Copenhagen Fields

[njee20]

On 28/01/2024 at 17:08, CF MRC said:

It really doesn’t matter what the difference is in the trackwork between 2mm FS and N gauge, it’s the overall ambience of a layout that matters.  However, when Keith Armes made the mainline crossovers from a scaled up prototype track plan, he remarked that they were the longest turnouts he had ever made. They could not work with N gauge standards. 
 

Tim

Why not, out of interest? I’ve just built an F20 crossover to N gauge standards. It’s not particularly good, but that’s entirely my skill and not the standards adopted! I don’t know how long the crossovers are on CF, but I don’t recall seeing anything particularly long?

[CF MRC]

They are exceedingly long. Take a look at the turnout that starts under Silver Fox. 

 

Tim

[St Enodoc]

36 minutes ago, CF MRC said:

As can be seen in this YR photo the bench along the platform has a lady sitting on it. 

The bench was made a few weeks ago from modified Shire Scenes etches. I thought that the lady would best be served by this figure from Modelu

:

On arrival I was most impressed with the quality of the printing, especially the magazine. Unfortunately, once all the supports were removed I found that the lady had a rather extensive protuberance below her derrière. 
Trimming this away wrote off the magazine and, I’m afraid, the poor girl’s right arm. Even then she would not fit on the bench that I’d made with her coy Princess Diana posture, and would look more like a child perching on the edge of a wall. Serious surgery was therefore contemplated. Those of a squeamish disposition should look away now. 
 

She was electively fractured just below the knees and placed on a thick sticky tape operating table for distraction therapy. 

As this was judged to be about the correct length, a small amount of light cured adhesive was introduced into the fracture site and polymerised.

 

After checking her against the bench the void was made up with more light curling resin added with a pin in small increments. 

During the same operation, a new light cured prosthetic right arm was made.  After a rapid recovery and following a bit more minor plastic surgery the lady was sprayed dark brown as a base colour and then painted with suitable acrylic wash colours. She is now reading the Daily Sketch, marvelling at the Flying Scotsman’s non-stop run to Edinburgh. Her newspaper was made from cigarette paper and held in place with varnish.

 

The end result is one step closer to reproducing the B&W York Road photograph and, unlike many figures on model railways, she is sitting properly on the bench with her feet daintily touching the ground. 

For all that I think I must be mad to have spent virtually a whole day working on this figure.
 

Tim
 

That's all very well but how are her teeth?????

[njee20]

27 minutes ago, CF MRC said:

They are exceedingly long. Take a look at the turnout that starts under Silver Fox. 

 

Tim

That doesn’t look that long, I’d need to remind myself, but the crossover I built is about 800mm. Using the well known A4 unit of measurement that looks to be about 1.5 - 2 A4s? I’m genuinely curious why 2mm FS is thought to be a necessity on longer turnouts, doesn’t make sense to me. I realise Keith won’t be answering, so no drama if you don’t know why he’d have thought that. 

[t-b-g]

36 minutes ago, njee20 said:

Why not, out of interest? I’ve just built an F20 crossover to N gauge standards. It’s not particularly good, but that’s entirely my skill and not the standards adopted! I don’t know how long the crossovers are on CF, but I don’t recall seeing anything particularly long?

 

I had it explained to me by Laurie Adams, who has some really long points on his layout. It is down to the combination of flangeway gaps and wheel profiles in 2mm finescale, which ensure that the wheel tread is fully supported on the wing rail, allowing a long gap at the crossing nose without the wheel dropping into it.

 

I work mainly in EM and I have recently built some pointwork using 18mm gauge rather than 18.2mm and a narrower than usual flangeway of 0.8mm. That works in the same way and I get no wheel drop at all. The same applies to those working in 7mm scale, using gauges like 31.5mm rather than 32mm.

 

Of course those working in P4 and S7 have no such concerns.

 

I have no experience of N gauge so I cannot be certain but my guess would be that the rather wide treads on the wheels might give you that same support through the crossing at the expense of the appearance.

[njee20]

Yes, of course most would argue that for literally any aspect of N versus 2FS, that it’ll work fine, but won’t look as good. Just wasn’t sure if I was missing something there. The long gap at the crossing nose does make sense. 

[CF MRC]

34 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

That's all very well but how are her teeth?????

Vulcanite with porcelain gnashers. 
 

Tim

[Caley Jim]

11 hours ago, CF MRC said:

Vulcanite with porcelain gnashers. 

No swaged gold plate?   She looks at least upper middle class! 

 

Jim 

[CF MRC]

Maybe ‘trade’ has been good Jim so she’s gone for gold…

 

Tim

[CF MRC]

One of the Grove’s locos had obviously sustained a fall and had a badly mangled chimney.

