Wright writes.....

[Barry Ten]

Speaking of dropping things...

 

A few years ago I knocked a small television off the mantle piece. We'd had it set up to look at a camera in a nestbox - great fun. The TV survived the drop and I thought nothing of it. Some while later, though, my wife noticed that a statue in front of the fireplace had suffered rather a lot of damage! It was a black spelter statue of "The Marly Horse" (I've only discovered that by Googling) and the TV had gouged a huge hole in the breastbone of the horse and bent its forelegs rather badly. Because it was black, I'd not noticed the damage until it was pointed out, at which point it was obvious and I wondered how I'd managed to miss it for so long.

 

The story has a happy ending, though, because those hard-won modelling skills turn out to be rather handy for repairing household ornaments, as I'm sure many of us have discovered. Coincidentally, one of the chaps on the excellent BBC program "The Repair Shop" was repairing a spelter statue and said it was difficult to solder, so it was out with araldite and model filler, files and sandpaper, clamps and so on, and many coats of black paint. The end result is very satisfying, though, with the damage being almost undetectable.

 

The moral is, don't drop things on other things if you can avoid it!

 

Al

Edited June 26, 2019 by Barry Ten

[Jesse Sim]

3 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Does the motor get soldered in? No, No, No, No!!!!! Not directly, anyway. 

 

As for glue? Even more No, No, No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Is your chassis electrically-dead? If so, you'll need a means of anchoring the motor/gearbox to stop it flapping around inside the body. 

 

 

 

This B16 chassis is electrically-dead (insulated wheels both sides). You can just see how I've soldered a .45mm piece of brass wire between the gearbox frame and the loco frames to anchor it.

 

 

This is clearer. Again this chassis is electrically-dead. 

 

 

Sometimes the insulated wires from the pick-ups to the motor brushes are stiff enough to stop the motor/gearbox flapping around. This is the case with this B2 and B17 chassis. 

 

 

Where a chassis is electrically-live (wheels insulated on one side only), then the 'return' for the electricity back to the track from the motor can be achieved by soldering a piece of brass wire from the motor brush directly on to the frames. This is just visible here on this B12 chassis. 

 

 

And here, under-slung on this H16 chassis. It's fixed to the opposite brush from the one the insulated wires from the pick-up wires are soldered to

 

 

And on this ancient Stephen Poole J15. The insulated wire from the pick-ups to the other brush is very clear. Its original K's motor is also visible!

 

This little loco was built years ago by Ian Wilson, but it never ran well - it had a K's motor and Stephen Poole drivers. I took pity on it, and now with a decent motor/gearbox combo and Romford drivers, plus a repaint, it's turned out all right. 

 

 

 

I hope some of this helps.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

I’ve glued the chassis together, would that be okay? 

 

(I’m joking) 

 

yes my chassis is electrically dead, the mount seems to move up and down to easily. But with the wire going from the chassis to the mount will hold it just fine. Excellent. 

 

Many thanks

[polybear]

9 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Whether anyone will ever get the same satisfaction by just opening a box or getting others to do their modelling for them as you do by making things by your own hand is debatable, Clive. I think not.

 

That said, I hope you'll concede that that Heljan Class 37 has a certain finesse.............

 

As for accidentally dropping things, that's what I did today. Dropped an H&M Duette on top of a pair of A2s and an A1! Not from a great height, thankfully, but I clumsily pushed it off its little shelf on to a shelf where the spare locos are kept. The damage? A bit of chipped paint, not much. Now were they made of plastic, well! They're made of nice heavy-metal and took the blow with great 'courage'. All work just as well as they did beforehand.

 

Lesson to self. Be more careful!

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

8 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Did the Duette survive?

 

More importantly, did Mo learn any new words......

[Tony Wright]

44 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

More importantly, did Mo learn any new words......

None,

 

But with my friends present, I didn't let fly with my usual fusillade of profanity (not that they're beyond a few choice words themselves).

 

It was one of those 'dare I look?' moments, but the Duette's wires had actually prevented it from fully falling on top of the locos, giving a sort of glancing blow. 

 

I've now put a little wooden strip behind it to prevent any recurrence. 

