Chuffnell Regis

[Tortuga]

4 hours ago, JustinDean said:

 Looking good though mate. You should probably ditch those green locos and come to the dark side. 
 

Jay

Or you could truly come to the dark side and model 1960’s BR: that way you could legitimately get a 9F and have green and black locos…

[Mike_Walker]

Even a green 9F 

[Graham T]

11 minutes ago, Mike_Walker said:

Even a green 9F 

 

Or even the green 9F, I suppose!

 

[Graham T]

25 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Or you could truly come to the dark side and model 1960’s BR: that way you could legitimately get a 9F and have green and black locos…

 

I do like the idea of modelling different time periods, to be honest.  But must keep telling myself I've already got enough stock.  I don't need new wagons, vans, brake vans, coaches, etc. etc. etc....

 

Do I?

[Graham T]

Anyway, enough of the black malarkey.  Back to something green.  A while ago I tried various angles of attack to sort out brake rigging for the 27xx.  I had a go with plastic and brass strip, without any success, and then saw that there is a Mainly Trains etch for just this.  So, here's the progress so far.  

 

 

If anyone could give me an idea of how the linkage to the brake standard should look (and also which side it's on!) then I'd be very grateful.  I haven't been able to find a photo of a 27xx that shows it.

 

 

[JustinDean]

48 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

Or you could truly come to the dark side and model 1960’s BR: that way you could legitimately get a 9F and have green and black locos…

I’m running Middleton Top up to 1960’s BR but I’m doubtful a 9F would make Gotham Curve. 
 

Jay

[Graham T]

Do you have a Batmobile too then Jay?

[JustinDean]

38 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Do you have a Batmobile too then Jay?

I wish!

 

Gotham Curve on the Cromford & High Peak was the sharpest on British Railways with a radius of 50 meters. 
 

 

 

 

[Tortuga]

1 hour ago, JustinDean said:

I’m running Middleton Top up to 1960’s BR but I’m doubtful a 9F would make Gotham Curve. 
 

Jay

Must’ve come the other way then! 😜

[Neal Ball]

8 hours ago, Graham T said:

Anyway, enough of the black malarkey.  Back to something green.  A while ago I tried various angles of attack to sort out brake rigging for the 27xx.  I had a go with plastic and brass strip, without any success, and then saw that there is a Mainly Trains etch for just this.  So, here's the progress so far.  

 

 

If anyone could give me an idea of how the linkage to the brake standard should look (and also which side it's on!) then I'd be very grateful.  I haven't been able to find a photo of a 27xx that shows it.

 

 

How easy was this to do with the etch Graham? I’ve yet to do the brake rods for my 2721 0-6-0PT.

 

Photos of course are hard to come by for these locos…. Or at least shewing the details you need!

[Gopher]

10 hours ago, Graham T said:

I don't need new wagons, vans, brake vans, coaches, etc. etc. etc....

 

Do I?

The answer is yes Graham, next Question.

[Andy Keane]

11 hours ago, Graham T said:

Anyway, enough of the black malarkey.  Back to something green.  A while ago I tried various angles of attack to sort out brake rigging for the 27xx.  I had a go with plastic and brass strip, without any success, and then saw that there is a Mainly Trains etch for just this.  So, here's the progress so far.  

 

 

If anyone could give me an idea of how the linkage to the brake standard should look (and also which side it's on!) then I'd be very grateful.  I haven't been able to find a photo of a 27xx that shows it.

 

 

This gives a reasonable view: https://images.hattons.co.uk/subcategories/1003139.jpg?v=270721-105110

[Andy Keane]

2 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

How easy was this to do with the etch Graham? I’ve yet to do the brake rods for my 2721 0-6-0PT.

 

Photos of course are hard to come by for these locos…. Or at least shewing the details you need!

It is interesting that the 7-volume set of Sixsmith and Berry's Pannier Papers does not cover the class at all as far as I can see.

[BWsTrains]

3 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Photos of course are hard to come by for these locos…. Or at least shewing the details you need!

 

Not sure if this helps but I found it on Hattons; in their profile of the class, attributed to John Law. As they posted it with an acknowledgement it seems ok to do likewise with slight tweak to enhance contrast.

 

Hattons Profile GWR Class 2721

 

Not sure what more might be required. I also checked the GWR users site where lots of loco photos pop up but no joy.

 

 

Colin

 

[Graham T]

51 minutes ago, Andy Keane said:

This gives a reasonable view: https://images.hattons.co.uk/subcategories/1003139.jpg?v=270721-105110

 

24 minutes ago, BWsTrains said:

 

Not sure if this helps but I found it on Hattons; in their profile of the class, attributed to John Law. As they posted it with an acknowledgement it seems ok to do likewise with slight tweak to enhance contrast.

 

Hattons Profile GWR Class 2721

 

Not sure what more might be required. I also checked the GWR users site where lots of loco photos pop up but no joy.

 

 

Colin

 

 

Thanks chaps, that's a very useful photo.  And it means I can hide most of the linkage behind the steps!

 

[Graham T]

3 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

How easy was this to do with the etch Graham? I’ve yet to do the brake rods for my 2721 0-6-0PT.

 

Photos of course are hard to come by for these locos…. Or at least shewing the details you need!

 

Well I've only done the easy part so far Neal...

 

As you can see from this photo, the cranked rods (bottom left) are all the same length, so I've had to trim three to fit, and then solder them together, by adding small offcuts as braces on the back of the rods.  Making sure of course that the joins are placed so that they don't foul the wheels.

