hayfield

Yesterday I stripped the chassis down taking off the wheels and sprung pickups The wheels were given a clean and where necessary screw threads oiled Initially the wheels were not running smoothly so the bearings had the paint removed from them a quick ream then fettled until the wheels ran smoothly The first crankpin / coupling rod fit, OK ish but I think I can make it much better. The crankpin top hat bearings need filing to size, the coupling rods need finishing off properly and a couple of new crankpin bolts are required as too short Still very happy to date as in the Manning Wardle rebuild I think I have found where the builder had issues and abandoned/got stuck with the build. I think as I am using sprung pickups the running must be spot on before I fit them

You have clearly entered into a contract with this person and paid money for it to happen. If the kit was incomplete, unless it was a s/h purchase request the missing parts from the manufacturer. Long before the last message the builder should have reported both parts were missing and secondly the kit was beyond their ability I would have requested the return of both the goods and your money in full Agree At least I would have requested my deposit back, but also recompense for lost/wrong parts and extra costs for partial rebuilding Really long ago in my opinion the item should have been returned long ago along with your deposit. I know there are two sides to a story, but at least the builder has been guilty on not communication all the issues much sooner compounding your problems

Jef Thanks for the information about driving the center axle, something either I have forgotten or never come across before. As for building the body first, I like to have a rolling chassis first, then build the footplate. This allows me to check clearances especially what motor and gearbox combination is best and where they will go.

Doilum Thanks for the heads up, at the moment keeping with the Springside parts

The next project is another eBay buy, part built but incomplete and no motor and gears. However as they are now £447 new, I had a big enough leeway to cover most eventualities I brought this loco about 2 years ago, I had a spare motor and gears, and it looked well built. I got it well within my maximum bid and it was from a very reputable seller who I have used quite a few times I had what I thought were the expensive parts and after the previous experience buying bits from Grahame at Springside I had a good idea of what it might cost me to obtain what I needed One thing I like is the Springside cabs, is they are well detailed, the especially the very detailed backheads, just needs a Modelu driver & fireman These were the parts with the loco I knew how many parts came which came with the 48xx and whilst not knowing how many I needed until the instructions came, I brought a set of instructions, made a list of what was missing and ordered them Missing parts required and supplied by Springside On the face of it the chassis looked OK View of the underside But its not until you get the model and strip it down you get an idea of any issues, still the Springside Manning Wardle was the test bench for my building skills and I will just do the same in stripping it down, clean and service the parts as I rebuild it. I may well order a set coupling and connecting rods from Premier, but I want to see how free rolling the chassis is first, plus look at how much clearance between the crankpins and the back of the crosshead

This morning O fitted buffers to the loco, prior to painting I have now painted the chassis whilst priming the body Not too certain about the finish of the cylinder front and backs and I thing the LNER blue is a bight lighter than I imagined so will revert to plan A using Prussian blue Body primed Very tempted to paint the backhead, but as the firebox top and sides will be blue I must wait I might even be tempted to paint the wheels blue, glad I chose to use buffers. Now a wait until the shed warms up so I can airbrush the body

I think with the exception of the left hand cab step everything I want in place is now in place Ready for a coat of primer and the un painted chassis parts can have a coat of dirty black These parts will be painted and fitted once the loco body has been painted

Good to know someone else buys incomplete kits

A start was made with the chassis detailing As you can see the brake gear has been fitted, painting will follow soon The second side has been done I have made a start on the final detailing, 3+ weeks on and I still found some more parts which I failed to identify. I am about half way fitting the final body parts, but to make painting easier some parts will be fitted after painting I have found the instructions difficult to both follow. Firstly identifying some parts difficult, though if I had brought the kit new it would have been easier, plus the parts were mixed up with 4 other loco parts, finally the way the diagrams have been drawn also were a bit sketchy. Whilst the instructions refer to diagram numbers, the addition of part numbers rather than names would have helped. That said the quality of parts are outstanding I do not like the gaps between the cylinder side and ends. So before painting I will fill them I thin Squadron filler with liquid poly and leave it to dry for a day, which ensures the filler goes into the gaps fully and stays in the joint whilst the excess is sanded off. So far I have now only found I forgot to order 1 set of steps. I noticed the gap in the bottom of the smoke box whilst posting, its filled now When all the parts which can be fitted before painting are glued in place, I will prime the body then wait for the air to both warm up and dry, as I will airbrush the main body colour in the shed Whilst not a master piece I am very pleased with the loco and full credit to Springside for a super not so little kit

Jeff Whilst I have a lovely CDC 3D printed and painted LNER/GER J67 /S56, where I used a SEF J69 etched chassis instead of the Terrier RTR chassis 3D printing has come a long way BUT you question about whitemetal kits, These are my preference in loco building. Simply whilst both etched and resin/printed have their advantages and perhaps a composite build would be the best of all worlds, nothing can compare to the feeling of weight of a whitemetal loco At the moment I am finishing off a Springside Manning Wardle 0-4-0 ST. As far as the feeling of running a heavy model steam it leaves my Dapol Terrier and Ixon Hudswell Clarke standing in its wake. I have both a Springside and an etched GWR 45xx, both are fine locos but the Springside has something the etched one hasn't, weight. I will try and add some roofing lead to the etched 45xx, but whilst the etched body looks very good it does not reel and respond as well. Next up is to either build a Springside Collet Goods of finish the 45xx, probably the latter

The main thing is the enjoyment you receive in building it

I modifies the wiring and used a reamer to remove paint from the coupling and connecting rods, All ran well so I finished the cylinders and slide bars testing as I went. The chassis is now a nice runner. Rear crank pins still need cutting back Whilst waiting for glue to set I burnished the body, then fitted the chassis to check it all runs well, which it does The chassis needs brake gear and drain cocks adding Next up the body which is mainly detailing and the cab front. Though I have only 1 step and forgot to add it to the list of missing bits. I will wait till I have finished detailing incase I have missed something else. Plus I need an 0 gauge rolling road

Thanks for the tip(s)

New crank pins fitted, but not cut to length. I think it was a good job I did as the existing crank pin bushes were too thin. Running at medium to fast speed fine, but at very slow speeds a bit jerky. This may be down to pickup wires rubbing on the rear axle, or just needs to be run in I have a feeling as the chassis was part dissembled that there was an issue, certainly with the motor mount not firmly fixed and with at least half a mm slop with the crankpins I doubt if ir was a good runner. Still it now works well except for a very slow crawl The driver is held in place with double sided tape.

One mans tat is another's gold !!

I once brought a GWR 2-4-0T on the cheap (they used to fetch a pretty penny) simply because it had been dropped and broke in half, other than one broken buffer and the two footplate sides which had both broken in two, the rest of the unpainted loco was fine. Had the main parts been soldered (competently) I expect the only damage would have been the buffer, as it was a glue joint between the boiler and tank which gave way. It was quire a job to hold each broken footplate together whilst they were joined by soldering, so much harder than soldering the main components when building the loco. Still I got a loco cheap and had a no cost repair other than using items I had already There is some form of myth about how difficult soldering whitemetal is. Thanks to other members advice/tuition on here I have become used to doing it. Firstly you must have the right equipment, I started off with a 25 watt Antex iron with various tip shapes and sizes. But the breakthrough was not only using 80 degree solder but the correct flux (I used Carrs green but now use yellow flux). I now use a 75 watt temperature controlled solder station wound down to 300 degrees (again advice from here), I use larger size tips for large items and smaller tips for little jobs. Whilst building a Peco tram loco I got carried away and even successfully soldered small parts. The biggest tip I received was not to leave the iron on the joint too long, and put the solder on the joint in the flux, rather than on the iron. Its much better to go back a second or third time, than melt the part(s), and this was done with a standard Antex 25 watt iron at full blast I now have a de-solder gun/station (they are cheap as chips) I brought a badly built 7mm 48xx which I unsoldered using the hot air gun, Don't forget you can unsolder 80 degree solder in the steam of a kettle, I used this method a lot prior to getting the de-solder station I do use both 2 part epoxy and superglue, (but now steer clear of supermarket products) It is very encouraging to watch Mr Wright of this parish skillfully soldering whitemetal, excellent tutorial

I could not resist putting the body on, it works just about only because its driving on 1 pair of wheels. Now in desperate need for coupling rods

Striped down to wire up, I decided to use Milliput to hold the PCB strips either side of the motor. Then temporarily wire everything up As can be seen wiring done and somehow nothing is shorting out. I now know what needs altering and will be done when I remove the wheels to fit the crankpins Thankfully running well on a test piece of track, all be it the wrong way but that is easily resolved. Most importantly it works and all 4 sprung pickups receive power. One issue is the 32mm track gauge, I may opt to 0-MF (31.5mm) but am quite wary of this owing to the lack of side play on kit chassis

When I can its so much easier to buy a ready built model providing the build standard is as good if not better than you could build. As for a non-runner, if its a kit built loco unless its a clear design fault, it should be easy to repair. Depending on its purchase cost even buying a new power bogie/chassis could still be financially viable Given the change of DJH ownership/availability may be a good time to sell unwanted kits

I think the question is yes. I had a similar issue a few months after having a new meter running. Someone said the supplier could only go back 12 months. In my case it was about 3 months, but I did not want a big bill a few months ahead so reported it early and the agreed settlement was much less than I anticipated. I think they appreciated that I had persisted in getting the issue resolved quickly than take advantage and they reciprocated with a generous estimated amount

Well another move forward today from lunchtime, the postman arrived with packs from both Springside and Slaters. As far as Springside is concerned all the parts required for both kits required arrived, Whilst both not beings the cheapest things I have brought the value they add to both kits is immense (especially the Springside ones) and will make life so much easier in both cases. Certainly the Job lot owes me nothing, and I will end up with the Springside kits for very little money I thought I was coming to a natural break, but with todays deliveries I can carry on

Since the last post I have test fitted the chassis to the body The body fits well and I photo copied the instructions so I have a working set of instructions where I can cross out each section/paragraph, plus scribble notes. However I can now alter my plans as I have received packets from both Springside for the missing parts and new crankpins. Now no excuse for slacking. I must add I have received excellent service from both Springside Models and Slaters Plasticard.

This is a case of needing 3 or 4 hands to hold things in place whilst soldering as you need to depress the sprung pickup whilst holding the wire in place and solder at the same time All 4 wires attached View from the side These two boxes hold the parts which I either could not identify to a particular kit* or may belong to other kits or have nothing to do with loco kits. Once the two Springside kits have been built I will I will absorb those parts I wish to keep, and dispose of the others * For those not aware I brought a box of various incomplete kits of various scales in an eBay lot

I have sold off most of the loco kits, which all but one were incomplete, hopefully many have a project to get on with without breaking the bank. I only have about six 4mm scale locos left and will be offered again at low starting prices over the next few weeks. The pile of what to pass on is slowly getting smaller. I also need to decide what spares I need to keep, which may hasten disposa l I wrongly thought these parts were Springside, I now know they are not and these are the duplicate castings of the two Wagon and Carriage Works/ Oakville GWR 72xx &1361 locos or from other previous builds Certainly in the short term I need to keep these parts whilst I double check on whether any of these are still needed for the kits I am keeping, some may be useful for future use. But many would just hang around in the work room. (I do have another smallish packet of what seems excess small parts with my Springside locos) Should they be just melted down or put back into the market ? I guess some of the parts both have a value and would be of use to others. Some are easy to identify others for me not so. I have no need for a lump of whitemetal and would eventually like to pass on what I don't need The 7mm scale L&B coaches now have friends, namely a pair of brake 3rd (15, & 16) Slaters bogie coaches and an unknown make of Taw/Exe/Yeo whitemetal 2-6-2T Manning Wardle loco, the coaches are almost complete the loco missing a few castings and a chassis.

Now that's a great idea, I have a scrap bag on layout wire which is quite stiff. We usually throw away these softer wire flexes on unwanted/broken appliances. Great call, thanks