b9d564dc8.jpg

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9 minutes ago, gordon s said:

Well they say the first one is the hardest, but managed to get the chassis together and it seems to run smoothly, so that's a result....

 

DSCF1600.jpg.61e7e7ca79a86f7e3ac8650ed1d2a34d.jpg

 

Now I'm stuck. I can ring DJH tomorrow, but wondered if anyone had built one of these before. There is no mention at all in the instructions as to whether the motor faces forward or backward in the chassis. Placing a few bits together doesn't appear to help as it would seem to fit either way.

 

There are several backplates, one of which is cut away, so you would think it goes towards the cab....

 

DSCF1601.jpg.1265db70b0b98089b2d634f4ba71f0eb.jpg

 

However the boiler is hollow and is a similar dimension to the diameter of the motor, which may allow the motor to face forward. If curiosity gets the better of me, I may have another play with it tonight, but that involves dismantling the chassis. Not the end of the world, but wondered if anyone had the answer.

 

DSCF1603.jpg.85b5da66c308cf8d1deaaa7b9d564dc8.jpg

 

Remember that you have to get the motor into the boiler when the latter is fixed to the running plate - longitudinal sliding will be limited by the bufferbeams.

 

John Isherwood.

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2 hours ago, gordon s said:

Well they say the first one is the hardest, but managed to get the chassis together and it seems to run smoothly, so that's a result....

 

DSCF1600.jpg.61e7e7ca79a86f7e3ac8650ed1d2a34d.jpg

 

Now I'm stuck. I can ring DJH tomorrow, but wondered if anyone had built one of these before. There is no mention at all in the instructions as to whether the motor faces forward or backward in the chassis. Placing a few bits together doesn't appear to help as it would seem to fit either way.

 

There are several backplates, one of which is cut away, so you would think it goes towards the cab....

 

DSCF1601.jpg.1265db70b0b98089b2d634f4ba71f0eb.jpg

 

However the boiler is hollow and is a similar dimension to the diameter of the motor, which may allow the motor to face forward. If curiosity gets the better of me, I may have another play with it tonight, but that involves dismantling the chassis. Not the end of the world, but wondered if anyone had the answer.

 

DSCF1603.jpg.85b5da66c308cf8d1deaaa7b9d564dc8.jpg

I think your arrangement is fine, Gordon.

 

As John has stated, make sure you can get the body off once it's all together. 

 

Though the motor rear protrudes into the cab, it won't really be visible, but the armature end will be. I'd cut that off. How? 

 

Grip the armature as near to the motor as you can with a pair of snipe-nosed pliers. Then, using a carborundum slitting disc in a mini-drill, carefully cut off the armature's end as near to the pliers as possible (you'll mark them). Don't do it in one hit, because you'll overheat the armature shaft and potentially damage the motor's end bearing. The piers work in two ways, They grip the shaft and also act as a heat sink. 

 

You won't saw through the armature's shaft (it's hardened steel) and don't try cutting through it with cutting pliers. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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On 02/03/2021 at 21:05, Tony Wright said:

1791181118_DJHSemi27onlayoutpanning.jpg.939e6a21d4fb2ade38029df35898e13f.jpg

 

Good evening Tony, that's a lovely model; I think I'll have to build one at some point...

 

Your recent postings of 'locos in motion' photos reminded me of one of my all-time favourite photos and I wanted to share it here. I think it's very well known and has been widely disseminated before (I have it in at least two books) so I hope - in light of recent discussions about copyright and the posting of images online - that it's OK to post it (with apologies for my poor quality reproduction): my apologies if not, I just think it's a lovely example of the full-sized version of this type of photo and I thought it would be nice to see it alongside the smaller scale ones:

 

1198547983_A4inmotion.jpg.6554b0db32132529216cab0ccced7831.jpg

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13 hours ago, gordon s said:

Thanks Tony. Took me a few hours to get to that point as I kept reviewing your video as I went along...

 

 I was thinking of fitting a flywheel on the protruding shaft. Would that be a good thing to do?

I'm very ambivalent about flywheels, Gordon.

 

There's no doubt they store up latent energy and, if a loco momentarily loses pick-up, that energy will often carry it over any 'dead-spot'. They can also 'smooth-out' a loco's running to some extent.

 

However, in my experience, they present down-sides as well. Invariably, they increase 'mechanical' noise; this doesn't seem to matter to some, but I find it intensely irritating. A high-pitched whine or whirring coming from a steam-outline loco isn't realistic at all (that's why I dislike later-built Portescaps). 'Natural' mechanical noise is a delight (and one of the reasons LB doesn't need digital sound). The clatter of metal wheels on metal track and the satisfying 'clunks' one gets from heavy, kit-built metal locos in motion is most-satisfying. 

