Michael Edge's workbench

[Nova Scotian]

That's a very pretty little loco

[Chuffer Davies]

1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

I've got the Sacré 4-4-0 back from Warren Haywood now.

DCC chip fitted, some weight in the boiler and a bar at the back of the tender for tension lock couplers, just got to put some coal in the tender and it's ready to go to the customer. The elaborate GC livery looks very good on ths pretty little loco.

Stunning!

[richard i]

2 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

I've got the Sacré 4-4-0 back from Warren Haywood now.

DCC chip fitted, some weight in the boiler and a bar at the back of the tender for tension lock couplers, just got to put some coal in the tender and it's ready to go to the customer. The elaborate GC livery looks very good on ths pretty little loco.

Too much to hope this is available in 4mm as a kit?

richard 

[Michael Edge]

Sorry but I don’t have time to turn everything into kits.

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

That's worth fifty quid of anybody's money!

 

Mike.

[Asterix2012]

13 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Sorry but I don’t have time to turn everything into kits.

Worth a bit more than fifty

 

Shame it’s not to be a kit

[richard i]

Not even the flat etches, buyer to source the other bits?

Richard 

[Michael Edge]

I've started n the next 7mm job now, a North Eastern 4-4-0 which comes in a Gladiator box so I thought it would be quite straightforward...

Inside however I found this name on the etches and I wasn't so happy.. In the other splasher it says "Fourtrack Models", this kit has been passed around a bit.

Underneath I found that the main frames only went just past the leading drivers, the rest, with huge cutouts for the boge wheels, was supposed to be soldered under the footplate. The large hole in the lading stretcher was supposedly for the swinging arm to carry the bogie.

First modification was a simple compensation method, 4-4-0s are easy, allow the coupled wheels to rock up and down and the third leg of the stool is the bogie pivot. Frames temporarily soldered together and jig drilled for two compensating beams, new stretcher for the bogie with a slot in it instead of a central hole. Frames extended to the buffer beam (this is why I had to assemble the footplate first, I don't usually) and the kit parts soldered on the outside. There is no reason to cut out huge gaps for the bogie wheels, the frames can be the correct shape - and they turn inwards to give the leading bogie wheels more movement.

The splasher sides are an inner layer folded up from the footplate, overlays (great...) to add later, no idea why there is a cut out over the crankpins, there's no separate splasher here, it just made it more difficult to bend consistently.

 

[doilum]

Perhaps the cut out was to clear an incorrect crankpin throw? Having to work with wheels a available. Currently regretting selling my 7mm D2. Might even have to build another for a project I am involved in.

[Michael Edge]

22 hours ago, doilum said:

Perhaps the cut out was to clear an incorrect crankpin throw? Having to work with wheels a available. Currently regretting selling my 7mm D2. Might even have to build another for a project I am involved in.

It's not for that, it's only the inner fold up so it would give another .018" clearance each side, not worth bothering with and there's plenty of room on the splashers anyway.

[Michael Edge]

More on the NER 4-4-0.

The inside of the cab was a bit problematical, the kit was obviously designed for 00 gauge and having cut the boxes down to width for O gauge it left very wide cutouts for the firebox back. I don't think they will be too noticeable though. These North Eastern cabs look very big and spacious from the outside but actually horribly cramped inside with the huge boxes over the wheels and steps for the driver to stand on to see out of the spectacles - all NER locos were designed to be driven standing up.

 

The boiler was pre-rolled and not too far off, it pegs neatly into the cab front but I'm not sure about this method of adding the smokebox - I prefer to have the boiler diameter all the way to the front to help keeping everything circular and parallel.

The impossibility of neatly soldering up the double skinned splashers is apparent here, it will finish up with filler along the top edge.

The smokebox front was solid, how on earth anyone is supposed to solder pipes and handrail pillars into it is anyone's guess - I cut a hole in it so I could get to the inside from the front. The vertical slots are presumably for the door hinges but there are no etched components for these and the door is a plain whitemetal casting.

Loco body all together now, I found a moulding for the smokebox door, the clerestory roof on the cab was fun but seems to have worked out all right. There's a lot of plumbing on these apparently simple locos, not all of it provided in the kit, no mudhole doors either but these are easy to machine. This loco (1876) ran with one large bell whistle and an organ pipe.

Even more plumbing on this side with the Westinghouse pump and a mechanical lubricator (not supplied), the smokebox turned out better than I expected although the boiler was just a bit too big to get it on the big lathe to machine the back ring. Just coupling rods, brakes and sanding gear to add now but I'll leave those until I've built the tender.

[Michael Edge]

The tender went together a lot faster than the loco but still plenty of problems.

 

It has the same double skin construction as the loco but this time I could solder the overlays to the inner box before assembling on to the footplate so this time I could get a proper joint all along the bottom - only after removing an entirely unnecessary flange on the bottom of the inner box though. I left the flange on the top thinking it would make it easier to fit the top - it didn't and I was left once again with unfillable gaps but at least this time they are inside the coal space where I don't worry too much about them.

