Ray's 4mm Workbench, Metalsmiths Turntable (end of P.13)

[Will L]

Not many trains at this time of year but your in luck, both Saturday and Sunday there is a train to Beddgelert at 11:00 back at about 13:15 and again at 14:15 back at about 16:10

 

Will

[southern42]

Not many trains at this time of year but your in luck, both Saturday and Sunday there is a train to Beddgelert at 11:00 back at about 13:15 and again at 14:15 back at about 16:10

 

Will

 

Filled our quota of little train trips this year but may sit and have lunch in the cafe and watch the trains go by.

Note to Ray: Don't forget to charge the camera battery.

[ozzyo]

Filled our quota of little train trips this year but may sit and have lunch in the cafe and watch the trains go by.

Note to Ray: Don't forget to charge the camera battery.

 

you can never have enough train trips, more so when it's steam (big or small it does not matter). Also by putting Ray into close proximity to steam he may end up dazed and confused and start babbling, if this happens the only known antidote is to let him have a ride on the train.

 

OzzyO.

[Castle]

Hi All,

 

Well, there was I at Didcot this afternoon and sat, all quiet and not being paid much attention was this lovely little 0-4-2 tank engine so I climbed all over it taking a series of terrible photos with my iPad on the basis that they might be useful to someone. I can only apologise for the footplate shots! I am afraid that I am to photography what Vlad the Impailer was to moderate views on criminal punishment. They will give you the layout however. There are a few buffer beam shots and references for the Mainly Trains kit bits too. Enjoy!

 

The Driver's side cab in the gloom.

 

 

Driver's seat.

 

 

Fireman's seat and cut out for hand brake.

 

 

This is the tank on the fireman's side inside the cab. Note wooden top and the pipe work running round for the pep pipe.

 

 

Fireman's side back head.

 

 

Rear buffer beam - close up of electrical connection for Autocoach.

 

 

Whole rear buffer beam.

 

 

Front buffer beam.

 

 

Electrical box under driver's side cab.

 

 

Some of these pictures are even the right way round...

 

Edit: By the way, there is an appeal out at the moment to help restore this loco to active service in time for the GWS 60th anniversary. Details are on the Didcot Railway Centre website:

 

http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/index.html

 

Thread hijack over!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Kev_Lewis]

Very atmospheric photo's there Castle.

 

I really hope yourself and all the other folks ar Didcot manage to get 4866 back in steam for the GWS 60th anniversary.

[southern42]

Very atmospheric photo's there Castle.

 

I really hope yourself and all the other folks ar Didcot manage to get 4866 back in steam for the GWS 60th anniversary.

 

I agree. Love the shaft of sunshine (?), Castle, on pic of front buffer beam. You obviously waited hours for this one or, perhaps, the shed was built in alignment with celestial goings on?

 

My kit builder has pointed out the parts to be modelled / fitted / painted and indicated which way is UP ^

 

 

Edit: By the way, there is an appeal out at the moment to help restore this loco to active service in time for the GWS 60th anniversary. Details are on the Didcot Railway Centre website:

 

 

Received flyer "Let's get 1466 moving again!" with my GWS membership pack. On my to do list

[LaScala]

Very atmospheric photo's there Castle.

 

I really hope yourself and all the other folks ar Didcot manage to get 4866 back in steam for the GWS 60th anniversary.

A worthy aim, but surely it's time the ex Aussie Castle got moving under its own steam? It's been an awfully long time in the shop as has the Saint. It's OK for us modellers to have 10 half completed projects on the W/B, but I reckon the GWS which is ultimately a business needs some big hitting star power.

[Castle]

Hi La Scala,

 

Don't worry about No. 4079 - she won't be too long now! Myself and the team have been working very hard on her for a long time and we are starting to see results now. Unfortunately, the more we looked into the locomotive as she was dismantled, the more we found wrong so the original estimates in the railway press (that did not originate from the GWS I hasten to add) were WAY out. The aim for No. 1466 is firmly in the medium term. Nothing will be done to her until at least No. 4144 is out the works and probably No. 1363 too. No. 4144 should be live some time next year. No. 2999 still needs a tender building and fairly heavy works on the boiler but it won't be too far behind No. 4079. You have to start fund raising for these things way in advance in order to build up a (apologies for the pun) head of steam to prepare for the start of the project hence the opening of the fund for No. 1466. You also need to have a range of projects at various stages so that you don't run out of 10 year boiler certificates...

 

The works is literally humming during the project weekends at the moment so there is lots to come from Didcot locomotive works in the next few years. Oh - did I forget No. 7202? And No. 1014?

 

Back to tender's version of No. 1466 I think now...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[tender]

Many thanks for posting the photos Castle, at least I can see where everything goes now.

Not much progress on the cab detailing the last day or two due to lack of paint so turned attention to ballast again.

Made up a couple of weights with 3 pieces of 1.25mm lead sheet laminated together and cut to shape. About 50 grams total. These are just held in place with double sided tape for now until I've checked the balance. There's room for more in the bunker and smoke box if required.

