Sirdouglas' O gauge

[sir douglas]

not long after tha last post, the gear housing was done and this evening the cabs sides are on. The gap in progress was thinking about how they are going to be fixed down such as nut & bolt but where. In the mean time brass locating pins were added to the ends with corresponding holes int he footplate

 

Pins and holes

 

Cab sides that still need things adding. The left hand side meets the firebox flush with the backhead but the righ hand side is a little forward to meet the face of the housing.

[sir douglas]

Continuing witht he cabsides with handrails and tops, a cut out had to be made in the left side for the flywheel so a housing was made for that. The reversing lever was finally made last night and fitted this morning. The reach rod was moved from over the firebox to down the side

 

Left hand side assembly with lever fitted. just to the right of this is a little cowling for the bit of flywheel that sticks out through cab side

 

Said assembly in place. Handrails are also fitted o the bunker, the flywheel adn gear at either end of the crank shaft have both been keyed. As shown the flywheel is keyed like the yellow gear but the white gear is keyd like the cranks on brake shafts with a slot along it instead of across the end (example image) and the key is soldered to the shaft

 

Elsewhere i had a go at a safety valve out of 1/8th rod and will try the other some day

[sir douglas]

Brackets and 12BA nut & bolts fixing the cabside assemblies to the firebox above the backhead

 

[Johnson044]

This is a little mechanical jewel Sir Douglas! An imaginative and skillful piece of modelling. The photo of 13th September, showing the flywheel side just captures the look of one of these beasts. Really good stuff!

[sir douglas]

not much to report for 2 weeks, the second safety valve is made and both of them fitted (on the cylinder), a third eccentric was made for the feed pump and this was fitted to the back of the flywheel and the reverser reach rod will need to be replaced in a new alignment to make room for the pump (new rod laminated to make with bottom right)

[NeilHB]

Lovely work Sam - looking very good. 

[Charlie586]

It looks fabulous, I'm really enjoying reading this.

[sir douglas]

New reach rod in place and the old one below, the kink is moved towards the lever and there is also a horizontal kink in it. this change opens up a bit of space above the wheel arch for the feed pump which is mounted to the clack valve

 

The bodging of some old wheels i was doing a while back halted because i broke one of the thin plastic axle bushes, The oher day i turned a top hat bush out of a scrap plastic gear boss and drilled out the wheel. Its all superglued together and i have a rolling chassis.

 

The new bush on the right

 

As said, its a hodge podge of parts and spares, I'm thinking of making it into a Monk's Ferry wagon, ive got a drawing from a 1947 model Railway News and a photo in the Polly thread

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/98514-livley-polly-the-elusive-tank/&do=findComment&comment=2538883

 

[sir douglas]

I'm not feeling like doing technical stuff like the traction loco, so ive gone back to the 3H van (August 15th post), while thinking about what to do with it, i happened across a photo of an ex midland van on the K&ESR with hinged double doors, so i've gone with that, the original doors were thrown in the bits box and new ones scribed from styrene, the ironwork around the body has been filed off and replaced, especially on the ends which are obviously the same mouldings re used from the Cattle wagon, the triangular plates changed for T shaped and like what i did on my LTSR cattle, the angle iron cut off and replaced with tapered timber

 

K&ESR van https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KESR_No_135_Midland_Railway_Box_Van_at_Tenterden.jpg

 

 

while wondering what to do with the above changed my mind about the second Slaters Midland van i was going to sell because its a duplicate. Instead i can add vents to make it a fruit van, ive got the photo and drawing from the Essery wagon book, i just need some Meth spirit to strip the paint. I normally wouldnt care but i think its got too many layers now and i dont want to add more. The other van will probably strip down as well anyway as i want to move away from the HLR liveries and it shouldnt have black ironwork on the body

 

The vans in question

[sir douglas]

The 3H van ready for painting and the midland van is soaking on 1 side in Methylated spirit which i walked into town to get the other day. im giving some occasional scrubbing with a tooth brush, its coming off but it'll need longer

[Northroader]

Never tried it, but on one thread they’re talking about using Dettol as a paint stripper:

 

