Michael Edge

2 hours ago, Mark Laidlay said:

Yes, even the Hornby P2 does a good job drifting to a stop

 

Mark in Melbourne

If you need to stop locos chuffing to a standstill (which always sounds ridiculous) all you need to do is alter the deceleration delay until it stops - somewhere between 5 and 10 is usually enough for this. Incidentally acceleration delay has no place in steam locos - when you open the regulator steam goes straight to the cylinders and the loco moves.

We went on the Bernina with GRJ in April 2000, it's very obvious how much less snow there is now and you were there in February.

It's a bit late to put this on here but we will be at the GOG show in Kettering tomorrow, this is a one day show despite what I managed to put on our website just now.

58 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Mike,

 

I admit to having 'twisted' a set of etched frames true from time to time because there was a slight rock, even though they'd been Jamieson jig assembled.

 

As you allude to, when screwing the body on, it can impart a twist to the chassis. If this occurs (and it's often with an etched chassis), I identify where the diagonal rock is and fix little pads of thin Plastikard to the underneath of the body, diagonally opposite, where it meets the frames. This is a simple cure. 

 

In fairness, when I've built 'battleship' frames from one 16th brass (Jamieson-style) and then erected, say, a Jamieson sheet metal body, it's that body which 'twists' if necessary, not the frames.

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

I do put little pads in if something goes wrong but I usually solder in thin shims of metal.

The old fashioned "battleship" frames do behave more like bar frames (which don't twist) than plate frames. The difference with bar frames is one reason why American loco practice went to compensation much earlier and much more than European builders did (the other reason was very poor track of course).

1 hour ago, Jol Wilkinson said:

Which precisely describes the problems I had when building OO locos in my early days.,I always built the chassis first and get it running smoothly. Then I would bolt the loco body to it and it wouldn't run as well!

 

 

Which is exactly why I don't do this, I build the frames with cylinders/motion bracket/footplate supports and put the wheels on, then leave that until the body is complete. I also leave the bottom edges of the buffer beams clear and easily available as reference surfaces until the boiler (or engine casing for diesel locos) is fixed in place - then I know the body is square and won't distort the frames. Our kits are all designed with this sequence in mind although I do accept that springing or compensation does make this less necessary.

1 hour ago, Barclay said:

The way I see it the jigs are probably more use when building a rigid chassis, because it has to be absolutely true. A compensated loco doesn't of course which sounds awful I know and you naturally do your best, but I've never felt the need for more than the pointy LRM jig axles. @Clive Mortimore, I remember Karlgarin Models with great fondness - Richard was always so helpful to this know-nothing teenager! (Still know nothing, but not a teenager any more...)

At the risk of repeating myself, there is no point at all in trying to assemble a plate frame exactly square. Almost all the torsional stiffness in a steam loco is in the boiler and this will easily pull your exactly square frame out of true when it is bolted up. All plate frames, including full size ones, are able to twist a bit, if your assembled frame isn't true just get hold of each end and twist it. For good running the only things that matter are wheel quartering and an exact match between the rod centres and axle centres - any of the jigs will enable the latter to be checked, springing or compensation are irrelevant  in this context.

I have had to repair locos where the crankpins had broken off, if I couldn’t get them out that was a scrap wheel. It’s more or less impossible to drill brass out if Mazak.

It might be heat resistant paint, I remember some 1960s F1 cars had white exhausts

2 hours ago, 60526 said:

Mike, magic, many thanks. I didn't realise that you made a Stanier 3P kit. I must have bought this Cotswold kit during the 1980's, it was due to be OO and must have bought the Romford wheels for it at the time, but it is now going to be EM. I notice that your chassis etch has provision for compensation, is this etch available separately?

The frame etch isn't normally available separately since everything is on one sheet but I think I may have an unused test etch which might suit your needs, I'll have a look through and PM you about it.

This is what the Cotswold kit can look like.

I didn't build or paint this one but it runs on Herculaneum Dock.

3 hours ago, 60526 said:

I see the name Cotswold has come up a few times lately. I normally model ex LNER/BR(E) locos so can source drawings from the likes of Isinglass, but I'm now looking at an unmade Cotswold kit of a Stanier 3P 2-6-2T, has anyone an idea of where I can get hold of a drawing of these locos. Did this kit get taken over by Nu-cast? I am not going to use the kits solid brass chassis, could scratch the chassis but I've looked at the Alan Gibson catalogue and see a milled chassis LM1-195 which is for a NC LMS 2-6-2T ? Is the Cotswold kit worth the effort?

The Cotswold kit is fairly accurate, from memory I think it's a bot short at the front end but that's all. 

This is the GA drawing from our etch for this loco, based on original LMS drawings I am confident this is accurate.

I always lock Romford crankpins in with Loctite threadlock. They would still be removable from Markits/Romford wheels with the application of a little heat, if you use superglue they will be there forever. I use them in Gibson wheels as well after drilling and tapping them 10BA.

