Whats on your 2mm Work bench

[Caley Jim]

Since completing the Glasgow and Edinburgh direct set I've mainly been doing little bits and pieces.  A short while ago I was asked by one of our group members if my CR Dia 22 mineral wagon etch could be modified to a NBR 8T 'Jubilee' mineral wagon (an earlier one than that which @AWright is working on).  I thought this would just be a matter of altering the cupboard doors to drop doors, however when I got hold of a copy of the drawing (Courtesy of @AWright) I discovered there were several other differences, including dimensional ones.  I set about modifying the CR etch and put it on a trial sheet I was doing.  I started assembly of the chassis at Model Rail back in February and recently went back to it to complete the body.  I discovered there were several errors in the etch, including the chassis too short for the body (which was the correct length), resulting in the wheelbase being off centre towards the fixed end, and the end door too deep, among others.  All these have now been corrected in the artwork and a second trial etch will ensue in due course.   I was able to produce a wagon from it, but it was no longer an accurate model of the prototype, so I decided to finish it as another 'Dixon' PO wagon.

 

 

Here it's marshalled between two Dia 22s carrying the same livery.  With the drop door, different planking (narrow top plank) and push rod brake it gives a wee bit of variety.

 

Jim

[Bryn]

 

Still holding its own the N Gauge Society kit of the Shark ballast plough makes a great model with combined with the etched chassis from the association shop (2-335) and 3D printed buffers. Rain strips were changed to a more modern configuration using mircostrip.

 

 

[Caley Jim]

To fill up a space on the sheet of etches of CR 65ft coach underframes I put in an etch for some 'coke raves' to extend the volume capacity of Dia22 mineral wagons for carrying coke.

 

 

The vertical posts simply slide into the body of the wagon.  Usual rubbish lettering! 😕

 

Jim

[nick_bastable]

47 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

 

 

.  Usual rubbish lettering! 😕

 

Jim

Tis better than mine

 

Nick B

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, nick_bastable said:

Tis better than mine

Always looks OK until you take a photograph!

 

Jim

[Izzy]

 

Not quite totally off the workbench yet, a few bits yet to do now running trials have been completed, but as I was doing some shots of other rolling stock I thought I'd take one of it.

 

Re-built Royal Scot 46100. 

 

 

The reason why I've made it revolves around historical family history. My maternal great grandfather William Jackson regularly drove the Royal Scot out of Carlise while his brother John Jackson is named on the commemorative nameplate 6100 has carried since it's tour of North America in 1933 in which he participated as lead fireman (even though he was also a driver). They are Farish bodies on the nice chassis Nigel Hunt produced (couldn't have contemplated doing it otherwise).

 

Bob

[65179]

Very nice work Bob. Royal Scot looks lovely.  Always good to see another 2mm LMS 4-6-0.

 

Simon 

[Ian Morgan]

A little bit of paintbrush torture, and I have some more items to add to the layout.

 

Dogs by ModelU, cat by Hardies Hobbies.

 

 

[yaxxbarl]

This Dapol Pannier has been what's been on my workbench of late, a bit of a 'Trigger's Broom' of a loco as, after problems with the wheels, motor, paint job etc, getting a cheap non-runner to get it running properly means the only real remaining bits of my first attempt at it are the bearings, one of the gears and the keeper plate!

 

It's almost running how I want it apart from an annoying click when running in one direction, once thats sorted I'll finish the paint job and add the remaining details and some couplings.

 

Also, in sorting this out I've learnt enough to write an article for the association mag on converting these...

[Caley Jim]

Clicks running in one direction are sometimes a (very) minor quartering issue. 

 

Jim 

[yaxxbarl]

4 hours ago, Caley Jim said:

Clicks running in one direction are sometimes a (very) minor quartering issue. 

 

Jim 

Yes - I do think it's that. I'll get the magnifier glasses out to check when I back from my travels!

[Hendreladis]

How do you remove the motor from these Dapol panniers? I bought a non runner that was awash with oil. Having assumed that to be the problem cleaned everything up but then found that the motor had locked up. Seemed an unlikely turn of events but it won't turn bar rocking a couple of degrees each way.

 

Can't for the life of me see how to extract it from within the mouldings without a hammer - my go to choice generally.

 

Andrew

[Chris Higgs]

1 hour ago, Hendreladis said:

How do you remove the motor from these Dapol panniers? I bought a non runner that was awash with oil. Having assumed that to be the problem cleaned everything up but then found that the motor had locked up. Seemed an unlikely turn of events but it won't turn bar rocking a couple of degrees each way.

 

Can't for the life of me see how to extract it from within the mouldings without a hammer - my go to choice generally.

 

Andrew

 

It is very difficult. It is attached by wires inside the smokebox, and is a very tight clip fit inside the boiler. Removal was not envisaged in the design. Replacement even less so. Lever it out with a screwdriver at the rear and hope for the best is my advice (and I have removed a couple).

