Great Southern Railway (Fictitious) - Signalling the changes...

[Regularity]

50 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

many resin parts, carefully wrapped in tissue, which unfortunately had gone very brittle and "tacky" and removing them from the tissue turned out to be difficult - I broke three wagon ends just trying to get them out of the tissue. They turned out to be Maple Models kits.

Ah. Made from mapLe syrup, perhaps?

[burgundy]

I seem to remember having some of those,  which resolutely remained tacky. The solution was to give them a quick blast of rattle can primer which seemed to seal the surface. 

Hope this helps 

Best wishes 

Eric 

[Skinnylinny]

Thanks, Eric.

I did try that - the top left wagon was sprayed with Humbrol acrylic wagon, while the one underneath used Halfords primer. While the Halfords worked beautifully, the Humbrol seems to have reacted with the resin and bubbled, giving a very pronounced orange-peel effect, so is in the process of being removed (very gently!) with hot water and a toothbrush.

Fortunately the castings seem unaffected.

[Edit: Well the hot water did get rid of a decent chunk of the primer at the time, but after an overnight setting period, I've resorted to Deluxe Materials Strip Magic (after cautiously testing it on an unseen area) which really does live up to its name, chewing through the primer in less than five minutes!]

Edited April 25, 2020 by Skinnylinny

[Corbs]

21 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Oh, I say, @Corbs, that's a really good shot! Are there any photographs in there of the carriage in service?

 

Ah here you go, in The Great Southern Railway: its Trains, Stations and History (Clarence P. Barnes-Bell, Blackstone Press)

 

 

[jwealleans]

I reconditioned a 6 wheel LSWR brake van a few years ago which I was told was a Maple Models kit.   The resin cracked as soon as I looked at it, so the handrails on it were never corrected.

[Skinnylinny]

I must say that warming the resin definitely seems to be making it much more pliable, so I'm wondering if I might want to keep it warm while working the resin.  This would obviously be much easier before assembly!

[jwealleans]

Excuse the thread diversion, but this readership may be able to help; I acquired these resin parts for an LSWR perishables van some years ago and I've never been able to determine who made them.   Maple Models was suggested as was (I think) John Arkell, but neither turned out to be the case.   There are sides, ends and roof only.   Has anyone see these before?   They're nicely detailed and a good fit and look from the meniscus on the back to have been poured in an open mould.

 

[Skinnylinny]

That certainly is an interesting one - I've not seen that available in resin before I'm afraid! 

I've noticed that with being cooped up in the house, I'm flitting back and forth between projects. Currently ongoing projects include the Stroudley carriages, a little work on my Branchlines Ilfracombe Goods (postponed while I await new drill bits), lettering a few wagons and brake vans, the ongoing repaints of my Hornby M7 and... well. A while back I started drawing up bits to backdate my Hornby T9 into saturated-boiler condition. Today I dug out the replacement smokebox I had printed, and offered it up to the model again.



However, that rather obvious plumbing running diagonally along the length of the boiler? I couldn't find it on any photos of saturated-boiler T9s. A bit of research, and it turns out to be (I think) plumbing from the hydrostatic lubricator that was fitted at the same time as superheating. So, off it had to come. Hmmm. It's cast into the boiler. Some disassembly required. There's something terrifying about seeing an RTR loco looking like this:



However, some gentle butchery later, and we have a nice smooth boiler. I also carved the lubricator controls out of the cab, as they're quite large and visible. A quick mist of primer and a too-tall chimney nicked from the spares box just to give an impression, and...



Not too shabby! A Drummond chimney and Drummond smokebox door have been ordered from Brassmasters, so the next bits needing to be designed for 3D printing are the front splasher sandbox and the firebox cross-tube covers. I'll probably work on the CAD for these while watching @BlueLightning working on my LBSC D1 on his live stream tonight.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Skinnylinny

[jamespetts]

Interesting! I shall look forward to seeing this progress.

[Skinnylinny]

Well there has been progress on the CAD, although I suspect the firebox cross-tube covers will want a bit of adjustment yet. We shall see!
 

[Skinnylinny]

Well, the redrawn Stroudley buffers came off the printer... well, most of them. A few were stuck to the film, so that was another empty/clean/reset printer cycle... except that this time, one of the failed-print buffers was so firmly attached that I accidentally punctured the film trying to get it off. So... enough buffers for four carriages, but the printer's out of action... Again... until I can get a new film delivered. 

On the positive side, I managed to partially post-cure these ones, so they retain a fair degree of flexibility, which is good - they're not likely to break like the worryingly-brittle ones I have printed in the past. These early buffers have a very slender shaft, which, even in whitemetal, can be fragile. 



I've also decided that the fixed rake of Stroudley carriages will have scale couplings within the rake, as this shouldn't require coupling and uncoupling during normal service. There will, however, be tension-locks at the ends of the rake. As such, much playing  testing has occurred, pushing and pulling the carriages back and forth through the sharpest curve on the layout, the Peco double slip. No buffer lock (not even close) when propelling, so I'm happy!



