RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 11, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 11, 2021 (edited) Non-stop excitement here at Chuffnell Regis today! In between work and waiting for paint to dry on the guttering, I finished off the drain covers. I dry brushed them with light grey, gunmetal, and dark rust, then dug out a space in the ballast for this one, before adding fresh ballast to bed it in (all of which will get weathered in due course). Seemed like a lot of effort for something so small, but I know it's there! Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T 8 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 12, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 12, 2021 (edited) The slow - some might say glacial - progress on the engine shed continues. I've now got the guttering installed. Just need to add a telephone insulator bracket (a la @MrWolf), and then I might risk actually putting the doors on too. I'm not sure what to turn my attention to next - more point rodding maybe? Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Alister_G Posted August 12, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 12, 2021 4 minutes ago, Graham T said: I might risk actually putting the doors on too. Steady on, it took @KNP ten years to hang one door... Al. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 12, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 12, 2021 My concern was more that I'll probably knock the damn things off again! 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chuffinghell Posted August 12, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 12, 2021 8 minutes ago, Alister_G said: Steady on, it took @KNP ten years to hang one door... Al. 2 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 12, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 12, 2021 I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 13, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 13, 2021 (edited) Another busy day at work, but I was able to spend some time pottering about at Chuffnell Regis this evening, and actually got quite a few little bits and pieces sorted out. The first one - brace yourselves, this is exciting! I fitted the telephone insulator and bracket to the engine shed, concocted from a snipped-off Ratio insulator and some plastic strip. This photo shows very clearly why I'll be rebuilding the shed at some point... Next on the agenda was some very important playing testing. I've given the Dean Goods a few more trips on the rolling road, and stripped off the keeper plate last night as per @Alister_G's recommendation, hunting for clots of grease. There didn't seem to be a great deal, but rather a lot of oil. So I mopped up some of that and put everything back together. Lo and behold, the loco ran even worse than before. So, I cautiously added a very small drop of 3-in-1 to each wheel bearing, and tried again. That improved things a bit, but it's still not a good runner. I think part of the issue might still be that the track isn't as clean as it should be, despite lashings of isopropyl. I'll get a track rubber tomorrow and give that a whiz around as well. All that being said though, the Mogul runs far better, including on all the spots where the Dean Goods splutters, so I'm beginning to wonder if it's just not a very good loco? I also - drum roll please - finished the engine shed! Yes the doors are now on, hopefully permanently. When I say the shed is finished, of course it isn't really. For a start I can see from the photo (though I didn't notice when I was daubing glue about) that I haven't got said doors in exactly the right place, so I will have to make it look as if the hinges extend across the brickwork and actually connect to them! Finally, I did a little bit of ballasting, as I find it's less painful to do in small doses, and re-attacked the point rodding. I made the other crank cluster, and then scratched my head for a while wondering if there was a better way to join the rod runs together; I found it very fiddly to get all three rods aligned properly when gluing them together previously. Having the joint in-between the stools doesn't help, and I couldn't clamp the rods together without gluing the clamp to them. And then I had a bit of a brainwave. I flipped the assemblies upside down, then stuck the rods to my cutting mat with masking tape either side of the joint. That should hold everything securely until the rods are welded together. We'll see in the morning! Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T 10 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 14, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2021 (edited) Here's a better picture of Chuffnell Regis engine shed in its finished state. Well, for now anyway! Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T 8 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chuffinghell Posted August 14, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2021 Superb! Hats off to you sir Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 14, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2021 Thanks Chris, that's very kind of you. Although I'm reasonably pleased with it, there are a lot of things that I should have done differently with this. So it will get rebuilt eventually - but only when I've built the goods shed, signal box, and station building! 1 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold slow8dirty Posted August 14, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2021 Superb! How's the rodding going? (Sorry!) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 14, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2021 (edited) Actually, it's going quite well! The trick I tried yesterday evening worked out, and has the bonus that when you put the run in place on the layout, you can introduce slight curves to follow the track. No more dog legs Edited August 14, 2021 by Graham T speling 1 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 14, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 14, 2021 (edited) Like this: Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T 14 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 15, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 15, 2021 (edited) I've been making steady progress with the point rodding today, I'm hoping I might even be able to get it all fixed down (it will still need painting of course). The close-ups show some of my haphazard work, but it looks fine from a normal viewing distance - so it won't be getting re-done! In the second photo you can see some track pins I've used to temporarily hold the rods in the correct position while the glue sets. Must resist the temptation to take them out too soon... The rodding runs themselves are relatively simple. Things get a bit trickier when you're figuring out the correct heights for cranks, compensators, and so on. Anyway, onwards and upwards! Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T 1 8 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold slow8dirty Posted August 15, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 15, 2021 Coming on strong! Are you using poly cement for assembly and fixing in place with PVA? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 15, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 15, 2021 I'm using Revell Contacta to assemble the rods, and then Roket card glue to fix the assemblies to the baseboards. That seems to be working well. 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 17, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 (edited) A bit of frustration here at Chuffnell Regis, I'm afraid. I wasn't able to get the point rodding finished on Sunday as I'd hoped to, and of course since then I've been working again (ugh - but I have to pay for the toys somehow). The problems arose with knitting together the various subsections. Essentially there was the crank cluster at the station throat, then the assembly with the crank for the crossover point, which also had the two compensators for the point at the near end of the crossover, and finally the operating road and FPL rod for the point at the buffer end of the platform. Assembling these wasn't too tricky, but getting everything aligned next to the track was more of a headache. I'm still not completely happy with it, and have ended up with a couple of gaps in the runs that are too long to fill with the square rodding that's in the Wills kits. So I think I will fill those sections with some round rod lengths that I have; I think from normal viewing distance they won't be noticeable. The ideal solution would probably have been to assemble the entire run as one unit off the baseboard, and then fix it into place. However (a) I didn't think about that until I'd started, and (b) the run would have been a little over a metre long - I don't think that would have been manageable. I'm also a little bothered by the width of the rodding runs, which will push back the platform face further than I would have liked. I think there will need to be a slightly larger overhang of the platform surface than would be strictly prototypical - we'll see. As ever, any comments or suggestions for solving the problems would be very welcome! Edited April 9, 2022 by Graham T 3 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chuffinghell Posted August 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 (edited) 31 minutes ago, Graham T said: The ideal solution would probably have been to assemble the entire run as one unit off the baseboard, and then fix it into place….. That’s how I did mine, I also adopted @KNP’s method of using micro strip under each joint instead of relying on a glued butt joint 31 minutes ago, Graham T said: I'm also a little bothered by the width of the rodding runs, which will push back the platform face further than I would have liked. I think there will need to be a slightly larger overhang of the platform surface than would be strictly prototypical - we'll see. as far as the platform gap I suppose I was lucky that I only had a double run at the worst case I think sometimes you just have to compromise, wish I could be more helpful Edited August 17, 2021 by chuffinghell 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted August 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 I think the Wills rodding is overscale, which is why it ends up taking up too much width. Do you actually need an FPL on the loco release crossover? If not then you only need one rod going along the front of the platform. Quite a lot of stations didn't, even in places where it looks like they should have done (i.e. where the points are partway along the platform) - e.g. Lambourn, Abingdon, Clevedon, Bodmin, St Ives Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 17, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 38 minutes ago, chuffinghell said: That’s how I did mine, I also adopted @KNP’s method of using micro strip under each joint instead of relying on a glued butt joint as far as the platform gap I suppose I was lucky that I only had a double run at the worst case I think sometimes you just have to compromise, wish I could be more helpful I wish I'd thought of, or known about, fixing a microstrip under each butt joint in the rods - that would have made life a lot simpler! And I always feel a touch embarrassed about my bodgery (TM) when I see how neatly you model everything! And as you rightly say - some compromise is always needed. Cheers to Rule 1! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 17, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 20 minutes ago, Nick C said: I think the Wills rodding is overscale, which is why it ends up taking up too much width. Do you actually need an FPL on the loco release crossover? If not then you only need one rod going along the front of the platform. Quite a lot of stations didn't, even in places where it looks like they should have done (i.e. where the points are partway along the platform) - e.g. Lambourn, Abingdon, Clevedon, Bodmin, St Ives I'm sure you're right Nick, but I couldn't face working with the Modelu or DCC Concepts options, I'm afraid! I was advised that I needed the FPL, and went with that. I've built it all now, so (I think...) it will stay. Unless of course I find that the triple run of rodding means that the platform face ends up being set too far back. We shall see. Anyway, I think it may be a while before I get to building the platform! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 17, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 At least now I know the microstrip trick before I start building the leading off bed, which I'm confident is going to be a barrel of laughs! 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chuffinghell Posted August 17, 2021 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 3 hours ago, Graham T said: ….but I couldn't face working with the Modelu or DCC Concepts options… Same here…at least not for a first layout 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 17, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 8 minutes ago, chuffinghell said: Same here…at least not for a first layout Maybe for Chuffnell Regis Mark II... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Graham T Posted August 17, 2021 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted August 17, 2021 Point rodding is now finished! I'll post some pics tomorrow. 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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