This has been screwed on to the smokebox and had a made-up saddle, with a filet of solder around the base. The brass chimney did, however contact the smokebox. Fortunately, it was easily removed from the loco and a brass dowel plug turned to fit from the base up to half the height of the chimney: it was then Loctited in place.

The chimney top was then parted off from the base, but retaining the plug. I often use a piercing saw blade for parting off, these days. It is very precise, and makes very little kerf.

A replacement top section was then turned up with a central hole to fit the plug. A graver was used for fine turning.

This was then parted off and offered up to the base.  

Once Loctited in place, the chimney was finish-turned to the same dimensions as the original.

The chimney was chemically blacked, Araldited in position and painted satin black to match the rest of the engine,

Quite a long winded description of a fairly challenging little job. Should be ready for Ally Pally on Saturday.

 

Tim

 

 

 

Edited March 15 by CF MRC

[SiHumph]

Tim you are quite honestly an artist. That is a brilliant repair and retaining as much of the original as possible keeps its character and retains its originality. 
 

Thank you so much for your work on getting these locos back running and putting smiles on faces for years to come.

 

Forever in your debt

 

Si

[CF MRC]

I had a really fun time at Ally Pally with the YR diorama last weekend. It was great to have visitors being able to get really close to the model to actually see it! The interest in underground modelling is clearly developing and I spent some considerable time showing individuals historical images and also construction images using the iPad. These have now been ordered into logical albums, which will also simplify giving talks. 

Back to the Skittle Alley.

 

Tim

 

 

[hayfield]

I enjoyed seeing the station in the flesh, an excellent model. Thank you 

[MarshLane]

On 19/03/2024 at 15:47, CF MRC said:

I had a really fun time at Ally Pally with the YR diorama last weekend. It was great to have visitors being able to get really close to the model to actually see it! The interest in underground modelling is clearly developing and I spent some considerable time showing individuals historical images and also construction images using the iPad. These have now been ordered into logical albums, which will also simplify giving talks. 

 

Looking forward to seeing the diorama and hearing about CF at the forthcoming NMAG meeting Tim.

Rich

 

[CF MRC]

I have been working on the splashers for the Raven NER 4-6-2 class over the last few days.  She’s beginning to look a bit more racey, with the wheels covered in a bit.  

The brass disc blanks were turned from a lump of brass in the Myford 254. The front face of the splashers, including the brass rim was finshed on this lathe as can be seen:

Five discs were made and parted off. One as a prototype and two were used. 

The discs were mounted in a step collet on the watch maker’s lathe and hand finish-turned using a graver. Important to note that the graver is held with a pen like grip so that should it ‘catch’ then it flies from your grip, not through your hand. 

The thickness of the splashers was checked using a thickness gauge, which Jim will recognise.

Once happy with the proportions the splashers were cut off as chord segments with a piercing saw. The tops of the running plates were made from 5thou steel, with suitable clearance notched for the wheels. The splashers were rebated at each end so as to locate on the steel when soldering into place.

The engine has a Westinghouse pump on the RHS: that should be fun…

 

Tim

[Donw]

On 03/03/2024 at 23:24, njee20 said:

Yes, of course most would argue that for literally any aspect of N versus 2FS, that it’ll work fine, but won’t look as good. Just wasn’t sure if I was missing something there. The long gap at the crossing nose does make sense. 

 

You said the F20 you have built is not particularly good blaming your workmanship. There may be some wheel drop at the crossing and you are just blaming yourself.

Don

[CF MRC]

Some more progress on the Skittle Alley today. 

The representation of the prototype frames between the splashers have now been fitted. These were made by soldering a strip along the back of the splashers and then cutting out the unwanted bits with a piercing saw; finally tidying up with a bur, so saving fiddling with small pieces. 

The next item was the bracket for the Westinghouse pump. This  was a very substantial casting in real life.

The next photo is of a prototype made with a (too) small brass T section. The end piece is folded over and the junction with the upright pillar flooded with silver solder paste and gently heated to flash into the crack, so making a strong assembly. 

The definitive bracket was made from 3mm brass T section, filed down to size (approx. 2mm wide) with the foot silver soldered in place. A long handle was retained for holding during construction and positioning the bracket on the running plate whilst soldering: I use this technique a great deal for stabilising small pieces during assembly.

The top had been partially cut through so that it simply needed twisting to remove the handle.

I have a cunning plan for making the pump…

 

Tim

[CF MRC]

Deleted

Edited March 28 by CF MRC
Duplicate

[CF MRC]

After a few hours of fiddling, the basics of the Westinghouse pump on 2400 are now complete. The steam supply & exhaust plumbing will probably be made later, the air delivery pipe rather sooner.

A 2.3mm diameter blank for the cylinders was turned and centre drilled 0.4mm over 5mm depth. Drilling such a deep hole is taken very carefully, with many clearance removals, aided by RTD cutting fluid, and sharp TC drills.

