Report from Burbank, CA

[bluestag]

It's official: it's not a cold, it's Covid.

 

I've not been motivated to go out to the garage for a few days.    Looks like it will be a few more before the coach starts again.

 

Kevin

[bluestag]

Feeling better with the drugs, may go out there for a little while today!

[bluestag]

My word, I have been BLOCKED from working on the second coach.    First it was the covid, then promptly after that, a cold that won't go away.     Between them I fitted a heater to the ceiling of the garage, I can make it much more habitable in short order.

 

I instead have a bee in my bonnet about scenicing the layout.   In this case it means ballast and little more.    It is all track.   Some buildings, eventually.   I got it in my head to paint the rails and chairs rusty.    Others I know did not bother; painting the sleepers is enough for many.    My good gravy, it takes TIME!     I'll post a pic tomorrow.    Happy New Years!

[bluestag]

A pic of the rusty track.   And yes, it is tedious.

 

 

Next up, a test of conductivity, then the ballast.

[bluestag]

On another topic, exciting news, a new loco!   From Ellis Clarke via ebay.   What I am nearly certain was Merician's display model of a LNWR 2-4-2 5'6" tank.   Currently out of production.   And very appropriate to my branch terminus.   All built up and painted in a foreign scheme: LMS Crimson.    Advertised as a poor runner.   It is a dodgy runner, or it was until today when my mate got ahold of it.   Now it does not run at all.   He stripped the paint and broke down the chassis.  

 

The chassis is built very basic.  The drivers are both rigid to the chassis, and the carrying wheels just flop around.  I am thinking that I'll leave the front driver rigid, as the motor hangs on it.   And get the rear driver flexing, and then put a beam from there to the rear carrying wheel.  All the while not breaking down the chassis further.  There's the trick!  The buffers need to go and be back dated to Webb buffers.  doable.  

 

The body is adequately built, it needs little.   The original drawing, which is 30 years old if a day, has the tanks in the cab at prototype thickness.   Meaning that the drivers protrude into the cab.   That will require some thought.   And the question of a speaker and decoder is up in the air.   Right now I am thinking a sugar cube on the floor of the cab, if painted black should not be too obvious.

 

Wish I'd have got it a bit cheaper, but Ellis would not relent.   It's got wheels and a perfectly good Mashima motor, but the gearbox is probably the villain in the running.  I have a much better gearbox for it waiting.  Considering that the body is adequately built, I suppose I did alright.  And again, the kit is unavailable until Trevor's estate is probated, heaven knows how long that will be.

 

Shame about the paint and lining.  It was pretty good, but I run LNWR about 1900.   It will be lined black.

 

 

The pity is I won't see if for a month, as John the chum stripping it lives 105 miles away.   The club's next running session is at his house in a month.   I suppose I could get him to post it.   Hmm.  Sort of champing at the bit to get it running.   It has long been a favorite prototype.   I scratch built one in 2mm fs over 30 years ago.   Sold it off to a Brit who says he'll run it at Copenhagen Fields, if he ever finishes it.  And I need another passenger engine for my collection.

Edited March 7, 2023 by bluestag

[bluestag]

Primered.  

 

 

Pondering the chassis.  My friend John wants me to put in a new gearbox (the suspect in the poor running) and see if it works as a rigid chassis,  with a bit of weight on it.   That would be the simple approach.   I am dubious.  I don't trust a four coupled rigid chassis with four pickups to run well, but I'll try many things once.    I am thinking of leaving the front axle flopping around, perhaps with a spring.   The front driver still rigid, with the motor, the second driver and the rear carrying wheel sharing a central beam.   I don't want to tear down the chassis if it can be helped .   I seem to remember seeing some Martin Finney six coupleds with tube bearings running across the chassis.   Restrained from turning or shifting sideways  by a stirrup embracing the compensating beam.   The rear axle just needs a tiny bit of its slot opened up vertically.  I'll need to turn on the lathe a new tube for the second driver, with an outside diameter to match the top hats in place.   Then open the holes up into slots with about a half mm (?) in each direction.   One thing I don't trust on such an old, hand drawn design, is the distance for the axles in the chassis matching the coupling rods.   I'll need to check that.   I don't even trust the coupling rods to be the same length.   Any thoughts?