 

 Chris

[queensquare]

Laid out on my workbench is the contents of a little parcel that arrived from down under as part of a bartering arrangement - many thanks to Kevin and Bruce. It contains more horse boxes, (a favourite of mine), some NPCS four wheel underframes - perfect for recent purchases from 2mmAndy and an etch for Toby which will be another unlikely addition to the Tucking Mill roster. There’s also an LNW loco coal wagon and a strange looking MR wagon that looks like a set of bellows!

I do love a fresh etch but I’m resisting at the moment as I’m so busy both in the workshop and garden - we’ll see how long I can resist!

 

Jerry

 

[yaxxbarl]

3 hours ago, Chris Higgs said:

 

It is very difficult. It is attached by wires inside the smokebox, and is a very tight clip fit inside the boiler. Removal was not envisaged in the design. Replacement even less so. Lever it out with a screwdriver at the rear and hope for the best is my advice (and I have removed a couple).

 

 Chris

Andrew,

 

Yes - my experience is pretty much the same as Chris's, I would also check there's no residue from the glue used to secure the weight impeding sliding the motor out, removing any of that helps.

 

I have wondered about replacing the motor with a coreless, firstly I'd need to source a worm as it doesn't seem to be easily removable from the motor. If I got round that I reckon replacing with a coreless wouldn't be that hard.

 

Cheers,

 

John

[VRBroadgauge]

10 hours ago, queensquare said:

Laid out on my workbench is the contents of a little parcel that arrived from down under as part of a bartering arrangement - many thanks to Kevin and Bruce. It contains more horse boxes, (a favourite of mine), some NPCS four wheel underframes - perfect for recent purchases from 2mmAndy and an etch for Toby which will be another unlikely addition to the Tucking Mill roster. There’s also an LNW loco coal wagon and a strange looking MR wagon that looks like a set of bellows!

I do love a fresh etch but I’m resisting at the moment as I’m so busy both in the workshop and garden - we’ll see how long I can resist!

 

Jerry

 

Enjoy them Jerry. I'm sitting here looking at an assembled bellows (Dr. Nick's coathanger) that Kev did. Have fun with that. Kev or I can give some assistance if need be. Let me know what else you'd like.....

[Nick Mitchell]

5702 Progress report #5

 

Once it became obvious that I wasn't going to get anywhere near my wildly optimistic target of having Colossus in a state where I could take it to York, I lost all my momentum. Over a month has passed since then, and I've been slowly picking away at the tender.

 

Last time I reported on the tender, it was just the basic body shell. Since then I have turned the vents, dome and filler, and added various other details such as the coal rails, handrails and steps:

 

 

I was in two minds about whether to include the mushroom vents at all. The tender I'm modelling has them still inside the coal space.

In reality, they were often completely buried on tenders fitted with coal rails (the reason why many were moved further to the rear of the tender, outside the coal space), and I am planning to have a fairly full coal load...

The decoder will sit on top of the motor, hence the rectangular hole cut in the tender top, and this will necessitate a raised cover and plenty of coal. Hopefully the vents won't get completely hidden!

 

I have fitted an Electra coupling dropper to the rear buffer beam, and also fabricated a vacuum hose.

 

 

I'm including shot below of up in-between the frames, as it shows where I had to file back the rear floor section either side of the fixing nut, to make sufficient clearance for the wheel flanges:

 

 

The decoder I'm using is the last of my stock of DCX75s. These are the ones with the really tiny solder pads that the stay-alive circuit attaches to.

Below is the decoder with the stay alive pack (4 * 220uF tantalum chips) attached, and the other wires prepared for fitting.

 

 

Below is the completed electronics installation, just waiting to be protected by Kapton tape.

The jaunty angle of the capacitors allows them to be wriggled over the the rear fixing nut in the floor of the tender.

 

Also in the picture below you can see I've added brakes to the tender chassis. For some reason, the kit only provides four brakes (for the front two axles). I guess the thinking was that the rear brakes would be hidden from view behind the steps, but they can be seen. Fortunately, I had some spares among the extra bits of 4F I acquired.

I have spaced the brakes 1mm off the frames with short lengths of plain strip rail.

 

 

To prove a point, in the photo below, the rear brake hangers are just about visible...

 

 

Viewed from above, it is clear how the decoder sticks up into the coal space:

 

 

Raising the motor to clear the wheels has luckily lined it up so that the cardan drive shaft will pass through the centre of the coal scope. as this view looking along the locomotive chassis attests:

 

 

To get the tender to ride level, I've had to pack up the coupling a little. It remains to be seen how this will be accommodated under the cab floor. I may need to trim back the tender footplate to enable the loco to negotiate corners too, having opted for a close loco-tender coupling.

