Exhill Works and other adventures in 7/8ths

[Metropolitan H]

10 hours ago, John Besley said:

....................But my view is that this style of narrow gauge modelling is a caricature of the real thing - in practice I am not aware of any 10.1/4" Estate railway being used as depicted by Exhill, in real life I guess the minimum gauge would be 18" and in 7/8 would use gauge 0 track / 32mm.

John,

 

I think you need to read up on the "Surrey Border and Camberley Railway" and on the "Shillingstone Light Railway" of Sir Thomas Salt. Sir Tomas Salt had a 2-6-0 - 0-6-2 Garratt, which was occasionally used to feed the pigs!

 

Regards

Chris H

[CameronL]

3 hours ago, Metropolitan H said:

John,

 

I think you need to read up on the "Surrey Border and Camberley Railway" and on the "Shillingstone Light Railway" of Sir Thomas Salt. Sir Tomas Salt had a 2-6-0 - 0-6-2 Garratt, which was occasionally used to feed the pigs!

 

Regards

Chris H

Now there's an idea! Could we see this beauty from Heljan...

being turned into this beauty by El John...

'Jason' at the Shillingstone Light Railway in 1966.

 

Best wishes 

 

Cam

 

Edited April 3, 2023 by CameronL
Added a bit

[John Besley]

Nice idea.... but I do need to finish Tinkerbell and build the Westcountry next, oh and finish No 4 first...

 

By which time I expect we might have moved house... I also have a Class 33 in mind along the lines of the Triang Minic Railways loco as a what if it had carried on, I already have a Lima 0 gauge body shell that I've in mind to butcher 

[John Besley]

Back on track with No4...

 

Over the last few days Ive built up a drivers seat based on a Morris Minor seat base, this was made out of plasticard frame covered in milliput and scribed to the seat stictching, the seat legs are simply folded up out of 2.5mm copper wire.

 

a brake valve was turned up out of some scrap brass and a spare smokebox door handle from the traction engine parts was pressed into service as a handle.

 

a pair of gaiuges turned up from brass bar and the rest of the control panel made up with a push buton start and toggle switch added, all of this was soldered up useing a blow torch

 

 

[John Besley]

Further progress with the cab fittings... made up a controller handle along with a fuse board, this supplies power to the windscreen wiper motor - made up a wiper blade from three bits of brass all silver soldered together and the rear light including the cab interior light.

 

Formed up the cable runs out of fine copper wire, in real life this would be run in MI cable so the formed bends are typicaly correct, made up a double gang light switch with rocker switches and ran the cable into all the above from the fuse board.

 

 

 

 

On the rear of the cab we now have the back up light and a 110V power connection, there is also a pair of hooks for stowing the recovery chain on... more on that when this build is finished...

 

 

There will now be a short commercial break while I get on with traction engine rebuilds and parts etc.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by John Besley
Correction

[Sweet pea]

Nice cab detailing John.👍

[John Besley]

Having had a hunt on line I came up with this design, I found a porthole fitting that would work as a lens cover so turned up a drum head light fitting, machined up a ring for the hinged front and silver soldered this in place adding in a sliver of brass for the hinge and made up a catch for the opposite side.

 

Folded up a mounting bracket and driled through to take a grain of wheat light bulb, tried sevral locations to find what makes sence and think mounting on the right side of the radiator hosuseing will work best, I did contemplate the top of the cab roof, while it looked acceptable runnin the cable in place would have been almost imposable for a working headlight.

 

Feel free to comment

 

 

[Fishplate]

Very nice. I do enjoy the way you describe making these unique items. Looking forward to seeing more.

[John Besley]

2 hours ago, Fishplate said:

Very nice. I do enjoy the way you describe making these unique items. Looking forward to seeing more.

 

Thank you Mr Fishyplate,

 

I started writing up descriptions like that years ago when I started documenting the 'Yer Tiz' build which has proved invaluable going back to check how I'd made something and the trial and errors on the way.

 

The 'Yer Tiz' build spanned some 4 years on and off and ran to hundreds of A4 pages with multiple pictures, drawings etc.

 

I got the idea reading a book called ' Building A Ford 10 Special' this book was written way back in the 1950s as there was references to going to the Festival of Britain, the book was written up as a diary - warts and all, I think my Father may still have the book in his collection

 

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by John Besley

[John Besley]

Nothing much to report on at the moment.... too busy rebuilding customers Wilesco Traction engines and making parts .... oh I have ordered something rather nice from Narrow Planet - nameplates.

