Chuffnell Regis

[Rowsley17D]

Top job, Graham.

[Graham T]

Thanks Jonathan.  A little more progress today.

 

 

 

There's quite a noticeable difference in buffer heights between the two wagons.  Hopefully that (a) isn't a mistake on my part, and (b) won't cause problems when running...

 

[Rowsley17D]

Those fine etched parts really set thing off. Any difference in wheel diameter or make?

 

 

 

 

 

[Graham T]

3 minutes ago, Rowsley17D said:

Those fine etched parts really set thing off. Any difference in wheel diameter or make?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The etches are from 51L; I'm slowly getting better (or less bad, at least) at using them.  The wheels on the ex-MR van are 12mm Alan Gibson, the wheels on the Parkside kit came in the box.  I'll pop them out later and measure them.

 

[Andy Keane]

21 minutes ago, Graham T said:

There's quite a noticeable difference in buffer heights between the two wagons

I agree its the wheels that look to be the issue.

[Graham T]

Just popped them out and checked, and they are indeed 12mm wheels.  Odd...

 

[57xx]

7 hours ago, Graham T said:

 

Very nice.  What did you use for the bolt heads on the diagonal strapping on the Parkside wagon?

 

 

That was some small diameter plastic rod. I probably should have used some microstrip to get square heads, not sure why I didn't, as that is what I've use on other wagons where I needed bolt heads! I've also just noticed I've lost one on the lower right side strap.

[Metropolitan H]

4 minutes ago, Graham T said:

Just popped them out and checked, and they are indeed 12mm wheels.  Odd...

 

Right. Next task is to check the buffer centre height above rail top - real standards are 3ft 3in to 3ft 6in (depending on loading state - so in 4mm 13mm to 14mm.

 

The real railway gets a bit worried by bigger mis-matches as it can lead to overriding and derailment etc.

 

Regards

Chris H

[57xx]

38 minutes ago, Graham T said:

There's quite a noticeable difference in buffer heights between the two wagons.  Hopefully that (a) isn't a mistake on my part, and (b) won't cause problems when running...

 

Don't worry, it's not your doing. You can see that difference on my pic too, though I hadn't noticed it before until you said about your's.

 

It's the Slaters MR kit that is off. The Parkside wagon's buffer height is bang on compared with other kits and RTR wagons (I just checked!).

[Graham T]

19 minutes ago, Metropolitan H said:

 

 

The real railway gets a bit worried by bigger mis-matches as it can lead to overriding and derailment etc.

 

Regards

Chris H

 

That was my concern with the models as well to be honest Chris!

 

[Metropolitan H]

2 hours ago, 57xx said:

 

Don't worry, it's not your doing. You can see that difference on my pic too, though I hadn't noticed it before until you said about your's.

 

It's the Slaters MR kit that is off. The Parkside wagon's buffer height is bang on compared with other kits and RTR wagons (I just checked!).

Graham & 57xx,

 

Looking further at both of your sets of pictures, I think the buffer height difference comes from the way in which the floor and solebars are fixed to the sides and ends of the Slaters "Midland" cattle van. On both of your Slaters models the bottom edge of the solebars is significantly low in comparison to the bottom edge of the end headstocks (buffer beams) those edges should be flush - or if not then the buffer beam edge should be the lower of the two.

 

I have no experience of the particular kit, so cannot comment on how this happened - nor how you could set the floor / solebars higher? - My Slaters Midland Cattle Van is an "O" gauge version and has an appropriate buffer height compatible with other vehicles.

 

Sorry to be a nit-picker.

 

Regards

Chris H

 

 

[Graham T]

You're right, there is a discrepancy there.  Not sure how on earth I managed to do that!

[Graham T]

And just to prove that I can cock-up a Parkside kit just as well as I can a Slater's one, take a look at this.

 

 

 

The destructions call for adding 32mm long strips of plasticard for the diagonal braces.  So I had a rummage about and this was the thinnest card strip that I could find.  Thought it might look ok when painted.  After doing that I set about adding the rails across the openings.  There are strips of wire taped to the (white) packaging for this.  Alongside the strips of wire there was also a strip of thin white plasticard - which had made itself invisible against the white packaging.  

 

B*gger.  

 

The diagonals are pretty well glued on now.  Contemplating whether or not to try to hack them off and replace with the thinner strip...

 

[57xx]

38 minutes ago, Metropolitan H said:

Graham & 57xx,

 

Looking further at both of your sets of pictures, I think the buffer height difference comes from the way in which the floor and solebars are fixed to the sides and ends of the Slaters "Midland" cattle van. On both of your Slaters models the bottom edge of the solebars is significantly low in comparison to the bottom edge of the end headstocks (buffer beams) those edges should be flush - or if not then the buffer beam edge should be the lower of the two.

 

I have no experience of the particular kit, so cannot comment on how this happened - nor how you could set the floor / solebars higher? - My Slaters Midland Cattle Van is an "O" gauge version and has an appropriate buffer height compatible with other vehicles.

 

Mine are very much flush. :)

 

 

Having built a few other Slaters kits, it was something I made sure was right. The D299 is particularly bad in this respect.

