Wright writes.....

[D-A-T]

For small parts I’ve found the RSU a revelation. It’s effectively a 3rd hand. Not cheap but well worth the money in my opinion.

Edit: Assuming it is brass etc and not white metal. I’ve not had the courage to try that yet. 

Edited December 2, 2022 by D-A-T

[Michael Edge]

Definitely not, glue will just prevent the solder from spreading where you want it. I often get repairs to do and the worst thing I can find is that someone has already tried to do it with some sort of glue. With experience you learn how to hold things to solder them and I often spend far more time working out how to hold a job than actually doing it. I also generally hold parts in my fingers and no, they don't get burned, they act as a temperature gauge - when the work gets too hot to hold it's time to take the iron away before something else already soldered on drops off.

[Guest Simon A.C. Martin]

On 30/11/2022 at 14:46, Tony Wright said:

It's an effective model, Simon,

 

Thanks for showing us.

 

I assume the metal 'slab' below the boiler is part of the Heljan O2 chassis? Is there any way it can be reduced?

 

You mention Graeme King's P1.

 

 

 

Four years ago it ran on Little Bytham during the 1938 LNER weekend.

 

OVS Bulleid considered the class to be 'Gresley's best-looking loco'. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

 

Thank you for your kind words Tony. Regarding the cast weight on the O2, the simple answer is "no", though I did look at it before I started building. It's far too heavy duty to remove I am afraid. Happily the O2 conversion is entirely reversible, so if I desire, in future I can change it back to being an O2 and put a proper chassis under the P1.

 

It was tested at the MRC this week and we had a couple of minor derailments of the tender, which I initially thought was me, but turned out the track hadn't been aligned when the test track had been put back together. Pleased to say it ran really beautifully. 

 

Graeme's model looks terrific in the right  setting and on a prototypical train. I am wishing I had started kit building wagons and buying up cheap RTR ones when I was younger, but I was always a bit loco and passenger centric. One day I will put together a prototypical train for my P1.

 

Best wishes,

Edited December 2, 2022 by Simon A.C. Martin

[figworthy]

7 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Geoff Haynes has just finished painting a 3D-printed carriage for me. Now, obviously, that can't be soldered, but, in cleaning it up he told me he'd encountered something which has never happened before with all the models he's painted for me; that is something dropping off during the washing/cleaning process. In this case, the battery boxes; I'd fixed them in place with superglue (obviously, not very well!). 

 

Not something that I've tried (yet), but I've seen people stick two 3D printed items together with a soldering iron.  If the prints are done in PLA, then they use the iron and a length of PLA filament, melting the filament with the iron as though it was solder.

 

Adrian

[Tony Wright]

5 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Definitely not, glue will just prevent the solder from spreading where you want it. I often get repairs to do and the worst thing I can find is that someone has already tried to do it with some sort of glue. With experience you learn how to hold things to solder them and I often spend far more time working out how to hold a job than actually doing it. I also generally hold parts in my fingers and no, they don't get burned, they act as a temperature gauge - when the work gets too hot to hold it's time to take the iron away before something else already soldered on drops off.

Good evening Mike,

 

I agree entirely about any repairs where glue has been used. There's also the danger of noxious fumes being given off as well, particularly if an iron gets anywhere near superglue! 

 

And, yes, I do burn my fingers..............

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[Woodcock29]

13 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Just a point about repairing holes in castings caused by clumsiness and/or too hot an iron............

 

If it's, say, a largish hole in a tender side or cab side, I solder a piece of shim brass to the rear, large enough to cover the hole with a bit of 'land' left around the 'behind' edges, the brass being pre-tinned with 145 degree solder first. 

 

I then 'puddle' low-melt on top of the brass, letting gravity level the fluid solder until its flush with the edge of the hole. Full levelling off can then be achieved by scraper/curved-blade knife/file. 

 

Just one point of note. Over time, low-melt shrinks slightly, so one can end up with a slight depression, though it's not too noticeable. I now leave a model a few months before it's painted, just in case any shrinkage manifests itself. 

[Woodcock29]

I've also noticed that low melt solder shrinks. Does anyone know why this is? It's most noticeable where I widened the firebox on two Millholme Dreadnoughts that I built. The only way I might be able to correct it is to now is add some body filler, smooth that off and patch paint it.

Andrew

[Bucoops]

6 hours ago, D-A-T said:

For small parts I’ve found the RSU a revelation. It’s effectively a 3rd hand. Not cheap but well worth the money in my opinion.

Edit: Assuming it is brass etc and not white metal. I’ve not had the courage to try that yet. 

