Adventures in kit and scratch-building.

[sej]

Right, got to the point where I can start soldering the sides and ends together without regretting it too much later on when I have to do some time consuming hacking because I've forgotten something important and everything else is now in the way...or is it just me?

 

 

I've added the end doors, with their rivets, drilled for handrails and various pipes and soldered on the recessed window frames ("droplights" aren't they called? It's a very descriptive term, I've positioned one slightly dropped).

 

Next the fun bit!

[sej]

Unusually I've not rushed ahead with the soldering iron and used some blu-tack instead to hold everything together. 

 

 

The reason being that I need to work out the size and shape of the floor cut-outs to accomodate the motor and bogie fixings.

 

 

Also I haven't yet checked which end is which!

 

 

 

 

[sej]

Hi, in an unexpected burst of speed, I've built the main bogie structure.

The inner frames are rather slight as they have to fit invisibly behind the outside frames proper which will be cosmetic.

I used the same hefty 0.60mm thick brass and am rather getting to like it; in smaller pieces it is no trouble to solder.

 

 

The motor and gearbox are from the excellent Tower Models Shogun range at a ratio of 18:1. It's quiet, easy to fit and comically tall.

I was a little worried that the weight of brass whirling around at the top might un-balance things with such a short wheelbase bogie, but I wanted to keep the fly-wheel so I set everything at 90 degrees up-right with a brass "claw" on one of the spacers.

 

 

And it works! Very smooth running and no discernable wobble...

 

 

I'm going to compensate the unpowered axle. I was thinking of using delrin chain to power both axles but there's very little room to do so. As it's a shunting engine, things should be OK. We'll see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sej]

I've made the outer cosmetic frames from some nice thick brass sheet. I've embossed some larger rivets and will leave the, even larger, bolts 'til later. The outer frames have been arranged to bolt to the inners at the front and back so that it's possible to lift the inner assembly out to get at the motor and wheels.

The un-driven axle is compensated with a small beam through the spacers and it's actually sprung as well with phospher-bronze wire soldered to the bearings. It keeps the bearings in place and I like a bit more control of the rocking axle.

 

 

The motor/gearbox fits nicely into the space and the drive is very quiet. 

 

 

I'll add lots of folded lead and see how much traction I can get.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sej]

I've fallen in love with Continuous Springy Beams (CSB's). They are nice and easy to make with a few basic components like hand-rail knobs and springy wire, they keep the wheels in place and allow them to be easily removed and they're springy! Fantastic. For a sensible and learned discussion of them visit the CLAG website. There can be a lot of maths involved if you like maths and you can simply side-step the clever bits if you want.

 

I decided to use them on the unpowered bogie of the Ford and dithered for a while by thinking of using some nice hornblocks filched from a Slaters coach bogie kit. Then I decided to have a go at soldering up some of my own, which is why things can get a bit slow round here...

 

I cut some strip overlength and soldered one side on, drilling the bearing holes as I went.

 

 

I made a small bracket at the top of the bearing drilled for the sprigy beam

 

 

And then soldered the other side of the horn-block on, bent up the beam bracket, added the bearing, gave everything a brisk wire brushing and a bit of a polish and it fits. Hurrah. Three more to go.

 

 

 

[sej]

After a great deal of faffing about I've managed to build the non-powered bogie with CSBs. And all is working. Sometimes I feel that scratch-building is the art of moving forward by a series of corrected mistakes. The CSBs I'm more familiar with are those that work within the frames of 4mm steam locos. These ones run between the outside of the wheels which are mounted within an outside frame, there isn't much room! I also got the wheel base wrong and had to correct it. In fact my scratch-building super-power seems to be the ability to get everything almost exactly, but not quite, wrong. Still you learn by your mistakes, except those of course which include alcohol...

 

Anyway...

 

 

[Pete Harvey]

Will you be filling the pockets on the driven bogie with lead shot to give some weight for traction?

 

Also is the driven axle towards the middle of the unit?

 

The build is going really well.

 

Pete

[sej]

Thanks Pete, and everyone else for their likes and comments.

 

I hadn't given any thought to the position of the driven axle; do you think it is preferable to have it near the centre of the loco? When I took the floor off I notice that I'd temporarily fitted it in that position. I've also got some chunks of folded lead sheet stuck in various places, one of which has fallen out...

 

 

Cheers

Simon

 

 

[sej]

Ha! Progress! Rather tired of the fine craft of fettling bogies I've rashly gone for the big impressive soldering job of tacking the body to the floor. Very exciting. I'm sure I'll regret it at some point but it's so satisfying.

 

I've taken it gently and carefully, keeping everything square and level.

 

 

I had to whack the soldering iron up to 405' as there's an awful lot of brass going on in there.

 

 

And there she is, wobbling gently along on her bogies.

 

 

Sigh, playing trains on the floor, that's what it's all about.

 

 

 

[sej]

Some hefty metal wrangling today. I'll choose something a bit thinner next time.

 

I measured up a rectangle of thickish brass using a piece of card rolled along the cab side roof edge to make a template to give the correct dimensions.

 

The central shallow curve was formed in the rollers,

 

 

And the sharper side curves bent up in the trusty bending bars with a piece of rod as a template, stuck in the correct position with double sided sticky tape.

 

 

There is a bit of a gap here, un-recorded, as it's tricky to hold the camera as well as a great big hammer, files, pliers and swear box.

 

Then...ta-da!

