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Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00


St Enodoc
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5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Our discussions will be with the builder. How he deals with his subbies is something I'd prefer not to see...

It’s yer warm climate, mate. You take the spirit level out of the freezer in the morning and by ten o’clock it’s telling you things you don’t want to know!

 Rich 

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My Friday off has started well. I had to nip out to the shops and happened to pass a home-brewing supplies shop that I'd forgotten was there. I went in and, knowing that phosphoric acid is sometimes used by brewers as a steriliser, asked if they had any. "Yes, but only 10% concentration". Perfect! For $7.00 I now have more than a lifetime's supply - 250ml - of flux for steel.

 

When I got home the postman had delivered a Ratio 552 brick signal box kit. I'm thinking of combining two of these (I already had one) to make Porthmellyn Road signal box.

 

Finally, the fourth (and final) Test has just started at The Gabba.

 

Life is good.

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This afternoon went well too. First, I ran 6305 on the layout, in both directions through the pointwork at both ends of Porthmellyn Road - initially on its own and then with the tender attached. All was well except for running in one particular direction when going straight across one of the double slips, where the pony derailed every time by taking the wrong road at the elbow. I don't know whether that's due to my poor point construction or a slight sideways bias on the pony truck. Either way, as it won't normally operate on this bit of track I'm not going to lose too much sleep over it.

 

I then moved on to the St Enodoc L-girders. I assembled the two sets of legs for the Down end L-girders then assembled the Up end L-girders themselves. Why? Because I wanted to sit the Up end L-girders on their shelves and fix them at the Polperran end. The legs at the outboard end are not yet fixed to the floor, which is a good thing as I made a non-deliberate mistake - can you spot it?

 

20210115002SEUpendL-girders.JPG.b1cf55626b9ff6dcaa27352528279a3f.JPG

 

20210115003SEUpendL-girders.JPG.173cdef077453b61bf43746a55019426.JPG

Yes, the leg assembly should be offset by the thickness of an L-girder upright, so that the outer faces (front faces in these two views) of the two sets of L-girders will be flush with each other. I spotted this and fixed it after I took these photos.

 

All this to the accompaniment of a good day's cricket, although the fielding side might come to regret three dropped catches.

 

Tomorrow I plan to fix the leg assembly to the floor and then erect the Down end L-girders.

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Most likely it's the pony truck pivot on the 43xx - check its position with Baldry's rule. Not that there will be anything you can do about it if it's wrong but it seems to be another one of those things that hardly anyone knows about.

Your 10% phosphoric acid will be a lot better than Fluxite but might be a little weak for steel, will work if it's clean enough though.

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1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

Most likely it's the pony truck pivot on the 43xx - check its position with Baldry's rule. Not that there will be anything you can do about it if it's wrong but it seems to be another one of those things that hardly anyone knows about.

Your 10% phosphoric acid will be a lot better than Fluxite but might be a little weak for steel, will work if it's clean enough though.

Thanks Mike. I do know Baldry's rule but as there's nothing I could do about it without a complete chassis rebuild I haven't bothered checking.

 

The pony truck has one of those cam arrangements that gives closer coupling on straights and in this case also pushes the pony wheels clear of the cylinders on sharp curves. If you don't have sharp curves this can be a damned nuisance but I'm reluctant to dismantle the body and chassis to change it. I adjusted the back-to-backs from 14.4mm to 14.5mm but that made no difference.

 

What I think is actually happening is that the self-centring action is biasing the pony truck slightly to the right, which in combination with my imperfect work at the elbows (you will remember looking at those when you were here) has caused the problem on one specific route. The loco ran fine over the other routes on that particular double slip and also over the other double slip and the two single slips. On that basis I'm going to leave it alone, at least for now.

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6305 now has DG couplings. Locos with NEM pockets should be easy as the top of the pocket is just the right height to screw a coupling to. However, if a) you can't get at the top of the NEM pocket and/or b) there isn't room for the screw head, then you have to find another way.

 

On 6305 the tender coupling was fine, as after removing the body and speaker housing I could extract the complete coupling mount. On the loco there was no way I could remove the pony truck without dismantling the whole loco (see above) so I fitted the coupling to the underside of the NEM pocket and cranked it up quite viciously. All's well that ends well though.

 

That's all for tonight - back to woodwork tomorrow.

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1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Mike. I do know Baldry's rule but as there's nothing I could do about it without a complete chassis rebuild I haven't bothered checking.

 

The pony truck has one of those cam arrangements that gives closer coupling on straights and in this case also pushes the pony wheels clear of the cylinders on sharp curves. If you don't have sharp curves this can be a damned nuisance but I'm reluctant to dismantle the body and chassis to change it. I adjusted the back-to-backs from 14.4mm to 14.5mm but that made no difference.

