Flexichas - limiting travel of hornblocks

[Buhar]

I'm putting a GEM Cauliflower (LNW 0-6-0) together using Gibson wheels and High Level hornblocks/hornguides fettled into the GEM chassis.   Things look a bit tight under the splashers and I'm struggling to position pickups to rub on the 3 or 9 o'clock positions on the wheels to ensure contact  throughout the vertical movement allowed by the hornblocks and eliminate the risk of pickup wire getting between the spokes.

 

With the chassis leveled, a wheel can move about 1.5mm up or down, which is much more than is needed to cope with normal track irregularities. Wisdom written elsewhere suggests that only 0.5mm either way is sufficient.  Only having this much travel would greatly assist in setting the brake gear closer to the wheel than it will be at the moment, could save me a lot of work and potential disasters with the splashers and give me more options with siting the pickups.

 

I'm thinking of putting stops on the travel of the hornblock (pieces of scrap etch or wire) - is this a sound idea or am I storing up trouble for myself?

 

By the way, for anyone venturing into this field, I found the High Level blocks/guides really easy to set up, much better than (an admittedly old) MJT set.

[Miss Prism]

No need for limiting stops on the hornblock travel. Such limiting will be effected by the extent of your track irregularity, which hopefully will be considerably less than 1.5mm.

[garethashenden]

You do have a pivoting bar between the axles right? That will limit the motion of the hornblocks to the opposite of what the other set are doing.

[Gordon A]

Have you considered using Gibson plastic brake shoes and hangars?

 

Gordon A

Bristol

[micknich2003]

Call me pedantic, Hornblocks dont move, the are fixed solid to the frame plates, it is the axle boxes that move. Traditional railway equipment has Brake Blocks, not shoes. Forty odd years ago, I learnt the hard way, when I approached a loco building firm for drawings, I got what I asked for, but not what I wanted.

[N15class]

I always stand my locos on a flat surface while I am attaching the brake gear sall block of wood or like, and elastic bands to hold it. This generally gives me the right results. If you are worried about shorting smear the brake blocks with an epoxy glue, or use insulated ones.

[Buhar]

Thanks for the food for thought, guys.  

 

I'm fitting wooden brake-blocks bulked up with plasticard so Gibsons are not an option this time.  Fitting the brakegear is pretty much the last job (it has outside pull-rods) so that can be done the Brazilian way.

 

It looks like once it's on the track all should be well and there won't be too much movement.  I'm getting myself bothered because I want to check clearances in the worst case scenario and so instinct told me I'd benefit by reducing the possibilities for excessive vertical travel.  But if I set it up with the beam in working mode, the only problem would come removing it from the track and then risking pickups springing out of place when the wheels drop.  I think I can live with that.