 

 

Bit the bullet and made a start on the boiler, I was worried about making a mess of this but so far not looking too bad. The front filed off ready for fitting the new door once primed and the handles have been fitted. Also filed off the flange ready for the new chimney.

 

Quick question, what's the bet stuff to glue white metal/brass to plastic?

 

One thing I've noticed with the new smoke box door is that there's not enough room to refit the handrail fitting in the top center. If I recall I've noticed one or two others on here with the handrail missing altogether!

 

All for now

[buffalo]

...

Quick question, what's the bet stuff to glue white metal/brass to plastic?...

Epoxy for larger bits, cyano for small. At least, that's what I usually use but I'm sure others will have different views...

 

...One thing I've noticed with the new smoke box door is that there's not enough room to refit the handrail fitting in the top center. If I recall I've noticed one or two others on here with the handrail missing altogether!

Guilty as charged They certainly weren't on mine when I took the photos on my blog. However, there is a little over a mm all round and mine does now have a handrail knob. I can't remember doing anything to the w/m door to achieve this, though I remember it needing a fair bit of cleaning up to get a good fit.

 

Nick

 

EDIT ps. just had a look at mine and it looks like I used a shoulderless handrail knob (probably Gibson) in this position, a shouldered one would probably look a bit clunky.

[tender]

Thanks Nick, I've had another look at your photo, by zooming in close I think I can make out the hole for the handrail fixing. It's a lot nearer the top edge than mine, in fact mine isn't even in the middle. A case of filling and redrilling I think.

 

The smoke box door doesn't look too bad a fit although I had to rub down the back with some wet n dry on a glass sheet to get it flat.

 

Thinking about priming the white metal / brass, I'm going to give some etch primer a try.

[LaScala]

Hi La Scala,

 

Don't worry about No. 4079 - she won't be too long now! Myself and the team have been working very hard on her for a long time and we are starting to see results now. Unfortunately, the more we looked into the locomotive as she was dismantled, the more we found wrong so the original estimates in the railway press (that did not originate from the GWS I hasten to add) were WAY out. The aim for No. 1466 is firmly in the medium term. Nothing will be done to her until at least No. 4144 is out the works and probably No. 1363 too. No. 4144 should be live some time next year. No. 2999 still needs a tender building and fairly heavy works on the boiler but it won't be too far behind No. 4079. You have to start fund raising for these things way in advance in order to build up a (apologies for the pun) head of steam to prepare for the start of the project hence the opening of the fund for No. 1466. You also need to have a range of projects at various stages so that you don't run out of 10 year boiler certificates...

 

The works is literally humming during the project weekends at the moment so there is lots to come from Didcot locomotive works in the next few years. Oh - did I forget No. 7202? And No. 1014?

 

Back to tender's version of No. 1466 I think now...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

Thanks for this Castle. Glad effort isn't being spread around too thinly. You surprise me saying 2999 needs a tender though. I thought there would be a spare or a lend available? I saw Maindy Hall at Didcot as a wreck in about '72 so will be very happy when the Lady finally steams.

[Castle]

Hi LaScala,

 

The tender that was with Maindy Hall in Barry was a Collett 4,000 gallon variety. There was a small cache of tenders that were recovered from Old Oak Common and amongst these was a Churchward 3,500 gallon unit. This is the one being used for No. 2999 but it was in very poor condition so, the main frames and some of the stretchers along with all the castings, etc have been recovered and an 'almost new' tender build from those components. Semantics I guess but in terms of the engineering on the ground, it is virtually new. Unlike some centres that store out of traffic engines out of sight of the public, ALL 81Es engines are on show all the time so borrowing a tender from one of them isn't an option and in fact, unless there is an operational need to do so (No. 5051 carried No. 6998s Hawksworth tender for many years as it was in far better condition that the Castle's own Collett one and it made 'The Bathtub' unique on the main line) the GWS tries not to swap bits around like that.

 

I hope this helps and it is definitely time to get back on topic to Tender's (no pun intended) little No. 1466.

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Castle]

Thinking about priming the white metal / brass, I'm going to give some etch primer a try.

 

Hi Tender,

 

I used some UPOL Acid #8 from Halfords and got good results on Little No. 1363. Easy to get hold of and works well...

 

I hope this helps!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[tender]

Had a very frustrating Friday evening. Thought I'd make up smokebox door darts and before you could say 'bullseye' one of the handles pinged out of the tweezers and flew across the room, so spent the rest of the evening on my hands and knees looking for it.

 

Handle found and a few spots of superglue (hafix, excellent stuff, two years old and still going strong) and a spot of araldite later the smokebox door and chimney were fixed and ready for priming.

 

 

Today we went to Porthmadog to get some paint (colours as suggested by 'Castle' in his 'Little Didcot' thread) so SWMBO (the artistic director) has something to do now on her little engine: a paint job on the backhead etc.

