Rob Pulham Posted September 13, 2015 Share Posted September 13, 2015 Superb Simon, I have one of the 1929 Thornycroft's in Wakefield Castrol Livery. I think that at best mine will get a bit of weathering to tone it down - no lathe here or skills to use one:0(. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted September 14, 2015 Author Share Posted September 14, 2015 Thanks Rob perhaps someone would like to offer the wheels and axle commercially - it's really only necessary to make an axle with the wheels "posed", and the wheels themselves - could be resin or whitemetal. The rest is hand-work. Derek Ascott used to offer cast whitemetal wheels - not sure if he's still trading. Perhaps Andy Duncan? best Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted September 15, 2015 Author Share Posted September 15, 2015 For those with access to the G0G website, a post & photo on this page shows a very neat way of connecting droppers - make them look like a chair. This is definitely easier than trying to solder the dropper under the rail and feed it down a hole before ballasting. http://www.gauge0guild.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5700&whichpage=2 Will remember this! Best Simon 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Isambarduk Posted September 16, 2015 Share Posted September 16, 2015 (edited) ... and if you don't have access, here it is: and they could then be covered with two halves of a 'sculptured' chair, to disappear completely. David Edited September 16, 2015 by Isambarduk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted September 21, 2015 Author Share Posted September 21, 2015 Well, amongst re flooring the bathroom, I did manage a bit in the JLTRT toplights. The un assembled bogie has been built, the assembled but unfinished bogies have been finished, and the springing now works properly, and the bodies have been painted. Comments on the colours welcome. My daughter thinks they look "too new" but there's no weathering yet, so I'm not bothered about that at the moment. I'm starting to find the issues that come with part assembled kits, and bit by bit, deal with them. So far, a couple of damaged edges, and poor assembly of the interiors, but nothing, fingers crossed, that worries me, except possibly one whole interior set a little too far across - ie the corridor is too wide. To be investigated... At least the bodies and roofs seem pretty much perfect. Ah, and the lounge window against which the Greater Windowledge Railway has sat for the last n years is to be re glazed. The end is nigh. Best Simon 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted September 27, 2015 Author Share Posted September 27, 2015 Well, the lovely weather has turned the Greater Windowledge into something vaguely reminiscent of Shop 8 at Swindon (in my dreams), in that I dragged out three unpainted Blacksmith brass toplights, and primed, and painted them too. Rather than the Rover Primula Yellow, I used Ford Sierra Beige, which despite a rather unprepossessing name, (what is it about car paint colour names...?) seems to give a reasonable cream shade, rather paler than the yellow. You can compare the colours in the photos below, comments welcome. As you can see the GWR is barely longer than 6 57-footers a 70-foot 12-wheeler and a Lionheart 64xx pannier tank, which latter seems to have no problem shoving the train all of a (real) foot. If anyone's interested I can post progress with the JLTRT toplights, ditto the Blacksmith ones at some point. Been a bit busy on the digital front, I had an old Asus EEE laptop which I had connected to my Lenz Li-USB interface,for the JMRI Decoder programmer, I also used it for Arduino programming. I have replaced this with a hand-me-down Dell, which is rather quicker, and all-round better. And I acquired a Bitscope, which converts the laptop to a logic probe and oscilloscope, which will be handy for troubleshooting electrical/electronic problems. So now all I have to do is learn to use it... And I finished cutting the tiles for the bathroom floor... Best Simon From the West end Panorama of the Greater Windowledge Railway Which cream? 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 link Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 Hi Simon, The more yellow version does it for me , although the sunlight might be giving the Ford beige a brighter than normal hue. Yes please regarding the progress on the toplights. All the best, Martyn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 Hi Simon, The more yellow version does it for me , although the sunlight might be giving the Ford beige a brighter than normal hue. Yes please regarding the progress on the toplights. All the best, Martyn. Wot he said... I too prefer the more yellow version, not that I know anything about coaches from that end of the country. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jintyman Posted September 27, 2015 Share Posted September 27, 2015 Lovely coaches Simon, I too would like to see progress photos on the JLTRT coaches. Jinty Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