The blank was then finish turned with a graver, giving the raised ends to the cylinders. A piercing saw was used to separate the two cylinders, also making the stuffing box at each end.

 

A conventional 0.4mm diameter steel drill shank was used to align the cylinders and a U shaped piece of brass (box section 1.6mm square with a side removed) inserted between the two cylinders - this represents the casting that holds them together on the real thing. The assembly was anointed with silver solder paste and pinned into a stable relationship with old drill shanks thrust into the charcoal block. The whole assembly was gently brought up to red heat for the solder to flash. On a very fine and small component such as this I turn off the workbench lighting so that I can gauge the temperature more easily.

 

After pickling in citric acid, a few holes were drilled in the cylinders for the shuttle valve and oiler on the top, compressed air outlet pipe and a slot cut on the back for the steam inlet and exhaust pipes. The drill shank is a very useful handle to hold this rather titchy component.

The mounting bracket on the running plate had been fitted previously (with two holes drilled in it) and this was augmented by a couple of pieces of brass wire which were threaded as one U shaped staple from behind and soldered in place. The excess wire was cut off and dressed in front and behind to neaten them up. 

These two pegs represent some substantial brass bolts in this area and made it easy to locate the pump for soldering to the bracket: the drill shank had previously been sliced off with a diamond disc. Having the main pump silver soldered ensured that it didn’t fall apart when attaching it to the locomotive. 
(photo courtesy Owen Chapman)

The final result needs to fit very close to the boiler as the hand rail takes a detour round the top of it! The extra bits for the pump will be made when the associated plumbing is fitted.

 

The piston is scarcely visible - like the real thing - but at least I know it’s there. The Association makes a 3DP version of this which is very fine, but I prefer turned metal in this situation. The 3D metal print looks a bit ‘hairy’.  Quite crazy really, as the whole thing is only 6mm tall. 
 

Tim

Edited March 28 by CF MRC

[CF MRC]

I couldn’t really resist continuing with the Westinghouse pump, so it now has the compressed air pipe fitted and the basic fittings for the steam feed and exhaust. 

 

The feed pipe fitting was made from some 0.5mm OD brass pipe, soldered into the groove cut in to the back of the steam cylinder. This did not have a large enough bore and so it was reamed out using an 06 endodontic file. These are the smallest used in root canal treatments and are made from nickel titanium alloy. The size represents 0.06mm diameter  measured 1mm from the tip. 

The video clip shows it in action. 

The regulator on the LHS is next to be added and the pipe work can be seen here as a piece of 33swg phosphor bronze wire. 

 

Having this running plate unit as a separate sub-assembly has made it much easier to work on. Apologies if this post relives dental memories for some!

 

Tim
 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, CF MRC said:

This did not have a large enough bore and so it was reamed out using an 06 endodontic file. These are the smallest used in root canal treatments and are made from nickel titanium alloy.

My partner had some endodontic work done last week. I don't think I'll show her this...

 

1 hour ago, CF MRC said:

The regulator on the LHS is next to be added and the pipe work can be seen here as a piece of 33swg phosphor bronze wire.

That I can relate to - 33swg PB wire is my preferred choice for pickups!

 

[D-A-T]

Not only are you an exemplary craftsman but you are also a mind reader! The mention of a special file for root canal work sent a shiver down my spine 😬

Edited March 29 by D-A-T

[Caley Jim]

Cracking job, Tim!  I'm afraid my renditions of 'Waashin'-hoose' ( as the CR drivers called the Westinghouse brake) pumps owe more to the 'crude impressionist' school of modelling rather than the 'accurist' one/

 

 

Turned as one piece with the area between the cylinders filed across then drilled and opened out with a No. 20 file.  The pipes will need to be cut back slightly when I fit it on top of No 902's RH coupling rod splasher.

 

Jim

[CF MRC]

Now the fun and games can start. 
This is the beginning of the four doll gantry at the north end of Gasworks Tunnel on the  down lines. 

There aren’t any decent close up photos of it, but these are the arms that will be modelled. At least two of them should probably work sometime, as they signal a conflicting route, but we’ll see.

Maybe we should just put a steam generator in the tunnels, so they’re hidden, a bit…

 

Tim

[bécasse]

The GNR was a very early adopter of yellow arms for distant signals, starting before the Great War, whereas elsewhere the conversion didn't take place until the mid/late-1920s. There was one fundamental difference in the painting scheme of these distant arms - the stripe was vertical (instead of being a chevron) and it was white on the front face of the arm rather than the black that later became standard. I realise that CF is effectively set in the very early 1930s, albeit with some "elasticity", but it would rather nice to see those distant arms painted in GNR style which could just about have lasted to the turn of the decade. Painting a vertical stripe would be easier too!