Mid-Cornwall Lines - 1950s Western Region in 00

[Clive Mortimore]

Come on guys, poor old Sainty is having problems with is train set. Instead of taking the mickey we should all be giving him support and suggestions that will help him cure the problem.

 

Mr Denbridge's suggestion of DC is a good one. 

 

Some might see Ian's suggestion of clockwork as a wind up, I think it is a good alternative.

 

As for Keith's idea of a push along railway, would that be five digit control? Another tried and tested method that works.

 

I sometimes I find doing something else in my spare time allows me to clear my head so when I return to the problem I can sort it out.

 

John mate, how about taking time out and get on a build that bl**dy Shackleton.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Clive Mortimore

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

I think the main problem with the Shackleton is 'Where do I fit the Cobalt's' !!!!!!

 

manna

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, ian said:

 

Nah, clockwork locos and mechanically operated points and signals. You know it makes sense.

You are Norman Eagles and I claim my five pounds.

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Mr Denbridge's suggestion of DC is a good one.

Anybody volunteering to make the diode matrices for me then?

 

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Some might see Ian's suggestion of clockwork as a wind up, I think it is a good alternative.

String.

 

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

As for Keith's idea of a push along railway, would that be five digit control? Another tried and tested method that works.

Decades ago all my points and signals were operated digitally.

 

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I sometimes I find doing something else in my spare time allows me to clear my head so when I return to the problem I can sort it out.

Work!

 

4 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

John mate, how about taking time out and get on a build that bl**dy Shackleton.

Now that's just silly.

[St Enodoc]

Last night I thought I'd spend half an hour detailing the two NBL types 2s.

 

Two hours later, and after another half-hour at lunchtime today, they're done.

 

First I fitted a crew - another pair of Bachmann fellows. These needed even more drastic surgery than those on D601, with both legs amputated at the hip. Too bad.

 

Next were the discs. I had fitted the blank half-discs at the inner ends a while ago and, now that I'd decided that these locos would only work Class C trains, I fitted the appropriate discs and remaining half-discs to the outer ends.

 

I also removed the front coupling from D6306 as It won't be needed, then added some of the moulded end detail. I couldn't quite match all the bits up with the holes in the buffer beams, and there weren't quite enough bits to go round either, but I went as far as I could while leaving room for the couplers to swing.

 

Speaking of couplers, I had previously fitted the inner ends with Hornby/Roco close couplers but these still left rather a large gap, so I tried a pair of Kadee no 18s that I'd recovered from some secondhand wagons. They've resulted in a much closer gap.

 

All the diesel fleet is done now, so I'll carry on working through the steam fleet as the mood takes me. Some of the tender locos can have fixed lamps but the rest, and all the tank engines except the 2-8-0Ts, will need steel lamp brackets and magnetic lamps. I'll leave those to last.

Edited June 29, 2022 by St Enodoc
images restored

[Tim Dubya]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Last night I thought I'd spend half an hour detailing the two NBL types 2s.

 

Two hours later, and after another half-hour at lunchtime today, they're done.

 

D6306

 

yum

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by Tim Dubya
I'm broke 'til the 27th doh!

[St Enodoc]

A typical task list for a tender loco with fixed lamps that's already in service (so has already been renumbered/renamed, chipped, had DG couplings fitted and in some cases a certain amount of extra detail) is:

 

- tone down the side rods with very thin (unstirred) Humbrol 29 Matt Dark Earth

- blacken wheel rims and other unwanted shiny bits

- remove the front coupling

- glue the lamps in place

- add crew

- add coal

 

I'm still experimenting with the best way to represent the front screw coupling and its little hook to hold it out of the way of ATC ramps. Any thoughts?

 

On the Bachmann Halls I've also decided to modify the loco-to-tender coupling so that it doesn't slip off the small spigot on the tender every time you lift the loco and tender up, because it's a swine to recouple. I've tried a collar (an M3 nut, actually) glued on the end of the spigot but if that doesn't work Plan B is to cut off the spigot altogether and replace it by a suitably-sized screw.

 

Weathering is still for the future.

[checkrail]

2 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I'm still experimenting with the best way to represent the front screw coupling and its little hook to hold it out of the way of ATC ramps. Any thoughts?

 

On the Bachmann Halls I've also decided to modify the loco-to-tender coupling so that it doesn't slip off the small spigot on the tender every time you lift the loco and tender up, because it's a swine to recouple.