 

Flywheels also increase strain on a motor's bearings, though any detrimental result won't be for a long time. In the case of your J50, a flywheel (which has to be the biggest possible to really be worthwhile) will be visible in the cab, though fitting crew members in the cabside apertures will mitigate this. 

 

I tend not to fit flywheels; for the reasons given and because I don't have dead-spots nor un-smooth mechanisms.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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20 hours ago, Barry Ten said:

Isn't railway modelling wonderful? My wife just presented me with a broken gadget, a little battery-powered device to take the fluff off fabric. One of the battery contacts had corroded and broken away so I cleaned it up and soldered on a new one (cutting it from a sheet of springy brass). The gadget still wouldn't work so I took it apart and bench-tested the motor using a DC controller - all good. All that was left was a pair of pickups that need to engage the motor, one of which was worked by a switch and needed adjustment. A few minutes cleaning it up and tweaking the pickup to shape and the gadget's back working, rather than being binned.

 

Without railway modelling I doubt that I'd have a soldering iron, 12 v controller, springy brass, various cleaning and bending tools etc. never mind the basic understanding of how an electrical path tends to work.

I often come home to find 'something' on the workbench to repair....... from Raybans to Rolex's (fake!!).

 

I've gotten quite good at sorting 'stuff' now (Bodging really) but it does come in useful.

 

Yesterday I had an intermittent fault on a controller that I use on the work bench for running in and testing etc.......

 

Drilled out the rivets, found the fault (lose earth (!!!!!) tightened up the nut holding the earth lead to the case and replace the rivets with self tappers.

 

There's a draw full of 'might be handy for repair' stuff!

 

I used to get asked (usually on the approach to Chrimbo or juniors birthday could I fix some such loco or other and get it running as he was getting a train set etc grandads old stuff etc.

 

I had to stop in the end as people were surprised to find that things like carbon brushes etc didn't grow on trees and had to be paid for!

Edited by BlackRat
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1 hour ago, BlackRat said:

I often come home to find 'something' on the workbench to repair....... from Raybans to Rolex's (fake!!).

 

 

Fixing sunglasses is my other hobby. My wife broke a pair last week which I glued and clamped up overnight. 

 

I've also taken to doing a fair bit of pottery repairs lately, so much so that I even bought a book on the subject. I think as modellers we have a lot of the materials in house already, so to speak - adhesives, fillers, paints, clamps, masking tape etc si it's relatively easy to switch modes. I can put a bit of filler on a chipped jug at the start of a workbench session, then return to it later on, so it all fits in with normal railway modelling activity. I mixed up some Milliput last night to repair a cup, and since I had a bit left over I filled a few spots on the layout.

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I'm not one for giving up, but after hours of fiddling on this chassis I'm no further forward...:(

 

I initially set up this J50 chassis on an Avonside Chassis2 jig and set the axle pins up so they were in the centre of the coupling rods. I then placed the chassis over the rods so that the bearing bushes were correctly aligned and soldered them into position whilst they were held in the jig. I'm able to slide the chassis up and down the dummy axles, so am fairly confident the bearings are all in the right place and the chassis is true and the wheels level.

 

Added the wheels and placed the coupling rods loosely on the wheels and am able to push it back and forth with the wheels turning and rods moving OK.

 

However, when I've gone to add the tiny rod bushes I found they were larger than the holes in the rods. I used a 5 sided broach to open up the holes to take the bushes and went to on to try and assemble the wheels/rods and bushes.

 

The quartering is correct as that is set by the Markit's wheels, but once the Market bushes are in place, both rods bind and I cannot get smooth running with these in place. I have taken the rods off numerous times and that's not easy for me as the bushes are so small and even with powerful glasses on they are really fiddly to fit correctly on the threaded rod screws. I've opened up the holes in the rods gradually and it is improving, but I'm really concerned about opening them up too much and ruining the chassis.

 

Just reviewed your video again, Tony and of course yours go together easily, although you talk about binding at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and opening up one hole with rat tail file. 

 

I wonder if you could you elaborate a little for me on how to solve this problem? As I said I've tried for numerous hours and had to take a break before I hurled it across the room....:D

Edited by gordon s
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Have you used bushes rather than just washers on the crankpins?     If so you may have to start easing the holes again with the bushes in place until it's smooth and free.

