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    1. 5&9Models' Blog

      A blog by 5&9Models in General

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      5&9Models
      Latest Entry

      Bury goods 0-4-0

       

      This scratch build is something I have been wanting to do for years but have never quite plucked up the courage.

       

      There are several 'sticking points' in modelling a bar framed Bury loco, the obvious one being the distinctive wheels. All Bury locos had them so unless you get those right you might as well not bother with the rest. Thankfully, a friend very kindly drew some up and 3D printed the centres to be fitted into Gibson tyres of the appropriate diameter. However, I found the prints to be exquisitely detailed but not very strong. So I decided the best way forward was to use one of the prints as a master and cast a set in white metal. These came out well and are considerably stronger than the prints. The down side is that they are conductive so once cleaned up on the lathe and fitted with tyres, the centres had to be bored out and a tiny plastic sleeve forced in before being bored out again and secured to the axle.

       

      I first made a master for the bar frames out of styrene to use as a master for casting them in white metal but decided that the castings would not be robust enough so instead some brass bar was used to fabricate the frames. They're now plenty strong enough for the job as I made them slightly chunkier than the originals for peace of mind. Springs were made from some very useful etches, bearings added and a buffer beam built up from nickel silver and brass. 

       

      The buffer beam was soldered in position but a trial fit of the wheels revealed that the buffer centre height was too low by just over 1mm. Rather than unsolder and move the buffer beam higher which would look daft, I decided to unsolder the bearings and fit them lower down in the frames. This sounded like a horrible job, unsoldering the bearings whilst not accidentally disturbing any other soldered joints. However, it went well and before refitting the bearings I cut and fitted the footplate to ensure everything was square and spaced properly. This actually made it easier to get the bearing in exactly the right place. Lesson learned for when I tackle the Bury passenger 2-2-0 later on.

       

      The photo shows progress so far. The next job will be to scratch build the gearbox and ensure the motor sits at the right level so it can hide inside the boiler. Something tells me that this won't be particularly straightforward but I feel up for the challenge. Wish me luck...!

       

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      Bury Goods.jpg

    2. Mattington - 4mm Scale Layout

      A blog by MattB in General

      • 46
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      MattB
      Latest Entry

      Relays and Servos

      For the last few weeks I have spent time working on installing more servo motors, laying more track, extending the top deck of the baseboard in the corner (a mis measurement when cutting it meant I couldn't fit the inner radius in) and starting to install the sections using relay switches.

       

      With the servos I am experimenting with a different type of mount, I found a type on Ebay which is just a L shape metal piece of angle with some holes and these are proving to be far better than the MERG ones. I have found that I have to bend the linkage wire to fine tune the movement of the point but I now have four servos up and running on a loop between tracks 1 and 2. These servos are running off 2 push button switches off the CANPAN TM7 board. 

       

      Now I am starting to make things move I have a CBUS events spreadsheet to keep track of all the different events that are generated.

       

      Last year I worked on figuring out how to get a relay working. I use those opto types which have several pins and at the time I was a little confused which pin went to what. I tested one out again and linked it up to some track and having got that working bought a few more.

       

      The plan is to have three isolating sections on tracks 1 and 2, with further isolated sections in the shed area on the heritage line. 

       

      2 of the dual relays are now installed under baseboard 1 which was the point where bus splits into two different directions. Unfortunately I have only one output module at the moment (a CANACC8) and since this is located centrally under board 1 the wire run down to the relays was rather long. But at least it was only 5 wires altogether in 1 bundle! (4 event wires and 1 power wire). I installed two of my new terminal blocks here as well. One issue I did have was getting access to the ACC8 so I solved that by spinning it round 180 degrees! Left the experiment board attached to it so I can see that the events are working. 

       

      I've got everything working on the test panel and its great, I have only the one line working but I have the ability and space to run 2 trains on it but can now stop a train while letting the other one catch up to it.

       

       

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    3. Kelvinbank, a Caledonian Railway project.

      A blog by Dave John in General

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      Dave John

      As I mentioned in the last blog I have been building some CR ballast wagons.

       

      These were built using my usual methods, styrene bodies, copperclad sub chassis to take the W irons. The outer pair are from the 1890 drawing, the middle one is a pre-diagram version from the photo. The drawing makes no mention of canvass covers for the axleboxes and without a reference photo I can’t tell whether they were so fitted. I added them to the pre -diagram wagon which did have them. I suppose if a photo ever comes up I can add them to the other two.

       

      What is significant from my point of view is that they are painted with acrylic paints. A bit of a learning curve involved but I think I am reasonably convinced by the result. Comments welcome.

       

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      A couple of snaps of a short pway train. The ballast plough is a kitbash, bits of the cambrian kit combined with new sides and  ends.

       

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      I have a few other projects which might be occupying the bench for a while. Might even generate a separate blog for one of them .

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