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orford

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  3. orford
    Well, the B12 is finally starting to look something like.
     
    Have re-worked the frame extensions over the front bogie, moving them further inboard to where they should be. Pipework also re-done and/or added as necessary.
     
    Today saw the front end detailing pretty much completed ...and the new boiler washout plugs inserted.
     
    Now need to do a little filling and smoothing of that ugly mould line along the side of the boiler and also add the various handrails, after which it will be more or less ready for the paint shop.
     
    On test it's performing extremely well and has just had my rake of 5 Hornby lighted Pullmans around the layout in both directions, without problems.
  4. orford

    06. More B12 Updates

    By orford,

    Here's the latest on the B12 re-work.
     
    First - those who have been following this so far will note the replacement air pump. this one is pure GER and actually correct for the particular B12 that I am doing - although others had different size pumps and there were also some minor differences in mounting height.
     
    Looks much better.
     
    More work on and around the front bogie has taken place - still unsure about the new brass frames over the bogie - they need to be further inboard I think. I may re-work that.
     
    Oh - and I changed the buffers too - didn't like the originals and had trouble mounting them due to the lack of a 'spigot'. These fit better although I had to make base-plates for them.
     
    Still much to do of course on the loco body.
     
    Having said that the tender is now more or less complete apart from weathering.....and even has a load of real coal now. The DCC decoder and sound is in, all the wiring has been installed from scratch and tested - and it's running (and sounding) well.
     
    Awaiting delivery of a few sundry parts and then I can get on with the detailing of the front end, particularly on the buffer beam.
  5. orford
    Here's an update on the Hornby B12 re-work.
     
    Having successfully got the Portescap RG4 motor and gearbox installed and running in the original Hornby chassis the next step was to sort out the horrendous front pony truck.
     
    My original intention was to replace it completely with a scratch built one but I had a rethink and in the end used the original, as the wheelbase, whilst too short, visually suits the Hornby model better than one with the correct wheelbase - although I have moved it forwards, just a tad, as it also sits too far back from the front buffer beam on the old Hornby model.
     
    The biggest problem with the Hornby bogie is that it has more 'slop' in it than the average prison dinner - to the extent that the bogie physically moves back and forth by at least a couple of millimetres when the loco is reversed. And even more, if tat is possible, from side to side. That had to be sorted.
     
    The rivet holding the connecting bar was drilled out and all of the pivot holes in both the bar and the bogie itself were bushed with brass bushes before reassembling it, which sorted the fore and aft problem. At the same time the bar was extended very slightly to push the bogie forwards, as noted above.
     
    The side to side slop was taken out at the same time as fitting new scale (Alan Gibson) bogie wheels, which alone make a huge difference in appearance. There is still some work to do on it but at least it now runs properly and guides the loco into curves, as it should.
     
    Finally the front of the bogie was machined out to accept a Kadee coupler in due course.
     
    Next, the body, which sits way too high on the Hornby model to clear the original bulky Triang mechanism, was lowered to match the B17 tender with which it is being paired. This also brought the front buffers down to the correct height - another distinct improvement. The lowering of the body was made relatively painless by virtue of the Portescap motor/gearbox, which takes up far less room inside, although I did have to provide new mounting points for the body at both ends.
     
    At the rear I have attached the body via a new screw inserted from below into a hole drilled and tapped into the chassis block. Whilst at it with the drill, two further holes were made - one for the new tender drawbar and another to take the wires though from motor and pickups (these will terminate in a standard Hornby 'plug & socket' to connect to the tender, as per their more recent locos.
     
    At the front I dispensed entirely with the crude steel chassis extension bar which on the original protrudes in a most unrealistic fashion through the front of the loco under the boiler, and made up a new mounting block which goes across inside the frames in line with the brass sandbox fillers, which have now been added to the footplate forward of the front splashers. This is proving entirely satisfactory.
     
    Other work done so far includes hacking/sawing/filing off much of the more crude moulded on detail, filling the slot at the front where the aforementioned steel bar once came though, adding a new chimney, snifter valve, whistle, air pump, etc., etc. I also carved off the horrendous thick outside steam pipes below the sides of the smokebox on the original model (which only the very earliest B12's had) and rebuilt various other bits of pipework, as seen.
     
    I decided to retain the original Hornby dome. Although this is not quite correct I felt I could well do irreparable damage to the boiler if I tried to cut it off. I did however, add a 'pip' to the top of it, which improves the appearance.
     
    New buffers have been added to the front buffer beam.
     
    There remains an lot to do of course, notably the boiler washout plugs (which have just got to go) and adding all of the new handrails, with finer (Gibson again) knobs. In this regard, it will be noted that the two rear handrail knob holes have been filled - they are in the wrong place on the Hornby model. New holes in advance of the rear boiler band will be drilled in due course.
     