So that's why GWR loco couplings were hooked up to the side!  Makes sense.  But I've had no luck replicating this arrangement, even with Exactoscale and Shire Scenes couplings.  Too fiddly for me I'm afraid.  Didn't DJ models provide such a coupling with their 14xx/48xx?  It'd be nice to see such an item as an accessory.  Modelu?

 

Re Bachmann Halls - yes, the loco/tender coupling is absolutely infuriating and I groan inwardly every time I need to take one off the track for any reason.   Must get round to modifying mine in due course.

 

Great watching the progress you've been making with such a huge project.

[Harlequin]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

I'm still experimenting with the best way to represent the front screw coupling and its little hook to hold it out of the way of ATC ramps. Any thoughts?

 

 

29 minutes ago, checkrail said:

So that's why GWR loco couplings were hooked up to the side!  Makes sense.  But I've had no luck replicating this arrangement, even with Exactoscale and Shire Scenes couplings.  Too fiddly for me I'm afraid.  Didn't DJ models provide such a coupling with their 14xx/48xx?  It'd be nice to see such an item as an accessory.  Modelu?

 

 

Slightly tangentially: When ATC plungers were mounted just behind the buffer beam they had an extra fixture which I'm 99% sure was to prevent dangling couplings making electrical contact with the plunger body.

 

The relevant parts are the creamy yellow side brackets and the blueish shaped bar around the front in this image.

 

Those parts are electrically insulated from the plunger body by felt pads in the mountings (between the salmony pink part and the green mounting plates) and they are not present when the unit is mounted under the cab so it seems clear that they are to stop something making electrical contact with the unit and logic says that thing must be the coupling, hanging just inches in front.

 

It's amazing what you can learn when you really study these things!

 

Edited September 22, 2021 by Harlequin

[5BarVT]

Is that on all loco types, or just some?

Reason I ask is that there were special plungers for trains that went into the suburban part of Paddington that locked up clear of the juice rail.  I wonder if the side pieces could be just in case the lock up failed so that the juice was shorted by the body/frame and didn’t make its way into the AWS box in the cab.

Paul.

 

Didn’t read the text properly and was looking at the wrong pieces.  Please ignore this red herring.

Edited September 23, 2021 by 5BarVT
Retraction of question.

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, checkrail said:

So that's why GWR loco couplings were hooked up to the side! 

I think so!

 

7 hours ago, Harlequin said:

Slightly tangentially: When ATC plungers were mounted just behind the buffer beam they had an extra fixture which I'm 99% sure was to prevent dangling couplings making electrical contact with the plunger body.

That's right. On most (all?) tender locos, of course, the ATC equipment was fitted under the cab.

[Harlequin]

4 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Is that on all loco types, or just some?

Reason I ask is that there were special plungers for trains that went into the suburban part of Paddington that locked up clear of the juice rail.  I wonder if the side pieces could be just in case the lock up failed so that the juice was shorted by the body/frame and didn’t make its way into the AWS box in the cab.

Paul.

Sorry, don't know the answer to that. The type shown here is the original type with rigid fixings.

 

[TrevorP1]

11 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

 

I'm still experimenting with the best way to represent the front screw coupling and its little hook to hold it out of the way of ATC ramps. Any thoughts?

 

 

I’ve tried 2 or 3 ways without success. However, I remember reading somewhere  (I hope I didn’t dream it!) that Accurascale were ‘going to do it right’ on the Manor. Also that they were going to sell the parts separately. Let’s hope so!

[Harlequin]

22 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I think so!

 

That's right. On most (all?) tender locos, of course, the ATC equipment was fitted under the cab.

I think you're right to say most. I haven't mapped out all the variations but, for instance, here's 2834 with the ATC device just behind the buffer beam, the "guard bar" clearly visible and the coupling hooked up.

 

The Oxford Dean Goods model includes a hook on the buffer beam but it's overscale. Not sure how you'd make your own, though. Drill a small hole in the buffer beam, bend a very fine piece of wire to shape and glue it in the hole???

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Harlequin said:

Drill a small hole in the buffer beam, bend a very fine piece of wire to shape and glue it in the hole???

That's the current state of play but it's rather fiddly. It's also not easy to get the coupling to lie over to one side convincingly.

[5BarVT]

8 hours ago, Harlequin said:

here's 2834 with the ATC device just behind the buffer beam, the "guard bar" clearly visible and the coupling hooked up.

