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RichardW1

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  2. RichardW1
    I guess it was inevitable, after 40 years since Allen built the original mode, and many years of exhibition damage, the acquisition of a kitten finally put paid to it. Very sad, but it has given me the opportunity to build a new model, which is now complete, bar the cable and hook. Those will be fitted when the new model gets reinstated.
  3. RichardW1
    I am conscious that posts here have been sparse lateley, mainly the result of building works at home. 1860s terraced houses are draughty, especially when the windows are original! So new glazing units all round, which has meant decanting the workshop. Then while there is noting in the workshop thought I'd redecorate, er........
     
    So old floor boards up, new wiring, new floors, (hard wearing laminate) new skirting ( still to fit). Many thanks to Mike R in getting the floor down. Then I can rebuild the benches, and get my workshop back.
     
    Oh that's after I redecorate my bedroom, ....that needs a new floor too..######!
     
    Still some evening work in the front room table has progressed 4 wheel coaches for Lambourn
  4. RichardW1
    At Chelford I managed to acquire three of these kits from Jerry's bits stand, and thought that they would compliment Lambourn well, I later learn that fish was also carried in these wagons. Anyhow two weekends later and progress is good. The kit goes together well, but in future I'll add the details to the framing before fitting to the sides. Less of a heat sink that way.
     
    So a few bits to tidy up then the paint shop.,,,
    Then brake rigging and decals

  5. RichardW1

    Epsom Show

    By RichardW1,

    The show at Epsom went well. (Thanks to Justin and Mark for their time operating etc). The new MERG Shuttle work well enough, although the deceleration/delay times could be longer. This may need either a reset chip or adjustment to resistor /capacitors.
     
    The Platform siding rails at the board joint took a bash loading into the car - although repaired a bit they will need relaying.
     
    Valentin brought along his new C Class which runs as well as it looks.
     
    The operating schedule didn't last long- too complex- I understood it , but no-one else could so rethought required there I think.
     
    There was a microswitch failure two days before the show that would have stopped everything, so temporary measures were taken to rectify this and they worked well over the two days, but the operating linkages are getting a bit slack after 30 years so a review of these will be needed, with a program of TOU replacement.
     
     
    R
  6. RichardW1
    After spending a great day at the controls of JBS' Ashburton layout, I was very impressed by some of the very simple conversions of proprietry stock. Operating to a schedule was fun too, giving some meaning to driving trains- at least it is not aimless. Trying to get a particular movement for each train adds purpose and keeps the mind going.
    Lambourn needs horse boxes, the last outing at Aldershot exposed a real lack of appropriate stock, and Richard Brummitt's great conversions of the Lima box described here some years ago showed the way.
    From the soapbox this took a two nights of graft, and an hour in the pain shop, definitely worth the effort.
  7. RichardW1

    Poor decision

    By RichardW1,

    I managed to get my self talked into obtaining a hand held PICtrollerfor Lambourn, to replace the original AMR hand held.
     
    It works great on Farish (Poole) mechanisms, but is frankly hopeless with coreless types.
     
    Nothing wrong with the controller, so I'll not return it, but not really a happy buy ????
  8. RichardW1
    This blog was originally set up to document progress on my Midland Railway modelling, and layout Maxstoke. So after a brief excursion to GWR metals, and a rummage through the gloat box, the next loco has been started. This will be based on an etched (10 thou NS) originally produced by Nick Dearnally many years ago, under the name of Lodge Coachworks. The basic etch components are reasonably well defined, Those on my etch are marginally mis-aligned, and some of the etch fold lines were less defined that they should have been, but using these pieces will be a whole heap easier than scratch-building. There is a chassis, but one of the spring hangers has etched out, and I have yet to decide if I will use the main frames.
     
    This class of loco has outside frames, so clearances will be tight. I have therefore decided not to start with the chassis, as would be my normal process, but to make a start on the main footplate & body work, so I can check clearances as I progress.
     