 

Down the years of operating many layouts, it's inevitable that some accidental damage will have occurred. I knocked a K2 off the layout once, cushioning its fall by sticking my foot out. The result, not a damaged foot, but a slightly-bent front footplate - very prototypical! My arm caught an A4 once, and that headed like an aerial torpedo towards the ground. Fortunately, it landed horizontally, on its top, so no real damage there. 

 

It's an inevitable risk with heavy objects and Newtonian physics.....................

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[jamie92208]

 I think we can all relate to the accidental dropping of things.  One evening  good friend had brought a lovely Midland 3P to the club that he had built for me. We put it on to a piece of fiddle yard that I was testing.   Nothing happened so I set off to investigate why no electrickery was heading up the road in it's direction. I must have just nudged something into contact as the loco immediately headed of backwards and over the end of the board towards the floor.   I did remark that we should have fitted it with air brakes.  Fortunately apart from a bent buffer beam and cab roof , it didn't suffer much damage and was back looking pristine the next week.

 

Moral to the story, always bolt a length of plywood across the end of a board when testing.

 

Jamie

[Evertonian]

   A good few years ago we were showing Kensal Green at the Wolverhampton MRC exhibition. Our leader kindly loaned his scratch built

   K4 'The Great Marquess'  as a guest on shed.

 

   To my eternal dismay,regret, shame and any other suitable adjective a member of our team dropped this much cherished loco when 

   clearing away on the Sunday evening causing terminal damage.

 

    Tony was obviously crestfallen , I believe it was his first s/built loco, but was extremely sanguine over the episode -  I still feel I need to

    apologise whenever our paths cross.

 

    As I am sure all who follow this thread realise that TW is a true gent in every sense of the word.

 

    Chris Knight

[Chamby]

Of course, if you drop an RTR locomotive you can just buy another one...   

 

Seriously though, a fellow club member accidentally knocked one of my stock boxes off a tabletop last week.  Fortunately it only had tools in it at the time, but he went a white pallor before he realised!

 

It is so easily done.

[Tony Wright]

On 26/06/2019 at 12:34, Clive Mortimore said:

Hello Tony

 

It was a case of first impression. Now I have built my own Type 3, it was called a Hornby class 37 by a five year old kid. That is good enough for me. Could I do better? Now the Heljan one will be superior than my own, possibly more accurate, sturdier construction, run smoother and have all the modern lights and noise. It will come out of a box and I hope those opening their boxes will have the same satisfaction as I did when  made my first cut into the plastic card.

 

I still think it looks like a big plastic toy.

 

 

My little plastic toy.......made in a material I like to work in. It has been accidentally dropped, not by me but I still haven't repaired it.

What's the origin of your EE Type 3, Clive?

 

I assume scratch-built, but aren't those Hornby bogies? 

 

It was a while before the penny dropped, but seeing your model brought to mind an EE type 3 'created' by our elder son, Tom, when he was about 17/18 years old. I've rummaged around and found it

 

 

 

It sees no use on LB, of course, though it did run on Stoke Summit and his erstwhile own layout. If memory serves, it's a Triang/Hornby body, sitting on top of a modified Lima Class 37 chassis (wasn't Hornby's chassis that for a Class 47?), with a fair bit altered. I can't remember where the bits came from (A1 Models?), but there were cast metal indicator boxes and buffers, etched end doors, horn grills, roof fan and its grill, plus some other bits and pieces. A fair amount of cutting of holes was undertaken. He then painted it, flush-glazed it, made windscreen wipers for it and weathered it. 

 

For its day, and his ability, I think it turned out all right. I wished I'd have been able to say I'd done something like this when I was 17!

 

The grain wagon to the left of the bottom picture was a gift from a friend who visited yesterday. I'm very privileged indeed.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

[Tony Wright]

We've not long returned from attending the funeral of that great man, Roy Jackson. 

 

The crematorium at Scunthorpe was packed, with over 150 mourners present - a testament to the esteem in which Roy was held. 

 

His younger daughter and Geoff Kent paid the most-appropriate (and entirely truthful) tributes, bringing smiles to all those present. It was a brilliant 'send off'!

 

May I please thank Geoff, his family and Roy's family for their hospitality afterwards? A proper wake indeed. 