[doilum]

I acquired one of my Hunslet 15" from exactly that source. It was a damaged"buy it now" no brainer. It also turned out to be a poor runner for the most bizarre reason. The Slater's pickups had been supplemented with crude wipers. Once fully stripped.it turned out that although this ancient kit had been designed for Slater's wheels and pickups, the builder had chosen to use JPL cast drivers. These are rim insulated, and yes,.the insulation band was smack in line with the plunger pickups.

The solution was to file the pickup holes oval and.fix the plunger housings with a gel superglue. Airedale is an excellent runner.

Edited March 11, 2023 by doilum

[bluestag]

2 hours ago, doilum said:

I acquired one of my Hunslet 15" from exactly that source. It was a damaged"buy it now" no brainer. It also turned out to be a poor runner for the most bizarre reason. The Slater's pickups had been supplemented with crude wipers. Once fully stripped.it turned out that although this ancient kit had been designed for Slater's wheels and pickups, the builder had chosen to use JPL cast drivers. These are rim insulated, and yes,.the insulation band was smack in line with the plunger pickups.

The solution was to file the pickup holes oval and.fix the plunger housings with a gel superglue. Airedale is an excellent runner.

Huh.    This one is also designed for slaters pickups, but only has top wipers.   I had not had a chance to investigate the wheels closely, but John tells me they are slaters.   Funny thinking of Slaters as 40 years old, but apparently they are.   I'm pretty sure the fold up gear box is the culprit.   I have a MSC worm box machined from solid brass.   Assuming the machining is done properly, it will never go out of mesh.

[doilum]

Truly ancient Slater's wheels were a tapered push fit. Once removed they are difficult to refit and quarter even with modern locking products. My non runner Sgt Pepper os an example of a loco in need of a set of the later square axle design. There was a reason the wheels were cheap on ebay.

[bluestag]

Hehehehe.  Turns out that the original build failed to include a front axle spring on the left side.   It is present on the right side.   John thought maybe he had dislodged it and lost it in the paint stripping.  No.  A look at the red loco photos posted by Ellis on ebay show there was only one.   Now I have to search for a spring, or scratch build one.   The only bright spot in that is that it will not effect running in any way.   Dying to see this thing run.  And pull five six wheelers.   John did lose a sand cover (adjacent to the spring) but I'll not have a problem scratch building a replacement.

Edited March 12, 2023 by bluestag

[bluestag]

 Problem identified: the loco had been sold as a poor runner, and it was.  It had a bind in the rotation at each turn.

 

It had been stripped down by John to strip the paint and primer it.   It all came back to me today.   The first thing I did was to check the relationship of the axles to the coupling rods, using my jig axles.  The right looks good, but the left looks to be long by a mm.   A sever error.

 

The chassis has no provisions for axle guards.  That is how old the kit is.   I now don't trust any hand drawn kit to be accurate.   I'll have to remove one of the left bearings.   Which will take a lot of heat.   Happily, I do have a large soldering iron.  It might do the trick.   Then I need to drift the bearing.   I won't open the hole with a reamer. as that will shift the vertical placement of the axle.  I'll use a file and drift, check, drift, check and eventually solder.

 

The chassis is rigid, which does not suit me.   A four coupled chassis picking up on four wheels is unlikely to have good pick up.   And traction is compromised.  On its first test, it seemed that if it encountered any dip in the track it spun.   That can be attributed to the carrying wheels not having enough vertical movement.   But the front one has no room under the footplate.   The rear one can have the footplate cut away into the bunker.

 

I don't want to break the chassis down if I can help it.   Which is all about unsoldering the bearings.   The motor fits the front driver.   I'll take out its left bearing for the alignment.   The  I'll take out both the rear driver's bearings, and replace them with a tube.   And install a compensation beam between it and the rear carrying wheel.   I'll let the front carrying go its own way, with perhaps a spring.

 

And this will put a steady weight on the rear carrying wheel, which should allow it to have a plunger pickup.   Six wheels is much better than four.   And there is a hole etched in the chassis for it.

 

The front axle will have side play, the driven none, the second driver has side play, and the rear carrying wheel none.   The tubes for the compensated axles will be prevented from turning with a sort of stirrup from them over the compensation beam.

 

Something to keep me occupied for days!

[bluestag]

Bought a small torch, got the bearing out in about 2 seconds, without disturbing any other joins.

[bluestag]

So I moved the left front driver top hat by about ten thou.  And the jig axles liked it.  While the jig axles on the right side seemed happy.   But a new bind showed up, the right side at 9 o clock.   Really struggled with that one.   The coupling rod seems to have a bit of play either way when the nuts are off, but it remains stiff when assembled.   Tomorrow is another day!

