MOVING COAL - A Colliery Layout in 0 Gauge

[maq1988]

Excellent engineering.

 

I think you'd have to be extremely picky to find fault with the 'non-prototypical' look of the door catches and side lever. If it wasn't pointed out by yourself I wouldn't have spotted them.

[coachmann]

It not only looks pretty damn good, it functions as well.  I must say, your weathering stands up to close scrutiny by the camera lens too. 

Edited April 8, 2017 by coachmann

[CME and Bottlewasher]

Wonderful work, superb engineering, if only my own work was so neat!

 

BTW is that the original Peco chassis with the 16T Mineral?

 

ATVB

 

CME

[branchie]

Fantastic modelling/ engineering.

 

Gwych!

[PGH]

Wonderful work, superb engineering, if only my own work was so neat!

 

BTW is that the original Peco chassis with the 16T Mineral?

 

ATVB

 

CME

 

Thanks for your comments.  

 

Yes it is the original chassis, with the inside members just cut back slightly to accommodate the door gear.  The only other modification to the kits were to add lead weights to the centre section of the chassis.

[Osgood]

Get that wagon red carded PDQ -  there's only half the thickness of the top leaf left holding the spring together!  

 

 

In all seriousness, you have close-up photography down to a fine art!

Edited April 9, 2017 by Osgood

[PGH]

Well spotted Osgood ! - however its just the paint that has cracked not the actual spring itself as this view shows with the paint (rather roughly !) removed.

 

 

 

The problem with the Peco wagons is that the springs actually work like the real thing.  They are made of a flexible material which allows the axlebox to slide up and down and of course with loading and unloading the wagons the springs are constantly flexing by a small amount.  The only thing that would solve this problem is a flexible paint that sticks to a slippery plastic material - if there is such a thing.

 

 

[Spitfire2865]

You could try dyeing the plastic springs if you could get them apart.

That would certainly flex.

[Focalplane]

Just discovered this topic and what an interesting project it is, beautifully executed.  Unfortunately it has set my brain gears whirring with ideas for a motorized LMS coaling tower in 7mm scale when I have enough on the go already!

[Guius]

Just discovered this topic and what an interesting project it is, beautifully executed.  Unfortunately it has set my brain gears whirring with ideas for a motorized LMS coaling tower in 7mm scale when I have enough on the go already!

Me too, what a cracking idea and very well modelled. The Industrial aspect lends its self to applications such as this very well. Please keep us up to date with your progress PGH.

[scouser]

This is a wonderful topic. Incredibly inspiring.

Are there any new updates?

[844fan]

Very nice layout my good sir. I'm planning a coal mine or two for a set of Tranz routes (No room to model the proper way sadly) and this is quite inspiring.  

[PGH]

There has been no recent progress on the layout itself.  However following the return to 00 gauge by friend coachmann with his Carrog layout he very kindly gave me two Dapol 0 gauge 7 plank wagons.  Now the layout isn't really short of open wagons, there are a total of 48 which can be used for coal traffic comprising a mixture of wooden 7 plank wagons and steel 16t minerals, but what it doesn't have is any 7 plank wagons with opening end doors which can be used on the end tippler.  So I decided these Dapol wagons might be suitable for conversion to provide this facility and also generally improved using spare wheels, brakegear, etc left over from previous wagon builds.

 

There has been some comments about certain problems with Dapol wagons in general elsewhere on this forum but I think the basic body/chassis mouldings of these wagons is reasonably acceptable.  Wheelbase is OK, overall width about right, height perhaps a touch too high -

 

 

Height comparison: left to right - Dapol/Lionheart - Dapol/Slaters - Dapol/Parkside

 

They are a touch higher than the Lionheart and slightly higher than the Slaters and Parkside wagons.  Overall body length is about 1¹/₂ mm too long.

 

 

 

First step was to remove the rather poor representation of brakegear, to be replaced by spare ABS whitemetal brakegear.  The wheels were replaced by Slaters which I also had spare in stock, they have a slightly smaller flange depth and better shaped spokes.  The outside edges of the 'W' irons were chamfered to make them look thinner.

