Michael Edge

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Grand spraying weather today, so the chassis is now all black. More when I've unmasked the axle bearings and the pickup pads.

 

Quick question for the panel: soldering whitemetal - Carr's Red Label or phosphoric acid?

Phosphoric acid for everything, throw the Carrs stuff out (they never tell you what it is)

On 03/04/2024 at 10:05, BVMR21 said:

Was doing some research and came across this picture from Ebbw Vale Steelworks of a 16" Hunslet, allegedly works number 2082. (Photo is from the Ebbw Vale Works Museum Facebook Page).

Yes, this is HE 2082, sent away 24/10/1940, although this is a much later photo. it was back at Jack Lane for fitting of blast furnace anti glare and a horn in 1953 so the photo might have been taken after that.

That all looks strong enough, I wouldn't use plastic brake gear for anything now.

Put some graphite on the track and see what a difference that makes.

Looks good, thanks for posting the pictures.

12 hours ago, lmsforever said:

What has repled the crossing and has the litter gone ?

A very expensive new footbridge, I like it but it’s not universally popular here. Almost every building in that photo has gone, a new station/bus station and platform appeared and most of the town centre rebuilt.

Not all that long ago but just about everything in this photo has changed since then! Even Jumble Lane crossing has gone now.

In my experience brake gear has to be very securely fastened, especially if the blocks are close to the wheels. It shouldn't be necessary to remove it.

They are Romford wheels, you can wriggle them off (if you ever have to) with very close fitting brake blocks - they don't have to pull straight out.

It was the only BR loco with outward opening doors - there was no room to open inwards and there was a large casing in the middle of the cab covering the mechanical radiator fan drive.

I would have soldered up the spacers, then removed the unsightly screws and filled the holes - or just filed them right back.

I thought that was my idea....

I scrounged some from old mechanisms and bought some Hornby ones. We have a great variety of motors in the loco stock, very few rtr ones (these gave no trouble) but anything from ancient K's (again no trouble!) to modern coreless and Portescaps. What sort of shielding did you try?

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good afternoon Stewart, 

 

The problem is not the fixing of the Seeps to the underside of the board (it was a doddle when I was only 61), it's the horrendous failure rate of the awful things. 

 

I certainly never used Seep's (hopeless) switching mechanism, employing a microswitch worked off the end of the point's tiebar to change polarity. I also use choc-block connectors. 

 

Never throw one away? I have, loads. It's nothing to do with dry joints; the problem is always the same - one coil has failed completely - deep inside by the look. 

 

I'll be delighted to see shots of how you've installed them, but the problem for me is always going to be the same; Seep's failure rate is way, way too high. 

 

As a comparison, Stoke Summit's fiddle yard points were operated by Peco point motors. In nearly 80 (yes 80!) shows, requiring full-on operation for hours on end, not one Peco point motor failed (out of 40+). On Charwelton there were even more, and how many failed during the time WMRC operated it? None! 

 

I hate potentially 'doing a product down', but in my opinion, based on my Bytham experience, Seeps are not worth it. There is nothing unusual in their installation and operation - two screws (diagonally-opposite), not too tight so as to obviate distortion yet more than enough for security, and operation through a standard CDU.  

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

There are two main faults with the Seep, both related. The wire fastening from the coil to the plate is often far too tight, should really have a bit of slack in it and the crude fitting of the coils into the baseplate often fails, early ones are much more prone to this. I now fasten a wire round the coil and the baseplate, tightened by twisting, this prevents the coil from dropping off even if the melted plastic fastening fails. I have found the the frog switch can work fairly reliably (at least in a warm dry room) and can be improved with application of electrolube.

I went through most of the process Stewart describes and then got rid of the problem by using Tortoise motors for my fiddle yard and new layout.

It wasn't too expensive but we now have another problem with the signals. All worked fine on test and installation but I gradually noticed that they occasionally malfunctioned, stopping working at all, losing the setting and fluttering at times. The first was fixed by the time honoured method of switching off and switching on again - rather than pulling a plug out I put a push to break switch in side of the baseboard to reset everything. The second and third appear to be linked as I realised that only certain locos were causing the problem, fitting suppressors to the motors mostly cured this but D11 and D13 motors still do it. With no rogue locos running the signals seem to have kept their setting. More curiously only some of the signals show this fluttering, about half of them never do it and one in particular (up Strafford Crossing) does it most - however some locos (bankers) don't normally ever pass this signal.

