Traeth Mawr -Building Mr Price's house , (mostly)

[Anotheran]

I knew you'd get to yours before I got to mine. I have to say that I'm not looking forward to all that fettling, but I am looking forward to a finished product! I'll be following closely to see what works and what doesn't. Was the Halfords primer the filler primer, or just the normal?

 

At the end though you'll have something that you're never likely to get RTR and it will all be worth it!

 

Kind regards, Neil

[ChrisN]

24 minutes ago, Anotheran said:

I knew you'd get to yours before I got to mine. I have to say that I'm not looking forward to all that fettling, but I am looking forward to a finished product! I'll be following closely to see what works and what doesn't. Was the Halfords primer the filler primer, or just the normal?

 

At the end though you'll have something that you're never likely to get RTR and it will all be worth it!

 

Kind regards, Neil

 

Neil,

I am using grey plastic primer.  It does not say it is primer/filler.  I have been past Halfords a couple of times but have not had time to go in.  I probably ought to, as it could take along time otherwise.  The worst part is the sides that are rough and I am not sure how they will finish up. 

 

The chassis fits the body exactly, so if you want to shorten the loco by the 3mm you will need to cut the chassis as well.

 

I have not said that the body fits quite tightly on the chassis and I had to file the inside to make it fit.  I am not sure I want to hack the chassis.  I will probably take photos of it as in the first picture that foreshortens the end.

[Charlie586]

Hope you enjoyed Derbyshire, despite the disappointment of Heritage DMU's. The somewhere else you were trying to find intrigues me, what type of place was it? I think the Churnet Valley is the best in the area, though it's Staffordshire not Derbyshire.

I think halfords sell a filler primer which is supposed to help when smoothing, though I haven't tried it myself.

[ChrisN]

1 hour ago, Charlie586 said:

Hope you enjoyed Derbyshire, despite the disappointment of Heritage DMU's. The somewhere else you were trying to find intrigues me, what type of place was it? I think the Churnet Valley is the best in the area, though it's Staffordshire not Derbyshire.

I think halfords sell a filler primer which is supposed to help when smoothing, though I haven't tried it myself.

 

Charlie,

Thank you, we did enjoy Derbyshire.  My mum's mum came from Chesterfield, so when I was young I went to visit a cousin of my mum quite often.  Have walked a bit there as well but have to say that it was along time since we last went there.  It was nice to hear Derbyshire accents again.

 

It was Barrow Hill Roundhouse having just Googled it.  We went for a walk on the moors instead.

 

Yes, must get to Halfords

[Charlie586]

Were just up the road from Chesterfield. I'm originally from Oxfordshire and still haven't got used to people calling me duck.

 I haven't been to the roundhouse,  we tried once but it was shut. I think it doesn't open often.

[Mikkel]

Good to see sathe ddle tank progressing. One day I suppose we'll look back at this period in 3D printing and laugh. Meanwhile I admire those of you who persevere. Is there a risk that the filler would fill out the vertical lines/courses on the tank?

 

On 11/07/2019 at 23:29, ChrisN said:

We went for a walk on the moors instead.

 

Sounds like a good alternative. Hope you enjoyed the holiday.

[ChrisN]

11 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Good to see sathe ddle tank progressing. One day I suppose we'll look back at this period in 3D printing and laugh. Meanwhile I admire those of you who persevere. Is there a risk that the filler would fill out the vertical lines/courses on the tank?

 

 

Sounds like a good alternative. Hope you enjoyed the holiday.

 

Mikkel,

The answer to 'would it fill the vertical lines' is 'yes'.  If I wanted to keep them then I would have to scour them out each time, but the 645 only had a three section tank so I will let them get filled and then mark out the new tank sections.

[Mikkel]

Sorry Chris, I had forgotten you were doing the 645. That's convenient!  

[NCB]

Is this the Stafford Road 3D print in versatile plastic? Notice he says when working on the boiler to concentrate on smoothing the ridges.

 

I'm working on the Sparkshot Cambrian Albion 2-4-0 at the moment; bought it in FED which is quite pricey but gives a pretty smooth finish to start with. I rubbed it over with cotton buds, which will remove any resin "dust" which has stayed on the body. Also tried cotton buds with Brasso, works OK but not sure if it's any better. Think FED is a better material for this sort of thing than versatile plastic, if it's available. Notice Shapeways have introduced quite a few new materials but have no idea if any are suitable alternatives.