The half etched sides have the top beading left on them but the downside is that it's not possible to etch the step between the tender side and the top coping. Needless to say the coal plates didn't match the turned out coping (they very rarely do) and left large gaps to be filled with solder - this is the only use I ever find for the near useless lead free solder, it's so gloopy it fills gaps like this very readily.

Most of this is slot and tab construction which I don't much like, too often the slots are too narrow for the tabs but this shows the opposite - the slots are so wide that while the tabs go in easily they leave awkward and often unfillable gaps around them.

More tomorrow, I should have the whole thing finished then.

[Michael Edge]

I got it finished on Tuesday, collected yesterday, It does look quite pretty but I didn't enjoy this job much.

[Michael Edge]

Just back from a fortnight in France with a major development on the Carlisle layout. The original plan left a very large space inside the layout at one end and I suggested getting some more stock storage sidings in the space - bearing in mind that the original planned storage had been cut in half to accommodate Garsdale - however it was decided that another station would be a good idea. The available space is far bigger than most people would have for an entire layout so there was easily enough room for a scale model of Hest Bank and the Morecambe branch.

The original plan had a single track reverse loop at each end of the storage sidings and we had both of them built (by Ian Morris) but only fitted the one at the other end so the idea is to use part of the remaining one to access Hest Bank from the north.Below is the completed track plan.

 

 

 

At the right hand side  it turns back into the storage yard area, single track connection again but all main lines can be accessed from this track so it forms the original reverse loop function as well.

Looking towards the end of the room, Garsdale on the right, northern approach to Carlisle on the left with the first board and part of the return loop in place, the rest being fitted together on the floor. There was an 8'x4' sheet of ply left over, 100mm wide strips for the framing were cut locally - and remarkably good quality ply as well. It's all supported on the same tubular steel legs as the rest of the layout but this time without the great heavy subframe the rest has.

With all the scenic boards in place some track marking out, not too easy since the up line has a radius of 43.5m so it was done with a series of straight lines and offsets. Instead of covering the whole board with cork as was done before, this time the cork will only be on the trackbed - the outer lines visible above.

Looking the other way, Citadel station on the right, Garsdale and storage on the left.

Part of the up return loop fitted, we're going to use a bridge from a bit further north towards Bolton le Sands as a scenic break at this end, the existing main road bridge forms the scenic break at he other end.

Up trains from Carlisle will run through the storage yard, then Garsdale, then they can turn off to travel southwards through Hest Bank before returning to the storage yard in the other direction.

Back there in September/October to start track laying.

[St Enodoc]

Very nice, Mike. Could you post the revised overall track plan please?

[Michael Edge]

Yes, I think I'll put it in another thread though - something like "Carlisle, Garsdale and Hest Bank" for the whole thing. If we do anything else he'll have to extend the building....

[Michael Edge]

New layout thread started just now.

[Steve Hewitt]

HELP!

 

I've tried in vain to go to Layout Topics to find the new thread and keep getting this response:

 

This page isn’t working

www.rmweb.co.uk is currently unable to handle this request.

HTTP ERROR 500

 

Any others having this problem?

 

Steve

 

 

[St Enodoc]

46 minutes ago, Steve Hewitt said:

HELP!

 

I've tried in vain to go to Layout Topics to find the new thread and keep getting this response:

 

This page isn’t working

www.rmweb.co.uk is currently unable to handle this request.

HTTP ERROR 500

 

Any others having this problem?

 

Steve

 

 

 

[46256]

For some reason I too am having problems when clicking on layout topics thread. I eventually located the Carlisle layout thread by doing a search in main headings. Having located it selected “follow “ for any updates. 

[Nick C]

On 28/05/2023 at 00:19, Steve Hewitt said:

HELP!

 

I've tried in vain to go to Layout Topics to find the new thread and keep getting this response:

 

This page isn’t working

www.rmweb.co.uk is currently unable to handle this request.

HTTP ERROR 500

 

Any others having this problem?

 

Steve

 

 

 

On 28/05/2023 at 13:10, 46256 said:

For some reason I too am having problems when clicking on layout topics thread. I eventually located the Carlisle layout thread by doing a search in main headings. Having located it selected “follow “ for any updates. 

 

Try this - it worked for me when I was having the same problem:

 

[Michael Edge]

If anyone is having trouble finding "Carlisle, Garsdale and Hest Bank", just put Carlisle in the search box at the top of the page.

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Michael Edge said:

If anyone is having trouble finding "Carlisle, Garsdale and Hest Bank", just put Carlisle in the search box at the top of the page.

Or click on the link I posted on Sunday.

[Michael Edge]

The Hudswell 0-6-0DM which has been lurking in my test track photos for some time has now made its way to the paint shop, some photos before painting here

Completed loco on the test track, still with temporary crankpin fasteners before painting the frames.

Broken down into component parts.

Close up of the frames, power is a 15mm square motor on a High Level Roadrunner+. These motors are very powerful but run slowly so the gear ratio is 34:1. Gibson P4 wheels and my usual beam compensation. The buffer tails are linked across the frames to prevent the oval heads turning.

[AlfaZagato]

Looks like it will move quite a bit of stock, what with that massive motor.