 

 

Talking of fouling, now I need to see if I can mount the rods onto the brake hangers with sufficient gap that they aren't in contact with the faces of the wheels.  As I said, only done the easy bit so far!  Also, I'm not sure what the etch is made of but it's just about impervious to my drills...

 

[Nick C]

11 hours ago, JustinDean said:

I wish!

 

Gotham Curve on the Cromford & High Peak was the sharpest on British Railways with a radius of 50 meters. 
 

 

 

 

By my reckoning that's about 650mm in OO - 25" or thereabouts. Which apparently a Bachmann 9F will go round, it has a stated minimum of Radius 2 (438mm). It'd looks pretty silly doing so though! Wikipedia reckons the real thing could get round 400ft/120m curves though, which is pretty impressive for it's size...

[Graham T]

I was reading recently that the as well as the centre driving wheels being flangeless, the flanges were also reduced on two of the other pairs.  Would have been something of a challenge getting one of these back on the rails I'd imagine...

[Graham T]

So far so good.  I drilled through the brake hangers so that I could thread through .45 mm wire for the linkages, and then drilled and dry-fitted the rigging.  The loco still runs, remarkably...

 

I need to figure out some way of spacing the rigging from the hangers so that the wheels don't get fouled; I'm thinking maybe some thin plastic tube threaded over the brass wire, if I have some.  And then I need to replicate a mirror image of the rigging for the other side - gulp.

 

 

I also nailed together the actuating linkage.

 

 

[Graham T]

Time to break out the flags at Chuffnell R, perhaps.  The venerable 2732 now has brake rigging.  What's more, she can run through all the tightest radius curves and pointwork without any binding or shorting out.  Wonders never cease!

 

I started out by making the mirror image of the rigging for the right hand side of the loco.  I taped the two finished rods together in an attempt to get the holes for the cross shafts properly aligned; it didn't quite work as well as hoped, as you can see - but that won't be visible once she's back on the tracks.

 

 

Then I attached the actuating link to the left hand rigging, and made and attached the brake crank and a length of the main brake shaft on the other side.  Then it was time for some more testing to make sure I hadn't (yet) made a complete Horlicks of it...

 

That all seemed to work ok, and I had another one of those dreaded brainwaves when it came to spacing the pull rods from the wheels.  Popping the loco upside down in the servicing cradle again, I glued the brass wire cross shafts to the brake hangers with CA.  Then I added the pull rods, moved each wheel to the full extent of its side-play, and checked that I still had enough clearance.  Then a quick touch with the soldering iron fixed the pull rod to the cross shaft; repeat six times.

 

Test again, and all still worked.  I now need to paint the rigging, reinstall the crew, and then do some weathering I think, as she still looks a bit too shiny for my taste.

 

 

 

And t'other side...  I should probably try to get the actuating link somewhere closer to vertical - and I've no idea if it's in the right place (probably not).

 

 

[Graham T]

The pull rods looked pretty conspicuous in those previous pics, but they've now all but disappeared...  Makes me wonder if they were worth the effort!  🙂  They were given the usual black/leather brown treatment. 

 

I don't normally use enamels, but read somewhere on RWweb recently about treating running gear with unmixed Humbrol earth brown, so I've given that a try here as well.  Also, I made a start on weathering the loco itself, using a thin wash of the black/brown mix, wiped away almost immediately with cotton buds.  I've only done the rear of the bunker so far, to see how it dries out - unfortunately it's in shadow here so you probably can't see what I'm babbling on about...

 

 

 

I can see that I should have made more effort when I cut the glazing for the cab spectacle plates 🙁

 

 

 

[BroadLeaves]

Could you use Glue'n'Glaze for the cab windows?

 

[Graham T]

2 hours ago, BroadLeaves said:

Could you use Glue'n'Glaze for the cab windows?

 

 

I've got some Krystal Kleer, which I think is pretty much the same stuff.  But I may take the lazy man's way out and place the crew to hide my bodgery!  Being serious, I'm worried that I might do damage trying to remove the glazing that's already in place.

 

[Graham T]

2732 has had some more weathering done; I think I will leave her be for now.  I don't want to overdo it.  Here's how she looked straight out of the box from Hornby:

 

 

And after various tweaks from Bodgeit and Scarper of Chuffnell R.  I still thought she looked too clean and shiny here.

 

 

 

And of course she didn't have any brakes!  Final (?) stage of the treatment has been a wash of black/leather brown, either dabbed off again more or less straight away with a brush, or streaked downward with cotton buds.  Once the wash had dried I polished some areas, again with a cotton bud, where I thought the crew might have paid particular attention to.

 

 

 

Feedback and constructive criticism very welcome, as ever.  Fire when the target bears!!!

 

[Neal Ball]

55 minutes ago, Graham T said:

2732 has had some more weathering done; I think I will leave her be for now.  I don't want to overdo it.  Here's how she looked straight out of the box from Hornby:

 

 

And after various tweaks from Bodgeit and Scarper of Chuffnell R.  I still thought she looked too clean and shiny here.

 

 

 

And of course she didn't have any brakes!  Final (?) stage of the treatment has been a wash of black/leather brown, either dabbed off again more or less straight away with a brush, or streaked downward with cotton buds.  Once the wash had dried I polished some areas, again with a cotton bud, where I thought the crew might have paid particular attention to.

 

 

 

Feedback and constructive criticism very welcome, as ever.  Fire when the target bears!!!

 

That’s a huge improvement Graham.

 

The only thing you could do differently is carve out the space under the boiler and add a new chassis and motor….
 

But from normal angles will you really notice the lack of daylight?  I’d leave it alone!

 

You've done a great job there.