Sirdouglas' O gauge

[sir douglas]

i will one day, and when the time comes, ive a friend that has built hundreds to give me advice 

[sir douglas]

Hi,

 

Well wakefield show has passed (another great show as usual) and no suitable donor loco for the project so i will be keeping watch online for one.

 

on "J Aspdin", the replacement motor has had to have its mounting replaced so that it sits correctly after buying a set of Slaters buffers for the main project i decided to buy another set for this loco, which can be seen mounted, the rest of the buffer parts will be one of the last things to go on after painting.

 

 

Also, i am currently having a go at the pick ups. The option would be just basic strips of very thin copper or brass but my attempts have never given continuous contact. a lot of people use wire thats soldered to a square of copper clad plastic but i dont have any of that o my net option was springs, i got OO lima motor springs of the net, on one end of each there is a brass ski and a brass bracket on the other, the bracket will slot into mounting that will be made on the inside of the frames, the skis will make contact with the back of the flanges through the end of the ovals in the frames.

 

Work on the Skytre wagons is just about done now, the work to remove the screws and glue the side together is done, the slots for screw lugs have been filled.

 

 

For now the wagons have been painted just grey and black, starting with 2 coats of Tamiya grey and then picking out the iron work in black which must be the most careful painting i have ever done with the smallest brush i think ive ever used has resulted in a respectable finish on the wagon sides, the inside was done with one coat of Tamiya matt black.

 

 

 

it looks good but i still need to do the door irons,

 

Regards, Sam.

Edited May 4, 2022 by sir douglas

[CME and Bottlewasher]

I recieved the 3 wagons yesterday, so as said, some photos and a quick review.

 

001.JPG

 

At a first glance it looks quite good, sprung buffers & hook, a removable plastic coal load and a smart Private owner livery but when you remove the load, its not so good.

003.JPG

 

the four sides of the wagon are not fixed together in any way but are screwed down to the wagon floor leaving hair line gaps in the corners. The flanges are a little larger than they should be and since they are made of plastic they are most likely to get damaged over time, the wagons are missing the door stop irons on the chassis even though they heve the little metal plates on the doors which make contact with the irons. At first i found it quite odd that they don't have end doors but looking through my bill hudson PO wagon book reveals that it was common. There is also no cental rodding between either side of the brake gear.

002.JPG

 

All things considered i still think the bargain was worth it, i can easily sort the body by taking the sides off, cutting off the screw lugs, filling in the slots and screw holes and glueing the sides back togeter and painting over it. i can easily make the irons for the doors.

 

The iron is seen here just to the right of the works plate:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/foxfield/PO_12ton_8pl_Mineral_Wagon_Florence_Coal_&_Iron_Co_Ltd_1012_as_built_by_Chas_Roberts.jpg

The wagons are not going to stay as they are, they will eventually have the liveries of industries and collieries local to me, I may also have a go at scratch building an end door for one of them. Reseaching someone that can do custom transfers so i can do the liveries will now be on my to do list. For now they will be painted grey with black metal work.

 

---------------------------------------

Update on the other loco, The name for which has now been decided. "J.Aspdin" Joseph Aspdin (1778-1855) from leeds invented & patented Portland Cement and set up the first cement works in Kirkgate, wakefield, see his wikipedia page

 

I found some problems relating to the motor and its mounting. Firstly a part of the motor inside had shattered (I could hear it rattling around when i handled the chassis) and secondley a part of the gear mounting was rubbing with the worm cog preventing it from turning smoothly, these have now been resolved as the motor has been replaced and the offending part f the mounting filed back. The motor was then wired up to a controller and it all runs very smoothly, all thats left now is the pick ups.

 

regards, sam.

Hi Sam,

 

Nice work!

 

I seem to remember in the GOG Gazette that someone super-detailed those POW's in a similar vein.

 

I overhauled a couple of the Skytrex 12T vans in a similar way - of course the internal screws werent an issue other than the sides still wobbled about a lot and required attention (even with the screws in place). It doesnt match any particular diagram, but I did my best with them and they look okay in a train. BTW I used Haywood wheels IIRC.