[sir douglas]

i was looking it up last week, some websites and youtube videos believe that meth spirit is better cheaper and cleaner so ive gone with

[sir douglas]

and it won't soften the plastic, like with paint stripper if you leave it in for too long, the plastic melts

[sir douglas]

ive had the side soaking for about 3 days now but the bottom layer is not budging but there is no softening or deformity of the plastic

 

Anyway, the Three Aitch is painted up ready to put the brake lever on. I'd like to do some light weathering with a bit of rust and wood distress

[sir douglas]

do you think this is okay, im messing with colours to get a bit of rot and rust but not too much, though i'm not happy with the cream for bare wood which doesnt even show up in the photo, this is the best i can get for you after 20 tries with different combinations of flash lighting and macro setting, it looks a bit better in person than in the photo

[enginelane]

Yeap, light rust on nuts bolts, worn paint as wagon in traffic not laid up in a siding 

[sir douglas]

i must admit that the Meth spirit isnt working as well as advertised, so i'll have to try something stronger but these things need to be tested to know what works since ive never done any paint stripping before

[Guest Isambarduk]

24 minutes ago, sir douglas said:

i must admit that the Meth spirit isnt working as well as advertised,

Have you tried Northroader's suggestion of Dettol, yet?

[Northroader]

Another one I haven’t used for ages, but worked well, is hydraulic brake fluid. Really you need a pal in a garage with some fresh stuff. Try it on a test first, I think the formulation is different these days.

[sir douglas]

thats the next on the list, i'll get some dettol soon to try that

[Father Dougal]

I use Dettol. Works well on brass or plastic bodies.

Dougal

[Deano747]

On 01/12/2020 at 20:20, Northroader said:

Another one I haven’t used for ages, but worked well, is hydraulic brake fluid. Really you need a pal in a garage with some fresh stuff. Try it on a test first, I think the formulation is different these days.

I remember years ago when you could work on your own car, you never got brake fluid anywhere near your bodywork. A friend's, very p!$$3d off wife poured it all over the bonnet of his prized BMW!!! Mind you, he did deserve it!! 

Like you say, not sure it's the same today?!

 

Regards, Deano.

[Phil Traxson]

Just tried Dettol for the first time as a paint stripper. I'd bought a model of a REO bus, metal body with the rest plastic, and stripped it down years ago for a repaint from the bright yellow it was in. I've failed to get anything that is not really nasty to shift the paint, modern brake fluid didn't touch it. Last night I put one of the metal parts in a bath of Dettol in a takeaway container with the lid on, this morning the paint just fell off, result!  Mid-day I put the main body in and the paint is bubbling up and falling off in sheets now, going to leave it in soak tonight and it should clean up easily in the morning. Do not know what it's like on plastic yet but its not eaten its way out of the takeaway container yet and showing no signs of. Will not be trying it on the plastic bus parts as they are all self coloured or the right colour anyway but I'm impressed so far.  I might just spray one of my resin seconds (c--k ups) with primer and then paint and let it harden off for a few weeks and see if it works on that.

Phil T.  

Edited December 5, 2020 by Phil Traxson

[sir douglas]

going back to the Midland 5 plank for a bit, the replacement door end is just about done except for the hook slot, i used a drawing on the Midlandstudy centre website for reference

[sir douglas]

Brake gear is fitted to the wagon and after some cleaning is ready for painting. Like with the van (above) i gently went over it with a tooth brush and soapy water just to make sure its clean since ive been handling it for months and probably has some sweat residue from the summer

 

Early in the year i realised that my stock draws will soon be full and need some more storage, at the same time i was going through my old 16.5 stock and scrapping most of it due to my poor build quality, saving some of it in a different box or re using like with the little Maniing Wardle a few pages back, i digress. This gave me a wooden box which could be used by ripping out some of the partitions.  Just the open wagons will fit in this

 

The box as it was built 6 years ago, its all made form plywood with MDF partitions

 

removed partitions and external repaint. The set of drawers was intentionally made to fit witht he standard 32L folding crate but this box by chance is the right length to fit so soem battons were fitted to the ends to sit on top