    The main outside frames and footplate assembly was carefully folded to shape. I found that the artwork design over estimated the curved splasher length, so I have opted to cut these into three sections. There will be a joint in the footplate at the top of the curved section of each driving wheel, but this joint will be filled in and hopefully not be evident later. They can be seen clearly in the running plate view below.

     
    The cab sides have a simple pattern of rivets, that in modern etches would be half etched in. The designer in this case has half etched them from behind, a sharp scriber, is used to push the rivets out - the pictures explain the process far better than words. The cab sides and spectacle plate are then soldered up, keeping everything square.

    Half etched rivets on cab side.

    Punching out the rivets

    Half done

    All done, ready for assembly.
     
    The basic cab assembly is now test fitted in place, after carefully filling back the inside for the rear splashers to provide clearance, making sure that all sits centrally on the footplate.

     
    The boiler was first annealed to allow it to be rolled - a tricky job at the best of times, but I do find that the annealing helps. The spectacle plate has an etched line to show where the boiler should fit, This can be seen in the next picture.

     
    holding the parts in place shows that there is excess material below the fire box that will have to be trimmed back. I have temporarily tacked the boiler in place on the cab front to measure and file back as required. The boiler will be removed later during chassis assembly to cut away more material to provide clearances.

     

    This represents a full day's work, and is for me very fast progress. The next task is to look at chassis and gearing etc. But right now I'm going to have a quiet drink!
     
    Happy days
     
    Richard.
  9. RichardW1
    It seemed appropriate to show a picture of the bits that make it work. The servo motor is self explanatory. the brass plate screwed to the small block of ply is the main below baseboard drive. The red and black wires power the LED.
    What may not be so obvious is the double crank arrangement for the signal. Just below the red and black wires can be seen a small section of copper Mercontrol tube, a steel wire attached to the signal is guided through this to a small hole on the crank, which is very close to the pivot screw. Now to get this wire bent in the correct place is no easy task, so the crank is mounted on a swivel link. the pivot for this is to the left of the crank pivot. this enables the position of the crank to be adjusted to suit the actual position of the bend in the operating wire. Once set the swivel arm is locked in place with Cyano.
     
    The next pictures show that I have actually now fitted the ladder, and made good the hole in the platform. only the finial and spectacle film to add.
  10. RichardW1
    It has long been a task to get Lambourn's platform mounted starter signal into operation. In fact the original non-working signal was broken some time ago.
    A fit of enthusiasm, and a wet weekend (Well two actually) has seen the task completed.
     
    the signal was sited at the end of the platform, and so was unusual in that the balance weights were mounted high on the post, an early example of 'elf and safety'!
    I confess that the model is actually too tall, ( it should be a bit lower for the driver to sight the arm from below the canopy, but that'll be our little secret eh?
     
    The arm is actuated by a servo drive, and illuminated by a tiny (1.6mm x .85mm x .65mm) surface mount LED. I destroyed one as the cast brass post held too much heat which destroyed the LED. Finally I attached two fine enamelled wires and these are hidden in a filed slot in the post, which was finally filled with thick paint. The wires are carried below the platform level and soldered to thin PCB, from which normal layout wires connect to a battery pack below the layout. The fine enamelled wires are protected by 'potting' them in rapid setting resin.
     
    At the time the pictures were taken I still have to fit the ladder and finial, but it has been a satisfying project and transforms the layout.
  11. RichardW1
    Maxstoke- restarted
    After a break of several years, I have decided to re-start work on Maxstoke, a model of the only intermediate station on the ‘Stonebridge Railway’, a single track connecting line running from Hampton in Arden ( the LNWR east of Birmingham ) roughly northwards to join the Birmingham-Derby line of the Midland Railway at Whitacre.
    The inspiration for the model was a picture of the simple station building in an article published in the BRJ some years ago and the station building model was constructed from the photos before any work on the layout.
    I visited the site to measure up the surviving road overbridge, and get an impression of the land surrounding the site. The station buildings have long been demolished, but the trackbed is just about accessible, and the site of the buildings and footings are buried in the undergrowth.
    The trackbeds for two baseboards were cut from ply and the track started, using PCB sleepers and etched chairplates. The station board was built and there the project stopped. And was largely forgotten about, languishing on top of a wardrobe gathering dust.
    The recent acquisition of Wickes own adjustable trestles, in order that I could do some work on the goods yard trackwork for Copenhagen Fields, made me realise that work could now recommence.
     

