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They be the ones but also some for sand and alumina (although these may haveen recycled grain wagons)

Alas Welwyn GC now bosts a large delapidated factoey... wonder where Nabisco make the same cerials now?

Baz

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A couple of unusual items across the bench yesterday.   It was my first duty day of the season at Ormesby Hall and I sat down early to finish a few jobs to take with me.

 

This isn't something you see modelled often, but it runs on the tail of one of the expresses on Corfe and makes a good conversation starter.

 

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There's no identification on it; I've always assumed it's a Roxey kit.   The stepboard had come adrift and one of the long lower steps was also wrapped back on itself, probably by clumsy handling.  Luckily I was able to resolder the stepboard without visibly affecting the solebar paint (as I have no idea what colour that is).

 

Then something I've never seen before.  I serviced all the locos over Christmas, except four which were kept on the layout to run a few trains over the Christmas opening and which i now had.  I cleaned and oiled three of the outstanding ones, then came to the Hornby 700.  This has been a bit of a mixed bag since we acquired it - it ran beautifully initially, but then the motor gave up after less than a year and more recently I was told that it would only run backwards as it went out of quarter going forwards.  I found that curious, but when it went into the cradle, sure enough, it was fine backwards, but ticked and then jammed going forwards.  The rear wheels also had far too much play, exposing the hole in the connecting rods at their extreme and making me wonder whether the hole had opened up and was allowing the crankpin to slip out of the rod.

 

When I took one crankpin out, the hole was intact, but on examining the pin I found that the (steel?) rod had machined away the (brass) crankpin behind the hex head such that there was only a tiny pillar of brass holding the head to the rest of the screw.  My camera will only barely focus anywhere near enough to show it:

 

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I can't find the crankpins on their own as a spare, only as part of the rod set.  Is that right?

 

 

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Is the hole in the rod "flat" across the width of the rod, with nice smooth finish, as opposed to rough or knife-edged?

 

You could have hours of fun "faffing around" turning up a new set of pins, perhaps in a different metal, with low-tech tools.....

 

Would a bush be worth considering?

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I haven't dismantled it any further, but I have a feeling the threaded sleeve into which the crankpin screws should project from the face of the wheel to form a bush.   Something will have to be done, or it'll be as bad again in a year's time.

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2 hours ago, jwealleans said:

I haven't dismantled it any further, but I have a feeling the threaded sleeve into which the crankpin screws should project from the face of the wheel to form a bush.   Something will have to be done, or it'll be as bad again in a year's time.

The next Driver if ok still, will give you the answer .

 

Just looked at prices,  the Drivers , (in the posted picture the bushes look flush) £8, Coupling rods £3.20 . I would change the lot while spares are still obtainable.

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  • 4 weeks later...
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10 hours ago, jwealleans said:

 

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Hattons seemed to be selling the Hornby LMS horseboxes cheaply for ever, so I bought a couple.  Then I seem to have forgotten and bought some more.  When I had a tidy up I found I had all these.   Still, you can never have too many.    I have a photo of 12 of these in a Hunt Special somewhere in deepest Suffolk, so they'll be right at home on Wickham Market.    If they're not...

 

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I'll find a prewar layout to run them on.

Good idea painting each side in a different livery...

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Regarding the Bachmann O4 I had a nightmare when I tried renumbering it. Unfortunately I took too much paint off the cabs sides and exposed the plastic. The paint I used reacted with the Bachmann Finnish, it took ages to rectify. Eventually I got my Yeadon out to select a Mexborough loco and then realised the one Bachmann choose was a Mexborough loco!

Well at least now it’s been renumbered so it’s not the same one as everyone else’s .

keep wel

Robert  

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12 hours ago, jwealleans said:

I don't believe I've tried repainting these before - I have a feeling I've managed to renumber without excessive damage to the paint and have just varnished over the new transfers.  It's a flaming nuisance, I know that.  

I seam to remember having an issue when I only renumbered and applied the acrylic varnish to another Bachmann loco. The varnish wouldn’t stay in a film, it formed droplets on the surface. I think I wiped the varnish off whilst still wet and then wiped the body in acyrylic thinner and then the varnish adhered better. 

Not done much modelling recently but haven’t had that problem with Hornby’s B2 or W4 Peckets.

Regards Robert

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On 01/03/2020 at 13:23, Barry O said:

They be the ones but also some for sand and alumina (although these may haveen recycled grain wagons)

Alas Welwyn GC now bosts a large delapidated factoey... wonder where Nabisco make the same cerials now?

Baz

G'day Folks

 

I believe Nabisco's moved down to the West country.

 

manna

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  • 2 weeks later...

6 wheelers are now complete.  The XCL very much as described above.

 

Mousa-XCL-small.jpg

 

The XBT was a different story and a great deal more work.  The sides were a heroically bad fit over the underframe - I had to file almost 1mm off the seats before it would fit at all and then more off the rebate round the top of the floor to get it to sit down properly.   I managed to snap a corner off one side, but it went back without being too obvious.

 

Mousa-XBT-small.jpg

 

The glazing needed trimming but all the slots were blocked with resin and none of them would slide in as intended - most of them were cut to just oversize and then popped into their slots from the back, with some simply being glued in.   The underframe was also a different width to the CL - both run freely, but the centre axle on the CL simply slotted into the moulding, while on the BT I had to put bearings in to narrow the gap slightly before the supplied centre axle system would fit.

 

This is the point where I would usually run them and see whether the centre axle system works and also whether some weight would be beneficial.  That will have to wait until normality resumes.  For the moment I'd stick to my conclusion earlier - these are not quite 'clip together and run' models, you need to do some modelling and you have the option of doing more if you wish.  At the end of the day I now have two carriages which sit nicely with the ones I already had and for less effort than a brass kit.  