 

 

[The Fatadder]

Looks like its coming along nicely

I'm in the middle of detailing mine at the moment (chassis build staring next week so the thread is looking like it will be very useful)

 

What I've done is blogged here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/853/entry-10597-58xx-5813-body-detailing/

[ozzyo]

Hello Tender,

 

small point with the smoke box darts. The inner one normal points down (6 o'clock) as that is the lock, but the other one can be at any position as that is the screw that locks it all shut.

 

Hope you don't mind me pointing this out.

 

OzzyO.

[tender]

Hello Tender,

 

small point with the smoke box darts. The inner one normal points down (6 o'clock) as that is the lock, but the other one can be at any position as that is the screw that locks it all shut.

 

Hope you don't mind me pointing this out.

 

OzzyO.

Not at all. Haven't primed/painted yet so no problem to correct. After one of them pinged across the room I was so pleased at finding it I didn't give the position of them a thought.

Thanks for pointing it out.

 

Ray.

[tender]

Here's the new look front end (with darts correctly positioned). Still have to finish off the buffer beam detail and find the correct red paint.

 

 

Polly's been painting up the crew ready to go in the cab before the top goes on and I've just noticed that I haven't stuck the balance weights on the driving wheels. Hope to finish this off in the next few days so I can move on to other things.

 

Ray.

[tender]

And one from the back before the windows and lid goes on.

 

 

Not forgetting the coal.

(Close ups are cruel)

[EHertsGER]

Actually first in Rider Haggard's historic / fantasy novel She, which the very literate Rumpole of course knew all about.There are also occasional appearances of HWMBO here from time to time!

OK, wildly off topic, but: "According to Haggard's daughter Lilias, the phrase "She-who-must-be-obeyed" originated from his childhood and "the particularly hideous aspect" of one rag-doll: "This doll was something of a fetish, and Rider, as a small child, was terrified of her, a fact soon discovered by an unscrupulous nurse who made full use of it to frighten him into obedience. Why or how it came to be called She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed he could not remember".[23] Haggard wrote that "the title She" was taken "from a certain rag doll, so named, which a nurse at Bradenham used to bring out of some dark recess in order to terrify those of my brothers and sisters who were in her charge." From Wikipedia (!). Well anyway, I recall the Ursula Andress movie...

 

Not to be confused with SWSBI (she who should be ignored....)

[tender]

Not forgetting the coal.

 

Not updated this for some time, so here's one of the coal load.

 

 

Just the couplings to do, but not sure if this will be pulling anything on Polly's GWR layout so might pick up some screw link couplings at the next exhibition.

 

As the thread name change suggests, I've made a start on a Comet 43xx chassis. This again is for Polly's GWR layout. The Backmann 43xx (picked up on eBay) has a split chassis and not easily converted to DCC hence the chassis upgrade.

 

 

There's quite a lot of room for error in assembling the comet chassis as none of the frame spacers are 'tagged' so you only have a pictorial guide to assemble them. I started with the middle ones in positions as suggested but fixed the outer ones in the body using the body retaining lugs and screws and then tacked the frames to them. These are in a different position to that suggested, I hope I don't regret this move.

 

 

Next was the cylinder and motion assembly, the cross heads and slides needed a lot of fettling to get them to slide smoothly.

 

 

Still have the connecting rods to attach to the cross heads but need get hold of some brass pins for this.

[Kev_Lewis]

I did actually manage to convert one of those Bachmann split chassis to DCC a few years ago. It was not fun drilling in to each side to get a good electrical connection.

 

The Comet chassis does look very nice.

[artisan100]

> I started with the middle ones in positions as suggested but fixed the outer ones in the body using the body retaining lugs and screws and then tacked the frames to them. These are in a different position to that suggested, I hope I don't regret this move.

The instructions do say something on the lines of "choose and fit spacers to suit the fixing points on the body you are using", so as long as they do that then you should be OK. That's why the spacers aren't tabbed  -  to allow different modellers to fit them in different positions.

 

HTH

 

Geoff

Comet Models

[tender]

The instructions do say something on the lines of "choose and fit spacers to suit the fixing points on the body you are using", so as long as they do that then you should be OK. That's why the spacers aren't tabbed  -  to allow different modellers to fit them in different positions.

 

HTH

 

Geoff

Comet Models

Hi Geoff

Many thanks for the comments. This is only my second kit build so I'm still finding everything a bit new. One thing I didn't realise is that you have a 'Building Loco Chassis the Comet Way' on the website. Only just found this so hopefully things should be a bit clearer now. I did have a slight problem with the front spacer in that it slightly fouled the cylinder cross member but was easily solved by shaving a bit off the back edge. Had I have had a bit more experience it might have forseen this and moved it slightly more forward before soldering in place. Things have come to a halt on the motion side as I'm waiting for brass pins for attaching the connecting rods to the cross heads, so I made a start on the front bogie.

 

 

Also for this chassis I'm using Markits wheels and axels. Not used these before, the 14xx had Gibson wheels but I was always worried that taking them on and off the shaft would eventually lead to them becoming loose or misaligned. However the Markits wheels seem very tight on the square end off the axle and are not seating properly. Will give Markits a ring on Monday unless anyone here has anything to suggest.