 

 

 

The end door was removed using a craft knife, working from the outside and the inside, giving a slightly tapered opening.

 

 

 

The door was hinged with a length of 0.7mm diameter nickel silver.  Maybe this should be a slightly larger diameter but  I wanted to leave as much material as possible in the plastic hinges.

 

 

 

 

to be continued......  

[PGH]

 

I originally intended to replace just the door catches at each end of the horizontal bar at the bottom of the door but there is very little to attach these to so I decided it would be better to replace the complete bar itself in brass.  The 'bolts' will be short lengths of 0.6mm diameter nickel silver and the brass will be chemically blackened before final fixing.

 

 

 

The existing buffers were quite reasonable but lacked the raised ribs at the door end to retain the floor planks so they were replaced by Slaters buffers.  The coupling hooks and plates were spare Ambis etchings.

 

 

 

A similar door catch was used to that previously shown on the Peco steel wagons

 

 

 

worked by a similar lever.

 

 

tbc

[PGH]

 

The ABS whitemetal brakegear now fitted, with Ambis etched levers and lever guides.  Safety loops were from copper wire and nickel silver strip.

 

 

 

 

tbc

[MikeHohn]

It is always a pleasure to see progress here.

[PGH]

 

The Dapol wagons are now completed and repainted.  The lettering caused some problems.  The internal user wagons shown earlier in this thread were lettered with a combination of specially made custom rub on transfers, for the small lettering, "NCB" and "X"s, and commercial rub on transfers for the numbers, the latter since discontinued.  I just managed to salvage enough from the remains of these old transfers for the "internal use only" and numbers.  The "NCB"s are from waterslide transfers of unknown make found on Ebay and the "X"s are self adhesive vinyl letters normally used on model boats.  The wagon numbers chosen are fairly significant.

 

The wagons are a useful addition for the operation of the canal tip, as shown in this video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86VxQfXYGwo

 

 

One problem to be solved is they don't roll quite as well as the Peco wagons and need a slight amount of assistance (not shown in the video !) to get them moving off the tippler.

[MarshLane]

The Dapol wagons are now completed and repainted.  The lettering caused some problems.  The internal user wagons shown earlier in this thread were lettered with a combination of specially made custom rub on transfers, for the small lettering, "NCB" and "X"s, and commercial rub on transfers for the numbers, the latter since discontinued.  I just managed to salvage enough from the remains of these old transfers for the "internal use only" and numbers.  The "NCB"s are from waterslide transfers of unknown make found on Ebay and the "X"s are self adhesive vinyl letters normally used on model boats.  The wagon numbers chosen are fairly significant.

 

Hi,

If it helps, Steve at Railtec Transfers (which in my opinion are the best out there - no connection other than as a customer) can probably assist you.  Not only will be put bespoke transfer sheets together for you, but should you only need one part of it in the future, he'll only charge you for that part!  His costs and quality are brilliant and the lack of a cover sheet really does make a difference to the transfer on the wagon/coach etc..  You may already be aware of him, just through I'd mention it.

 

The wagons look great btw and I love watching your videos. Just a thought, but could you connect a point motor or servo up to swap the point over when the tippler starts to return to its normal position?

 

Rich

[islandbridgejct]

Just a thought, but could you connect a point motor or servo up to swap the point over when the tippler starts to return to its normal position?

 

Rich

 

As a counter-thought (and without any criticism of your view, Rich) I quite like the fact that a big hand has to come along and do something that would be done by hand in reality.

 

I am awe-struck by the engineering skills that can design and build a working tippler like this.

 

Alan

[PGH]

Hi,

If it helps, Steve at Railtec Transfers (which in my opinion are the best out there - no connection other than as a customer) can probably assist you.  Not only will be put bespoke transfer sheets together for you, but should you only need one part of it in the future, he'll only charge you for that part!  His costs and quality are brilliant and the lack of a cover sheet really does make a difference to the transfer on the wagon/coach etc..  You may already be aware of him, just through I'd mention it.