    Second baseboard under construction
     

    Maxstoke station.- Still a pile of work to do!
  14. RichardW1

    Lambourn awakes

    By RichardW1,

    Hello everyone-
     
    I have been foolish and accepted (perhaps I offered?) to dust off Alan Martin's finescale model of Lambourn for an upcoming show. I acquired this layout a number of years ago, and it has rarely been shown since. I have to say I'm quite excited by the opportunity to get things running again. At it's last showing the shuttle failed, and I never got round to fixing it.
     
    The first task this weekend has been to (find) and renovate the layout legs. These are made solidly from 2" square timber with ply corner braces. Once located (Hidden in the loft) the accumulated dust was removed and the legs painted. The two pairs of legs are joined by plywood sheets, bolted in place with 6mm bolts and wing nuts. These I could not find, so a trip to the nice people at Screwfix provided me with new bolts, washers and pronged tee nuts, which in the space of an hour or so meant that the support frame was fit to be assembled.
     
    So as the legs were up, I took a deep breath, and put the layout on top! Alan's design meant that there are just two jumper cables connecting the three boards, and these were found in the box where I left them (Stunned disbelief!) and it was then that I noticed the loose wire on the fiddle yard board- tracing this through it was to the reed switch for the shuttle, which presumably is why it stopped working. It took a couple of minutes to cure that.
     
    A quick clean of the trackwork, and a rummage for the railcar, and to my delight it not only ran first time, but the AMR shuttle system works flawlessly. A real testament to Alan's skill in setting it to work. The layout must be what?..30 years old, and hasn't run for maybe ten years, so I am really very pleased.
     
    The power supply unit needs to be replaced- it was originally built into a wooden cigar box fixed below the layout. This will no longer pass scrutiny for exhibition purposes, so a new, safer unit must be made.
     
    There is some gentle work to do on the scenery- not much, a bit of dusting, refixing of some bushes and trees, and a bit of work on the stock, but all looks favourable for a gentle return to the exhibition circuit.
     
    Oh where I hear you ask? Well, it will be at Keen House on Sunday 17th November for an open day at the MRC. Official details for the day will be made nearer the date.
     
    Now I have some funny stock and green locos to service!
     
    Richard
  16. RichardW1
    The motor is mounted by machining a support ring which is then tapped to accept the thread on the motor nose. Once soldered to the chassis the motor can be mounted. I took care to align things such that when screwed in tight the connection tags are horizontal
     
    The balance weights are fixed in place on the wheels with epoxy
     
    And all are now ready for painting- 1st coat is cellulose red oxide
  17. RichardW1

    Foreign engines

    By RichardW1,

    Following a good day at Railex in Aylesbury meeting old friends, and making new ones too, I have returned home with renewed enthusiasm
    This afternoon I have been mostly making gears for my Dapol GWR 2-6-2 conversion.
     
    These are to be M0.3 and the first is 14 tooth, machined directly onto a muff as the first gear in the final reduction train.
     
    The pictures show the milling set-up for this tiny gear, with the resulting muff ready for drilling to 1.5 dia for the stub axles.
     
     

  18. RichardW1

    Groundwork

    By RichardW1,

    Now that the Servo TOU's have been installed, it is time to start thinking about groundwork. On Copenhagen Fields the majority of the 'world' is plywood, being covered with buildings. Here at Maxstoke I am going back to open country, so the basic ground former for the foreground land is based on artist's chicken wire stapled to plywood formers. Over this is painted on a liberal quantity of white PVA and strips of newspaper- both on top and under the chicken wire.
     