 

I've attached quite a few bits of white metal to brass with my RSU - use the probe on the back of the brass, not in contact with the white metal itself. Usually bogie cosmetic sides. I did melt one... Can't remember if I've tried wm to wm but probably not.

[rodent279]

1 hour ago, Woodcock29 said:

I've also noticed that low melt solder shrinks. Does anyone know why this is? It's most noticeable where I widened the firebox on two Millholme Dreadnoughts that I built. The only way I might be able to correct it is to now is add some body filler, smooth that off and patch paint it.

Andrew

Was that to fill in the gap between the firebox & running plate? I used Milliput. Barely noticeable under my bodged hand painting. I glued the Dreadnought that I built. Didn't dare solder it. I've got an SEF Crab to build-that will be soldered.

[Chris Higgs]

On 01/12/2022 at 12:18, Tony Wright said:

In my view, soldering is the best way of assembling metal kits. The late Bob Essery once said to me his take on building metal kits was......' If you can bolt or screw assemblies together, then do so. If you can't do that, then solder. However, if all else fails, then glue!' Wise words..... 

 

Heard that in the slightly more snappy form "Never glue what you can solder. Never solder what you can screw"

[Chris Higgs]

When I was young (in my teens) I built whitemetal kits using a 12V soldering iron running off an H&M Duette with the voltage turned down (trial and error). They came out fine and the soldering iron cost next to nothing. These days I seem to have lost the knack. But the Duette is still going strong 50 years on.

 

One tip, never use an RSU on whitemetal. The one thing is it not is temperature controlled. Mine can happily vaporise brass wire on brakegear if allowed to. But it is only thing I ever use on etched brass/nickel-silver. The regular soldering iron only ever comes out for track and electricals. An extra hand? - more like two. 

 

Chris

[Andy R]

Aren’t the H & M duettes amazing pieces of kit! Mine brought in 1980 from the old Hattons in Liverpool while travelling in uk on our OE… still going strong for my small, DC only branch line layout. Simple and effective. 

[Tony Wright]

I've finished the Isinglass 3D-printed Gresley RFO.....

 

 

Geoff Haynes painted it for me (because I spray-paint outside, the winter months are a no-no), and I've lined it. Why? Strictly-speaking, unless it's a Scottish-allocated Gresley, the lining followed the central horizontal beading - black in the middle, with a gold/yellow/straw line either side. Fine, if that beading is dead straight. Unfortunately (because of the printing process?), there were a few too many ripples and wobbles (as can be seen on the lower panels), and I'm told it just looked awful when Geoff bow-pen lined the beading. Lining transfers just won't stick on the beading, so I used Fox BR maroon lining below that bead, getting it as straight as possible by eye, not using the beading as a guide. 

 

Granted, this is a cruel studio close-up, but this carriage is not in the same league as an etched-brass equivalent, though cheaper. 

 

One thing I haven't done (yet) is to apply the 'FIRST' 'sausages' to the insides of the main windows. I've used HMRS 'Pressfix' in the past, but more-recent sheets have been out of alignment and stubbornly refuse to leave their backing paper. When they do (eventually) 'escape', they've left a gooey 'halo', which looks horrid on glazing. 

 

It's definitely a 'layout' coach (best seen at no less than 3'), and this morning I'll photograph it in-situ as it were. 

 

Some good points, but I don't think I'll take this route again in my carriage-building, even though other 3d-printed carriages I've built have not displayed 'ripples'. 

[Tony Wright]

The editing of the Little Bytham sequence is all but complete, thanks to the expertise of Chris Walsh. All that's needed is my voice-over (which should really send folk to sleep!).

 

After I'd videoed the actual running sequence, I just mucked about by letting four trains loose on the layout, just leaving them to please themselves as I moved the camera around.

 

One can indulge in complex movements and intricate shunting, but, to me, this is what is exciting about a model railway...........

 

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AiRP3jVN2v0po3XWKt1konYWyNR3?e=NZsnWX

 

It really is just a big trainset!

[Tony Wright]

I'll put the complete Bytham sequence video on here next week. It's not for BRM, but just for Wright writes..............

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tony Wright
to add something

[Bucoops]

Regarding HMRS transfers - I understand they have finally found a new printer for them but significantly more expensive (isn't everything!). How long before availability improves, and if they become usable again, I don't know.

[Woodcock29]

10 hours ago, rodent279 said:

Was that to fill in the gap between the firebox & running plate? I used Milliput. Barely noticeable under my bodged hand painting. I glued the Dreadnought that I built. Didn't dare solder it. I've got an SEF Crab to build-that will be soldered.