 

Kind regards,

 

CME

 

Photograph is the copyright of the Photographer 2010-2014

Edited November 30, 2014 by CME and Bottlewasher

[sir douglas]

came across this last night, Knuckles doing some improvements to the brake gear of his example of the same wagon, halfway down the blog;

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/483/entry-15241-p4-awkward-compensation-job-0-gauge-improvement-from-crudery/

 

So as well as adding the door irons, i may also have a go at these improvements

 

Regards, sam.

[sir douglas]

now that i have a loco chassis that runs, a start can be made on the body. The decision was made that it will be based on the Padarn Hunslets, some parts cut out and put together. photos tomorrow.

 

Also, i am now finding it difficult finding suitable photos of Hunslet backheads for tis project

 

regards, Sam

Edited December 6, 2014 by sir douglas

[hartleymartin]

I've generally found that phosphor-bronze strip rubbing on either the treads or the backs of the flanges works best and they are quite simple to make.

[sir douglas]

yes it is nice & simple but i find it difficult to get them to just right so they stay pushing against the wheel

[sir douglas]

removed 4-5-2022

Edited May 4, 2022 by sir douglas

[Hesperus]

Looking good, 

 

I went on ebay the other night to find a matching 26mm Hornby wheel for my shunter after diagnosing it's running problem as 3 26mm drivers and one 25mm.  Came away with 3 Hornby Dublo rolling chassis,  2 with valve gear for £15 posted which doesn't seem too bad.

 

Anyone want to swap a Hornby 26mm driver for a 25 or 27mm?

[sir douglas]

Hi,

 

Slow progress as ive been working the past few weeks but im off now for Christmas so back to it.

 

Im carrying on with J Aspdin in the style of the Padarn railway Hunslets. Firstly, having trouble finding something the right diameter for the boiler so ill have to try and make it, Secondly trying finding suitable photos of Hunslet back heads, and finally I thought that i had a problem with the reversing lever but that has been sorted

 

 

First up is the smoke box and sand pots, they are not glued down to the loco yet, im going to leave that untill the boiler is ready to be fitted.

 

Here is the inside of the cab, all ive got for now on the back head is the fire hole door and the reg lever mounting. as mentioned in the introduction, id like to feel that the back head detail is suitable to the loco in respect to the builder and the date. A copy of the plans that ive found online (HERE) dont help with this, but i have come across a photo in the IRSociety online archive (HERE) that is helpful, as it show nearly half of that locos back head, from this i can guess the rest using quarry hunslets and other glimpses such as on Manning Wardles. There wasnt much differences between the products of the two companies back then (1890's) as they were always copying each other because they were in direct competition. On the note of the reversing lever, I thought would have been the ordinary lever type and i forgot to leave a gap in between the side tank and the fire box, but a photo of the remains Padarn Hunslet Velinheli in the Slate Museum (HERE), shows it had the winding type like on most mainline locos. so i dont need the gap after all but instead ill need to take out the corner of the tank as in the photo for the reserving handle.

 

The next thing to show is that i finally got round to making the coupling hooks and fitting them, the springs are just a clicky pen spring cut in half. To get a good idea of the hook dimensions I used the coupling hook file (D2.4.2.2) in the online manual on the gauge O Guild website.

 

I have sorted how to mount the body to the chassis,ill go into that sometime later as i need to wrap this up as i need to go walk the dog (he's been sat starring at me fo 10 minutes now)

 

Edited May 19, 2022 by sir douglas

[sir douglas]

hi,

 

not much to report on J. Aspdin, but thats because as a bit of a time waster, I had a go at building a carriage.

 

I had parts of a Port Wynnstay O16.5 carriage kit laying around so it was refashioned into an O gauge carriage, by using the sides and the lamp tops on the roof with a new ends, interior and under frame. The wheel sets and bearings are a recent online purchase from Peco. Ive also had a successful attempt at scratch building sprung buffers, made from nails and some 4mm  dia. steel tube and a suitable spring cut into the right lengths. The roof is ready to go on but the glazing needs to be done before then. Thecolour used is Tamiya XF-52 Flat Earth, for the leaf springs, those from the abandoned saloon project will be modified for the job, The foot boards are still to be cut out and the coupling hooks will be cut out at some point. (sorry this first pic is a bit fuzzy)

 

 

 

it looks very nice lined up with J.Aspdin and the skytrex wagons

 

Regards, Sam.

