Chuffnell Regis

[MrWolf]

I would be tempted to check the all metal wagon first as RTR track has a good margin of clearance to allow for overscale wheels and (intentionally) variable back to backs.

 

I thought that anything that might be catching with sideways movement on a metal chassis would cause the problems below and stop the loco, albeit briefly as the jolt of the train stopping could also stop the short.

 

 

Hopefully my sketch makes sense!

[Graham T]

1 hour ago, BWsTrains said:

Graham,

 

This last but one pic raises something I've been looking at regarding my own Goods Operations, and am busy checking back thru various guidance I was given.

My understanding is that outgoing goods will be assembled on the loop rather than on one of the yard lines.

 

Outgoing goods trains were assembled to fit in with managing the distribution of recently incoming wagons / vans. This would be by necessity done on a line not blocking access to the Goods shed and other storage sidings or you could not deliver incoming stock to where they were needed for unloading.

 

Others more familiar with GWR operations may well provide more specific guidance.

 

I think you're probably right Colin.  It makes more sense to assemble the outgoing goods on the line shown in this photo; then the goods loco can still run round its train, and so can a loco stood at the platform if required.

 

[Graham T]

28 minutes ago, Nick C said:

It might also be worth checking the weight of each wagon as well - you want about 25g per axle if I remember correctly. Also check that the wheels are all free running, and that the axles are parallell and square, it's quite easy with some kits to end up with a bit of skew - I bought an etched brass jig to help with that, holding the axles in the correctplace as the solebars/w-irons are assembled.

 

3 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I would be tempted to check the all metal wagon first as RTR track has a good margin of clearance to allow for overscale wheels and (intentionally) variable back to backs.

 

I thought that anything that might be catching with sideways movement on a metal chassis would cause the problems below and stop the loco, albeit briefly as the jolt of the train stopping could also stop the short.

 

 

Hopefully my sketch makes sense!

 

Thanks for the input chaps.  I did wonder if the Cordon might be the culprit, being all white metal, but no.  So a bit more fault finding eventually unearthed (see what I did there?) the problem child.  Strangely enough, the problem stems from adding weight to the wagons.  On the opens I've added lead sheet under the floor, and as you can see I did a very shoddy job on the LMS one-plank wagon...

 

 

... with the result that the wheel backs are intermittently making contact with the lead strip and so causing a brief short.  So I need to pop the wheels out and see if I can remove some of the lead without destroying the wagon!

 

The construction probably isn't as square as it should be either - in fact I know it isn't!  Nick, do you have a link to that jig you mentioned please?

 

[Nick C]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

Nick, do you have a link to that jig you mentioned please?

This one here: https://www.brassmasters.co.uk/axle_gauges.htm

[drmditch]

4 hours ago, Graham T said:

 

 

 

 

Sorry if this is mentioned higher up on your thread, but what is the provenance of the manual point-lever above?

Is it operational?

 

As regards kit wagon running, I believe in :-

1 - good btb wheelsets

2 - free running axles

(these need to be checked and adjusted while building)

3 - weight (and sometimes weight, weight and more weight.)

 

The nice things about Vans is there is plenty of room for heavy scrap (old iron etc). Just make sure that it's fully secured before you fit the roof!

 

Sorry about your intermittent short. If some of the underframes/w-irons are metal, could you you adjust the brake blocks?

 

(Edit - see you have found the short. At least lead is easily cut away!)

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by drmditch

[MrWolf]

Whilst I wouldn't want to be thought of as mistaking your morning bowl of granola for kitty litter, (I've already been admonished for saying negative things) lead is a particularly good insulator, so won't be causing an electrical short. It might stop the wheels rotating though!

[Graham T]

46 minutes ago, drmditch said:

 

Sorry if this is mentioned higher up on your thread, but what is the provenance of the manual point-lever above?

Is it operational?

 

As regards kit wagon running, I believe in :-

1 - good btb wheelsets

2 - free running axles

(these need to be checked and adjusted while building)

3 - weight (and sometimes weight, weight and more weight.)

 

The nice things about Vans is there is plenty of room for heavy scrap (old iron etc). Just make sure that it's fully secured before you fit the roof!

 

Sorry about your intermittent short. If some of the underframes/w-irons are metal, could you you adjust the brake blocks?

 

(Edit - see you have found the short. At least lead is easily cut away!)

 

 

The lever frame is decorational only 🙂  If I remember rightly the levers are from Dart Castings, and I knocked up the frame itself from coffee stirrers and plasticard.

 

I've now trimmed away some of the lead, and am pleased to say that seems to have cured the problem.

 

PS  the levers are indeed from Dart Castings:  link

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Graham T

[Graham T]

10 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Whilst I wouldn't want to be thought of as mistaking your morning bowl of granola for kitty litter, (I've already been admonished for saying negative things) lead is a particularly good insulator, so won't be causing an electrical short. It might stop the wheels rotating though!

 

From what I've read it's a poor insulator - which suggests to me that it is actually conductive.  Anyway, getting rid of some of it seems to have done the trick.

 

And enough of those negative vibes man!

 

[Nick C]

You're both right. Lead itself is a decent conductor (somewhere between Carbon Steel and Titanium), but most of it's compounds, including Lead Oxide, a poor one - at least according to the internet... So it probably depends what your 'Lead Sheet' is actually made of...

