tapdieuk

The roundy roundy test is proving useful for bedding in the locos. It was set up in the front room after getting back from the Portsmouth show yesterday. While I tinkered at the work bench, one of the locos was left to run. Speed and direction were changed along with turning the loco around. The slower running did show up a couple of tight to gauge places in the loop. All sorted quickly with the hot iron from the bench. The Terrier did start to test my patience, after gluing in the lead weights in the side tanks, a crank pin started to catch a foot step. By the time the glue had a hold of the lead weight one of them had move and was rubbing on the middle wheel. The loco stated limping. At that point I walked away for dinner This was traced back to the quartering slipping, after re setting the loco would trundle around at 4ish volts. It is the noisiest sounding loco a bit of a coffee grinder even after cleaning and oiling. The only ready dud was the Flat Iron Chassis. After insulating the frames from the body with Rizzla paper and super glue, the running is not great. The wheels were a set of whitemetal centred wheels. It will run slow but with a slight lumpy gait. Possible just a new set of wheels.

Jerry it's 23" radius give or take. Will

A bit big for the bench, but useful for testing. A large roundy roundy circuit. The last bits of rail went in last night. A testing lap or two was run, with the wires clipped to the track. Just some permanent wiring to solder up.

Great stuff Kevin, as for the livery. Try the same top colour (plum) but a different colour under coat/ etch primer. That may give a subtle variation compared to coaching stock when side by side. Will

I got fed up with the M7 it runs, but it a bit of a fiddle, more tweaking is needed and the body tidying up. So I dung out the Terrier chassis, and in-between working on a wagon chassis fitted the motor. I had found a off cut of roofing lead. So the space under the motor was packed out after insulating with Rizzla. The worm shorten and Loctited to the motor shaft. I have already Loctited one motor solid! I put the tiniest dab of Peco power lube on the motor front bearing to diswade any Loctite if it gets there. The motor was attached in the crude cradle with quick setting Araldite. I resisted the temptation to test before it had fully cured. There is still some work to do on the steps to stop the crank pins catching and how the body sits but it runs. 2 strips of lead were shaped to sit in the side tanks. Giving it quite a good chunky feel, better than the M7. It quite pleasing when it comes together and works! PXL_20221019_091457347 by tapdieuk, on Flickr I had a couple of days away, so threw together a simple tool kit for putting a couple of etched chassis together. It all fitted in a ice cream/sandwich sized box. This was based around the USB soldering iron I picked up in the summer and a bright Traveling LED desk light. I used cored solder with a flux pen, to save faffing with solder balls and flux. I only got as far as soldering the top hat bearings in 3 wagon etches. The soldering It's not great, but it's not bad. A different tip on the iron and a better flux would help. But it proves the point. There is no excuse not to get some modeling done when I am away now! PXL_20221015_231108574 by tapdieuk, on Flickr

Progress of sorts, a hybrid tiebar on the rest track easitrak point I damaged. With hind sight it could have been a bit thinner/neater. Testing locos though the points, showed up a couple of tight back to backs on both locos. All sorted and running with no bumps though the point work. Time for scenic work. The M7 has the motor attached, after the first attempt moved while the glue was setting. The back to backs on this were tight. But it's running thought point work now. Weighting the body and springing the rear pony the main bits left to do for running ,along with tidying up the body detail which has been damage with all the handling.

“things are never as bad as they seem, but never as good as you hope” Been building a replacment chassis for a Dapol M7, the chassis etch was picked up at Derby. It's the subtle things, like intermediate gear and worm gear muff needing to be fitted before the wheel sets are, as the flanges overlap the intermediate bushes. In the end the driving wheels came out 3 times. After all of this, one of the wheels was sliping in the muff after the final assembly. Still after, dinner another assault was launch with a small amount of Loctite and a small hole drilled in the muff. It's not pretty, but i am please as the quarting was done by eye, it all goes around, still and reasonably freely at that. Another win was the removal of the hopelessly light weight metal ballast from the boiler, allowing a much denser replacment to be fitted. The body or rather the splashed have had the thick plastic hacked back. The livery on the body is a time saver. Although some of the pipe work and handrails need reworking.

2 batches of wheels with crank pins attached. They are ready for the balance weights and painting.

I am trying to get DG's to uncouple with 8mm neodymium magnets, on a moverable arm under the track. I am with in 4mm of the underside of the track and still reliable success. How does others do?

Kevin, (I think its a 9ft LNWR assocation chassis) it was a part made and kicking around on the work bench! I had put it together to test the USB soldering iron and the power bank set up, which the iron did with no problem. It was still in the unfolded but complete state. It looked about right although buffer beams were from another etch (PO wagon etch) With another strip of etch for a foot board. The etching is OK, fiddly. The half etch brass parts do like to deform. Will

Well a slight bump..... The Jinty's rear wheel set is slightly wide to Back to Back. The other locos and stock went through OK. But yes, a good sense of achievement. Finishing off these LBSC Ballast wagons and a LSWR horse box from etched pixles.

It's working! Despite only 2 points it's taken me long enough to wire up and fault find. Safe to say 'lecktronics' is not a strength of mine. Uncoupling magnets to fit and its serious play/testing time! I have achive more in the last 14 months with 2mm than the other scales I have played with. The Chief layout tester is give her recomendations for improvements. She makes a fair job of the easytrac too....