I also found that the carriages were extremely free-running. So much so, in fact, that with the smoothest motion I could manage, they still kept bunching up and stretching out. A small piece of sponge has thus been glued on the floor of the two outermost vehicles, bearing on the axle and adding *just* enough friction to keep the train taut.

[Skinnylinny]

Well, the buffers have been painted, and the fineliners for tweaking the lining have arrived, but I wasn't feeling that particular job today. 

A while back, I found I had bought a tin of Stroudley Goods Green. My E4, Beachy Head, from way back towards the start of this thread, had been painted in said livery before I bought the right colour, so I made a guess:



Well, I got curious to see how badly out my colour choice was, so I did a small sample. Oh dear. That wouldn't do, so I plopped some on the model, on the right-hand side (as yet unlined):



To be honest, I'd been gradually getting less and less happy with the lining on the other side, so out with the paintbrush... After leaving the paint to set for nearly a week, I broke out the lining transfers today. Stroudley goods green was lined black. This black was edged in red if the loco was Westinghouse fitted, which Beachy Head was, so red/black/red is the order of the day. On such a dark livery, though, would the black be that visible? I had some double-red lining for BR Black boiler bands, so I tried that out, and decided I could live without the black line. This evening, after work, a couple of hours passed and this is the result:



I already feel like she looks much more elegant, and I'm much happier with my job of the lining this time round. There are still some imperfections to be tweaked, but all the straight lines are straight(er) and more consistent. When I'm in the right mood, lining can get done very quickly!

[Compound2632]

My eyes tell me the black line is there.

[Skinnylinny]

That was very much my feeling - I have some single-black lining I can dig out if *absolutely* necessary, but with such a dark livery it's really not!

[Annie]

The eye tends to fill the detail of the missing black line.  Attempting to fill in the black line could well ruin the illusion rather than enhance it.

[Skinnylinny]

So yesterday was my last day of "normal" (well, the new normal) working from home. After packing up all the avionics equipment, I decided, while the iron was still hot from the last bit of work, to poke around at the Ilfracombe Goods kit again. I spent a little over an hour trying to figure out why the gearbox kept jamming solid, before finding that the worm wheel (with its curved-cut teeth) had half a millimetre of sideways slop, and the fine tolerances meant that the slight height increase caused by this caused the gears to bind. A little very caution bending and re-soldering of bearings later, and I have a gearbox that runs smoothly! Hurrah! 

In the last session I had been trying to assemble the etched brake gear, but it was a real fiddle. I have come to the conclusion that I will, once the 3D printer is back up and running, 3D print brakeshoes in resin. This has three advantages: 

1) it should cut out a lot of awkward drilling in the chassis frames for the wire brake supports, as it seems the half-etched holes don't quite line up with where they should (which is possibly just me misunderstanding what I should be doing - this is my first rodeo!), as I can print spacers which will hold the brake shoes in place

2) non-conductive brake shoes means I can get them close to the wheels without worrying about shorts

3) No more trying to laminate brake shoes from four layers!

I'm still trying to work out the best way of fitting the supplied motor-gearbox combination into the loco. Option 1 fits nicely into the boiler and firebox, and doesn't protrude into the cab, but would require cutting out the bottom of the boiler, and would be visible to some extent on the finished model (although partly hidden by the centre splasher)



Option 2 (although the other way around from this, with the motor pointing upwards into the firebox) would allow a fully-round boiler, but because of the length of the motor, and the very small size of the boiler, it can't be vertical, meaning that the worm hangs quite low and would have to protrude below the ashpan. 



While pondering this, I decided to have a go at the tender. I started out with soldering bearings into the inside frames, then those to the etched floor (which the instructions point out allows a very thin footplate edge, not possible with whitemetal castings - a nice touch, and allows the chassis to be tested for running condition before adding any other visible bits.

A couple of hours passed chatting online with some friends, and suddenly, boom, there was most of a tender! The whitemetal parts (with a little straightening) fitted beautifully, with no big gaps or anything to fill other than a little solder here or there. 



I do seem to be missing the tender front wall though, so at the moment there is likely to be coal around the driver's ankles! Such a part ought to be easy enough to knock up from plasticard (I have drawings), but I'll have another rummage for it before fitting the floor planking. The size of the tender really brings home how tiny these locos were, though - here is the loco and tender beside an Adams Radial to give an idea:



So far, so good... I've been really enjoying this build. We'll see if that continues once I have to add all the fiddly details!

So yes, one other question: Any suggestions for how to cut lost-wax brass parts from their casting runners? My hardened-steel snips won't touch it, nor does my junior hacksaw (granted, it's a bit worn, but I am sure it had teeth before I started trying to cut the brass! Would a cutting disc in a Dremel do it?

Edited May 1, 2020 by Skinnylinny

[jamespetts]

Looking impressive!

[Skinnylinny]

Thank you! For a first etched and whitemetal loco kit, I'm really pleased. Sure, I had to disassemble the tender body and the cab by immersion in boiling water, but the fact that's a possibility means I'm a lot less worried about messing up with the whitemetal bits. That being said, I'm more nervous about the high-melt solder bits still to come, which are rather less forgiving!