Which shows clearly that my question about juice rails was “pants”!  Apologies for the red herring.

Paul.

[Regularity]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

That's the current state of play but it's rather fiddly. It's also not easy to get the coupling to lie over to one side convincingly.

Spot of superglue on the central bar, to keep the shape, without gumming up the whole thing solid?

[Chamby]

The hook will be barely visible in OO scale, as this rather nice photo on the Didcot Railway Centre website shows.  I'd probably use a loop of fuse wire and superglue.

 

[Stubby47]

Looking at that pic, it might just be easier to glue the end of the coupling to the corner bolt on the buffer.

[McC]

The accurascale option is a dedicated detail part, so you can fit the (metal) coupler hanging, in use, or hung to the side (a dedicated second coupler is provided for the 'hung' version)

[St Enodoc]

29 minutes ago, Chamby said:

The hook will be barely visible in OO scale, as this rather nice photo on the Didcot Railway Centre website shows.  I'd probably use a loop of fuse wire and superglue.

 

Thanks Phil, that's a great photo that shows exactly what we are discussing. I don't actually think the hook is the biggest part of the challenge. It's getting the two links to lie at right-angles to each other and the screw tommy-bar to lie parallel to the thread. I plan to use up an old supply of PC Models etched frets for this. I'll report back in due course.

 

4 minutes ago, McC said:

The accurascale option is a dedicated detail part, so you can fit the (metal) coupler hanging, in use, or hung to the side (a dedicated second coupler is provided for the 'hung' version)

I'll look into that option too, thanks.

 

[St Enodoc]

21 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I'll look into that option too, thanks.

 

I just had a quick look at the Accurascale website. The screw couplings are of the "Continental" type, with two straight links instead of a loop at the top. I also can't see any way to turn the links through 90 degrees and the tommy-bar seems to be fixed permanently perpendicular to the thread. I can't see any mention of the "dedicated second coupler" either. So, unless I've misunderstood the pictures, I don't think they're what I'm looking for and I'll pass for now, thanks.

Edited September 23, 2021 by St Enodoc

[The Stationmaster]

11 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

I’ve tried 2 or 3 ways without success. However, I remember reading somewhere  (I hope I didn’t dream it!) that Accurascale were ‘going to do it right’ on the Manor. Also that they were going to sell the parts separately. Let’s hope so!

Here I must throw my hat into the ring.  The DJM 14XX had the 'little hook' because it was one of the things I suggested t Dave should be done to add to the overall realism of the model (I said nothing abi out its mechanicals so done't blame me guv).    the 14XX also had another feature I suggested and i have made sure that it is incorporated on the Accurascale 'Manor' but you can find out for yourselves what it is when you get your hands on one.   I believe the hook might also have appeared on at least one other model.

 

The hook should be there on the Accurascale 'Manor' as I asked the designer to make sure it was included and also made sure that he took a photo of it on the day detail was being photographed and measured at Didcot - and it was on the early CADs so I presume it has survived tooling etc - as confirmed by McC above.  (And yes, there's even a video online somewhere to prove I was there that day  )

 

As to the original  reason for the hook I think it was most likely there to avoid fully extended screw couplings hitting the ATC ramps (and possibly other things?) rather than hitting the shoe on the engine (which as already pointed out was in fact under the cab in many instances).  

[Nick C]

20 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

I just had a quick look at the Accurascale website. The screw couplings are of the "Continental" type, with two straight links instead of a loop at the top. I also can't see any way to turn the links through 90 degrees and the tommy-bar seems to be fixed permanently perpendicular to the thread. I can't see any mention of the "dedicated second coupler" either. So, unless I've misunderstood the pictures, I don't think they're what I'm looking for and I'll pass for now, thanks.

I think the ones currently on the Accurascale website are for the modern stock, so presumably they're making a different version for the Manor, which would then be available later as spares in the same way?

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, Nick C said:

I think the ones currently on the Accurascale website are for the modern stock, so presumably they're making a different version for the Manor, which would then be available later as spares in the same way?

Good point Nick. The images of the Manor on the Accurasacle website do indeed show the round-topped type, so I think I'll wait and see. That might be what @McC was referring to above with regard to the dedicated second coupler too. Anyway, any idea that means that I don't have to do anything straight away is a good one!

 

Thanks.