81A Oldoak Posted September 28, 2015 Share Posted September 28, 2015 Well, the lovely weather has turned the Greater Windowledge into something vaguely reminiscent of Shop 8 at Swindon (in my dreams), in that I dragged out three unpainted Blacksmith brass toplights, and primed, and painted them too. Rather than the Rover Primula Yellow, I used Ford Sierra Beige, which despite a rather unprepossessing name, (what is it about car paint colour names...?) seems to give a reasonable cream shade, rather paler than the yellow. You can compare the colours in the photos below, comments welcome. As you can see the GWR is barely longer than 6 57-footers a 70-foot 12-wheeler and a Lionheart 64xx pannier tank, which latter seems to have no problem shoving the train all of a (real) foot. If anyone's interested I can post progress with the JLTRT toplights, ditto the Blacksmith ones at some point. Been a bit busy on the digital front, I had an old Asus EEE laptop which I had connected to my Lenz Li-USB interface,for the JMRI Decoder programmer, I also used it for Arduino programming. I have replaced this with a hand-me-down Dell, which is rather quicker, and all-round better. And I acquired a Bitscope, which converts the laptop to a logic probe and oscilloscope, which will be handy for troubleshooting electrical/electronic problems. So now all I have to do is learn to use it... And I finished cutting the tiles for the bathroom floor... Best Simon image.jpg From the West end image.jpg Panorama of the Greater Windowledge Railway image.jpg Which cream? I prefer the left; it appears to be the fashionable thing to do these days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted September 30, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 30, 2015 Sorry Simon but that beige shade does not look like anything I saw that ran on western metals however long since it was last painted. Don 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 4, 2015 Author Share Posted October 4, 2015 Well, thanks for the views on the paint. I think I agree. I'm not hyper keen on re spraying the brass coaches, but we'll see. They're back in their box for now. Turning to the JLTRTs, I've done a little fettling - on two of the coaches, the corridor connectors were somewhat messed up, and were glued on with some large splodges of glue. Not sure what, but epoxy at a guess, but it seems quite crystalline, which I would not have expected. I managed to get them all off without damage, and there are enough etches to make 6 working and two folded corridors, enough for the four coaches. These are rather crucial to prevent buffer locking. More anon. I also removed the buffer beams from the two coaches - they were pretty well encrusted in glue, and will be soaked in acetone in due course. I then cut away the plastic buffer beam in the middle to accommodate Kadee couplers - there is no pleasure in trying to do up three-links (or screw) couplings under the corridor connectors, and the coaches will run in a fixed rake so the Kadees are a good option. I've checked them and we can run push and pull through a Peco crossover, but there are no buffers yet. On the brass coaches, I put the Kadees on the bogies, which worked well with the Blacksmith bogie design, but a few sketches on the CAD convinced me that they could be better mounted on the under frame, so that's what I've done. I'll post some photos in a day or two. I am concerned about the way the body sides sit into a rebate on the under frame, there doesn't seem to be anything to keep it in place, (apart from the roof of course) so I'm going to fit a couple of small brackets with pins to engage in the underframe inside the coaches - any comments on this very welcome. I think the general roughness with which the assembly has been done has led to some misalignments between compartments and underframe leading to it being difficult to get the body to fit properly. Happily, the body sides and ends seem to be pretty much properly assembled, so I'm comfortable that it will be possible to make a good job of this purchase, but some serious fettling will be needed.... On the subject of interiors, any ideas for the colour of a Halfords rattle can for the interior woodwork? I also want to light the coaches. I have been experimenting with the LEDs on self adhesive tape - this seems to give very even illumination, even if not terribly prototypical. I'm a bit concerned about the colour - bit too white and too bright - so I have ordered some warm white - fingers crossed! I will power them using either shorted wheels or wipers on the wheel backs. With the bodies being plastic, it's easy to have one bogie live to each rail. Lights flickering & going out looks grim, so I also experimented with a rectifier & an electrolytic capacitor to provide the energy bank, with resistors to dim it a bit - which gives the added benefit of extending