Peppercorn Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Good evening all, I saw an article some time ago by George Dent in, I think, Model Rail, about tarting up a Hornby 'Pug' 0-4-0T. I liked what George had done and thought to myself that this would make a nice little project that I could fit in between my painting activities (I was doing a drawing course that was followed by a painting course both intended to be part time, but which became very much a full-time occupation. Or it could be that I filled the time as in the now famous 'Parkinson's Law') So I garnered the bits I'd need, including an unboxed and, therefore much reduced in price, Hornby pug in a delightful, but probably fictitious livery of LMS red. Although I liked what George had done, his finished locomotive fell short for me in one significant respect - the wheels. George used Hornby's originals which I thought quite horrid, so methought I'd use some Markits. But then preferred the shape of the NBR version, found a drawing from PDH drawings, sent for and got it, and thought, why not scratch build it? Lower Shelton Locomotive Works... So I started on it, lashed out for another whole bunch of essential items including motor, gears, gearbox, and Markit wheels, axles and crankpin set. I settled for industrial type wheels which aren't quite correct, but they're lovely wheels (and may offend someone else as much as the Hornby ones offended me!) To date I've got a chassis that seems to have all four wheels on the rails, axles square (possibly a first for me) and which is free running. I still have to fit in construction between painting - there's always an assignment to be done, completed and despatched to my tutor - but have so far enjoyed its construction, and learning some things I thought I'd already got under my fingers, to whit - soldering; thought I was proficient at it, found to my chagrin that I'm not. Lack of practice, I think. I have also found that small electrical irons, even those with a high wattage in relation to their physical size - for example, the Antex 50W - don't work for me, so I've invested in a monstrous 100W Weller with one of their 50W ones having a 6mm diameter copper bit, on the side to get in where the monster won't go. Fluxes have been an eye-opener, too, Bakers fluid working really well (and quite OK if you remeber to wash it off) together with one that I bought called 'Building 7mm online safety flux' (which is super) I've also invested in a RSU which I enjoy and use at least as much as a soldering iron. My embryonic little loco seems to have cost a lot so far.... Oh, and I've made the footplate - made it first, actually even though by common consent chassis come first. I hope you find this interesting. Progress so far is illustrated in the following photos. There's a long way to go, and I'll post more as I go along if that's ok. Cliff 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted June 16, 2015 Share Posted June 16, 2015 Shall be following this with interest, I did similar many years ago, built a chassis using "Flexichas" bits from Perseverance. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 Morning all, A question: those side rods look very deep - they're presently 2.2mm which equates, in old money, to 6 1/2". I can't really sensibly determine from the drawing what the dimension should be, but would, say, 4 or 4 1/2" be about right? My next, that, frankly, I'm putting off (thinking about, well, actually procrastinating) are the pickup wires themselves. Cliff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted June 19, 2015 Author Share Posted June 19, 2015 (edited) A little bit of research unearthed a locomotive of similar size in "Locomotives Worth Modelling" where I see that the rods would be around 4 1/2", so that's what I'll aim for. However, I have to make the pickups first, and an unpleasant job it's proved to be so far - isn't phosphor bronze wire nasty stuff? Edited June 19, 2015 by Peppercorn Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 ?... isn't phosphor bronze wire nasty stuff? Not necessarily. Depends on how you use it, I suppose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Not found it nasty...now spring steel wire, THAT stuff has a mind of it's own, and it's one aim seem to be to insert itself into my finger-ends! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrkirtley800 Posted June 19, 2015 Share Posted June 19, 2015 Very nasty stuff, that steel wire. I scrounged the end of a reel of high tensile 12 thou brass coated steel wire from a local company, now defunct, producing armoured hosepipes. Superb for the ease of soldering but the times I have managed to stick it in my fingers is nobody's business. The reel end, of no value to the company - no one wanted it -- must have contained hundreds of yards of wire. Derek Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted June 20, 2015 Author Share Posted June 20, 2015 Yes, a few years ago I was trying - unsuccessfully - to make Jackson couplings using, as I remember, guitar string wire which is, I think, some kind of spring wire. Oh that was an awful experience and I gave up trying to manipulate it in favour of saving all feeling in my fingertips. I agree with Horsetan in that my remark was straight out of the petulant school where one blames the material ("...I can't file a straight line, it must be the fault of the nickel silver...") rather than my own poor workmanship. I'll be trying again today and this time won't publish unkind remarks about a material that serves us well Cliff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted June 21, 2015 Author Share Posted June 21, 2015 Pickups made and fitted, what a to-do. I may have to redo, they're not very neat. The air was still blue when I took the photo... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 I reckon they might be better if you can put a full loop of wire, at least one, in the bit between the wheel rim and the solder pad. Makes the springing softer, but more sure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted June 21, 2015 Author Share Posted June 21, 2015 OK, JeffP, I'll probably redo them as I'd like to make them neater, and on reflection I'm not sure that I used phosphor bronze so what is there is, I think, half-hard brass, which will get out of adjustment quickly. What I thought to be pb was yellow rather than the orangey colour of, well, bronze, but I do have some spring steel: would that work, do you think? Cliff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted June 21, 2015 Share Posted June 21, 2015 pb is better. Easier to work with too. Spring steel would need to be very light gauge and it would still not be easy to wind the spring part. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 (edited) Y9 pickups........... Not totally excited, enthralled or even mildly satisfied by my last effort at making the pick-ups, I decided to have another try, this time using 0.35mm diameter phosphor bronze, got from Eileen's Emporium. I thought a more logical approach would serve me better than my previous somewhat chaotic approach, and one that I was hopeful could result in both decent pickups, no holes in the ends of my fingers and leave me still some way to go before the end of my ever shortening tether. I made a small and very simple jig from pieces of insulating material that was to hand to enable more-or-less accurate soldering of the pick-up wires to the pick-up plate, but still needed to bend the wire themselves by a mixture of eye and measurement. It worked quite well if only because the jig ensured that the wires were fixed in the appropriate positions relative to the pick-up plate whilst soldering. I applied solder first to the wires and the pick-up plate to facilitate quick and easy soldering. Naturally, in the event, I got a measurement wrong and found in fixing to the embryonic chassis, and found that the wires went well beyond the wheels that they were supposed to picking up from. So I needed to make an amendment. I decided to drill a new fixing hole in the pick up plate itself rather than unsolder then re-solder the wires and the chassis now looks as indicated in one of the photos. Phew, now for the others. However, before I try to make them, I'll take a break and do something less frustrating... PS JeffP: I didn't manage the loops, it was a bend too far .... Edited July 4, 2015 by Peppercorn 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 Well I added the pick-ups for the other wheels. They're not very elegant, need some trimming and probably a bit of fiddling aka 'adjustment' to get into proper working order; I'm really looking forward to that. Not. Next, I suppose, are the cylinders, and yet another decision: that is whether to turn them or make them from sheet material. The lathe doesn't do much, so maybe I ought get it to earn its keep a bit more. However now its almost time to stop, in any case my eyes are virtually screaming at me to do so. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Is it my eyesight, or are the driving wheels not parallel to the frames? It looks like there is a slight tilt, especially on the top left and bottom right driving wheels. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Is it my eyesight, or are the driving wheels not parallel to the frames? It looks like there is a slight tilt, especially on the top left and bottom right driving wheels. No, your eyesight is fine: the wheels, now quite old Romfords, are crotchety and, for the fitting of the pick-ups are standing in for the very fine Markits wheels. As far as I am able to measure, the axle holes are parallel. But, of course, you now have me counting my worry beads, so a re-look in the very near future has become essential... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 A couple of hours with some needle files to thin the rods.Oh holiday we went to the Oxenhope shed on K & WVR and saw there the L & Y pug and got a better idea of the sort of dimensions rods need to be on a locomotive of this size. Unfortunately I didn't have a tape measure with me, but I reckoned them to be about 100 -120mm wide, so I aimed for about a millimetre and a half, as this get me in the right area. They look crude in the photos, so I'll do a bit more refining especially around the end, which could be rounder and, probably, a smaller diameter, and some more polishing or drawfiling. But not today. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gr.king Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 Don't sweat too much over the worry beads. Just keep chipping away at the project - you'll get there. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 Don't sweat too much over the worry beads. Just keep chipping away at the project - you'll get there. Oh, thanks, Graham - its been a long time - since those far-off days on the old BRM site, wasn't it? Great to hear from you. Yes, I'll keep on at it, can't wait to start on the bodywork, though. Cliff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gr.king Posted August 1, 2015 Share Posted August 1, 2015 The old BRM site - yes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted August 2, 2015 Author Share Posted August 2, 2015 I refined the coupling rods a little more today, mainly in reducing the diameter of the bosses. I also took the opportunity to polish the faces more, using 1200 grit wet and dry, in an attempt to make them look less like a 12": 1' blacksmith had made them. I then put it all together in a trial assembly and gratifyingly (very!) the chassis ran beautifully smoothly. However, I must remember the old saw about pride coming before a fall, and the fact that there's much to do yet. Such as fitting the gears back on: question - do I make an indent on the axle where the gear screw head will be or should I file a small flat; what would be the advice on that one, please? I will need to thin down the crankpin assembly at the front end as the coupling rod thickness is only 0.8mm and the crankpin journal 1.44mm. However, here's the photo, Cliff 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted August 3, 2015 Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 Hi, the best results I've had with gear wheels is to use a narrow file to make a "flat spot" on the axle. Do it a little bit at a time, checking that the flat spot is deep enough to keep the gear wheel in place with the grub screw not quite gripping the axle and therefore affecting the mesh of the gearing. Once done repeat with the motor shaft. Thanks, confused.com, very helpful Cliff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 Fired up the Cowells and made a pair of cylinder blanks. I see that they're not identical, but, then, I'll only see one at a time. It also appears that the piston rod centre isn't in the middle of the cylinder: it is, but the simulated stuffing glad was turned after I'd removed the blank and about-ended it to turn the other end, and, clearly, my 3 jaw isn't spot on; that's only to be expected. Perhaps I should've used the 4 jaw, but, really, the accuracy that I need is there. Now to make up a support for the cylinders - probably in 0.25 nickel silver or brass. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 The painting to go with the Y9 is progressing faster 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppercorn Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 Well, I have got no further with the building of the Y9, partly because we've had the builders in so I couldn't get access to my workshop. I do now, but there's a layer of MDF dust all over the shop which I must clear away before I can resume activities there. The other reason is that I've got stuck, and would appreciate any advice on how to make a crosshead assembly for this loco, which is a single bar type - somehow I can't quite visualise it hence don't know where to start. Sorry if that sounds pathetic, but I'm just stuck - any advice will be appreciated. I did complete the picture above and post it here if only to show that I do get things finished, even if only occasionally. My thanks in advance. Regards, Cliff 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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