[sir douglas]

hello folks,

 

firstly, i noticed that i havent shown anything of the carraige since i roofed and weathered it. I am not sure if i have said anyhting on the buffers before, they are scratch built using shanked nails, some 4mm dia. mild steel tube and clicky pen springs cut in half, the hooks are cut out of 1mm mild steel sheet and again with half clicky pen springs. the base coat of the body is a Tamiya flat earth XF-52, with a acrylic Vandyke brown dry brushed on.

 

 

Regards, Sam.

Edited May 19, 2022 by sir douglas

[hartleymartin]

Have you looked at the Hornby B12 chassis? The three pairs of driving wheels are close-spaced. The 26mm diameter wheels becomes 3'8.5", which is slightly tall but not unreasonable for an industrial shunter. I don't have information on the spacing of the wheels unfortunately. Longer axles and maybe the addition of some outside valve gear might produce something useful.

 

I'd like to know more about how you produced the chassis of the green locomotive in this thread. It rather intrigues me!

[sir douglas]

just to give more info,

the wheels that i got that i took half the spokes out of, are Hornby N2 drivers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/141243151954?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

the gears are wrenn. but only realised when i recieved them that grub screws arent included

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140401893990?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

and i also got a set of Hornby Castle cylinders & motion.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/310945035741?_trksid=p2059210.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

this motion will go on a third loco that im building parts for, starting with parts from dismantling my first O gauge attempt (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/32832-my-first-o-gauge-loco/)

mainly just keeping the motor. gears and the rear wheels and ive still got the other wheels to go with these as they originally came from a OO 14XX, im thinking making this one a 0-4-0 with incline cylinders like the Seaham Harbour Lewin, now at Beamish 

http://www.beamish.org.uk/images/iBrowser/lewinbanner.jpg

 

Hartleymartin,

thank you for taking the time to come to this thread and for your query.

 

first planning what i wanted my wheelbase and over hangs to be, i then marked up the frames onto the styrene sheet, both sides together so all the marking are an exact mirror image, drill the axle holes and the holes to become the ends of the oval openings before cutting the frames out, mark out the buffer beams, drill the holes for the buffers and cut the slot for the hook, cut them out. work out the length of the stretchers from the wheel back and styrene thickness, ive got a stretcher each on the inside of the buffer beam, and i cant remember on hand if it was two or three stretchers in between. mark and cut and then with some styrene "L" section i glued it all together, using the grid on the cutting mat and my square to make sure its all parallel and square. and the i worked out the motor and gear train mounting and cut all of that out. then did some dry fits with the motor, gears and an axle. with everything ready for assembly a wheel was super glued onto one end of the axle, the other end was fed through the frames, gear and mounting, the other wheel was glued on, then fettled the position of the gear before glueing that on. i have previously explained my pick ups. the connecting rods were cut out of 1mm brass sheet.

 

if theres anything specific, i doubt i could help as i just mostly bodge these things as i go along with what ever materials ive got.

 

Regards, Sam.

[sir douglas]

just taken some photos of the parts im collecting

 

the parts for the 0-4-0 based on the Seaham Lewin. ive decided to keep the name of the loco that 2 of the wheels came off for this project. The Castle cylinders & motion shown cut down the middle to separate them. the crank spacing washers were from a bag of OO motion sets i bought a few years ago for a previously failed o gauge loco project which i abandoned.  The connecting rods are from the old chassis of my Halfmoon Colliery "St John"

 

all thew parts shown in exploded view

at the moment its a bit silent grey project?

 

Also, the gears and modified N2 wheels for the 'main' project. ( i almost gave away the name of the project by the name of the image file)

 

Finally, a note on "J.Aspdin", i removed the cylinders and abandoned them, they stuck out because i accidentally made the body and buffers beams not wide enough.

 

Regards, Sam.