 

The wagons look great btw and I love watching your videos. Just a thought, but could you connect a point motor or servo up to swap the point over when the tippler starts to return to its normal position?

 

Rich

 

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the info, but with only two wagons to do and part of the lettering available it didn't seem worth commissioning special transfers.  However its worth bearing in mind for future projects, although it probably won't be for wagons - with 50 wagons available now the layout is just about full !

 

With regard to operating the point - Yes it probably would have been possible to work the point remotely, but a bit of finger poking doesn't worry me and it doesn't seem much different to operating 3 link couplings or end door catches.  A "finger from the sky" is out of place but so is the absence of a little scale person to actually operate the lever. 

[MarshLane]

Hi Rich,

Thanks for the info, but with only two wagons to do and part of the lettering available it didn't seem worth commissioning special transfers.  However its worth bearing in mind for future projects, although it probably won't be for wagons - with 50 wagons available now the layout is just about full !

 

With regard to operating the point - Yes it probably would have been possible to work the point remotely, but a bit of finger poking doesn't worry me and it doesn't seem much different to operating 3 link couplings or end door catches.  A "finger from the sky" is out of place but so is the absence of a little scale person to actually operate the lever. 

 

 

Hiya,

Thats fair comment!! Plus its your layout, so you get to do things your way anyway!  To be honest, even on the videos, the manual intervention doesn't seem to detract from things for me, as a viewer.  I think what you are achieving with the whole realism and methodology behind the layout is brilliant.

 

Rich

[PGH]

Previously the colliery screens have only loaded wagons on the centre road but loading facilities have now been provided on the front road, the track nearest the edge of the baseboard.  There wasn't enough room heightwise available within the screen building for the fixed hopper and vibrating trough arrangement used on the centre road so I used a vibrating hopper, possibly a similar method to that used by Ruston on his Royd Hall Colliery layout.

 

A sensible method for building the hopper would have been in Plastikard or similar material.  However I had none of suitable size in stock, but what I did have was a large and rather tarnished sheet of 0.020" nickel silver which had been given to me some time ago, so I decided to use that.  The hopper would be sat on 4 springs, one at each corner, and vibrated by a 12 volt motor with an out of centre flywheel fixed to one end.  Discharge would be via a small opening and 'spout' at one side into a chute to direct the flow into the wagons below.  To make the hopper discharge fully the bottom would have to slope in all directions to the discharge point.

 

 

To give some rigidity the top edge of the sides and one end were turned over through 180 degrees.  The bottom edge was also turned over but using more material which was shaped as required to support the floor.  Thicker brass plate was used for the end to which the motor would be attached.  Before fixing the motor tests were carried out with it temporarily clamped to the completed hopper and it was determined that fixed horizontally as shown gave the best result, in effect vibrating the hopper up and down rather than side to side.

 

 

The relationship between the height of the discharge opening and length of 'spout' is important, too big an opening or too short a spout would result in some of the contents of the hopper discharging without operation of the vibrator as shown in the sketch below.

 

 

Brackets were provided at each corner for the springs, mounted top and bottom on turned brass spigots

 

 

The springs were located on MDF blocks to raise the hopper clear of the existing trough feeding the centre road.  The inside of the building is unusually clean because it has been thoroughly vacuumed to remove any coal dust from previous operations

 

 

The Hopper in position

 

 

 

Wired up and filled with coal ready for operation, the contents will comfortably fill 8 wagons.

 

 

Control is via a changeover switch between the two loaders and a DC controller to regulate the motor speed.  Operation is reasonably quiet as shown in this video:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxEHCtAh-g8

 

Not the most exciting of videos - and you can barely see what's happening despite the fact that a torch was taped to the top of the camera trying to illuminate the action, but it might give some idea of the loading operation.

[maq1988]

Seriously wonderful engineering.

[MarshLane]

Absolutely wonderful PGH.  Your talent and abilities are astonishing, and the whole layout, really is railway modelling at its finest.   So well executed!

 

Rich

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

I suspect that fans of this thread will also enjoy this that popped up after PGH's wonderful coal loader video:

 

 

a magical lost world...