No. I had to widen the firebox as the Millholme boiler is too small in diameter so I substituted a piece of PVC waterpipe for the boiler. Consequently I had to fill a gap in the top of the firebox as I had to set the two halves wider apart.

 

Here's one of them before the low melt solder started to shrink slightly in the gap along the top of the firebox.

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Woodcock29
Add photo

[St Enodoc]

5 minutes ago, Woodcock29 said:

No. I had to widen the firebox as the Millholme boiler is too small in diameter so I substituted a piece of PVC waterpipe for the boiler. Consequently I had to fill a gap in the top of the firebox as I had to set the two halves wider apart.

I had to do something similar with a K's Grange when fitting it to a Bachmann Manor chassis. I think I used Plastic Padding.

[gr.king]

12 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

I've also noticed that low melt solder shrinks. Does anyone know why this is? It's most noticeable where I widened the firebox on two Millholme Dreadnoughts that I built. The only way I might be able to correct it is to now is add some body filler, smooth that off and patch paint it.

Andrew

In the same way I now have two visible solder-filled joints (from some years ago) in the cab roof of an ex-GNR D2, and similar on the widened rear of a tender tank.

[rodent279]

31 minutes ago, Woodcock29 said:

No. I had to widen the firebox as the Millholme boiler is too small in diameter so I substituted a piece of PVC waterpipe for the boiler. Consequently I had to fill a gap in the top of the firebox as I had to set the two halves wider apart.

 

Here's one of them before the low melt solder started to shrink slightly in the gap along the top of the firebox.

 

Nice model. Puts my effort in it's place-positively amateurish! I hand painted and lined it, my first attempt.  I'm not minded to touch it though, apart from renumbering into a more appropriate range.

How far out is the boiler?

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by rodent279

[Tony Wright]

Now in 'revenue-earning' service................

 

 

The Isinglass RFO completes a Gresley catering three-set running in a long-distance express on Little Bytham. The RSO was built from a Kemilway kit and the RK from a Hornby/Trice combination. I think the 3D-printed RFO just about fits in at this distance.

 

 

But in close-up? 

 

My article on building this is scheduled to appear in the April issue of RM next year. 

 

 

Edited December 3, 2022 by Tony Wright
typo error

[APOLLO]

In close up your coach looks just fine Tony, very realistic. By the time of your layout (1957 or so) alot of British Railways stock was getting old and somewhat tatty, even when clean. I was only 5 back then so can only really remember 1963 on, when such coaches were getting very rare. I just about remember a couple of blood and custard coaches at Wigan, just remember the livery, I don't remember what they were. The only Gresley coach I remember observing on a passenger train was a blue & grey buffet car at Manchester Piccadilly presumably on the Harwich boat train, late 60's.

 

Locos also, there were some right tatty heaps still earning a crust at the end of steam, bits falling off (did they use glue ? (not Bostick though as I did !!). I will admit that it is more than likely that steam locos were far better looked after in your layout period. 

 

This is one of Dad's photos, unknown date but Oliver is departing Wigan Wallgate heading  east. Quite tidy, both loco and ex LMS coach.

 

As a kid we would poke our heads through the latticework on this bridge and spit down the chimney to try and put the fire out !!!!!!

 

 

Brit15

[Hollar]

I've just read this on Scaleforum:

 

It might be old news but I've just come across the fact that the RCTS have made available the whole set of the "Locomotives of the LNER" green books available as a digital version that you can view for free online (after registering). Also, you can purchase searchable pdf copies for a few quid if you want them to keep. I have a full set of hard copies but one or two of mine are a bit ropey being second hand purchases.

https://archive.rcts.org.uk/locomotives-of-the-lner/

 

The registration process isn't the easiest but once registered it is a terrific resource.

 

Tony
 

[APOLLO]

Couple more photos if I may

 

Looking the other way, Wallgate station is under the Bridge. That water tank would make a nice model, as would what I presume is the old L&Y signal box.

 

The Bolton to Wigan (NW) line is being electrified at the moment, This bridge is still there, complete with buildings and is in a bit of a state being shored up with steel trestles, and is the main reason Wallgate can't be OHE electrified.

 

 

Same location, tatty old Dub D !!

 

 

The bridge today, sad isn't it ?

 

 

Brit15

[St Enodoc]

47 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

As a kid we would poke our heads through the latticework on this bridge and spit down the chimney to try and put the fire out !!!!!!

 Only spit?????