 

 

The tender is complete now, and just needs its axleboxes, which will probably wait to be fixed until after painting.

 

Below is an overview of where the project is up to. I haven't made the bogie yet, which is next on my list before fitting the body.

 

 

[65179]

I'd be tempted to consider a joggle in the drawbar Nick, with the vertical portion of the joggle as close to the tender as possible,  supporting the drawbar on a shallow metal U under the rear loco spacer a bit like your Peco Jubilee.  It would be a shame to have to hack at the body too much at footplate level.

 

My Hawkins has the set up you have there and I've not found it entirely satisfactory even with the thinner drawbar of the Stanier 3500 gallon tender.

 

Simon

[Izzy]

7 hours ago, Nick Mitchell said:

5702 Progress report #5

 

Once it became obvious that I wasn't going to get anywhere near my wildly optimistic target of having Colossus in a state where I could take it to York, I lost all my momentum. Over a month has passed since then, and I've been slowly picking away at the tender.

 

Last time I reported on the tender, it was just the basic body shell. Since then I have turned the vents, dome and filler, and added various other details such as the coal rails, handrails and steps:

 

 

I was in two minds about whether to include the mushroom vents at all. The tender I'm modelling has them still inside the coal space.

In reality, they were often completely buried on tenders fitted with coal rails (the reason why many were moved further to the rear of the tender, outside the coal space), and I am planning to have a fairly full coal load...

The decoder will sit on top of the motor, hence the rectangular hole cut in the tender top, and this will necessitate a raised cover and plenty of coal. Hopefully the vents won't get completely hidden!

 

I have fitted an Electra coupling dropper to the rear buffer beam, and also fabricated a vacuum hose.

 

 

I'm including shot below of up in-between the frames, as it shows where I had to file back the rear floor section either side of the fixing nut, to make sufficient clearance for the wheel flanges:

 

 

The decoder I'm using is the last of my stock of DCX75s. These are the ones with the really tiny solder pads that the stay-alive circuit attaches to.

Below is the decoder with the stay alive pack (4 * 220uF tantalum chips) attached, and the other wires prepared for fitting.

 

 

Below is the completed electronics installation, just waiting to be protected by Kapton tape.

The jaunty angle of the capacitors allows them to be wriggled over the the rear fixing nut in the floor of the tender.

 

Also in the picture below you can see I've added brakes to the tender chassis. For some reason, the kit only provides four brakes (for the front two axles). I guess the thinking was that the rear brakes would be hidden from view behind the steps, but they can be seen. Fortunately, I had some spares among the extra bits of 4F I acquired.

I have spaced the brakes 1mm off the frames with short lengths of plain strip rail.

 

 

To prove a point, in the photo below, the rear brake hangers are just about visible...

 

 

Viewed from above, it is clear how the decoder sticks up into the coal space:

 

 

Raising the motor to clear the wheels has luckily lined it up so that the cardan drive shaft will pass through the centre of the coal scope. as this view looking along the locomotive chassis attests:

 

 

To get the tender to ride level, I've had to pack up the coupling a little. It remains to be seen how this will be accommodated under the cab floor. I may need to trim back the tender footplate to enable the loco to negotiate corners too, having opted for a close loco-tender coupling.

 

 

The tender is complete now, and just needs its axleboxes, which will probably wait to be fixed until after painting.

 

Below is an overview of where the project is up to. I haven't made the bogie yet, which is next on my list before fitting the body.

 

 

 

Absolutely beautiful work as always Nick, quite stunning really. 

 

Don't know if it might give you a any ideas on the drawbar front but with my recent Royal Scot I re-worked things (as I did with several aspects) and set it underneath on a shouldered bolt. This allowed the drawbar hole to be turned into a sideways slot for a bit more movement around curves. It doesn't look too bad and nothing really shows in normal use.

 

 

 

 

As the tender is plastic I also tried out those larger 25v tantalums (4x 220), which without the zener in the mix seem to work quite okay and of course shouldn't go pop and melt it!

 

Looking forward to seeing the body on.

 

Bob

[yaxxbarl]

On 05/05/2023 at 15:50, Caley Jim said:

Clicks running in one direction are sometimes a (very) minor quartering issue. 

 

Jim 

Jim,

 

Yes sorted it out today - it was mainly quartering but also one of the rear bearings was an old one that was worn out to around 1.65mm diameter, well partly worn and possibly a bit to overzealous running a file through it when I first had it! I had a replacement spare so once I'd replaced it running all round is a lot better.

 

Cheers,

 

John

 

[Ian Morgan]

A few little jobs being done in preparation for 'Freshwater' going to the steam railway on the Isle of Wight Friday. Hopefully it will be a good and interesting weekend.