 

Generally I (and Tony as well, I'd assume) use washers which simply slip over the crankpin and hold the rods in place.  No need to make any further adjustment to your mechanism that way.   Put a piece of fag paper under the washer to give a tiny bit of play and that's all you need.  I'd only use bushes if the holes in the rods were drilled or worn excessively but I couldn't replace them.

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I didn't know any different.....They were in the pack, so thought I had to use them. Probably explains why I had to open the holes in the rods to take the bushes.

 

I guess the DJH instructions are probably easy to follow if you've built kits before, but for someone who has never built one there are numerous gaps, hence my questions.

 

Just checked the drawing as no washers are supplied and the only option are the bushes. There's no mention in the instructions of any other method.

 

272165308_Scan8.jpeg.198f6f3903ae110ecd6dfa9e71b5c35a.jpeg

 

I'll have another go tomorrow, so grateful for any other ideas to smooth the process.

 

There's always eBay I guess...:D

Edited by gordon s
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2 hours ago, gordon s said:

I'm not one for giving up, but after hours of fiddling on this chassis I'm no further forward...:(

 

I initially set up this J50 chassis on an Avonside Chassis2 and set the axle pins up so they were in the centre of the coupling rods. I then placed the chassis over the rods so that the bearing bushes were correctly aligned and soldered them into position whilst they were held in the jig. I'm able to slide the chassis up and down the dummy axles, so am fairly confident the bearings are all in the right place and the chassis is true and the wheels level.

 

Added the wheels and placed the coupling rods loosely on the wheels and am able to push it back and forth with the wheels turning and rods moving OK.

 

However, when I've gone to add the tiny rod bushes I found they were larger than the holes in the rods. I used a 5 sided broach to open up the holes to take the bushes and went to on to try and assemble the wheels/rods and bushes.

 

The quartering is correct as that is set by the Markit's wheels, but once the Market bushes are in place, both rods bind and I cannot get smooth running with these in place. I have taken the rods off numerous times and that's not easy for me as the bushes are so small and even with powerful glasses on they are really fiddly to fit correctly on the threaded rod screws. I've opened up the holes in the rods gradually and it is improving, but I'm really concerned about opening them up too much and ruining the chassis.

 

Just reviewed your video again, Tony and of course yours go together easily, although you talk about binding at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock and opening up one hole with rat tail file. 

 

I wonder if you could you elaborate a little for me on how to solve this problem? As I said I've tried for numerous hours and had to take a break before I hurled it across the room....:D

Good evening Gordon,

 

It sounds like you've got the De Luxe Markits crankpins. I much prefer the old-fashioned, solder on type.

 

Now, a question.......... Are the wheels quartered at 90 degrees? I'm not insulting you by this question, but I once spent hours sorting out a pupil's loco chassis when I was a tutor at Missenden; only to discover that he'd set the cranks at 180 degrees! 

 

Next step - try the rods without the bushes. I'd be surprised if they don't run smoothly (as long as you've not opened out the holes too much). I think you've already done this. If happy with that, just screw the nuts on till they're a snug fit (using instruction paper as a 'buffer' between). Check that all runs well, and then solder them in place. 

 

Any binding takes place when one (or both) of the rods are at 3 o'clock or 9 o'clock.

 

A five sided broach is is better at opening out the bearing holes in rods than a rat-tailed file. 

 

I hope this helps. If not, let's wait until we can meet up, bring it up here and we'll do a one-to-one tutorial and get it running perfectly.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

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49 minutes ago, gordon s said:

I didn't know any different.....They were in the pack, so thought I had to use them. Probably explains why I had to open the holes in the rods to take the bushes.

 

I guess the DJH instructions are probably easy to follow if you've built kits before, but for someone who has never built one there are numerous gaps, hence my questions.

 

Just checked the drawing as no washers are supplied and the only option is are the bushes. There's no mention in the instructions of any other method.

 

272165308_Scan8.jpeg.198f6f3903ae110ecd6dfa9e71b5c35a.jpeg

 

I'll have another go tomorrow, so grateful for any other ideas to smooth the process.

 

There's always eBay I guess...:D

Me again Gordon,

 

Those instructions/drawings were produced long before the Markits De Luxe crank pins were introduced. They assume the older-style crankpins be used.

 

At the risk of copping-out, I didn't write the instructions for the J50.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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No problem with the questions at all, Tony, as it is my first loco kit. Yes, the wheels are set at 90 degrees with the right side leading. Annoyingly, I had to open up the rods to take the bushes, but that’s done now. There are no nuts, but you’ve given me an idea. I could reverse the bushes to use as nuts and see how that goes. I may even have some spare nuts kicking about when I was attempting to convert split chassis loco’s years ago.