[sir douglas]

Hi,

 

Yesterday i received 2 wagons that i ordered on sunday

 

thse 2 photos are from the site i ordered them from

http://www.wagonandcarriage.co.uk/images/6940.JPG

http://www.wagonandcarriage.co.uk/images/6941.JPG

 

they were clearly kits, with slaters wheels & bearings, brown plastic, side door iron work design ive not seen before, white metal brake gear and cast buffers, they have sprung hooks, cant decide whether theyre original to the kit or not, the chassis' were put together a bit wonky so i have now taken them apart to clean them up and put them back together properly and a new coat of paint.

 

I would like to ask 2 questions to you folks;

 

1- does anybody recognize the kit

 

2- does anybody recognize any prototype

 

Regards, Sam.

[Ian Kirk]

Hi,

 

Guilty as charged. These kits were produced by me in the mid 70s.  Plastic bodies/solebars etc with white metal buffers, brakeshoes and lever. The floor I think was a rectangle of planked plastikard.  It represents a Glasgow and South Western coal wagon. I did this in 4mm as well. Result of having been persuaded at a Show that I should do something G&SWR. I chose this prototype as it had double end doors so I only needed moulds for one side and one end.  Somewhere I have a box of brake shoe and lever castings but no buffers as these sold on their own. This was my only O gauge model for some time as the intended range did not materialise at that time.  I withdrew it when it could not stand comparison with the O gauge wagon kits I released later (which are now the first few of the Parkside range). For the last 15 years or so I have concentrated on O gauge Coach kits having sold off all the other ranges.

 

 

best wishes,

 

Ian.

[sir douglas]

Thanks Ian, nice to know some background on my wagons

 

yes the floors are planked styrene, although very thin so ive replaced them with thicker styrene with the plank grooves cut into them

[Ian Kirk]

Hi,

 

Have just found the advert for the release of these. Railway Modeller April 1977.  The " basic" kit which needed wheels and couplings to be bought separately cost 65p for the 4mm version and £1.40 for the O gauge one. Be a bit more than that now I would think!

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

[Dava]

I remember buying one of these from Mr Kirk in his St Monans workshop, aged 17 (me, that was).

I never built it and sold it as I didn't have any wheels and was doing TT in those days. Wish I hadn't sold it now!

 

Dava

[sir douglas]

just about done with the rebuild  of the G&SWR wagons, ive give them the same livery as the Skytrex wagons. Tamiya neutral grey (XF-53) and Matt black (XF-1).

sorry for the picture quality, poor lighting

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by sir douglas

[Ian Kirk]

Hi,

I don't know if you have noticed but there was a hinge pin across the top of each end door on these wagons. I see from the first photo that one of the wagons still had some trace of the half round bit on the top of the upright ironwork on the side but both of the wagons seem to have lost these.  I originally supplied heavy gauge plastic rod (about 60thou IIRC) and you rolled  bits of plastic strip around this to coincide with the top of the ironwork on the ends. This was to represent the hinges. Hard to explain and I am afraid that I can not find my drawing. What it was supposed to represent of course is the workings of the end doors.  In real life there was a steel rod running from the top of the vertical iron upright on one side of the wagon to the other. The end door was hung on this by three hinges, the straps of which went right down the door until they met a heavy bit of ironwork which went right across the end of the wagon and had some locking system each end. From memory I think in this case they fitted over pins which came out of the ends of the sides and tapered locking wedges fitted through holes in these to keep the door shut. If the locking wedges were removed then the wagon could be unloaded by lifting one end (like a tipper truck).  All end door mineral wagons had some similar system most commonly at one end only and wagon turntables were used to get the right end into the unloading facility. The G&SWR ran a lot of coal to docks where there were no turntables so they opted for a double end door design. The GWR did this again much later when they introduced their first generation of 21T metal minerals (which were too long for the existing wagon turntables)

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

[sir douglas]

only one of these wagons had those bits sticking out of the top of the sides so i thought they were moulding flash and cut them off, with any simple exploded view sketch i could scratch build these details back on

[Ian Kirk]

Hi,

Still cant find my G&SWR drawings so:

 

Very rough sketch of end door hinge arrangement. In real life the vertical ironwork on the end was continuous and went up over the bar, down the inside of the end and was bolted through as in the second sketch.

 

best wishes,

 

Ian

Edited February 17, 2015 by Ian Kirk

[sir douglas]

post removed

Edited February 19, 2023 by sir douglas