 

When I first built the Stroudley set of 4-wheelers, I created buffers and buffer beams that were 3D printed by Shapeways. Over time, the large buffer heads at the ends of the set have all disappeared, probably from rough handling in the stock box. The short, stubby intermediate buffers all survived though. I have now replaced the end buffers with turned brass ones.

 

Three wagons had also lost a buffer each, so these have also been replaced.

 

Some new figures have been added to the layout. I will post photos at the weekend.

 

 

 

[Nick Mitchell]

5702 Progress report #5a

 

Thanks @65179 and @Izzy for your advice regarding the drawbar.

I decided to try and fit the body and see how the land lay. I wanted to work out how much surgery would be necessary, and where an alternative drawbar arrangement might fit.

 

Not wanting to ruin the red body in case it all went wrong, I practiced on another Jubilee body (why do I need so many???):

 

 

The surgery involved carving away the frames at the front, and removing some of the central web that supports the footplate at the rear. This leave it very fragile.

 

I removed the unwanted plastic using a milling cutter freehand in my mini-drill.

 

 

To my amazement, the tender drawbar lines up perfectly height-wise with the blind slot in the body where the real draw bar passed between loco and tender.

Imagine Mike Raithby designed his kit to be like the prototype!!!

 

 

This looks really promising, so before going about altering the drawbar or modifying the loco chassis, I thought I'd see if I can make things work as they currently stand.

 

There are actually three "floors" that stack on top of each other. The one in the pictures so far is the lowest level.

I cut away an area of the floor to accommodate the draw bar, in the region of what would be the drag box on a real loco.

 

In the picture below, you can also see that I've fitted a bolt to locate in the second hole in the loco's rear frame spacer. This bolt is 12BA countersunk, fixed underneath with a half-nut. (There's not room for a full nut on top of the spacer.)

 

 

 

The bolt for the coupling comes up from underneath. Two 12BA washers stacked on the spacer give the tender the correct ride height at the front end:

 

 

 

The top of the drawbar is still below the level of the floor, meaning little or nothing will need to be cut away from the "upper floors" - potentially a perfect solution?

 

 

 

 

 

With the cab clipped loosely back in place, nothing interferes with the coupling, and I'm pleased with the loco - tender gap. The enormous fall plate is going to have to go, however!

 

Viewed from behind, the tender doesn't look stupidly narrow considering that it is 2mm scale rather than N gauge. Not forgetting that the real ones were narrower than the loco cabs...

 

 

With Trafalgar (which will become Colossus) waiting patiently, I decided I was happy enough with this set up to start dismantling her and making similar modifications.

 

 

Here she is with the same modification to the "bottom" floor. I've added the middle floor, which is attached to the backhead. A 4mm dia. hole has been drilled through the firedoors to accommodate the universal joint.

 

This floor is not solid, and I enlarged the hole in it slightly to make room for a longer coupling bolt to stick up.

When I was messing about with the green body, I also narrowed the tender drawbar a little bit, which can be observed in this picture.

 

 

It wasn't strictly necessary, but I also made a slot in the "back wall" of the intermediate floor. I think I'll do something similar with the cab, which fits over and around this floor. It just allows a bit extra vertical movement, and it might come in handy when coupling the finished loco/tender.

 

 

You can see in the photo above that I've made a start removing the handrails from the body on this side. The large holes will need filling and re-drilling for etched knobs. I just can't live with the gross-ness of these plastic knobs - especially on a red engine. (compare with the unmolested handrail on the other side in the shot below) I'd even go as far as to say the moulded on handrails on the original PECO jubilee looked better, as they were so much finer.

 

 

The loco footsteps also fell victim to the milling tool. These will be replaced by etched ones to match the tender.

I'm not sure at what point this ceased to be a "simple conversion"!

 

 

The bogie is still next on my list of things to do...

Edited May 11, 2023 by Nick Mitchell

[Ian Morgan]

I promised some photos of the new figures added to Freshwater, so here are a few.

 

First, Herring Gulls:

 

 

 

Then, my homage to the Will Hay film "Oh, Mr Porter!", that was filmed just outside Basingstoke.

 

Here are station master Porter, and Albert, wondering what to do with Harbottle after his latest visit to the pub:

 

[Donw]

I was fortunate to see these today very effective. Thanks too to Ian for kindly letting me take control for a bit. The slow running achievable with the Terrier was most impressive. A real pleasure to operate.

 

Don

Edited May 14, 2023 by Donw

[yaxxbarl]

Just about done with my workbench is 3733, having got the running sorted I sorted out a few final bits of painting and have been putting on the details. Couplings and paraphernalia such as coal in the bunker and fire irons still need to be done, along with a dusting of weathering powders...

 

 

Next up is prep work for a J94 chassis for the chassis workshop a week Saturday!

Edited May 15, 2023 by yaxxbarl