Locking them in the wheels is essential, it can make a real mess of the motion work if they come unscrewed at speed.

2 hours ago, dibateg said:

I found that as I've got older, I've become more sensitive to the fumes from the various substances we use, particularly Humbrol paint and Mekpak.

 

I'm on a project to build 28 4mm scale turnouts for Bala Junction, Bala and Trevor, oddly Butanone doesn't seem as bad to me as Mekpak. But something had to be done to get rid of the fumes and enable mass production, so I rigged up an extractor system - the hose plugs in to an exhaust vent mounted in a piece of ply that 'clips' in to the fan light of the window. 

 

Excuse the chaotic workbench...

 

 

Regards

Tony

It looks tidier than mine...

15 hours ago, DenysW said:

Extra to @St Enodoc's succinct post, in my case it's down to age-related tremor, which set in in my 50s, which is typical. For the unfortunate it sets in in their 20s. The symptom is that your main hand shakes when trying to grip something - for example, teacups rattle enough that you can spill the liquid. Forget soldering, but glueing may be possible. - it doesn't require quite the grip.

 

Judge not, etc.

I've had that most of my life - you work out ways to get round it all the time. My son and grandson both have this as well but it doesn't seem to have affected any of the girls.

9 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

 

Judith Edge Kits

 

They aren't on the list, but drop them a message as they might have them in stock.

 

https://www.ukmodelshops.co.uk/catalogue/judithedge.html

 

 

 

Jason

We have them in stock and the limousine cab conversion etch.

57 minutes ago, BetweenTheTunnels said:

 

Michael,

Can I ask what you use for making moulds and then what resin do you use for casting?  Im going to 3D print some small detail parts, but as they will need cleaning and a bit of work, my idea was to use them as masters (once cleaned up and sorted) and resin cast the ones for the models.  So any help would be welcome.

Richie

Much as Phil said above, we do get rubber and resin from Sylmasta (actually Sylcreate now), the rubber is 380, the resin is G27LV. Almost everything I mould has one flat surface, this is stuck down on the bench with double sided tape with a Lego brick box around it. When moulding the flat surface is uppermost and after pouring a small piece of waxed perspex is put on top and weighted down. It is possible to mould items with very large undercuts by this method, the rubber is very flexible and we can do tapered chimneys - even buffers although these need a split making in the mould (only partly split, not completely separated so they spring back together). Chimneys and domes are set on an appropriate diameter bar to pour the mould (usually a Blu-Tack box in this case), the same diameter bar is used in place of the flat perspex to mould the base.

2 hours ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Rodney,

 

The 3rd axle was flangeless on the G2s, so it's correct. 

 

Years ago, a late friend built a GEM Super D, and struggled to get the cast metal chassis to work properly. Though the chassis was not compensated, all the rods were in separate pieces connecting two wheels at a time, and it just slumped around. I scratch-built a brass chassis for it, making new (rigid) rods at the same time. After that, it ran beautifully on Fordley Park, even making the front cover of an issue of Model Railways some 40 years ago!

 

I've built one Super D; from a Mercian kit.............

 

 

 

 

 

 

Separate rods were just following LNW practice, jointed rods on the 0-8-0s came later, the originals were overlapped on the crankpins. This is much more common than is generally realised, if the model din't work it was for some other reason, not the separate rods.

Just making the etches (preferably with a drawing but not essential) available would be good enough - we do very well out of this sort of offering although we do supply detailed drawings with them.

It's difficult enough doing two sets of Stephenson gear between the frames in 00 (I did it with a Finney kit despite hearing Martin telling another customer that it was impossible...) but three sets and a crankshaft - I wouldn't even think about it!

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

A lot of the tram lines in Leeds are still in situ.. it shows how much carp has been chucked on the roads since the late 1950s...  

 

Highway engineers generally unaware of them (some aren't aware of what they are mistaking them for "road strengtheners"). Scrape off the debris.. get the trams back from Crich.. add a big battery.. ooh err..  our tram system returns!

 

Baz

This was seriously suggested in Sheffield when the new tram system was being planned - dig up West Street and use the existing buried track. The trams do run there now but this suggestion was not taken up....

I did a pattern for a resin moulded 37 for Maurice Pilsworth about 30 years ago - no idea what happened to this but I still have the cab pattern here. I used to make one cab, mould it and add then to the body. Others included LMS 10000, class 56 and Deltic.

Looks fine to me, glad you didn't have too much difficulty building it.

Is that one of our pantographs? Looks good anyway.

Its not really practical to include wheels in 4mm kits because of different preferences and gauge/wheel standards. We do supply wheels in a few kits but these are only wagon/coach wheels for chain drive locos - even these have to be for 00/EM or P4.

7mm is different, Slater’s wheels are all but universal now - although again there would have be an S7 option.