Jump to content
 

Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377


Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium

My experience of small 4 wheeled locos is that they struggle away from perfect plain track. To combat this I thought I'd try to give this loco a bit of compensation by allowing the rear axle to rock.

The brass rod thingy I made locates into a hole in a chassis cross member above the axle. It was glued in place with some epoxy glue, resting on the axle until set. This photo shows it after the axle was removed.15.JPG.d6f96cf97a10aa0b27649a981909200f.JPG

 

 

The axle holes in the chassis were then elongated vertically to allow about 1mm of movement.16.JPG.2bba55343208041fd3e24644b2f6cad5.JPG

 

 

Edited by Nile
  • Like 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

FUD does smell like almond.  It's nice actually.   I dunk my FUD models in white spirit for about an how for cleaning.

 

Apparently some love this method and swear by it and others condemn it - worked for me so far.

 

 

 

A small amount of cyanide combats cancer, but 'they' don't want you to know that.   Eating Peach and Apricot seeds have vitamin B17 in (and cyanide!) and there is a tribe that trade the seeds for currency - they never get cancer.

 

I eat the seeds, they taste like almonds.

I eat most fruit seeds too.  I did a study on apple seeds and apparently they have cyanide in too but you need to eat about 20 full apples in one go before you die.

 

 

 

---

 

Compensation, is it that simple to compensate on a pin?   I haven't tried this method yet but if it is that simple then I might just give it a bash.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Meanwhile back on planet Earth* I've made some pick-ups.17.JPG.8bacf8bc424ce00c5fdaf83cc5d38d76.JPG

 

A piece of single sided PCB with a cut down the middle, some phosphor bronze rods and some wires. All soldered together before gluing to the chassis.

 

After gluing to the chassis I bent the rods to meet the wheel rims.18.JPG.66462119fb753ac39044bdf21f7d371c.JPG

 

 

With the wheels fitted final adjustments are made.19.JPG.8863b7dbd82c1413cab4c4a10af9bc18.JPG

 

 

With the wires soldered to the motor the chassis can now move on its own, on some track.20.JPG.7525fc55c012ff78dcec0bce20272039.JPG

 

The white thing under the motor is a sticky pad holding it down.

 

* it might not be your Earth.

Edited by Nile
  • Like 10
Link to post
Share on other sites

Watching with interest, only 3 or 4 of these have been printed so far. You're not exactly making it easy for yourself with the chassis/wheels/gears combination, but it looks like it should work ok.

 

On mine I used a rather over geared motor (nearly 400:1). It was a bit too slow but ran well and pulled 600g of lead balanced on a 16t mineral wagon. I didn't test it further as I figured it was more than powerful enough. I never had any pickup troubles, but the compensation ought to help.

 

Any questions just ask. I assume you've read the instructions/photos on my website (shapeways don't let you add enough in the of instructions so I put them on my own page).

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Hi Brack, yes I've used your instructions as well as lots of photos via Google as guidance. I like to experiment and try new ideas sometimes, if it doesn't work I could still use more conventional methods. I would have liked to use a higher gear ratio, I have 60:1 gears but the main gear is as big as the wheels! It seems to run slow enough with these ones.

 

Onto today’s episode, securing the body to the chassis. This is how I've done it.

At the rear of the body I've added some bits of micro strip. The chassis locates into the space above them.26.JPG.212b1206ccb14948dacc33212d9d8b2b.JPG

 

 

The front of the chassis will be held in place by a screw. For this I took a small piece of brass strip and drilled a hole in it.21.JPG.c186930bf20d063f3fa66cd3944ab573.JPG

 

 

This was glued into the chassis inside the sandboxes. The screw will pass up through the hole into the smokebox. Inside the bottom of the smokebox is a piece of scrap wood drilled to accept the screw.22.JPG.b6d87771bfcb42679792adc237a9d02a.JPG

 

A small piece of the chassis broke away while doing this, a hazard of this material. Fortunately there is enough left for this to work.

Edited by Nile
  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Mine just wedged on. The idea was to put a bit of wire through the little hole in the tab at front and rear to lock it to the chassis, but the friction fit alone was more than solid enough to handle it on mine. You've opted for a more conventional fitting method which should be very solid.

 

I am a little jealous of you fitting a flywheel in. But having seen your other builds and bashes I'm looking forward to the finished model. Will it be a br/lner/NER loco or in private ownership?

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

The gears you have used look like "Romford" type 50 or 60:1. "Ultrascale" type gears have a smaller diameter worm with a gear of about they same size, so the worm would be a bit less obtrusive. 50:1 ratio would be good with those diameter wheels and that motor.

 

I've referred to them as Ultrascale type gears as they first introduced a worm/gear of that particulate profile (100DP). However, they are now used by Branchlines, London Road Models, Markits,, etc. as well as Ultrascale.  They have the benefit of straight  cut gear teeth, so allow for a bit of sideplay, unlike the concave cut teeth of the Romford type.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Next - adding details to the chassis.

Brake shoes are included in the kit. After cleaning I glued some 0.5mm brass rods to them. These rods will fit into holes in the chassis.

23.JPG.39e0c2a7563eb37d6918b672658230bc.JPG

 

 

Once these were fitted the rest of the brake gear could be installed. This all has to be glued together with superglue gel, solder is not really an option here.

24.JPG.6f411edf4962e7a419d51453915bd406.JPG

 

Also added were sand pipes and guard irons. I've added triangular reinforcing pieces between the chassis and steps to stop me from breaking them, just in case.

A view form the top side. I've filled the hole I accidentally made in the top of the sandbox.25.JPG.9361a13b77f1021d51f45107a99acef5.JPG

 

Edited by Nile
  • Like 8
Link to post
Share on other sites

Looking really good so far. Nice tweaks and additions too.

 

For your compensated axle are your bushes/bearings free to move in downward enlarged frame holes, is that your method or have you fixed the bushes and reamed the brass downwards? Looks like the former based on your picture. It is something I want to try as a quick bodge. Well, I guess some would see it as a bodge but it doesn't have to be.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

In answer to the above questions, it is the hole in the chassis that has been elongated vertically. The bearing is unchanged and free to move up and down ,in what is now a slot. It may also rotate as there is nothing to stop it, will this be a problem? The chassis frames are 1.6mm thick, about the same as the bearings.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Neil,

 

the bearing shouldn't rotate, otherwise it may wear the slot in the frames. All the proprietary hornguide/bearing systems have a square hornblock bearing running in the guide (just like the real thing).

 

Jol

Link to post
Share on other sites

Neil,

 

the bearing shouldn't rotate, otherwise it may wear the slot in the frames. All the proprietary hornguide/bearing systems have a square hornblock bearing running in the guide (just like the real thing).

 

Jol

 

.... or you could simply solder a piece of thin springy wire to the bearing rim, with the opposite end bent trough 90 degrees and loosely anchored in a hole drilled in the frame.

 

The bearing can't rotate, but it can move up and down. (Do I hear the model engineers amongst us having a fit of the vapours)? :nono:

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

Edited by cctransuk
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Some food for thought there, thanks. I'm not going to worry about the wear issue on this loco at the moment as it's not going to see much (if any) use any time soon, but I shall consider it in future builds.

On with this build, and this is where things get a bit weird. As I have no need for a LNER Y7 this will be one of those for industrial use around 1930. Over time it has had a bunker added and a replacement boiler that has a dome.

The bunker was made up from 40thou plastic card. Before fitting it a hole was made in the back sheet to let the coal out.

Here are the component parts waiting to be glued together.27.JPG.e8199ed0299b780ed7ea481c6a1bea2b.JPG

 

 

With the bunker in place I tried various domes from the bits box, this one seemed to fit best. I think it's from a Midland 1F.28.JPG.f638f92f758e57b9c8144d47a6b163cb.JPG

 

Edited by Nile
  • Like 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

While it's still nude I've added the handrails and other brass bits. The rim around the cab opening is some 10thou microstrip.29.JPG.c893239508f544d81c5bb6084930525a.JPG

 

 

There is a big difference in the widths of the boiler and smokebox. This results in odd looking handrails.30.JPG.9c77aa57fb799c0cee571bcf034f4ba4.JPG

 

If they were straight they would foul the filler caps. I can't tell from photos what they do on the real thing.

Edited by Nile
  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Short/long handrail knobs I think, to give straight handrails. The left hand side has some sort of pipe/rod inside it I suspect. Looking at the two preserved examples plus older photos I came to the conclusion that there were quite a few differences, even the location of the blower pipe on the preserved locos seems to have changed after overhauls. Some of the y7s even had a continuous handrail round both sides and arched over the smoke box. Given your loco is somewhat altered I'd say whatever you choose ought to look fine!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...