    There is obviously much general tidying up and cleaning up to do and a fair old bit more detail work, such as lamp irons, buffer beam details (guard irons, vac pipes, etc.) and more, to be added before it will be ready for the paint shop .....and I suppose I am going to have to attack that 'mould line' alongside of the boiler as well...although that will look less obvious when black and weathered.
     
    Alongside all of this, the speaker is in the tender and the sound decoder is ready to install too once I have the re-worked wiring sorted.
     
    Here's where it's at so far..........still not a scale B12 - but one heck of a lot better looking already than the basic Hornby model.
  6. orford
    Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments so far. They are much appreciated.
     
    Since some asked - Here are a few more pictures of the layout together with some further background notes:
     
    ORFORD, SUFFOLK
     
    The layout is 16.5mm gauge and is situated around three sides of a 12 foot by 9 foot spare bedroom. It is not portable, so will not be seen at any exhibitions (doing that with a small industrial 'O' Gauge layout - and that's more than enough!)
     
    All track is bog-standard Peco Code 70.
     
    Control is DCC (is there anything else?) using NCE control equipment, which in my opinion is by far and away the best (others will certainly disagree - but it's in English, as fully-featured as any - and more so than many - and is simple to use).
     
    All locos are fitted with full-blown sound, using Zimo Decoders, generally MX645's. Sound files, with one exception, are by Paul Chetter of Hornby Magazine fame, some of them produced to my own specifications/requirements (thanks, Paul). Even the tiny little Bachmann J672 has full sound in it (video on You Tube - search J72 sound).
     
    Orford is my first attempt at an OO gauge layout.
     
    Having said that, I have been modelling railways for around 40 years, almost exclusively narrow gauge, ranging from '009', through Swiss 'HOm', to 'G'-Scale in the garden. Most of it however was in 'O-16.5' and/or 'On30' American. I am supposed to be something of an expert (whatever that is) on the Two-Footers of Maine - although whether this is actually the case is certainly open to considerable debate.
     
    Probably 80% of my narrow gauge stuff over the years was scratch built, ranging from locos in '009' to a gas-fired 'live steam' Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway 2-6-2 Prairie in 'G', which was literally built on the kitchen table using nothing but hand tools. It had a fully lagged boiler and carried water in the tender and could be kept in steam all day if required. It still runs in Denver, Colorado.
     
    But I digress - Ultimately I got fed up with narrow gauge and as noted above, Orford is my first ever foray into 'OO' Gauge......mainly because I had never done it before. Never having been one for convention, you could say that I started the hard way ....and worked down!
     
    Suffolk as a location was a no-brainer because I am a long-time GER fan anyway and we have taken regular holidays there for years and love the place. Why wouldn't you, when they serve the best Fish & Chips on the planet at Aldeburgh? Bar none!
     
    I also tired after 40-odd years of scratch building just about everything - including the track on the last two layouts - and wanted to get this one done reasonably quickly so that I can spend more time with grand-children and my wife, who is about to retire (i.e. more trips to Suffolk!).
     
    So Orford (quite deliberately) is largely an exercise in creating a layout 'out-of-the-box', specifically to see just what could be done with proprietary equipment. There are a few kits, both buildings and rolling stock - and one or two scratch built items, the most time-consuming of which was the Jolly Sailor Pub, this being a scale model of the prototype in Quay Street, Orford, which is accurate to within a millimetre or so (of the prototype, that is), albeit in low-relief due to lack of space ...the construction of which was greatly helped by the ex-landlord, who was kind enough to allow me to climb all over the place armed with tape measure and camera.
     
    In future blogs I will try to describe specific items on the layout in more detail.
     
    Here's some more photos to be going on with in the meantime. All of these are essentially 'work-in-progress' shots, taken as things went along. One day I really must get around to doing some decent ones but until then, I hope you will enjoy these.
     
    Don Mason
  7. orford
    Yes - I'm afraid so - but hopefully this one will be different to most - not necessarily better ...just different, so I thought I might as well describe it's progress from time to time here.
     
    Orford (my imaginary extension of the Aldeburgh Branch in Suffolk), NEEDS a B12. After all, they ran on the branch and were one of the few locos which were able to do so, as the branch was rated at just Route Availability 4.
     
    Given that no-one is currently showing even the slightest interest in releasing one ready-to-run and to modern-day standards (despite my constant cajoling of Hornby), I thought that I might as well try.....
     
    Conversions & enhancements of the old Triang-Hornby (and later Horny China B12) are nothing new of course Several have been described on RM Web over the years. But most have been largely 'rebuilds' of what you get from Hornby - which let's face it, in the case of the old B12 is 'not a lot'.
     
    This one is using a lot of non-Hornby B12 parts too, not least in the running department.....Essentially, I decided to build it as much as possible using bits I already had to hand. Of course, as soon as it is finished, Hornby will no doubt re-release the old B12 model to modern standards - but if so, then so be it. This will keep me going in the meantime and I reckon it should not take me more than a few weeks.
     