 

Nigel

Edited July 14, 2019 by NCB

[ChrisN]

18 hours ago, NCB said:

Is this the Stafford Road 3D print in versatile plastic? Notice he says when working on the boiler to concentrate on smoothing the ridges.

 

I'm working on the Sparkshot Cambrian Albion 2-4-0 at the moment; bought it in FED which is quite pricey but gives a pretty smooth finish to start with. I rubbed it over with cotton buds, which will remove any resin "dust" which has stayed on the body. Also tried cotton buds with Brasso, works OK but not sure if it's any better. Think FED is a better material for this sort of thing than versatile plastic, if it's available. Notice Shapeways have introduced quite a few new materials but have no idea if any are suitable alternatives.

 

Nigel

 

Nigel,

Yes it is the Stafford Road print.  What I have been doing is priming it and then rubbing down the ridges.  I have just been to Halfords, and yes I did not have 'Filler/Primer', but I do now.  So I now only have 33.3% chance of getting the right can when I want to spray, (Primer, Plastic Primer, Filler/Primer).  Still it does have a yellow cap to help me.

 

I do have a Sparkshot Albion probably in FED.  He now has his own printer and will do them in resin.  I really need to get round to ordering some more, and a couple of Queen class while I still have some money.

[NCB]

Should have said FXD not FED. Noticably more expensive than FUD but looking at the project as a whole I think worth it. I've etched chasses for the Albion and the 4W tender, both chassis now built and working. With FXD there's very little in the way of printing ridges, but you do seem to get a sort of dust on the surface in places, probably imperfect cleaning by Shapeways. It's this dust which a good rub with a cotton bud gets rid of.

 

As you mentioned resin, just had a look at his prices. Certainly a lot cheaper. Any idea how the quality compares with FUD/FXD? I might get another 4W tender, in resin, from him just to compare; I'm going to need one anyway.

[ChrisN]

My understanding is that the finish is a lot smoother.  Edwardian, of this parish, has an Albion I think but bought the chassis from Shapeways in FUD or something as he feels it is more robust.  If you are making your chassis from brass then you should have no worries. 

[NCB]

Yep, the etched chassis is fine (nickel silver):

 

I needed to glue 0.5mm plasticard on top to stop the coupling rods bouncing on the underside of the footplate. The motor's an 8x16 coreless motor from Tramfabriek, driving through a High Level modified Compact+ gearbox. Spent some time with Knuckles working out the finer details of the body e,g, splashers to make sure the wheels fitted OK; it's cramped but OK, so we seem to have got it right.

 

The tender chassis was comparatively simple:

 

Here's the tender:

 

As can be seen, what ridges there are are very faint, and I think paint will hide them pretty well. The trickiest bit is going to be to add the handrails and brake standard to the front; have a small etching which I hope does the job.

 

Nigel

 

[ChrisN]

Is this 3mm?  I was going to ask Knuckles about motorising these, and the Queen class.  I am not sure I can yet do a nickel silver chassis.  I had thought of putting a Tenshodo spud, or similar or a diesel bogie in the tender which would have meant that I would have had to scratchbuild the tender to go round it as the Knuckles tender seems quite delicate.  I have gone back to the idea of motorising the loco but I am not sure how.  Either way I am concerned that the engines will not have enough power to pull reasonable length trains around the tight curves of my layout.  I fear I shall have beautiful, (or not), locos which can only pose at the head of trains for photos.

 

Still, before that I have to get back to having time to progress my modelling.  

[NCB]

Yep, 3mm. Here's a pic of the chassis components I did:

There's a pair of driver compensation beams inside the chassis, separated by the brass spacer which lies on the bit of 1.5mm rod which goes through holes in the chassis sides. The front axle runs in slots and is pivoted under the bit of 1.0mm rod you can see. So, 3-point compensation, which means that all wheels are always on the track, which means better running, better haulage and better pickup. Pickups are on the drivers only and are soldered to a rectangle of gapped copper clad, which is bolted underneath the plate which can be seen towards the end of the chassis.

 

The chassis ran pretty well, even without extra weight, which I find unusual. I think weight will be needed to improve hauling power. However, there's very little room in the body! So not sure yet what final performance will be like. In 4mm you should have that extra bit of space.