 

And our house is now on the market, so no idea how things will pan out...

 

What will happen to Exhill, and my workshop... hmm 🤔

[John Besley]

After a long gap... been busy with a diversion building a Bo-Bo deisel and getting stuck into a Wilesco Showmans build for a customer anyway to catch up..

The connecting and coupling rods where assembled  by folding over then soldering up ready to test fit on the crank axles.

Opened up the connecting and coupling rods with a No55 drill and eased these to fit the bushes with a broach.
Prior to all this in March I had assembled the cranks and fitted the crank pins, cleaned down the chassis and primed, then painted in a matt black to start with ready to assemble the motion

 

 

[John Besley]

With some time to spare and in an effort to tidy up odd jobs, switched to the Bo-Bo deisel build, swopped over the Lima Ringfield motor for a CD can motor from https://www.strathpefferjunction.com/ 

 

 

This was pretty straight forward following thier on line instructions, wired up and teset ran on Exhill and please that this will move 5 wagons - which are resonably heavy, these weigh at least twice what a 00 gauge Hornby wagon would weigh in at.

 

Next thought is how to imporve the pickups so we can collect current from at least one full set of boiges instead of split over two sides... any thoughts anyone?

 

[JeffP]

Difficult to suggest without seeing the present arrangement.

I assume it collects from one side of one bogie and returns from the opposite side of the other?

Any chance of just doubling up what's there?

Or using phosphor bronze top wipers mounted from the top of each bogie?

Edited May 29, 2023 by JeffP

[John Besley]

I may have a solution, made up a replacement centre pivot pin but with a 6BA threaded end turned dome to improve the rhetorical connectivity soldered a jumper wire to the dome end and the phosphor bronze axle wiper.

 

Next need to think through the pickup from the opposite axle...

[Fishplate]

14 hours ago, John Besley said:

switched to the Bo-Bo deisel build

 

Looking good. I do like the way you've positioned it so the the driver of the other Diesel is looking at this new chassis 🙂.  

[John Besley]

Following some head scratching, and a burst of inspiration I found a spare pickup from an Wren R1 chassis rebuild that was the right size, adjusted the plate rewired and loctited this to the axle keep, then set about making up a locating plate for the front body mount  - this bolts through on a pair of long 10BA bolts 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then added a 6BA bolt for the rear mount - this was tight as it will need to be accessed through the cab roof and clear of the drivers seat, next of need to make up a dummy transmition housing to hide the rear boige mount and fixings etc.

 

But the main thing is it works

 

 

Edited May 29, 2023 by John Besley
Phat fumbs

[John Besley]

Knocked up the dummy transmission housing to hide the pivot and fixing bolt, then set about chopping up thedriver so he could fit in the cab with his legs either side of the housing,currently refixed his legs following 2 repacement hips and knees!

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by John Besley

[Graham T]

Pretty brutal surgery there John!  Is he going to keep all four arms?

 

[lmsforever]

Hope the anesthetic  worked thats drastic hope he is well now.!!

[John Besley]

He's currently in recovery having had some reconstructive surgery - botox

[Fishplate]

I think you and @Gopher need to talk. There are an increasing number of chopped up bodies on RMWeb 🤳 🤕

[Graham T]

Just waiting for Hannibal Lecter to show up now…

 

[Fishplate]

. . . . . or the slabs for a patio. . . .

[John Besley]

Dont panic he's making a good recovery, had his arms grafted back on and a new right arm below the elbow.

 

On another point had to extend the legs of the cab seat as in his new pose he sat higher up than originally expected ... in doing so I also found his neck needed reducing as his head now wouldnt clear the cab roof, anyways his head is now on a length of wire ready for painting.

 

Trying to shoehorn him into the cab proved challenging escpecially since I glued the dashboard in place ready for painting, the only way I can get him to sit inside is to leave the cab seat lose fitted so it can slide sideways to get his feet tucked down the side of the transmission housing.

 

I might look at making another driver for No4 at some point...

 

[John Besley]

Washed off the driver and No4 ready for painting first thing before work - this is now the main occupation in the workshop along with the showmans engine rebuild on going.

 

This everning sparayed the first coat of grey primer over the two projects - the driver and No4 to see what this threw up as filling to be addressed - the drivers arm needed more attention and this was taken care of with model filler.

 

 

 

At the same time I textured the transmision housing with dilluted model filler, some liquid plastics weld and stippled this on with a scrap paint brush - I picked up this idea from https://www.youtube.com/c/NightShiftScaleModels so cant claim to have invented it.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by John Besley
Schpelling