The interlocking works well but the design of the Dingo Simplex boards hasn't made it any easier because they have an internal common connection between the power supply and the control circuit. I needed to use either of these to interlock the switching and would have preferred them to be completely separate. One samll snag from the operator point of view is that if the power supply has been used to interlock the signal lever has to be put back before the points or section switch is put back - otherwise there's no power to return the signal arm.

On 25/03/2024 at 07:09, St Enodoc said:

Back to 2182 this afternoon. The first job was to fit an extra bearing as recommended by Mike @Coach bogie, which will hereinafter be referred to as the Wiltshire bearing.

 

The bearing itself is a short length of K&S brass tube, which just happens to be a nice running fit on the 1.5mm motor shaft. It's soldered into a hole in a piece of .015" brass that I happened to find in the Useful Box. I tried a U shape initially but couldn't get the bends exactly right, so I chopped off one side to make an L-bracket. I think it will be fine. You can't see it here, but before soldering the bracket to the gearbox frame I cut another short length of tube to go between the worm and the motor, to cut down the end play on the shaft and keep the armature windings in line with the magnet pole pieces. The motor and gearbox ran very nicely on a 9V dc battery, so I left them at that.

 

Next, I filed down the faces of the middle axle bearings to increase the sideplay on that axle. The minimum radius 2182 will have to traverse is 670mm on the Wheal Veronica branch and earlier testing suggested that was a bit tight. After filing there's about another 1mm of sideplay.

 

Here's the chassis on a piece of Hornby 3rd Radius (505mm) track. It sits and rolls very nicely, so 670mm radius will be no problem.

 

Of course, that extra sideplay would be no use if it was restricted by the coupling rods, so I fitted a couple of ancient Romford crankpin washers to each side of the leading and trailing axles. Again, the complete chassis ran smoothly on 9V dc so I stopped there for the day.

 

This kit doesn't include any brake blocks. Somewhere I've got some plastic ones, so if I can find them I'll add those to give an impression of some brake gear.

 

Apart from that, it's now time to run in the chassis properly on the rolling road before dismantling it again for painting.

 

If anyone thinks I've missed anything before I paint the chassis, please let me know!

I put brakes and sandpipes (fit to frames, not to footplate) on before painting.

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Thanks Mike. I was hoping you would comment (actually, the best option would be for you to donate Cwmafon's 2156 to a worthy cause...).

No chance, get on with building it! Nice to see you doing some proper modelling again.....

 I built one of the Blackpool single deck trams many years ago, it wasn't bad as I recall but I can't remember what I did with it. We tried running it on Andy Ross's Leeds tram layout but while it got round the corners the combination of a long vehicle with a pantograph in the middle (rather than over a bogie) was too much for the overhead wires.

I would go with the trailing axle option.

Just to remind everyone that we won't be doing our usual demo at York this year but we will be there with Wentworth Junction (stand 11). If anyone wants to pre-order kits we can bring them with us.

Mike and Judith

Another Hecate just finished, ready for the paintshop.

This time with the original boiler and open coal rails, to be painted in SR black with green lining - the lining will be subcontracted to Dave Studley though.

I used to collect bits of scrap etch to make these from, all the narrow strips with a right angle in them - although I now have a supply of etches for GW lamp brackets.

I think that’s five now, plus an E1 which is the same kit. I used to like them……

6 hours ago, Dunsignalling said:

 

The article relates to #5 couplers being used as prototypical frame-mounted buckeyes in P4.

 

I'd think success will be extremely radius-dependent.

 

 

This works fine at least down to 3ft 6in radius (probably tighter but I don't have direct experience), all the Mk 1s and LNER corridor stock on Carlisle has Kadee No5 couplers at the correct height for the full size buckeyes.

2 hours ago, Will Crompton said:

In the 3rd Hannibal Lecter novel by Thomas Harris, 'Hannibal', the fearsome Lecter is hiding out in Florence where he uses the alias, "Dr Fell." Coincidence? I think not.

Interesting photo, that must have been its last overhaul when it was painted green - at last it's possible to know which side is which, it had a left facing crest this side and right facing on the other.

The second photo in his collection is even more interesting, taken four months after 10100 was withdrawn (because of high maintenance costs, not the usually quoted fire or catastrophic failure) and it seems to be still intact.