Farish Jinty, 4F, Ivatt 2MT - 2FS & DCC/stay-alive. Also NGS Hunslet Industrial

[Izzy]

2 hours ago, 2mmMark said:

Thanks Bob, very useful information as I've also acquired an NGS Hunslet for British Oak. I was planning to use 2mm driving wheels but seeing your photos, I shall follow your option of thinning down the flanges.

I'm wondering if it's worth making some new axles to suit the increased width over the outside faces of the wheels set to 2mm back-to-back standards.

Mark

Thanks Mark, although I do think 2mm wheels would look better.  I may try them in the longer term, but this conversion is economic to get it up and running and sidesteps the gear clearance issue. Extending the axles would only be needed for cosmetic looks really. The wheel hubs extend a way back giving good support. Plus they are an odd size, around 1.2-1.25mm ** if I remember. Once I discovered that I didn’t bother going any further with that aspect. I could have turned some up, but I am very lazy sometimes when there isn’t an imperative to do something. But do note the bearings as below.

 

** just remembered why there was axle size differences. The middle axle -with the gear wheel - was the 1.25mm one. No doubt to ensure a good tight fit of the gear. Made shifting the wheels on it much more difficult too. They both had to come off to alter the bearings….

 

1 hour ago, Nigelcliffe said:

 

The key with thinned flanges is extending (or creating new) bearing blocks so the wheels are adequately supported.

    

A different axle length is a very small matter in comparison to the bearings.  

 

 

- Nigel

 

 

Yes, after I had turned and fitted the 0.2mm flanges to the bearings and then turned them inside out to extend them further out from the chassis, so the new flanges sit in the slots,  I did wonder if just reversing the bearings would have been sufficient on their own. Not sure. But you do need something extra on the outside, just using them in the right way around isn’t enough as you so rightly point out. The hubs fall out of the bearings then at maximum sideplay. 
 

There is no doubt these are lovely designed and made models that run so nicely. There is one in the classifieds at the moment for £65. What a bargain!

Bob

Edited March 2 by Izzy
add a bit

[Revolution Ben]

 

Hello all,

 

Happy to see the NGS Hunslets finding a role on 2mm layouts.  And I should point out that Nigel can take a good share of the credit for the sweet running of these locos as he was heavily involved in testing, developing and improving the PCB with its integrated decoder in the models.

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Izzy]

Hunslet wheels

 

A small update to say that I have just discovered that the wheel flanges are too deep for 2FS, or to be more correct to run on chaired track, as they hit the inside chairs. They are around 0.65-0.7mm deep while 0.5mm is the depth needed, which most present day N gauge rolling stock seems to adhere to. How/why I missed this when re-machining them I can't say but for anyone doing the same reducing them is thus advised. I shall have to now do this or perhaps try a 2FS conversion using 2mm SA wheels and other parts. 

 

Bob

 

 

Edited March 16 by Izzy

[Izzy]

I've now reduced the Hunslet wheel flanges to 0.5mm. Here is a short video of the loco running on Exchange Yard sidings. The sound is at maximum which helps show how quietly it runs, virtually silently. 

 

 

Bob

[Izzy]

Hunslet - new coupling rods

 

Having used the loco to test the build of Exchange Yard Sidings it’s had quite a bit of running. Now that the layout is up and running I have taken the opportunity to further refine it in that I have made replacement coupling rods. This is the one aspect of it that has stood out for me as being rather overscale during all the testing.

 

I made up some using the cut & shut method from the J94 rods on the 3-205 etch for Farish locos. They look a bit better size wise.

 

 

Making these meant that new crankpins were also required. The originals are shouldered 14ba bolts so I took some 14ba countersunk screws and filed them down to remove the head and thread and leave the main shank at 0.5mm with just 2mm thread to go into the wheel.

 

 

 

 

Once screwed in they were retained with some cryno. Retaining washers were cut from some 1mm OD/0.5mm ID Albion alloy brass tube.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to paint them yellow thinking that Blue Circle might have thought that a good idea after seeing BR start doing that with it’s shunters and that it would go well with their colour scheme.

 

 

Now all I have to do it weather it, perhaps using the airbrush, I’m not sure at the moment.

 

Here’s a shot with a couple of cement wagons I am fitting with simple steel loops for the DG’s.

 

 

This is an experiment to see if uncoupling by waving a magnet over them will prove workable. Tests so far indicate it is, but until the ballasting of Exchange Yard Sidings is done and the track is usable again I won’t really know.

 

 

[yaxxbarl]

Yes - I'll be doing a cut and shut on the 3-205 J94 rods for mine too.

 

How did you cut them prior to soldering them back together? As both sides need to be shortened I'm going to be leaving one layer as long as possible for strength.

 

Cheers,

 

john

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, yaxxbarl said:

Yes - I'll be doing a cut and shut on the 3-205 J94 rods for mine too.

 

How did you cut them prior to soldering them back together? As both sides need to be shortened I'm going to be leaving one layer as long as possible for strength.

 

Cheers,

 

john

 

That seems like a good idea John. What I did do was to layer them so they were plain both sides, put the half etch on the inside which can then be flooded with solder. I thought that would make them stronger.  But leaving one side as long as possible and cutting the other to suit is something I haven't tried to date as it depends on the lenghts needed but could well be better still when it can be done.

 

Bob

[yaxxbarl]

11 hours ago, Izzy said:

 

That seems like a good idea John. What I did do was to layer them so they were plain both sides, put the half etch on the inside which can then be flooded with solder. I thought that would make them stronger.  But leaving one side as long as possible and cutting the other to suit is something I haven't tried to date as it depends on the lenghts needed but could well be better still when it can be done.

 

Bob

Bob,

 

Yes - I've done similar on my J94 and on my Panniers, flooding the fluted side with solder and having that in the inside of the layering. I'll be making one of my usual jigs from a few  cut off track pins in a piece of scrap MDF, it looks like I'll be able to use the rods as a guide to marking up the MDF for pre-drilling the holes for the pins. I can then solder the cut rods back together on the jig and they'll all be nicely aligned.

 

Cheers,

 

John