Jerry thank you for entrusting me to run some of Sunday services on Tucking Mill. A leaked letter from the NSLR board regarding the Sunday service......... Dear Sir While undertaking my Sunday afternoon stroll in the valley, I observed no less than 3 separate trains running on NSLR. All hauled by each of the company's locomotives and the S&D tank loco on hire. The Somerset and Dorset will be requesting additional steaming fees for their Locos. I must remind you these large mainline locos are only to be steamed on the days requiring the transfer of goods via the steep Midford Junction line to the exchange siding with the Somerset and Dorset. They both have greater coal and water consumption than the Native fleet. I need not remind you that any unnecessary steaming of locos is a frivolous waste of coal, water, paid employees to crew them, and not to mention the wear and tear to both locos and track! An update on the light weight Rail buses is requested. The Colonel was quite insistent that they were ready to roll when the board acquired them for the line. Although he omitted they were gravity powered and only good for a one way down line trip! Have you and the men had a chance to install the replacement belted transmission? The board would like to observe the frugal fuel consumption as claimed by the Imperial Rubber Band Company who supplied the replacement transmission. The Board do appreciate the work you and the men put in to the running of the NSLR. Apart from the lapse of judgement mention above, the board have been impressed by the steps taken to reduced derailments, and increase punctuality. Mr Smith has notified us that he requires an additional 2 trains in the week to enable a large order to be dispatched by the end of the month. I have already notified the Somerset and Dorset, the wagons should be in the Midford exchange sidings by Monday noon. Yours Sir Arthur Burningfoot-Mathews Chairman of the Board North Somerset Light Railway

Thank you to all who arranged this cracking get together. Really inspiring layouts, less is more vibe. Will

How to stop rust appearing on the wheels? This was the 4F. While I am careful when soldering the crank pins. I clean the wheels and dry them off, just before painting I clean again with cellulose. I do try not to handle after I have been applying flux. Is it just a case of rubbing with a glass fiber pen?

The Midland M Goods is making slow Progress. Boiler is still loose. Boiler fittings are in hand. I have been also laying some track for a small shelf shunting layout. For only 2 points I have procrastinated at length. Working on the wiring and manual point control in the ZAG session.

Yep I leave the prints attached, until I am ready to attach to the chassis. Although the 3 plank open wagons look and feel more stable. The PO wagons vary. Possible I did a batch in in hot* (UK hot...) weather. All the resin curing is done on a Photon curer. There are a lot of subtle variables involved with 3D printing. I find it's easy to just keep tweaking the build files, ending up with a large number of prints, that I don't want to bin! It's a really useful tool, but takes time to understand/learn

Painting and assemblering 3d printed LNWR open and cattle wagons on etch chassis. Print files from the Sithlord. I had made up a batch of the Assocations LNWR chassis. The 3d printed bodies are not great, nothing to do with the files. All to do with the printer settings that were still being tweaked when these were printed. I have gone for variety with the brake gear. The tricky bit with the cattle bodies was the threading of the rod/bar. Holes are printed but its a bit fiddly! It worked out holding the wire I the pin chuck. The end wagon, is an illegitimate paring of Farish? Rectangular Tar tank and 9'9 LNWR chassis, still some bracing rods to fit to make it look realistic. But its diffrent and a quick lash up until I build more scale/accurate.

Looking good Jerry. Are these bridges the last gap before the track is in a continuous run from Queen Square to the Colliery? Will

Snap.... That looks a much better Jumbo than my own attempt. I have tried to build a chassis for it. But I made a mess of it, putting it down as part of the learning curve. The Coal tank looks really good. Any thoughts on how you are going to lining them out? Will

......And it works! After miss placing the cut down worm, an enforce work bench tidy found several other mislaid small items along with the worm and shaft! A lash up of Bluetac, silicon tubing as a flexible drive shaft and a 9volt battery for power. It noisily drags its self along the test track.

No wanting to loose momentum, I pulled the gears from another project. The paint has taken a hammering in places. I though I had opened the bearings up a bit too much. But after taken care with the quarting it rolls quite well, even with the rods not seated up to the wheels (brake pivots in the way) Feeling quite pleased with this chassis.

The Raithby 4F is starting to look like a 4F. After the ZAG meeting I carried on with lots of the all jobs. The tender and loco frames are ready for some paint now. The Wheels got the balance weights glued on. The bit that took the most was assembling the boiler. Lots of filing, desoldering rejigging. Don't look underneath! But it looks ok form the side..... I know what I would do diffrent for the next 4F...... Got to figure out what to do for the tender and waiting on gears. So this might get parked for a bit, what to fiddle with next? Thanks to Jerry for the etch.

Final bits of lining around the cab opening and rear bunker, and the livery is finished ready for some weathering. Although I had to repaint the rear of the bunker after I scratched it. Fox's transfers have stood up well to my mauling. A few bits still to sort out/finish (bogie being the main part), although the chassis works. Even after the crankpins washers were soldered on! Not sure if I am pushing luck with fitting brake gear on it as well. This the GNR13 and Blue Jinty, were all about learning the chassis building process, before I move on to more refined kits. I have fitted this with 38:1 worm gear to get it slow running for shunting. The Flatiron has grown on me, it still looks a bit ungainly, but there is plenty of weight in the body. Yes Compound2632 it's in the later rebuilt boiler for the S&D workings. There is a photo in the Midland Album of 2019 at the head of a coal train in its later days. That's is what partly inspire me to get on and finish it, and some more PO coal wagons.

Next up on the workbench, a Midland Flatiron. An older (Beaver/ABS) whitemetal kit A Jinty 2mm finescale chassis has been made to fit. Rolling on old 10mm whitemetal centred wheels, that is what I had. So not quite scale, With a bit milled off the body mounts the chassis looks ok. Lamp irons, hand rails and a but of cleaning up. The red paint is what I had a rattle can of. Fox transfers (fantastic service) Both the black and yellow lining could be thinner, but its fiddly enough. Number 2023, as this loco worked over the S&D There are bits for the bogie, and the motor requireds attaching on the chassis. There is nothing like a crude close up to highlight the small discrepancies!