 

This weekend I've gone back to the J6 which has not really had much done to it since before Christmas.   Chassis is now running and today I detailed loco and tender almost to a conclusion.  I still need to fit the smokebox door and some of the little lubrication pipe runs to the loco and also find the buffer which hurtled off into oblivion while I was cleaning it up.

 

Nucast-J6-3.jpg

 

Again, I'd like to be giving this some time round a layout but for the moment the rolling road will have to suffice.

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Very nice Jonathan, especially the J6, the Nucast boiler and frames don’t look too bad in the end.  I’ve been reading up on how to make 6 wheelers run well later as I have some ideas about building a couple of BZs if I can find any kits around.  They do sound somewhat tricky to get running right though.

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12 minutes ago, trw1089 said:

I’ve been reading up on how to make 6 wheelers run well later as I have some ideas about building a couple of BZs if I can find any kits around.  They do sound somewhat tricky to get running right though.

 

I use the 'bogie and a half' principle - one outer axle in fixed W-irons; the other two axles running in inside bearings in a pair of basic inner frames, comprising simple strip brass, centrally pivoted on an old-fashioned brass frame spacer with an axial tapped hole and another central hole at right-angles.

 

The central hole is the bogie pivot, and the axial hole is the pivot for the two inside frames. To stop the equalised bogie from 'crabbing', tube is placed over the axles between the frames, to keep them apart.

 

Using the this design, you have 'milking stool' equalisation, which gives excellent running.

 

John Isherwood.

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50 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

I use the 'bogie and a half' principle - one outer axle in fixed W-irons; the other two axles running in inside bearings in a pair of basic inner frames, comprising simple strip brass, centrally pivoted on an old-fashioned brass frame spacer with an axial tapped hole and another central hole at right-angles.

 

The central hole is the bogie pivot, and the axial hole is the pivot for the two inside frames. To stop the equalised bogie from 'crabbing', tube is placed over the axles between the frames, to keep them apart.

 

Using the this design, you have 'milking stool' equalisation, which gives excellent running.

 

John Isherwood.


thanks John, very helpful.

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I'm usually no more complex than running 6 wheel vehicles as 4 wheelers with the middle axle dangling on a piece of wire. 

 

For a BZ, if you mean the Thompson one, you won't find better than Ian MacDonald's kit.  For the more general pregrouping ones, you're probably fighting the rest of us on Ebay or looking at Bill's resin ones above.

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32 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

I'm usually no more complex than running 6 wheel vehicles as 4 wheelers with the middle axle dangling on a piece of wire. 

I sometimes take the middle wheelset out altogether...

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On 27/03/2020 at 21:01, jwealleans said:

 

 

Mousa-d156-c-painted.jpg

 

Mousa-d156-c-painted-2.jpg

 

I thought we might have seen more of these in this forum - Bill B's resin 6 wheelers.  I know Mr King has one or two about his person.  

 

He does, and the frustration caused by not being able to find the time yet to get on with those, and many other things on his "to do" list has been quite intense. He is encouraged by the visible results of your efforts, and he might actually get round to dealing with his own examples now that hideous fate has handed him something of a golden opportunity via the obliteration of the normal working week.

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On 01/10/2019 at 07:43, jwealleans said:

Flare, coal rails, guard irons and some Milliput to make good the corner.  The curve is formed with a set of fingers which you flood with solder and then use filler to form the final shape.

Morning Jonathan,

I'm just about to start the horseshoe tender for my LRM D2 and I’m not too sure about how best to form the flare. The instructions suggest annealing - did you bother with this and if so how did you go about it, please? Do you have any advise of what (and what not) to do?

 

Cheers,

Jamie

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The instructions suggest annealing - did you bother with this and if so how did you go about it, please? Do you have any advise of what (and what not) to do?

 

Jamie,

 

Arthur Kimber put me on to a trick some years ago and I used it again this time.  Have a look at this post and it should become clear.  It makes it very easy indeed.   I didn't anneal it, just cleaned it up and then did the business with the vice.

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I form the flares in all my NER tenders  and supply these with my kits. I was doing so  many I made a special tool to help. This consists of a piece of thick walled brass (1/8th ID) tube filed down to half its diameter the  flare is placed in that. Then with a piece of 1/8th silver steel on top the whole is  squashed in a vice.

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ArthurK

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Been working on wagons again this week.  I dug out some of the job lot of part finished whitemetal kits I bought back in November '18 and did the remaining work.  Some went straight into paint, some needed a little finishing off.   Most of what I picked out this time turned out LMS and mainly ex-L&Y.

 

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The bolster wagons are all David Geen kits, I believe.  I'll add the chains when I weather and load them.   The open is North Staffordshire (luckily it was written on the underside, I might never have found it) and is a 51L kit.

 

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MAJ and Cambrian opens.   I was surprised to see the brake gear on the L & Y, it's what I'm used to seeing on fitted LNER wagons, but I find it is correct for these unfitted vehicles.

 

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51L and ABC fish vans.  The sort of vehicle you can always find a use for. 

 

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These are part of a lot of 5 I bought on Ebay probably 15 years ago under the impression they were meat vans.  I sold one on and left the rest in a drawer as the brake gear had largely been wrecked.  Chance acquisition of an ABS pack of said gear and the desire to have a bit of variety in the Scotch Goods on Grantham brought them to my attention again.  I've also acquired Southern Wagons Volume 4 since buying them and that was how I found they were banana vans, not meat.  The primary visual difference is horizontal rather than vertical planking and given that they'll be in motion when in view, the livery is all but identical and (I gather) meat traffic wouldn't have been sent by the Scotch Goods anyway, they can go in and damn the torpedoes.

 

 

 

 

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