 

Roy's like will never be seen again. He truly was one of the greatest modellers and sources of inspiration of his generation.

 

RIP.  

[gr.king]

I'm afraid I had no idea it was today. Had I known I'd have tried to attend. At least there was good show of support.

[Clive Mortimore]

4 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

What's the origin of your EE Type 3, Clive?

 

I assume scratch-built, but aren't those Hornby bogies? 

 

It was a while before the penny dropped, but seeing your model brought to mind an EE type 3 'created' by our elder son, Tom, when he was about 17/18 years old. I've rummaged around and found it

 

 

 

It sees no use on LB, of course, though it did run on Stoke Summit and his erstwhile own layout. If memory serves, it's a Triang/Hornby body, sitting on top of a modified Lima Class 37 chassis (wasn't Hornby's chassis that for a Class 47?), with a fair bit altered. I can't remember where the bits came from (A1 Models?), but there were cast metal indicator boxes and buffers, etched end doors, horn grills, roof fan and its grill, plus some other bits and pieces. A fair amount of cutting of holes was undertaken. He then painted it, flush-glazed it, made windscreen wipers for it and weathered it. 

 

For its day, and his ability, I think it turned out all right. I wished I'd have been able to say I'd done something like this when I was 17!

 

The grain wagon to the left of the bottom picture was a gift from a friend who visited yesterday. I'm very privileged indeed.

 

Regards,

 

Tony.  

Hello Tony

 

It is a scratchbuilt loco or as my friend calls them, Slaters plastic card flatpack kits. The bogies are Hornby which I tried to make look like English Electric ones.

 

I never intended to make it. Following making a few cut and shut baby Deltics from class 37s I had some bits left over. I purchased another Hornby class 37 and instead of making it shorter I made it longer with the left overs from the earlier conversions and it grew into a class 40. It needed a chassis, luckily there was a secondhand Lima class 40 in John Dufield's so the Hornby class 40 had something to run on. I now had a spare class 40 body and a set of Co-Co bogies. Well the class 40 became the best looking of my cut and shut Baby Deltics. As for the bogies they are the ones under the flatpack class 37, I couldn't waste them.

 

Most of my Type 3s are Tri-ang/Hornby bodies running on Lima class 37 chassis. I prefer the Tri-ang body to the Lima one.

[96701]

15 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

I knocked a K2 off the layout once, cushioning its fall by sticking my foot out. The result, not a damaged foot,

Having been trained in engineering, I was told at the age of 16 to never stick one's foot out to cushion a blow from a falling object because one day your foot will break and nothing is worth the damage to oneself. I still move my foot out of the way by instinct, even when I've dropped an egg.

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, 96701 said:

Having been trained in engineering, I was told at the age of 16 to never stick one's foot out to cushion a blow from a falling object because one day your foot will break and nothing is worth the damage to oneself. I still move my foot out of the way by instinct, even when I've dropped an egg.

Barry O of this parish can tell you what happens when you drop a Stanley knife and try to catch it between your legs...

[96701]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Barry O of this parish can tell you what happens when you drop a Stanley knife and try to catch it between your legs...

Ouch!

[Bucoops]

When I was wiring a plug I dropped it - and the earth pin slammed straight into my big toe. Roll on 6 months or so and the nail started ingrowing. Ended up having to have it removed. It still grows funny now many years later.

 

Never got warned about that danger with electricity! 

[Tony Wright]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Barry O of this parish can tell you what happens when you drop a Stanley knife and try to catch it between your legs...

After I'd dropped it, I tried to catch a Stanley knife with my fingers. The day before I was scheduled to photograph a wedding! 

 

Ever tried firing a shutter with a great big lump of a bandage on your hand? 

[teaky]

I know a chap who can deflect arrows with a sword.  I expect if I threw a knife at him he'd catch it and throw it back.

[Barry Ten]

12 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

 

 

Most of my Type 3s are Tri-ang/Hornby bodies running on Lima class 37 chassis. I prefer the Tri-ang body to the Lima one.

 

I also like the Tri-ang body.

 

The paint and transfers are a bit tatty in places but in my defence I did all that when I was in my teens, but only recently tarted up the model with

a replacement chassis and some Puffers detailing parts, which I got for a quid or so in a bargain bin. I patched-painted around the new parts to 

blend in with the older paint job.

