Black5

High Richard B and Jason. First an apology. The chassis is a Comet one, not a Crownline. I`d been looking at some Crownline bits and pieces I had and I think their name got stuck in my head. Since my last message I`ve had a bit of a fiddle around with it and cheated somewhat by shaving a bit off the tops of the cylinder casting. Not the ideal solution I know but it certainly looks better than it did at first. Hopefully that won`t create another problem. I appreciate that the Comet chassis is a drop in but I thought trying to alter the footplate a bigger problem so chose the other way. I`ll put a picture on shortly but there`s a long way to go yet before completion. Many thanks both for your help. Jim.

Afternoon all, I`m currently trying to fit a Mainline Rebuilt Scot body to a Crownline chassis. So far the chassis and driving wheels have been assembled with much carving of the inside of the wheel splashers to get the wheels to turn without interference. The problem that I have now is that on starting to fit the cylinder assembly it`s lifted the whole front end of the loco which certainly doesn`t look right. ( Somethig like 2mm too high ). I`m therefore asking if anyone else has attempted this combination of chassis and body and if so, did they manage to get round the problem or am I simply being too fussy. The tender seems to be pretty good, buffer height and footplate level. It`s the loco that`s got the problem. If I get the running plate level, the cab end is way out to the tender I wondered if shaving some off the tops of the cylinder casting would work without altering things too much. Any suggestions wuold be appreciated ( even if it`s " bin it and use the chassis for something else ") Many thanks , Jim.

Wondered why your blogs had disappeared. Now we know why. Given time and your determination I`m sure your modelling days will return. Good to see you back on these pages again. Best wishes, Jim.

Thanks for that. I`ll give it a go and see what I can manage

Good morning, I wonder if someone could advise me on the process of posting a video on RM Web, . I`ve watched several on here with interest and some quite lengthy ones but I`m afraid all my attempts end in failure, probably because they are too long. Is it a case of trial and error till you get down to the max 30Mb or is there another way? Many thanks, Jim.

Some nice work going on there. Working in brass or nickel silver is always a pleasant challenge I find. Look forward to see how you progress. Jim.

That`s turned out very well Ian. Food for thought for me on an older Mainline re-built Scot. Must admit, I enjoy trying to improve an older model. Regards, Jim.

Good to see things moving again Ian. You`re going to have a lot of fun with that, and maybe an amount of frustration if things don`t quite fit. Best of luck with the new project, The seasons best wishes, Jim.

That`s a really nice piece of work. Great when a plan, or a thought, comes together and it works. Thanks for the pictures.

Hi Ian, you`ve found what I did when I also opened the box. At the time of building, ( early seventies ) I never had a tool to show any riveting detail so both my kits are pretty plain in that area. I made one later that I used when scratch building my Duchess. As for hints or tips, the usual things really. Drawings that have measurements you can work from. I built my own chassis but maybe a Comet chassis could be adapted. At least you have motors, which is a good start but building these kits takes a while, depending on your engineering skills of course and you will probably have to make some of the detail yourself. When building mine there where a lot of model shops around to get bits and pieces from but, sadly, most of those are gone. From your blog it sounds as though you have a doubt but I would have a go. I`ve learned a lot from a challenge like that and many on here will help. My Black five kit is in the process of being modified ( mainly the tender ) and the motor is the old Romford Bulldog, but as I managed to dcc the Coronation kit , things look promising for the Five. The motion gear is a bit fiddly but worth it in the end. I hope some of the above may have helped. It`ll be interesting to see how you get on. Best of luck, Jim.

Good morning, Further to everyone`s helpful advice yesterday, I`ve ordered some Neodymium magnets from First4Magnets so that`s my starting point followed by a new decoder and I`ll see what happens. I can reduce the weight by making a new loco and tender chassis but I want to see what happens with these improvements first. Many thanks once again, Jim.

Back in the day, the metal kits like those gave you a chance to put on greater detail that the mass produced models didn't quite have. At any exhibition I go to , it`s always the bare metal models that I look at first. you see the work that`s been put in before the paint covers it and it then looks like any other model. Each to our own though. Regarding remembering something? That`s a major problem with me as well. My layout`s in my garage and the number of times I put things down and half an hour later I`m scratching my head looking for it beggars belief. All good fun though. Cheers just now, Jim.

Many thanks for all the replies. certainly much to ponder on. Jim.

Thanks John, I think after all these years I get as much ( sometimes more maybe )pleasure from trying to scratch build or improve a model as I do from running them. I have a Jamieson Black five which will get lookad at as well. Cheers , Jim.

