chrisveitch

I'm pleased to say this has borne fruit. A careful reading of the above and the various references led me to discover that the axle spacing on one side was slightly less than 0.1mm out on one side between the leading and driven axles (and a microscopically bent crankpin didn't help) so I now have the first four wheels quartered. One of the important tips was in John Greenwood's article, where he advised testing each rod separately before trying both together. For some reason this had never occurred to me previously, but it's pretty obvious when you think about it. By swapping rods between sides I managed to narrow down the problem to the axle spacing on the RHS being very slightly off, which I could adjust by reaming out the leading crankpin hole. Thanks again everyone.

Many thanks for the many words of wisdom - and that's without any irony, it really is appreciated. There are clearly a number of different ways to achieve this and I need to have a careful look at what suits me best. As my original post probably indicated, I've tried various things over the years without any consistent success and I'm keen to get this one right without causing irreparable damage to the rods, chassis or my faith in my modelling abilities. On a related note, I have to say that I fell upon @queensquare's Kirtley article in the latest MRJ with glee and then realised that...the chassis is in the next issue. It's still very good though!

The kit has an assembly jig included which ensures that the two match (unless I’ve subsequently messed it up somehow). Thanks for this (and Nigel and Jim for their valuable contributions as well). At least you have assured me that I’m a) not alone and b) possibly not a complete incompetent. Even more patience is clearly the way forward.

For as long as I've been modeller I've hated quartering, and after some decades I still detest it. Hence my build of the apparently simple Association 57xx chassis kit has reached the part I've been dreading. I've been good and followed Nick's Jubilee series assiduously, preparing the components to as high a standard as I can, inspecting and measuring everything multiple times, buying all the relevant jigs and aids and being pleased with myself - up to the point where I now have two axles in the chassis with the help of the Association quartering jig, and they're nowhere near right. They have two very tight binds at 180 degrees to each other, which to me signifies that the rods are too short (or long) for the crankpin distance at these points. I have broached out the crankpin holes lightly unit they're a good running fit, but to no avail. I'm terrified of proceeding further and ending up with oversize crankpin holes that still don't solve (or perhaps worsen) the problem, so I'm trying to analyse the issue. So far it goes like this: I have to assume the wheels are quartered correctly - they only went in the jig once and haven't been tweaked or twisted in the muffs, so I'm looking at one of the following: The crankpins are bent (I've checked them visually and they look OK, but I did bend one and had to restore it); The rods actually are different lengths - which seems unlikely, I've been carefully with them and they've not been bent or stretched (as far as I know); The 3-layer rod joints have been soldered up to provide a hole that's not perpendicular to the rod face - I have tried to broach them as square as possible; The axles are not parallel in the chassis; Something I've not thought of... I'm keen to hear the wisdom of my betters in suggesting a way forward, before I blunder on and ruin the whole thing. Or take up O gauge tinplate. Thanks in advance, Chris

Looks like an excellent development, and the instructions are very well produced. One aspect that puzzled me before I read them was how the mounting point would be insulated but the instructions mentioned the 14BA sleeves (3-159) which I'd never noticed before. I don't have a use for them at the moment, but may well acquire some in the anticipation of finding one... Well done to Nick and the Product team again!

I'm probably very late to the party here, but this is just a note of appreciation for The Gear Goblin and the other videos on the Association's excellent YouTube channel, which I've only just noticed. I'm not planning on hobbing any gears in the near future, but Nick's video is a great explanation of the process (and X-Y alignment, which is something which I always struggle with) with his usual humour and aplomb. The rest of the material is also recommended if you've not come across it, particularly the Templot content. Apologies if this is old news to most, but it's such a good collection of material I thought it was worth a mention.

Thanks for that - I don't think colour will be an issue as the body spares seem to be available unpainted so I'd assumed that painting would be required anyway. I can see that 2251's generally had standard (whatever that means) 3000 gallon tenders but if anyone can point me at a source of information on what other variants they had, I'd be most grateful.

I'm interested in doing a 2251 and obviously they've not been available for years as a complete loco, although I know there were some bodies available a few years ago. However spares seem to be fairly easily available - am I right in thinking the easiest (and cheapest) route to acquiring a body for 2FS is simply to buy and assemble it from the requisite bits, or are there still whole bodies around? Regards, Chris Edit: I’ve not put this in the Any Question… thread as I thought it might turn into a discussion of the history of Peco’s 2251.

Many thanks - PM sent.

Can anyone suggest a good source of thin (i.e. sub-1mm) double-sided PCB please? The standard stuff seems to be 1.6mm (too thick, and I've got loads of it anyway...) and RS Components do a number in 0.8mm which would be good, but is this the thinnest available?

Thanks for the very prompt reply Nick - that sounds about right. I've checked the skew and the worm and wheel definitely mesh OK. I suspect that what I did was order the wrong muffs then attempt to turn one down to 3.0mm, made a pig's ear of it and it's ended up as a sliding fit.