 

What I think is actually happening is that the self-centring action is biasing the pony truck slightly to the right, which in combination with my imperfect work at the elbows (you will remember looking at those when you were here) has caused the problem on one specific route. The loco ran fine over the other routes on that particular double slip and also over the other double slip and the two single slips. On that basis I'm going to leave it alone, at least for now.

I thought it might be, it's utterly c**p engineering and causes no end of problems with K crossings. Andy Morris had the same problem with a kit built Crab on Chapel, I suggested he look up Baldry's rule, the pivot was moved and it now runs perfectly.

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32 minutes ago, Michael Edge said:

I thought it might be, it's utterly c**p engineering and causes no end of problems with K crossings. Andy Morris had the same problem with a kit built Crab on Chapel, I suggested he look up Baldry's rule, the pivot was moved and it now runs perfectly.

Could someone please enlighten me as to what this Baldry's rule is?

 

Lloyd

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On 14/01/2021 at 00:09, St Enodoc said:

We have just had our laundry renovated. The plans our designer drew up were very specific in two key areas. The joinery makers took no notice. We have some interesting discussions ahead...

 When we built our house we had a 'bespoke' kitchen fitted. However it did not turn out quite as expected. In fairness they came back ripped most of it out and did it properly. They went bankrupt shortly afterwards! I am still finding uses for the hardwood that was ripped out!

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8 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

I thought it might be, it's utterly c**p engineering and causes no end of problems with K crossings. Andy Morris had the same problem with a kit built Crab on Chapel, I suggested he look up Baldry's rule, the pivot was moved and it now runs perfectly.

Yes, there are two possible solutions:

 

a) modify the pony truck (and possibly the double slip); or

 

b) bar the Mogul from Porthmellyn Road goods yard.

 

Option b) isn't a problem operationally so that's what I'll do for now.

 

The Hornby 42xx has a similar arrangement and gave trouble early on but a bit of springing fixed that. The Mogul already has a spring though.

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7 hours ago, Killybegs said:

 When we built our house we had a 'bespoke' kitchen fitted. However it did not turn out quite as expected. In fairness they came back ripped most of it out and did it properly. They went bankrupt shortly afterwards! I am still finding uses for the hardwood that was ripped out!

I don't really want them to rip it out, mainly because of the buqqeration factor but I don't want them to go bankrupt halfway through!

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10 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Great progress! Shame about the running session.. hopefully you can get them going before too long.

 

Baz

Thanks Baz. Yes, I hope so too. We were all set for this one until just before Christmas, when restrictions were tightened. Perhaps March...

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13 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, there are two possible solutions:

 

a) modify the pony truck (and possibly the double slip); or

 

b) bar the Mogul from Porthmellyn Road goods yard.

 

Option b) isn't a problem operationally so that's what I'll do for now.

 

The Hornby 42xx has a similar arrangement and gave trouble early on but a bit of springing fixed that. The Mogul already has a spring though.

The same or similar problem has been reported by several folk on the Dapol Mogul topic, for example by @Gopher:

 

 

Now, some Dapol wagons, especially 6-wheel milk tanks, are notorious derailers. I have heard that this is due to a poor wheel profile, which is quite plausible. Replacing the wheels with Hornby, for example, cures the problem. I'll see whether I've got a suitable replacement wheelset.

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26 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

The same or similar problem has been reported by several folk on the Dapol Mogul topic, for example by @Gopher:

 

 

Now, some Dapol wagons, especially 6-wheel milk tanks, are notorious derailers. I have heard that this is due to a poor wheel profile, which is quite plausible. Replacing the wheels with Hornby, for example, cures the problem. I'll see whether I've got a suitable replacement wheelset.

I've found a very ancient Gibson 3' 2" 10-spoke bogie wheelset in my spares box (price GBP 1.80 from Puffers at Kenton). The axle seems to be a perfect fit in the Dapol pony truck, so tomorrow I'll make up the wheelset (my wheel press aka vice is outside in the garage) and try it out. All I've got to do is to remember to use the 00 axle, not the EM one...

 

I'll report back.

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42 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Try 14.6 or even 14.7.. it works for the newer Gibson wheels.

 

Baz

Will do. These are old ones though - Norwich era. I've always set those at 14.5mm. What do you think?

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53 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Will do. These are old ones though - Norwich era. I've always set those at 14.5mm. What do you think?

Ive just measured the btb gauge ive used for many years with finescale wheels such as Gibsons. It is 14.85mm. Cant remember where this dimension came from, but over the years my locos and stock have run on many other layouts, generally successfully. 

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