    Now chicken wire is ok, but can be very prickley to use, so towards the rear the ply formers are first overlaid with a lattice mesh of strips cut from a cereal packet (Curiously Cinnamon - for the record!). Again newspaper and white PVA is painted on; in layers. The buildings are sat on a plywood piece that will be removeable to afford access to the servo unit below. These are not the final buildings, but are used to give an impression of scale etc.
     

     
    I now need to go cut some more formers and buy some more cereal, if I were modelling a later era perhaps 'CO-CO pops' would be the preference, but as it's steam era 'Puffed Wheat' will be adequate.
  19. RichardW1

    Whats the point?

    By RichardW1,

    Not a negative title- the next task on Maxstoke is to sort out the operation of the turnouts. I had anticipated digging into my stock of Fulgarex mechanisms, but these are really massively oversized for the task and the layout.
     
    Mike Randall has been working up a mechanism to use with the MERG servo units, and having seen the size of the mini servos I have decided to try these out. The first task was to join MERG!
     
    That done, and this morning the first Servo 4 kit arrived. For those who are not familiar with these, this little programable board allows four servos to be independantly set for speed and extent of travel, thus allowing individual adjustment for the operation of each turnout. Once set, a simple on/off switch will drive each servo to its pre-determined location.
     
    In an insane fit of enthusiasm this evening the componants have been assembled onto the circuit board, and tested (power off). Tomorrow I'll have to pop over to Maplins to aquire a power brick to drive it and test with power on.
    Unfortunately the MERG kit locker is out of stock of servos, so I will have to wait to test the driver board for real. Anyway herewith the customary pictures of the first chunk of electronics I have ever assembled.
     

    Here we have thecomponants mounted (Except the processor)
     

    and this is the soldered side.
     
    I have to say that as a introduction to electronics this has been quite fun- attention now turns to the TOUs..... and that dear reader is another story!
  20. RichardW1

    Portable test track

    By RichardW1,

    A while back I mentioned that I had been busy making a portable test track. Two have been built, one for Peter Clark (who conceived the idea), and this one.
     

    Case closed.
    .
    The basis is a cheap aluminium snooker cue case. The innards are ripped out, and replaced with a baulk of timber, on which the track is laid.
    the overall case dimensions are 34" long, 3" wide 2"mm high. the internal timber is 2 1/2" x 3/4".- length to suit.
     

    Case open for business
     
    I left the timber a bit short to give room for a 9V battery controller (Thektronics in my case), and a single length of track is glued in place. Job done.
     
    For Peter's track, we made the infill board full length and double sided. Each track is wired to a standard power socket to allow a variety of controllers to be connected. For Peter the requirement was to have one side laid with 2mm FS standard gauge and a length of NN3, and the obverse laid with PECO N track and a length of Shinohara Code 40, also N.
     
    There is plenty of space to fit other combinations- N one side, P4/EM the other.. do as you please.
     
    The intrepid could fit other connectors for DCC or analogue power supply, switched via a DPDT for safety.....the options are limited only by your imagination.
  21. RichardW1
    Standard TOUs are many and various. I doubt that there is anything truly original in this, but it is offered for interest's sake.
     
    The baseboards for Maxstoke are of a low profile, so a reasonably discreet unit is required. Eventually the design will incorporate mountings for frog switching microswitches, but this is a trial unit to test the system. Firstly I wanted the unit to be as simple as possible. the points were originally made with my standard moving sleeper tie bar, which has pivoted arms soldered to the switchblades, and a hole in the centre of the tie bar for an operating wire which passes through the baseboard from below.
     
    The TOU has a base, milled from 3mm ABS sheet. this guides a pin guide made from 1.5mm thick fibreglass circuit board cut into 4mm wide strips. A cover plate screwed to the base plate holds the pin guide in place.
     