 

 

 A bit more finishing off and it'll be held on with a couple of long bolts through the body, although it clips very pleasingly into the rebates behind the side rainstrips/gutters.

 

 

 

 

[sej]

Back from the beautiful Mull Peninsula where I was distracted by the discovery of a long defunct 2'3" gauge railway, (the Campbeltown Light); as you are.

 

Meanwhile here's an informative You-tube clip of the Ford Diesel starting up.

 

youtube.com/watch?v=UUbt-j3K8IQ 

 

(If anyone could put an actual link on for me I'd be most grateful.)

 

There's also another entertaining video of the loco getting a bit stuck on a slight incline whilst shunting, so I'm less worried about the pulling power of my model now...

 

Cheers

Simon

[Kev_Lewis]

Here you are, Simon.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUbt-j3K8IQ

 

http://youtu.be/Nb4yNmxcEIU

Edited April 19, 2014 by Kev_Lewis

[sej]

Thanks Kev, you're a star. I owe you a pint sometime.

 

Cheers

Simon

[sej]

Hi, I've been a bit busy recently although work on the Ford Diesel is just starting up again. One of my projects has been to write a beginner's guide to scratch-building which has just been published by Crowood Press. At heart it is a simple step-by-step guide to building a locomotive in 00 gauge – as much a light-hearted self-help guide as a technical manual. Its aim is to inspire people to take the plunge and build their own model locomotives.

 

 

See the Crowood Press website:

 

http://www.crowood.com/details.asp?isbn=9781847977687&t=Scratch-Building-Model-Railway-Locomotives

 

 

[EKR]

I was very impressed with your build of the "Lady Armstrong", so happy to have ordered a copy.

Just a shame it's oo........

[david65061]

just ordered myself a copy

[0_gauge_novice]

Just what I needed for my projects. Order for the book placed.

 

Cheers from Zurich

Andreas

[linds]

Just received confirmation that my copy is on its way to Oz.

 

Lindsay

[sej]

Thank you everyone very much indeed for your kind words and interest.

 

So after rather a long pause, it's back to the Ford Diesel in 7mm.

 

There is some fantastic detail on the roof including this exhaust cowling that looks rather like an upturned tin bath.

 

Photo thanks to David L O Smith

 

I soldered mine up from sheet brass.

 

 

The identical top and bottom where held apart using spacers narrower than the wrapper by twice the width of the metal.

 

 

The bolts hold everything in place for soldering and the holes will be later hidden by the curious deflectors on the top.

 

 

Lots of filing and smoothing with oil stones, wet and dry and the gariflex block produced the final, shiny, result.

 

Edited July 22, 2014 by sej

[EKR]

Your book arrived this morning, so a quick note to say well done. 

 

It's a nice size and set out with lots of lovely photos and illustrations, just right for reading in bed or propping on the workbench.

 

You've struck the balance between detail and general advice very well.

[sej]

Thanks very much EKR for your kind words, I'm very pleased that you're enjoying it and particularly chuffed with your last sentence!

 

Cheers

Simon

[sej]

The main roof of the Ford has a quite hefty clerestory (I only recently discovered I had been pronouncing this wrongly as "clerr-ress-tory", which explains some of the amusement of  model shop staff whenever I tried to buy a Triang Hornby Great Western coach...)

 

I had been regretting using such thick brass for the main roof as it made soldering things a bit of a trial but it proved nice and rigid when I cut slits in it to locate the clerestory ends. Swings and roundabouts eh.

 

 

After making sure they were properly centred and located I soldered on L section brass strips to represent the lower sides and strengthen everything.

 

 

Then using a card template to determine the size of the (much thinner brass) roof I peppered it with various sized rivets in my favourite rivet machine.

 

 

The card template was re-used to protect the rivets as I rolled the main shallow curve.

 

 

And then the smaller side curves were bent up, very carefully, in the bending bars using a 1.5 ish mm diameter rod held in place with double-sided tape.

 

 

And, hurrah, it fits! Just takes a deep breath really, some careful measuring and a bit of luck.

 

Edited July 28, 2014 by sej

[sej]

Look what Pete Harvey of PH Designs has etched up for me!

 

A absolutely beautiful set of Ford logos in stainless steel that will decorate the sides of the loco.

 

 

A bit of a spur for me to get on with it then...

[sej]

Back to the Ford Diesel.

 

There are a series of roof brackets along the clerestory sides.I soldered them up from small pieces of square rod with slices of L-shaped angle attached with 0.7mm rod inserted. Madness. The resistance iron helped. A bit.

 

 

There are some rather decoratively rivetted ends to the clerestory which were much easier to make and certainly less keen to go "ping"!

 

[sej]

Interesting, isn't it, how some days you can't solder (or whatever; mow the grass, fly a kite, load the dish-washer...) very well, and then the next day it's easy. I think my problems with soldering may be to do with using an appropriate temperature.

The roof of the Ford is a massive heat sink and I generally keep my iron on one setting, 395 degrees, which seems quite high to me. But another 10 degrees does make quite a difference.

I don't know what temperatures other people use, and I don't know if 405 degrees will effect the iron at all?

I'm also a bit weedy with the resistance iron, I'll crank that up a bit too.

 

Anyway, back to the clerestory roof supports, which include a set of 12 tiny triangular plates. I thought they'd be a real trial but ended up a dream.

 

I cut them with the piercing saw as they were too fiddly to break in the bending bars.

 

 

Then soldered them on, all in the right place first time. And that is a first.

 

 

Very satisfying. Marvellous hobby.