Evening all, After a considerable number of years I decided to have a look at a Jamieson Coronation kit that I`d stripped some time ago for a re-paint. I built it it probably back in the early seventies and it`s powered by a Romford Bulldog motor. I`ve had it running again on DC to make sure it still worked and have now fitted a decoder to run it on DCC. I find some of the older models a challenge to try and bring them nearer the running capabilities of newer models. I need to put a bit more detail on the tender and probably will rebuild the loco and tender chassis to make them a bit lighter. Jamieson kits were basic nickel silver kits with all detailing done by the builder. At my age now, I think building something like this would be a bigger challenge, fingers and eyesight not being what they used to be!, but the few bits to do should be ok. Cheers just now, Jim.

Thanks for that. The motor seems ok at the moment so i`ll look for the larger decoder and try it. Where would you go to get a magnet re-maganatised, having never been down that route before.? Many thanks.

Afternoon all, I`ve recently rebuilt a Jamieson Streamlined Coronation kit that I`d stripped for re-painting a long time ago. The motor is a Romford Bulldog so you can see how old things are!. After giving it a run on DC I decided to have a go at fitting a decoder which I have managed to do using an MX600 decoder and the loco runs albeit a bit growly. My question is, given that the loco and tender are pretty hefty, weight wise, the loco is becoming quite warm after a while, although it`s only an end to end layout. As the decoder is rated at 0.8A could someone suggest a more suitable decoder that might suit better? I realise the present decoder will get warm with use. but this seemed a bit excessive to me. The MX600 is protected with a clear case that is virtually moulded to it`s shape and I wondered if that may be partly why it`s getting so warm. Or, maybe it`s all how it should be. Many thanks, Jim.

Thankyou for your reply. You`ve helped me before. As I said to The Johnster, I`ve found a wire that maybe should have some insulation on it passing up through the chassis to the motor. On reassembling my checks it could be that this wire is touching the chassis and causing the problem. It`s my next point to look at. Thanks once again.

Many thanks for your reply. I should have said that I`d removed the motor and gear drive to eliminate any sticky movement and that is fine. One thing I`ve noticed is a wire coming up through a hole in the chassis which I think is an earth to the motor. Some of this wire is bare and I`m wondering if some insulation has moved and the wire is touching the chassis causing a short. Of course it may have no bearing on the problem at all but I`m going to sleeve it and see what happens. Thanks once again.

A good hours entertainment last night. I`m sure anybody whose watched it so far out of curiosity must be quite surprised at the number of different skills this hobby of ours can teach you. I enjoy it for what it is, three teams having a good go at a competition and coming up with some skilful results. Have to agree with other posts in the lack of advertising during the breaks that could connect with the series. Expensive I expect. Maybe next time.

Evening all, I have a Hornby 2-6-4 tank loco that has recently had a spell of intermittent running on dcc. After removing the bottom plate and checking everything was clean and pickups were making contact it went back on the track but there was no movement. I removed the decoder ( thinking I may have blown it ) and checked the running on my test track,using it in dc. Still no movement. On checking various things I`ve found the following, All wiring and pickups appear to be in place but there isn't any power to the motor when picking up from the track. With a blanking plug in place, the motor doesn`t run even when power is applied to the motor terminals direct. Remove the blanking plug and again with power to motor terminals the motor turns. Could it be that on dismantling for the clean up, I `ve lost some sort of insulation which is now creating a short circuit. The loco drive axles have what look like thin nylon spacers between the back of the wheels and the chassis and these are all in place. I`ve come to a grinding halt now as I`ve looked at everything I can think of and wondered if anyone recognises my fault from my description. I`m sure the answer is simple but I`m darned if I can see it at the moment. Many thanks, Jim.

Thankyou very much for all your suggestions. At the moment most locos are Hornby chipped, with one having a gauge master decoder and I have a couple of Zimo MX 600 decoders waiting to be put into something. My original feeling was that a better quality controller would give me more adjustment but as I only run slowly and don`t have lights or sound, was it worth the extra expense for what I might achieve, Thanks once again,

Many thanks for your answers .I know it must have looked like I was answering my own question but other people have far more experience in dcc than I do. What you`ve said about setting speed limits is something I don`t think would happen on the present set up. There is a model railway exhibition locally in a couple of weeks so I`ll be asking some questions there as well and maybe get shown the possibilities. You`ve certainly given me food for thought. Thankyou.

Good morning, At the moment my layout is controlled by a Select controller. The layout is a M P D so locos only crawl around at walking pace. What I`d like to know is, the Select has acceleration and deceleration functions that I use. More expensive controllers have the ability to fine tune the CV settings on the decoder. What actually happens when you do that fine tuning? Would it make slow running better than the Select can give? or are they simply the same function? I`m at the point where I`m not sure I would gain that much in buying a more expensive controller but it would be good to know what the differences are. Many Thanks, Jim.

Many thanks to Spitfire and Steve, I `ve now solved my problem. I thought the problem was my wiring of the points but turned out to be a dead short across a piece of copper clad that I`d missed when checking.As I said, the problem was staring me in the face. Many thanks once again, Jim.