    The main componants are here. The base plate has 4 holes, one in each corner, to fix the unit to the underside of the trackbed.
     

    This picure shows the pin guide in the baseplate slot.
     

    This shows the assembled unit. The pin is free to slide side to side. You may see a point between the two 10BA screwheads, this is to be drilled and tapped for a pivot screw, about which will be a lever, one end engaging in the guide pin, the other connected to (in my case) a servo motor. space exists for a micro-switch to be mounted on an adjustable plate to switch the frog.
     

    The topside picture shows the TOU base plate orientated with the trackbed. It will of course be fitted below the turnout with the guide pin engaging in the hole discernable in the turnout tie-bar.
     
    A trial with the unit clamped in place has been sucessful, and work will now start on completing the pivot/lever arm whilst await delivery of the servos.
  22. RichardW1

    Coaching Stock

    By RichardW1,

    The Stonebridge Railway (Maxstoke is the station midway along the line) had very few passenger trains, indeed very little traffic of any sort!
    In the early days (1853 timetable) there were 5 daily passenger trains between Hampton and Whitacre- this was reduced to four in 1856. Throughout this period the first train of the day was a mineral train. in 1877 the passenger trains become referred to as 'Pass & Goods' on the time table, (four per day) with a passenger only train in the early afternoon. By the end of the year a new timetable shows just one P&G train each weekday passing Maxstoke at 8:45 in the morning and returning at 10:37am. Not really a commuter service! This single train ran though to 1916. The last passenger train ran in December 1916.
    In the early days the trains conveyed through carriages from Euston to Derby (the line linked the LNWR with the MR at Hampton). Latterly a single Clayton arc-roofed carriage spent the majority of it's life in the siding at Whitacre.
     
    The line did have it's high points- The Royal family travelled the line in 1843 and 1849. King Edward VII (then Prince of Wales) actually alighted at Maxstoke in 1874 on a visit to nearby Packington Hall. George VII passed by in 1938, whilst on a tour of factories in the lead up to WWII. The royal trains of the present Queen, Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles have also passed over the metals during the 1950's.- a prestigious set of metals. It reminds me of an episode of Dad's Army, where the boys provide an honour guard for the Royal train as it passes Warmington-on-Sea (actually filmed at Weybourne and Sheringham on the North Norfolk Railway).
     
    For the model of Maxstoke a replication of the services fdetailed above would be a bit boring, so I am intending a more intensive service (No intentions of building a late 19th Centuary Royal train tho'!).

    To that end a set of PC models etches (originally made available back in the eighties by Nick Dearnally) has been erected over the winter for service on the line. Nearly finished, with couplings, lettering and weathering required to complete.
  23. RichardW1

    Wagons Roll

    By RichardW1,

    Just to show that the wagons situation has not been neglected, here are some pictures from a batch build of Association wagons, currently in the shop!
  24. RichardW1
    So here we are. Not sure about the paint finish or the photograpy- need to put proper safety valves on and do a bit of weathering, but the loco is substantially complete. Now all I have to do is finish the layout

  25. RichardW1

    Prototype Notes

    By RichardW1,

    Prototype notes
    I promised that I would give some background to the model. In doing so I must point out that the accompanying pictures and illustrations are taken from Roger Waring’s book ‘The StoneBridge Railway’ published by Brewin Books. Copyright is acknowledged.
    The station was also known as Coleshill, but I have chosen to retain the earlier name of Maxstoke (modeller’s licence!). The track plan, as can be seen, was very simple. For interest I have extended the siding to form a loop.
     
     
    This pretty picture of the station in 1906 was the key inspiration for the project. As I mentioned before there is a lot of detail to add yet. The odd levels in the platform can be clearly identified in the picture, as well as the short length.
     
     
    By the end of the war the line was virtually derelict.
     
     
    The local coal merchant’s name was Rollason. I believe the family still lives in the area.
     
     
    And finally my model of the wagon seen in the yard photograph.
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