 

How to do it? You either set the floor higher up inside or thin down the height of the solebars themselves, which is what I did here.

 

One thing both Graham and I appear to be suffering from is pert buffers that are pointing upwards. I span the van around and the other end, whilst still a little high, is not as bad. Given the buffers, bufferbeam and ends are all one moulding, I would think it is a problem with the end moulding itself, it looks like the shank holes aren't square.

[57xx]

38 minutes ago, Graham T said:

And just to prove that I can cock-up a Parkside kit just as well as I can a Slater's one, take a look at this.

 

 

 

The destructions call for adding 32mm long strips of plasticard for the diagonal braces.  So I had a rummage about and this was the thinnest card strip that I could find.  Thought it might look ok when painted.  After doing that I set about adding the rails across the openings.  There are strips of wire taped to the (white) packaging for this.  Alongside the strips of wire there was also a strip of thin white plasticard - which had made itself invisible against the white packaging.  

 

B*gger.  

 

The diagonals are pretty well glued on now.  Contemplating whether or not to try to hack them off and replace with the thinner strip...

 

 

What do they look like at NVD, rather than cruel pic closeup? 

If still not happy, I'm sure a sharp blade would get them off. Slice them into bits either side of the uprights, then you only have a small amount to shave of each upright and the ends.

[57xx]

4 hours ago, Andy Keane said:

I agree its the wheels that look to be the issue.

 

This is also part of the problem. The Slaters wheels measured up on mine at 12.5mm, popping some 12mm AG wheels got the one end at the right height. The other end is still out with pert buffer syndrome.

Multiple things conspiring against us here!

[MrWolf]

I'm sure that there is some similar issue with the old (very old!) Slater's MR 8 or 10 ton van which caused a discrepancy in the ride height. Possibly @Compound2632 can shed some light on this? 

I am sure that I had to do some bodging  make some adjustments when I built mine.

 

 

Batch building MR LMS & L&Y wagons, 2021.

[Compound2632]

23 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I'm sure that there is some similar issue with the old (very old!) Slater's MR 8 or 10 ton van which caused a discrepancy in the ride height. Possibly @Compound2632 can shed some light on this? 

 

All the Slaters 4 mm scale kits that use the Midland 9 ft w/b underframe - 8-ton high side, 8-ton low side, coke wagon, D357 covered goods - suffer from this problem of the solebars being too tall by about 0.8 mm. There are several ways round this. I've baulked at taking 0.8 mm off the top edge of the solebar - difficult to do evenly and neatly. For the open wagons, the simplest thing is just to make sure the bottoms of the headstocks are lined up with the bottoms of the solebars. This does leave the floor 0.8 mm too high inside - not a problem if the wagon is to be loaded. 

 

 

The coke wagon and covered van are a bit trickier, since the sides sit on the floor. One way is to trim the floor back to the line of the cross-bearers and stick the solebars onto the side - the top of the solebars line up with the top of the floor, giving the right position relative to the headstock:

 

See also my article in Model Railway Journal No. 286.

 

The other Slaters 4 mm kits don't suffer from this problem - the 10 ft wheelbase covered goods wagons, brake van, and (so far as I can remember) cattle wagon.

[MrWolf]

Thanks for a comprehensive and practical answer as always, I'd forgotten what I had done and the photo I posted was the only one which survived the great hosting FUBAR.

[Graham T]

The oversized diagonal braces would have bothered me, so I've replaced them with the strip provided in the kit...

 

I also added some bolt heads from thin slices of plastic rod.

 

Edited November 8, 2023 by Graham T

[Graham T]

In another not especially breathtaking development at Chuffnell Regis, I added a guard and rear lamp to the LMS brake van.  The lamp is from Modelu; I don't like the lenses supplied with these as much as the ones I received with other lamps.  Previously the red lenses were nicely tinted, and had a self adhesive backing.  These are a semi-translucent pink colour, and have no adhesive on them.  So I popped a dot of red paint onto the lamp and then glued in the lens.

 

 

 

[KNP]

22 minutes ago, Graham T said:

In another not especially breathtaking development at Chuffnell Regis, I added a guard and rear lamp to the LMS brake van.  The lamp is from Modelu; I don't like the lenses supplied with these as much as the ones I received with other lamps.  Previously the red lenses were nicely tinted, and had a self adhesive backing.  These are a semi-translucent pink colour, and have no adhesive on them.  So I popped a dot of red paint onto the lamp and then glued in the lens.

 

 

 

 

I did the same with my new Modelu lamps as well...the new red and white lens don't look right especially in photos.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by KNP

[Graham T]

Which reminds me that my Toads need side lamps as well!

[Rowsley17D]

Have gents made Alan at ModelU aware of the problems with the lamps. He's one of the more customer focused set-ups and his products are usually first class with a premium cost.

[Graham T]

1 hour ago, Rowsley17D said:

Have gents made Alan at ModelU aware of the problems with the lamps. He's one of the more customer focused set-ups and his products are usually first class with a premium cost.

That’s a good point Jonathan.  I’ll give Alan some feedback.