A question on Association worm gear sets... I've recently given some attention to my long-running and so far unsuccessful Association Farish Pannier replacement chassis - I bought all the bits for this some years ago and have made sporadic progress at intervals since then. What I've got so far doesn't work too well so I've decided to revisit it with some of the video-wisdom of Dr Mitchell and try to get things working a bit more smoothly, but unfortunately I can't remember where I started and didn't make notes... The problem is that I don't know exactly what the worm gear set is. The gear is a brass 30T but I'm not sure of its bore - the current Association Shop 3 list only lists 1/8" worm sets but this appears to be 3.0mm bore - a 3.0mm drill fits it easily, and a 3.1mm doesn't fit at all. It's ages since I worked on this but I have it on a stepped muff which seems to be a sliding fit - I have another seemingly identical and unused muff which is 3.2mm diameter over the longer part. My assumption is that I've brutally reduced the muff diameter by forcing a 3.0mm gear onto a 3.2mm (1/8") muff. Can anyone confirm what the gear is? It's definitely a worm gear (concave teeth) and definitely has 30 teeth (I've counted twice). It appears to be the same as the current 30:1 1/8" set but with a 3.0mm bore. I'm aware there have problems with gear supply in recent years so maybe this is a now unavailable metric set? They say there's no such thing as a stupid question, but I'm not so sure.

Many thanks Nick, and apologies for the thread drift - I'd noticed you firing it on Matt's FB posts and couldn't resist.

Magnifique! It certainly makes a splendid noise. In some photos it looks like you're standing in a hole - does it have a bit of dropped footplate to access the firehole door or is this an illusion?

I'm sure you're not stuck for "next projects", but that little tram loco you've been playing with looks like it would be an interesting 2mm challenge...

I was just congratulating myself for getting the axlebox overlays soldered onto an Association wagon chassis straight, then I read this... Seriously though, it's brilliant stuff as usual Ian and I greatly admire your patience and ingenuity, especially with the toolbox hinge/strap method with the slivers of scrap etch. Also the fit between the bunker/floor assembly and the footplate is perfect with no sign of it being a separate component.

That's a beautiful rendition of postwar pit architecture - really looking forward to see how this turns out. I was dragged up to Backworth by my older brother when I was about 11 to see the last of steam - wish I'd paid more attention now!

Thanks Jim - yes, I think that was it and I'm not quite sure how I'm confusing it with one of yours. I remember it well as an early example of the good use of N for a "trains in the landscape" layout.

What a lovely piece of work, Jim. It really emphasises the value of modelling well-observed prototypes and how much more convincing a model this produces, particularly in that it immediately places a model geographically. The houses have some of the beautiful simplicity of John Ahern's modelling which I'm sure many of us have admired from way back. Thinking of inspiration from the past, am I right in thinking that you produced a series of article on RM on modelling contemporary BR in the Highlands in the 1960/70s before moving on to the CR? I have memories of coming across some such when leafing through my older brother's RM back numbers.

It's not really my area or subject but the CF thread continues to fascinate with its wealth of detail - I've learnt a LOT about tunnels after reading up on the building of the Tube, inspired by York Road. I was curious about the Tyler Tower and wondered why it was built (water meter pressure testing) but in the process found out that it was next to the St Pancras Carpet Beating Works. Which sounds like a model railway fiction like a spaghetti mine, but did really exist. Can anyone enlighten me as to what a carpet beating works did?

Beautiful work as usual, Ian - the consistency and completeness of Modbury (signalling, point rodding, attention to colour detail etc.) is one of the things that makes me determined to press on and try and get something modest working in 2FS (albeit to little effect so far, but that's mainly circumstances). You camerawork also shows it off very well - it's a very watchable little cameo.

Many thanks for this Jerry. It looked an excellent arrangement and you patiently explained it all to me when I asked about them at last year's (?) York show and I'd basically forgotten everything by the time I got back to the car...

I'm not surprised. I took me several goes to get a request to work, seemingly getting a different result each time. I eventually found a link the Elegoo Official FB page in the "Ask Elegoo" section which created a FB Messenger chat requesting a free FEP. When I submitted the pre-populated message it returned with this: Hi friend, thank you for your messages, if you are requiring a free FEP pack, please be sure to like our page first ( https://www.facebook.com/ElegooOfficial/ ), then submit the shipping info at the link below, we will send you the FEP pack for free! http://bit.ly/2FlUVO5 (US, CA, MX) http://bit.ly/2XteVcH (EU, JP, AU) Due to the coronavirus situation sorry that there might be a delay for us to ship out the free package. But we'll arrange the shipment as soon as we can manage it. Thank you! I clicked the EU link and completed the form it offered, and received a FB Messenger response about a day later acknowledging my request with the usual message about COVID-19 delays. Now I have to wait and see. Hope this helps, Regards, Chris

Thanks Mark - as noted above, I think this was due to my minor panic during the cleaning process and strong sunlight. I've completed a second print using your test piece (thanks - very useful!) and all went Ok. The vat cleaned up well with only a few minor watermarks on the film which I assume will be OK - time will tell, I guess.. At least Elegoo have acknowledged my request for the free replacement FEP...

Thanks for the helpful comments guys - I really didn't expect anything back as quickly as that. No, there's nothing in the slicer to indicate full illumination of the screen. I'm starting to think that it might be my inexperience and tardy cleaning of the vat - I was quite nervous about my first print and for some reason concentrated on cleaning down the build plate first rather than the vat, and I suspect the vat's been subject to sunlight after I've poured off the bulk of the resin (it was a very warm as sunny day here at the time) and the this may have cured the film that was left. I'll be trying another print today and hopefully get my ducks in a more orderly row this time. One more question - my Mars toolkit included a black plastic fitting which looks like some sort of bracket and which has a spigot which takes the build plate and a rectangular hole at 45 degrees to the build plate fitting. It doesn't appear anywhere in the instructions. What is it? Regards, Chris