 

I did design the chassis to use 15.75mm wheels (5' 3") instead of the correct 16.5mm (5' 6") to make sure I had enough clearance in the splashers, and even then, as I mentioned, had to raise the body slightly, because of the thickness of the footplate.

 

With the tender I didn't bother with compensation, but I did stick some lead in the chassis and also in the tender body to give stability.

[ChrisN]

A quick post before I disappear for a few days although I shall be around Thursday.

 

In 'Railway through Talerddig' it gives the Machynlleth shed allocation for August 8th 1894.  This set me wondering if there are other 1894 shed allocations, namely Penmeanpool, Portmadoc and Pwllheli.

 

I looked in 'GWR Absorbed Locomotives' and found allocations for August 1898.  Ah, I thought have they changed much?  Well Machynlleth has lost a locomotive so only has 10 rather than the 11 in 1894, but even though the distribution of classes is the same, if you ignore that a 'Volunteer' Class has been replaced by an Small Passenger, (Albion), Class only two of the engines are the same.  This means I cannot assume the others are the same.

 

Is this important?  Well, it would be nice to model the actual locomotives that would be doing the work at the time.  (I have a Seaham tank and Seaham itself at the time was at Oswestry but it will bring a train down to Traeth Mawr so there is some licence.  Also I have a class 61 and they were not sheded anywhere near really but as it will be a special it has been drafted in.)

 

So, does anyone know where there might be other information on shed allocations?  The 1894 Machynlleth list is made by a local and I am going to try and see if there are any other lists he made, but if anyone knows of any others please let me know.

 

If you have been, thanks for looking.

Edited August 8, 2019 by ChrisN

[Compound2632]

10 hours ago, ChrisN said:

So, does anyone know where there might be other information on shed allocations? 

 

E.L. Ahrons, Locomotive and train working in the latter part of the nineteenth century (Heffer, 1952, reprinted from the Railway Magazine, 1920s) often gives at least an outline of allocation history in the period he covers (1875-1900, as it says on the tin). Unfortunately Vol. 4, which covers the Cambrian and other secondary companies in Wales and the west of England, is the only one I don't have.

[ChrisN]

1 minute ago, Compound2632 said:

 

E.L. Ahrons, Locomotive and train working in the latter part of the nineteenth century (Heffer, 1952, reprinted from the Railway Magazine, 1920s) often gives at least an outline of allocation history in the period he covers (1875-1900, as it says on the tin). Unfortunately Vol. 4, which covers the Cambrian and other secondary companies in Wales and the west of England, is the only one I don't have.

 

Thank you.  I shall have to look out for that book.

[Compound2632]

A complete set of the six volumes can be had for £60 - £70, with individual volumes around £12 - though Vol. 4 seems to be rarer and Vol. 6 (Ireland) more plentiful. I made the mistake of not buying a rather nice complete set from a second-hand bookshop a few years ago; when I went back, half the volumes had been sold individually - a crime. I bought the remaining three and have managed to add two more. 

[corneliuslundie]

Sorry but Ahrons does not give any allocations - in fact the Cambrian is covered in only 9.5 pages.

But the books are all well worth having anyway.

Jonathan

[drduncan]

Chris, how goes the coaches?

Duncan

[ChrisN]

1 hour ago, drduncan said:

Chris, how goes the coaches?

Duncan

 

Duncan,

I have had very little time recently but I have drawn a Dean 6ft bogie.  I was going to post about it when I have time but I want to find a picture of one first and have not really had the time to look in my books.  I am on my final run in to finally, finally retiring so I may get more time.

[drduncan]

I’ll see if I can find a good picture or drawing.

D

[drduncan]

[ChrisN]

Duncan,

Thank you, that is brilliant.  My main thoughts were, 1) on the diagram did it show the bottom of the carriage above the bogie or was it part of the bogie?  I thought it was the former and the pictures prove it is.  2) Do the things that hang down hang from the coach foot board and they appear to on the pictures.  I have quite tight curves so these may interfere but I could put them on the bogie?   Also it is not clear to me what they are.

 

In other news, I have been out today to the windy seaside with my youngest son, his wife and their daughter.  My son said to me, "I have thought of buying you a 3D printer."  I did not discourage him but I have not started on my Silhouette Cutter yet.