 

If all else fails, I may also have some small brass washers that would fit into the rods if there is enough meat in the surround. I did this once before in some Bachmann rods, but of course they were slightly larger in section.

 

It certainly rotated smoothly until I fitted the bushes and opened up the holes. Thanks for the info re the broaches and rat tailed file as I did wonder if you simply elongated the hole at 3/9 o’clock rather than all round the hole.

 

Determined to get there, but will tread carefully.....

Edited by gordon s
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1 hour ago, gordon s said:

I didn't know any different.....They were in the pack, so thought I had to use them. Probably explains why I had to open the holes in the rods to take the bushes.

 

I guess the DJH instructions are probably easy to follow if you've built kits before, but for someone who has never built one there are numerous gaps, hence my questions.

 

Just checked the drawing as no washers are supplied and the only option are the bushes. There's no mention in the instructions of any other method.

 

272165308_Scan8.jpeg.198f6f3903ae110ecd6dfa9e71b5c35a.jpeg

 

I'll have another go tomorrow, so grateful for any other ideas to smooth the process.

 

There's always eBay I guess...:D

Forget the silly loose crankpin bushes, best thing to do now is to put it back on the jig and solder the bushes into the rods - then they might work. I only use ordinary plain Romford crankpins which are about the right size, the loose bushes are far too big anyway.

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And now, the post-Gresley types RTR.

 

674143784_HornbyA226050101.jpg.905e565417e5aa38f64ea6fd09506434.jpg

 

Who'd have thought a Thompson Pacific would ever be available RTR? 

 

Does this green look much different from the Hornby BR green A3? 

 

1704948779_GoldenAgeA201.jpg.4d31390449ffbf7308e1c36be6fe9346.jpg

 

A Golden Age A2 in O Gauge.

 

937028880_BachmannA1KingsCourier32-557.jpg.bc07a23951119aff0e9b88d0580ec0de.jpg

 

A Bachmann OO Gauge A1.

 

1926906052_BachmannTornado.jpg.257872337d6029075b6b088449157a29.jpg

 

And, Bachmann's rendition of TORNADO in OO. Two lubricators and rectangular axlebox keeps? 

 

2016865899_27A160163Farish.jpg.4db7454a836c8ee421cd7a5cf105d259.jpg

 

Farish's N Gauge TORNADO. Round keeps to the axleboxes!

 

 

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One omission from my RTR LNER RA9 types listed last evening were the P2s.....................

 

454778610_HornbyP2R320707.jpg.2248bf4b43a965a6d8ee4515038e6ca6.jpg

 

Hornby's RTR offering from eight years ago. I believe the model is going to be upgraded with different options offered.

 

44568263_HornbyP2R320713.jpg.0b3502d1a3af78b055963218b6ec24cf.jpg

 

I've asked this question before, but who would have believed that COCK O' THE NORTH could have turned into an A2/2? 

 

There aren't many RTR P2s, though there are at least a couple from Loveless in O Gauge.........................

 

77776611_LovelessP201.jpg.1cda90dd7b053c248da9a510dc809193.jpg

 

1519041755_LovelessP205.jpg.f0a95e2c391f9b96446baa4e7af56e02.jpg

 

1194588657_LovelessP206.jpg.19881a9961d301a35a6f5c18f4b896e3.jpg

 

1189177798_LovelessP208.jpg.c26dfa428bcbc38bddb854fea318ee0b.jpg

 

895643025_LovelessP209.jpg.1d130b41a224eb87fc3263534b106367.jpg

 

1861695273_LovelessP210.jpg.b9021e5784c6fbb169303ccbf7e3aced.jpg

 

Attention to detail is remarkable. 

 

Who could have possibly predicted, just a few years ago, that just about every LNER (and its successors') RA9 steam locomotives would become available in model form RTR? Apart from the A1/1 and A2/1s, they've all been done now (or are due to appear soon). 

 

Have I missed any? Possibly the Garratt? 

 

 

Edited by Tony Wright
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Just now, 2750Papyrus said:

Excellent pictures of some superb models.

 

Were the P1s (or would they have been) RA9?

I'm sure they were. However, as far as I know, none has ever been available RTR. 

 

Might one ever be? The options are becoming more and more limited for the RTR manufacturers. 

 

Does anyone have any ideas as to what would be popular next? 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

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