    First of all, the tender is being completely replaced with a spare tender from a recent-release Hornby B17 'Sandringham' .... The short one paired with 'Sandringham' itself and also 'Thorpe Hall'. This is almost correct for the B12 anyway except for a couple of very minor differences - but more than one prototype B12 has been photographed paired to a B17 tender in BR days, so the much more fine-scale B17 tender, which also rides at the correct height will instantly give the loco a big lift.
     
    So far as the original Hornby loco body is concerned, this is actually much better than the tender - although it rides way too high on the chassis and has some obvious horrors, such as the dreadful excuse for an air pump, equally dreadful washout plugs, incorrect buffers, grotesque chimney - and so on. It is also about 8mm too short overall, but I can live with that, provided the horrid front bogie gets sorted (I will be using a home-fabricated brass one, fitted with scale bogie wheels from Alan Gibson, which are now to hand)..
     
    To improve the body, I will be using various castings bought for the job and also quite a few 'common' parts from the remains of a PDK D16/3 kit - which I have had hanging about for some years and which is never going to get built now that Hornby are releasing one later in the year.
     
    Perhaps the point of most interest at this stage is however the chassis.....................So I will kick off with that:
     
    I happened to have an old Hornby B12 chassis which had already been hacked about a bit and which was minus it's motor. That in itself was no great loss - it was the same motor they use in Scalextrix cars, together with a rather crude plastic worm and an even cruder gear wheel on the leading axle.
     
    I also happened to have a brand new, never used, Portescap motor/gearbox - one of the earlier production ones which were rather sweeter and quieter than some of the later examples. Just how this pristine icon of locomotive power units had remained unused in a drawer for the best part of 25 or so years is another story.
     
    I decided to see if the Portescap unit could be married to the Hornby B12 chassis - and guess what ....it can!
     
    The following pictures show the considerable modification to the Hornby B12 chassis block which was required, involving filing out the original gear wheel slot by a considerable amount to accept the Portescap unit. This was done by hand and was hard work. Very hard work indeed - but was nevertheless entirely successful. It doesn't leave too much metal on either side - but it is perfectly strong enough.
     
    Quite apart from greatly enhancing the performance, fitting this power unit and also cutting & filing down the rear parts of the chassis, will enable me to mount the body at the correct height, unlike the original which sits way too high to clear the old Triang motor fitted to early examples of the model. The wheels will still fit inside the splashers (just).
     
    For the record - the wheels are now back on and the unit performed perfectly on test.
     
    I'll update on this project in due course, but for now, here are some pictures comparing the re-worked chassis with the original.
  8. orford
    Thought I might as well start a blog about the layout, as I seem to be posting all over RM web and it seemed a good idea to put most of it together in one place.
     
    'Orford' lies on the Suffolk coast and is perhaps best known to the general public for 'Orford Ness' - the long shingle spit which begins just to the south of Aldeburgh and which was formerly home to much military activity, primarily between the wars and during WWII and which then, during the 1960's became an important centre for the testing of nuclear detonators. Two large concrete 'pagoda's' stand to this day as testimony to Orford's contribution to the nuclear age, although the site has now largely returned to nature. The Ness was also at one stage important in the development od radar.
     
    Orford never had an actual railway connection, nor, so far as I aware, was one ever contemplated. It lies however, conveniently situated not far from the former GER Aldeburgh branch and the GER Snape branch.
     
    The former still very much exists, albeit no longer as far as Aldeburgh, having been truncated in 1966 back to just east of Leiston, the remaining line serving the Sizewell nuclear power stations on an occasional basis, as needed.
     
    The latter line to Snape was a freight only branch serving the Snape Maltings complex but has sadly long since disappeared into the undergrowth.
     
    My layout 'Orford', represents an imaginary extension of the old Aldeburgh branch to Orford....a 'never-was' but 'might-have-been' railway, on the assumption that traffic on the Aldeburgh branch grew as originally hoped by the Great Eastern - which in fact, it never really did.
     
    From time to time I will show and describe some of my efforts to create this line in 4mm scale, OO Gauge, in a 12 foot by 9 foot spare bedroom.
     
    Don Mason
  10. orford
    Well - Back from a week's holiday (to Orford, where else?) and just a couple of minor hand grabs to add, together with some cleaning up....and then it's almost ready for the paint shop.
     
    Not a fully accurate scale model ......but an awful lot closer to the prototype than the Hornby original.
  11. orford
    For those who have been following this saga so far, I promised to upload a video showing the completed B12 in action on my 'Orford' layout.
     
    Having completely failed to fathom out how to add a 'link' here which actually a - shows here on the page and b - works, the best I can do is to say that the video IS now up and running now on You Tube.....
     
    .....If you Google 'B12 Zimo' or 'B12 to Orford' (without the quote marks), it will come up as the first item on the list.
     
    Enjoy - and comments welcome.
     
    - Don
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