 

The old chassis was one with the grooved metal wheels and the bogie steps in the wrong place. It still ran but it wouldn't pull anything.

 

Al

 

[Tony Wright]

45 minutes ago, Barry Ten said:

 

I also like the Tri-ang body.

 

The paint and transfers are a bit tatty in places but in my defence I did all that when I was in my teens, but only recently tarted up the model with

a replacement chassis and some Puffers detailing parts, which I got for a quid or so in a bargain bin. I patched-painted around the new parts to 

blend in with the older paint job.

 

The old chassis was one with the grooved metal wheels and the bogie steps in the wrong place. It still ran but it wouldn't pull anything.

 

Al

 

Good to see some diesels, Al,

 

A nice job - very natural.

 

I'll take some shots of any other diesels Tom has produced.

 

This is one he did, again in his late-teens.................

 

 

 

FALCON, made from a Lima Class 37, with the body/chassis substantially altered and stretched, with scratch-built ends and fuel tanks. The etched overlays for the bodysides are, I think, from A1 or Craftsman, but it's nigh on 20 years ago! Ian Rathbone painted it, and Tom weathered it. 

 

Whether the O gauge Heljan FALCON below qualifies as a 'big plastic toy' is open to conjecture.

 

 

 

As I say, before anyone dives in making disparaging remarks, they should ask themselves the question 'Is the one I've made better?'

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[Tony Wright]

I'm just reviewing the latest Hornby Bulleid suburban CK in OO Gauge.

 

 

When I ask myself the question posed in my last post, the answer is an emphatic 'NO'!

 

This is a brilliant model. 

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

I'm just reviewing the latest Hornby Bulleid suburban CK in OO Gauge.

 

 

When I ask myself the question posed in my last post, the answer is an emphatic 'NO'!

 

This is a brilliant model. 

Hello Tony

 

They were mainline coaches not suburban.

 

It does look good.

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, Tony Wright said:

Good to see some diesels, Al,

 

A nice job - very natural.

 

I'll take some shots of any other diesels Tom has produced.

 

This is one he did, again in his late-teens.................

 

 

 

FALCON, made from a Lima Class 37, with the body/chassis substantially altered and stretched, with scratch-built ends and fuel tanks. The etched overlays for the bodysides are, I think, from A1 or Craftsman, but it's nigh on 20 years ago! Ian Rathbone painted it, and Tom weathered it. 

 

Whether the O gauge Heljan FALCON below qualifies as a 'big plastic toy' is open to conjecture.

 

 

 

As I say, before anyone dives in making disparaging remarks, they should ask themselves the question 'Is the one I've made better?'

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

Hello Tony

 

I cannot say mine is better but I know it was satisfying to make. 

 

One is all my own work and the other is a Silver Fox model. I am considering buying a Heljan blue one to run on Pig Lane (Western Region).

[t-b-g]

I know nothing about SR carriages. So I will ask the question, rather than suggest that it is wrong. Did the SR really offset the 1 for first class to the side but put the 3 for 3rd class in the middle of the door?

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

I have one prototype that has escaped the notice of Heljan

Lion a plastic card special. Hornby bogies. 

 

DP2, a very early conversion from a Lima Deltic, and looks better than the Heljan model.

 

Kestrel, my second scratchbuilt loco, one night at the Witham club it hauled 32 coaches ( we ran out of them) at a scale 60 mph on a undulating track with loads of curves. Twin Hornby ringfield motors, and tow lumps of metal in the body. I scraped this model following cab damage by one of my kids and it didn't fit my modelling period.

 

10800, Hawk in company with five scratch built BTHs, four by me and the one needing its bogie sides by Robin Idle. You should see Robin's 3mm models, they are wonderful. Hawk is waiting a repaint to Sherwood Green and the application of some terrific transfers stating it is a departmental locomotive by John of Cambridge Custom Transfers.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Tony Wright]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Hello Tony

 

They were mainline coaches not suburban.

 

It does look good.

Clive,

 

According to Hornby's literature and the other books I've just consulted, they were built for 'outer-suburban' work. That's why they were all-door in their construction. The last of their kind in the UK with regard to gangwayed stock. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony.