hayfield

Well I have given the gears 1 more go, I took the 2 wheels off and took the axle out, degreased all the parts including the chassis and motor bearings. Re-drilled the holes, then reassembled the parts. I dropped epoxy down the holes and rotated them hopefully dragging the epoxy down arround the axle. I will now give it a day to cure. Had a few bits arrive in the post yesterday. I brought an old Eames Prairie loco some time ago. Someone decided to rebuild the chassis, well they got as far as fitting a new set of Romfords but lost all the other parts. I notiiced on Ebay an Airfix plastic kit with a motorising chassis on it (minus motor and gears) took a bit of a leap of faith. Well the chassis seems well built and the wheels and motion run freely, the front fixing is in the correct place just need a new rear fixing plate. At the same time brought a Comet coach part built, poor photo and description. Well it turns out to be a BR mk1 compo. Needs buffers roof and underframe details, its been very well put together. Also I brought a Southeastern Finecast M7 with wheels and motor along with a Wills etched M7 chassis (need this to replace an old Wills cast chassis). So been looking at my new bits.

Thanks for the replies, I may try and refit the gears and axles once I have degreased them and the bearings. My drills will not touch Romford axles.

Last night was one step forward and one step back. The good news is that electrically the chassis works on its own and when attached to the loco, no shorts on the bodywork. The bad news is the axle, or rather the gears. The plastic gear which is a pushfit on to the axle slips. I have tried drilling a hole to the axle and filling it with Superglue and epoxy. Neither held.

Very slow progress last week, if any at all. As I have been building turnouts for someone else. I cleaned the chassis, then primed it and sprayed it, but the paint is wearing off at the edges. Should have given it a better clean using Fairy Liquid rather than a wash in white spirit. Still once the chassis is finished I will touch up the parts with a brush. The gear wheel on the axle has lost most of its grip (its a push fit), because of the space between the frames gluing it to the axle first is not an option. I drilled a couple of holes in the side of the gear and dropped superglue into them. It was a bit better then I drilled out one and put some epoxy in it. Its not locked on but a bit tighter. I may have to find another gear set. Glued a PCB board on to the chassis to fit the pickups on to tomorrow night, when I may be able to fit the pickups. Lets hope the heat soldering them on will not effect the glue.

Alan, progress on my Atlantic has been slow as work and gardening have got in the way as well as a hectic social life at the weekends. Now I have a couple of turnouts to build. I have painted the chassis and put it back together, the loco has 25mm Romfords which seem a tad too big, I see it should have 6' 8.5" wheels but as the 00 flanges are over scale I am thinking to either replace them with 24mm ones or cutting back some of the metal (out of sight)on the body and or lowering the chassis by ten or twenty thou. Any thoughts please John

A realy slow week modelling, time has been short during the week and the past 2 weekends, also I have spent a bit of time fitting a motor into a Deelet 999 / class 3 which I won on Ebay. The chassis now works, the body needs rebuilding but that will be another story. I have stripped the Atlantics body and primed it. hopefully will be able to spray it black tomorrow.

Mick thanks I have been sent the Loco Modeller article along with the K's body sheet, a copy of the chassis sheet would be great as I would like to see what the cylinder parts should look like and also how many other parts are missing. Looks like Martin gave me a nice jigsaw to build. Thanks again John

The weekend has been busy, however the bottom of the side has been built up and re-fitted. Its a bit straighter now. The additional filling on the front of the footplate has come off, so I will try again tonight. At some point I will have to address the cylinders, but that will be the last job. There are a couple of bits missing so I will try and check the parts. I now have a copy of the k's body parts sheet, unfortunatly no details of the bogie or cylinders.

Cab side has come off I can now see where the bottom has been filed to fit !!

You are quite correct, one cab side is still leaning forward a bit, the picture is at a angle which highlights it more. Looking closley the right hand cab side has been filed at an angle at the bottom (rear splasher had been attacked on the same side) so the cab is tilting forward at the top. As the kit has been hacked about a bit (may be why it was dismantled)I am not going to dismantle the loco, but will try and refit the cab side. Loads of Nitromores along the joints might do it. The photo magnifies the problem but its anoying me now. Just got the can out and waiting for the glue to soften. I can see the body being stripped down again

All I seem to do is add a bit more filler and sand it. This evening I sanded those parts I filled last night.Pity I had not read the other threads first, however this kit had been hacked about a bit and I might have ruined the footplate had I tried to solder it up on its own. Its not a 100% square, the photos make it worse though Every time I look at the loco I find missing parts, for some reason a lump of the footplate has been sawn off, back with the Milliput. Also you can see the state of the cylinders is a bit of a problem, as they have been hacked about, I will have to think what to do with them. I will now read the info I recieved this morning. I also recieved a Lima Prairie today in the post. It was advertised as a K's kit, the photo was not that good so I took a gamble. I emailed the seller with the problem and he has already sent my money back and will pay for the return postage, can't ask for a better service than that. Pity it stated that it had Romfords as my 44xx has old K's mk2 wheels

Not much done tonight, other than 3 out of the 4 splashers fitted, filler in the roof joins and firebox side. Also I decided to add a bit more filler to the rebuilt splasher to get a smother finish, before that I used a round grinding stone on the mini drill to shape the rear of it.

Martin who gave me the kit had them made, as well as a set in the box Martin a couple of months ago sent me a tin of whitemetal bits. There are another set in the tin. Knowing how generious Martin is he would be very pleased in knowing that they have helped someone else out. I have a left and right hand set in the new casting and a right hand one from the old kit. If anyone had a tender breather pipe spare as it only has 1 I would be gratefull Send me a PM with your details and which ones you want John

Alan I wished I had seen your thread before I started. I would have built the cab first, then fitted it to one half of the broken footplate. Still I am an average modeller and it looks better in the flesh than on screen. Love to have a scan please as I am building this in the dark, no instructions plans or anything. I broke one of the piston rods, and the pistons have been hacked about. Which Comet crosshead is it please so I can buy some. Will have a propper read of the thread over the next few days Thanks for the offer and encouragement. John

Not too much done tonight (had to make some jam) The splasher has been filed back, just need to grind the rear back with a mini drill to clear the wheels. Rear step units fitted (nice new castings) along with the cab roof, buffer beam, dome and drivers seat. There is a dent in the side if the fire box that I have just noticed, it needs pushing out a bit and the point of the dent filled. The hand rail nob holes have been filled ans sanded. Also found the tender bufferbeam, so only a tank vent and 2 buffers missing. Happy with progress to date

I have not tried the cylinders again, and will not till I sort out the crossheads. but the footplate castings at that end fitted together quite well. It was soldering the main bit back together again where it had broken that was awkward. Its going to be nothing like a Guy Williams model (I wish) more like a Guy Faulks

It was harder trying to continue someone elses build. Once I stripped it down and started again it was easier, though it might be the case that second time round it i got it right.

For the past 2 weeks I have been building turnouts for others, I think it was 5 00 and 3 EM ones and repaired a 3 way. So I fancied a change. A friend gave me a K's GNR Atlantic kit. It had been built and then dismantled. Well on monday once I had finished and posted everything I decided to have a go at it. The motor turned the wheels but the cylinders had been badly built and they faced a bit inwards so the crossheads rubbed against the drivers. After one of the piston rods snapped I decided to dismantle the cylinders and rebuild them once I had new crossheads. I decided to get on and rebuild the body. As some of the parts were still stuck together I tried to fit them together, as the fit was not to good I got out my old saucepan and dunked the parts into boiling water. Now they were all seperate. The footplate shoud have been in two parts however the larger part had been broken. After a little fettling I got all glued in place except where the footplate had broken in 2 which I soldered back together. Last night all I had time to do was to repair one of the splashers with Milliput, as it had been reduced in size!!. To night I filed it to shape and found that the bottom and other end also had been reduced, so I have built it up and will file to shape tomorrow. I also filled in the hand rail holes which were too big and did a bit of gap filling where the footplate had broken. The tender needs a bit more dismanlting, so the pan will come out again in a bit. I am working in the dark as the kit has no instructions, and I cannot see that any of the mags have done a plan. Still that half the fun. A Bullied coach plan book came in the post this morning that I won on Ebay. The cost of posting it was more than I paid for it including postage, I might send the guy the difference as I feel a bit guilty.

Thought these photos of a Kings Cross coach partly built might be of interest Its a SR composite coach, the solebars are too coarse so plasticard channel will be used. Generic instructions Additional parts I have sourced May not use the CCW bogies as they have screws in the bogie sides to attach to the central bar, good compensation though. Have a Bachmann set to use BSL underframe pack, or I have some square brass bar. PC etchings for hinges handles, knobs etc, also have BSL and NoNosense airvents. All the bits are there but other things have got in the way of the build

There's me thinking you have defected to the GWR !! Mos nice one, I have a set of Mainley trains coupling rods which I want to try on a HD chassis and see if it enhances the looks of the chassis.

I think he's got his boxes mixed up (16ton?) steel open wagon, the container wagon is the one the containers fit on to.

On the face of it this wagon looks expensive, but when 3 buyers are willing to pay £50+ and 2 into the £80's the price might not be so bad. The kit I guess costs about £30 that leaves £50 for the price of building, painting and finishing the wagon. How much would a modelmaker charge to build, paint and finish the item ? Trouble is we are all looking for that bargin and forget the real cost.

Chard I am glad you take out your frustrations in print and that in pratice you have benefited from using Ebay. Over the years their charges have gone up. However selling to a dealer is so expensive as they have to have a good mark up plus pay VAT and overheads. But how is it that we all spend so much time searching Ebay for that elusive item which no one else will have noticed. Or that wrong description, will anyone else spot the mistake and steal that gem from us. Or that badly taken out of focus picture, am I the only one who spotted it. Or that small item that on its own is not worth much, but for you is the last piece of the jigsaw for that loco you are building.Then again you have won an item that most seem to have kept clear from, it arrives and you have found its not what you thought it was. But when that gem does arrive in the post at a bargin price, all is forgotten. Then as a seller, seeing the item you do not want actually sell, the odd one sells for far more than you expected, or the item you thought would sell well struggles to find a buyer. Then you recieve a letter from the buyer taking the trouble to thank you, telling you that this small inexpensive part will allow him to finish his loco. Life would be so dull without Ebay. Chard do have a good week and thanks for the rants will look forward to the next one.

If you dislike Ebay so much and it gets you so worked up, why do you still look at it ? Ebay is not the only place that people sell cheap items, car boot sales, £ shops etc. As far as selling my old unwanted items, even taking Ebays fees off I have sold items for a far greater price than a dealer would have given me. I have also seen the price dealers want for s/h kit built locos, far higher than Ebay prices. And you forget about the bargins we all have brought, An Airfix 14xx with a working Comet chassis, gearbox,motor and wheels all for £15. Even my Compressor and airbrushes from a trader are execelent value and far cheaper than advertised via mags etc. Yes some people do push it, but they are everywhere. Ebay does not force anyone to sell via them or buy through them. What about those auction houses who charge both seller and buyer commission, I see no one complaining about that. Long may Ebay madness reign, not where items are sold above their value, but where we can find cheap good value items, and have a platform where we can sell our unwanted items to like minded modellers at a fair price.

The items are much better making up a missing part in a collection than staying hidden away in a loft. But more to the point their cash is much better in your bank account, I am certain you can make better use of it. Good luck and drip feed them into the market to maximise your profit and kept away from dealers.