the decay time. I'll play around with values and post my findings. Plan at the moment is to mount the rectifier, capacitor and resistor in the toilet compartment, as the window is shaded so they won't show. I'm not going to fit switches (did consider putting a function only decoder in each coach, but £12 quid...) - the lights can stay on, but dim enough not to show in daylight. As the photo shows below, painting the interior matters! Comments very welcome! Best Simon 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 17, 2015 Author Share Posted October 17, 2015 Well, an order to Hobbytronics, and another to RS, and a bit of experimentation led me to a hopefully satisfactory conclusion. The led strip lights I bought seem rather bright but eventually I have tamed them with two 4k7 resistors. These are connected in series with the light strip, and the ensemble is powered by a 1N4004 diode in series, and a 1000uF electrolytic capacitor in parallel. This ensures that poor pickup does not cause flickering. The capacitor is about 10mm diameter and 15mm long, so easily fits in the toilet compartment. If anyone wants a wiring diagram, please ask. The other way of eliminating flickering is to short out the wheels on one side of each bogie, rather than back-scratchers. Done one pair of each - the shorted wheel sets are definitely better. Again if anyone wants pix, please ask. So on to the coaches. They were bought second hand and part built, and unfortunately, much of the building was of somewhat dubious craftsmanship. A particular issue was that the seats seem to have been glued to the underframe rather too offset, thus preventing the body being fitted correctly. This was remedied by the expedient means of hitting the seats with a piece of wood, which caused them to break off, undamaged. I was then able to clean off the remaining glue, and tidy it all up. The glue was obviously some kind of epoxy, but it had perhaps not been well mixed, as much of it was rubbery, some was also crystalline and brittle. Most of it came off without a huge fight, but it did take some time. A piece of glass paper stuck to a chunk of MDF is a very handy tool. Having got it all to bits, I checked the fit of body & underframe - here I found that the rebate on the underframe of the third coach (an all third C31) was around 49 to 49.5 wide, whereas the space between the sides was under 48mm. I made a "rebate plane" from a couple of scraps of plasticard, a bit of scrap nickel etch, a toolmaker's clamp, and a suitable lathe tool, and attacked the underframe with that, and scraped the inside of the body until a satisfactory fit was achieved. The underframe is a bit warped, it sags in the middle by 1or 2 mm, despite the truss rods. It looks like it will pull straight ok when I refit the interior. Some of the rubbish scraped off one of the coaches Two of the with the lights fitted In bits Starting to reassemble The rebate scraper / plane Seat units glued to corridor partition Next job will be to spray the interior in something more believable, paint the seats to represent the cloth, and fit a/ refit few passengers, and then get the lighting working on this one, and then I'll set about the fourth one. Once they are all lit, and the interiors done, I'll start on buffers, corridors and exterior details. Best Simon 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 link Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 Hi Simon, That is a great method for coach lighting and once I have my layout up and running, one of the first jobs on the list will be to install some lighting. I have already detailed inside what coaching stock I have and did not realise until I put the roofs on just how little you can see, a bit like inside valve gear, you know it's there but no one else does. So this idea of yours will be a great help. Cheers, Martyn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Hi Martyn I don't have the link for the strip I bought, unfortunately, but it is made by the Guangzhou Houde lighting co., and is 24W warm white. I suspect I bought it off Ebay. The LEDs are in groups of three, but this is typical, and I think they are 60 per metre, and the roll was 5m. I believe it's possible to get a 12W version, which might be both better (for our purposes) and cheaper. I think mine was about £13. You'll use about 21 LEDs per coach, so £13 will do about 14 coaches, if you don't lose a few LEDs in experiments... The capacitors were Rs p/n 711-1148 and the 1N4001 diodes are 759-6662. Resistors are 0.25W, but I don't have the p/n. This lot cost less than £6 You'll need some plastic strip to stick them to (you could stick them straight to the roof, but I decided it was easier not to) and some wire. I reckon the whole lot works out at £1.21: capacitor 16p, diode, 3p, resistor 2p, led strip £1. Reasonable IMO. HTH Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Mildly irritating - actually bought them on Amazon, but could have paid less... