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If I'd been keeping these bogies I'd have thought about using presstuds - it's an obvious fix although there'd be a bit of faffing getting the ride height correct. 

 

As it is, with people confirming the dragginess of the setup and the offer of replacements, I think they're going to be surplus to requirements.   The build is stalled as I have no brass sheet big enough to make a roof, so I can wait for bogies as well.

Edited by jwealleans
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Having had a very kind offer of replacement conventional bogies for the D18, so they have been removed.   If anyone would like them please let me know.

 

In the meantime I fabricated a roof yesterday.   The body had developed quite an alarming twist which was even distorting the floorpan slightly, but adding the roof from brass sheet has allowed it to be straightened and made it satisfyingly rigid.

 

DS-D18-T-1.jpg

 

The clerestory simply sits on top and is screwed up through the roof using a pair of captive bolts.   This is how I always do these but it's been a while since I showed one.   The nut can be seen below.   The only thing to be careful of is not putting the bolt directly above a partition.  I'll probably use part of the supplied plastic roof to cover the clerestory section as it's only cosmetic.

 

DS-D18-T-2.jpg

Edited by jwealleans
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10 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

That made me chuckle!

 

Don't know if it still does but the cattle wagon used to have a walkman and speakers in it playing a cassette of cows mooing, at one point on the tape was the 12 o'clock chimes and dongs from Big Ben...

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7 minutes ago, Worsdell forever said:

 

Don't know if it still does but the cattle wagon used to have a walkman and speakers in it playing a cassette of cows mooing, at one point on the tape was the 12 o'clock chimes and dongs from Big Ben...

 

Big Ben is quite appropriate - it goes "Dung!" which is of course cow poo.

 

(With apologies to Bad News for nicking their joke:D)

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13 hours ago, jwealleans said:

 

Doesn't everyone have a few sacrificial vehicles for high speed testing of newly laid track?

No, I use a Battlespace Turbo Car.. ask Red Leader for the video!!

Baz

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36 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

One thing which did arrive was the motion fret for the O2.   I've stripped the existing motion down, so I'll make a start on this when I have a few uninterrupted hours ahead of me.

 

O2-motion-fret-small.jpg

 

Should I still bring that cornucopia of crossheads next weekend, just in case?

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Been a fairly productive day today.  There's a Grantham running session next weekend, so I've been preparing some locos which have a serious chance of being ready by then.  That's K3s in the main.   Other than the two already seen in these pages, I acquired this at the start of the month.

 

SEF-K3-4005.jpg

 

Nicely built, big Portescap and a Larry Goddard paint job.   Bargain.   It's turned into a bit of a conundrum, though.   4005 did run with a GS tender in the 1930s, so good for Grantham.  However it did not have vac braking for the loco at that time, so the top reservoir on the tender had to go, Larry or no Larry.   There's no coal, so the paintwork scar will be covered up by a spill.   Then the tender lining was wrong - it had been done as panels, rather than the top and bottom lines continuing round the corners and across the back.  Now we're seriously interfering with a Larry paint job, but after a few days contemplating I took the lines off with cellulose thinners and a cocktail stick and made good the gaps.  

 

The other problems are the smokebox door rivets, which are wrong for the LNER period.   I have drawn the line there as we might get into serious respray territory and they aren't that conspicuous.

 

As well as Larry's signature underneath, it's marked (in his writing) 'Alton Model Centre'.  Unfortunately they don't have records so can't tell me who built it.  Whoever they were was a very good builder.  It has a representation of the conjugated gear and plunger pickups, which I've never been able to make work.  I don't think it's ever been used - the wheels were spotless and there were no couplings or any sign of any ever having been fitted.  I'm not sure it had ever pulled a train - until today.  It hadn't lived entirely in a cabinet, though - there was damage to the front guard irons and vac upstand and a number of paint chips, suggesting a drop or some rough handling.  When I tested it on the layout, the sandpipes touched the track and the loco-tender gap was way too tight for 3' curves, suggesting it had not been run to any great extent.

 

I've added worksplates and glazed the spectacles, touched in the chips and bare metal and extended the tender drawbar.   It has now done a few laps on Ramsey with the Scotch Goods stock and works as well as it looks.   If I can find a crew to fit in the very restricted cab it will get one, but certainly coal, fire irons and a light weathering are in view.  Here is is with 17, which also did some more test running today, as a result of which the tender will have some ballast added.

 

K3s-comparison.jpg

 

K3s-comparison-2.jpg

 

227 is still having final paintwork done on the tender, but it'll have its own gallop round tomorrow.   

 

While the Scotch Goods was out, I added this to photograph - Riley now suitably protected for its journey.

 

GNR-CCT-Riley-covered.jpg

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On 24/09/2021 at 18:53, jwealleans said:

Although I think I came out ahead, the lettering was a reminder that Powsides products really are the work of the devil himself.

 

Harsh. One of his lesser minions, perhaps. Were these two pre-printed or rub down? I've had fun with rub-down - not using the layout always as intended. Lo-tac clear tape is a key tool here.

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7 hours ago, jwealleans said:

These were rub down.  I'm not sure they do any preprinted in 4mm.

 

Pretty much the whole range - at least where there's a suitable kit. I was wrong to say pre-printed though; their website describes them as pre-lettered kits which may mean that there's no difference in the transfer manufacturing process but simply that they've done the rubbing-down for you. Given that they're a cottage industry that seems likely. Their RTR wagons are only in 7 mm.

Edited by Compound2632
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24 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Their RTR wagons are only in 7 mm.

That's what I was thinking of.    Funnily enough not to long after typing that I found some 4mm ones on Mikkel's blog and they were clearly just pre rubbed down, not printed.

 

I have to say that I can generally manage them when I'm in the right frame of mind, but you do get some - like these - which slide about on the backing so no matter how firmly and accurately they're taped down, they still end up skew or creased.   Then there was the set which refused to stick to anything no matter how hard I rubbed (as opposed to the usual behaviour, which is to stick to everything as soon as they touch it - the packet, fingers, the wrong part of the wagon.....)

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19 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

I have to say that I can generally manage them when I'm in the right frame of mind, but you do get some - like these - which slide about on the backing so no matter how firmly and accurately they're taped down, they still end up skew or creased.   Then there was the set which refused to stick to anything no matter how hard I rubbed (as opposed to the usual behaviour, which is to stick to everything as soon as they touch it - the packet, fingers, the wrong part of the wagon.....)

 

I have the impression - not fully quantified - that the more recent designs are better.

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All the Powsides wagon kits I have built over the last twelve months seem to have rub down transfers on them. Most are good, one or two a bit crinkly but, 9nce weathered, they look just the job.

 

Baz

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