[jamespetts]

2 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Thank you! For a first etched and whitemetal loco kit, I'm really pleased. Sure, I had to disassemble the tender body and the cab by immersion in boiling water, but the fact that's a possibility means I'm a lot less worried about messing up with the whitemetal bits. That being said, I'm more nervous about the high-melt solder bits still to come, which are rather less forgiving!

 

High melt solder as in brass? That is not too bad. I had a go at a brass kit last year, albeit of a carriage. It was not as difficult as some suggest, and there is no possibility of melting the brass with the soldering iron. It is a different technique, so you might take a little time to get used to it, but I am sure that you will be fine. The difficult bit with brass kits is always forming flat brass into complex shapes with things other than clear angles, and fitting delicate parts into other delicate parts in precise ways, not the actual soldering. Just make sure to clean the brass carefully first and use plenty of !flux and you should be fine, especially if you can solder whitemetal as well as the pictures suggest.

[Skinnylinny]

GaryBot says: You can never have too much flux!

Indeed, I've done a little bit of bending and forming. Right angles I can just about manage now, but curves are still beyond me. I might want to have another look at the guard irons on the loco. The disadvantage of the nickel silver (rather than brass) bits is the number of tiny bits in close proximity, and the fact that the kit appears to have been designed for EM/P4, with 00 as an afterthought, in some cases. There's a lot of sideplay in both the loco and tender chassis (the tender will go around sub-6" radius curves!) and I'm pondering fitting washers to limit this sideplay on at least the two outer wheelsets of the tender.

The idea of soldering all the brake gear up is frankly terrifying. Lots of 2-3mm long bits of wire, dozens of holes to be drilled in tiny components (they're all half-etched rather than etched through)... 

Long live the chopped-up RTR chassis!

[Caley Jim]

6 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Option 2 (although the other way around from this, with the motor pointing upwards into the firebox) would allow a fully-round boiler, but because of the length of the motor, and the very small size of the boiler, it can't be vertical, meaning that the worm hangs quite low and would have to protrude below the ashpan. 

...........

So yes, one other question: Any suggestions for how to cut lost-wax brass parts from their casting runners? My hardened-steel snips won't touch it, nor does my junior hacksaw (granted, it's a bit worn, but I am sure it had teeth before I started trying to cut the brass! Would a cutting disc in a Dremel do it?

On option 2, are you sure that the worm is not lower than the railhead?  It looks awfully close to me.  I remember at one of the 2MM SA AGM's one of the entries for the Groves Trophy (for the best loco) lurched every time it went over a turnout because the gear on the driven axle was slightly bigger than the wheels!  The builder hadn't thought of that and didn't have a turnout on his est track!

 

On separating from brass sprues, I would have thought that a fine piercing saw blade would do the job OK.

 

Jim

[Skinnylinny]

On option 2, I have to admit the worm is lower than the railhead because I've nothing to prop it up with, but I would try to raise it a bit. I definitely noticed when I slid the chassis over the single slip on the layout (in regular use despite not much track, as it's the sharpest curve - if stock goes over than and the reverse curve onto the adjacent track, it'll run on the rest of it!

Good shout, though! I'll have to look for a piercing saw, thank you.

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, Skinnylinny said:

Good shout, though! I'll have to look for a piercing saw, thank you.

Second and third items down on this page are what you want.

https://eileensemporium.com/index.php?option=com_hikashop&ctrl=category&task=listing&cid=1354&name=eclipse-brand-tools&Itemid=189 

 

Need any advice on using it, PM me.

 

Harburn don't seem to do tools, at least not on their website, nor do Wonderland in Lothian Road.

 

Jim

[Skinnylinny]

Ever have one of those evenings where nothing goes to plan?

After a weekend away from the project, I took another look at the Ilfracombe Goods tender last night. It all looked very nice, except one tender body side was leaning outwards at a strange angle, and the corresponding frame side was also squint. Attempts to unsolder these with an iron were a futile endeavour, so the tender was (carefully) held upside down with some pliers and lowered into some boiling water, just enough that the body came unsoldered while the underframe details (held clear of the water) were unaffected. I then spent an hour and a half cleaning up and trying to reassemble even two parts square with one another, to no avail. 

I called it a night - sometimes things just aren't going to go to plan. Here's hoping today goes better!

[Skinnylinny]

Well, I've managed to get the coupling rods laminated and soldered together (after many attempts) and the chassis now runs freely needing no downward pressure. I've come across another problem, though - the cylinder fronts are cast as part of the smokebox and saddle, and they don't fit between frames at 00 gauge spacing. I tried trimming them down, but they looked ridiculous with cylinders that were intersecting the frames. I've chopped them off completely while I ponder what to do there. 
 

Next step is to attempt to rebuild the tender body. I am going to try using copious amounts of blu-tack to hold the parts in place on a block of wood, to allow me to carefully adjust while everything's cool, then go in with the iron and let the solder flow. This will be once I've gone out for my weekly shop, and installed the new printer film that arrived in the post today, along with my Branchlines T9 chimney.