Dominion

Page 49 of the Rev. Cawston's Grantham book. Quad arts behind the P2 on test. You will need to obscure the lovely front of a P2 though !

I am sure I saw a picture of 2001 pulling a quad set on test at the front of the train just recently, I will see if I can find it again.

As long as two of our favourite layout heros remain friends I am finding the debate very interesting and even constructive. It is very helpful to have others be willing to share their mental models behind the design choices they have made. It is making me think harder about what I want in my current plan. I am grateful for the generous airing of views.

I just tried an easily reversible fix to reduce the pony movement. I trimmed some 3/32 inch plastic tube to make two little plugs and press fitted them into the back of each slot on the pony truck. The press fit plus the keeper plate keep them in place, and they reduce the unwanted movement in the pony. I trimmed a little off the front face of each plug so that the pony could still swivel enough to negotiate 30 inch curves happily.

A single pivot point would probably be better but this avoided any metal drilling for now.

Has anyone modified the front pony truck to have a single pivot point yet ?

Mine runs fine but I would rather eliminate the visible skew and back and forth movement.

Any thoughts on a good way to do it welcome.

( I remember seeing a solution on the L1 but can't find it)

That approach is quite revolutionary,

I like the spin you put on it ...

You deserve the signal prize for sure. Many congrats. They are very impressive.

Very practical !  I found a picture and more important a caption you may like if you have not seen it, from LNER Pacifics in colour, by Derrek Penney. Pg 33 shows one of your favourites, Tracery, in BR days on an up express by the Nottingham junction in 1962. But the caption says there used to be a short lived Pullman service to Nottingham and Sheffield that used the Nottingham junction. Would give you an excuse to run the Pullman set from the station across to your Nottingham lines.

How great to read through your collective exploits with Grantham so far.  Lot's of fun to read and I have learned a lot too.

I have 2 question's about your baseboard joins and track alignment.

You mentioned using 6mm machine bolts, t-nuts and repair washers. I know the t-nuts. Are repair washers something special with a  sleeve or just plain washers? And if just plain washers, is there a trick you have to getting good board alignment ?  A post I read from North America uses 2 t-nuts for each screw, one with the threads drilled out so it becomes a sleeve, and then both t nuts epoxied into the wood. This sounds like a good plan to me.  Comments welcome.

With the track joins, it seems you may have not bothered with soldering to copper clad at the ends of each board and I think I even see peco fishplates across the basboard joins. Is that right and if so do you just slip them from one rail across the join once set up ? Do you think the same technique would work for peco code 75 as well or would you try something different if you were using code 75?

I thought that's how the light worked - thanks.

 

The plate over the frame extension is a thin brass rectangle. On most models I've seen it sits awkwardly. I have assumed that it should sit flush at the same height as the rest of the footplate. Removing mine was quite easy as there was a gap into which I could insert a scalpel blade and then gently lift the plate off. It came away without damage and the underside was cleaned up with an emery board to remove super-glue residue. I then used the emery board to clean up the tops of the frames[plastic mouldings] and reduce their height slightly. A dry fit established how much I needed to remove. The cover was then re-attached using super-glue. It is worth doing and makes a significant cosmetic difference.

 

Removing the buffer beam to reposition the buffers was another matter altogether though !

 

Tony

On the tank removal, I forgot to mention just be careful to repositioning the 3 parts of the motion on each side when you replace it. They went back into place fairly easily.

Has anyone yet removed the water tank body ? It is supposed to come free when the small screw that is hidden under the tank filler is removed. The body on mine won't budge however.

 

I'm keen to get inside this part to see why the front light fails to shine as efficiently as the rear one does.

 

Otherwise, I have to say that the model runs beautifully. I did remove the front buffer beam to straighten the buffers and also lifted the rectangular brass plate that covered the frame extension in front of the smokebox [to make it fit flush]but otherwise have had to do little.

 

Tony

Tony, how did you lift the black plastic plate over the frame extension?

Has anyone yet removed the water tank body ? It is supposed to come free when the small screw that is hidden under the tank filler is removed. The body on mine won't budge however.

 

I'm keen to get inside this part to see why the front light fails to shine as efficiently as the rear one does.

 

Otherwise, I have to say that the model runs beautifully. I did remove the front buffer beam to straighten the buffers and also lifted the rectangular brass plate that covered the frame extension in front of the smokebox [to make it fit flush]but otherwise have had to do little.

 

Tony

Yes I had to remove tha tank cover. After removing the small screw under the filler you mentioned, then mine pulled off straight up. There are 2 ridges moulded inside in the middle on each side that sit tight against the weights around the motor and flywheel. There may also have been a tiny amount of glue i think at the bottom in the middle of each side, but that didn't put up any resistance. There was nothing too delicate there, and there are not even wires to the light on the tank. The actual light stays on the chassis and its light shines through the back of the lamp. Very neat.

I removed it as I had loss of power while running. I traced it to an intermitent wire joint at the plug that runs to the DCC space under the boiler. I removed the thin black insulation on the single wire, resoldered, and added heat shrink. That fixed it,

So I could have left the tank in place. :-) As I am in Canada I normally try to fix things if I can rather than ship back. Despite having to do this repair I am very pleased with it, and pleased that Hattons and Heljan collaborated on it.

Having the tank off also allowed me to clean up a mould line on the metal chassis block that was stopping the tank from quite seating properly. Can't wait to ket a Kadee attached to pull some wagons.

Has anyone noticed the two sets of drivers turning at different speeds on the track ? They definately were on mine on a rollers but I may be imagining it on the track.

On the Roco style couplings I use them for the main part of the rake that will be leading up the troublesome grade, but use kd's for any part at the rear of the rake I want to be easily detachable.

Separately I have been looking through my books for pictures of Grantham. Have you have see the ones in Rex Conway's Eastern Steam Journey Volume 2. One of them is of train boards on a bike shed wall, 5 in residence, 7 out on trains I assume. Page 18

What a fabulous layout Robert.  I wanted to share my gratitude for posting.

It has taken me until your post #410 on track realignment to be able to offer something back.

You mentioned you had a derailment problem at the front of long rakes going up the grade in the fiddle yard.

I had that problem with 7 or more Hornby Pullman cars or 8 or more Gresley's. The weight of the carriages prevents the Hornby close coupling mechanism from re-centering. So any opposite curve, even after a straight section, may still cause a derailment if most of the back half of the train is still on the grade, even with straight track between the curves.

There is thankfully an easy solution.

I replaced the couplings with the fixed link Hornby or Roco type. (Everything else was already Kadee so I am accustomed to changing couplings !)  This forces the adjacent bogies to maintain good alignment with each other and has fixed the issue in 2 different areas of my current layout.

Incidentally, I use 2 original Roco couplers on my Pullman's and one roco and one Hornby on my Gresleys to get close coupling but still sufficient clearance.

The motion of the fixed link couplings through your excellent point work would be fabulous.

Apologies if you have already covered in posts subsequent to number 410, I am still 25 pages behind !

I am now inspired to replace my current LNER layout with something more prototypical.