[Graham T]

Not entirely sure what mine is made up of, but, to be on the safe side, I'm not going to lick it...

 

 

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, Graham T said:

Not entirely sure what mine is made up of, but, to be on the safe side, I'm not going to lick it...

 

 

 

I mostly lick the windows on the happy bus.

 

Household electrical cables were at one point insulated with lead.

Yet the terminals on your car battery are also lead alloy.

[Graham T]

Confused?  You will be...

 

[BWsTrains]

5 hours ago, Nick C said:

You're both right. Lead itself is a decent conductor (somewhere between Carbon Steel and Titanium), but most of it's compounds, including Lead Oxide, a poor one - at least according to the internet... So it probably depends what your 'Lead Sheet' is actually made of...

 

Lead; lead oxide in 100% form is a powder.

 

As metals go lead is very reactive and any bare metal surface (shiny) immediately oxidises to give a very thin protective coating of the soft oxide (dull). Not enough to prevent conduction though.

Copper is similar in this regard but just making a physical contact on bare metal will allow current flow, oxide film or not.

 

It's this oxide film you dissolve off putting a penny in vinegar.

 

[57xx]

I was just going to say the same, pretty sure lead is one of those metals where it reacts quickly to form an oxide layer which then protects the metal from further oxidisation. The layer would be so thin that even if it did stop conduction, the wheel would wear it off.

 

Aluminium is another metal like that. All those fancy colourful anodised bits of aluminium? It's just coloured "rust", eg a passivated layer of aluminium oxide that then protects the aluminium from further corrosion.

[Neal Ball]

Sorry I’m late to the party… it’s been a busy day on the Costa.

 

Re: short circuit, also have a look at the photos at the bottom of page 236, it looks as if the first van is lurching to the side, which might also be giving you a problem.

 

Good luck in finding it all.

[Graham T]

10 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Sorry I’m late to the party… it’s been a busy day on the Costa.

 

Re: short circuit, also have a look at the photos at the bottom of page 236, it looks as if the first van is lurching to the side, which might also be giving you a problem.

 

Good luck in finding it all.

 

I can't see the one that you mean, to be honest Neal.  But I'm sure you're right, I know that my track is pretty uneven in many (most) places, which also doesn't help matters.  It's something I really must get right on CR Mk II.

 

[Neal Ball]

23 hours ago, Graham T said:

 

 

 

 

Possibly the first van this side of the cattle wagon... it could of course just be the angle of the photo.

[Graham T]

Thanks, I think that's more due to my wonky track laying!

 

 

[Graham T]

I've been having some fun (?) with Pressfix transfers today.  I think these look good, are relatively easy to use, and are good value.  I just have trouble getting them on straight!  Putting together a string of six separate numbers that looks level and properly spaced is still beyond me.

 

Anyway, I got the first two done.  Two more to go, which hopefully I'll get done this evening, and then they'll be ready for some matt varnish.

 

[Graham T]

And here are the other two wagons done.  Still not as straight and level as I'd like, but they should pass muster once they've been weathered, hopefully...

 

 

Matt varnish tomorrow, and then once that's set I have a whole trainload of wagons to weather!

 

[MrWolf]

I like those. Every time I get tempted by a new wagon kit I have to remind myself that there's a whole heap needs building and I've worked out some train lists at last that means I can have a mad fit of building like you have here, next time I get fed up trying to make model beansticks or something.

 

Which reminds me that I must get the LSWR van painted.

 

Thanks for reminding me I'd been defying it for a while.

[Compound2632]

9 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I like those. Every time I get tempted by a new wagon kit I have to remind myself that there's a whole heap needs building and I've worked out some train lists at last that means I can have a mad fit of building like you have here, next time I get fed up trying to make model beansticks or something.

 

Try building the newly-purchased kit while the enthusiasm that motivated the purchase is there, and one from the stash, along side it. That way you will (a) feel that you are making progress on the stash and (b) feel no guilt at having bought another wagon kit. In fact, it may increase your kit-buying, which can only be good for the hobby.

[MrWolf]

That's an interesting way to rationalise buying more kits when you already have a huge stash.

It makes perfect sense to me, as I have also rationalised it in my male brain.

I'm not sure that your other half will be fooled by that and I'm pretty certain mine won't.

I suspect that they'll adopt that mothering instinct that comes into play when children don't want to eat their greens....

[Graham T]

It's a good concept, but the flaw in it for me is living in Austria.  By the time any kit I order from the UK eventually arrives, the motivation has probably departed.  I might very well have forgotten why I even bought it in the first place as well!

 

[longchap]

19 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

That's an interesting way to rationalise buying more kits when you already have a huge stash.

It makes perfect sense to me, as I have also rationalised it in my male brain.

I'm not sure that your other half will be fooled by that and I'm pretty certain mine won't.

I suspect that they'll adopt that mothering instinct that comes into play when children don't want to eat their greens....

 

I can only agree with this above and my other half often plays this reasoning back to me, when I notice something not previously seen before on her person, " Well, think of it like that last wagon you bought Bill, did you really need it sweetie? " 

 

Resistance is futile, but life is good.