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3528-5050-5630-5M-White-Warm-White-LED-Flexible-Strip-Light-Adapter-DC-Connect-/301183965080, Item 3 at four quid... They are 3528 WW LEDs. I'll make up the strips for the third & fourth coaches this evening, photos to follow. Best Simon 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 link Posted October 18, 2015 Share Posted October 18, 2015 (edited) Hi Simon, Thanks for the info it is being stored like a lot of other useful references and tips, as all I seem to be doing at present is baseboard building. Although I enjoy woodwork it is starting to feel more like a chore at the moment so I might do a bit more on the p/way, or I do have a loco kit to do that I have had stashed away for the winter evenings. So I have plenty to do at present. I look forward to the update regarding the photos of the coach lighting. All the best, Martyn. Edited October 18, 2015 by 3 link Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Progress - made up the other two light bars: The LED strip is self adhesive. I've stuck it to some sheet plastic cut into strip. Detail of the resistors, capacitor & diode. The yellow wire comes from the bogie, to the negative end of the diode. The positive end of the diode is connected to the positive end of the capacitor, and the positive end of the led strip, via the resistor(s) and the red wire. The black wire goes from the negative side of the capacitor to the negative side of the led strip. The other end of the led strip, negative rail, is attached to another yellow wire, and that will go to the other bogie. As above, wider view Second one made, both lit, running off their capacitors. Run time something over 30 seconds when disconnected. Next job, modifying wheel sets on completed bogies... But not tonight. Best Simon 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Donw Posted October 18, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 18, 2015 We used some of these for the lighting rig on Oake (4mm layout being shown at Rail-Ex Taunton). I bout some for my layout which came with a transformer. Seems to be the way to go. I like the coach lighting set up a switch might be a good idea though. Don 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 thanks Don I decided not to bother with a switch, on the basis that if it's not dark, you can't see the lights anyway, and if I want to, I can always isolate a carriage siding. I also considered a 2-function decoder in the brake coaches to turn the lights on and off, and to switch a red led tail lamp. but decided the cost-benefit wasn't making sense. best Simon 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 24, 2015 Author Share Posted October 24, 2015 A little progress last night, remaining bogies fitted with shorting links and the lighting bars dropped into the other coaches. Spent a happy 10 minutes shunting them up and down the Windowledge with the room lights out, and the sound on my 64xx on loud. My son thinks I'm quite bonkers, but did say "they look good..." Interiors next I think. Best Simon 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted October 24, 2015 Author Share Posted October 24, 2015 White roofs had to go! Mixed spray of Halfords satin black & grey primer, wet on wet, whilst the weather was half decent, earlier in the day. Might get on with the interior of one of them this evening... Best Simon 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Isambarduk Posted October 24, 2015 Share Posted October 24, 2015 "My son thinks I'm quite bonkers ..." I can see where he's coming from :-)) David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simond Posted November 8, 2015 Author Share Posted November 8, 2015 Been away for the weekend, so not much modelling (apart from some CAD work, of which more, later) but I'm a very happy boy. Made to my drawings, a pair of crossing jigs, in 1:6 and 1:8. I had a Vee made up (which fitted, pleased about that) so I bent up a pair of wing rails, dropped them in, and soldered three bits of 1mm brass strip. The whole assembly took less than 10 minutes. There's a groove for filing the Vee angles as well, but I didn't do that today. I haven't sorted out the locators for the brass strip, but shall do so using Templot guides stuck to the Tufnol. Probably appropriate holes for the chair bolts. Not sure yet. I reckon with the guides in place, and a bit of practice, from rail to a finished crossing should be less than a quarter hour, and with better accuracy. Like I said, happy boy! If anyone wants a copy of the drawings, please PM me - free for private personal use. Best Simon 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jintyman Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Hi Simon, They are great pieces of kit, if I had a load of pointwork to make up I'd have some made as they'd be invaluable, and very timesaving. Excellent stuff. Jinty Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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