Peppercorn

A class 203 in Bamberg a few days ago

A Via train in August 2008 in Paris, Ontario. Regrettably this line is now the Cambridge to Paris railtrail

Via train on bridge over the Grand River in August 2008

Good morning, all, I hope you like this one, taken in Montreal in 2008. Sacred and secular in one shot.

Regards,

Cliff

For anyone feeling cranky...

Class 5 at Carnforth, summer of '78, a sultry day

The painting to go with the Y9 is progressing faster

And 90733 at Keighley backing down onto its train on the excellent KWVR August 2015, another good day. 

I've always liked the BR class 4 2-6-0's from my first view as a Kitmaster kit, so it was good to see one and travel behind her from Whitby on the excellent NYMR in August. A lovely day.

Fired up the Cowells and made a pair of cylinder blanks. I see that they're not identical, but, then, I'll only see one at a time. It also appears that the piston rod centre isn't in the middle of the cylinder: it is, but the simulated stuffing glad was turned after I'd removed the blank and about-ended it to turn the other end, and, clearly, my 3 jaw isn't spot on; that's only to be expected. Perhaps I should've used the 4 jaw, but, really, the accuracy that I need is there. Now to make up a support for the cylinders - probably in 0.25 nickel silver or brass.

I hope this is in the right place. 63395 at Sunderland in, I think, 1966, obviously at night. I just had to point the camera and hope for the best.

On my holiday this year, we travelled to Whitby on the NYMR. Whilst waiting at Goathland in steamed, to my delight, 63395, which I hadn't seen in the flesh since I'd taken the photo. I'm sure that I was dimly aware that NYMR had a Q6, but hadn't noted the number, so I was even more delighted. A wonderful feeling, great railway, good trip to and from Whitby. Oh, and great fish n chips in Whitby, too. 

Regards to all,

Cliff

Another not very good photo, this time 34082 "615 Squadron" at Eastleigh. Spring or early summer 1966, a horrible, sultry muggy day. Someone's nicked her piston valve by the look of it.

Not a particularly good photo, but this one is from late '63 with class 57XX in what was then typical shunting mode, at Old Oak Common. No. 4611

Hi, the best results I've had with gear wheels is to use a narrow file to make a "flat spot" on the axle. Do it a little bit at a time, checking that the flat spot is deep enough to keep the gear wheel in place with the grub screw not quite gripping the axle and therefore affecting the mesh of the gearing. Once done repeat with the motor shaft.

Thanks, confused.com, very helpful

Cliff

I refined the coupling rods a little more today, mainly in reducing the diameter of the bosses. I also took the opportunity to polish the faces more, using 1200 grit wet and dry, in an attempt to make them look less like a 12": 1' blacksmith had made them.  

I then put it all together in a trial assembly and gratifyingly (very!) the chassis ran beautifully smoothly. However, I must remember the old saw about pride coming before a fall, and the fact that there's much to do yet. Such as fitting the gears back on: question - do I make an indent on the axle where the gear screw head will be or should I file a small flat; what would be the advice on that one, please?

I will need to thin down the crankpin assembly at the front end as the coupling rod thickness is only 0.8mm and the crankpin journal 1.44mm.

However, here's the photo,

Cliff 

Don't sweat too much over the worry beads. Just keep chipping away at the project - you'll get there.

Oh, thanks, Graham - its been a long time - since those far-off days on the old BRM site, wasn't it? Great to hear from you.

Yes, I'll keep on at it, can't wait to start on the bodywork, though. 

Cliff

A couple of hours with some needle files to thin the rods.Oh holiday we went to the Oxenhope shed on K & WVR and saw there the L & Y pug and got a better idea of the sort of dimensions rods need to be on a locomotive of this size. Unfortunately I didn't have a tape measure with me, but I reckoned them to be about 100 -120mm wide, so I aimed for about a millimetre and a half, as this get me in the right area. They look crude in the photos, so I'll do a bit more refining especially around the end, which could be rounder and, probably, a smaller diameter, and some more polishing or drawfiling. But not today.

Another of Tilbury Riverside looking away from the terminus - I was right at the end of the platform - showing a very modellable three way assymetric point. I hope this is the right place to post this,

Cliff

A class 66 (sorry if photos of these are too common) taken somewhere I can no longer remember or the date, either. Might have been Eastleigh as worked there around 2006 for a short while.

A class 110 on the same day at the same location

I think this is a P38, and I photographed her at an open day i, I think, Lengerich in about 1995

Is it my eyesight, or are the driving wheels not parallel to the frames? It looks like there is a slight tilt, especially on the top left and bottom right driving wheels.

No, your eyesight is fine: the wheels, now quite old Romfords, are crotchety and, for the fitting of the pick-ups are standing in for the very fine Markits wheels. As far as I am able to measure, the axle holes are parallel. But, of course, you now have me counting my worry beads, so a re-look in the very near future has become essential...

Well I added the pick-ups for the other wheels. They're not very elegant, need some trimming and probably a bit of fiddling aka 'adjustment' to get into proper working order; I'm really looking forward to that. Not.

Next, I suppose, are the cylinders, and yet another decision: that is whether to turn them or make them from sheet material. The lathe doesn't do much, so maybe I ought get it to earn its keep a bit more. However now its almost time to stop, in any case my eyes are virtually screaming at me to do so.

Y9 pickups...........

Not totally excited, enthralled or even mildly satisfied by my last effort at making the pick-ups, I decided to have another try, this time using 0.35mm diameter phosphor bronze, got from Eileen's Emporium.

I thought a more logical  approach would serve me better than my previous somewhat chaotic approach, and one that I was hopeful could result in both decent pickups, no holes in the ends of my fingers and leave me still some way to go before the end of my ever shortening tether. 

I made a small and very simple jig from pieces of insulating material that was to hand to enable more-or-less accurate soldering of the pick-up wires to the pick-up plate, but still needed to bend the wire themselves by a mixture of eye and measurement. 

It worked quite well if only because the jig ensured that the wires were fixed in the appropriate positions relative to the pick-up plate whilst soldering.

I applied solder first to the wires and the pick-up plate to facilitate quick and easy soldering.

Naturally, in the event, I got a measurement wrong and found in fixing to the embryonic chassis, and found that the wires went well beyond the wheels that they were supposed to picking up from. So I needed to make an amendment. I decided to drill a new fixing hole in the pick up plate itself rather than unsolder then re-solder the wires and the chassis now looks as indicated in one of the photos. Phew, now for the others. However, before I try to make them, I'll take a break and do something less frustrating...

PS JeffP: I didn't manage the loops, it was a bend too far ....

OK, JeffP, I'll probably redo them as I'd like to make them neater, and on reflection I'm not sure that I used phosphor bronze so what is there is, I think, half-hard brass, which will get out of adjustment quickly. What I thought to be pb was yellow rather than the orangey colour of, well, bronze, but I do have some spring steel: would that work, do you think? 

Cliff