Edited March 16, 2023 by bluestag

[bluestag]

It had a hesitation on the right side.   I violated all the rules and opened up the coupling pin holes slightly, a little at a time, until it behaved.   Now I have to question my need for compensation or springing.   Because even though it is rigid and only four pickups, it seems to run OK.   Possibly I'll turn my attention to the body and get it painted.   And heaven help me, lined.   Plenty to do.   I want it it pulling coaches soon.

[bluestag]

New to the menagerie!    A Zero Zephyrs LNWR Chopper tank.    Bought off ebay for a reasonable price.    Well built to this point.    About 96% finished.    Runs OK, but is noisy.     The worm is larger than typical, or what Ultrascale offers in nylon.   Nylon worms are the best!   Quiet.   I have an email in to them to see if they can custom cut me a replacement.

 

 

The kit has designed in compensation.   Which is good.    It was 18oz when I got it, and could barely shift three of my inside bearing six wheelers.   I want it to handle five.   I got it up to 24oz, and it seems happy.  

 

It is only slightly wrong for my branch.   In the era I model, most had been rebuilt as 2-4-2Ts, but none was on offer on ebay, so I bought this one.    I have recklessly bought a few duds, but this one is a winner.   It is built as well or better than anything I build.   So it will fit right in.

 

Fitting a decoder and speaker was not overly difficult, although the speaker is on the small side.    Need to turn the volume up a bit.

 

This is going to look very much the part pulling my six wheelers!

 

Gotta finish my fiddle yard.   So much to do.

Edited May 22, 2023 by bluestag
Spelling

[bluestag]

Oh.   The 5'6" tank?    It was on the sidelines for a long time.

 

I got the chopper tank running with a decoder, and having a day to play but no real work for the chopper tank, I built a box for it.    And while I had the table saw out and was making a mess, I cut enough ply for four boxes.   And made one for the 5'6" tank.

 

Which got me moving on putting in a decoder and speaker.    The motor responds better.   But pickup is still dodgy.   I weighed it down to 24oz.  I am convinced the front wheels hang up on the footplate and lift the drivers.    The wheels seem to be a correct 3'9".    I am inclined to get four 3'7" wheels and see if I can see a difference.   Doubt it.   But perhaps it will free up the front carrying wheel.    I cut slots in the footplate for the rear wheels, in the coal bunker, but of course can't do the same up front.

 

This one is a pig compared to the chopper, but not as bad as it could be.

 

Onward and upward.

[Argos]

6 hours ago, bluestag said:

New to the menagerie!    A Zero Zephyrs LNWR Chopper tank.    Bought off ebay for a reasonable price.    Well built to this point.    About 96% finished.    Runs OK, but is noisy.     The worm is larger than typical, or what Ultrascale offers in nylon.   Nylon worms are the best!   Quiet.   I have an email in to them to see if they can custom cut me a replacement.

 

 

The kit has designed in compensation.   Which is good.    It was 18oz when I got it, and could barely shift three of my inside bearing six wheelers.   I want it to handle five.   I got it up to 24oz, and it seems happy.  

 

It is only slightly wrong for my branch.   In the era I model, most had been rebuilt as 2-4-2Ts, but none was on offer on ebay, so I bought this one.    I have recklessly bought a few duds, but this one is a winner.   It is built as well or better than anything I build.   So it will fit right in.

 

Fitting a decoder and speaker was not overly difficult, although the speaker is on the small side.    Need to turn the volume up a bit.

 

This is going to look very much the part pulling my six wheelers!

 

Gotta finish my fiddle yard.   So much to do.

 

Ah! so you won it!

I did bid on it but not with any seriousness given my lack of 7mm modelling of late, so missed it by about a tenner.

It meant I had money to spend on a more relevant project to my current modelling so all worked out.

 

I'm glad it turned out to be a good one.

 

Angus

[bluestag]

8 hours ago, Argos said:

 

Ah! so you won it!

I did bid on it but not with any seriousness given my lack of 7mm modelling of late, so missed it by about a tenner.

It meant I had money to spend on a more relevant project to my current modelling so all worked out.

 

I'm glad it turned out to be a good one.

 

Angus

Yes, it is a nice model, no longer available, at a reasonable price.   Should have thought some day I'd go up against you....

[bluestag]

The chopper is noteworthy in that it seems most of the details are fixed with solder, including the w/m.   I don't have the knack.   I use epoxy and super glue....